Hope for the Broken
Hope is Here • Sermon • Submitted
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· 10 viewsThere is no worse feeling than when our sin finds us out. Being exposed can leave us feeling broken and ashamed. Oftentimes, this can be rock bottom for us. Many of us can relate to the woman caught in adultery. We may fail in different ways, but they have the same result. The woman was going to pay the price for her sin—until she meets Jesus. What hope she must have felt as the stones began to fall at the feet of her accusers, and she was given a second chance to “go and sin no more.” If you feel broken today, hope is here. Jesus is offering forgiveness and a fresh start. On the other side, how we interact with people around us who have made mistakes says a lot about our relationship with Jesus. The Church should be the place where grace is found easily and forgiveness is extended quickly.
Notes
Transcript
I want to welcome you back to our current sermon series called Hope Is Here. We have been discovering the hope we find in our relationship with Jesus Christ and in the relationships we find with one another inside the Church.
Last week we looked at how Jesus invites us to find rest in Him when we are weary and burdened, and how we can share these burdens with one another so that we don’t walk alone. This is where hope is found: in relationship with Christ and in relationship with one another. The truth is we all find ourselves in need of hope from time to time.
Perhaps our need for hope does not stem from a weariness, but instead from a sense of brokenness.
Illustration: (For this illustration you will need an object that can be dropped and broken and a matching object that has been fused back together. Consider a vase, a pot, or a mug.) Our lives are fragile. The choices we make matter, and our decisions have consequences. We have all had times when we have chosen poorly. We all have made mistakes and fallen into sin. When this happens, it often feels like things break. (Drop the whole vase/pot/mug.) Because of our choices, a relationship falls apart, we lose a job, our finances suffer, or our marriages are strained. It can leave us feeling hopeless as we try to pick up the pieces. We can feel abandoned by God and judged by those around us. It is in these times that we long for some kind of hope.
There is truly no worse feeling than when our sin finds us out. Being exposed causes us to feel shame and guilt. But this doesn’t have to be the end of the story, because when Jesus meets us here, hope is here.
Main Teaching
There is a story of a woman in the scriptures who knew exactly what it felt like to be broken and in need of restoration. It takes place in John chapter 8 as Jesus is traveling to the temple to teach. As he sits down with the crowd, his teaching is interrupted by an angry mob of religious leaders who are dragging a woman along with them.
READ John 8:1-6a
but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.
The woman in this story is brought before everyone with the accusation that she had been caught in the act of adultery. She was cheating on her husband with someone else, and these men apprehended her in the middle of the scandal. How embarrassing. How humiliating. She would have been fully aware that the consequence for this sin, according to Mosaic Law, was for her to be stoned to death. This is what brokenness looks like. A broken marriage. A broken woman. A broken reputation. This is rock bottom.
POINT #1 – WE HAVE ALL EXPERIENCED BROKENNESS
What is most shocking about this story is that the woman seems to have been used as a pawn in the religious leaders’ plan to rid themselves of Jesus. Here, sin was being exploited in front of everyone in order to harm Jesus. This woman was caught in the middle, and her sin had been exposed.
Our sin being laid bare can be one of the worst and best feelings possible. On one hand, it is horrible because everyone knows the truth about you. On the other hand, it is wonderful because, finally, everyone knows the truth about you. No more hiding, no more shame. Everything is out in the open, for better or worse.
So here she was, caught in adultery and lying before Jesus. She had lost hope that her fate could ever possibly avoid the cultural penalty: death by stoning.
But then Jesus intervenes.
READ John 8:6b-9
This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. 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.
Rather than agree to this woman’s death on account of the law, Jesus does something different. The Bible says that he stoops down and begins to write in the sand with his finger. We are not told exactly what he is writing. Perhaps it is the names of the men who had brought the woman, perhaps it is a list of their sins, or perhaps it is a list of hers. Regardless, when pushed by the mob for an answer, Jesus stands up and tells them they are free to proceed, with the caveat that; the one among them without sin should be the first to throw a stone.
POINT #2 – THE CHURCH IS A PLACE OF HOPE
You see, sin does not happen in a vacuum. It often has collateral damage. It touches other people. It becomes common knowledge. As important as it is for the sinner to respond rightly to a shameful mistake, it is equally important that the Church responds rightly as well. We receive hope in the midst of our brokenness when we acknowledge that we have all fallen short and have all sinned before God. The beauty of the fellowship of the Church is that we are able to extend forgiveness and grace to one another because we are all broken people learning each day how to live under the grace of God. Jesus is making a point here. He is teaching the religious group a lesson about grace. If you cannot throw a stone at this woman, it is because you are guilty of breaking the law yourself.
So, these men, one by one, drop their stones and go home. I love the detail we are given here. First, the older men leave. Their wisdom causes them to understand the lesson first. Eventually the younger, and perhaps more stubborn, men follow. As the dust settles, it is only Jesus and the woman left.
READ John 8:10-11
Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
I can imagine Jesus looking at this woman with such compassion and love. For the first time in this woman’s brokenness, she must have felt hope. Jesus is the only one in this story who does not condemn her for her mistakes. He is the only one who does not want to punish her for her wrongdoing. Rather, Jesus offers her grace.
The first words ever spoken over us are words of love. The truest thing about you is that you are loved by God. God does not determine your value based on how well you perform. God does not decide your worth based on your reputation. God calls you valuable because he made you. Your hope is found in a God who loves you just the way you are, but loves you too much to leave you that way. Jesus clearly does not condone the woman’s sin. In fact, the last words he speaks to her are “go and sin no more.” Jesus cares about how we live our lives. He cares about the decisions we make that leave us broken. Jesus wants to expose the sin, but not for the same reasons as the religious leaders.
Another pastor I know says it this way, “God exposes sin, not to shame us, but to change us.”
You see, these men exposed this woman’s sin to shame her and to trap Jesus. Jesus exposes sin for a different reason. He wants to make us whole. He wants to take the broken pieces and put them back together.
(Bring out the repaired vase/pot/mug.)
POINT #3 – GOD PUTS THE BROKEN PIECES BACK TOGETHER
I have good news for you today. If you find yourself broken, if you feel like you are surrounded by people who only want to throw stones, Jesus meets you here in this place, and hope is here. You have a choice to make, and it will determine the future that you will live into.
You can choose to make no changes and continue on your current trajectory. That seems hopeless. The other option you have is to confess your sin to God and receive his forgiveness and walk in new life. When we confess our sin and believe in Christ and are baptized, then we are found in Christ. Paul writes about this when he is writing to the church in Corinth.
READ 2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
We are made new. The old ways of living become things of the past, and God does something new in us. The Church is nothing more than a gathering point for a whole bunch of sinners who are learning every day how to live into this new life. The Church should be the place where grace is found more readily than any other place on earth. The grace of God, and the grace found from those with whom we fellowship, is the key to our hope.
Conclusion
I read a quote from evangelist/preacher Juan Carlos Ortiz that expresses what living in the reality of this hope of grace is like…
Story: Watching a trapeze show is breathtaking. We wonder at the dexterity and timing. We gasp at near-misses. In most cases, there is a net underneath. When the trapeze artists fall, they jump up and bounce back to the trapeze. In Christ, we live on the trapeze. The whole world should be able to watch and say, "Look how they live, how they love one another. Look how well the husbands treat their wives. And aren't they the best workers in the factories and offices, the best neighbors, the best students? Look how this church loves its community." That is to live on the trapeze, being a show to the world. What happens when we slip? The net is surely there. The blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ, has provided forgiveness for ALL our trespasses. Both the net and the ability to stay on the trapeze are works of God's grace. Of course, we cannot be continually sleeping on the net. If that is the case, I doubt whether that person is a trapeze artist.
This morning, I want to invite you, with your broken pieces and all, to believe that God can make something beautiful of your life once again. I want to invite you to trust the community that he has placed you within to offer hope to one another and live out this wonderful, grace-filled life together.
PRAY
(Pastor, be sure to mention that the Hope is Here series is continuing next week and invite guests to return for the next sermon)