Jesus: The Sympathetic Savior John 8:1-11 Introduction There was this farmer who had some puppies for sale and while he was putting up his

Transcription

1 Jesus: The Sympathetic Savior John 8:1-11 Introduction There was this farmer who had some puppies for sale and while he was putting up his sign He felt a tug on his overalls. He looked down into the eyes of a little boy. 'Mister,' he said. 'I want to buy one of your puppies. 'Well,' said the farmer, 'these puppies come from fine parents and they cost a good deal of money. The boy reaching deep into his pocket, he pulled out a handful of change and held it up to the farmer and said 'I've got thirty-nine cents. Is that enough to take a look?' 'Sure,' said the farmer. And with that he let out a whistle. 'Here, Dolly!' he called. Out from the doghouse ran Dolly followed by four little balls of fur. The little boy pressed his face against the chain-link fence. His eyes danced with delight. As the dogs come to the fence, the little boy noticed something else stirring in the doghouse. Slowly another little ball appeared; this one noticeably smaller. In a difficult manner the little puppy began hobbling toward the others, doing its best to catch up. This was clearly the runt of the litter. 'I want that one,' said the boy pointing to the runt. The farmer knelt down at the boy and said, 'Son, you don't want that puppy. He will never be able to run and play with you like these other dogs would. Hearing that the little boy stepped back from the fence, reached down, and began rolling up the leg of his trousers revealing a steel brace running down both sides of his leg and attaching to a specially made shoe. Looking back up at the farmer, he said, 'You see, sir, I don't run too well myself, and he will need someone who understands. We as sinners need that same sort of understanding! I praise the Lord this morning that we have a Savior who loves sinners and understands us like we are. Now, please do not misunderstand me, God never condones your sins or mine. He is holy and He hates our sin totally. Yet, He knows what we are made of and He knows what we face in our lives day by day. (Ps 103:14) As we look at the portrait John paints of Jesus here in Chapter 8, I want us to see that he paints a picture of a Sympathetic Savior. John doesn't tell us Jesus is soft on sin, but he tells us that Jesus loves the sinners of and reaches out to them in grace, forgiveness and love. That is the Savior I want us to see this morning. The Sympathetic Savior. I. The Sinful Woman (v. 3) A. Her Sin According to the narrative, this woman was caught in the very act of adultery. Now, adultery is a vile sin, but it is no worse than any other - James 2:10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.

2 We are all guilty of some sort of sin. Whether in our bodies or our minds. Ro. 3:10 As it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one; Ro. 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, We are all as guilty as this woman, our problem is that we simply won't admit to it - Proverbs 28:13 He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. B. Her Shame v4 In their rush to bring this woman to Jesus, her accusers probably didn't give her enough time to get properly dressed before they brought publicly to Jesus. Whether she was properly dress or not, she was certainly humiliated by the public accusation and exposure of her sin. (Sin is a shameful thing! No matter how carefully we hide it from others, Jesus knows all about it and one day it will be revealed before all - Luke 12:3 Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops. Saddest of all, the truth about your profession will also be made public one day - Matthew 7:21-23 "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' 23 And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!' Wouldn't it be far better to get everything right with the Lord and have nothing to fear. There will come a day of judgment and of full disclosure (Rev. 20:11-15.) C. Her Sentence v5 Her accusers were absolutely correct! According to the Law, she deserved to die. But there was one small problem here: Lev. 20:10 The man who commits adultery with another man's wife, he who commits adultery with his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress, shall surely be put to death. Deut. 22:22 "If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then both of them shall die--the man that lay with the woman, and the woman; so you shall put away the evil from Israel. Where was her partner? Both were supposed to die for this sin! The man may have been part of this scheme to attack Jesus. He may have been allowed to slip away. Nevertheless, this woman was guilty and she deserved to die. ( Nobody gets away with sin! The penalty of it will always come due - Rom. 6:23; Eze. 18:4. There will come a payday someday! The only hope any sinner has is to run to Jesus. He is our only hope in this world or the one to come. He is the only way - John 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. (Heb. 2:3.)

3 ( In their effort to humiliate this woman and to discredit the Lord, they brought her to the best possible place. They brought her to the very man who could deal with her past and her problems and who could make it all right.) ( Never think that Jesus doesn't care for you. He is the sinner's Friend! Even in His day, He was known to hang out with notorious sinners, Pharisees and scribes complained He would eat and accused of drinking with sinners, (Luke 7:34; Luke 15:2; Luke 19:7). Jesus isn't concerned about His reputation, He is only concerned with your eternal soul!) II. The Scheming Critics (v. 3-9) A. Their Plan (v6) These men had it in their heads to trick Jesus. If Jesus simply let the woman go, then He would be seen as being easy on sin and could have been arrested for being in violation of the Law. If Jesus said the woman was guilty and should be killed, He would be breaking Roman law which did not consider adultery a sin worthy of death. He would also be criticized as lacking mercy and love, compassion and forgiveness. They felt that no matter what Jesus said, He had no wiggle room. ( These religious men are just like legalists in our day. They couldn't have cared less about this woman, her sin, her soul, or her eternal destiny. All they cared about was pressing their agenda, and their brand of righteousness. Things haven't changed! All Pharisees are the same!) B. Their Problems Their plan might have succeeded with an ordinary man, but they were dealing with Jesus Christ, and He simply refused to play by their rules! When they tried to stump Jesus, they discovered that they had met their match. Notice how He responded to their arguments. 1. They Were Ignored (v. 6) - While they were talking to the Lord, He just knelt down and began to write on the ground. He had no use for their pettiness and lack of love for sinners. ( What did Jesus write? Well, for 2,000 years, men have tried to solve that little mystery. Today, I am going to give you a deep theological answer: I don't know! And, neither does anyone else! However, let me give you a little food for thought in this matter. Maybe He wrote: a. The Ten Commandments. After all, it was his finger that wrote them the first time! b. Perhaps He wrote their names in fulfillment of Jeremiah 17:13 O LORD, the hope of Israel, All who forsake You shall be ashamed. "Those who depart from Me Shall be written in the earth, Because they have forsaken the LORD, The fountain of living waters." c. Maybe He wrote out Leviticus 20:10, Deuteronomy 22:22 d. Maybe He simply wrote their girlfriends names in the sand. Whatever the Lord wrote on the ground, it surely got their attention. And He knows how to speak to your heart as well! How much better it is to come to Him by faith and miss all that exposure and punishment!)

4 2. They Were Exposed (v. 7-9) - When Jesus did speak, He said, He that is without sin among, let him first cast a stone at her. Jesus wasn't requiring that any judge be sinless. If that were the case then no human would ever be able to render judgment in any matter, even in a court of law. I think that Jesus was saying to these hypocrites, He that is free from this particular sin, let him first cast a stone at her. You see, adultery can be committed with the head and the heart just as surely as it may be committed with the body! Matthew 5:27-28 "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not commit adultery.' 28 But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. At this point, all the shouting came to a stop and all that could be heard was the dropping of their rocks and the shuffle of their sandals as they quietly walked away. You see, these men have been exposed before their fellow man, the accused lady and most importantly before the Lord. ( Let's at least give them credit for the fact that when they saw themselves as they really were, (Perhaps the most painful realization of all), they stopped calling for the death of this woman. I want you to know that one of the hardest things we can face is yourself as we really are! However, when we see yourself as being sinful, then we can do something about it. ( Paul would have went to Hell had he not been brought face to face with himself on the road to Damascus - Acts 9) When we are convicted of our sins, then is the time to come to Jesus. After all, He is the only One who can deal with Man's sin problem!) III. The Sympathetic Savior (v. 9b-11) A. He Faced Her (v. 9b -10) Only Jesus could have cleared the Temple in that fashion and when the last rock had hit the Temple floor, Jesus stood up and faced this sinful woman. As He stood before her, He was the only One the world has ever known who was qualified to take up the first stone and stone her to death. When she faced Jesus, she was facing the ultimate judge! ( She had reached a place in her life where it was just her and Jesus. It always comes down to that! Eventually, somewhere, someday we are going to have to face Jesus. I am sure that He has given you opportunities in this life to come to Him. What have you done with them? My friend, you will either receive Jesus in this life, or you will face Him on judgment day. Which would you rather it be? In the end, it always comes down to just you and Jesus. And, what you do with Him will determine where and how you spend eternity!) B. He Forgave Her (v. 11) The only One qualified to throw a stone refused to! Jesus dealt with here on the basis of compassion. The religious men had condemned and considered her as good as dead, Jesus however, saw someone worthy of His love and worth salvaging.

5 When she came to Jesus, she received 2 great blessings that forever changed her life. These same 2 blessings are the gift of God to all who receive Jesus as their Savior. 1. A New Lord - By her simple confession of Christ as Lord, (V11) salvation became her's. That is all there is to being saved! Ro. 10:9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. It doesn't get any easier than that! Even small children can understand that truth and make it real in their lives. What about you? Have you taken this step of faith? ( Anyone who wants to be saved can be saved through faith in the shed Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ! Rev. 22:17; John 3:16; John 6:37.) 2. A New Life - All of her life, she had been subject to the God of this world, Satan. She had been a prisoner of her own lusts and desires, Eph. 2:1-3. Jesus, however, came and unlocked the shackles that held her bound in sin and He set her free! ( Jesus specializes in taking wasted, ruined lives and saving them by His grace and restoring them to usefulness. Every person who comes to Jesus for salvation receives this new lease on life 2 Cor. 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. We get a change to begin again, and this time, we actually have a chance of making something out of our lives - 1 Peter 1:23 Conclusion Maybe. Like this woman, your life has been wrecked and ruined by sin. Maybe you have been hurt by religious people. Maybe you are looking for a compassionate Savior, One who will make everything right. I want to invite you to come to Jesus. He cares about you just like you are. He loves you and wants to save you. He wants to deliver you from your bondage. He wants to set you free. Therefore, He invites you to come to Him today. If there are issues in your life that need to be settled, this altar is the place where they be taken care of forever. Will you bring your life to Jesus and let Him make it over? Jude Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit Amen.