Father Forgive Them
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Father Forgive Them
Father Forgive Them
Livestream
How many of you would agree that men can say some pretty stupid things? Sure, we all say stupid things, but usually us guys take it to a whole other level. Usually we say something like, “Watch this!” right before something very bad happens. “Here, hold this... Hit ‘Record’... Look what I built.” and it’s just this pile of wood fashioned into a sketchy bicycle ramp. Famous last words!
How much you wanna bet I can do this?… I’ve never tried this before, but what could go wrong?… I’m no electrician, but how hard could this be? zzzzzp… I’ve never ran a chainsaw before, but it looks easy enough… One time a guy who is no longer with us asked a woman how long she had been pregnant and she wasn’t even pregnant. I know you ladies are smarter than us because sometimes you even try to trap us by asking questions like, “Do these jeans make me look fat?”
There was a video floating around the internet a couple of weeks ago of a guy who apparently had at least 3 opportunities to say some famous last words. First, he probably said, “Watch this” right before he walked up to a police car and attempted to vandalize it. When the officers raced up to him on foot he stepped back and I am guessing his next famous last words were, “I’m never going back!” because he took off running. He was very fast too, because the officers stopped chasing him. That’s when he looked back and probably said, “HA! You’ll never catch me!” and promptly ran square into a pole.
We can do some pretty stupid stuff. Normally when we utter our “famous last words” things end up going very bad for someone. Fortunately, not ALL famous last words end bad for US. Our dying Saviour blessed us with His famous last words while on the cross.
Today we are starting a new series for the month of June called “Famous Last Words.” In this series we will look at Jesus’ famous last words while He was on the Cross. Some of the key thoughts of this series, including the series title, are borrowed from a Life Church series of the same name.
While he was suffering on the cross, He uttered seven phrases that should be the most famous last words in all of the world. Today we are going to look at the first one in Luke chapter 23. Starting in verse 32, the bible says...
32 Two others, both criminals, were led out to be executed with him. 33 When they came to a place called The Skull, they nailed him to the cross. And the criminals were also crucified—one on his right and one on his left.
Before we talk about the first thing Jesus said on the cross, it is crucial to think about what has happened up to this point. God loved the world so much that He gave us His one and only Son, Jesus, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but would inherit eternal life. He was born of a virgin, Mary, without the sin nature. He lived a perfect sin-less life. He completely fulfilled the will of God for his life.
We are able to read the amazing stories of His life. How He loved EVERYONE. He loved with unconditional love. He loved the people that society rejected. He spoke a revolutionary message about God’s love. He called the religious people hypocrites telling them to pull the plank out of their eye. They preach religion, but don’t know God personally.
He said He didn’t just come to preach the law, but to fulfill it. He did countless miracles, He changed lives, His touch caused the blind to see and the deaf to hear, He healed the broken, He caused dead people to rise.
Even though He did so much good and fulfilled God’s will in such an awesome way, He was betrayed by one of His own. He was taken to a mock trial. He was falsely accused, tried, and condemned. He was tortured, mocked, and beaten. The OT prophesied of Him that you couldn’t even recognize Him as a man. The Roman soldiers would pummel Him in the face and then say, “Prophesy. Tell us who hit You.”
As He fought to remain conscious, they forced Him to carry the cross to the point of exhaustion. Then they brutally mounted Him to it with nails and lifted Him into the air to await His death. Jesus never retaliated. Never spoke a word of evil against them. According to the Gospels, at this point He hadn’t spoken up at all. Hanging on the cross, suffering for our sins, Jesus’ lips finally begin to utter something.
If I was listening I’d be thinking, “Oh man, now you guys are gonna get it! You better watch out! In fact, I am taking a couple of steps back from you, because I don’t want to be standing there when the lighting strikes or the ground disappears from beneath you.” Jesus didn’t do that though. The first of His famous last words were this, in verse 34...
Luke 23:34 (NLT)
34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.”
In the middle of all of this pain and suffering, He looked up to heaven and prays for the people who are destroying Him. “Forgive these people. They don’t know what they are doing.” Famous last words. Absolutely amazing.
For us, Jesus’ prayer has a ton of significance. If you are taking notes we will look at 3 important thoughts...
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS PRAYER
JESUS FULFILLED PROPHECY.
Seven hundred years before this moment in Jesus’ life, Isaiah the prophet prophesied that one day this would happen. So what exactly did he say? First, Isaiah talks about Him being just an average looking guy. Isreal wanted a larger than life king. Someone tall, dark, and handsome. He doesn’t HAVE to glow, but that would be good too.
Isaiah says, actually He will be average. We will turn our backs on Him. He will be despised and rejected. Even so He will carry our burdens, be punished for our sins, beaten so we could be healed. He will be treated harshly, but He will never say a word. He will be unjustly condemned. Never having done anything wrong, He will be buried like a criminal. Put in a rich man’s grave.
But because of His experience, He will bear the sins of many, making it possible for them to be counted righteous…
Isaiah 53:12 (NIV)
12 ... For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Seven hundred years before Jesus does it, Isaiah said that He won’t say a word, but when He does speak He will pray for the transgressors. Jesus’ prayer asking God to forgive the people torturing Him is significant. First, Jesus is fulfilling prophecy. Second...
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS PRAYER
JESUS MODELED THE IMPORTANCE OF PRAYER.
Jesus was a person of prayer. He began His ministry with prayer. In the end, He closed His ministry with prayer. He taught a lot about prayer. Here He prays the same way that He taught other people to pray in Matthew chapter 6...
Matthew 6:9 (NIV)
9 “This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven…
He prayed for the most unlikely people, His enemies. He prayed for people who would have been considered the furthest away from God. Think about that in your life...
Do you know people who you think, “They’ll never have a relationship with God. They are too far from Him.” Yet Jesus was praying for those people who would have been considered far from God. This is encouraging. Never ever stop praying for someone to come to know God in a personal way. Never ever give up.
A couple of months after this moment on the cross, Peter was preaching on Pentecost (which happens to be celebrated this weekend in some churches). On Pentecost 3000 came to know God through Jesus Christ. I imagine it is very likely that some of the very people who were mocking Jesus came to know Him personally on that day as a result of Jesus’ prayer on the cross.
Jesus’ prayer is significant because it fulfilled prophecy, it modeled the importance of prayer, and third...
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS PRAYER
JESUS REVEALED MAN’S GREATEST NEED.
Think about what Jesus DIDN’T pray for. He could have prayed for His own pain to go away. He could have prayed for healing. Not just His own healing, but for someone else’s. He could have prayed for blessings. For people to see this and be affected and changed by the experience. All important prayers, but He didn’t pray for any of that.
He prayed for our most important need. Forgiveness. Forgiveness of sin. That’s why He was here. He came so that we could have life. That is why Jesus said this at the last supper...
28 This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Jesus revealed our greatest need. The implication of His prayer is that He is revealing something that we don’t even know we need. Think about when Jesus said, “For they don’e even know what they are doing.” That could imply that...
Ignorance does not equal innocence.
In other words, just thinking you are good or thinking you are doing the right thing doesn’t mean that you are. You can follow the rules every day of your life and still not realize that it cannot make you righteous in God’s eyes. In chapter 3, verse 20 of Romans, Paul said that the law wasn’t given to show us how to be perfect, it was given to show how imperfect we are. To show us that we need forgiveness.
So how do we live this truth in our lives?
The sad part in all of this is how, as humans, we tend to overlook forgiveness in our relationships. We tend to wait for the other person to seek forgiveness first. Often we “don’t even know what we are doing” when we hurt other people. It is heart breaking to think about how many broken and damaged relationships we see in the Christian community.
Many times, people that I care about the most are the ones who are the most frustrated with me, or I am the most frustrated with them. The relationships that should be the best are oftentimes the ones that are the worst. Chances are that many of you have experienced some pretty deep wounds in the past, or possibly even right now, in some of your relationships.
The pain people face in marriages is incredible. There are so many ladies out there who hate men because of the abusive men who have been in their lives. Men who don’t trust women because they have been betrayed. Broken promises and shattered emotions. According to a US census in 2018, Oklahoma ranked 3rd highest in the nation for divorce rates, 30% higher than the national average.
Then that affects their children. Stir in a little addiction and small problems get worse. Horrible things happening to innocent people. People who call themselves Christians but do ungodly things. Broken relationships. Huge wounds. No intimacy. Grudges. Pain.
What do you do when you’ve been hurt like that? When you’ve been wronged? When one of your most important relationships is not where it is supposed to be? When someone hurts you, do what Jesus did. Pray. How does Jesus want us to live this in our life? If you are taking notes…
WHEN SOMEONE HURTS YOU, PRAY!
PRAY FOR THOSE WHO HURT YOU.
The first thing Jesus teaches us to do is to pray for those who hurt you. Think about who was mistreating Jesus… The religious leaders. The Roman soldiers. The soldiers were beating Him senselessly. So badly that He wasn’t even recognizable as a person, and what did He do? He prayed for them immediately. His first words. He was loving His enemies, just like He had taught in Luke chapter 6...
28 Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you.
If you are like me, you would definitely pray for them in a situation like that. Admittedly, my prayer would probably be something more to the tune of, “God… Get ‘em!” That’s not exactly what Jesus meant for us to pray though. Pray good things, not bad things. No lightning, plagues, diseases, or anything like that.
Sometimes when I feel wronged I can even put myself on some kind of pedestal… “I would never have done that to them. They are bad people. I’ll forgive, but I could never forget.” Push people out. Hold something against them. Write them off. Close them out of the circle.
One guy got bit by a rabid dog and he could have been treated by his doctor and been completely healed, but he didn’t. He waited too long to talk to the doctor and the doctor said, “I’m sorry, if you had have come in earlier you’d be fine, but now you’re not going to be fine. It is way too late. You are going to die.”
The guy freaked out and after a while he worked through the emotion and started making a list of people. He wrote names down on a piece of paper and the doctor said, “What are you doing? Are these people to contact or people to give your possessions to?”
He said, “No, no, no. These are the people I hate. I’ve got rabies. This is a list of the people I am going to bite.”
That’s the way a lot of people live today. Wounded, bitter, angry, full of un-forgiveness, letting hard hearts grow harder and harder. A little bit of bitterness, heartbreak, or hurt is all it takes to destroy some of your best relationships. I have had very close friendships that have been completely ruined in the past because of small hurts that were allowed to grow.
I upset a close friend of mine a long time ago and wasn’t even aware of it. Once I realized this had happened I thought it was silly for him to be upset so I didn’t address it. Now, no matter how much I try to contact him I can’t. If I had have prayed for him instead this may have never happened.
If you are taking notes, something else may have happened too. This is a thought that has really helped me when it comes to praying for people and it might be helpful for you...
My prayer for others may or may not change them, but it always changes me.
I can’t pray for God’s blessings on someone else’s life without God doing a significant work in my heart. That is why Jesus said that we should pray for those who hurt us. You’ve heard that you should hate your enemies, but instead you should pray for them…
43 “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. 44 But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!
How many of you have seen a movie where the guy is in his room trying to psych himself up to confront his enemy. He is standing in front of the mirror and tries to look intimidating as he says, “Are you talking to me? Are YOU… talking to ME?” Then throws out his finger-guns.
How many of you have done that? What if we prayed for blessings in their life instead? Pray for those who hurt you. The second thing Jesus’ prayer teaches us that we should do is to pray for restoration...
WHEN SOMEONE HURTS YOU, PRAY!
2. PRAY FOR RESTORATION.
The Romans worshiped the false god of revenge, but Paul told them not to be revengeful. He told them not to repay evil for evil. He told them, “as far as it depends on YOU, live at peace with everyone.”
17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
If it is possible, live peaceably. It may not be possible. I can’t control what other people do. All I can control is what is in my heart, and God calls us to do all that we can to live at peace with everyone. Do it today. Don’t wait for a good opportunity or even for the next time you see the person who has hurt you.
I have been exceptionally blessed in this regard, but the relationship between my brother and I could have turned out completely different. When I was in high school we hated each other. I’ll never forget trying and trying to get along. One day I finally told him, “Dusty, I love you but sometimes I don’t like you.” From that moment on we barely spoke unless it was another argument.
A few months later we got a phone call that Dusty had been in a wreck. He had rolled and totaled his truck, but by the grace of God he wasn’t injured at all. That was the moment I realized that it was silly to not do everything I possibly could to get live peaceably with my brother. Instead of being a moment that restored our relationship, it could have been a moment that sealed my regret forever.
Don’t wait for restoration. Pray for it and do everything that you possibly can to live at peace. We should live for peace. God is in the business of restoring and reconciling relationships and has called us into the family business. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul calls it “the ministry of reconciliation.”
My old pastor, Craig Groeschel, would say that if your relationship isn’t where it’s supposed to be then get up off your stinking butt and do something about it. Apologize. Repent. Forgive. Have some grace. Get out there and do what it takes. “Father, forgive them, for they known not what they are doing.”
How do you forgive someone who has hurt you? How do you forgive someone that you don’t want to forgive? Someone who doesn’t deserve forgiveness?
13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
I should forgive the same way God forgave me. The ugly truth is that if I sat down and counted all the ways people have wronged me I wouldn’t even come up to a fraction of the ways that I’ve wronged God. Yet He forgives me freely.
When man was at his worst, God’s Son was at His best. “Father, forgive them. They don’t even know what they are doing.” Who do I need to forgive today? Who can I pray for this week?