Sermon Tone Analysis

Heavenly Help from the Lord

The Gospel of John

John 8:1-11

Sermon by Rick Crandall

Grayson Baptist Church - December 21, 2016

(Revised September 3, 2019)

BACKGROUND:

*Here in John 8 we are still in one of the most important seasons of Christ's ministry on earth.

It's the 2 or 3 week period surrounding the Feast of the Tabernacles in Jerusalem.

We know this brief period was important because the Holy Spirit led John to focus on it all the way from John 7:1 to John 10:21.

*In John 7 Jesus was at the Feast of the Tabernacles.

It was one of the 3 great feasts the Jews observed every year in Jerusalem.

During that 7-day period, all of the people moved out of their homes into temporary huts made from palm leaves and branches from certain other trees.

*By this chapter, Jesus was in the third year of His ministry, and the Jewish rulers had been trying to kill Him for at least 6 months, possibly up to a year and a half based on the different timelines scholars have proposed.

Jesus was now 6 months away from the cross.

*John 7:37-38 tells us what the Lord did at the highpoint of that feast:

37. On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.

38.

He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.''

*Some of the people there believed in the Lord, but the rulers were as determined as ever to arrest and kill Jesus.

*Chapter 7 ends as the feast ended with John 7:53 telling us that "everyone went to his own house."

All of the chief priests and Pharisees went to their own homes, but the Lord didn't have a home of His own, so John 8:1 tells us that "Jesus went to the Mount of Olives."

*This points us to Matthew 8:20, where Jesus said, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.''

And it reminds us how much the King of Kings humbled Himself to save us from our sins.

As Paul said in Philippians 2:5-8:

5. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,

6. who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,

7. but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, and coming in the likeness of men.

8.

And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

*Thank God for the cross of Jesus Christ!

Now, let's read John 8:1-11 to see how the Lord helped a woman caught in adultery.

Her story teaches us some of the most important ways the Lord can help us.

MESSAGE:

*From the day we are born, we all need help to make it through life.

You'll never see a baby walk out of the hospital on their own two feet.

We all need help, and there is no telling how many people have helped me over the years.

*One example I thought of from years ago, was a senior adult couple at First Baptist Church in Macon, Georgia.

Mary and I were about to move to Louisiana for me to start serving as the youth pastor at McClendon.

It was my first ministry position.

I was taking a pretty big cut in pay, and Mary was giving up her teaching job.

So it was a financial challenge for us, and this couple knew it.

*Out of the blue, they gave us a thousand dollars!

That would be almost $2,500 in today’s money, and it's just one example of the countless ways people have helped me over the years.

*God has worked through His people and through circumstances to help me.

But there are some kinds of help that can only come directly from the Lord.

And the most crucial help we need must come directly from the Lord.

Jesus Christ can help us like no one else can!

And tonight’s Scripture shows us how.

1. FIRST: JESUS CAN SWEEP AWAY OUR SHAME.

*Jesus Christ can take away our deepest shame, even shame like we see here in vs. 1-4:

1. Jesus went unto the mount of Olives.

2. And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them.

3.

And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst,

4. They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.

*Caught in the act: No way around it, no way out.

This poor woman was caught big time, and there was nothing she could do to explain it away.

*Well, thank God, we’ve never been dragged through the street for our sins.

But we must never think we have cleverly gotten away with our sins.

Nothing ever gets by God, and the Bible says that we will reap what we sow.

*So, we must understand that there are serious consequences for our sins.

And we should be ashamed of our sins.

But Jesus can sweep our shame away.

*Rick Warren reminds us that we must let God remove our guilt.

And Warren said, "Nothing destroys a soul faster than guilt.

In Psalm 38:4 and 6, King David said:

4. . .

My iniquities have gone over my head; Like a heavy burden they are too heavy for me.

6.

I am troubled, I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.

*There are two problems with guilt.

1.

We all have plenty reasons to feel guilty.

We are all imperfect.

We all make mistakes.

By nature we carry guilt in our lives.

2. We can't get away from it.

It's in our mind.

Even if we go to a new location we carry a guilty conscious with us.

Proverbs 20:27 says, 'The Lord gave us a mind and a conscience.

We cannot hide from ourselves.'

*How do you get rid of guilt?

How do you deal with the guilt in your life?

There are a lot of options: You can deny it, pretend it doesn't exist.

You can try to bury the past.

But it doesn't work.

If it's still alive, it resurrects itself.

Just about the time you think it's buried, the feeling comes back into your mind. . .

Denying guilt does not relieve guilt."

(2)

*And Church: This is especially true in the light of God’s holiness.

Even the dirtiest floor looks clean in the dark.

But when we see our lives in the light of God’s spotless perfection, we realize that even our best days are stained by sin.

And our best works are like dirty rags before God.

*If we will admit it, some shame belongs to all of us.

But just like He did here, Jesus Christ can overcome our shame!

2. HE CAN SWEEP AWAY OUR SHAME.

AND HE CAN SAVE US FROM OUR SINS.

*This Scripture is about much more than our shame.

Some of the worst sinners have no shame whatsoever.

At least right now they don’t.

The shameless scribes and Pharisees remind us of this truth.

*Please take another look at these self-righteous hypocrites in vs. 3-9:

3.

And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst,

4. They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.

5. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?