Title: Free Pass
Place: BLCC
Date: 11/20/16
Text: John 8.2-11; Romans 6.1-4; Hebrews 10.26-31
CT: We are given a “Free Pass” on our past.
[Screen 1]
FAS: In an interview with New York magazine, the late Supreme Court Justice Scalia explained his beliefs about the reality of the Devil. After mentioning his belief in a real heaven and hell he interjected, "I even believe in the Devil." The interview continued (with interviewer in bold):
You do?
Of course! Yeah, he's a real person ….
Have you seen evidence of the Devil lately?
You know, it is curious. In the Gospels, the Devil is doing all sorts of things. He's making pigs run off cliffs, he's possessing people and whatnot. And that doesn't happen very much anymore … It's because he's smart.
So what's he doing now?
What he's doing now is getting people not to believe in him or in God. He's much more successful that way … I mean, c'mon, that's the explanation for why there's not demonic possession all over the place. That always puzzled me. What happened to the Devil, you know? He used to be all over the place. He used to be all over the New Testament. What happened to him? He got wilier.
Isn't it terribly frightening to believe in the Devil?
You're looking at me as though I'm weird. My God! Are you so out of touch with most of America, most of which believes in the Devil? I mean, Jesus Christ believed in the Devil! It's in the Gospels! You travel in circles that are so, so removed from mainstream America that you are appalled that anybody would believe in the Devil! Most of mankind has believed in the Devil, for all of history. Many more intelligent people than you or me have believed in the Devil. 1
(Jennifer Senior, "In conversation: Antonin Scalia," New York (10-6-13)
[Screen 2]
LS: I believe in the Devil. I know hell is real, but I have a Savior. My Savior is one who has compassion. My Savior knows my every flaw and every failing I have committed. Yet my Savior took all my sins and took them on himself so I could have a new life in Him. Let me read you of the story of what my Savior once did some 2000+ years ago. [Screen 3]
Read John 8.2-11: 1 Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.
“Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”
They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.
When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”
“No, Lord,” she said. [Screen 4]
And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”
Jesus in our text is surrounded by a circle of listeners. They are listening to his words. They were amazed at his words of forgiveness and were beginning to accept his message of love. We are not sure what Jesus was teaching them but we do know it was abruptly interrupted when a bunch of men burst through the circle to throw a practically nude woman in front of Jesus. These were respected men… religious men who had broke in on this woman who had been in bed with a man that was not her husband. Was this how she made her living? We don’t know.
They drag her stumbling all along the street toward Jesus.
The men shout, “We found this woman in bed with a man. The law says to stone her. What do you say rabbi.”
Jesus looks at the woman. Not with disgust but with kindness. He saw her as who she could be not as she was now.
He diverts the crowd’s attention away from the disheveled woman and draws on the ground.
They once again shout, “Tell us teacher. What do you want us to do with her?”
Jesus rises back up and says, “I guess if you have never made a mistake than you have the right to stone this woman.”
Jesus kneels down and writes again.
Someone cleared their throat as if they were about to speak but no one said a word.
Then we hear the sound of rocks falling to the ground at the feet of these respected religious men. They had rushed in as one but walked away slowly one by one.
Jesus told the woman to look up and said. “Is there no one to condemn you?”
Maybe she expected to be scolded or even punished. But neither happened.
What she got was a promise and a commission.
The promise, “Then neither do I condemn you.”
The commission, “Go and sin no more.”2
(2 Max Lucado, Book of John Life Lessons, p.55-56)
This is not what I had intended to preach this week. I made the mistake of turning on Facebook first thing Monday morning. There was a picture that had been shared of three former first ladies and one picture of Mrs. Trump completely naked. The photo is so bad I would not dream of showing it here. My first reaction was, how could something like this be approved, to be shown on Facebook, but then I noticed the first comment and even though I know better I made a comment myself. Asking for trouble I guess but Jesus did say “speak” and be His witness. (Names with held)
[Screen 5]
Comment Person 1: Evangelical voters love her, right?
[Screen 6]
Me: Jesus would love her and he would ask those who condemn her and are sinless to throw the first stone. John 8.2-11.
[Screen 7]
Comment person 2: Wow, so is that like a free pass? Man, I got some sinnin' to do!
ME: Actually this “comment” by person 2 is correct. There is a free pass for all of our past in Christ. If this wasn't so political this would make a great sermon illustration. The point is Jesus gives us all second chances and then offers us a new life following Him. His biggest command is to love God and just as important, love one another. If we follow these two commands we will as Jesus says in the text, "Then neither do I condemn you, go now and leave your life of sin."
Good thing our Lord continues to give us new mercies each and every morning. Lamentations 3.22-23, The faithful love of the Lord never ends!
His mercies never cease.
Great is his faithfulness;
his mercies begin afresh each morning. (End comments)
This way of believing is nothing new. People have always wanted to find loopholes to justify their actions. We tend to want to do what we want when we want with whom we want disregarding the consequences. What frightens me is that there may be some followers of Christ who believe this. My “nip it in the bud” reflex kicked in and I had to change my sermon today.
Grace and forgiveness are wonderful things. Jesus showed grace and forgiveness to this woman who had been brought out and exhibited in front of them all to be ridiculed and then stoned. This text came to my mind as soon as I saw the Facebook post picture.
The thing is that grace is not a loophole we can jump through. It is hard to get past the words of Jesus in John 8.11, [Screen 8] “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”
Oh don’t get me wrong. I am all about grace because I have been given more than I think I deserve, but Jesus thinks differently. For that I am thankful. I am in no way judging anyone on his or her actions. It is not my place to judge anyone outside.
[Screen 9]
What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 1 Corinthians 5.12.
The last part there causes me to say this.
I do not want anyone that I speak to confused on grace and truth in this. There is a free pass from our past shame and guilt. Jesus took them all away and gave us a clean slate at the cross. That is the gospel. [Screen 10]
John 3.16, For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten son that
whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have ever lasting life.
We all love a big helping of that scripture but this is not a “free pass” to continue to sin even after Jesus has taken them from you. Actually our love for Jesus should compel us to strive to follow Him and lead a sinless life as far as it is possible for us to do.
Grace meets us where we are, but we must strive to seek God’s ideal and not knowingly do what we want when we want with who we want knowing it is against God’s ideal for us. [Screen 11] This is not a license to sin.
I don’t think this is that hard to understand. This is pretty much common sense to me. But as I often say from this place as a preacher of God’s word, “It is not me talking, it is God.”
Jesus was very clear when He said, “Go and sin no more.”
The Apostle Paul definitely had a lot to say about this Free Pass. He taught about grace and even wrote a letter to the followers of Christ in Rome. He did not want them to think that grace was a license to sin. Grace is not a free pass to sin as much as they wanted to. He, as I like to say, along with the great theologian Barney Fife, “nipped it in the bud”. [Screen 12]
Romans 6.1-4, What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, [Screen 13] we too may live a new life.
We too may live a new life. That is good news the way I see it.
Jesus knows we all fall short. He doesn’t say, “As long as you change your ways you can follow me.”
What He says tells us His grace is sufficient, what ever we have done. He simply says to follow Him and we will be changed by His love.
Jesus offers us a chance to live a new life.
Are there consequences if we decide to not follow Him and continue to accept this Free Pass as a license and not forgiveness? There is a difference.
I will yield to the writer of Hebrews to give us the answer. [Screen 14]
Hebrews 10.26-31, 26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, [Screen 15] 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
[Screen 16] Jesus came at Christmas to save us from this. [Screen 17]
I tie this up with the words of John 3.17-21. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
19 This is the [Screen 18] verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.
21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
It says there will be a verdict. In Christ we get a [Screen 19] Free Pass on this verdict.
Not Guilty.
Without Christ we are in the dark. Guilty as charged.
In Christ we have the light that overcomes the darkness of the world.
In Christ, as we follow Him, we have the confidence to speak on His behalf.
In Christ we can release our fear and know we are forgiven and loved by a compassionate and loving savior who says:
Neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin.
Pretty tough stuff. There is a hell and my hope is no one I know ever gets there. There is a free pass that can start today for you. Wont you come.
