The Church of Eleven22 - S01 E39 - The Woman Caught in Adultery

Episode Date: June 9, 2020

Hey, church family. If you've got your Bible, John chapter 8 is where we're going to be. John chapter 8. And it is Devo Time. One of my favorite accounts in the scriptures. There's so much here. I should probably do a series on it one day. It says this.

It actually starts in 753. It says, They went each to his own house. They ate one. But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning, he came again to the temple. all the people came to him, and he sat down and he taught him. That was the custom in the first century.

The rabbi would sit down and everybody else would stand. And the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. All right. First of all, how do you catch somebody in the act of adultery? That's not something you just accidentally stumble in on, especially if there's a group of you. apparently, this is a little conjecture on my part, but give me just, you know, give me a little grace here. I think that these men are like walking around hunting for somebody to break the law, and then they find somebody.

So they find this woman who had been caught in adultery and placing her in the midst. They said to him, teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now, in the law, Moses commanded us to start. on such women. So what do you say? Now, first off, real quick, isn't there something missing here? I don't know if you know what adultery is, but it seems like they only caught half of the participants of the act of adultery. What's up with this? You see, anytime people use and abuse their religious authority, it's almost always the weakest that get hurt the most. Like, where's the man here? Why didn't the man get also caught? If they caught him in the act, he had to be there too.

But somehow they overlook his sin and they want to make much of her sin and they drag her. The Bible doesn't say if she's clothed or not. You've got to assume that if she is clothed, she probably doesn't have much on if they caught her in the act of adultery and then brought her in. and then what they do is they point to the law. And the law says, the law of Moses, the old covenant says that a covenant between a husband and a wife is such a big deal, is such a big deal, that if that covenant is broken in the Old Testament, then the punishment for adultery was the death penalty. And you say, how in the world could that happen? You got to just get your mind around this for just a second. God had called a people out of Egypt.

They were a slave people under the oppressive rule of Pharaoh, and he brings a people out. They had no government. They had no rules. They had no nothing. They were just professional slaves. And then he brings them into the wilderness, and he has to establish a law.

This is how we are going to act towards one another, and this is how we are going to treat one another. And for different sins, there were different punishments. Again, this is in the Old Testament, and the law required them to, there were certain things that were so destructive for people that he would say, we're going to take that all the way out of our people.

And so you fast forward to this day, and now the Pharisees are like, all right, Jesus, we called her. And the law very clearly says from Moses, they could quote chapter and verse, though they didn't have chapters and verses then. But they could say, this is what it says. So what do you think we should do?

you say. Now here's the, John lets us know the heart behind what the Pharisees were doing. The Pharisees were not pursuing righteousness. The Pharisees were not just trying to make sure that they lived according to God's law. Verse 6, they said this to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. You see, because here's what they were doing. They thought they had trapped Jesus. They would try to trap him all the time. And they were trying to get him to do something or say something that would be subversive against the Word of God so that they could trap him. And so they say, all right, Jesus, what say you?

Here are the facts. All the facts are in. She's called him the act of adultery. Do you deny that? She doesn't deny it. We saw it. We have our witnesses. And we have the law.

And so we're going to bring her here to you. What do you say? And again, they were trying to trap him. And then look what Jesus does. Jesus doesn't play their game. He doesn't play their game. You see, even in these crazy times we live in, there will be people that try to paint us into a corner

to pick some kind of political viewpoint or make sure we use the words they use. Jesus was the master of deciding what he said and when he said, and he never let anybody else put words in his own mouth. At first, Jesus says nothing. Jesus bent down, and he wrote with his finger on the ground. and he know what he wrote? Nobody has any idea.

I mean, maybe he wrote WWJD, or he drew one of the Jesus fish that you have on the back of your car, or I don't know what he wrote. Nobody knows what he wrote. By the way, this is the only evidence that we have that he ever wrote anything. I think part of the reason that he bends down is so that he can get on the same level with this woman.

We know that she's on the ground right now, and she is preparing to be stone. I mean, can you imagine the fear, the anxiety, the what have I done with my life? Can you imagine the emotion of this girl? And also, we don't know the backstory that led her here, but I can promise you this was not her idea. That's what I'm going to be when I grow up. I'm going to be the adulterer that gets caught and is going to be stoned in the temple square. I mean, we don't know what her relationship with her father was like, with her mother was like.

we don't know if she has been abused, abandoned. We don't know any of these things. And when all the religious leaders are standing there, ready to throw stones, what Jesus does is he kneels right down there with her and he starts drawing something in the sand. Maybe to distract them, but maybe to just be on her level, do you realize that the almighty perfect son of God,

when he stepped onto this planet, that he empathizes with us, that he sympathizes with us, that he gets down on our level, and he meets us right where we are. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and he said, let him who is without sin among you

be the first to throw a stone at her. Brilliant. He's like, all right, you're right. The law says that sin must be judged. So let's do this. We'll start with her, and then we'll go to you. So all the sinless people go first.

Because if you want to judge her, then I can judge you too. And once more, he bent down and he rode around the ground. And the Bible doesn't say how long. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones.

You know why the older ones left first? Because they're the wisest ones. They had the most experience. They're standing there with a rock and they say, uh-oh, if I judge her for her sin, then what if this man really is who he claims to be? What if he is the son of God?

What if he does know the condition of my heart? And then he holds me to the same standard that I want to hold her to. You see, you ever notice when people sin, we want judgment for them, we want justice for them, but when we sin, we want grace for us? You ever notice how we have such a tendency

see, to judge everybody else by their actions, but we judge us by our intentions. And so the older ones know this. And so beginning with the older ones, they leave one by one. And Jesus is left alone with the woman standing before him. And Jesus stands up and says to her. One of the things that hit me, as I was reading over this earlier today, is that all throughout Jesus' ministry. He lifted people up. He met people right where they were. He would kneel down with the broken. He would get to eyeball to eyeball with them. And she's dragged in here,

maybe naked or with very little clothes on, and he meets her in her depravity. And now she is on her feet. And Jesus stood up and said to her, woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? and you get this, she's bracing for impact. She's bracing for the first rock to hit her, for the first stone to hit her. She's probably praying, Lord, let the first one just knock me out so that I don't feel the rest of them.

And she's bracing for that impact because Jesus says, all right, whoever has it sin cast the first stone. She's waiting for that impact. Instead of being impacted by the rock of judgment, the stone of death, instead, she's hit with the grace of Jesus Christ. Woman.

And when he says woman, it doesn't mean like, it's not like woman. It's like ma'am. He speaks to her dignity. He's letting her know that it's, your activity does not define you, but only Jesus gets to tell you who you are.

That he doesn't call her her adulterer. He calls her ma'am, woman. Woman, where all, are they, has no one condemned you? And she said, no one, Lord. And then Jesus said, neither do I condemn you. Now, there's a semicolon there. So a lot of people want to stop right there. But let's pause for just a second. Jesus did not come to condemn, but to save. Now, the reality is, is that we know Jesus in John chapter 3 says, for anyone who is not in Christ is already condemned in our sin. Condemnation means that we are deemed unfit for use.

And Jesus looks at this woman, and he says, then neither do I condemn you. Paul in Romans chapter 7 gets super introspective. He asks these questions that if you're serious about Jesus and you've been walking with him for a minute and yet you still struggle with sin like I do, then he asked these questions, like, what is wrong with me? Why is it that I, the things that I don't want to do,

things I keep on doing and the good that I want to do, I can't pull that off. What is wrong with me? This is Romans chapter 7. And then at the end of it, his conclusion is, what a wretched man am I? Who would save me? And then he answers the question at the end of seven. Jesus would save me. And so when you get to Romans chapter 8, verse one of my favorite verses, therefore, since Jesus is the one that can save me, therefore now, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. If you're not in Christ Jesus, you're already standing in. In Christ Jesus, there is no condemnation. Why? She doesn't know this yet, but we know because when he went to the cross,

he says, it is finished, and he put a nail through that condemnation that was hanging over your head. And therefore, now there is no condemnation. You are not unfit for use. You are not forever disqualified for being in the family of God because of the things you have done. but your rightful seat at the table as a brother or a sister of Jesus has been rightfully purchased by Christ on the cross. So he says that neither do I condemn you.

Then he keeps going. Go. And from now on, sin no more. He does not excuse what she does either. He doesn't say it's not your fault. He doesn't say, I know you've had a tough life, and I know you were abused, and I know you're father didn't hug you enough, and I know the people group you grew up in gives you an excuse to commit adultery. He does none of those things. He doesn't call it a mistake. He doesn't call it a

bad decision. He calls it sin. Neither do I condemn you. Now go. When you get run over by the grace train of Jesus Christ, your life looks different. And a part of what looks different in your life is go and sin no more. All right. So as you read this, who do you identify with most? Maybe you're in a life of sin, and maybe you've been busted. And if you haven't meant yet, you will be. Everything private becomes public one day.

And maybe you feel condemned by this world for things that you've said, for things that you've done, for things that you're ashamed of, would you allow Jesus to kneel down with you, scribble something in the sand, and would you hear his words? Then neither do I can. condemn you. And would you be empowered by the Spirit of God to stand up, to get back on your feet,

to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ and to sin no more? Or maybe you're standing there and you're holding a stone. I mean, honestly, these days, there's a lot of people literally hurling stones. Drop them. Put them down. Most of the stones that Christians hurl right now, or through these things. Through social media or text or whatever, man. Put them down. Put them down. And I know you think you're right.

Like the Pharisees thought they were right. And I know it's popular because everybody gets caught up and when everybody else is saying and you look around and all the other Pharisees have stones and you think, oh, I just want to be a part of what everybody else is doing right now. That is not the thing to do, man. What we do is we share the life.

love and the grace of Jesus Christ. We share the love and the grace of Jesus Christ. Can you imagine the difference the church can make in our world? When instead of throwing stones of judgment at individuals or groups, instead of that, we got down on our knees next to people that are hurting. whether it's black people or police officers or no matter who the people are, we just got down on our knees next to any people that are hurting, any person that is hurting, and we showed them the kind of grace that Jesus shows here, full of grace and full of truth.

Church of 1122, may we be those kind of Jesus people in this world today. Put the stones down, pick the grace up, and offer what Jesus offers. the gospel. Father in heaven, forgive me. When I want to pick up rocks and throw them, Lord, when I want to stand in judgment over somebody because of something that they have done, God, I thank you so much that you are the judge and that you judge hearts. And that all we can see is the outside, but God, you know people's hearts. Lord, Lord, I pray that we would not be people of condemnation because, Father, you are not a God of condemnation.

but therefore now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That means not only should we not feel condemnation, but we should not project condemnation on other people, but we should, like Jesus, offer them grace and truth through the gospel of Jesus Christ. God, may we use us to be a bright light and a dark time. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.