36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
Would you like to be free? Really free? One of the greatest blessings which God gives to us in Christ is FREEDOM. If we have not realised that glorious truth then we are still captives. Jesus came to set people free. That was the heart of His message, right from the beginning in his first sermon in the synagogue in Nazareth, his Nazareth manifesto.

Luke 4 18 ‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’

Freedom for the prisoners – release for the oppressed! Jesus came to set people free. We heard it in Jesus’s words in our reading from John 8.
John 8:32 “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Everybody needs setting free. Any time a person is not able to do what they choose to do because of some external pressure on them, they are a captive. Any time a person is not able to say what they choose to say because of some external pressure on them, they are a captive. Any time a person is not able to think what they want to think because of some external pressure on them, they are a captive.
By our very nature, every single human being is a captive to some degree or another. We all need God to set us free. Some people are trapped by their circumstances, others by their backgrounds. Some people are imprisoned by poverty – others by wealth. Some people are trapped in intolerable situations which they are powerless to change. Many people feel trapped by fears and worries. Without God’s help, every single one of us is trapped by sin and guilt and the fear of death. Jesus Christ the Son of God came and lived and died and rose again to set us free.
JESUS’S TEACHING SETS US FREE
John 8:31 … Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’ …. 36 … if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
Jesus the Son of God reveals God to us. As Peter said to Jesus, “you have the words of eternal life.” When we believe and obey Jesus’s teaching we receive God’s gift of eternal life.
JESUS’S DEATH ON THE CROSS SETS US FREE
FREE FROM PUNISHMENT FOR SIN
Christ has paid the penalty for our sins which we deserve to pay.
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.”
1 Peter 2 24 ‘He himself bore our sins’ in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; ‘by his wounds you have been healed.’ 25 For ‘you were like sheep going astray,’ but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
1 Peter 3:18 For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God (NIV84)
Because Christ has paid the penalty for our sin we can be forgiven. So we can be
FREE FROM THE GUILT OF SIN
Our consciences are clear. We don’t have to run and hide away from God like Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden, because we feel guilty because we know we have disobeyed God. We can come into God’s presence with a clear conscience!
FREE FROM THE GRIP OF THE DEVIL
Later in John 8 Jesus said this to his opponents.
John 8 44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
The devil is the father of all lies. We all need God’s truth which can set us free.
1 John 5:19 tells us that “the whole world is in the control of the Evil One”, the devil. One look at the news would tell us that is true. One look at our own hearts would tell us that but for the grace of God even we would be under the grip of the devil. Jesus’s death has defeated the devil. Jesus sets us free from the devil’s control so that we can live the lives we really want to live, lives which are pleasing to God.
But when he talked about freedom in his Nazareth Manifesto. I think Jesus had in mind something more than setting everybody free from the grip which the devil has on all of us.
Luke 4:18 He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,
I think that when Jesus talked of the prisoners and the oppressed he was not just referring to human beings in general. The Bible tells us that some people’s lives are in the grip of evil more than others. In the Gospels and Acts we find 70 mentions of demons, or people who are demonised. We have another 30 mentions of “evil (or unclean) spirits”. 40 times we read of Jesus or the apostles “driving out” demons or evil spirits. Satan is mentioned 18 times and the alternative names of Beelzebub or “the Evil One” another 13 times. Driving out demons was a major part of Jesus’s ministry. One third of His miracles were healings and one third were acts of deliverance.
1 John 3:8 The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.
Driving out demons was part of proclaiming freedom for the prisoners and releasing the oppressed. Setting the captives free. I know that individuals can be affected by evil spirits and that people can be demonised. I know that because the Bible tells me so. I believe that because Christians and Churches and Missionaries all around the world give accounts of demonisation and deliverance ministry. And I know that is the case because I have met people who have been demonised and I have ministered deliverance to them and driven out demons in Christ’s name. Jesus came to set people free from the hold which the devil.
Colossians 2 13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
By his death on the cross Jesus did not only take away our sins. On the cross Jesus has also defeated the devil. Jesus can set people free. In Christ we are freed from the penalty of sin and from the guilt of sin and from the grip the devil has on our lives. Christ’s death on the cross has removed the barrier between us and God. It has changed us from God’s enemies into God’s friends – even more than that, into God’s beloved children. But Jesus has not just died on the cross for us. He has also risen from the dead and Jesus shares that resurrection life with us.
THE RESURRECTION LIFE OF CHRIST SETS US FREE
God gives to every Christian the gift of His Holy Spirit. God Himself comes and lives inside us. And the Holy Spirit is the resurrection life of Christ living in us!
FREE FROM THE POWER AND PULL OF SIN
John 8 34 Jesus replied, ‘Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it for ever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
By nature we are trapped in sin. Given the choice between doing right and doing wrong, human beings since Adam and Eve have an inbuilt bias towards doing wrong. Jesus came to set us free from doing wrong. If the Son shall set you free you shall be free indeed!
So Christ sets us free from our besetting sins. They may be dramatic sins with alcohol or drugs or sex or lying or stealing or violence. They may instead be what A.W.Tozer has called “the fine threads of the self-life, the hyphenated sins of the human spirit,” the “self sins”, “self-sufficiency, self-pity, self absorption, self aggrandizement, self-castigation, self-deception, self-exaltation, self-deprecation, self-indulgence.” The resurrection power of Christ within us sets us free from all our sins.
1 Corinthians 10 13 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.
The freedom we experience through Jesus is not to be free to do whatever we like. It is freedom to do what is right, freedom to resist temptation and stop sinning and freedom to do the things which are pleasing to God.
FREE FROM FEAR OF DEATH
Hebrews 2 14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
We share Christ’s resurrection life. We have no need to be afraid of death. We have the happy certainty of heaven. And this gives us tremendous hope for the future. In these mortal bodies we experience our freedom through faith. Sometimes it is a struggle to live out our freedom. But we are promised that one day we will be completely free!
Romans 8 18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
The glorious liberty of the children of God! That’s what is waiting for us in heaven. And we can enjoy the first installment of that freedom here on earth!
Even before all the blessings of Christ’s death and resurrection, Jesus reveals the truth which sets us free.
John 8:31 … Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’ …. 36 … if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
Jesus the Son of God reveals God the Father to us. As Peter said to Jesus, “you have the words of eternal life.” When we believe and obey Jesus’s teaching we receive God’s gift of eternal life, our personal relationship with God. And in turn this new relationship we have with God sets us free from many things.
OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD SETS US FREE
35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it for ever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
We are God’s children! That relationship with God brings us true freedom.
FREE FROM FEARS ABOUT WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN TO US
Psalm 27 1 The LORD is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life— of whom shall I be afraid?
2 When the wicked advance against me to devour me,
it is my enemies and my foes who will stumble and fall.
3 Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me, even then I will be confident.

Time and time again God says to his people, “Fear not, for I am with you.” Jesus sets us free from our fears. Whatever may happen, God is with us.
Psalm 46 1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
FREE FROM FEARS ABOUT WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK ABOUT US
At work, with our neighbours, even in our families many people are worried or afraid about what other people think of them. Our relationship with God helps us overcome those worries and fears. When we feel secure in God’s love for us we can cope with what other people may think about us.
1 John 4:18 Where God’s love is there is no fear, because God’s perfect love drives out fear. (New Century Version)
One frequent fear which many Christians have can get in the way of us talking about Jesus. We can be afraid of being rejected or insulted or even persecuted for standing up for Jesus. Again, when we are secure in the love God has for us, we will be prepared to take risks for God.
Romans 8:31 If God is for us, who can be against us? Absolutely nothing in the whole of creation can separate us from God’s love. We are more than conquerors through him who loved us (Romans 8:37). Our relationship with God drives away our fears.
Our relationship with God sets us FREE FROM WORRIES
Philippians 4 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
We do not need to worry – God will take care of us.
1 Peter 5 7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
Would you like to be free? CHRIST’S DEATH sets us free from the punishment from sin and the guilt of sin and from the grip of the devil. THE RESURRECTION LIFE OF CHRIST sets us free from the power and pull of sin and from any fear of death. And OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD sets us free from all our fears and anxieties. One of the greatest blessings which God gives to us in Christ is FREEDOM. If we have not realised that wonderful truth, if we are not living in the glorious liberty of the children of God, then we are still captives.
36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.