Introduction:
We All Need Grace (John 8:1-11):
- But we don't often Give it. (John 8:3-5)
Leviticus 20:10 - If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
Am I a gracious person?
- Deep down, am I still angry with someone who wronged me, ever after they apologize?
- Are there broken relationships in my life that I refuse to heal?
- Do I believe certain people don't deserve forgiveness?
- When someone messes up, do I prefer to criticizing their mistakes over praying for them to get to a better place?
- But we don't often Recognize our need for it. (John 8:6-9)
- But we don't often Understand it. (John 8:10-11)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:06
Welcome everyone to Harvest Bible Chapel as we prepare to worship the Lord and to get into His Word together.
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And today, on behalf of the leadership of Harvest Bible Chapel, we would like to give a special shout out to all of our mothers, or mother figures, that are part of our church.
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Happy Mother's Day.
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Open your Bibles with me please to the Gospel of John 8.
00:26-00:29
Actually, we'll be starting at the end of chapter 7.
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While you're turning there, I read this week back in 2016, a man in Australia spotted a large tour bus.
00:45-00:48
And he knew that these buses had very large gas tanks.
00:50-00:56
And what he wanted to do was to siphon the gas out of the tour bus.
00:57-01:05
And if you don't know what siphoning gas is, I can't recommend strongly enough that you never ever do it.
01:05-01:14
But it's taking a hose, putting the hose into a gas tank, and sucking the hose and having the gas come out.
01:14-01:17
It's a way of stealing gas out from people.
01:17-01:21
and it's extremely dangerous and it's extremely stupid.
01:23-01:24
It's extremely mean.
01:25-01:42
Well, this man saw this tour bus and thought, "Well, I can steal a lot of gas from the bus." Well, little did he know that he inserted the hose into the sewage tank instead.
01:45-01:58
So when he placed the hose in his mouth, and inhaled deeply, he got a mouthful of...
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you can probably guess.
02:01-02:08
Well, the police were called, but the owners of the bus decided that they did not want their property back.
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What do we call that?
02:13-02:15
We call that karma, don't we?
02:16-02:19
Actually, specifically, we call this instant karma.
02:20-02:25
It's this belief that ultimately, eventually, you get what you deserve.
02:25-02:36
And I'm not sure I believe in karma, but I do believe in the opposite of karma, and that's what we're talking about today.
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We're talking about grace.
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Karma is getting what you deserve.
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Grace is getting what you don't deserve.
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The best way I have ever heard grace defined is with this little story, this little analogy.
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Imagine that you have a 16-year-old son.
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And your 16-year-old son goes to a party.
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at this party, another 16-year-old boy, for whatever reason, gets angry at your son.
03:16-03:19
And this other 16-year-old boy murders your son.
03:21-03:28
Now if you track that boy down and murder him yourself, that's called vengeance.
03:31-03:41
But if you track that boy down and you get him arrested and he goes to court and he's prosecuted and he goes to jail, that's called justice.
03:43-03:53
But if you track that boy down and he's arrested and he ends up in court, and somehow you convince the judge to let him go.
03:55-03:57
No punishment, just let him go.
03:57-04:00
That is called mercy.
04:04-04:22
But if you track that boy down and the rest of the ends up in court, and you somehow convince the judge that you want to take that boy into your home, and you want to raise him as your own son, and love him and care for him, that's called grace.
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Grace is the very essence of knowing Jesus.
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But unfortunately, many people just do not We know grace.
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We learned some very surprising things about grace today as we walked through a very familiar and for a lot of people, a favorite passage of God's Word.
04:49-04:53
So if you're taking note of the heading on this outline, it's simply this.
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We all need grace.
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We all need grace.
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And that's something I think we can all readily admit, But, here are the surprising truths that we're going to see in the text.
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Number one, we all need grace, but we don't often give it.
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We all need grace, but we don't often give it.
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Look at 7:53.
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It says, "They went each to his own house.
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But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
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early in the morning, he came again to the temple.
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All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them.
05:34-05:59
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 has been caught in the act of adultery.' "So in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such a woman." So what do you say?
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Let's stop there.
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And I would say, hang on, let's back up for a second.
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Something pretty obviously strange about this story, right?
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Where's the man who was caught in adultery?
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It says that this woman was caught in the act, and it takes two to tango, right?
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So where's the man?
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Why did they only bring the woman?
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Interestingly, she offers no defense throughout this passage.
06:37-06:43
So it seems that she was guilty, but there was somebody else guilty that was conveniently left out.
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The scribes and the Pharisees bring this woman to Jesus, and they say, "Hey, she was caught committing adultery." And Moses said, "We need to stone her." That comes from Leviticus 20.
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In verse 10, it says, "If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death." Now understand that stoning was the means of legal death penalty in the Old Testament.
07:16-07:19
Okay, that was like the electric chair or lethal injection.
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But when we get to New Testament times, we see that stoning would sometimes be carried out by a mob, not through the courts, not through the authorities, not without due process, like Stephen in Acts 7.
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Remember, it was illegal since Israel was under Roman occupation, it was illegal for Israel to execute criminals.
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But regardless, honestly, all of this is irrelevant.
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They weren't interested in the woman's fate as much as they were interested in trapping Jesus.
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I mean, just think about it.
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If this scenario was about justice, If they were really concerned about justice for this criminal woman, why didn't they take her to the appropriate authorities?
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I mean, how often do you hear of an accused criminal being dragged before a civilian for the civilian's opinion about what should happen to the criminal?
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I mean, do we ever hear that? Like somebody gets caught shoplifting, and we're going to arrest you, but before we take you to the police, we're gonna stop by and see Melanie the barber and see what she has to say about, like what?
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They drag this criminal to Jesus.
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Like, what do you think about this?
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Well, look at verse six.
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This they said to test him.
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they might have some charge to bring against Him.
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It was a trap. They wanted to discredit Jesus.
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They wanted people to think that Jesus was a fraud.
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Because if Jesus said, "No, no, no, no, don't stone her, don't stone her," well, then He's defying the law of Moses, and the people could say, "Oh, oh, oh, you don't believe in the law.
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You don't agree with Moses.
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You think you know better than the law that the Lord gave us.
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But if Jesus said, "Yeah, you know what? Stone her. Execute her." Well, there's a problem there because you see Jesus loses His whole reputation.
09:42-09:48
Jesus had this reputation of being a friend of sinners, right?
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Matthew 19.10, Luke 15.1.
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He's a friend of sinners.
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Jesus loves the tax collectors and the prostitutes, and Jesus cares for these people.
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And if Jesus says, "Stone this woman," you see these scribes and Pharisees could say, "Well, that's awfully selective of you to want to kill her because you didn't want to stone the other sinners." They thought they had Him trapped.
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What do you say, Jesus? What do you say?
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And as much as I don't want to face this personally, you know, a lot of times I am more like these guys than I want to admit.
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Everyone wants to think of themselves as a gracious person.
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We all think of ourselves as, "Deep down I'm good, deep down I'm..." I'm very gracious.
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Are you?
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I'm going to give you a quick little test.
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Just some yes or no questions to just sort of think through how gracious you are in your relationships to other people.
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Specifically, as we're focusing on this passage.
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Am I a gracious person?
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Ask yourself.
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Keep down.
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Am I still angry with someone who wronged me even after they apologized?
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Yes or no? Is that you?
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What if I asked your wife?
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What if I asked your husband?
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Are there broken relationships in my life that I refuse to heal?
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Even if they came crawling back to me, that person walked out of my life, I don't want them walking back in.
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Is that true of you? Yes or no?
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Do I believe certain people don't deserve forgiveness?
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When someone messes up, do I prefer criticizing their mistakes over praying for them to get to a better place?
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You see, if you're answering yes, Or even maybe, to any of these questions, then you probably aren't as gracious as you thought.
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Here's the truth.
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By default, because we are fallen people, born with a sinful nature, living in fallen flesh, by default, we are not gracious.
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We just aren't.
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And we need to start by acknowledging that as fallen people, Every single one of us have room to grow in grace.
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We all need it.
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But we don't often give it.
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Secondly, we all need grace, but we don't often recognize our need for it.
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Pick back up in verse 6.
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and John points out that they said this to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him, Jesus bent down and wrote with His finger on the ground.
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Do you know this is the only passage in the New Testament that says that Jesus wrote, and we don't know what He wrote.
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Wasn't there somebody there that was taking notes or could pull out a cell phone and take a picture of what Jesus was writing?
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Everybody wants to know what Jesus wrote.
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I read so many ideas and thoughts, and it really doesn't matter though.
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Because if God wanted us to know what Jesus wrote, then He would have told us in His Word.
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So you understand that it doesn't really matter what Jesus wrote.
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What matters was Jesus stooping down to perform this action of writing on the ground.
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Look at verse 7.
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"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." So Jesus, as He was writing in the ground, they just continued to badger Him.
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Do you see that in the text?
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Like, "What do you say, Jesus? Hey, what do you think?
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What do you think we should do with this lady?
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What do you say, Jesus?" And Jesus finally stood up, and He made one of the most famous statements in the Bible.
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"Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her." Then, verse 8, "And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground." Back to writing.
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I love this because this story started with them bringing a challenge to Jesus.
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And Jesus turned the challenge to them.
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Verse 9, "But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones.
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And Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before Him." They were convicted by their own conscience, and they suddenly became their own judge.
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See, the Bible says that the older ones left first.
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The older ones left first.
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And I've got to tell you, I get that.
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I've been in pastoral ministry now for 20 plus years, And I remember, as a much younger pastor, being so hard-nosed on things, holding the line on some things.
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To go after people and say, "Hey, you violated the Scriptures!
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What is the matter with you?
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Don't you know the Bible?
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I'm about to go full Leviticus on you." Then, you get a few miles on the car.
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You take a few laps around the track, right?
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And you mature in your understanding of your own failings.
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And you minister to people who have struggled with bad choices, But they need somebody to pick them up, not kick them while they're down.
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Come on church, we've all been there.
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We hear that somebody is going through a divorce, and instantly we condemn.
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Like divorce is evil, do you know what the Bible says about divorce?
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And yes, yes.
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Divorce is not God's optimal plan.
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Divorce is wrong, but we're so quick to disregard a woman who has been abused or cheated on for years, who tried so hard to faithfully endure, maybe entered into a divorce that wasn't her choosing.
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But we're quick to condemn.
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We're quick to condemn parents.
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"Your kids are out of control." "Look at him." "Her kids are always out of control." And then we find out that the kids are acting out because they experienced something traumatic.
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And we don't see the countless hours of the parents trying to raise their kids, parents trying to get help for their kids to go through whatever it is they've gone through.
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We don't see that. We don't care about that.
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We're just so quick to condemn.
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But you know, even for people like these scribes and Pharisees who didn't even believe in Jesus, experience has a way of putting things into perspective.
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Jesus said, "Let him who is without sin "Among you, be the first to throw a stone at her." You know, that's one of the most misused verses in the entire Bible.
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Because do you know how people want to use and quote this verse?
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They want this verse to say this, "You know, we're all sinners, so we should never ever call out sin." Right?
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Somebody tells you that what you're doing is wrong, what you're doing is sinful.
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"Hey, hey, hey, he who is without sin cast the first stone." Like, only if you're sinless can you tell me about my sin.
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And that is not what Jesus was saying at all.
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The point here - listen closely - these men were all law and no grace.
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Jesus wasn't saying judges have to be sinless.
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And the Bible teaches so clearly that we as a church must address sin when there's sin in the church.
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But, righteousness and judgment have to have this foundation of a spirit of grace.
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Otherwise, our judgment becomes heartless.
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Truthfully, it becomes hypocritical because we all need grace.
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I want to make this clear.
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Some people look at this passage and think that Jesus completely threw out the law.
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That these men said, "Hey, the law says stone her, and Jesus says, 'Ahh! Who needs the law?
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Just forget about it.'" and look a little closer, that's not at all what happened.
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Jesus actually affirmed the law.
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Here, did you see that?
20:55-21:02
In an amazing twist, Jesus said, "Okay, she should be stoned.
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But I'm going to appoint the executioner." So, sinless guy, you get the first throne.
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Jesus wasn't minimizing adultery.
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Adultery is so destructive and so painful.
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Adultery violates the marriage covenant.
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Adultery destroys entire families.
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Adultery does harm to children.
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Adultery is horrible.
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We've talked about that so much in the past.
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Jesus wasn't minimizing that.
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But to this group of self-righteous men, Jesus was saying, "Hey, you know what?
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You're no better.
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You're condemning a woman for adultery, but your hearts are full of hatred.
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Your hearts are full of malice.
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What kind of people would grab just a woman, not the guy, just a woman, what kind of men would drag a woman through the streets and dump her right here?
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Treat her like that.
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You're heartless.
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Jesus wasn't minimizing sin, He was elevating grace.
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Saying the reason you are so harsh to judge because you don't recognize your own need for grace, even though you need it just as much as she needs it.
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And you know, church, I am, I am by far the worst sinner that I know.
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I need Jesus Christ more than anybody that I know.
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And I know this because I know what's in my heart.
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How about you?
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And when you and I fail to recognize that we are sinners saved by grace, we become just as harsh as these guys in this passage.
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But, when we are constantly drinking in the grace of Jesus Christ, That river of grace flows out of our hearts, and we become much better ministers to others who need that same grace.
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We all need grace.
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Finally, but we don't often understand it.
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Look at the last two verses for today.
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Jesus stood up and said to her, "Woman, where are they?
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Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go.
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And from now on, sin no more." Jesus said, "Well, I guess the trial is over.
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the jury all sort of disqualified themselves.
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Jesus alone had the right to condemn.
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Jesus alone had the right to throw a stone, and He chose to forgive her.
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And some would look at this passage and say, "Wait, wait, wait a second!
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She didn't confess her sin.
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She didn't repent from her sin.
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She didn't do nothing that the Bible says we need to do to turn from our sin and to receive forgiveness.
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She didn't do anything.
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"How can you say she's forgiven?" And I would reply, "You want to step in at this point of the story, really?
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This is where you want to step in?
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This is where you want to go look for a rock?" Jesus knew her heart, right?
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We've seen that all through John, over and over.
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Jesus knows what's in a person.
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He knew what was in her heart.
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He knew that she was repentant.
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There's a big difference in the way you minister to someone who's repentant than someone who's rebellious in the church.
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This is a whole other sermon.
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But just to say, when someone who calls himself a believer in the church is guilty of sin, if that person comes repentant and says, I need help. I'm trying to do the right thing.
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Would you please help me?" I will work with that person all day.
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All month, I will work with that person.
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But the person who calls himself a believer who is flagrantly in unrepentant sin refuses to turn from it.
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The Bible says that person is no longer welcome in the fellowship.
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Huge difference, right?
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And this woman was obviously repentant.
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Sin no more.
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Jesus didn't excuse her sin.
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Like, hey, you know what?
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You had a rough childhood, so you're off the hook.
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Jesus didn't have her embrace some victim mentality.
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Like, well, you know, the reason you committed adultery is because of something your husband did a while back.
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He didn't give her this victim mentality.
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He didn't call it an alternative lifestyle or whatever.
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Jesus, He called it sin.
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And He said to walk away from that kind of living.
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We often don't understand grace because we view it as permission to sin.
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People say, "Well, I'm not saved by my conduct, My conduct doesn't matter.
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That's spoken like someone who doesn't know Jesus.
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That's spoken like someone who doesn't have God's Holy Spirit indwelling you, changing you into who God has called you to be.
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Jesus Christ is not about, "Here's your magic ticket to heaven." Jesus Christ is about transformation.
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Jesus said, "Sin no more." Sin no more.
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You see, the point is, grace points us in a new direction.
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Grace moves us in a new direction.
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And Jesus didn't tell this woman, "Sin no more, so that you can avoid being executed by stones somewhere down the road.
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And it's the same for us, church.
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Our motivation for turning from sin just can't be boiled down to, "Hey, don't sin because you fear the consequences." Like this woman, it's this.
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Turn from your sin because you met Jesus Christ.
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Turn from your sin because you can never be the same after experiencing His forgiveness.
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Well, the scribes and the Pharisees certainly brought the right question to Jesus.
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It all boils down to, hey, how do you harmonize justice and mercy?
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If God is just, this woman dies.
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But if God is loving, she lives.
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What's it going to be?
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Well, the answer for her sin and for yours is the cross of Jesus Christ.
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See, the cross of Christ is an intersection where God's justice meets God's mercy.
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And Jesus eventually took Her place on the cross as He has taken yours, so that we could be forgiven and go and sin no more.
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And along the way, what motivates me to seek to show grace to someone struggling with sin?
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Well, it's because forgiven people forgive.
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because forgiven people know His grace.
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Let's pray.
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Father in heaven, thank You for Your Word.
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And I pray, Father, that Your Word would transform us.
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As we all so readily acknowledge that we need grace, but sometimes, Father, we're a bit thick-headed that comes to the application of it.
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Father, let us be people that live in Your grace and extend that to others.
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That when we find ourselves in this story, we would show the compassion and restoration of Christ, not the hate-fueled judgment of these scribes and Pharisees.
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Father, let us be people who represent You, who represent Your Son, by demonstrating that grace to others.
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Thank You, Father, for the grace that You've shown us on the cross.
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We pray these things in Jesus' name.
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Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read John 7:53 - 8:1-11
What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
In John 8:7, Jesus said, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” People often quote this to mean “we are all sinners, so it’s never right to call out someone’s sin.”
Is this an accurate interpretation of this verse? Why or why not?
How and when IS it appropriate to call out someone on their sin?
John 8:9 says the older ones walked away first. Why do you think that was? How does experience seem to temper inappropriate zeal?
Jesus told the woman to “sin no more” (John 8:11). How does knowing Jesus motivate us to walk away from sin?
Breakout
Pray for one another to grow in Jesus’ grace - and being gracious to others.