No Condemnation
I can’t imagine the humiliation the woman in John 8 felt being put in front of a crowd of people, Jesus’ teaching interrupted, and her accusers putting all the attention on her. The scribes and Pharisees were looking on her only as an instrument whereby they could formulate a charge against Jesus. They didn’t even bother to bring the man who was also at fault.
Of course, Jesus saw through their trap, but more than that he saw this woman’s humiliation and felt compassion for her. As though he didn’t even hear them, he stooped down and wrote on the ground. He acted as if did not hear their accusations, trying to calm down the tension at the scene but also out of concern for the woman’s dignity and safety. Jesus didn’t respond to the accusing men, instead he did everything he could to make things less tense. We know how the story goes, Jesus eventually stood up straight and asked any man without sin to throw the first stone at the woman, because her sin required stoning to death by their law.
Jesus’ clear message was no one has the right to condemn someone else for their sin. He even showed patience for their self-righteousness while causing them to look at themselves. . He did not come to judge or condemn the lost but to pay the price for their sin with his own blood. All of the accusers left one by one and the woman looked in Jesus’ loving, compassionate eyes as he asked her ” Where are your accusers?” “Has no one condemned you?” And she answers “No one, Lord.” Notice she calls him Lord. And he responds, "Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more." The woman – guilty of sin, and a great sin – knew the goodness of having no condemnation. She passed from sin and a death sentence to forgiveness and hope.
The woman needed hope because the consequences of her sin would be severe enough. After this, she would likely be shunned by her community, and rejected by her husband, perhaps even divorced (assuming she was married or betrothed).
God’s mercy reaches out to all who are willing to admit the need for forgiveness. Scripture clearly teaches us that we all have that need. Isaiah said it this way…“All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall upon Him.” (53:6) His mercy never fails and his love never ends.
Deb Hill
Stay with Jesus
7 [Jesus] stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9 But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. 10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” - John 8:7-11
These people who were ready to stone this woman to death had brought her to Jesus because she was guilty of sin. Jesus doesn’t deny that she is guilty. Instead, he simply asks everyone else to be honest with themselves, and then he invites anyone who is sin-free to go ahead and carry out judgment on this sinner. However, one thing that Jesus didn’t do is ask them to leave. Apparently, they just started walking away. But this story is written in such a way that suggests that some of them thought about it more than others. The older people were quicker to realize that they too had sinned. The younger people fought it a bit more. However, and this is important, every person there realized that they had sinned. Every single person. One of them was brought in as a sinner, and then a whole crowd of people walked away as sinners. However, only one person was forgiven; the person who stayed with Jesus.
I wonder what would have happened if some of the angry mob would have stayed with Jesus. Would they have been forgiven as well? What I do know is that the only place where we can find forgiveness is Jesus. We don’t find forgiveness when we hide our sin when we ignore our sin, or when we try to make ourselves look better than we are. The only way that you or I will ever find forgiveness is if we allow Jesus to be there with us… even in our sin. This poor woman was having the worst day of her life, but she stayed with Jesus and because of that, it turned into the most beautiful day of her life.
Let’s be people who stay with Jesus.
Josh Rose
Discipleship Pastor
Cast the First Stone
Some scholars over the centuries have questioned whether the story of the woman caught in adultery was originally in the Gospel of John. In response, Dr. Wilbur Pickering notes that it’s found in 85% of the surviving ancient Gospel manuscripts. For most people that’s pretty convincing evidence! But even more convincing to me is that Christians through the centuries have discerned both the wisdom and the heart of Jesus in this passage.
Regarding wisdom, we discern that Jesus knew the hidden motives of the scribes and Pharisees who accused the woman before him. They weren’t actually seeking “justice” under the Mosaic Law for her adultery; they simply wanted to spring a trap upon Jesus. Decades earlier Roman authorities had stripped Jewish leaders of their right to inflict capital punishment. According to Pastor Skip Heitzig, historical documents reveal that Jewish leadership felt that loss of authority represented “a departure of the royal scepter from Judah” (Gen. 49:10). If the woman caught in adultery had been stoned with Jesus’ approval, the Pharisees would have used it to implicate Jesus in a crime before the Romans. Jesus was too wise for their trap.
The story also shows the heart of Jesus through his grace and mercy toward the woman. Jesus lovingly shifted attention off the woman by leaning over before the crowd and writing in the dirt. He knew she was a victim of entrapment by the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus did not excuse the woman’s sin but he simply commanded her “go your way and sin no more.” Obeying Jesus’ command and turning from her sin was an act of repentance. Jesus’ words affirm that both her sin and her guilt would be removed.
But while the woman left forgiven, her accusers walked away in guilt. They had laid a trap for the woman then accused her alone of sin. They brought no accusation against the male partner who participated in this sin. And they turned a blind eye to their own sins of deceit, manipulation and seeking to turn Mosaic Law into a weapon against the woman and Jesus. The one person on earth who could release them from their sin was standing right there before their very eyes. Yet, when their plot was foiled, they simply turned and walked away. Tragically, they missed the opportunity to know Jesus as savior!
May we guard against every temptation to judge a sister or brother in Christ. Rather, let us point people to Jesus for mercy, forgiveness and renewal.
Pastor Dave Korinek
Parchment in the Wind
“It just feels like a lot of weight to put into one book.” That’s the way my friend responded when I told him about Jesus. I’m not sure why the truth of what they said had never struck me before, but it hit me like a ton of bricks that they were right. I base the way I live and what I believe about eternity based on what the Scriptures say. I really do believe that “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” (2 Tim. 3:16) However, that is a lot of weight to put in one book.
What gives us such bravado to make the claim that Scripture is worthy of such weight? Is it blind faith? Is it the fact that we have more and better manuscripts (by a long shot) than any other ancient writing? Is it simply the perspective that we have been handed? What is it that gives Jesus followers such confidence in this ancient collection of writings? As I was reading the end of John 7, I was struck by one of the things that gives me confidence - and it initially might seem ironic, so hear me out.
At the end of John 7, there is a non-inspired sentence inserted by the translators that reads:
“The earliest manuscripts do not include 7:53–8:11.”
You might be wondering why telling me that an upcoming section was not in the earliest and best manuscripts instills more confidence in Scripture. Shouldn’t it inspire less? No. One of the things that gives me such high confidence in Scripture is the integrity with which it was assembled. I absolutely love that we know that the story in John 8:1-11 wasn’t in the earliest manuscripts because our Bible tells us that it wasn’t. The Scriptures and the translators are not trying to hide anything. They’re not trying to pull the wool over our eyes; they are not disingenuous in any way. The translators are telling us in a very upfront manner that for the first 350+ years of church history, this section was not included in John’s gospel.
I’m not suggesting any conclusions about whether or not we should have it in our Bibles, I’m only pointing out the intellectual integrity to state that it was not in the earliest manuscripts. That gives me confidence that we can trust the Scriptures we have. Sure, we have to decide how much weight we give to John 8, but we can have confidence that the people who have compiled and translated Scriptures have done so in an honest way… and that gives me confidence in the rest of the “book” as well.
As I read the translator's editorial note, it made my heart soar with confidence. I pray that it does the same for you and that it persuades you that when you hold the Scriptures, you are holding a collection of writings that you can have confidence in. So much confidence that you can base your life on it.
Pastor Ryan Paulson
Sacred Scandal
Series: Signs of Life | Text: John 8:1-11
Speaker: Pastors Ryan Paulson & Esteban Tapia
August 27, 2023: This Sunday, Pastors Ryan Paulson and Esteban Tapia completed the Signs of Life season of messages from the Gospel of John series. This last sermon message in the series is entitled Sacred Scandal. We hope you enjoyed studying this section of the Scriptures with us.
Asking A Better Question
“At our college, you’ll learn how to ask a better question!” touted a prospective college’s admissions campaign. I remember snickering at that. I’m going to attend a college that costs $50,000 a year so I can learn to ask a better question? Yeah, right! Not gonna happen.
But funnily enough, with a few more years behind me now, that slogan doesn’t make me snicker, it makes me think, “That college is on to something.”
The reason I’ve come to gain a deeper respect for those who not only ask questions but for those who ask good ones, is because questions can be deeply significant indicators of a person’s humility or lack thereof. Sorry to burst your bubble, but you can ask a bad question. And it’s a question that stems from a place of feeling you know it all already, and you have nothing to learn or to hear from anyone but yourself or the people you already agree with. Think of the truly dumb questions your classmates asked in school–weren’t they the questions asked out of arrogance?
Take the Pharisees rolling their eyes at Jesus, for example. Right after Jesus said, “I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come,” they quip back with, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks?” At first glance this might look like they’re actually confused (Jesus is undoubtedly being cryptic), and at worst, just plain clueless, but I think the fact that they asked “Where will he go that we can’t follow?” instead of “Why can’t we follow him?” tells us something very significant about the Pharisees.
We can give the average Jew a pass for being confused by Jesus’ words, but these extremely educated men should have picked up on the layers of meaning Jesus was putting down for them, and yet they utterly failed to grasp his meaning. The next possibility to consider is they weren’t clueless, but refusing to listen.
Ah, now the confusing pieces start to fall into place. The Pharisees don’t really want to know what Jesus means, because they’re already determined to hear nothing but nonsense from him. Why? Because he offends them. “We’re right, he’s wrong.” They had already decided to believe this before Jesus opened his mouth.
How many of us refuse to listen and so miss out on asking the questions that will bring us to further growth, life, and the fullness of what God has for us? Only Jesus has a corner on the market for truth, not us. So let us not be like the Pharisees by closing off our ears, and instead, cultivate an ability to listen well, knowing we have more to learn. And then maybe, just maybe, we’ll learn how to ask a better question.
Ashley Carr
“Hearing God’s Voice”
In John 7:45 the Apostle John tells about the reaction of several 1st-century Jewish Temple guards when they overheard some of Jesus’ teaching. After being rebuked by the Jewish leadership for failing to arrest Jesus, those guards boldly responded “No one ever spoke like this man!” We can assume those guards had heard the voice of many rabbis and preachers during their day-to-day duties on Temple grounds, but they experienced something truly unique in the voice of Jesus. Whether they realized it or not, they were being convicted about his words by the power of the Holy Spirit. Their hearts told them that his words came from a higher authority. Little did they know that, in reality, what they were hearing was the voice of God.
Whatever went forth from Jesus’ lips was (and is) the living word of God. The Bible declares that “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Heb. 4:12, ESV) And that’s precisely what God’s word continues to do in the hearts of people around the world today - even among those still in search of the truth.
In this world, we are confronted by many competing voices. Sooner or later we can expect to encounter voices that reflect every part of the spiritual spectrum - from the truly holy to the utterly humanistic to the darkly satanic. Thankfully, the indwelling Holy Spirit equips every believer to discern the voice of God. In the cacophony of voices around us, there is only one we really need to listen to. Whenever your own heart is moved by the word of God, I pray your soul will echo the response of the Temple guards, “No man ever spoke like this!”
Pastor Dave Korinek
Parched?
Have you ever felt parched and really needed something to quench your thirst? It is a word that is a bit out of use now but it definitely adds an intensity to just being thirsty! I looked up the origin of parched to find it comes from the Middle English perchen which is related to perish! Sometimes you might have felt if you didn’t get water, you would perish. Other meanings of the word said to dry, roast, shrivel, be very dry! That just makes me thirsty reading them. Have you ever seen parched land? This land is so dry, it looks like shriveled puzzle pieces. Nothing can grow there until there is water again! In John 7, Jesus says something remarkable about Himself that certainly removes us from being parched spiritually.
Part of the Jewish Festival of Shelters, was a daily water ceremony that included prayer and water being poured over the altar. This was a request of God to send rain in the late autumn. The prayer sung by the Levitical priests was from Isaiah 12:3
“With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.”
On the “great day” (last day) of the festival, the climax was the pouring of water seven times over the altar! What a perfect time for Jesus to loudly declare, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” John 7:37-38
Not only the promise of salvation, but the promise of life where living water flows in and through those who believe. We know this living water is the Holy Spirit who would come to dwell permanently in believers after Jesus returned to glory. The source of this Living Water is the Lord Jesus.
“The LORD will guide you always;
He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.”
Isaiah 58:11
Reflection:
Read John 7:37-38 again as you remember when you came to Jesus and drank! (If you haven’t done that, you can right now)
Read again Isaiah 58:11 and ponder how the Holy Spirit flows through you because you are “like a spring whose waters never fail.”
I Thessalonians 5:19 warns us “Do not quench the Spirit”. How can we keep from doing that so the Holy Spirit can flow out of us? Pray asking the Lord to show you!
Francie Overstreet
Believing is Seeing
“You will seek Me, and will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come.”
In that great Christmas movie, The Santa Clause, one of the elves makes an insightful statement about the possibility that Scott Calvin might actually be Santa Claus. He says, “Believing is seeing.”
In a different, and much more profound and important way, we find Jesus saying the exact same thing. However, He is not talking about Santa. He is talking about Himself, and His words are directed to the Pharisees, the chief priests, and the Jews (vv. 32-36).
As I thought about it, it dawned on me that Jesus’ words must have been both confusing and troubling for those who heard them. I don’t see how they could have listened to Jesus and not thought of Jeremiah 29:13, which says, “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” I would imagine the Jews of the day believed God to be seekable and find-able. And if they did, they were right.
Which means something else is going on. Jesus is pointing out, not God’s lack of findability, but the Jew's lack of faith in the fact that He is the Messiah and that He is God. (And He has said that those who rejected Him reject the One who sent Him (Luke 10:16)). The people to whom Jesus is speaking are not seeking the LORD with all their heart because they are refusing to believe the testimony and works of Jesus. Because they are not believing, they are not seeing, and this means they will not find Jesus, or be able to join Him in heaven (John 8:21).
For Jesus, it all comes down to our belief in what He says about Himself. Do we believe He is the Christ? Do we believe He is God incarnate? Do we believe He is Our sinless sacrifice? Do we believe He is the Lord of all? If you do, thank Him for enabling this belief in your heart. But if you don’t, why not pray and ask Him to give you the ability to believe so that you may see for yourself? You’ll be glad you did.
Scott Smith
Care Pastor
Divisiveness
I’m happy to be the first to welcome you back to the Daily Fill. This week in John 7:32-52, we see Jesus making some pretty big statements again, and we get some insight into how various members of the general public react. We see many responses, from people rightly saying Jesus is the Messiah to people thinking he is demon-possessed or just a prophet. They all have facts or assumptions to base their conclusions on, they vary in factual accuracy as well. Verse 43 highlights the fact that there is no small amount of disagreement, and John puts the cause solely on Jesus. (43 So there was a division among the people because of him (Jesus.)
We can have an attitude of, “Why can’t we just get along?” That might cause us to put Jesus aside so we don’t have to partake in the division Jesus causes. Said division certainly feels bad, but is it actually a bad thing? This is a pattern that will come up again and again; Jesus sometimes causes people to divide. Some will believe him, while most will not. We are to do whatever we can to bring people to Jesus, but it is not up to us whether or not they believe.
The world collectively rejected Jesus, while we have received him and call him Lord. We don’t have to feel bad about people taking issue with Jesus in fact, we can actually expect it. We must always remain in the world loving people around us and representing Jesus. Never stop praying for people to come to faith in Christ.
Jonathan Duncan
