Set Free

Download the PDF of the Reformation Series A PDF

Text: John 8:31-36 Reformation Day, Lectionary Series A

Objective

Participants will:

1. Understand and appreciate the freedom that we have in the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 
2. Understand the change in relationship to our heavenly Father that comes with our freedom.
3. Understand that our freedom in Christ is sustained through our abiding in God’s Word.

Materials Needed

Bible

Paper

Pens/Pencils

Group Guidelines

Divide class into groups of four to six. Have each group select as leaders the person who lives furthest from church. The leader’s purpose is to keep the group moving through the Bible study and to encourage the participation of all members.

Building Community

1. In groups play two truths and a lie. Every person in the group is to write down two truths and a lie. Then when everyone has their list ready. The leader will select who will start sharing their list. Other group members are to guess which statements are true and which is a lie.
2. After the game, discuss as a group what made it hard or easy to determine which statements were true and which were lies.

Looking at God’s Word

1. Have a volunteer from the class read John 8:31-36.  In this passage, Jesus stated to the Jews that If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Why did this cause them to be confused and insist that they had always been free?
2. Setting aside the irony of this confusion from a people who had a history of slavery, captivity, and were currently under occupation, what form of slavery was Jesus warning the Jews about?
3. Slavery to sin corrupts all that we say and do. Rather than seeking first the kingdom of God (see Matthew 6:33) instead we seek first things motivated by our own selfish desires.

Remind youth that we are both sinner and saint. We sin and fall short, but God has freed us from sin and set us free.

• Paul in Romans 6:16, talks about how rather than being slaves to sin, we are to be slaves to righteousness. Read that verse together. If the Jews had God’s Law, why did they struggle and remain slaves to sin rather than slaves to righteousness?

Whatever we chose to serve, God or sin, will direct us. They wanted sinful things like power, authority, and approval more than they wanted to serve God and follow Jesus as His Son.

• The truth that sets us free is the Gospel itself, that Jesus Christ lived the perfectly sinless life that we could not and through Christ’s great exchange, we receive His righteousness in exchange for our sin. The Son has set us free indeed. Why is this freedom something that we know as we abide in God’s Word?

Reinforcing What Has Been Learned

1. In Romans 1:25, Paul warns us that God gives those who desire to remain slaves to sin and deny the truth of the Gospel over to their desire as “they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator”, why are we tempted like the Jews encountered by Jesus in John 8 to exchange the truth for a lie?
2. In our sin, we lie to ourselves, believing that we are in control and fully capable of solving our own issues ourselves. Yet, God in His great mercy sets us free from our struggle against our bondage to sin and frees us to live a life in service to Him. Why is this life, a life freed by the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, such an overwhelming blessing to received?
3. How can we support one another to abide in God’s Word and bring others to know the truth?

Closing

Have a volunteer from the class pray on behalf of the class. Challenge students be in prayer in the coming week for opportunities to support one another to abide in God’s Word and bring others to know the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.