[Transcript represents full sermon's text]

       Finishing John chapter 7, at verse 53: “They went each to his own house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him” (ESV).

       We pick up from last week with the scene at the Temple during the Feast of Booths. If we are take this scene in John to continue on the next day after the conversation gone over last week, which was the final day of the Feast of Booths, will see that Jesus stays in town to do some more teaching. Now, the obvious needs addressed and that is that most of you are peering down at Bibles in which these verses are bracketed. Indeed, in the ESV Bible, that is the case. The bracketing is because the earliest manuscripts do not contain this section, or it is placed elsewhere, even in the Gospel of Luke (in chapter 21 specifically). Thus, it can be safely said that these section probably was not in John’s writing of this Gospel. Furthermore, it does not take a professional reader to discern that the writing style is different. As pertains to the entirety to the way John writes, it does not match. All this being the case, the question is undoubtedly arising as to whether we should consider this section in John as part of the inspired Word of God. Due to the lack of evidence, really, to say that we shouldn’t, for nothing in this section is a blatant problem in consistency with other Scriptures, it seems best to go ahead and consider it as part of God’s Word. Peradventure the Holy Spirit had it added to the text from oral tradition, as some theologians have speculated that it had been handed down. Not knowing for sure, it’s safer to keep it intact. If this was a football game, this would be one of those close plays where “The ruling on the field stands.” “The ruling on the field stands.” It’s not confirmed, but it stands.

       Thus, we arrive at the day after the Feast of Booths. Jesus sticks around, and continues to teach to the crowds. We remember from last week that the chief priests and Pharisees were seeking to discredit Jesus. In fact, they wanted him arrested and had sent guards to go and perform that duty. But, empty handed were they upon returning. They had been taken aback by the teacher’s words. They’d been blown away by them. Remember, they said back to the Pharisees, “No one ever spoke like this man!” (John 7:46, ESV). They couldn’t do it, they couldn’t arrest him. They didn’t feel it was right. Perhaps it’s at this juncture that these Pharisees, excluding Nicodemus (for Nicodemus appeared to be on Jesus’ side), these Pharisees then cook up another idea. They weren’t able to arrest him, so why not try to catch him in his actions, and prove to the crowd that he isn’t so great as he appears. They desire to see if they can discredit him and make him look bad in front of everyone. Then, conceivably, they would be able to arrest him with the crowd against him at that moment. Maybe that’s the hope.

       The plot they conjured up was to bring a woman before him who had been involved in an adulteress relationship. Now, was she actually removed out of the act and brought to this scene? The text doesn’t really tell us. It could have been something that happened days ago, and they were waiting to see what they would do with her. We just don’t really know. Maybe if she was just removed out of the act, the act was with a Pharisee and that’s how they knew it was going to take place. Well, probably not. They were outwardly religious, after all. Maybe it was just someone in the community that the Pharisees already knew was committing the act of adultery from time to time and they knew where and when to caught her in the act. Anyway, it is a pretty startling scene, even for our day and age. Familiarity should reside in us as to the background of the Jewish Law, that a person who committed adultery was subject to being stoned to death. The death penalty. Not that they regularly practiced that, probably. But, today, with Jesus present, they thought it would be a good day to practice it. They could put Jesus to the test. If Jesus said to go against the Law of Moses, as it is referred to in the question, then they would have him. It would be irrefutable evidence before the crowd, evidence which everyone would witness.

       Verse 6 continued, “Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground” (ESV).

       This imagery of Jesus writing on the ground is definitely peculiar. It’s notably a different writing style of what we’re used to so far in John’s Gospel. Nevertheless, as to what Jesus is writing out, we have no idea. Perhaps, as some have noted, it was the names of the Pharisees who had brought her. And maybe the Holy Spirit has granted him certain divine knowledge of the individuals standing around, as to what sins they are guilty of, or currently practice, like he did with the woman at the well back in John chapter 4. If that were the case, he could then accuse them after they stone her. Notice that as he wrote whatever it was out, the Pharisees kept constantly asking it of him, probably in an accusatory manner, a nagging manner. They certainly thought they had him. There was no way he was going to get out of this one.

       The response Jesus gives them is a fascinating one, a fascinating one. Jesus takes the focus off of the woman, and directs it at the individuals who brought her, the Pharisees. He tells them that if they are perfect themselves, they can go ahead and cast the first stone. Really, Jesus is lucky someone didn’t, as prideful as the Pharisees could be. But possibly they peered down and saw what he had written on the ground. If they all looked toward the ground, and saw their own names, and wondered to themselves how he knew their names, maybe at that moment they became afraid. They were afraid that if he knew their names, what else did he know? Was he aware of their secret sins? Was one of them guilty of the adultery with this woman, and also deserving of a stoning? It seems likely that he would have been aware then. And what did he write out the second time he bent down. Maybe it was a list of certain sins, and perhaps no names were directly tied to who had done what yet.

       Continuing. Verse 9: “But 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. Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more” (ESV).

       It seems experientially true that the older a person is, the more he or she realizes they aren’t perfect. That’s what the text demonstrates. When you are young, it’s easy to believe that you don’t have that many problems. It’s easy to have that ‘on top of the world’ mentality, and to believe that there really is nothing wrong with you. It just depends on the person in question. But each of the individuals standing by, those who had picked up stones to do away with the woman, each realized, when contemplating it, that they had a sin problem themselves. Perhaps not so much externally, but definitely internally. They knew it was there. And this passage beautifully illustrates for use the existence of the doctrine of original sin, the existence of the sin-nature that plagues each one of us. It’s interesting because not everyone believes in the sin-nature. There are some believers who think a person is born neutral, or simply with a ‘corrupted nature’ that is susceptible to sin. Those positions are possible, but it appears experientially true that each one us, for as far back as we can remember, recall having thoughts we knew, or least know now, weren’t or aren’t right. That’s the way it was as we grew up. It wasn’t something that we one day decided, but it was already there.

       Observe the interesting thing Jesus says there, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” One might suppose, if he had only spoke the first part, that he was condoning sin. It would be easy to assume, in that case, that since everyone sins, it really doesn’t matter. That’s what people often think, and that’s what they hope is true, those who don’t have a personal relationship with God. They hope that since everyone sins, that they themselves will be spared on the judgment day. But its that second part of what Jesus said that let’s us know that sin isn’t okay. It’s not something that we want to keep around, to keep practicing on a regular basis. Jesus said, “from now on sin no more.” “From now on sin no more.” This is important. Paul will reiterate it later in Romans, when he asked, “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?” (Romans 6:1, ESV). The obvious answer is that we are not. While the context of this passage is still technically Old Testament, or Old Covenant, it still has application for the Church Age. This is the way it is supposed to be for the Christian. When a person becomes born-again, they aren’t to keep on sinning, at least, willingly. Really, though, we probably all know that usually we don’t want to do that anyway. That’s generally what we see with the conversion experience. We lose that desire to keep sinning at will.

       Easy to suppose it would be, and some have purposed it and actually believe it, that once a person becomes saved, that he or she is never suppose to sin again. Indeed, some Christians actually believe that to sin again, if one does sin again after being saved, they lose their salvation. Some of us might know of this as the Holiness Movement. The Holiness Movement. When moving to Indiana last year, it discovered not too long afterwards that the local Bible college in town is actually part of this movement. These brothers and sisters strive to never sin again. It would seem, if one was to take that mindset, that the definition of sin would have to be changed, at least, the definition as compares with what is the common Evangelical experience. What is meant that, as Evangelicals, we tend be a bit more sensitive to what we perceive to be sin on a daily basis. Maybe we over-define sin; that is possible. Nevertheless, the speaker is aware of a person who is part of the Holiness Movement, and he is admired as a particularly good street preacher (for many of his videos on YouTube have been viewed, and they are enlightening). His name is Jesse Morrell, and the speaker definitely recommends that people go on there at some point and check out one of his videos. Anyway, this is said in part because the speaker wants to emphasize that even though we may disagree with this outlook of no sin-nature for the born-again Christian, these people are still to be counted as brothers and sisters. They have been saved from their sins, just like we have, and have undergone the born-again experience.

       Continuing on. The Pharisees finally catch Jesus in his words, or at least, they think they do. Verse 12: “Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” So the Pharisees said to him, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true” (ESV).

       Reiterating comes on the part of Jesus again as pertains to the fact that even though the world is a dark place spiritually, even though people really don’t have any hope spiritually, he shines brightly as a light in it. Shinning brightly as if he were the sun shining upon the earth. Spiritual transformation can occur through him, and a transformation that really works, and not one of which actually fades over time. One that is simply a sun tan which doesn’t last. Jesus said that one simply needs to follow him. Again, contextually, this is referring to that moment, and the transferring of the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. We literally do not follow Jesus around today, as it is often said. We believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, and some may think that they need to follow him as if implying he has one, specific path for each specific individual, which probably isn’t the case. God does gift us each uniquely, but also know that the world is a complex place, and each of us has free-will, and this free-will includes making our own choices at times. Besides the point, Jesus concludes that this person will have “the light of life.” To go back to what was previously being discussed, and to tie a point back into the college nearby that was mentioned a moment ago, that particular school is also part of the Quakers. We understand it was the Quakers who used to talk about the ‘inward light within’ for the Christian. Christ’s light shines in their hearts, they believe, and this is experienced through mediation. While that’s not exactly what the passage is probably referring to, it is interesting. We have light for our whole lives, in that our path, as Christians, is now illuminated, and we can walk fearlessly, in reality, down the path of our life.

       The Pharisees believe they have caught Jesus in his own words, for they say, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.” Jesus had said, back in John chapter 5, and in verse 31: “If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true” (ESV). Notice the key word “alone” there. That’s the emphasis; Jesus isn’t the only one bearing witness about him. He’s about to tell them that the Father is bearing witness about him as well, which meets the two witness minimum requirement as outlined in the Old Testament Law. But the Jews are basically saying that that is not the case, that God is on their side, and so he is the only One bearing witness as pertains to himself.

       Verse 14: “Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me” (ESV).

       Of course, Jesus understands who he is, that he’s God’s Son, and he understands what his mission at this point is. The Pharisees don’t understand that. They too, like the crowd who just wanted the hand-outs, where focused on the worldly. The focus on their part was fixed on the fear that Jesus may be taking away their glory, their power, their control. The whole point is missed. They perceived Jesus as a threat, and he did not meet their expectations for what the Messiah was supposed to be like. He didn’t match what they had pictured. Jesus indeed states, “You judge according to the flesh.” Notice that he also says, “I judge no one.” That wasn’t why Jesus came to the earth in the first place, to judge people. We can recall, back in John chapter 3, that it was said back there, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17, ESV). And, as a little aside, what does that mean for us? If Jesus didn’t come into the world to judge people in the world, then doesn’t that mean that’s not what we are supposed to be doing either? For sure, it seems the lesser judgment we display toward others, the more of a right heart attitude that we display. It is like the Apostle Paul said of unbelievers, “Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things” (Romans 2:1, ESV). Hopefully we aren’t practicing unrighteousness, but the point is that it is even found inside of us.

       Verse 19: “They said to him therefore, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” These words he spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the temple; but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come” (ESV).

       The Pharisees, in asking “Where is your Father?” are likely covertly implying that Joseph, his actual earthly father, wasn’t his real father. Indeed, since Mary had become pregnant before they were married, and since it may be that they knew of Joseph, for the text could imply that—that is, knew of his reputation, that he was a righteous man—perhaps they assumed that Mary had become pregnant by someone else. Basically, they are asking who his real father is since they don’t believe it was Joseph who was the one Mary was actually with before she was married. They are going to outright say in the next chapter, in John chapter 9, that they believe he was born of sexual immorality, and, again, will blaspheme the Holy Spirit. Nonetheless, they will not accept what he is clearly saying, that God in Heaven, the God of the Universe, is actually his Father. They just won’t accept it.

       Verse 21: “So he said to them again, “I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.” So the Jews said, “Will he kill himself, since he says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” He said to them, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.”

       If we consider verse 21, we will notice that the word “sin” is in the singular rather than the plural, in contrast to how it is in verse 24, where it is plural. This being the case, Jesus is likely referencing the “sin” of them rejecting him, and blaspheming the Holy Spirit. We understand that, during this dispensation, during this time, before Jesus went to the cross, anyone who spoke blasphemy against the Holy Spirit could not be forgiven. It was an unpardonable sin, as it is often called. Now whether this sin could be forgiven for those who lived past the time of the cross and believed, perhaps that’s possible. But it certainly wasn’t possible if they died before the cross, or even if they continued in their unbelief after the cross. Yet, Jesus draws a strong contrast to the fact that they are separate from him, that they aren’t in the right, on the right side, and that they aren’t right with God. It’s a serious, serious problem and they aren’t waking up to that fact. That’s why he gets even more explicit, even more plain in his speech, when he says, “You are from below; I am from above.” It would seem, at this point, that he is implying that Satan himself is actually behind what they are doing, for undoubtedly he is. We’ve talked about in the past how it was Satan who incorrectly believed that having Jesus killed would ruin God’s plan. He didn’t understand the love part of the cross. Satan, in his eager desire to have Jesus killed, missed why God might be doing that in the first place. He too, like everyone else, was apparently focused on preventing the Millennial Kingdom.

       One might ask, “How could Satan miss that, that Jesus was to go to the cross and die for the people’s sins? Isn’t it written about a lot in the Old Testament?” Again, for a person who isn’t enlightened, who cannot clearly see the truth, it becomes obscure. That was the Jews problem, and that was Satan’s problem. He didn’t think that’s what God was doing. He didn’t even understand why anyone would do such a thing. It takes one who is enlightened, one who knows God, to understand that. Those who where in the know, or who believed, could have seen it, or might have been able to see it, but someone like Satan and the unbelieving Jews, they couldn’t see it.

       The knowledge is present that Satan will die in his sins; he cannot understand love, and even if he could, it appears God has not provided a way of salvation for fallen angels, for angels who have rebelled against him. Jesus notes that the people who don’t believe, who aren’t believing, will die in their sins. This points to the importance of the matter, and the eternality of Hell, that Hell is serious business, and is permanent for the person who goes there. Recently it was read, from a particular theologian, that Hell for a person is when one has been do detached from the light, so trapped in their own thoughts, that there isn’t anything good left for them to love and enjoy. It is the total depravity of the mind. That’s an interesting angel of it, and one that certainly seems to be on the right track. See, individuals who go to Hell are blind. They don’t comprehend the light, and they have blinded themselves deliberately to the light a lot of times. Thus, torment will occur within because of a lack of anything good inside their minds—anything good to think about, and anyone good to relate to. It’s a bad, bad place for a person to be in. It’s like when you have a nightmare, and it’s really bad, and you can’t get out of it, and then you wake up and feel that relief. In the nightmare there is only the feelings of doom and gloom, anxiety and the desire to escape, but you can’t escape. That is, until you wake up. They only thing is, is that those in Hell will never wake up from it. It’s that way forever.

       Verse 25: “So they said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning. I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him” (ESV).

       In an attempt to finally try to understand, the Jews ask Jesus who his is. Perhaps that’s their intent. Did they become afraid when he said they would die in their sins? Jesus points out that he has been saying it from the beginning, and that is that he is God, God the Son, the Savior who has come into the world. And Jesus notes that since they haven’t believed, because they haven’t done what is right, he is going to have a lot to say regarding them at the judgment, at the end, to the Father. Much to say against them; a testimony against them. Jesus notes that God is the one who has sent him, and that has done it in truth. God wants them to believe; he wants everyone to believe. As it was said in John chapter 3, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16, ESV). This is what Jesus has been declaring to the world, what God has personally delivered to him to say, what his mission in fact is. This is what God says to everyone today, both unbelieving Jew and unbelieving Gentile, that anyone who comes to him through the Son, believing in his death on the cross and rising from the dead back to life, his dying for the forgiveness of sins, can in fact have all their sins forgiven, and can obtain real life, real life which starts today.

- Daniel Litton