I would like to try and leave you with a view of the death of Jesus that is not often portrayed in the preaching but which has sustained me through many difficult years and helped me to hold fast to my faith at times of weakness.

It is really John's view of the dying of Jesus. John views Jesus as being fully in control of events in this Gospel, hence he is presented from the outset as 'The Word' with all that men did to Jesus only serving God's purpose.

John does not tell the story of the birth and growing up of Jesus as the other writers do; he seems to want to take us straight to the glory of the person of Jesus and begins at the point of Jesus public ministry. Jesus on a mission, Jesus as the Son of God and moving purposefully towards that perfect sacrifice of himself to God.

When referring to his death Jesus says, “No one takes my life from me, I lay it down of myself and I take it again” and there are many similar examples in this gospel of Jesus speaking and acting as one who is dictating events not following them. In that way it differs somewhat from the other Gospels.

John would not feel the sufferings of Jesus any less than the other gospel writers. He was very very close to Jesus but he is given an impression of Jesus by God that the others didn't share in quite the same way and vice versa.

In the chapters before where we have read we hear the Lord calmly explaining to his disciples what the plan is so to speak. “I came from the Father and entered the world and now I am going back to the Father” he says in Chapter 16. It is almost matter of fact although we know now what that involved.

In front of Pilate we see him calm, submissive but in control of the situation, actually seizing the initiative from Pilate.

Prior to that, when they came to arrest him and when Jesus confirmed that he was indeed whom they had come to arrest, they fell back and hesitated. He almost had to encourage them to go ahead with the arrest.

Even in the agony of his dying, we read that Jesus was concerned for and provided for his mother who was at the foot of the cross. Even in those last dreadful moments he was concerned that certain prophetic scriptures should be fulfilled. He asked for something to quench his thirst that the prophetic scripture might be fulfilled. Then, knowing that all he came into manhood to do was complete, it says, “He bowed his head and gave up his spirit”. The wording in the original text conveys that it was a voluntary act. These are things we cannot say much about but are for contemplation.

Undoubtedly, John would have seen the darkness that came over the whole land, he would have felt the earthquake, he would have heard the Lords cry, “My God why hast though forsaken me?” but he did not relate those things. He would have felt intensely, the sufferings of the one he loved so much and been so close to; but he saw something else too, he saw the glory of the Son of God, the personal glory and superiority of Jesus accomplishing all he came to do.

It is an aspect of the dying of Jesus that many Christians are not taught and yet it is vital in understanding the secure and unchallengeable basis of our salvation; that it is based upon a transaction between God and Jesus conceived in a past eternity that was to provide a JUST solution to the whole question of sin. God's holiness satisfied, righteousness demonstrated and justice fully served in the unsparing judgement of sin, borne not by us but by Jesus as “He bore our sins in his own body on the tree”…… and all resolved between God and Jesus alone.

In my own experience I have found that this side of the truth has greatly deepened my appreciation of the Sufferings of Jesus. More so than all the accounts of his physical sufferings that the old preachers used to give, sometimes very graphically.

I was moved by those preachings yes, but when you begin to see Jesus as he is presented in John's Gospel as the Son of God and without whom nothing even received being, it brings home the enormity of that step into manhood and into this poor world, the humiliation he had to endure in life and in death and the awfulness of being made sin, actually enduring Gods wrath against sin until that wrath was exhausted. There was no screen or filter to lessen that judgement because of who he was, it was unsparing, total.

It was something that he had anticipated all his life and must often have gone through with his Father long before the moment near the end when he said “Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me”

I often think of Abraham and Isaac as Abraham was told to take Isaac to one of the mountains at Moriah and there to sacrifice him. Scripture says “They went both of them together” Lovely scripture. “They went both of them together”. Father and Son together. Then you think of how Abraham built an alter, with Isaac watching him. He then laid some wood, tied his son to the wood and prepared to kill him. In that real life story, God stayed Abraham's hand and provided a Ram, caught in the thicket, as the sacrifice.

In this scripture which is the great antitype of Genesis 22, we see the climax of the journey of the Father and Son together but the Father's hand was not stayed here and the Son was not spared. “He who spared not his own son but freely delivered him up for us all”

Man and even Satan were instrumental in the fulfillment of the Divine plan (Jesus said to those that came to arrest him “This is your hour and the hour of darkness”) but the killing of Jesus by men is not the basis of our salvation. It is the sacrifice of Jesus as he offered himself spotless to God and God's acceptance of that sacrifice that is the basis of our salvation.

Peter grasped that. He says to the Jews in Acts 2, “This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge and you with the help of wicked men put him to death by nailing him to a cross” It was by the purpose and foreknowledge of God that men where the instrument of his death and yet we are therefore all responsible for his death.

The question was asked at coffee morning recently, why, if God loved Jesus did he allow his son to be sacrificed and killed? When Jesus cried, “My God my God, why hast thou forsaken me” why didn't God rescue him?”

Well, as much as Jesus was loved by his Father, having offered himself as the ultimate sacrifice for sin and being made sin for us, God's justice had to be executed and demonstrated to the whole universe, to Angels, and infernal beings and Jesus knew that. John's view of Jesus is that of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. John saw something that others didn't see in quite the same way, that the dying of Jesus was part of a Divine plan which was entered into willingly by Jesus, anticipated all his life and that this was not a disaster, not the failure of an earthly ministry but an eternal solution to the whole question of Gods relationship with mankind.

That cry, of Jesus, that question, is for you and me to answer today.

Too often, believers are not taught properly and feel unsure of the ground of their salvation. Well meaning preachers try to help by stirring emotions and sentiments that in themselves are right but often do not give lasting assurance. God's love is emphasised but the ground upon which that love can be enjoyed often not properly explained.

I myself, often doubted my salvation until I grasped the “Just” part of the expression 'A Just God and Saviour' until I saw that this transaction that took place between God and Jesus in respect of my sins I had no part in. It is done. “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thyself I cling. I have thee for righteousness”. There it is again.' Righteousness'. The hymn writer had grasped it, “Of thy fullness grace on grace”

But I want to say too that a real understanding of the way in which God's righteousness has been revealed, when grasped, does not become some kind of legal passport to heaven but Grace makes it good in my soul and that then makes way for the love of God to come into my heart and colour all my thinking. Those great Chapters in Romans 5,6,and 7 in which the foundation of the Gospel and righteousness are so carefully explained lead you in chapter 8, not to “a ticket to heaven and a careless life” but such an over- whelming feeling of God's love and grace that it changes you inwardly.

So “Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life” the scripture says. Love is not compromise neither is grace. If that were so, there would have been no need for Jesus to die. Righteousness had to be universally displayed in the death of Jesus and if I want to live with a sense of Gods grace, I need his righteousness first. I need to grasp that sure foundation of the gospel. “Grace reigns through Righteousness”

So we come to this woman, who finds herself brought into the presence of this wonderful Saviour who would soon be fulfilling God's eternal plan and laying a JUST basis for HER salvation.

Again, he is fully in control, of the situation. He holds the key to this woman's fate as he holds the key to our fate too.

She is undoubtedly guilty. They wanted to make an example of her and they were right to do so in respect of the law. They had found a sinner who had violated one of the commandments and it was a serious sin. There is almost an ugly sense of glee in their attitude as they bring her to Jesus. We often hear sins compared with sins and there is no doubt that some are far more serious than others but we also have to be careful that we don't take any comfort from the fact that I may feel I have committed lesser sins than others. It is human nature to think like that but leaves the root problem unresolved.

And so they brought her before Jesus and used her to try and trap Jesus.

There had already been great discussion as to whether Jesus was the Christ and the Son of God so this was their chance to put him on the spot. If he did not condemn her he would be accused of breaking the Law given by Moses. If he did condemn her, where were this love, grace, forgiveness and mercy he had spoken of?

Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground. I don't know the significance of that but just imagine the scene. I expect there was absolute silence as Jesus wrote in the dust. He kept them waiting. The woman stood there, also waiting, knowing that upon his word, when he spoke, her fate would be decided. To be set free or stoned to death, what a moment, what suspense.

Finally Jesus straightened up and said “Let him that is without sin cast the first stone”

Notice he didn't' say “Let him who has not committed adultery cast the first stone” or “him that has not committed a sin as bad as this” but “let him that is without sin”…….Any kind of sin……just one sin.

Silence…again he stooped down and wrote on the ground and as he did so they began to file out one by one till only the woman was left. Some may have lingered longer than others. I bet their minds were working overtime.

Eventually Jesus stood up and said “Where have they all gone? Has no one condemned you?” I would like to have seen his face at that moment. I wonder whether there was a smile on his face, a kindly twinkle in his eye “Where have they all gone?” He knew they had all gone, where each had gone and why, of course he did.

By leaving the scene, they were all self-condemned, but she remained and in his next words she found herself in the presence of a Just God and a Saviour

Soon Jesus was to offer himself to God on the cross to clear the way for this very woman's salvation and ours too.

So in the light and anticipation of that he says to the woman, “Neither do I condemn you. Go now and sin no more” and you notice he does not ignore or minimise her sin but what we see here is that as Paul says “Where sin abounded, grace has over-abounded”

I have no doubt that if she continued to be true to Gods work in her, her sin and the sense of Divine love and grace that more than covered that sin would deepen. She would surely never forget those words “Neither do I condemn you”

I believe that is how it should be with us too. It certainly was with Paul. How he persecuted the Lords people and was present at the stoning of Stephen never left him and having been forgiven much he loved much and served much until he was utterly spent he says.

Being human, we remember our sins, forgiven though we may be, forgotten by God though our sins may be. But when we do remember them it is with all sense of condemnation gone and in its place, increasing thankfulness for the sacrifice of Jesus and the righteous and sure basis upon which God has forgiven us and that………… leads to worship, and how right that is

“Eternal ages shall declare the riches of thy grace” the Hymn writer says

I never tire of hearing the Gospel or preaching it. If we could fill this room every so often I would love to preach the Gospel regularly.