Good morning everyone. I'm Ian and our first Bible reading is Psalm 130, which was originally sung by pilgrims going to the temple in Jerusalem.
Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord. Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.
If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you.
I wait for the Lord. My whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope.
I wait for the Lord. More than watchmen wait for the morning.
More than watchmen wait for the morning.
Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love, and with him is full redemption.
He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.
Hello, church. My name is Lisa, and I'll be bringing us our second reading today, which is from the book of John, chapter 7, verse 53, through to chapter 8, verse 11.
After the reading, I will invite you to join me in prayer before David brings us his sermon.
So, John, chapter 7, verse 53.
Then each went to his own home, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
At dawn, he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered round him, and he sat down to teach them.
The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery.
They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus,
Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.
In the law, Moses commanded us to stone such woman.
Now, what do you say?
They were using this question as a trap in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.
When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them,
If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.
Again, he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first,
until only Jesus was left with the woman still standing there.
Jesus straightened up and asked her,
Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?
No one, sir, she said.
Then neither do I condemn you, Jesus declared.
Go now and leave your life of sin.
Let us pray.
Father God, as we draw around your word today,
my prayer is that each of us would learn more of who Jesus is
and the love he showers on every individual,
regardless of how broken they are.
I pray that you would use David for your heavenly purposes as he preaches today
and that the message he brings us would be centred on the truth of the gospel
and that it would resonate with all who are listening,
regardless of where they are in their journey.
Be near to us all, I pray.
Amen.
I wonder, do any of you have friends who are pranksters?
The famous novelist Mark Twain seems to have been one.
He once decided to play a trick on a dozen of his friends.
He arranged for each of them to receive a telegram that bore this simple message.
Flee at once.
All is discovered.
Twain reports that upon receiving this telegram,
all 12 of them left town immediately.
Now, it's a funny story, but it also raises some serious questions.
What were they so afraid of?
What did they have to hide?
You may not be like Mark Twain, the prankster,
but I suspect that there might be something of those 12 friends in each of us.
Imagine for a second that you, one morning, wake up,
you check the post and you find there's a letter.
You open up the letter and you see that there is a message written on nice fancy notepaper.
The message reads,
All is discovered.
Flee.
What comes into your mind that that could possibly be referring to in your life,
in your business?
I suspect that all of us, if we're honest,
have some skeletons or at least a bone or two lurking in the back of our closets.
Things that we've locked away.
Things that we've tried to forget about.
Things that we've hoped no one will ever discover and find out about us.
Nevertheless, the Bible tells us that there is someone who sees all things.
Who knows about all the things that have happened behind closed doors and in the secret places.
Someone who is not deceived by any of our cover-ups.
He is God.
But he's also the only one who can help us.
The goodness I've got to share with you this morning is that if you ever wonder,
could an almighty and holy God love me after what I've said,
after what I've thought,
after what I've done or not done,
then the answer can be found in John's gospel.
If you ever want to know what God is like,
what God thinks,
then all you have to do is look at the person of Jesus,
who is the face and the heart of God,
fleshed out for all the world to see.
Today we're going to be looking at a passage in John chapter 8.
It's the famous story of Jesus' encounter with a woman caught in adultery.
To help us get inside this story
and to witness the wonderful way that Jesus relates to a sinner
who has been just caught in the act,
I'm going to preach this message to you as a narrative sermon.
That means that we're going to imagine that we're listening to someone who was there that day,
someone in the crowd,
and we're going to take that person's first person perspective
and hear what they heard
and see what they saw.
The next voice that you hear in a moment
will be the voice of someone,
one of the men who was in the crowd that day.
That day is still crystal clear in my memory.
I was there in the temple courtyard with Jesus.
Not as a Jesus follower.
In those days,
I was a Jesus hater.
He was infuriating.
Going around calling himself the Son of God.
Maybe if he had stuck to the title Messiah,
then we could have lived with that.
But he dared to make himself equal with God,
calling God his Father.
That was blasphemy to my Jewish ears.
After all, every day we recite the Shema from Deuteronomy.
Shema'i Israel.
Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad.
Hear, O Israel,
the Lord our God,
the Lord is one.
Even my kids knew that
from the very first day of Sabbath school in the synagogue.
Who did Jesus think he was?
There was something else deeply unsettling about Jesus.
Whenever you spent time around him,
you came away feeling dirty, unclean.
He always showed you up like a white glove
that's just being rubbed over the top of your wardrobe.
It's not that Jesus pranced around
pretending to be holier than thou.
Leave that to the Pharisees.
They had that covered.
It was instead that Jesus just
radiated holiness effortlessly.
I disciplined myself for a lifetime of
Torah obeying,
Sabbath keeping,
tithe giving,
kosher eating.
But it all felt so empty,
so inadequate compared with Jesus.
What did he have
that we didn't have?
After two and a half years of that,
many of us were fed up.
We'd had enough.
We were determined to put an end to Jesus,
to silence him
one way or another.
We had to find some way to catch him out
and destroy him.
And that's when we found out about her.
I didn't know her name.
She was nothing to me.
She was disposable,
a means to an end.
Our wives had heard the gossip
on the grapevine
of a local woman engaged
in an adulterous affair.
And so as we schemed and plotted,
she became the bait
for our trap to ensnare Jesus.
Then the fateful day came
when we knew that this woman
could be found
in an illicit rendezvous
with her lover.
As soon as our lookouts
give the signal,
signal we got to work,
breaking in through the door.
We took them by surprise.
Without a moment to think
or hide or run,
we grabbed her.
We dragged her through the streets,
kicking up dust in the air,
screaming at the top of her lungs
for someone to help her.
As we dragged her through
the marketplace,
she was humiliated
in the eyes of her friends,
her neighbors,
her family.
People started to shout
slurs at her.
Her state of undress
revealed just what kind of woman
she really was.
Arriving in the temple courtyard,
we marched straight up to Jesus
and we threw her headfirst
down at his feet.
Then we formed
an impenetrable ring
around the two of them.
There was going to be no way
for them to escape.
Not either of them.
The trap was set.
We were ready.
A few of us had even brought along
our own stones
for the occasion.
Jesus looked around at us
as if he was demanding
we explain the reason
for all the commotion.
And so one of the scribes
spoke up,
Teacher,
this woman has been caught
in the act of adultery.
At this there was a hiss
from the crowd
caused her to hide her face
in shame and terror.
And then our spokesperson
pressed his attack
against Jesus.
Now in the law,
Moses commanded us
to stone such women.
But what do you say,
Jesus?
Silence descended.
The dust in the air
began to settle
and every eye
was on Jesus.
What would he do next?
In that tense moment
I rubbed my hands with glee.
We had got him.
We had caught him
between a rock
and a hard place.
He acts like he's
the world's greatest
humanitarian.
Healing the sick,
showing compassion
to the poor,
drinking and eating
with tax collectors
and sinners.
Yet he also claims
he's the son of God.
The word of God
in human form.
And our test
was going to play
those two things
off against each other.
If in compassion
Jesus sided with this woman
over and against
the word and law of God,
well so much for his claim
to be the son of God.
However,
if instead he endorsed
the law of God
and called for her
to be killed,
well then he was
defying Rome
and Rome's prohibition
against us
executing anyone.
Either way,
discredited in Jewish eyes
or dangerous in Roman eyes,
surely Jesus was finished.
But as we waited
with bated breath
for him to reply,
Jesus did something
rather unexpected.
He bent down
and began to write
in the sand.
The crowd started
to murmur.
People started pushing
and jostling to see
and I'm not the tallest
of people.
I was at the back
of the crowd.
I couldn't quite see
what he was writing.
In the years since,
I've often wondered
what was he writing?
Was it perhaps
the law,
the Ten Commandments
that he was writing
out with his finger,
literally preparing
the ground
for what came next?
Or perhaps did he write
out the words
of Leviticus chapter 20
verse 20?
If a man commits adultery
with another man's wife,
both the adulterer
and the adulteress
are to be put to death.
You see,
the law recognizes
that it takes two
to tango.
We were acting unjustly
by condemning this woman
while we had let
the man off the hook.
Or maybe,
just maybe,
Jesus was just doodling.
Wouldn't put it past him.
Either way,
what mattered
was not what Jesus wrote,
but rather,
where he was
as he wrote.
You see,
Jesus was kneeling
down on the ground.
He was down
on the same level
as that woman.
He was in close proximity
to her
as she cowered in fear.
It was as if he was
reassuring her
with his presence,
you're not alone.
I'm here with you.
You don't have
to be afraid.
Jesus had made himself
her personal shield
and defender.
While we looked down
on this woman
with moral condescension
and condemnation,
Jesus instead
physically condescended
to her
to show her
mercy
and grace.
And then Jesus
suddenly turned
the tables on us.
Decisively,
he stood up for her
as her advocate,
this nameless voice,
this powerless woman,
fearlessly looking us
in the eyes.
He issued the challenge.
Let him who is
without sin among you
be the first
to throw a stone
against her.
A shiver went down
my spine.
It seemed to shudder
through the whole crowd.
Those words pierced us
through with conviction.
Sure,
we all try to be
good people,
but none of us
could pretend
to be perfect.
But even more unnerving
was the look
in his eyes.
It was like he was
reading us
like a scroll,
shining a light
into the darkest
recesses of our minds
and our hearts.
And I remember
how he looked at me
in that moment.
In that moment,
I felt so naked
and ashamed.
I was exposed.
It was as if Jesus
could see through
my righteous exterior
and he could search
the darkest recesses
of my mind.
All of my past
sins and shames,
they were all exposed
to in his sight.
The scriptures tell us
in Psalm 44
that only God
knows the secret
things of the heart.
And yet here was Jesus
and he seemed
to be able to know
the things
that only God
could know.
All the times
I've looked at a woman,
not lovingly,
but lustfully,
wanting to use her
for my own gratification.
All the times
in my imagination
when I've mentally
undressed a woman
as she passed by
in the street.
All the times
when I've compared
and preferred
other women
to my wife.
Somehow,
Jesus could see it all.
And in Jesus' sight,
I was exposed.
Suddenly,
it came back
into my mind
what I had read
in the news papyrus
some years before,
a quote from Jesus
in his sermon
on the mount.
At the time I dismissed it,
it just sounded like
some more crazy,
extreme Jesus talk.
But now I had
new insight
into his words.
You've heard it said,
you shall not
commit adultery.
But I say to you
that everyone
who looks at a woman
with lustful intent
has already committed
adultery with her
in his heart.
It began to dawn on me
in that moment
that in God's sight
I was no better than her,
that I was as much
a sexual sinner
as she was.
You have a saying
in your country,
don't you,
that people who live
in glass houses
shouldn't throw stones?
Well, here I was
with a stone in my hand
ready to throw it at her.
But suddenly,
the strength to throw it
had ebbed away
out of my arm.
It was weighed down
with guilt.
That stone had
my name on it,
not hers.
Having said
all that needed
to be said,
Jesus then
bent down again
and resumed
drawing in the sand.
All around
with disgruntled murmurs,
the crowd began
to disperse.
First,
some of the old boys
slinked off,
perhaps because
the longer you've lived,
the more regrets
you have to look back on
and remember.
I didn't want to be
the first to admit defeat,
but neither did I want
to be the last
standing around
looking like an idiot.
And so I retreated too,
finding a nearby pillar
in the courtyard I hid,
embarrassed,
ashamed,
convicted.
But I was still close enough
to hear what happened next.
After we'd all left,
Jesus looked up.
He and the woman
were now left alone.
Like a good rabbi
sees in a teachable moment,
he asked her a question.
Woman,
where are they?
Has no one condemned you?
At first,
all she could do
was sob.
And when she
found the breath
to speak,
she just sounded like
someone waking up
from a horrible nightmare.
She couldn't believe
it herself.
She replied,
no one, Lord.
But perhaps there was
a lingering question
in her mind.
What was Jesus
going to do
with her?
If anyone
was sinless,
if anyone
was justified
to condemn her,
surely it was him.
But without a pause,
Jesus delivered
his verdict
in a voice
that sounded like
the judge
of the living
and the dead.
He said,
neither do I condemn you.
Now go
and sin no more.
Her face lit up.
Her death sentence
was pardoned.
A fresh start
in life
had been granted.
Like King Solomon
of old,
Jesus had rendered
his judgment
with the perfect balance
of grace
and truth.
He didn't minimize
her sin
and yet he urged
her to live
in grateful repentance.
But although
Jesus let her go,
that didn't mean
that he let her sin go.
I didn't realize
that at the time.
But with the benefit
of hindsight,
now I see that
what Jesus did
that day,
the reason why
Jesus was able
to say,
neither do I condemn you
and let her go,
was because Jesus
was willing to stay
behind and be condemned
in her place
and satisfy the demands
of the law
that she had broken.
You see,
that day in the temple
courtyards was just
a little preview
of the events
that would follow
just months down the road
at the next Passover.
When Jesus risked
his life bending down
and drawing alongside
that condemned woman,
it was a rehearsal
of all that he had come
to do for all of us.
Now I see that
in coming down
into this world
as a human,
God was coming down
onto our level.
He was drawing
alongside us
as the friend,
not the judge of sinners.
Now I see that
Jesus condemned
to death on the cross.
He was dying
in our place,
suffering the penalty
that we deserve
so that we might live.
Now I see that
Jesus died
and rose again
not only to save
this adulterous woman,
but to save
a hypocrite like me.
And if there's hope
for her,
then there's hope
for me.
There's hope
for all of us.
Now many years later
as an old man
I need to tell my story
one last time.
It's too good
to be forgotten
in the sands of time.
That day in the temple
with Jesus
changed my life forever.
And now as I come
to the end
of life's journey,
I know that he
who waits for me
beyond death's door
waits to greet me
with those same sweet words
that I heard that day.
I do not condemn you.
My regrets
cannot imprison me
to the grave.
My sins cannot
sink me down to hell.
For I have a saviour
in Jesus
who has saved me
from all my sins.
And I pray that my story
will help you too.
Although your life
in this world
will be marked
by ups and downs,
joys and regrets,
successes and shames,
I pray that you will
take hold of Jesus' promise too.
For God so loved the world
that he gave us
his one and only son,
that whoever believes
in him should not perish
but have eternal life.
For God did not
come into the world
to condemn the world,
but so that the world
might be saved through him.
That's my story.
Shalom and amen.