1. Peace Child
Missionary Don Richardson who served for many years among the primitive tribes in Papua New Guinea wrote a book entitled "The Peace Child." He writes how in translating the Scriptures into the native tribesmen language, he could find no words to express how Jesus Christ came to give His life that we might have peace with God. In his book he relates how he finally found the answer in the culture of the native people themselves.
He tells the story of two tribes in Papua New Guinea who maintained a blood feud between themselves for several generations. Each generation fought and nursed their wounds only to fight again killing and maiming more and more people. Finally after years of struggle the two tribes realized that they must stop fighting or nothing would be left of their peoples. But, what could they do to end years of warring between the two tribes?
Don Richardson goes on to tell that the chiefs of the two tribes came together and brought with them a child they called "the Peace Child". This child was the son of one of the opposing chiefs which was then adopted into the family of the other opposing chief. As long as that child lived the two chiefs promised to cease their fighting so that all could live. Don Richardson had finally found a perfect picture of God's love for us in sending the His Son, the Prince of Peace to die for us
2. Yeshua (Jesus) came to make peace between God and man; and man and man -- Ephesians 2.11-15 (AMP)
11 Therefore, remember that at one time you were Gentiles (heathens) in the flesh, called Uncircumcision by those who called themselves Circumcision, [itself a mere mark] in the flesh made by human hands. 12 [Remember] that you were at that time separated (living apart) from Christ [excluded from all part in Him], utterly estranged and outlawed from the rights of Israel as a nation, and strangers with no share in the sacred compacts of the [Messianic] promise [with no knowledge of or right in God's agreements, His covenants]. And you had no hope (no promise); you were in the world without God. 13 But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were [so] far away, through (by, in) the blood of Christ have been brought near. 14 For He is [Himself] our peace (our bond of unity and harmony). He has made us both [Jew and Gentile] one [body], and has broken down (destroyed, abolished) the hostile dividing wall between us, 15 By abolishing in His [own crucified] flesh the enmity [caused by] the Law with its decrees and ordinances [which He annulled]; that He from the two might create in Himself one new man [one new quality of humanity out of the two], so making peace.
3. Peace involves forgiveness -- Matthew 6.12
4. Forgiveness is powerful
a. Breaks the cycle of revenge
b. Brings freedom and relieves our burdens
5. Forgiveness is difficult for us
I. Forgiveness Is a Key Principle of Scripture
A. A Key Quality of God (Thankfully) -- Exodus 34.6-7
6 The LORD passed before him, and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation."
1. El Nose -- Forgiving God
2. From Nasa -- Bear Up -- Psalm 91.11-13
11 For he will give his angels charge of you to guard you in all your ways.
12 On their hands they will bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.
13 You will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent you will trample under foot.
B. A Quality for Imitation
1. Yeshua (Jesus) is the ultimate example -- Luke 23.34
2. Walk in ways of mercy/forgiveness -- Ezekiel 18.23
23 Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked? Says the Lord, and not rather that he should turn from his evil way and return [to his God] and live?
3. Let God deal with Justice -- Romans 12.19
19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God; for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." (Cf. Deuteronomy 32.35)
a. "Reciprocal Judgment" -- Luke 6.37-38
37 "Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; 38 give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For the measure you give will be the measure you get back."
b. God treats us as we treat others -- Ezekiel 16.59 (To Jerusalem)
59 "Yea, thus says the Lord GOD: I will deal with you as you have done, who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant,
II. Our Forgiveness is the Basis for Our Forgiveness
When we are forgiven by God, we can forgive; If we forgive, we are forgiven
A. Danger of an Unforgiving Heart -- Matthew 18.23-35
1. Ben Sira 28.2 -- "Forgive your neighbor the wrong he has done and then your sins will be pardoned when you pray."
2. Yom Kippur in the Mishnah
"The Day of Atonement atones for the trespasses between a man and the Omnipresent, but does not atone for the trespasses between a man and his neighbor unless he first appeases his neighbor."
B. A Matter of Debt - Luke 11.4 (sin) vs. Matthew 6.12 (debt)
1. Hebrew word for forgive is "Mehol" -- reference to forgiving a debt; associated with banking and finance
2. Sin -- is "Het" -- literally to miss (archery term) -- Proverbs 19.2
It is not good for a man to be without knowledge, and he who makes haste with his feet misses his way.
[Ancient roads were little more than narrow dirt paths cleared of rocks and trees. If one hurried carelessly on the path, his foot might miss the path causing him to stumble and fall.
33 You shall walk in all the way which the LORD your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land which you shall possess. Deuteronomy 5.33
3. Our response when someone "misses" with us? Not revenge; anxious to forgive
III. Our Forgiveness is a Plurality in Prayer
The year was 1630. The place was the Massachusetts Bay along the Atlantic coast near the place known as Plymouth Rock. On board the ship the Arabella John Winthrop, the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company challenged the Puritan settlers to establish a new kind of Christian community.
Winthrop said: We must be knit together in this work as one man, we must entertain each other in brotherly affection. . ., we must delight in each other, make others' condition our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together. . ., our community as members of the same body, so shall we keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, the Lord will be our God and delight to dwell among us."
Winthrop knew that they were in this thing together; no one could go it alone.
A. God Places Importance on Community
1. ONE can impact the whole
2. Responsibility of the community rests with each individual
["All it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to say nothing." ~ Edmond Burke
"'Do not hate your brother in your heart, but rebuke your neighbor frankly, so that you won't carry sin because of him. Leviticus 19.17
During the rise of Hitler and the Nazis, national pride and allegiance to Hitler overshadowed any allegiance to Christ and His church. It was in the midst of this that a Lutheran pastor named Martin Niemoller came to the attention of the Nazis.
Neimoller had been a German sailor during WWI, and to be quite frank, sympathized with the Nazis in the beginning, speaking against the Jews as having killed Jesus. But in the mid to late 1930's he saw the danger in how churches were being "nazified" and became part of a movement committed to keeping the church committed to Christ above all. This movement included Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who later died in a German prison camp for taking part in a plot to kill Hitler.
Neimoller survived the prison camps, and in 1945 gave the world this poem:
When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats, I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out; I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I did not speak out; I was not a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
B. God is Thorough in His Dealings with Us
1. God forgives and wipes away as though it never happened -- Hebrews 8.12 (Jeremiah 31.34)
For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more."
2. Words for forgive:
a. Mehol -- cancel a debt (proselytes were debt free in conversion)
b. Nasa -- Bear Burden (El Nose) -- Galatians 6.1-2
c. Mahah -- Erase (from heavenly ledgers) -- Daniel 7.9-10 (books opened, etc.)
Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my guilt and iniquities. Psalm 51.9
1. Our Challenge is to forgive as forgiven
2. Power in Forgiveness
Albert Tomei is a justice of the New York State Supreme Court. A young defendant was convicted in his court for gunning down another person, execution style. The murderer had a bad record, was no stranger to the system, and only stared in anger as the jury returned its guilty verdict.
The victim's family had attended every day of the 2-week trial. On the day of sentencing, the victim's mother and grandmother addressed the court. When they spoke, neither addressed the jury. Both spoke directly to the murderer. They both forgave him.
"You broke the Golden Rule--loving God with all your heart, soul, and mind. You broke the law----loving your neighbor as yourself. I am your neighbor," the older of the two women told him, "so you have my address. If you want to write, I'll write you back. I sat in this trial for two weeks, and for the last sixteen months I tried to hate you. But you know what? I could not hate you. I feel sorry for you because you made a wrong choice."
Judge Tomei writes: "For the first time since the trial began, the defendant's eyes lost their laser force and appeared to surrender to a life force that only a mother can generate: nurturing, unconditional love. After the grandmother finished, I looked at the defendant. His head was hanging low. There was no more swagger, no more stare. The destructive and evil forces within him collapsed helplessly before this remarkable display of humaneness." [source: www.preachingtoday.com]
