John 8:1-11 [NIV]
1But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" 6They 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. 7When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." 8Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9At 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. 10Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
11"No one, sir," she said.
"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."
1 Cor 5:1-2 [msg]
1-2 I also received a report of scandalous sex within your church family, a kind that wouldn't be tolerated even outside the church: One of your men is sleeping with his stepmother. And you're so above it all that it doesn't even faze you! Shouldn't this break your hearts? Shouldn't it bring you to your knees in tears? Shouldn't this person and his conduct be confronted and dealt with?
"We don't care where you've been, we only care where you are going"
Acceptance - anybody as we are
7Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. Rom 15:7
when we accept people, we're not doing it with preconditions.
Grace
8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast. Eph 2:8-9
we are not saved by faith, but through faith! Salvation is a gift.
If I received the free grace by faith, means that there's no proof that Jesus died and raised!
If we are not saved by Grace, we will have the opportunity to boast around.
It took much grace for God, to save me and you!
Christian life has no certain life of standard, only one. That is Jesus' life of standard!
Church is a place for people with problems, and want to get out of the problem.
Growth
13until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Eph 4:13
"IES is a river, not a lake" - has a process of growth
we don't want people to stay, not for the chairs to be occupied, but for us to grow.
Relational
15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. 16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. Eph 4:15-16
grow like Jesus :
love - 1 Corinthians 13
the fruit of the Spirit - Gal 5:22-23
Now, grow in Life Groups, ministries, etc.
Intentional - we don't do things because it's just traditional/habit, we do things only for a reason to grow!
10For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Eph 2 : 10
Acceptance or License?
Do we really want and can we accept sinners in church?
What do we do with them if they refuse to stop sinning?
What can we learn from these two stories?
First story
We are all sinners and cannot judge others.
"...But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." 8Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
John 8:6b-8 [NIV]
This happened during the Tabernacle, second popular event celebrating ___ and the 10 commandments.
He was writing with his fingers like God wrote on the mount of Sinai [10 commandments].
Forgiveness only comes from Christ
10Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
John 8:10
Included in forgiveness is a challenge to leave sin behind.
"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin." John 8:11
He forgave her but He told her to stop sinning.
remorse - is feel bad, not enough.
repentance - changing 180 degree from your habit.
you got the forgiveness, now stop doing it again!
Second Story
There are boundaries [of behaviour/activities]
1 Cor 10:23-24
23"Everything is permissible"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible"—but not everything is constructive. 24Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others. [NIV]
23-24Looking at it one way, you could say, "Anything goes. Because of God's immense generosity and grace, we don't have to dissect and scrutinize every action to see if it will pass muster." But the point is not to just get by. We want to live well, but our foremost efforts should be to help others live well. [MSG]
The church needs to be against sinful acts.
1 Cor 5:6-8 [msg] - you can't be a sinful man!
6-8Your flip and callous arrogance in these things bothers me. You pass it off as a small thing, but it's anything but that. Yeast, too, is a "small thing," but it works its way through a whole batch of bread dough pretty fast. So get rid of this "yeast."
The church needs to act against those who refuses to change and grow - Church disciplines
1 Corinthians 5:3-5
"... You must not simply look the other way and hope it goes away on its own. Bring it out in the open and deal with it in the authority of Jesus our Master..."The goal of the discipline is to save and restore.
No one is in this just only to tell people how to run their lives. It's bigger than that.
But then, you will never grow if you live a sinful life.
1 Corinthians 5:3-5
"...Hold this man's conduct up to public scrutiny. Let him defend it if he can! But if he can't, then out with him! It will be totally devastating to him, of course, and embarrassing to you. But better devastation and embarrassment than damnation. You want him on his feet and forgiven before the Master on the Day of Judgment.1 Cor 5:1-13 [Msg]
1-2I also received a report of scandalous sex within your church family, a kind that wouldn't be tolerated even outside the church: One of your men is sleeping with his stepmother. And you're so above it all that it doesn't even faze you! Shouldn't this break your hearts? Shouldn't it bring you to your knees in tears? Shouldn't this person and his conduct be confronted and dealt with?
3-5I'll tell you what I would do. Even though I'm not there in person, consider me right there with you, because I can fully see what's going on. I'm telling you that this is wrong. You must not simply look the other way and hope it goes away on its own. Bring it out in the open and deal with it in the authority of Jesus our Master. Assemble the community—I'll be present in spirit with you and our Master Jesus will be present in power. Hold this man's conduct up to public scrutiny. Let him defend it if he can! But if he can't, then out with him! It will be totally devastating to him, of course, and embarrassing to you. But better devastation and embarrassment than damnation. You want him on his feet and forgiven before the Master on the Day of Judgment.
6-8Your flip and callous arrogance in these things bothers me. You pass it off as a small thing, but it's anything but that. Yeast, too, is a "small thing," but it works its way through a whole batch of bread dough pretty fast. So get rid of this "yeast." Our true identity is flat and plain, not puffed up with the wrong kind of ingredient. The Messiah, our Passover Lamb, has already been sacrificed for the Passover meal, and we are the Unraised Bread part of the Feast. So let's live out our part in the Feast, not as raised bread swollen with the yeast of evil, but as flat bread—simple, genuine, unpretentious.
9-13I wrote you in my earlier letter that you shouldn't make yourselves at home among the sexually promiscuous. I didn't mean that you should have nothing at all to do with outsiders of that sort. Or with crooks, whether blue or white-collar. Or with spiritual phonies, for that matter. You'd have to leave the world entirely to do that! But I am saying that you shouldn't act as if everything is just fine when a friend who claims to be a Christian is promiscuous or crooked, is flip with God or rude to friends, gets drunk or becomes greedy and predatory. You can't just go along with this, treating it as acceptable behavior. I'm not responsible for what the outsiders do, but don't we have some responsibility for those within our community of believers? God decides on the outsiders, but we need to decide when our brothers and sisters are out of line and, if necessary, clean house.
