Forgiven And Forgiving
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· 4 viewsForgiveness of others speaks of our relationship with God. The person who rightly understands that s/he has been forgiven much, will also freely offer forgiveness to others.
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And he said to his disciples, “Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin. Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”
The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.
“Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’ ”
Luke 17:1-10
Confession: I think I’m a forgiving person, but it’s a struggle sometimes.
Confession: I think I’m a forgiving person, but it’s a struggle sometimes.
If I feel that a wrong commited against me or other loved ones is severe enough, I don’t want to forgive at all.
Not for what I perceive to be small offense...
Recently, someone deeply hurt a person I care about in a very painful way. It was a significant betrayal of trust and friendship.
I was furious, and I have struggled to forgive.
I have really struggled to forgive. I have wanted that person to pay for the hurt they caused.
For me, if you hurt the people I love, you hurt me. So, I wanted that person to suffer.
Maybe it’s a series of lies
Maybe someone stole from you
Perhaps a spouse cheated on you
Maybe it’s a wayward child
Maybe it’s physical violence
Maybe you have been the subject of gossip
It’s hard to forgive when its frequent offense or when it’s deep offense.
Qhat do we do with
We know that the world struggles with this, particularly in the example of murder.
This week when Brandt Jean publicly forgave Amber Guyger for murdering his brother. Many people were angry at him. SHE DOESN’T DESERVE IT!!!
How about when in 2006 Charles Carl Roberts walked into an Amish schoolhouse in Pennsylvania and murdered five children? The world was stunned when the Amish community almost immediately extended forgiveness.
How do people tend to feel about it when a murderer repents and turns to Christ? “They don’t deserve heaven after murdering so many.”
What About You?
What About You?
What about you? Usually it isn’t murder we struggle to forgive. It’s more “ordinary” things.
When someone lies to you? “My dad...”Don’t you EVER lie to me.”
When someone steals from you?
When your children disobey?
When your spouse says or does something hurtful?
What if it isn’t murder, or theft, , but someone REALLY hurts you?
When you are unjustly withheld a promotion? - I had to become a chaplain to get promoted because I couldn’t make MSgt!
How do we forgive in the face of injustice, and when there may not even be remorse from the offender?
In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus seems to set an impossibly high standard for forgiveness.
In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus seems to set an impossibly high standard for forgiveness.
Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”
Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”
In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus seems to set an impossibly high standard for forgiveness.
When the disciples hear this, they respond like you and I would!
When the disciples hear this, they respond like you and I would!
The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.
Luke 17:5
Jesus is making an important observation here.
Have you ever seen the root structure of a mulberry tree?
It’s vast and deep. Extremely fast growing.
It’s can also be somewhat invasive and dangerous if you have it in your yard.
The roots can break up sidewalks, wrap around plumbing lines, damage the foundation of your home.
Beautiful trees, but not easily uprooted!
Jesus is saying that even just a tiny seed of faith can uproot a mighty growth.
What he’s really saying is that their inability to forgive actually means they don’t have any faith..
That scares me! How about you?
Let’s see how Jesus works this out for us.
Jesus is drawing a direct correlation between our faith in God, and our ability to forgive others.
Question: Is Jesus saying that lack of forgiveness means we have no faith? Yes and no
Point 1: Jesus knows that we are naturally unforgiving because the sin of this world has blinded us to our OWN sin. Scripture is clear...
Point 1: Jesus knows that we are naturally unforgiving because the sin of this world has blinded us to our OWN sin. Scripture is clear...
Reason: Forgiving faith is hard to come by because the sin of this world has blinded us to the depths of our OWN sin nature.
Reason: Forgiving faith is hard to come by because the sin of this world has blinded us to the depths of our OWN sin nature.
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known,
as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.
As soon as Adam and Eve bit into that forbidden fruit, spiritual death entered and nobody is born with clear spiritual vision. Nobody.
! Cor 15:21
Death surrounds us now, pervades our existence from A to Z.
And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,
The Bible tells us that this death and the sin that comes through it makes us ENEMIES of God.
For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
Death Is The Evidence That We Are Enemies Of God
Death Is The Evidence That We Are Enemies Of God
Second law of thermodynamics (entropy) - Within any system, if no energy leaves or enters, the current energy within the system will always decrease.
In other words, things will die
Example: Evan-Post in a field
In other words, everything is moving toward death.
Think about this:
You and I are physically dying.
To hold off dying and to live a bit longer, we have to consumer things that are dead or dying. Dead animals, dying fruits, dying vegetables.
There is literally nothing on this earth that is eternally life giving. Nothing.
We’re all aging.
Wrinkles, ailments, aches and pains…they come
We are all dying along with it. With all the wrinkles, the aches and pains, the gray hairs, maybe with less hairs.
Wow, chaplain, could you be a little more morbid?
Everywhere around us is death, and that death leads to sin. It’s a vicious cycle that we cannot by our own power escape.
The real wonder isn’t that people commit horrible sins.
It’s a vicious cycle that we cannot by our own power escape.
It’s a vicious cycle that we cannot by our own power escape.
It’s a vicious cycle that we cannot by our own power escape.
It’s a vicious cycle that we cannot by our own power escape.
The real wonder isn’t that there are people in the world who murder.
They perhaps understand the natural trajectory of this world better than most.
The real wonder is that we aren’t all worse than we are.
The death of sin destroys our ability to see the love of God clearly.
The death of sin leads us to hurt ourselves and others.
The death of sin leads others to hurt us.
The real wonder is that we are all equally sinful and God chooses to save us anyway!
Well, we start comparing our sin to the sin of others and we imagine that we might be better. That somehow, because of something in us, we are better because we don’t sin as badly as our neighbor.
But we know that’s a lie.
Sin and death are the enemies of God, which means sinners are the enemy of God, which means YOU AND I ARE BY NATURE ENEMIES OF GOD.
We don’t love God with our WHOLE heart, soul, and mind. We don’t love our neighbors as ourselves. Not really. Not naturally.
Thank God that’s not the end of the story.
The kind of love that forgives not just seven times, but seventy seven times…THAT kind of love comes only when God
Point 2: The Good News Is that Jesus came to save us because God’s love is greater than His wrath.
Point 2: The Good News Is that Jesus came to save us because God’s love is greater than His wrath.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
Remember a couple weeks ago when we were discussing the dishonest manager?
It’s really easy to forget who owns the riches of forgiveness and salvation.
If you miss it, the whole story gets flipped upside down…like salvation depends on how well you create your own righteousness.
You can start thinking that the story starts with what you do…a sort of works righteousness.
The manager didn’t own the property but merely managed it.
He managed AFTER the rich man had given him the riches to manage.
The manager was only a manager, and he managed AFTER the rich man had put him in management.
Today, Jesus reminds us that our forgiveness to other people is like that of an unworthy servant who owns nothing, but has been given everything.
Similarly, Jesus reminds us today that forgiveness starts with God, not us.
So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’ ”
If you sin against me, it’s God you ultimately have a problem with.
If you seek forgiveness for hurting me, your forgiveness comes from God primarily, and me secondarily.
I cannot make you repent. I cannot give you heaven. I cannot send you to hell. I cannot die for your sins.
Whatever I do in response to another person’s sin against me is only as a servant who has himself received forgiveness from God.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
None of us has our OWN forgiveness to give. We have been forgiven by God through Jesus Christ, and we therefore have the forgiveness of God to extend to others.
“Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’ ”
Point 3: To be forgiving, we must be convinced that our salvation is a magnificent, undeserved gift.
Point 3: To be forgiving, we must be convinced that our salvation is a magnificent, undeserved gift.
The Bible only knows two categories.
Those who have been made alive in Christ.
Those who are DEAD to sin and trespass.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
The Bible only knows two categories.
Our forgiveness didn’t come because we were smarter, more fit, or less sinful.
The Bible only knows two categories.
Those who have been made alive in Christ.
Those who are DEAD to sin and trespass.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
We are like little kids who have been given the most incredible birthday present in the world!
even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
Now that we are alive, we become ambassadors of forgiveness for a world that needs that forgiveness.
The world is still blind. We have been given sight.
It didn’t come because our sins aren’t quite as high as that of another person.
Forgiveness doesn’t belong to us. It flows through us.
:
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
YOU are an ambassador of the forgiveness of God to a world that is blind in sin.
HE CHOSE to allow His only son to die on a cross so the wretchedness of your sins could be put to death for all eternity.
HE CHOSE to allow His only son to die on a cross so the wretchedness of your sins could be put to death for all eternity.
1 Peter
When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
It is only by the wounds of Jesus that we have been healed, and God saved us purely by His grace. Not because we were good!
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
The gift is extended to all equally because we are all equally in need of forgiveness.
Look around this room
Look around this room
What you will see are sinners who have been saved by the grace of God.
Praise God that we have a PROMISE of forgiveness.
Praise God that we have a PROMISE of forgiveness.
We share that forgiveness...that reconciliation...in the same way it has been shared with us. We tell people about sin and the forgiveness of that sin in Jesus Christ!
We share it that forgiveness in the same way it has been shared with us.
Where do we find this forgiveness? In Jesus.
That’s because they have not accounted for how sinful they are, and they cannot give to others what they have not received.
We share Jesus through the Scriptures that testify to Him.
Where Jesus is, forgiveness and reconciliation are right there with Him.
Where do we go for forgiveness? In the promises of Scripture
It’s not our forgiveness. It’s God’s forgiveness, and we share it in the same way it has been shared with us.
You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
We call on all people to repent of their sin and to be baptized into Jesus Christ for forgiveness and new life in the Holy Spirit.
And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”
And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”
We continue trusting the promise of forgiveness every time we receive His body and blood.
Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
A few minutes ago, we talked about how every source of nutrition on this earth is actually dead or dying.
Christ, however, is the only eternally living source of life. He promises that whenever we receive Him in faith, we have received everything.
We’re told repent, confess, be baptized, receive my body and blood.
He doesn’t empower us to do more. He IS EVERYTHING!
Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
Brothers and sisters, where we receive Christ’s forgiveness, we can share forgiveness with others.
Let’s lay hold of the forgiveness that leads to life by receiving the body and the blood of Jesus Christ.
Let’s confess that we are forgiven because we receive His promise of forgiveness and reconciliation through faith.
Let’s share this forgiveness to the whole world because God is good. He forgives his enemies and makes them His friends.
Even a sinner like you. Even a sinner like me. Amen
Amen