Sermon Tone Analysis

How We View Ourselves

John 7:

The chief priests and the Pharisees hear the approval of the crowd build for Jesus and in response, they call the temple guards to seize Him.

The guards though are amazed at Jesus’ teachings.

He speaks as One who has authority instead of speaking from the authority of others.

The Pharisees and rulers of the day viewed the people as ignorant, unclean and less than.

They could not hope to uphold the law as well as they could.

Only the Pharisees and chief priests could ever hope to be seen as righteous.

They had command over the law and there was no hope and no compassion for the crowds.

When we view ourselves as more deserving or greater than others, we begin to build a foundation to stand on that consists of who we are and not who Christ is.

We put ourselves in danger of missing the simple truth of the Gospel, that the only One who is righteous in Jesus.

We all have the same stature standing on our own before the Lord.

We are all found as unrighteous.

There is not one among us who is righteous as a result of our deeds, attitudes, thoughts or actions.

When we view ourselves as more deserving or greater than others, we begin to build a foundation to stand on that consists of who we are and not who Christ is.

We put ourselves in danger of missing the simple truth of the Gospel, that the only One who is righteous in Jesus.

How Jesus Views Us

This passage is controversial in the fact that it is not included in the earliest manuscripts of the Gospel of John.

The story though is consistent with the teachings of the rest of Scripture and even more significantly, the teachings of the previous passage.

While the Pharisees and the teachers of the law brought the woman to Jesus in order to trap him, Jesus pointed them to the purpose of the law.

The law was not given by Moses for us to make us righteous as we already spoke about and it was not given to us for the sake of condemning others.

The law was given to point us to God.

Jesus showed himself as the fulfillment of the law as he fulfills what John spoke about him earlier,

God gave the law to man to point him into relationship with Him.

Jesus came to complete the law as he removed the barrier of sin and death.

Jesus points the crowd to the truth that we all are broken, no one worse than the next, but God loves each one of us enough for Christ to come and restore us to the Father.

Our purpose now as redeemed people is not to take the place of the Pharisees and condemn the world around us, but rather we are to share the grace that has been afforded us with a world full of people needing Jesus just as we do.