"Neither Do I Condemn You"

Sermon Notes are available for you to follow along below, or for download here.

Sermon Notes
SERIES: Gospel of John
​Sermon Scripture:  John 8:1-11

The Science of Textual Criticism and John 8:1-11 

• Reasons why scholars doubt this story is original:
  • The story is missing from all the Greek manuscripts of John before the ______th century.
  • All early church fathers skip this passage in commenting on John and pass directly from John 7:52 to 8:12.

The Science of Textual Criticism and John 8:1-11 

• Reasons why scholars doubt this story is original: (continued)
  • The text flows nicely from 7:52 to 8:12 if you leave out the story.
    • No Eastern Church father cites the passage before the _____th century when dealing with this Gospel.
    • When the story starts to appear in manuscript copies of the Gospel of John, it shows up in three different places other than here (after 7:36; 7:44; and 21:25), and in one manuscript of Luke, it shows up after 21:38.
    • The style and vocabulary is more unlike the rest of John's Gospel than any other paragraph in the Gospel.
• How did we get our Bible?
  • The New Testament was originally written in _____________.
  • The first printed New Testament was published by Erasmus and came off the printing press in __________.
  • Before this, for 1500 years the manuscripts of the NT were passed down through handwritten __________.
  • ___________ of the original NT manuscripts exists today.
  • However, there are over ____________ manuscripts which exist today in four different forms:
    • Uncials- Manuscripts with all ___________ Greek letters. (322)
    • Miniscules- Manuscripts with ___________ Greek letters. (2,907)
    • Papyri- Very early manuscripts written on a special paper-like material from the Papyrus plant. (127)
    • Lectionaries- Collections of biblical texts for reading in public worship. (2,445)
• Textual Criticism- the science of studying manuscripts to decide what the original biblical documents contained.
  • Because there are so many copies, there also exist many _____________.
  • Because we have so many copies, we can know with _____________ what the original text said.
• Remember:
  • These variations are minor details and do not threaten our _______. The meaning of the text is unchanged.
  • God’s sovereign act to protect His Word in the Scriptures for 2,000 years should cause us to ___________.
    • God guarded the _________________ of the Scriptures to keep them from corruption.
    • God guided the _________________ of the Scriptures to keep from destruction.
  • Though not original in John’s gospel, we can know this story’s main point is true based on other Scriptures.

The Woman Caught in Adultery (7:53-8:11)

• The Pharisees tried to trap Jesus:
  • If Jesus rejected the Law and forgave the woman, his _________________ would be gone.
  • If Jesus upheld the Law and condemned the woman, his _________________ would be questioned.
• Instead, Jesus turned the tables:
  • The accusers walked away _________________.
  • The accused walked away _________________.
• Jesus forgives the woman.
  • Jesus does not _____________ sin.
  • Jesus does not _____________ sin.
• Jesus frees the woman.
  • God’s forgiveness does not give us a reason to keep sinning. (1 John 3:6-9)
  • God’s grace gives us a reason to ___________. (Romans 6:1-2)
• Jesus radically redefines God’s righteousness on the basis of _____________.
  • He desires ____________ over callous, legalistic, self-righteous obedience. (Matthew 9:13)
  • Pursuing holiness apart from an experience of God’s grace leads to heartless _______________.
    • Come to God for grace…
    • And seek to sin no more.​