Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

Kids: How did you get the Bible in your hands today?

Copying by hand originally

multiple manuscripts/scrolls ( we have some only one generation away from the originals!)

translation

Then came books & printing

When we compare old copies, we find spelling mistakes etc, but in some places we find missing or added verses, what do we do with that?

We compare different manuscripts to see what the most likely original version was: Usually it becomes obvious if there was a spelling mistake, or maybe a copier wasn’t paying attention and they skipped a line.

If some scribe thought they were doing us a favor and added an explanatory note in, then we can compare with other copies from before or around the same time to see it was only commentary, and not part of the original text.

Because we have so many copies of ancient mss we have a high degree of certainty about what the original text was.

Every time we find more manuscripts it confirms the accuracy of our modern translations.

The very natural & organic way that the bible was formed over time by the HS, gives us great confidence that there hasn’t been wholesale tampering with the Word of God (e.g. the Constantine theory).

Even if we lost all the manuscripts, pastors and theologians down though the centuries had so many excerpts of the New Testament in their letters and books, we could pretty much reconstruct the whole NT from there.

The discrepancies between texts can be a little scary for people to get their head around, and in fact some Christians never hear about it until they say, go to university where a lecturer with nefarious intentions will happily try and use this information to undermine God’s word.

I’m not going to hide the difficulty from you!

I want you to be equipped with understanding about how God’s word was delivered to you, and equipped to withstand the unfounded devilish accusation that God’s word cannot be trusted.

It’s the same story from Eden: “Did God really say?”

It teaches us not to get too picky about individual words or letters, but instead to hear the message of the words.

Despite the thousands of differences found across the manuscripts, there is only a handful of places where we have serious uncertainty about the original text, and even there, the alternate readings do not change any key piece of Christian history or teaching.

What do we do with the “Woman caught in Adultery” passage?

Textual problems: this story is not in our oldest manuscripts.

And, when it does appear, it shows up in different places and slightly different version of the story.

You can see out of place here chronologically, because the “Light of the World” passage follows directly on from the Living Water section.

(though it does kinda fit here, with the idea of the hypocritical religious leaders trying to undermine Jesus).

We can be quite confident that this was not part of the original Gospel of John.

But...

Is this one of the “other” stories that some early Christians thought was important enough to include? (Remember their idea of authenticity wasn't like ours).

Even if this was just an oral story, the application of truth that we find in this passage is still biblical - adultery is still condemned, religious leaders try to catch out Jesus, Jesus subverts expectations with truth, Jesus is merciful and forgiving, and Jesus expects repentant obedience.

This is all fits quite naturally with the rest of the Bible.

What we are going to do - look at the story itself, and then tease out the main themes as they come up in other parts of the Bible.

We will see that Jesus upholds God’s law and takes away it’s condemnation.

The Story Itself

Trying to trap Jesus - If he doesn’t condemn, he would be “exposed” as undermining the law.

If he did, he may be perceived as unmerciful and opposed to the Romans (they weren’t supposed to execute somebody).

Like if someone came to me and asked for help overcoming their same-sex attraction, I would be in the position of either going against the state government’s laws, or towing the secular line and undermining my confession as a Bible believing Christian.

Jesus deftly is able to undermine the “trap” by upholding the law and striking at the hearts of the religious “leaders”.

They are looking to Jesus to uphold: Leviticus 20:10 & Deuteronomy 22:22.

The leaders could have easily dealt with this themselves, but they were going to try and leverage the sin and shame of others to try and catch him out.

BTW, where’s the man, he’s supposed to be there too!

What is meant by adultery?

The tight definition, wider.

Part of Sexual immorality.

Jesus starts with some silence - James 1:19.

Then the master stroke - Yes, this woman deserves to die for her sin, but so do all of you!

Jesus does not undermine the Law!

Instead he upholds the law, but uses it to strike at the hearts of the schemers.

Sin is ultimately all breaking of God’s law: it is failing to do something God commands, or doing something that God prohibits.

This lady had broken God’s law, and Jesus turns it around on them: OK, well if this lady has broken God’s law, you who haven’t broken God’s law should be the ones to start the execution.

Jesus is playing on another part of the Law, that when someone is to be executed in the Israelite community, the witnesses have to carry out the sentence.

This helps to reduce spurious accusations, it meant you took your job of telling the truth very seriously, because lives were at stake, and you would need to live with the consequences in a very real way.

So Jesus pokes at their consciences, by alluding to this part of the law, and by pointing out that they are sinners too.

It hits home.

Starting with the oldest and wisest, and the ones who’ve lived with their sin the longest, they see that this is a lost cause.

Who dares claim they are without sin?

They leave because either

a) they are convicted, and unwilling to partake in this, or

b) they see that Jesus has outwitted them and they slink away to keep plotting.

Next...

Jesus point out the obvious - they’re all gone with no stones being thrown.

Their exit showed they were unable to follow through with any condemnation of this lady.

There was no now condemnation for the woman.

Not because she wasn’t guilty, but because everybody there was guilty.

There was no-one there who was any better than the rest, even though this woman’s sin was obvious and wicked, everybody else who was there were sinners too.

Non of them were in a position of moral superiority.

Except of Jesus, he had every right to condemn her.

He knew her sin.

He knew she was guilty.

He knew she deserved punishment.

But he didn’t condemn her.

He gave her mercy.

He gave her grace.

He showed her kindness.

Despite what she deserved, this lady met God and received a pardon.

Jesus tells us:

Jesus was bringing a Gospel of Grace.

And while she didn’t know all the ins and outs of what was to come with Jesus dying for our sins, whe was nevertheless able to taste something of the mercy that is available in Jesus Christ.

In Christ we see how justice and mercy meet.

The guilty verdict was valid, but he is able to take away the guilt and give freedom in it’s place.

He frees us from the penalty of the Law of God so that we may live, and sin no more.

When you receive God’s forgiveness, you are cleansed and called to embody the sinless life.

Why is God so concerned with our sexuality?

Lots of folks object to Christianity’s teaching on sexuality.

We fall into the trap of a) thinking that the spiritual and the physical are disconnected, or b) that God has no claims on how we act in the body.

Both are utterly untrue.

God’s design!

Intimately connected to our identity (as shown by the identity problems manifesting everywhere right now!)

It is good to be a man!

With your drive and aggression and your libido - God designed you that way so that you can fulfill your creation mandate!

It is good to be a woman!

With your fruitfulness and nurture and compassion - God designed you that way so that you can fulfill your creation mandate!

But like all sin, it takes good things, and corrupts them.

Twists them.

Like in adultery, it takes the wonderful pursuit a man makes of a woman, and twists it into betrayal and theft.

Betrayal of their spouses, and stealing the intimate “knowledge” that belongs to another.

God is so concerned about sexuality, because he is concerned about you!

He knows what is best for us!

He knows what is best for our families, communities and countries.

The corruption of sexual sin has an extra component to it, affecting our inner person in a special way.

Science backs up the special way that sex affects our brain - it can mess up your brain.

Adultery is the poster-child of this kind of immorality - because not only is it corrupting God’s design, it breaks covenant vows.