2020-04-28 Engage Podcast - John 8v1-11 None of us can throw stones

In this podcast episode, the host reads from John chapter 8 and focuses on the story of the woman caught in adultery. The religious leaders try to trap Jesus by asking if she should be stoned according to the law of Moses. Jesus responds by saying that the one without sin should throw the first stone. The accusers leave one by one, realizing they are not without sin. The host explains that Jesus' response shows that all of us are imperfect and in need of forgiveness. He emphasizes that salvation comes through a relationship with God and accepting Jesus as our savior. The host encourages listeners to reach out to him for more information and invites them to join their youth discussions. Well, welcome to the Engage podcast. I'm your host, Chris, this week, and we're going to be reading from John chapter 8. And today we're not going to read the whole chapter, we're just going to read the first 11 verses of John chapter 8. I thought I would take a shorter portion this week and discuss that so we can go a little bit more in depth, keep it shorter, and make sure it's not too confusing. So here we go. John chapter 8, verse 1. Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, but early the next morning he was back again at the temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd. Teacher, they said, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say? They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone. Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust. When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, Where are your accusers? Didn't even one of them condemn you? No, Lord, she said. And Jesus said, Neither do I. Go and sin no more. So that's John chapter eight verses one through eleven. Now, first, I want to break down a few things. This is obviously dealing with some pretty heavy subject matter here, you know, talks about adultery. Well, what is adultery? Well, that means when somebody is unfaithful in marriage, they're not faithful to their spouse. So they caught someone. And I find it so ironic. Here's the biggest thing I find so interesting with this passage. They say, it says here, they bring this woman and they say that they caught her in the act of adultery. So they were spying out and they found, oh, this woman, she was being unfaithful to her husband. Well, isn't it interesting? For her to be unfaithful to her husband means she had to be doing something with somebody else. And yet they only brought the woman to Jesus. What about the other person? Why didn't they? Why didn't they bring this other person in as well and accuse that person? Why did they only bring just her? Sounds very suspicious, don't you think? Seems a little odd that they would do that. You know, this is complete speculation. This is not written in the Bible, what I'm about to say. But I kind of wonder, you know, did they set her up or something, you know, just so that they could have somebody have this situation to try and trap Jesus? That's this whole situation here. They're trying to trap Jesus into saying something. They're like, well, this guy's all about love and forgiveness. But Moses, who was very important to the Jewish people, who, you know, a lot of the books in the Old Testament, we know about Moses crossing the Red Sea, the waters being parted, you know, freeing the Israelites. Moses was really important to them. And, you know, he had, in the law, had said that somebody who was unfaithful to their spouse was deserving to be stoned. And so they're saying, well, if Jesus goes against that, then clearly he's not of God. And we can, so let's trick him into saying that he should forgive this person. But what Jesus' simple response was, well, whichever one of you is without sin, whichever one of you has never broken God's law, you go ahead and throw the first stone at her. And so they left because, of course, all of them, all of us have sinned, all of us have made mistakes. You know, the book of Romans talks about all for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, meaning none of us are perfect, right? We all make mistakes. So they all left one by one because none of them were righteous. None of them were good enough. None of them were right with God to be able to do that. They were judging her, and yet they didn't judge their own hearts. They didn't judge themselves for the mistakes that they had done. Jesus' point with all that is not that sin is not important, is that all of us fail. And this is a crucial piece of the gospel. People might go, you know, the Bible says some pretty harsh things in the Old Testament about punishment for sin. Why don't we, why don't Christians say that those things should be punished like that, right? Well, the reason why don't, why wouldn't he punish with stoning this woman? Why wouldn't he do that if the Bible says that? The whole reason is because that was set up to show us that none of us are perfect, to show us that without God, basically, all of us would have broken the law and be deserving of punishment. And so instead of putting us to that point, you know, where we would have to die for sin, instead, Jesus came along and died on the cross for us. He took the punishment for our sin and died for us so that we would not have to have that punishment because none of us are perfect. But guess what? Jesus is. And so he was able to do that. I want to make sure that this is clear, as I know this can be confusing. And this is really the crux of Christianity. This is the focal point. The most important thing is, is in simplicity, like John 316, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. So what does that mean? It means that this is the basics of the gospel, right? God made all of us. He made mankind and mankind was put in a perfect place in the Garden of Eden, right? And he gave them, he didn't, but he didn't want slaves and robots. He wanted people who had the ability to make their own choice. So he gave them the opportunity to choose to just be with him or choose to go against him. That's what the fruit in the Garden of Eden story in Genesis, in the first three chapters of Genesis, in the very beginning of the Bible, are about. It's not that, oh, fruit was evil or some sort of symbol of the fruit was evil. No. What it's about is God gave them a choice. Do you want to choose to just be with me? Or do you want to choose to do things your way and just have anything you want? And they chose just have everything they want by choosing to go against him, right? And that's the funny thing is we think, oh, God just doesn't want us to have the things we want. No, he wants us to have everything that's good. It's like a little baby that wants to, you know, stick their finger in the electric socket. That's dangerous. So we would stop them. We're not trying to limit them or take something fun away. We just know that that's not good for them. So mankind made that wrong decision. And ever since then, we have all had that imperfection inherently in us. You know, we're imperfect people. And so we cannot live up to the do's and the don'ts, the rules of the Ten Commandments, these rules that God gave the Israelites to show them that not that they could live up to it and be perfect and get to heaven. People have this idea that if they're good people, they'll get to heaven. And that's simply not true. I'm going to be perfectly straight and honest with you. There's a lot of good people that go to hell. I know that sounds harsh, and people don't like to hear about things like that. But there's a lot of good people that go to hell because there's no perfect people. And that what gets us into heaven is not being a good person. What gets us into heaven is recognizing that we're not good people because we're not perfect. And that the only one who is perfect is Jesus. And he's the only one who can get us there by recognizing just right back in the beginning is that we don't need all these extra things. We just need God in our life. And it's just about a relationship with God. And so Jesus came and he paid the penalty so that we don't have to. Because there's a legal system in place because God is a God of justice. We all believe in justice inherently, I would say. And God is that God of justice. So someone had to be punished for the wrongdoings that we do. And so Jesus died for all of us once to pay for that sin. But because he was God, he was able to come back. And so because of that, now we have the opportunity, because he gave up, because he died in a way that he didn't deserve, we can live in a way that we don't deserve in a positive sense, we can live a good life that we don't deserve, because he gave his life for a punishment he didn't deserve. And so now we have this opportunity, because none of us is perfect, to come to him just like in this short passage here, John 8, verses 1 to 11, I encourage you to read it yourself. We have this opportunity, because none of us is perfect. None of us is able to throw that stone at someone else. So just think about that. As you judge others, as you think that others are maybe worse off than you, because, you know, they do this or that, or they don't do this or that, it's not about getting it right. It's just about getting into a relationship with God. That's all God has ever wanted, is us to be with him, to be in relationship with him, and to enjoy him. If you want to know more about how to have a relationship with him, I really encourage you to reach out to me. You can email me at chris at hcfsydney.ca. That's hcfsydney.ca. And we can talk about that. And you're welcome to join in our Engage Youth video calls and discussions on Tuesday nights at 7. Yeah, I'll be sending out the links then. So just email me if you want to be a part of that. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this passage, too. And I'm just praying right now that you guys have a wonderful day. In fact, I'm just going to take a moment to pray. Heavenly Father, I just thank you for this passage that we read. So we can know that we are not perfect, and we don't need to be. You're not asking us to be. You're just asking us to be in relationship with you. Help us to start that relationship today and to just enjoy you. Right now as you're listening to this, if you've never asked Jesus into your life before, I just want you to repeat after me this simple prayer. This prayer is not going to, you know, magically transform you, but it's going to start you on a relationship with Jesus. And that's going to take time and intentionality just like any other relationship in your life. But if you want to start that, I encourage you to pray this with me and then send me an email afterward, and I'd love to talk to you more about it. But here we go. Dear God, I admit that I'm a sinner, that I have made mistakes in my life, and I'm not perfect. And I realize that I need Jesus to be in my heart, in my life, and I need to live for Jesus. I need to live for you to be able to be with you in heaven. More than that, I just want to have a beautiful relationship with you, God. So I accept you now into my life. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, I accept you into my life. In the name of Jesus, amen. If you've prayed that prayer for the first time, please email me. Again, that's chris at hcfsydney.ca. I look forward to talking to you guys on Tuesday. God bless.