The Sinner & The Savior

[SPEAKER_00]: Good morning, church.

[SPEAKER_00]: Good morning, good morning, good morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: How is everyone?

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, come on, is it that early?

[SPEAKER_00]: How are we going this morning, church?

[SPEAKER_00]: Good, good, good, good.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's good to hear you and good to see you as Kyle and Matt said before if you haven't met me before my name's Zeke.

[SPEAKER_00]: I am the location pastor down at Frankston, Discovery, Frankston.

[SPEAKER_00]: which launched about, what is it, eight months ago now, seven, eight months ago now, I bring good news.

[SPEAKER_00]: Can I bring two good news stories about Franks?

[SPEAKER_00]: And just to keep you guys up to date with what's happening.

[SPEAKER_00]: First of all, it's sort of a good news and also, you know, challenging news.

[SPEAKER_00]: Last week at our gathering at 10 AM, we had people not able to fit in our car park anymore at Frankston, just because of,

[SPEAKER_00]: So one, praise God that people in Frankston are coming to church and finding belonging in home at Discovery, Frankston, but also pray for more ways to find parking in Frankston, amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: The second exciting news is this week, this week, actually.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we have a couple of staff, Haley Douglas, who's our kids pastor, and Zoe Duke, who is our evangelism pastor, who works with the University Campus Monash University on Peninsula.

[SPEAKER_00]: This week,

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, is starting prayer groups on campus at Monash University led by Zoe and a bunch of university students so can we just thank God for that

[SPEAKER_00]: This is at Monash Penigill.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just talking about penigillers specifically, not at core field and Clayton, but this is the first Christian group gathering on this campus in a very, very long time.

[SPEAKER_00]: So this is a significant moment, and this is a group of about...

[SPEAKER_00]: five to ten uni students who want to pray for their campus and want to see Jesus through something on their university campus.

[SPEAKER_00]: So how exciting is that?

[SPEAKER_00]: So could you be praying for them every Tuesday morning and Thursday morning they're taking 45 half an hour before class to pray for their friends, for the uni, for the space.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to be an awesome time.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that's a couple of good news stories of what's coming out of Frankenstein and I'm very excited to bring the word this morning We're going to be preaching from a text in John eight and if you just want to quickly open your Bibles through that I just want to before we get into the text to

[SPEAKER_00]: Speak to this text because you might not be aware of what the text is, but as you open the scriptures and you see the title of the text you know exactly, or you may have heard of this story before it's quite a famous Bible passage, but have ever had a moment in your life, and I know all of us have had these moments moments of shame.

[SPEAKER_00]: moments of guilt, moments where you have been exposed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now maybe, I think it's okay if I share this.

[SPEAKER_00]: My younger brother is a kid who used to get quite anxious whenever he'd get caught out by my dad or my mum.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, like when you get caught out by your dad for lying or whatever.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you know that feeling on the inside you get when you're caught and you've caught in a lie or whatever.

[SPEAKER_00]: My brother got that feeling.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think we all got that feeling.

[SPEAKER_00]: But my younger brother, he got it to the point where oftentimes he just faint.

[SPEAKER_00]: Literally, when he was caught out and he'd have this emotion, Dad would be coming over to correct this behavior that's happening in our house and my younger brother plunk on the ground.

[SPEAKER_00]: That very quickly stopped the discipline remomen and now it was care moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: I thought it was a tactic from my brother to not get in trouble.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, here he is, just lying on the floor, getting all the sympathy.

[SPEAKER_00]: But you know, these moments in life where shame overcomes us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that moment on the inside, it is a very distinct internal feeling.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like your whole gut is just drops.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your heart, the heaviness, the weight.

[SPEAKER_00]: We all have those moments.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think our prayer is that those moments don't happen in front of a lot of people.

[SPEAKER_00]: Today, as we approach our text, I want you to think back to that moment for you, but I want you to reflect on this woman in the story that we're reflecting on today.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not just the fact that she felt shame and probably had that feeling that we can all identify with, but the fact that this moment was in front of everyone.

[SPEAKER_00]: in front of such a large crowd.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so I want to end of the text today, just framing it that way, because I think sometimes we can look at Bible passages and disassociate it with our own experience.

[SPEAKER_00]: Whereas I feel this morning, it's appropriate.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes it's not always the best thing to do to just go, what do I feel and then put it to the text.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I think it's appropriate this morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: for us to just reflect on those moments of deep shame that we all carry.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you're in this room today and you're still, you're in the middle of a shame moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're coming at church and you think if, man, when I walk in the door, surely the roof's going to cave in here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Can I just say, from the outset, that's not the case.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I believe this morning as we unpack this text, we're going to find a new facet of Jesus that maybe we have heard about, have spoken about, that we teach about, but I'm not just here to speak about, to talk about, to teach or preach about Jesus, so that you have good head knowledge.

[SPEAKER_00]: My heart is that today you would have a living encounter with the person and the presence of Jesus that would transform the way you think about your shame.

[SPEAKER_00]: To the point where you don't need to live in chains anymore, you can be free.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so as we open our text, verse 1, verse 11 in John chapter 8, let's jump into it.

John 8 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: Early in the morning, he came again to the temple.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: And all the people came to him and he sat down and taught them.

[SPEAKER_00]: The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and placing her in the midst.

[SPEAKER_00]: They said to him, teacher, this woman has been caught in the acts of adultery.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such a woman.

[SPEAKER_00]: What do you say?

[SPEAKER_00]: This is, this they said to test him that they might have some charge to bring against him and Jesus, bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and he said to them, let him who is without sin, among you be the first to throw a stone at her.

[SPEAKER_00]: And once more he bent down and wrote in the ground,

[SPEAKER_00]: When they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus stood up and said to her woman, where are they?

[SPEAKER_00]: Has no one condemned you?

[SPEAKER_00]: She said no one law.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus said, another do I condemn you?

[SPEAKER_00]: Go.

[SPEAKER_00]: And from now on, sin, no more.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's pray.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lord this morning as we open your word,

[SPEAKER_00]: Would you begin to awaken things within us?

[SPEAKER_00]: Would you begin to pierce two our hearts in our souls and allow us to find the freedom that you promised us?

[SPEAKER_00]: And so Lord this morning, speak to us through your word in Jesus name, amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want to unpack this text, I want to go through this text from the top to the bottom, but I wanted to just identify something at the text that you may see.

[SPEAKER_00]: Who has a paper Bible in the room here?

[SPEAKER_00]: Just lift them up in the air if you have a paper Bible.

[SPEAKER_00]: or we need more paper Bible so no, I'm not being super religious.

[SPEAKER_00]: But who in their paper Bible, or maybe if it's on your phone Bible as well, I know some you know phones don't have it, but who sees that little thing on the top of this text here which says, the earliest manuscripts do not include.

[SPEAKER_00]: Does anyone have that in their Bible?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yep, yep, I'm seeing hands raised.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, at this point, before we get to the text, I just want to address this little note here in the text here that we see above this chapter.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, these moments here where we see this, the earliest manuscripts do not include happens only a couple of times in a scripture.

[SPEAKER_00]: You may have seen it in different moments.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I just want to speak to this, because I think sometimes, and I know particularly for friends and people that I've journeyed with that,

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you want to talk about scripture and the authority of scripture and the and the reliability of scripture.

[SPEAKER_00]: When they see a note like this, maybe you're in a moment where you're trying to figure out what the Bible actually means for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: These little notes sometimes can't be really like a not really helpful for you because it can make you feel like you can't trust the text like the question that we immediately ask is if it wasn't in the

[SPEAKER_00]: Like why is it in the text?

[SPEAKER_00]: And if we go down this rabbit hole, it can very easily undermine and make us come to a place of doubt of whether we should question the text as a whole.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And so I actually wanted to just take a moment to address this little line here before we actually get into the text to actually help us a little bit in biblical scholarship.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is called textual criticism.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is a type of way that we can read scripture in a way where when these things that maybe a little bit confusing or hard to understand, we approach it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But as we always do here at Discovery, when there's things in the Bible that we find hard, we don't run from it, we run to it.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't hide from it.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't avoid it.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't try and circumvent and go around it.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, no, we actually go to it and we go through the text because it's God's word.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as we unpack it, I believe there's life thing can be found in it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But let me give you some background on this very text.

[SPEAKER_00]: The earliest Greek manuscripts we have of John, the passage of scripture that we're in, do not have this story.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let me just say that from the outset.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is not included.

[SPEAKER_00]: The first clear manuscript that has this story shows up in the 5th century.

[SPEAKER_00]: And even then, it sort of moves around.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of them don't have it in John's son of them have it in Luke.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of it has it in different moments, some different places of John.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a bit of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: a movement of this text that's happening, but what scholars and early church fathers had this is a story that circulated in the church for a long time.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was what they call a floating tradition.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was a story of Jesus that was spoken about, that was communicated and later as they got to the first century, they said, I think we need to input it in here.

[SPEAKER_00]: But sometimes we look at this little line saying it wasn't in the earliest manuscript and doubt arises in our heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I don't know about you, but I would have a lot more doubt of the text if it didn't include that line.

[SPEAKER_00]: why?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because if they were seeking to hide it and if they were seeking to want to portray it as something that was originally there, why would they put a note saying that it wasn't?

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, the early church fathers are trying to draw all these stories and trying to put together the biblical canon as they're doing that.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're trying to be true to what the scripture's reveal.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in this moment here, I actually don't think this note

[SPEAKER_00]: pronounces fragility in the text.

[SPEAKER_00]: I actually think that it promotes people trying to understand and place Jesus correctly in the text.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, it shows up in church writings, it's referenced by the church fathers, and while it's unlikely in the original gospel, it is actually a real story of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what we can know.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the reason, can I tell you the reason why some admitted it, and some didn't admit it, some omitted it, the early church fathers admitted it because they thought that Jesus was excusing sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: So there's some humanity moments going on here.

[SPEAKER_00]: We might want to not want to include this because this might be a license for people.

[SPEAKER_00]: But then there's also a group of people that go, well, it has to be an aired because and the reason why they put it in John's gospel is because John says something really interesting in his gospel, if you find this says, this is in John's 21 verse 25.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now there are also many other things that Jesus did.

[SPEAKER_00]: Where if every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

[SPEAKER_00]: John gives precedent for things.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now you have to understand the biblical text that we read is not everything.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like Jesus went through towns and healed the whole town, all the sickness in some towns.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now if we were to include every single account of Jesus' healing someone, I think it would be quite hard to condense it into a book like this.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the biblical writers, as they're putting this text together, are trying to draw together stories that actually portray the person of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, what I do know about this text, whether you have it in or take it out, it does not change any chord doctrine, any teaching, it does not contradict any other thing in the Bible.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what I know.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what I do know about this text is when it is in there is that portrays a Jesus that is consistent with the scriptures from the beginning of the New Testament, so he's death, burial, and resurrection.

[SPEAKER_00]: So let's not build a shaky theology on one line.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's not get all caught up on one little moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: What I will say to you this morning is, I don't think John wrote this specific text, but I do think it's a true real story, real account of Jesus, and John gives precedent to that in his gospel.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's why it's landed where it is today.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay?

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's get out of Bible College mode now, all right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And let's get into the text, okay?

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, those are my little Bible nerd moment for the sermon.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now we can get into it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now this is a big scene.

[SPEAKER_00]: Think of it like this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is teaching in front of a group of people as if I'm teaching like in front of this group of people.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the scene is the scribes and the Pharisees burst in the back door.

[SPEAKER_00]: Imagine this back door here, a large crowd gathering, burst through the back door with something in the midst of this crowd.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they bring this woman to the middle of this, imagine right here, and they stop the service, stop the gathering, stop the teaching, and they say, Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: The law permits us to stone such a woman, what do you say?

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's just hold the weight and the gravity of the scene that's being placed in front of us in the text here.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is one, probably this woman's worst moment of her life.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there's probably dozens to maybe hundreds of people watching this moment unfold.

[SPEAKER_00]: And very quickly, the church, the community turns into a courtroom, the place of worship, the place of teaching, the place of growth and discipleship has now turned into a courtroom.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now I want to just take a moment, because I think some people in our culture would much rather the church be a courtroom than a temple.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's just sit with that for a moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: The church should be the courtroom of the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: Telling people when they're right, when they're wrong, bringing judgment and justice and all of that, 100% there is a, there is a facet to the body of Christ, which is, you know, repentance and bringing teaching and correction, all of that sort of stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: But there is a group of us that would much rather make this place, rather than a place of worship.

[SPEAKER_00]: and a place of gathering and a place of learning and a place of journey alongside one another.

[SPEAKER_00]: We want to turn this place into a courtroom where we highlight people, where we isolate people.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we look at this story and we go, oh, what a terrible situation.

[SPEAKER_00]: But in our culture today, there's a narrative that we want to turn our churches into this sort of thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because look at the culture around us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there's pressure, can I just say, as teachers of the word and teachers and preachers in our culture that we got to speak out against more sin in the world?

[SPEAKER_00]: We got to start calling out and calling it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And part of me is like, I get the heart behind it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it's very easily the temple, the place that is primarily for worship to God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, if this place is primarily a place of worship, then can I also just say that this is not a place where you just consume religious goods.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not where you just come here a good 20-minute sermon, walk out, all good, great job, good preaching's eat.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, no, like we don't have a worship team up here to give you nice sound for your ears.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're trying to give you an opportunity to praise and thank God for what he's doing in your life.

[SPEAKER_00]: but trying to give you an opportunity to encounter his presence.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not just a show.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is not a big performance that you go and see your kids at school.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, no, no, this is not a performance.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is worship.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is a place of worship.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is a place of prayer.

[SPEAKER_00]: But in our culture, sometimes we want to turn into a courtroom.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there's two groups of people that Jesus identifies that bring this woman in scribes and Pharisees scribes in the first century, or a title that covered like sort of a range of responsibilities, mainly copying scripture and safeguarding legal documents as it pertains to the law of Moses, and particularly teaching of Torah.

[SPEAKER_00]: and it sort of advised the spiritual leaders on how they were to outwork their authority.

[SPEAKER_00]: These scribes were new every detail of the Old Testament.

[SPEAKER_00]: They would have had it memorized.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like the whole Old Testament, like that 1985 percent of your Bible memorized.

[SPEAKER_00]: Word for Word.

[SPEAKER_00]: These people knew the details, they knew the arguments, they knew how to win debates, they knew everything, every in and out.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then you have the Pharisees, which essentially are the leaders.

[SPEAKER_00]: They were the people that outworked it.

[SPEAKER_00]: They taught it, they were the people that led the Christian community, or the early Jewish community in how to worship, how to act, how to pray, how to do sacrifices.

[SPEAKER_00]: They told them everything, that was their role.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it is these two groups of people that bring that bring this woman in

[SPEAKER_00]: Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.

[SPEAKER_00]: What do you say?

[SPEAKER_00]: What do you say?

[SPEAKER_00]: Now in this moment, they are, they think they're putting Jesus in an impossible situation.

[SPEAKER_00]: The text accounts that they said this to test him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why is it an impossible situation, there's two reasons.

[SPEAKER_00]: Firstly, if he says, don't stone her.

[SPEAKER_00]: He would be going against what the law of Moses says in the text.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they think that then that would get rid of his credibility to the Jewish community.

[SPEAKER_00]: So then this revolution that's happening and this following, this gathering, these people following after Jesus, it would be discredited.

[SPEAKER_00]: So they're trying to, on one hand, they're going to just credit it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if then he says, yes, Stone, her, do it, then he would have a problem with Rome, because the Jewish community were not allowed to put people or sentenced people to death in that culture, only Rome would.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is why we're going to hit Eastern a little moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is why the religious leaders couldn't just outwork the crucifixion on their own.

[SPEAKER_00]: They need to go to Pilate and they needed Pilate to give permission to do it, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: So there is no precedence for Jesus either way if he says, don't do it.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's going against Moses.

[SPEAKER_00]: If he says, do it, then he's going against Rome and then that probably just go and report him to Rome and say, look at this man and they'll put him to death.

[SPEAKER_00]: They think they're presenting an impossible situation to Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: to try and catch him out.

[SPEAKER_00]: The only problem is this is that when they quote the law of Moses, they're quoting two scriptures.

[SPEAKER_00]: Both found in the Old Testament, Deuteronomy and Leviticus.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is what they say.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to have them up on the screen here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Deuteronomy 22 verse 23 says, if a man is found lying with the wife of another woman, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman and the woman, so you shall purge the evil from Israel.

Deuteronomy 22:23

[SPEAKER_00]: And then in Leviticus 2010,

[SPEAKER_00]: If a man commits adultery with the wife, if he's neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulterer shall surely be put to death.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, we can see straight away what the issue is with the way that they're out working this law.

[SPEAKER_00]: Can we?

[SPEAKER_00]: The question that everyone asks is what?

[SPEAKER_00]: Where is the man?

[SPEAKER_00]: Where is the man?

[SPEAKER_00]: Now,

[SPEAKER_00]: You'd hope the people who know every detail of the law Memorized would be able to correctly quote the law back to Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: They've missed the key detail here.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they think their court Jesus, they think they've caught him out.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's quite interesting to see.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because I feel like immediately Jesus could literally just quote these verses back to them and shut it down in this moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: He could just say, hey guys, I think we have a misunderstanding here.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think you've actually misquoted the law.

[SPEAKER_00]: Can I, let's go to the text right now, like pull out the text in front of everyone and try to go through the details.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now he doesn't do that.

[SPEAKER_00]: What does he do?

[SPEAKER_00]: He stoopes down, and he gets on the woman's level, and he starts writing in the dirt with his finger.

[SPEAKER_00]: What a weird thing to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I've heard a lot of sermons in my time as a preacher.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've heard a lot of messages on this very topic.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of speculation about what Jesus is doing in this moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: range of things.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is writing the sins of every person in the dirt.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've heard that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've heard many things like Jesus is drawing something.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've heard even people say it doesn't matter what he's doing, which you know.

[SPEAKER_00]: find it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But when I see something in the text, I know when people are writing accounts of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: The details are really important.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so when I see something in the text that is a detail that seems uncommon, unnormal, it's not something that you usually see.

[SPEAKER_00]: I go, where is, why?

[SPEAKER_00]: Why is that there?

[SPEAKER_00]: And then I go, is there any other moments in scripture where there's a finger spoken about?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because it seems like a very weird thing for Jesus to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: They quote the law of Moses, they call Him out.

[SPEAKER_00]: What are you say?

[SPEAKER_00]: He stooks down He begins to write in the dirt.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I was super confused, but then as I look through the text, there's two other times in Scripture, where it speaks about a finger.

[SPEAKER_00]: And particularly the finger of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And these two moments happen in juderonomy and Leviticus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's read them right here.

[SPEAKER_00]: And these are accounts, by the way, of when the law of Moses was given and how it was given.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's read how Moses accounts this.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone written with what?

[SPEAKER_00]: The finger of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: exit a 31 18 and he gave to Moses when he'd finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, the tablets of stone.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is the law of Moses written with the finger of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now we can look at a detail in a New Testament text and go, Jesus is not doing anything here that it's just so confusing.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's just being random, he's just being annoying.

[SPEAKER_00]: Think of this scene, scribes and Pharisees that know the law in and out, backwards front, every little detail, come quoting.

[SPEAKER_00]: Moses says this, what are you say?

[SPEAKER_00]: He strips down immediately and begins to write with his finger.

[SPEAKER_00]: Every eye is on Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Every person is looking at what he is going to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: He begins to write with his finger in the dirt.

[SPEAKER_00]: Gino, what he's saying without saying anything at all, you are quoting to me the law of Moses, I wrote it.

[SPEAKER_00]: The finger of God, that's my finger.

[SPEAKER_00]: You think you can outcoat the lawmaker.

[SPEAKER_00]: You think you can outsmart the person who actually authored the law.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is making a point here.

[SPEAKER_00]: He stooped down writing in the dirt with his finger saying, you know exactly how this law was written.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was written with the finger of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus is placing himself on the same level.

[SPEAKER_00]: And saying, I was the one who authored it.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was my finger.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus, rather than just quoting the law back, he says, I know everything about it because I was the one who wrote it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then he stands up.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're all waiting.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think this is not gospel truth.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think the parody feeling the conviction of God right here, the conviction of the spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: I believe the parody, no, what's coming.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus,

[SPEAKER_00]: turns back to them and says, let him who is without sin through the first stone at her.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, let's understand this in the context and the passage.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is quoting, and he gets down, he stoopes in the dirt, I'm the author of the law, he's making a point here, and then he says, let him who is without sin through the first stone.

[SPEAKER_00]: We go, how beautiful, he's just released her from judgment.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's deeper than that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because in the law, it doesn't allow partial justice.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the law, it doesn't allow one sinner to walk free while the other one is condemned.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Gino, what happens when you misquite the law and try to apply it to someone,

[SPEAKER_00]: even though you don't have everyone who's meant to be there, do you know what happens?

[SPEAKER_00]: The punishment that is meant for her, now turns back on the accuser according to the law.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the stones they have in their hands that was meant for her, Jesus is not just releasing her, he's reversing the judgment, putting it back on them.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's saying, you want to misquite the law.

[SPEAKER_00]: You want to do all this things.

[SPEAKER_00]: The punishment of that in the law that you are quoting is that the stone in your hand is now meant for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's actually not rebuking the law of Moses.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's invoking it, but turning it back onto them.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is a powerful moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: I love the scriptures.

[SPEAKER_00]: I love the Bible.

[SPEAKER_00]: The quickest way we can misuse this word of God when we're trying to teach people righteousness and teach people how to walk in holiness is to apply it to someone else before you apply it to yourself.

[SPEAKER_00]: Come on, I'm just gonna... How many people are just unnoticed vulnerable?

[SPEAKER_00]: How many people in this room have had friends that walked away from church?

[SPEAKER_00]: because people are more concerned with applying this to other people rather than applying it to themselves.

[SPEAKER_00]: Come on, let's get real from them.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sorry if that's happened to you by the way, it's happened to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Can I say the word of God is not a weapon, it's a mirror.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we're so concerned with trying to... when people see the Bible now, just want to say this, people don't see the word of God they see a stone in your hand.

[SPEAKER_00]: When Jesus wields the law, can I tell you he does not wield it with a stone?

[SPEAKER_00]: So Christians should neither.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is not a weapon.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is a mirror.

[SPEAKER_00]: But doesn't the word say?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's the chopper than a two-edged sword?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, the rest of the verse is piecing to the division of your soul and spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a weapon against your own flesh.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we need a church who stop applying it to other people before applying it to themselves.

[SPEAKER_00]: And God is trying to call His church and saying, this is not a weapon.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in this moment, we see a beautiful moment where Jesus doesn't just show the word of the law but the heart of the law.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we have a church that's so consumed with bringing judgment, but I don't know about you, but this lady is still alive.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's still life to be lived.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's still a story to be written.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, if you're sitting here today and you feel like you're condemned in your underjudgment, if you're still breathing, Jesus has a story for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there's still a part of his plan that he's out working.

[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't matter what happened before, Jesus says that just because you are breathing, there is still chance for repentance.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's still chance for grace.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's still chance, and Jesus is coming back.

[SPEAKER_00]: Can I tell you, he hasn't come back yet, which means there's still time.

[SPEAKER_00]: Which means the message of the church is not to bring judgment, but to bring repentance and grace and mercy because there is a world who needs to be set free from the chains that are holding them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Ben, you can come up.

[SPEAKER_00]: First nine, when they heard it, they sent away one by one, beginning with the older ones.

[SPEAKER_00]: I love that detail in the text, the older ones.

[SPEAKER_00]: One by one they left, it was the older ones who left first.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think there's a lesson here for young people in the room.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your zeal and your passion for the things of God is good.

[SPEAKER_00]: But don't let your zeal and passion allow you to sleep and slip into pride.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there's actually wisdom in older people.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think in that moment, the older people in the community,

[SPEAKER_00]: knew that they had to be the first ones to step aside so that the younger ones could walk.

[SPEAKER_00]: So there's a powerful thing here around young people, and I know we go, I'll be one older people to disciples.

[SPEAKER_00]: How about you ask an older person to disciple you?

[SPEAKER_00]: Stop waiting for an old person to come ask you, hey can I just say, but you know it, you ask them, invite them into your life.

[SPEAKER_00]: But anyway, just a little detail there.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sorry.

[SPEAKER_00]: Older ones leave one by one, the New King James Version saying he says being convicted by their own conscience.

[SPEAKER_00]: They walked away, one by one.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus gets this woman in front of him.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, through a woman where are they?

[SPEAKER_00]: Has no one condemned you?

[SPEAKER_00]: She said no one Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus said, no, they do I condemn you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Go and from now on, send no more.

[SPEAKER_00]: The other interesting detail about this text, which I find interesting.

[SPEAKER_00]: Her name is anonymous.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't know her story, we don't know her background.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't know what happens after.

[SPEAKER_00]: Diciousers go and send no more.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, the question is, what did she follow Jesus?

[SPEAKER_00]: Did she?

[SPEAKER_00]: Was she part of the community?

[SPEAKER_00]: Can I just say it doesn't matter?

[SPEAKER_00]: If it's not in the text, the detail doesn't matter.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of us think, well, what if I show grace and mercy to my friend or my person who's in sin and they don't change, it's not your responsibility.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let it go.

[SPEAKER_00]: The job of the follower of Jesus is to extend the grace and the mercy of God and what happens after that is up to God and God alone, not up to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we have Christians who withhold grace and mercy because they think that they're not gonna change.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's an anonymity in the text, which I think we got to hold to in the beautiful thing about this.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to respond in a moment, but there's two groups of people, there's the crowd and then there's the woman, and we think, wow, God has released this woman of the judgment that's upon her.

[SPEAKER_00]: Can I also say Jesus also allows the scribes and the Pharisees to walk free as well?

[SPEAKER_00]: Remember, the judgment was on them.

[SPEAKER_00]: and he allows them to walk out.

[SPEAKER_00]: One by one.

[SPEAKER_00]: Each person in this room, there's gonna be a day.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know when that day is, but Jesus is going to clear the room of your life.

[SPEAKER_00]: Every accusation, every words spoken over you,

[SPEAKER_00]: everything that you've ever walked through, maybe true, maybe false, he is going to clear the room of your life.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it is just going to be you and Jesus, the sinner and the Savior face the face.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I want to tell you this morning, the question that Jesus is going to ask you is not, what did you do wrong?

[SPEAKER_00]: The question he is going to ask you is, what did you do with what I did for you?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because you see, in John chapter 8, homework, for later tonight, read the whole chapter.

John 8 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: It starts with them wanting to stone a woman and ends with them wanting to stone Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we're on the journey to the cross right now, but I want to tell you the stone that was meant for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: He took.

[SPEAKER_00]: The pain that you are meant to feel, he took.

[SPEAKER_00]: The punishment that you are meant to carry, he took and put it up on a cross for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there was going to be a day where he clears every person from your room and is going to be you and him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it is not going to be a moment where it's about your righteousness.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to be about what you did with Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so today, if you stand with me, just stand.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want to give a moment, because I believe there's people here that need to be released from shame in this room.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the shame that you've carried and walked with has disabled you from being able to step into his presence because you think he's going to respond a certain way.

[SPEAKER_00]: Can I tell you the only gift you are going to receive today is Grace and Mercy from your Savior.

[SPEAKER_00]: and the invitation today.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I know it's ball with every eye open and every head up is I want to invite you to the altar.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think there's no coincidence that in this story, she's brought in the middle in the front of the temple surrounded by everyone.

[SPEAKER_00]: Where she thought the altar was going to be the place of her condemnation becomes the place of her freedom.

[SPEAKER_00]: Can I tell you this morning as you walk to the altar and kneel in his presence?

[SPEAKER_00]: This is not a place of condemnation.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a place where you find your freedom.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so today, if you wanna be set free from shame, from guilt, from accusation, from the words spoken over you, maybe you're the woman in the story.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to come forward and kneel at the front here across all this altar.

[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe you're the, you don't identify with the woman,

[SPEAKER_00]: And the question that I want to ask you today is, will you come up and will you drop your stone that you are wielding in your hand and repent to your savor?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because you've been wielding the word as a weapon.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so if that's you today, just want to invite you right now, just come forward and kneel.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just come forward.

[SPEAKER_00]: It only takes one person to be bold.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yep.

[SPEAKER_00]: Come forward.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, there's a level of boldness and needs to be taken here, but I want to encourage you this morning, just come forward and kneel.

[SPEAKER_00]: If that's you, you want to be released of shame and condemnation, or you want to come and lay your stone at the altar.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is your moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is your moment, and I don't want to rush it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Come forward.

[SPEAKER_00]: thank you Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's just the moment between you and Jesus, a moment where you can sit face to face with him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Beautiful.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's the last moment for any last people, there's any other person that wants to come.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's not a place of your condemnation, this is a place of your freedom.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yep.

[SPEAKER_00]: Beautiful.

[SPEAKER_00]: Churchy, if you just extend your hands out right now over these people over the front of this altar, we're going to pray, we're going to set people free from shame and condemnation and then we're going to worship and infern our king to his rightful place.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Lord, you see each person responding here at this altar.

[SPEAKER_00]: come on church, begin to pray, just in your own way, in your own language, just begin to pray.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is the house of prayer.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Lord, you see each person at the front here that has responded.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Lord, we pray in this moment right now that you would release them from shame, that you would release them from condemnation, that you would release them from all the chains that have bound them Lord, and we pray that at this moment, this altar would be the day where they find their freedom, where they see a Savior who does not condemn them, but says, I do not condemn you, go and sin no more, releasing them from the payment of their sin Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: We know.

[SPEAKER_00]: that on the cross, you pay for it, you paid the price, you paid the cost, you paid everything so that we could be free, so Lord right now we say that would freedom reign in this church, would freedom reign in this church, would you begin to set people free of old words?

[SPEAKER_00]: Would you be against a set people free of old words, Lord?

[SPEAKER_00]: Would you be against a set people free from the opinion of the crowd?

[SPEAKER_00]: And allow them to be set free by the opinion of their saviour, who says you are loved.

[SPEAKER_00]: You are chosen.

[SPEAKER_00]: You are a child of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: You are set free that you don't no longer have a spirit of fear, Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: But you set them free.

[SPEAKER_00]: free of love and a soundmines to Holy Spirit, fill this place, to send on this roof, to send on the hearts and minds of your people.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Lord, we pray each person that this would be a chiroch moment, a moment where things change, a moment where the grace and mercy of God reigns, where we can walk into newness of life, into a new identity, into a new purpose as a new creation.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, we pray all these things, in Jesus' precious,

[SPEAKER_00]: and powerful land.

[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody said, I am in, everybody said, I am in.