When Mess Met Mercy And Grace

Text

John 8:1–11 NASB95

1 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 Early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people were coming to Him; and He sat down and began to teach them. 3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court, 4 they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act. 5 “Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?” 6 They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground. 7 But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. 9 When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center of the court. 10 Straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more.”

[BEFORE SERMON START] There is controversy regarding the existence and placement of this pericope of Scripture (Jn 7:53-8:11) It is not found in most early manusicripts (before the 4th and 5th century).

The ones that do have it, place it after John 7:36, John 7:44, John 21:25. Some have it after Luke 21:38. Most mark it in some way to indicate the spurious nature of the pericope. For many, it resesmbles the narratives of the Synoptics (particularly Luke) more than it does John. While we struggle regarding where it fits in the canon, there is no disputing that its contents fits the character and ministry of Jesus and remains theologically profound.

Mercy is thought to be the witholding of punishment that is rightly deserved; an extension of compassion instead of wrath.

Grace is thought to be the bestowal of benefits or blessing that is rightly undeserving: I give you not because of you but in spite of you, I give you not because of you but because of my dispostion towards you.

When you put these two together, we find them expressed in a profound, powerful and practical way in the person of Jesus Christ.

John 1:16–17 “16 For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. 17 For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.”

This means that the advent of Jesus brought a vivid and special display of the grace of God. This means that Jesus didn’t just teach grace, He embodied it. When you saw him grace oozed from His being. You saw grace without even hearing the word grace.

Grace is the unmerited favour of God. This means that you did not have to work for it, you did not have to buy it, you did not have to trade for it.

God was gracious simply because He wanted to be gracious. It was just the disposition He had towards you. What makes this awesome is that we were not to “grace-worthy”. We were sinners, we were dead - And God’s grace met us, saved us, sancified us and seated us in heavenly places.

Paul said it like this, 1 Corinthians 15:8–10 “[8 and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.] 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.”

Every now and then you need to remember where God took you from, and be thankful that you are where you are, by the GRACE of God.

Ephesians 2:4 “4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,”

God met us dead in trepasses and sins, walking according to the course of the world, by rights we were children of wrath - our payment was death and it was due - But Mercy met us in our mess and raised us with Christ.

Paul did not just explain mercy, he experienced mercy

1 Timothy 1:13 “13 even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief;”

God saw us in our mess and met us with grace and mercy - and turned our lives around.

Hebrews 4:16 “16 Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Be thankful that when God saw the mess, He met us with mercy and grace!

The Setting (is only relevant to where the manuscript places it)

It comes on the heels of the controversy and controversy is something that has been brewing from chapter 1, Nathaniel, Jesus destroying the temple, Nicodemus, Samaritan woman, the Jews who were persecuting him, disciples stopped following Him.

We find ourselves looking at a woman, a mob, and the master

It’s a messy situation, it spotlights God’s heart toward us that even when deserving judgement He dispenses MERCY. When not deserving anything he distributes GRACE.

#1 - The Hands of the People

John 8:2–3 “2 Early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people were coming to Him; and He sat down and began to teach them. 3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court,”

This woman finds herself in the hands of the people “early in the morning”.

Jesus is in the temple, early, people have gathered together to hear Him teach.

The Scribes (experts in copying and interpreting documents) and the Pharisees (religious leaders, also highly knowledgable in the Law) - instead of coming to church to hear Jesus, they dragged this woman and put her on center-stage.

She’s in the hands of the people and it’s a big mess

1. These hands are HYPOCRITICAL HANDS

They can see this woman’s sin but they can’t see their own sin - maybe they did not hear Jesus when He said, first deal with the log in your own eye before you deal with the splinter in someone else’s eye.

They are functioning as though the woman is the only one with sin - they are loud about her sin but they are quiet about their sin

Be careful with people who love to spotlight everyone else’s sin but are quiet about their’s. They are ready to send you to the gallows for your sin but they want an appeal to the privy council for theirs.

They are loud about your fornication but quiet about their pornography - They are loud about your lying but quiet about their gossiping - They are loud when talking about your struggle with alcohol and drugs but they don’t want anyone to know they are beating their wife - They are loud about homosexuality but quiet about pedophillia - Let’s deal with all of it, let’s get help for all of it

Because ALL have sinned and come short

Don’t be a Hypocrite who can only find the sin in others and not find the sin yourself - take heed the one who thinks he satnds lest he falls (1 Cor 10:12)

2. These are UNHELPFUL HANDS

They didn’t bring her to Jesus because they wanted to help her - they were not interested in changing her but condemning her.

It’s interesting they were up early enough to track her movements to catch her in the sin but not caution her about the sin. Seems to me, they were more interested in her fall, than her future Proverbs 12:26 “26 The righteous is a guide to his neighbor, But the way of the wicked leads them astray.”

Be careful when folks are more interested in your fall than your future.

3. These are HEARTLESS HANDS

They did not care about this woman the text would reveal - John 8:6 “6 They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground.” - They are really after Jesus

The religious leaders wanted to kill him in chap 5:18 for calling God His father

John 7:25 “25 So some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, “Is this not the man whom they are seeking to kill?” [I wonder where they got that news from?]

This woman was a means to an end, that only served their agenda

If Jesus said stone her, they can go to the Romans government and tell them that Jesus is sanctioning someone to die (which was unlawful to do)

If Jesus said don’t stone her, we would be seen as a Law-breaker and one who did not honour the ministry of Moses

SO, it was not about the woman, and they didn’t mind if she died as long as they would be proven right (this is not a strange thing for people to be self-seeking) - Philippians 1:17 “17 the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment.”

But we need to be warned by God that this is an ungodly, desctructive and malignant mindset that should not be named among believers:

Proverbs 22:22–23 “22 Do not rob the poor because he is poor, Or crush the afflicted at the gate; 23 For the Lord will plead their case And take the life of those who rob them.”

Luke 6:31 “31 “Treat others the same way you want them to treat you.”

Proverbs 11:17 “17 The merciful man does himself good, But the cruel man does himself harm.”

Proverbs 14:31 “31 He who oppresses the poor taunts his Maker, But he who is gracious to the needy honors Him.”

They missed what Jesus was truly teaching Matthew 23:23 “23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.”

These hands may not only be describing them, it might be describing you!

In all of this, there is a blessing. In all of this mess, this shame, the embarassment, the condemnation, she must be afraid, she is exposed - But, she’s in front of Jesus. As evil as their plan was, She is in the best place she could be- They meant it for evil, but God will work this out for good.

#2 - The Hands of the Jesus

I searched for a word, a descriptive term to attach to the hands of Jesus in the text: Righteous hands, Restorative hands, Healing hands, Compassionate hands, Renewing/reshaping hands

But the descriptive term that jumped out to me, was TRUTHFUL HANDS - Because John 8:32 “32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”” - John 8:36 “36 “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.”

Truth is ready for anything - they came there with a snare hoping to trap Jesus, but only ended up trapping themselves. Proverbs 26:27 “27 He who digs a pit will fall into it, And he who rolls a stone, it will come back on him.”

Be careful trying to lay traps for others, they have a funny way of coming back on you (ask Daniel, ask Mordecai)

When they first brought the case to Jesus, he ignored them and stooped down and started writing in the sand

We do not know what Jesus wrote - [anyone who says they do is lying]

We can make an exegetical conclusion as to why this detail is given

The surrounding scene of judgement is our first indicator

The OT imagery is our second indicator Jeremiah 17:13 (NIV)13 LORD, you are the hope of Israel; all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the LORD, the spring of living water.

They brought the woman to be judged, and they are the ones to be judged of God

From this point, stones began to fall. One by one. From the oldest to the youngest they began to leave being arrested by their conscience.

Now it’s just woman and Jesus.

That’s why the woman stayed! [It was the same reason the demoniac stayed, Bartimaeus stayed, Mary stayed - When Jesus makes a difference in your life, you don’t wanna go anywhere else.]

“Truthful hands have set her free” - But there is something else that we can see in these hands

The right hand is Mercy

Mercy because if she did in fact sin she is deserving of death. But the only one that had the right to cast a stone didn’t, this disqualified everyone else. She deserved condemnation but Jesus forgave, she deserved wrath but Jesus freed her. Instead of leaving her to the mob, Jesus met her with MERCY.

The left hand is Grace

Grace because sin is only deserving of death, but Jesus tells her go. . .you cannot go anywhere after a stoning - she should have been dead but by the Grace of Jesus she’s alive - this situation was so messy she could’ve died but Jesus saved her with GRACE.

By Grace Jesus gave her life - I am come so that they can have life and have it more abundantly - God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world but to save it - MERCY stopped the stones and GRACE supplied a fresh start and a new beginning.

Some of your situations could’ve take you out

Let’s be grateful that your MESS was met with mercy and grace

What could’ve taken you out was met with mercy and grace

What could’ve destroyed you was met with mercy and grace

I don’t know what you did, or who you did it with, where you did it. I don’t know how big a mess you have, one thing I do know - if you can find yourself in front of Jesus and surrender to Him your life will never be the same.

Thank God they at least brought her to Jesus - and when you come to Jesus Change will be on the way, deliverance is on the way, Transformation is on the way, renewal is on the way.

in the temple during the Jewish celebration of the Feast of Booths. He enters at a time unknown to everyone and begins to teach and it caused a commotion with the crowd gathered. It was so bad that the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to sieze him, but they didn’t; returning empty handed to the ones who sent them - they went to arrest Jesus, but was arrested by Jesus - “never a man spake like this” (vs. 46).