Locations & Times

In this four-part series, kids will watch a fun, French-style cooking show where each recipe calls for a special ingredient that makes the dish possible. Through stories of Jesus, kids will see that God’s love is our “special ingredient,” and because of it, we can do things that might seem impossible. Because God loves us so much, enough to send us Jesus, we can respond by loving others as he does, even when it might be hard.

WORSHiP

BIBLE VERSE

Jesus Loves the Woman Caught Sinning, John 8:1-11

PARENT BIBLE STUDY

Read: John 8:1-11

This story demonstrates the delicate and beautiful balance of grace and truth. Jesus shattered the status quo held by the Jewish leaders when he showed the crowd that there is, in fact, a way to be both truthful and compassionate. Jesus didn’t dismiss the woman’s sin and let her off the hook, but instead asked that someone sinless, someone perfect, be the first to throw a stone. Of course, everyone there except Jesus had sinned, and they left one by one until it was just Jesus there with the woman.

Jesus told her, “Go now and leave your life of sin.” He led the woman with grace, and her encounter with such powerful grace allowed her to go forward living in the freedom of truth. Jesus was more interested in saving her than exploiting her, and in forgiving her than condemning her, and that kind of grace is the most motivating, life-changing thing we can ever experience. Jesus gave the woman all she needed to live differently from that point forward.

The Bible doesn’t tell us who this woman is. But the truth is, we are all this woman. We’ve all sinned. We’re all condemned. However, the Pharisees wanted to selectively apply the Law only to certain people or certain parts of people’s lives. Jesus’ response to their test showed that in light of what the Law truly requires; perfection, none of us have a stone to throw.

Thankfully, the very reason Jesus came was to perfectly live out the Law because he knew we never could. The perfection of Jesus counts for us (Romans 4:24). Jesus offers us the grace we desperately need, and we are free from condemnation because of him (Romans 8:1). Our past is our past, but like the woman in this story, the power of grace gives us all we need to live in truth from this point on.

“For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him,” John 3:17.

Are you ever tempted, like the Pharisees, to condemn someone else’s sin and mistakes while minimizing yours?

Think about a time you experienced the real grace of Jesus towards you. How did it change you? How did it (or, how can it) change the way you see others?