#323 Why Series# 7, Why I Forgive

#323 Why Series# 7, Why I Forgive
By: Pastor Karl Thomas

 Matthew 6:14-15
“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

Colossians 3:12-13
“Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.”

PICTURE JESUS WOMAN AT WELL!!!
Two verses seem to contradict.   Did you spot the difference?
The first statement says forgiveness starts with us.
The second statement says forgiveness begins with God.
So which is it?

“The Sermon on the Mount is the most eloquent exposition of old covenant law ever preached. Jesus preached it before the cross to people who were living under the law.”  Paul Ellis
Matthew 5:48 “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

John 13:34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”
New order of sacrifice.  Love :– Sacrificially ascribing infinite worth to another.

1 Corinthians 13:5 “…it (love) takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].”
Proverbs 17:9 “He who covers a transgression seeks love, But he who repeats a matter separates friends.”

1 Peter 4:8 {AMP} “Above all things have intense and unfailing love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins [forgives and disregards the offenses of others].”

Acts 5:31 “Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.”

Luke 24:46-47 “Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” 

Remission:— (Aphesis)
1. release from bondage or imprisonment
2. forgiveness or pardon, of sins (letting them go as if they had never been committed), remission of the penalty
Forgiveness is not something God does, it’s something He’s done. 

Psalm 103:10-12
“He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.”

3 OBSERVATIONS
1. Removes Our Transgressions
2. Remembers Our Sins No More
3. Releases Us From Iniquities
Iniquities:— Inward motivation .. Heart … Attitude … Out of line
Transgressions:— Outward movement .. Hand … Action
“As far as east is from west”  Completely and Forever!

William Arthur Ward “Thoughts of a Christian Optimist” wrote:
Most like beasts when we kill. Most like men when we judge. Most like God when we forgive.

Philip Yancey What’s So Amazing About Grace
“…plays like a background static of life for families, nations, and institutions. [Unforgiveness] is sadly our NATURAL human state. We nurse sores, go to elaborate lengths to rationalize our behavior, perpetuate family feuds, punish ourselves, punish others—all to avoid the most UNNATURAL act of forgiving.”

Marghanita Laski, a well known secular humanist and novelist, not long before she died in 1988, in television interview said: “What I envy most about you Christians is your forgiveness; I have nobody to forgive me.”

Karen Swartz M.D (John Hopkins)
“There is an enormous physical burden to being hurt and disappointed, … increase the risk of depression, heart disease and diabetes, among other conditions. Forgiveness, however, calms stress levels, leading to improved health.”

Can’t forgive people who devalue my worth. If you mistreat me then you owe me.
Unforgiveness allows the other who offends you to define you.
Unforgiveness is like drinking poison and waiting for your offender to die.

Philippians 4:19 “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

The power to forgive is rooted in your identity in Christ. My worth cannot be diminished because my value is in Christ. 

Matthew 18:21-35
21 Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. 23 Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. 25 But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made. 26 The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, ‘Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’ 27 Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt. 28 “But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, ‘Pay me what you owe!’ 29 So his fellow servant fell down at his feet[d] and begged him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’[e] 30 And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. 31 So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done. 32 Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. 33 Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’ 34 And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. 35 “So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”[f]

Only Two Responses:
1.Thank you for you great grace! 2. Walk away unchanged.
Practicing the Existence of God (excerpted from Rumors of Another World by Philip Yancey, published by Zondervan)
Grace is irrational, unfair, unjust, and only makes sense if I believe in another world governed by a merciful God who always offers another chance. “Amazing Grace,” a rare hymn that in recent times climbed the charts of popular music, holds out the promise that
God judges people not for what they have been but what they could be, not by their past but by their future. John Newton, a gruff and bawdy slave trader, “a wretch like me,” wrote that hymn after being transformed by the power of amazing grace.
When the world sees grace in action, it falls silent. Nelson Mandela taught the world a lesson in grace when, after emerging from prison after twenty-seven years and being elected president of South Africa, he asked his jailer to join him on the inaugurationplatform. He then appointed Archbishop Desmond Tutu to head an official government panel with a daunting name, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Mandela sought to defuse the natural pattern of revenge that he had seen in so many countries where one oppressed race or tribe took control from another.

For the next two-and-a-half years, South Africans listened to reports of atrocities coming out of the TRC hearings. The rules were simple: if a white policeman or army officer voluntarily faced his accusers, confessed his crime, and fully acknowledged his guilt, he could not be tried and punished for that crime. Hard-liners grumbled about the obvious injustice of letting criminals go free, but Mandela insisted that the country needed healing even more than it needed justice. 

At one hearing, a policeman named van de Broek recounted an incident when he and other officers shot an eighteen-year-old boy and burned the body, turning it on the fire like a piece of barbecue meat in order to destroy the evidence. Eight years later van de Broek returned to the same house and seized the boy’s father. The wife was forced to watch as policemen bound her husband on a woodpile, poured gasoline over his body, and ignited it.

The courtroom grew hushed as the elderly woman who had lost first her son and then her husband was given a chance to respond. “What do you want from Mr. van de Broek?” the judge asked. She said she wanted van de Broek to go to the place where they burned her husband’s body and gather up the dust so she could give him a decent burial. His head down, the policeman nodded agreement.

Then she added a further request, “Mr. van de Broek took all my family away from me, and I still have a lot of love to give. Twice a month, I would like for him to come to the ghetto and spend a day with me so I can be a mother to him. And I would like Mr. van de Broek to know that he is forgiven by God, and that I forgive him too. I would like to embrace him so he can know my forgiveness is real.”

Spontaneously, some in the courtroom began singing “Amazing Grace” as the elderly woman made her way to the witness stand, but van de Broek did not hear the hymn. He had fainted, overwhelmed.

Justice was not done in South Africa that day, nor in the entire country during months of agonizing procedures by the TRC. Something beyond justice took place. “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good,” said Paul. Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu understood that when evil is done, one response alone can overcome the evil. Revenge perpetuates the evil. Justice punishes it. Evil is overcome by good only if the injured party absorbs it, refusing to allow it to go any further. And that is the pattern of otherworldly grace that Jesus showed in his life and death.  RUMORS OF ANOTHER WORLD … (Philip Yancey)

323 Why Series# 7, Why I Forgive, PowerPoint Slides

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