We Have Forgiven

Invite everyone to stand and read Matthew 6:9-13- Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Begin with a moment of reflection.

Who has wronged you in some way, shape or form?

Who is that person, that face, that immediately comes to mind?

Hold them in your mind and heart throughout the rest of our time here this morning.

When we consider forgiveness, I’d encourage you to always be thinking through the process of what it would look like with that one person.

Last week, God’s forgiveness toward us, His cancelling of our indebtedness. This week, our forgiveness of others.

Read Matthew 6:12- ...and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Pray.

Maturity in the Christian faith.

It is likely and necessary that you will, throughout your life, not only be challenged to do things you’ve never done before, but also in what it looks like to do those things correctly.

Selfishness to servanthood.

A lot of what we think about forgiveness is wrong.

How might we think about forgiveness, and how might we be challenged today?

1. Forgiveness is a fruit of being forgiven.

On a most basic level, we would have no idea what forgiveness is had we never experienced it.

No one naturally cancels debt. It is something that we must be shown.

Promises to the kids can never be broken. They must be taught that debts can be cancelled.

Further, we are speaking here of biblical forgiveness, not secular forgiveness.

Forgiveness for many is merely therapeutic. Not so for the Christian.

Lift the weight, they shouldn’t take up so much room in your heart, in your life.

See the problem here. You can forgive with no thought toward the well being of the other party.

Though it is good for the soul, biblical forgiveness takes place between two people.

In God’s forgiveness of man, relationship is made right.

Thomas Watson- “When we strive against all thoughts of revenge; when we will not do our enemies mischief, but wish well to them, grieve at their calamities, pray for them, seek reconciliation with them, and show ourselves ready on all occasions to relieve them. This is gospel-forgiving.”

The forgiven person cannot help but forgive.

Parable of the unforgiving servant (Matthew 18) is brilliant.

We all know how the story should go.

The forgiven ought to forgive. Why? Because he no longer owes. If he no longer owes, then there is no reason for anyone to owe him.

He is not dependent upon the repaying of a debt in order for him to repay his own.

Consider yourself- neutral. Brought to restored relationship with God. Made right. Now, what need do you have to receive a debt owed by someone else. And often a debt that cannot be repaid.

What would it take for you to feel even with another person who had wronged you?

Remember, our forgiveness requires the grace of God. We cannot pay it back, and so we require God’s cancelling of our debt.

In the same way, we must be willing to extend grace. If God can cancel our debt, we must be able to cancel the debt of another.

Thus we find that one’s ability to truly and biblically forgive does not make one merit forgiveness, but is the result of being forgiven.

We are not forgiven, or saved, on the basis of our willingness to forgive, but instead our willingness is the fruit of experiencing forgiveness.

Colossians 3:13- ...bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

John Calvin- Forgiveness ratifies the confidence in our own forgiveness.

It works as a seal or proof of sorts. We constantly wonder whether we are forgiven, or saved. Here is one of the answers to our question. Do we forgive?

Thomas Watson- “We need not climb up into heaven to see whether our sins are forgiven; let us look into our hearts, and see if we can forgive others. If we can, we need not doubt but God has forgiven us.”

2. Forgiveness must be rightly extended.

We need to understand what forgiveness is.

Notice in the text- Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.

hos- as, or like.

Remember in school learning about similes- comparisons that use like or as to connect two entities.

If A=B, then B=A.

Kevin DeYoung- “‘God please treat me as I treat other people.’ That’s a bold request, and it really makes us consider whether we would want God doing to us as we do to others.”

We ask God to forgive as we forgive, and thus we ought to be willing to forgive as God forgives us.

Remember maturing in t he faith- Not only knowing that we must forgive, but what it practically looks like to biblically forgive.

Forgiveness is costly, or sacrificial.

Sometimes we make forgiveness seem easy. When we believe it to be merely or primarily therapeutic, it becomes a mere shadow of what it ought to be.

Ephesians 1:7- In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace...

Explaining redemption- compensating for a defect.

Ephesians 1 explains that our redemption, our debt being paid, our defect becoming compensated, takes place through the blood of Jesus.

Our forgiveness is costly.

Forgiveness will cost us.

It will mainly cost us our pride, our retribution.

“Be the bigger person”- Be the smaller person, serve someone by forgiving them their debt.

Forgiveness is restorative.

What is God’s heart toward those who He has forgiven?

Hosea 11:7-9- My people are bent on turning away from me, and though they call out to the Most High, he shall not raise them up at all. How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my burning anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath.

Our desire must be to have the same heart towards those who have wronged us as God has toward us, even when we wrong Him.

Psalm 51- Cast me not away from your presence.

Azariah when he had wronged me. “Do you wish that you had had a different son?” Laid on the floor with him to let him know that he was still loved.

Forgiveness is complete.

Psalm 103:11-12- For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

A major part of forgiveness is that we don’t hold on to the scraps.

What we find here is the ideal. How can we ever live up to it?

We can’t, we continue to sin. But we strive for better.

3. Forgiveness happens in community.

This is too big to do on our own.

Communal nature of this prayer.

Forgive us as we have also forgiven.

Consider all of what Jesus has taught to a group of people who would be the foundation of the Church.

Matthew 18- Seventy times seven.

We need champions of forgiveness in our lives.

People who will model it.

People who will encourage it.

How do your closest friends speak of other people, specifically people who have wronged them?

How do your closest friends speak of people who have wronged you?

Are you an encouragement to others?

You’ve been thinking about someone. What will you do now?

Can you reach out? Can you serve this person by cancelling the debt that is owed just as you as also have your own debt cancelled?

Matthew 5- At the altar offering your gifts. Stop, go, make right. Ask forgiveness and be willing to forgive. You’ve already asked God to forgive you with the same measure that you have forgiven others.

Kevin DeYoung- “No doubt, some people have hurt you deeply. God never says it’s no big deal what has happened to you. Forgiveness is not saying that sin doesn’t matter. You’re not saying it’s no big deal. You’re saying God is bigger, the cross is bigger, and hell is bigger. Do not focus on what they owe. Focus on what God has already forgiven you.”