Date: 24 Novem­ber 2024 | Pre­a­cher:
Series: | Bible text: John 8:30–36
Hint: This ser­mon has been machi­ne trans­la­ted. Plea­se note that we can­not accept any respon­si­bi­li­ty for the accu­ra­cy of the content.

We live in a church cul­tu­re in which a per­son can beco­me a Chris­ti­an, but does not neces­s­a­ri­ly have to be a fol­lower of Jesus. In the four bio­gra­phies of Jesus, the­re is only one distinc­tion Peo­p­le and Suc­ces­sor. The cate­go­ry ChristThe­re was no such thing as a «pray­er of sur­ren­der» whe­re you say a pray­er of sur­ren­der, belie­ve a series of tea­chings about God and go to church to ensu­re that you go to hea­ven after you die. A fol­lower of Jesus is like an app­ren­ti­ce who lear­ns holi­sti­cal­ly from his mas­ter and can obser­ve him 247. This results in good fruits such as reco­g­nis­ing truth, free­dom and sonship.


In the con­text of the US pre­si­den­ti­al elec­tion, the­re has been a dis­cus­sion on social media about whe­ther Donald Trump is a Chris­ti­an or not. In order to ans­wer this ques­ti­on, we need to defi­ne what a Chris­ti­an actual­ly is. A reco­g­nis­ed com­mon deno­mi­na­tor is the four points: 1. God loves you. 2. you are a sin­ner who is lost. 3. Jesus died on the cross for your sins. 4. if you belie­ve in Him, you will go to hea­ven after you die. In many Wes­tern churches, anyo­ne who says «yes» to the­se points pas­ses as a Chris­ti­an and later goes to hea­ven. It is quite pos­si­ble that Trump once stood up during a call to con­ver­si­on in a church.

In the New Tes­ta­ment, the word «Chris­ti­an» appears three times in the Acts of the Apost­les. The­re it is used as a reli­gious slur to mock fol­lo­wers of Christ. But over time, our spi­ri­tu­al ances­tors adopted this insult and used it to iden­ti­fy them­sel­ves as tho­se who were com­mit­ted to imi­ta­ting Christ. So far so good. The pro­blem is that the mea­ning of the word chan­ged as a result of Chris­tia­ni­sa­ti­on in the 4th cen­tu­ry. From then on, a Chris­ti­an was someone who belon­ged to the Roman Empire, sub­scri­bed to the basic tenets of Chris­tia­ni­ty and went to church.

In the four Gos­pels, the bio­gra­phies of Jesus, the cate­go­ry Christ unknown. The­re, a distinc­tion is made bet­ween the Peo­p­le and the Suc­ces­sors (app­ren­ti­ces, disci­ples) from Jesus. The pro­blem with us in the West is that we have crea­ted a cul­tu­ral envi­ron­ment whe­re we can be Chris­ti­ans and yet not followers.

Stay in the word

In Switz­er­land, we have a uni­que dual voca­tio­nal trai­ning sys­tem. This means that young peo­p­le can com­bi­ne work and school. At school, they are taught both tra­di­tio­nal school sub­jects and voca­tio­nal skills. They can imme­dia­te­ly app­ly what they have lear­nt in the trai­ning com­pa­ny and the­r­e­fo­re have a lar­ge lear­ning cur­ve. A few deca­des ago, the­re was also a model in which the app­ren­ti­ce lived with his master’s fami­ly. This meant that they could expe­ri­ence their boss in every situa­ti­on. Disci­ple­ship means being an app­ren­ti­ce of Jesus, being with Jesus 247.

To make this clear, John, the fourth bio­grapher of Jesus, uses the word meno (stay, dwell, lin­ger, dwell). It is the word that best cha­rac­te­ri­ses a fol­lower of Jesus. He wri­tes: «When Jesus said this, many belie­ved in him. To the Jews who now belie­ved in him, Jesus said: «If you abide (meno) in my word, you are tru­ly my disci­ples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free» » (John 8:30–32 New Tes­ta­ment). A fol­lower of Jesus is cha­rac­te­ri­sed by remai­ning in His Word (meno). Meno is the root of the Greek noun monethat Resi­dence or Dwel­ling means (John 14:2.23). At what address does an app­ren­ti­ce of Jesus take up resi­dence? Ans­wer: In His Word. To find out exact­ly whe­re this is, we need to con­sult the first sen­ten­ces of the Gos­pel of John: «In the begin­ning was the Word. The Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the begin­ning […]» (John 1:1f NLB). John iden­ti­fies Jesus hims­elf with the word.

In his word staydoes not pri­ma­ri­ly mean rea­ding the Bible all the time. Howe­ver, becau­se Jesus reve­als hims­elf in the Holy Scrip­tures, rea­ding, medi­ta­ting and stu­dy­ing the Bible is an excel­lent way to remain in Jesus. The best known menoposi­ti­on reads: «I am the vine, and you are the bran­ches. If anyo­ne in me remains and I in him stayit bears rich fruit; wit­hout me you can do not­hing»(John 15:5 NGÜ). Jesus is hea­ding towards a sin­gle point: Estab­lish yours­elf in my pre­sence in the spi­rit and never lea­ve me.

Being an app­ren­ti­ce of Jesus means focus­sing your who­le life on three goals: To be with Jesus, to beco­me more like Him and to do what He did. Fol­lo­wing Jesus beg­ins with us coming to Jesus and stay­ing with Him. Then we will gra­du­al­ly beco­me more like Him and ulti­m­ate­ly we will begin to do the things that Jesus did in this world. Disci­ple­ship always starts with point 1: Stay­ing with Jesus.

What would it look like for you if you found your home in God? This is not about retrea­ting to a monas­tery, but to learn to always be in two places at the same time. Eating break­fast and being with Jesus, being with Jesus during the mor­ning dri­ve to work, chan­ging ano­ther nap­py and being with Jesus, che­cking the mail and being with Jesus, pre­pa­ring din­ner for fami­ly or fri­ends and let­ting your heart rest in Jesus. This is what Paul means when he says: «Do not stop pray­ing» (1 Thes­sa­lo­ni­ans 5:17 NLB). Jesus» tea­ching is about trans­forming our body into a temp­le, a place of inter­sec­tion bet­ween hea­ven and eartha sign of what Jesus will one day do for the enti­re cos­mos when hea­ven and earth are final­ly reu­ni­ted. Every day we have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to let our bodies beco­me God’s home.

Appeal to external merits and actions

The fol­lo­wing state­ments come from Jews, «who now belie­ved in him»: « «But we are des­cen­dants of Abra­ham,» they said. «We have never been slaves to anyo­ne. Then why are you tal­king about «making us free»? What do you mean by that?» (John 8:33 NLB).

The iden­ti­ty of the­se Jews who beca­me belie­vers in Jesus is deep­ly roo­ted in their ori­g­ins. They cla­im to belong to God’s peo­p­le, of whom Abra­ham was the pro­ge­ni­tor. In doing so, they seem to for­get that they were impri­so­ned in Baby­lo­ni­an exi­le for 70 years or that they suf­fe­r­ed under Roman occu­pa­ti­on for many years. They ima­gi­ne that they are free becau­se of exter­nal events. The­se peo­p­le remind me of Chris­ti­ans who once rai­sed their hands at a call to con­ver­si­on, said a pray­er of sur­ren­der, regu­lar­ly attend church and har­bour the hope of one day going to hea­ven. Jesus is not loo­king for peo­p­le who want to beco­me Chris­ti­ans, but for app­ren­ti­ces for the king­dom of God.

It’s about a new life­style: «Jesus repli­ed: «I assu­re you, ever­yo­ne who sins is a slave to sin» » (John 8:34 NLB). Jesus con­trasts two life­styl­es here: Peo­p­le who abide in his word and tho­se who sin. The dif­fe­rence could not be grea­ter; the first group have the sta­tus of fami­ly mem­bers with God and the second are slaves to sin. What does Jesus mean by sin­ning? We quick­ly think of moral fail­ure or brea­king the bibli­cal com­mandments. This cate­go­ry of sin is com­mit­ted by every per­son, whe­ther a fol­lower or a mem­ber of the peo­p­le. The Greek. word for Sin (ham­ar­tia) thinks it will miss the tar­get. Accor­ding to Jesus, the goal is uni­on with God, to remain in Him and He in us. The goal is to beco­me an app­ren­ti­ce in the king­dom of God. In con­trast to peo­p­le who rely on exter­nal actions or merits, this is a mat­ter of the heart. If a per­son denies hims­elf this goal, he remains a slave to sin.

Experience redemption

What has Jesus Christ actual­ly saved us for? No, it’s not a ticket to hea­ven! For Jesus, it’s about hea­ven coming to us right now. It’s not just that He beca­me like us, but that we beco­me like Him. It is not just about what He has done for us, but also about what He does or will do through us when we are app­ren­ti­ced to Him. It is about being a per­son who is not only loved by God, but who is also per­me­a­ted by the love of God. It is not only about accep­ting the merits of His death, but also about recei­ving the power of the resur­rec­tion. We do not expe­ri­ence the­se things as Chris­ti­ans, but as His fol­lo­wers who abide in Him.

In our text, Jesus descri­bes three aspects that are part of His sal­va­ti­on: reco­g­nis­ing the truth, being free and belon­ging to His family.

«You will find the Reco­g­nis­ing truthand the truth will tell you free up» (John 8:32 NLB). «A slave is not a fami­ly mem­ber; a Son, on the other hand, belongs to the fami­ly fore­ver. Only then, when the Son makes you free, are you real­ly free» (John 8:35f NLB).

  • Reco­g­nis­ing the truthThe con­di­ti­on for reco­g­nis­ing His truth is not our intellect, but fol­lo­wing Him. Jesus says of Hims­elf that He is the way, the truth and the life. Euge­ne Peter­son: «The way of Jesus com­bi­ned with the truth of Jesus leads to the life of Jesus.» The Greek word for Life is zoe. This refers to the divi­ne life that every fol­lower can alre­a­dy tas­te and that does not end with death.
  • Be freeWhen we live with Jesus and He lives in us, we expe­ri­ence the grea­test pos­si­ble free­dom. His tea­ching and His per­son will gra­du­al­ly free us from sin, fears, worries, attach­ments, nega­ti­ve imprints and thoughts.
  • His fami­ly includesThis is the incom­pre­hen­si­ble cli­max of redemp­ti­on. Disci­ple­ship makes us a mem­ber of Jesus» fami­ly with the right to always belong to the fami­ly. A fol­lower beco­mes an heir of Jesus. Recent­ly, a young father told me that he regu­lar­ly con­fes­ses this fact to his new­born daugh­ter. The inhe­ri­tance of God is a hig­her rea­li­ty than fami­ly inhe­ri­tance. Fami­ly imprints, cur­ses and sti­pu­la­ti­ons no lon­ger apply.

Is Trump a fol­lower of Jesus or not? I do not know. If a per­son – like a branch on the vine – remains in Jesus, he bears much fruit. Whe­ther this is the case with Trump, I con­fi­dent­ly lea­ve to God’s judgement.

Would you like to be an app­ren­ti­ce to Jesus? Not ever­yo­ne does. Most peo­p­le said no to this invi­ta­ti­on. Jesus did not beg, mani­pu­la­te or inti­mi­da­te. Coer­ci­on does not fit in with the cul­tu­re of God’s king­dom. He neither pres­su­ri­sed anyo­ne nor made any spe­cial offers. He only invi­ted them. And if peo­p­le hesi­ta­ted or made excu­ses, He let them go away. What do you do with Jesus» invi­ta­ti­on to beco­me his apprentice?

 

Possible questions for the small groups

Read the Bible text: Matthew 4:18–22; John 8:30–36

  1. In John 8:30ff, Jesus speaks to peo­p­le who belie­ved in Him. Why does he point out to one group that anyo­ne who sins is a slave to sin? In what way do the­se peo­p­le miss the mark? Is it pos­si­ble to belie­ve in Jesus and still miss the mark?
  2. What cha­rac­te­ri­ses a fol­lower? What does it mean to remain in his word or in the vine (John 15:5)?
  3. How should you struc­tu­re your day in order to stay bet­ter in His Word (in HIM)?
  4. What is the fruit that a per­son expe­ri­en­ces when he abides in Jesus?
  5. Whe­re were you addres­sed by the ser­mon? What (small) step do you want to take in the next two weeks?