Latest / Finding Jesus Again / Episode 14; Put down the Stones
Transcript
- John Smithson: Hello everybody, welcome back to Finding Jesus Again, Episode fourteen. We're going to be reading today from John chapter eight. We're going to start at verse one. But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives, 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. Now the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in the act of adultery. And after placing her in the center of the courtyard, they said to her, Teacher, this woman has been caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such a woman. What do you say? Now they were saying this to test him, so that they might have grounds for accusing him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote his finger wrote in the dirt, and when they persisted in asking him, he straightened up and said to them, He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her. And again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. Now when they heard this they began leaving one by one, beginning with the older ones, and he was left alone, and the woman where she was in the center of the courtyard, and straightening up Jesus said to her, Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you? She said, No one, Lord, and Jesus said, I do not condemn you either. Go from now, do not sin any longer. This was kind of a setup, not just for Jesus, but also for her. They caught her in the act of adultery and they brought her and they threw her before the feet of Jesus and they wanted to test him and see how he'd react. They knew that he was compassionate toward people. And so they put him in this position to see if his compassion would override the law. Because the law to them was the top tier. It was the most important thing, more important than people. And so they threw her down and they said, Look, with this woman was caught in adultery. The scriptures say that we need to stone her and we need to kill her. So what do you say? He leaned down in the dirt and he began to ride in the dirt, and then he looked up and he said, Okay, you who doesn't have any sin, you can be the first one to throw the stone. And then he just went back down to riding in the dirt. And I guess that must have sunk in because one by one they began to walk away. Now there's a very practical application to this, and that is that We all have a tendency to throw stones. When I was younger, a my youngest son went through a period of his life when he struggled with addiction. And he would sometimes bring friends home to meet me. He wanted his friends to meet me. And I would get so upset at that. I would get so upset that he would he would dare to bring these people to my home. And I always judged them very harshly. I judged them because ⁓ who I thought they were or or what they were doing or the the kind of lifestyle that they lived. And I remember one time my wife had said, Mark, do you really think that you're better than them? And I got angry and I said, Yeah, I'm way better than them. You know, look what they do, look at how they live. Of course I'm better than them. Well that really began to sink into me and I thought, Man, wow, what kind of self righteous jerk am I that I think I'm better than them? I mean, look at my own life. I have my own struggles. I have things that I struggle with. I have addictions that I deal with. It may not be drugs or whatever, but I still have things that I struggle and deal with. And and that really hit home to me. And ever since then I've tried to be more compassionate with people and realize that we all have things that we struggle with. And that none of us have the right to throw stones. There was only one person in this group who had the right to throw stones and that was Jesus. He was the only one who had no sin. And he was the only one who had the right to point a finger and judge. But he didn't do any judging. But instead He said, I don't condemn you either. And so if Jesus, who who is sinless and has the right to say, Hey, I'm better than you, if he doesn't do that, then who are we to do that? So here at at the end of this story, he tells her, he says, Where are your accusers? And she looks around, she says, Well, I I don't have any accusers. And he said, Well then I don't accuse you either. And he said, Go and and sin no more. Now, listen, we just need to put the stones down. One of the primary reasons that God has called us is to share the good news of the gospel. And the good news of the gospel is not judgment. It it isn't self-righteous. It isn't looking down your nose at people. It isn't thinking that you're better than people, but it's showing people the love of God. And the love of God doesn't judge. The love of God doesn't condemn. The love of God accepts. The love of God receives. The love of God forgives. And so the first lesson I want to say to you today is put your stones down. And love people the way they are. Love them to Jesus. Well let's look at this last part here because I thought this is very important. He said, Neither do I accuse you, go and sin no more. Jesus didn't say there's no such thing as sin. He didn't say that. Jesus didn't say what you did doesn't matter. He didn't say that. Instead he posts together two things that we sometimes separate. He says, number one, neither do I condemn you, which is mercy. And then transformation, he says give you. Go and sin no more. And it's another pattern we've seen earlier when God healed the man at Bethesda just a couple of chapters earlier. He said, See, you're well. Now go and sin no more. You know, this lady didn't ask God for forgiveness. This lady didn't say, Jesus, I believe that you're the Messiah, will you please save me? She didn't say any of that. Before she even asked God to forgive her, he offered forgiveness. He rescued her. From judgment. Just like the the gentleman at the pole Bethesda. He didn't say, Do you believe in me? Because if you believe in me and you have enough faith, I can heal you. He didn't say any of that. He just healed him. So the transformation or the gift comes first. And then he tells him, Look, there is no accusers. Now that you have a a fresh slate, now go and live in this state that you've been blessed with. Like he told the man, now you can walk. Now go and walk and live. without sinning anymore. I'm wrestling with this a little bit because I'm trying to look at this without bringing in everything that I know. When Jesus said, Go now and do not sin any longer, what does he mean by that? You know, we we have a a notion of what he means by that, because, you know, in in our lives, especially those of us who are in the church or those of us of us who grew up in the church, we already kind of have a preconceived idea Of what sin is. He didn't say to her, Don't do this, don't do this, don't do this. So we have to kind of find out in the context, what is he really saying to her? Well, she was caught in the sin of adultery. She was accused by her accusers of adultery. She was thrown down at the foot of Jesus. Jesus said, Neither do I condemn you, go from now and sin no more. I believe that he's talking about the sin of adultery. And if we're trying to define sin, if we're if we begin to kind of wrestle with sin, we have to look at the context of what she understood as sin. And so in the context of their culture, she would understand the Ten Commandments. So Jesus isn't saying try harder not to break the rules, but what he's saying is look, you've encountered mercy. Now walk away from the life that is destroying what God has intended you to be, and go and be everything that God wants you to be. Just like when he said to the blind man, Go and and and sin no more so that worse things won't befall you. He's saying, Look, there's a better life for you. It's not a warning of it's not a warning in a way of like, hey, if you go do bad, bad things are going to happen to you because I'm going to make them happen to you. But it's more like a a gift that he's giving that says, Go and live better because I have better for you, and your life can be better. Go and be everything that God has intended you to be. But if we really want to define what sin is, we have to go back to what Jesus said about the light. We spoke again a couple chapters ago about light and darkness. And Jesus' definition of sin had to do with light and darkness. Well let's look at verse 12 as we read on, right after he says go and sin no more, he turns his attention back to the crowd. This whole spectacle takes place before a crowd, turns his attention back to the crowd. And he says to them, I am the light of the world. The one who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life. Again, he's talking about this difference between light and darkness. He says, I am the light of the world. Follow me, and you will walk in light. So that's what we're wanting to do, right? We're wanting to find Jesus again. We're wanting to know how we're supposed to live. We're wanting to know what Jesus' will is for our life. And if we want to do that, then we need to follow Jesus. Follow his words, because in him that's where we're going to find light, and his light pushes away the darkness. If we follow him, we'll be walking in the light and not in the darkness. Verse thirteen. So the Pharisees said to him, You're not testifying about yourself. Your testimony is not true. They just straight up said, Look, you're you're a liar. This is not true. Verse fourteen Jesus answered and said to them, Even if I am testifying about myself, my testimony is true. Because I know where I come from or where I'm going. You judge according to the flesh. I'm not judging anyone, but even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for I am not alone in it, but I sit, but I and the Father who sent me. He says you judge according to the flesh, but I'm not judging anyone. Remember earlier the scripture says that God gave all judgment to Jesus, and Jesus is saying here, I'm not judging anyone. I didn't come to judge. It's so important. It gotta get my mind past everything that I that I have received or been taught and understand that Jesus did not come to judge or condemn, but he come to give life. That's his primary purpose. And in him we receive life. And there's such freedom in that, guys. There's such freedom in understanding that point. That he didn't come to to inundate us with rules and with laws, but he come to free us from it and he come to give us joy. And to give us life, and life in abundance, so that we can live past and above all that and live free. Verse sixteen, but even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for I am not alone in it, I and the Father who sent me. Even in your law it has been written that the testimony of two people is true. I am he who testifies about myself, and the Father who sent me testifies about me. So they were saying to him, Where is your father? Jesus answered, You know neither me nor my father. If you knew me you would know my father also. These words he spoke in the treasury as he taught in the temple area, and no one arrested him because his hour had not yet. If I want to leave you with anything today it would be number one, put those stones down. Don't throw stones at people, instead love people. And number two, remember that Jesus doesn't condemn you, but he forgives, and that forgiveness sets us free. Walk in the light, if you'll follow after Jesus, you know. You won't live and you won't walk in darkness. Sin is not as trivial as we think it is. We don't have to have a list of what's sin and what's not sin. If you want to stay away from sin, you don't need a rule book. You don't need a list of sins to put on your wall. You just need to walk in the light of Jesus and follow after Jesus. Thank you for watching this episode of Fighting Jesus again. We'll see you tomorrow.