SPEAKER_00: Hey, welcome to the New North Church podcast.
SPEAKER_00: It's great to have you listening in with us.
SPEAKER_00: Our vision at our church is to be an authentic community of Jesus followers who love and serve people.
SPEAKER_00: So if we can help you in any way at all, just reach out to us.
SPEAKER_00: The email address is hello at newnorth.church.
SPEAKER_00: With that, let's go right to this week's message.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, here's a question I want to start with.
SPEAKER_00: We're looking at a passage that just made me think of this story.
SPEAKER_00: But have you ever been caught like red-handed doing something like you knew was wrong, perhaps illegal?
SPEAKER_00: Anyone want to honestly put up their hand?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, good, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Good, Jeremiah.
SPEAKER_00: Great, great, good.
SPEAKER_00: Bunch of sinners.
SPEAKER_00: I love it.
SPEAKER_00: So I have a lot of stories I could share.
SPEAKER_00: This one's a little safer for me in public, but I think I was a freshman in high school, and I got to confirm this with my mom, my brother, but they're not here, so I'll make most of it.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: I uh went to the mall with my brother to go shopping, back to school, whatever, and we were in Macy's, and I was looking at this shirt, and I had money in my pocket, and I was gonna buy it, but my brother, and I'm gonna blame it on him, my brother said, Hey Robert, because that's what they call me, um, let's steal the shirt and let's use the money to buy lunch.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, that's a great idea.
SPEAKER_00: And uh look around, and you know, super, I mean, so like I'm not a crook, right?
SPEAKER_00: And stuffed the shirt under my shirt, and we walked out of Macy's, just kind of like wow, you know, and I thought it was like the crime of the century, like the heights of the century.
SPEAKER_00: I was gonna get away scoffery, heart, you know, pumping, and I'm like, we did it.
SPEAKER_00: And then I turned around, and there were two security officers from Macy's running after us, and I'm like, oh no! And so they grabbed us and put us in the back room.
SPEAKER_00: They beat us, no, they didn't beat us.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but uh, I was like, I started crying like a baby.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, don't send me to San Quentin, I don't want to go to death row, you know, and they're just like, calm down, man.
SPEAKER_00: And so, long story short, uh, they didn't press charges because you know, probably because I was right, and they called my mom, which was super embarrassing.
SPEAKER_00: She comes, picks up the new crime lords of Hayward, and uh and they let us go.
SPEAKER_00: They said, I better never see you in Macy's again.
SPEAKER_00: And uh still to this day, honestly, um, whenever I go to Macy's, I feel a little uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00: Like, like to be honest, I'm always like looking around my shoulder.
SPEAKER_00: And and I share that story because you know, what I felt at Macy's years, years ago, you know, was not just embarrassment.
SPEAKER_00: I was embarrassed, but I felt shame.
SPEAKER_00: And see, I was embarrassed because I did something stupid, something wrong.
SPEAKER_00: But shame, and you guys know this feels different, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, being caught shoplifting to Macy's is pretty safe to share, but I don't want to share with you the evil thoughts I have, the hurtful moments in my life that very few people know about.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't want to go there.
SPEAKER_00: But I think if we're honest, there have been times, more times than any of us want to admit, where we felt not just embarrassment, but shame.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what shame does shame tells you things like, you think like, gosh, what's wrong with me?
SPEAKER_00: Or, why am I like this?
SPEAKER_00: Or why do I keep doing this again?
SPEAKER_00: Or thoughts I've had, am I just like so broken that just beyond repair?
SPEAKER_00: Why do I think like that?
SPEAKER_00: Why do I do that?
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And then we mix in God and all that, and it gets really ugly and messy.
SPEAKER_00: And so today we're gonna look at one of my favorite stories from the life of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a story about him uh walking into and dealing with, I would say, one of the most public, shaming, terrible moments in all of Scripture, much beyond getting caught shoplifting in Macy's.
SPEAKER_00: And what we're gonna see here, and what he did here, I hope will not only encourage you, but will hopefully wreck your heart in the best possible way.
SPEAKER_00: And so in the New Testament, in what's called the Gospel of John, which is really the biography of the life of Jesus, written by his best friend John, who was an eyewitness to Jesus' life, he writes a powerful story from his memory about how Jesus deals with not only sin, but with our brokenness and shame.
SPEAKER_00: And in this story, it's a story about a woman that got caught right in the middle of doing something bad, and not just something bad.
SPEAKER_00: Gosh, you guys, in her culture, it was worthy of death.
SPEAKER_00: And she was grabbed and dragged out to Jesus, and that's what we're gonna see this morning.
SPEAKER_00: So would you just stand in honor of God's word and join with me in John chapter 8, verse 2?
SPEAKER_00: John chapter 8, verse 2, and just honor of God's word, we'll stand and we'll read this together.
SPEAKER_00: John chapter 8, verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: It says, at dawn, he, that's Jesus, appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them.
SPEAKER_00: So, in some ways, kind of like Sundays, Jesus was teaching, people were gathered outside.
SPEAKER_00: But the teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery.
SPEAKER_00: So she wasn't just accused of adultery, she was a caught in the act.
SPEAKER_00: And they made her stand before the group, and they said to Jesus, Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.
SPEAKER_00: And the law of Moses commanded us to stone such women.
SPEAKER_00: Now what do you say?
SPEAKER_00: And then John tells us a little bit of insight into what was going on.
SPEAKER_00: He says, they were using this question as a trap in order to have a basis for accusing him, accusing him, and then arresting him, and arresting him, and then killing him.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus, look what he does.
SPEAKER_00: He bent down and he started to write on the ground with his finger.
SPEAKER_00: And when they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.
SPEAKER_00: And again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
SPEAKER_00: At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left with the woman still standing there.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus straightened up and asked her, Woman, where are they?
SPEAKER_00: Has no one condemned you?
SPEAKER_00: No one, sir, she said.
SPEAKER_00: Then neither do I condemn you, Jesus declared.
SPEAKER_00: Go now and leave your life of sin.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Before you are seated, would you just pray for yourself that you would be open to God's word?
SPEAKER_00: Would you pray for those around you?
SPEAKER_00: And then would you pray for me as we open up the word together?
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: You guys start and then I'll finish us.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Father, thank you for your word.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for whatever Holy Spirit you want to do as you teach us and lead us today.
SPEAKER_00: God, our hearts are open, our minds are ready.
SPEAKER_00: Would you come now and speak to your people?
SPEAKER_00: For we are listening.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit, we pray.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone agreed with me and said, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You can grab a seat.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for standing.
SPEAKER_00: If you're taking notes, here's my first note for you.
SPEAKER_00: What we see here pretty clearly is that the teachers of the law, these religious leaders, are going to use truth as a weapon.
SPEAKER_00: And what I like to do, whenever I study the life of Jesus, I like to step back and just, I'm a visual thinker and get into the mind of and get into the scene and picture it for myself.
SPEAKER_00: And this is just me.
SPEAKER_00: This is how I picture it.
SPEAKER_00: I picture Jesus teaching people in the temple courts, and they're they're engaged.
SPEAKER_00: They're like, wow, I've never heard anyone like this.
SPEAKER_00: So they're leaning in, they're listening, we don't know what he was teaching.
SPEAKER_00: John doesn't tell us, that's not important.
SPEAKER_00: And suddenly, right in the middle of his sermon, can you even imagine?
SPEAKER_00: This angry mob of people drag this poor woman who's frightened, who's terrified, and throw her in front of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And you can imagine the crowd just like, whoa, whoa, whoa, and they're getting out of the way, like, what's going on here?
SPEAKER_00: Because those who are listening realize that, man, these folks mean business.
SPEAKER_00: And so as the dust kind of settles, John tells us that this angry mob is full of religious leaders, scribes, Pharisees, teachers of the law.
SPEAKER_00: These were the well-respected men in their community.
SPEAKER_00: And then we see that there's this woman who's probably struggling to keep her balance as she's grabbed by these men and she's scantily clad.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because just moments before, she had been in bed with a man who clearly, John tells us, was not her husband.
SPEAKER_00: And again, we can speculate, but we know nothing about the woman, know nothing about her story, know nothing about the situation.
SPEAKER_00: Did she get paid for a living to do this?
SPEAKER_00: We don't know.
SPEAKER_00: But all we do know is at one moment the door was busted open.
SPEAKER_00: They grabbed this woman who probably only had a moment to grab the bed sheet, screaming as she wrapped herself with it.
SPEAKER_00: She barely has time to cover herself.
SPEAKER_00: She's dragged through the streets.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know how far the home was, and thrown in front of a man who's probably the age of her father, with holy righteousness blazing in their eyes, the you know, morality police.
SPEAKER_00: Throw this woman at Jesus' direction.
SPEAKER_00: She probably nearly falls over, overwhelmed, crying.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, who knows?
SPEAKER_00: And yet the leader of this mob points at Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Hey, we found this woman in bed with another man.
SPEAKER_00: We found this woman.
SPEAKER_00: The law says to stone her.
SPEAKER_00: What do you say?
SPEAKER_00: And again, I wasn't there, obviously, I but I picture this woman just, I mean, can you even imagine despair in her eyes?
SPEAKER_00: She's filled with shame.
SPEAKER_00: Like, how did her life get to this?
SPEAKER_00: And at some point, I picture her mustering the courage to look up at Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and again, what I think she sees changes everything.
SPEAKER_00: She sees a man not glaring back at her in disgust, not a man who wanted to get something from her, but she sees kindness in his eyes, she sees love in his eyes.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe this is a stare she was a stranger to, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: And then as Jesus looked at this woman as he untakes the whole scene, I mean, I just would love to know what was going on in his mind.
SPEAKER_00: What was he thinking?
SPEAKER_00: Was he disgusted at this woman and her choices?
SPEAKER_00: Probably not.
SPEAKER_00: Did he see her as his beloved daughter?
SPEAKER_00: Did his mind race back to the moment he created her in his image?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, again, I don't know, we don't know.
SPEAKER_00: But with the tenderness only a loving father can give, Jesus, like he does something that no one expected.
SPEAKER_00: And the question, I have two questions whenever I read this passage.
SPEAKER_00: The first question is why in the world would religious people do this?
SPEAKER_00: How horrible.
SPEAKER_00: And John tells us that this was a trap.
SPEAKER_00: They were using this woman as bait.
SPEAKER_00: So this is not pastoral care.
SPEAKER_00: This is not some sincere attempt to honor God's law.
SPEAKER_00: This was truth being weaponized, religion being weaponized.
SPEAKER_00: And the big obvious question, and every single woman in this room is thinking that where in the heck is the man?
SPEAKER_00: Last eye, last eye understand.
SPEAKER_00: It takes two people to tango.
SPEAKER_00: And so, and so, and not only that, Leviticus chapter 20, Deuteronomy 22, the law that they were professing actually tells us that both people should be standing in front of Jesus, the adulterer and the adulteress.
SPEAKER_00: But only one woman was there.
SPEAKER_00: And so, what does that tell us?
SPEAKER_00: That tells us that their selective outrage, um, it's selective.
SPEAKER_00: They were manipulating God's law for their own benefit.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't care about this poor woman.
SPEAKER_00: They were trying to trap Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what does this mean?
SPEAKER_00: I think this means a lot, but I'll tell you this.
SPEAKER_00: It means that truth in the hands of graceless people often becomes a weapon.
SPEAKER_00: You've seen it.
SPEAKER_00: I've seen it.
SPEAKER_00: And before we just point fingers at these religious leaders, like any of us can fall into this trap.
SPEAKER_00: It's so easy if we're not careful.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you some examples.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever quoted a Bible verse that has a lot of truth into it, but without a compassionate and loving heart?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I have.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever talked to someone, or not to someone, about someone behind their backs and about their failures because in some insidious way it makes you feel a little better about your own failures?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I have.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever reduced a person to the worst thing they've ever done and think, man, they will never change?
SPEAKER_00: See, we love to put the spotlight on others' sin.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because it hides our own.
SPEAKER_00: And churches, just so you know, in case you're like you're new here, churches are full of sinful, flawed people.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: If you're looking for someone perfect who has no issues, go find another church.
SPEAKER_00: It's not New North.
SPEAKER_00: And the reality is we have hurt people, the church has, I have, by misusing authority, by truth in the name of truth, and even the church's twisted religion in just harmful, harmful ways.
SPEAKER_00: And some of you know this more than I know.
SPEAKER_00: It's part of your story.
SPEAKER_00: And I wish I could sit with you and listen to your story and tell you, I'm so sorry for that.
SPEAKER_00: That's oftentimes what people will tell me, well, this person hurt me, and so I don't like to, and I so I'm walking away from Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And I like to say, stop looking to people, look to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Like it's only a moment of time.
SPEAKER_00: It's just, give me enough time, and I will one day hurt you because I am just a man.
SPEAKER_00: It's not what Jesus wants for his church, it's not what Jesus wants for your life either.
SPEAKER_00: And so here the religious leaders are, they're trying to force Jesus between, here it is, upholding the law, upholding God's standards, or showing mercy and grace to this woman.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what I want you to see: Jesus refuses either.
SPEAKER_00: He says that's a false choice.
SPEAKER_00: And instead, what I love what he does is he is he shines a spotlight back on these accusers.
SPEAKER_00: And he does something honestly pretty strange, something I've never seen him do anywhere else in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: He bends down on the ground and he begins to write on the ground.
SPEAKER_00: Now I've spent 26 years trying to figure out what he wrote, and no one knows.
SPEAKER_00: You know, no one knows.
SPEAKER_00: I've always believed, and this is just me, that he was writing the specific sins of each man clutching a stone.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, Johnny, dude, I know what you did last night.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: Whew, boy.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Um, some scholars believe he wrote a scripture from the Jewish law that would kind of shape his response to the dilemma.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe this scripture from Exodus 23.
SPEAKER_00: Do not help a wicked man by being a malicious witness.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know.
SPEAKER_00: What matters is not what he wrote, because we don't know.
SPEAKER_00: What matters what Jesus says, and listen to these words again.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Let any of any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Hey guys, if any one of you don't have sin, don't struggle with sin, are blameless, then you be the first to throw a stone.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this this has been used out of context so many times, it's it's out of control.
SPEAKER_00: So let me tell you what he's not saying.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is not saying that sin doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: He's not like suddenly erasing adultery from the Ten Commandments.
SPEAKER_00: He's also not saying that only perfect, sinless people can make moral judgments, you know, like in the words of Tupac, only God can judge me now, right?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: He's what he's doing is he's addressing the log that was in all their eyes.
SPEAKER_00: He's addressing their hypocrisy, he's addressing their hard hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, Deuteronomy chapter 17, verse 7 does say that the actual witnesses should be the first to cast a stone.
SPEAKER_00: And I brought a stone from my garden.
SPEAKER_00: It's actually kind of weird.
SPEAKER_00: I was thinking, when I picked this up, I'm like, I've never stoned anyone.
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, but um, don't say that, Rob, what you were thinking.
SPEAKER_00: Um but as I was picking up a stone, I was like, what kind of stone?
SPEAKER_00: How big of a stone do you need to be to stone someone?
SPEAKER_00: Like, I kind of like I just, isn't that a weird thought?
SPEAKER_00: Like, probably a little bigger than this, but then you gotta think about how far you gotta throw.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, all these thoughts went like, how do you stone someone?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: But Deuteronomy 17 says that if you want to stand as an honest witness before God, really what Jesus is saying, then then bring your own sin into the light first.
SPEAKER_00: Are you truly blameless?
SPEAKER_00: And then that's all he says.
SPEAKER_00: And then he bends back down.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know if he wrote any more.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: John doesn't tell us, but I want to just stop and just I want you to notice what Jesus does and what he doesn't do.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't shout at them, he doesn't counterattack, he doesn't lift off, list off their failures as far as we know.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't argue, he doesn't start an apologetics class of how to give the right answer to this, he doesn't start a podcast on how we should deal with this, he doesn't blog about it, none of that.
SPEAKER_00: He just gives them the truth of God and gives God time to for that truth to penetrate those hearts.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know how long he was there, we don't know how long it took.
SPEAKER_00: But again, this is how I picture it, man.
SPEAKER_00: I picture the guys just looking at each other.
SPEAKER_00: Are you gonna throw it?
SPEAKER_00: Are you bro?
SPEAKER_00: I'm not throwing it, bro.
SPEAKER_00: You go for it.
SPEAKER_00: No, bro, I'm not doing it.
SPEAKER_00: Then you kind of get that nervousness.
SPEAKER_00: They kind of look around, eyes kind of drop, feeling embarrassed now, feeling shame now, real shame.
SPEAKER_00: And then I just picture, you just hear the sound.
SPEAKER_00: Thud, thud, thud, as each of those men just drop their stones and walk away.
SPEAKER_00: Thud.
SPEAKER_00: And then I love what John does this.
SPEAKER_00: This is such a good little remark.
SPEAKER_00: John tells us that the oldest ones left first.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, if you're over 40, you understand exactly why, right?
SPEAKER_00: You do.
SPEAKER_00: See, the older ones left first because the older you get, the longer you walk with Jesus, the more you understand how complicated the human heart can be.
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully.
SPEAKER_00: See, as we age, we either become more aware of our own sin, our own brokenness, or watch this, we become more hardened to it.
SPEAKER_00: The older we get, the reality is we have much more sin under our belt.
SPEAKER_00: Much more that we're aware of, of how far we saw we fall short.
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully.
SPEAKER_00: But again, whatever the reasons are, we don't know.
SPEAKER_00: The courtyard empties, the oldest men leave, the younger guys leave, and then it's just Jesus and this woman.
SPEAKER_00: But let's just pause for a moment here and allow the Holy Spirit to examine our own hearts.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to imagine, I thought about buying hundreds of rocks, but that was too heavy and too expensive, but uh, and too late.
SPEAKER_00: But um, I want you to imagine a rock in your hand, a stone.
SPEAKER_00: And I just want you to think like, whose failure are you holding over someone's head?
SPEAKER_00: Who's hurt you?
SPEAKER_00: Who have you hurt?
SPEAKER_00: Who have you like maybe reduced to a label?
SPEAKER_00: Like, uh, she's just an addict, and he's an adulterer.
SPEAKER_00: Man, that guy, my brother, he is such a liberal.
SPEAKER_00: My sister, uh, terrible conservative, hypocrite, failure.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think this story for those of us who follow Jesus is a reminder that, man, what stone are we holding?
SPEAKER_00: Is this stone anger?
SPEAKER_00: Gossip?
SPEAKER_00: Silence?
SPEAKER_00: A grudge?
SPEAKER_00: Oh man, we are so good at holding grudges.
SPEAKER_00: See, the good news of Jesus tells us that no one can stand in a circle with someone in the middle, whoever that person is, pretending that we don't need God's mercy and grace just as much as they do.
SPEAKER_00: We're all sinners.
SPEAKER_00: We're all in desperate need of a savior.
SPEAKER_00: At the foot of the cross, the only thing we can do is lay down our stones.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus paid for it all.
SPEAKER_00: I think someone should say amen to that.
SPEAKER_00: So here's what Jesus does.
SPEAKER_00: He now focuses on the woman, and I put it this way: Jesus gives the woman both grace and truth.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna unpack that in a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone's left.
SPEAKER_00: I I gotta imagine this is the most tender scenes in all the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: She's alone.
SPEAKER_00: This woman with actually, this is interesting, with the one man who could stone her to death.
SPEAKER_00: She's in the presence of God, holiness, righteousness, the person who's never committed a sin.
SPEAKER_00: But then he but then she hears his voice again.
SPEAKER_00: And finally, it's almost as if someone is speaking to her, not just at her.
SPEAKER_00: Not demanding something from her.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus tells her, look up, look around.
SPEAKER_00: Is there no one here left to condemn you?
SPEAKER_00: It's a question of faith.
SPEAKER_00: It's a question of trust.
SPEAKER_00: It's really a question of intimacy.
SPEAKER_00: Get closer.
SPEAKER_00: Because I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know what she was thinking.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe Jesus, or maybe she thought that Jesus would now, with everyone gone, you know, rip her apart, condemn her.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, everyone's gone.
SPEAKER_00: Now, honey, you really, you know, who knows?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe she expected Jesus just to walk away from her, leave her alone, not say anything.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_00: We're not told.
SPEAKER_00: But what she got, I guarantee you, she never expected.
SPEAKER_00: She received from Jesus both a promise and a greater purpose in life.
SPEAKER_00: The promise was from Jesus, neither do I condemn you.
SPEAKER_00: And her purpose was go and sin no more.
SPEAKER_00: And that, church, is the power of grace and truth.
SPEAKER_00: See, Grace says, You are more than the worst thing you've done.
SPEAKER_00: But truth says, I love you too much to allow you to keep hurting yourself and others.
SPEAKER_00: See, Grace says, you are not condemned.
SPEAKER_00: But truth says, but don't keep walking that same road anymore.
SPEAKER_00: I love you too much.
SPEAKER_00: See, Jesus looked in her eyes, looked right to her heart, and knew she was an adulteress.
SPEAKER_00: But with compassion, he doesn't condemn her to death.
SPEAKER_00: And the woman walks away.
SPEAKER_00: As far as we know, and a lot of people have guessed, we've never seen from her or hear from her again.
SPEAKER_00: So the question I've always had about this passage is, well, go and leave your life of sin.
SPEAKER_00: Like I'm sure she probably sinned again.
SPEAKER_00: But I think Jesus was saying, go and live your life of sin, a clue to maybe she was a prostitute.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know.
SPEAKER_00: But did she really leave her life a sin?
SPEAKER_00: I think so.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because grace does that to people.
SPEAKER_00: See, grace, not rules, not religion, but the grace of God makes real and lasting change possible.
SPEAKER_00: See, Jesus told her the truth, but he also gave her grace.
SPEAKER_00: You are fully known, young woman.
SPEAKER_00: You are deeply loved.
SPEAKER_00: You are completely and totally forgiven, and by my grace you can become new.
SPEAKER_00: Neither do I condemn you.
SPEAKER_00: As we get to the life of Jesus, as we get to the cross, what we see at the cross is the power of both grace and truth, where it comes together in fullness.
SPEAKER_00: See, the God who has a perfect right to condemn us all to hell is the one who has a passionate desire to save and forgive every single one of us.
SPEAKER_00: And so as you read about the life of Jesus, as you study his life, here's what you're gonna see.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna see that sin is never treated lightly, it's never swept under the rug.
SPEAKER_00: But at every single moment, sinners are offered an opportunity to start a new life with God again, to come to Jesus to receive mercy, grace, and forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: The God with a perfect right to condemn you is the one with a passionate desire to forgive every single one of you.
SPEAKER_00: And not just forgive us, but to transform us and to give us new life.
SPEAKER_00: John put it this way later: abundant life and life to the full.
SPEAKER_00: And so the question is well, God's robber, how can a holy God who's perfect and righteous, how can he let sinners off the hook?
SPEAKER_00: How can he do this to this woman who broke God's law?
SPEAKER_00: Well, John, the writer of this, told us earlier in one of the most famous verses in all the Bible, for God, not just loved, so loved.
SPEAKER_00: I remember in seminary, man, I had a professor in our Greek class who literally wept when he read this.
SPEAKER_00: And I was stunned.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, because he said, Rob, this word so is so important.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, it is?
SPEAKER_00: Well, tell me why.
SPEAKER_00: He said, and God not only loved us, he so loved us, loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever, whosoever believes in him, shall not perish but have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: And we got to keep reading.
SPEAKER_00: For God did not send his son into the world to say it, to do what?
SPEAKER_00: To condemn the world, but to do what?
SPEAKER_00: Save the world through him.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus would be the ultimate example of this.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus would be stripped down and dragged in front of the religious elite.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus would be dragged by an angry mob to his death, and he would be murdered on the cross, and Jesus would be nailed and naked and exposed on watch this, a symbol of suffering and shame.
SPEAKER_00: But his sacrifice would be God's gracious way of forgiving you and paying for your sin and for my sin.
SPEAKER_00: God placed all of the guilt, all of the shame, all of it on Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: So he wouldn't have to do that to you.
SPEAKER_00: That's the good news of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But what I want to camp on real quick before we close is this story, the reason why I love it so much is because it gives us a beautiful picture of both grace and truth.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't know if you know this, but we live in a really graceless world that essentially has turned its back on God's truth.
SPEAKER_00: But listen to what John said at the very beginning of this biography.
SPEAKER_00: He said this, the word that's Jesus, became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
SPEAKER_00: God came.
SPEAKER_00: We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Say with me, full of what?
SPEAKER_00: Full of grace and truth.
SPEAKER_00: I love that phrase.
SPEAKER_00: Full of grace and truth.
SPEAKER_00: See, here's what we do as Christians and churches.
SPEAKER_00: We try to strike a balance between the two.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, grace, you're kind of messed up, but hey, um, but you know, Jesus loves you.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we it's hard.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard.
SPEAKER_00: Like I personally always pride myself, and I want to be a person that errs on the side of grace, always believe the best about people.
SPEAKER_00: Truth, it can be really hard sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: But we also believe in truth, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: And this is what we see in the life of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't try to like strike a balance.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't try to give them like a, uh, we call it a, in my house, I forget what we've called.
SPEAKER_00: We call it like uh, we always try to bookend our conversation with our kids.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I love you so much.
SPEAKER_00: Why the heck did you do that?
SPEAKER_00: You're an idiot, and I love you so much, right?
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00: We called it a sandwich.
SPEAKER_00: Did you guys do that?
SPEAKER_00: Is that just us?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus doesn't do that either.
SPEAKER_00: And so what we see is he came, and the best way I know how to say it is he brought the full embodiment of grace and truth all at the same time.
SPEAKER_00: All at once.
SPEAKER_00: Grace, you're no longer condemned.
SPEAKER_00: You're free.
SPEAKER_00: Truth, but go and sin no more.
SPEAKER_00: See, grace, it doesn't have to water down sin.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't have to make sin easier to digest.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't skirt around issues.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because grace doesn't have to.
SPEAKER_00: And the purpose of truth isn't to isolate people from God or isolate people from God's people.
SPEAKER_00: So here's what happens.
SPEAKER_00: If you study the life of Jesus, you're gonna find him time and time again acknowledging the full implications of sin, truth, and not condemning sinners at the same time.
SPEAKER_00: Grace.
SPEAKER_00: Honestly, the only group of people that he condemned and hammered on time and time again were the religious people who try to control people through guilt and fear and condemnation, which doesn't work.
SPEAKER_00: And I gotta be honest, though, this is hard.
SPEAKER_00: This is hard to manage in our own lives.
SPEAKER_00: This is hard to manage even in a church.
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you why.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy to be an all-truth church where we just focus on the religious rules, we can become very real, uh legalistic, do this, do this, do this, everything's black and white.
SPEAKER_00: And what happens is we become very cold and mean to people.
SPEAKER_00: On the other hand, it's actually, I think, maybe even easier to create an all-grace church.
SPEAKER_00: San Francisco, the peninsula have lots of them.
SPEAKER_00: These grace-only churches are churches where every lifestyle is celebrated, every choice is affirmed, and even the words sin.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, don't hurt anyone's feelings.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just get that out of our songs and out of the book.
SPEAKER_00: And it makes people uncomfortable, Pastor Rob.
SPEAKER_00: And I understand the impulse.
SPEAKER_00: I'm tempted to be an all-grace church because it's easier.
SPEAKER_00: But man, when you look at graceless religion up close, it is ugly and has no power.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the problem: Jesus didn't leave either option on the table.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't offer us a version of the gospel that's somehow easier to swallow.
SPEAKER_00: No, no.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, Oh, you want to be my disciple?
SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
SPEAKER_00: Deny yourself, pick up your cross daily and follow me.
SPEAKER_00: And so this is the type of church we're trying to be like.
SPEAKER_00: Not an easy church with simple answers, not a harsh church that only focuses on the truth, but a Jesus-centered church.
SPEAKER_00: A church that, yes, welcomes all people, no matter what you've done, no matter where you're from, we welcome all people, but we also are a church that believes in the power of Jesus to change us, to transform us.
SPEAKER_00: And oh, by the way, we are a church that believes that Jesus has authority over our lives, every single part of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: You can't pick and choose what you want to obey and what words of Jesus you want to listen to.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't work that way.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be the person where Jesus says, I never knew you.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be that person.
SPEAKER_00: And so the question for all of us is how does God want you to respond today?
SPEAKER_00: Not how I want you to respond.
SPEAKER_00: How does God want you to respond?
SPEAKER_00: And I have three ideas for you, and then we're done.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that some of us have been holding a stone and we need to drop that stone.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what that stone is for you.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna ask the Holy Spirit for what it is, and you're gonna drop it today.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, I think some of you need to come out of hiding and you need to bring your sin into the light and bring it to God.
SPEAKER_00: You need to expose it.
SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you what, sin has power when it's hidden.
SPEAKER_00: But as soon as you expose it into the light, as soon as you confess it to God, especially as soon as you confess it to a trust, trusted brother or sister, it loses so much of its power.
SPEAKER_00: And here's to every single person in this room today on Labor Day weekend, Jesus is telling you, not me, Jesus is telling you, neither do I condemn you.
SPEAKER_00: It's powerful.
SPEAKER_00: No matter what you've done, no matter who you are, no matter what's been done to you, like, wow, like no matter what you're struggling with, Jesus is saying, I don't condemn you.
SPEAKER_00: See, you can walk out of here still carrying whatever you walked in with, the weight of what you've done, the weight of what's been done to you, the weight of what you're afraid might come into the light.
SPEAKER_00: Or, like this woman, you can leave forgiven and free, walking with Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And you can do that not because nothing actually happened, but because Jesus took it and died for you.
SPEAKER_00: That is the power of grace and truth.
SPEAKER_00: That is the power of Jesus in you, the hope of glory.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, would you bow your heads?
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together as we wrap up.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to think about the stone that you need to drop.
SPEAKER_00: And again, I don't know what it is for you.
SPEAKER_00: Someone's hurt you, someone you're frustrated with.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's anger, resentment, pride, gossip, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Would you just visualize that in your hand and just say, Jesus, I'm dropping it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm letting it go.
SPEAKER_00: Help me.
SPEAKER_00: Help me to drop it.
SPEAKER_00: Man, I feel secure with this stone.
SPEAKER_00: I feel safe with this stone.
SPEAKER_00: I feel just better with no Lord, help me to drop it.
SPEAKER_00: And then I just want to pray for anyone who's just been struggling with secrets, with something no one knows about.
SPEAKER_00: Man, would you just bring that to God now?
SPEAKER_00: Confess that to him.
SPEAKER_00: Bring it into the light.
SPEAKER_00: Say, Jesus, help me, forgive me, cleanse me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so tired of dealing with this.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so overwhelmed by this.
SPEAKER_00: It's hurting me.
SPEAKER_00: It's hurting my relationships.
SPEAKER_00: Oh God, take it.
SPEAKER_00: And Holy Spirit, give me the power to walk with you in power and victory.
SPEAKER_00: And for all of us, think about what you've done.
SPEAKER_00: Think about your past.
SPEAKER_00: Think about your struggles.
SPEAKER_00: Man, bring them all to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Let him speak this over you.
SPEAKER_00: Neither do I condemn you.
SPEAKER_00: And lastly, I just want to pray for anyone in the room, anyone in God's house today who's not yet a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you came from a friend's invitation, but you've never said yes to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You wouldn't call yourself a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Today is the day.
SPEAKER_00: Today is the day you draw a line in the sand and you take a step of faith and say yes to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: With all of our heads bowed, with all of our eyes closed, just pray this prayer right where you were at in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to pray it out loud.
SPEAKER_00: To say, Jesus, here am I.
SPEAKER_00: I'm here.
SPEAKER_00: I'm hearing you.
SPEAKER_00: You're calling me.
SPEAKER_00: I confess all of my sin and my doubt and my brokenness.
SPEAKER_00: Oh God, cleanse my heart.
SPEAKER_00: Forgive me.
SPEAKER_00: Make me new.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus, give me your Holy Spirit to live life with you and for you.
SPEAKER_00: Oh God, come into my life.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, take all of me.
SPEAKER_00: No more secrets, no more shame, no more regrets.
SPEAKER_00: I am fully yours.
SPEAKER_00: And with all of our heads bowed and eyes closed, if you prayed that prayer, would you just slip up your hand so I can just pray for you one more time?
SPEAKER_00: Did anyone pray that prayer?
SPEAKER_00: I see yours, sir.
SPEAKER_00: I see yours.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_00: Great.
SPEAKER_00: Several of you.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone else?
SPEAKER_00: Great.
SPEAKER_00: If you raise your hand, I see yours.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I just pray for every single person who raised their hand.
SPEAKER_00: Oh God, you are the loving Father.
SPEAKER_00: Would you seal this in, Holy Spirit, in their hearts?
SPEAKER_00: Would you help them to walk with you?
SPEAKER_00: Would you bring Christian community around them?
SPEAKER_00: God, right now, in the power of the Holy Spirit, would you come and fill them to the brim?
SPEAKER_00: Help them to walk with you.
SPEAKER_00: Help them to say no to sin and yes to God.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, Jesus, do your work and your people.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, thank you, Spirit, for what you're doing.
SPEAKER_00: And for all of us, God, we're so grateful for who you are.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for loving us.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for saving us.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we pray.
SPEAKER_00: And all God's people said, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks for being with us, and we really pray that God spoke to you through his word today.
SPEAKER_00: And we want to stay connected.
SPEAKER_00: So don't forget to subscribe to this podcast, and that way you'll be notified the moment we have new content go live.
SPEAKER_00: And if you'd like more resources or to donate to our ministry, just simply go to newnorth.church.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks again for joining us.
SPEAKER_00: God bless you, and we'll see you right here next time.