Caught!
CCCAG June 17th, 2018
Scripture- John 8:1-11
What we just watched was a video representation from the movie the Gospel of John that depicts one of my favorite Bible Narratives because it shows the overwhelming love of Jesus Christ for the sinner. Anyone who is giving their heart to the Lord Jesus has stood before him like that woman did- dirty, covered in their sin and totally dependent upon the richness and mercy of God.
For that reason I love this story.
This morning I want to take a little time and dissect this narrative as there are a few things that are not immediately clear from a casual reading of the story.
Before we get into the meat of the Gospel account-
I want to start with a footnote that appears in many modern translations of the bible. There is an editor's note that questions whether John chapter 8:1-11 should not be in the Bible because the earliest most reliable manuscripts did not have this scripture in it.
So want to take a little bit of time and address that right away this morning. The Bible says that all scripture is God breathed and is useful for rebuking correcting and training in righteousness. We want to make sure that this particular scripture is part of God’s inspired Word, so lets tackle that first this morning.
A little history about John’s Gospel-
The gospel of John was the last gospel written and was written in or around 90-100 AD. By this time in history, Jerusalem has been destroyed and the faithful have been scattered to the far corners of the Roman Empire. The original copies of the NT Gospels and letters/epistles that were written were being tightly kept in individual churches.
These documents were being carefully copied by converted Jewish scribes so that the teaching of the Apostles could be spread throughout the Roman Empire. Some minor persecutions arose that led to the loss of some of the original copies of the NT (minor meaning not widespread), until 284 AD, a man named Diocletian rose to power and became emperor.
Diocletian hated Christianity and started an aggressive campaign to rid the entire world of its influence buy raiding churches and houses of Christians and Jewish people and destroying any copies of the Bible or Jewish literature that he could find.
Diocletian’s purges continued until his death when the Roman emperor Constantine took over the empire. Constantine is an interesting historical figure as he was the first Roman Empire to be friendly toward Christianity, and even is reported to have become a Christian later in his life. Constantine reversed the purge is set forth by his predecessor and started gathering all the known copies of scripture that he could find.
Because of the intense persecution under Diocletian, the leaders of the churches had no idea where many of these scriptures were as a whole, as no one church had all the teachings in one place. What we know now, and these are very recent findings- is that many of these scriptures had been smuggled out of the Roman Empire and even into the fabled libraries of Alexandria, Egypt.
These copies of the scriptures, some of the oldest copies ever found, were not rediscovered until very recently (the last 5 years) and well after most of the Bible translations that we use today were written.
All those findings confirm that John chapter 8:1-11 was an original part of Johns manuscript.
Not only that, but we also have witnesses from the early church fathers and the early theologians that created much of the doctrine and belief systems that we still follow today. Two of these men wrote specifically to the fact many church’s left this part of John’s Gospel out of their copies. These two men were Pope Jerome, and Saint Augustine.
Augustine was the prolific author and formed many of the doctrines of Christianity and philosophy that we believe in today., Both noted that John chapter 8:1-11 were part of Johns original manuscript.
Augustine wrote an interesting commentary about this subject.
I'll read you what he said and then explain it a little bit because the language in it is somewhat formal to our 21st century years.
Augustine "Certain persons of little faith, or rather enemies of the true faith, fearing, I suppose, lest their wives should be given impunity in sinning, removed from their manuscripts the Lord's act of forgiveness toward the adulteress, as if he who had said, Sin no more, had granted permission to sin."
What Augustine’s was saying here, is that among the Greek church’s and particularly in places like Corinth which dealt with a very lascivious culture, sexual sin was a huge problem within the church.
Augustine was saying that church people were taking the scripture and pointing out that since Jesus easily forgave the adulteress, that Jesus himself must not have a problem with adultery or other sexual sins.
So many pastors in the early church refused to preach from this scripture and some of them went as far as cutting this part of the scripture right out of their scrolls that they had. So yes, indeed many of the early documents do not have this scripture in them but we also have a direct witness too many of these things that explains why the scripture was taken out.
Now since we believe that all scripture is inspired by God, it is not up to a pastor, a Bishop, a pope or anyone else within the Christian Church to remove a scripture because it is difficult. It is up to us to explain the scripture and its difficulty to the body of Christ.
It’s then up to the body of Christ to say, AMEN
So, in summary, we can trust the Bible that exists in our laps today because God has preserved HIS Word for centuries of people trying to destroy it, distort it, or marginalize it in the minds of the cultures in which it speaks .
Now let's get into the meat of the actual scripture. I want to point out several different things about this narrative are not readily apparent and shows the absolute corruption of Jewish religious officials of that time.
Before we get into that let's just take a moment and seek God and ask his Holy Spirit to reveal the truth of this incredible scripture to us this morning.
Prayer
Right before we prayed today, I said that we were going to look at everything that the Jewish officials were doing wrong here.
I gave this message the title, “Caught”, but it just as easily could have been titled, “Trapped” as that would be more accurate as to what is happening here.
The scripture plainly says they were trying to trap Jesus. What this scripture shows, aside from the beautiful picture of grace and forgiveness that Jesus shows this woman, and the length that a man-made religion will go to in order preserve its earthly power, status, or authority.
The first thing I want to look at is the fact that this woman was quote unquote caught in adultery
I. Woman Caught
So how is this woman caught? The Pharisees just happen to be walking past this woman’s house and heard the sounds of passion I knew that her husband was away, so they busted down the door and caught her? And then decided right there that Jesus just happens to be in town and came up with a plot on the fly to trap him in a question?
We know her husband didn’t turn her in or he would have been front and center in this story and by the Jewish law he would have been ready to cast the first stone against his wife. Since a husband is not mentioned we can assume she is not married at all.
It's my opinion that this woman was well known in her community as a woman of loose morality, perhaps even a prostitute.
It is very likely that she had been this way for years and that the Jewish high council, the priesthood, their teachers, and the scribes all knew of her existence yet did nothing to help convert her back into the Jewish faith.
All they saw was a sin, a problem, a blight in their community.
I bring this up this morning because Jesus does not see a problem, nor does he see a sin.
Jesus sees a person desperately in need of true love and true grace.
It is very likely that this woman has never known either. Her whole world view of men revolves around how they can use or to satisfy their own selfish desires. The only love that she's ever known has been given to her by men who toss her aside as soon as their needs are met.
Men, on this Father's Day , I would ask you how many of you have been guilty of the same thing?
Please understand, I'm not standing behind this pulpit thundering down at you with some sort of righteousness of my own, because I share the same guilt
There are many points in my own life or I have not treated women with the respect that they deserve as fellow Human beings created in the image of God.
In fact, one of the greatest destroyers of faith of our time is free and easily accessible pornography.
It used to be you’d have to sneak into a movie theater to see it,
then it was available via video rentals.
Now, someone could be sitting in the back of a church service watching it on their mobile device.
Pornography is now accepted in our culture. It’s acceptance has grown it to a proportion unseen of on this earth since the time of creation. I think Sodom or Gomorrah would blush at what we can watch on our phones, or computers, or even what is broadcast for general viewing.
If I'm going to address anything specific about Father's Day, it would be this-
Men, we need to make firm covenant with our eyes not to look upon any evil thing- and then follow it.
And make no mistake, Pornography whether softcore hardcore or just suggestive scenes with in a TV show are damaging to all women and deadly to your spiritual walk with God. Many of the women who participate in these movies or scenes are victims themselves of sexual assault and sex trafficked into being forced to do it against their will.
This woman in John chapter 8 is as much a victim of the selfishness of men as she is the cause of men falling into sin. In my opinion, that's one of the biggest reasons that Jesus shows mercy to her. If anyone could have picked up a rock and thrown it at her it would have been the son of God, the righteous judge, the very author of the law that she was breaking and causing others to break.
But, Jesus shows her mercy. He is able to show her mercy because he is getting ready to go to the cross to die for the very sin she is being accused of right there in the middle of that mob.
That, and Jesus shows her mercy, because he knows that this situation he is in is not an exercise in trying to keep Israel pure before the eyes of God , this is an effort to trap him in a no win situation that would cause the Jewish leaders to gain a victory over Him and therefore discredit him or have cause for the Roman authorities to kill him .
So let's look at the ways that this was meant to be a trap for Jesus.
II. It’s a Trap!
The Pharisee’s said- “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.
I'm not sure if there was like a committee that got together and try to come up with a scenario to trap Jesus in a way that would make him stumble So that the Pharisees would have grounds to accuse him either of heresy or turn him into the Roman authorities.
I mentioned the Roman authorities , because they were in charge of Jerusalem and the greater part of Israel during that time of history. Under Roman law, a person could not be put that that a less they were found guilty in a Roman court from a violation of a Roman law.
That matters in this situation because if Jesus agreed with them that this woman should immediately be stoned to death the Pharisees could have turned him into the authorities for breaking Roman law and perhaps even attempting to lead in insurrection. If you remember from other Bible accounts particularly those deal with Barabbas, insurrection was a capital offense dealt with by crucifixion.
So I had Jesus agreed with the Pharisees that they execute this woman immediately the Pharisees could have immediately gone to Pontius Pilate and said Jesus is trying to get us to kill somebody even though they haven't been found guilty by a Roman court and therefore Jesus would have been guilty of insurrection and the Roman authorities particularly Pilate would have had him crucified right there.
That's the first scenario
The second scenario is that Jesus simply forgives this woman. Had he done that, Jesus would have been guilty of heresy and violating the Old Testament law. Therefore, the Pharisees could have dismissed him in the eyes of the people as a heretic, thus destroying Jesus’ message and His ministry.
That's the extent of the no win situation Jesus is being put into here.
That's also why he responded as he did- which was initially with silence.
That is a lesson for us today- this life has a tendency to throw us in a no-win situation. Sometimes we can be accused of things that are just so outrageous but yet get spread around as truth.
I’ve been there.
Our initial reaction is that we did have this urge and need to immediately defend ourselves.
Sometimes the most spiritual thing we can do is just stay silent. not speak.
Let the Lord fight those battles
Again I'll say it, let the Lord fight those battles.
Jesus is silence is very instructional to us. The Bible says that he bent down and roll in the dust of the ground. Many books have been written of what he wrote but the Bible does not say exactly what that was.
Many believe that he started writing down the relevant 10 commandments about this situation, and particularly the 10th commandment that you should not covet another man's wife. If that is true it would have been very applicable here because these men that were accusing this woman would have had to watch the adultery take place and it's virtually impossible for men to watch such a thing and not covet what if they are looking at.
Therefore, they shared in this woman's guilt and that's why the Bible says that after Jesus spoke and said “let he who is without sin cast the first stone” that the oldest among them left first.
If there is any good thing that comes from old age it's this-If you have any amount of spiritual sensitivity at all the older you get the humbler you should get. When I compare the 48-year-old John Oscar to the 19 year old John Oscar is that I wish I could go back in time and smack that stupid kid upside the head about 10 times and tell him you ain't all that!
Is there anyone here that would testify to the same thing in their life?
Hopefully that would be true in all of our lives that the longer we walk with our God more we elevate him and the less we see ourselves. That's the recipe for humility and humility is the greatest destroyer of pride in our own lives
And that leads us to our Third Point- Jesus’ statement about judging others-
III. He who is without sin
Much of the discord and families in churches in neighborhoods in cities or even in nations comes from a sense that we know better than others.
Jesus isn't necessarily saying that we cannot judge that which is evil.
Jesus is asking us to use this rule that he gives us in the Sermon on the Mount-
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
I believe most Christians, church’s, denominations, and even most pastors, will fall into one or 2 camps when it comes to how we deal with sin.
Either they will be extreme legalists who think they need to point out every single thing a person does wrong, or they will extend so much grace that their people are never convicted of sin because it's never talked about as rebellion against God and something that will send you to hell if you continue to live in an unrepentant lifestyle.
Jesus Shows us the correct way here- the greatest love we can Show our brothers and sisters in Christ is to gently guide them in the way of righteousness while at the same time not try to be the Holy Spirit for that person.
The Pharisees were legalists- they never reached out to this woman because they thought they were better than she was. They never took the time to understand how she got herself in that situation, the painful past that might have let her into a life of sin, something in her upbringing that she may have had that influence the way that she looked at God, or any of 1000 different things that could have let her to that moment that they were now condemning her for.
This is why Jesus wants us to see everyone around us through HIS eyes.
We all have those people in our lives that we'd rather not be around. We have those people that we look at and secretly think that we are better than they are. I can be just as guilty of this is anyone else.
However, they are valuable in god's eyes because Jesus went to the cross to die for them the same as he did for you and me. That makes them incredibly valuable and God sight, regardless of whatever spiritual condition they may be in right now .
Even if they cuss
Even if they gossip
Even if they drink
Even if they are involved in extremely sinful behavior
They are still valuable in God's sight
If God placed enough value on them to go to the cross and die for them shouldn't we place enough value to reach out to them to be friend them to speak to them and show love toward them?
Finally I want to leave us with this thought
Jesus is final statement to this woman rings just as true to me and you today as it did this woman
Verse 11-“Neither do I condemn you, go and leave your life of sin”
Let's all stand
It is often said that God's grace is free for us because Jesus paid for it. That is the essence of the gospel. However, the church in recent years have forgotten the second half of verse 11 here and that is true repentance means to turn from sin.
The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Roman’s, asks a question- “Shall we continue setting that grace may increase?”
Paul is speaking to an argument in his day that was used by many Greek philosophers that if Christian grace is such a great thing we need more of it therefore we should continue to keep sinning so that god's grace will have to increase and fill the whole earth .
Paul corrects that wrong way of thinking by saying shall we continue to sin that grace may increase? no! We are dead to sin! We should be dead to the things of the flesh if we are truly alive in Christ
So I ask you this morning are you truly alive only in Christ are you still clinging on to those things the Bible calls evil?
Because God wants you to be free of them
The Bible says it is for freedom that Christ has set us free it is not to give us some more comfortable jail cell but the ripped the door off the jail cell and leads us outside the prison and point us to a new life .
God wants to give you that new life today but that might require you to make some changes.
The first thing you need to do is accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior
The second thing you need to do is believe in him as the only way to heaven.
the third thing you need to do is confess your sins it doesn't need to be confessed to a person but you need to confess them to God
The fourth thing is with the Holy Spirit strength live a life that is pleasing toward God .
Altar Call
