The first thing I'd like to do today as we look at this passage is I'd like to talk to you about the
footnote in your Bible. I hope you have a footnote. Look at it. Do you see the footnote in this
passage that we're looking at today? The footnote says this: “These verses (which is John 7:53-
8:11) are not found in the earliest manuscripts.” I want to explain to you what that's all about and
why we have that written there. Because it's very important to us who are Bible-believing
Christians. We want to know when there are some challenges. Let me explain to you what's
going on here.
There are over 25,000 manuscripts of the Bible. Some in parts, some in larger parts. But when
you put them one over the top of another, they are the same, which is fascinating. Except there
are a few little variants here and there. We want to know what those variants are. And we want to
know that because we understand that the scripture is inspired. In fact, I'm going to show you the
theological terminology that we use to describe what we mean by understanding that the Bible is
inspired.
We believe it’s inspired, which means that the Holy Spirit inspired the writers as they were
writing them. But not just the thoughts and ideas and they wrote them down. We believe in the
verbal plenary inspiration of God's word. Plenary means fullness. That means equally full
inspiration. Old Testament, New Testament, different kinds of…we have poetry, we have
historical narratives, we have prophecy. All of that is fully inspired by God. But we also believe
that it's verbally inspired. Verbally means we believe that the very words that were chosen by
John and Paul and Peter and others to write down, the very words themselves are inspired by
God. The very letters that are in the text are inspired by God. The tenses of those verbs are
inspired by God. That's a pretty significant statement. I want to make sure you understand that's
what we're talking about. So it's very important for us to know if there's a variant somewhere.
When you start studying this idea of the integrity of God's word, you're impressed with the
amazing sameness that exists among all of these documents, considering they didn't have
photocopiers in those times. They took great care. The scribes took great care in meticulously
copying the scriptures knowing that this is a holy book. So they were very careful about their
writings.
So when it says that a story, like the one we're going to read today, is not found in the earlier
manuscripts, what that means is we have these manuscripts from all over. We collect them all
and put them all together. Some were very early, some were later. And it appears that maybe in
this case this story wasn't actually written by John. Maybe it was written by a scribe who
thought, hey, this is a good story to remember. Maybe it was put in the side. And then later when
another scribe came along, put it into the actual text? We don't know for sure. Maybe it was there
in the original. We're not sure.
One of the things that impresses us about the study of the text itself is that there are no variants
that have anything to do with any beliefs, or theological doctrine, or significant truths about
God's word. And whenever we see some kind of a variant like this one we're going to look at
today, did this happen? No doubt it happened in Jesus’ life. And it illustrates some other things
we find in God's word. So we're excited to see this story. We're excited to learn about it and read
about it today.
I want to take you into it so that you can understand it and see what it looks like. We come to
reading the scriptures together. Would you please stand with me as we read this whole story
together? Starting in John 7:53, it says this: They went each to his own house, but Jesus went to
the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to
him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had
been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has
been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.
So what do you say?” This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring
against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to
ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to
throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they
heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with
the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has
no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you;
go, and from now on sin no more.”
You may be seated.
There are two meetings here we want to talk about, and thus I think we come back to two
applications for our lives today. Meeting number one is Jesus meeting with the scribes and the
Pharisees. The second meeting is with the woman alone. As we go to this meeting with the
scribes and the Pharisees, we're going to see this confrontation that takes place. Now they're
coming, as it says in the text, to test Him or to trap Him. Let me explain the trap so you
understand what they're trying to do.
If Jesus were to say, “Yes, stone this woman because she has sinned and violated the law,” then
He would alienate many of those followers who knew that Jesus was a friend of sinners. He
would also be in violation of the Roman government because the Jewish community was under
Roman law that didn't allow the Jews to enact the capital punishment, even if their law
prescribed that. So they would have a way to condemn Him or get Him in trouble if He were to
answer, “Yes, stone her.” On the other hand, if He were to say, “No, let her go,” there were some
of His followers who would say, “Oh, He's soft on sin. He's just letting her go.” And He would
be then alienating many of the people who were Jewish people who held the law so carefully. So
He was in a trap. If He says yes, He's going to be in trouble. If He says no, He’s in trouble. And
they ask Him a yes or no question.
It's interesting that Jesus doesn't answer the question, does He? You see what He does. I mean,
He's brilliant at what He does. Because what He's going to do is He's going to remove all of the
accusers. So now we don't have anything we can take this woman to account. If all the accusers
are gone, then she's not really in a place where we can judge her or actively execute her. Because
all the accusers are gone. But He's also going to turn this back around on them and challenge
them in their self-righteousness. That's what I spent some time on in my own life this week, you
know, self-righteous. I want to be careful not to be self-righteous.
Well, let's look and see what Jesus does because He bends down to the ground twice. This is
what it says. Instead of answering their question, it says – Jesus bent down and wrote with his
finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said these words: “Let
him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent
down and wrote on the ground.” So He does these two writings on the ground and He makes
these words. What happens is then (as you can read in the text) that these people are printing
their conscience. They realize that they're in trouble or they're going to be shamed themselves
publicly somehow if they don't back off. And so they walk away and they leave the situation.
I wonder what He wrote on the ground. I mean, we all got to wonder that. Right? We do not
know what He wrote on the ground. But there's some ideas. I think it has something to do with
the conscience and prompting them to turn around and go away. One suggestion is that He wrote
the law, you know, different parts of the law. Don't steal, don't lie. And He wrote these down on
one side, then He stood up and He says, “Anybody who is without sin, they can cast the first
stone.” Okay? Then maybe the second time when He bends down, He writes the person's name
next to each one. And when He writes those names down, the guys are going, “Whoa, He knows
that? Whoa.” And they don't want to get shamed, so they're quick to move out of the way.
Another idea (and this is all conjecture, but I thought it was interesting), maybe He wrote down
on the left names of women. He just wrote down a bunch of names of women. And on the
righthand side, when He bent down again, He wrote their names next to these women. Maybe
they didn't commit adultery, but maybe they were looking at that woman or maybe they had a
conversation with that woman that was private that nobody knew about. They're going, “Oh, oh.
I think I'm going to step back from this now.” Jesus is challenging their self-righteousness.
What is self-righteousness anyway? I think the first part of self-righteousness is being right. And
I'm thinking, “Uh oh. That's me. I'm right. Most of the time I'm right.” I'm certainly right when it
comes to knowing that Jesus Christ is the only way that we can experience salvation. So
sometimes people who are not believers say, “You are so self-righteous. You're so intolerant of
other people and their beliefs. You are just being self-righteous.” I don't think that's what selfrighteousness is.
But it is true that when we're right or we believe we're right, we are very close
to being self-righteous, which means that all of us as Christians need to be very careful about this
self-righteousness. It's not just theological issues, okay. But it has to do in a family. Did you
know there's a right way to put that toilet paper roll on the toilet paper roller? Or do you know
what's the right way to handle our finances here in our family? There are a lot of spouses who get
angry with each other and they're self-righteous because they know the right way to manage
finances, or they know the right way how to park the car, the right way of when to get gas in
your car, or whatever it is. Okay? So there's a lot of times that we believe that we're right. I
believe I'm right most of the time, which means that I am in danger of a self-righteous attitude.
But self-righteousness, is it just being right or believing you're right? It also has this idea that I
believe I'm better than you because I am right. When we have this attitude that says I'm better
than you because I am right, that's when self-righteousness takes effect in our lives. And there
are times when that happens in a family. “I can't believe you're doing…” It's just kind of treating
someone with disgust. “So if you would just do it this way…” And so we're kind of looking
down on someone else in a marriage relationship because we're right. We’ve got to be careful
with this, I think, especially those of us who think we're right most of the time.
What we need here is we've got to have an attitude. See, I do think we can speak boldly about
our salvation experience when we tell people there's only one way to get to heaven. But we have
to be careful about looking at someone else saying, “I'm better than you because I know how to
get to heaven.” That's a whole different response.
Do you know why these guys left? These guys left the situation because they came in contact
with their own sin. That's why they left. I think it's very important for us as Christians to come in
contact with our own sin nature. In fact, I think studying the sin nature is really helpful for us
because the practical application of studying the sin nature is humility in our lives. I'm not as
great as I think I am. And whenever there are differences, whether there are differences in the
church or differences in the family or differences even politically, sometimes we can look at
others and say, “Oh those people are so…” and we fill in the blank. Because we think we're
better than they are somehow. We have to be so careful about thinking we are better than other
people in this whole self-righteous attitude.
This is not a story alone in the Bible. Jesus was trying to teach this regularly to the Pharisees and
describe this to them. He says in Matthew 7:3-4 – Why do you see the speck that is in your
brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your
brother, “Let me take the speck out of your eye,” when there is the log in your own eye? We
don't see the log in our own eye. My wife regularly says, “Hey, can I clean your glasses for you?
It's bothering me.” I don't see my glasses are dirty, but it's bothering her that my glasses are dirty.
So she's very gracious and cleans them for me. I think sometimes the things are so close to our
own eyes, we don't even see them.
We have to be very careful, I think, in this whole attitude that we are better. We are not better
than someone. And it has to do with knowledge that we think we have a knowledge. Or
sometimes it's our lifestyle. You know, there's things that I don't do, which makes me so much
better than those people who do them. Or some things that I do in my life that other people don't
do, which makes me better than…. When I do that, that's self-righteousness. And so I look at
these guys, these Pharisees, and I say, “I'd never want to become a Pharisee.” And I think,
“Whoa, maybe I'm enacting a little bit of self-righteousness in my own heart.” I just think this is
a really tricky area in our lives. I think we're closer to self-righteousness than we imagine much
of the time.
I think one of the key passages that helps us understand more about what I'm saying here about
self-righteousness is this passage in Luke where Jesus also told this parable to some who trusted
in themselves that they were righteous. That's the first thing. That they had the right, you know, I
got the right a lot of times. I’m in the right. And treated others with contempt. That's the two
things that make self-righteousness. Not only do I think I'm right, but I judge those people in my
heart. I look down on those people and I treat them with contempt because I'm better than them
is the idea. Man, I need to be careful.
Here's the story. Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax
collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed this way: “God, I thank you that I am not
like other men who are extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector over there.
I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.” But the tax collector, standing far off, would
not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, “God, be merciful to me, a
sinner!”
God, be merciful to me, a sinner. This has got to be the key here. Lord, I am a sinner and let me
never lose touch with the fact that I am a sinner and your mercy has allowed me to get where I
am today. To have a lifestyle that is right, or to understand you with rightness, or to be right in
something it's only by your mercy. I am a sinner. “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” I tell you,
this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself
will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.
Humility is one of those qualities that we must have along with the truth. We must have the two
things together. We hold the truth, don't we? I mean I believe that a lot of things in the Bible are
true. I know they're true. But the way I handle that with people is very important.
Paul, in 1 Corinthians 8, opens up the idea and he says, “Alright, guys, let's talk about food
offered to idols. Every one of you has knowledge, and knowledge puffs up.” Wow. Sometimes
we think we know something. And that something that we know can cause us to become
arrogant in our lives. When it comes to food offered to idols, what they would say is, “Look, I
don't have any problem eating the food offered to idols. It’s sold at a discount in the marketplace
because it's already been sold to idols. But idols are nothing. I don’t have a problem eating that
food. That’s fine. Those other people that won't eat the food, forget them. I'm just going to go
ahead and eat the food.” And so there was this attitude about knowledge. I have more knowledge
than they do, therefore I'm right, they're wrong. And there's this attitude of contempt. Or if it was
the other people they would say, “Oh, I would never. I would never eat food that was offered to
idols because it's contaminated. Not physically, but it's associated with idolatry. I would never.
Look at those people eat that food offered to idols.” Do you see the attitude that comes with
whatever we believe is true.
You know, I need to be careful. This is a sermon for me. You know, here's when you know
you're being self-righteous is when you want to call somebody a name. If you ever call
somebody a name, then you know self-righteousness is right there. That's what Jesus says in the
Sermon on the Mount. Let me read it to you.
He says – You have heard that it was said to those of old, “You shall not murder.” And I know
that. Okay, we all know we don't murder. We know that's wrong. “And whoever murders will be
liable to judgment.” But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother (uh oh, getting
a little close here) will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the
council; and whoever says, “You fool!” (calls them a name) will be liable to the hell of fire. I go,
wow. Self-righteousness is closer than I imagine.
So we look at these passages about the Pharisees and we say to ourselves, boy, they sure are bad
guys. No wonder Jesus is attacking them. Maybe we need to be the person in the story
recognizing that Jesus is confronting us with our own self-righteous attitude sometimes. We need
to be careful. We can speak strongly and boldly, but we must do it with an attitude of humility.
And that's where the rub comes. It's hard to speak boldly without becoming arrogant in our lives.
A fascinating study of Jesus and these guys that go away now because they come in touch with
their own sin. They come in touch with their own shame. So they walk away. I think we all need
to be in touch with our sinful nature and recognize that that sinful nature has the potential to lead
us into a path that would be just as degrading as those people that we're judging. We’ve got to be
careful. So they're all gone now. The meeting is adjourned. There is no second. You know in
Robert's Rules of Order. Can I have a have a motion? And then there's no second, so we have to
table it. Alright.
So now Jesus is in the private meeting, one-on-one with this woman. So we're going to switch
applications now. We're going to switch applications from the self-righteous attitude that I need
to be careful of. Now there's this other attitude I can have that’s shame in my life. Some people
are just so burdened with their shame of their sin that they're overly in touch with their sinful
nature and they need to be in touch with the mercy of God. That's what we're going to see take
place here. On the one hand, we have self-righteousness. On the other hand, we have
unrighteousness. Watch how Jesus interacts with this poor lady.
Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they?” Now the word woman there, I mean,
for us that doesn't mean a lot. But this is an endearing term. It's the same name that Jesus calls
His mom in John 2 at the feast when there was no wine left. She comes to Him and says, “Listen
to Him. He’ll help you with this,” (to Jesus). And Jesus says to her, “Woman, what do I have to
do with this?” When Jesus is hanging on the cross, He looks down, sees His mom and sees this
writer, John, and He says, “Woman, see your son. John, see your mother.” It's an endearing term
that He's using, this idea of woman.
It just reminds me that when we have that one-on-one meeting with the Lord…which is what we
need to have on a regular basis, that one-on-one meeting where we come to the Lord, and we
say, “Wow, Lord, I just want to spend that time with you.” He wants to meet with you,
personally in your life. You know, sometimes it's like this. Imagine this. You're in the classroom
and Jesus comes to the door and says, “Hey, I'd like to meet with you. Come on out here.” So
everybody kind of goes out of the classroom, and you're still in the classroom. Jesus is standing
there and He's saying, “You.” You go, “Me?” “Yeah, you. I want to meet with you.” It's this very
personal, intimate meeting that Jesus is having with this woman that each one of us needs to have
with Jesus in our lives.
Notice that He calls her woman, a very endearing term. Notice what she calls Him. “Has no one
condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” Lord? Now notice, we're up on the Temple Mount
here. Okay. The guys who came earlier, the scribes and the Pharisees, they call Him teacher.
Typically in the Temple Mount, you would call a person like this a rabbi. She doesn't do that.
She calls him Lord. Something has taken place in their relationship together where she comes to
this realization that He is not just a good teacher, He's not just a rabbi, but He is Lord. I think if
she would have had a pompous attitude about her sin, then she would easily be confronted by
Jesus about her sin. But Jesus sees what's going on in her heart, as opposed to the self-righteous
Pharisees.
One of the signs of self-righteousness is you take one idea and you run with your one idea,
considering there are no other ideas in the picture. That's one of the things we have a hard time
with politicians. I don't care which side of the aisle you're on. But we all get frustrated with
politicians because they take one side and they are kind of self-righteous about the others. Well
in our story of these guys, you have to realize that this woman was caught in the very act of
adultery, which means there must have been a guy there. Why did they just bring in the woman?
They're just taking one piece of the whole situation. We must be humble in our approach to this.
As Jesus is talking to the woman, she calls Him Lord. A very important first step. I think this is
what really helps Jesus to know exactly how to minister to her heart. So He's merciful and He's
compassionate and He's gracious to her. And He says are there no accusers? Okay. He says go,
but He's not soft on sin. He says stop sinning. Don't live a lifestyle of sin. He's stronger there.
Because that's what happens. When you know Jesus as Lord, that's where it starts. And then
Jesus says – Okay. Go out and sin no more. Go out and be a person that's living a lifestyle that's
different. And that's what we do in our lives.
I think we have a theological problem here as we come to this story because is Jesus soft on sin?
In fact, how can we put these two ideas together that God hates sin, He's righteous. What do we
do with the wrath and the justice and the holiness of God?
I work with parents. Sometimes parents want to help their children understand the wrath and the
justice and the holiness of God when they correct them. “What you're doing, God is not happy
with what you're doing. And the Bible says it right here.” So sometimes parents will use God and
His word to correct children. Although the Bible is valuable for correction, I would suggest that
we want to be careful that we're also emphasizing the fatherhood of God for these children.
Otherwise, children recognize the wrath and the justice and the holiness of God. But Jesus Christ
died on the cross to satisfy the wrath and the justice and holiness of God so that we can know
Him as Father. We could experience the mercy and compassion and grace that God wants us to
experience in our relationship to our own selves.
See, I think we have to come in contact with the theological idea of the sin nature in order to
experience humility in every one of our lives. And then we must come in contact with the
theology of salvation and redemption and atonement, and what that is, so that we can be freed
from our shame. So the separation between the wrath and the justice and the holiness of God,
and the mercy and compassion and grace of God can only take place when we look at the cross.
It's the cross the bridges that. That we have the satisfaction of our sin is taken away because of
the righteousness of God. So that God can then have this mercy and compassion and grace for
us. It's the cross that we're so grateful for. When we become in touch with our salvation, we are
so grateful, we're freed up. We walk away from this intimate meaning with God not with shame;
we walk away with this freedom to go forward and live a new life. And we are so grateful for
that.
The verse I love is this one in Romans 8:1. You know it. There is therefore now no
condemnation for those who are in Christ. You know what in Christ means? Those who call Him
Lord. Those have come to that place in their lives where they say, “I am going to trust Jesus
Christ. I'm going to commit myself to Him. I'm going to dedicate myself to Him.” And when you
do, you call Him Lord. He's the boss. He's the master. And then He guides our lives and moves
us forward. That's the power of Lordship. And then we go out with this freedom, no
condemnation, that we can enjoy our relationship with Jesus Christ certainly, but then we can
enjoy relationships with other people. We don't have to be burdened with shame.
So if today you're struggling with this idea “I'm just such a bad person. I don't know if I can
come to God, I can come to church. I got to get my act together.” First, you just got to
understand it starts with understanding that Jesus Christ is Lord. When you get that down, then
the rest flows. And then we can live the life of freedom that God wants us to enjoy.
