Breaking Free


03/27/2011 - Leaving Bondage for Freedom



This morning we continue our series called Breaking Free: Leaving the Old Self for the New. It's a series that parallels the sacred season of Lent that we're in right now. Lent lasts for forty days beginning on Ash Wednesday and ending on Easter Sunday.

It's a season for reflection and repentance and response to the death of our Savior Jesus Christ and his miraculous resurrection on Easter Sunday. As far as we can tell the tomb is empty. Jesus is alive and that changes everything.

And for two thousand years Christ followers around the world have spent a number of weeks prior to Easter preparing themselves for resurrection Sunday by considering the things that need to change in us. What is it that we need to die to? What is it that we need give up so that we can really live the life that Jesus offers? What Egypthas us enslaved? Where do we need to be delivered? Lent is the time to consider these things. And that's what this series is about.

Last week we began with the primal story of redemption that runs throughout all of Scripture. It's the story of the Exodus and how God liberated his people from the bondage of slavery in Egypt and brought them into the freedom of a whole new life. And this story of liberation loops throughout all of Scripture over and over again because one day God is going to liberate all things. He's going to reverse the curse and set all creation free.

This week I was at my doctor's office getting my annual physical and we got talking about Japanand the earthquake and the tsunami. And at one point he said it just sounds like the earth is grumbling and falling apart when these things happen.

And I said, "Exactly. In fact, the Bible talks about the earth groaning and waiting to be set free. The world is broken and needs to be fixed. And I believe that's going to happen one day when Jesus comes back. He's going to make all things right."

And he listened and nodded and said, "Yeah, you may be right."

Liberation. God is into liberation. He's going to set this whole universe free one day, but in the meantime he wants to set you and me free from the habits and the addictions and the attitudes and the behaviors and the obsessions that threaten to destroy our lives.

And that deliverance begins with a cry. Sa'aq. That's what the Israelites cried out in Egyptwhen they couldn't take it anymore. The Hebrew word sa'aq literally means "ouch!" It's what I yelled this week in the doctor's office when they took the EKG tape off of my hairy chest. "Ouch!" That's always the worst part of the exam!

God hears our cries for help. He hears our "ouch." He always has and he always will because that is central to who God is. He hears the cries of the suffering and the shrieks of the oppressed.

In Exodus 3:7-8 we read, The Lord said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey."

God saw their misery. God heard their cry. God was deeply concerned about their suffering. And God came down to the rescue.

And what God did for the Israelites 3,500 years ago, God wants to do for you and me today. He wants to rescue us. He wants to deliver us and set us free. But it all starts with "ouch!" If we're going to leave behind the things that enslave us we first need to come to the place where we cry out to God for help.

That's step One and Two of the Twelve Step program that's helped millions of people get free from bondage since it began in Akron, Ohio, back in 1935. It's the "ouch" that says, "We admitted we were powerless over our addiction, that our lives had become unmanageable, and came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity."

But maybe you're not at that point yet. Maybe everything in your life is cruising along well. That's fine. In fact, I hope that's the case. Thank God for times like that. We all need them. But if everything is not fine then cry "ouch" and let God come to the rescue.

In the New Testament, the apostle Paul talks about leaving the old life behind and embracing the new life like taking off the old clothes and putting on the new, having a wardrobe change. It's in the book of Colossians. If you have a Bible meet me at Colossians 3.

Like all of Paul's New Testament writings, the book of Colossians is actually a letter Paul wrote to a church that was in the city of Colossewhich is located in the country that we call Turkey. Today Colosse is a ruin. I've been there. There's nothing to see. But in the first century it was a thriving Roman city, an economic center, a hub for travel throughout the entire Roman Empire. And so Paul writes to the church there and to our church here about the importance of leaving behind the old life and putting on the new and it has everything to do with the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Look at Colossians 3:1-4, Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

In the Message translation of this passage, Eugene Peterson, puts it like this. So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that's where the action is. See things from his perspective.Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you'll show up, too—the real you, the glorious you.

That's a mouth full! In this passage, Paul says we've died with Christ, been raised with Christ, and will one day appear with Christ in glory. What's that mean? I'm not dead. I'm still breathing. I've got a pulse, at least that's what the doctor said on Thursday! And I haven't been resurrected yet either. I still live in this old body. What's Paul getting at? What's he mean that we've been raised with Christ?

Let me try to explain something that I don't fully understand, but something I fully believe in. When Jesus was born into this world he had a mortal, corruptible body. It was a body that grew and developed and went through puberty and aged and got tired and hungry and felt pain. As a carpenter when he hit his thumb with a hammer he cried "ouch!" Jesus was fully human in that sense and it was his human, mortal body that died on the cross.

And three days later it was his human body that was raised to life. But when it came back from the dead it was different. It was no longer a corruptible, mortal body. It was a brand new, glorified body, outfitted for heaven and prepared for the kingdom. And during the 40 days between Jesus' resurrection and his ascension to his Father, he lived the life of heaven right here on earth.

His body did miraculous things like passing through walls and disappearing and reappearing in other places instantaneously. He was living his heavenly life on earth. His resurrection was the beginning of God's kingdom coming on earth as it is in heaven. It's the first fruits. It's the appetizer of what's coming someday for all God's creation.

We live our life on this earth in a corruptible, mortal body, just like Jesus did up until his resurrection, but when we believe in him our address changes. We become members of a new kingdom, citizens of heaven. And while we don't have our glorified body yet, we do have the life of heaven living inside us right now.

In some mystical, supernatural way, we have died with Christ and have been raised with him. In God's eyes, when Jesus died on the cross, we died to the power of sin in our lives and when he was raised to life we were raised to a new life empowered by the Holy Spirit. In fact, because God isn't locked into space and time like we are, he already sees us seated on his right hand with Christ in the heavenlies. That's all wrapped up in what it means to be "in Christ." That's our position as Christ followers.

So what does all that mean for our life today? What does our position in Christ have to do with Lent and breaking free, leaving behind the old self for the new? Everything.

ln verses 5-9, Paul tells those who've died with Christ positionally to put to death experientially those things that are part of the old way of living. It's time to leave the old behind and put on the new because now we have the power to do it. Our experience with Christ is meant to match our position in Christ.

Now that you know Christ and heaven's life lives in you, then think like Christ and act like Christ and live like Christ. Get rid of the things in your experience that don't match your position. And he begins with sexual sin because sexual sin was rampant in the Greek culture of the first century just like it's rampant in our American culture today.

Look at verses 5-7, Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. 7You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived.

Sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed to possess people sexually for our own gratification God calls idolatry. What's that about? Isn't idolatry about bowing down to statues and idols? Well, yes. Sometimes that's the form it takes. But mostly it's about bowing down to ourselves and doing whatever serves us and pleases us and turns us on.

When we sin sexually we erase the foul lines that God has set up for our own protection and we put ourselves in charge of an area where God has clearly spoken. Sexual sin is all about me and what I want, with whom I want it, and when I want it, and not at all about what God wants for me. When we turn other people into objects for our own sexual gratification that's idolatry. That's the worship of self.

As men we can easily make an idol out of sex. That's what drives the pornography industry in all its forms. Sex can become an addiction stronger than any drug on the street and create a prison that's very difficult to escape. For men it's often all about the sex and for women it's often all about the intimacy. Women can make an idol out of intimacy. That's what drives the market for romance novels and soap operas and chick flicks. It's that yearning to be somebody's queen. And that expectation can leave a woman feeling relationally frustrated and sexually unfulfilled.

The term sexual immorality is a broad word that means any kind of sexual relationship outside the commitment of marriage. God is not saying, "Put sex to death." No way! Sex is a wonderful thing that God created for us to enjoy in the context of marriage. God's not trying to take something good away from us. He's not trying to steal our joy. On the contrary, he's trying to protect us. He wants to make sure that something good and wonderful stays good and wonderful and gives us all the joy he intended. It's not putting sex to death. It's putting sexual immorality to death.

We're coming up to the wedding season and Jennifer and I will often tell couples in pre-marital counseling sessions that sex is like fire, inside a fireplace it's bright and warm, exciting and life giving. But that same fire, outside the fireplace, is destructive and devastating. In can burn a house down just like it can burn a life to the ground. And it has for way too many people.

Can we be forgiven of sexual sin and lust and evil desires and greed? Absolutely. They were all paid for on the cross. That's Paul's point. And God loves to forgive our sexual mistakes and offer us a fresh start in that area of our lives. But they'll always leave wounds and scars and lesions on our hearts. So Paul says, put them to death.

And then he goes on to say in verses 7-9, You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices.

In verses 8 and 9, Paul says get rid of, take off your old self with its practices. He uses a Greek word that conveys the image of taking off old, dirty clothes, the clothes we wore before we knew Christ. Change the wardrobe he says. Put off anger and rage. Anger and rage are issues of the heart and they're at the root of malice and slander, filthy language and lying lips. Those are all the ways we express in words our anger and rage.

The Greek word for anger here describes that long lasting, slow burning, smoldering anger that refuses to go out. Rage, on the other hand, is that explosive temper that flares up and then suddenly dies down. The Greeks compared rage to a fire in a bed of straw the blazed quickly and then went out. Rage flares out quickly, but smoldering anger can be inside us for years unless we deal with it.

Someone has said, "You never bury an emotion dead. Emotions are always buried alive." And that's true. They will rise again. The way to deal with smoldering anger is not to fly off the handle and rage all over people or to withdraw and punish people with silence and distance. It's not to deny that it's there or to stuff it down deep into our hearts. The way to deal with anger is to express it in healthy, appropriate ways.

We talked about this in our last series The Healing Power of Love. And we went over steps towards forgiveness and reconciliation like getting with the person who's made us angry and telling them how we feel. Not by saying "you did this" or "you did that." But with "I" statements like, "I felt angry when you said this. Or I feel anger when you do that. Let's talk about it, because I don't want to stay angry with you. And I need your help to deal with it."

Don't let your life be poisoned with unresolved anger. Take it to God first, then to the person or the situation that's caused the anger. How we deal with our anger has a lot to do with how abundant our life will be. Don't let unresolved anger ruin your marriage or any other relationships. Deal with it in healthy ways. Get help if you need it from friends or a counselor. It's not always easy to resolve anger, but it's worth every ounce of effort.

Finally in verses 9-11 Paul tells us to put on new clothes. Look at verse 9, Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

Liberation is a two-step process. It's not just putting off the old. It's putting on the new. It's not just leaving Egypt. It's entering the Promised Land. We need to think and believe in a new way. It's not just about putting off old habits and attitudes and behaviors. That's part of it. But it's also about seeing ourselves differently, setting our minds and hearts on things above, being renewed in our thinking and understanding of what's true about us.

Again, it's like we said in our last series. We belong. We count. We can. We're created in the image of God and Christ's power is enough for anyone, no matter who they are or what their background, to live this new kind of life. God wants to make us fully human which means to live in his image.

Verse 11 almost seems out of place. All of a sudden Paul starts talking about Greeks and Jews, circumcised, uncircumcised, barbarians and Scythians, slaves and free. What's that about? It's about the fact that every one of us can be set free. Every one of us can change. Every one of us can be transformed by Christ who is all and in all. No matter who we are or where we're from or what we did or what our family was like or our sexual history or our education or lack of it, our background or socio-economic situation we can all be transformed by Christ. His power knows no limits. And his power is released as we put off the old self and put on the new self.

So as we move through this season of Lent what is it that you need to put off? Is it some form of sexual sin? Is it anger and rage? It is words that wound others like malice and slander, lying and filthy language? Is it a warped image of yourself? Is it a fractured relationship that needs to be mended? Christ died for every one of those sins so that we can be forgiven and Christ rose to give us the power to live a new life. Does your experience match your position in Christ?

For almost 1,400 years the Egyptian astronomer Ptolemy said the earth was the center of universe. And everybody believed him. Until the Polish astronomer Copernicus came along and proved that it wasn't. "The sun," he said, "is the center of the universe." And that changed everything. What's the center of your universe? Is it the earth and the things of the earth? Or is it the Son of God and the things above? Let's set our hearts and minds on things above. Let's put off the old self and put on the new self. Let's break free and live heaven's life on earth right now. Through Christ we have the power to do it.


Questions of the Week

  • Paul talks as though we've already been raised with Christ. What do you think he means by this? Why do you think he speaks of this in the past tense? What are some ways that we experience the resurrection life now?
  • When Paul talks about those who are a part of the Kingdom, he often uses the phrase "in Christ". What does it mean to you to be "in Christ"? How does being "in Christ" contrast with what Paul calls the "earthly nature"? Why do you think he says that we need to put to death the earthly nature?
  • What are some ways that we "take off" the old self? How do we put on the new self that Paul talks about?
  • Paul closes the passage by talking about the removal of dividing categories (Greek / Jew, slave / free, etc). Why is this important in Paul's talk of the new self? How do we at Valley View demonstrate this aspect of the new life of Christ?