Sermon Tone Analysis

Adultery 1-11

Jesus was back in the Temple courtyards teaching the people.

This is still during the Feast of Tabernacles.

And whilst this was happening a woman was brought in by the Pharisees and Scribes who had been caught during the sexual act of adultery.

They throw her down before Him and say: “Now, Jesus, what are you going to do about it?

Moses says stone her.

What say you?”

This was a trap.

I do feel for those who are politicians for the minefield that they have to go through and to be so super careful about what they say.

Put your head above the parapet and you’ll have those who will laud you and others that will go ‘off with your head’.

This was a political trap.

It is also a legal one.

For if He said; “stone her” then the ire of the Roman Empire would come down upon Him.

But if He said: “Let her go” they would say He is a lawbreaker.

And all the while they were pushing for an answer.

But they could not push Him or corner Him.

For, as they will soon discover, He is truly their judge.

He stooped to write on the ground as if rehearsing the ten commandments written by the finger of God.

Of course, it is speculation what He wrote for it was in dust and dirt that He wrote.

Perhaps He was rehearsing each of their sins.

Meanwhile they were getting very insistent but when the true judge gives a verdict it is spiritually devastating for these Pharisees.

“He who is without sin among you, let him throw be the first to stone her.” Suddenly what they have attempted to make a political and legal issue is seen as a deeply personal, moral matter.

A group of proud, righteous men now find themselves on the same ground as the woman they are want to stone.

Their holier-than-thou armour had been pierced as each one faced the depths of his own sinful nature.

Each had to deal with the inner darkness which is so closely intertwined with self-righteous legalism; the savage delight in catching this woman in the act of sinning, the pompous pride in being able to use her as a shameful test case and the vengeful anger which drove them to get at Jesus.

Are not these the ugly passions we all seek to hide?

There is a royal dignity about Jesus as He quietly stoops to write again on the ground.

He has no need to speak a further word.

The truth has judged them.

And now He seems oblivious to them as they leave.

How quick we delight in judging in others.

But we are all in the same boat.

Our hearts tell us that this really is so.

Not one of us is without sin.

Some sins are more ugly than others and may have greater consequences but before God and our own consciences we are very aware of our failings.

The oldest left first and then down to the youngest.

The oldest were aware that they were sinners but the youngest were too.

All of life was full of sin.

Whilst the accusers had now all gone there were those that Jesus beforehand had been teaching.

But Jesus and the woman are now only aware of each other.

This is always the way Jesus deals with us.

It is intensively personal.

Nor do I condemn you.

Go and sin no more.

I am not saying that what you have done is not grievous but it is now time to stop behaving this way.

It is time to leave sin in the past.

It is what Jesus says about all our sin, all our evil habits.

I see what you do and hear what you say even if there are no other witnesses.

Was

Jesus reversing the Mosaic system?

No.

He is placing His Cross between that woman and her sin.

This One who is the Son of the virgin, who Himself was under a cloud all of His life, is going to the Cross to pay the penalty for even the sin of this woman.

He did not come into the world to condemn the world.

He did not come to judge this woman.

He came into the world to be a Savior!

Now, my friends, I implore you, get rid of the sin that so easily entangles and corrupts for it has power to destroy all that you hold dear.

Light 12-20

During this Feast of Tabernacles the temple priests would set up four great torches or lamp stands with golden lamp holders that held 65 litres of oil and were as high as the temple walls.

This is the other ceremony that takes place.

Last week we looked at the water pouring ceremony and this time we are looking at was called the Illumination of the Temple.

This would take place in the treasury.

Then the young, fit priests would ascend the tall ladders with the oil and light the protruding wicks.

The lighting of this would normally take place at the beginning of the Festival and the whole temple and much of Jerusalem would be lit up with the great flames that came out of the lamp holders.

In the Mishnah we read that:

Men of piety and good works used to dance before them with burning torches in their hands singing songs and praises and countless Levites played on harps, lyres, cymbals, and trumpets and instruments of music.

They would dance until dawn.

It was an exotic festival celebrating the great pillar of fire that led the people of Israel during their sojourn in the wilderness.

The beautiful lights lit up the night.

Jerusalem was a breathtaking, illuminated city on a hill.

It was in this place, no doubt with the charred torches still in place, that Jesus chose to raise his voice above the crowd and proclaim, “I am the light of the world.

Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

There would scarcely be a more dramatic way to announce one of the supreme realities of Jesus’ existence.

What a way to focus people’s attention on one of the truths they needed to understand!

His timing was not haphazard on either occasion; with the water, let him come to Me and drink, and with the torches of fire, I AM the light of the world.

Those great torches symbolized the Shekinah glory.

Christ was saying in effect, “Do you remember the pillar that came between you and the Egyptians near the Red Sea, the pillar that protected you and led you on your wanderings in the wilderness?

I am the Light of the world.

I am identified with that Shekinah glory.”

What a statement!

At the very least Jesus was claiming to be God.

This is the second of the I AM sayings.

The people cannot mistake what He is saying.

He is identifying Himself as God, the Great I AM.

Jesus gives us a revelation of God when He tells us that He is Bread, He is Water, He is Life.

Then we understand that not only is God self–existing, but that He also meets our every need.

Jesus said, “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35), “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12), “I am the door” (John 10:9), “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11), “I am the resurrection, and the life” (John 11:25), “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), and “I am the vine, ye are the branches” (John 15:5).

It is in Him that we find everything we need.

The light shining in our lives is Christ’s light.

What a privilege!

Ephesians 5:8 says, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.”

We share the very light that Jesus Christ displayed.

We are “the light of the world.

A city on a hill cannot be hidden” (Matthew 5:14).

Paul told the Philippian Christians that the world is dark, “in which you shine like stars in the universe” (Philippians 2:15).

We “have the light of life.”

In Matthew 13:43 Jesus says, “The righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”

In his book, The Weight of Glory, C.S. Lewis says:

Nature is mortal.

We shall outlive her.