Grace and Peace Home Worship Guide for July 26, 2020

Opening Prayer

Call to Worship Psalm 34:1-3, 17-18, 22

Song1 “Before the Throne of God Above”

Scripture John 7:53-8:11

Sermon2 “Amazing Grace”

Pastor Jonathan Olsen

Prayer

Giving3

Song “There Is a Fountain”

Benediction Jude 24-25

1 Lyrics are provided in this PDF. 2 A full transcript of the sermon is provided in this PDF. 3 You can give online through our website, our church app, or by mail.

Before The Throne Of God Above Before the throne of God above I have a strong and perfect plea A great High Priest whose name is Love Who ever lives and pleads for me My name is graven on His hands My name is written on His heart I know that while in heaven He stands No tongue can bid me thence depart No tongue can bid me thence depart When Satan tempts me to despair And tells me of the guilt within Upward I look and see Him there Who made an end to all my sin Because the sinless Savior died My sinful soul is counted free For God the Just is satisfied To look on Him and pardon me To look on Him and pardon me Behold Him there the risen Lamb My perfect spotless righteousness The great unchangeable I Am The King of glory and of grace One with Himself I cannot die My soul is purchased with His blood My life is hid with Christ on high With Christ my Savior and my God With Christ my Savior and my God

CCLI Song # 2306412

Charitie Lees Bancroft | Vikki Cook © 1997 Sovereign Grace Worship

CCLI License # 3240311

There Is A Fountain There is a fountain filled with blood Drawn from Immanuel's veins And sinners plunged beneath that flood Lose all their guilty stains Lose all their guilty stains Lose all their guilty stains And sinners plunged beneath that flood Lose all their guilty stains The dying thief rejoiced to see That fountain in his day And there may I though vile as he Wash all my sins away Wash all my sins away Wash all my sins away And there may I though vile as he Wash all my sins away E'er since by faith I saw the stream Thy flowing wounds supply Redeeming love has been my theme And shall be till I die And shall be till I die And shall be till I die Redeeming love has been my theme And shall be till I die Dear dying Lamb Thy precious blood Shall never lose its pow'r Till all the ransomed Church of God Be saved to sin no more Be saved to sin no more Be saved to sin no more Till all the ransomed Church of God Be saved to sin no more

CCLI Song # 27707 Edwin Othello Excell | Lowell Mason | William Cowper

Public Domain CCLI License # 3240311

The following are questions that can be used for personal reflection or group discussion on Pastor Jonathan’s July 26th sermon:

1) “Grace doesn’t mean we don’t call out sin for what it really is… grace is HOW we deal with sin.” What did Pastor Jonathan mean by this?

2) Who do you think stones ought to be thrown at? Why don’t you think stones ought to be thrown at you?

3) Do you tend to resist confrontation of your sin, or do you tend to see it as God’s grace at work in your life?

4) What is one thing that would be different in your life today if you really believed that because of Jesus, you (like the woman) are guilty but not condemned?

July 26, 2020 “Amazing Grace” Pastor Jonathan Olsen John 7:53-8:11

53 They went each to his own house, 1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. 3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst 4 they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. 5 Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” 6 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. 7 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.” 8 And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9 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. 10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

“Amazing Grace” - it's one of the most famous and beloved hymns of the Christian faith. Grace and Peace actually sings a modern version of it with some frequency. It was originally written in 1779 by John Newton, a man known for his private and public perversions before he placed his faith in Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and savior. And for many different reasons this hymn lives on. But one of the reasons that it does is because it strikes at the core of humanity; only God's grace can save a wretch… a wretched Sinner like me. It’s the confession of every true follower of Jesus Christ: “I am a wretched sinner! I do not deserve God's love and his favor! I don't deserve his grace! And yet it is readily offered, freely offered, readily available to me through faith - through trusting in Jesus Christ.” Amazing grace. And amazing grace is actually what we see in our passage today. We see:

1. Amazing Grace To The Crowd (7.53-8.6a) 2. Amazing Grace To The Leaders (8.6b-9)

3. Amazing Grace To The Sinner (8.10-11) Now there have historically been some questions surrounding our passage today, especially because this passage is not found in most of the early manuscripts of the Bible. That's not true of all of the early manuscripts, but it is true of most of them. Now a couple of the ancient manuscripts also have a blank space between John Chapter 7 verse 52 and John chapter 8 verse 12, as if they know something like this passage ought to be there. Now for most of 2000 years, this passage has been preached as scripture (although some people say, well maybe it doesn't really fit in with John's gospel, but maybe something like Luke's gospel… or maybe it should be somewhere else in the gospel of John). But this passage totally reads as scripture. It follows Johns pattern that he began in chapter 5 where he would bring a startling introduction, and then a discourse. And we'll see next week the “light of the world discourse” from Jesus, and we’ll see in the rest of chapter 8 that Jesus is God - he's the one who sets people free. And now we see a startling introduction as Jesus shows amazing grace to a woman who's bound by the darkness of sin. And we begin today with Amazing Grace to the crowd. I. Amazing Grace to the Crowd

53 They went each to his own house, 1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. 3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst 4 they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. 5 Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” 6 This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him.

Now the holiday, the “Feast of Booths” (that we've been talking about the last few weeks) is now over, after seven days of Jews from Jerusalem and pilgrims from the surrounding area who came into Jerusalem. They have celebrated God’s provisions and the party is now over. And so they need some rest. And they probably need some rest because they’ve also been thinking so much about who Jesus is - is he really our Messiah, the anointed one from God, the Christ? Is he really him? So they go home they get some rest. Jesus goes a couple miles east of Jerusalem to the Mount of Olives. But the next day, both Jesus and the crowd end up back in the holy temple, where they had spent so much time during the week long celebration, after a good night’s rest (or maybe a restless and sleepless night for the crowds as they’re really wondering, is this the one that our Bible, the Jewish scriptures, the Hebrew scriptures, the Old Testament, has been pointing to? Is he the fulfillment?) And they might have been wrestling all night long. But they're back together again. Jesus sits

down and he starts teaching those who are curious, those who are trying to figure out who he is, those who have not yet made up their mind about who he is. Have you? Have you made up your mind about Jesus? Have you made up your mind and agreed with what he has to say? That he’s the bread of heaven, the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one, the savior of the world, the rescuer and deliver for all who will believe in his perfect life, in his substitutionary death, and the victory of his resurrection, to give forgiveness of sins, to give new purpose in this life, to give a living hope in this life, and to get the promise of heaven? Have you made up your mind? Have you said yes to Jesus yet? But the Bible study that this Jesus was having with the crowd is interrupted, because the Jewish leaders bring in a woman in the midst of the temple, right there front and center for everyone to see. And this woman had been caught in adultery - sad sexual sin. Now Jesus in chapter four had already been with a promiscuous woman. In Luke chapter seven he was also hanging out with a woman who was deemed a sinner. And in those cases, in both those situations, Jesus gave great amazing grace to those women. And that's exactly what we're going to see him do here with this woman. But his grace does not mean that we don't call sin out for what it really is. We have to call sin, sin… transgression… wrongdoing… guilt before God. And his grace doesn't mean we don't deal with sin. In fact, his grace is HOW we deal with sin. We are empowered by grace to call sin out for what it really is, and then deal with it for what it really is. And of course the sin of adultery is as sad and disturbing and destructive and life altering as any sin, and many of us sadly know the impact of adultery. Jesus is not downplaying sin here. So with this woman here who’s been caught in the act of adultery, now front and center with mostly, if not exclusively, men around her, all on her own… think how she would feel? Again, not trying to justify her sin or minimize it, but think how this woman would feel there in the temple, brought in by the leaders, a guilty sinner, all alone, in a crowd (many of whom are self-righteous men). Some of the crowd might think, “I’m glad I’m not her!” And of course there's a sense in which you want to say, “Well yeah I'm glad that I haven't committed that sin” or “I'm not having to stand there before everybody!” But they might be self-righteous: “I’m glad I’m not her, because I’m better than her!” I wonder if that's how you might feel when you see people being found out caught in their sin, and discovered. Do you think you're actually better? Maybe some of the crowd did have compassion on her (we’ll see Jesus certainly did). Sadly maybe some of the men in the crowd are actually lusting after her because of the sin she had committed. The Jewish leaders wanted to execute “lawful” justice with her, but as we'll see she's just upon here in order to attempt to trap Jesus the leaders don't really care about her or as she relates to their law - they're just using their law, and her, to hopefully trap Jesus. Now because of the Old Testament law they say, “well we ought to stone this woman. Women like her ought to be stoned when they’re caught in adultery. Leviticus 20 and Deuteronomy 22

say capital punishment ought to be enacted when one commits adultery. And yet, neither in Leviticus 20 or in Deuteronomy 22 are we told how capital punishment is to be enacted. In the law it is written that an engaged virgin (maybe like this woman) who has committed adultery, both she and the man (this is very important) were to be stoned to death. I want to say something about stoning. Stoning is a profoundly complicated difficult thing for 21st century people in the western world to get our minds around. Actually it still happens in some places today - the stoning of people to death. I don't recommend you getting on the Internet but there are incredibly graphic and disturbing videos of people being stoned to death today by capital punishment. People would dig a pit, and the person would be placed in the pit, and their hands would be tied so they couldn't push themselves out of the pit. And then people would take stones and throw one stone after another… the person being stoned to death would die from blunt force trauma to the head. And these Jewish leaders are saying, “Well a woman who is caught in adultery, Jesus, she ought to be stoned to death. What do you say?” Now it's important for us to note a few things. First, in the 1st century under Roman rule, the Jews really wouldn't have been free to execute anyone. And the scribes had so many extra stipulations as it pertained to stoning that it was almost impossible to execute. But we need to understand that the threat of stoning for an engaged woman (and the man who had committed adultery) means that God's warnings are real. Scripture takes them seriously. And it's God's grace that is warning us away from sin. That's why he gives us warnings - to warn us away from doing that which is terribly damaging to our souls. It’s like seeing a “Do Not Enter” sign on a one way street - the sign is a warning – a helpful warning. “ Do not come down this road because you can get in great danger and you might even die.” But of course, the Jews brought this woman in, and the question is, where is the man? She is being condemned; he is not. Now maybe he escaped, but they still shouldn't have brought in just the woman. They should have gone and found the man according to the Old Testament law. Maybe this man was part of the ploy to trap Jesus - which would make this all the more awful for the woman. Maybe he wasn't being brought to justice because he was a man (which sadly could have been true very true in the 1st century and even still true in the 21st century). But the law said that both were to be brought to justice. And so what we have here is a twisting of the law by the Jewish leaders in order to trap Jesus by this profound injustice to this guilty woman. Have you had others get away with sin and your life and you found yourself trapped, where you're wondering “Why do they keep getting away with it?” And you almost more frustrated that they're getting away with it, than anything you have committed? Let me tell you if you find yourself caught and found out, it's ultimately God's grace.

In an attempt to trap Jesus they they ask him, “look what do you think?” And if Jesus is loose with the law, they got him. But if Jesus actually goes with their application of the law, then he's neglecting the law. They're trying to trap him. The attempt to trap Jesus was pretty characteristic of his earthly life. Here's a sampling of that.

Matthew 16:1 And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven.

Matthew 19:3 3 And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?”

Luke 20:20-26 20 So they watched him and sent spies, who pretended to be sincere, that they might catch him in something he said, so as to deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor. 21 So they asked him, “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly, and show no partiality, but truly teach the way of God. 22 Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not?” 23 But he perceived their craftiness, and said to them, 24 “Show me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have?” They said, “Caesar's.” 25 He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” 26 And they were not able in the presence of the people to catch him in what he said, but marveling at his answer they became silent.

Jesus silences those who seek to disprove him. Just as we'll see here in our text today, and it's still true today, he silences those who seek to disprove him. And sometimes he silences those who seek to disprove him by converting them to saving faith. And that ought to be our prayer. That ought to be the way we want to see Jesus show off his glory. He's not taken back by anything here. He's actually showing amazing grace to the crowd. To that watching crowd he is showing amazing grace by being patient with those who want to trap him. He's modeling godliness as God to the crowd, so the crowd has no reason to accuse him or to side with his accusers. Next we see Amazing Grace to the leaders. II. Amazing Grace to the Leaders

Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7 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.” 8 And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9 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.

Now in an admittedly bizarre response Jesus writes with his finger on the ground and some people think that this is a reference to Jeremiah 17:13 –

O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be put to shame; those who turn away from you[a] shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water.

Now remember last week we learned that Jesus has and is living water for all who trust in him. And so many think that John 8 here is a fulfillment of Jeremiah chapter 17 as Jesus writes on the earth as the one who has living waters. Now look we don't know what he wrote, we don't even really know why he wrote, we don't know for how long he wrote, and there's no point in speculating. Pens have been emptied in trying to speculate about why Jesus is doing what he's doing here, what he's writing, and for how long. But all those pens that have been emptied have tried to speculate without success. Here's what we do know: Jesus is displaying the power of silence in order to frustrate the Jewish leaders here. He doesn't play their games. So the leaders continue to ask him, what are we to do? What do you think we ought to do? What do you have to say about what we say we ought to do with this woman? So jesus stands up (and some think this is an illustration, a symbol of the resurrection life, the new life that he's about to give this woman, and that he has divine authority to do this for this woman)… he stands up and he says some of the most gracious words in the bible to a sinner who's been condemned by others: “let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” She is a guilty sinner – check. She has been humiliated by being brought to the midst of the temple – check. She's isolated – check. They want to stone her – check. But remember, ultimately what they want to do is trap jesus. Even in knowing this, jesus focuses not on defending himself or justifying himself, but on reaching into this woman's darkness to give her amazing grace. Hallelujah, what a savior! He says, let the first one who’s going to stand up and throw a stone at this woman be without sin. As long as there's one of you, just one of you, who is without sin, then you can go ahead, stand up, throw the stone, and the rest of you can throw. It’s actually a masterful grace to the leaders because Jesus is graciously saying that they are no different from the woman! They're guilty sinners too! They were guilty of injustice by not bringing the man to justice but just the woman. They're guilty of deception and lying. They’re guilty of abusing their power. Romans chapter 2 verse one reads

Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.

Friends it would be a very healthy spiritual question for us to ask as we're condemning and judging the sin of others: “How am I a guilty sinner as well? How might I actually be guilty of some version of the very sin that I am condemning in other people?” This will keep you humble and this will keep you cross-dependent. What do I mean by that? You and I are guilty sinners and there's not a single thing that we can do to make ourselves right with God. But because Jesus is a God of grace, he left heaven graciously on a rescue mission for people like you and me. And he clothed himself as God in full humanity. He became a man and lived on this earth like you and I yet he lived on this earth without ever sinning - he did no wrong, he was never guilty of any sin. He was guiltless, he was spotless, he was blameless in his thoughts and words in deeds and desires. He was the perfect man. And he lived here perfectly so that he could then be an acceptable sacrifice in the eyes of God the Father. When he died on a Roman cros,s he was dying as a human substitute for human sinners like you and me. And he was dying on the cross, and his Father was pouring out all of his judgment and wrath, his righteous and holy anger for sinners on his innocent son. And it put him to death. And three days later, he was raised from death in victory over the judgment of sin, Over the power of death, not just for him, but for anyone who believes in him, then they have victory over the power of sin and the power of death forever. They have reconciliation with God. They have a brand new life, and a brand new purpose for this life, and they are promised it because of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the gospel. This is the good news. This is the only hope for sinners like you and me. Who do you think stones ought to be thrown at? Like really judged for their sin? You’re angry about it… why? Why do you think stones ought to be thrown at them? And the other side of that coin is, why don't you think stones ought to be thrown at you? Why do you think stones ought to be thrown at others? Why ought others to be judged and condemned, but not you? And do you see, do you accept, or do you resist Jesus’ confrontation over your sin – that it is actually his marvelous grace in your life, allowing you to see what you really are, so that you can see him for who he is, as your Savior if you'll trust in him? The gospel the good news of Jesus frees us to say, “hey look, I'm just as equally needy of a sinner as you are. It's so relevant today with all of the divisions and self-righteousness and anger as it pertains to race and government and politics and police and you know exactly what I'm talking about. The only righteousness any sinner has is the righteousness that Jesus offers. It's his righteousness alone that can make us right with God.

So Jesus writes on the ground again. We don't know why. We don't know what he was writing. We don't know how long he was writing. But the Jewish leaders (who would have all been male) began to walk away after Jesus said what he said. One by one they're walking, away recognizing their guilt, recognizing they’re disqualified from throwing a stone at this woman, because they too are guilty sinners. And you'll notice what John says here - the older ones went away first. Leading in confession and repentance, they were leading and realizing “Yep I actually am a sinner” as older believers ought to. And the younger ones were following, as younger ones ought to.

Hebrews 13:7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.

We should cut and paste the godliness and confession of sin and repentance that we see in the lives of others. We should cut and paste that, and put it in our lives. So who's that person or people in your life? And who can you be an example to? Well lastly, you see amazing grace to the sinner. III. Amazing Grace to the Sinner

10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

He says to her, “Woman (which as we've said before just means ma'am or Madam), where were all those who want to stone you?” Not because he doesn't know, but he's highlighting the fact there's no one there! And this is actually upholding the law's requirement of needing to have multiple witnesses in order to condemn someone. There wasn't even one witness now to condemn her. Of course Jesus knew what she had done, but none of these other mere human witnesses were there because they were guilty as well. It doesn't mean she was innocent. But she’s not condemned because of Jesus grace, Hallelujah. We don't know if she heard Jesus speaking to the leaders - likely she had no idea about her fate (which of course would have made Jesus’ amazing grace all the more amazing to her). Because her only hope was grace. And it's our only hope as well. It was her only hope because she's a sinner and so she's dependent upon God's grace to rescue her! There's nothing she can do. And OUR only hope is grace as well, because we're sinners and there's nothing WE can do to rescue ourselves!

We’re wholly dependent upon grace for wretched sinners like you and like me. It's the gospel of grace. That's our only hope. The gospel of Jesus’ grace. Jesus, the God of grace, is alone with this woman. He says, “Has no one condemned you?” Just think about the freedom that this woman has! She answered, no one Lord - no one has condemned me. The Lord replies with as amazing as grace can get: “Neither do I - go and sin no more.” Guilty? Yes. Condemned? No. All because of the grace of Jesus Christ. Can you say this about your own soul?

Psalm 130:3-4 3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? 4 But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.

If God wanted to hold our sins against us, we could not stand before him. And that is the eternally reality for all who die without placing their faith in Jesus: you will stand condemned forever in the judgment of hell. But for all who do place their faith in Jesus to be their Savior, you have the very words that he gives to this woman: “Forgiven! I don't condemn you! Now honor, fear, revere, worship me. Continue in sin no more. Hate it. Run from it, because of my grace for you.” After I was saved a friend of mine told me to live by this grace mantra: “Go in peace, sin no more, and have sound theology.” Walk in the peace that you have with God. Hate sin for what it really is, and run from it. And continue to grow in God's grace through Jesus by studying his word. Think of the impact -the life altering impact of Jesus’ grace in this woman. Think of the life altering impact of grace for you, my fellow sinner. Think of the inexcusable and deliberate sins that you and I continue to commit as spouse or a parent or a child or a sibling, friend, an employee, a neighbor, and all the sins that we commit in private. Jesus is a God of new life and renewal, of second chances. Because he is a God of grace, grace for all who trust in him will never change. I don't work in your life praise God You know as with this woman, many people will say many things about your sin. Many people will want to discredit Jesus and your profession about him because of your sin. Many will forsake you because of your sin. So at the end of the day, his word alone is the only one that matters. What does he say about you? Does he have grace for a sinner like you, like he did this woman? Does he say, “My word to you is amazing grace because you believed in my gospel, in my life and death

and resurrection to forgive you to renew you and to give you a living hope”? Jesus says, “If you trusted my gospel I do not condemn you. Go and sin no more.” Friend you haven't trusted in Jesus yet, stop right now. Stop right now. Think about your life. Think about your sinful life. Think about the inability you have to stop sinning. You need outside rescuing help. And it comes through Jesus Christ. Say yes to him today. And if you have, sin no more. See sin for what it is. Hate it for what it is. Run from it for what it is. Trust, rest in the ongoing grace of Jesus. And take it into the relationships you have, that he’s give you, so that you can be a walking, living testimony of the power of the grace of God in the face of Jesus Christ.