Rev. David Holwick R Series: What Is Ours in Christ
First Baptist Church Memorial Sunday
Ledgewood, New Jersey
May 27, 2001
Luke 4:18-19
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I. Memorial Sunday.
A. Millions have died for their countries.
1) "Enemy at the Gates" - graphic movie depiction of battle
of Stalingrad.
Seemed almost fakey - soldiers in cattle cars jump off
train and are confronted with a burning city.
They rush down the river bank to ferries.
German planes strafe and bomb them.
On other side, they are rushed forward, every other
man getting a gun. Other only gets bullets.
Immediately they charge into battle against Germans,
who are only a few hundred yards away.
The Russians are annihilated by machine guns.
Worse, those who retreat are cut down by their own side.
Strained credibility of young audience.
But I have read historical accounts of Stalingrad, and
that's how it was.
The Russian dead are buried in huge mounds, nameless
and forgotten.
B. Americans go into battle with a different mentality.
1) We don't risk our lives just for the Motherland.
2) We risk our lives for a higher ideal - freedom.
3) Hundreds of thousands have paid the final price for it.
C. Our ideal of freedom was immortalized by Franklin Roosevelt.
1) "Four Freedoms" speech given ten months before Pearl Harbor.
a) Made more famous by Norman Rockwell's posters.
2) The four freedoms: "speech, worship, from want, from fear."
D. Christians also hold freedom as an ultimate ideal.
1) It is not just the freedom for life here and now, but for
all eternity.
2) Millions have died to gain it, only one died to provide it.
II. Five freedoms of the Christian.
A. Freedom of Choice.
1) We are not puppets - our destiny is in our hands.
2) Choose whom you will serve. Joshua 24:15
3) Even as Christians, we choose every day, every hour,
whether we will honor God or not.
B. Freedom from Law.
1) No need for legalism.
2) Jesus doesn't hinder us with rules and regulations.
a) We have boundaries, but not chains.
b) We are free to follow the leading of Holy Spirit.
3) Legalism makes demands but they are attainable.
a) Our freedom in Christ calls us to something higher.
Dostoyevsky put it so powerfully in his classic novel
THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV.
He pictures a scene in which Jesus returns to earth.
It's the 15th century, and Jesus comes to Spain.
Spain is ruled by the church.
Spain is held in the sway of the Inquisition, the greatest
heresy hunt of all times.
The bishops of the church set down the law of Christianity.
And they kill all those who don't toe the line.
And here comes Jesus.
He comes to Seville, while the fires of the Inquisition burn
the day's quota of heretics.
And Jesus comes quietly.
But people seem to know him.
They're drawn to him, by his gentleness, by his kindness,
by his love.
And he places no demands on them.
A blind man cries out to see him, and Jesus doesn't stipulate
a penance.
He simply opens the man's eyes to the joy of sight.
And as they walk along, they come to the doors of Seville's
cathedral.
A procession of mourners is just leaving.
They carry on their shoulders the coffin of a little girl,
seven years old.
And the mother throws herself at Jesus' feet and wails,
"If it is You, raise my child!"
And he does!
And then comes the cardinal himself, the Grand Inquisitor.
His eyes darken and his withered face grows black.
He points a bony finger at Jesus, and he orders him arrested
and thrown in prison.
There in the dungeon, he confronts Jesus.
He says, "You have no right to come back here and to mess
things up for us!"
You're destroying these people with your freedom!
They can't handle it!
They're like children!
They need our rules and regulations!
They need a church that keeps them huddled close in fear!
Go away! Don't rock the boat!
Take your freedom and leave!"
And Jesus keeps silent the whole time.
When the Grand Inquisitor finishes his tirade, Jesus waits
for a long while.
And when the Grand Inquisitor grows restless with the silence,
Jesus finally stands.
He says nothing.
He only moves to the man's side.
Then, with the tenderness of love and care, he softly kisses
him.
That's the only answer he gives.
Christ came to earth to love us.
And love is freedom.
And freedom is a terrifying thing.
Because it will not coerce, it will not demand, it will not
rule by force.
And only those who freely take of it can find it.
#2816
C. Freedom from Sin.
1) Sin can have a strong hold on us.
a) Examples of compulsions and addictions...
2) Jesus can free us from power of sin.
a) Direct power to take away our desires.
b) Through encouragement and support of other Christians.
D. Freedom to Love.
1) Freedom is more than deliverance from bad stuff in our past.
a) We are free to do something positive with our lives.
2) A truly free person is a loving person.
a) Actively get involved in people's lives...
b) Love is the surest sign of a genuine Christian.
E. Freedom from Death.
1) Our freedom reaches beyond this life.
2) Death faces everyone. Nothing you can do can change that.
a) (Visiting Ralph's sister, who is confident she will
live to be 100. Only 26 more years.)
b) Medical science is striving to help you live longer,
but they can never give you eternity.
c) Jesus alone can give us eternity.
3) Release from the fear of death make life more vibrant.
III. We can find freedom in the midst of bondage.
A. Many who think they are free, aren't.
1) The Bible says bondage is our normal experience.
a) Even proud Americans are prisoners of sin, fear, death.
2) Jesus came to set us free.
a) In the situation you are in right now, you can be a
free person in Jesus Christ.
b) You have to desire it, and seek it.
B. When Jesus sets you free, you are free indeed.
Over the past few weeks, we've heard a lot about the mistakes
the justice system can make.
A thousand pages of evidence missing here, a thousand there.
The FBI has lost a lot of its shine.
Well, Chuck Colson has a story out of California that teaches
an even more important lesson:
God can use even man's injustice to accomplish His purposes.
In 1980, Dwayne McKinney, then 21 years old, was convicted of
the felony-murder of a Burger King restaurant manager.
He only escaped the death penalty because the jury deadlocked
during sentencing deliberations.
So he was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
McKinney served 16 years before another inmate wrote
prosecutors telling them that another man, not McKinney,
had actually committed the crime.
Eventually, the driver of the getaway car testified that
McKinney had not been involved.
This new evidence, along with its own investigation, led the
prosecutors to ask for his release.
And on January 28, after 18 years in prison as a wrongly
convicted man, McKinney was set free.
As remarkable as the story of his incarceration and release
was, what happened next was even more remarkable.
McKinney told the LOS ANGELES TIMES that he was not bitter
about his ordeal.
He said that he even forgave the inmates who kept quiet about
his innocence for 16 years.
Forgiveness? Not bitter? How could that be?
You see, while behind bars, Dwayne McKinney became a
Christian.
As he told the LOS ANGELES TIMES, "I suffered a lot of losses,
but I also gained a lot."
In other words, McKinney made it plain that there was
something more important to him than the physical freedom
that was unjustly taken away --
-- it was the spiritual freedom he gained when he met Christ.
Becoming a Christian enabled him to look at his life honestly
and to conclude God had used his imprisonment for good.
As he said, "The lifestyle that I led [when I was convicted]
put [me] in a vulnerable position ... I could be free and
still be lost."
Not only did his faith help McKinney to avoid the natural
anger that one might expect, it sustained him while he
was in prison.
He told the TIMES, "I always believed my deliverance would
come ... I just didn't know when it would come."
In doing this, Dwayne McKinney provided evidence for the
power of the Gospel that our neighbors can't ignore or
explain away.
Not just in his ability to forgive, but in the way he saw
God's redemptive purpose at work in his life - even when
others didn't.
#5510
IV. God wants to free you.
A. Release from bondage.
B. The experience God's positive favor. Luke 4:19
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This series is based on one in Discipleship Journal #114, Nov/Dec 1999.
SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
#2816 "Freedom's Year," by Rev. Wayne Brouwer, Dynamic Preaching
(www.sermons.com), third sermon for July 1992.
#5510 "Forgiving Your Jailers: The Power Of The Gospel," BreakPoint
Commentary by Charles Colson; May 26, 2000.
These and 17,000 others are part of a database that can be downloaded,
absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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