This is John Wesley. He is one of my biggest heroes and was a great teacher. I thought his picture was fitting for the top of my sermons page.
This was my research paper for my Life and Teachings of Jesus class. I preached a message of invitation from it at the end of a rock concert at my church. A lot of people, who would otherwise never have stepped foot in a church, heard the awesome news of Christ and exepted His incredible gift of life!
Neither Do I (Condemn You)
In John 8:1-11, we are told the story of how the Pharisees attempted to trap Jesus into saying something they could convict Him for. They bring to Him a woman caught in the very act of adultery and, knowing the Mosaic Law requires such a person to be stoned to death, challenge Jesus as to what He would have them to do with her. Jesus' following actions are a mystery, but coupled with His response, "let those who have never sinned throw the first stones!" was powerful enough to disperse the woman's accusers. Even more astonishing is His statement of mercy to the lady, "Neither do I (condemn you). Go and sin no more." With in this story is the very essence of Christ's mission to Earth. How we respond to it is really a measure of our response to Christ.
At this point in Jesus' ministry, tensions were high between Him and the Pharisees. They had had many heated debates and He had already driven them to the point of stoning Him. Because of this, He had been away from Jerusalem for quite a while. At the beginning of our text, we find Him teaching in the temple there. The Pharisees bring to Him a woman caught in the act of adultery. As soon as they open their mouths, their true colors shine through. They cite the Law of Moses to give them the right to stone her. The law they refer to is found in the following two passages.
"If a man commits adultery with another man's wife, both the man and the women must be put to death." Leviticus 20:10
"If a man is discovered committing adultery, both he and the other man's wife must be killed. In this way, the evil will be cleansed from Israel." Deuteronomy 22:22
If the woman was caught in the very act of adultery, where was the man? In Jesus' day there was a very active and extensive discrimination against women. The message of Christ turns this idea on its head. "There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female. For you are all Christians - you are one in Christ, Jesus." Galatians 3:28 One commentator even submitted that the man caught in adultery was a friend of the accusing scribes and Pharisees.
Obviously, as the next verse in our text reveals, their main object was not to fulfill the Law. Although this was a pretense on which they built their self-righteousness, Jesus didn't respond to them with a stern, pointed-finger rebuke. Too often when we read accounts of conflict between Jesus and the scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees… we retain a pious, pharisaical mind set ourselves. It is no longer the story of a loving father trying desperately to win the hearts of his children, but becomes one of the new sheriff in town, rounding up the gang of outlaws - one of good guys versus the bad. It can be a rude awakening, at these times to find Jesus' words for the Pharisees tailor made for your own heart.
Returning to our text, before we hear Jesus' words for the Pharisees, He does something unusual. He bends down and begins to write in the dirt. He does this once more before the end of the story as well. Many theologians and commentators have interesting speculations as to what Jesus was writing in the dirt, but before we explore these, it's important to note that the Holy Spirit didn't find it necessary to reveal this information to us. We can conclude that it made no difference in getting the point across, so any ideas we may have must cooperate with the point the story makes with out this knowledge.
After writing the first time, it doesn't seem to phase the questioners, so Jesus gives a verbal response. After this, He begins to write something again -- something that the woman's accusers respond to by leaving quietly, one by one. The best idea for the first writings is that Jesus was quoting the Old Testament laws the Pharisees were referring to. This works well in that, in itself, it wouldn't deter the accusers from their task. It also sets the stage for Jesus' next comment.
Standing up, He says, "All right, stone her. But let those who have never sinned throw the first stones!" John 8:7 In essence, He was saying, "Fine! If you insist on playing by the Law, then we will! All right, stone her. And afterwards, stone each other until none are left standing!"
Jesus' words were intended to break their hearts. To move into them the realization that they were in as much need of mercy as the woman they accused. Paul explains the way of the law in Ephesians 3: 12: “How different from this way of faith is the way of the law, which says, ‘If you wish to find life obeying the law, you must obey all of its commands.” In Romans 2:1, after speaking of many horrible sins people had committed, he says, "You may be saying, 'What terrible people you have been talking about!' But you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you do these very same things."
The whole purpose of God visiting our planet in human form was so that we could be saved - saved through faith, for the standard of the law was unattainable to sinful man. "So Christ has really set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don't get tied up again in slavery to the law." Galatians 5:1
"For you have been called to live in freedom - not freedom to satisfy your sinful nature, but freedom to serve one another in love." Galatians 5:13
After making His comment, Jesus stoops once more to write in the dirt. This time, the accusers "slipped away" from the oldest to the youngest. The most explanatory idea for what He wrote in the dirt this time, and admittedly the most dramatic, is that He began to write the names of the accusers in the crowd, and the sins they were guilty of.
It's a time-tested principle that singling out the individual is the only way to disperse an angry mob. This shows up in history, art, and literature. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, a lawyer disperses an angry lynch mob who wants to kill his client by singling out which ones he will shoot first before they can confine him. In Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck watches a man break up another angry lynch mob by addressing individuals and turning the spot light on them. This is a principle that Jesus knew well; in fact, loving each of us personally is at the very heart of His ministry. "Look! Here I stand at the door and knock. If you hear me calling and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal as friends." Revelation 3:20
It is also interesting to note at this point that the older accusers "slipped away" first, followed by the younger ones. Here we have a very clear picture of tradition and its captives. How many ideas, beliefs, or even prejudices do we hold in our own hearts, that have no scriptural basis, but we hold to merely because we have been told to do so all our lives? "There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death." Proverbs 14:12
Jesus stays writing in the ground until He is alone with the woman in the middle of the crowd. He then stands and says to her, as a comforting father who has just sent the bullies away, "Where are your accusers?" Then, as though to assert that "All have turned away from God; all have gone wrong. No one does good, not even one." (Romans 3:12), He adds, "Didn't even one of them condemn you?"
She answers with a simple, "No Lord", and He responds with perhaps one of the most comforting and intimidating verses in the Bible,
"Neither do I. Go and sin no more."
These last two bits of dialogue are inseparable when trying to understand them. It is because of her confession of Jesus as Lord that He has no condemnation for her. There is no condemnation for those in Christ. We know that He will, one day, return to judge the world and that God chastises those He loves, but sometimes our condemnation-free status in Christ slips our minds. What is probably the most quoted passage in all of scripture, screams this truth, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. God did not send His Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it.
"There is no judgement awaiting those who trust Him. But those who do not trust Him have already been judged for not believing in the only Son of God." John 3:16-18
If Jesus response ended here, we would be left in chaos, holding a ticket to sin without consequences, but it didn't. He added the other side of salvation, our transformation. "Go and sin no more." He said. This is an awesome commandment! "Be perfect," He says, "even as your Father in heaven is perfect." (Matthew 5:48) At face value it seems to take us back to the unattainable standard of the law, sending us running around in circles where the salvation in the middle is always just out of reach. Thank God it's not to be understood that way.
"And I am sure that God, Who began the good work within you, will continue His work until it's finally finished on that day when Christ Jesus comes back again." Philippians 1:6
The blood of Christ has set us free from our stained sin nature, past and future, and has paid the price for the Holy Spirit to enter into us and begin that transformation, which will become complete on the day Christ returns.
In the mean time, we are not fighting against our fellow sinners, “…but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:12
The story of the adulteress and the Pharisees is hardly more than a few mini-paragraphs long in the Bible, but contained within this story is the very meaning of Christianity. It shows Jesus at His task, exposing sin and forgiving that which is confessed. It puts us in perspective concerning our fellow sinners and strips us of our self-righteousness. Christ frees us from power of the law so we can get on with fulfilling it. This passage resounds with God's mercy and pushes us towards holiness, making it a reality not only worth running for, but possible to obtain. It’s not just a story to create a warm, fuzzy feeling, but an infinite truth, crucial to our salvation.
Well, this is all I have time to put up right now, but there'll be many more so check back often:)
