Sunday Morning Bible Study

March 28, 2010

Introduction

Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel preached? Does it speak to the broken hearted? Does it build up the church? Milk – Meat – Manna Preach for a decision

The manuscript problem:  There are some scholars who argue that the story we’re about to read was not written by John.

It is true that we do not have any or the original hand written manuscripts by the New Testament writers, we have only copies, thousands of copies.

And it is true that some of the copies do not contain this passage.

But there is evidence that John did write this:

There are plenty of old manuscripts that do contain this story, some dating back to 160 AD. (see Gill on John 8:3)

Jerome (AD 340-420), (who translated the Bible into Latin) said that it was found in “many Greek and Latin manuscripts”.

Ambrose  (AD 340-397), quoted from it and rebuked those who made a bad use of it.

Augustine (AD 354-430) admits that some were afraid of the passage, lest it should lead to laxity of morals, and so had erased it from their manuscripts.  He commented on it verse by verse, and preached from several texts found in it.

We are in Jerusalem with Jesus during the Feast of Tabernacles.  This was a weeklong celebration that occurred every year in the fall and was to be a reminder to the Jewish people of those forty years that they wandered in the wilderness after having been delivered from slavery in Egypt.

During this Feast, controversy is beginning to stir up around Jesus.

While some are claiming and believing that Jesus is the promised Messiah, there are others who are shooting down the idea with their incorrect information about Jesus. 

The last chapter ended in the middle of the argument with:

(Jn 7:53 NKJV) And everyone went to his own house.

8:1-11 The Adulterous Woman

:1 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

:1 Mount of Olives

The Pharisees all went to their homes while Jesus headed to the Mount of Olives.

Show “Mount of Olives” map video.  Starting from 22 miles up, looking at the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea connected by the Jordan River.  Look at the “Western Wall” on the side of the Temple Mount.  From the south is the “Southern Steps”, a place Jesus possibly taught from.  Turn to the right, across the Kidron Valley is the Mount of Olives.  The “Palm Sunday” road comes down the hill next to the Garden of Gethsemane.  See the city from the view of the Mount of Olives.

Jesus might have camped overnight in the Garden of Gethsemane.

It’s possible He might have gone to the home of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, who lived on the Mount of Olives.

:2 Now early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them.

:2 early – orthros – daybreak, early dawn

If we are correct about the sequence of events in the last chapter, then this is the eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles, the day that centered on the nation of Israel.

The first seven days involved the sacrifice of 70 bulls, representing the seventy nations of the world.

This eight day only had one bull sacrificed, for the nation of Israel.

There was no water ceremony like the previous seven days.

While the previous seven days reminded them of their wandering in the wilderness for forty years, this eighth day was the picture of having entered into the Promised Land.

It was also to be a day where the people got together:

(Nu 29:35 NKJV) ‘On the eighth day you shall have a sacred assembly. You shall do no customary work.

:2 into the temple

Jesus walks the quarter mile to the temple and the people seem to be waiting for Him.

It’s kind of a beautiful picture of devotions, a daily Quiet Time.

Lesson

Mornings with Jesus

Early in the morning

At what point does Jesus take control of your life during the day?

Does He have to wait until lunchtime?  After dinner?

I find that my day goes WAY better when I start it with the Lord.

He sat down

We are the temple, the temple of the Holy Spirit (1Cor.6:19).

Sitting down is what a teacher did.

The teacher sat, the students stood.

It speaks of His authority in our lives, and our willingness to be taught by Him.

Sitting down indicates He’s comfortable.

Is Jesus comfortable in our lives?

If our lives were like a house, would Jesus only be given a small bedroom to stay in, or would you give Him the keys to the whole house?

Is there anything in the house that might make Jesus a little uncomfortable?

and taught them.

How open are we to letting Jesus really teach us?

I find that often I’m just so pressed for time that I want to read and get on with the day.

The other day we were reading John 17, and I have to admit that sometimes that’s one of the most boring chapters in John…to me…

But for once I stopped and actually asked the Lord to teach me something – I was open, I was willing, and I asked.

I had a wonderful time reading and listening to the Lord – hearing Him speak about His love for us, His desire to be “one” with us, and how He uses His truth to make us different from the world.

:3 Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst,

:3 caught – katalambano – to lay hold of; to seize upon

:3 adultery – moicheuo – to commit adultery with, have unlawful intercourse with another’s spouse

:4 they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act.

:4 in the very act – epautophoro (“upon” + “it” + “theft”) – in the very act of theft

Adultery is having sex with someone else’s spouse.

Adultery is just like a theft, taking something that belongs to another person.

How did they exactly catch her “in the very act”?  Maybe we’re better off not knowing.

:5 Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?”

:5 stoned – lithoboleo (“stones” + “throw”) – to kill by stoning, to stone

:6 This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.

:6 testing – peirazo – test: for the purpose of ascertaining his quality; to try or test one’s faith; to solicit to sin, to tempt

:6 accuse – kategoreo – to accuse; before a judge

The Pharisees have decided that they don’t like Jesus.  They are going to try and find some sort of flaw in Jesus to hang their hats on and have Him run out of town.

Jesus is known for being a “friend of sinners” (Mat. 11:19).  He had a reputation of forgiving sinners, like He did with the paralytic man…

(Mt 11:19 NKJV) ”…a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’

(Lk 5:20 NKJV) When He saw their faith, He said to him, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.”

The Pharisees think they have Jesus trapped because Moses wrote,

(Le 20:10 NKJV) ‘The man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, he who commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress, shall surely be put to death.

There were several laws concerning various forms of adultery.  In all cases, the penalty is death. (Deut. 22:22).

Note:  If we followed these laws in the United States, could you imagine what would happen to the divorce rate?

The Jews had a rule in the Talmud that stated that whenever the penalty was just mentioned as “death”, then the person was to be strangled, not stoned.

There was a specific case that called for stoning involved a woman who was engaged to be married, but slept with another man.

(Dt 22:23–24 NKJV) —23 “If a young woman who is a virgin is betrothed to a husband, and a man finds her in the city and lies with her, 24 then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he humbled his neighbor’s wife; so you shall put away the evil from among you.

But as you look at what Moses wrote, doesn’t something seem strangely missing in this picture?

Where is the man?  If the woman “caught in the very act”, why didn’t they bring the man as well?

Could it be that the man was part of the plot to catch the woman, and bring her to Jesus?

Here’s the trap:

If Jesus says she should be forgiven, then He’s going against the Law of Moses.

If Jesus says she should be stoned, then He’s going to look like a hypocrite.

:6 wrote on the ground

This is the only record we have of Jesus writing something.

He may have been writing words.  He may have been doodling.  We don’t know.

There is a tradition that Jesus was writing down the names and sins of those standing around Him.  We don’t know if that’s the case.  He may have just been doodling.

:6 stooped – kupto – to stoop down, bend forward, to bow the head

I wonder if He felt some kind of embarrassment or shame for the woman, being paraded before the whole crowd.

I can kind of see Jesus bending down, writing in the dirt, just to avoid looking up and making eye contact with the woman, just out of compassion.

Lesson

Sin is a shameful thing

When you see how our society likes to follow certain news items like the moral failures of famous golfers and ex-presidential candidates, you can get the feeling that we as a society don’t understand what to do with shameful things.

We act as if we ought to display shameful things so we can all laugh, maybe even enjoy it a little bit.

In reality, we ought to be embarrassed and hurt for others who get caught in sin.

We need to learn to love people, and have compassion for them. The Bible says,

(1 Pe 4:8 NKJV) And above all things have fervent love for one another, for “love will cover a multitude of sins.”

This doesn’t mean that love “hides” sins so they can’t be found out.

It means that we don’t display another person’s sin in order to gossip, ridicule, or watch in enjoyment.

We need to be like Noah’s sons (Gen.9)

When Noah’s ark finally landed, Noah planted a vineyard, made some wine, and got drunk. While he was drunk, he took all his clothes off in his tent and apparently acted quite stupid.

One of his sons, Ham, came in and looked at Dad, and then left to spread the great piece of gossip he had just found.

But the other two sons, Shem and Japheth, rushed in to their father’s tent, backwards, and covered their father up with a blanket.

Ham was cursed, but Shem and Japheth received a blessing.

They cared enough to cover up a loved one in their sinful condition, rather than just stand back and laugh at it.

:7 So when they continued asking Him,

Perhaps it seemed to them that Jesus wasn’t going to answer the question. They keep pushing their point.  They’re going to wish they had stopped.

:7 He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.”

::7 raised – anakupto – to raise or lift one’s self up

:7 without sin – anamartetos (“not” + “sin”) – sinless; of one who has not sinned

7 without sin – Jesus challenges the crowd – if there is anyone in the crowd who is without sin, they can be the first one to step forward and throw the first stone.

There is only one person in that crowd who is “without sin”.  That’s Jesus.

The beauty of Jesus' answer is that while He is going to remove the woman's accusers, He also doesn't do away with the Law and the fact of her guilt.

Lesson

Not judging others

For some of us, if we are honest, the people we relate to most in the story are the Pharisees.  We are pretty darn good at judging other people.

Jesus said:

(Mt 7:1–2 NKJV) —1 “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.

We need to be careful in judging others, because it will all come back at us.

This works in two ways:

1.  It affects our relationship with God.

If we're harsh to others, God may give us the same treatment.  Jesus said,

(Mt 6:14–15 NKJV) —14 “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

James wrote,

(Jas 2:13 NKJV) For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

How do you want God to judge you?  Do you want Him to judge you the way you judge others?

I know I want Him to be merciful to me.  I need to be merciful to others.

2.  It affects our relationships with people.

When you are harsh and critical towards other people, you will find people turning around and treating you the same.

It's very natural to give tit for tat.

(Pr 27:19 NKJV) As in water face reflects face, So a man’s heart reveals the man.

The harshest, most critical people I know are also the ones that are treated the same way.

Jesus said,

(Mt 7:3–5 NKJV) —3 And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? 5 Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

The ironic thing about judging others is that very often the things we’re critical of are areas where we have a parallel weakness.

And sometimes our weakness is even greater, though we’re blind to it.

Can you imagine the picture that Jesus is painting?

Imagine going to your doctor to get a splinter removed and the doctor shows up with a 2x4 sticking out of his eye.

Look at your relationships:

Marriage: 

God save us from getting to the point where we are constantly gaining new evidence to convict that terrible spouse of ours. You'll only get the same in return. Learn to forgive.

Kids:

Before you go off and rant and rave at the kids, remember that you too can get pretty messy, and you too can do some pretty stupid things.  And remember where they learned all their bad habits from anyway.

This is important in all our relationships, at work, friends, etc.

Illustration:

Marilyn Morgan Helleberg writes,

At church camp when I was a teenager, an ugly rumor about two of our counselors quickly became the talk of the camp.  The next day, at morning prayer, the pastor read the story of the adulterous woman, in which Jesus told the crowd that any person who had no sin could cast the first stone.  And one by one, those who had come to stone her to death walked away.

Then the minister passed around a bucket of stones and insisted that we each take one and carry it in our pocket throughout the remainder of camp.  Any time we felt like criticizing someone else, or talking behind another’s back or passing on an ugly rumor, we were to reach into the pocket, touch the stone and ask ourselves if we were without sin.

Does this mean that we should do away with our judicial system?

What human judge could meet these criteria?

Jesus isn’t doing away with law and order, but He’s setting up some good boundaries.

The idea is that a human judge needs compassion, and a clear understanding of his own shortcomings.

:8 And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.

:8 stooped – kupto – to stoop down, bend forward, to bow the head

:9 Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

:9 conscience – suneidesis – the consciousness of anything; the soul as distinguishing between what is morally good and bad, prompting to do the former and shun the latter, commending one, condemning the other; the conscience

:9 convicted – elegcho – to convict, refute, confute; generally with a suggestion of shame of the person convicted

Jesus spoke words.  Jesus scribbled on the ground.

But it was their own consciences that brought conviction.  They were already guilty and they knew it.

:9 beginning with the oldest

Illustration

Two women appeared in court, each accusing the others of causing the trouble they were having in the apartment building where they lived. The women were arguing noisily even in the court. The judge, banging his gavel to quiet them said “We are going to do this in an orderly manner. I can’t listen to all of you at once. I’ll hear the oldest first.” The case was dismissed for lack of testimony.

If a person is honest, the older you are, the more you know that you are a sinner.

Instead of coming to judge a sinner, Jesus makes them judge themselves.

:10 When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?”

:10 raised – anakupto – to raise or lift one’s self up

:10 accusers – kategoros – an accuser

Based on the word used in verse 6, the men wanted something to “accuse” Jesus of.

It turns out that Jesus had His own accusers, just like her.

:10 condemned – katakrino – to give judgment against, to judge worthy of punishment

:11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”

Let’s review.  Play “Adulterous Woman” video.

:11 condemn – katakrino – to give judgment against, to judge worthy of punishment

:11 go – poreuomai – to lead over, carry over, transfer; to pursue the journey on which one has entered, to continue on one’s journey

:11 sin – hamartano – to miss the mark; to err, be mistaken; to miss or wander from the path of uprightness and honour, to do or go wrong; to wander from the law of God, violate God’s law, sin

:11  neither do I condemn you

Here's the only person in the world who has ever been truly worthy to judge someone, and He doesn't condemn her.

Don't be mistaken, Jesus will indeed one day judge this world.

(Jn 5:22 NKJV) For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son

But the reason He came the first time was to save people, not condemn them.

(Jn 3:17 NKJV) For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

Lesson

Complete forgiveness

Maybe as we’ve been studying this morning, you don’t really find yourself relating to the scribes and Pharisees.

Perhaps you most identify with the woman caught in the act.

Maybe you have just been thankful that you haven’t yet been yanked out in front of everybody and your sin publicly displayed.

Jesus offers to you complete and total forgiveness.

(Ps 103:12 NKJV) As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.

Is it possible?  Could it really be true?

It’s possible that someone here this morning has done something so horrible that they are convinced that God could NEVER forgive them.  Not so.

If you think you could never be forgiven, then you greatly underestimate the power of the blood of Jesus Christ.

John wrote,

(1 Jn 1:7 NKJV) But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

Jesus’ blood has the power of eternity behind it to forgive any sin that has ever been committed.

How do I receive God’s forgiveness?

(1 Jn 1:9 NKJV) If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Are you willing to come to Him and confess that you have sinned?  Are you willing to ask Him to forgive you?

:11 go and sin no more

He’s not saying that this woman must now live a perfect life until she dies.

The truth is, every one still sins.

(1 Jn 1:8 NKJV) If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

It’s not occasional sins that Jesus is talking about, it’s the continual, habitual ones.

Illustration:

A visitor at a fishing dock asked an old fisherman who was sitting there, “If I were to fall into this water, would I drown?”  It was a strange way of asking how deep the water was, but the fisherman had a good answer.  “Naw,” he said.  “Fallin’ into the water doesn’t drown anybody.  It’s staying under it that does.”

Lesson

Turn around

If the woman has truly allowed Jesus to forgive her, then she will respond by allowing changes to be made in her life.

Illustration:

There was a cartoon several years ago in the Saturday Review of Literature in which little George Washington is standing with an axe in his hand.  Before him lying on the ground is the famous cherry tree.  He has already made his smug admission that he did it—after all, he “cannot tell a lie.”  But his father is standing there exasperated saying, “All right, so you admit it! You always admit it! The question is, when are you going to stop doing it.”

Illustration

I think that’s the real issue with Tiger Woods and his admissions of guilt.

People are taking all sorts of pot shots at him for what he’s said or not said.

The bigger issue is will he change?  Only time will tell.

Will you change?

Receive God’s forgiveness, and turn around.