Father, Forgive Them

Have you ever heard the joke about the Jump rope? Nevermind I’ll just skip it.

George Muller is a famous pastor in the 1800’s who lived in Bristol, England. He is most famous for his story about praying for five of his friends. He recorded their names and wrote them down and he was sure to pray for them daily to come to know Jesus as their Lord and saviour, after 18 months the first was converted, after 5 years the second was converted. The third friend was converted a year after the first. Meaning George had now been praying daily for his friends for six years. The fourth of the friends was a little longer, he finally gave his life to the Lord after 25 years of George praying for him daily. The fifth friend gave his life to Jesus a few days after George’s death, nearly 52 years after George had begun praying for his people.

My question for you as we enter into this Easter season is who are your three, who are the three friends/loved ones you can commit to praying for daily until they come to know Jesus? Not just pray for them, but commit to sharing the gospel, inviting them to church, and being a sound voice of reason anytime they need you? When you came in we gave you some paper and some pens to write those names down and as I am preaching this morning I want you to write those on some separate pieces of the paper we gave you. Over the next few weeks you are going to have plenty of opportunities to make headway into those conversations because so many people are willing to come to church around Easter who may not come any other time, so just keep them in mind as you begin this journey over the next six weeks into Easter.

In fact, this morning we are starting an all new series that will lead us into Easter as we take time to remember the last words of Jesus on the cross. I was very creative when I came up with the title for this sermon series, as we call it Last Words.

It may be important to make sure we know what is going on as we look at the words of Jesus and know the context of where we are and the scene we are looking into. We will turn to Matthew 27:37 this morning as we look at the scene around Jesus.

Matthew 27:37 NASB95

37 And above His head they put up the charge against Him which read, “THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.”

They are mocking Him, they are saying, "Yeah, yeah, whatever; you said that and so we are making fun of you. Verse 38:

Matthew 27:38 NASB95

38 At that time two robbers were crucified with Him, one on the right and one on the left.

We are going to look in detail at these two thieves, these two criminals in the weeks to come.

Matthew 27:39–40 NASB95

39 And those passing by were hurling abuse at Him, wagging their heads 40 and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.”

They were quoting what He had said earlier, basically saying; "You said you were going to do this, so now here you are, where is your God in the middle of this time? Verse 41:

Matthew 27:41–42 NASB95

41 In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking Him and saying, 42 “He saved others; He cannot save Himself. He is the King of Israel; let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in Him.

The next four words really hit the heart of their mockery when they said:

Matthew 27:43 NASB95

43 “He trusts in God; let God rescue Him now, if He delights in Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ ”

As they mock him, Jesus is hanging on the cross, just hours after being flogged and beaten within what the confines of the Roman law would allow. He was sentenced to take 40 stripes from his abusers, but in Roman law if you accidentally gave one too many lashings you would be subject to the same punishment, so many of these torturers would stop at 39 lashings to make sure they didn’t get themselves into trouble accidentally miscounting. After his beating he would have been forced to carry his own cross, baring the weight of the beam on a body that has been beaten within inches of death, stumbling many times as he walked the Via Dolorosa as it is remembered, which translates as the way of suffering about 2000 feed to where he now hangs before these people. Historians believe the cross beam most likely weighed between 70 and 90 pounds and while less than half a mile may not seem like a long distance, it is not surprising after the beating he received this would have been a difficult trip, and helps us to understand why Simon had to bear the weight of his cross to help him get to Galgotha.

Now, he is hanging on a cross, and this is the image I think most of us are familiar with in our minds, and there are two criminals there with him, one on each side. And as he hangs there, while people are hurling insults, while people most likely are spitting at him. He looks down and he says some of his last words written in red in the gospels.

Luke 23:34 ESV

34 And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

And to be sure this is a fulfillment of the prophecy of Isa 53:12

Isaiah 53:12 ESV

12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think that’s where my heart would have been in that situation. I doubt my heart would have been in the place where I said, “Father, its okay, I understand, what they are doing is unjust, but I want you to forgive them anyway.” Listen, some of us, myself included have a tough time forgiving people who cut us of in traffic, or maybe drive the speed limit in the left lane, so I doubt we would have gotten to this same mindset if we were in Jesus position. I would have probably been Jesus commanding all the angels to take them all out kind of wrathful guy. And I think many of us could agree that we would most likely be that way as well, and the way we can know our response is because of the way we respond in every day life situations. Here is the thing, if we have been alive for any period of time we will have people in our lives who we need to forgive. We have people who have hurt us and whether they deserve it or not we need to give forgiveness to.

It may be a spouse, you had that argument years ago and you just can’t let go of what was said, and you hold on to it in your spirit. You bring it up every chance you get and remind them of the mistake they made, or the person they were.

It may be at work, it could be the co-worker the had something snarky to say to you and you’ve never been able to get over. Maybe its your boss, who passed you over for that promotion and never gave you a second thought, though you do all the work and show up early all the time.

And it isn’t just that we need to receive forgiveness, but we need to give forgiveness.

When it comes to prayer and forgiveness, there are two different responses, the Before Christ response and the After Christ Response.

THE BEFORE CHRIST RESPONSE• YOU OWE ME AND JUSTICE IS MINE.

We talked a little bit about this already, we tend to love this response to everything, even after coming to know Christ this is the fleshly nature we must fight against. Look at what Jesus told the disciples.

Matthew 5:38 ESV

38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’

And this is where I think most of us find ourselves, we want justice, and instead of letting Jesus dole out justice we take it upon ourselves and think if you hurt me I am going to give it back to you. Truthfully, many of us don’t stop at just giving them back the exact same thing they have done to us. Instead, we decide I am going to go over the top, I’ll show you I’m not a pushover; and we go out for vengeance instead of Justice.

And Jesus tells us something completely different, and this is what the after Christ response should be. THE AFTER CHRIST RESPONSE Matt 5:39

Matthew 5:39 ESV

39 But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

Don’t take vengeance instead go and give them the other cheek to hit too. Can you imagine? Listen, I know this is something most of us struggle with, its against our human nature; he hits me so I give him the other cheek too? Seems overboard, but Jesus goes deeper and he says this in what we call the Lord’s prayer:

Matthew 6:12 ESV

12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

This is a totally different level of forgiveness than what we are used to. Jesus says he will forgive me as I have forgiven them? So, I can’t get vengeance for myself? You mean, I actually must forgive people? This is some serious stuff not common to our nature. What we should notice through all of this is forgiveness happens on two different levels, it is given, or it is received.

What we know and have talked about is we all have someone we need to forgive and it would seem if we withhold that forgiveness then we have forced God to withhold forgiveness from us. Just hold there for a moment, Jesus basically teaches us if we are withholding forgiveness, he will withhold forgiveness from us; essentially, without forgiving those who have wronged us we have doomed ourselves for eternity. This is an amazing thing because this whole idea of forgiveness is central to the message of the Gospel, to the message of the cross, and it should not surprise us this is what is talked about by Jesus on the cross. I think He is letting us know forgiveness is where all of our life with him really starts.

And when we hear Jesus message about forgiveness and how we are supposed to forgive to be forgiven our natural reaction is to become a little like Peter, and we think Matthew 18:21-22

Matthew 18:21–22 NASB95

21 Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.

I know you and I have never gotten into a place like this where we have said, “Lord I have forgiven them, but they keep doing it over and over again, surely you don’t expect me to just keep forgiving them, right?” This is basically the question Peter is asking in these moments to Jesus. Jesus gives him this answer he is not really expecting, he says forgive him up to seventy times seven. I can only imagine Peter is trying to figure this math out and realizing he doesn’t have enough fingers to count that high, and before he can get too deep into really trying to lay it all out Jesus goes deeper.

Matthew 18:23–25 ESV

23 “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. 24 When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. 25 And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made.

I read this and I immediately think we should be really grateful that we cannot be sold into slavery today when we go into debt.

Matthew 18:26 ESV

26 So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’

And you can hear the desperation and the passion in the plea.

Matthew 18:27 ESV

27 And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.

And lets just look at the story for a moment, who does the King Represent? God, and we are the servants, and we can learn some lessons from this.

In verse 25 we read he cannot pay, and the thing you and I need to remember is, often we are waiting for people to repay us for the bad they have done to us. We want them to give us what we are owed, but scripture tells us we can’t always get that back from people. Sure, they can say they are sorry, but they cannot pay the debt for what they have done; they cannot fix the wrong and the hurt, that is something that cannot be repaid.

And we have some debts we can’t pay, whether it be with someone here we have offended, or we have the debt of our own sin we cannot pay, we cannot go back in time and make it all right, we can ask for forgiveness, but not always pay off the debt. The Bible teaches us while the debtor can’t always repay,

• THE OFFENDED CAN ALWAYS SHOW MERCY. Vs 27 said Matt 18:27

Matthew 18:27 ESV

27 And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.

And what often happens is people hurt us and we think they deserve pain and strife, but we forget that most times, people don’t even mean to hurt us. How many times have you hurt a person and it was not your intention at all. We seem to believe that for ourselves, but forget that when it comes to others and us. We must remember Jesus said, for they know not what they do. So the servant has just been forgiven this enormous debt, by todays terms not just millions but 3.4 billion. Just hang on to that for a second because that is a LOT of money. Have you ever wondered how he got so far in debt? Why did the guy lend him so much money.

Matthew 18:28–31 ESV

28 But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ 29 So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ 30 He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. 31 When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place.

Matthew 18:32–35 ESV

32 Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ 34 And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. 35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

Why would God be so harsh, why would he say such a thing, I believe its because God knows what unforgiveness does to us. Unforgiveness can destroy all areas of your life, it eats you alive like a cancer. Holding on to an offense is like sipping poison and expecting your offender to die. Here is the truth, forgiveness doesn’t help the offender as much as it helps you. Let me say that one more time, forgiveness doesn’t help the offender as much as it helps you. Obviously, there are times it does, but for the most part it helps you more than it does them.

So, the question is: WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN THE OFFENSE SEEMS TOO BIG?

You may have some passion and say, “Pastor, you don’t understand, how could I ever forgive what they did, I’ve beaten, verbally abused,” or maybe “pastor, this person said be there forever, and they they abandon us/me,” or, “pastor, my father chose alcohol or mom chose meth, over me. There is no way you could possibly understand.” I know its not easy, but listen, I understand

The truth is, as we get closer to Jesus and start to see his heart and what he truly did on the cross what we will begin to realize is Jesus love for us is greater than any offense.

As hard as it is, forgiveness is a choice and Jesus was teaching us through his actions on the cross that we need to forgive people in our lives. And the question this morning is, who do you need to forgive?

Starts with prayer... Your prayers may or may not change the other person, but they always will change you.

A couple things this morning:

First, maybe you are here and you are realizing there are people in your life who even though they don’t deserve it, you need to offer forgiveness, and you can come and do that here this morning, at the altar. You can come and kneel before God and ask Him to help you give forgiveness to the person in your heart and you will be able to fill the weight as it lifts off you this morning.

Second, maybe you realize you need forgiveness for the way you have handled people and you need to go and ask them to forgive you for what you have done, that journey can start here at the altar as you as God to give you the strength you need to make that call.

Thirdly, this morning we gave you some paper to write names of people on, and up here on this table we have some push pins, and we would like you to come and find a place on this cross to put the names of those people and pin them to the cross. Our hopes are over the next few months and years as you pray for this person and they come to know Christ, you can come and remove their name from the cross, and if they are local you can show them and tell them about this moment, the moment you declared you would pray for their salvation, and you can rejoice together.

SO I will pray, and you come as the Lord leads you this morning.