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Back to Sermons Index Back to Home Page 5th and 6th APRIL 2007 EASTER Thursday and FridayFORGIVEN AND FORGIVING! Pastor Linton Smith
A few weeks ago the cover of a Time Magazine caught my eye. It featured a photograph of two masked people and the words, WHY THEY HATE EACH OTHER. The article in the magazine traced the hatred back almost 1500 years! I have not named the people the article was about because they are no exception. Many other peoples, families and individuals hate each other just as fiercely. What a different place our world would be if people.. if we.. forgave each other! Alexander Pope wrote, "To err is human; to forgive is divine." How true that is. Forgiveness is difficult. To forgive we need divine help. And that help is available – from Jesus. He practised forgiveness. He paid the price for our forgiveness, and He inspires and empowers us to forgive. He can help us! JESUS PRACTISED FORGIVENESS. Jesus amazes me. He is so forgiving. I think of Judas. Jesus knew this man was plotting to betray him. If we had been in Jesus’ shoes I suggest we would have avoided this man.. and been barely civil to him when we could not avoid him.. What did Jesus do? He took a basin and a towel.. and washed the feet of his friends. And He included Judas! And then.. when Jesus was crucified.. we are told.. Luke 23:32-34.. Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Peter was there. He later described how Jesus behaved.. 1 Peter 2:23.. When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. Jesus did not retaliate. Did not seek revenge.. but entrusted Himself to God the Father who judges justly. He did just what the Apostle Paul exhorts us to do.. Romans 12:19-21.. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. Jesus did not retaliate. He practised forgiveness!
JESUS PAID THE PRICE FOR OUR FORGIVENESS. A 1950’s song speaks of God’s willingness to forgive.. He can touch a tree and turn the leaves to gold; He knows every lie that you and I have told. Though it makes him sad to see the way we live, He'll always say, "I forgive, I forgive." Is that true? No. It is a half truth. It makes forgiveness sound easy and cheap. And it is not! The night before He died on the cross Jesus shared a meal with His friends. In Matthew 26:27,28 we read.. Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness of our sins came at a great cost. Jesus suffered and died and shed His blood on the cross.. to pay the price for our forgiveness. Peter puts it like this.. 1 Peter 2:24.. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. He bore our sins in His body on the tree.. on the cross. He took our place. In Hebrews 9:27,28 we read.. Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people.. Christ was sacrificed once.. to take away the sins of many people. The sacrifice had to be made. The price had to be paid. God did not wink at our sins and say.. that is Okay.. I let you off.. no.. He is a just God… the penalty for sin must be paid.. and paid it was.. by Jesus. And because it was.. the Apostle Paul can say.. Acts 13:38.. Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Yes.. today.. we can be forgiven.. God will forgive us.. when we come to Him sorry for our sin and willing to change.. and confess our sin.. God will say to us, I forgive, I forgive! Jesus paid the price for our forgiveness. JESUS INSPIRES AND EMPOWERS US TO FORGIVE. Jesus taught His disciples to pray. He taught them a model prayer.. we call it The Lord’s Prayer. One of the things He taught us was this.. Luke 11:2,4.. When you pray, say: ‘Father.. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.’ What a challenge that is. When we pray like that we link our plea for God to forgive us with our own willingness to forgive others. Jesus wants His forgiven people to be forgiving people. In Ephesians 4:32 Paul puts it like this.. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. And the Apostle Peter puts it like this.. 1 Peter 3:9.. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. We may not feel that we can suddenly start having pleasant feelings toward a person who has hurt us badly, but there is something we can do. We can decide not to hold a grudge.. not to hit back.. not to retaliate.. but to behave like Jesus.. and respond as He did.. with blessing. Remember how He prayed for those who crucified Him.. Father, forgive them.. One of the most used examples of forgiveness is still the best.. Corrie ten Boom had suffered the horrors of a concentration camp during World War 2. After the war she was speaking at churches in Germany. She writes.. It was at a church service in Munich that I saw him, the former SS man who had stood guard at the shower room door in the processing center at Ravensbruck… He came to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing. “How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein.. to think as you say, He has washed my sins away.” His hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I, who had preached so often to the people.. the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side. Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him. I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer. Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your forgiveness. As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me. [Hiding Place p220]. Jesus inspired her to forgive.. and empowered her to forgive. Let’s allow Him to inspire and empower us to forgive. What a difference it will make.. to us.. and those we forgive! Ponder the way He practiced forgiveness. See Him on that cross.. refusing to retaliate.. but praying.. Father, forgive them.. Ponder the way He paid the price for our forgiveness. He bore your sins and mine in His body on the tree.. the penalty of our sin has been paid.. and now.. God will forgive us.. as we come to Him.. sorry.. willing to change.. and confess our sin! Ponder the way Jesus inspires and empowers us to forgive. If we are struggling with hurt and pain.. from long ago.. or something recent.. right now.. let’s tell Jesus about it.. and ask Him for His help. He will help us to let go of these feelings and empower us to respond with kindness .. just as he did Corrie ten Boom!
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