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(John 8:31-36) To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?" Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (NIV)

I. Living in Bondage vs. Living in Freedom.

Jesus drew a line in the sand:

If you want to know God, … “hold to Jesus teaching” (expand)

If You hold to my teaching….You will start to truly understand truth!

As you come to know truth you will be spiritually be set free!

On the day before Independence Day I challenged you to true spiritual freedom. Even though Jesus clearly offers a life where sin does not have control of our lives…many continue to live bound to their sinfulness.

Imagine the level of sinfulness that allows people to climb into the London subway and onto a bus and plant explosives that you know are going to literally rip bodies apart.. bodies of innocent people you have never met. Those people are sitting somewhere right now congratulating themselves for their evil behavior.

From God’s perspective the man slipping out on his wife, or the woman stealing from her employer, or the child lying to their parents are also bound in their sin…

….those who have not repented and received forgiveness are just as liable for the consequences of their sins as the terrorists are

I emphasized two weeks ago that clearly Jesus offers us freedom from the bondage of sin:

Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." … So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (NIV)

I suggested:

There is a battle going on for your very soul. Just as clearly as Jesus has paid the price for, and offered you, freedom; there is an “evil one” who is offering you lifetime of bondage. There is one who makes it his job to make sure Truth is distorted in your mind.

I’m not sure we all understand what out relationship with Christ means to our relationship to this “evil one”. Once you become a child of God what is your relationship to satan?

Clearly he controls the lives of those who are committed to him.

It’s even safe to say that he is in control of the lives of those who are not clearly committed to Christ.

But is it safe to say that he does not control the lives of those who belong to Christ? If so, why did some of us ignore God’s grace and sin this last week.

When we give in to satan’s temptations and sin, why did the truth not set us free? Does a misunderstanding of God’s truth or a misunderstanding of satan’s power, over us, get in the way of our experiencing spiritual freedom?

II. Learning the Truth about Spiritual Freedom…

I found a group of people in Scripture that Jesus personally taught this lesson to. They’re a fairly large group who accomplished a lot, and we very seldom ever mention them. We focus on the Apostles and the Patriarchs and miss this important illustration about people we possibly can relate to better than most other biblical personalities.

Luke 10 calls this group: The Seventy!

Who are they?…. Not the disciples. They seem to be just seventy common people who have embraced Christ’s teachings. Jesus plans his strategy of how to get the message of freedom out to the world…. Then he chooses 70 people that will both relate the message and learn a deeper truth all at the same time.

Jesus sets them all down, splits them into 35 teams of two and says:

(Luke 10:2-12) He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road. "When you enter a house, first say, 'Peace to this house.' If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you. Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house. "When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, 'The kingdom of God is near you.' But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, 'Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near.' I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town. (NIV)

So off they scampered…. We don’t get any snapshots into their activities until they return:

(Luke 10:17) The seventy-two returned with joy and said, "Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name." (NIV)

They came back to Jesus bubbling over with the experiences they had been through. If you’ve ever been on a mission trip where you were used by God you can probably relate to how their trip unfolded. (fear> initial actions> interest> stepped up actions> amazement> powerful actions> awe)

Words probably poured out of them to each other and to Jesus as they tried to relate how their meager untrained actions had produced eternal results. One thing in particular stood out in all their stories, enough to cause Luke to record it above all their other statements.

Jesus says: Of course…. I was there when satan was tossed out of heaven… I did it!

(Luke 10:18) He replied, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. (NIV)

(Luke 10:19) I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. (NIV)

People do all kinds of things with this sentence. In the mountains of _________ some have cages with poisonous snake that they will handle during the service to prove this point. I don’t think that is what Jesus was saying…

We don’t know what other sentences the 70 said that might have explained this.

We don’t fully grasp the first century Hebrew mindset to know what kind of idiomatic phrase this might have been.

Focusing on the scorpions and snakes makes us miss the main point which was a universal principle:

I have given you authority….. to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. (NIV)

But even that, Jesus quickly added, is not the most important point:

(Luke 10:20) However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven." (NIV)

Don’t focus on your power over satan…focus on your position in Christ!

III. Practicing the Truth about Spiritual Freedom…

I want to be very careful in what I say here. I’m not an extremist…not a sensationalist.

The only focus I care about is exactly what the Bible says. Several years ago I went through the Bible and pulled out every reference to satan and evil and lined them up on nine sheets which we carefully studied. The point is not to accept any viewpoint just because some guy on TV says it’s true….. But it’s also important that we do accept any viewpoint that Scripture says is true.

One chapter earlier in Luke 9 Jesus calls his disciples together and says:

(Luke 9:1-2) When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. (NIV)

I don’t even want to get into the “curing diseases” aspect of this….What we do know is that in both the Disciples case, and in the case of the “Sent 70” they all were given power and authority over the forces of evil.

In the issue of what our relationship, as believers, is to satan and evil I think we can

err on two extremes:

1) We can ignore satan tactics and live in bondage to him simply because we do not know how to combat him.

2) We can study about him, (Satanism, occult, New age) to the point where we look for demons behind every bush, in effect giving him increased power over our conscious thought.

3) It’s the Truth that sets us free…not our knowledge about error!

Ok…so what does Luke mean when he says Jesus gave the disciples and the 70 power and authority over demons?

A policeman has the authority to stop traffic at an intersection because of the position of authority given to him represented by his badge.

That’s what Jesus gave to his disciples and the 70.… a badge of authority…

They were given the right to rule over demonic forces because of their position as followers of the one to “whom all authority in heaven and earth is given..M.28”

A policeman doesn’t have the power to stop traffic in himself…if he gets in front of the cars in short and a tee shirt and uses his body as a battering ram he will lose. But when he put on a uniform and a badge and holds up his hand 10 ton vehicles grind to a stop!

This revelation of truth is what cause the 70 to exclaim about this so forcefully that Luke wrote it into the account:

(Luke 10:17) The seventy-two returned with joy and said, "Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name." (NIV)

Submit- “huppitasso”- military term…..to arrange under.

They had had the same misconception that blinds many Christians today:

God/ Angels vs. (=) satan/demons

And we are all stuck in the middle in a cosmic tug of war!

That is not the picture presented in the New Testament…or the Old..

V

satan- submits to Christ’s authority

Satan has no more right to rule the Christian’s life than a private has to order the general to clean the bathrooms!

The problem is…if you don’t know that, believe it , and exercise it the results will be the same as if it weren’t true!

(Ephesians 1:18-21) I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. (NIV)

The Ephesians needed their inner eyes opened. Many Christians have a spiritual self-image problem.

The problem is not that we are not “in Christ” the problem is that we haven’t fully grasp what that means. The truth has been hidden from us… the “truth that has the power to set us free!”

You can be positionally tapped into the One who has all power in heaven and on Earth, yet if you fail to access Christ authority over the “kingdom of darkness” you can continue to live your life in bondage to satan and sin!

Your Savior, Jesus Christ, has been given all power in Heaven and on Earth… He is seated at the right hand of power to our Heavenly Father. And….

(Ephesians 2:1-6) As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-- it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, (NIV)

Conclusion:

(Ephesians 6:10-13) Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. (NIV)

(2 Corinthians 10:3-5) For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (NIV)