John 8:1-11
Sunday Morning Bible Study
December 31, 1995
Introduction
The opposition is starting to heat up against Jesus.
He finally showed up at the Feast of Tabernacles, and started to teach the people in the temple.
When the religious rulers sent their police to have Jesus arrested, the officers could do nothing because they were so awed at the things that Jesus was saying.
Even within the rulers themselves, controversy has sprung up as one of their own, Nicodemus, has urged the rulers to try listening to Jesus instead of just condemning Him.
After arguing about it, they all went home for the night.
Side Note:
The passage we're going to be looking at today has been questioned by some as whether it was written by John or not.
How could this be?
First, we do not have any of the original writings in the handwriting of the writers themselves, only copies.
There are many of the copies that do not contain this passage.
But I found that there was plenty of evidence of it's authenticity, and support to boot:
For one thing, it's found in plenty of old manuscripts (see Gill on John 8:3).
Jerome (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 reproached those who made a bad use of it.
Augustine (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.
That's good enough for me!
:1-11 The Woman caught in adultery
:1 unto the mount of Olives
Olives, Mount of - Central summit of a N-S ridge of hills, lying just E of Jerusalem, about 1/4 mile, across the Kidron Valley. It rises to a height of 2660 ft (811 m), and was once covered with dense olive groves.
Why go there?
This apparently was His custom when ministring in Jerusalem (Luk.21:37). You might have gone to Motel 6, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
It's also where some friends lived. He might have spent the night with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.
He might have even spent the night camping out in a Garden of olive trees there, a place called Gethsemane.
:2 early in the morning ... taught them
The Greek text indicates that it was dawn.
Jesus gets up and walks the quarter mile to the temple.
The people are all there, I wonder if they're waiting for Him.
He comes into the temple, sits down, and begins to teach.
I couldn't help but think that this is such a great picture for us of what our daily Quiet Times ought to be like.
Lesson:
Starting the day with Jesus.
Jesus comes to us early in the morning
At what point does Jesus take control of your life during the day?
Does He have to wait until lunchtime?
Does He have to wait until after you're done with breakfast?
Does He have to wait until you finish reading the morning paper? (gulp!)
He desires to sit down in the temple.
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?
He taught them.
How open are we to letting Jesus really teach us?
Does He have that opportunity in your life?
And more than just reading and putting in your time, does He actually get a chance to speak to you?
I know that I've been struggling a lot lately in hearing the Lord, because I want to think about so many other things.
It's a real challenge to put the other thoughts away, and really spend time with Him.
:4 in the very act
epautophoro - lit., caught in the act of theft
Adultery is just like a theft, taking something that belongs to another person.
I don't think we have to go into great detail in this.
If you want more details on the "very act of adultery", just turn on your television sets, but better yet, keep them off!
The "very act" would seem to be talking about quite an embarrassing situation.
I wonder how they managed to catch someone "in the very act"?
:5 Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned ...
It's very interesting to trace what Moses says about adultery:
»Leviticus 20:10 And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
The Jews had a rule that whenever the penalty was just mentioned as "death", then the person was to be strangled, not stoned.
The Jews also had a saying:
``if all adulterers were punished with stoning, according to the law, the stones would be consumed; but they would not be consumed;'' (Gill)
But there was one case of adultery, where stoning was recommended:
»Deuteronomy 22:23-24 If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto an husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her; 24 Then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die; the damsel, because she cried not, being in the city; and the man, because he hath humbled his neighbour's wife: so thou shalt put away evil from among you.
So, with these guys recommending stoning, this woman must not be actually married yet, but only engaged to be married.
Side note:
If we followed the Old Testament laws in our nation, can you imagine what would happen to the divorce rate?
Just imagine what would happen to all the movie stars!
:5 what sayest thou?
This is what they're really after.
They want to know what Jesus is going to say, not necessarily punish the woman.
I have a question I'd like answered:
Where is the man?
The scripture indicated that "both" were to be taken out and stoned.
After all, it takes two people to commit adultery.
If she was caught in the very act, wouldn't there have been a man involved?
Could it be that the man was part of a trap to catch the woman, and bring her to Jesus?
:6 this they said, tempting him
or, "testing"
This is all a trap.
If Jesus says, "Forgive her", which they're hoping for, then they can accuse Jesus of breaking the Law of Moses.
After all, there is no doubt as to this woman's guilt, she was caught in the act.
If she's guilty, then there's only one sentence, according to Moses.
If Jesus says, "Stone her", then they can hit him up for hypocrisy.
After all, hasn't He been teaching all this stuff about love and forgiveness?
:6 Jesus stooped down ... with his finger wrote ...
It's been noted that this is the only instance we have on record of Jesus writing anything.
Why did Jesus stoop down?
I wonder if He felt some kind of embarrassment 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.
Our society is trying to change that.
We pay big bucks for someone to go on TV and explain all the shameful things they do.
In reality, we ought to be embarrassed and hurt for others who get caught in sin.
Instead of giving sponsors the pleasure of higher ratings of their shows, we ought to shut the television off and weep for these people.
We need to learn to love people, and have compassion for them.
The Bible says,
»1Peter 4:8 Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.
Care enough to cover!
Illustration:
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.
One of his sons, Ham, came in and looked at Dad, and then left to spread the great peace 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 received a curse, while Shem and Japheth received a blessing.
Why? Because they cared enough to cover up a loved one in their sinful condition, rather than just stand back and laugh at it.
Question: What did Jesus write?
We're not told.
The story doesn't really need for us to be told.
:6 as though he heard them not
(The phrase is only found in a few manuscripts, but it certainly gives us the idea that's being portrayed.)
:7 they continued asking him
Apparently, Jesus was indicating that He didn't want to give these people the time of day, let alone answer their question.
:7 He that is without sin among you
The idea is someone who has never sinned, they are the ones qualified to be the first to condemn.
In all reality, there was only one person in the crowd that day that was qualified to pick up a stone.
It was Jesus.
:7 let him first cast a stone at her
The Greek means "first before others", be the first to cast, not cast before he does something else.
We might say, "Let him be the first to cast a stone at her".
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:
Judging others.
Jesus said:
»Matthew 7:1-2 Judge not, that ye be not judged. 2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
We need to be careful in judging others, because it will all come back at us.
This works in two ways:
1. It works in our relationship with God.
If we're harsh to others, God may give us the same treatment.
»Matthew 6:14-15 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: 15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
»James 2:13 For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.
2. It works in 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.
»Proverbs 27:19 As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.
The harshest, most critical people I know are also the ones that are treated the same way.
Then Jesus said,
»Matthew 7:3-5 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? 4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? 5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy 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 a man with a 2x4 sticking out of his eye, attempting to extract a splinter from someone else's eye!
Applications:
Stop and think before you criticize.
Are you any much better?
Are you seeking to help the person, or gathering more evidence to destroy them?
The Bible says:
»Galatians 6:1-2 Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. 2 Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
Think of how this might apply to:
Your 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.
Your 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.
Your work relationships -
It really works!
If you are merciful to others, you will receive it in return.
Illustration:
Bank of Newport - I remember trying this on a boss at work once, with one of those bosses that nobody liked.
When I started at the bank, this one supervisor was known by names like "Ice Queen", and others I can't mention.
Go against the flow of the crowd, and stick your neck out and be kind.
If you show some kindness, and don't participate in the rumors and ugly gossip, you'll see God melt stoney hearts with His compassion.
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 minister 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 wrote on the ground
It has been suggested that perhaps Jesus was writing down the sins of the men standing before Him.
The Bible says:
»Jeremiah 17:13 they that depart from me shall be written in the earth
Perhaps He wrote down their names.
Perhaps He just doodled.
:9 being convicted by their own conscience
The reality of their own hypocrisy began to be apparent to them.
(Note: NASB & NIV do not have this phrase)
:9 beginning at the eldest
Perhaps it was because with a lifetime of living, they had the most sin, and the most conviction.
:10 lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman
Again, the idea is that Jesus has been staring at the ground, drawing in the dirt.
When He gets up to look around, they have all gone.
:11 neither do I condemn thee
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.
»John 5:22 For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son:
But the reason He came the first time was to save people, not condemn them.
»John 3:17-18 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Lesson:
Jesus offers you 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.
»Psalm 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
»Hebrews 8:12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
Is it possible? Could it really be true?
Yes!
»1John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
At this time of year we have a wierd idea that somehow we're starting a new year all fresh, a new start!
But it's only by receiving God's forgiveness through Jesus that we really get a new start.
Are you willing to come to Him and ask for forgiveness?
:11 go, and sin no more
He's not saying that this woman must now live a perfect life until she dies.
There's a small cult group living out in Arizona, the "Children of the Light". There's only about seven of them left, and they're in their 70's, 80's and 90's.
They feel that if they live sinless lives, that they will cheat death and live forever.
They are vegetarians, and live celebate lives.
The problem is, every now and then, one of them dies.
The truth is, every one still sins.
»1John 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
But it's not occasional sins that Jesus is talking about, it's the continual, habitual ones.
Illustration:
Falling into sin doesn't condemn anybody, but staying in it does. 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 queer 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."
If there is a real relationship with Jesus, a real forgiveness, there will be a real change.
»2Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
If the woman has truly allowed Jesus to forgive her, then she will respond by allowing changes to be made in her life.
Lesson:
Let Jesus make the changes.
He's the only one that can really make the difference.
But you have to let Him do the house cleaning.
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."
Receive God's forgiveness, and go and sin no more.
Extra
Manuscript evidence ...
We have thousands of early copies of the New Testament books.
When you make a copy of something by hand, you're going to get some errors creeping in now and then.
Keep in mind, most of the errors are things like spelling.
Through careful study of the existing manuscripts, most discrepancies can be accounted for, and NONE of the questionable passages teach bizzarre doctrines.
There are some passages though, where scholars debate over, like this one, because some groups of manuscripts contain the passage, while others do not.
The King James Bible, as well as the NKJV was translated from a particular family of manuscripts called the Textus Receptus (using the Byzantine family of texts).
Later, a group of scholars began to challenge the validity of those manuscripts, and suggested that other texts were more accurate (namely, the Alexandrian family of texts). The NASB and NIV translations were based on these revised manuscripts. In fact, scholars who follow this school will say things like, "the consensus of New Testament scholars is that this section was not part of the original text."
Interestingly enough, there are some scholars that are beginning to question these things, and some are beginning to say that the Textus Receptus ain't so bad after all!
:9 eldest ...
There was an interesting passage in Ezekiel that might have some bearing here.
Ezekiel is in Babylon, as a captive, but is having visions of what's going on in Jerusalem as the final destruction is happening under Nebuchadnezzar.
He has a vision about these angelic beings with orders from the Lord.
One of them is given a big magic marker and told to mark certain people in the city of Jerusalem.
»Ezekiel 9:4-6 And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. 5 And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: 6 Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house.
I think it's interesting that in a passage that's talking about judgement on sin, the order is given to carry it out from oldest to youngest.
This is after Ezekiel has been taken on a trip through the imaginations of the elders in Jerusalem:
»Ezekiel 8:9-12 And he said unto me, Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here. 10 So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, pourtrayed upon the wall round about. 11 And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in his hand; and a thick cloud of incense went up. 12 Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, The LORD seeth us not; the LORD hath forsaken the earth.
Lesson:
God knows your thoughts, even the bad ones.
We need to guard ourselves from the same kinds of thoughts that these elders in Jerusalem had, that God didn't know what was happening.
God not only knew what was happening, but was showing it all to Ezekiel as well!
It's the ultimate in hypocrisy when we try to hide our sinfulness, and pretend that we have it all together, when in fact we don't.
Some day we may find ourselves face to face with Jesus, accusing somebody before Him, and realize that we are just a hypocrite, and have no right to accuse.