Sunday, January 15: Signs

John 7:53–8:11

In The Knowledge of the Holy, A. W. Tozer wrote, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

Tozer was right. What comes into our minds when we think about God colors everything about us. If we think that God is rigid and demanding, we will be rigid and demanding. If we think that God is harsh and dissatisfied with us, we will despair and be harsh with others. But if we think of God as a loving Father, one who relentlessly pursues us and won’t stop until He has brought us back into His kingdom, then we will have peace and will extend this love to others.

The challenge of having right thoughts about God is that He remains hidden. “No one has ever seen God,” John tells us in 1:18. So we get our thoughts about God from other places—our parents, preachers, our church, the media. Our thoughts about God are colored by all kinds of sources, some good and some bad.

But Jesus tells us, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus. “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature,” the author of Hebrews tells us in 1:3.

This week, we will be looking at one of the most famous stories about Jesus. He is hanging out at the temple, teaching people about the kingdom of God, when all of a sudden, the scribes and Pharisees break in, dragging a woman caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses commanded they stone “such women,” and the Pharisees sought a verdict from Jesus, looking for a way to set Him against the Romans or discredit Him with the people.

But the Pharisees didn’t get what they wanted. Jesus reacted in a way they could not have expected, and His response teaches us something about God. When we think about God, we should think of Jesus’s response to the woman caught in adultery.

Join us this week as we explore a well-known story and find out how mercy triumphs over judgment. See you on Sunday!
Service times are at 9:30 & 11:00. If you can’t make it in person, you can watch live at those times.