“Who Are We To Judge?” -
Pastor Jim Lowe III
Sunday Morning,
07/17/22 (2nd Sunday Message)
{All scriptures are NIV84 unless stated}
Today’s Title:
“Who Are We To Judge?” - (Being Gentle Part 2)
We are talking more about our responsibility.
To REPRESENT Christ in what we do.
To show them there is a God who loves them.
To ALSO remind God’s
that he’s merciful…
that he’s loving…
that he’s forgiving…
And that WE are also loving…and understanding.
Opening statement:
I saw something on the internet that made me think of this statement:
People Can Hate You Because
We’ll post this a few times as a reminder of what we’re doing here.
2 Corinthians 5:20
20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on
So let’s continue with last week’s honest prayer:
“God, Show Me The Real Me Today”
Galatians 5:22-25
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23
Gentleness is also called “Meekness.”
It’s a form of showing love.
When speaking of love…we have a big question to ask:
How Do We Treat Others?
Last time we talked about the woman caught in the act of adultery.
We mentioned 2 things in relation to how they handled her:
1. We Say Things That Can Hurt Others
2. We Do Things That Can Hurt Others
We spoke a lot of how we dealt with others with our words…
Let’s look at this passage and see how our actions are important also.
John 8:1
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,
11
We talked about this in detail last week.
Jesus at dawn was in the temple courts.
Surrounded by all the people.
(there was a crowd here listening to Jesus)
There’s a commotion.
The teachers of the law and Pharaisees bring in a woman caught in adultery.
Verse 3-4
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,
They made her stand before the group.
They tell Jesus in front of the group.
They expose her sin
Verse 5-6
5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”
What do we see here?
These People Were The Religious People
The keepers of the law and Pharisees…
These were people who made it a big deal to LOOK good…
But their hearts weren’t right.
Kinda like today.
They Didn’t Really Care About The Law
The law said that both the man and the woman should be put to death.
Only the woman was there.
Also the fact that they brought her before Jesus.
The law said she was to be stoned…what was there to talk about?
There are people who can know how to judge others very well…
but only know 5 scriptures.
They Didn’t Care About The Woman
They dragged her in front of everyone.
They exposed her sin in front of everyone.
She could have been locked up for her crime.
By not having the man there…she had to bear the entire crime herself.
This Was All About Proving A Point
They were using this question as a trap.
They bring the woman in…caught…
What would Jesus say???
Verse 6-7 (John 8)
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,
This completely defused the trap.
This was a good trap they set for Jesus.
They put him on the spot with this situation.
They wanted him to answer quickly…
This was a difficult situation…
If he said the woman was
he could be charged with breaking Jewish law.
Leviticus 20:10
Jesus said he came to
If he said the woman
he could be charged with breaking ROMAN law for requiring her death.
they didn’t consider adultery as a crime punished by “death.”
he could also be hit with being a hypocrite.
Jesus could be considered lacking:
mercy - to kill this woman for her sin.
love - not showing love to this woman.
compassion - showing empathy and caring about her.
forgiveness - not giving her a second chance
So what could Jesus say?
The trap was designed to get him either way he answered.
John 8:6
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.
Clearly Jesus is choosing not to answer the question directly.
He’s writing on the ground.
No
It was brought up in Study Groups that perhaps he was writing down the sins of those
We also know it took time to write whatever he was writing.
There WAS a crowd in the room before this new “church mob" came
Maybe as they continue to accuse her…others could hear these religious people…
And how they are treating not only this lady…but Jesus also.
Maybe some joined in!
“That’s right!
or maybe Jesus hoped they’d look at it a little differently??
“these religious guys lack compassion.”
“something isn’t right here…”
“these guys are hypocrites…”
If they did…this could be a teaching moment…
We Can Be Very Similar To The Crowd When Dealing With
We KNOW this mob of people were wrong…
But how??
1. The Crowd Was Self-Righteous With No Forgiveness
remember…each of them had their own sins…
sins they conveniently forgot when they found out about her.
and since THEIR sin wasn’t found out…
they were ready to kill this woman.
2. They Were Critical Without An Ounce Of Love
no one seemed to care about the woman.
they only cared about what she did..
and how they could use that to trap Jesus in a loop.
3. They Made Judgments That Gave
this sin overrode all sin…
she was worse than us all…
or
4. They Wanted To Punish And Not Restore
they made her stand in front of everyone else…
they wanted to embarrass her..
they wanted
John 8:7-11
7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them,
Maybe he was writing their sins in the ground…
…with a line pointing right to the individuals…
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,
There is something VERY important about this passage…
Jesus sets and example here
John 14:15
15
So what does Jesus command?
John 13:34
34
As we’ve said before…Jesus didn’t JUST tell us to love.
He set an example to say we should love…
AS HE HAS LOVED US!
The example of what he does…the way he treats others.
If We Say We Love
So…serving our God means knowing SOMETHING about our God.
Jesus dealt MASTERFULLY with this woman who didn’t even know him.
So how did Jesus respond to this young woman?
How should WE do when dealing with others?
1. Jesus Protected Her
Before even dealing with her…he sent the mob away.
When people were keeping up mess…trying to slander her.
Jesus “grounded” the self-righteous people.
Do We Take Up For Others When People Want To Talk About Them?
Do we protect
Do we attempt to try to understand the situation?
Or do we live by the letter of the law?
Do we forget our own sins and talk about the other person because they got caught??
If God Forgave All Of Us…Who Are We To Judge Anyone?
Matthew 7:1-3
1
3
The funny thing about this scripture is the wording…
We want to judge people for the little we know about them…
But we forget the mountain of evidence of wrong we’ve done.
Who Are We To Judge Anyone Harshly?
This is why we are to
2. Jesus Spoke To Her Privately
This allowed him to deal with her directly.
Because people can lack sympathy and empathy…
Dealing with people in a group can be dangerous.
It’s too easy to come across judgmental.
3. He Dealt With Her Gently
The sin was the last thing he dealt with.
He made sure she knew she was protected first…
He had a private conversation with her…
Then he made sure she knew she was forgiven…
THEN he dealt with the sin.
Galatians 6:1
Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.
We are to follow this example.
WE are
WE are the ones who represent Him!
If ANYONE Is To Follow The Example Of Christ, It Is Supposed To Be Us!
He is telling us this how we are to act.
Gentleness Is God’s Way
Wouldn’t we prefer gentleness?
1 Corinthians 4:21
21
We can love or we can hate…
We can protect or we can condemn…
But whatever we do…
We represent Christ the entire time we’re doing it!!
People Can Hate You Because Of Christ, But Don’t Let Them Hate Christ Because Of You
