John 7:53-8:11
Fit for Finding Mercy
Introduction
Do you carry guilt? Have you ever said in your heart, “I could never be forgiven”, or, “I will live with this for the rest of my life”, or, “You don’t know what I’ve done, God could never forgive someone like me.” “I’m the worst person I know. God must hate me.”
If this is where you are today then I’m so glad you’re here. Our passage today is a magnificent picture for you to see God’s mercy. A woman in a terrible sin receives tremendous mercy. You have to walk away today knowing that God’s mercy is greater than man’s sin. The Scriptures show this over and over again. Paul said, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the worst. But for that reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display His unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on Him and receive eternal life.” His point is that no one was farther from God and no one was less deserving of God’s mercy than he was. But, since Christ showed Him mercy, he wants you to see that you are not so far from God that His mercy cannot reach you.
Who is fit to receive God’s mercy? What if I told you that everyone is not fit for God’s mercy? Certainly all are eligible because all have sinned. And certainly all are eligible because Christ died for the sins of the whole world. But, even though everyone is eligible, not all are fit for God’s mercy. I want you to see 4 things that you need to realize today in order to be “Fit for Finding Mercy”.
The Time for Mercy is Now (8:1-2)
First, Realize that the Time for Mercy is Now. Look at verses 1 and 2, “But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them.”
This point I’m making is based on the geography in this passage. Jesus goes out to the Mount of Olives and in the morning comes back from the mount of Olives to teach the people of God’s mercy. This mountain is on the east side of Jerusalem and spans for more than a mile running north and south.
To fully appreciate this location we have to understand what role this mountain has and will play in God’s redemptive plan for mankind. It is from here, the Mount of Olives that Jesus gave the great Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24 and 25; a discourse in which He explained about the incredible events that would happen at his 2nd Coming. Jesus would make His triumphal entry into Jerusalem in Luke 19 where the crowds would hail Him as the King of Israel – only a week later to crucify Him. Then Acts 1 tells us that after Jesus was raised from the dead, it was from this Mount of Olives that He ascended back to heaven from the earth.
This mountain has a magnificent future as well. The OT prophet Zechariah says in chapter 14 says that when Christ comes at His 2nd Coming He will stand upon the Mount of Olives with His own two feet and the mountain will split in half. One half will move to the south and the other half will move towards the north. And a valley will be formed at this point that will run east and west and lead from Jerusalem all the way to a place called Azel. It is at this future time when Jesus returns upon the Mount of Olives that He will come to war against the enemies of Israel and judge the nations.
Why does this matter? Because when he comes to earth for the 2nd time He will come to this mountain and He will bring judgment. But, until then, we see that at His first coming He brings mercy.
Here’s the point: The Time for Mercy is Now. The time to receive mercy is now. The time to receive mercy will come to an end at some point – and the Bible says it could happen at any moment. Therefore the call upon you is urgent – receive God’s mercy now while it is available. Make the decision. Repent. Believe in Jesus Christ that you may be saved from judgment. The first step to being fit for mercy is to realize now is the time to receive it –even today.
The Need for Mercy (v3-6)
Secondly, you need to Realize your Need for Mercy, look at verses 3-6, “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?’ 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.”
Now, this woman had no friends. Not after this. She was publicly shamed. Can you imagine the fear she had watching the people around her pick up stones and rocks? And, can you imagine how humiliated she felt? What was once in the dark is now in the light; what was once hidden is now out in public; what was a secret is now known and seen by all. Her friends and family were probably in the crowd that morning. And, now, in the eyes of the Pharisees, she was unfit for mercy.
But we need to ask the question here: Who really is unfit for mercy in this passage? The Pharisees thought it was the woman. But in reality they were the ones who were unfit for mercy. They were sinners just the same as she was; and they needed the mercy of God just the same as she did. They didn’t see that. They were so caught up in their hate and their arrogance, that they couldn’t even see the sin of injustice and pride they were committing as they condemned this woman. What made them unfit for mercy was not that they were sinners, it was that they didn’t see themselves as sinners, and therefore they did not see the need to ask for God’s mercy. (Luke 18???)
Now the Pharisees were bringing up the Law and what it said about adultery. And they were right. In Exodus 20 God gave the Law to Moses to give to the Israelites, and the 7th commandment said, “You shall not commit adultery.” Later in Leviticus 20 and in Deuteronomy 22 God said that if two people in Israel commit adultery they are to be stoned to death. Adultery was an evil that God said the Israelites must purge from among themselves – and the method was by stoning. They were to keep themselves holy before God.
When Jesus came, He taught the deeper meaning of the commandments; He showed just how invasive the commandments of God are to us as humans. Take for instance the sin of adultery. In Matthew 5 Jesus said: “You have heard it said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’. But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” The commandment really goes beyond the physical act of adultery – it is a commandment that condemns even the thought of adultery in the heart and mind.
Men, I want to ask you: what are you looking at with your eyes? What are you thinking with your mind? What do your words reveal about what’s in your heart? We are commanded to be “absolutely pure” in all our ways with women. The Lord says we are not to let even a “hint of sexual immorality, or impurity, or obscenity, or foolish talk, or coarse joking” be a part of our lives. Ephesians 5 says that these are completely “improper”, and they are completely “out of place” for God’s holy people – in other words – these things don’t fit with the life that we are called to in Christ. There is no room for these things neither in our words or our actions. That’s us men. God has a zero tolerance policy here.
This issue of lust doesn’t only apply to men. Ladies: do you want to be looked at by men? Do you dress in a way to draw attention? A “Flaunt it while you got it” attitude has no place in the Church, and no place in the life of a woman who pursues godliness. If you are a woman professing Christ then life has become about the Body of Christ – the Church - that is, your brothers and sisters right here in this room who are walking with Christ.
Show your brothers in Christ that you love them and care about their walk with Christ and refuse to be a stumbling block for any of them by the way you dress or act. Don’t give them or any man the opportunity to be tempted by you. Practice Philippians 2:3-4 says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but, in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but, also to the interests of others.”
This is how deeply invasive God’s Word is into our lives. This is what makes being a follower of Christ so challenging, but yet this is what makes it so real – because it deals with the reality of who we are. This is what it means to deny self in order to follow Him. It means the Lord’s commandments and His expectations are often going to square off directly with our own wants and our own desires for how we want to live.
There’s a lot of weird definition going around today of what it means to be a follower of Christ. I’ll tell you what it is: It is all about dying to our old sinful desires and denying our old sinful lusts and putting off the old man we once were. It is all about putting on Christ, having our character transformed by growing in the fruits of righteousness as we are led by the Spirit and as we have our mind set upon Him. It is about having our inner-man being renewed; it is about having our mind renewed each day. It is all about being changed more and more and more and more day by day as we progress into the likeness of Jesus Christ’s perfect character. That does not come without a day by day effort to die - dying to “SELF”. Christ only lives in us if SELF has been crucified.
So back to this woman: here she is – her secret sin, all her shame, her moral failure made public. It was all in the light now, she couldn’t hide any more. She had to face it. You know, it’s my opinion that this is the best thing that ever happened to her. Maybe her conscience had been convicting her of what she was doing but she was ignoring it. Sometimes God will discipline us publicly if we ignore His private efforts to change our behavior. This is actually a very gracious act on His part because it causes us to be sorrowful over our sin and turn away from it.
Are you hiding? Are you ignoring your conscience in some matter? Listen: this woman was in a humiliating position, but, a position that was perfect for receiving mercy because she was now painfully aware of how desperately she needed it. Being fit for mercy means you realize your need for mercy and sometimes that only comes when the pain of being exposed happens.
So we know the Law says that the woman is to be stoned for adultery – the Pharisees were right about that. But, they themselves were in the wrong for 2 reasons. First of all, where’s the man? The Law is very clear that both parties are to be stoned. The Pharisees failed to bring the man with them even though they said they were caught “in the very act” of adultery.
Secondly, where was their motive? This was an open and shut case. They knew she committed adultery, and they knew the Law said to stone her. It’s a no brainer, so why even bring it to Jesus? The answer is because they had no interest in following God’s Law, they were trying to kill Jesus and they were using this woman to try and do it.
The other day I was driving the speed limit, and a car zoomed by me. I thought, geez, where’s a cop when you need one. About 15 seconds later a cop goes zooming by me. I thought to myself: “I gotta see this guy get busted!” So, I floored it in the super Kia, which, unfortunately isn’t so “super” because I couldn’t catch up to him. I think like that sometimes…do you ever think of getting behind an ambulance with its lights on to get where you’re going quicker? Anyway, then the thought came to me, “Here I am speeding to see a cop bust someone else who was speeding.” What a hypocrite I was! I wanted to see this guy get busted for breaking the law, and, I broke the law (only by about 10 mph) to see it happen.
That’s what the Pharisees were doing – they were breaking the law themselves in order to bust someone else for breaking the law. Even worse, they were trying to get Jesus by trapping Him.
But, how is this a trap? Here’s how: On the one hand, if Jesus agreed to stone her, He would forfeit the reputation he had as being a friend of sinners. His message He had been teaching up to that very moment of the forgiveness of sins would be lost.
But that’s not the only problem. The Pharisees would have reported Him to the Romans and He would have been in trouble for ordering an execution. At that time, the Jews were ruled by the Romans and they did not allow the Jews to execute anyone without permission.
So that’s what’s at stake if Jesus agrees to have her stoned. But, on the other hand, if Jesus said not to stone her, the Pharisees could accuse Him of someone who did not uphold the Law. Remember that for a Jew, the Law is life – and everything else is just details. So then he would lose credibility with the people he had been teaching.
And, so, by deeming this woman unfit for mercy, it would seem the Pharisees had succeeded in putting Jesus between what we call a rock and a hard place. …..The trap has been set …..but for who?
God is Motivated by Mercy (v7-9)
The next point you must see, to be fit for mercy, is that God is motivated by mercy. Notice verses 7-9, I want “When they kept on questioning Him, He straightened up and said to them, ‘If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.’ Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who had heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.”
His response is masterful. As he defends this woman with one sentence, he never says any of these things to the Pharisee’s. His defense was to turn her accusers into the accused. He turned their own consciences on themselves. In one sentence he showed them how unqualified they were to be her judge. He said, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Every one there had to immediately face his own faults. Nobody was going to admit they were without sin. The Bible is clear that we are all sinners.
The words that Jesus spoke were motivated by His mercy. You have to see that God’s intention towards you is to bring mercy. Sometimes this is the hardest one for people who believe themselves to be unreachable by God. This is the hardest one for people who think that God could never forgive them for how they have transgressed. But the Bible says, Ephesians 2:4, “But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions”. He is “rich in mercy”. He has an excessive abundance to share and He is giving it generously because of His love for you. Jesus said in Matthew 9, “Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I have NOT come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Jesus came to call sinners because He is motivated by Mercy.
We are Motivated by Mercy (v10-11)
Lastly, we see that We are Motivated by God’s Mercy. Verses 10-11
God’s Mercy becomes our motivation for leaving sin and living righteously. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” The Apostle Paul said this in Romans 12, “Therefore, I urge you, my brothers, in view of God’s mercy, offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.” My worship of God is a moral lifestyle motivated by His mercy that saved me out of an immoral one!
She was ready to go on and leave what was behind in order to pursue what lies ahead. Jesus Christ set her free from condemnation; Jesus Christ set free from her guilty conscience; He set her free from the bondage and power of sin; He set her free from the penalty of sin; He set her free to live for God; Jesus declared “If I set you free you will be free indeed”! Then you can declare, “Forgetting what is behind I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.”
Because of Christ’s mercy, a man or a woman does not have to live “in the past” or “with the past” anymore. They can forget what is behind; they can leave it behind. God has called us forward and heavenward to win the prize in Christ Jesus.
Conclusion: Fit for Mercy
Are you fit for God’s Mercy? You see, everyone is eligible for mercy because everyone is a sinner. But, not everyone is fit for mercy. To be fit for mercy you have to realize your own sinfulness. You have to realize you need mercy too, just like this woman.
Even more importantly, just like this woman, you have to realize that God gives mercy. There is no sin so great that God’s grace is not greater. There is no sin that is too heavy that God’s mercy cannot lift. There is no past so long that God’s mercy cannot forget.
“Where are they?” Jesus asked the woman. When life is all over, it’s only God we have to face. And just like with this woman, if you are willing to stand before Christ now, you will see that He does not have a stone in His hand either. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. What keeps you from taking this mercy? Will you let this woman caught in adultery receive mercy and freedom from her sins, while you continue in yours?
I believe Jesus saw the cross while he was forgiving her. His mind saw that day approaching when he would suffer and die for her sins, and all the sins of the world. And, I think the day Jesus was hanging on the cross, he could see this woman’s face in his mind. I believe the same is true for you and me…that when He hung on the cross He saw our faces too. The question now is, “Do you see the cross?
Fit for Finding Mercy
Introduction
Do you carry guilt? Have you ever said in your heart, “I could never be forgiven”, or, “I will live with this for the rest of my life”, or, “You don’t know what I’ve done, God could never forgive someone like me.” “I’m the worst person I know. God must hate me.”
If this is where you are today then I’m so glad you’re here. Our passage today is a magnificent picture for you to see God’s mercy. A woman in a terrible sin receives tremendous mercy. You have to walk away today knowing that God’s mercy is greater than man’s sin. The Scriptures show this over and over again. Paul said, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the worst. But for that reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display His unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on Him and receive eternal life.” His point is that no one was farther from God and no one was less deserving of God’s mercy than he was. But, since Christ showed Him mercy, he wants you to see that you are not so far from God that His mercy cannot reach you.
Who is fit to receive God’s mercy? What if I told you that everyone is not fit for God’s mercy? Certainly all are eligible because all have sinned. And certainly all are eligible because Christ died for the sins of the whole world. But, even though everyone is eligible, not all are fit for God’s mercy. I want you to see 4 things that you need to realize today in order to be “Fit for Finding Mercy”.
The Time for Mercy is Now (8:1-2)
First, Realize that the Time for Mercy is Now. Look at verses 1 and 2, “But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them.”
This point I’m making is based on the geography in this passage. Jesus goes out to the Mount of Olives and in the morning comes back from the mount of Olives to teach the people of God’s mercy. This mountain is on the east side of Jerusalem and spans for more than a mile running north and south.
To fully appreciate this location we have to understand what role this mountain has and will play in God’s redemptive plan for mankind. It is from here, the Mount of Olives that Jesus gave the great Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24 and 25; a discourse in which He explained about the incredible events that would happen at his 2nd Coming. Jesus would make His triumphal entry into Jerusalem in Luke 19 where the crowds would hail Him as the King of Israel – only a week later to crucify Him. Then Acts 1 tells us that after Jesus was raised from the dead, it was from this Mount of Olives that He ascended back to heaven from the earth.
This mountain has a magnificent future as well. The OT prophet Zechariah says in chapter 14 says that when Christ comes at His 2nd Coming He will stand upon the Mount of Olives with His own two feet and the mountain will split in half. One half will move to the south and the other half will move towards the north. And a valley will be formed at this point that will run east and west and lead from Jerusalem all the way to a place called Azel. It is at this future time when Jesus returns upon the Mount of Olives that He will come to war against the enemies of Israel and judge the nations.
Why does this matter? Because when he comes to earth for the 2nd time He will come to this mountain and He will bring judgment. But, until then, we see that at His first coming He brings mercy.
Here’s the point: The Time for Mercy is Now. The time to receive mercy is now. The time to receive mercy will come to an end at some point – and the Bible says it could happen at any moment. Therefore the call upon you is urgent – receive God’s mercy now while it is available. Make the decision. Repent. Believe in Jesus Christ that you may be saved from judgment. The first step to being fit for mercy is to realize now is the time to receive it –even today.
The Need for Mercy (v3-6)
Secondly, you need to Realize your Need for Mercy, look at verses 3-6, “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?’ 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.”
Now, this woman had no friends. Not after this. She was publicly shamed. Can you imagine the fear she had watching the people around her pick up stones and rocks? And, can you imagine how humiliated she felt? What was once in the dark is now in the light; what was once hidden is now out in public; what was a secret is now known and seen by all. Her friends and family were probably in the crowd that morning. And, now, in the eyes of the Pharisees, she was unfit for mercy.
But we need to ask the question here: Who really is unfit for mercy in this passage? The Pharisees thought it was the woman. But in reality they were the ones who were unfit for mercy. They were sinners just the same as she was; and they needed the mercy of God just the same as she did. They didn’t see that. They were so caught up in their hate and their arrogance, that they couldn’t even see the sin of injustice and pride they were committing as they condemned this woman. What made them unfit for mercy was not that they were sinners, it was that they didn’t see themselves as sinners, and therefore they did not see the need to ask for God’s mercy. (Luke 18???)
Now the Pharisees were bringing up the Law and what it said about adultery. And they were right. In Exodus 20 God gave the Law to Moses to give to the Israelites, and the 7th commandment said, “You shall not commit adultery.” Later in Leviticus 20 and in Deuteronomy 22 God said that if two people in Israel commit adultery they are to be stoned to death. Adultery was an evil that God said the Israelites must purge from among themselves – and the method was by stoning. They were to keep themselves holy before God.
When Jesus came, He taught the deeper meaning of the commandments; He showed just how invasive the commandments of God are to us as humans. Take for instance the sin of adultery. In Matthew 5 Jesus said: “You have heard it said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’. But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” The commandment really goes beyond the physical act of adultery – it is a commandment that condemns even the thought of adultery in the heart and mind.
Men, I want to ask you: what are you looking at with your eyes? What are you thinking with your mind? What do your words reveal about what’s in your heart? We are commanded to be “absolutely pure” in all our ways with women. The Lord says we are not to let even a “hint of sexual immorality, or impurity, or obscenity, or foolish talk, or coarse joking” be a part of our lives. Ephesians 5 says that these are completely “improper”, and they are completely “out of place” for God’s holy people – in other words – these things don’t fit with the life that we are called to in Christ. There is no room for these things neither in our words or our actions. That’s us men. God has a zero tolerance policy here.
This issue of lust doesn’t only apply to men. Ladies: do you want to be looked at by men? Do you dress in a way to draw attention? A “Flaunt it while you got it” attitude has no place in the Church, and no place in the life of a woman who pursues godliness. If you are a woman professing Christ then life has become about the Body of Christ – the Church - that is, your brothers and sisters right here in this room who are walking with Christ.
Show your brothers in Christ that you love them and care about their walk with Christ and refuse to be a stumbling block for any of them by the way you dress or act. Don’t give them or any man the opportunity to be tempted by you. Practice Philippians 2:3-4 says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but, in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but, also to the interests of others.”
This is how deeply invasive God’s Word is into our lives. This is what makes being a follower of Christ so challenging, but yet this is what makes it so real – because it deals with the reality of who we are. This is what it means to deny self in order to follow Him. It means the Lord’s commandments and His expectations are often going to square off directly with our own wants and our own desires for how we want to live.
There’s a lot of weird definition going around today of what it means to be a follower of Christ. I’ll tell you what it is: It is all about dying to our old sinful desires and denying our old sinful lusts and putting off the old man we once were. It is all about putting on Christ, having our character transformed by growing in the fruits of righteousness as we are led by the Spirit and as we have our mind set upon Him. It is about having our inner-man being renewed; it is about having our mind renewed each day. It is all about being changed more and more and more and more day by day as we progress into the likeness of Jesus Christ’s perfect character. That does not come without a day by day effort to die - dying to “SELF”. Christ only lives in us if SELF has been crucified.
So back to this woman: here she is – her secret sin, all her shame, her moral failure made public. It was all in the light now, she couldn’t hide any more. She had to face it. You know, it’s my opinion that this is the best thing that ever happened to her. Maybe her conscience had been convicting her of what she was doing but she was ignoring it. Sometimes God will discipline us publicly if we ignore His private efforts to change our behavior. This is actually a very gracious act on His part because it causes us to be sorrowful over our sin and turn away from it.
Are you hiding? Are you ignoring your conscience in some matter? Listen: this woman was in a humiliating position, but, a position that was perfect for receiving mercy because she was now painfully aware of how desperately she needed it. Being fit for mercy means you realize your need for mercy and sometimes that only comes when the pain of being exposed happens.
So we know the Law says that the woman is to be stoned for adultery – the Pharisees were right about that. But, they themselves were in the wrong for 2 reasons. First of all, where’s the man? The Law is very clear that both parties are to be stoned. The Pharisees failed to bring the man with them even though they said they were caught “in the very act” of adultery.
Secondly, where was their motive? This was an open and shut case. They knew she committed adultery, and they knew the Law said to stone her. It’s a no brainer, so why even bring it to Jesus? The answer is because they had no interest in following God’s Law, they were trying to kill Jesus and they were using this woman to try and do it.
The other day I was driving the speed limit, and a car zoomed by me. I thought, geez, where’s a cop when you need one. About 15 seconds later a cop goes zooming by me. I thought to myself: “I gotta see this guy get busted!” So, I floored it in the super Kia, which, unfortunately isn’t so “super” because I couldn’t catch up to him. I think like that sometimes…do you ever think of getting behind an ambulance with its lights on to get where you’re going quicker? Anyway, then the thought came to me, “Here I am speeding to see a cop bust someone else who was speeding.” What a hypocrite I was! I wanted to see this guy get busted for breaking the law, and, I broke the law (only by about 10 mph) to see it happen.
That’s what the Pharisees were doing – they were breaking the law themselves in order to bust someone else for breaking the law. Even worse, they were trying to get Jesus by trapping Him.
But, how is this a trap? Here’s how: On the one hand, if Jesus agreed to stone her, He would forfeit the reputation he had as being a friend of sinners. His message He had been teaching up to that very moment of the forgiveness of sins would be lost.
But that’s not the only problem. The Pharisees would have reported Him to the Romans and He would have been in trouble for ordering an execution. At that time, the Jews were ruled by the Romans and they did not allow the Jews to execute anyone without permission.
So that’s what’s at stake if Jesus agrees to have her stoned. But, on the other hand, if Jesus said not to stone her, the Pharisees could accuse Him of someone who did not uphold the Law. Remember that for a Jew, the Law is life – and everything else is just details. So then he would lose credibility with the people he had been teaching.
And, so, by deeming this woman unfit for mercy, it would seem the Pharisees had succeeded in putting Jesus between what we call a rock and a hard place. …..The trap has been set …..but for who?
God is Motivated by Mercy (v7-9)
The next point you must see, to be fit for mercy, is that God is motivated by mercy. Notice verses 7-9, I want “When they kept on questioning Him, He straightened up and said to them, ‘If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.’ Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who had heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.”
His response is masterful. As he defends this woman with one sentence, he never says any of these things to the Pharisee’s. His defense was to turn her accusers into the accused. He turned their own consciences on themselves. In one sentence he showed them how unqualified they were to be her judge. He said, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Every one there had to immediately face his own faults. Nobody was going to admit they were without sin. The Bible is clear that we are all sinners.
The words that Jesus spoke were motivated by His mercy. You have to see that God’s intention towards you is to bring mercy. Sometimes this is the hardest one for people who believe themselves to be unreachable by God. This is the hardest one for people who think that God could never forgive them for how they have transgressed. But the Bible says, Ephesians 2:4, “But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions”. He is “rich in mercy”. He has an excessive abundance to share and He is giving it generously because of His love for you. Jesus said in Matthew 9, “Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I have NOT come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Jesus came to call sinners because He is motivated by Mercy.
We are Motivated by Mercy (v10-11)
Lastly, we see that We are Motivated by God’s Mercy. Verses 10-11
God’s Mercy becomes our motivation for leaving sin and living righteously. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” The Apostle Paul said this in Romans 12, “Therefore, I urge you, my brothers, in view of God’s mercy, offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.” My worship of God is a moral lifestyle motivated by His mercy that saved me out of an immoral one!
She was ready to go on and leave what was behind in order to pursue what lies ahead. Jesus Christ set her free from condemnation; Jesus Christ set free from her guilty conscience; He set her free from the bondage and power of sin; He set her free from the penalty of sin; He set her free to live for God; Jesus declared “If I set you free you will be free indeed”! Then you can declare, “Forgetting what is behind I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.”
Because of Christ’s mercy, a man or a woman does not have to live “in the past” or “with the past” anymore. They can forget what is behind; they can leave it behind. God has called us forward and heavenward to win the prize in Christ Jesus.
Conclusion: Fit for Mercy
Are you fit for God’s Mercy? You see, everyone is eligible for mercy because everyone is a sinner. But, not everyone is fit for mercy. To be fit for mercy you have to realize your own sinfulness. You have to realize you need mercy too, just like this woman.
Even more importantly, just like this woman, you have to realize that God gives mercy. There is no sin so great that God’s grace is not greater. There is no sin that is too heavy that God’s mercy cannot lift. There is no past so long that God’s mercy cannot forget.
“Where are they?” Jesus asked the woman. When life is all over, it’s only God we have to face. And just like with this woman, if you are willing to stand before Christ now, you will see that He does not have a stone in His hand either. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. What keeps you from taking this mercy? Will you let this woman caught in adultery receive mercy and freedom from her sins, while you continue in yours?
I believe Jesus saw the cross while he was forgiving her. His mind saw that day approaching when he would suffer and die for her sins, and all the sins of the world. And, I think the day Jesus was hanging on the cross, he could see this woman’s face in his mind. I believe the same is true for you and me…that when He hung on the cross He saw our faces too. The question now is, “Do you see the cross?
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