Sermon Central
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Go, Sin No More!
Contributed by Mario Incerti on Nov 13, 2004 (message contributor)
Summary: Nicky Cruz turns with almost spitting anger, twisted and bitter from the abuse of cigarette burns on his body and scarred physical beatings he had from his childhood’ Get out of my face or I will cut you up’ Nicky was never loved by his parents, a voodoo
Go, sin no more! John 8:1-11
As pastor Wilkinson confronted Nicky, (a known criminal, drug lord and gang leader) he tries to reach out to him, Wilkinson, a skinny preacher man who has real guts finds himself in a tense and dangerous situation, but he was determined to reach him with the love that could change him forever. But suddenly Nicky Cruz turns with almost spitting anger, twisted and bitter from the abuse of cigarette burns on his body and scarred physical beatings he had from his childhood’ Get out of my face or I will cut you up’
Nicky was never loved by his parents, a voodoo doll of black magic from his mother. He was hated and despised and now someone was offering him love?? He was confused, because when the power of love confronts you it has the power to change you ..as he continues to point and angrily look at the preacher man ’ Wilkinson, calmly and simply replies ’ Nicky, you can cut me up into a thousand pieces, but each piece will cry back to you saying Jesus loves you, Jesus loves you’
Nicky was confronted by the power of love, and no matter who he was and where he had been and what he had done..it completely changed his life.
Catch this scene, it about a real story of a prostitute caught having sex with a married man. Over 2000 years ago, Jewish law stated that the consequence of adultery was literally being dragged out to the outskirts of the city and then getting stoned to death! Now on this particular day, the Jewish authorities caught an unfortunate woman, as news spreads, the crowd gets bigger and with it the stone throwing capacity greater!. . They decide to approach Jesus, a man known for his great teachings and miracles. They asked a question that seemed to want to catch him out. They looked for more justification for what their law stated they should do
’ Rabbi (master, teacher) this woman has been caught in the act of Adultery, the law says that she should be stoned to death for her actions, what do you say?’ There is silence, the atmosphere tense, and hefty stones, sweating in the palm of their hands. Their facial angry expressions of disgust. Jesus does something amazing, he just kneels to the ground and starts writing in the sand. They were right, he knew it, they knew it, but his answer is so much more amazing. ’ If any of you has never sinned, cast the first stone!’
If you done nothing wrong before, go on, cast the first stone’ and as his words echoed true to the bewildered crowd, they realised that they were as guilty as she was of committing an indecent act. One by one, each of the stones drop back to the dusty ground where it was meant to stay.
As they all turn around and walk away, this lady is left alone with Jesus. As she consciously cries, desperately realising that she was just saved from becoming a corpse underneath a pile of stones.
Jesus says’ where are your accusers, sobbing to relief she answers ’ there are none’. Then I will not accuse you either GO AND SIN NO MORE!
It could have seemed something so simple to say, but someone that was just about to die, realising she was guilty and deserving the punishment of death and then in almost a state of shock and fear; scared and hopeless – she has someone there. Jesus came to save her life from a nasty ending. Her hero’s words of ‘ Go, and sin no more, ringed true to her ears..Those words meant everything!. She was going to change her lifestyle, this sex with men option nearly cost her life, but more degrading was why she was doing it and what it was doing to her. She had lost her true identity, a almost scarce self esteem due to the physical and spiritual demolishing in her actions of being used again and again for sex. Not loved, but desired for all the wrong reasons. Seen as an object for sexual gratification and never as a ‘woman’ ..It must have been a real ugly, depressing and lonely time.. And purposely, like a breath of fresh air, realisation came, she was changed by the compassion of love and not sex. This meant she was valued, accepted and saved. Jesus had to say, Go, sin no more (it’s like cold water waking you up) the Power of love changed her life. She was loved for who she was and this was what changed her..she was accepted, she was seen as a person who was valued. God saw her uniqueness and preciousness and she never felt so appreciated.