Sermon Central
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Transformed | Abraham, The Father Of Faith | Part One Series
Contributed by Ty Vanhorn on Mar 27, 2024 (message contributor)
Summary: This series looks at Abraham's faith journey's beginning, middle, and end. Part One begins in John 8 with a woman caught in adultery and in danger of being stoned to death by those holding their readied stones, claiming Abraham as the father of their faith.
Jesus in trouble in John 8
In John 8, Jesus rescues a woman who was dragged before Him, accused of sexual sin. Even though it takes two to tango, they only brought the woman.
The frenzied mob demands that He tell them His teaching/understanding of what the Bible says they should do.
The Law of Moses clearly says to stone such a person.
The crowd was bloodthirsty to carry that out, but they were even more interested in discrediting Jesus. It is a setup.
Will Jesus join in the stoning or deny the Scriptures?
It appears that He will have to do one or the other.
Either demand that they carry out the stoning before Him and the gathered crowd or deny what Moses clearly wrote.
But in His wisdom, He does neither. In his response, Jesus affirms the instruction from the Law of Moses.
The Old and New Testaments are very clear: Sin has always had and will always have a negative impact.
Sin is serious, and ultimately, it does have a devastating end - the bible says that all of our sin leads to death.
What was true of the woman is true for all of us. She is not the only one cowering from the negative impact of sin.
For the wages of sin is death…
Knowing how very true this is, Jesus balances both justice and grace in this dusty showdown.
With a nod affirming the consequences for the woman’s action, stuff like this leads to moments like this: Jesus reveals what all her condemners missed.
In one simple instruction, Jesus levels the condemners with the one condemned, and they, too, are now breathing in the same dust as the terrified woman.
Here is how it played out.
They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!”
The ‘All right’ means go ahead and mead out the punishment - go ahead and stone her.
Those two words must have hung heavily in the air…especially for the woman awaiting the first harsh blow.
But they are followed by, “but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!”
These words hung heavier than the first and evidently landed with weight upon each man as they take them in.
Each man internally and quietly re-evaluates himself…
One by one, starting with the older and more self-aware men, they dropped their stones and walked away…each realizing they were not qualified to throw that first stone.
In their frenzy, they only saw the woman as a sinner who should be punished, but in Jesus’ challenge, they saw themselves in the same situation…each guilty of sin.
As the rabble-rousers leave, things quiet down, and now you can hear the terrified sobbing of the woman lying face down in the dirt, struggling to calm her breathing and come to grips with this turn of events…is she dreaming…
What happens next is even more stunning: Jesus, the Only One qualified to throw that first stone, talks to her.
That’s right, Jesus was the only One Who met His own qualification to hand out this due punishment.
The Bible tells us this about Jesus:
Hebrews 4:15 ESV
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Instead of throwing a stone and seeing another life wasted and devastated by sin’s evil result, Jesus offers a lifeline.
He says to the woman so that she might realize it herself, “Where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you?”
With the visceral realization that all of her accusers have walked away comes that grace-filled moment of looking up into Jesus’ eyes and answering:
John 8:11a NIV
“No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,"Jesus declared.
As significant as realizing Jesus was the only One qualified to throw the first stone is this equally amazing truth that Jesus is the only One qualified to judge her rightly.
One day He will…and not just her:
For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body.
On this day, with all of her accusers silenced, Jesus offers her forgiveness and not condemnation.
Even though the accusations were true and the punishment, though harsh, was right, because of Jesus, this woman got a second chance.
What is important to remember is that this was not a free pass, not a let’s just let this one slide…not at all.
This was another perfect example of the Gospel and displays what Jesus came to do - namely, to save sinners, make them right before God, and set them free from sin.
