Week 19 Day 3

The Daily Take 10

The Gospel of John

Week 19 Day 3

Introduction…Christianity has gotten a ‘bad rap’ and a wrong criticism. Sigmund Freud, a famous psychologist incorrectly declared Christianity promotes and has brought on the feeling of guilt among people. However, if we follow the teachings of Jesus, we see the heart of God is not about condemnation but love and forgiveness. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus – there is right from wrong and truth is not relative to the situation or person. Only God can and He does declare these absolutes. In fact He offers us His statutes, commandments, ordinances and precepts for our own good and so we might enjoy life. See Psalms 119

Read John 7:53-8:11 “And each of them went ot his own house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he was again in the Temple precincts and all the people came to him. He sat down and went on teaching them. The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman arrested for adultery. They set her in the midst and said to him: ‘Teacher, this woman was arrested as she was committing adultery, in the very act. In the law Moses, it commanded us to stone women like this. What do you say about her? They were testing him when they said this so that they might have some ground on which to accuse him. Jesus stooped down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they went on asking their question, he straightened himself and said to them: ‘let the man among you who is without sin be the first to cast a stone at her.’ And again he bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. One by one those who had heard what he said went out, beginning from the eldest down to the youngest. So Jesus was left alone and the woman was still there in the midst. Jesus straightened himself and said to her: ‘Woman where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ She said: ‘no one sir.’ Jesus said: ‘I am not going to pass judgment on you either. God and from now on, sin no more.”

Bible Study

• Jesus continued His good work of speaking for God. Teaching not what man might say or compare thoughts with the minds of His day, but Jesus spoke the heart of God to a lost world.
• Today we cherish His words and are so attracted to the rightness of His life above all others we consider WWJD (what would Jesus do) as our best guide for living.
• The religious leaders did not believe in Jesus, nor that He was the Messiah. They didn’t open their hearts to Him or His teachings because they saw that belief in Jesus as the Anointed One, that was a growing trend with many people, as a threat to their established power, position and wealth.
• Religion and establishment see Jesus as competition. They leaders in Jesus’ day sought to discredit Him, tarnish His reputation and trap Him legally.
• Man fighting against God is mere foolishness. Jesus’ wisdom against the evil plots of the wicked was no match.
• What was Jesus writing in the sand…other sins that each of the accusers committed? The point was well taken. We should not and cannot judge sins we too have sinned. Matthew 7:1 “Judge not that you be not judged by God.”
• The scene of all others leaving but Jesus and the woman caught in adultery has been called ‘great misery and great pity’, but there we see the heart of God.
• God is not about condemnation. See John 3:16-17. God is about providing for us forgiveness for our sin and saying to us as Jesus did the woman…”go and make a new start in your life and don’t get trapped in sin.”

Application

• Living by the letter of the law is so debilitating and suffocating. 2 Corinthians 3:6 says, “the letter of the law kills, but the Spirit gives life.”
• A preacher named George Whitefield, who saw a criminal on the way to the gallows, said that now famous quote, “There, but for the grace of God, go I.”
• I love the revelation of David in the Psalms 103:8-12 and make it my prayer,
  • “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide, neither will he keep his anger forever. He has not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” Amen!

Tags: Take 10

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