John 8 New International Version (NIV)
8 1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
11 “No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
People in glass houses
It is morning.
Morning is that time of day when Godly people wake to commune with God it is the time of roosters crowing it is a time of strength when workers wake up and go about their chores. Carpentars and truckies, Parents farmers, teachers and brickies make their way to their honest days toil.
It is also a time of weakness when tempers are stretched at being awakened too early from a well deserved sleep it is the time when babies stretch their lungs and children emerge from dreams.
But in a shady and less discussed world it is the time when the guilty wake up – hung over when drunkeds remember their offensive acts from the day before when the guilty hang their heads in shame – when the weakenned like peter in the courtyard sin and when people are caught in places they ought not to be.
One one such morning Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them
Somewhere in the half light of that morning a woman was caught where she ought not too have been. Married, she was found in a place where she did not belong. In her society it was a recipe for death. Toxic and shameful. The man would slip away but not her.
John tells us what unfolds next.
. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
Ever gone for a walk through your own life. I was strolling through the backroads of my life the other day. I mean if I looked through the eyes of John I would see justification and righteousness. I would see my inherrant goodness and forgive every slip as minor even if they did happen to be in the key of major.
Sometimes we just excuse ourselves and after all I am basically a pretty good person
It is only when you come to understand your need for grace that you are fully able to extend grace to another.
Jim Ryun world record middle distance runner was expected to win gold at the 1972 olympics. During one of the heats he was fouled by a Pakistani athlete and left sprawling on the track.
His coach had told him because he was fouled he would be reinstated but when it went to the officials it was declined. Eventually official footage showed that Ryun was innocent.
He said: "So they came and viewed it, and they walked out of the room shaking their heads and in essence said, 'Well, yes, you were fouled, but we've never reinstated anyone before, and we don't want to set a precedent at this point. So come back in four years and try again."
Completely shattered by what had happened to him, Ryun began to experience a number of feelings that did not closely resemble the gospel message that he had embraced only months earlier.
"I'll tell you," said Rvun, "even though I was a Christian and wanted to praise the Lord, my honest reaction at that point was to catch one of those guys in a dark room and smash his glasses or do something to really express the inner hurt that I was feeling, because I realized that I had trained all of those years for nothing.
"But," he continued, "that was the point where Christ came into the situation, and He enabled me to slowly give the anger and bitterness to him over period of months. At first I wasn't willing to; I was willing to throw a 'pity party', wanting everybody to sympathize with 'Poor Jim'; he's fallen, and it's obvious that he was fouled and let's all feel sorry for him.' And once I had swallowed in that enough, I recognized that I no longer had that peace that I had first received when I had met Christ.
"I finally got before the Lord one night and said, 'Lord, I'm tired of this; I need to get out of this and I really want to be free of it.' And the Lord just simply spoke to my heart: 'You've got to forgive these men and you have to get this bitterness out.' And I remember saying, 'Okay, Lord, I ask for your forgiveness and I want to be released of this.' And I had to do the same thing the next night and the next night. But slowly, over a period of time, I was able to resolve my anger and give it all back to the Lord."
As the days passed, Ryun began to realize that the prayer uttered by him and his wife prior to the Olympics had been answered but in a manner in which they had not anticipated.
"We had prayed that I would win a gold medal because we so much wanted to share with everyone possible that Jesus Christ is alive today and that He is so eager to help people," explained Ryun. "But the Lord showed us over a period of time that most people who live in this world are losers; most people don't win gold medals.
To forgive like this is to comeinto an understanding of Grace that Christ models in the woman caught in adultery.
It isn’t until you come into that genuine relationship with Christ = at the grace leveal that you can forgive like this.
Ryan says:-
". Before I opened my life to Christ I was always considered a very kind and concerned person, but for the most part it wasn't flowing from the heart of Christ; I was primarily living for self.
"For me, coming to know Jesus was like the difference between darkness and light," he observed. "Before, even though I was a churched person, I was living in darkness; I really did not know what it is to he born again. Becoming born again and being filled with the Holy Spirit was like walking out of the darkness into a lighted room. I think that's the best way to describe it: light and darkness; all the difference in the world."
The first key to not throwing stones is to come into understanding the fullness of grace.
The second key. -
Take time to consider – Don’t say a word until you have weighed up the situation.
Jesus gives the accusers and the woman time.
The older men – those who know their own frailties when given time to consider – realise that in their heart of hearts they are no better than the woman.
The younger men buoyed by over confidence and fuelled by outrage slowly realise that they two have the same potential.
When you take your time you are far less likely to throw stones.
One by one they leave.
It pays for us to learn when to push the pause button.
Proverbs 19 verse 12 says
AMPC
Desire without knowledge is not good, and to be overhasty is to sin and miss the mark.
Jesus takes his time when he judges a matter – his drawing in the sand allows the overhasty to think a little.
8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
11 “No one, sir,” she said.
It pays to take time to think before you condemn even the guilty.
Those who had sinned just left their anger melted away when faced with a slideshow of their own sins.
The innocent – Jesus – drew in the dust – He gave it time as well.
So if you are tempted to judge another – take time to think.
Assess their sins in light of your own sins and propensity to sin and you too might walk away from Judgement
Thirdly –
Jesus doesn’t approve of the sins.
Grace is not endorsement.
“Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
11 “No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
The first principle of Jesus here is compassion but it is qualified compassion.
Jesus qualifies his statement neither do I condemn you with go and sin no more. The world – has drifted from God’s values – We now have along with convienience stores morals of convienience. So if someone today wants what they can not have they use non bib lical standards. But Jesus will not have that either.
He very wisely draws the woman back to biblical standards but draws her back with the compassion of the God that He is.
He draws her back into the righteousness of God - He gives her a second chance there is a poem written
"How I wish that there was some wonderful place
Called the Land of Beginning Again,
Where all our mistakes and all out heartaches
And all our poor selfish grief
Could be dropped like a shabby old coat at the door,
And never put on again."
It inv)
It involved challenge. Jesus confronted this woman with the challenge of the sinless life. He did not say: "It's all right; don't worry; just go on as you are doing." He said: "It's all wrong; go out and fight; change your life from top to bottom; go, and sin no more." It involved compassion –
And It involved belief in human nature. When we come to think of it, it is a staggering thing that Jesus should say to a woman of loose morals: "Go, and sin no more." The amazing, heart-uplifting thing about him was his belief in men and women. When he was confronted with someone who had gone wrong, he did not say: "You are a wretched and a hopeless creature." He said: "Go, and sin no more." He believed that with his help the sinner has it in him to become the saint. His method was not to blast men with the knowledge--which they already possessed--that they were miserable sinners, but to inspire them with the unglimpsed discovery that they were potential saints.
(e) It involved warning, clearly unspoken but implied. Here we are face to face with the eternal choice. Jesus confronted the woman with a choice that day--either to go back to her old ways or to reach out to the new way with him. This story is unfinished, for every life is unfinished until it stands before God.
These points by Barclay are perhaps summed up in this poem I am about to share written by Don Tayles a former member of this church.
.
It is called Joe Bloggs dream.
It goes like this.
Joe Bloggs was just an average bloke,
He never went to church.
He wasn’t the religious kind,
He never got the urge.
He’d see his wife and kids go,
OK he’d say for them,
But not for stronger blokes like him,
And thought themselves “he men”
Well one day Joe was at a do,
With lots and lots to eat,
He stuffed himself with sponge and cream,
And pav and cakes too sweet.
Now too much cake can make you dream
And so it was with Joe.
For late that night he had a dream,
That filled his heart with woe,
Of all the dreams that shake you up,
And make you terrified,
Joe Bloggs dream’ it beat the lot.
Because – he dreamt – he died!
He dreamt he saw a great white throne,
It was God’s judgement seat,
It was the day of reckoning,
When God and Bloggs would meet.
Now Joe had never killed a soul.
He’d never robbed a till
He always kept his garden neat
And always paid his bills.
And so – he thought he’d done quite well
Compared to Bill, or Alf
But here he found – he found himself compared,
With the righteous Lord himself.
And God could see right through J. Bloggs,
All that in life He’d wrought.
Everything he’d ever said or done,
And even all he’d thought.
And Joe was real dismayed by this,
To find God was aware,
Of certain things he’s said and done, (he wished he wasn’t there.)
He saw himself a loathsome thing,
And felt an utter creep,
And he shrivelled up a lot more still,
When he heard God speak.
“Joe Bloggs your case is desperate,
And what of this my son?
He died that you might be forgiven,
If only you had come,
Through him alone you can be saved,
There’s simply no-one else,
But since you thought you were good enough,
Will you pay the price yourself?
Joe was really scared by now,
He had the wind up you can bet.
His hair stood up as stiff as wire,
And behind his ears was sweat
But then at God’s right hand Joe looked,
And saw Jesus the Son,
And on his hands some awful wounds,
That men like him had done.
“God loves you Joe” the Saviour said,
“He waits for you to come,
If you will follow where I lead,
A place for you is won.”
“Would you forgive me?” said Joe,
“And call me like a friend”,
“For sure.” He said, “I’ll come right now,
My life with you I’ll spend.”
He made to go towards the Lord,
And began with such a leap,
That he jerked himself to wakefulness,
That drove away his sleep.
And as he lay awake and thought,
Of God’s redeeming grace.
He’d heard about the ‘prodigal’,
And he was such a case,
He’d have to make a change from now,
He’d muck around no more.
He’d start by going to church next day,
And be faithful to the core.
He told his wife and kids next day,
As they had their evening meal.
His wife she quickly pinched herself,
To check that this was real.
Joe hardly even got the gist,
of what the preacher said.
For vivid memories of his dream,
Still raced around his head.
But when the preacher finished up,
And gave an ‘alter call’,
Joe stood up and gave a shout,
That echoed from the walls,
The clatter of his shoes was heard,
As up the aisle he sped.
The preacher stopped short in his tracks
And wondered what he’d said.
In all his years of ministry,
He’d never seen the like.
“It’s nothing that you’ve said,” said Joe,
“It’s what I saw last night.”
The people they were most upset
They called it a disgrace,
That Bloggs should let his emotions loose
Within that ‘hallowed’ place,
“I don’t care what you say” said Joe,
“But if you were to see,
The things revealed to me last night,
You’d sprint up here with me,
I saw with God I was not fit,
It shattered all my pride
But then I heard his gracious call,
When I dreamt I died.
Don Tayles
