Obey God, and Forgive Others
Sermon Outline 8/07/05
I. Please turn with me to our New Testament passage Luke 17: 1-10 (page 780) READ.
A. (Vs. 1-2): “He said to his disciples, ‘Causes of falling are sure to come, but alas for the one through whom they occur! 2It would be better for such a person to be thrown into the sea with a millstone round the neck than to be the downfall of a single one of these little ones” NJB The ‘causes of falling’ or stumbling block here is from the Greek word σκάνδαλον: which means a stick for bait or the trigger of a trap, generally a snare, a stumbling block, an offense.
B. (Vs. 3): “So watch yourselves (plural). If your brother (or sister) sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.” That is, we should be guarding ourselves, and looking out for each other, so that instead of being a cause of sin, we should rather be the cause of repentance resulting in forgiveness!
1. Could Jesus be implying that our lack of forgiveness would cause someone to sin? Could it? When we withhold forgiveness, from each other, it results in bitterness and a sour feeling between us. We tend to respond as we think we have been treated – and then the other person does, and so forth.
2. These are not suggestions, but imperative commands from Jesus to His disciples – rebuke and forgive. Jesus is being very specific. “If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.” This is doubly hard. It’s much easier to keep still when someone sins against us, and to try to hide the pain. We sometimes even think we’re being “spiritual” by trying to ignore the wrong. But failure to be honest, trying to give the “outward show” of nothing wrong when there is something wrong, isn’t God’s way. “[Speak] the truth in love” (Eph. 4:15). The loving thing to do is to rebuke the person who sins against you, for he needs the cleansing that forgiveness can bring as much as you need the barrier of hurt removed. So Jesus said, “Rebuke him.” And if he repents? Forgive! And this is difficult too. Our old self dwells on slights and hurts and takes a perverse pleasure in self-pity and in “righteous indignation.” In verse 4, Jesus makes it even harder:
C. (Vs. 4): “If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.” How many times?? The point is not the number (which to the Hebrews signified fullness), but the spirit of forgiveness – as it says in Eph 4:29-32 (page 870): “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” Do we have enough faith to do this? – I don’t think that I do! Did the disciples? The disciples also were upset by this and cried out: ‘Increase our faith!’
D. (Vs. 5): “And the apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’” They didn’t think they had the faith either! We can understand their feelings – we have all had someone repeatedly hurt us (sometimes over minor annoyances, and other times over deep issues close to our hearts). No wonder the disciples cried out to Jesus. “Help! If we have to live like that with people, then, Lord, increase our faith!” But what does Jesus say? And how can we understand Jesus’ answer? He hardly seemed to sympathize. Instead of promising needed faith, He seems to dismiss their concern:
E. (Vs. 6): “He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.” What does this story about faith have to do with it? Is this just an obscure saying about the faith that only God has? Is Jesus making fun of their lack of faith? Does Jesus answer their request? It is important to note here is that Jesus was not speaking to Pharisees, who had no faith. He was speaking to the Twelve, who did believe in Him, and who did have some measure of faith.
F. (Vs. 7-9): “Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? 8 Would he not rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? 9 Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do?” Jesus is answering as He often did, with a story. But what is He saying? The apparent point of the story is that servants serve first, masters are served first, and servant eat afterwards -- and servants do not ordinarily expect a thank-you or any special treatment. Does this have bearing on the disciples’ plea for more faith in order to be able to forgive (up to seven times a day)? What does this story mean? Jesus makes the application specific in verse 10:
G. (Vs. 10): “So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’ Jesus is addressing the disciples here and He is telling them that they do not get faith by asking for it ahead of time, but instead by obeying what God has told them to do. Disciples are servants of God, and God does give us more faith, but not before we obey. To ask for more faith before we serve the master is presumptuous. God desires a humble attitude of a servant – according to verse 10, a proper attitude before God would be to realize that we are unworthy servants when we only do the minimum of what we have been told to do. What did Jesus mean? Simply this. Jesus had given His disciples a command. When a person sins, he is to be rebuked and forgiven. This does not mean that we are to be brutal with each other, we are to speak the truth in LOVE and GENTLENESS. But how? We can start by showing love and appreciation for the other person, using “I” statements and not “you” statements, and above all seeking to maintain the relationship and avoid an ‘us vs. them’ mentality. This is no optional activity either, just for persons with exceptional faith! This is the way every disciple is to live with others—this is a matter of obedience to the Lord. When it comes to living by Jesus’ commands, the issue is not one of waiting until we get more faith but of obedience! When we obey Him first, we see Him work in us and in others and then our faith is increased (just as the servant in the story does eat, but after he serves the master).
1. We are so prone to put-off this kind of difficult obedience until we are “better Christians,” or to find rationalizations for not forgiving: “they don’t deserve it.” To such thinking, Jesus has once and for all cried, STOP! You don’t need extra faith to obey! What you need to do is to remember that Jesus is Lord, and we who are Jesus’ servants are called to do as He commands!
2. Phillip Yancey wrote: "Forgiveness is another way of admitting, 'I'm human, I make mistakes, I want to be granted that privilege and so I grant you that privilege.'" Forgiveness cancels a debt someone owes us and restores relationship. It is the only solution in a world ridden with sin and evil to help us start over with people and with God. We learn about real forgiveness at the foot of the cross where Jesus Christ shed His blood to pay for the sins of the whole world. That is God's kind of forgiveness -- free, sacrificial, at no cost to the forgiven person.
II. Please turn with me to 1 John 3:10-24 on (page 906): “This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. 11 This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15 Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. 16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 19 This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 20 whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.” In verses 21 & 22 it says that we can have confidence before God if we obey Him and do what pleases Him. An attitude of pleasing Him starts with obeying His commands and keeps going into a lifestyle of living to please Him every day. What does a lifestyle of pleasing Him look like? The two over-arching commands given here are to believe in Jesus and to Love each other. Do we need more faith to do it? Probably!
A. It's challenging to think about forgiving people who have hurt us, isn't it? We don't want to let go of the painful memories of abuse, put-downs, broken promises, harsh words, family or work offenses. One outstanding example of forgiveness occurred when Corrie Ten Boom met a former Nazi Officer who had abused her and her sister during imprisonment, assisting in the death of other prisoners. He told her he had become a Christian and proceeded to ask Corrie to forgive him. As he reached out his hand towards her, Corrie resisted. Then, in obedience to God, as she extended her hand towards him she felt the surge of the Holy Spirit pour through her in a supernatural act of forgiveness.
B. We see again that obedience was the first step, and then God gave her power by the Holy Spirit. God is looking for us to step out in faith, to obey Him, and then He will meet us and increase our faith.
C. But what exactly is faith? Is it ‘blind faith,’ something that we either have or don’t - a belief that we have in our hearts that gives us the ability to ‘step out in faith’ and obey God, or is it something we get after (and as) we obey Him? What is faith exactly?
III. To find out, please turn with me to Hebrews 11:1-8 on (page 894): “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. 4 By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead. 5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. 7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. 8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.” ‘Sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see’ – but how do we get this certainty? If we look at all the examples listed in Hebrews 11 (such as Abel, Abraham & Moses), we see an on-going process of obedience, seeking to please God in life, and progressively increasing faith in the believer. But when God speaks, they do not wait for more faith – they obey. In Abraham’s case this was blind faith, because he “obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.”
IV. Is God asking us to have faith and obey Him? The Bible clearly shows us the way to more faith – are we willing to step forward and obey everything He says to do? - both in His word and in His Holy Spirit’s conviction of our hearts? What do we need to obey God in as individuals? What do we need to obey God in as a church? God does not want to give us ‘easy believe-ism’ that would fail under the slightest strain, He wants us to know Him and to know His power working in us. As it says in Philippians 3:7-14 (page 874): “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
V. Getting back to Luke 17, two things that the Bible says we need to do is rebuke and forgive. That is, rebuke in love (not self-righteousness) and forgive with realness. Our temptation in rebuking is to avoid it, until we act, not in love, but in anger – but this is not what God has in mind! And our temptation in forgiving is to put our bitterness aside temporarily until the guilty party does something else to again wrong us – this also, is not what Jesus intends when He says to forgive seven times a day (seven is the Hebrew number for fullness)! In Matthew 18:2, Jesus tells Peter that he must be willing to forgive 70 times 7 times (in other words, an unlimited number of times)! Ephesians 4:1-6 (page 870) says: “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit— just as you were called to one hope when you were called— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” I am preaching at least to myself here when I say that we need to “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” This is largely a thankless and difficult job on planet earth and especially in New England – but God gives us two points to work on in Luke 1) Rebuke in real love for the other person, and 2) forgive them unconditionally and permanently. This will take faith, and grow faith, as we see God work among us – and others will see it too. We have started to reach-out as a church (AA food ministry for one), and if we make ‘every effort to keep the unity of the Holy Spirit and the bond of His peace between us’, they will know that we have something different.
A. I worked for almost one year at a home for very delinquent teenage boys in Missouri. I think the biggest single thing that impacted these boys (who thought that they knew everything) was that the staff had a bond of love that made no sense to them. They often thought as they talked to us individually, that we had been comparing notes and rehearsing what we told them to give them the same answers – but when they questioned us, they found that we had not been conspiring to convince them (or even talking to each other about them), but we had been just being ourselves in obedience to God. They were bewildered, but they could not deny that there was a real God working among us! I pray that this will be our legacy at FBC to the people of Danvers. Struggles over parking lot plans, budgets, music etc. are just “grist for the mill” so that God can shape us (grind us) into what He wants us to be – His people for His purposes. The only question is, will we obey God in faith, without waiting for it to become easy? Do we trust God?
B. Mother Teresa said:
“> > People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
> > Forgive them anyway.
> > If you are kind, People may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
> > Be kind anyway.
> > If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true > > enemies> > ;
> > Succeed anyway.
> > If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
> > Be honest and frank anyway.
> > What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
> > Build anyway.
> > If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
> > Be happy anyway.
> > The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
> > Do good anyway.
> > Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
> > Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.> >
> > You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;
> > It was never between you and them anyway.
VI. Benediction: Col. 3:12-17: “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. 15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”