Please keep your Bibles open at John chapter 8 beginning at verse 1 and we ll be

Transcription

1 Grace and Truth (John 8:1-11) 15 th May Please keep your Bibles open at John chapter 8 beginning at verse 1 and we ll be going through to verse 11 There s the usual sermon outline in the bulletin for you to jot down some notes if that helps you concentrate First let s ask for God s help to understand His Word Intro/Adultery Our passage this morning is about a woman caught in the act of adultery The definition of adultery is: [Powerpoint 1 Adultery] Voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and a person who is not their spouse: What if I was to say this morning that we had all committed adultery; would you believe me? (pause) The truth is that the Bible talks about 3 types of adultery [Powerpoint 2 3 types] 1. Sexual adultery which is as defined in the dictionary and the type which the woman in our passage is accused of Page 1 of 14

2 2 2. Then there is adultery without sexual intercourse which is adultery of the heart. Jesus describes it like this in Matthew 5:27-28: 27 You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery. 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 3. And Spiritual adultery which is spoken about a great deal in OT Ezek 16:32; Hos 1:2-3; Isa 1:21; Ezek 23:4, 7,37) and spoken about in our OT passage this morning from Jeremiah chapter 3 You see God refers to himself as the Husband and the people of Israel as his wife and the passage in Jeremiah accuses both Israel (North) and Judah (South) as being unfaithful to Him In other words they have cheated on their husband God. How? Not sexually but spiritually they have been unfaithful committed adultery (Jer 3:6) against their husband, God and have worshipped false gods made out of stone and wood (Jer 3:9) And we are the same we ve been unfaithful to God and continue to do so By putting other things (made out of stone, wood and gold and silver and any other material you can think of) before God and putting other people before God and putting other pleasures before God God is supposed to be our first love not just our after-thought or the go-to person when we re in trouble! (pause) Page 2 of 14

3 And that s the point that Jesus makes in this passage with the woman caught in 3 the act of adultery Jesus is making the point that the people accusing the woman are no better than her she may have committed sexual adultery but her accusers have committed spiritual adultery. Let s see how this plays out Jesus Confronted with a Question We pick up the story in verse 1 where Jesus having spent time alone on the Mount of Olives appears at dawn in the temple courts in Jerusalem and he sits down to teach the people like any good Rabbi would do Yes, his miracles are amazing but it s His teaching that is the most important thing Teaching Rabbis were often consulted with difficult legal questions to give a scriptural interpretation and Biblical teaching and make a learned decision on the question But the question Jesus is presented with here is not a fair-dinkum question It s actually a trap Page 3 of 14

4 We get a sniff that this is a setup because the teachers of the law and Pharisees brought a woman caught in the act of adultery 4 In the eyes of the Jewish Law adultery was a serious crime In Lev 20:10 [Powerpoint 3 Lev 20:10 and Deut 22:23-24] If a man commits adultery with another man s wife with the wife of his neighbor both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death. In Deut 22:23-24 in the case of a woman promised in marriage committing adultery 23 If a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her, 24 you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death In the eyes of the law, both the man and the woman committing adultery were punished So how come the teachers of the law and the Pharisees only brought the woman? But they were out to trap Jesus as it says in v6 The trap goes like this If Jesus says they are right to stone the woman Page 4 of 14

5 Then He will lose his reputation and name for being a friend of sinners and as 5 being someone who shows compassion to everyone AND he will come into collision with the Roman law, because the Jews had no power to pass or carry out the death penalty on anyone without agreement from the Roman authorities. We know this from John 18:31-31 Pilate said, Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law. But we have no right to execute anyone, they objected. 3 On the other hand if Jesus says the woman should be pardoned He could be accused of teaching people to break the Law of Moses and then He would be condoning and even encouraging people to commit adultery So Jesus is in a catch 22 situation if he agrees to the stoning, He s in trouble with the Romans and if He doesn t agree, He s in trouble with the Jewish Leaders Jesus Answers the Question But there is no problem that is too difficult for our Lord Jesus the King of Kings Jesus is the fountain of all wisdom According to the law Deut 17:7 [Powerpoint 4] Page 5 of 14

6 7 The hands of the witnesses must be the first in putting that person to death, 6 and then the hands of all the people. So Jesus says in v7 Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her. Basically Jesus is saying Yes you may stone the woman if you ve never sinned yourself Yes you may stone the woman if you ve never wanted to do the same thing yourself! And notice their response There s silence that s usually a good sign that you ve hit a raw nerve and sliced someone s conscience Slowly in v9 the woman s accusers slink off The older ones first because their life experience will tell them that Jesus has a valid point that they ve done plenty of things in their lives which are far from God s perfect standards. The younger ones are the last to leave because they are still young and idealistic and life hasn t taught them the lesson that you can t say I d never do that because you haven t been put in that tempting situation yet and you don t know how you would act! Page 6 of 14

7 7 Are we like the teachers of the law and the Pharisees ready to point the finger and think our lives and our behaviour are so much better and holier than other people s when in fact they are not (pause) We tend to grade sin don t we - and see some sins as worse than others when in fact we need to understand that ALL and EVERY SIN separates us from God Stealing a pen from work and committing adultery are both sins and both those sins separate us from God and mean we are spiritually dead and need Jesus to cleanse us of our sins and bring us back into a relationship with God Yes stealing a pen will have less earthly consequences than committing adultery but both have the same heavenly consequences in that they need God s perfect Son to die and fix these sins for us Jesus is basically saying to the Pharisees you can t point the finger at this woman because your lives are full of sin too even to the point of hating me so much you want to try and trap and trick me and have me killed so don t come pointing the finger at this woman go home and take a good look in the mirror at yourselves! What about us do we have mirrors at home and if so what do we see when we look in them? A Pharisee? A sinner? An adulterer someone who is often unfaithful to God in what we think, and in what we say and in what we do? (pause) Page 7 of 14

8 The Attitude of the Pharisees 8 What are we to make of the attitude of the Pharisees in this passage? There are 2 things about the attitude of the Pharisees [Powerpoint 5/A Attitude of the Pharisees] Firstly their concept of Godly authority their mission in life was to be a moral watch-dog and as soon as someone stepped out of line they condemned them and tore them to pieces. Whereas - the first duty of someone using Godly authority is to try to understand the force of temptation that drove the person to be tempted and to understand the circumstances that brought the person to act this way The second duty of someone in authority is seek to reclaim the person doing the wrong thing and enable them and encourage them to repent and turn back to God, decent authority must be like a wise physician desiring to heal the person not write them off [Powerpoint 5b attitude to people] The 2 nd thing about the Pharisees is their attitude towards people. They don t treat the woman as a person. They treat her as a thing an instrument they can use to trap Jesus. They are using the woman as a worker might use a tool to achieve a purpose. To them the woman had no name no personality no feelings she was simply a pawn in the game of chess to capture King Jesus! Imagine if we did that in church and we didn t bother to get to know people and even know their name Page 8 of 14

9 9 Imagine if we said oh here comes the man with one eye and a limp (it s a wonder he doesn t fall over) or here comes the woman whose husband left her (no wonder he did) - and here comes the lady who makes sandwiches each Sunday (it s a pity she doesn t ever bring chocolate cakes) The minute the people become things Christianity is dead! (pause) Application In contrast, look at Jesus response [Powerpoint 6 heading/a] Jesus first principle was that only the person who is without fault has the right to express judgment on the faults of overs. Matt 7:1 Judge not that you be not judged You can t judge a person who has a speck of dust in their eye when you have a huge plank of wood in yours (Matt 7:3-5) One of the common faults we all have is that we have high standards for everyone else and low standards for ourselves The qualification for judging is not how much knowledge we have we all have knowledge. The qualification for judging is goodness and none of us are perfect Only God is perfect so only God has the right to judge [Powerpoint 6b] Page 9 of 14

10 Also Jesus first principle was that our first emotion towards anyone who has 10 made a mistake should be compassion when we come across someone who has made a mistake - Is our first reaction: I ll have nothing more to do with someone who would act like that OR is our first reaction: What can I do to help!? and What can I do to help to undo the consequences of this mistake? and There but for the grace of God go I The bottom line is we must extend to others the compassion we would wish to be extended to us if we were in a similar situation. So how did Jesus treat the woman? Remember Jesus is full of grace and truth that s what John 1:14 says Grace is God s undeserved favour [Powerpoint 6c] Did the woman deserve a break? According to God s law no she was guilty she broke His law and the punishment was by death by stoning But instead she got grace God s undeserved favour! Is that the first time God treated adultery this way? No King David a man after God s own heart committed adultery did he get stoned to death? No he remained King God accepted his repentance and forgave him Page 10 of 14

11 11 Yet there were consequences the baby conceived out of his adultery died and David had strife in his family Then there is Israel s spiritual adultery worshipping false gods time and time again despite God s warnings and yes there were consequences there too Israel was kicked out of the Promised Land and sent to Babylon for 70 years But there was grace too and they were the allowed to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple Jesus shows the woman grace Then neither do I condemn you (v11) Jesus grace means we get a 2 nd chance Jesus offered grace in the form of forgiveness and acceptance. He said in effect, that she did not have to die for her sin. And Jesus says the same for us too! We don t have to die for our sin Jesus does that for us. Jesus also showed grace to the woman by ending the separation of the woman from her fellow human beings as well. He showed that the Pharisees were no different from her; she was a sinner, and they were all sinners too. The Pharisees would never again be in a position to legitimately condemn her for her sin when they had their own sins to be recognized. Jesus grace meant the Pharisees had a choice now to be reconciled to the woman they chose not too Page 11 of 14

12 12 What about us? Does this passage show us that we are all sinners and we are not in the position of condemning each other for what we are but rather show each other grace as people who all stuff up from time to time! So if we re harbouring a grudge towards someone at church or at home or in our family now s the time to show some grace to that person and let it go because otherwise we re acting like the Pharisees and not like Jesus? (pause) Now Jesus could have stopped at grace in this passage and just simply said to the woman you re off the hook I don t condemn you see you later sister! But remember Jesus is full of grace and also full of TRUTH [Powerpoint 6d] And the truth is Jesus knows and everyone else knows - the woman has sinned And the truth is the woman needs to turn away from this sin from now on It s not good enough for Jesus to simply say you re off the hook and accept the person has failed Jesus accepts the woman has faults and accepts who she is He also re-directs her See the end of verse 11 Go now and leave your life of sin The woman needs to repent change direction in her life Repentance follows Grace Because Jesus is full of grace and truth the two go together Page 12 of 14

13 13 The woman must face up to the truth we all have to face up to that as sinners we need to be honest to God about who we are and respond to His grace in giving us Jesus by wanting to change direction and hand our lives over to God Jesus was not only interested in what a person had been but what a person could become With Jesus help with Jesus in our lives we can make a fresh start and head in the direction of God Challenges To Finish off then let me throw out a few challenges The Pharisees wanted to condemn the woman Jesus out of grace wanted to forgive her [Powerpoint 7 Challenge/A] What about us do we want to condemn or forgive? Which is the one that is full of grace condemning or forgiving (pause) Jesus regards the sinner with compassion because of His love for people The Pharisees regarded Jesus with hatred and disgust because of their self righteousness [Powerpoint 7b] What about us are we about loving others or loving ourselves? Which one is the one that is full of grace loving others or loving ourselves? Page 13 of 14

14 Jesus also presented the woman with the truth 14 He didn t say It s all right, don t worry, they ve all gone just go on doing what you ve been doing No he said your life has been sinful so far go and give up this sinful life from now on go out and fight change your life from top to bottom go and sin no more! [Powerpoint 7c] Jesus confronts our wrong behaviour with the challenge of good behaviour Jesus believed that the sinner with His help could become a saint Are we truthful about who we are? Are we facing the truth about our sinful lives and accepting that the only way forward is with Jesus Friends, come to Jesus, this morning the one full of grace and truth Let s pray Page 14 of 14