Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Episode 733: In this episode, we dive into one of the most poignant and beautiful moments in Jesus' ministry, found in John 8:1-11. We explore the story of a woman caught in adultery, brought before Jesus by the Pharisees. The gravity of her humiliation is palpable, and we reflect on the societal implications of her being exposed in such a manner. We discuss the hypocrisy of the accusers, noting the absence of the man involved in the act, and how this reflects the gender biases of the time.
Whether you’ve been following Jesus for years or you’re just starting to ask questions, there’s a seat for you here.
Join Jeff and Chris for honest conversations about Scripture, faith, and the everyday stuff we all navigate. With humor, personal stories, and plenty of back-and-forth, The Bible Guys explore what the Bible says and how it connects to your life.
Subscribe, bring your questions, and get to know the Bible one conversation at a time. Head over to TheBibleGuys.com for more information!
You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Well you are back for another Amazed. Well we're back. I don't know if our listeners are back. I'm assuming they're back for another platinum edition of The Bible Guys. This week we have Wesley Woods with us. Chris Sarball is out of the studio doing some really great missionary work down in the Dominican Republic, and so we have this great episode where Jesus is I think maybe engaging in one of the most beautiful moments in all of Jesus ministry today, and so I'm looking forward to getting into that. But before we do, Dez has this really great episode or segment for us called Who's most Likely? I love these, Wesley, These are so fun. So we have to take a vote of who's most likely. So the first one is who's most likely to talk to themselves in public and not notice. So that's tough. I'm gonna say me. Well, I was gonna say I might say me on this, especially if you're trying to work through something, you know, like should I get this or not? You know, So when I'm driving, probably two thirds of the time I don't have any music going. Yeah, that's the same with me, and I'm just. Thinking, Yeah, I'm working through a problem. I'm trying to figure out a thing, and uh, I have found myself before answering myself and looking at somebody and they're just looking at me kind of you. Know, like I didn't ask anything, So then just put. Your hand up to your like like you're talking. Yeah, so I do. I do on occasion talk to myself, So that's it. Yeah. I would say that's a tie right there. Okay, here's the second one. Who's most likely to start a story and forget the ending? That's every day for me, every day? Yeah, yeah, how about you do? Do you ever? I've done that before where you start and it's so good, you know, how like you're ramping up to the ending. I was in a meeting the other day and it was so important where I was going, and then somebody said something and it totally just took me down another road and I'm like, how does that even apply? Right? So I'm going there and suddenly I can't remember the application of what I was saying. I was like, what was I just talking about Everybody around the room is trying to remind me what I was saying. Oh yeah, it's the worst one. I'm so embarrassed for a storyteller, Yeah, to not remember the ending of their story is terribly embarrassing. Who's most likely to build a blanket for it as an adult? Now here's the thing I might say you on that one. You know what because of your grandson. I got grandkids? Yeah yeah, yep, yeah. So actually he has a fort in your backyard. Yeah, there's a big fort. The house we bought. The previous owners had this really high end fort customer and it's it's his. Yep, Rowan took it over, is his? Now? Yeah, so that's great. Who's most likely to say you too when the waiter says enjoy your meal. I just did this. I literally you know how you give the person at the airport to We were just on vacation last week. They scan your stuff and you walk down and they say you don't have a good flight, And I responded back, you two. And it's like, well that really wasn't apply. But you ever see Brian Reagan when he yeah, he does that. Yeah, they're like, I have a good good good luck flight, have a nice flight if you ever get to fly too. Yeah, I hope it's a good one. I just did that. Yeah, that's funny. Okay, And then who's most likely to google do penguins have knees? At two am? Hm? Oh see that's tricky. Now. I'm a night owl. All. I love staying up late, but normally if I'm staying up late, it's either a documentary that I'm watching. Oh yeah, yeah, which my wife is like, why are you watching a World War two documentary yet? One am? Either that? Or something just like completely dumb funny, you know, like one of the two of those. Right, So you're not You're not. Your grain's not just running wild at two am? Yeah? Yeah, me either. I am a sound asleep at two am. Yeah, so I'm usually at eleven o'clock midnight kind of a person. Yeah, when I go to sleep, but I put my head on the pillow and I'm out in five minutes. Yeah, I don't. I don't. Probably not once a month do I have an O in the middle of the Yeah, yeah, not hardly ever does it happen? So that's definitely not me doing that one, Although I am curious do they have knees? I've never even thought of that. That is a good question. Let's google it right now. I can picture the leg and yeah, you. Know, the thin leg and normally if they're have a small you know, just a newborn penguin. Google says, yes, penguins do have knees. So maybe it's further up. I don't know. Yeah, it says although their knees are tucked up inside their that's been hidden by feathers. They possess a femur, a knee joint, a tibia, and amphibia in each like just like humans and other animals. Yea, you just can't see it for hidden knees. Yeah, Okay, are they embarrassed? They embarrassed about their knees. Yes, So anyways, there you go. Now, you know, it's no wonder people tune in. It's right. It's uh information that we bring to the table. So that's funny. So now you're a documentary guy, Yeah, I love document And then do you ever search weird stuff like that where it just crosses you might know, not not at two am, but just all of a sudden go. Not normally normally how it starts a dog, you know, how the algorithm knows you. So a documentary will come up, and then I go down the rabbit trail, you know, so like I'll watch one and then like, oh, this one's interesting about why there's no bridge between you know, North America and South America and you know, through the dairy and gap. So then now I gotta watch that one. So then then you just kind of go down this rabbit trails. So so a documentary kind of person that usually means you're pretty curious kind of is that? Is that the I think curiosity is an important trait that we don't celebrate enough. Right mind order doesn't understand that. She comes downstairs and on Saturday, I'm watching like the History Channel. She's like, Dad, what is this? Yeah? Well good? Well. I think a good, healthy sense of curiosity helps you become a renaissance kind of a man, where you curiosity drives you to learn lots of different things, lots of different things. I just talked about this, not the brag, Wesley, Yeah, I hate the brag. I'm I think humility is one of my favorite traits. But I was reading and I like, I like to read the headlines. I don't like to read articles a lot of times, I know, I don't want news, uh, news websites or whatever to tell me what to think is I rarely watch the news. I don't want talking heads to tell me what to believe. You don't want to commentator to telling you what you should think about. I can't stand that, and I don't need them to tell me. Nine times this hour, the exact same thing didn't tell me what to think about it. So usually I'll read my news and most of the time it's just headlines. Well then I love to just kind of cruise through all of the headlines for the day from maybe six or seven or eight or ten different sources. Well then all of a sudden, you know, like Wall Street Journal or whatever. I think I was in one of the science magazines, come across this thing and it was talking about math process to be able to estimate whole numbers of things. And I read this thing and that I'm like, you're never going to believe what I just read about how to figure out estimates better. And everybody's looking at me, their eyes are rolling back in their head. I was like, this is the most amazing thing ever. And I'm not a big math guy, but this was a brilliant It's how the British were able to figure out how many tanks estimate how many tanks the Nazis had world War Two, and it's a fabulous algorithm that they worked out and it's super simple. I love it. And everybody's like, you are so weird, right, But there's just this weird curiosity. I think that's one of the reasons why our buddies, because we wind up talking to each other about really weird stuff in the office. Sometimes well, hey, talking about I don't know. I was going to say, talking about weird stuff. But that was a good transition. Yeah, yeah, So I don't even have a bad here's the bad transition. I don't have a bad for this one. Usually we set a goal to have like the worst possible position from the goofy segment into the Bible study part. But we are in John chapter eight and we're going to read one through eleven, and this is one of the sweetest passages. And to be honest with you, there's some curiosity for me in this passage that I'm looking forward to talking about. In John chapter eight, verse one, it says Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, which is just outside the city of Jerusalem. But early the next morning he was back again at the temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. As he was speaking the teacher's religious law, and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery, and they put her in front of the crowd. Teacher. They said, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law, Moses says, to stone her, what do you say. They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger, and they kept demanding an answer. So he stood up again and said, all right, but let the one who was never sinned throw the first stone. And then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust. When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with a woman. And then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, where are your accusers? Didn't even one of them condemn you, No, Lord, she said, and Jesus said neither do I go and sin no more. Yeah, there you go, man. This is one of my favorite stories in the Bible. Yeah, that's a great story. And I want to point out one thing here, and it's in verse three and it says as he was speaking that the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act. So can you imagine how embarrassed this woman was so not that they heard that she was an adultery, she was caught in the very act of adultery. So she has probably embarrassed, ashamed, doesn't even want to show her face, and they're bringing her before Jesus, this religious leader, to see what Jesus has to say about this. So that's just one point that just the gravity of the moment. I always read this and she was caught in the act of adultery, and you're like, oh, right, the humiliation, the shame, everything she was doing was laid bare in front of everybody. Everybody in their culture knew this was a death penalty issue. But I always wonder, where's the dude. Yeah, she was caught in the act. Yeah there were two of them. Yeah right, so where's the dude. Yeah, and they just bring the woman out right to do this. And what they're trying to do is they're trying to use it against Jesus, because if Jesus says, well, stoner, then the Pharisees would say, where's Jesus mercy and love? All he ever talks about love? But now he wants this woman executed. Yeah, and if he doesn't say, if he says, disobey the law, what kind of prophet is he to disobey God's law? And they were constantly doing this to Jesus. Yeah, yeah, So it wasn't about the woman's sin. Yeah, yeah, they could have carried they wanted to entrap Jesus. It was just an entrapment. Yeah. Yeah. It was terrible. So there's this really great note in the Life Application Study Bible says, imagine the complete humiliation of being in this woman's place. She stood alone in public, surrounded by angry accusers. They had laid bare her terrible sin for all to see, and the man caught with her was nowhere to be seen. Jesus rescued her from her sin and her shame and her indignity and death. Jesus knows your worst sins, and yet he offers you compassion and mercy. Let his mercy give you the courage to face your guilt. His leve will overcome your shame. Don't deny it or despair. Be sorry for your sins, Seek the Lord and receive his forgiveness. I love that that whole thing, right, It's just such a beautiful thing that she's completely exposed, so humiliated. And Jesus goes watch this, and in the most unbelievable way, Jesus solves us. So he stoops down in the dirt. He starts drawing in the dirt, gidling doing something. And then they. Say, so, what do you say we should do? Should we stoneer? Yeah, And Jesus sends up and he says, well, why don't you that has no sin? Why don't you cast the first stone? And then it says he stooped down again and wrote in the dust, And man, when I get to Heaven, I want to find out what he's writing. But I'm hoping he was writing the names of those very Pharisees that also had an affair with this woman. How great would that is? Like, Yeah, Bob Johnson, you were here last last Thursday. Right, that's I would love. Yeah, because whatever he was writing in the sand, the oldest guys, the ones who had the most experienced they were the ones who left first. Yeah, because you know they had also the most sins. Yeah, right, yeah, And whatever it was Jesus was writing down because he said, whoever has the no sin, you go ahead and cast first stone. And the old guys start leaving, until finally the youngest and it's only Jesus standing there with her. Yeah. An amazing thing. And it says that they kept demanding an answer. This is the funny, funny part about this. But the thing that I like about this is they kept demanding an answer. And I look at this from a very practical perspective as it relates to us. You don't always have to give a response to people, no, right when they're demanding an answer to something. That's just a side note right there. They kept they kept demanding an answer while he's just writing in the dirt. Yeah, just completely ignoring them at peace as they're pestering up them. This is why I hope he's writing names, yeah, because they keep he's writing their names. You know, let's say there's ten of them, or twelve in there, right, and he goes, Bob is here, and Bill is here, and Dave is here, and Jim is here. Right, he's right's right? Not the names that would be odd. Yeah, And they're like, what are you doing? And then they start to demanding. They're so confident in their trap. Yeah. And one of the most enjoyable things sometimes when you do get somebody trapped is how confident they were until they realize their trap. Yeah right, It is kind of a and so these guys are so confident they keep demanding, we got you now, buddy. Yeah, and then he stands there he goes, okay, sure you're right, you're right, she's supposed to be stoned. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, just just just make sure the person who's never sinned you throw the first one, and then we'll all throw some. Yeah. What I also like about this, Jeff, is the fact that and I think we need to be careful here. Jesus. At no point did he cover over her sin or did he say her sin was okay, No, no, no, that's not what Jesus was saying here. He wasn't saying that, Yeah, what you do, it's not that badger, you know, he didn't do that there, he was simply showing compassion to the woman. That's right. So there's nowhere in the Bible that says that a woman would would have to be put the death on her own for having an affair like this. As a matter of fact, in both Leviticus twenty and in Deuteronomy twenty or twenty two, it says both the man and the woman. So they were already breaking the law. Coming to Jesus, this was already a moot point. This was already a non prosecutable crime. They were caught in the act, but were only bringing the woman. Means we can't prosecute this. They knew the law right, but they wanted Jesus to put her to death because they would have within their culture for for so long they had abused that law and they had gone beyond. And if they get the woman, they would execute the woman, leave the man free. Men had totally different rights and experiences than the women did. And so this is one of those moments where Jesus elevates the woman right. He treats the woman better than society was treating the woman. He does this all throughout his ministry, where he elevates women. It was women who brought the first evidence that Jesus had resurrected. They they're oftentimes their testimonies weren't even accepted in court. Jesus allowed the women to be serving in the ministry with him. All these things. He elevated women. He did so much ministry for women, He healed women, he did so many things. But for their culture at the time, women were second rate and expendable. And so that's why they regularly broke the law. And Jesus is saying, hey, if you're going to be precise on the law, let's be precise on the law. Right, where's the man? He didn't bring a man. Okay, well, then if you're without sin, they had sinned just against that law. They brought the woman and didn't bring the man. That may have been the only thing he was saying, yeah, right, And then they all realized, oh, wait a minute, we didn't do this the right way. So, Jeff, how can we apply this to our lives. You know, there's someone reading this, and maybe there's someone you know, it could be a family member, friend, neighbor, whoever. They feel the person is not living right, the person is in sin. They're ready to condemn them, they're ready to pick up stones. How can we apply this in our life? Yeah, I think first of all, Jesus did not condemn her. Our sin condemns us. Yeah, right, So the wrong that we do is what condemns us in this situation. Jesus had the right to be the judge. Yeah, he is the judge. The Bible says at the end of time, he'll be the judge. But in this moment, he said, hey, listen, they came to accuse you. In the perfection of the law, your partner should have been with you. So he said, where are your accusers? And she said, I have none, Lord, And he said, then I'm not accusing you either. Yeah. But then he says, go and sin no more. So he acknowledges her sin. He acknowledges that what she did was wrong. And this is the difficulty we have. It is possible for me to love you and disagree with your with your lifestyle. Yeah, it is possible. Right. I loved my children when they were growing up in my home, but I didn't always approve of their lifestyle. I do not have to endorse or affirm sinful lifestyles. And at the same time, if I'm like Jesus, I'm also going to be loving. Yeah, so I don't need to condemn you because of it. Your your own lifestyle condemns. You, which oftentimes we as Christians do. Yeah, we will beat the person over the head with the Bible, and we want to add further condemnation on top of the condemnations. Right, it's oftentimes we want to make them feeling yeah the page, that's right, yeah, and which Jesus did not do, that's right. Yeah, so he does affirm the law. Yeah, he says, all right, you right, that is all. But then he's really challenging us. A lot of times, I think we can rise up above the person that's offended, thinking that our sins aren't as bad as their son. Yeah, and we forget that my sins put Jesus on the cross just like their sins. But that's a really good point of how I think we have degrees of sin. Yeah, yeah, so my sin, Jeff, isn't as. Bad, but yours. Oh your you should be stoned, you should be cast out. But mine that was just a little lie. Well, you know, you know how we tend to extend a lot of grace to ourselves and little grace to others. Yeah, right, because we know what we meant. Yeah, we assumed they meant the worst, yes, and we knew that we really meant to do the best. But it was just a mistake. So usually we don't sin. We make mistakes. Yeah, that's usually what we do. But they sin horribly. Yeah, these are horrible monsters. I think of like cars speeding that we were near a hall road. Cars drive fast all the time. If we're going fast late for something, we want grease and mercy from the police. If someone else goes fast, he's an idiot. Yeah, you know, that's kind of how we. Look at it. So I'll tell you a quick story on this, on this idea. So I'm working on a peace project overseas and a guy, a leader. Two leaders wound up butting heads and next thing, you know, because they didn't deal with it, bitterness crept in and they started kind of they started doing damage to each other. Well, one of the leaders rose and fired the other one. Oh man, Well, then the. Other one winds up losing everything. He lost his home, he lost his money, he lost his family, he lost everything, lost his reputation. He's not hiable anymore. Yeah, and all of a sudden, the guy who did the firing starts getting these threatening letters from a terrorist group. We know where your kids go to school, all these things. Yeah. So the guy that was the boss starts being afraid for his life, thinking these terrors not connecting to until they kind of discovered maybe the guy who got fired was actually the one that was sending these fake things. Yeah. Well then it blows up. They ruin this other guy's reputation. It just gets so bad. Yeah. Right, Well, now maybe that guy whose reputation is ruined is willing to just burn the whole thing down like Samson just put a whole temple down on top of him. So I get called in to try to work out some peace because I think these are both good guys. They just misbehaved. Yeah. So, in talking with the most offended one, I was like, how do we work for peace? Has Jesus ever forgiven you for something worse than this? Yeah? I said, I don't need to hear the accusations. I know the accusations, and all you want to do is keep saying the same accusations. Let's get beyond it. What is your motivation is your motivation that you need to punish this guy? Is that it? Because if we won't forgive others, Jesus won't forgive us. So then you want to be punished for all of your sins that Jesus forgave. He goes no. I said, all right, so what is your only option? And he goes, I need to forgive, And I said, not just forgive. Jesus said, pray for him and do good to him. I said, you need to use your power to find a way to do good too. He's like, I will. I'm willing to work that out, right. So then the other guy, I went to him and I said, let's say, because he's denying that he sent those letters, but we have video evidence. Yeah, So I said, let's let me just set that aside and say that was your worst decision on your worst day because you were desperate, or it's the most extraordinary coincidence in the history of extraordinary coincidence. It could be that, right, But I said, let me set both of those aside, and let me say love keeps no record of wrongs. So because I love you, if you will allow me to set those aside and say those are your worst day I can forgive you for your worst day. I'm going to invite our friend to forgive you for your worst day. That broke his heart. In that moment before we were done, I asked him, I said, would I want to pray for you, but would you pray for me? And he said yes. And he says first sentence, Father, forgive me. I'm sorry for the damage I've caused. So for three years he's denied being any part of this, but in the moment, I said, I'm willing to set it aside and forgive. I'm believing you did it, but I think it was your worst day, and I choose to forgive you even on your worst day. Yeah, everything changed right now. He didn't offend me. And so we're right on the verge of putting these two men back together and fixing this. And what a great test. This is what Jesus say. Remember when we talked Matthew eighteen that maybe we can restore a brother. These guys were great friends. How do we bring this back? And maybe I don't know that they'll ever be best friends again, but how can we get them back to functioning like good, healthy brothers in peace. It's going to require that we also choose not to prosecute, right, choose to forgive. It doesn't mean that you're saying it wasn't a bad sin. Jesus says, go and sin no more. He said, lady, that was a sin. Don't do it anymore. So it's possible for me to love you and not affirm your lifestyle and encourage you to change and not sin anymore. That's okay, but I have to do it from a position of love and not a position of judgmentalism. The Pharisees came. They wanted to correct the bad behavior too, but they want to kill her. Yeah, right, And Jesus instead extends forgiveness. And he does the same thing for you. I mean, thank god he does. Yeah, yeah, that's good. Well, there we go. Let's wrap it up there. Hey, there's probably somebody in your life that you need to encourage to go and sin no more. And at the same time, maybe it's time for us to drop the rocks in our hands and we don't have to execute the people who've offended us so badly. So good, what a powerful one. Well, I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow here on the Bible. Guys,