Grace Without Truth Is Not Love

What do Alex, Erin, and Tim need to know?

INTRO

Good Morning… Blah blah blah…

Simple yet profound (Reword)… We chose to do an in depth on John's gospel because although it's often time the first suggested book to read to brand new Christians because of its simplicity, it also is amazingly profound in its structure, theology, and richness. We hope that you are reading John on your own as we walk through this book as a community and our prayer is that the simple words of John will profoundly move us all to living Jesus > Everything.

Something about Fathers Day...

TENSION

In honor of Father’s I thought the best passage of scripture would be the Woman Caught in the act of adultery…

I think this is actually a really good passage for us to look at today… There’s a lot in here for everyone. But specifically for you dads out there’s some stuff you need to see…

In this passage we are going to see Jesus handle a situation that involves someone caught doing the wrong thing… They made it mistake. In this case a big one. And Jesus has a unique ability forgive her and tell her the truth of her actions…

This is a great lesson for everyone in the room, but I especially think it’s one that every dad in the room needs to lean in on. Because most of us we lean towards giving the truth or avoiding conflict…

If I could put this in other words Jesus enters into the situation full of Grace AND Truth. He doesn’t skimp on either. But most of us lean towards one…

The truth is your kids need to know the truth. They do they need it. But truth without grace is just cruel. It just beats people down. Some of you have experienced that. Your kids also need grace… But grace without truth is just a get out of jail free card. They will learn nothing if you always just give grace. Your kids need you to be full of Grace AND Truth.

And the reality is everyone in your life needs that. Everyone wants that. But so often we lean towards one extreme.

TEACHING

We are going to look at a story of Jesus today and I think this story best illustrates how Jesus was full of Grace and Truth. Turn your Bibles over to John 8: let me set the scene a little bit… Jesus is teaching a group of people at the temple when all of a sudden a women is brought before him. This women was caught in the act of adultery, not accused, caught in the act… This is a set up, a trap. They probably followed this couple around, saw them eat, get drinks, and when they went back to the hotel room they waited a few minutes then busted down the door. They threw the sheets off and grabbed her and drug her out of bed… and left him… Not fair. And brought her before Jesus.

These guys bring this women before Jesus, which is probably the worst day of her life. She’s standing before Jesus, probably wrapped in only a sheet… And then they start quoting scripture to Jesus. Which is never a good idea… Jesus did you know the Bible says this… Yeah I wrote it… So they are quoting this scripture and telling Jesus this women was caught in the act of adultery. And they are reminding Jesus that what this women did is a sin. Not only a sin, it was a crime and one punishable by death. Leviticus 16, anyone caught in adultery can be stoned to death.

That’s the truth. The women broke God’s rules for sexual purity. This women was caught breaking a law, she’s blown up her marriage and probably blown up some other marriage in the process. She’s in the wrong. Here’s Biblical truth. The wage of sin is death. That’s in the Bible, Romans 6, you cannot argue that. The wage of all sin is death. Not just this sin, but all sin. So these guys say Jesus what should we do with her? They are trying to trap him, but Jesus knows what they are trying to do. And what he’s going to do is give her exactly what she needs in that moment.

My guess is you’ve been in a situation like this before… Not the caught committing adultery, being dragged naked into public part… At least I hope you haven’t experienced that…

But you’ve been found out right? You’ve been caught? think back to that moment… What is it that you needed? Not what you wanted, what did you need?

Maybe you’re a parent… You’ve definitely caught your kids doing something they shouldn’t have… You caught them… They are guilty… Do you know what they need in that moment… Do you know what we all need when we are caught in the wrong? We need truth. But we need truth WITH LOVE. In other words, we need truth and grace.