Unhindered Forgiveness

Life is not easy. This is one thing that you talk to anybody, and everyone will agree that there are hard things that happen in this life. Right before Jesus was arrested in John 16, Jesus is trying to prepare his disciples for what is about to come.

Verse 32: 32 But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when you will be scattered, each one going his own way, leaving me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me.33 I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.

The word here for trials and sorrows is ??????, often translated as tribulation it means a pressing or pressing together pressure it is a metaphor for oppression affliction tribulation distress and straits. It means stress anguish tribulation adversity affliction crushing squashing squeezing distress. Imagine placing your hand on a stack of loose items and manually compressing them that is ??????, putting a lot of pressure on that which is free and unfettered. T????? Is like spiritual Brent pressing. The word is used of crushing grapes or olives in a press. We see this word again in revelation after the great tribulation has occurred the great pressing.

When we go through hardship, afflictions, tribulations, distress, trauma… we go through ??????, and it has a way of changing us. When we hold on to that hurt that has happened all around us it negatively impacts the way that we think the way that we view others and the way that we view ourselves.

Jesus is here telling us disciples that there's going to be hard times coming he was about to be crucified and go through some of the worst pain and torture anyone before or since has ever been through and he is telling his disciples that we're going to go through some pressing times but don't worry because I'm going to have victory in the end.

Jesus died on the cross so that we could experience forgiveness of our sins and yet…

Forgiveness is one of the basic principles of the faith and yeah it is a discipline that is one of the hardest for us to master. Too often forgiveness has been misunderstood and therefore out of grasp of us.

Christ said that if we do not forgive others, he will not forgive us so forgiveness is something that we need to understand and practice on a daily basis; furthermore, without forgiveness we can't heal from past hurts, traumas or pain and can't mend's current relationships. Unhindered forgiveness is the first step to radical healing in our lives.

While Christ was being nailed to the cross, he looks at the soldiers that have just finished beating him that have just finished whipping him that have that are actively nailing spikes through his hands and through his feet and he cries out father forgive them… for they know not what they do. In that moment, Christ no longer held them accountable or payable for their actions against him he let it go.

Forgiveness is the process of letting go of all of the trials oppressions traumas pains that we have been through in order for us to heal.

Forgiveness is more about our healing than the person that wronged us. And yet we like to hold on to those things. Those things in the world trap us and hold us back from healing.

Let's look what Jesus taught on forgiveness if you have your bibles with you today turn to Matthew chapter 18 and we're going to read verses 21 through 35.

Read Matthew 18:21-35

Jesus starts this Kingdom parable of the unforgiving servant and it's especially crucial for us to understand. The human capacity to forget God's gracious gift of forgiveness and allow a switch to look at how someone else has harmed us and forget what we ourselves have been forgiving for breeds unforgiveness in our lives.

1) Unforgiveness can restricts what God would do in others.

a. At the end of the story, the unforgiven servant, the one that only owed $1000 was still in jail until he could pay his debt. And while it may feel good to hold that thing against us, we need to remember that we've been forgiven of so much.

b. Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

c. Isaiah 64:6 We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind.

It doesn't matter how righteous we think we are or how good we try to act by ourselves our righteous deeds are nothing but filth. The infection of sin in our lives brings us to eternal death every single time but the free gift of Christ is eternal life and so when he is forgiven us look what Isaiah 1:18 says about our sins in the light of the forgiveness of God.