A Sinner in the Hands of a Loving Savior

Series: Close Encounters

“A Sinner in the Hands of a Loving Savior”

(Sunday Morning November 1st, 2009)

Passage: John 8:1-11

O.S. The Bible Says That King David Was Confronted, on One Occasion, by a Prophet Named Gad, Because He Had

Taken a Sinful Census of the People

-> And So, God Spoke Through This Prophet, and He Gave David Three Options; He Could Choose Either…

          …Three YEARS of Famine in the Land
          …Or Three MONTHS in Which the Sword of His Enemies Would be Allowed to Triumph Over His Nation
          …Or Three DAYS in Which the Sword of the Lord Would Bring a Pestilence upon them

-> I Believe That King David Chose Very Wisely, Because This is How He Answered the Prophet in 1 Chronicles

21:13; He Said,

“…’ I am in great distress; please let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are very great. But do not

let me fall into the hand of man’”

-> You See, King David Was Wise Enough to Know That Men and Women Can be Very Cruel and Harsh in the

Way That They Judge Others

-> In Fact, Many People do Not Realize That When God Stated in the Old Testament Law That People Could

Require an Eye for an Eye and a Tooth for a Tooth, He Was Actually Setting Some Necessary Limitations on

Their Vengeance (Lev 24:20)

-> In Other Words, if God Had Not Stated That so Clearly, They Would Have Plucked Out Both of Their Eyes and

Knocked Out All of Their Teeth

-> And the Reason He Set Up Cities of Refuge for Those Who Had Accidentally Injured or Killed Someone Was

Not Primarily to Punish Those People for That Crime, It Was to Protect Them From Vigilante Retaliation

(Joshua 20:9)

-> God Did That, Listen to Me Now, God Did That, Because God Knew That Men and Women Can be Very Cruel

and Harsh in the Way That the Judge Others

St = Now, This is Especially True as It Relates to Legalistic People Like Those Scribes and Pharisees Who Lived in

Jesus’ Day

-> Which is Why Jesus Said This About Them in Matthew 23:27; He Said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,

hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of

dead men's bones…”

-> Jesus Also Said in Verse 44 of This Same Chapter That They Were Murderers Like Their Father the Devil

-> And if You Doubt That Just Study the Events That Led Up to Jesus’ Crucifixion

-> By Doing So, You Will Discover That These are the Ones Who Bribed Judas, and Who Put Together a

Kangaroo Court, and Who Hired Worthless Men to Falsely Accuse Jesus of Threatening to Tear Down the

Temple, and Who Convinced the Crowd That They Should Ask for Barabbas to be Released and for Jesus to be

Crucified

-> They Were: Self-Righteous, Insensitive, Mean-Spirited, Bloodthirsty, Envious and Vicious

-> But They Wanted Everyone to Think That They Were Godly

-> That is Why Jesus Called Them “Hypocrites” Which Literally Means “Actors”

-> And on This Particular Occasion, I Believe He Flushed Them Out

-> They Tried to Trap Jesus, But He Turned the Tables on Them

-> And in the End, He Used This Incident to Expose the Depth of Their Hatred and Cruelty and to Reveal the

Depth of His Love and Mercy

T.S. That is What I Believe This Passage of Scripture is All About

-> And So, With This in Mind, I Want to Draw Your Attention to This Contrast That is Presented to Us Here

Between These Sinful Men and Our Sinless Lord

I. The Malicious Character of These Men

1) They Developed a Premeditated Scheme

-> We are Told in Verse 6 That These Scribes and Pharisees Were Actually Testing Jesus to See if They Could

Find Some Grounds for Accusing Him

-> That Was Their Real Reason for Bringing This Adulterous Woman to Him

-> And if You Know Your Bible, You Should Know That This Was Not the First Time That They Had Tried to do

This

-> On One Occasion, for Example, They Tried to Get Him on the Subject of Taxes, and They Asked Him if It Was

Lawful to Pay a Poll Tax to Caesar or Not

-> If He Had Said “Yes,” This Would Have Caused Him to Lose Credibility With the People, Because They All

Resented Having to Pay Taxes to Rome

-> But if He Had Said “No,” These Scribes and Pharisees Would Have Quickly Reported This to the Romans, and

They Would Have Come to Arrest Jesus for Being an Insurrectionist

-> So, It Seemed as if Jesus Had No Way Out

-> But, of Course, He Perceived Their Malice; and So, He Told Them to Bring Him a Denarius, Which is a Coin;

and Then, He Said This; He Said, “…’Whose likeness and inscription is this?’ They said to Him, ‘Caesar's.’

Then He said to them, ‘Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and to God the things that are God's."

(Matt 22:20-21)

-> And the Next Verse Says That“…hearing this, they were amazed, and leaving Him, they went away”

(Matt 22:22)

-> Jesus Had an Answer for Every Trick That They Tried to Pull on Him, But This One Was the Most Serious of

All of Their Entrapments

-> And Here We Learn That These Men Were so Wicked That They Didn’t Mind Using Someone, or Possibly

Even Killing Someone, if This is What It Would Take to Trip Jesus Up

2) They Desired a Public Setting

-> One Thing We Learn About the Scribes and Pharisees as We Read the Word of God is That They Loved

Public Recognition

-> It Was Not Beneath Them to Devour Widow’s Houses; But Then, “…for a pretense” Jesus Said, “They love to

offer lengthy prayers” in Public Settings (Matt 23:14)

-> What They Loved Most, of Course, Was to Humiliate Others in Public by Exposing Their Sins, Because This

Fed Their Own Feelings of Pride and Self-Righteousness

-> And That is Why, on This Occasion, They Did Not Hesitate to Bring This Adulterous Woman Into the

Presence of Jesus While He Was Teaching at the Temple, Which Was the Most Public Place in the City of

Jerusalem

-> By Way of Contrast, 1 Peter 4:8 Says “…love covers a multitude of sins…”

-> But of Course, the Scribes and Pharisees Were Not Motivated by Love; They Were Motivated by Hate

-> Fact, Listen, the Scribes and Pharisees Hated Jesus so Much, and They Wanted to Destroy Jesus so Bad That

They Didn’t Mind Hurting and Destroying This Woman in the Process

-> Now, Just Try to Imagine How She Must Have Felt

-> Since They Used the Word “Adultery” and Not “Fornication,” We Know That This Woman Was Married, and

She Had Been Unfaithful to Her Husband

-> I Doubt That She Needed a Committee to Tell Her That This Was Sinful and Wrong; Her Own Conscience

Should Have Done That

-> And So, She Must Have Been Terribly Embarrassed and Frightened

-> They Also Said That They “…caught her in the very act…”

-> And the Tense of That Verb Indicates That She Was Caught at a Point in Time in the Past and Continued to be

“Seized”

-> Since This Crime Carried the Death Penalty, We Can be Sure That She Must Have Struggled With Them, But

They Weren’t About to Let Her Escape

-> Her Hair Was Probably Disheveled; Her Clothes Were Probably Torn, and She Probably Tried to Hide Her

Face From Everyone Who Was Gawking at Her

3) They Divulged a Private Sin

-> In Judaism, There Were at Least Four Major Crimes That Called for Capital Punishment: Blaspheme,

Idolatry, Murder, and Adultery (..and Other Sexual Sins)

a. The Mishnah, Which Was the Book of Tradition, Taught That the Man Who Was an Adulterer Would be

Treated Differently Than the Woman

-> The Mishnah Taught That the Man Caught in Adultery, if It Was Proven, Was to be Placed Knee Deep in

Animal Dung

-> A Rope Was to be Placed Around His Neck Long Enough for One Man to Hold at the End on One Side and

Another Man at the Other Side

-> A Thick Towel Was Wrapped Around the Neck to Prevent Marking the Body; and Then, Both Men Were to

Pull With All Their Strength in Opposite Directions

-> For the Woman, the Mishnah Taught That She Should be Stoned

b. The Torah, Which Was the Law of Moses, Also Taught That the Woman Was to be Stoned, But There Was

Another Important Detail

-> Deuteronomy 22:24 Said That an Adulteress Caught in the City Was to be Treated Differently Than an

Adulteress Caught in the Country

Q.n = Why?

Ans = Well, Because if a Woman Was Raped in the Country and Tried to Cry Out, It Might be That no One Could

Have Heard Her

-> But if She Was in the City and Cried Out, She Most Certainly Would Have Been Heard; Therefore, It Was

Assumed to Have Been a Voluntary Act if No One Did

-> That is Why These Men Said That She Was “caught in this very act” in the City of Jerusalem

-> Now, Please Understand That We are Not Living Under the Law Anymore

-> And We Can be Glad That We Don’t

-> Because I’m Not Sure That There Would be Enough Stones to go Around in This Day and Age in Which We

Live

Q.n = But Listen to Me, Are You Listening?

-> The Old Testament Law Does Reveal to Us What God’s Standard is, and God’s Standard Hasn’t Changed

-> Fortunately, We are Living in an Age of Grace, and God Does Forgive

-> But Sometimes I Fear That When We Talk of God’s Grace, We Undermine His Holy Law Which Shows Us the

Standard of God’s Perfection

-> And So, I Think It is Good for All of Us to be Reminded of the Fact That God Still Expects Us to Live by His

Holy Standards

c. Now, Even Though This Woman Was “caught in this very act” in the City,There is One Detail That Should Not

be Ignored

-> And That Detail is the Fact That the Man is Nowhere to be Found

-> If She Was Taken in the Very Act, and Several of These Men Were There to Seize Her; Then Surely, They

Should Have Been Able to Capture the Man as Well, But They Didn’t

Q.n = Why Not?

-> Well, Maybe They Just Had a Double Standard

-> Or Maybe, This Was a Case of Entrapment

-> I Think Most of You Would Agree With Me When I Say That Adultery is Not the Kind of Sin That is

Committed in Public Places

-> Great Care is Taken to Insure Privacy: Doors are Locked, Shades are Drawn, and Lights are Dimmed

(Especially, if It is Considered to be a Capital Crime)

-> So, More Than Likely, These Men Were, Either a Collective Group of Voyeurists, or What We Have Here is

Much Worse Than That, a Case of Entrapment

-> And That Makes This a Classic Example of a Group of Men Who Were Looking at the Splinter in Another

Person’s Eye While They Had a Log Hanging Out of Their Own (Matt 7:2-5)

-> This Also Means That They Had Committed a Much Worse Sin, and I Believe That This is Something That

Every Stone Thrower Needs to be Reminded of

Ill: It Reminds Me of a Story I Heard One Time About a Man Who Was Trying to Convince His Wife That She

Was Hard of Hearing, But She Didn’t Believe Him

->          He Accused Her of Trying to Disguise This by Learning to Read His Lips, But She Denied Doing That

->          So, One Day, He Decided to Test Her Hearing

->          He Turned His Back to Her, and From the Far Side of the Room, in a Normal Speaking Voice, He Said, “Can

You Hear Me Now?” (There Was No Answer)

-> He Turned His Back to Her Again, and From the Middle of the Room, in a Normal Speaking Voice, He Said,

“Can You Hear Me Now?” (There Was No Answer)

-> He Turned His Back to Her Again, From Just About Three Feet Away, and in a Normal Speaking Voice, He

Said, “Can You Hear Me Now?” (Still No Answer)

-> He Turned His Back to Her Again, and This Time He Was Only About One Foot Away, and in a Normal

Speaking Voice, He Said, “Can You Hear Me Now?”

-> Then, He Heard Her Say, “For the Fourth Time YES!” (Pause)

THIS IS WHAT EVERY STONE THROWER NEEDS TO BE REMINDED OF

-> They Need to be Reminded of the Need to Examine Their Own Heart Before They Throw That Stone, Because

They Just Might be Guilty of an Even Worse Sin

-> That is Why C.S. Lewis Wrote This in His Book Entitled “Mere Christianity;” He Wrote “If anyone thinks that

Christians regard unchastity (sexual sin) as the supreme vice, he is quite wrong. The sins of the flesh are bad,

but they are the least bad of all sins. All the worst pleasures are purely spiritual. The pleasure of putting other

people in the wrong, of bossing and patronizing and spoiling sport, and backbiting; the pleasures of power, of

hatred. For there are two things inside me…they are the animal self and the diabolical self; the diabolical self is

the worst of the two. That is why a cold self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church may be far nearer to hell

than a prostitute. But of course, it is better to be neither!”

-> This Does Not Mean That It is Never Appropriate for Us to Confront Someone About Their Sin, Especially, if

It is as Serious a Sin as the Sin of Adultery

-> But Listen, We Should Take a Good Long Look at Our Own Life and Our Own Motives Before We Do It

(Can I Get a Witness?)

II. The Merciful Compassion of the Lord

-> The Scribes and Pharisees Really Thought They Had Jesus Trapped This Time,Because the People Held Up

Moses and the Law of God

-> And So Had Jesus

-> In Matthew 5:17, for Example, Jesus Had Said This; He Had Said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the

Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (NIV)

-> And the Law of God Was Very Clear About This Matter

-> In Fact, One of the Ten Commandments Says

“Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery” (Exod 20:14)

-> And in Leviticus 20:10, the Bible Says “'If there is a man who commits adultery with another man's wife, one

who commits adultery with his friend's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death”

-> The Law of God Was Clear, But This is Where the Romans Drew the Line in Regards to the Jews Enforcing

Their Own Laws

-> They Were Not Allowed to Put Anyone to Death Without Having That Person Tried in a Roman Court of Law

First

-> That is the Same Reason That They Had to Take Jesus to Pilate Before They Were Able to Crucify Him

-> So, if Jesus Had Given the Order to Stone Her, He Would Have Been in Big Trouble With the Romans

-> But of Course, He Was Not About to do That, Because He Loved Her, and He Was a Friend of Sinners, and

He Was Not About to Let These Wicked Scribes and Pharisees Satisfy Their Lust for Blood

-> So, He Did Three Things Instead

1) He Stooped Down

-> The Bible Says That He Stooped Down and Began Writing Something With His Finger in the Ground

-> We Don’t Know What He Wrote, But We do Know He Probably Wrote Something

-> I Can Say That Because John Used the Greek Word “Grapho” From Which We Get Our Word “Graphic,”

and It Does Not Mean “To Doodle;” It Means “To Write”

-> It Also Has the Prefix “Kata” Attached to It Which Literally Means “Down”

-> So, if We Interpret That Literally, It Says That Jesus “WROTE” Something “DOWN” in the Sand That

Morning

-> Some Have Said That He Wrote Down the Names of All of Their Girlfriends, But We Have No Way of

Knowing if This is What He Actually Did (Pause)

-> One Thing is for Sure; He Would Not Have Had a Shortage of Material

-> We are Told in John 2:25, as You Might Recall, That Jesus…“…did not need anyone to bear witness

concerning man for He Himself knew what was in man”

-> He Could Read Everyone of Them Like a Book

-> And Let Me Tell You Something, He Can Read Every One of Us Like a Book Too

-> And He is Not Going to Ignore Our Sin

-> Numbers 32:23 Says,“…and you can be sure of this, your sin will find you out”

-> That Means, in Essence, That God is Not Going to Ignore Anyone’s Sin

-> And This is Why It is Important for All of Us to Confess Our Sin to God and to Forsake Our Sin

-> Otherwise, the Bible Says That We Will Just Begin Storing Up Wrath for the Day of Wrath, and the

Revelation of the Righteous Judgment of God (Rom 2:5)

2) He Stood Up

-> Now, Just Before Jesus Stood Up, We Find That There Was a Dramatic Pause

-> Jesus Was Deliberately Silent for an Undetermined Amount of Time, and During This Time, These Men Sought

an Answer With Increasing Persistence

-> It Literally Says “They Kept on Continually Asking Him”

-> We Need to Remember, of Course, That Jesus Never Did Anything by Accident

Q.n = So, Why Do You Think He Did This?

-> I Used to Think That Jesus Did It to Cause These Men to See How Wicked They Were

-> I Mean You Would Think That, at Some Point, They Would Begin to See How Cruel and Wicked They Were

Behaving

-> But the More I Learn About These Men in the Bible, the More I Get the Impression That Jesus Knew Full Well

That They Were a Lost Cause

-> So, I No Longer Believe That He Did This to Cause These Men to See How Wicked They Were; I Believe He

Did It to Show the Crowd How Wicked These Men Were

-> And Because of Their Intense Desire to Trap Jesus, They Were Thoroughly Exposed

-> Listen to What Solomon Said in Proverbs 26:27; He Said,“He who digs a pit will fall into it, and he who rolls a

stone, it will come back on him”

-> That is What I Believe Happened Here

-> These Scribes and Pharisees Were Trying to Discredit Jesus; But in the Process,They Only Managed to

Discredit Themselves

-> And So, Here is Another Thing That Stone Throwers Need to be Reminded Of

-> If You’re in the Habit of Throwing Stones, You Should Always Keep in Mind That a Stone Can Sometimes

Ricochet and Come Back and Hit You

Q.n = Can I Get a Witness?

3) He Spoke Out

-> Jesus Said, “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone”

-> I Heard One Preacher Say That if Any of Them Had Dared to Throw a Stone God Would Have Turned It Into

Rubber, and It Would Have Bounced Back and Killed Them

-> He Might be Right But We’ll Never Know, Because Not a Single One of Them Dared to Try It

-> Instead, the Bible Says That They Dropped Their Stones on the Ground, and One by One They Filed Out

Starting With the Oldest to the Youngest

Q.n = Why Didn’t They Throw Their Stones?

Ans = Because They Knew They Were Sinful

-> Verse 9 in the New King James Version Says “…being convicted by their conscience, (They) went out one by one,

…” (NKJV)

Q.n = And So, Why Did They Leave?

Ans = Spiritual Pride

-> They Were so Full of Spiritual Pride That They Were Not Willing to Admit That They Were Sinful and to Come

to Jesus Seeking Forgiveness

-> And That is Why They are Probably in Hell Today

Q.n = In Fact, I Want You Listen to Me Right Now, are You Listening?

-> Spiritual Pride Keeps More People From Getting Saved and Going to Heaven Than Anything Else I Can Think

-> That is Why on Another Occasion Jesus Told the Scribes and Pharisees That the Tax Collectors and Prostitutes

Would Get Into the Kingdom of Heaven Before They Would (Matt 21:31)

-> And That is Because the Tax Collectors, and the Prostitutes, and Adulteresses Like This Woman Here Were at

Least Willing to Admit That They are Sinners in Need of a Savior

-> The Scribes and the Pharisees, on the Other Hand, Were Not Willing to Admit That, and That is Why They

Could Not Get Saved (Elaborate)

St = After This, Jesus Spoke Out Again, Only This Time He Spoke to the Woman,and He Said, “…’Woman, where

are they? Did no one condemn you?’

-> She Said, “No One Lord” (Please Notice That She Called Him “Lord”)

-> Then, He Said, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more." (NKJV)

-> Now, I Want You to Notice That Jesus Said “go and sin no more” Which Means That Jesus Did Not Condone

Her Sin (Elaborate)

-> I Also Want You to Notice the Order in Which Jesus Said This; He Did Not Say, “Go and sin no more; neither

do I condemn you”

-> He Said, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more." (NKJV)

-> Big Difference

-> And I am Glad That He Said It This Way Because a Lot of People Think That They Have to Get Their Life

Straightened Out Before They Can Come to Jesus

-> But I Have Some News for You

-> You Can’t Get Your Life Straightened Out Until After You Have Come to Jesus, Because He Must Empower

You to Live for Him

-> And the Best News of All is That You Don’t Have to Get Your Life Straightened Out Before You Can Come to

Him

-> Jesus Will Receive You Just as You are as Long as You are Simply Willing to Repent of Your Sins and to Turn

to Him for Salvation

-> And He Has No Desire to Condemn You

-> On the Contrary, He Has an Earnest Desire Save You

-> And That is Why Jesus Said This in John 3:17, Listen Carefully, He Said, “For God did not send His Son into

the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (NKJV)

-> That’s the Heart Beat of a Loving Savior My Friend

Q.n = So, Why Didn’t This Woman Leave?

-> She Certainly Had Enough Reasons to Leave; She Had Been Accused of a Capital Crime, and She Had Been

Embarrassed in Public

-> But Nevertheless, She Didn’t Leave

-> And I Believe That She Didn’t Leave Because Deep Down She Knew That There Was Really Only One Vote

That Mattered

-> I Believe That She Was Waiting to Hear What Jesus Was Going to Say to Her

-> And When He Said “Neither do I Condemn You”, She Knew That Those Five Words Had Made All the

Difference in the World

-> Because His Vote, Listen to Me Now, His Vote is the Only Vote That Really Matters

-> That is Why the Apostle Paul Said This in Romans 8:31; He Said, “If God be for us who can be against us?”

-> The Only Answer is to That Question is No One, Because His Vote is the Only Vote That Really Matters

-> Ah, But Wait a Minute, Wait One Legalistic Minute

Q.n = How Could a Just and Holy God, if He Really is a Just and Holy God, and He is, How Could a Just and Holy

God Get Away With Choosing Not to Condemn Her for Such a Serious Sin?

-> Here’s the Critical Answer

Ans = Her Judgment and Her Execution Were Not Cancelled; They Were Only Postponed

-> Someone Else Had to Take Her Punishment, and My Punishment, and Yours, and That is Why We Call Him

Our Loving Savior

-> In Fact, Paul Elaborated on This in Romans 8:32 by Saying This; He Said, “He who did not spare His own Son,

but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?”

(Elaborate = Lit. Forgive Us)