HANDLING SOCIAL INJUSTICE
John 8:1-24
START YOUR DAY WITH JESUS
V:1. But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, \”Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.
A. The best way to start your day is a talk with Jesus.
1. Notice, Jesus was in the temple early in the morning.
2. There ought to be a temple in your heart for Jesus to enter.
3. He stands at the door waiting for us to invite Him in.
B. When the Church doors are open we ought to be there.
1. Doing this pandemic, we have been having Church on social
media.
a. Sunday School on zoom
b. Church services on you tube
c. Tuesday and Wednesday night Bible studies on zoom.
2. Services may not be in the building, we called church but its
still Church.
3. The real church is in the spiritual building of Jesus Christ
which has no walls.
4. Where two or more are gathered, Jesus is in the mist.
C. Real church deals with real problems.
1. None of us are perfect and all of us have problems.
2. The reason for Church is to fix imperfect people.
2. Its how you deal with the problems that counts.
3. All of us will have to stand before Jesus and give an
account of our sins.
4. Before Jesus, every sin carries the same weight.
5. Before we think about judging anyone, we need to see
ourselves as sinners at the mercy of God.
D. Notice the Jewish leaders wore the hat of justice, but were really
the workers of the devil.
1. They brought a woman caught in adultery to Jesus for judgment.
2. Notice, they didn’t bring the male adulterer who was involved with
the woman to stand before Jesus.
a. That is social injustice at its core.
b. Prosecute one, but make amends for the other.
3. They pointed the finger at the woman, but did not point the
finger at the sins of their bias hearts.
4. There are two sides to every story. They willingly and purposely
left out the other side which was sin in its self.
5. Their agenda was not justice but self promotion.
LAWS SHOULD BE APPLIED EQUALLY
V:5. In the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?\” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, \”If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.\” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
A. Civil matters came under the jurisdiction of the teachers of law, the
Pharisees and the Sanhedrin court. Jesus was not assigned the
job of judgment.
1. They had the power to convict, but wanted Jesus to do their dirty
work.
2. Their intentions was to trap Jesus, and get rid of the woman.
3. Jesus said I came not to judge the world but to save the world.
4. Jesus knew the men who brought the woman to Him were up to
no good, so He did not respond to their questions.
5. Jesus chose a non verbal way to draw the focus on the accusers.
3. Jesus does not tells us what He wrote on the ground.
4. Let me suggest that He wrote the commandments that affected
the hearts and minds of the Jewish men accusers.
B. There is no one who is without sin.
1. Reading the Word of God will convict you of your sins.
2. I would bet that each accuser saw on the ground his sin.
C. Jesus challenge the men who had no sin to throw the first stone.
1. The men realized that their hidden sins were brought to light.
2. If they threw a stone, it would have to be first at themselves because
they coveted the life of their neighbor.
3. Is there anyone in your life that you are judging?
4. Having witnessed the police violence shown on social media,
are you judging or asking for mercy?
5. The more you judge others the more you disrupt the peace in
your life.
LET THE WORD CONVICT YOU OF YOUR SINS
V:9. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, \”Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?\”
11 \”No one, sir,\” she said.
\”Then neither do I condemn you,\” Jesus declared. \”Go now and leave your life of sin.\”
A. The older men first, could mean the older we are the more we know
our sins.
1. The older might also refer to those of the higher rank of the Jewish
civil structure.
2. Jesus had publicly made their complaint look foolish.
3. By writing on the ground, Jesus also exposed their desire
to find fault with Him.
B. Finally only the woman was left with Jesus.
1. We should be careful not to judge others unless we want to be judged.
2. Jesus does not judge our sins, but grants the mercy of repentance.
3. Jesus allows our sins to be exposed, so we can work on our weaknesses.
4. We are God’s work in progress.
5. He showed the woman mercy, not justice.
6. We can’t expect to sets of standards of justices;
one for the police officers who did wrong, and none for the
looters who burnt down businesses and left the owners and employees
with no place to work.
LOOK FOR THE LIGHT
V:12. When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, \”I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.\”
A. The work of teaching the Word of God is never done.
1. Jesus continued to teach the Word to those who wanted to hear.
2. The light is the WORD of God.
3. Without the Word, we live a life of darkness.
4. Knowing the Word is one thing, but it is living our lives
according to the Word that brings a life of light.
B. What does darkness look like?
1. Not knowing the truth
2. No desire to seek the truth
3. Inability to make right decisions
4. Being controlled by emotions rather than trusting God.
5. Living according to the standards of man rather than
the commands of God.
6. Those who live in darkness follow the crowd.
WILL YOU BE A WITNESS FOR JESUS?
V:13. The Pharisees challenged him, \”Here you are, appearing as your own witness; your testimony is not valid.\”
14 Jesus answered, \”Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going. 15 You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no one. 16 But if I do judge, my decisions are right, because I am not alone. I stand with the Father, who sent me. 17 In your own Law it is written that the testimony of two men is valid.
A. There are two types of people who come to Church.
1. There are people who come to hear the Word.
2. There are people who come to find fault.
B. The Pharisees didn’t like Jesus because He spoke the truth.
1. They were the guardians of the truth which they did not know or
practice.
2. With the woman they claimed was in adultery, Jesus gave them a
lesson on not judging others.
3. They rejected the Word, and therefore continued in darkness.
4. They had no interest in the truth, but only their own personal agendas.
5. They continued in darkness to find fault with Jesus, the true light.
C. The Pharisees had the Word in front them but challenged the
validity of it.
1. They were facing the truth, but tried to prove it to be false.
2. They had God in front of them, but tried to prove Him to be
the devil.
C. How to prove Jesus was sent by God?
1. How do you prove that Jesus is God?
2. The Jews had a rule that by two or more witness a thing could be
proved.
Deut 19:15
One witness is not enough to convict a man accused of any crime or offense he may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.
3. That didn’t work back then, because the Jews would pay people
to lie.
4. That will not work today because people will lie to agree with others.
5. There are many religions and many religious books.
6. People of other religions are as convinced that their religion
is the true religion as you are of your Christian faith.
7. Jesus said I testify for myself and the Father testify for Me.
8. The first century Jewish historian Flavious Josephus said this:
“About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to
call him a man. For he was one who performed surprising deeds and
was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over
many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Christ.”
a. After His resurrection, Jesus was seen by over 500 men
1 Cor 15:6
After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at
the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have
fallen asleep.
b. You have you own testimony about what Jesus has done in your
life.
c. I am not sure you can prove to a non believer, that Jesus exists.
d. But you are required to develop an argument for Jesus.
Col 2:2-5
God\’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, in whom are hidden all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this so that no one will
delude you with persuasive argument.
c. While we may not be able to prove Jesus, we have our faith.
Col 2:6-8
Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,
having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and
established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing
with gratitude.
d. Let us not be caught up in the emotional darkness that drives this current
moment of justice.
But rather, let us live in the righteous of Christ who will bring about
justice through our prayers and dedication to Him.
e. Emotions dry up quickly and we are left with anger and frustration.
f. When emotions dry up, the movement is put on the sidelines until the
next outburst.
h. When we live in the light of Christ, our hope for justice is kept alive.
STUDY TO APPLY THE WORD
A. The leading Jews had the Old Testament and claimed to know the
Father.
1. They didn’t know Jesus, so they didn’t know the Father.
2. They claimed the first person in the Holy Trinity, but
not the Son or the Holy Spirit.
B. The Jews knew the prophecies of the coming of the Messiah.
But they chose not to believe them.
Matt 2:3-5
When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with
him. When he had called together all the people\’s chief priests and
teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born.
\”In Bethlehem in Judea,\” they replied, \”
THERE IS A TIME FOR EVERYTHING
V:18 I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father, who
sent me.\” 19 Then they asked him, \”Where is your father?\”
\”You do not know me or my Father,\” Jesus replied. \”If you knew me,
you would know my Father also.\” 20 He spoke these words while
teaching in the temple area near the place where the offerings were put.
Yet no one seized him, because his time had not yet come.
A. There is a time for everything.
1. The Jews knew about the birth of Christ, but they chose not to worship
Him.
2. God allowed His chosen people to stay in the dark.
John 3:19-20
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved
darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone
who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear
that his deeds will be exposed.
3. Jesus is our offering from the Father.
a. He is author of justice
b. He is the light that keeps our love for all people, even our enemies
alive as we seek social justice.
c. There is a lot of hate going around to day, even in the Christian
community.
d. You can see hate in the anger that eventually promotes violence.
DON’T LET DEATH CATCH YOU WITHOUT JESUS
V:21. Once more Jesus said to them, \”I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.\”
22 This made the Jews ask, \”Will he kill himself? Is that why he says, \’Where I go, you cannot come\’?\”
23 But he continued, \”You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins.\”
A. People chose not to believe.
1. They had the facts, but chose to ignore them.
2. They had the evidence that Jesus was a man of God
a. They witness His miracles.
b. The witness His healing of all who came to Him
3. They had His testimony about the Father.
4. They were given the consequence of their unbelief, which
was eternal death.
B. We have all the safety guidelines to prevent the spread of Covid19,
Yet many people ignore the guideline and expose themselves and
others to this virus which has claimed the lives of many.
1. God has given us the wisdom to stay safe.
2. It is up to each individual to follow the guidelines.
3. To ignore the safety guidelines puts others at risk.
4. Is it God or Satan driving our desire to be normal again?
5. Is it God or Satan that is driving our desire for justice?
Rev. M. Mitchell
