Scripture referenced 8 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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John 7:53 end of previous week's passage, everyone went to his home
53 Everyone went to his own house,
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Keep this verse
John 8:1
Jesus went to the Mount of Olives
1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
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John 8:2
early in the morning Jesus came again into the temple and began teaching
2 Now very early in the morning, he came again into the temple, and all the people came to him. He sat down, and taught them.
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John 8:3-11
scribes and Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery to test Jesus
3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman taken in adultery. Having set her in the middle,
4 they told him, “Teacher, we found this woman in adultery, in the very act.
5 Now in our law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. What then do you say about her?”
6 They said this testing him, that they might have something to accuse him of. But Jesus stooped down, and wrote on the ground with his finger.
7 But when they continued asking him, he looked up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw the first stone at her.”
8 Again he stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground.
9 They, when they heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning from the oldest, even to the last. Jesus was left alone with the woman where she was, in the middle.
10 Jesus, standing up, saw her and said, “Woman, where are your accusers? Did no one condemn you?”
11 She said, “No one, Lord.” Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way. From now on, sin no more.”
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Leviticus 20:10
both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death
10 “‘The man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, even he who commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
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Deuteronomy 22:22
if a man is found sleeping with a married woman both shall die
22 If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then they shall both die, the man who lay with the woman and the woman. So you shall remove the evil from Israel.
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Exodus 31:18
God gave Moses the two tablets written by the finger of God
18 He gave to Moses, when he finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, stone tablets, written with God’s finger.
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Romans 8:1-4
no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, law of the spirit sets free from sin and death
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death.
3 For what the law couldn’t do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh;
4 that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
The pastor opened John 8:2-11 by tracing the tension Jesus walked into when the scribes and Pharisees dragged a woman caught in adultery before him in the temple courts. The trap was simple: if Jesus agreed with the law, he would look merciless; if he showed mercy, he would look like he was winking at sin. The sermon turned on the question of what it looks like to hold both the truth about sin and genuine compassion for the sinner at the same time.
What was said
Jesus had already made enemies at the feast of Tabernacles by standing up and calling the thirsty to come to him. Now, early the next morning, he was back in the temple teaching, and the scribes and Pharisees walked in with a woman and a ready-made controversy. The pastor laid out what the law actually said, quoting both Leviticus and Deuteronomy, and noted that the law required the death of both parties. The man was not there, which was already a problem with their case before they even started.
The political trap was the real point of the exercise. If Jesus said stone her, he would be the same harsh enforcer they were, and everything he had taught about mercy would be undercut. If he said let her go, he handed them a charge that he was undermining Moses. They were not interested in the woman at all. They were interested in destroying Jesus.
He stooped and wrote on the ground with his finger. The pastor connected that detail to Exodus 31, where the ten commandments are described as written by the finger of God. Whatever Jesus wrote, the act itself was a pause, a refusal to be rushed into their trap, and maybe a quiet reminder of who was actually the author of the law they were quoting at him.
When he stood and said "he who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her," the crowd began to leave, beginning with the older ones. The pastor slowed down there, noting that the older ones left first because they had lived long enough to know their own sin and could not honestly claim the standing the moment required. The stones went down one at a time.
Left alone with her, Jesus asked where her accusers were. She said no one had condemned her. Jesus said he did not condemn her either, and then told her to go and sin no more. The pastor read that phrase through a long list of translations, pointing out that several render it as a present progressive, "be going," suggesting not just a one-time act but an ongoing walk away from a pattern. He tied that to the Holy Spirit as the one who actually makes that walk possible for a believer.
The sermon then turned inward. The pastor told a long story about his car's temperature sensor giving a wildly wrong reading on a cold morning, causing him to panic and nearly damage the engine over a problem that did not exist. He used it as a picture of what happens when the information we are working from is wrong. Seeing someone else's sin without accounting for our own is a broken sensor. It produces a panicked, harsh response to a situation that calls for something steadier.
He closed by acknowledging that Christians are often put in the same impossible position Jesus was in, where speaking one way looks like condoning sin and speaking the other looks like cruelty. His point was that Jesus answered that tension by addressing the individual in front of him, as the only one present who actually had the standing to condemn and chose not to use it. He asked the congregation to let that shape how they see people around them, and he read Romans 8:1-4 as the doctrinal ground under everything the story shows.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- The pastor used the story of his car's faulty temperature sensor to open the sermon. Where in your own life have you acted on a reading that turned out to be wrong, and what did that cost you?
- The scribes and Pharisees put Jesus in what the pastor called an impossible political situation: say 'stone her' and look merciless, say 'don't stone her' and look like you're condoning sin. Have you ever felt caught in that same kind of trap? How did you handle it?
and 3 more questions in the guide
Read the full transcript 8,568 words
Speaker 1Amen. How are y'all? Let's sing em in here. How about count your blessings? Hymn number 786.
Nice Thanksgiving hymn. Think about what a blessing is that you have that you might want to share. I might just stop between and ask you. Count your blessings.
Speaker 2When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed. When you are discouraged thinking all is lost, count your many blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord hath done. Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your blessings, see what God hath done. Count your blessings, name them one by one.
Count your many blessings, see what God hath done. Are you ever burdened with a load of care? Does the cross seem heavy? You are called to bear. Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly, and you will be singing as the days go by.
Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your blessings, see what God have done. Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your many blessings, see what God have done.
Speaker 1Okay. Holler it out. What's a blessing That you've got. Count em. Word of God.
Family. Word of God. Family. This building. This building.
On a day like today. Amen. Jesus. Jesus. Amen.
That's good. Anybody else? Housing. Fantastic. I agree.
Let's go on to the next verse.
Speaker 2When you look at others with their lands and gold, Think that Christ has promised you his wealth untold. Count your many blessings money cannot buy. Your reward in heaven nor your home all night. Count your blessings name them one by one count your blessings see what God hath done count your blessings Name them one by one. Count your many blessings.
See what God hath done. So amid the conflict, whether great or small, Do not be discouraged. God is over all. Count your many blessings angels will attend. Help and comfort give you to your journeys in.
Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your blessings, see what God hath done. Count your blessings, Name them one by one. Count your many blessings. See what God has done.
Speaker 1Amen. That's a good way to start out. How about we gather together? Hymn number seven ninety. We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing.
Speaker 2We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing he chastens and hastens his will to make known the wicked oppressing now sees from distressing sing praises to his name he forgets not his own beside us to guide us our God with us joining ordaining maintaining his kingdom divine so from the beginning the fight we are winning The Lord was at our side. All glory be thine. We all do extol thee, thou leader triumphant, and pray that thou still our defender will be. Let thy congregation escape tribulation, by name be ever praised oh Lord make us free
Speaker 1y'all can have a seat I have a few announcements I might share the announcements this morning with somebody. Monday nights at First B is on. So, the home sweet home of Monday nights at First B meal, music, and a message will be happening tomorrow night at 06:00. Although Awana will not be happening. It'll be a night of meal music and a message.
The message tomorrow night will be song and scripture. Kinda praise, intermittent praise of Thanksgiving celebrating together. Is that right, Carl? Yep. That's right.
Alright. Cool. Monique is making the supper, so it ought to be really good. Meal music and a message tomorrow night. The children's Christmas children's Christmas choir is meeting between services.
Lisa Landis and Judy are down there helping out with the kids to learn their parts for December 18 combined service. They'll be at 10AM. They will be practicing each Sunday between now and then between services. So if you want to get somebody signed up, there's Lisa Landis' number, (215) 692-4297. There is a Jackson Hole community Christmas luncheon for ladies.
Snow Kings Ballroom on December 7. That's usually a very fun event. Has worship, message, lunch. No charges open to the public. There is a link in our weekly email.
If you'd like to sign up and r s to that, you can. That's a good time. The angel tree. Usually, I mean, we wait till Thanksgiving is over to put up the Christmas tree typically. But when we get the Christmas tree up there, you'll see tags hanging off of it for needs or for gifts for families that are in need.
Tanya, my wife Tanya McDaniel is in charge of that and that's her number (956) 357-3676. If you would like to get a head start, she already knows some of the needs And so you can ask her. She said please by text instead of by call. But if you would text her, she can help out kind of front side of that. But we should have the tree up and started probably next week.
Connect hour and Monday night kitchen volunteers are always needed. That's sort of a perpetual thing because we do it each Monday night and each Sunday morning. So there's a sign up sheet in the Fellowship Hall if you'd like to sign yourself up. If you'd like to sign yourself up. Not that you'd be signing someone else up.
Don't do that. If you do, let them know. Then Nick's got a few announcements.
Speaker 3Thanksgiving is coming up. And if you need a place to go or you know somebody who needs a place to go or you just want to bring food, we're having a a friendsgiving here down the hall. It's grown every year. We welcome more and more people. And this year, we're just praying that lord that God will just open up the doors, bring everybody, and that what kind of loaves and fishes this thing that we'll have more food, and it's open to the community.
Let's just see what God can do. Let's just open that up. So come on by. Information's on the website. If you would coordinate with me the dishes and stuff that you wanna bring just so we have an even amount of things, that'd be that'd be helpful.
And if you let me know you're coming, we can help make enough food for you. And the next slide is also a lot to be thankful for. It is the season of thanks, and we wanna say thank you to so many of you who help out in so many ways. The first food first beef food drive just wrapped up. Nancy Traziano did a great job, and she collected 424 pounds of food that you all brought in here and took it over to the food bank.
It's a lot, of food, and thank you so much for caring about your neighbors. For Awana, for all the people who volunteer for Awana, thank you so much for coming in on Mondays, loving on those kids, for taking good care of them, even cleaning up after them. You are seen and you are appreciated for sure. The Operation Christmas Child, we send out a whole bunch of boxes, and, they're gonna be taken out to the edges of the world. Thank you so much for loving the kids there too.
I don't have a final count on that yet, but it was a lot of every year, we we tend to do a lot. And then for old Bills Fun Run, this happened a while ago, but we do wanna share with you, what we do with that money. You guys donated $78,000 this year. Every year, it goes up. Every year, we're not sure what's gonna happen, and it's grown exponentially every year.
It's $8,000 more than was raised last year, and the year before that was more. And what we do, we we help people. Ray fixes people's cars more often than maybe he'd like to. And we we get food. We do emergency shelter.
I think last week, we had three individuals that were in hotels here in town, thanks to that money. And an example too, we had a guy who came in here on a Monday. He was gonna be taking part in some services that were going to and something else that was not church related in the church. And if that was canceled, he didn't know about it. He was just sitting outside, and we're like, hey.
Do you you need some food? And, so we, offered him some food. We took him down to the Monday night and stuff, talked to him for a while, and then ended up he needed some winter clothes. He'd never been through a winter before. So I I took him and bought him winter clothes, and then we went to the browse and buy him, got him just everyday clothes.
And it just built and built, and he spoke only Spanish. And I spent the whole day on Google Translate, passing it back and forth. So it's it's just amazing to see how often God how often we're able to show God's love to people daily. It really is. And sometimes it's multiple days, and sometimes it's a revolving door, especially this time of year.
And to be able to say yes is an unbelievable pleasure and a privilege. It's heartbreaking. And the things that we learn day to day about ourselves. This week, I had to repent because of the way, anyway, you can judge people. I had to repent because it really the way we're supposed to say yes and and get over ourselves and our own biases and stuff.
And when we can, you guys enable us to say yes and to seek God's ministry. It's one of those things that works really well in this church and ask any of us for personal stories about it. So thank you so much for all the things you do, and that was longer than I expected. But we appreciate you guys very much.
Speaker 2To We're
Speaker 1We're is kind of half that. Prayer, half telling y'all. We We're were singing just in the song service. We sang a song that moved Yvonne Woods so that she just said, I know this is not normal. Actually, testimony is fairly But she said, I know this is not normal, but God used that song to bring me back around.
After Bonnie's death it's been eight years. After Bonnie's death in a car accident and Hayden having to move. Hayden, their now eight year old grandson, has been living in Boise. He a little baby when that accident occurred, he was spared, and mom and dad. Yvonne and Russ lost Bonnie, But she said, God used that song to bring me around.
I just want to say how thankful I am for that. Hayden was here with him this morning too. And so So I'll say that over the mic so that the Internet can hear it too. But Russ and Yvonne both are the walking school bus. If you all haven't been in East Jackson during school time, they go morning and afternoon and they go and instead of driving a bus, they take the walkers, the ones who are walking from JES, and they walk them to their homes, to their doors.
If you see them over there, they've got a big group and the further they get over here, the smaller the group gets. But they are very, very conscientious and putting feet with their prayers. They're constantly doing that. Thank you for reminding me of that too. It's just awesome to serve the community and to do so well.
Russ is on our elder board right now too. It's just great. I thought I'd throw that in. What else do we do at this time? Let's sing.
Okay, would you stand up? If it doesn't come up on the board, I don't really know what to say. Jesus, we just want to thank you.
Speaker 2Jesus, we just want to thank you Jesus, we want thank you Jesus, we just want to thank you. Thank you for being so good. Jesus, we just want to praise you. Jesus, we just want to praise you. Jesus, we just want to praise you.
Praise you for being so good. Savior, we just want to serve you. Savior, we just want to serve you. Savior, we just want to serve you. Serve you for being so good.
Jesus, we know you are coming. Jesus, we know you are coming. Jesus, we know you are coming. Take us to live in your home
Speaker 1Amen. He is lord. We'll sing this a couple of times and then we'll do a key change and sing it one more.
Speaker 2He is risen from the dead and he is lord. Every knee shall bow. Every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is lord. He is lord. He is lord.
He is risen from the dead and he is lord. Every knee shall bow. Every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. He is Lord. He is risen from the dead and he is Lord.
Every knee shall bow every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is lord
Speaker 1Amen. Y'all can have a seat. God, we we do just want to thank you and we do just want to praise you and we do just want to serve you. Lord God, as we look forward to your your coming. Lord, we want to be living out your will in your way.
We want to be offering of ourselves, Lord, everything that you have given us. I pray, Lord, that you take the resources that are put into these plates and the resources that we give that are intangible, Lord, that you would use them, that you would bless them first and multiply them to do your kingdom's work. In Jesus' name, we're thankful for the ability to say yes. We're thankful for the ability to walk out a life in victory by the power of your spirit. The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is actively at work in us.
Lord, may we never brace ourselves against the direction of the spirit. In Jesus' name, Lord, I pray that we would continually be, as Nick said earlier, humbling ourselves and repentant, getting rid of our old nature, Lord. Humbly surrendering to you. May you, Lord, as the song says, hold absolute sway. In Jesus' name, we ask you to do what you will in your way among us this morning.
Amen. Thank you, Judy. Oh, in the first service, when I hit the first slide and it came up, it came up in the middle of the sermon and I went, uh-oh. That's not good. But because it did, I thought of a story.
Thought of a story because I had this thing sitting on the the do you all know what this is? It's a little infrared temperature gun. That's what that is. And so I have these things if I'm working on something, I can tell you know what the temperature is. If you're freezing at 61 degrees on this pulpit right here, it gets really hot up here.
I don't know what it is where you're sitting, but you aim that laser at it and you can tell what the temperature is. Well, this week one day, I got up to come into work. And as I was getting up to come in, I had not planned on telling the story. But I drive older cars, always have. And I like working on them, I like monkeying around with stuff and keeping it going, keep them on the road.
So I have a car that's got a lot of miles on it. The engine's got even more miles on it. And I got up and it was two degrees below zero. And when I got in the car, I turned it on and it started dropping three degrees, four degrees, five degrees below zero on the temperature of what was happening outside. And I just thought, I'm going let it warm up for a minute.
So I went back inside, came back out, got in. It's hovering around 195, 200, which is normal. That's a normal temperature for an engine. And then I got into it and started driving from the backside of J. I got to about the tennis courts and it was going two ten, two twenty, two thirty, two forty.
And it was that's not good. That's bad. That's really bad. And so I know and you can know this too, if you ever get in a car and it starts overheating, the best thing you do is turn it off, keep it off, let it cool back down, figure out what's going on. When it's nice and cool, well, was freezing tail cold, obviously.
And I was out by this point tennis courts, and I didn't want to walk back home. And so I thought, well, I don't think a quarter of a mile is gonna smoke the engine. I don't think it's gonna blow the head gasket. So I turned around around the square about there. And as I headed back to the house, when I pulled into the driveway, I did what you're not supposed to do.
Don't do it. Don't open the cap while the engine's hot. Don't do that. But I a towel and I had something to protect me. And so I opened it so I could put cold antifreeze into a warm engine.
You have to keep it circulating to do that. And so it cracked the block. If I had a really hot engine, put really cold fluid into it. So I knew better than to do that. But man, when I let the top off at five below, the steam that ensued was like nothing this southern boy has ever seen before.
I took a picture of it, had the presence in mind, I didn't send it to anybody, it's not on the slides, but didn't plan on telling this story. But it engulfed the whole car. I took a picture and said, I'm going be a little late to work this morning. I got here in a different vehicle. And when I got here, I was diagnosing in my head all day long.
How could they have gotten that? That's not enough. In this temperature, that's not enough for an engine to heat up that bad. There's no way that it could have been two sixty degrees that fast. I can't believe that that was true.
So the more I thought about it and thought about it and I thought, well, that steam said it was hot. But it hadn't acted like it was hot in any other way. So I'm diagnosing, I'm thinking, I'm thinking. And then I thought, could be a stuck thermostat. That's the cheapest thing to fix.
So you do that first, $10. So I went and got a $10 thermostat, changed that, and got in the car and came back to work. I was coming back to work. I get to the tennis court, it's 02:10, 02:20, 02:30, 02:40. I was like, that ain't good.
Is it a blown head gasket? Let me check. Nothing's leaking out from underneath it. The oil doesn't look like milkshake. It's not that.
I thought, well, how could this be? It's a brand new thermostatic. It said this one said that if it gets stuck, it's going to get stuck open, not closed. Well, that's a good thing for a thermostat, especially here. So I'm diagnosing in my head and thinking about it.
And I thought, you know what it could be is the sensor. Now, originally, had this thing in the car that morning when I got in. And when I stopped at the tennis courts, I shot it and it said out of limits because the thing was so cold it wouldn't work. Yeah. OL, out of limits.
So I put it in my pocket and close to my heart. I waited. And later on in the day when I had changed the thermostat, I got in it and it said that it was hot. I got out, popped the hood. I put this right where the thermostat sensor is, and it said 195.
Now the temperature gauge said two sixty, but it said 195. There was nothing wrong. That morning, when I went back home, there had been nothing wrong with my car but my sensor. And the sensor had caused me to do some fairly extreme things that caused steam and smoke, and I basically blew my top over. The sensor was what was wrong.
And it was great because the best news it could have possibly been was there's nothing wrong with that engine. There's nothing wrong with that cooling system except my sensor was wrong. Ah, okay. So change the sensor and it's running at 195. The coldest it's been, you know, once it's gotten up to temperature, the coldest I've tested it was 193 and the hottest was 197.
Thermostat's keeping it right where it's supposed to be. That's good. So here we go. That's a lot of scripture up there, seven fifty three to eight fifty nine. That's a lot of scripture.
I had planned what looks like two sermons worth, and I'm just gonna do the first one. Okay? I I put two blank slides in the middle so that I'd know when to stop. Last week, I ended on these two verses, seven fifty three and eight one. Do you remember Jesus was teaching in the temple during the time on the greatest day of the feast, the last and greatest day of the feast of tabernacles?
It doesn't say that he was feasting. It does say that he was teaching. He had told his brothers who said, oh, you need to go to Jerusalem. No. No.
No. No. No. And he said, I'm not going for the same reason you're going. I'm not going up there right now.
But he did go up kinda quietly, kinda privately, and on the last and greatest day of the feast, he started teaching. And on the last and greatest day of the feast, they would have gone over Isaiah. Isaiah's passage that says, if there's anyone that's thirsty, basically, it says, if there's anyone thirsty, this is the day that you can come forward and be filled with salvation. And Jesus, after that was read, Jesus stands up and says, come unto me. Anyone who is thirsty and I will give you rivers of living water.
Right? So that's the context And it's causing a lot of conflict among the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes. And as they are trying to arrest him and trying to downplay his message, It gets really heated and then it says this, and everyone went to his home. Party's over. They went home but Jesus went up to the Mount Of Olives.
Now, we know Jesus spent time on the Mount Of Olives the night that he was betrayed. We know that Jesus had spent quite a bit of time either on the Mount Of Olives or just on the other side of it in Bethany. We know that Jesus communed with God in these places and in these times, and he was prayerful. And then eight two starts like this. And early in the morning, he came again into the temple area, And all the people were coming to him.
And he sat down, and he began teaching them. It's fun to see that in the temple, that's what Jesus does, even when he was a little boy. Remember when he was 12, and he got away from his parents, and they were worried about him. When they got back, he was sitting and teaching all of the scribes and elders and doctors of the law. Early in the morning, he came again into the temple and all the people were coming to him and he sat down and he began teaching them.
Now the scribes and the pharisees brought a woman caught in the act of adultery. This is a story that John is telling, and he often does this where he has a historical present. It keeps you in the action. He says, now scribes and pharisees, they were bringing this woman that was caught in the act of adultery. And after placing her in the very center, in the middle of everybody of the courtyard, they say to him, Teacher, that's what you're doing here, right?
Teacher, this woman has been caught in the very act of committing adultery. There's no question as to whether she's guilty or innocent. They are saying, for sure, she's guilty. She was caught in the very act. Now in the law, both the pharisees and the Sadducees agreed on the Torah as far as this is law.
No doubt about it. Both of them agreed that Moses command would be to stone such a woman. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. But what does the law actually say? That sounds pretty ugly.
It's a different time. It's Old Testament. God is very concerned with the purity of his chosen people and has not yet given them, to all of them, the Holy Spirit. And so the law is very difficult on this subject. It says in Leviticus twenty ten, if there is a man who commits adultery with another man's wife, one who commits adultery with his friend's wife, the adulterer, and the adulteress.
Almost an afterthought, the adulteress right there. Says the man multiple times. The adulterer and the adulteress both must be put to death. In Leviticus, it does not give the how you do it. It does give that it's the law.
Deuteronomy, second statement of the law. If a man is found sleeping with a married woman, then both of them shall die. The man who slept with the woman and the woman. And so in such a way, you shall eliminate the evil from Israel. There was a concern about keeping the purity of this nation.
And it sounds horrible to us. And I don't like it at all. But it it it is what the law said. And what these people came to Jesus to say was in the law, there's no doubt about what it says. Pharisees and Sadducees agree that's a big deal.
In law, says she should be stoned. First of all, the man was not there. I don't know how they caught her in the act and didn't catch him. But he wasn't there. Or maybe he was.
Maybe he had a stone. I don't know. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. What then do you say? Do you see what's happening here?
They are putting Jesus in an impossible political situation. If he says, stoner, like the law says. He's agreed with the law, but he's lost his compassionate, merciful, loving, caring, forgiving reputation. So for him to say stone her would be completely against all that he has shown and taught so far. But for him to say, don't stone her, he would be going against the law of Moses, which everybody agreed on.
So it puts him in an impossible situation. And that's why they were doing it. It says in the next verse, now they were saying this to test him. That was they were putting him in a situation where he could it either looked like he was condoning outright sin even when it was obviously true, or he was just as harsh as they would have been. Now they're saying this to test him so that they might have grounds for accusing him.
They wanted him to say to go against the law. To they wanted for him to go against the law because that was the clearest and easiest way to to discredit him. But if he said anything else, he would just lose his compassion, compassionate standing. But it says, Jesus stooped down. He stooped down and with his finger, wrote on the ground.
It's the only time we see in any of the gospels. It's the only time we see Jesus write anything. He I mean, you know, there's lots of people writing a lot down, but he's the only time we ever see him writing is when he sits, stoops, and writes on the ground. It says his finger, not a stick, not a stylus. He stooped down and with his finger wrote on the ground.
I can't help but think of this. Exodus 31. So they're quoting from the law, from Leviticus, and from Deuteronomy. But Jesus takes it back a step further while Moses, I I think, I think, Jesus. Since he wrote with his finger, it always reminds me of this verse.
And when he had finished speaking to him on Mount Sinai, when God had finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave Moses the two tablets of the testimony. This is the 10 commandments. On tablets of stone written by the finger of God. Now, don't know what Jesus wrote when he was scribbling on the ground, and there's all kinds of conjecture as to what he might have written. But I think if he just wrote the same thing again, right?
If he just wrote the 10 commandments again, that would have been plenty. I don't know what he wrote. If if it mattered, John would have told us what he wrote. Jesus stooped down and with his finger wrote on the ground. It was also sort of a pause, I believe.
They ask him a question. And he stops and he bends down and he starts writing on the ground. And then it says that they persisted in asking him. Come on, Jesus, tell us. Come on.
What's your answer gonna be? What's your answer gonna be? You've gotta decide. You gotta make a stance here. You have to tell us what you how you answer this question.
Now they came to him asking about divorce this way. They came to him asking about resurrection this way. They came to him various times to test him. In this one, they were tapping their foot and they were saying, what's it gonna be? What's it gonna be?
And he straightened up from his stooped position. And he said to them, he who is without sin among you now he was among them, was he not? He was among them. He was right there with them. He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.
Let him who is without sin. Again, I don't know what he wrote, but their response to that, what are they going to do? They've asked him. They're badgering him. And he says, let him who is without I mean, we've heard this story a thousand times, right?
We all know judge not be judged. We know Matthew five. We know Matthew 18. We know lots of different verses that kind of back this up. But can you imagine being them, standing there with stones in your hand, ready?
He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw stone at her. And then it says again, he stooped down and he rode on the ground. And when they heard this, they began leaving one by one. They came in ready to convict. Actually, there's some question as to whether they could even carry out a death sentence as a mob.
They would have had to have a Sanhedrin trial to establish the facts with two or three witnesses. They said they had that. They would have had to have that done, and then they'd have to have the permission of the Roman proconsul to be able to do that. There are instances in the New Testament of them doing it anyway. They did stone Stephen without all of that due process.
Mobs act in very strange ways. People individually can be pretty smart, but people in big groups, my goodness. God have mercy. When they heard this, they began leaving, it says, one by one. Can you imagine?
Leaving one by one and something new I had not seen until this reading, beginning with the older ones. Why do you think it was that the older ones left first? With age comes wisdom. What do you do about a sin that you've committed? Now think think about this.
At that time, I mean, James, Jesus' brother James, in the New Testament says, if you've broken the law in even one instance, you've broken the whole thing. What do you do if you've sinned against almighty God? In the Old Testament, what do you do? I mean, the day of atonement, that's that's there. Blood of bulls and goats, right?
That's there. But in humility, if you've sinned and you realize it, let him who is without sin throw the first stone. They could not honestly do that. And when they walked away, beginning with the older ones, and he was left there alone, and the woman right there where she was in the center, in the center of the courtyard, and straightening back up, Jesus said to her, woman, this is an affectionate term. It's not a bad term.
Okay. Woman, I just hear it with that tone sometime. I wanna say, it was not disrespectful. Excuse me. Jesus said to her, woman, where are they?
Where are they? All these folks, all your accusers, where are they? Did no one condemn you? He gave them the opportunity. If they were without sin, go right ahead and do it.
Did no one condemn you? And she said, no one, Lord. And Jesus said, I don't condemn you either. That's powerful. No one, Lord.
And Jesus said, I don't condemn you either. He could have. He was without sin. He could have. He's the only one who could have, and he didn't.
For him to say that out loud is tantamount to say it, your sins are forgiven. I don't hold you guilty of this chart. She said, no one, Lord. And Jesus said, I do not condemn you either. Now we don't know her heart and we didn't hear her the whole interchange there.
We don't have everything probably that was written down. But I mean, we have everything written down. We don't have everything that was said. But Jesus did not condemn her. It's important.
And then he says, go, technically be going, from now on and do not sin any longer. Now this one, I wanna just slow down for a minute. I've got every translation that was up on biblehub.com. I'm gonna read them one at a time. Okay?
Starting with the New International Version. No one, sir, she said, then neither do I condemn you. Jesus declared. Now you go now and leave your life of sin. There is something progressive about the way that he's saying this.
He's saying, you have a clean slate and I will help you to walk in victory. As a New Testament believer, when you believe in Christ, when you accept the forgiveness that he offers, he also gives you the Holy Spirit to allow you to walk in holiness and victory. In the New Testament, this transitional time, he is just saying, I don't condemn you. Now, with your clean slate, go. Be going.
Actually, New Living. Here we go. No, Lord, she said, and Jesus said, neither do I. Go and sin no more. English Standard, she said, no one, Lord.
Neither do I condemn you. Go. And from now on, sin no more. Brienne Standard, no one, Lord, she answered, and neither do I condemn you, Jesus declared. Now go and sin no more.
And she said, no one, sir. And to her, Jesus said, neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more from now on. Now that from now on or sin no more, does that just make you shudder a little bit? Like, don't know how we're gonna do that.
I don't know how we're gonna do that, Lord. I'll help you. I'll help you. For a New Testament believer, God has given his Holy Spirit. He has given us a sensor that works.
Okay? I, in myself, can get really, really turned up, really spun up, and I can start thinking the situation's hotter than it is.
Speaker 2And I need to
Speaker 1do something, and I gotta do something drastic and harsh right now. It's gotta be done. King James. She said, no, man, lord. And Jesus said to her, neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more.
New King James, neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more. New American Standard, no one, Lord. Jesus said, I don't condemn you either. Go and from now on, don't sin any longer. It looks like this was a habitual action in the past that he's saying, you can walk away from this.
Does that make sense? So anything that is addictive and pretty much anything can be addictive. I mentioned the 12 steps here from this platform pretty often. It is a pretty good sequential way of getting away from habitual sin. First of all, have to admit you have a problem.
Now she didn't have the choice on her own. They brought her out and showed her problem. I have a problem that I can't do anything about. There is a higher power who can restore me to sanity. Jesus is that power.
I'm gonna let him. I'm gonna turn over my conscious will to him. NASB nineteen ninety five. And she said, no one, Lord. And Jesus said, I don't condemn you either.
Go from now and sin no more. And she said, no one, Lord. Jesus said, neither do I condemn you. Go your way. From now on, sin no more.
Amplified is not very amplified this time. She answered, no one, Lord. And Jesus said, I don't condemn you either. Go from now on, sin no more. Neither do I condemn you.
Go from now on, sin no more. Neither do I condemn you. Neither do I condemn you. That's really good. That's really, really good.
Now, I will say this. If you've been in church for very long or even if it's your first time, if you're surrounded by people, unfortunately, if you're surrounded by religious people, you may sense that you are condemned. The reason this story is in there is for the people who are holding the stones and for the ones who recognize that they've been called. She said, no man, Lord. And Jesus said, neither do I condemn they go that way from henceforth, sin no more.
But she said, an Aramaic Bible in plain English. But she said, not even one of them, Lord God. And Yeshua said, neither do I condemn you. Go and from now on, sin no more. Walk in holiness.
No, sir. The woman answered, then Jesus told her, I'm not gonna accuse you either. I'm not gonna accuse you either. The accuser of the brethren is the devil. Jesus is not the accuser.
Who said this is the Duairims. Who said, no man, Lord. And Jesus said, neither will I condemn thee. Go now and sin no more. Good news.
No one, sir. She answered, well then. I like that. That's the good news translation. It's a paraphrase.
Well then. Well then. I don't condemn you either. Go, but do not sin again. No one serves, she replied.
Then Jesus said, I don't condemn you either. Go home. From now on, don't sin anymore. No one, Lord, neither do I pass sentence on you. Be going and send no more.
I like the be going. Be going is a nice, it's a participle. That's what it ought to be. Be going as you are going. Sort of like the great commission, as you are going be making disciples.
Neither do I condemn you. Go. And from now on, don't sin anymore. I don't condemn you either. Go.
And from now on, don't sin anymore. Neither do I condemn you. Go your way and now on. Do not sin again. You have a clean slate.
You can walk in holiness. Neither do I condemn you. Go your way from now on. Sin no more. And I do not condemn you either.
And Jesus said, go and from this time, don't sin anymore. You know, I think that we as the the Christian church right now, maybe the evangelical church right now, I think we have a reputation for screaming out loud, Go and sin no more! To people that have not yet been forgiven or know Jesus. Right? If we recognize in ourselves, and that's what the guys who had the stones, they recognized their own sin and knew they couldn't throw that stone.
If we recognize that, I think we would treat people better. And I don't condemn you either. Go and from this time do not send any more latitude. World English Bible, the web Bible. She said, no one, Lord.
And Jesus said, neither do I condemn you. Go your way. From now on, send no more. Young's literal. And she said, no one, sir.
And Jesus said to her, neither do I pass sentence on thee. Be going and no more sin. Go and from now on, do not sin any longer. In our day, in our time, there are lots of things that are going on around us. And for us to answer out loud, we're put in a position much like Jesus was put in.
Where if we answer on the one side, we look really harsh. And if we answer on the other side, it looks like we condone sin. Right? Are we not in that same position pretty much every day all the time? What he answered was individually for that lady, and he's the only one who could give her forgiveness.
He's the only one that could do that. But if Jesus is saying, I don't condemn you, then I don't think we should be saying we do. Jesus does say go and sin no longer, but he's speaking to people who know him, who have been empowered to walk in holiness. The world has not been empowered to walk in holiness. The rest of this chapter, and the reason I had linked it together as hoping to preach it all at one time, is because he says, basically, I do what my father shows me to do.
I don't have my own message. I have the message from the father. Same one who's been father God all along. I'm speaking from what he showed me, and what he has for you is mercy if you'll accept it. The problem is you're doing the deeds of your father, the devil.
And you're using my father's word to back it up. Go in from now on. Don't sin any longer. He said that to her. I'm saying that to myself.
I'm asking that of y'all. I'm asking that you would let this message sink in, and that we would be able to see with eyes of compassion and love folks who are walking a difficult life and they're being bombarded with messages that everything is okay. And we have to be loving and compassionate and kind and forgiving. Now I want to mention one more thing about this pericope, this little section from seven fifty three to eight eleven of John. This section, if you look in your Bible, most Bibles have brackets around it.
And the brackets say, this may or may not be original. Now I just spent a whole sermon speaking about something that may or may not be original to the text. Most scholars agree it sounds like Jesus for sure. Sounds just like him. I believe that it is original about Jesus, but does it go in this spot?
Does it fit right where it is? And the reason, the New King James and the King James have it in there. There's no doubt about it. The NASB, a lot of translations have it, but they have brackets around it. If you look it up in modern translations like the new revised standard version, it won't even have it in there, period.
Because the older manuscripts don't include the story. So that might be a problem for some of you. I don't know. If you're dealing with textual criticism and you see something that the older manuscripts don't have it, the newer manuscripts do, it sounds like Jesus, should we leave it in? Should we leave it out?
Should we preach it? Should we hold back from giving it full authority? Think about the reasons. One set of conservative theological scholars says, it's not in the oldest manuscripts. We should not count it.
Although it sounds like Jesus, it's not bad. You can preach it for sure, but you hold loosely. It wasn't in the oldest manuscripts. It was added later. Maybe from tradition.
It might have been in another gospel somewhere else. Some people think it ought to be in Luke between this and that. Some people think it ought to be Matthew between this and that. I think in Greek it looks more like John's writing to me than others. If the other side of conservative theologically evangelical scholars believe that it was original to the text, this rings true to me too.
It was original to the text, but they took it out early on because it looked like Jesus condoned adultery. Doesn't that seem like a possibility? He was too soft on that woman. We don't want people just running wild. So we're gonna leave that out.
And then by the providence of God, he said, no. Don't leave it out. Personally, for me, I think that it helps with my sensor. It helps with my temperature sending unit. It helps me to see that there are things that I see that I'm kind of appalled by.
Guilty of those things, I see it and go, wow. God, you're still on your throne. You love that person. I want to love them the best way that I can. All is right with the world.
If I start believing it's 260 instead of 195, I start doing crazy things. Last night, last night, right before midnight in Colorado Springs, there was a shooting in a bar, the Q bar. And there were five people killed on the scene and 18 others injured pretty badly. And the numbers are probably gross some. The ambulances in that part of Colorado Springs were taking people to the hospital two at a time.
That's I don't know this, but I would not be the least bit surprised to hear that it was somebody who was religiously motivated that went in there and started throwing stones and shooting guns. I don't know that that's the case, but it wouldn't surprise me at all. So God help us. Help us to see things from a position of peace. Knowing lord that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
That includes us. There's no condemnation for us. And so if that's the case, may we look at others with merciful eyes and see that if they have been led astray, that Lord, you can draw them back. We ask you, Lord, that you'd use our peaceful, calm witness to draw people into relationship with you. In Jesus' name, I pray that we would leave room for you, Lord, to do what you know is necessary.
May we have some humility. May we have some grace. In Jesus' name, Lord, would you allow us to sense things for what they are? You are on the throne. You are able to deal with the situations directly.
In Jesus' name, Lord, I pray that we would be merciful, gracious, loving, and kind. In Jesus' name, amen. Judy, would you come on up? I do have one more slide, think, it's Romans eight one through four. Therefore, there is now no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus.
That's a really, really good comforting verse. To know that Lord, I've trusted you. And no matter what the devil says, no matter what the accuser of the brethren says about me and about my guilt, I know that I have been forgiven. The clean slate I have been given, and the spirit that I have been given has allowed me to walk in holiness and in victory. Lord, would you lead me into that?
For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. It's gonna be one or the other. For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did. Sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh.
That's his flesh on the cross. He condemned sin. He overcame death so that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but we walk according to the spirit. Lord, I pray that you'd fill us with your spirit and that that merciful, loving, winsome, kind attitude would draw people out of their delicate and desperate situation into the abundant life in Christ. In Jesus' name, I ask your blessing on all of those ambulance drivers and occupants last night, on all the folks who were gathered and all the folks who will be gathering today in vigil.
I pray, Lord, that you would have your will work through this incredibly awful tragedy. Amen. Would you stand with me? We're gonna sing I surrender all. We'll sing all four.
Speaker 2All to Jesus, surrender all to him I freely give. I will ever love and trust him in his presence daily live. I surrender all. I surrender all. All to thee, blessed savior, I surrender all.
All to Jesus, I surrender humbly at his feet high bow. Worldly pleasures all forsaken. Take me, Jesus. Take me now. I surrender all.
To Jesus, I surrender. Lord, I give myself to thee. Fill me with thy love and power. Let thy blessing fall on me. I surrender all.
I surrender surrender all.
Speaker 1Three out of four ain't that. Therefore, now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Lord, may we rest in that promise, and may we live like it. You gave great grace, mercy to that lady, and I'm sure, Lord, that the grace of God transformed her heart. I pray, Lord, that we would walk in holiness from this point forward.
In Jesus' name, amen.
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