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(upbeat music) - Welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotions. Hi, I'm Pastor Tom
Holliday and we are in John chapter eight this week, day one of our look at this
chapter. We're going to look at verses one to 11 today.

This is the, this is the Katja story in the Bible. Somebody who is caught in the
act of doing something wrong and for everyone who has felt what it feels like as
a child to have their hand caught in the cookie jar all the way to as an adult
to see that red light in the mirror when you know that you've been speeding, you
know the terrifying feeling of being caught when you know that you've done
something wrong. We know that we all make mistakes, but we hope that we'll never
have to face those mistakes.

When we have to face it, the feeling is where's the nearest hole to crawl into?
Well, we're going to take a look today as we look at these scriptures that a woman
who must have been looking for a Grand Canyon sized hole to fall into, to crawl
into, to escape what had happened to her that day. Listen to what happened in
John chapter eight verses one to three.

But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn, he appeared again in the temple
courts where all the people were gathered around him and he sat down to teach
them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in
adultery.

They made her stand before the group. This woman was caught in the worst of
circumstances. She's in front of the temple, the place of worship.

She's brought by the Pharisees, the religious leaders. She's standing before
Jesus. She's surrounded by this crowd.

And we're going to see as we look through this story today, we're going to see how
Jesus changed her life through his truth. We're going to see how Jesus can impact
our lives through his truth. Now, I just have to say as we begin this story,
because many people ask me, they see a note in their Bible that says that this
story is not found in the earliest manuscripts.

And they ask, when in the world does that mean? Well, that simply means when the
King James version was made back in the 1600s, that they included this story,
even though it's not included in the earliest copies of the New Testament. And
people ask me, what does that mean when I read this?

What should I do about it? Well, what I say is this, there's a passage like this
in Mark, that's about it in the New Testament, that what you do is you always
check these passages real carefully against the rest of the Bible, which is what
we'll do as we walk through this today. Does it mean this didn't happen in the
life of Jesus?

No, it probably happened. It does mean though that we should check everything in
this story against everything else in the rest of the Bible. With that in mind,
listen to what happened that day.

John 8, four to six. They said to Jesus, these religious leaders, teacher, this
woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the law, Moses commanded us to stone
such women.

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 he started to write on the
ground with his finger.

In these scriptures, we see that this woman was caught in the act and they said
we have to stone her. Now, first of all, do you see a problem here? They brought
this woman who is caught in adultery.

What about the man? The verse they were talking about, Deuteronomy 22, 22, says
if a man is found sleeping with another man's wife, both the man who slept with
her and the woman must die. That's how harsh the law was in its judgment of
this.

But it says both the man and woman. So they're breaking the law by just bringing
the woman for the very beginning. And the Pharisees did this not because they
cared about sin, cared about the woman, they did this because they wanted to put
Jesus between a rock and a hard place.

The rock was the Jewish law that commanded that those who caught in adultery
faced the death penalty. And the hard place was the Roman government that
reserved to itself the right to inflict capital punishment. So if Jesus said
yes, she should be killed, he'd be going against the Roman government.

If he said no, she shouldn't, he'd be going against the Jewish law. They thought
they had him trapped. They didn't care about this woman one bit.

And how did Jesus deal with this, this dilemma? The Bible says he bent over and
he wrote in the sand. Now, why did he do this?

What did he write? There's no answer in the New Testament for us. And so it's
the subject of lots of speculation.

There are four possible suggestions. Some people say he may have wished to gain
time and not be rushed into a decision. I don't know about that, he's the son of
God.

He seemed to be able to decide pretty quickly to me, but that's what some people
think. Some say he may have acted like he didn't hear them in order to force
them to repeat their charges so that they could see the cruelty of their hearts
as they repeated it. Some say that Jesus may have been overcome by feelings of
compassion or shame or anger, just giving himself some time to think that
through.

Others say, this is my favorite suggestion, that he may have been writing some
of the sins of the accusers in the sand. In fact, I don't know that this is what
happened, but if it is what happened, my favorite way of thinking about it is
that he would write the sin and then put an arrow that pointed to the person who
had committed this sin that was making this accusation. We don't know what he
wrote in the sand.

We do know that he gave them a moment to think about what they were saying. And
then the Bible says in verses seven to nine, when they kept on questioning him,
he straightened up and he 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 he wrote on
the ground.

At this, those who'd heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first,
until only Jesus was left, with this woman still standing there. You see, the
religious leaders didn't care a bit about this woman. Jesus cared only about
this woman.

Everything he's doing is to communicate to her. And as he bends down and writes
in the ground, as he said, let the one without sin be the first one to cast a
stone at her, he is communicating some things to this woman. In fact, to you and
I also, about the sin in our lives.

What do I need to do to know, to find, to enjoy his forgiveness? Jesus clearly
communicated three things to this woman, three things to you and I. First thing
he communicated in these verses is, you're not alone.

You are not alone. When he said, if you haven't sinned, you go and throw a stone
at her and no one could, he was saying to her, we've all sinned. In fact, Romans
3.

23 says it this way, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Here's
an example of that. First Corinthians 10.

13 says, no temptation has seized you except what is common to man. To act as if
I am not tempted, to act as if I do not sin is a sin in itself. You're not
alone.

You're not alone when you're tempted to sin and you're not alone when you choose
to sin. The Bible tells us that we need to realize we all need the cross of
Jesus Christ. You're not alone, but that's not where Jesus stops.

Verses 10 and 11, he has two other truths to teach her. Jesus straightened up
and he 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.

You're not alone, but then Jesus communicates to her secondly, you are not
condemned. You see, in that crowd, when Jesus said, let him who is without sin
be the first to cast a stone at her, Jesus was the only one without sin in that
whole crowd. Jesus was the only one who had a right to pick up a stone and cast
it at her.

When the people were in that crowd could not cast a stone at her, they were
saying to her, you're not alone. We've all sinned. When Jesus would not cast a
stone at her, he was saying to her, you are not condemned.

Neither do I condemn you. He was telling her the truth of Romans 8. 1.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Think
about this. The one who spoke the stars into place, who spoke the worlds into
existence, he looked her in the eye and he spoke to her these words, neither do
I condemn you.

Hear Jesus saying that to you right now. You're not alone and you are not
condemned. He didn't come to condemn the world.

He came to save the world. You're not alone, you're not condemned, but then
Jesus has a third truth to teach. You are responsible.

Go now, he said, and leave your life of sin. You are responsible. You can do
that.

It is an option. That's the power of grace. Jesus doesn't provide us a way to
get away with sin.

He does provide a way to go away from our sin and we are responsible. We are
responsible for Jesus who does not condemn us to face our sin, to confess our
sin, and to leave our sin. Maybe as I've talked about this woman today, talked
about being caught, it's brought up some feelings in your own heart, your own
mind.

You're feeling some shame about a decision that you've made, a sin that you
haven't confessed, a sin that you have confessed, but you're not sure you're
forgiven enough. I would say to you, don't look for some hole to crawl into.
Look to the one who can make you whole.

Look to Jesus Christ. Have a conversation with him about the sin in your life
and hear him saying to you, you're not alone, you're not condemned, you are
responsible. Let's talk to him about forgiveness right now.

If there's a sin in your life that you haven't yet confessed, say to him, Jesus
Christ, I recognize that because of the cross of Christ, this sin can be
forgiven. This sin is forgiven as I've trusted in you for forgiveness. You've
never trusted in him for forgiveness, trust in him now.

If you've trusted in him for forgiveness, trust in the fact that he has forgiven
you. Jesus, I thank you that we all together can come to you as sinners in need
of grace. And recognize that the cross is all about forgiveness.

Forgive us. Thank you for your forgiveness. And Jesus, we pray, you'd help us to
leave our life of sin, to find in you the power to live in new ways, to find in
you the power to live the life of grace that you've made us to live.

We ask this, Jesus, in your name, amen. Well, join us tomorrow, we're going to
continue together in this study of John chapter eight.