SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/21/2016 9:30 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Intro to John 7:53-8:11
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 7:53-8:11
Message of the verses: “53 [[Everyone went to his home. 1 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 Early
in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people were coming to
Him; and He sat down and began to teach them. 3 The scribes and the Pharisees
brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the
court, 4 they said to Him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in
adultery, in the very act. 5 “Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such
women; what then do You say?" 6 They were saying this, testing Him, so
that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with
His finger wrote on the ground. 7 But when they persisted in asking Him, He
straightened up, and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let
him be the first to throw a stone at her." 8 Again He stooped down and wrote
on the ground. 9 When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning
with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in
the center of the court. 10 Straightening up, Jesus said to her, "Woman,
where are they? Did no one condemn you?" 11 She said, "No one,
Lord." And Jesus said, "I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on
sin no more."]]”
Any people
who have read the Bible for any length of time surely know that this story
which is placed at the very end of chapter seven and then goes to the 11th
verse of chapter eight is a bit controversial for several reasons. In the NASB we have this section in double
brackets which shows us that it is not in all of the earliest manuscripts, and
it is even in a different part of the gospel of John in other
translations. I have to admit that it
has been my view that it does not belong in the Scriptures at all, but that was
before I began to study it at this time and both Warren Wiersbe along with John
MacArthur have changed my mind on the subject.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “Is the story of the woman taken in adultery a part
of Scripture? If it is, where does it
belong in the Gospel record? John
7:53-8:11 is not found in some of the ancient manuscripts; where it is found,
it is not always in this location in John’s Gospel. Most scholars seem to agree that the passage
is a part of inspired Scripture (‘a fragment of authentic Gospel material,’
says Dr. F. F. Bruce’) regardless of where it is placed.” Ok we have learned that he believes that it
is a part of Scripture, but now we must look at where it belongs and why it
belongs where it is in the Scripture.
One thing for sure, at least to my thinking is that perhaps it all
should belong in the 8th chapter of John’s Gospel and not the last
verse in the seventh chapter through the 11th verse of the 8th
chapter. If it belongs here then why
does it belong here is the question we must look at now.
Before we
look at why it seems to belong right here I have had one question about this
story that as of yet have not really had an answer, and before I bring that up
I want to say that we once again have to go back to our theme verses to realize
that this story is not to focus on the woman, but on Jesus Christ: “30
Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the
disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these have been written so that you may
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may
have life in His name.” This is the
purpose of the gospel of John and we cannot forget that as we work our way
through the different stories that are found in this gospel. Now back to my question which is where is the
man?, for if this woman was caught in the very act of adultery the man must
have been caught too so where was he.
Well maybe when I look further at my resources I will get an opinion on
this, but again this story is about Jesus and not about the woman.
When I
studied the book of Mark and got to the end of that book I did not believe that
verses 9-20 of chapter sixteen belonged in Mark’s gospel, and there were good
reasons why, in fact I did not even write anything about those verses because
of my belief that they did not belong there, but these verses seem to fit here
in John’s gospel to me especially after listening to a sermon by John MacArthur
on this subject.
I am going to quote from a sermon by John MacArthur to show why he believes these verses belong in Scripture and why they belong here in John’s Gospel: “Now I want to begin with a very very important introduction and I want you to listen carefully as I do because this is important for us to understand. Now these verses that we will study this morning, that is verse 53 of chapter 7 through verse 11 of chapter 8, these verses have been a critical battleground. They have been debated and argued about. And the reason is this, our Bible as we know it, as we have it, is really the result of many many ancient manuscripts. In the early days of Scripture, the original autographs which God dictated to His writers were copied and recopied and recopied and recopied through the centuries. When translators go to put it together a Bible, such as perhaps King James in his time commissioned back in 1600, they would gather the evidence of all the ancient manuscripts to find the right text to translate into English. And so our Bible comes from many ancient manuscripts. Now, some of the ancient manuscripts include this portion of Scripture. Some of them do not. Some of the ancient manuscripts omit verse 53 through verse 11. In fact, some of them just start right off with verse 12. Others of them take this section and put it at the end of John's gospel and make it like a footnote. Others put it at the bottom of the page like a footnote. Some manuscripts leave it out but they leave a big blank space there as if something belongs there. And so there has been a running debate as to whether or not this passage is in or out, whether the Holy Spirit really inspired it, whether John actually wrote it, whether it is intended to be in our Bible or to be omitted. And I want you to understand this, and there is no conclusive evidence either way since some manuscripts have it and some don't, but in order for us to justify presenting it, I want to ask a few rhetorical questions. You don't have to answer those kind.
“Question
number one, do these verses teach truth that violates other Scripture? The
answer is no, they do not. Question two, do they in fact corroborate other
Scripture and substantiate it? The answer is yes they do. Third question, is
there definite and conclusive evidence that they should be left out? The answer
is no.
“Now
on the positive side these, do they fit the person of Jesus Christ? Yes they
do. Do they fit the context? In other words, do they belong in the flow of
verses before and after? Yes, it fits beautifully. Then lastly, does this
record, or these verses, fit John, the author's, pattern in writing this
gospel? The answer is yes.
“So it does not violate any other Scriptures. It
does not contradict any other Scriptures. It in fact substantiates and
corroborates other Scriptures. There is no positive evidence that it should be
left out. It is like Jesus Christ, perfectly like Him. It does fit John's
context and it does fit John's pattern. For example, in chapter 5 there was an
incident and then a sermon. In chapter 6 there was an incident and then a
sermon. In chapter 7 there was an incident and a sermon. Here in chapter 8, an
incident and a sermon. If you remove the incident, that more easily breaks John's
pattern. And so the incident in verses 1 to 11 and the sermon in verse 12 fits
John's pattern.
“And I think too that the beauty and the obvious
Christ- likeness of this record leads me personally to believe that it is
genuine. It is a
magnificent and an important account of forgiveness and condemnation
graphically illustrated in this story. You say, "Well why were some
of the manuscripts leaving it out?" Well there's no real obvious answer to
that. We don't know. It may just be that some of the manuscripts left it out
because at first glance they thought that it appeared to sanction adultery, or
sexually immorality. And so they would rather leave it out than confuse the
issue, that may be some of the reason. Legalistic copyists wanting to leave it
out, we don't know. But
the fact that it does not violate Scripture and it does fit the context and it
does portray a very beautiful and accurate picture of Christ and beyond all
question reveals divine insight and divine wisdom, leads me personally to
believe that it is genuine. And so I feel that we ought to study it. We
certainly will learn and profit by it.
“Now may I quickly add that though this story is a
story of a woman taken in adultery who is forgiven by Jesus, it is no way meant
to minimize sin. It is in no way to teach that adultery doesn't matter to God.
We know different because the Bible clearly tells us that all through
Scripture, that God despises sexual immorality. So that's not the issue. And so
we believe there is great justification for dealing with this text.
“Now, I want you to remember the key to John's
gospel. I was asking somebody about this two weeks and they didn't know and I
had a traumatic seizure right on the spot because I have said this 500 times.
Now file this in your frontal lobe and let it remain there. The key to John's gospel is
presenting Jesus as God in a body, see, that's it. Like the man said, you get
that in your head and you've got it in a nutshell. John's gospel...some of you are
coming a little slow this morning...John's gospel has one reigning continuous
never-ending relentless theme, it's on every page, in every paragraph, it is
John presenting Jesus the man as God incarnate in human flesh. That's the key
to everything in this gospel. Now I say that because I want you to
realize something. This is not the story of the scribes and the Pharisees. It
is the story of Jesus Christ. It is not the story of a woman taken in adultery.
It is the story of Jesus Christ that is on every page of John's gospel. And you
see, they are incidental. What John is revealing here is Christ in all His
glory. The story of Nicodemus is not the story of Nicodemus; it's the story of
Jesus Christ, the giver of the new birth. The story of the woman at the well is
not the story of the woman at the well, it's the story of Jesus the living
water and the Messiah. And the noble man's son and the impotent man 38 years
sick and the people in Galilee and all the rest of it all is not anything but
the story of Jesus Christ and all those characters are blurred incidentals.
Whatever is the case, whatever the reason, whatever the purpose, in John's
gospel in every confrontation Jesus Christ is the issue. It's like a camera,
you know, you focus the camera on one object and everything else is blurred.
And John's pen is like a camera and he focuses on the person of Jesus Christ
who becomes crystal clear in focus dominant and everybody else sort of fades
into a blurred background. My friend, we are not studying the woman and we are
not studying the scribes and the Pharisees, we are studying Jesus, God in a human body. And He
is ever and always on every page the one in focus in John's literary camera.”
In our study of John’s gospel I continually try to
remind myself of the theme of why John is writing and who He is writing about
for if I am not careful I can get off track and then I will miss what I should
be looking at so that is why I have to remind myself of why I am studying this
wonderful book in the wonderful book called the Bible.
MacArthur writes the following at the end of his
commentary to show us where we are going as we look at these twelve
verses: “This passage is not primarily
the story of an adulteress, or of the hypocritical religious leaders who
cynically used her to attack Jesus. The
central figure of this gripping drama of immorality, hypocrisy, and
forgiveness, as in all of John’s gospel is the Lord Jesus Christ. From it a fourfold picture of Him
emerges. The passage reveals His
Humility, His wisdom, His indictment, and His forgiveness.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I do not need to
be so quick to judge something, but take the time to look at facts to see if
what I am judging is correct as in the case of believing whether or not this
passage belongs in the Scriptures and in this spot in the Scriptures.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I want to see Jesus in the pages of Scripture, the Scriptures that I am studying remembering the theme of the Scriptures in Jesus Christ.
Memory verse for the week: 2 Cor. 12:7 “Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me-to keep me from exalting myself.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “I am that I am” (Exodus 3:14).
Today’s Bible question: “To establish one’s word, how many witnesses are necessary?”
Answer in our next SD.
5/21/2016 10:27 AM
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