John 8 is a story about judgment, law, mercy, and guilt. It’s a story about one person who has done something terrible and feels horrible regret and shame.

It’s about another group of people who have done something equally terrible, but they feel no guilt at all. They’re so concerned about the awful moral erosion in society that they can’t see the rot in their own souls.

Then it’s about Jesus! It’s about Jesus breaking the rules because he loves you so much. It’s about Jesus breaking the rules because he wants your death to became his death so his life can become your life.

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Good morning.

For those of you who are new guests, I’m Matt VanCleave, the teaching pastor here at Blue Oaks.

If this is your first time in church and you feel out of place because you think we’re all good people and you’re not so good… you need to know you’re surrounded by people who have out-sinned you by a long shot.

Don’t let all the pretty faces fool you.

Well, today is the start of our series, “Jesus Breaks the Rules.”

We’ll begin by reading John 8 today.

If you would like to follow along in your bible or bible app, turn to John chapter 8, starting at verse 2.

Or you can open the Blue Oaks app, click sermon notes and follow along that way.

At dawn he (Jesus) appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them.

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.

In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 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. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them,

“Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

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.

Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

This message today is for everyone who ever broke the rules, who ever did anything wrong, or who ever felt guilty.

If you do wrong things but you never feel guilty, that’s actually called being a psychopath, so this would be a good message for you.

If you feel guilty all the time even when you haven’t done something wrong, that’s called being neurotic. We have a lot of those at our church.

If you do wrong things and you feel guilty, that’s just regular old sin, and you’re in the right place.

If you never do anything wrong and you never feel guilty, you’re a fundamentalist and you’re in the wrong church, but you might know someone who needs this message.

This is a story about judgment, law, mercy, and guilt.

It’s a story about one person who’s done something terrible and feels horrible regret and shame.

It’s about another group of people who have done something equally terrible, but they feel no guilt at all.

They’re so concerned about that awful moral erosion in society that they can’t see the rot in their own souls.

Then it’s about Jesus.

This woman had to ask herself, “How did I ever end up here?”

We know she was a married woman.

The Old Testament law mentioned in this text specifically referred to married women.

She had at one time been a young bride with dreams about married life, about having a husband who loved her, praying and worshipping with him, and maybe about having children and raising a family, carving out a life together.

Somehow, things didn’t turn out the way she had planned. She was disappointed in her marriage.

Maybe it was her husband; maybe it was her. It probably was some of both… which is usually the case.

Some