Am I a Prig

Story of a kid who grew up in a messed up home / parents divorced when he was only two / Both announced they were gay / Mother got involved with another lady from her work / Dad did the same / This boy grew up going to gay pride parades / rallies / When he was 9 / he was attending one of these rallies with his mom and her partner / when he witnessed a man throw a cup of urine on his mother / He was stunned / asked his mom Why would someone do something like that? His mother said “Because he’s a Christian and Christians hate people”

This is how this boy was introduced to Christianity / When he was 16 / two of his friends invited him to a Bible Study / He was excited to go? He despised Christians / this was his chance to let them know / Bible study was a good man / One at a time kind of Christian

Didn’t take Long for this kid to become disruptive / he was mean spirited / trying to disprove / annoy / picking fights / but the leader was always gracious to him

His friends were same way / always returning his anger with kindness / The kid was shocked / over time he grew a respect / thought maybe he found the one group of not the right kind of Christians because they were not hate filled / so he went to the source / picked up a Bible / began to read / got to the story we are going to read today

John 8: 1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. 9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”11 “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Prig = a self-righteously moralistic person who behaves as if superior to others.

I. Caught and Brought

A. What we know about the woman

1. Not a lot / but She was married

a. We know / because Mishnah (oral tradition of Jewish law) said to strangle to death a single woman who slept with a married man / but to stone a woman who was married

1. Married = means one time a beautiful young bride / filled with dreams

2. Dreams of having a husband who would love her / raise children together

a. None of those hopes / dreams included what was happening this day

2. Where things went wrong we don’t know / only speculate

a. Disappointed in her marriage / maybe her husbands fault / maybe her own / probably both

1. We do know for some reason / she had to feel lonely

a. At some point met another man / who noticed her / listened to her

b. He became what her heart was longing for

3. It probably started innocent / casual conversation

a. One day it crossed the line / then another / then another / until she ended up in bed with this man

1. Then it happened again / again

a. She began living with a secret / living two different lives

b. Lived with constant weight she was carrying / I bet living a lie was already killing her / living a lie is hard life

c. Always wondering if people will find out

1. The guilt / shame / because God already knows

B. Then It Happened…. [PREACH]]

1. One day while in bed with the man / she was caught / eyes filled the room

a. Eyes of the hate filled religious leaders of the town / these leaders were well known

1. No doubt / she had seen them around town

a. She’d probably seen them giving their disapproving eyes to many others around town [[end PREACH]]

2. Problem / today the eyes were not on everyone else in town / they were on her

a. This day / angry / hateful stares were for her

1. She was not only beneath them / she was beneath the man who was not her husband / caught!

3. Man was just as caught / but they left him alone

a. Grabbed her / pulled her out of the room / screaming in fear

1. Probably grabbing for clothes / bedsheet / anything to cover her nakedness

b. Now being marched through town for all to see / confusion / humiliation increasing with every step

1. Realizing / she is being brought to the temple

a. Why the temple? Am I going inside? Will they kill me in the temple?

C. It’s here we pick up in our story

1. With humiliation / head bowed to ground / hiding her face / she hears conversation

a. 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”

1. Just got real / they do intend to kill her

2. Then she looks up to see who they are talking to / she see’s HIM

a. She see’s the one who is being asked to hand over a verdict

1. Let’s not forget / He is surrounded / as is usually the case

a. 2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them

3. He must have stood seeing the commotion / everyone probably was on their feet by this time

a. He doesn’t answer their question at all

1. 6 .… But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.

b. What is He doing?

1. I have no doubt / woman is trying to read what is being written

c. Men holding her / squeezing her arms / continued questioning the man

1. 7 …they kept on questioning him / they were demanding / hoping to hear words of condemnation

II. Choosing Condemnation

A. Get personal for a minute / I am going to ask you an awkward / very personal question

1. Who are YOU temped to condemn? …….To write off? ……….Who are you blaming for your hurt?

a. Is there someone / group of someones / you want to bring to God / accuse / who would they be?

1. Like religious leaders / you feel you have some self-righteous anger

2. Sometimes that anger comes from something someone has done to us

a. That anger spreads like a cancer / now you are angry at everyone else too

2. Something I have realized over time / counseling

a. Often / self righteous anger usually comes / NOT from something done to the angry person / but because of something the angry person has done

Article “While it may seem surprising, a common characteristic of a cheating souse is that they accuses you of cheating on them. In fact, it's been shown that people tend to accuse their accusers of what they're doing as a way to deflect blame and guilt.”

b. When we feel guilt of our own sin / it often manifests / surfaces as anger

1. Anger has a way of boiling up / spilling out on those around us

I read recently about growing problem of road rage / one reason for increase / what psychologists call / anger-bandwagon effect / anger is often contagious / one angry person can make people around them angry too!

3. Just like love / anger / discontentment / can spread / one person at a time

a. If there is one person in the house always angry / that can spread /

b. One negative person at the office / pretty soon / negativity spreads throughout place of employment

c. One angry person commenting on social media / soon others riled up / join in

B. The Problem (Problems) [[PREACH]]

1. Effects our Relationships

a. When we hold on to our bitterness / anger toward a person / it leaks out / effects other relationships

1. Called transference

a. Our resentment toward a parent / can cause us to have misplaced anger toward our spouse

b. Anger toward a co-worker / can follow us home / be transferred over to our own kids

2. Your anger toward people who have hurt you / builds up a wall around your heart

a. You don’t just keep that person at distance / you keep others at distance too!

1. What makes you angry? Better questions / WHO makes you angry??

a. Child who broke your heart?

b. Contractor who swindled you?

c. Business partner who lied to you?

d. Relative who made you feel so unimportant growing up?

e. Your boss? Co-worker? Employee?

f. Those democrats? Those Republicans?

b. Reason we can easily condemn them / is because there is something about them / we just don’t like… Right?

1. Could it be / something about them / reminds them of something you don’t like about yourself

a. A way they act / speak / talk / no way you will reach out to them

2. These religious leaders / had now become experts in judging / rejecting / condemning people / one at a time

3. Question: Has condemning a person ever changed that person? …This is a significant question

a. I have never met someone who said / I used to be one way / but one day I ran into this hate filled person who made me feel condemned / and that’s when my whole life changed….

1. Doesn’t work that way

4. Another Question: Has feeling condemned ever helped you to change?

a. I am willing to bet / condemnation has never led you to transformation

1. Rom 2:4 says it’s kindness that leads us to repentance

C. Jesus takes this serious. [[PREACH]]

1. Sermon on mount / Matt 5:21 tells people you shall not murder / we can all get on board with that

We even say funny things like “it’s not like I’ve ever killed anyone”

a. Matt 5:22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.

1. Jesus makes a point / you can’t compare yourself to a murdered / feel good about yourself…

2. If you have anger in your heart toward someone in your life

2. We can all recall times in our lives / raised our voices / called names / disrespectful / gossiping

a. Our tendency is to dismiss those as no big deal

1. After all / everyone gets carried away now and then

3. Others / don’t throw rocks / you simply withdraw / go silent

a. Not in a way to collect your thoughts / but to hurt the other person

1. You know full well / your ongoing silence / passive aggressive spirit is driven by anger

I know someone / I can always tell when he is angry / He says “Here’s the thing…” / He will even have a smile on his face / but make no mistake / what he is about to say / no laughing matter / laced with his underlying anger

D. Releasing Rocks. [[PREACH]]

1. In our text / we see sharp contrast / between One at a time way of Jesus vs. One at a time way of the religious

a. 6… But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.

1. Not sure what He wrote / but what we know / whatever he wrote / he did one thing

a. He got their condemning eyes off of the woman / WHY / why do that / she is guilty?

2. Because that woman / still his daughter / God’s daughter [[end PREACH]]

a. Even in this situation / Jesus showed compassion

1. As accusers were waiting for the word / begin to throw / they heard

a. 7 “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

3. She probably assumed / these men were sinless / their arrogant lives said so

a. But one at a time / rocks / instead of being hurled / were being dropped

1. Slowly hands gripping her arms began to relax

b. We don’t know what Jesus wrote / but we do know / probably confused / what was happening?

1. Now face to face with the ONLY one with power to condemn

a. 10 Jesus asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? 11 “No one, sir,” she said. Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

c. If she was defined by her sin / her sin would have the ultimate power / authority

1. God is ultimate power / authority / she was defined by His love

a. That became a reality / when He showed her compassion / instead of condemnation

1. On that day / worst day of her life / became best day

III. A New Command

Piggy backing off the series I have been working on / Jesus says / A new command I give you / Love one another

A. One of primary ways Jesus loves us one at a time / forgiving us when we don’t deserve it [[PREACH]]

1. That’s exactly how we are to love

a. Eph 4:32 We are to be “Kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as Christ forgave u

1. I Cor 13 describes love “keeps no record of wrongs”

a. That’s how we are supposed to love

2. More than just a general love / we are to act it out specifically

a. Not just believe it theoretically / but put it into practice on person at a time [[end PREACH]]

B. Grace Challenge #1 / Recognize Our Own Sin

1. These men dragged her out / because they could not recognize their own sin

a. Jesus was the only one with power to condemn

1. 10 Jesus said Neither do I, go and sin no more!.”

C. B. Grace Challenge #2 / Compassion without Condoning

1. Did you know you can show people love / even before they have completely stopped sinning

a. People fear loving sinners / will show you accept their behavior

1. Not what Jesus did….

a. Rom 5 While we were STILL sinners

b. Message is not we love you / so keep on sinning

1. 10 Jesus said Neither do I, go and sin no more!.”

2. We simply need to love / show compassion / trust in saving power of Jesus / sanctifying power of HS

a. Trust God!

“God loves you just the way you are, but loves you too much to leave you that way”

1. Many religions are based on ways to earn God’s approval

2. Christianity dares to make God’s love unconditional

a. My challenge is we begin to be more like Jesus / offer same grace to others one person at a time

Story of man I began with / he went to the Bible study to return some of the hate he had experienced as a child / But the people he met that day / gave him very different impression of Jesus / It was this story in the Bible showed him the real Jesus / one filled with compassion / not hate / this young man gave his life to Jesus

His mother disowned him / as did his father / he moved in with a guy whose Bible study he was attending / couple years later went to seminary / that was a few decades ago

Check this out / just recently this man was able to baptize his father and mother / as they became Christians / HOW?

3. By seeing the people in their sons church were not like the prigs they were exposed to

a. They met Christians who chose compassion / they met the real loving Jesus

1. The Jesus who does not define us by our sin / but offers a path to freedom

a. Jesus / that Jesus / is irresistible

b. An entire family was saved / because one person / made decision to love people one at a time!

Altar Call

Who are YOU temped to condemn? …….To write off? ……….Who are you blaming for your hurt?