First Baptist Church of Vineland, NJ

Welcoming, Witnessing & Winning for the Kingdom of God

JULIE

In order for me to understand Scripture, sometimes I go back and I imagine that I was alive way back then when the Bible was created, watching each of the stories unfold. 

So, let's all imagine that we are at the Mount of Olives early in the morning and we are in the temple walls rubbing the sleep from our eyes and Jesus enters and He gives a speech.  After a time the scribes and Pharisees bring forward a woman who has been caught in the act of adultery.  You can imagine, as the woman was brought in, silence moved through the temple followed by whispers and sneers of the thought of adultery.  It's a horrible thing.  I can imagine the frightened expression that must have been on her face while they spoke of possibly stoning her right in front of her.  There she was in the middle of a temple filled with people, right before her was the great Jesus Christ, King of kings, Lord of lords, and what was the topic of their discussion?  Her adultery and what kind of a horrible punishment they should give her for it.  I know that if I were in her position I would want to just melt right there into the floor and disappear as I imagine the fear, shame and regret she must have felt.  I can imagine these feelings must have been much worse than any punishment any man could have inflicted on her. 

During this time what was Jesus doing?  He was stooped down, calm, collected, seemingly unaffected, writing with a stick in the sand.  What was He writing?  To this day we don't know.  I can imagine He was not playing Tic-Tac-Toe.  Some believe He was writing down the sins of everyone around Him.  This could have been because when He stood up He said, "He who is without sin among ye, let him throw the stone at her first."  He looked around and no one was throwing any stones, not one person raised his hand.  This was because not one of them were free of sin.  So Jesus went back to writing in the sand.   One by one they dropped their stones and left the temple, every one of them.   When Jesus was alone with the woman, He looked around and He saw that no one was there to condemn her and He said, "Neither do I condemn you.  Go and sin no more." 

Jesus was a man with absolutely no sin.  One would think that He would be qualified to judge this woman.   Instead, he showed her love and told her to change her ways and sent her on her way. 

Now we have to look at this story and relate it to our own lives.  How many people here can say that they've never judged another human being?  How many people can say they've never thought about having some people in our society stoned or killed?  How many of you can say that you've never said anything nasty about other people who have cut you off in an intersection.  I know I can't say that.  I am guilty of judging other people.   I know that too often I look at a convicted criminals on TV and think they deserve to be punished.

However, someone once said, "Be not thee guilty of the greater act of uncharitableness than to incur the affliction which befall a neighbor out of punishment and judgment."  "Stop judging by mere appearances and make the right judgment."  One of the thousand injustices is to be judged by people on merely appearances.  I know that too often I am guilty of judging people before even getting to know them.  Later I find that they are the kindest, most honest, loving people you could ever meet.  I sit and I wonder why I spent so much time disliking them when they are such good people and I could have just started things off by being friends with them.  I could have spent time looking for their inner beauty instead of stopping at their appearance. 

Brianna and I volunteer at the Cumberland County Homeless Shelter.  It's pretty dirty there.  The people there are not dressed in the nicest clothes, many of them lack toiletries like shampoo, soap and many other things I take for granted.  We could have taken a look at that nasty appearance and turned our noses up and walked out but then we would have missed out on the joy of seeing their smiles.  Nothing feels better than playing with the little kids there.  Watching them giggle as they try new things.  These children have so much to offer to our world.  But we can't see that if we don't look past their appearance. 

Too many times I think that we as humans try to take over God's job.  We look at another person and their situation and we judge them.  However, this is not our job to do.  Who are we to judge?   All have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God.  Sin is sin.   Man judges in degrees of severity of sin.  But God never states that one sin was worse than another.  That little white lie I told a few weeks ago is just as bad as committing murder.  Sin is sin.  This is why the job of judgment is reserved for God on Judgment Day. 

If there is a job that God needs us to do it is to love others.  The person who has been giving you an attitude at work, show them the love of God.  The person who always gives you dirty looks at the supermarket, smile and wave.  A little love goes a long way. 

There is one more thing that we can do.  We can pray for others.  And you know what?  When you are looking up at Jesus, there is no way you can look down at others.  God tells us to pray for everyone.  That means our friends, our family and even those ones you really don't get along with.  God tells us to pray for our enemies.  Romans 12:20 "If your enemy is hungry, feed him.  If he is thirsty, give him something to drink."   The last thing people in a tough situation need is judgment.  But people are always going to need love and support.

One aspect of our society that needs prayer the most is our church.  I don't just mean our church, First Baptist Church of Vineland, I mean all churches of the Christian denomination.  I find the most common reason that people give me for not believing is that Christians can't even go without contradicting each other and putting each other down.  The Catholics can't agree with the Methodists and the Baptists don't agree with the Episcopalians and instead of bringing people to God we are turning them away. Instead of lifting God's name up, we are worrying about the technicalities of how you go about worshipping God.  There is so much controversy over which religion is right that many forget our purpose.  To bring others closer to God.  It doesn't matter which denomination we are.  What matters is that we all believe that Jesus suffered and died for our sins so that we may live eternally.  What matters is that Jesus loves us.  Instead of arguing over the technicalities of worshipping, we should be working together to spread the Word.  

We, the Christians in the world, are the only Jesus that some people will see.  We must begin by looking to ourselves.  We must be the light in the midst of the darkness.  How many times have you complained about the state of our society?  Let me ask you, what is more effective - talking about the changes that are needed or taking action and working to make the change?  I say it's time we stop complaining and time to start doing.

Back to Top       Back to Youth Sermons