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John 8:1-11 Neither Do I Condemn You · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  Good morning, church. He is risen. Indeed, we serve a risen Lord. We praise God this morning that there is not some hole in the ground somewhere with our Savior buried within. Amen? He is alive. He is alive and at work. He sends out His Spirit, quickening hearts, making dead people live, making hard hearts soft. We rejoice.
• 0:26
  in the promise of Romans chapter 8 and verse 1 that says there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Well, our text this morning is John chapter 8. If you guys have your Bibles, you can turn there. John chapter 8. And as you're turning, you'll know, I mean, I decided this morning to choose kind of the iconic...
• 0:50
  quintessential Easter message, right? When you wake up Easter morning, you probably thought of this passage. Pastor Danny is probably going to preach on the woman caught in adultery, right? That is what we always think of for Easter morning. But I chose this passage specifically because of one phrase that Jesus uses in it, and it's in verse 11. It's where he says, neither do I condemn you. Our church has been in a series called The Hard Sayings of Jesus.
• 1:22
  Sayings that Christ said that were either hard to understand or hard to apply. But this morning's hard saying is neither one. The statement that Jesus uttered so many centuries ago to an embarrassed and ashamed woman was hard. Because it's just plain hard to accept the fact that Jesus did not come to this world to condemn it. It's hard for us to accept the fact that grace is freely given. That salvation is free. That we don't have to earn it. That we don't have to buy it. That we owe God nothing.
• 1:55
  that we don't have to pay him back. Most of us, and I think it's part of the human condition, I think everybody struggles with this if we're honest deep down, feel guilty and ashamed over our sin. We have trouble accepting the free gift of salvation because we feel like it can't be free. Nothing in life is free. Nothing is. And so even though I know that it's free and will receive it, I still have this kind of debtor's ethic in the back of my brain, in my heart, where I feel like I have to do something. And in fact,
• 2:25
  I've even heard, and if you don't mind me calling that heresy, it is heresy. I've even heard that heresy preached from pulpits. Jesus died for you. What are you willing to do for him? As if it's an exchange? It's not what this book teaches. I have great news this morning. If that's how you feel, I have great news. You don't owe God anything. And the reason is because God doesn't give loans. Romans 6.23 says this, the wages of sin is death.
• 3:01
  But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. You owe the Lord nothing. He didn't come to condemn, but rather to save. If you'll allow me to read our text and then we'll pray and begin. Romans chapter 8 and verse 1 it says, But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Everyone else went to his own house. 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 taught them.
• 3:30
  The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst, they said to him, Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women, so what do you say? This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. But Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground, and as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.
• 4:01
  Once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones. And Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? She said, No one, Lord. And Jesus said, Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on sin no more. And Lord, I pray that you would bless the reading and preaching of your word.
• 4:31
  God, we thank You for the foundation that Your Word is in our lives and to this church. Lord, may we hold it in high regard and may we trust it when it says that Your Son did not come to condemn the world but to save the world. Thank You that we have a Savior who chose the cross so that we could be saved. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, do you ever feel inadequate? I do. You ever feel like you're not good enough or smart enough?
• 5:05
  or good-looking enough, or experienced enough? You ever felt unqualified, or disqualified, or underqualified? You ever feel undeserving? Years ago, our church announced a Sunday, a particular Sunday during the year that would be Church Picture Day. And this was when, this was before, this predates online church directories, which we praise God for now, because they're so much easier.
• 5:35
  But churches used to line their families up announcing a certain day. They'd bring in a professional photographer or business that takes pictures. They'd line them all up. And you're supposed to get dressed. Your wife looks nice. Your kids look nice. You're supposed to pretend on that day like your kids are not sinners. Everybody sits down. And they're not, you know, those pictures were always so weird to me. And I don't understand why we did this. But they weren't the easy pictures. They were the awkward pictures.
• 6:00
  They were the pictures where you had to sit there and kind of sit all goofy and like twist your head in a weird angle. And, you know, sir, do you want to back up a little bit? And ma'am, you know, whatever. And they get you into this weird pose and you're supposed to like freeze there. And then they take this picture. And that's the one that forevermore is going to go in the church directory, right? And so they sit you down. And I know why churches did it. Churches did it because it was nice to have that picture directory. And I know why businesses did it. Businesses would offer that as a service to churches for free.
• 6:31
  knowing that if they take these family photos, there are plenty of people who will buy the picture. So they're trying to make money offering this free service to the church, and there's nothing wrong with that. But then they sit you down, you take your picture, and they sit you down, and they show you the picture that they've taken. And so this guy does that. My boys at the time were very young. I don't even think Chase had been born yet. He's nine now. They sit us down, and the guy begins to go through the picture, and he says, Mrs. Gardner, you look great. And then he looks at the boys, and boys, good job. You got dressed up today.
• 7:02
  Good job smiling, just like I said. Good job holding the pose. And then he looked at me. He said, no, Mr. Gardner, I wanted to let you know that our photography studio offers free touch-up on our church directory pictures. And he just let it hang. And I thought, I am not buying anything from you. Free touch-up? If I'm honest, a struggle. Feeling inadequate. Like I don't deserve the grace of God.
• 7:44
  That God has done so much for me, pouring out the blood of His Son on the cross. And I feel like I have to somehow muster strength to earn that back. And I love this passage because of the reminder that Christ is not the accuser of the church, but instead our advocate. He is not our prosecuting attorney. He's our defense attorney. I sin, but I'm no longer a sinner because of the innocence that Christ has proclaimed over me.
• 8:16
  And I'm tired of this heresy that bounces around continually in my head. The thought that I can't come to Jesus because of what I've done. I've sinned too much. Or, and this is a weird one, or I've asked for forgiveness too many times. I feel ashamed because after all it's been to how many times? 3,500 times I've asked for forgiveness. I'm not going to do it again. I can't go to Jesus. It's been too many. And if you're anything like me, you struggle with spiritual paralysis because of guilt and shame.
• 8:45
  A feeling of condemnation. A feeling like we owe Him something. In our passage this morning, we see the Savior compassionately ministering to a woman like us. A woman confused, trapped, and spiritually paralyzed. And few gospel accounts have been more edifying to the church or have been a greater conduit of blessing from the Spirit than this one. In this passage, we see illustrated Christ's humility.
• 9:18
  his wisdom, his indictment on hypocrisy, and his forgiveness. If you'd like to look at verses 1 and 2, notice the setting in which this forgiveness is offered. Verse 1 says, 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 taught them. Now this event takes place in and around Jerusalem only weeks before the crucifixion. Weeks!
• 9:45
  We're within days. It's not even months anymore. Days of Jesus hanging on the cross. And Jesus knew that the cross was coming. If you read the gospel accounts, he says repeatedly, I'm going to go to Jerusalem. I'll be handed over to the Gentiles who will mock me and spit on me and crucify me.
• 10:09
  And on the third day, I will rise from the dead. He says it again and again and again. He knows exactly what's coming. And yet he does not shy away from that event. And not only that, he even invites people into his presence mere days before the crucifixion and teaches them and ministers to them. Now, I don't know what your attitude would be if it had been revealed to you that in three weeks time, you would be crucified.
• 10:40
  But my guess is it would not be send everyone to me. Let me just see how much I can serve. I just want to give of my time. I want to give of my resources. I want to just give myself away because after only three weeks I'll be crucified. That would not be my attitude. My attitude would be get away from me. I don't want to see anyone. I don't want to talk to anyone. I'd probably spend those three weeks in seclusion, cowering in fear.
• 11:10
  I think I would become a selfish, self-absorbed, self-pitying little boy. And yet the attitude of Christ is, anybody come to me. This woman caught in sin, caught in gross sin, infidelity. Yes, bring her to me. I'll spend time with her and I'll spend time with the masses because it's what I came to do. One of my favorite things about our Lord is his unwavering.
• 11:43
  ability to minister to others, all the while orchestrating the events that would eventually lead to his own death. We praise God for it. Note a second, the accusation that's brought in verses 3 to 6. Now this is a sick, sick accusation. And I'll kind of lead us through this as we go. You'll see the motivation, the evil motivation behind the men who make this accusation. But look at verse 3. The scribes and the Pharisees.
• 12:11
  Brought a woman who had been caught in adultery. Now, the scribes were experts in the law. The Greek word for scribe, in fact, is grammatias. It's where we get the word grammar. They were experts in grammar. They had read and studied and copied the Bible. They knew the Bible inside and out. That was these guys. The Pharisees were the ones who said that they had fulfilled every law in the Bible.
• 12:34
  That they had worked their way into sinlessness, blamelessness. They thought that they had stopped sinning. That's these guys. So you've got this religious elite hauling this woman before Jesus, who, by the way, was in the middle of teaching crowds. You can imagine all of these people come before him and he's teaching them in the temple. And they stop what is in essence a church service to drag this woman into the midst.
• 13:05
  Verse 4. And they said to him, Teacher, this woman has been caught. Notice these next words. In the act. In the act of adultery. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say? Notice their motivation. It is not a pure motivation. They're looking to set a trap. They have, for three and a half years, tried to figure out how to get rid of Jesus. And they finally now, only weeks before his crucifixion, think they've figured it out. We can get them. Verse 6.
• 13:35
  This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. But Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. Notice several things about this accusation. First is that these accusers were making a legal claim. They invoke the law of Moses. Now the law required that in order to convict a person of sexual sin, and in order to protect a person from false accusation, at least two people must have witnessed the act.
• 14:06
  And their testimonies had to agree perfectly. What this means is that two of them must have seen the same thing at the same time in order to make their testimony valid. Okay? So, they have the law on their side. However, the law also said that if people see, if eyewitnesses see somebody about to commit sin, it would become incumbent upon them
• 14:37
  to graciously take that person aside and try to dissuade them. Does that make sense? Their job was to try to get them to stop before they committed it. They were willing to violate the law in order to fulfill the law, in order to trap the lawgiver. You guys catch that? We can get them. How? Well, we're going to have to overlook this one, but heavily enforce this one in order to get rid of that one.
• 15:07
  That's first. It's a legal claim. Notice also, their accusation was only half accurate. It says in verse 4 that this woman was caught in the act. And yet the only person who shows up in the midst of the crowd is the woman. I hope at this point you're thinking, where's the dude? Right? The law required that if a woman was caught in sexual sin, she was to be killed. Whether she was married or engaged. Now, ancient Jewish law...
• 15:44
  stated that married women caught in adultery were supposed to be strangled, hanged. What we can therefore deduce is that this woman, because she was going to be stoned to death, was probably engaged and was more than likely about to commit this act with her fiancé. You say, well, what does that have to do with anything? If this woman was caught in the act, then so was her fiancé. This, I believe, was an elaborate scheme.
• 16:18
  involving the Pharisees, convincing an engaged man to seduce his fiancée in front of others, her unaware, so that there were witnesses involved, to allow them to be caught in that act, and then he to take off, leaving his fiancée open to public disgrace? Man, I hope you're thinking, that is messed up. This is not right. Listen, was she innocent? No. No. Had she sinned? Yes.
• 16:51
  Yes, but man, so had everyone else around her, right? This was a ploy, a trap to get rid of Jesus. And at no point did they care about the woman involved. Notice this accusation was also seeking public humiliation. It says in the text that they put her in the midst. They stopped what they're doing and put her in the midst.
• 17:22
  Of the crowd. Now, if their motivations had been pure, they would have taken her aside privately to Jesus, right? They wanted restoration and forgiveness. That's not what they wanted. Their approach indicates that her life was incidental. They cared nothing about nothing but trapping him. Now, imagine just for a moment that you are that woman. It is not hard to imagine that you are that woman caught in sin. Imagine that you've been caught now in the worst sin that you've ever committed. The thing that you're most ashamed of.
• 17:54
  Imagine that you're genuinely repentant and yet your accusers are demanding a public reprimand. How devastating would this be? She's caught in the act and hauled in front of hundreds, if not thousands, hauled in front of the teacher himself. You can only imagine even what she's wearing, if anything, standing there exposed totally. They cared nothing. And the reason I keep saying that is because I want you to notice the difference.
• 18:28
  In the Savior's response, they cared nothing for her, but the law to be fulfilled. And he cared for her. It says in verse 6 that he bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. Verse 7, and as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her. And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground.
• 18:53
  When they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones. And Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Now, nobody knows what he wrote on the sand. Some people speculate. There are all kinds of people who think, for sure, I know what Jesus was writing on the sand. Listen, nobody does. Okay? The Bible doesn't say it. So nobody does. They can guess. We can guess. Some people think maybe Jeremiah 17, 13 says this. All who forsake you shall be put to shame. Those who turn away from you shall be written in the dust.
• 19:22
  That's why they think that. For they've forsaken the Lord. Others think Jesus maybe wrote Exodus 23. You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. Certainly what those guys were doing, maybe he wrote that. Whatever Jesus wrote, the effect was apparent because it says in verse 9 that they begin to leave one by one, beginning with the older ones.
• 19:48
  Now I'm going to conjecture here on what I think he wrote. The Bible does not say, but man, I really think it would be funny if he bent down and just began making a list of all of the people's names standing around, all of the accusers. Oh, I see John is here, right? John in the sand. I see Isaac is here. You write Isaac in the sand. Abraham is here. Abraham, Ishmael, right? Isaiah. He just begins going through. I see all of you guys showed up. That's great. Right? He stands back up.
• 20:17
  He addresses them, let he who is without sin cast the first stone. And then it says that he bends back down, begins writing again in the sand. And I think it would be awesome if he and his omniscience just said, well, I know that John is an adulterer himself. And he just writes adultery next to his name. And I know you're a thief. You cheat people. You're a swindler. He writes cheating and stealing.
• 20:36
  And this guy, right, and just begins to write their names next to their sins and just connecting the dots. You remember those old tests when you were in the third grade, like the list and the list? Then just started connecting them. And oh, yep, you, yep, yep, yep. And beginning with the older ones, right, who had been around long enough to say, I don't have any ground to stand on. Well, I'm out. I'm out. I'm out. And he just begins to leave. The crowd begins to dissipate.
• 21:09
  I love the Savior's response. I think He knows that no one is going to be condemned that day. He knows this is not going to end in her being executed, and yet He doesn't forbid them from exacting punishment on her. Instead, He stands, and you can picture Him saying, all right, let's do this, but you first. He points them to Deuteronomy 13, which says that the eyewitnesses must be the first to throw the stones. And the men were forced to reflect on their own actions that afternoon and determined.
• 21:42
  that they could not in clear conscience cast it. Now, I know that many of you are new to Highland. We get a lot of visitors here. Our little church is growing. We praise God for that. I hope that if you're new with us, that what you'll find is a family of believers who are accepting and loving and unwilling to throw the first stone. We are a congregation who rests wholly on the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen? We believe in the Word of God.
• 22:14
  It is our foundation. We will preach it. We will apply it. We hold it in the highest regard, but we will also not pretend like we are sinless, that we no longer struggle, that we therefore have some right to judge anyone else's sin. We don't. We will judge ourselves according to this standard, but not according to our own. This is the Savior's response. And notice fourth, the woman, verse 10. Jesus stood up and said to her, Woman, where are they?
• 22:46
  Has no one condemned you? She said, no one, Lord. And Jesus said, neither do I condemn you. Go and from now on sin no more. Jesus and the woman are left alone. And he speaks to her for the first time. Where are they? Has no one condemned you? Now you notice he in no way condones her sin. He didn't tell her. He didn't excuse her. He didn't tell her it was all right. Right? He doesn't condone it. Never declares her innocence. In fact, I even picture him standing there with a rock in his hand. Where'd everyone go?
• 23:18
  Right, where'd all the accusers go? She replies with respect and belief, no one, Lord. This simple statement ushered the woman into forgiveness from Christ and through Christ. She'd been given new life, a life which from that moment forward would be defined by faith and obedience to God. He says, go, and from now on, sin no more. And I love...
• 23:43
  This picture, imagine him writing in the sand. Everybody is leaving. He stands up with the rock in his hand, ready to throw. He looks around and he says, where'd everybody go? Where are all the condemners? Well, Lord, they've left. And imagine him in that moment, dropping the rock and saying, then I'm not going to condemn you either. And we know that Jesus could have thrown the rock, right? Let he who is without sin throw the first stone. Could Jesus have thrown the rock?
• 24:18
  Was he justified in throwing the rock? He could have thrown the rock, right? But he chose to drop the rock instead. And in that moment, dropping the rock condemned himself to die. Because if I'm not going to punish sin, if I'm not going to punish the sinner over there, then the weight and punishment of that sin is going over here. Weeks from the crucifixion. You guys imagine this? The weight of this?
• 24:50
  He drops the stone. He could have thrown it. The only thing he had to do to get out of being crucified is what? Throw it. And you don't have to go to the cross because the sinner get what she deserves. But instead, he drops the rock and says, I don't condemn you. Instead, I condemn myself. I condemn myself. I will take it in your place. If you're struggling with inadequacy and feeling like you don't deserve.
• 25:24
  You don't deserve the gospel. You don't deserve forgiveness. You don't deserve eternal life. Then take heart. You are in great company. We don't deserve it either. And that's what makes grace, grace. It's free. It's been freely offered to us. Imagine Jesus dropping that rock and looking at you and saying, then neither do I condemn you. I'm going to ask you to turn to the left just a few pages to John chapter three.
• 26:01
  Beginning in verse 16. The most famous verse in the Bible. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son. That whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. But look at the next verse. We never say this verse. We never talk about this verse. John 3.16 gets quoted all the time. But what about 17? For God didn't send his son into the world to condemn the world. But in order that the world might be saved through him. He's not standing there with a rock in his hand looking at you.
• 26:34
  drops the rock and says, neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more. Let me pray. God, thank you for that message of salvation. Thank you for the gospel. Thank you for the risen Lord Jesus. God, we're so grateful to be called by your name today. Thankful that in Christ, none of us will be condemned. We're grateful people today, Lord. And it's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.