TEXT: Luke 23:34a
TITLE: FROM THE CROSS TO THE WORLD
{Forgiveness}
Let me begin by making two statements:
First, forgiveness may be unnecessary among perfect beings, but it is vital to those of us with enough wisdom to admit we are imperfect. It seems we can’t help but offend, betray, or commit wrongs against God and one another—even on our “good days” when we have the best of intentions.
Second, above all, we need forgiveness from our Creator just to be reconciled with Him. Once we are reconciled to God, He tells us in parable and command to extend the same forgiveness to others that he extends to us. It is a difficult assignment for such imperfect people, but there is a secret source of power in forgiveness for those with eyes to see and a will to obey.
Whether you realize it or not we are in the grip of a terminal disease for which there is no cure except God’s miracle elixir of divine forgiveness. The disease we have is called sin. Forgiveness is an essential grace of God. Forgiveness is the answer to the disease of sin. Without forgiveness, there is no hope for any of us. Without forgiveness you and I could never be healed of this disease. The disease of sin is terminal without forgiveness.
Once we receive God’s costly potion from the cross, it should remain in our blood, our hearts, and our way of life. For this reason, forgiveness is one of the “fruits” providing proof that Christians are changed people.
That day when Jesus hung on the cross the crowd probably didn’t realize that when Jesus said, “Forgive,” a tremendous release of energy and power permeated the universe and funneled down to earth. Grace was released to do its mediatorial work in that instant.
Jesus our Lord was suffering excruciating agony on the cross at Calvary when He looked toward Heaven and said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34a). Perhaps we should be praying, “Father, forgive us, for we know exactly what we are doing, and we are doing it anyway.” Unlike the crowd gathered around the cross, we can’t plead, “Guilty by ignorance.” I would venture to say that most here today know the difference between right and wrong.
Forgiveness exploded in two directions on the human timeline.
On that day Jesus was not merely speaking to the profane and the perplexed who gathered around the cross 2,000 years ago. Those few words from the Savior’s mouth exploded in “both directions” on the timeline of human existence.
The forgiveness offered by God’s Son carried the potential to forgive and cover the sins of every human being who lived in the ages prior to His brutal death on the cross of Calvary. It also carried forward in time from the bloody Mount outside Jerusalem to forgive and cover all the sins of man until His victorious second coming as Lord of lords and King of kings. The only catch to the miracle is that each person must admit their need for forgiveness, and choose to receive it from Christ Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
You cannot force the power of forgiveness upon the unwilling. True forgiveness is a product of Heaven alone. God has provided forgiveness but you must receive it for it to be effective. Having the medicine for the cure of whatever I have will not do me any good if I don’t take it. I can look at it, touch it and even hold it but it will not help me if I don’t take it.
The cross is the place where divine power withheld its might while grace worked its greatest miracle. The sweetest story of God is the story of our Lord’s victory on Calvary’s bitter cross.
When Jesus said, “Forgive…,” the hordes of hell were bound, and satan felt the first chill signaling his miserable defeat. Within 3 hours, the suffering was complete and the Lord Jesus announced to the Father that His job was done.
When forgiveness is present, the enemy of your soul has to back up without a word being said to him. His hands are tied and he cannot work in the presence of forgiveness. Forgiveness puts the handcuffs of Heaven on hell itself.
You see, when you accept forgiveness satan is bound. He can’t bring up accusations against you anymore. He is bound by forgiveness.
The same is true in a church. When there is unforgiveness he works to destroy a church. But when you forgive you bind him with the handcuffs of heaven.
Have you ever heard someone ask, “How can I forgive someone who doesn’t ask for that forgiveness?” The answer should be: “Ask Jesus.” Show me one man or woman kneeling at the cross of Calvary and looking up into the face of the dying Savior to say, “Forgive us.” According to the Bible’s scores of eyewitnesses, no one was asking Jesus for forgiveness that day. It just didn’t happen. He said, “Forgive them…” anyway.
No one asked for it. No one negotiated for it. The battle-hardened Roman soldiers driving the nails, and the hard-hearted religious hypocrites who put the Lord into their hands for execution, could have cared less at the moment whether He forgave them or not. The word forgiveness didn’t come up in the usual chatter at crucifixion time.
If you want to be free; if you want to see the power of God unleashed in you life and in the life of the church don’t wait on someone to ask you to forgive them just go ahead and forgive them anyway. It may not do anything for them but it sure will do something for you.
The cross should always remind us that forgiveness is not cheap. What Jesus gives you is not a gimmick to give you goose bumps. The kind of forgiveness Jesus brings to our lives triggers radical reconstruction of the human heart! When forgiveness is released, there is incredible power.
We can rob ourselves of forgiveness by clinging to unforgiveness. Jesus said in Matthew 6:14 - "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” In other words, you are only forgiven as you forgive others. If you cling to unforgiveness toward another person, you are robbing yourself of your own forgiveness from God.
Did you know that Forgiveness toward others doesn’t come naturally, it comes supernaturally?
Have you ever had to “work on” having a bad spirit? If you are like every other human being on earth, it just comes naturally. We never have to work on being resentful. Have you ever had to tell yourself, “You know, he did me wrong and I’m going to have to work up a good case of resentment against him; it may take me three or four days to get it going good, but I’m going to work up a good case of resentment and get myself a bad spirit”? No, it just comes natural.
When resentment rises up, it comes without our even thinking about it; it is virtually instant. Forgiveness, on the other hand, takes a conscious choice and effort on our part. Our job, as born-again Christians, is to work on keeping a good attitude, a sweet spirit, and a pure heart before God and other people. This is impossible unless we learn the power of forgiveness and make right choices along the way.
The prayer of Jesus “Father forgive them” should be the same prayer that we pray when someone does something to hurt us.
Jesus could have prayed “Father consume them” or “Father destroy them.”
There is power in forgiveness. Do you remember Jesus’ parable about the man who owed his king ten thousand talents? {It is found in Matthew 18:23-35.} Scholars place widely varying values on this amount, but all of them agree it was an impossibly high amount for any employee to ever pay back. If we take a middle-of-the-road estimate, then this servant owed his king $10 million. His monthly income plus “bonuses” probably couldn’t have even paid the monthly interest on such a sum.
When the king ordered that the man and his family members be sold to recover the debt, the man begged him, “Forgive me! I’ll repay you someday.” The king said, “No. You’ll never be able to repay me. I’ll forgive the whole debt. You are forgiven.” Can you imagine how happy that man must have been? His $10 million debt had been forgiven and marked “PAID IN FULL”!
I don’t know about you but I would have done a little shouting. I would have been excited to know that that debt had been paid in full.
This happy man had also been owed some money, so he decided to seek out a fellow servant who owed him “a hundred pence” or only $20. Evidently, he had “loaned” the second man money from the same fortune he borrowed from the king. After being forgiven for a $10 million debt, surely this man went to tell the good news to his debtor and forgive his tiny debt as well…or did he? The Bible says, “He laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, ‘Pay me what you owe!’” (Matthew 18:28b)
This man who had been forgiven for a multi-million-dollar debt showed no mercy to the man who owed him only $20; instead he had him thrown into jail until he could repay his debt. Our sins always find us out. The man’s fellow servants were so angry when they saw what he did that they told the king. The king canceled the man’s pardon and placed him in the hands of tormentors or torturers until he repaid his debt. Jesus bluntly warned His listeners then and now: "So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses” (Matthew 18:35).
If you have that kind of spirit, cancel it. The only money the unmerciful servant had available to loan to his victim was the money loaned to him by the king! He should have offered his debtor some of the forgiveness he had received from the king. The only forgiveness we have to give is what we receive from God. We aren’t any different from the servant who owed an unpayable debt: The Lord has forgiven each of us of a “multi-million-dollar debt.” Don’t you think we should be quick to forgive our brother or sister of their “$20 debt” to us?
Our unforgiveness of the debt (sin) of someone else could cancel out the forgiveness of our debt (sin).
So, if your forgiveness were based on how you have forgiven, then how many of you here today would truly be forgiven?
Listen to the words of grace as Jesus gasped for air, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.” When the first red drops of blood spurted on his hands and splashed on the soldier’s hammer, the blessed mouth of Jesus formed the words to a prayer for pardon. His request was not for Himself but for “them” and us. His first thought is to plead in prayer for those who are in desperate need of forgiveness. When man had done his worst, Jesus prayed, not for justice, but for mercy.
This verse is in the imperfect tense. What that means is that Jesus prayed repeatedly for their forgiveness. It wasn’t just a one-time request. When the nails tore through His tendons, sending jolts of pain rushing through His body, He closed His eyes and prayed, “Father, forgive them.” When the cross dropped into place between two criminals, He cried out, “Father, forgive them.” When they divided up his only earthly possessions below the cross, he exclaimed, “Father, forgive them.” As the rulers sneered at Him He replied, “Father, forgive them.” When the soldiers mocked Him, he shouted, “Father, forgive them.” When the sign, “This is the King of the Jews” was hammered above His head, he sighed, “Father, forgive them.”
As followers of Christ we are faced with only one choice. I must forgive even if I am never asked. I am not going to keep score. We must forgive, regardless of who is right or wrong in a situation. We must forgive because we must have the power of God in our lives. Unforgiveness limits Gods power in our lives and in our church. Jesus set the divine example for us when He prayed from the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34a).
When Jesus comes into our lives, he brings divine forgiveness with Him. He equips us with the power of forgiveness, but we have to walk in a spirit of forgiveness if we want to walk in the power of His might.
Unforgiveness is like a dam holding back the water. Unforgiveness will hold back the power of God from flowing in our churches and in our lives.
You have to have forgiveness in order to dispense forgiveness. You can’t give anything you don’t have.
If you have experienced forgiveness you can’t help but share that forgiveness. You will want to give this wonderful blessing when you consider what was involved for you to receive it.
The Holy Spirit is waiting to release you, if you will forgive. Don’t let the excuses of your flesh or your mind distract you from what is most important right now.
I’ve been wronged. Who hasn’t?
Life’s dealt me a bad hand. So what? Join the club.
I was lied to. You’re not the first one. You won’t be the last one. Your Master was lied to. Are you any better than He is?
Those who were supposed to have been my friends forsook me. Join the club. Jesus is president. They all forsook Him and fled.
If you need help, ask God to help you forgive and release those people or circumstances that have hurt you. Ask Him to forgive you for every sin and failure in your life. He is faithful to forgive. He says, “The one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out” (John 6:37b).
There was a billboard years ago that showed a picture of Jesus hanging on the cross, His head bowed. In big, bold letters, the caption read: “It’s Your Move!” I want to close this morning with two questions that may help you make your move.
1. Have you been forgiven? If Jesus can forgive those responsible for killing Him, then He can forgive you! No one is beyond the reach of His prayer of forgiveness. No one is good enough to save himself and no one is so bad that God cannot save him.
Each of us stands in need of forgiveness. Do you want it? Will you receive it? Some of you think you’ve done something so bad that you can never be forgiven, that you somehow don’t deserve it. The truth of the matter is that we’ve all done something to disqualify ourselves from a relationship with God. But Jesus has made a way. His prayer for your forgiveness was answered by the Father and can be activated in your life the instant you reach out to Him in faith and receive Him as your Savior. The price has been paid and a path has been laid. Will you accept the payment and allow it to be applied to your account? Will you follow the path laid out for you by committing yourself to walk as a believer?
2. Have you forgiven others? Someone has said that forgiveness is the virtue we profess to believe but fail to practice.
The key to forgiving others is to understand how much Christ has forgiven you. Ephesians 4:32: “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” In order to forgive we must remember our forgiveness. Come back to the cross and hear the first shout from the Savior: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Just as Jesus forgave the unforgivable, so can we, and so must we. Jesus established a religion of forgiveness and wants the church to be an oasis of forgiveness.
If we had been at the cross, we would have been holding the nails. We would probably clap and cheer. We’re not that much different. We’re not that much better. The secret of forgiveness is to understand that in the ultimate sense, between you and the person who hurt you, there’s really no difference at all.
I’m not suggesting that it’s easy to forgive. It’s easy to preach about it; it’s much more difficult to practice it. But let’s start by forgiving the people who have hurt us so deeply. To forgive us cost Jesus His life. To forgive others will cost us something too. We’ll have to give up our anger, turn away from our bitterness, release the right for revenge, and decide by a conscious choice that we will forgive those who have sinned against us. And, God may call us to perform this unnatural act of forgiveness over and over again until we learn the grace of continual forgiveness, just like Christ prayed repeatedly on the cross, “Father, forgive them.”
Let me give you a simple exercise that might help. On a sheet of paper, write the words, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they’re doing” on the top. On the left side, write down all the things, and the people, and the memories from the past that has hurt you so deeply. When you’re finished, add one word in large letters to the right of each offense: Forgiven…Forgiven…Forgiven. When you’re all done, take the paper and rip it up.
