John 7:45-53

 John 7:45-53

Missing the Forest for the trees. 

to not understand or appreciate a larger situation, problem, etc., because one is considering only a few parts of it.

Overall, 2002 was a rather rough year for me. I will not get into it but if anyone would like the details, I will tell you in person some time. One of the few highlights of the year for me was the release of the first Spider-Man movie with Tobey Maguire. Prior to this movie superhero movies were at best mediocre. I loved this movie so much I saw twice in the same day! I saw it a total of 7 times in the theatre. One of those times I took my friend J to see it. After the movie I was like J what did you think? J said well this one scene the background changed slightly between cuts. I am like that is it? He is like yeah. Talk about missing the forest for the trees! Here was one of the greatest movies of all time and he is focused on a background inconsistency! J if you are somehow watching this know that I love you and I forgive you! Tonight, we see how the Pharisees miss the forest for the trees with Jesus. 

Then the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why have you not brought Him?” 46 The officers answered, “No man ever spoke like this Man!” 

Jesus is teaching at the synagogue during the Feast of Tabernacles. People are rejecting Him but people are also believing in Him! The pharisees want nothing to do with this. They failed attacking his words, they failed attacking his education, they failed attacking his background and birth. Now what do they have left? A show of force! They send their own private police force to arrest Jesus. They fail at this also. 

The arrest was unsuccessful, but it wasn’t because the arresting officers were incompetent. It was because the time wasn’t right yet, and it was impossible for Jesus to be stopped until it was right in the Father’s timing.

They come back empty handed. The pharisees are like what’s going on? You had one job! They answer “No man ever spoke like this Man!” We talk about this before. Can you imagine hearing a sermon directly from Jesus? A red letter Bible come to life! It would have been the perfect sermon! In content, delivery, volume, tone, etc. Let’s keep in mind that this is coming from the Temple Police. They worked in the temple day in and day out. They had heard hundreds if not thousands of Rabbis speak over the years. Yet, Jesus stands out. 

As some of you know I had about a 6-year concert going phase from 98 – 04. I went to sold out coliseums and tiny hole in wall places to see bands. I easily saw over 100 different bands in concert. Pastor Dave and Pastor Drew were with me for a lot of them. I even have some permanent hearing loss in my left ear as a result! Yet one concert in the spring of 2000 stands head and shoulders above them all. I saw the Kenny Wayne Shepherd band at the Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro with several of my friends. KWS is a talented blues guitarist and had just released his third album. He played for 2.5 hours straight. He did a double encore. He played two guitars at once. When he broke a string on his current guitar, he would toss it behind him and grab the next one. He finished his double encore with a 15 minute extended cover of Jimi Hendrix Voodoo Chile. He was in the zone playing I’m not sure he was aware there was a crowd around him. He finished the song, tossed the last guitar behind his back and walked off the stage. Then the lights went up and everyone left. Me and my cousin Jared rode home in silence for the first 20 minutes processing what we just saw. To this day I haven’t seen anything like it. 

The Officers tell the Pharisees No Man ever spoke like this! We miss some of the implication here.  In the Greek the word ‘man’ (Anthropos) occurs in the emphatic position at the end of the sentence and implies by contrast that he must be more than an ordinary human being. He’s more than just a man the officers say. 

47 Then the Pharisees answered them, “Are you also deceived? 48 Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in Him? 49 But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.”

The Pharisees respond here is the very definition of missing the forest for the trees. They refuse to consider the words of Jesus because they are coming from Jesus, a commoner, a man of Galilee, a common town full of common people. They despised the common people and looked down upon them. None of us “special” people believe in him (which wasn’t true) so you shouldn’t either! Only heathens believe in Jesus! 

 50 Nicodemus (he who came to [j]Jesus [k]by night, being one of them) said to them, 51 “Does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing?” 52 They answered and said to him, “Are you also from Galilee? Search and look, for no prophet [l]has arisen out of Galilee.” 53 [m]And everyone went to his own house.

Nicodemus tried to reason with the religious leaders, warning them against judging Jesus hastily. He even points out the law, the very thing they claimed to be zealous for, as his reasoning. We are only fans of the truth when it benefits us. When it doesn’t we will reach super far for anecdotal evidence to support our views. Nothing new about this. 

They shoot him down immediately! Are you also from Galilee? No prophet has ever arisen out of Galilee! They knew who Nicodemus was and where he was from. They never would have let him join if he was from Galilee. No prophet has ever come from Galilee also was not accurate. I imagine they knew and didn’t care. 

At least two prophets were from Galilee: Jonah and Elijah. Potentially, Nahum and Hosea as well. Their contempt for Galilee and desire to be right at all costs made them lose sight of historical accuracy. After all these years of awaiting the Messiah. He was right in front of them and they refused to acknowledge it. 

While preparing for tonight’s message I ran across the following quote from AW Tozer. “One hundred religious persons knit into a unity by careful organization do not constitute a church any more than eleven dead men make a football team. A.W. Tozer”

 

John 8:1-11 Fake Outrage

 

John 8:1-11

Fake Outrage

Everyone wants to be offended these days. Everyone wants to have their rant acknowledged on social media. We will get upset about anything really, usually under the pretense of claiming the moral high ground. In what is a first for me, I’m going to quote Urban Dictionary for a term. Fake Outage. generated as a way of trying to create a controversy for the purpose of political smearing. Often used as a weapon of both left and right-wing who use threats to achieve their goals. Usually involves but is not limited to emotional appeals. These individuals can be easily identified by refusing to engage in logical debate on said issues, because they either are incapable of doing so or they are purposely doing it to 'stir the pot.' Instead, they regurgitate talking points in an attempt to appear educated on a topic when they really aren't.

There is nothing new about this. The Pharisees and Sadduccess were masters of fake outage as we will see in tonight’s message.

But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

² Now ^[a]early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them.

There is a lot of controversy surrounding it. I would be doing you a disservice not to mention it. From manuscript current evidence, it seems unlikely that this portion was part of the original text of John’s gospel, or at least in this place. Most of the earliest ancient Greek manuscripts omit this section.  Many later manuscripts mark this section with asterisks. One group of manuscripts inserts this section after Luke 21:38. A few manuscripts have this section after John 21:24, and one has it after John 7:36.

 Some ancient Christians (such as Augustine and Ambrose) omitted this story, not so much because of the textual evidence but because they thought it made Jesus appear to approve of sexual immorality, or at least not regard it as serious.

At the same time, the character of the story makes it seem obvious that it is genuine, and many scholars note that it is historical and factual. Early Christian writers mention this account as soon as the early second century (a.d. 100). We have good reason to believe that this happened, and that John wrote it. There is some debate as to where it belongs in the Gospel accounts, but we can rest assured that it does belong.

 ³ Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, ⁴ they said to Him, “Teacher, ^[b]this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. ⁵ Now ^[c]Moses, in the law, commanded us ^[d]that such should be stoned. But what do You ^[e]say?” ⁶ This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, ^[f]as though He did not hear.

Jesus is teaching. The Pharisees bring him a woman, push her right into the middle of the group and then directly address Jesus. Now let us picture this for a minute. David is preaching and then a crowd of guys from the SBC come storming in dragging a woman behind them and shove her right in front of David. This is what just happened to Jesus.

Now they address Jesus and say “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act!” Let us pause and break down this statement. Teacher, one who teaches concerning the things of God, and the duties of man. This is a proper and fitting title for

anyone who officially taught in the Temple/Synagogue. These are the same people who just the other day were questioning Jesus education and birthright while trying to have him arrested. They continue, “this woman” pointing to the lady they just dragged in their and thrust in front of Jesus, was caught in adultery.

They are trying to accomplish multiple things. 1) Embarrass, Shame and humiliate this woman publicly. 2) show themselves as holy and above such terrible sin. 3) Connect Jesus directly to this woman in full view of the people in hopes of guilt by association.

Well with any case during these times you need 2 eyewitnesses and then to present evidence. What is their evidence? Caught in the very act. Two people watched her have sex with someone who was not her husband. Adultery is one of those sins that requires two people at a minimum. There is only one person being accused. This is a setup.

Here they are using fake outrage and pretending its righteous zeal. There is nothing new under the sun.

Now having made this big public show using the twin powers of theatricality and deception. They demand an immediate response from Jesus. They have him over a barrel, or so they think. If He says “Stone her” Then he comes across harsh and in violation of Roman Law which state only Rome had the power to execute criminals. If He said “Let her go” then he was soft on crime and in violation of the law of Moses.

He does neither! He stoops down and starts writing in the dirt with his finger. Wait, what? None of us would have responded that way. Some of us would have stood their stunned. Some would have asked for more information to bide time. Some of us would have tried to reason with those who had proven time and time again to be unreasonable. Who even considers writing in the dirt as an appropriate response? Jesus does!

What did he write? And for how long? I am so curious! It is on my big list of questions for when I arrive in glory. I mean I got hung on whether or not Noah got his Wings during David’s sermon from Sunday and I felt tangible relief once I found out that he did. What did Jesus write? Was it scripture? Did he just write someone’s name? Was it a word? A symbol? Was He just sketching? How did it relate to the situation at hand? No idea!

⁷ So when they continued asking Him, He ^[g]raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” ⁸ And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.  ⁹ Then those who heard it, being^[h] 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

Regardless of your personal opinion concerning the January 6^th riot we can acknowledge the crowd got out of control. It the authorities hours to regain control of that situation and afterwards several people had lost their lives and hundreds were injured. We don’t even understand the long term consequences of that day either.

Jesus is facing a potentially similar situation. An angry mob calling for the death of someone they view as a criminal. Jesus is still writing in the dirt. They continued to ask him. You know they weren’t polite about it. Nor were they calm and collected either. Jesus stands up, speaks, and goes back to writing on the ground. He who is without sin let him cast the first stone.

You must admit. For a 15-word sermon that had some serious impact. For all the plotting, planning and scheming done to arrange everything so Jesus is placed in a seemingly impossible situation, Jesus defuses a bloodthirsty crowd with one sentence. No one has ever spoken like this man!

. ¹⁰ When Jesus had raised Himself up ^[i]and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers [j]of yours? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go [k]and sin no more.”

One act of compassion can be life changing. Is adultery wrong? Absolutely. Are we sinners who have not committed adultery somehow better than those who have? No. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Compassion and Theology cannot be separated in a life trying to live by the gospel. Jesus tells us the two great commandments were to love God and love our neighbor. A true pursuit of God will also involve pursuit of those that God loves, those who are most vulnerable. To miss that point is to miss God entirely. The Pharisees had knowledge of God. They had religious heritage, they gave a tithe of everything in their spice cabinet and offered all the right sacrifices at the right time. Yet, they missed the point entirely. Without a love for our neighbor the Bible is of no greater use to us than the latest self help book.

1 John 4:7-8 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸ He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”

Let’s replace our fake outrage with real tangible love.