Neither Do I Condemn You
Download MP3Invite you to open your Bibles to John chapter 8. John chapter 8. We'll begin reading in the first verse. They went each to his own house, but just Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning, he came again to the temple.
Joel Brooks: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?
Joel Brooks: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. 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. But when they heard it, they went away 1 by 1, beginning with the older ones.
Joel Brooks: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.
Joel Brooks:Go, and from now on, sin no more. Let's pray. Our father, we ask that through your spirit, you would open up your word and you would speak to us. Breathe life into us. Where there needs to be conviction, may you convict.
Joel Brooks:When there needs to be healing, heal. But have your way in our midst. I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Amen. Before we dig into this text, I need to address something that you probably noticed as we were reading through it. And that's that many of, the Bibles that you have have this story in double brackets. They're bookended with double brackets, Or perhaps you have a footnote to it saying that this text is not in the oldest manuscripts. And that is absolutely true.
Joel Brooks:This is not in the oldest manuscripts of the bible. The evidence for this is actually pretty overwhelming that the story we just read is not original to the gospel of John. Actually, in some of the older manuscripts of the Bible we have, this story was placed in the gospel of Luke, which when you read it, it's it feels more Lukeian than it does like belonging in the gospel of John. And also in some of the gospels of John we have, it's spread throughout. Sometimes the story is found at the end of the This story was This story was likely circulating very early within church history.
Joel Brooks:It was well known and it was placed here in the gospel. I've decided to preach on this text even though it is not an original part of John's gospel, because it was accepted in the early church so early. It was accepted as authentic and it was accepted to be true. Scholars that I respect, people like D. A.
Joel Brooks:Carson, if you're familiar with him or Bruce Metzger, all of them agree that this story is true and belongs in the canon of scripture. I even looked and I read through a number of secular scholars and even they say this story likely happened and is authentic. It reads like an eyewitness account. We'll look at this a little bit later, reads like an eyewitness account and it only reinforces what Jesus has already taught. There's no new theology here.
Joel Brooks:So there's nothing new from this. It simply is gonna anchor in what we already know. So that that's why this story is in brackets in your bible and it's also why I've decided to teach on it. I do believe it belongs in our canon of scripture. And I love this story.
Joel Brooks:I really do. I love this story. It's it's the perfect blend of of truth and grace. Even non Christians know this story. It's very familiar.
Joel Brooks:In some ways that actually kind of hurts us as we're trying to study this because it is so familiar. But how many of you have ever heard this from a non christian quoted? Hey. He who is without sin cast the first stone. And by this, usually what is meant is, hey.
Joel Brooks:Who are you to judge me? Who made you judge? Why should you determine what is right or wrong? Come on. Live and let live.
Joel Brooks:Let's just do whatever we want. And that's often how this text is understood, especially in our culture and the views we have on sexual morality. He calls it a sin. He he calls her to repentance. He says, go and sin no more.
Joel Brooks:Now when is the last time that you've heard somebody quoting this passage? Hey, he who is without sin cast the first stone. And then they follow it up with, and remember, Jesus said, we are to sin no more. Most people never get that far in this story. Now I want us to to look at this story as a whole, so we can figure out what Jesus meant.
Joel Brooks:And it's important to do so, because I think that there are 2 camps in religious circles. 2 camps. There's there's a camp over here that is, you know, God is just He is a God of love. He doesn't judge anybody. He doesn't look down on sin.
Joel Brooks:He just you could do whatever you wanna do. And the important thing is God loves you. God loves you. God loves you. And then there's a camp over here that says, God wants you to live this way.
Joel Brooks:These things are wrong and you need to not do them. There is a law here. So so where does this story fall within those 2 religious camps? What does Jesus have to say about this? Let's dig into the text.
Joel Brooks:I think the early church placed this story here, because as we've been going through the gospel of John, if you remember, people are trying to kill Jesus. And this is an example of how they tried to trap him and kill him. This is a trap that is set for Jesus and it's a pretty good one. Jesus is teaching in the temple and a group of scribes and Pharisees come to Jesus and they bring to him a woman who has been caught in the very act of adultery. There's no doubt about her guilt.
Joel Brooks:She is guilty. The only question is, what should they do now? What should her punishment be? The scribes and the Pharisees, they remind Jesus of the law of Moses. And they say, you know, Moses commands that a person who does this needs to be executed.
Joel Brooks:And they're absolutely right. This is what the law of Moses says in Deuteronomy 22 and Leviticus 20. Both clearly establish the death penalty for anybody who commits adultery. So what is Jesus supposed to say here? I mean, the the Pharisees and the Scribes, they have they've heard Jesus talk about how he honors the law, how he respects the law.
Joel Brooks:He even said that, not a jot or a tittle is gonna gonna fall away from the law of Moses. But then they also heard Jesus telling sinners, tax collectors, prostitutes to to come to him. Come to me. I'll give you rest. And so they've heard Jesus speak with such compassion.
Joel Brooks:And so what is Jesus supposed to do here? Is he is he supposed to keep the law of Moses and have this woman killed? Or is he supposed to have compassion and say, come to me? Like I said, this is a it's a trap and it's a really good trap for Jesus. I love Jesus' response.
Joel Brooks:He bends over and just starts riding in the dirt. That's His response. I mean, read this and you're like, what in the what in the world's going on here? Just kind of as an aside, let me say that's details like this is one of the things that speaks to the authenticity of this story because this little detail adds absolutely nothing to the plot line. It adds nothing to the story.
Joel Brooks:We have no idea what Jesus was writing. We have no idea why he was writing it. There's no reason at all to put that detail in here other than somebody saw him do it and wrote about it. This this is well before, it's 1800 years before the whole literary device of having realistic fiction in which you could you would include little details like this to make something real. They didn't write like this in this day.
Joel Brooks:They recorded this because it happened. So Jesus apparently, He he he wrote in the dirt for for a time, for a while, because it says that the scribes and the Pharisees have to keep asking him the question. I want you to picture the scene. You have you have this woman, she is possibly half dressed. She has been ripped from her bed in the middle of doing a immoral act.
Joel Brooks:She has been placed in the middle of the temple where she is surrounded by the conservative religious right all around her. And these men are now asking Jesus what they should do. Should they kill her or not? It's a tense moment and and Jesus just begins riding in the sand. That's how he responds that he's just he's just riding in the sand.
Joel Brooks:I mean can you imagine the tension that's here? This woman, she's she's looking, she's waiting, her life literally hangs in the balance on Jesus's words and he is just doodling. The Pharisees and the scribes are waiting and he's just doodling. The crowd is waiting and he's just still drawing in the sand. And so the Pharisee and the scribes to say, so what's it gonna be Jesus?
Joel Brooks:And he keeps writing. Come on. Answer us Jesus. Give us an answer. Should we kill her or not?
Joel Brooks:Jesus keeps writing. They keep asking and they keep asking. And so finally, the tension is at this unbearable breaking point. Jesus responds. Jesus responds.
Joel Brooks:Let he who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her. This is a brilliant answer. It's brilliant. Jesus does not say here, do not throw any stones. He doesn't say that.
Joel Brooks:He doesn't say, hey, this woman does not deserve to be punished. We'll see later. He actually thinks she she deserves to be punished. What Jesus is doing here is he's disqualifying these witnesses who have come forward. These self appointed judges, these this self appointed jury in this case, he is disqualifying them.
Joel Brooks:He actually agrees that this woman needs to be punished, but he sees the terrible hypocrisy of these people and he says, you are not fit to dish this out. I think Jesus is really angry here. An obvious question if you just take a step back and you're reading this, an obvious question you have to ask is, where is the man? Where's the man? It takes 2 to tango.
Joel Brooks:Where's where's he at? These religious leaders, they they remind Jesus that the law demands that this woman is to be executed, but the same law demands that the man be executed as well. They're reminding Jesus of the law like he needs reminding of the law. And he's thinking, yes, I know Deuteronomy 22 and it says that if a man lies with another man's wife, they both should die. And then it goes on to say, even if the woman is not married to Him, if she is just betrothed to Him, if they were just engaged and she commits adultery, they're both to be taken out of the city gates and stoned to death.
Joel Brooks:So so why is it that the man was not dragged out here with the woman? Did he just sneak out really fast and now there's some some naked man running through the streets of Jerusalem? They just couldn't get him? No. It's it's obvious that this woman was set up.
Joel Brooks:She was set up. It was extremely hard in this day under Jewish law to execute anyone. The death penalty was such a rare thing that if you read through the Mishnah, which is the the oral law that the Pharisees kept, If you read through this, at one point, they say, if a court executes more than one person every 7 years, that court is considered a slaughterhouse and does not have any righteous judgment. It's hard to execute someone. There there had to be a watertight case against somebody.
Joel Brooks:And that's next to impossible in the case of adultery. Because you will need 2 witnesses with impeccable character, And they would have to actually catch this adulterous couple in the act. And adultery is not something you usually do in broad daylight, but somehow 2 witnesses, impeccable witnesses, would have to catch these people in the act. And then even when these witnesses were testifying against them, if they disagreed even a one detail, it'd be thrown out of court. And I read one of the cases in which they could not agree on the color of the robe that was on the ground.
Joel Brooks:And so case dismissed. And so Jesus, he knows this. And he's thinking, well because of the near impossibility of actually having 2 righteous witnesses witness what happened there, and because there's no man that was brought before him, Jesus knows that this is a setup. It's entrapment in order to trap Him. This woman was set up so they could lay a snare for Jesus.
Joel Brooks:It's possible that the man who was involved in this was likely even there, amongst this group of scribes and Pharisees. These people, they they didn't care about justice. They didn't care about the law. They only wanted to discredit Jesus. And and they were willing to go to any extreme, do whatever is necessary to discredit him.
Joel Brooks:And when Jesus sees all of this unfolding before him, he gets angry. And he stoops down and he begins riding in the dirt. Perhaps he wrote down Deuteronomy 22. Where's the man? A lot of church fathers, they they would write about this and they'd speculate.
Joel Brooks:And many of them think that he was writing down the sins of the Pharisees and the sins of the scribes. Balmain is we we really don't know what He said, or what He wrote. We only know what He said. And that is let he who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her. Because of what y'all did, you are disqualified from being the judge and the jury.
Joel Brooks:Now I want you to hear me. Jesus is not, he's not saying here that one has to be perfect in order to cast judgment on somebody. That's often how this verse is quoted, and it's a misunderstanding. That's not what's meant here. It's not even what is implied here.
Joel Brooks:Because we, as sinners, cast judgment rightly on things all of the time. For instance, you know, 1963, the KKK bombed a church that's not too far from here. Killed 4 little girls. Even though we are all sinners, we will all say that was wrong. All of us say that's wrong.
Joel Brooks:Nobody here is gonna say, well you know, we we weren't really there. No, they were just a victim of the times. We're not gonna say that. We know it was wrong. Even though we are sinful people, we justly and we rightly can call some things evil.
Joel Brooks:When Jesus said, let him who is without sin among you be the first to cast a stone. He is saying, let him who is without sin in this matter before us, in this matter, be the first to cast a stone. And so he's looking at these scribes and he's looking at these Pharisees and he says, none of you are innocent. None of you are innocent. And what is taking place here?
Joel Brooks:Where's the man? How did you catch her? It makes me sick what you guys did bringing her here like this. He's looking at him. He's and he's saying, you're all as guilty as she is.
Joel Brooks:I disqualify you. You know, Jesus, he actually had taught his disciples to judge people. Once again, as sinners, we still have a right to judge people. But what he said is, first you need to remove the log out of your own eye, so you can see clearly to remove the speck that's in another's. These Pharisees and scribes have this huge log in their eye that disqualifies them from removing the speck in this lady's eye.
Joel Brooks:After Jesus says this, I love it. He once again stoops down and begins riding in the sand. Why? I don't know. I don't know.
Joel Brooks:It's just bizarre. Who knows what he is doing, but once again, it does heighten the drama here. And 1 by 1, these accusers begin dropping their stones. I love verse 9. It adds this little detail.
Joel Brooks:It says, beginning with the older ones, they left 1 by 1. And I would just say as you get older, I think you understand that more. Because I mean, I picture the the older people who have more experience in life and they're ready to stone. Jesus says these words and they're like, you got us. You got us.
Joel Brooks:You know, they throw it down and, and they see the situation for what it is and they they walk away. But, yeah, the the younger ones would be like, oh, no. He didn't get us. We we can do this. Alright.
Joel Brooks:That won't work. Well, what if we try No. That's not gonna work. And then finally, they throw their rocks down, and they leave last. It's recorded like this because it happened.
Joel Brooks:It happened. Finally, they all leave and it is just Jesus and this woman. Picture once again, this woman has been dragged, likely half dressed, in the middle of the most sacred place in Jerusalem. She's surrounded by righteous looking people. People in their suits and their nice dresses and their perfect children.
Joel Brooks:They're going to the temple to pray. And here she is utterly exposed. I mean, she is exposed in every sense of the word. Every Everyone knows who she is. Everybody knows what she has done.
Joel Brooks:The the secret sin that that she did, that she thought nobody would know about has now been dragged out in front of the public and everybody could see it. I mean, what's she supposed to do now? Where's she supposed to go? Just go home? Everybody knows what she has done.
Joel Brooks:This this woman had to be devastated. She's exposed. Let me just say that this is actually a tremendous grace to her. It's a hard grace, but this is actually a tremendous grace to her. Because God is gonna use that painful exposure in her life to give life giving grace to her.
Joel Brooks:Let's see how Jesus responds. Look at verse 10. Jesus stood up and he said to her, woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? And she said, no one, Lord.
Joel Brooks:And Jesus said, neither do I condemn you. Go. And from now on, sin no more. Jesus does not run up to her. Just go, oh, you you poor little woman.
Joel Brooks:How terrible it was that they they treated you this way, and give her a hug and just say, everything's going to be okay. Everything's fine now. I don't find you guilty. You're free to go. Jesus doesn't do that Because Jesus knows this woman is guilty.
Joel Brooks:She has committed adultery. What she did was wrong. It might have been entrapment, but she still did it. And so he tells her that she needs to stop sinning. She needs to repent of her sexual immorality.
Joel Brooks:Now, please notice the order in which Jesus says these things. Jesus does not say to her, you need to stop sinning, and then I will not condemn you. It's not what Jesus says. Instead he said Instead he says, I do not condemn you. Now stop sinning.
Joel Brooks:And the order of this is huge. Because one is the law and the other is grace. Quit looking at porn. Quit lying. Quit cheating.
Joel Brooks:Quit gossiping. Get your get your act together. And when you when you do that and you come clean, I'll take you in. I'll let bygones be bygones and I will not judge you. It's what the law says.
Joel Brooks:And that's how we naturally think about God. It's the default of our human hearts to think of God this way and this is how he relates to us. It's probably how a number of us here think of Christianity. But I want you to hear that this is not how the God of the Bible relates to us. Jesus comes to us and he comes to us in our shame.
Joel Brooks:And he first speaks words of love and grace to us. And he says, I don't condemn you. I don't condemn you. And then it's after he speaks these words of love and these words of grace that Jesus then says, because I love you, now you need to quit sinning. Yes.
Joel Brooks:You have sinned. Yes. Your hearts are evil. But I don't condemn you because I love you and I love you so much, I want you to turn away from your sin and turn to me. You see, true love does not leave a person in their sins.
Joel Brooks:God loves us so much he not only forgives our sins, he will not leave us in our sins, because our sin will destroy us. No matter how fun you think sin is, it will destroy you. And God will not let us live that destructive lifestyle. From the very first pages of the bible, back in the garden, sin brought death and sin still brings death to us. Hear me, we looked at this months ago.
Joel Brooks:Jesus is not your personal cheerleader, which I think is how a lot of us view Jesus in which we kind of go through life and He's just the accepting Jesus. He's the good uncle, you know, who comes alongside you. He's always like, you're doing great. You're doing great. I love you.
Joel Brooks:You're doing horrible things and it doesn't matter. Just like, keep going. I'm here for you buddy. That's not what Jesus does and that's not love. Jesus is the parent who sees her child do something sinful and stupid and says, hey, I love you.
Joel Brooks:Now stop doing that because it will destroy you. Because I love you, I am asking you to stop. Believe me, the words I speak to you are life. Hear me. If you are having sex outside of marriage, Jesus commands you to stop and to repent.
Joel Brooks:Whatever your sins are, if they are greed, if it is coveting, if it is anger, if it is lying, if it is gossiping, Jesus, he reaches out to you in his grace and he says, I love you. Because I love you, I don't want you to destroy yourself. Repent. Quit sinning. Now the story is not gonna make any sense to you, and it's not gonna have any power in your life, if you think it's a story about Jesus letting a woman off the hook.
Joel Brooks:If that's what this story is about. Don't don't think for a moment here that Jesus is just letting this woman off the hook. Any of you ever get a speeding ticket or run a red light, get pulled over by a cop? You know when that happens, the moment you see those lights come on like instant shame guilt. You're like, I mean, it just it just hits you.
Joel Brooks:The cop pulls you over and you're like, you know, you were going 20 miles over the speed limit. You're like, I know. And he's about to write you a ticket and then maybe he gets a call, some emergency, and he goes, well, I can't I can't write this ticket so I'm just going to give you a warning. Now don't do that again. Or perhaps he sees you have, you know, 4 kids screaming in the back of the car and he's like, you know, I have kids too.
Joel Brooks:I understand. You know, it's just amazing you kept within the lines. You know, and just I'm just gonna give you a warning. Just don't do it again and leaves. Let's you off the hook.
Joel Brooks:And when that happens, once the officer is out of sight, you're like, yes. You know, like, yes. And he feels so good. Now, does that change your behavior? Does it?
Joel Brooks:Do all of a sudden you now stop speeding? No. It doesn't change your behavior at all. And the reason it doesn't is because it cost that officer nothing to let you off the hook. It didn't cost him a thing.
Joel Brooks:When Jesus says, neither do I condemn you, know that these words cost Jesus something. The only way Jesus can say to this woman that he doesn't condemn her, is because Jesus will take on her condemnation. Jesus is going to be punished for her infidelity. If you if you really want to understand this story, if you really wanna apply it to your life, you need you need to understand this that that when 1 by 1 everybody walked away, they all dropped their rocks and they walked away, you need to hear that the trial was not actually over. The trial, in many ways, was just beginning because Jesus still remained.
Joel Brooks:He said, he who is without sin cast the first stone. Well, 2nd Corinthians 5 describes Jesus as he who knew not sin. It's who Jesus is, the sinless one. And after all the people have left, there is still one person who is fully capable of throwing that rock. 1 who is capable to judge.
Joel Brooks:And not not only this, but this woman who who committed this physical act of adultery, Know that she only committed this physical act of adultery because long before she had already committed the spiritual act of adultery to God. She would have never gone to the arms of another man if she had not already left the arms of God. The God who loved her, the God who created her, the God who entered into a covenant with her, she sought out the love of strangers because the love of God did not satisfy her. And so she broke that covenant. And now this adulterous woman is standing before the man she has really cheated on.
Joel Brooks:And this man has every right to throw a stone at her in righteous anger. He can judge her and he could judge her harshly. So if you really want to play this out, you need to see Jesus standing before her saying, you have hurt me deeply. You have hurt me deeply. You have gone to great lengths to shame me publicly through your behavior.
Joel Brooks:And I gave you life. I covenanted with you. And this is what you have done. The law demands justice for this. I demand justice for this.
Joel Brooks:There needs to be a punishment. And it's not it doesn't need to be quick. It needs to be painful. And it needs to be crushing. It needs to be violent.
Joel Brooks:It needs to be humiliating after what you have done to me. And Jesus gets that rock and he looks at the woman and he says, but it will not fall on you, my bride. It will not fall on you. And he hands that rock to his father, and he says, may I be condemned in her place. Cast the rock on me that my bride might live.
Joel Brooks:And then he looks at her and says, now go and sin no more. Go and sin no more. When Jesus told this woman, neither do I condemn you, it cost him something. When Jesus tells us, I do not condemn you. There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.
Joel Brooks:It cost him something. Now hear me. I know that in this room, there are probably a number of people here, possibly all of us, who can really relate to this adulterous woman. Perhaps at this moment, there are certain sins that are just flooding your mind and you're feeling exposed, shamed, condemned. Perhaps you feel judgment.
Joel Brooks:Judgment from your friends. Judgment from your family. Perhaps you're judging yourself. I want you to hear me and to hear me clearly. There is only one judge that matters, And that is Jesus and his judgment is that you are not condemned.
Joel Brooks:Those are the only words that matter. The judgment from Jesus is the only one that counts. He does not condemn you because he has taken on that condemnation for you. And in light of that sacrifice, Jesus says, now go and sin no more. A restoration of an amazing relationship.
Joel Brooks:Now in light of this, go and send no more. I pray that we trust these words from Jesus more than any other words we might hear this week. That we are not condemned. He was condemned in our place and he is the one who now offers us life. Pray with me.
Joel Brooks:Our Father, through your spirit, press these truths into our hearts and minds. For those in here who feel shame and guilt right now, may that shame and guilt move to a conviction. A spirit led conviction to where they hear the words of no condemnation, and you give them a heart of repentance. Jesus, thank you for what you did on the cross and taking away our sin. And praise you for rising from the dead in order that we might have life in your spirit, and once again, an intimacy with our God.
Joel Brooks:Have your way in our midst at this moment. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.
