Woman In Darkness

Title: The woman in darkness

John 8:

2 And early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people were coming to Him; and He sat down and began to teach them.

3 And the scribes and the Pharisees *brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the midst,

4 they *said to Him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act.

5 "Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?"

6 And they were saying this, testing Him, in order that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down, and with His finger wrote on the ground.

7 But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."

8 And again He stooped down, and wrote on the ground.

9 And when they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the midst.

10 And straightening up, Jesus said to her, "Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?"

11 And she said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go your way. From now on sin no more."}

12 Again therefore Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life."

Introduction

In the drama, we saw a dark Christmas. Christmas is season, where orchard road glitters with bright lights and homes are lighted up with colourful lights coming from Christmas trees.

However there are many who are going through a dark Christmas. I myself have gone through many dark Christmases. You have heard the life stories of those whose life were in hopelessness and darkness and how light penetrate darkness in their heart.

This evening I am going to share with you one more story of a woman whose life was in terrible darkness and how she was rescued.

I will read to you from the gospel of John Chapter 8:2-12

The bible says that one morning Jesus went into town. There in the early morning, there were ladies in the market, hawkers setting up their stores. They saw Jesus coming into town. "Isn’t this the one who healed the paralytic man, who was lowered into the house through the roof? And he even healed the blind and the deaf!" There was a sense of excitement that spread through the whole town that Jesus is in town and had just gone into the synagogue. And soon a large crowd gathered and sat there listening to the teachings of Jesus. Oh how wonderful it is to sit at the feet of Jesus, listening to his wonderful teachings.

There is that peaceful morning; all of a sudden there was a commotion. There was a group of religious people call the Pharisees shouting and screaming. They were pulling a woman caught in adultery with them. They were dragging her and kicking her, pulling her by her hair.

They brought her before Jesus and with fire coming out from their eyes they said to Jesus, this woman was caught in adultery in the very act, according to the Law of Moses, she is to be stone to death, but what do you say?

- The Pharisees were religious leaders who were hypocrites.

- They were jealous of the hypocrisy of Jesus and thus wanted to put Jesus in the trap.

- If Jesus were to say, ok to the stoning then he will be in trouble with the authorities.

- However if Jesus disagreed with them, they will turn to the people and said this is a false teacher, for he disagrees with the religious law.

Jesus, did not answer them, but stooped down on the ground and started writing. The Pharisees asked him again, "Teacher, what do you say?"

1. He who has no sin let him cast the first stone!

Jesus finally stood up and said, "He that is without sin let him cast the first stone." When Jesus said those words, something happened there amongst the crowd of people that is also going to happen here in the DBS auditorium.

There was a old Pharisee standing there. He had a long beard and wore a long religious garment. He heard those words of Jesus and he almost wanted to take up a stone and stone the woman. But all of a sudden, God began to highlight the secret of sins of his life. His hands started to tremble, and he quickly dropped the stone and disappeared from the crowd.