Drop the Rock

Pastor Mike will be speaking on Drop the Rock He will be in John 7:53.

Sometimes silence is the only answer to silliness. Sometimes we got to learn, and Mike Sanders is true, that maybe the best answer is no answer. Maybe the best thing to do is that when people are ready to throw rocks, maybe it’s just best to not even respond to their foolishness.

Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders, and today we are going to be in the Gospel of John chapter 7 verse 53 through chapter 8. And we are going to be learning about this incredible scenario where a woman was caught in the act of adultery.

I’ve entitled the message, Drop the Rock. The message is really not about the woman caught in the act of adultery, but about the Pharisees who were condemning her. And Jesus teaches us valuable lessons in this text that will remind all of us that the Phariseeism in each of our hearts needs to be repented of, and we need to strive to seek out, to bring people to Christ to experience His eternal life.

So let’s get right into our study as we begin in John chapter 7 verse 53. If you have your Bible this morning, I want you to join me in the Gospel of John. And we’re actually going to start in John chapter 7 verse 53, and I want to cover all the way through John chapter 8 verse 11.

And I want to begin reading just right at the outset here of this text. And then I want us to begin to look at it and learn some very valuable lessons that I think will be very helpful in our Christian life.

In verse 53 of chapter 7, the Bible says that every man, when I say that, unto his own house. Jesus went unto the Mount of Olives and early in the morning he came again into the temple and all the people came unto him and he sat down and he taught them and the scribes and the Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken into adultery and when they had set her in the midst they say unto him master this woman was taken in adultery in the very act now Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned but what sayest thou this they said tempting him that they might have to accuse him but Jesus stooped down and with his finger wrote on the ground as though he heard them not so when they continued asking him he lifted up himself and said unto them he that is without sin among you let him first cast a stone at her.

And again he stooped down, rode on the ground, and they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last. And Jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst.

And when Jesus had lifted up himself and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, no man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, neither do I condemn thee.

Go and sin no more. When we come to this passage of Scripture, which actually begins in verse 53 of chapter 7, all the way down to verse 11 of chapter 8, this passage has been subject to much controversy.

And the reason that it is controversial is because throughout the years of what we call textual criticism, meeting people, analyzing the Scriptures, and analyzing the original manuscripts, and analyzing the different texts, and trying to understand all that the original Scriptures say and make sure that when we translate the Bible into the languages, certainly like our language, English language,

or other languages, that there is accuracy and that the message of the Scriptures is clearly communicated into the language and the hearts of those who are reading it. And they have found that in some manuscripts that this text has not even existed.

And so scholars have questioned and wondered, was this really a part of the Bible? To help you understand this, I’m not going to get too scholarly on you because that would be an impossibility, but I do want you to understand that when we talk about the manuscripts, there are over 5 ,000 manuscripts that we have of the Scriptures to help us to translate the Bible into the English language or any language that there is an attempt to make it known and to make it distributed to those in different people groups and cultures.

But there are two, what we call two sets of manuscripts or two groups of manuscripts. And rather than giving you the technical name, I’m just going to give you a broad general understanding of these two groups.

There is what we call the eastern manuscripts for the eastern side of the world, and there is the western manuscripts. In the western manuscripts, we see that we have this text in the passage. But some of the Eastern manuscripts, this passage is not in there.

So scholars have wondered, is this something that was added later? Is this something that came along later? But I want you to know that as we go through this text, that you’re not going to find anything in this text that contradicts the scriptures.

As a matter of fact, as you begin to read, you’re going to say this is very much like Jesus. When we go back and we study the forefathers, we see that many of the forefathers commented on this text of scripture, and we are convinced that this is a passage of God’s Word, and that this is the truth of God’s Word, and that what happened in the Eastern manuscripts, what I want you to get is this.

Because you might be saying, how could this all happen, Pastor? How could this all happen? Well, when, of course, you know the early church faced much persecution in those beginning days. And many times what they had to do, because there was an effort to purge the world of Christians, purge the known world of the Bible, purge the known world of churches.

And so what the Christians did, and many of the leaders of the church did, is they started ripping up the manuscripts into small pieces. And by ripping them up into small pieces, they could hide them, and it would be difficult for the persecutors, the government, or different ones, that were trying to get rid of the church or the Bible, that it would be difficult for them to find it.

That’s why we know the Dead Sea Scrolls were a part of these Eastern manuscripts. And that’s why when we had that great discovery of these manuscripts, it helped us to understand more of the history of the Bible, and how God has not only given us the Bible, but how God has preserved His Word and preserved the Bible to us.

Now listen, I want you understand this. I don’t want you to be upset with me. Some of you might and you might be ready to throw rocks at me already and that’s my message today is to drop the rock. Drop the rock.

I was gonna bring a rock up here and I forgot it in my office. So after church I have to run and get it and drop it for you. But anyways I can’t, I told Bill I’m gonna preach on drop the rock. He said why don’t you just call it drop the mic?

And I said no. But it dropped the rock. But listen, for me as a pastor is that I want you to know that I 100% believe God has preserved His Word. And the Bible teaches us that every jot and tittle, every inscription, every aspect of God’s Word, the punctuation is all inspired and it is infallible and it is the exact Word of God that He wants us to have.

Now some people have gotten very excited about the preservation. of God’s word. And they say to me, Mike, the only translation that reveals the word of God is the King James. And I tell them, listen, I hate to tell you this, but what are you going to do before the King James?

And number two, did you know the King James has been updated 20 times? So which addition do I have to believe in? And then I tell them that, do you know what? I want you to understand something. There are many people who gave their lives to make sure God’s word was translated in the language that people could understand.

John Huss was burned at the stake because he translated the scriptures from the original manuscripts that were available at that time into the known language, the English language. John Wycliffe as well was persecuted for translating the Bible.

And there were many religious people who persecuted these men, religious people who persecuted these men because they felt like the only language that the Bible could be read in was Latin. And they believed in their heart that the Latin Vulgate, which was the translation of the day, was the only reliable translation and that all other translations were not from God.

I want to hear to tell you that God has blessed the evangelical church with many scholars, many individuals who are brilliant, who have tremendous understanding of the Greek language, the Hebrew language, and they are going back to the oldest manuscripts available to us as a church.

And they are translating the scriptures into our language even better so that we understand it. I don’t know about you, but we’re not walking around saying these and thou’s, and we’re not speaking Old English.

Can you say amen? There’s nothing wrong with the King James translation. It’s a wonderful translation, but at the same time don’t be intellectually dishonest by saying it’s the only reliable translation.

And as I have always taught you, church, that there are many great, reliable translations out there, and they are written in our language so that today’s culture, today’s people can understand it. How many of you believe that words that you used to think were good words or bad words today have flipped on their heads, amen?

You know what I’m saying? And so I have to be careful what I say because my kids are saying, Dad, that doesn’t mean the same as it did when you were growing up. And I’m like, well, nobody told me, somebody’s got to keep me in the loop, amen?

I got to know these things. But what I want you to recognize is that through textual criticism, the word of God is being verified, it’s being authenticated, and the word of God is being affirmed to us that it truly has been preserved.

So when we come to this text, we don’t have to worry whether this text is truly God’s word or not. We can be assured that we have the exact word of God this morning, and that we are dissecting it, we are learning from it, and it is truly God’s word from heaven to each of our hearts.

There is no good evidence that this passage of scripture, this text that I am sharing with you this morning, should be rejected by the church, and that we should embrace it as followers of Christ, and we should learn some very valuable lessons.

So let’s just dive right into that. If you want to have breakfast at Cracker Barrel, I’ll take you deeper on textual criticism. But right now, let’s get into drop the rock. When we come to this text, we find the Pharisees are still hostile towards Jesus Christ.

They are still looking for opportunities to trap him. They’re looking for opportunities to test him. They want to discredit him before those who are listening to his teaching, those who are responding to him, those who are believing him, and putting their trust and their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

So one of the ways that the religious crowd would do that is they want to find a way to show the crowd that Jesus’ words, Jesus’ teaching, Jesus’ behavior contradicted what Moses did. taught us. So we find a woman who has been taken into adultery and she is caught in the very act of adultery and she is brought before Jesus and these religious individuals are saying Jesus what are you gonna do now here’s what Moses said what do you say Jesus and I want you and I to learn three valuable lessons that I think will impact our Christian life that will be very helpful for us and so important that I want you to write them down so important that I want to make sure that you never forget what Jesus taught us in this story in this passage of Scripture the first lesson that I want you to learn we all deserve to be punished stop think about it We all deserve to be punished.

Here was a group of Pharisees who were saying that they were better, they were above, and that somehow they were more important, and they were gonna use this woman as an example to discredit Jesus Christ.

The Bible says in verse six, this they said, tempting him that they might have to accuse him. See, that was their motive, that was their intent, but Jesus stooped down and with his finger, he wrote on the ground as though he had heard them not.

And so when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself and said unto them, he that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. Jesus wanted them to look at their own life. We all deserve to be punished.

You see, it’s easy to point the finger, isn’t it? Think about what these religious leaders did. I mean, you know how much that they would have to work and trap and organize all this to catch this woman in the very act of adultery?

I mean, it’s unconscionable what they did. They set this whole thing up. They set this whole thing up so that they could use her, so they could drag her before Jesus and before a crowd, so that they could embarrass her, so they could shame her.

This is what their heart is. This is what they’re trying to do. And Jesus says to them, hey, whoever is without sin, throw the first stone, throw the first rock. The truth is that none of them were sinless.

Jesus wanted to point out the double standard, that these individuals, these religious people, were living in, the double standard, in that he wanted them to reflect upon their own hypocrisy. Before you throw the rock, Jesus is calling all of us to examine ourselves, to look at our own lives and recognize that every one of us deserves to be punished because every one of us is a sinner in the hands of an angry God,

as one famous preacher said. Every one of us is guilty before God. And you say, well, my sin’s not adultery, and my sin’s not this, and my sin’s not that. Listen to me, friends. Jesus is telling us that while we’re looking on the outside, God is looking on the inside.

God is looking at our own hearts. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 5, 28. I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart. Religious people, legalistic people, are focused on the outside.

But God is focused on the heart. You see, the Pharisees said this, as long as we don’t touch. We’re okay before God. As long as we don’t do the things that are listed that we’re not allowed to do, then we’re okay.

Jesus said you missed the whole purpose of what the Old Testament was teaching because God is saying, not only is he interested in this fact that you are to avoid these actions, but you’re to avoid those attitudes, those thoughts.

You see, it’s easy for us as even Christians to elevate our Christianity, to elevate our righteousness based upon what we do. And we say, look at me, I have not done this. I have not done that. Look at my life, how wonderful it is.

But the truth is, you are not only measured by God by what you do, but you are measured by God by what you think. And if you think in yourself, well, I haven’t thought anything really bad, Mike. My mind is so pure, it’s so wonderful.

My thoughts are always so beautiful and so righteous. Then let me ask you this, what about your motives? For God not only measures my actions and my attitudes, but he measures the motivation of why I do what I do.

You see, I want you to know this, that you can do the right thing on the outside, but on the inside, you do it for the wrong reason. and some of you may have put money into the offering plate today and you did it as a show you did it so people could see you you did it so you could be recognized and people could think that you’re such a religious person but god knows your heart doesn’t he god knows each of our hearts god knows what is true in our heart and so this morning the challenge is that before you throw the rock you might want to remember that we all are guilty before god and deserve to be punished you see jesus wanted his these accusers of this woman to engage in self -examination of their own life jesus knew that this woman was guilty of adultery but he also knew that the Pharisees were guilty of impure motives He knew that they were guilty of setting up a trap in this woman to use her and abuse her and to shame her.

He knew that their hearts were just as bad as her heart and that they were not competent witnesses, they were not reliable witnesses, they were not ones to stand up in judgment of another, but rather they were guilty before God.

That’s why Jesus said in verse 7, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. He took the focus off of her and her sin and put the focus on them, the Pharisees and their sins.

That’s the challenge to you this morning, is that you got to be careful that as a Christian you’re not out there putting your focus on everybody else’s sin. And what’s wrong with everybody else when the truth is your life’s a mess too.

And you got a lot of issues to deal with. And you got sin in your own heart that you need to confront in your own life. Never forget this, that each and every one of us, we are all under the justifiable wrath of God because of our sinfulness.

And I know that’s sometimes hard to swallow, but sometimes people ask me the question, I don’t understand a God who could send someone to hell. And I have to be honest with them and I say, you know what, the more I learn about God, I don’t understand a God who can send people to heaven.

What amazes me and shocks me that despite my sinfulness and despite how much I fall short of the perfection and the righteousness of God, what amazes me that God forgives us and makes us… to be able to enter into the presence of a holy God and a righteous God in his presence in heaven.

The truth is, every one of us, and throw Mike Sanders in there several times, we all deserve to go to hell. People say, I want what I deserve. No, you don’t. No, you don’t. What I want is grace. What I want is mercy.

What I want is compassion. The Bible says in this, in Romans 5 .9, much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. We are saved from the wrath of God. Get this, get this.

I deserve to be punished. But Jesus went to the cross. and he bore the wrath of God, the punishment that Mike Sanders deserved. On that cross, he took my penalty. On that cross, he took my punishment for every evil action, for every evil thought, for every impure motive, for everything that was done and should have been done and wasn’t done.

Jesus Christ took it all on the cross for me and we should fall on our knees and we should be so humbled by it that we should be overwhelmed what Christ has done for us because the more I know his righteousness and the more I know his holiness, the more I recognize just how unholy, how unrighteous I am and how much I need a Savior to wash my sins away.

You’re justified by his blood. If you wake up every day realizing that you deserve to be separated from God forever, it will motivate you to live in humility because you and I deserve nothing. We deserve nothing.

We should follow the pattern of our fashion as a man. He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Our life is to be a life of humility. It is not to be a life of the fact that I deserve this or I want this or I want my rights, but rather is, Lord, I deserve to be punished for my sins and so I thank you and I give great praise to you because on that cross you took my punishment.

You took the wrath for my sin. You see friends if we would spend more time examining self and less time examining others We’ll walk in humility more and more in our life Get this The reason you and I are ready to throw stones the reason we’re ready to throw rocks is because of pride Because of pride because we see ourselves better We judge others because we think we’re superior But when you recognize and say look at my life look what I gotta deal with Look with the challenges I’m facing and the failures and how many times I’ve sinned against God and yet his love keeps flowing Towards me and he keeps lavishing his love on me and he keeps showing me grace and kindness and mercy that I am less likely to throw rocks others.

Pride causes me to stand in judgment of others. The second lesson that I want you to learn from this passage of Scripture is that we pick up rocks too quickly. We pick up rocks too quickly. Would you look at verse 8 and 9 or verse 9 with me?

The Bible says, they and they which heard it being convicted by their own conscience went out one by one beginning at the eldest even unto the last and Jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst.

It’s always interesting to me that Jesus the two reactions he had when this woman was thrown in front of him and the Pharisees were demanding that he make a decision. The first reaction was silence. Did you read that in the text?

It was like he didn’t even hear him. He just was silent and I thought about how sometimes silence is the only answer to silliness. Sometimes we got to learn and Mike Sanders true that maybe the best answer is no answer.

Maybe the best thing to do is that when people are ready to throw rocks maybe it’s just best that not even respond to their foolishness. Wow what an amazing unfolding of an incredible story and it’s so full of drama that it’s certainly easy for us to get caught up in the emotion of the experience of this woman who is caught in the act of adultery but we don’t want to miss out on the lesson that Jesus is trying to get across and you may be that kind of of a person who’s always holding a rock ready to condemn everybody around you.

But I would encourage you to drop the rock and that you strive to ask God to deal with the things in your own personal life. You know, I always tell people that it’s important to take care of your own backyard before you start cleaning everybody else’s.

And that is so true. And this is the message that Jesus wants us to embrace. So I hope that as God is speaking in your heart, that you’ll take the steps of repentance towards God and understand that God does not call you to judge the world or individuals, but rather He calls you to judge your own sin and to strive to live in accordance to His truth and His word.

So we encourage you to embrace these principles. And as we continue to think about all that God is doing, we rejoice in this great opportunity to hear His word. And we thank you at the Hope Worth Having ministry for all the opportunities you’re giving us and for you tuning in today.

This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.