Forgiveness Increases Faith

Good morning everyone. It is nice to be invited back. I enjoyed the short visit back in October, Pastor Kirk and Aimee were nice enough to invite me again today. It is always a tremendous privilege, an honor even, to be invited back somewhere, isn’t it? Well I’m happy to be here at Bridge Church with my Son. I understand from Pastor Kirk that you have been making your way through the first part of Luke’s accounting, part two being the book of am really blessed and honored to be allowed to study this section of the scripture this morning with you. We’ll be in Luke Chapter 17 this morning. There are a couple of themes in this passage at first glance, the inevitability of sin, the call to forgive, the call for expansion of faith, and the caution to remember our place of belonging in the God verses us importance scale. At first glance a Pastor might divide and discuss these topics in greater length, even taking them to a topical oral expository, at first glance. In reading this section of Luke for preparation of our time this morning, it started to become clear to me that these individual topics really need to be connected to capture the heart of Jesus in His message to His followers. One of the more popular verses in the Bible is located in this section of scripture, and by reading the whole section we’ll put it into a proper context which I hope will stretch you as it has stretched me in having a greater understanding of His heart and the kind of faith He knows is best for us. Let’s ask for help this morning in understanding His message and request in faith together that people be reached by it.

Father thank you for your love and patience. Help me this morning to be a good messenger for you. I ask that you guide my words and our thoughts in this message that someone would be given a greater understanding and a greater heart for you. I ask that the people who have come here this morning would be touched by your Word, not mine, I ask that you use me in this time to further your heart, and not mine. Thank you. Amen

I am a supporter of the New American Standard Bible, I have found it to be an honest interpretation of original text in a choice of words for our language that bring the truest meanings possible. I’ll be reading out of the NASB, but feel free to read with me with whatever Bible you have with you this morning. Most of this section is Jesus speaking, Jesus being the “He” we start with here:

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 17

1 He said to His disciples, “It is inevitable that stumbling blocks come, but woe to him through whom they come!

2 “It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, than that he would cause one of these little ones to stumble.

Unstoppable Temptation

Inevitable temptation to make wrong choices. Even within the first section of this section, there’s two themes! The inevitability of temptation, and the caution against being the cause of temptation for others.

Stumbling Blocks

Jesus uses the word, inevitable, as in “not preventable”, when talking about how temptation to sin will happen. In the language of the day that this was recorded by Luke, the word used is Anendektos which means “impossible to avoid” There is a saying some of you may have heard possibly, “stuff happens”? It’s something like that… it’s meant as a plea for submission to a fate where one cannot avoid it. Please notice with me, that Jesus does not say here that it is inevitable that we will choose to stumble in the temptation. Young’s Bible says, “it is impossible for the stumbling blocks to not come” Getting back into Jesus’ words and doing a word for word translation, “stumbling blocks” comes from a Greek phrase which references the trigger of a trap. Skandalon. In reading for this message I discovered several authors who are significantly more learned than I am, who indicated their strong support for the idea that Jesus’ use of Skandalon meant that the stumbling block was not simply a wrong choice of little consequence, but rather it referenced a moral mistake that would cause ruin. Their choice of words here, moral ruin. I believe that is why Jesus is so emphatic about the way he relays this message. So it should not be of any surprise that Jesus would immediately continue with a similarly strong caution we not be the stumbling block.

Jesus uses the word, inevitable, as in “not preventable”, when talking about how temptation to sin will happen. There is a saying some of you may have heard possibly, “stuff happens”? It’s something like that…

As many of our scriptures have come from accounts of Jesus teaching to masses or followers, so is this passage so in order to understand what Jesus means about the phrase “little ones”, we would look back in chapter 15 for the context of the crowd. He is referencing people of little faith, or in another choice of words, people not strong enough yet to resist temptations of sin. The passage isn’t an excuse for sinning, and it isn’t a direct reference to children, though certainly may children might fall into the category of faith that he is describing. Mostly due to the phrase choices Jesus used, which reference deeply ruinous type bad decisions, one could be reasonable in the assumption that the passage isn’t aimed at children. In Luke’s second book, he expands on this, take a look with me:

Acts 20:29–30 NASB95

“I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.

So Jesus in awesome Jesus fashion, finds an illustration that all in the crowd gathered would understand. He says…you’d fare better with a millstone around your neck, tossed into the sea, never to escape certain death, than to be the person who brought a moral stumbling block to another. Wow! Strong words! SO I am standing here and describing to you Jesus, who just made a threat that would hold up in court! Let me illustrate the threat in a way that will help us to better understand Jesus’ heart in this.

Becky Pippert, in her book Hope Has Its Reasons: says,

“Think how we feel when we see someone we love ravaged by unwise actions or relationships. Do we respond with benign tolerance as we might toward strangers? Far from it. . . . Anger isn’t the opposite of love. Hate is, and the final form of hate is indifference. . . . God’s wrath is not a cranky explosion, but his settled opposition to the cancer . . . which is eating out the insides of the human race he loves with his whole being.”

Jesus is not indifferent when it comes to the people who cause the downfall of others, He cares deeply about it. Just as he knows every scar on our hearts and our bodies, He loves and cares about us enough to get downright mad, even appropriately violent at those who would do such a thing to others.

Jesus is the Good Sheppard who will fight ferociously to protect His sheep.

Luke 17:3–4 NASB95

“Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. “And if he sins against you seven times a day, and returns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.”

In his commentary John Courson says, sometimes amongst a group of people who are followers of Christ, given the reference, the body of Christ, sometimes, this connection with one another, which is the reference of “brother”, this connection calls for correction. Has anyone seen or been a victim of this passage being taken beyond not just its context, but its intention, and used against you? Another translation of the first phrase uses the warning in a same way stating, “Take heed yourselves”. Some of you may have that wording. This time Jesus is saying…within the group of people who consider themselves Christ followers, out of love for each other, knowing each of us is important to Jesus, we should carefully and prayerfully point out these things to each other. But lets be very careful not to get hung up here…because the point of the passage isn’t to go around picking and poking at each other…but drive home a direct contradiction to the practice of the day in regard to forgiveness. It was also to address the practice of how others shortcomings were brought to the attention of people in this day. Jesus uses the word “rebuke”, “epitima”, which means to “show disapproval”. It means to find a fault, and recognize it....but it does express a direction of condemnation. Let me repeat that, Jesus is not calling for us to bring condemnation. For those taking notes, who are hopefully going to be fact checkers and ensure that my words are true, write down these scripture passages for your study this week in regard to these statements I’ve made:

, , , Mathew 7 & 18. You’ll find instruction and recommendations about how to go about expressing disapproval without condemnation. I want to keep moving, because the next concept here, as I mentioned before, was a direct rebuke by Jesus of the common practice and teaching amongst the rabbi’s that one should forgive offenses by a person three times, and after that there was a pulpit permission so to speak to write the person off. Jesus is directly saying, don’t just forgive them three times, double that number…and you know what, then add one more. It was outrageous. It was scandalous to even poke at the rabbi’s in this way. It’s an exact picture of Jesus I’m so excited to share today. Jesus is so passionate and serious about bringing radical change to a broken system, that he’s making threats to drown them, and directly speaking against their improper teachings. The rabbi’s were answering questions with reference to law and logic. Jesus turned that whole mess upside down and implored people to come first with love, come alongside with compassion, and if that doesn’t work…add one more for good measure. Lest anyone get caught up with the 7, don’t miss the message here, he’s saying forgive without limit.

Forgive Without Limits

What a radical concept. Honestly, it’s still radical today. The disciples listening to this teaching, this direct assault on legalism, they were thrown aback by this teaching. Let’s read more:

Luke 17:5 NASB95

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”

Luke 17:

They recognize that to forgive someone continually who won’t stop offending you, takes the ability to write off the task of making the offender change. Let me repeat that. If we are to be obedient to God in this passage calling for forgiveness, then we are going to have to trust that God is going to not just take care of us in this situation, but take care of this other person also. It isn’t a love problem, it’s a faith in God problem, and the disciples of Jesus who were listening in…at least understood that much. Here’s Jesus’ famous response to this:

Luke 17:6 NASB95

And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and be planted in the sea’; and it would obey you.

Luke 17:6

I love how Courson puts it, “ The disciples said, “Increase our Faith”

Jesus says in response, “UNLEASH your Faith in me”

They return again with, “Expand our Faith”

and Jesus says...”Express your faith.

Jesus in said Speak to the mountain itself, He didn’t say, pray to me that the mountain would be moved.

Use Your Words; Use Your Authority

Jot down this scripture reference:

Use Your Authority

Let’s close up this section of forgiveness, by addressing the obvious concern when it comes to how to biblically handle this rebuking and forgiving process. Because it isn’t easy.

Stumbling Blocks

Jesus said that we should love one another (), but sometimes the minor offenses aren’t easy to get over. We are called to:

Ephesians 4:32 NASB95

Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

Remember Faith? We have to have faith in others, that they will walk the process of redemption themselves. If they do not obey the steps for forgiveness, which while not complicated,…aren’t always easy either. Jesus isn’t talking about that process here in chapter 17 though. He’s talking directly to us, the offended party. He is saying…YOU don’t be the stumbling block for others. He is saying that YOU must muster up the faith to trust God’s process in someone else.

Spiritual Maturity is Required

Remember back in verse two, and how I talked about the “little ones”, this is circling back around to that section. Jesus is saying it is going to take a mature faith to trust His process not just in our own lives and inevitable temptations, but we need to trust His process in the lives of others. He is saying that we don’t get to write off other followers of Christ. He is calling us to have the boldness to speak life into others by using the words, “I forgive you”. He is reminding us that words have power, and we have the authority to speak life into those who have hurt us.

While on the topic of spiritual maturity, I have heard of a growing number of people who without the context of the surrounding scriptures, believe that verse 6 gives authority for people to speak their desires with God’s authority believing that God will grant these desires in this practice. Perhaps some of you have heard of this. Part of maturing is understanding where a person fits into a given context or situation. The reason we have to include the next 4 verses, is so we can understand more fully the preceeding 6.

Luke 17:7–10 NASB95

“Which of you, having a slave plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come immediately and sit down to eat’? “But will he not say to him, ‘Prepare something for me to eat, and properly clothe yourself and serve me while I eat and drink; and afterward you may eat and drink’? “He does not thank the slave because he did the things which were commanded, does he? “So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, ‘We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done.’ ”

Luke 17:

Some might think Jesus is coming out of left field here or someone made a mistake in including these verses in the same passage as the others before it. But hang with me here as I speculate that Jesus knew some would claim some harry potter magic wand authority with His name. Authority to claim something in God’s name is always associated with servanthood, and never with a material gain for ourselves. There is simply no passage in this bible or fact based evidence of God granting riches by invoking his name for our personal gain. Pride is dangerous, and power is dangerous. Jesus is careful to warn that if we use His power, which He is calling on us to do…we should use it in love for Him and others, in service of Him, or others. Don’t go calling mulberry trees to take root in the ocean, that you might boast of your greatness in your understanding of God’s instruction. That is what the religious leaders of the day, and honestly today… that is what they were doing. They were doing the “perfect” thing, claiming justification through their actions, their deeds, their goodness, their ability to follow God’s laws to perfection. At least that is what the claim was. Be wary of someone claiming perfection. Good works will not save anyone. Good works are a mere reflection of obedience and faith. Jesus blesses us when we are good. Before Pastor Kirk rightly calls me out on the livestream, let me add the next part of that statement. Jesus blesses us when we aren’t also. His blessing is not tied to our obedience or goodness, His love for us is tied to HIS goodness, and he loves to bless us. And let me be the bearer of bad news for some…blessings have many faces and forms. Just because we forgive everyone and work hard to serve him, doesn’t mean we can name our desires and watch him deliver them. Sorry. Jesus loves us, and I can relay a hundred instances where I’ve asked for things or other types of blessings, where he has miraculously facilitated the blessing. He does do that, but it isn’t because we named them with His authority, and it had nothing to do with my obedience or goodness.

I mentioned that it was important that I get through all of these passages, because they tie together into one common theme. The theme is this: A mature faith forgives endlessly, recognizes stumbling blocks for what they are, speaks life into others utilizing His authority which is granted through servanthood to Him, and is expected of us without expectation for recognition or reward in being obedient.

Wow, that was a mouthful, right? But without the whole thing, we might be tempted to pick and choose the parts we like without the others. Let’s close by asking God to help us in being better servants to Him. Let me pray for us now.

Father thank you for your love and patience. Thank you for outlining a way of living that rocks the established ways of law by building a community of love and accountability. Thank you for your way of loving people which speaks life into the areas of struggle and encourages growth and maturity over our own selfish ways of condemnation and pride. Help us to identify these areas in our life where we need help in speaking life. Help us to identify the areas where we need to forgive. Help us to identify the areas where we need to seek forgiveness from others, and help us with the courage to do so. Thank you for this time together, bless the rest of this day and provide safe travel home to Pastor Kirk, Aimee, and Trip. These things we ask with the authority given by Jesus, your Son. Amen.