Send us a text
Freedom begins when accusations fall silent. In this powerful exploration of Jesus' encounter with the woman caught in adultery, we uncover a profound demonstration of "binding and loosing" that goes far beyond religious formulas or magical thinking.
What happens when we witness Jesus confronted with a woman trapped by shame, facing death under religious law? Rather than simply pronouncing forgiveness, Jesus first creates space by silencing her accusers. This tactical move—binding the voices of condemnation before speaking freedom—reveals the true nature of spiritual authority. Jesus doesn't just say the right words; he takes decisive action that transforms the entire situation.
Drawing from this remarkable story in John 8, we discover how binding and loosing represents our privilege and responsibility as believers. The kingdom breaks into reality not through empty declarations but through the powerful combination of words and works. Like ironing a wrinkled shirt requires both identifying the problem and taking out the iron, spiritual transformation demands both declaration and demonstration.
As we examine how Jesus quieted the condemning voices before speaking freedom to the woman, we find a paradigm for our own spiritual authority. The accusations that drive destructive behaviors must first be silenced so people can hear the liberating voice saying, "Go and sin no more." This isn't a burden but an empowering reality—you're now free not to sin.
Ready to move beyond formulas to experience the true power of Heaven manifesting on Earth? Let this message reshape how you understand your role in making God's invisible Kingdom visible. Share your thoughts or questions with us at lifeonthefire@gmail.com or visit our website at lifeonthefire.com.
particular passage of Scriptureand what's being drawn from it
(00:48):
might initially sound a littlebit new to some of you.
But just bear with me for aminute and I think by the time
we're all said and done, you'llsee what I'm talking about.
By the time we're all said anddone, you'll see what I'm
(01:11):
talking about Again in Johnchapter 8,.
Let me read the story In Johnchapter 8,.
It's 11 verses.
John 8, verses 1 through 11.
This is in the New LivingTranslation.
John writes Jesus returned tothe Mount of Olives, but early
(01:34):
the next morning he was backagain at the temple.
A crowd soon gathered and he satdown and taught them.
As he was speaking, theteachers of religious law and
(01:57):
the Pharisees brought a womanwho had been caught in the act
of adultery.
They put her in front of thecrowd, teacher.
They said to Jesus this womanwas caught in the act of
adultery.
The law of Moses says to stoneher.
What do you say?
(02:20):
They were trying to trap himinto saying something that they
could use against him.
But Jesus stooped down andwrote in the dust with his
finger.
They kept demanding an answer.
So he stood up again and saidall right, but let the one who
(02:43):
has never sinned throw the firststone.
Then he stooped down again andwrote in the dust.
When the accusers heard this,they slipped away one by one,
beginning with the oldest, untilonly Jesus was left in the
(03:04):
middle of the crowd with thewoman.
Then Jesus stood up and said tothe woman where are your
accusers?
Didn't even one of them condemnyou?
No, lord, she said.
And Jesus said neither do I Goand sin no more.
(03:26):
Now, there are so many richlessons to be drawn from that
particular passage of Scriptureand there are so many things
(03:47):
that we can appreciate Jesusdoing that we could spend hours
alone on that particular passage, right there On that particular
passage.
We could spend hours unfoldingwhat's there, and still there'd
(04:09):
be more.
But the angle that I want topresent this morning concerns,
or is concerning, this wholeaspect of binding and loosing.
Binding and loosing Because ifyou've been around for any
(04:33):
length of time, regardless ofthe circle that you you travel
in, concerning your fellowship,if you're a Christian, the
church group that you're a partof.
You've come across the termbinding and loosing and you've
(04:57):
heard it presented in a varietyof different ways.
Some have been good, I'm sure,and some of them have been not
so good.
Some of them like it's almostlike us having God magic or
something that we justarbitrarily can go about turning
(05:24):
things off and turning thingson and God is at our whim or the
powers of heaven are at ourdisposal and say bye, or it's so
rigid that nothing gets done.
We don't even try to doanything about it, we just look
(05:48):
at it and study it again andtalk about it some more because
we're kind of afraid to doanything about it or with it.
Maybe you're just contentrelegating it to what took place
then, and that terminology canstay right there in the pages of
the Bible binding and loosing.
(06:10):
However, binding and loosing ispart of the privilege and the
responsibility that's been givento the body of Christ, and it's
a means by which we are able tojoin together with heaven, the
(06:35):
power of God coming from heaveninfluencing earth.
We become a conduit throughwhich that power is manifest on
earth, where we are able toparticipate together with God in
(07:06):
seeing his plan and hispurposes unfold on planet Earth.
Amazing that we have theprivilege and the responsibility
, as believers in Jesus, underhis lordship, under him being
(07:26):
head and we being the body underhis lordship we have the
(07:54):
privilege and the responsibilityto participate in his nature
and see the things of hiskingdom demonstrated to us and
through us from heaven ontoearth.
In fact, it's what Jesus, partof what Jesus taught in his
teaching concerning prayer.
He said when you pray, praylike this your kingdom come God,
your kingdom, your kingdom comeGod.
Your kingdom, your kingdom come.
Your good pleasure, your plan,your purpose, your will be done
(08:16):
in earth or on earth, as it isin heaven, as it is in heaven,
let heaven be manifest on earth.
In fact, that is the originalpurpose for earth being created
(08:37):
that we would colonize earthwith the kingdom of God, that
the invisible would becomevisible, the, the kingdom of God
, that the invisible wouldbecome visible, the invisible
kingdom of God would be madevisible on planet Earth.
And so we have that privilegeand that responsibility.
(09:04):
In fact, jesus said thatspecifically to Peter.
We have that privilege and thatresponsibility.
In fact, jesus said thatspecifically to Peter at
Caesarea, philippi, when he toldPeter, after Peter declared
that Jesus was the Christ, theSon of the living God, by virtue
of Peter being infused withwisdom from the Spirit of God,
(09:24):
with the Word of God, with theheart of the Father coming
through Peter.
Jesus, saying Flesh and blood,didn't reveal that to you, peter
.
That came by virtue of myFather, by his Spirit.
No one could say that exceptthat way, and no one does.
No one does declare that Jesus,yeshua is Christ, he's the
(09:48):
Messiah, he's the Savior, he'sthe Promised One by God, our
Redeemer, the Holy One, god, theSon, that's Him, he's the One.
And Jesus said nobody could tellyou that and convince you of
(10:10):
that, because people have avariety of opinions of who I am.
But then he goes, by virtue ofwhat you said, upon that
declaration, upon that rock,upon that declaration that comes
from you, a little pebble I'mgoing going to on this big
mountain, I'm going to build mychurch, my people, my calm out
(10:36):
ones, and the gates of hell willnot prevail against my people,
my church moving forward.
And then he said whatsoever youbind, my people, my church
moving forward.
And then he said whatsoever youbind on earth will have already
been bound in heaven andwhatsoever you loose on earth
(10:59):
will have already been loosed inheaven.
And then we have a variety ofthings that go on after him
saying that, and many of us havebeen at the mercy of,
(11:24):
oftentimes, some unfortunatelyshallow or erroneous teaching
concerning what Jesus wastalking about.
And I'm not going to go into allthe different heresies or
(11:45):
problems that have beenpresented with that heresies or
problems that have beenpresented with that because I
want to highlight what Jesus wastalking about.
You know, if we're going toidentify the counterfeit, it's
not by studying more counterfeitthings.
(12:05):
If you're going to find a true$20 bill, you don't study
counterfeit $20 bills, you studya true $20 bill.
Then you can spot thecounterfeits.
And so we're looking tohighlight what it was that Jesus
(12:28):
was saying.
But I've found that oftentimesthings are learned best not so
much by a demonstration or aproclamation of words, I should
say by just proclaiming words,saying things, but by a
(12:51):
demonstration of what's beingsaid.
And binding and loosing is bestportrayed, in my opinion, in
this particular passage of theScripture of the Scriptures,
(13:19):
because Jesus not only saidsomething, he did something Kind
of like.
The other day I was looking at afew of my shirts and I noticed
that one of them needed to beironed and you know I could have
(13:42):
just left it alone, but it youknow it needed to be ironed.
So I got it out and I said afew things about ironing the
shirt and then I ironed it.
I both said something and I didsomething.
Let me say that again I bothsaid something about the shirt
(14:09):
and then I did something aboutthe shirt.
It's not enough to just saysomething about ironing a shirt.
It's not just enough for us tosay I iron you and then we don't
get.
I iron you and then we don'tget the iron out and iron.
(14:32):
It same thing goes with bindingand loosing.
It's not enough for us to justsay some words like a magic
(14:53):
spell and say I bind this andexpect it to be done, without us
engaging in some sort of actionpoint to have the connection
(15:13):
secured and the thing done.
Let me illustrate further,especially with this particular
passage of Scripture as areference point.
(15:34):
This woman was legitimatelycaught in the act of adultery,
(15:58):
and adultery of and by itself isjust devastating to
relationships surrounding theact of adultery.
It's not just a personcompromising their own morals.
It affects other people.
It affects husbands, it affectswives who've been cheated on,
(16:23):
children who get caught in thecrossfire, families split, split
just relationships being reallydamaged as a result of adultery
, and that's why it's so heinous.
Morally it's a compromise, butit just relationally.
It's devastating to your ownpsyche, but also to the
(16:48):
relationships around our lives.
And so this woman was caught inadultery, and the law did say
stone her, get rid of that, getrid of not just the adulterer,
but get rid of the adulterer oradulteress.
Strict, get rid of it.
(17:13):
And so these people, though,brought the woman, not because
they were so concerned about thelaw, they just didn't like the
fact that Jesus was more popularthan they were and that what he
(17:33):
was doing was more effectivethan what they had been doing,
and the fact that, periodically,he would call them out when
other people were afraid to callthem out.
He would call them out and callthem for who they were.
Sometimes he'd call themwhitewashed tombs, meaning you
(17:57):
look good on the outside, butinside you're dead man, you got
dead bones, you're dead andyou're polluting other people.
A brood of vipers.
Yeah, it's a very strong thingto say about those who were
trying to do things their ownway in pleasing God or pleasing
(18:23):
themselves and telling otherpeople to do it the same way,
even though it wasn't working.
And so Jesus was demonstratingto people the way of salvation
and he was showing them what thekingdom of God was really like
(18:45):
and really all about.
And people were beingtransformed and they were
following Jesus in mass, wheresome of these scribes and
Pharisees had a hard timegetting a couple hundred people
together.
Jesus was getting thousands ofpeople following him for days
(19:05):
Just to hear him, maybe just tohear a few things coming through
the breeze, because they couldhear him out from the distance,
the word of the Lord justpenetrating the heart, even a
word, even a word coming fromhim.
He would travel miles, healingsA demonstration of the kingdom
(19:33):
of God.
And this woman is being thrownat his feet and the Pharisees
wanted to trap him to see whathe would say.
And he said to them the onethat is without sin, throw the
(19:56):
first stone.
Now, he could have been the oneto throw the first stone, jesus
.
Jesus could have been the one.
He was the only one without sinthat was there and he could
have done it, but he didn't.
He waited Because he wasdemonstrating something.
He was demonstrating the powerof binding and loosing.
(20:20):
He was demonstrating the powerof the kingdom.
He was demonstrating being aconduit for the kingdom of God
to be manifest on earth and forus to see the effect of it.
For them to see it, but for usto see the effect of it.
For them to see it, but for usto see it now.
For them to see it then and usto see it now, and for us to be
inspired to be part of that, tobe like him and to function the
(20:41):
same way, where we not just saythings, but we say and do things
.
Jesus didn't just say for thepower that he caused that woman
to be an adulteress.
He didn't just say I bind youin the name of Jesus, his own
(21:04):
name right, you get what I'msaying.
I bind you in the name of myfather.
He didn't do that.
Instead, what he said was hedidn't do that.
Instead, what he said was theone who's without sin casts the
first stone and by virtue of himtaking a stand and saying that
(21:42):
word, it bound the accusers.
The shame, the guilt and thefear that had had that woman,
(22:11):
together with the powers ofdarkness in its grip, was bound
by the sheer statement andactions of Jesus.
The shirt was being ironed, thesin was being dealt with in the
woman's life, the iron was outand she was going to be set free
(22:35):
.
But the first thing that wasdone was a binding.
You have to bind the problem inorder to loose someone from the
problem.
The problem was bound becauseit was accusations.
(23:00):
Accusations can drive us crazy.
Accusations can motivate us todo some very bizarre things,
because we want some sort ofrelief, some sort of pleasure of
relief, some sort of pleasure,and so we try to find it in a
(23:21):
variety of different ways.
And this woman tried to findpleasure in adultery because she
had been accused of things allof her life.
She had been in a legalisticsociety all of her life.
She was in a pressure cookerfrom birth, and Jesus closed the
(23:43):
mouth of that pressure cookerso that she could be free.
Sometimes we need thingsquieted before we can realize,
quieted before we can realizethat we're not being bound by
(24:08):
them, by their accusations,anymore.
Jesus said where are youraccusers?
She goes there aren't any.
To her surprise.
To her surprise, there were no.
Sometimes being delivered fromthings is a surprise.
She was surprised.
I'm sure she was cowering,getting ready to get hit with
(24:31):
the first stone.
Except she didn't get hit withthe first stone, she got hit
with the word of God, and theword of God set her free.
Truth set her free.
There were no accusers capableof doing that, and Jesus said I
(24:54):
don't either.
That was his action.
His action was that he was notgoing to take action, but
sometimes we need to do thingsin order to get the shirt ironed
.
Jesus quieted the crowd andthen didn't throw the first
stone.
That was the iron that hebrought out to deal with the sin
(25:18):
, because it freed her.
Love freed her.
It wasn't the accusations, itwasn't her being browbeaten back
into a place of submission andbeing used as an example, a
public display of what heshouldn't be doing.
(25:40):
Yeah, it happened.
Yeah, it was the law, but therewas a reason behind that that
was deeper and Jesus was gettingto what that was, and that was
this it brought something to thesurface, and that's what the
law does.
Law brings sin to the surface.
(26:02):
It doesn't deal with it.
It brings it to the surface andthen it can be dealt with, and
Jesus dealt with it by tellingthe woman I don't accuse you
either, you're forgiven.
What, what?
You're forgiven and we havebeen given that power.
(26:25):
We've actually been given thatpower to do that.
We can actually say to someone,after having the powers quieted
that have been holding them,binding them, tormenting them,
(26:47):
oppressing them, holding themcaptive, quieting them and
Quieting them and then tellingthem that they're forgiven and
then Freeing them Verbally andalso experientially by our
(27:13):
actions, restoring them into aplace of right fellowship.
She walked away free from sinand free to sin no more.
He didn't say well, you betternot sin anymore.
(27:37):
He said go and sin no more,meaning you're free not to sin,
you don't have to do thatanymore.
Big difference.
But he did more than say amagical spell or speech or use
(27:57):
magical words, if you will.
He both spoke and demonstratedword and works.
The word and the works are thechannel through which the
kingdom of God is manifest andwe have been given the privilege
(28:17):
and the responsibility to bethose who bind and loose, and
sometimes binding is literallysetting someone free from the
accusations by quieting theaccusations, then free from the
(28:42):
accusations.
By quieting the accusations,then we can actually hear the
word at declaring us free.
What good would it do to openup the prison door and tell the
prisoner that the war is over,they're no longer prisoners, the
(29:04):
prison doors are open, you'refree, and they stay in the
prison because that's whatthey're accustomed to.
They have a hard time believinganything different because they
can't hear anything different,and sometimes we need to quiet
the other condemning voices thatwe can hear the voice that says
(29:27):
go, be free, be free.
Now.
There's a lot more that goesinto the binding and loosing
aspect of us and the privilegeand responsibility that we have
concerning that power given tous as a church, but this
(29:52):
particular story drove homesomething so rich and meaningful
and practical to me, becauseit's the world that we live in,
with so many voices holdingpeople down, that we can't hear
(30:16):
the voice that says I don'tcondemn you either.
Go and sin no more.
Let's pray, father.
God, I ask that you would youtake my attempt at expressing
(30:44):
this truth and that you'd use itthe areas in which I just
didn't have the words.
Lord, I ask that you would makeup the difference and that you
(31:05):
would bring the words into eachof our hearts and minds and
teach us what it means to bethose who have the privilege and
responsibility of binding andloosing, so that we can function
as citizens of your kingdom,with the power and the authority
that you've given to us, and Iask these things in the name of
(31:29):
Jesus standing here in HolySpirit.
I say Amen, amen, amen, amen.
All right, folks, I love you.
If you have any thoughts,questions, concerns, please feel
free to drop us a line atliferontthefire, at gmailcom, or
(31:50):
type in liferontthefire andlook us up on the web.
We would love to hear from you.
In the meantime, god bless you.
Adios amigos.