Forgiven(Luke 23:34)

Good Morning Church family!! If you are visiting with us…..Welcome! Also, if you’re visiting with us, you should know that I am not the pastor.

I am privileged to be a part of the preaching team that this church has. And I am blessed to be able to share with you this morning what God has shown me and put on my heart as I studied this text and prepared this sermon.

This is the 2nd Sermon in our 4 part Easter Sermon Series on the “Sayings of Jesus.” And as Pastor Steven mentioned last week, we are also following the Bad News, Worse News, Good News, Best News evangelism model as we prepare ourselves for Easter.

Last week we talked about the bad news, we looked at the passage where Jesus cries out: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me”.... and How sin separates us from God and also how sin has been paid for.

Today we will be looking at the worse news, which is that we can’t do anything about our sin,and we’ll look at our need for a Savior, what He did for us on that cross, and what He asks us to do.

We will be focusing on the topic of “Forgiveness” this morning using Luke 23:34 as our text, if you would like to turn there. And I’ll have just 2 points for you.

Do we forgive as Jesus forgives?

&

Do we recognize Jesus for who He is?

As I was preparing this sermon, I was reminded of the historic account of Joseph from the Book of Genesis. If you recall, Joseph was despised by his brothers. They were anything but nice to him. They Ridiculed him, excluded him, plotted his murder, threw him in a pit, and eventually sold him into slavery. Years later, after their father died, Joseph’s brothers were afraid that Joseph would finally enact his revenge on them. In Genesis 50 we read: “If Joseph is holding a grudge against us, he will certainly repay us for all the wrong we caused him.” So they sent a message to Joseph explaining that before their father passed away, he gave a command for us to pass on to you. Saying: Please forgive your brothers’ transgression and their sin. Scripture tells us that Joseph wept when he read the message from his brothers. And he said to them: “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result.” Commentaries suggest that Joseph wept not because he was asked to do something he didn’t want to do, not because he was reading a letter about one of his father’s last wishes,

He wept because his brothers thought so little of him. They actually thought Joseph wouldn’t forgive them??!! Joseph was hurt.

And his response: “Am I in the place of God?” echoes what we see in Paul’s letter to the Romans where he writes: “Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead leave room for His wrath. For it is written: Vengeance belongs to Me; I will repay, says the Lord”.(Rom 12:19)

It has been said that if we take matters into our own hands, so to speak, take vengeance on someone….that we are basically not putting our trust in God. Or, we are saying to God, whatever you have planned for this person is not enough, I require more. Church, if that’s you, that’s a dangerous place to be.

But back to our account in Genesis….. in the end, Joseph told his brothers not to be afraid, and he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. This didn’t mean that Joseph condoned the actions of his brothers. He didn’t think that their actions were justified. He didn’t agree with what they did. But he knew, that because of his faith in God, that God would work all things out for good. He needed to only be obedient to God.

So with that, if you are able please stand with me as I read today's text, and then I’ll open us up in prayer. I am going to start in Luke 23:32 for context.

Luke 23:32-34

“Two others - criminals - were also led away to be executed with Him. When they arrived at the place call The Skull, or Golgatha, they crucified Him there, along with the criminals, one on the right and one on the left.”

“Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing.’ And they divided His clothes and cast lots.”

Thank you, you may be seated.

**Prayer**

So let’s dive into our first point this morning…..

Do we forgive as Jesus forgives?

As we begin to examine this text, we first should define the Greek word used here for “Forgive”. It is Aphiemi (a-FEE-a-me). Though this word is translated a couple different ways throughout Scripture, my concordance defines Aphiemi translated “forgive” this way: To forgive debts….or God removing the sins from another, because He is the only One able to do so. It goes on to say that to forgive sins is not to disregard them and do nothing about them, but to liberate a person from their guilt. We ask God to forgive us our sins so that we do not stand guilty. Though we are not expected or able to forgive the sins of others, we are expected to forgive others, as we see in Matthew 6, which we will get to later.

So let’s start with just the first part of verse 34. “Father, forgive them,….”. We have Roman soldiers who just pounded nails into the flesh of Jesus. No pain killers, no antiseptics, no numbing agent….just nails through the limbs.

And then He is lifted up so that His body hung there….on a cross…..unable to breathe unless He pushed Himself up by pressing His heels against the cross. And sometime later Jesus says: “ Father, forgive them,...”.

Voddie Baucham said once in a sermon that forgiveness doesn’t mean: the withholding of anger toward another, but that it means: the cancelation of debt. When we think of loan forgiveness, it means that what we owe is paid for. And Jesus’ death on the cross means that same thing for us if we are a believer. He paid it all!! He “FORGAVE” us!! Our debt is paid, because of what He did on that cross. Remember: sin literally means “to miss the mark”. We have all “missed the mark” when it comes to holiness or righteousness. We all have gone against God’s commands; stolen something, anything….lied…had impure or evil thoughts…. Whatever it may be. And when He said “Father forgive them”, or when John writes in

1 John 1:9 “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to FORGIVE us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”, there are no stipulations included in there anywhere.

When we accept Christ as our Savior, we are forgiven. Because there is nothing we can do about the sin in our lives. We can’t pay the price for our sins. That is why Jesus came, to live a life we can not and to die a death we ALL deserve. To pay the price for our sin. To FORGIVE us.

I am reminded of the song we sang two weeks ago: “Turn Your Eyes” - Turn your eyes to the hillside where justice and mercy embrace. There the Son of God gave His life for us and our measureless debt was erased.

So how should we respond because of this forgiveness?

Well, many of us know Matthew 5:44, but listen carefully to these 6 verses, starting in verse 43; “You have heard it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. For He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing out of the ordinary? Don’t even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect”. This perfection that is spoken of refers to the loving of all people, because we were all made in the image of God. We know that Jesus is the only One who is perfect in all ways.

The parallel verse in Luke says: do good to those who hate you and bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. And ends with: “Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.” Do we do that? I mean, I know many of us pray for people that have said mean things to us, or we don’t really like. But ….. I mean do we really turn to God in prayer for people who have really hurt us, who persecute us…do we bless those who hate us… are we merciful to anyone we see as undeserving….. because Jesus, the One who died on that cross for our sins… He told us to. And those people who we see as undeserving of mercy…. those people are us!

Scripture is full of hard truths. “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, together they have become useless; there is no one who does good, there is not even one.” That’s Romans 3:10-12. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23 and in Isaiah 64 we read; “All of us have become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like a polluted garment.” But these truths are there to show us that we are in need of a Savior. We cannot atone for our sins on our own. There is NOTHING we can do about the sin we commit. And church, not one of us is above the need for forgiveness.

And forgiveness of our sins is extended to us all who repent and believe. We don’t have to remember every single sin we commit and ask for forgiveness. When we accept Christ as our Savior, the price for our sins have been paid for. Jesus’ blood covers our sins.

Paul wrote to the Ephesians: "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our tresspasses, according to the riches of His grace.” “But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”(Eph 1:7) And Peter writes: "For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb.” (1Pet 1:18-19). We are to remember this always. This is why we take communion. To remember what Christ did for us. His body on the cross, bruised and beaten.

Jesus spoke to His disciples at the last supper: “For this is My blood that establishes the covenant; it is shed for many for the forgiveness of sins.” And in turn, we are to forgive others. And if you struggle with that, you’re not the first. It’s not always easy. People in Colosse struggled with it. That’s why Paul included in his letter to them: “Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive.” (Col 3:13). The people of Ephesus must have struggled with it. Paul writes to them:

“And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.” (Eph 4:32). That’s why Peter asked Jesus: “How many times must I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? As many as seven times?

Some commentaries explain that many Jewish rabbis taught that “three” was an acceptable limit of forgiveness. So Peter thought he was going above and beyond suggesting seven times. That was more than double the amount of times taught during his time period. Jesus responded to Peter, as many of you probably know, “I tell you, not as many as seven, but seventy times seven.” (Matt 18:21-22).

That response that is recorded “seventy times seven” is to mean a countless amount of times. Not that we should keep track and stop at 490. Proverbs 25:21-22 says: “If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, for you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you.” Paul quoted this Proverb in his letter to the Romans in chapter 12. This mention of “heaping burning coals on your enemy’s head” is meant to give the idea of them experiencing conviction that causes them to repent because of the undeserving kindness that had been shown to them.

And in Luke Jesus is recorded as saying: “Be on your guard. If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and comes back to you seven times, saying, “I repent,” you must forgive him.”......(Luke 17:3-4).

And Jesus taught His disciples to include forgiveness in their prayers in Matt 6:12; “And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors” or “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”. These aren’t suggestions or recommendations, Church, they are commands.

Don’t let anyone try to tell you differently. I don’t know your personal reasons for not showing forgiveness. I don’t know what you may have gone through or what someone did to you. But God’s Word says we must forgive. Don’t have the mindset of: “Well, if they ask me, I’ll think about forgiving them” or "If they really sound sincere, I’ll forgive them.”

Remember, we are talking not of just a withholding of anger toward someone, we are talking about forgiving them, the way our Father has forgiven each of us. He asks nothing of us. There is nothing we could do if we wanted.

If you are a believer here today, God has forgiven you, and everyone of us here today has sinned and is undeserving of that forgiveness that He has bestowed upon each of us. Because He loves us. He loves each and every one of us, believer or unbeliever, and has paid the price for our sins. He paid the price because we can not obtain salvation on our own or by our works.

And if you are an unbeliever here today, all you have to do to have this price that Jesus paid accredited to you, is to just accept Christ as your Savior. Know that He is the Son of God and that He died on that cross and was raised in 3 days, and sits at the right hand of the Father. As Voddie Baucham once said: “All the Gospel requires is repentance and faith.” Voddie goes on to say that the Gospel doesn't require obedience from us. It produces obedience in us.

Isaiah and Jeremiah both prophesied about a coming Messiah, a time when God would forgive His people and write His law on their hearts. These prophecies point to Jesus. And it is through Jesus and only Jesus that we are offered forgiveness, and it is by the work of the Holy Spirit that we are able to obey His commands. Forgiveness is being obedient to what Jesus portrayed on that cross because of His great love for us.

We are called to love everyone. 1 John 4:7-10 reminds us: “Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His One and only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

Know that that is what Scripture says. Get into God’s Word, build that relationship with Him, and know God’s Word that He has breathed out for each of us to have. Many of us, I don’t think, know God’s Word for ourselves. We listen to what people say about God’s Word and take it as truth, instead of reading His Word for ourselves and letting the Holy Spirit speak to us through our quiet time with God.

Which brings us to our second point.

Point #2 Do we recognize Jesus for who He is?

The second part of that verse says: “......because they do not know what they are doing.” 1 Cor 2:8 says: “None of the rulers of this age knew it, for if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” They didn’t know Jesus was God. They didn’t recognize Him. They were warned. They were told. John the Baptist called the Pharisees and Saudacees “Brood of Vipers” while they were witnessing John baptize people and speaking of the coming Messiah.

The Pharisees and Saudacees were keeping people in the dark; rebuking those who were claiming Jesus as the Son of God, the Messiah. And many, if not all, knew Scripture. They could recite Scripture and use Scripture, but didn’t put God’s Word into context of what was happening around them in their days.

Church, we have many false gospel presentations out there today as well. Pretending to preach what the Bible says. That’s why it’s so important that you dive into God’s Word yourself. Read it! Research it! Discuss it! Apply it! Live it! Don’t be kept in the dark. Don’t find out that you were not following God’s Word simply because as this verse says: “They do not know what they are doing.”

On the topic of Spiritual Blindness, I want to jump to John chapters 9 and 10. Now we don’t have time to go through all the verses in between the ones I am going to expound on. I encourage you to go back and read both these chapters for yourselves. And really take the time to understand the context. What I am about to cover happens after Jesus makes mud and heals a blind man. And the blind man’s neighbors take him to the Pharisees, and they question him. After the Pharisees threw the once blind man out , Jesus is talking to him and that is where will pick up in John 9:39: Jesus says: “I came into this world for judgment, in order that those who do not see will see and those who do see will become blind”. “Some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and asked Him, ‘We aren’t blind too, are we?’”. Jesus responds “If you were blind, you wouldn’t have sin. But now that you say, "We see, your sin remains.”

Jesus continues to explain, in chapter 10, how He is the gate by which His sheep enter, and the sheep follow Him because they know His voice, but verse 6 tells us that they did not understand what He was telling them. So, Jesus continues this parable about His sheep, and scripture says the Jews were divided. Finally in verse 24 the Jews surrounded Him and asked, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”

Jesus answers: “I did tell you and you don’t believe”, But you don’t believe because you are not my sheep. “My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of My hand.” “My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

Do you believe that? Do you recognize the voice of our Savior? Scripture tells us that: He is the gate, He is the Way, He is our Good Shepherd. If you don’t know Jesus, or you don’t recognize His voice when He speaks to you…. It starts by reading His Word. Knowing His Word. God breathed it out for us. He will talk to us through His Word and recall scripture to us for us to use against false doctrines, and the lies and tactics of the enemy.

Now, even though Scripture tells us that they did not know what they were doing; it is also important to know that this was all to take place to fulfill prophecy, and that Jesus willingly endured this pain because of His great love for us.

During His time on the cross He fulfilled at least 9 prophecies from Micah to Zechariah, to Isaiah, to Psalms. These prophecies that were fulfilled at the crucifixion were written at least 500 years, if not 800 years before the birth of Jesus.

Prophecies that included the casting of lots for His garments to the fact that His legs were never broken. It was common in those times to break the legs of those being crucified to hasten death. In Psalm 34 we read: “He protects all His bones; not one of them is broken”. And in the Gospel of John we are told that Jesus was found to be dead, so they didn’t break His legs, but pierced His side, which was another fulfilled prophecy.

In Isaiah 52 we read:

“See My Servant will act wisely; He will be raised and lifted up and greatly exalted. Just as many were appalled at You - His appearance was so disfigured that He did not look like a man, and His form did not resemble a human being.” Continuing in Isaiah 53 we read: “He was despised and rejected by men…” and “He was like one people turned away from; He was despised, and we didn’t value Him. Yet He Himself bore our sicknesses and He carried our pains; but we in turn regarded Him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But He was pierced because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on Him, and we are healed by His wounds. We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the LORD has punished Him for the iniquity of us all.” Likewise in Psalm 22 we read:

“I am poured out like water, and all my bones are disjointed; my heart is like wax, melting within me. My strength is dried up like baked clay; my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You put me into the dust of death. For dogs have surrounded me; a gang of evildoers has closed in on me; they pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones; people look and stare at me. They divided my garments among themselves.”

This is the One who forgives us. Beaten. Spit on. Crucified. Unrecognizable as a human being. Pierced. Bones out of joint. Tongue sticking to the roof of His mouth as He says: ‘Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing’. And we say to God: “I can’t forgive this person” “You don’t know what they did to me!” “You don’t understand what they are putting me through!” Really!!?? God knows. Jesus understands. His Word says: Forgive them.

He knew the path we all would take. From the fall in Genesis 3 to the days of Noah in Genesis 6:5, to “Everyone doing what was right in his own eyes in Judges 21:25, to today. Jeremiah 17:9 says: “The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable - who can understand it.” And reading on in verse 14 of that same chapter: “Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed; save me, and I will be saved, for You are my praise.”

We need Christ! We can’t save ourselves. Our good works are like filthy rags to God, Scripture says. It is only by accepting the good news of the Gospel that Jesus’ finished work on the cross and the covering of His blood is enough, that when we profess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead, …… we will be saved.

Before we get into our closing, I want to read one more passage from Scripture. Acts chapter 10:39-43. This is Peter talking here. He writes: “We ourselves are witnesses of everything He did in both the Judean country and in Jerusalem, and yet they killed Him by hanging Him on a tree. God raised up this Man on the third day and caused Him to be seen, not by all the people, but by us whom God appointed as witnesses, who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that He is the One appointed by God to be the judge of the living and dead. All the prophets testify about Him that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.”

As we close, is there someone you need to forgive? And if you have forgiven them already, do they know it? Or are they still walking around, afraid to talk to you, thinking that you will never forgive them like Joseph’s brothers. We are called to be imitators of Christ. And ambassadors of Christ. Wendy is going to come back up and play. As we prepare our hearts for communion here this morning, I encourage you, evaluate yourself like Paul tells us to. Are you harboring any ill feelings or thoughts toward another. Someone that God loves, someone that God made in His image, and died on that cross for.

If you are a believer here today, understand that God knows what you are dealing with in your heart, and He tells us to forgive, no matter what.

Maybe you're an unbeliever here today and you can’t wrap your head around the need to forgive because you yourself haven’t experienced forgiveness of your sins. Jesus paid the price for your sins and it is by His wounds we are healed. And it is an open invitation to accept that free gift. Scripture says that all you need to do is confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead - You will be Saved!! Experience that forgiveness. You can do that right where you are. You don’t need to recite any certain words, just confess Jesus as your Savior and believe in your heart, and you will be a new creation Scripture says.

If you pray that prayer today, or if you have questions, please don’t leave here without talking to someone. You can talk to me, I'll be at the back of the sanctuary, or Pastor Steven will be making his way to the front to distribute communion, come talk to him. Please.

I encourage you to bow your head, close your eyes. You take this time. Respond as you feel led. Prepare your hearts for the Lord’s Supper. And Pastor Steven will lead us in Communion in just a moment.