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John 8 and the Best way to Purge the Land of Evil

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This is my sermon on John 8 where I talk about the woman caught in the act of adultery and forgiveness. You can listen to the recording of the sermon below or read my notes, which are reasonably close to my sermon. You can also subscribe to the podcast to get these delivered to you automagically.

https://soundcloud.com/dan-sullivan-32/john-8-sermon-part-1

The Woman caught in Sin

1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. 3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst 4 they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. 5 Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?”

Here is the part of the Mosaic Law they were thinking of. I’m sure there is more from the Mishnah and Talmud on this, and that would be on their minds too.

Deuteronomy 22:44

24 then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

Their desire was the purge the evil from their land. They wanted to obey the Law, but they were obviously not doing it quite right. They made it look like they wanted to obey the law, which is the worst kind of religion. James says that you show your faith by your works, but they were just trying to do works to make it look like they had faith.

The very next verse exposes their motives.

6 This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7 And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them,

Don’t you love it how Jesus argues with them? Does He retaliate and bring this point and that point? Does He shout them down and shut them up?

Nope. He lets them carry on and dig themselves deeper and deeper into the hole.

“Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”

That was all He said! Then He goes back to ignoring them.

8 And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9 But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. 10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

He didn’t beat her up or rub her face in her sin! By asking her “where are they?” He drew her attention to the fact that they were all sinners too. You only have shame and condemnation from others if you receive it. Instead, receive your forgiveness from Jesus and stop sinning.

What do you think purged the evil from the land better on that day? Corrupt law-keepers bringing that lady in to kill without the man, or Jesus setting her free from a near-death experience?

Jesus’ Perfect Love, Observed by John

The same John that wrote down these events wrote a letter known as First John. In it he describes the love of God that is going on here.

1 John 4:13–18

13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

That is the LOVE with which Jesus loved us. Perfected and free.

Then Jesus gives a commentary on what had just happened. It might not be right afterward, chronologically, but as John is recording the story, he is led by the Holy Spirit to put these in together.

12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” 13 So the Pharisees said to him, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.” 14 Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. 15 You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. 16 Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. 17 In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. 18 I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.” 19 They said to him therefore, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” 20 These words he spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the temple; but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.

WCAGLS Session 10: Dr. Brown on Shame

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Session 10: Dr. Brene' Brown: Shame

After this intro, I wish I would have not stopped listening to her TED talk halfway through.

She is a vulnerability researcher.

She studies vulnerabilty, courage, shame.

She heard sea-level, down to earth.

What they said was C Level, CEO, CTO, CIO.

"I said, 'you don't understand, I don't study leaders, I study people."
Australian guy said, "Don't start with that"

"That's important for them, just uncomfortable, don't let them know you're coming"

It's easy to talk about innovation and change, creativity, but talking about irreducible needs of men, women and children are more important.

Love and belonging are irreducible needs. In their absence there is suffering.

People need
1. to be seen and loved
2. to belong
3. to be brave

We are here because we have connection and because we need more connection.

She put a picture of old lady hands on the screen as a symbol of love. Love is long, slow march.

Her definition of love is

when we let our most vulnerable selves to be seen and known. Love is when we honor that connection with trust, kindness, affection, and respect.

Love is something we grow, nurture, and cultivate. Between two people only when self-love is present in both.

Shame, blame, disrespect and betrayal, the withholding of affection damage the roots from which love grows.

Love grows in connection with others

Leaders don't have all the answers, that dance is over!

What a leader does is model the courage to ask the questions.

We can't give what we don't have

Leaders need to identify that weakness, find a team member that has it, and then lead the team in sharing it!

We can't give grace or forgiveness that we don't have!

We can't give help when we can't ask for it.

When you judge yourself for asking for help, you are by default judging when you offer help. When you judge yourself on a topic, you are also going to judge others when they need help.

Most of us have attached judgement to the need for and the offering of help.

You need it because you did something, I can give it because I didn't do the same thing. That is a big fat evil lie!

getting your self-worth from being a helper is a form of judgment

Professing vs. Practicing

Professing love has very little meaning.
Love is a practice. It is something we must do and participate in.

The gap between what we profess and what we practice is where we lose people. That's where we lose kids, church members, employees.

"I switched churches until I found the most imperfect group of people I could find."

"Everybody else goes to the 9:00 service, we go to the 9:05."

We want people that practice love all nasty and gritty, not in it's nice suit!

  1. shame
  2. blame
  3. betrayal
  4. disprespct
  5. withholding

Looking for shame is like looking for termites. People disengage to self-protect, so all the damage his hidden.

When you can see the termites, you have a big problem.
When you walk through the organization and you see shame at work, the shame infestation has taken over.

When your self-worth is connected to what you do, you are going to be miserable. So much shame is going to happen in that environment.

"If you haven't failed at a sermon so bad that you wanted to leave town, you aren't trying hard enough."

Blamers want to find out who's fault it is the minute something goes bad.

She blamed her husband for the broken coffee cup. He was late getting home, so it was HIS FAULT that she was having a second cup of coffee

blame: the simple discharge of pain and discomfort

people that are great at holding people accountable are not blamers. Good blamers SUCK at accountability.

Feedback is a function of respect.

Lack of feedback is the #2 reason that people say they leave jobs.

lack of feedback = apathy

You can't be good at feedback unless you are able to be vulnerable.

So many leaders avoid feedback because they themselves don't want to show their own vulnerability.

We need belonging.

the number one barrier to belonging is fitting in.

You have to make a space in your organization for people to show up, not as they should be, or how they could be, but how they are right now.

People will join a group of people not because they are the same, but because they have a mutual hate!

If I do everything that matches what you are all doing and I don't fit in, I leave with shame.

If I can show up and be myself and I don't fit in, I don't leave in shame.

People are desperate to be welcomed as they are, and to feel belonging just as they are.

"belonging is not a luxury, it is a part of our survival mechanism, to be a part of something bigger than us."

Being Brave

We were born to be brave!
We feel the most alive when we are being brave!

After her TED talk she had a vulnerability hangover.

Black dog depression is when you feel like you were too vulnerable. You feel like you either have to drive off a cliff or kill whoever you talked to.

Every one of us has a few things that someone could say that would make us change who we are.

The Man in the Arena

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

She quoted that.

As a human being you can choose comfort or courage, but you cannot have both.

When you sign up to enter the arena, you are signing up to get your butt kicked.

  • Have absolute clarity of value
  • Have someone who loves you because of your weakness "That sucked, but you were brave"
  • If you are not in the arena getting your butt kicked, I am not open or interested in your feedback.

"as the world has grown, the number of cheap seats has grown"

To contribute more than criticizing is a better way to live.

Bill's Closing Remarks

So many people live every day weighed down with the mistakes of the past.

We are really good at beating ourselves up, because our mistakes affect hundreds or thousands of people.

Romans 8:1
There is No Condemnation for those in Christ Jesus!

We don't have to carry that stuff around! Jesus took it!
Honest confession, agreeing with God that what you did was bad.
Ask God for forgiveness, take it, and move on with your life.

Resentment

Leaders get attacked more than anybody else.

Many times we have a low-level resentment brewing.

Do a 60 second relational audit. Think of somebody that you need to apologize to. Think of somebody that you need to forgive and do it.

WCAGLS Session 6: Bob Goff

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Session 6 Bob Goff

"I'm emotionally incontinent!"

Getting our signals wrong. In Uganda, our american motion for hello is Ugandan for "Follow Me!"

Stalkers find out all kinds of information about people they don't spend time with.
"I was stalking Jesus, and it was freaking both of us out!"

1 John 3:16 – we should lay down our lives for each other…let us not love with words and speech, but with words and truth!

  1. Who are you?
  2. What do you want?

If you get the answer to those two questions right, you'll be a great leader.

Moving from agreeing from Jesus to DOING STUFF.

He built a chapel for his daughter and his son in law! They built it together.

You guys can do a lot of things! Let's tease out the thing that Jesus made you to do.

Live a life worthy of the calling that you received! you, not me, not your brother.

Like a polaroid, you have to wait and give it time to develop. Sometimes as leaders we want to jump in and do stuff for people and keep them from developing.

This guy is so freaking intense.

If we weren't afraid, we would all do all of the stuff God gives us to do and it would be awesome.

He acted like a wax museum statue and two little old ladies came up and tugged on his beard. He stayed still so that he wouldn't kill them. He was a poser. He was acting.

Life is like an interrobang. It's an exclamation and a question all at once.

Bob adopts this 8 year old kid from Uganda so he could have surgery in the US.

This guy's stories are to awesome to take notes.

Every Thursday he quits something. He is continually making margins for Jesus to step into.

God wants to show off. DO STUFF and watch and see what God does!

Lazira prison was made for 200 inmates, but it holds 3,000 people.

The guy that maimed Charlie told Bob that he needed forgiveness. "I am going to die in this prison, I need to be forgiven." and Kabi, the most evil man you can imagine, became a Christian. He is now reading the Bible and wants to do what it says.

Kabi stood up and preached the gospel to 3,000 men on death row.

Then he baptized 3/4 of them with a cup of water.

Then he forgave Bob, who got him busted and landed into prison for a life sentence.

Ok, that was the best talk yet.