Forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer

Series: Total Forgiveness

Forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer

Matt. 6:9-15

Theme: Jesus’s model prayer commands us to forgive others.

Introduction: The Bible teaches we are to totally forgive other people. It is entirely possible that a non-Christian can demonstrate limited forgiveness feel right about it. A person can overcome bitterness when wronged or hurt by other people. Being wronged and hurt by others is normal to life whether you believe in Jesus or not.

President John F. Kennedy said, “Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.” This is not total forgiveness. This doesn’t mean you vacation with them or keep going back to them so they can hurt you more.

Total Forgiveness is not taught in Judaism. After the Holocaust, there was a consensus of Jewish people who would never forget. Even the idea of a Jew becoming a believer in Jesus as the Messiah and then praying with a Palestinian believer is unthinkable.

These are seeming justifiable reasons to give only partial forgiveness; however, God commands us to have Total Forgiveness.

There is a struggle with what Jesus teaches us here when He says in verse 12 “forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”

There are important truths of forgiving here.

I. Upward forgiveness

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

A. Ask God’s forgiveness

1. Jesus is teaching as we are praying, God will bring to mind our sinfulness.

2. Forgive is in the present tense, as you are praying.

3. When we come into God’s presence, we want our lives to be clear and clean before God.

B. Acknowledge our debt

1. The word debt means what is owed in the Bible.

2. It is used often with the word sin.

3. Sin is what is owed to God which is pure obedience but when you have a debt, you fall short of obedience-we are asking God to wipe our record clean.

4. Forgive is the idea to send away-your sins would be wiped away and you would not be liable for them.

5. There should be a desire in our heart to want to be right with God, to walk with God, and have the fullness of the Holy Spirit working in us.

II. Inward forgiveness

A. Forgive others

1. In our hearts when we are praying, we want to make sure we have inwardly forgiven others.

2. Jesus gives instruction on a time when you pray in 5:23-24-you come to God with something against your brother, you are reconcile with your brother.

3. God said we are not to have wrath when we pray

“I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.” (1 Timothy 2:8)

B. Release others

1. We are to release others of the debt they owe us.

2. Anger and bitterness towards other people only rob us of a relationship with Jesus Christ.

3. Without the release of others when they have wronged you, life will be troublesome and affect others

“Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;” (Hebrews 12:15)

Near the end of Irving Stone’s powerful novel, Love Is Eternal, about Mary Todd and Abraham Lincoln, there is a moving conversation between Mrs. Lincoln and the President’s bodyguard, Parker, who had been summoned to Mrs. Lincoln’s room.

“Why were you not at the door to keep the assassin out?” she demanded.

With head bowed, Parker replied, “I have bitterly repented it. But I did not believe that anyone would try to kill so good a man in such a public place. The belief made me careless. I was attracted by the play, and did not see the assassin enter the box.”

“You should have seen him. You had no business to be careless.” With this, Mrs. Lincoln fell back on her pillow and covered her face with her hands, and from deep emotion, said: “Go now. It’s not you I can’t forgive; it’s the assassin.”

Tad, who had spent that miserable night beneath his father’s desk in the executive office, drawled, “If Pa had lived, he would have forgiven the man who shot him. Pa forgave everybody.”2

The comment is reminiscent of Another who, having given His all to reveal love, was rejected by His own and killed by those who should have protected Him. Yet in the agonies of death He prayed: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

III. Outward forgiveness

A. Fellowship with God

1. The purpose of prayer is not to appeal to our own strength, but keep us in fellowship with God.

2. There is a verse which reminds us of our need to be forgiving

“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7)

3. In order to walk with the Lord, we must remember He is in the light and our sin needs to be cleansed.

“This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5)

4. Walking in the light means walking without compromise anything God shows us we need to settle.

5. If you sweep it under the carpet and ignore the prompting of the Holy Spirit, you will wonder why you haven’t grown spiritually-postponed obedience means there is no true fellowship with God.

6. This prayer reminds us of our daily need of God’s forgiveness and forgiving others.

B. Fellowship with others

1. Others who have hurt us, we pray for them and ask God to forgive them and bless them-this is total forgiveness.

2. This keeps the path clear of our fellowship with God and with others.

3. Verse 14 seems that this is the reason for this prayer in the first place.

4. The most natural tendency in the world is to want to get even when someone has offended you. Jesus is telling us to do something that is not natural-totally forgive people even those closest to us-this is supernatural.

5. Not only do we need daily forgiveness as much as daily bread, but we also need to pray daily that we have the grace to forgive others as a lifelong commitment.

6. When Jesus said v.14, He was not talking about achieving salvation, but receiving the anointing of God and having intimate fellowship with God.

Conclusion: A friend of Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, once reminded her of an especially cruel thing that had been done to her years before. But Miss Barton seemed not to recall it. “Don’t you remember it?” her friend asked.

“No,” came the reply, “I distinctly remember forgetting it.”

You can’t be free and happy if you harbor grudges, so put them away. Get rid of them. Collect postage stamps, or collect coins, if you wish—but don’t collect grudges.518[1]

2 Excerpt from Love Is Eternal by Irving Stone. Copyright 1954 by Irving Stone. Reprinted by permission of Doubleday & Company, Inc. [1]Michael P. Green, 1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2000), 153.