A Sunday Sermon for August 30, 2015 John 8:1-11 Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery

1)    Then Jesus - Yeshua  passed through and went into the 

       Mount of Olives.  

2)   Then returning back again at dawn's daybreak,

       He arrived and came into the Temple,

       and all the people - and all the nation

       came forth publicly up alongside with Him;

       and sitting down,   He taught - instructed them.

3)   Then the scribes and Pharisees

       remove - carry - bring - lead a woman

       having eagerly and strenuously been laid hold upon

       and seized in (the very act of) adultery.

       And standing - setting her (in place)

       in (the) middle of (their) midst,

4)   They lay down definite words and say to Him,

          'Teacher - Instructor,  

           this woman has been eagerly and strenuously 

           laid hold upon and seized in the very act of 

           [thrusting] upon himself,

           in (the act of) theft committing adultery.

5)   In then, the Law,

       Moses to us obligated as a demand to be fulfilled

       such as this (sort) to be stoned.

       You, therefore, what definite words do you 

       lay down and say?'

6)    This then, they definitely said,

        testing Him by adversity and with ill intent 

        (to tempt Him to sin),

        in order that 

        they may have - hold - possess and continue to possess        

        [the power]  to speak down upon

        to accuse and condemn     Him.

                

        Then Jesus - Yeshua, bowing the head and stooping down,

         perhaps not (with) cause to make - do - bring about

         up alongside with (them),

         with the finger wrote into the Earth [wrote into the dirt].

7)   Then as they stayed and remained upon - as they continued

       inquiring - questioning - asking - interrogating    Him,

       bending back (up) again,

       He said up alongside with them,

            'He of you without sin,

             let him first     cast - throw

             the stone upon her.'

8)    And again, bowing the head and stooping down,

        He wrote into the Earth.

9)   Then they, having listened intently and heard,

       also under the conscience 

       convicted (as being) in the wrong and shamed,

       went forth out one by one,

       beginning from the Presbyters / Elders

       until the very last.

       And Jesus and the woman standing in (the) 

       middle of the midst

       were abandoned - forsaken - left alone.

10)   Then Jesus, bending back again - raising back up,

         and not even one attentively observing nor deliberately

         watching with contemplation

         more than (just besides - other than) the woman,

         He said to her,

               'Woman, where are those ones there?

        The speakers against - 

                  The condemning speakers -

                  The accusers                          of you.  

                   Not even one judged against you -

                   Not even one condemned you?'      

11)   Then she said, 

               'Not  even one, Lord.'

        Then Jesus - Yeshua said to her,

               'Certainly not then, 

                   do I judge against - do I condemn       you.

                Go and pass through  [the crowds here at the Temple]

                and sin perhaps no more - and sin perhaps not anymore.

  The Alternate Word Pictures with Reiterations (AWPR) translation, translation mine.

You may not realize it, and you may never have heard this before in your life, but what I am about to tell you is shockingly true.  Of all the activities you can do as a human being, the act of committing adultery is one of those very rare things you can do which will simultaneously violate all of the 10 Commandments written by the finger of GOD, the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ as YHVeH on Mount Horeb (also called Sinai), and given to Moses in circa 1551 B.C.  Indeed, adultery is one of those rare actions you can do which will simultaneously violate all of the 10 Commandments at once, listed first in Exodus 20 2-17, and then later in Deuteronomy 5:6-21, even if just on a spiritual scale.  

Contrary to how it used to be in America, I would have to say in 2015 that most preachers in America today are either biblically illiterates, or they intentionally preach illiteracy in various intensities in regard to the Bible.  It is not uncommon that most pastors and ministers in the 21st Century, feel the necessity to look on Christianity as just a religion,  as just a business, and to use pantheistic psychology upon the Congregation as if a smile and a little laughter is what is needed to open one's wallet and checking account to fill the collection plate, pay the bills, and send out a percentage to others looking for their religio-tax exempt corporate percentage or "cut" out of the till.    These that follow this tactic will generally give the congregation a couple cute fictional jokes or cute fictional brief humorous stories, and then with the barest of references, try to coddle the congregation to embrace the sins, accept that GOD loves them , and that it all really doesn't matter.  What really matters, they either say or openly infer, is that you come here on Sunday, help us to be your Church family, enjoy the fellowship, and support the neo-social club with feel good money to help it pay its bills, have the pastor put money away into his retirement fund and pay for excessive medical coverage, send the District and General Board their percentage income or revenue "cut" of that which is collected.  And from time to time, maybe we will give 1 percent to 3 percent to missions.  Whooptee do.

And then, there are some that are also either sexual predators or adulterers themselves, and too often, like the Roman Catholics, we see these predators and adulterers NOT dealt with, but merely whisked away to continue destroying lives and adding souls to the hell-fires of damnation, no better than being spiritual murderers themselves. The time for excuses for both the minister and the congregation to practice and perpetuate damnation and eternal loss needs to stop somewhere, and I hope that you will come to know intrinsically that,  here,  we will set this place as a refuge from all that.  For here, Church is your sanctuary from the world, even if for but a precious hour or two just once a week.    

For those very few of you, if you somehow have no problem with lying and cheating on your spouse, of having lied to them when you said your marriage vows, of dishonoring and lying to GOD when you took your marriage vows to forsake all others, of lying and dishonoring the witness of the minister whom you made your vows before...if you have no problem with that, then my job is to point it out, and let the Holy Spirit Himself convict you of your sins, so it becomes an issue between you and GOD.   Now, whether you choose to get angry and not return, or squirm in your seat, or walk out, or take the opportunity to make amends and break off from your sins and find atonement and getting right with GOD through Jesus Christ and what he did at the Cross, then that reaction and free will choice is up to you, to whosoever this message applies, the choice of what you do and how you react to it is your problem, and not mine.  I offer this sermon as part of the whole counsel of GOD, and the solution is ever to be found in what Jesus did at the Cross, and the atoning forgiveness that is found to be ever present and ever ready there for those who will with trusting-faith, believe.   

In John Chapter 8:1-11, the setting is thus:     The nation of Israel had just gathered from about 2,700,200 (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, 6.9.3) to that in excess of 3,000,000 people in and around Jerusalem into an an area of possibly less than 9 or 10 square miles during the high holidays.  In contrast, the Courts of the Gentiles of the Temple Mount area in and of itself, regularly held about 30,000 to 50,000 during the 7 high holidays listed in Leviticus 23, and possibly as well during Channukah, but only during daylight hours.   

It is extremely likely that Jesus instructed not just in an area called the Court of the Nations (also known as the Court of the Gentiles), but more specifically from Solomon's Porch, just south of the Eastern Gate, as indicated in Ezekiel's Prophecy for the Messiah to do (Ezekiel 44:1-3) which Porch and area of the Temple 11 of the 12 Disciples of Jesus specifically returned to and in imitation of Jesus taught from, after receiving the Holy Spirit following Jesus' ascension into Heaven.  The location Jesus chose was an ambiguous prophecy of sorts that the nations of the non-Jews would find Jesus as their great teacher and Messiah, and that the Gospels, though themselves written by Jews, were unbeknownst to them, written for us.  Indeed, the Jews envy the non-Jews who have indeed found the Jewish Messiah, and many for mere spite, cast themselves into unbelief on the same principal of arrogance and falsehood and pride so committed by the 23 members of the Lesser Sanhedrin, the Sanhedrin Katan that were necessary to be present for a stoning offense to be adjudicated on the spot where the woman caught in adultery was brought to.  So not only was the woman caught in the very act of a male lover brought before Jesus, but 23 chief Judges of the nation of Israel were present, and they had already let an equally guilty male adulterer go and violated the Law of Moses 100% before even bringing the woman to Jesus to be condemned.  

Leviticus 20:10

     And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. (KJV)

Deuteronomy 22:22  

    If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall both of them die, both the man that lay with the woman, and the woman: so shalt thou put away evil from Israel.  (KJV)

But both the man and the woman were NOT brought before Jesus.  The man was clearly absent and exonerated before the fact, and for all we know, was one of the 23 Judges or one of the Scribes in the crowd, looking on and sneering at the woman he intentionally lied to, entrapped, and brought into naked disgrace.  By being caught in the very act of adultery, there is no proof she had a stitch of clothing on, and may have very well stood there in all her naked shame, facing sneering contempt, harsh words, and a kill happy crowd just itching for the excuse and joy they thought they would have in killing someone.  

Jesus beholding this spectacle, then fulfills Scripture, one that many of you who have heard or read from me before will know about, because we believe the Scriptures and cite them, as Christians are supposed to do.  

Jesus - Yeshua bows the head, bends down and with the finger of GOD, writes in the Earth to fulfill  Jeremiah 17:13 

          " O Lord, the hope of Israel,

          all that forsake thee shall be ashamed,

          and they that depart from Me

          shall be written in the earth,

          because they have forsaken the Lord,

          the fountain of living waters."  (King James Version) 

Then Jesus writes something, to which the earliest Greek manuscripts point the way by the use of "ekeinoi"  regarding "those ones there"  which in context can ONLY mean that Jesus is pointing to the very names of each and every one of the 23 Judges of the Lesser Sanhedrin he writes in the Earth, beginning from oldest to youngest, under the Hebrew word of Judgement, SHeQaR, which means falsehood.  For who among us here is unaware of the Commandment on Moses second tablet of stone which read: 

                "Thou shalt not bear false witness

                 against thy neighbor."   (Exodus 20:16 - KJV)

        

And of those people who have been written in the Earth, Jeremiah 2:13 also says regarding them, that: 

         “My people have committed two evils:

           they have forsaken Me,

           the mountain-artesian-well-spring -Fountain of Living Waters;

           (and they have done so) to hew out cisterns,

            broken cisterns, that cannot hold water.”

The word used for “fountain” in Jeremiah 2:13 and 17:13 is “maqor” מקור.  We are called, in Isaiah 12:3, to draw the waters out of the “maqor” of “Salvation” (or “Jesus”) with joy.

Jesus is not only the "source" of Living waters -- He is the "maqor" or "mountain artesian-wellspring" of Living Waters. This means, that from within the innermost part of His being, the flow of Living waters come. The Living Waters that flow out from the Throne of GOD and of the Lamb (Revelation 22:1), will also be duplicated by the LORD Jesus when he returns and has His Millennial Reign  in the Temple at Jerusalem, which at that  "some time in the future" after Armageddon is a thing of the past and all over,  will pour forth as a mountain artesian-well-spring, and find their origin from a trickle that dribbles forth from the side-wound of Messiah. From a trickling of drops, the water expands and expands over the course of distance, as if by the distance of 70 rods to the power of 7, until passing through a then split Mount of Olives through a then valley of Azal; where it becomes a rushing and mighty river (Ezekiel 47:1-5). This teaching is what Jesus infers upon Himself (John 7:37), and reveals about Ezekiel 47:1-5, saying:

" “As the Writing (has) spoke(n),

'out of His inner hollow, (from His heart), 

will flow rivers of Living Waters'.” " 

(John 7:38 - AWPR, Translation mine)

Again, that inner hollow, through which "Living Waters" will flow from the throne of GOD  is from the same wound as the burst heart and pierced side of YHVeH Messiah, Jesus the Christ. In the Kingdom, the very heart of Messiah will continuously flow forth with waters, as a perpetual side of the Covenant of the Cross; and why we should place so much emphasis and believe into His atoning work there.

“All the saints shall sit at Thy feet, and shall receive of Thy words.

…and all thy children shall be taught of YHVeH, and great shall

be the comforting peace of thy children.”

(Deuteronomy 33:3, Isaiah 54:13 - KJV)

So now we return to Jesus having just written in the dirt.  Most likely the Hebrew word SHeQaR for Falsehood, and the names of all 23 Judges of the Lesser Sanhedrin underneath that word, 23 being the minimum number of the chief Judges of Israel needed for a death sentence conviction who deferred to Jesus to pass sentence. The Sanhedrin fancies themselves as "princes" as if royalty and above the law themselves, but by simply writing in the dirt, Jesus convicted them and cut them to the heart, and made their consciences for that moment in time, realize that they were merely cheap, vulgar, and in horribly guilty in their sinful actions.  

From the oldest first, down to the youngest Judge of the Sanhedrin, they see their sin and below that sin they see their name,  and these false Witnesses who are Judges are cut right to the heart of their sins, and they slink away in public disgrace and shame.  And as they slink away in shame, the crowds do likewise until there is no one left to condemn her.  

Jesus does not tell her that her sins are no big deal, but rather, He offers her the opportunity for a fresh new start.  Her life has been spared by legal technicality, and if she will accept it, she can have forgiveness if she perhaps does not repeat the sin of adultery ever again.  What we can take away from this, is don't YOU hold yourself back by the mistakes of the past when you find forgiveness in and through Jesus Christ, having truly repented of your sins. At that point, from the perspective of YOU, the future is really what YOU make it, so make it a better one, an honest and more holy one.   You are given an opportunity, one you may perhaps never have again, or perhaps you may...who knows, only GOD knows...but why risk eternity?  Take the opportunity and realize that adulterers who  never repent of their sins and who fail to trust into Jesus Christ as the only atoner of all their sins through the Cross, these shall be never inherit the Kingdom of GOD (1 Corinthians 6:9, Galatians 5:19-21), they shall be twice damned.  

Think about what attributes adultery involves.  It takes on the quality of a dog in heat, of someone committing sorcery and trying to alter the construction and composition of what a marriage is.  Adultery is no different than whore-mongering, and of murdering trust and the oneness of the spirit of a marriage with their spouse and what that entails.  Adultery is a faithless on the same platform as idolatry, in which the adulterer deifies them-self and disbelieve the Omnipotence and Omnipresence of the Almighty.  And adultery always involves loving and making lies either about it or because of it.  

Think about how adultery will destroy, severely harm, or even shall we say "kill" relationships (if not just the trust) you have with your spouse, your children, various family and extended family, and friends, and so on.  Think about the consequences of adultery on your finances, and the ill health consequences it most often brings, from sexually transmitted diseases to all sorts of other problems.  It is not worth committing...and if it is not worth the losses you alone know that can be tallied in this world, how much more should you consider that committing this sin can bar you from Heaven and damn you to hell?  It isn't worth your soul.  It isn't worth the soul of others you will likely drag in unbelief down to hell with you.  And since it isn't worth that kind of an eternal negative cost, then DON'T DO IT.

So if this sermon applies to you, stop sinning,  and in your heart come lay your sins before the Cross of Jesus, and get right with GOD.  Put your past away, and make a new present...and with it, make a new and fabulous future.  Make a best present and future full of love and compassion and right living in the marriage relationship as only you can make it.  Fully break away from the past failures and flaws and fix and fill the water cistern of your own marriage with fidelity, trust in Jesus, and I believe that GOD will honor and bless that commitment on your part.  Let the marriage be a holy institution, and may from this day henceforth, to whomsoever this applies, may you always treat marriage as the holy institution it was always meant to be honored and treated as.   Amen.