John 7:37-8:11 - Part C

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That's connectwithskip.com. Now let's get started with today's message from Pastor Skip Heitzig. See, the idea is, do any of the religious leaders, the authorities, people like us, people who aren't easily deceived, do any of them? So I'm saying that because don't buy into this argument from personal authority. There are plenty of smart people who believe in Jesus, and there were plenty of Jewish people back then. Even some of the rulers in process was Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, Sanhedrin members who would become believers in Jesus Christ, by the time he was crucified. Verse 49, they continue their rant, but this crowd that does not know the law is accursed. Now they couldn't be more wrong because some of those in the crowd had said believed in Jesus. So some of those in the crowd that they said were cursed actually had everlasting life. But the ironic thing is they themselves were cursed.

The ones who said they're cursed, they were the ones who were accursed because they refused to believe that Jesus was the Christ. Nicodemus, he who came to Jesus by night, that's back in John chapter three, being one of them said to them, Does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing? They answered and said to him, Are you also from Galilee? Now, I know that doesn't make sense to some of you. Because when he says, Doesn't our law, you know, give people a fair hearing? The response doesn't seem to make sense.

Are you from Galilee? What does that have to do with what I just said? It has nothing to do with this. It's called an ad hominem attack, a personal attack. It's like you just said something I don't like. Let me think of something really annoying to say back at you and accuse you of being something that you're just going to hate if I say it.

That's the idea. Are you also from Galilee? The people in Jerusalem and Judea hated the Galileans. They thought they were a bunch of hicks. Now, I could give you an example of somebody from the West saying something about somebody from different parts of the United States. And I've done this in the past to show you the equivalent, but it always gets me in trouble. We all have those people in our minds.

We do. But if you say it, you get in trouble. I'm not going to say it. They were unsophisticated from the backwoods, uneducated. They didn't know the nuances of the law of Moses. Those were Galileans.

And notice what they said. Are you also from Galilee? Search and look, for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee. Now, they prided themselves in being so smart. We know the law.

These Galileans, they don't know the law. Search and see, has any prophet come out of Galilee? Actually, they're idiots because their own Bible talks about prophets that come from Galilee. There was one guy by the name of Jonah, the son of Amittai, Jonah chapter one.

Heifer is five miles away from Nazareth in the region of Galilee. That's one prophet that we know from scripture. Some even believe the prophet Nahum was from Galilee. And that the original name of the city of Capernaum was called El Cosh. Nahum was an El Coshite. And they believe that the name El Cosh at Galilee was later changed to Capernaum.

By the way, Capernaum means the town of Nahum. So it is believed that at least one, maybe two, maybe even three prophets from the Old Testament were from Galilee. But these guys, search and see, is there any prophet that comes out of Galilee?

Uh-huh. Few of them. What they overlooked, of course, is that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, in the city of David, according to the prediction made in the Old Testament.

Then he moved to Nazareth where he grew up to escape the fear of the great and the foray down in Jerusalem. But they overlooked that. They didn't do enough research.

It would have been an easy thing to ask and to find out. Last verse of the chapter, and everyone went to his own house. Sometimes to me, chapter breaks are unfortunate in the Bible, the way they're broken up.

They're not inspired. They were written years later by one in particular. They were fortunate things because verse 53 and chapter 8, verse 1 go together. Because notice the chapter, chapter 8 begins with the word, but. And my English teacher said, never begin a story with that word.

Because that word belongs with another thought, right? So notice verse 53 and chapter 8, verse 1, they belong together. And everyone went to his own house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

Okay, let me uncover that with you. The Mount of Olives is right next to the city of Jerusalem. Some of you have been with us to Israel. The Mount of Olives is just to the east. We always take groups of people there because it's the best view of the city. It's a commanding view.

It's raised up a little bit. You can look down on the Temple Mount, and the whole city is spread out in front of you. Just below you is the Kidron Valley, and you can look to the right if you're standing on the Mount of Olives, and you'll see the Garden of Gethsemane right there. And the olive groves.

And you look up and it rises from the Kidron, it goes up to that beautiful area called the Temple Mount, and you see the walls of Jerusalem. It was an important place to Jesus. Jesus taught on the Mount of Olives.

We call it the Olivet Discourse. Matthew chapter 24 was taught on the Mount of Olives. It was where Jesus would travel to pray on the Mount of Olives in that little garden at the foot of it called the Garden of Gethsemane. So Jesus taught on the Mount of Olives. He prayed on the Mount of Olives. He was also betrayed on the Mount of Olives.

Judas Iscariot went to where the priests had their headquarters outside of Jerusalem, which was located on that southern end of the Mount of Olives. So Jesus taught on the Mount of Olives. He prayed on the Mount of Olives. He was betrayed on the Mount of Olives. Another thing about it is Jesus ascended into heaven from the Mount of Olives. It says in Acts chapter 1 that the disciples were on the Mount of Olives with Jesus, and all of a sudden He just started floating up, went into the right hand of the Father. So Jesus taught on the Mount of Olives, prayed on the Mount of Olives, was betrayed on the Mount of Olives, and ascended from the Mount of Olives.

Oh, and there's another thing. When He comes back, He's going to return to the Mount of Olives. So it's a pretty important place. Zechariah said His feet will touch, and the Mount of Olives will split into two sections, creating a large valley. So Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

Everybody went to their own home. Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Where did He go on the Mount of Olives? Well, we're not told.

Number one, He just camped out. Garden of Gethsemane is a pretty nice place, right? Some of you guys, we go to Jerusalem, and I sneak off with a few people, and we jump the wall in the Garden of Gethsemane, and we pray there at night and get that beautiful view. I just confess my sin.

A sin I repeatedly commit when I go there, but it's just a great spot. So He just camped out on the Mount of Olives, or He went to the house of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary, who lived in Bethany, which is on the Mount of Olives. Right, it's a town right on the other side of the Mount of Olives, just a little village. So one of those two, He either camped out, but He probably went to stay with them like He often did when He was at a feast. Now the reason these verses are put here is to show you the humility of Christ. Everybody went to his own home. Jesus didn't have his own home. He said to a would-be follower, I'll follow you wherever you want to go. Jesus said, foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests. The Son of Man has no place to lay His head.

You want to follow me? I don't have an apartment, don't have a condo, don't have a nice house overlooking the city of Jerusalem. I'm camping out, or I'm staying with friends. So they went home, Jesus did not. He did not have a home. He was born in a feeding trough. He never owned His own home. When He died, He wasn't put in a family tomb, He was put in a borrowed tomb.

Which is good because He only needed it for the weekend, right? Because He rose from the dead. But all of this is placed here to show you again, to reinforce the humility of the Creator of the universe who humbled Himself as God in human flesh. Everybody went to his own home, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

Now early in the morning, He came again into the temple and all the people came to Him and He sat down and He taught them. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we get back to Skip's teaching, Nate Heitzig has written a children's book just in time for Christmas. And this month we're offering it to you as thanks for your support of Connect with Skip Heitzig. Christmas Under the Tree follows the timeless story of Jesus Christ from the cradle to the cross through the eyes of an unlikely character, a humble tree. This beautifully illustrated book, which includes a companion audio experience, is a wonderful way to tell the Christmas story and the story of Christ to the children in your life. This resource is our thanks for your gift of just $25 or more today to help share biblical teaching with more people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig.

Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copy when you give $25 or more today to reach people all around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig. Let's continue with today's teaching with Pastor Skip. Now, I know everybody loves certain verses of the Bible, but there's just some passages that are special to me, and this is one of those verses, because I love the idea of getting up early in the morning and meeting somewhere with Jesus. And I just see that here.

Jesus came again to the temple, again to teach people, and anybody who wanted to show up early where he was would take advantage of that meeting. I hope you do that. I hope you meet with him regularly. You open his word, you pray to him, you talk to him, and you learn from him.

But here's a beautiful example now. It says that Jesus sat and he taught. What am I doing right now? I'm sitting. In Judaism, in the scriptural setting, a teacher always sat. An evangel, a proclaimer, a preacher, somebody who would proclaim a message from a king would stand, but a teacher sat, and we find Jesus often sitting down and teaching people. Now, the only thing that's different about the setting is that the disciples, the talmadim, would stand while the teacher sat.

We don't make you do that. We give you nice, comfortable chairs with Bibles if you didn't bring one, et cetera. But that was the setting Jesus came, and we know where he is. Whereas before, he was probably in Solomon's porch, not the coffee shop, but the colonnade in the Temple Mount in the previous chapter. When he comes back the next day, he's not in Solomon's portico or the royal portico, but he's in the court of the women.

He's a little bit closer in. Why do we say that? Because when we get to verse 20, we'll identify that Jesus said these words in the treasury, and the treasury was located in the court of the women. So he's come to a different place in the temple in the morning, early in the morning, and for those who come early, they would meet with him there. Then the scribes and the Pharisees, and you would find a lot of the scribes and the Pharisees in the court of the women, because if you want to go to the court of the men or the court of the priests, you have to go through the court of the women. So it would attract the attention, the ire of the leadership. The scribes and the Pharisees brought to him a woman caught in adultery, and when they set her in the midst, they said to him, teacher, this woman was caught in adultery in the very act.

I'm giving a little drama to it because I think they did. Now Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned, but what do you say? This they said, testing him, that they might have something of which to accuse him, but Jesus stooped down and rode on the ground with his finger as though he did not hear. So when they continued asking him, he raised himself up and he said to them, he who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.

And again he stooped down and he rode on the ground. Then those who heard it being convicted by their conscience went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last, and Jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had raised himself up and saw no one but the woman, he said to her, woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?

And she said, no one, Lord. And Jesus said to her, neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more. To the Jewish leaders, the three biggest sins, if you were to categorize them, I say that because I grew up categorizing them. Well, we had mortal sins and we had venial sins, as if to say, you know, these are like misdemeanors and these are like felonies.

Yeah, you can get by with these, but these are really bad. So they kind of had this category of murder, idolatry, and adultery as like the three worst of all the sins you could commit. All the commandments you could break, those were the three biggies. Adultery was especially abhorrent to them for obvious reasons. Adultery would break up a relationship which would destroy the fabric of a family, which would destroy in turn the fabric of society.

The more adultery and the more divorce you have, the very fabric of a culture is decimated, is destroyed by it. So they took it very seriously, so much so that God commanded capital punishment in the Old Testament. Leviticus in Deuteronomy, death by stoning.

I have to watch my language because I don't want to say they got stoned because it means something different today. So it was death by stoning. In fact, the Mishnah, have you heard of the Mishnah, a commentary on the oral law of the Jews? The Mishnah stipulated that strangulation, death by strangulation, was something permitted and encouraged for adultery. I don't know why that is.

I haven't done enough research. All I can say is, I mean, you know, from a man or woman's perspective, if your spouse is cheating on you with another person, you'd feel like strangling them, right? I mean, that guy's, you know, coming after your wife, yeah, you kind of feel like you want to do that. So for whatever reason, that was part of the commentary on the oral law.

It was a big deal. But listen, they don't care about the commandment. What they care about is they want to trap Jesus. They want to trap Him. Why is this a trap? Because no matter how Jesus answers it, they got Him.

That's what they think. Master of the Law says she ought to be stoned. If He says, yeah, kill her, stone her, well, He's going to lose His reputation of being the friend of sinners. Jesus said, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. He didn't say, I'll stone you. So He has this reputation that He loves people. He's the friend of sinners. But if He were to say, no, don't stone her, then He would be accused of breaking Jewish law. If He says, stone her, since the Romans have the right of capital punishment and not the Jews at that time, He would be breaking Roman law. So He's either going to be breaking Roman law and lose the reputation of being a friend of sinners or He's breaking Jewish law.

They've got Him, trapped. But Jesus just starts writing on the ground, writing on the ground. Now, here's what's wrong with their issues. First problem, though the law says somebody ought to be stoned, they hadn't practiced this for over a thousand years. In real life practice, they didn't do it. At that time, I mentioned the Romans took away capital punishment.

They couldn't do it. Number two, the most obvious problem, is the law said you shall stone both the adulterer and the adulteress. Where's the adulterer? They brought the adulteress, where's the dude? If she was caught in the very act, the very act of adultery, there was a guy involved and they saw him, but they didn't bring him.

So they're breaking the law by only fulfilling half of it, letting him go free, but just bringing her. So Jesus acts like He doesn't even hear them. But He wrote on the ground, verse six. By the way, the only time we ever have a record of Jesus writing anything is here. Wouldn't it be fun to see how He wrote? Just what His penmanship was like?

I'm curious about those things. He's writing something on the ground, and when He continued, they continued to ask, He raised Himself up and He said, He who is without sin among you, let him throw the first stone. Now He raises the issue from a legal issue to a spiritual issue, saying you are all unfit to be her executioner. There's only one qualification for you to be her executioner.

You have to be anamartetos, that's the Greek word for the two words, without sin. If you are without sin, if you haven't wanted to do the same thing, then go ahead, pick up a stone, kill her. Now they were all convicted, it says. Those who heard it being convicted by their conscience went out one by one with the oldest even to the last, and Jesus was left alone, the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said, Woman, where are those accusers of yours? They had gone, so has no one condemned you?

She said, No one, Lord. He said, Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more. Is Jesus being light on sin?

No. The words imply two things, salvation and sanctification. Salvation is found in the words, Neither do I condemn you. Sanctification is implied in the words, Go and sin no more. I don't condemn you.

There obviously had to have been some faith that she exhibited toward Him for Him to make that declaration. But then saying, Go and sin no more, exactly what Paul says in Romans 6. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid.

How shall we who have died to sin continue any longer in it? Now let me close with this thought. The most expensive, valuable autograph in the world is guess whose? William Shakespeare. There are only six documents in existence that bear his signature, and each document is valued at well over $5 million. It's considered the most valuable autograph in existence, William Shakespeare. But think of the words of Jesus writing on the ground. Now, what did he write?

We're not told. The word he wrote means he wrote something against them. My guess, and I'll explain why next week, he either wrote their name or he wrote their name with a sin that they had committed, like maybe a woman that Shlomo didn't think anybody knew about. He would sort of trace that name out or a website thing or a hotel room and a date or an income tax form thing the guy cheated on. But something that they saw it and they dropped their stone, they go, ah, I've got to pick up some eggs on the way home. See ya.

And they bugged out. But how precious and how valuable for that woman to write, have Jesus write on the ground, to pardon her and say go and sin no more. To us, Jesus who will write your name in his book of life, that writing, that signature is the most valuable. He knows your sin. He knows every bad thing, every bad motive and thought. But he is willing to say to you and I, I don't condemn you.

Go and sin no more. I'm going to explain to you next week what I think Jesus said and why he wrote on the dirt. It's fulfilling a very important prophecy of scripture.

And then we'll, by God's grace, finish the chapter. Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We hope you've been strengthened in your walk with Jesus by today's program. Before we let you go, we want to remind you about this month's resource that will help you and the children in your life see the timeless story of Christ with fresh eyes.

Nate Heitzig's book, Christmas Under the Tree, with Forward by Levi Lusko, is our thanks for your support of Connect with Skip Heitzig today. Request your copy when you give $25 or more. Call 800-922-1888.

That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. And did you know that you can find full message series and libraries of content from Skip Heitzig on YouTube? Simply visit the Connect with Skip Heitzig channel on YouTube and be sure to subscribe to the channel so you never miss any new content. Come back next time for more verse by verse teaching of God's word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.