Forgive Like Jesus

Good Morning Everyone!

What a joy it is to worship God, and now to study His word.

We are going through 70X7 series during our MGroup Campaign. This is our 4th Sunday and today we will be looking at John 8:1-11.

Illustration:

In a courtroom trial in South Africa, an elderly black woman stands slowly to her feet. She is more than 70 years old. Facing her from across the room are several white security police officers. One of them, Mr. Van der Broek, has just been tried and found guilty in the murder of the woman's son.

Now the woman stands in the courtroom and listens to the confessions of Mr. Van der Broek. He had come to the woman's home, taken her son, shot him at point-blank and then burned the young man's body while he and his officers partied nearby.

A member of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission turns to the woman and asks, "So what do you want? How should justice be done to this man who has brutally killed your son?"

"I want three things," begins the woman calmly, but confidently.

First, “I want to be taken to the place where my son’s body was burned, so that I can gather up the dust and give his remains a decent burial.”

She pauses, then continues. "My son was my only family. So, I want for Mr. Van der Broek to become my son. I would like for him to come twice a month to the ghetto and spend a day with me so I can pour out on him whatever love I still have remaining in me."

Finally, she says, "I would like Mr. Van der Broek to know that I offer him my forgiveness because Jesus Christ died to forgive. This was also the wish of my son. So, I would kindly ask someone to come to my side and lead me across the courtroom so I can take Mr. Van der Broek in my arms, embrace him and let him know that he is truly forgiven.”

As the court assistants come to lead the elderly woman across the room, Mr. Van der Broek faints, overwhelmed by what he has just heard. As he struggles for consciousness, those in the courtroom, family, friends, neighbors - all victims of decades of oppression and injustice - begin to sing… "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.”

Brothers and sisters, our topic this morning is, Forgive Like Jesus! John chapter 8 opens with Jesus teaching a crowd of people in the Temple (8:1-2). We see that, as Jesus continued teaching people about God and the Scriptures, more and more people were coming to listen to Him. But, the Jewish religious leaders were not happy that Jesus was getting the attention they want. So, they were looking for ways to discredit Jesus and His teachings.

We see two main things happening in our passage this morning. Let us look at them one at a time: First,…

Hypocrisy Leads to Accusation (vs.3-9)

Hypocrisy is pretending to be what you are not in reality. It comes in many varieties, but the worst kind is self-righteous hypocrisy. A self-righteous hypocrite is someone who condemns the behavior of others, but engages in the same behavior himself. In other words, a person who does not practice what he/she preaches. In Luke 18:9-12 we find the description of these self-righteous religious leaders: “9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ Brothers and sisters, hypocrisy leads to accusation.

1a. Jewish Religious Leaders Set a Trap to Accuse Jesus (vs. 3-6a)

In vs. 3-6a, we see that Jewish religious leaders were trying to trap Jesus. They brought a woman before Jesus who was caught in the act of adultery. There is no doubt that she had committed adultery. Jewish leaders were right. That’s why she didn’t put up any defense.

During those days, among the Jews, adultery was considered the worst possible sin a person could commit. Adultery is the sin of fornication committed by someone who is married. It is a violation of the marriage bond. So, in the mind of the Jews that was the worst sin.

But, the Jewish leaders’ accusation raises some questions here. First, why did they expose the woman publicly? There was no need to do that. And there was no need to bring her to Jesus. It is quite clear that their intention was not simply to expose her sin and punish her. They were actually seeking to accuse Jesus and question His teachings. Second, where is the man? Adultery by definition requires two people. They should have brought the man who had broken the law just as much as the woman. According to the law, both the man and the woman who commit adultery are to be stoned to death. In Leviticus 20:10, it says, “If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife - with the wife of his neighbor - both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death.”