DROP YOUR ROCK
JOHN 8: 1-11
JULY 7, 2002 CASUAL DAY
INTRODUCTION: GIVE ME LIBERTY!!
"If we wish to be free...we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms, and to the God of hosts, is all that is left us...It is vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace--but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
SOURCE: Patrick Henry, from Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, 15th edition, rev. and enl., ed. Emily Morison Beck, Boston, MA: Littel, Brown & Co., 1980, p. 383.
TRANSITION SENTENCE: Today we celebrate Liberty! Maybe you are just about done with the celebration, but we continue on! Vacation and days off may end, but Liberty does not! Today we continue to celebrate our heritage as ONE NATION UNDER GOD, but some just do not like those words. The problem is the God thing! If we are ONE NATION UNDER GOD, what does this mean to us? Why is there such a struggle? I believe it is the demands we experience because we know we are ONE NATION UNDER GOD. But, what are these demands? They are the Demands of Freedom!!
THESIS SENTENCE: JESUS DEMANDS THAT WE NOT STONE ONE ANOTHER IN JUDGMENT: WE MUST DROP OUR ROCKS!
I. FREEDOM IS LOST WHEN WE FOCUS ON FAILURE (VV. 1-6)
A. Failure can be focused on individuals
1. Have you ever studied this text? Does this look like a set up to you?
2. The woman was caught in the very act!
3. Where was the man?? Leviticus 20: 10-16 states, “They both must be put to death.”
4. What was the goal of this encounter: it was a focus on failure!
5. Do we ever get caught in the trap of focusing on the failure of others? Do we enjoy seeing someone fall? If not, why do we dwell on the failure of others? You know, we remember and when we get a chance we help others remember. And, if this isn’t enough, we help the person who failed remember!
B. Failure can be focused on God
1. Have you ever studied this text? Does this look like a set up to you?
2. Not only is this woman being set up, Jesus himself is trying to be trapped (verse 6).
3. What was the hunger here? What was the desire of these “Religious” men?
4. Why would anyone live to trap another? Have we changed at all?
5. In our desire to be right, must everyone else be wrong? Are we open to the truth of God, the Father of Jesus? Or are we closed to any truth, but our truth? DO WE WANT TO SEE GOD FAIL?
ILLUSTRATION: Former televangelist Jim Bakker speaks of events that occurred immediately after his release from prison:
When I was transferred to my last prison, Franklin [Graham] said he wanted to help me out when I got out-with a job, a house to live in, and a car. It was my fifth Christmas in prison. I thought it over and said, "Franklin, you can’t do this. It will hurt you. The Grahams don’t need my baggage." He looked at me and he said, "Jim, you were my friend in the past and you are my friend now. If anyone doesn’t like it, I’m looking for a fight."
So when I got out of prison the Grahams sponsored me and paid for a house for me to live in and gave me a car to drive. The first Sunday out, Ruth Graham called the halfway house I was living in at the Salvation Army and asked permission for me to go to the Montreat Presbyterian Church with her that Sunday morning. When I got there, the pastor welcomed me and sat me with the Graham family. There were like two whole rows of them-I think every Graham aunt and uncle and cousin was there. The organ began playing and the place was full except for a seat next to me. Then the doors opened and in walked Ruth Graham. She walked down that aisle and sat next to inmate 07407-058. I had only been out of prison 48 hours, but she told the world that morning that Jim Bakker was her friend.
Afterwards, she had me up to their cabin for dinner. When she asked me for my addresses, I pulled this envelope out of my pocket to look for them. In prison you’re not allowed to have a wallet, so you just carry an envelope. She asked, "Don’t you have a wallet?" And I said, "Well, yeah, this is my wallet." After five years of brainwashing in prison you think an envelope is a wallet. She walked into the other room and came back and said, "Here’s one of Billy’s wallets. He doesn’t need it. You can have it."
Citation: "The Re-education of Jim Bakker," Christianity Today (12-7-98)
FREEDOM IS LOST WHEN WE FOCUS ON FAILURE!!
II. FREEDOM IS FOUND WHEN WE FOCUS ON FORGIVENESS (VV. 6B-9)
A. Forgiveness is found when Jesus Speaks
1. Have you read this text before? Jesus is into sand art!
2. One of the strange things I do when I go to the beach is build sand castles. Now these aren’t just any old sand castles, these are Joe Jr. originals. I start with those little plastic forms you get at “THE WALMARTS.” Then I dig trenches and drip wet sand on top of all my buildings. Why did I tell you all this? Know ones really knows what I am doing in the sand and know one knows what Jesus is writing!
3. But, what ever Jesus wrote, it must have laid some kind of foundation, for when he spoke, those with Enquiring ears heard what he said!! 4. “If anyone of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her (verse 7).”
B. Forgiveness is found when we walk away
1. What was the response? Did you note that before Jesus spoke, “they kept on questioning him (verse 7)?” Have you ever noticed how we love to justify ourselves with many words? Wayne tried to explain something to be yesterday and boy, did I do some fast talking to justify my truth.
2. What can we learn from these discerning men? Sometimes it is best to shut our mouths and walk away!
3. Did you notice the order in which they left? The older first, then all were gone! 4. Do you have an example to set? Is there anyone here younger than you? If so, you are called to do the right thing and shut your mouth and walk away! How do you end gossip? Shut your mouth and walk away! How do you show the FORGIVENESS OF SINS: SHUT YOUR MOUTH AND WALK AWAY!
ILLUSTRATION: Lewis B. Smedes writes in his book: Forgive & Forget: Healing the Hurts We Don’t Deserve:
"If we say that monsters [people who do terrible evil] are beyond forgiving, we give them a power they should never have...they are given the power to keep their evil alive in the hearts of those who suffered most. We give them power to condemn their victims to live forever with the hurting memory of their painful pasts. We give the monsters the last word."
Forgiveness is the only way to break the bondage they have over us! Do you want to be Free?
FREEDOM IS FOUND WHEN WE FOCUS ON FORGIVENESS!!
III. FREEDOM IS LIVED WHEN WE FOCUS ON THE FUTURE (VV. 10--11)
A. Jesus loves us enough to accept us where we are (PRESENT REALITY)
1. Did you hear what Jesus said to this woman, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
2. Her reply is simple, no added information, there is no rationalization here! “No one, sir.”
3. Jesus answers with words what the teachers of the law and Pharisees answered with their feet, “Then neither do I condemn you.” It also states that this is not a simple statement, but a declaration!
4. Did you know that this is who Jesus is, the one who forgives!!
5. Do you long to hear these words from him? He still speaks this truth today!! John 3: 17 reads, “For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
6. Have you found His forgiveness, it is freely offered!!
B. Jesus loves us enough to show us a different way (FUTURE REALITY)
1.The ending is simple: YES, I forgive you!
2. The admonition is simple also, “Go now and leave your life of sin.” JESUS BELIEVES IN OUR FUTURE!
AN ASIDE: WOULD JESUS BE SO CRUEL AS TO COMMAND US TO DO SOMETHING WE COULD NOT? IF NOT, THEN WHAT IS THE POSSIBILITY? WHAT IS THE CALL PLACED UPON US?
3. To whom do you think Jesus is talking? Is it only the woman caught and forgiven? Could it also be the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law? How about for you and me?
4. Maybe Jesus is saying to us, “Drop Your Rock!” Live in forgiveness and forgive others!
5. Maybe, just maybe, Jesus is calling us to live out the Freedom we have in Him by sharing it with others, no longer Focusing on the past, but living for the future!
ILLUSTRATION: A vicar had a dream. He was on his way to heaven. Before him there stretched a long flight of stairs. As he started to go up, he was given a piece of chalk and told that he must put a chalk mark on each of the steps for each sin he had committed. When he was about halfway up he met the bishop coming down. He enquired why his Lordship was returning, and the bishop answered, "I’m just going back to get some more chalk!" Perhaps we feel like that too!
CONCLUSION: Will you have to go back down to get more chalk or will you drop your rock today? Today we celebrate Liberty, but there is no liberty while we are at Arms with one another! Today I want to set you Free! Will you chose Liberty or will you chose death? The choice is yours! Our Praise team is going to come and sing an old Hymn: Just As I Am. As they do, OBEY THE LORD!!
