Archive for June, 2010

As I go through life and I spend more and more time in the ministry I begin to realize just how alive and current the Bible actually is. To see the pages unfold before your very eyes is an awesome thing. I love to hear from God and to be cradled in His arms during times in which I feel the circumstances are unbearable or so tough that I want to quit.  It is so sad that the majority of Christians don’t spend time in their Bible everyday and don’t know how truly relevant those sacred pages are.

 There have been times recently that I have cried out to Him and He then answered and just that fact that He was listening was encouraging and powerful.  Not to mention that He was working and there was a result to my cries.  To be part of something where God moving is great, but to be a witness to God working in your own life is a simple reminder that He is real!

 As I was reading in the Gospel of John today I was struck with the fact that over the past 2000 years there has been some huge leaps in the corporate body of Christ but then again we are also the same as those listed in the pages of scripture.  I was reading about the religious and how they are focused on so much of what the law states and living according to a list of rules and making sure that the outside appears a certain way that they can totally miss Jesus.

In the eighth chapter of the Gospel of John it tells us of the account of a woman that has been caught in adultery.  Now I will stop right there and make my first point.  What does it take to have an adulterous relationship?  Two People!  Notice that in this section of scripture the religious people of the day only brought the woman…

 ³The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst ⁴they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery.

Now this leads us to several speculations…
     1.  The religious leaders knew the man involved in the affair and did not want it to become public knowledge basically protecting him.
     2.  One of the religious leaders was actually the man involved in the affair.  I have read some scholars that believe that a number of the leaders were probably involved with her.  And wanting to protect themselves from shame didn’t bring up who the male was.
     3.  That because of society and its rules at the time the male was just seen as “being a male” and not actually committing any sort of crime against the law of God or man.

 It makes sense to me that it was probably 1 or 2 but none the less scripture does not say for sure these are only speculations based upon what Jesus is about to do.  But first let’s continue on to talk about their purpose for bringing this woman in front of Jesus.  See the religious want to focus on the sins of others and focus on the areas of others that failure can be exploited so that the light is not on them and their sin and their failures.  As we look at these religious leaders they are trying to trap Jesus into a situation that they can manipulate and basically take power back from Him. 

 Jesus was becoming very popular because He was a Spirit-filled teacher, a healer, and one who was giving a new type of life that was freeing people not confining them a set of rules and regulations.   See the religious want something that man can measure through awards or accolades or even through other men’s opinions.  I was given a great analogy by a friend this past week.  And it goes something like this…sometimes you will see someone build a house and from a distance the house looks big and fancy and it gives people the impression that the family has money and gives them a certain amount of prestige.  But in all actuality if you actually drive up to the house you will see that it is a mess and the luster has worn off.  And then when you dig a little deeper the family is actually a mess with a marriage that is fractured and children that are unruly and always a menace.   And that is exactly what Jesus warns us about in Matthew chapter 23.

 ²⁵“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. ²⁶You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. 

 We see how the Pharisees we more concerned with trapping Jesus and proving themselves to be “Right” rather than actually listening to what Jesus was saying.  They wanted to be superior by proving that they were better than her. 

 We unfortunately are in the same place in the American corporate body of Christ (in my Opinion.)  We are so quick to judge people based upon our standards, or we begin to believe that it is our place to judge and take action when indeed it is God’s.  We have people in leadership today who talk and live two different things.  They will criticize people for doing this or that and chances are it is in their own life. 

 What I love about this section of scripture is Jesus’ response; we see that without saying a word He (Jesus) began to write in the dirt.  He then told them to let the one without sin throw the first stone and then He continued to write in the dirt.  Now we don’t know what He wrote but the next thing that we see is that the Pharisees started to leave one by one.  I would love to think that He was writing their sin in the dirt for everyone to see, but that is a fleshly human response.   See, what Jesus is doing here is that He is reminding them that He is the one that make someone righteous, not the fact that they keep some sort of code or rules. 

He is also reminding them that they too have sin in their life, and this is the key point and final thought for this blog at least.  We as Christians are so quick to judge others by their sin without really examining ours.  We are like the man in the temple that prayed “Thank you God that I am not like that sinner over there”; instead of being like the man over there which was really repenting of his sin and dealing with the issues in his life. 

 So, I encourage you to remember that church is about Love, Grace, Mercy, Correction, Restoration, and Forgiveness.  Because that is what Jesus modeled for us!  He showed us those very things by going to the cross for sins that He did not commit.  So before you judge, slander, ridicule, or look down upon or take the adulterer before Christ arrogantly looking for judgment to be brought upon her; remember that He can make some great “Dirt Art” with your skeletons as well!

God Bless ~ Pastor Tyler