If you were here for our service last Wednesday evening, you know that we studied the same passage that I'm looking at this morning. The passage comes from the Gospel of John 8: 2-11. That passage is all about God's grace and forgiveness. This passage is an excellent example of how forgiveness works.
Over the years I have preached quite a few sermons about forgiveness. Inevitably someone the same day or possibly the next week will come and talk about how hard it is to forgive someone. Or they have also expressed that the things they have done in life would be, in their opinion, unforgivable.
There are a lot of people that live under this same heavy burden. They know the pain they have caused, and they live daily in the shame and guilt. Maybe you fall into that category today. But the good news that I share with each of these persons is the same good news that is available to everyone. Jesus came to forgive and to give grace to all who will trust in Him.
How do I receive this forgiveness? You simply go in prayer and ask. Let's talk about forgiveness today that is given to us by the grace of God. Prayer
John 8:2-6a – “At dawn he went to the temple again, and all the people were coming to him. He sat down and began to teach them. 3 Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, making her stand in the center.
**********4 “Teacher,” they said to him, “this woman was caught in the act of committing adultery. 5 In the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” 6 They asked this to trap him, in order that they might have evidence to accuse him.
If you look at verse 1, you'll see that Jesus got up early in the morning and went to the mountain to pray. If you've been with us in our study, you would know that in chapter 7 Jesus had boldly declared some truths at the Feast of Tabernacles in the city of Jerusalem. What He declared stirred the religious leaders. Now Jesus goes back to the temple again in the wee hours of the morning and all of the people were coming to him. So, Jesus did what he does best.
The religious leaders thought this would be a prime time to put Jesus on the spot. They bring to Jesus a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. Now let's not read over that too quickly. They didn't bring her to Jesus to determine if she was innocent or guilty. She was guilty.
One interesting thing about this situation is the guilty man. In the law of Moses that was recorded back in Deuteronomy, it called for both guilty parties to be killed, but in this instance, they only brought the woman. This is our first indication that they were more interested in testing Jesus than they were in keeping the law. DO you see it? They were clearly more concerned with wiping out the Messiah than they were with wiping out the sin.
I never really liked tests. Did you? I really disliked the midterms and the finals where you had to regurgitate everything that you had learned up to that point. It was a lot of pressure. The Pharisees waited until Jesus was teaching a crowd of people, and then they sprung a pop quiz on Him. All of this was a plan to discredit Jesus in any way that they could. Again, they weren't so much interested in the sin that was committed as they were in disproving Jesus as the Messiah.
They bring this woman that was caught in adultery to Jesus, and they ask Him, “In the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women, so what do you say?
The easiest response would have been for Jesus to refuse to answer the question and not get involved. He could have just affirmed the truth of Scripture and moved on, leaving the woman to face the consequences for her sin. But Jesus didn't do that. Being full of compassion and grace, Jesus loved this woman and knew what was really happening. He knew she was guilty, but He refused to leave her at her worst moment.
We are all like this woman; we are all guilty of breaking the law of God. Paul told us in his letter to the Galatians that none of us can keep the whole law. None of us are righteous. We are sinners to the core, and yet Jesus chose to die for us, the righteous for the unrighteous.
So this test was set up to put Jesus on the spot. If Jesus said they should stone the guilty woman, then He would be viewed as cruel and a man without mercy. This would surely turn the people against Jesus. If Jesus ignored the woman's blatant sin, then the leaders could say that Jesus had no regard for the law and the Scriptures. It seemed like the perfect trap.
In it's simplest form, God hates sin, and we should too. So, if you ever find yourself offended by someone’s sin, then stop and ask yourself what sin you have that is offensive to God. But by the grace of God, we can go to Him in prayer and confess that sin and be forgiven.
John 8:6b-7 – “Jesus stooped down and started writing on the ground with his finger. 7 When they persisted in questioning him, he stood up and said to them, “The one without sin among you should be the first to throw a stone at her.”
I am reading your minds right now. Right now, you would love to know what Jesus was writing on the ground, and many have speculated on that. I've heard that Jesus was writing the sins of all those standing around watching. If it was the case, it would be easy to see why the men dropped their rocks and walked away. But the reality is that Scripture never tells us what Jesus wrote and it doesn't really matter. The text seems to indicate that the power wasn't in what He wrote but in what He said.
The religious leaders were a persistent bunch. They didn't ask just once, but they continued to press Jesus for a response. When Jesus stood up and gave them a response, it wasn't the response they were expecting. They were expecting a “gotcha moment,” but they were the ones who were got.
I read the true story of a problem that a pastor had in his own church. It reminded me of some of the difficulties we had in presenting and getting this sanctuary built. Even though the details are not exactly the same, the overall picture resembles it a lot.
The pastor said that he was pushing for some changes in the church that he felt was going to be beneficial to the church's growth and future. He had painstakingly talked through the Scripture on these issues and felt like these changes were going to better align the church with the biblical mission found in those Scriptures. After talking with the church leadership, he began to present the plan to the church body at a business meeting.
At one point there was a man who was not a big fan of the change - okay, he hated the plan - of what was being proposed. When his turn came to speak, he made the mistake of using the history of the church as a reason for not doing something the Bible was clear about. When the pastor graciously responded that Scripture was more important than what the church had done historically, the man blurted out, “I don't care what Scripture says; we have never done it like this.”
At that poorly phrased and ill-timed comment, the church took an even deeper look in the Scripture and decided to move forward with the plan. What this man thought would drive home his viewpoint, actually drove people away from his viewpoint. In a similar way, the religious leaders’ plan backfired. The Pharisees intended to trap Jesus and expose this woman's sin. Instead, they ended up exposing their own sin and revealing the grace of Jesus. I am so glad that God's grace is greater than our sin.
John 8:8-9 – “8 Then he stooped down again and continued writing on the ground. 9 When they heard this, they left one by one, starting with the older men. Only he was left, with the woman in the center.”
I can just see the look on the Pharisees’ faces when Jesus responded, “The one without sin among you should be the first to throw a stone at her.” Did you notice that the first ones to recognize the impact of Jesus's words were the older men? We're not told why this was, but maybe they were the first to leave because of their life experiences or the depth of their own sin. Whatever the reason, they dropped their stones and walked away while Jesus bent back down to write in the dirt again.
The reality is that all of us are sinners, regardless of whether we are the oldest or the youngest. We share that common plight of sin, and we share a common outcome - death. We are as guilty as the woman caught in the act and we deserve to die for our sin.
Romans 6:23 – “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Jesus knows that we are all sinners, yet he lovingly calls us to repent and gives us that opportunity to ask for forgiveness.
John 8:10 – “10 When Jesus stood up, he said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
Isn't it funny how the right question can be very powerful? The right question can engage us, draw us in, force us to reflect, and to respond. The movie and television industry is very good at using questions to keep an audience engaged over an extended period of time.
A good example of this, you might remember the television show Dallas. Two gunshots were fired at JR Ewing. With JR laying on the ground, the season finale came to an end. The audience was never told who pulled the trigger or if JR was dead or alive. A full marketing campaign came about based upon that one single question, “Who shot JR?” This was one of the most discussed questions for the next seven months.
The Bible also uses the same basic technique to draw us in. It is full of more important questions. Who do you say that I am? What must I do to be saved? To this woman brought before Him, Jesus asked two questions that had life-changing answers.
Jesus asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” The woman was facing death at the hands of the Pharisees, but then the Messiah spoke. Jesus didn't say much, but His words were very powerful. Jesus pointed to a great truth for this woman: her accusers were gone! This verse 10 would be a good verse to underline in your Bible to remind you of the freedom we have from sin that we are offered in Christ.
John 8:11 – 11 “No one, Lord,” she answered. “Neither do I condemn you,” said Jesus. “Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.”
Is your guilt draining you of your energy?
Is it causing you to question your salvation?
It is so good to know that in Christ, we can turn from sin and walk in freedom. You can be free today of all of those guilty feelings if you'll just turn it over to Jesus, repent of what you have done, and ask for forgiveness.
The crowd in our story had slowly dwindled as each man left the scene. Standing before Jesus, the woman was no longer surrounded by accusers bringing her sin to everyone's attention. Jesus's words were powerful: “Neither do I condemn you.”
Every one of us has an accuser in our lives as well. His name is Satan. In Hebrew, the name Satan means accuser, and in the Greek, it means adversary. He is described as:
Revelation 12:10 – “10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say, The salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have now come, because the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been thrown down.”
The great news for us is that, when we belong to Christ, we have an advocate. That advocate is Jesus who stands in our defense. As we see in his dealing with this woman, Jesus didn't come to accuse and condemn. Why? Because:
John 3:17 – “17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
Here's the point in all of this. We don't repent in order to receive grace. God's grace is already there for the taking. Notice that Jesus told the woman she was not condemned before He told her to stop sinning. We repent as we see the gracious gift of Christ applied to our lives.
Through grace, we are set free from the law of sin in our lives.
Romans 8:1-2 – “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, 2 because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.”
So I ask you, do you stand boldly in the grace of Jesus, no longer condemned, OR are you struggling with the accuser trying to live under the law of sin?
God calls each one of us today to embrace the freedom that Jesus provides us. Let go of your past sins. Trust Jesus's completed work on the cross. Stand firm and stand strong in the face of temptation and simply depend on the power of Jesus to keep you from sin.
Let’s be Thankful For Grace and Forgiveness.
