Randall Caselman
Bella Vista Church of Christ
5/11/97 pm
“Go And Sin No More”
Reading — John 8.1-11
I don’t know how much you know about the Puritans and the Quakers. But, perhaps you do know that they are strictly non violent people. The story is told of a Puritan family that had a robber enter their home and the man of the house found himself confronting the thief with a gun. He said to the burglar, Friend, I seek to do thee no harm, but thou art standing where I am about to shoot. I think this is the best way to convey our lesson tonight. I don’t seek to do anybody any harm, but we might find our hearts in the of where I am about to shoot.
What’s going on in John chapter 8 is a continuation of what has being going on all week, it’s the Feast of Tabernacles, The Jewish Festival of Lights. This feast was a celebration of God’s providential care and sustaining power during the 40 year wilderness wondering after they crossed the Red Sea and before they crossed the Jordan into the promised land. The Jewish men and fathers would construct booths and tents in the street and countryside and for a week the family would live in them, recalling the days of their forefathers sojourn in the desert of Sinai.
The celebration would end with a giant candelabra being lit in the Temple courtyard . It was against this backdrop that Jesus made His way to the Temple courts and begin to teach the people. In chapter 7, beginning with verse 37, John says, On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." On hearing his words, some of the people said, "Surely this man is the Prophet." Others said, "He is the Christ." After the lighting ceremony Jesus begins to teach again and says, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. You can see that this would have really upset the religious establishment, the Pharisees, the teachers of the Law and scribes. This statement by Jesus really made them mad. They try arguing with Him in chapter 7, only to no avail. Jesus wins all the arguments and makes the Jewish leaders look like fools in front of the gathered Feast time crowds.
In frustration they devise a trap. They bring Him a woman caught in adultery on a religious holiday.
- Morally naked.
- Spiritually defiled.
- Socially humiliated.
John tells us this is a trap in verse 6 of our reading. In fact, I believe, that the woman has been trapped also. I mean, as we read the narrative, we are made to wonder, where is the man? The religious officials evidently arranged for a man to entice this woman for the very purpose of trapping Jesus. That must have been the plot, or why didn’t they bring in the man. The Old Testament book of Deuteronomy says, the man and the women caught in the act of adultery are both to be stoned.
You see, it is the perfect set up, Jesus is trapped. The Jewish Law says, those caught in adultery were to be stoned. The Roman law stated that the Jews could not carry out capitol punishment. So, Jesus is trapped either way. If He says stone her, they do and the Romans come, and the Jewish officials point to Jesus and say he is the one who sentenced her. If Jesus says, don’t stone her, He is accused of violating the Law of Moses and He could be stoned himself for blasphemy. Either way the religious establishment win, Jesus loses... Jesus dies.
Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such a one, now what do you say? Jesus bent down and wrote something in the dirt, I don’t know what He wrote. We don’t have a clue, so lets leave it there. But what He says to the crowd has echoed through history, If any of you is without sin, let him cast the first stone.
His response stopped them dead in their trap. Jesus knew the Law as well as they did or better. He knows that Deuteronomy 17 says, the witnesses who catch them are to do the stoning. And who wants to cast the first stone under the qualification that Jesus laid down, let him who has no sin cast the first stone.
Jesus with this one statement changes the whole issue. The issue NOW, is not whether the woman should be stoned for her sin, but whether or not they have the right to stone her, in the mist of their sins. 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. What a contrast:
- The guilty and the guiltless.
- The sinner and the Savior.
- The adulterous and the Advocate.
The only one who has the right to crush her under the rock of condemnation only tosses her a question... Woman where are your accusers?
Then the words that are too good to be true.
- Words of Love,
- Words of Mercy,
- Words of Grace.
Neither do I condemn you. Then those words of love, mercy and grace are followed by words of responsibility, Go now and leave your life of sin... Go And Sin No More.
This narrative reminds me of John 1.14, The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. Grace and truth was precisely what this woman got that day.
- She got grace, neither do I condemn you.
- And she got truth;
- Truth as to the fact that she was in sin,
- Truth as to what God was calling her to, a new life.
Go your way and sin no more.
John doesn’t finish this story. Perhaps, because he wants us to finish it in light of our own life. Perhaps he wants to answer these two questions:
- What will we do with the love, mercy and grace Jesus offers us?
- What will we do with the truth that Jesus calls us to?
Well, what can we learn from this narrative?
I want to give us four things to take home tonight, that I pray will translate into something that will help us in the coming days.
FIRST, IF WE SPEND TIME IN PRAYER TO GOD ON OUR MOUNTAIN OF DECISION, WE WILL GET THE WISDOM WE NEED IN THE VALLEY OF DECISION.
You see, the Pharisees overlooked who they were dealing with and where He had just come from. Note, if you will verse 53 of chapter 7, They all left, each to his own home, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. The Mount of Olives was Jesus’ prayer site. Luke tells us that He often went there to pray. You see church, if you were going to be trapped in such a manner, you would need the wisdom of God in order to get out of such a predicament. While the Pharisee go home to stew and plan their plot, Jesus go to the Garden to pray.
We must know tonight that Jesus had the wisdom of God because He had spent the previous night in prayer. James tell us, If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God who gives freely. James is not saying, make your plans and then go to God asking Him to give them His stamp of approval. It means that we are to go to God asking Him for our plans. We must make God a part of our plans.
The religious establishment had come hoping to get Jesus to make a decision that would seal His fate. But Jesus, in His wisdom, turned the tables on them. Jesus got this wisdom, the same place you and I can obtain our wisdom.... From prayer time with the Father. Church, why is it that we rely so much on WORLDLY WISDOM, when we could have divine wisdom from above, simply for the asking, simply for the asking. Prayer time on the Mountain of God will give us the wisdom we need in the valley of decision.
SECONDLY, WE LEARN THAT WE MAY BE A VICTIM OF OTHER PEOPLE’S SIN, BUT THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR OWN SINS.
There is little doubt the this woman was the victim of a hideous trap by religious leaders. But notice that Jesus still holds her responsible for her own actions... Go now and LEAVE your life of sin. She may have been lured, enticed, tricked and seduced, but she still had the choice and the power to say NO, and she didn’t. It is true other people’s sins influence us, the sins of past generations do impact us.
Our environment, our genetics, our body chemistry, our rearing, may give us a tendency, a weakness toward some particular sin, but ultimately, we are all responsible for our own actions. We are free moral agents; we have the choice; we have the power, to say NO to sin... Any sin... All sin.
Our past, our environment and genetics may explain: The way we are, and what we struggle with, but it does not excuse us from becoming the people and person that God calls us to be. Know tonight that we may have done wrong in the past, but we have not lost the power to do what’s right in the present.
THIS BRINGS US TO OUR THIRD POINT, SO LET’S STOP MAKING EXCUSES AND START MAKING CORRECTIONS.
Do you know people, who every time they are told something they did or are doing wrong, they always, always begin to make an excuse. You just want to tell them, stop making excuses and start making changes.
You see, we need to understand that with grace comes responsibility. Jesus shows this woman mercy by not giving her what she deserved... That was death. But he gave her grace, giving her what she did not deserve, a second chance. But with grace and mercy comes responsibility. Neither do I condemn you, are words of grace and mercy that we all want to hear. But, go your way and sin no more are words of responsibility that we don’t want to hear.
Neither do I condemn you are words of a Savior. Go and sin no more are words of a Lord. Everybody wants a Savior, few are willing to submit to the words of a Lord. But you see, Jesus can’t be our Savior unless we are willing to submit to His Lordship. He’s got to be both.
The story is told about a frontier town where a team and wagon had a runaway. The father was thrown off the wagon and his young son was sure to be killed as the wagon was headed toward the cliff at the edge of town. A 16 year old boy, on a fast horse, caught up with the wagon and he got onto the team and stopped them short of the bluff, saving the young boy’s life. The boy grew up to be a lawless character. The one who saved his life became a judge. Decades later the boy was brought before the judge for murder... and was convicted. The Judge said, son, yesterday I was once your savior, today I am your judge. Yesterday, I gave you a second chance, but it was your responsibility to live your life by law, now I must sentence you to hang for murder.
I like what Doug said Wednesday evening in our devotional. When you look at the word responsibility, you see two words:
- Response — God’s love, mercy and grace demands a response for us.
- Ability — God has given us the ability to respond to His love.
The question is, are we willing? Or will we like this frontiersman, ignore our responsibility and live lawlessly?
WITH GRACE COMES RESPONSIBILITY.
Romans 6.1 says, What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning, so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? There will come and time when Jesus our Savior will become Jesus our Judge. The good news tonight is that there is still time for us to hear him say, go and sin no more. Let’s stop making excuses and start making corrections.
NUMBER FOUR, BY CALLING US TO RESPONSIBILITY, GOD IS TELLING US HE IS MORE INTERESTED IN OUR FUTURE THAN IN OUR PAST.
The fact that Jesus doesn’t condemn this woman, but tells her to go and sin no more tells us that He is more interested in her future than in her past. God is more concerned with our future possibilities than our past failures. Church, God can forgive the past. Romans 8.1 says, Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 Corinthians 5.17 says, If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
You see, if we are in Christ, God has already dealt with our past... It’s gone, our sins have been removed as far as the East is from the West. How far is that? East and West never meet. If God had said, as far as North is from South, then that’s not far enough. One can go North to a point and then we begin to go south. This would have mint that we could sin to the point that God would start remembering our sins. But East and West never meet. Scripture tells us God remembers our sins no more... It’s as if our past never happened.
Now, this we must know. This women did not get off scot-free... Don’t think punishment was not served. Instead of a guilty woman being crushed under a pile of rocks.... Jesus, the perfect man suffered a humiliating death on a cross. It was expensive to forgive her. Forgiveness of my sins and yours was expensive... Very expensive. It cost God His Son, Jesus His life.
The prophet Isaiah says, He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Psalm 103 tells us that God does not deal with us according to our sins.
You know why?.... Because he has already dealt with our sins in Jesus on the cross. Because he has dealt with our sins through Jesus, God can now deals with us on the terms of what we can become in the future.... GOOD NEWS!... GOOD NEWS!
If you are a child of God tonight:
- Stop living in the past.
- Stop living in regret.
God has already dealt with your past.
QUESTION! Have you let Jesus set you free from your past? You can by Faith, Repentance, and New Testament baptism, immersion in water for the forgiveness of your sin. You can be set free from your past.
Perhaps you’re here tonight and need to: Start taking responsibility for your own sins; stop making excuses and start making corrections.
If we can assist you in dealing correctly with your sins, let us do so now.
