Let’s open our Bibles to John 3. Charles Dickens’ novel A Tale of Two Cities tells the story of a man by the name of Charles Darnay. Charles Darnay was a young Frenchman condemned to die by the guillotine. But when his friend, Sidney Carton, heard about Darnay’s sentence, he was determined to find a way to save him. Carton gained admission to the dungeon the night before Darnay was to be executed. He swapped clothes with Darnay and the next day Carton was led out to be executed as Charles Darnay. Darnay then escaped the dungeon dressed as Sidney Carton. The free man exchanged his life for the condemned, so that the condemned might go free.
And in the Bible we have the story of Barabbas; a criminal scheduled to die on a cross for crimes he committed. But then the announcement came to him, “Barabbas, you are free to go.” “What are you talking about, I’m free to go?” “Yes, Barabbas, someone else is taking your place, Jesus of Nazareth is dying instead of you, and you are free to go.” And once again, the free man exchanged His life for the condemned, and the condemned man went free. The title of my sermon this morning is “Jesus Christ saves the Condemned!” We can see that in John 3:17: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him”. Chapter 7.
We’ve been in John 7 for several months, and last week we focused on verses 37-39 where Jesus invited all who were thirsty to come to Him and drink. Then, people start arguing over whether Jesus is to be believed in or not, culminating in verse 53: “the people were divided because of Jesus.” So, anytime the people are divided, the leaders have to step up and tell them what’s right. The leaders are responsible for telling the people what or who they can believe in…at least that is what you think if you’re a Pharisee or a Pope, and so in verses 45-52 the Jewish Leaders state that their studied conclusion regarding this Jesus of Nazareth is that they do not believe in Him. You can see that in verses 48-49: 48 "Has any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him?” The answer is verse 49 is a resounding “NO!”
In other words, “you people who are ignorant of the Law may think He’s the Christ, or the great Prophet Who was to come, but we your educated leaders are telling you that He is not, we do not believe in Him.” May I just say, watch out, that you do not look to religious leaders to tell you what to believe, even if they have a Bible in their hand. You can learn from them, we’re supposed to learn from each other, but they are not to exercise authority over your faith, or they may possibly keep you from believing wonderful truth. You study, and you pray, and then you weigh what they say against what you read in the Bible. Because men can be wrong, as in this case. A seminary professor once started the semester by saying, “half of what I’m going to teach you is wrong, the problem is I don’t which half.”
And that brings us to chapter 8. we see 3 groups in this story: the Pharisees, the guilty woman, and Jesus. The Pharisees bring this woman to Jesus and make her stand before the group, and they say in verse 5 “in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women, now what do you say?” Verse 6 tells us that they asked this as a trap in order to accuse Him. So, this whole thing is a set-up, it’s a trap in order to accuse Jesus; they aren’t as much after her blood as they are His.
Now, let’s see what kind of a trap He’s in here. Look at the 2 options: If Jesus condemned the woman to death, the Pharisees would have taken him to straight to Pilate, saying, “Jesus, has condemned this woman to die, but that is something only Romans can do. He’s breaking the civil law.” See, the Romans had taken the right to exercise capital punishment away from the Jews. On the other hand, if Jesus said she should not be put to death, they would have taken Him straight to the people and exposed Him as one who would break the law of Moses.
So He is absolutely trapped. They are either going to haul him off to Pilate, or to the people. He is about to break either the civil law or the divine law, and either way they are going to be rid of Him. They are so joyful, because this is foolproof. They got Him. Like my 10-year-old son, Joshua, says whenever we play chess together: “Checkmate!” Got ‘cha! Never was there a better plan made by men! Or so they thought.
Now let’s notice some things about this woman:
1.She was guilty. Caught in the act. Nothing she could do to rid her life of the dark stain.
2. She was publicly shamed and humiliated. She was exposed in front of everybody, she was embarrassed, cast down, crushed, discredited, disgraced, humiliated, and shamed; she was a dirty adulterous woman and everybody knew it. The men didn’t talk to her, they only talked about her: “this woman…such women…”
3. The law condemned her to death. She was on death row. She had no hope, she could not change her situation. She was merely awaiting execution by stoning.
Then in verse 6 Jesus bends down and begins writing with his Finger. The Bible doesn’t say what He wrote so we won’t even guess, and He says in verse 7, “If any of you is without sin, let Him be the first to throw a stone at her.” And He stooped down and wrote some more. What a marvelous response. He didn’t do away with the Law, He said, “fine, if you’re without sin then throw the first stone.”
And I really like the King James in verse 9, it says “and they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest.” (Jesus takes a rook, then the bishop, then both knights, then all the pawns). Whatever Jesus wrote, combined with what He said, condemned these men, and they hung their heads in shame and left. Suddenly their assured victory was a horrible defeat, and they were caught in their own trap. Proverbs 28:10 is referring to this very event: “They who lead the upright along an evil path will fall into their own trap...”
And then Jesus speaks to the woman. He asks her “where are your accusers” (and he could have added “and mine”)? Has no one condemned you? “No man, Lord.” And then came what must have been the sweetest words ever spoken to her. “Neither do I condemn you.” What grace! The only One Who could have condemned her, Who could have thrown the first stone, said “neither do I condemn you.” The Law condemned her, the religious leaders condemned her, the people condemned her, even her own conscience condemned her, everybody and everything condemned her, except Jesus. Jesus did not come into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. Then He added, “Go and sin no more” because Jesus is full of grace and truth.
Imagine how she felt. Don’t you know she just loved Jesus from here on. Jesus had saved the condemned, saved her life. Some of you might remember Jackie Robinson, he was the first black person to play major league baseball. Breaking baseball’s color barrier, he faced jeering crowds in every stadium. Players would often stomp on his feet and kick him. While playing one day in his home stadium in Brooklyn, he made an error. The fans began to boo and ridicule and publicly shame him. He stood at second base, humiliated, while the fans jeered at him. Then, shortstop Pee Wee Reese slowly walked over and stood next to him. He put his arm around Jackie Robinson and turned and faced the crowd. The fans grew quiet. Robinson later said that arm around his shoulder saved his career, and that he had loved Pee Wee Reese from that point on. That’s what Jesus did here. Went to the shamed person and stood with her, as the crowd got quiet and left.
But do you know what is so ironic about this passage? I hope you didn’t miss the irony in this whole story. Turn to the book of Hosea. The Book of Hosea is an object lesson. Word picture. God tells Hosea in 1:2 to "Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the Lord." God told Hosea to take an adulterous wife because the nation of Israel had committed adultery by turning from God to worship idols, and God was making Hosea a picture of how God was going to deal with the Israelites. In chapter 2 you see that Hosea’s wife had gone whoring after other men, was guilty of adultery and prostitution; a picture of the entire nation of Israel.
So notice the irony: at the time of John chapter 8, the nation of Israel was an adulterous nation. The leaders had forsaken the Lord and turned to the gods of the other nations. The woman caught in adultery represents the nation of Israel and the leaders of Israel. The men who drug her in front of Jesus were guilty of spiritual adultery just like she was guilty of physical adultery, and that’s why they all left one by one.
But notice what God was going to do about it in Hosea chapter 3: 1 The Lord said to me, "Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes."
Wow, God commands Hosea to go show love to his wife even though she was an adulterous woman, in actuality she was a prostitute, and Hosea was to go and show love to her, as a picture lesson of how the Lord loved the Israelites even though they turned from Him to other gods. So notice what Hosea does to show his love to his wife, vs. 2:
2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley.3 Then I told her, "You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will live with you."
Hosea actually pays a price to redeem his wife out of prostitution. You see, Hosea so loved his wife, that he gave his silver and his barley, that she would not perish in prostitution, but that she would live with him “many days”. See Hosea did not come to condemn his wife, no, but that she might be saved through him. And remember, this is an object lesson; so the Israelites should have thought, “Hmm, I wonder what price God is going to pay to purchase us out of our idolatry and our adultery and our prostitution?”
Well the answer becomes a little clearer in chapter 6: 1 "Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds. 2 After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence. Hosea 6:1-2 (NIV)
There would be a tearing to pieces, an injuring and wounding, but God would revive, renew and restore on the third day. So now they had a clearer picture: there would be a price paid for them, it would include wounding, injuring, literally tearing to pieces, but then on the third day there would be life.
But the woman in John 8 does not just represent the nation of Israel, you know who she also represents? Oh self-righteous people don’t like this at all. This adulterous woman represents you and me. “Oh wait a minute there, Skippy, I’ve never done what she did.” The truth of the matter is you have gone whoring after other gods every day of your life! And so have I. James writes, “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God (James 4:4)?
The reality is that the same 3 things that were said about the woman can be said of you and me: 1-We’re guilty of sin. There’s nothing we can do to get the stain out. We’re like Lady Macbeth who plotted with her husband to kill Duncan the king. And after the blood was shed she was often found sleep walking trying to wash out the spots of blood on her hands, but she couldn’t do it, and finally in desperation she cries, “out, out damned spot, out.” But it wouldn’t come out, because the spot was in her conscience. And we’re like that, guilty, nothing we can do. 2-We’re exposed in our sin. If any one of us would have to stand before the Law, like this woman did, we too would be publicly shamed and humiliated, exposed in front of everybody, cast down, crushed, disgraced, humiliated, and shamed; we would all be like a dirty adulterous woman. And 3-we are just awaiting our own execution and death. The whole world is just like this lady caught in her sin.
But you see, just like in this woman’s case, there’s Jesus. And He didn’t come to condemn the world but to save the world. Know why He didn’t condemn this woman? Because He would later be condemned in her place, so that she, and we, might go free. In reality Jesus became those 3 things: 1-Though innocent God put our sins on Him and treated Him as though He were guilty. 2- He was publicly shamed and humiliated. He was hung on a cross, exposed in front of everybody, He was cast down, crushed, disgraced, humiliated, and shamed publicly; He was treated as a dirty adulterous woman, a prostitute. 3-He really was executed. He was executed to pay the price, not with silver and barley but with His own flesh and blood. On that cross He was injured and wounded, and torn to pieces, and on the third day restored to life. The innocent Man dying for the guilty, the free man exchanging His life for the condemned so that the condemned might go free. And now He says to all who repent and believe: “neither do I condemn you.” “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” “Just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.”
In South America in the early 1930’s Juan’s father believed in arranged marriage, and gave Teresa to his son. Juan came to love Teresa. Swept up by their love for each other, the two became inseparable. But Teresa had a dark secret, a sinful past, she had been a prostitute, and was not prepared for the honesty that real love requires. She must now tell Juan, knowing full well that this will mean the end of their relationship. “Juan?” “Yes?” “There’s uh .....There’s something I need to tell you.” “Yes?” “It’s about me and what I have done.” “Yes?” She is totally absorbed in the remains of her salad, anything to avoid his eyes. “There’s no easy way of saying this. I’ve…I’ve…I’ve been a prostitute. I was desperate, I needed money.” Time and silence have this thing they do together. They seem to make a pit that has no bottom to it. At last she looks up from her salad. Juan is crying. The tears are streaming down his cheeks, and he is biting his lip to stop himself from sobbing. “I’m so sorry she says. I didn’t mean to deceive you. I’m so sorry, Juan. I’m sorry” and she rises slowly to leave. He can’t speak. He wants to, but nothing is working. He is looking at her, and weeping and weeping. Juan catches her arm as she begins to leave, he is mumbling something through his tears. And then he begins to repeat it again and again. “I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you.....” This is the worst thing she’s heard. She wants to scream, to break something. She doesn’t deserve his love. She begins gulping and moaning, her tears start flowing. He pulls her toward him, she kneels down in front of him, and they lean their foreheads together. Their tears mixing together. He takes her face in his hands and says, “I love you. I forgive you. My love is too strong to condemn you.” And just like this story, God has given people to His Son before this world was ever made. And to all who kneel at the cross and confess their sin, He says, “I love you, I forgive you, I did not come to condemn you, but to save you. And now that you’re entirely loved and fully forgiven, go and sin no more.”
