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I'm trying with God's help, I'm trying to give up condemnation and blaming and self-righteousness
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and this season. And today I want to talk about a single phrase of Jesus and try to unpack it,
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but the one who is without sin casts the first stone. In the ancient world,
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stoning was a real thing and people did it both to destroy somebody to inflict pain upon them
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and to express condemnation and exclusion. You are not worthy to be a part of us. Thank God we
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don't stone anymore. Except, of course, we do. The online is a very popular place for stoning
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and in media and in our hearts. I can throw a little stone with my eyebrows. I can throw a little
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stone with my tone of voice. I can throw a little stone with my timing. This is quite embarrassing,
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but this week needs asked me to do a favor and there was a long pause and then I said, okay,
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and then of course she said, well, why did you say it like that? Why was there a long pause?
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And then of course, I said, what do you mean, long pause? Everything's fine. I said, okay.
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So now I'm adding deceitfulness and lying to the resistance in my spirit to just the simplest
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act of love. It was amazing how to struggle with myself. Later on that afternoon, as I was thinking
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about this to say, no, I got to go back to Nancy and tell her what was going on and of course,
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she read me right and put down the stone, put down the stone. We live in a world of stone
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throwers and the form that a stone takes can vary from one century to another from one culture to
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another, but it is deeply, deeply within the human heart to judge, to condemn, to hold it over
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someone to want to bring somebody down. We live in a world. So the invitation today is just this
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simple, put down the stone. Just, just let it go. Now, I want to try to unpack this with two
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ancient stories. It's a little tricky. So I don't know if I'll be able to do it, but I'm going to
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give it a shot. René Gerard in this book I see Satan fall like lightning talks about two stories
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from around the same time, both of them involving a stoning, one of them pagan, one of them,
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the story about Jesus and John chapter 8, and they illustrate a sea change that Jesus is bringing
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to human life and if we want to you and me. The first one is from a book by a Greek writer and
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the book is called the life of Apollonius of Tyanna. He was apparently a historical figure, though
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lots of miraculous legends kind of made up told about him. One time Gerard quotes this story,
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I won't go all the way through it. There's a plague in the city of Ephesus and they couldn't get
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rid of it. And so Apollonius comes and says, I'll tell you how to get rid of it. That guy right
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over there, there's a beggar walking around in the theater. He says, he's our problem. You stone him
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and the plague will go away. Pick up as many stoneages you can and hurl them at this enemy
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of the gods. Now the Ephesians wondered what he meant and were shocked at the idea of murdering
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a stranger so manifestly miserable for he was begging and praying them to take mercy upon him.
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And nevertheless Apollonius insisted and they end up stoning the guy and then once he
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has stoned the plague stops and it turns out they all think by looking at him. Yeah, he was the
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cause. There was a demon in him that was a monster in him that was something wrong in him.
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And Apollonius successfully eggs them on to stoned this one.
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Gerard talks about how there's something inside all of us that always wants someone to blame.
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He talks a lot about scapegoating. We got to find a victim. We got to find somebody to condemn
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mobs kind of work that way. People kind of work that way. And the stoning takes place. And this
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was something that was admire. Julian the Apostate Gerard writes who was trying to save paganism,
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several centuries after Christ actually put the book that tells the story of Apollonius back into
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circulation. Now contrast that with this story about Jesus. Describes in the Pharisees bought
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before Jesus a woman taking an adultery, placing her in view of everyone. So think about this moment,
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think about this moment for this moment. She has done a horribly wrong thing. She would have been
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a married woman across the series of lines is in an adulterous affair. There's been deeply
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damaging to herself, to that man, to her family. And now for her to be taken in adultery means there
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had to be at least two witnesses. So you think about this. Somebody had to be watching. And when
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they were watching, they did not try to help. They didn't try to stop. They just wait.
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Interestingly enough, they don't catch the man. Although, you know, pretty clearly if they
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caught her in the act, they would have caught him too. Double standard is goes way, way, way back
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there. Placing her in view of everyone, they don't see a human being with her. They see an
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opportunity to tap trap Jesus. She's just an object. People who pick up stones were kind of that
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way. We kind of dehumanize people. We don't see them. We don't think about their story. Master,
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this man was surprised in the act of adultery. Moses commanded us in the law to stone such women.
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Now, what do you say about this? They said this to set a trap for him in order to be able to accuse him.
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So that's their only concern in this process. If Jesus were to say, yeah, go ahead and stoner.
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That would be incredibly harsh. And people would think he's not nearly as compassionate as he
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seemed to be. And it would get him in trouble with the Romans because Rome said that Israel was not
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allowed to publicly execute people. If he said, no, don't stoner, then he would look soft and like he
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wasn't really committed to the law, the way that other rabbis were. And so either way, they thought his
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reputation would be tarnished. But Jesus, bending down, started writing with his finger on the ground
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as they were insistent, he drew up and said to them, let whoever is without sin among you cast the
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first stone at her. And bending down again, he once more began to write on the ground.
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When he said this, they withdrew one by one, beginning with the oldest.
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Jesus remained along with a woman who was still there. Standing up, he said to her, women,
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where are they? Has no one condemned you? No one, Lord.
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She answered, neither do I condemn you. Jesus said, go and sin no more.
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Now, in contrary to that story in Ephesus where Apollonius is, where he's got to stir the people
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up, you got to stone this guy, you got to let him have it. When Jesus comes, this group is already
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combative mood. They're already ready to do it. And he explicitly mentions the first stone,
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let the one who is without sin cast the first stone, wants them to dwell on who's going to throw
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the first stone. Apollonius the other way around, he's just trying to get anybody to throw it.
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And Jesus does this to our rights because it's going to be a very weighty thing. It's a lot
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easier to pile on when somebody else does it. Who's going to be the one to throw the first one?
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According to the law, it was supposed to be the witnesses, whoever those, in it, took at least
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two witnesses, couldn't be just one, had to be two witnesses. And then according to the Old
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Testament law, it was the witnesses who had the clearest knowledge of the sins that were the one
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that were to begin the punishment. But in this moment, when these people are there and they've
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set this thing up to be a trap, let the one who is without sin cast the first stone, see the woman
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was guilty of sin and horribly, shamefully, deeply, funerably aware of it.
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The men that had her here were guilty of sin. Judgmentalism, unbelievable lovelessness,
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hatred for Jesus in their heart, but they were unaware of it.
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So I can put myself in the woman's place. I can put myself in the place of the men who
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held the stone because I've held the stone a lot of times in my life. And often, I'll think,
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yeah, I'm right. I'm the one who's concerned for good. I'm the one that's on God's side. I'm
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trying to teach and explain to people. There's moral rot all over the place. How awful it is.
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And so Jesus deliberately draws attention to, all right. Now before you do this, just stop and think
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who's, this is an act that for which I will be responsible. See, if I just become part of a mob,
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I don't have to worry about it, but everybody's doing it. And you're our rights about how
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most of what we do in life, we are deeply influenced, we learn, we live by imitation in ways far
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deeper than we think. And so Jesus draws attention to who's going to throw the first stone.
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And then this very interesting people have wondered for centuries when Jesus bends down. What does he
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write? Does he write the Ten Commandments? Does he write a list of the sins that the people are guilty of?
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Gerard says he thinks at least part of what's going on is Jesus bends down so that he doesn't have
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to look the men in the eye because if he looks him in the eye, he knows they will take that as
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kind of a challenge. The Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center says even if you're ever with a bear,
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don't look the bear in the eye because the bear will take that as an act of aggression and the odds
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of violence will go up. And Jesus is being so thoughtful, so brilliantly understands the human
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condition. He's creating space for the men who are there to reflect on their own sin, to not just
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get caught up in an aggressive moment. I'll show you. So for whatever reason, he bends down,
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he writes something around, and then somebody puts down a stone. And then somebody else,
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and somebody else, and somebody else, and he turns to the woman, do they not condemn you?
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Now, of course, they know what the woman has done is wrong, but it's a different thing to discern
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what's happened is wrong than it is to condemn. Jesus says, no, Lord. This apparently is the
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beginning of her journey of faith in him. And Jesus says, neither do I condemn you.
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Go and sin no more. You'll have to put an end to this affair. You'll have to go back to your
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husband, set things right with a family. Lots of work ahead, but now you'll do that with no
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condemnation. I do not condemn you. So, gosh, our world needs this so much to you and to me,
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what Jesus would say today is put down the stone, put down the stone, put down the stone.
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Live with a spirit of discernment, clarity about what is right, conviction, and love.
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No more stone in. There is now no condemnation put down the stone.
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Hey, did you have a takeaway from that teaching? Don't keep it to yourself,
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My name is Tim. I'm a part of the team here at Become New and I'm a pastor. We distribute
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