Jesus as a ransom

Heavenly Father, we come before you with expectancy, knowing that you have already gone the distance for us,

that your desire is to bless us, to grow us, to encourage us, to equip us,

to convict us of our sins, to free us from bondage.

Lord, help us to have that expectancy this morning.

Holy Spirit, we ask that you will open our eyes to see, our ears to hear,

open our minds to understand what you would teach us in your word this morning, in Jesus' name.

Amen. Please take a seat.

We'll finish off our summer series on the crucified Messiah this morning,

and we'll be looking at Christ dying as a ransom.

Christ dying as a ransom.

But before we get into the idea of Christ dying for a ransom, we have to talk about slavery.

Slavery is among, if not one of the most detestable evils in the world.

When we talk about evils, evil is bad, evil is evil.

There's kind of degrees of evil.

Slavery is up there.

There are tens of millions of slaves worldwide.

There are Southeast Asians in the Gulf countries that are essentially forced laborers.

We have people that are trafficked into all sorts of prostitution in North America,

in cities all over the place, maybe even Ottawa.

There are some 30 to 40 million slaves worldwide.

I mean, who knows the actual number?

But I want to put forward to you this morning that there are many more than 30 to 40 million slaves.

I want to put forward to you that the very human condition is riddled,

is one with abject, is a condition that is full on with abject slavery.

The idea of ransoming in the scriptures and in our text this morning,

it might bring to mind this idea of somebody kidnapping a rich person's daughter or son

and demanding a ransom, $10 million, or we're going to kill your child.

And although that most certainly is ransoming,

the picture that we're going to see in the Bible is actually the ransoming of one from slavery.

A slave, a bondservant, was somebody without any rights.

They were owned by another human being.

And if they wanted to enjoy freedom, they had to be redeemed.

They had to be ransomed.

In John chapter 8, Jesus speaks to a crowd of Jewish people.

John 8 · chapter mention

Some were skeptical, antagonistic.

Others were sympathetic.

They were believers.

But he said this to them,

If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.

And you will know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

They, some of the people that believed in him,

they answered him,

We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone.

How is it that you say you will become free?

Interesting.

Just a quick pause.

The Israelites were enslaved to people.

They spent 400 years enslaved in Egypt.

Egyptian slavery.

In fact, every year there is a feast commemorating the exodus from slavery.

It's called Passover.

For them to say such a...

It's like if you're going to lie, you've got to lie well, right?

You don't lie in such a way that is just obvious.

That you're not telling the truth.

And Jesus could have totally refuted them in the same way I just did.

But instead, he doesn't refute them by reminding them of their ethnic experience.

Instead, he appeals to the human experience.

And this is what he says.

Jesus answered them,

Truly, truly, I say to you,

Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.

The slave does not remain in the house forever.

The son remains forever.

So if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Notice.

Guys, we do the Passover every year.

No, no, no.

He doesn't mention that.

He said, if you practice slavery, or if you practice sin, you are a slave to sin.

You are in bondage.

You are a slave.

And Jesus said it to a group of people 2,000 years ago.

But he says it to us this morning.

There is most certainly slavery throughout the world.

And apart from the obvious crazy stuff that I gave a couple examples of just a few moments ago,

slavery is ubiquitous in our world in the human heart.

For some of us, this might be hard to accept.

It may even be offensive, ridiculous to your ears for me to say such thing.

Look at us.

We are very free people.

We live in a free society.

We have freedom to come and to go, to practice religion,

to acquire wealth, to spend things the way we want.

We're free people.

This sounds a bit ridiculous.

And I can sympathize with that.

If this is you, I would say, just stick with me.

Keep your ears open.

Keep your mind open to the truth that scripture speaks of.

Because, again, if it's true, it will set you free.

Maybe you're a Christian here and you've heard this,

this idea of God redeeming us.

And you're like, yeah, I've heard this.

Like, for the thousandth time, it's old hat.

This is where you hit the off button.

Lights are on, but nobody's home.

You're thinking of whatever sports game or what you have to do when you go home.

I would say to you, keep your ears perked.

Hear this afresh for another time.

One more time.

Because, again, this is truth, and the truth shall set you free.

Let's read our text this morning.

And I'm going to be reading it a number of times.

And I want this truth to get deep down.

So Matt read 1 Timothy 2, 1 to 7.

We're actually going to only be in two verses, one sentence.

Verses 5 and 6 is one sentence over two verses.

And I'll begin in verse 5 of 1 Timothy 2.

justamente 2 verse 6.

Again,

For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men,

the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all,

which is the testimony given at the proper time.

Our text this morning will show us that our only hope for redemption from slavery to sin is through a ransoming.

A ransoming that we have an inability to pay and desperately long for.

It's a ransoming that was done freely and lovingly.

It was carried out according to God's will at his appointed time and was mediated by the only one who could ever mediate it,

Jesus Christ.

He mediates it between the perfect creator God and the broken, sinful humanity.

We are created in God's image and he is reconciling us back to the creator whose image we bear.

So we're going to look at three things in our text that talk about the idea of ransom and what it means to be ransomed.

The first is what are we ransomed from?

The second thing is what are we ransomed for?

The third thing is how is this accomplished?

So what are we ransomed from?

What are we ransomed for?

And how this is accomplished?

So I'm going to read one more time.

First Timothy chapter two, verses five and six.

For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

What are we ransomed from?

I've made mention of being ransomed from slavery to sin, a slavery to sin.

We have transgressed against God himself from the beginning and because of the beginning.

So by virtue of being a human being, you are a transgressor against God's laws.

And it's been happening since the very beginning, since we see in the opening chapters of Genesis in the Bible, our first parents, they chose not to enjoy God and his good creation.

They chose instead to put themselves in the place of God, to make their own desires ultimate things and somehow kick God off the throne as if that were possible.

We have chosen, likewise, not to trust in God, but to pursue our own good life apart from the life giver.

We make good things ultimate things.

And this is what the scriptures talk about idolatry.

This is sin.

So for instance, if a businesswoman has as an ultimate thing, a successful business, she may stomp on employees.

She may fudge numbers.

She may neglect her family if she has one.

Because the ultimate thing has to be achieved.

The ultimate thing has to be accomplished.

The single person who has the good desire to be married, to be in a relationship, making that the ultimate desire, will pursue that desire.

Again, a good desire in an ultimate way that if they don't get in a relationship, their life isn't, it pales.

It's not worth living.

Or if they get in a relationship and a heartbreak happens, devastation, so that life doesn't seem worth living.

And I don't mean in the moment when emotions are high, but just all the time.

The mother who is desperately in love with their child, that makes their child the ultimate thing.

If the child, God forbid, passes away or goes wayward.

That mother's existence, everything she's put her hope and everything that she's put her identity in crumbles.

Making a good thing an ultimate thing.

The married man of 15 years who is just, he wants some adventure.

And his eyes start to wander.

His desires start to wander.

Adventure is not a bad thing.

But when you make a good thing an ultimate thing, it's sin.

The church planter who puts all his eggs in the church planting basket.

And if it fails, he's crushed.

That's making a good thing an ultimate thing.

I mean, listen, the shackles of slavery to sin take on different forms, but they're still shackles.

If you are a slave to sin, you can say, listen, I'm putting a few more links on my chain.

Look how much freedom I have.

You still have shackles on your legs.

If you paint your shackles a nice color, beautiful, glitter, if you're so glittery like that, there's still shackles.

Or if you ignore them and say, there is no shackles on my feet.

It doesn't change the fact that there's not shackles on your feet.

It means you're delusional.

Slavery to sin takes different forms, but it's still slavery.

But it's not just slavery to sin that we're ransomed from.

It's also ransoming from this world and slavery from false religion and false and evil philosophies.

The apostle Paul says in Galatians chapter 4 that Jesus not only saves Christians from slavery to sin,

Galatians 4 · chapter mention

but also sets them free from slavery to the world, false religions, evil religions, philosophies.

And he says this in verse 7 of chapter 4.

So you are no longer a slave, but a son.

And if a son, then an heir according or an heir through God.

Verse 8,

It means that through Jesus, we are welcomed into God's family.

No longer slaves, no longer slaves, but sons and daughters.

And that means our previous slave masters no longer have authority over us.

So for the Somali man who comes to the Christian faith, genuine faith,

the evil slave master of Islam is no longer over him.

The student who is headlong into a philosophy degree, eating stuff up, comes to faith,

no longer are they subject to narcissistic or reductionistic philosophies that belittle God,

that belittle his creation and him as creator.

That talk about Christ as a fairy tale or as one of many different insurrectionists 2,000 years ago.

To the Christian sitting in the pew, it means the Christian in the pew that thinks Christianity,

whether consciously or just as a matter of everyday practicality lives the Christian life in such a way that they think good deeds will merit ultimate love from God towards them.

You are no longer slaves to that evil master.

Sons and daughters of the living God, God saves us, ransoms us from the world and from slavery to false and evil religion and philosophies.

There is complete freedom that awaits.

If you are here struggling with your faith, curious about the faith, true freedom awaits.

We are ransomed.

It means we are no longer, again, answerable to our former slave masters.

There is a beautiful scene at the end of 12 Years a Slave when, is it Solomon Northup,

this old friend from New York comes and through the sheriff, he is essentially a free man and he is getting in the carriage.

And as he is walking, his slave master is calling him names and saying,

you are my slave, I paid for you.

And he disregards that slave owner because he is no longer a slave.

And that is a beautiful picture of what it means to no longer be in slavery.

But we're also ransomed from slavery to death.

Death has touched us all in some kind of way.

We have friends or families, family members that have died.

I've never met Kobe Bryant in my life.

I was bummed out for a long time when he died.

Death, it's so final and aggressive and it takes everybody.

And all of us will taste death.

But we're no longer slaves to death if we are ransomed.

Because as Christ has died, but was on the third day rose again from the grave,

we are united to him.

So we too will rise again.

Death will not have the final word.

Death will no longer be a slave master to us.

Ransomed from the grave.

So we are ransomed from slavery, but we are also ransomed for something.

God doesn't rescue the Israelites from Egypt and just puts them out in the desert and said,

Hey, you're free.

He saves them for something.

Brings them to the promised land.

Blesses them.

Makes a covenant with them.

Renews his covenant that he made with Abraham,

but also gives them a new identity.

So what are we ransomed for?

Simply put, it's freedom.

But what exactly do we mean by freedom?

Do we define freedom on our own terms?

Is freedom simply to live unencumbered from responsibility?

Well, then I think desire, your desires would take over.

You just do whatever you wanted.

Then your desire becomes your slave master.

You become a slave to your desires.

How about freedom from responsibility?

Like complete freedom to do whatever you want,

to walk your own path.

Well, how about if walking your own path is at the expense of others?

For your freedom to truly exist,

it means somebody else's freedom has to be curtailed.

Is that really freedom?

Is that true freedom?

We are ransomed for freedom,

but consider this.

The true freedom is to know God and be known by him.

It says that, we read this a few moments ago in Galatians chapter 4.

Galatians 4 · chapter mention

To know God and be known by him.

God is our creator and he is good.

And his desire for us to bless us can be trusted.

And God is, he is not the type of maker who,

like a watchmaker, makes this beautiful timepiece,

sets the mechanism,

and then his job is done.

God has made creation,

and all of creation is upheld by him.

He is deeply intertwined with his,

excuse me,

creation.

That he is active in his creation,

and he has created the cosmos,

and at the very,

at the very pinnacle of all of his creation,

is you and I,

is humanity.

Because we are made in his image.

We are image bearers of God.

Male and female,

whatever language you speak,

wherever you come from,

if you are a human being,

you're an image bearer of God.

And you are at the pinnacle of his creation.

God does not want a relationship

with the environment.

He does not want a relationship

with any kind of animal,

or a relationship with the stars.

He wants a relationship

with you and I.

He is deeply,

deeply,

deeply,

deeply involved

in his creation.

As image bearers,

we are made to enjoy

this deep friendship with God.

God,

this is what true freedom is.

To live in the way

that we were created to live.

When sin,

the temptation of sin,

comes knocking,

we don't have to say yes.

When the world

tempts us

to compromise,

we don't have to say yes.

When a false religion,

or philosophy,

says this is,

this is a better way,

we don't have to say yes.

And when death

is knocking at our door,

we can laugh in a sense,

because death will never have

the final word.

We are saved

for relationship

with the living God,

and it means everything.

So we are saved

from slavery,

we are saved

for something,

we are ransomed

for something.

How is all of this accomplished?

Let's take another look.

1 Timothy,

1 Timothy 2:5

chapter 2,

verses 5 and 6.

For there is one God,

and there is one mediator

between God and men,

the man Christ Jesus,

who gave himself

as a ransom for all,

which is the testimony

given at the proper time.

Our scripture text

talks of the ransoming

by Jesus

of us,

but it actually talks

of other things as well.

it makes some heavy-duty

truth claims.

One sentence,

this one sentence

is so packed,

so concise

of a deep,

deep theology

that it is worth

memorizing.

At the end of

our time together,

I'll encourage you guys

to memorize this one

verse,

but it is a packed verse,

and there are truth claims

intertwined

in this sentence

so that

Jesus ransoming us

doesn't work

unless there is

one true God.

Jesus ransoming us

doesn't work

unless we truly

are sinful

and God truly

is holy.

The ransoming

of us by Jesus,

it doesn't work

if the incarnation

is a joke

or if it's false.

The ransoming us

from slavery

doesn't work

if God didn't

send Christ

to freely

give himself

in a specific time

in a specific place.

These truth claims

are very much

intertwined.

Christine actually

helped me with this.

I've never heard

of this before,

but I totally

heard of it before.

The theory of

irreducible complexity

and could you put up

the slides?

This is a great example

of the theory

of irreducible complexity

because the mouse trap

doesn't work

unless each of its

component parts

are there.

So,

I'm not talking about

a fancy dancy

mouse trap.

I'm talking about

the standard

Victor mouse trap,

not Victor's mouse trap.

I have no idea

if Victor has mouse traps.

This is a Victor mouse trap

and the Victor mouse trap

doesn't work

unless there is

a wooden board

and it doesn't work

unless there is

a bar that holds

the spring down

and it doesn't work

unless there is

a trigger

and it won't work

unless there is

a bit of bait

on the trigger

and it definitely

won't work

if you can't set it up.

These things are

impossible to set up.

I don't know if you guys,

that's why people

get the clippy ones now.

But anyways,

you understand

what I'm trying to say.

You can take it down now.

Thanks.

The theory of

irreducible complexity.

God ransoming us

doesn't work

if there are

more than one God

because

if there are

more than one God,

more than one God,

if

the God of the Bible

didn't scratch

my itch,

I just find

another God

with a different

set of values.

If

this God

wasn't perfect

and us being sinful,

we would need no

we'd have no need

to be ransomed.

If

Christ wasn't

a mediator

and a mediator

being one

that enjoys

the confidence

of both parties

that are

at odds

to one another

that is

a suitable

representative

of both parties.

So if

our mediator

Christ Jesus

wasn't fully God

representing

God

and fully man

representing man,

how could he

properly mediate

for us?

This wouldn't work.

The ransoming

wouldn't work.

If

Christ didn't

freely give

of himself,

it would be

an injustice

and how could

that

ransoming

work?

You guys

see the point.

For God

to ransom

us

it is

this

verse,

it is

the gospel

itself.

It is

the gospel

itself.

This doesn't

work if

one of the

component parts

don't exist

or is

false.

So what

happens?

God

sends

his son,

God,

the son of

God,

to take on

human flesh,

fully God,

fully man,

and to ransom

us,

but not

with a large

sum of

money,

not with

years of

hard labor,

but with

his very

blood.

He spills

for you

and for I.

There's a

deep desire

in us

for reconciliation

to God,

for the good

life,

to know

no pain,

to know

true

joy in

relationships.

All of this

stuff points

to something.

This deep

desire for

reconciliation

to God,

but it's

very clear

we have an

inability to

achieve this

ourselves.

What a

frustration

that must

be.

In

Psalm 49

Psalms 49:7–9

verses 7

to 9

and then

in verse

15 it

says this,

verses 7

to 9,

truly no

one can

ransom

another

or give

to God

the price

of his

life.

For the

ransom of

their life

is costly

and can

never suffice

that he

should live

on forever

and never

see the

pit.

And then

in verse

15 it

says this,

but God

will ransom

my soul

from the

power of

Sheol or

the grave

for he

will receive

me.

Who can

ransom

one's own

life?

God

can.

And he

has.

In the

book of

Revelation,

the culmination

of all

of time

is this

wonderful

picture of

Christ on

the throne

with,

I mean,

it's really

an epic

picture of

all of

creation

worshiping

God.

And this

is what it

says in

verse 5.

And they,

this is the

four living

creatures and

the 24

elders,

it's just

crazy,

epic,

cosmic

scene.

And they

start to

sing a

new song

to Jesus.

And they

say this,

worthy are

you to

take the

scroll and

to open

its seals,

for you

were slain

and by

your blood

you ransomed

people for

God.

From every

tribe and

language and

people and

nation,

and you

have made

them a

kingdom and

priests to

our God

and they

shall reign

on the

earth.

That at

the culmination

of all

time,

there is

this new

song sung

to the

king of

kings and

rate inserted

in there is

about how he

has ransomed

you and

I.

Your life is

worth something.

There's purpose

for your life.

It's a wonderful

picture.

I will

encourage you

guys now to

read and

read and

read and

memorize this

one sentence

and to think

about how you

were ransomed.

To think about

how God is

the creator,

the one and

only creator,

how Christ is

our mediator

between us

and God,

how Jesus

is fully

man,

fully God,

how he

ransoms

us by

his blood

freely,

lovingly,

and how it

was done

in a specific

time in a

specific place

and it is

finished.

And read

this over

and memorize

that.

Let that

form you

this week,

next week,

the week

after,

your whole

life.

Here's the

thing.

This is why

we need to

be reminded.

If you're

not a

Christian,

if you've

never come

to a

saving

faith,

today,

I've laid

out the

case for

you.

Come to

a saving

faith in

Christ Jesus.

Be free

from your

slavery.

But if

you're a

Christian,

don't wander

back into

slavery.

Don't do

it.

You don't

have to.

The

Israelites are

in the

desert.

They know

they will

be delivered

into the

promised land.

They've

seen God's

mighty work.

And then

they start

complaining

about the

stew that

they wanted,

that they used

to eat back

in Egypt,

and then they

want it

again.

But God

has a whole

land for

you,

flowing with

bounty.

And you

want stew

that you

ate,

this is

our problem

as well.

We are

sons and

daughters of

the living

God if you

put your

faith and

trust and

hope in

Christ.

But all

too often

you go back

to being a

slave to

sin.

You go

back to

being a

slave to

the world.

You go

back to

being a

slave to

false

religion,

to false

philosophies,

to an

utter fear

of death

that is

crippling.

you go

back to

being a

slave.

But guess

what?

The shackle

is no

longer on

your ankle.

It's gone

if you are

in Christ

Jesus.

We need

to be

reminded

of this,

refreshed

by this,

renewed

by this.

That's why

the gospel

isn't just

the doorway,

it is the

life of

the Christian

faith.

So let's

read again

1 Timothy

1 Timothy 2:5

chapter 2

verses 5

and 6.

Let's

memorize

this.

Let it

form our

very hearts.

Let us

remember

always that

we are

sons and

daughters of

the living

God.

Let's

pray.

Heavenly

Father,

we thank

you so

much that

you have

sent your

son to

ransom us

from slavery.

No longer

is there a

shackle on

our ankles,

no longer

are we

free,

no longer

do we

have zero

rights,

we have

been

ransomed,

not with

money that

can be

spent or

a prize that

can be

spent or

some kind

of labor

that can

be spent,

but by

the very

incorruptible

blood of

Christ

himself.

That if

we are

free,

whom the

son sets

free,

is free

indeed.

Lord,

help us

to walk

in that.

And for

my friends

that are

skeptical,

or maybe

they don't

yet know

you,

or maybe

somebody is

here that

has thought

they've

known you,

thought they've

known a

saving faith

for their

entire life,

but maybe

that is

coming into

question.

Lord,

I pray

that they

will cry

out for

your

ransoming,

for your

redemption,

for your

son to

set them

free,

and that

they will

live as

free men,

free women.

Lord,

thank you

that

Christianity

is not a

religion of

bondage,

but it is

truly a

religion of

freedom.

Help us

learn how

to walk

as free

people.

We pray

all these

things in

Jesus' name.

are you

our

our

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