What can we learn from the woman of John 8 who was “taken in adultery”?What does it really mean that she was “taken”?What does the structure of John 7:53-8:12 tell us about the central message of this passage?What does it mean for our lives today?

What can we learn from the woman of John 8 who was “taken in adultery”?What does it really mean that she was “taken”?What does the structure of John 7:53-8:12 tell us about the central message of this passage?What does it mean for our lives today?

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Ouachita Hills College

Scott Burgess

The Takedown & The Getaway

But anyways, tonight our talk is called The Take Down and The Getaway.

I like titles, so I thought that 1 might get your attention.

So we're going to take a look at a familiar passage, but hopefully get a few insights that maybe aren't so familiar to you.

Go ahead if you would, open up to John chapter 7.

And then drop down to the very last verse, verse 53.

If we could turn that down just a bit, it's awfully loud.

All right, John 7 verse 53 is where the...

A lot of people seem to agree that's where the chapter should be.

And here's what it says, They each went unto his own house, and Jesus went unto the Mount of olives.

And I always like to pay attention, close attention to words.

Now I don't know which word you think is the most interesting, but for me what got my attention was this little word right here, went.

I don't think that's so interesting, but bear with me.

As you read the story, then we get to what's probably familiar to you.

It says, early in the morning, he, that is Jesus, he arrived at the temple.

All the people began coming to him and he sat down and began teaching them.

You imagine what it would be like to have Jesus actually in your midst teaching you?

Never any mistakes And we could be like those disciples that after his resurrection said, did not our heart burn within us as he opened the scriptures to us.

In verse 3, then we read that the scribes and the Pharisees, and whenever you read the scribes and the Pharisees, you know that, oh, something wrong is going to happen.

The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman, apprehended in adultery, and stood her in the midst.

Now you know the story of this woman right here.

I've highlighted a few other words here in a different color and you'll see why I'm doing different colors here in a second, but there's a woman right there.

Notice not only did they put her right there in the midst so that all eyes are glued on her, But that little word apprehended right there, we don't always use that word right there.

That appears for the first time in John in chapter 1.

John 1 in chapter 5, Oops, let me flip right over here.

John 1, chapter 5, and it says here, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness apprehended it not.

Now, depending on your translation or your understanding of the word apprehend, you might walk away with 2 different understandings.

You could take apprehend in the sense of understood, like the darkness just couldn't understand the light.

Or it could be in the sense of it got the better of it.

The darkness could not overpower the light.

Some of your translations will have that.

Literally that word right there means took down.

So the darkness could not take down the light.

This woman right here, she was set up, but they, you might say literally, they took her down in adultery.

You hear people that are fighting, they're politicians, you know, and they think, uh-uh, we gotta win this, take him down.

That's not a nice way to think, but that gives you the sense of this word right here.

They took her down in adultery, but they weren't satisfied with that.

Well, in verse 4 through 6, though, you see what they're really after.

They say to a master, this woman was taken in adultery, the very act.

Now Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned, but what do you say?

Now this they said, testing him, that they might have wherewith to what?

Ah, so she's a tool, they're gonna treat her like dirt because they don't care about her, but they really care about his Jesus and they want to see if we can come up with a way to accuse him.

The idea being that well, since she was an adulteress, if he says well I'm gonna be merciful to her then ah he's not upholding the law and we can find fault with him and take him down.

Now you continue in verse 6 and notice this, but Jesus, he got down and with his finger began writing in the earth.

Now that verse is just loaded right there.

Where do you first meet with Jesus' finger in the Bible?

Actually even before the 10 Commandments, Did you know that?

You read in the 10 plagues that fell on Egypt, and even the wicked magician said, don't you know Egypt is falling?

This is nothing but the finger of God is doing this.

That's the first time you've eaten Jesus' finger.

But then yes, Jesus' finger, the first time that it writes is the 10 Commandments.

So when he gets down here, begins writing in the earth, if you really pay attention to words in the Bible, you're supposed to say, you know what, I think this is a hint that he's doing something related to the commandments here.

Now I wonder, do you think he might be writing the commandments or anything related to the commandments here?

If you accuse people, you usually accuse people if you're a righteous person, you would make an accusation because somebody has broken the law.

They're trying to see if he will, based on their interpretation of it, be found breaking God's law.

Well he gets down, he begins writing in the earth, kind of like letting people know, let me just set the record straight.

I'm God, let me show you what is written.

And so he got down and he began writing in the earth.

Now the story makes it clear that yes, indeed, this is what he's doing.

As they continued questioning him, he got up and said to them, The 1 without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.

The scribes and the Pharisees, are they known for being without sin in the Bible?

No, they're known for thinking that they're without sin, but they are full of sin.

They arranged for her, they knew that she would fall in this, and Then they turn around and say, oh, got you, and oh, this is a shame, we need to have you tried.

So that was sin right there, setting her up.

I want you to notice here that he got up and said, or he spoke.

Let's continue on here, let's see what he's writing.

In verse 8, again he got down and began writing into the earth.

So we're going to put that again in orange because that's the same phrase we saw at the end of verse 6 there.

We can surmise it has something to do with the law because he was riding with his finger.

Now those who heard, that's a typo, it's not how, it's who.

Now those who heard being exposed or you might say convicted by their conscience, began leaving 1 by 1, beginning from the eldest unto the last.

Now, why would they be convicted by their conscience when Jesus gets down and writes in the dust?

Or is he maybe writing Pharisee, you know, whoever, Jeremiah, adultery, scribe, I don't know, Ryan, lust, theft.

He's writing how they are in fact guilty of the law.

He's showing them that they're total hypocrites.

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The Takedown & The Getaway

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