Luke 23:26-34 NIV
26 As they led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.
27 A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him.
28 Jesus turned and said to them, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children.
29 For the time will come when you will say, 'Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!'
30 Then " 'they will say to the mountains, "Fall on us!" and to the hills, "Cover us!" '
31 For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?"
32 Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed.
33 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.
34 Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
Introduction:
Words uttered at the end of a man's life take on extra significance. What did our Lord say in His final moments? And what do they speak to us today?
Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks...
Illustration: Tell light hearted stories of things that were hard to forgive… Someone ate the last cookie, drank the last soda...
Sometimes we think its unforgivable bc you cant take it back
How do you forgive the unforgivable?
Sometimes people really hurt each other…
How do you forgive in a situation like that?
How do you forgive when by definition what has happened to you is unforgivable?
Setting of the Text:
It’s Friday morning, 9 A.M. And its time.
Just outside the Damascus Gate is that leads to a hill.
Up above is a rocky ledge,
That if studied at a certain angle, looks like a skull
You can see eroded into the limestone two sockets for the eyes,
a place for the nose and maybe a place for the mouth.
Skull Hill, they called it. Golgotha.
It was the place where the Romans held crucifixion.
And Friday was the day and nine o’clock was the time.
The soldiers were ready. They were Roman soldiers.
They were from another part of the world.
They weren’t from Palestine. They weren’t from Israel.
They weren’t followers of the law.
They were simply soldiers who had a job to do.
And this happened to be their job.
They were in charge of crucifixions. They were executioners.
So it’s 9:00 AM
And up the road comes a group of people.
The soldiers know that two of the men being crucified are just average, ordinary criminals, this is what they do. This part is routine.
But the third man, a prophet from Nazareth, his case is different
They know he’s different because of these trials last night
They know this is different because of the buzz of the crowd
There is a man carrying his cross
Because he is too weak to carry his own
It turns out he was a man by the name of Simon
This man Jesus is barely walking, sometimes crawling,
Each step with agony
He had been beaten within an inch of his life,
Literally one more swing whip was considered a death sentence
His back was in shreds.
He was beaten and bruised.
And on his head a crown of thorns
The Roman Soldiers laid the cross out on the ground
And they laid the body of Jesus on the cross
They wrapped rope around this arm and around
They drove the spikes into his forearms and into his feet
With the ropes in place they began to pull the cross up
They dropped it and it fell with a thud
And there was Jesus, beaten, bruised and bloody.
It was only a matter of time before He gave up the ghost
The soldiers stood back, satisfied. A job well done.
Beyond Forgiveness:
Now if you want to talk about something that's Beyond Forgiveness, Unforgiveable
What the soldiers did that day was unforgivable
That’s the definition of what unforgivable is
When you crucify Jesus, God in flesh,
You have done that which is beyond forgiveness.
That, I would think, is truly unforgivable.
And yet, Jesus said, in his first word from the cross,
“Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”
This was the unforgivable sin.
Yet Jesus said, “Father forgive them.”
1. It is possible to forgive the unforgivable by remembering that the people who are hurting you do not really know what they are doing.
If ever a statement seems to be obviously wrong, this is it. Someone says, “You don’t understand.
They knew exactly what they were doing.
They knew what they were doing before they were doing it.
They knew they were going to hurt me and they went ahead and did it anyway.”
When she told that lie she knew what she was doing.
When he double-crossed me he knew what he was doing.
They knew exactly what they were doing.
They knew they would hurt me and they did it on purpose. “What do you mean?”
Consider Jesus.
Who was he talking about when he said,
“For they know not what they are doing?”
Who is the “they” he is talking about?
You say, “The Roman soldiers.”
Did the Roman soldiers know what they were doing or not?
Well, yes they knew they were crucifying a man.
Did they know who he was?
No, they didn’t really know who he was.
If anybody really didn’t know what they were doing it was the Roman soldiers.
It was just a job to them.
Well, you say, “It’s Pilate’s fault.”
Did Pilate know what he was doing? Well, what did Pilate know? Pilate knew that Jesus was called the King of the Jews.
That’s what Pilate knew.
And what he knew scared him to death,
and he tried to wash his hands of it.
He knew enough to scare him to death.
He didn’t know the whole story.
What about Caiaphas?
Caiaphas knew that Jesus was called the Son of God,
the Messiah. What did Caiaphas do?
He said, “I want nothing to do with this.
Crucify him and get him out of here.”
Annas? The same way.
Well, you say, “What about Judas?
Didn’t Judas know what he was doing?
He was with Jesus for three and a half years.”
No, if anything is clear from the New Testament,
Judas was totally confused about who Jesus was.
He knew that Jesus was supposed to be the Messiah but when you really got down to it,
Judas thought Jesus was going to roll into Jerusalem,
take over the place and set himself up as King.
Judas was baffled because Jesus didn’t fit his preconceptions about what the Messiah was going to do.
That’s one of the reasons he betrayed him—because he was confused and disillusioned and disappointed at the end.
You say, “Are you telling me these men are not guilty?”
No, I’m not saying that. Judas was guilty. Pilate was guilty. Caiaphas was guilty. Annas was guilty.
The Roman soldiers were guilty and so were the Jewish leaders, the Pharisees and the scribes who conspired to put him to death.
And what about the mob? Yes, they were guilty.
And what about the spectators who came to cheer and laugh and to mock? Yes, they were guilty.
But Jesus said, “Father forgive them because they do not know what they are doing.”
Underline the word “what” because it is the key to the first saying of Christ from the cross.
The key is not the fact that they do not know. The key is what.
They do not know what they are doing.
They know what they are doing but they do not know what it really means.
They know what they are doing but they don’t know who they’re really doing it to.
They know what they are doing but they don’t know what the ramifications are.
And this is the way it is with all of our sin! We don’t know how serious it is
We don’t know what we are doing!
BUT WE SERVE A GOD WHO HAS MADE A SACRIFICE WHO HAS SHED HIS BLOOD WHO HAS DIED SO THAT WE MAY BE FORGIVEN
2. It is possible to forgive the unforgivable by remembering that Jesus forgave us when we were unforgivable.
He forgave you You can forgive them
In fact in order to receive forgiveness
We must first forgive…
3. We Can Seek Forgiveness from God
Awareness of sin and wrongdoing begins first in our minds.
However, only admitting what we have done wrong is insufficient to bring about forgiveness from God and those whom we have offended.
Some people acknowledge their sins but rationalize them away.
In an attempt to explain away their misdeeds as part of a universal problem, they quote Romans 3:23:
“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”
They ask, “Since everyone sins, what’s the big deal?
Or they do a quick “forgive me” as if its magical formula
They stop short of actually being sorrowful or repentant,
wrongly thinking that to acknowledge their mistakes is enough. But admission alone is inadequate.
It requires an emotional response of sorrow.
The Bible declares that it is impossible for God to forgive an
un-remorseful or unrepentant person.
Without remorse for sins, there is no true sense of wrongdoing and the harm it has caused.
For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation
It requires a sorrow…
4. Receiving Forgiveness
If God forgives us, we must forgive ourselves.
Otherwise it is almost like setting up ourselves as a higher tribunal than Him.
-C. S. Lewis
Sometimes its not just from other people that we withhold forgiveness from -- sometimes, we w/hold from ourself!
Once forgiveness is offered, it must be accepted.
A man condemned to prison who receives a pardon must accept that pardon before he can be released.
One of my first sermons, Accept Your Pardon
I told the story of George Wilson
He killed a government employee who caught him in the act of robbing the mail.
He was tried and sentenced to death.
However, President Andrew Jackson sent him a pardon.
But Wilson did a strange thing.
He refused to accept the pardon, and no one knew what to do.
So the case was carried to the Supreme Court.
Chief Justice Marshall, wrote the court’s opinion.
In it he said, “A pardon is a slip of paper, the value of which is determined by the acceptance of the person to be pardoned.
If it is refused, it is no pardon. George Wilson must be hanged.”
And so he was.
It is a strange fact that many Christians have never received the forgiveness of sins that God promises.
They have acknowledged their sinful life, confessed their sins to God, and asked for His forgiveness through true repentance, but they have never accepted the forgiveness for which they asked.
They still hold the guilt, condemnation of an unrepentant soul.
For the grace of God to be effective, a believer must accept it.
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit”
“If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed”
Conclusion:
Who do we need to forgive today?
What do we need to ask forgiveness for today?
Forgiveness is available to all...
