Why Forgive?
Notes
Transcript
14 “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Forgiveness is unconditional.
Required of us.
Example of Christ on the cross.
While forgiveness is unconditional, reconciliation is not.
Illustration - betrayal, loss of trust
2. Forgiveness does not cancel God’s justice.
What about justice?
Vengeance is the Lord’s.
Nehemiah’s Prayer -
14 Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, O my God, according to these things that they did, and also the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who wanted to make me afraid.
Love Nehemiah, he would burst in prayer in the middle of his book:
19 Remember for my good, O my God, all that I have done for this people.
If you are being offended or attacked for doing what is right before God — God will take care of you and He will also take care of your enemies.
Vengeance is the Lord’s.
Let’s look at something Jesus said from our passage today:
“But if you do not forgive man their trespasses, Neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses” - if you are a Christian today, does that mean that you would lose your salvation?
Scripture — grace, there is therefore now no condemnation.
Context of Jesus’ statement - Right after the prayer He taught His disciples’ (The Lord’s prayer, might be better called the disciple’s or believer’s prayer)
“And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us”
Prayer is said in the context of a relationship, we ask the Lord to forgive us every time we sin, part of our sanctification. — what does this mean? We break fellowship with the Father when we do not forgive others their sins.
3. Forgiveness is liberating.
Unforgiveness consumes us. - illustration — poison
Unforgiveness can defile us. How?
Unforgiveness leads to bitterness that leads to defilement.
15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;
Don’t hold on to bitterness.
Forgiveness sets us free
Prerequisite to healing.
God can turn our demand for justice to compassion
Forgiveness means RELEASING the other person.
Someone said:
“Forgiveness is giving up my right to hurt you for hurting me.
Forgive and release and be released.
There are three promises in true forgiveness. This should be the action items for us today if there is an incident by which someone has hurt you:
I will no longer dwell on this incident.
I will not bring up this incident again or use it against you.
I will not talk to others about this incident.
If you can do all of the above, that is the only time you know you have really forgiven...
4. Forgiveness is Divine.
Jesus gave a seemingly stern warning about unforgiveness, but the truth is ...
Forgiveness should be the natural result of being forgiven.
32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Forgiveness is an act of God.
The parable of the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18 — we have titled the parable and put the focus on the servant — what about the King who was owed billions of dollar in today’s currency?
We owed a debt we could not ever pay.
Let us not miss the part of the King who cancelled all our debts.
God throws our sins to the depths of the sea — figure of speech — God has cast our sins to nuclear waste dump — truly inaccessible! That’s forgiveness.
Invitation