God's Amazing Grace Series

***Start off with movie clip***

As humorous as this movie clip is, as it depicts Jesus going around the crowd of people and telling them how they have sinned, it is also really sad. It’s sad because there are a lot of people, some sitting in this very room, that see Jesus and having a relationship with Him being just like this.

I think one could compare this opinion of Jesus to the traffic cop who rides with you in the car for your license test. Obviously, because there are a bunch of you who haven’t gone through this process, let me explain it to you.

On the day of your test, you show up at the parking lot of the Registry of Motor Vehicles, and you wait in line to get into the car for your test. When it is finally your turn, you get into the car with this traffic cop who is very impersonal right from the beginning. You would think they would be a little excided for you because you are, well, might be, getting your license today. You know, it’s a huge thing in your life so they should have like a mini party for each person, with cake or something. But at least a smile and kind hello would be good enough.

Instead, the cop grunts for you to give them your driving permit and paperwork. They write some numbers down on their clipboard, hand your papers back to you and tell you to do your hand signals. As you do each one out the window of your car, the cop makes some check marks on the paper and then says to turn the car on and get ready to drive.

You make sure to buckle your seat belt and then put the car in drive and do your best to follow the officers directions. The whole time you are driving the cop only offers directions, turn here, do a three-point turn here, parallel park there. While the officer isn’t grunting things at you, they are jotting notes down on the paper and checking things off. Occasionally they sigh or make a face while slightly shaking their head, all of which just makes you even more nervous.

Once you finally get back to the parking lot, you stop the car and put it in park and just wait to hear your fait. The cop continues to make some notes and fills out a sheet of paper. The suspense is killing you. You just want to scream out, “WELL…Did I pass?” Eventually, the officer rips off a little piece of paper and hands it to you. Your fate is now in your hands and you go on your way either to celebrate or to practice some more.

Jesus, to a lot of people, is this authority figure just sitting there next to us, being rather impersonal and blunt. He grunts some commands at us and expects us to listen. Meanwhile, He sits there with His clipboard in hand and makes a bunch of checkmarks and notes, occasionally shaking His head or sighing. And then every once and a while throughout this test of life, Jesus rips off this little piece of paper and gives us this list of all these things we need to correct, do better, or start or stop all together. This usually leaves us going through life constantly feeling guilty and like a huge failure.

To accept and believe in a Jesus fitting this description is completely missing a major piece of who He is. That piece is His amazing and unfathomable grace. To help us understand this thing called grace, let’s open our Bibles to John 8:1-11.

***Read John 8:1-11***

Just to begin with a very brief side note, as some of you may have noticed, just before our text for today there is a little parenthesis that reads, “Most ancient Greek manuscripts do not include John 7:53-8:11.” As there is a lot of debate of whether or not this passage was actually written by John, there isn’t much debate on whether or not this story is authentic and true. If want to know more about the reasoning of this little footnote or are concerned, you can talk to me afterwards and I can explain it a little deeper. If not, just ignore it and let’s dive into this story together.

In our text we find Jesus having arrived at the Jewish Temple early in the morning. Apparently the day before he had been at the Temple teaching and speaking with people there and now was back for more. As soon as Jesus got there a crowd gathered and Jesus sat down and began to teach the people more.

As Jesus is speaking to the people, the Pharisees, who were the religious leaders of the Jews at that time, came over and interrupted Jesus. With them, they brought a woman who they exclaimed was caught in the act of adultery and stuck her in front of everybody and exclaimed to Jesus that she must be stoned to death because of her actions. They questioned Jesus, not because they thought He was an authority but instead, as verse 6 tells us, because they wanted “to trap him into saying something they could use against.”