What He Said About Forgiveness

Illustration

Ernest Hemingway, in his short story, The Capital of the World, tells the story of a father and his teenage son Paco, set in Spain. Paco was an extremely common name in Spain at that time and, with a desire to become a matador and to escape his father’s control, Paco runs away to Madrid. His father, desperate to reconcile with his son, follows him to Madrid and puts an ad in a local newspaper with a simple phrase:

“Dear Paco, meet me in front of the Madrid newspaper office tomorrow at noon. All is forgiven. I love you.”

Hemingway writes, “the next day at noon in front of the newspaper office there were 800 “Pacos”, all seeking forgiveness.”

Let me ask you this: if you were part of the story, which character do you first identify with? Were you play the role of the father or the son?

POLL...

Series Intro

Week 3 of a 6 week series!

read aloud together - this is God’s inspired words given to us by Jesus - these words have power, and are messing with your internal reality, re-architecting your understanding and experience!

Luke 6:47–48 (The Message) These words I speak to you are not mere additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundation words, words to build a life on. If you work the words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who dug deep and laid the foundation of his house on bedrock. When the river burst its banks and crashed against the house, nothing could shake it; it was built to last.

Our goal in this series is to apply Jesus’ words and become built to last - that no storm can shake us, to obstacle can stop us, no setback can disqualify!

WE’re examining WHAT HE SAID about three big challenges we each face today:

POll results

The truth is, we’re both father AND son, aren’t we? We’ve hurt others, we’ve been hurt BY others. Certainly there are differing degrees to each of our experiences, but each of us is Paco, who’s been hurt, and Paco’s father, the one who’s hurt.

None of us have journeyed thorugh life untouched by hurts, abuses, words, actions, and opinions that we have given and we have received.

As a result, we’re people in need of forgiveness, both in RECEIVING and RELEASING.

Easier said than done. A lot of us carry the baggage of past unresolved hurts, lies spoken over us, actions we’ve done to others, and they continue to shape our present and limit our future.

Thank God that he has a better way!

Next two weeks we’re going to explore WHAT HE SAID about FORGIVENESS.

There’s this moment in Jesus’ ministry and teaching where one of his closest followers, Peter, asks him this question:

Matthew 18:21–35 (ESV)

21 ...“Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?”

Peter’s asking a fair question! Following Jesus means our understanding of who we are and what we’re here for is distinct. We know we were made both for relationship with God AND relationship with others. Our growing relationship with Jesus should provide a growing understanding of our relationships with others.

22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.

Jesus isn’t giving us an actual number, but a principle that challenges Peter’s thinking about his relationships with others - and probably yours too.

If I was Peter in this moment, just honestly, I would have really struggled with this moment. What about you? Can you sit in the weight of continual forgiveness like that? How can we live that freely, that unencumbered?

Jesus illlustrates, as he often does, through story:

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

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

We owe a debt that we cannot pay.

This is THE story - the bedrock reality of our Christian experience:

There is a perfect God inviting us into relationship with him.

He sees our value, worth, shame, hurt, and still chooses to express his love toward us and through us to others.

But enter sin - missing the mark (lack of perfection). Every moment, every time, ading to our debt.

Debt - 10,000 talents. It’s a massive amount of money. Scholars differ - 7 billion, TPT - 1billion, roughly 150,000 years of wages.

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

Really? Will you now? We try to figure our way out of it:

Try to do good works that cancel out the bad.

Try to reject the reality of good and evil.

Try to ignore it and hope it will work out in the future.

We wrestle with the need to require something more than ourselves. We want to do it alone, be independant, pay our own debt. We cannot.

Our debt has been paid in full.

Splanchnizomai

Feel compassion, have pity on, deep empathy.

This verb is similar to what is expressed in modern language as a feeling in one’s “gut” or “heart” of deep empathy for another person.

Jesus - I’ll step in.

Provides a way for our debt to be released from our account.

Doesn’t erase our debt, but takes the responsibility of it on himself.

That debt we could never pay, Jesus pays for us.

At INCREDIBLE cost to himself.

describe the crucifixion...

Do you remember when you first asked Jesus to forgive your sin, make you brand new and begin a relationship with Jesus?

I do - I was 4 years - it was a vivid moment in my life.

But here is the truly frightening, terribly real secret of Christian forgiveness, and the reason Jesus tells this story:

We can be transactionally forgiven but experientially unchanged.

Transactional

Debt taken and paid

Adopted

Eternal

Experiential

When a deep revelaton of this sets in, we are changed in the present.

What we have been given is intended to change what we can now give away.

And here’s this guy, who’s been forgiven SO MUCH! More than he could ever pay. Debts paid by someone else. Rather than allowing that generosity TO HIM to inspire generosity THROUGH HIM, he’s content to RECEIVE but not RELEASE forgiveness.

Instead, this guy goes out looking for justice. For vengeance. To call to account the person who owes him a debt.

It’s a much lesser debt than he was forgiven - 20K, 12K, 100 days work.

The result of his unforgiveness toward others is that his master actually reverses his decision of mercy and requires him to pay his own debt.

The sobering truth of this parable is that if we don’t forgive others we won’t be forgiven by God

Why is it sometimes so difficult to forgive others when we’ve been forgiven so much?

1. We have genuine hurt. Some of us have borne up under the weight of horrific experiences that even now threaten to swallow us up.

We can’t forgive. We won’t forgive. Because we know that the debt is owed.

2. We suffer from what a misunderstanding of what God says forgiveness is.

Next week: we’ll talk about how biblical forgiving isn’t forgetting, isn’t saying what happened was ok, isn’t a feeling, isn’t the same as healing from a hurt.

3. We suffer from an incomplete revelation of our own forgiven-ness.

Our capacity to give and grant human forgiveness is connected to our awe of being forgiven by God.

WE NEED A DEEPER REALITY AND REVELATION OF OUR OWN SINFULNESS.

The apostle Paul, this spiritual giant, had this to say about his own need for forgiveness.

1 Timothy 1:15 (NLT)

15 This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all.

me too

Our forgiveness for others will flow from our forgiven-ness by God.

We are ungrateful and foolish when we don’t forgive those who sin against us in light of all that the Father has forgiven us. Like this servant, we are too often content to seek forgiveness for ourselves, but reluctant to share it with others.

- do you stand in awe of the king that would forgive?

- have you taken a moment to truly drink in just how free you are?

- do you recognize the cost?

- has the cost changed you?

CONCLUSION

Are there hurts from others that you have held on to?

Have you allowed past abuses to shape your present, rob you of future joy?

If there are, today I’m not going to ask you to even address those.

It’s not that you won’t need to, and it’s not that you won’t have to bring that to God at some point.

But first things first.

Jesus’ point to Peter was that forgiveness toward others flows from those who know they are fully, wholly, and deeply forgiven.

When you allow God do to this deep and inner work in you, forgiveness will flow THROUGH you.

But sit in it today.

Let it cause you to see what Jesus did for you in a brand new light.

This has the power to transform your life.

Next - let’s sit in this together as a church by reading the bible together this week...

Today - we’ll finish by worshipping and then receiving communion together...