Exclusive of Accepting

In Jesus's Own Words  •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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The Primary Message of Christianity

If you don’t look like us, talk like us, and act like us then you can’t be a part of us.
OR
God loves everyone regardless of what they believe, what they do, or how they live. He just wants everyone to find happiness.
CHRISTIANS: how do we talk to our friends?
Do we tell them what they are doing isn’t Godly?
Or do we accept/love them?
Are those 2 things opposed to one another?
NON-Christians:
They talk about being accepting and loving, but there seems to be so many rules and requirements.
Best to get our answer from the source right?

From the Mouth of Jesus

John 8:1–6 CSB
1 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 At dawn he went to the temple again, and all the people were coming to him. He sat down and began to teach them. 3 Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, making her stand in the center. 4 “Teacher,” they said to him, “this woman was caught in the act of committing adultery. 5 In the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” 6 They asked this to trap him, in order that they might have evidence to accuse him. Jesus stooped down and started writing on the ground with his finger.
As Jesus was teaching, some super religious types show up with a woman caught in the act of adultery.
This would have been hard to do since you needed 2 witnesses to the actual crime to accuse someone.
They only brought the woman meaning the man was likely in on the set up.
They were trying to trick Jesus.
Either He would be accepting of her and not judge her, thus proving He isn’t from God and doesn’t believe in God’s law.
Or He would declare her guilty and have her stoned, thus coming off as harsh and unloving, unforgiving.
The religious guys were taking advantage of this woman for their own purposes.
We do the same thing as Christians.
We talk about how bad certain people are, how sinful and broken they are in order to make ourselves out to be good/holy/acceptable people.
We are using people to make ourselves look and feel better…exactly what these religious men were doing
And why people think Christians are judgmental hypocrites.
The Pharisees were right about the woman, she was sinful, broken, and lost.
But they thought they were better than her.
John 8:7–9 CSB
7 When they persisted in questioning him, he stood up and said to them, “The one without sin among you should be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Then he stooped down again and continued writing on the ground. 9 When they heard this, they left one by one, starting with the older men. Only he was left, with the woman in the center.
Jesus didn’t answer immediately, but when he did he rocks them to the core.
“Whoever has no sin can cast the first stone.”
Jesus was the only one with that claim/right.
He was the only one without sin and the only one worthy to throw a stone at the woman.
He would have been just in throwing a stone at her, she was sinful.
One by one the religious guys walked away, leaving just the woman and Jesus.
Not one of them was any better than the woman.
John 8:10–11 CSB
10 When Jesus stood up, he said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 “No one, Lord,” she answered. “Neither do I condemn you,” said Jesus. “Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.”]
Jesus doesn’t condemn her, because He knows He will soon die for her.
That is what is incredible about Jesus, He doesn’t condemn, He dies in our place if we trust in Him.
John 3:16–17 CSB
16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
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