Sermon Tone Analysis

Sometimes in life, choices are not always easy to make.

Sometimes, we are faced with situations that seem impossible to decide one way or another.

These choices are called dilemmas.

A dilemma is essentially where you have only two choices, option “A” or option “B”.

In a dilemma, it can be very hard to decide the right course of action, because in each choice, there is usually some consequence that makes either choice seem undesirable.

Here is one example of a famous dilemma:

There is a trolley coming down the tracks and ahead, there are five people tied to the tracks and are unable to move.

The trolley will continue coming and will kill the five people.

There is nothing you can do to rescue the five people EXCEPT that there is a lever.

If you pull the lever, the train will be directed to another track, which has ONE person tied to it.

You have two choices:

(a) Do nothing and the five people will die

(b) Or pull the lever and save the five people, but that one person will die.

Today, our culture has presented Christians with a dilemma that many struggle to overcome.

Bigot or Apostate

Our culture today is progressively moving away from a biblical frame of life.

As Christians are attempting to stand against it at the least, or turn it around at the best, we seem to be facing a dilemma in our choices.

If we reject the those things that our culture is now calling acceptable and even praiseworthy, then we are automatically labeled as bigots or hateful.

We are said to not possess the love that Christ demonstrated towards sinners, as we see in the passage before us today.

Now, to some, that might not bother them to much, and it should not, except for the fact that it is very difficult to reach people for Christ and spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ when they immediately see it as hate speech.

However, if we welcome the culture and embrace it for the purpose of reaching them for Jesus, then we lose everything that makes us distinct from the world.

As Jesus asked, “if salt loses its taste, how can it be made salty again ()?”

It can’t.

At that time it’s worthless.

Basically, if Christians lose that which distinguishes them from the rest of the world, then they are no different from the world.

They could no longer call themselves Christians.

Neither choice seems like a good one.

Its a choice between giving up reaching the world for Christ or give up being Christians.

Jesus faced a similar dilemma in John 8:

Explain the Dilemma

In bringing the woman to Jesus, the Pharisees and Scribes, who were the religious elite and the experts in the law, presented Jesus with an impossible choice.

Either choice would be detrimental to His continued ministry.

If Jesus said she should not be stoned for the sin of adultery, then He was essentially disregarding the Law and Moses who delivered it to them from God.

If He did this, they would have grounds to arrest Him and put Him on trial for apostacy.

Now, aside from the legal aspects and the possible outcomes, for His ministry, it would have the same effect as a prominent Christian pastor coming out and saying that the Bible is false.

He would lose all of His followers.

However, if Jesus carried out the Law of Moses, even though He technically could not, since He did not personally witness the act, it would have two possible outcomes.

On the one hand, He would lose His reputation with His followers.

Jesus was known by this point as a friend of sinners.

He had already been talking about forgiveness of sin and the new birth available through the Holy Spirit.

So, to have Him pick up a stone and execute this woman in the Temple court would be a complete disregard of His teachings up to this point.

Also, if He did so, He might face capital punishment by the Romans as well, since only Rome was authorized to carry out capital punishment.

The Pharisees thought they had Him between a rock and a hard place.

They had finally come up with a plan which would rid them of Jesus forever.

However, for a dilemma to be a true dilemma, you can only have two choices.

There cannot be a third choice.

The False Dilemma

The problem with their plan was that they did not realize their error.

These experts in God’s Word did not realize they were speaking to the God Himself.

Not only did Jesus see the flaw in their plan because of His superior knowledge of the Law, but Jesus had another option available that only belonged to God.

After they asked Him the question, Jesus knelt down and began writing in the sand.

Some have suggested that He was writing out their sins, known well to Him.

Some suggested that He wrote the Ten Commandments, using His finger as an indication that it was the very same finger of God who originally wrote them.

However, traditionally, the Church has held that the first time He wrote out that says, “all who turn away from me will be written in the dirt.”

Others have suggested that He first wrote out that warns against giving a false report or being a malicious witness or a witness with ulterior motives.

Ex. 23:

Then, after addressing the men, knelt and wrote out which warns about giving a false accusation because God, “will not justify the guilty.”

Either way, He was essentially pointing out to them that they were not following the law.

The Law required those who were not guilty of the same sin and were witnesses to the sin to carry out the punishment, to throw the first stone.

Dt.

Evidently, they were accusing her of a sin they themselves were guilty of in some fashion.

Therefore, they had no grounds to make carry out this judgment, because they themselves were guilty of the same sin.

And, based on , He could not be the first one to stone her, since He did not witness the offense, even though He was perfectly sinless.

So, Jesus answers their dilemma by showing them that there was no dilemma at all.

They themselves had no grounds on which to charge the woman, whether because they we guilty of committing adultery themselves, or because in capturing the woman and letting the man go free, they were condoning his adultery while condemning hers (Lev.

20:10).

So, one by one, each man left, until it was just Jesus and the woman they had brought.

Jesus’ Third Option

However, even if Jesus had witnessed the act, He still had another option available.

Being God, Jesus knew the woman’s guilt, just as He knew the guilt of all the men present.

However, Jesus chose not to condemn the woman for her sin.

He took a third option, forgiveness.

He chose to love the sinner, but hate the sin.

When the woman tells Jesus that none of the men chose to condemn her, Jesus tells the woman that neither would He.

And then, He tells her to go, and sin no more.

Rejecting the Sin but Accepting the Sinner

The problem with the modern dilemma faced by Christians is the assumption by those presenting it that we only have two choices.

We can either reject these people or praise them, including all their choices.

However, there is a third choice.

We can reject the sin while welcoming the sinner.

This is essential for us to grasp if we want to both stay true to the Word of God, following in Christ’s footsteps, and maintain the ability to actually reach people for Christ.

To do this, we have to embrace His attitude toward sin and sinners.

1. Recognize that the Sinner is not the Same as the Sin.

The Pharisees only saw the woman’s sin.

They did not see her as a person in the same boat as they.

She was merely a political ploy to them.

They did not see her as a person in need of God’s love and mercy, in part because they knew nothing of God’s mercy and did not recognize their own sin.

Maybe they ignored the man because he was one of them and had dirt on them, or maybe they figured that the culprit being a woman would have a greater impact.

However, it is clear that they only saw the sin, not the sinner.

As Christians, we need to begin to look beyond the sin to the sinner who is committing it.

We need to remember that even though the sin is detestable in God’s sight, every sinner is a man or woman created in God’s image whom Jesus came and died for so they might be reconciled to God.

Jesus came to seek the lost, and He left us with the responsibility of doing the very same thing.

Each sinner isn’t a problem to get rid of, they are a person in need of saving.

2. Remember that we are all Guilty of One Sin or Another.

Favorite Sins - Everyone has them

People tend to focus on certain sins when evaluating other people.

People tend to look past sins they routinely commit.

We can’t pick and chose when it comes to sin.

God detests them all.

Knowledge of your own sin and the forgiveness you have in Christ should generate compassion for sinners.

It’s easy to become hard hearted toward other people’s sins, especially when: