Part 4 - The World's Greatest Hero - Christ Crucified

Preached at Gateway on 10/03/2013

Prison/Freedom - Hebrews 2.14-18

Focus verse – ’and free those who all their lives were held in slavery

by their fear of death’, v15

Main theme: Jesus sets you free from the shackles.

Introduction

You may have seen the film, The Truman Show.  It’s been shown many times on TV, so I think it’s ok to give part of the story away.  It’s about a guy who from birth has his life filmed ‘live’ as a kind of live soap drama.  But he doesn’t know this, because all the cameras are hidden.  At the same time everyone else in his life are just actors, but he thinks it’s for real.  It’s all filmed in a gigantic studio, but to Truman he thinks this is life.  But as he grows older, he senses something is not right.  He always wants to travel to the Fiji islands, but somehow obstacles are put in his way, so he remains in this massive studio which has dimensions of several miles in radius.  He senses, although he can never quite understand until the end, he wants to be free, but free from what?  In essence he is being held captive against his will, but Truman doesn’t know it, until the end of the film.

I think the film is an insight into human nature, that you go through life, sensing deep down that something is not right, that there must be more to life.  What is ironic is that even in our Western society, which is based on freedom, people long to be truly free.  In previous generations, the emphasis of society was on being a ‘good person’ e.g. in the Victorian age.  Morality was a strong theme.  Today, the emphasis is on being a ‘free person’.  We absorb through the media and peer pressure so many messages and vibes in our lives that suggests we are not truly free until we have purchased this or experienced that, or visited this place, or seen the latest...whatever it is...only to find, that whatever the experience is, it is never truly fulfilling or satisfying in the long-term. 

Until you recognise that unless God is at the centre of your worship, and therefore whatever you are pinning your hopes on is ultimately idolatry, then you will always feel enslaved and unhappy, and what makes it worse, is that for many people they don’t know why they feel that way.  The truth is that, to be free to do whatever you want, in the end makes you a slave to your freedom.  True happiness is elusive.

1) Held Captive By The Cords Of Death

In our Bible passage today, we read how you are held in slavery by your fear of death (Hebrews 2.15).  So for example, some people feel they need to exploit their freedom, knowing that it will not last, because one day they will die.  As I suggested earlier, people in previous generations sought to live a good life, to be moral, as if religion could get them through death and into heaven.  Whilst religion cannot bring people into heaven, at least there was a general view that there was an afterlife and some kind of accountability.  Today, there is an increasing view that this life is all there is.  So people live as if this life is all there is, hence freedom is exploited.  The motto is, let’s ‘take life easy; eat, drink and be merry’, for tomorrow we die.  People live out their freedom as if there is no tomorrow, and it can be a freedom that is very hedonistic (belief that pleasure is the most important thing in life).  It is the attitude of why is life worth living if in the end you die?  So I may as well just live my life how I want, because in the end I die? 

So either way, whether it’s the religious life or the narcissistic life (excessive interest in yourself), death is a very powerful influence.  If you are trying to live a moral life to please God, with a view of trying to get into heaven, it’s because death is that determining factor.  Of course it’s a lie, you never be good enough for God.  It’s the lie of religion.  If you are just living your life with no reference to morality, and to God, that’s the lie of atheism.  But again death is the determining factor.  

With this week’s theme in mind, what you need is true freedom.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful to live your life free of the shackles?  To be free of the fear of death, however it drives you in this life, either towards morality or immorality, towards religion or paganism?

So the passage in Hebrews teaches us that, above all, you and I are held in slavery by our fear of death.  Most people are scared to death of the thought of death.  Its finality hangs over you and I. 

So there is a sense of a stranglehold upon lives because of sin, the domination of sin, of the finality of death and the devil.  To compound this reality many people experience all sorts of shackles.  It’s manifested in many ways.  It might be on a global scale.  We only have to consider Syria today, where many thousands have had their freedom to live life in peace and harmony taken away, because of their terrible civil war.  It might be on a national scale.  We think of the financial crisis, which is causing major issues in our society, and many people are at the mercy of the austerity measures, and feel captive and hemmed in.  We have high levels of addictions, a type of captivity, e.g. drugs, gambling, and pornography which impacts our society in very negative ways.

Then on a personal level, we have broken marriages and family life, and people feel captive to the guilt and the trauma that broken relationships bring.  Then we have health issues, disease and sickness, which people feel captive to.  We can go on... and give further examples whilst acknowledging some of these issues are very complex.  It might be that you feel under great pressure to prove yourself to others, it might even be on this mothering Sunday, that you’ve always felt under relentless pressure to be that perfect mother or son or daughter, in order to gain approval.  So in that sense you are captive.

2) Set Free By Christ Crucified

But here’s some good news...and can you tell me of a better, more credible alternative?  It is this, God sends His Son, Jesus Christ from heaven into our world, on a rescue mission.  Jesus becomes fully human (v14), ‘so that he might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death’.  Furthermore, Jesus even helps you with all the temptations you face every day that can send you spiralling back into slavery of sin, and its demonic influences.  Don’t forget that.  You may be a new Christian, and in the past you’ve struggled with addictions or debt or anger or sexual immorality or violence...whatever, remember God can enable you by his Holy Spirit to give you the power to resist these new temptations when they rise up again, with the support of other Christians.  God sent Jesus Christ to set you free and destroys the stranglehold of the devil.  How does it work?  The rest of the Bible explains further about this freedom.  Let the Bible interpret the Bible.

Mark 10.45, ‘For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many’.  The word ransom brings to mind this sense of being held captive and released only when a ransom is paid.  Jesus’ death was a ransom, to decisively end your captivity and set you free, free from being held in the hold of sin and free from the fear of death.  This idea of ransom is an analogy, there is no suggestion that Jesus had to pay a ransom to the devil, but simply he has delivered us from the grip of sin, death and the devil himself.

Another similar image to ransom that underpins this image of freedom is redemption.  What does ‘Redemption’ actually mean?  You have to go back to the first century, the time of Jesus and the apostles.  If you were slave, and the Roman Empire was built upon slavery, although perhaps a little different from what you might envisage slavery to be, nevertheless you were a commodity.  Perhaps you very well-treated with privileges and responsibilities, but nevertheless you were regarded by your owner as property.  To be granted freedom, and the dignity of personhood, you had to buy your freedom, or perhaps someone else bought it for you.  It was unusual, but it happened, a slave could be redeemed but at a cost, at a price.  Indeed, the better the slave, the higher the cost.

To be a Christian is to be redeemed from the slavery of sin, death and the devil, and all the examples we’ve considered about how this is manifested in daily life.  But this redemption comes at a tremendous cost.  Thankfully, wonderfully, you don’t have to pay a penny.  The Son of God foots the bill.  Jesus dies that you might be redeemed.  ‘For it is not with perishable things such  as silver and gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect’, 1 Peter 1.18-19.

Again the Bible is silent about whom the price is paid, that is where the analogy ends.  It’s an image.  What we know, what the Bible reveals, is that you are held in slavery, especially the fear of death, under the hold of the devil, not excusing your own sinful ways, and Jesus gave his life as a ransom for you, that Jesus pays the price to redeem you.

What the Bible promises, indeed what the God of the Bible promises, is that you can be set free.  You can experience freedom.  We believe Jesus died to set you free, to set you free from the shackles.

Jesus went to the cross.  Even though he had committed no sin, never mind no crime, Jesus was a prisoner.  He had the statement of his crime, the written charge, nailed to the cross above him - ’Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews’...’The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews’, but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews”.  Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written” (John 19.19-22).  Indeed what took place on the cross, is what Martin Luther called the ‘great transaction’.  Another way to look at it is that God as King has pardoned you and set you free of the shackles of sin, and now he invites you into the palace.  You are delivered from the chains of sin and delivered into fellowship with God.

John 8.31-32 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” ‘.

John 8.36 ‘So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed’.

Romans 8.1-2 ‘Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death’.

Galatians 5.1 ‘It is for freedom that Christ has set us free’.

Conclusion

The gospel, the good news of Jesus throws open the prison door of your life and you are invited to walk free.  The light of day shines in, and you can go free.  It begins now, at least freedom in your heart, and one day complete freedom in the life to come.  Jesus has come, lived, died, rose and returned to heaven, to prepare this place for you.  It what Jesus promised, as recorded in John 14.  He will come back – not so much to take us there, it doesn’t say that – it says to take us to himself.  ‘Take you’ has a sense in the original Greek of welcoming someone, so it speaks of welcome, Jesus embracing all his followers.  Jesus will be at the centre of this new world, a place of true freedom, freedom from death, mourning, crying and pain - see Revelation 21.4

Jesus Christ will come back for us to liberate us completely and totally from the sin, death and the evil one.  Isn’t that wonderful, Jesus is your escort and your destination.

No wonder the black African slaves in America in centuries gone by, would shuffle along in their shackled chains singing ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, coming for to carry me home’ – adopted now as a Rugby anthem.  But we don't often hear the rest of the words to that spiritual song. They go like this:

'I looked over Jordan, and what did I see?
A band of angels coming after me,
Coming for to carry me home.
If you get there before I do,
Tell all my friends I'm coming, too.
Coming for to carry me home.
I'm sometimes up and sometimes down,
But still my soul feels heavenly bound,
Coming for to carry me home.
The brightest day that I can say,
When Jesus washed my sins away,
Coming for to carry me home.'

It's a song of hope in the midst of trouble; and a song of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who came into the world to save sinners - to rescue you and me by dying in our place on the cross and rising from the dead, and of the sure and certain hope of the heavenly life for those who believe and trust in him.  Jesus died as a prisoner instead of you...and as our focus verse says to ‘free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death’, v15

You are held captive by the cords of death,

but you can be set free by the crucified Christ

Question for Q & A – Ask yourself, do you believe and experience in your own heart and life that freedom which Christ brings?

Prayer of commitment & faith:

Lord Jesus, I have done a lot of things wrong in my life.  I am sorry for going my own way instead of your way, and living without you.  Thank you for dying on the cross to forgive my sin, so that I might be truly free.  I believe that you destroyed the evil one who holds the power over death.  Please come and take first place in my life, that I might truly live and be free of the shackles of sin and death, filling my life with your redeeming love.  Amen.