This Coming Sunday's Message

The Spirit of Christ. . .Forgiveness

Text: Matthew 16: 14, 15 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Introduction: There are many treatises, books, articles and papers on forgiveness. Some have pushed forgiveness as the absolute answer to any trouble in a person's life. They casually and pointedly say, "just forgive and it will all work out." Some have made forgiveness as an optional discipline that only applies if the person chooses to forgive.

It has also been said, "to err is human, to forgive is divine." While this may be partially true, it cannot cover the full extent of the command of our Lord. This message may challange some of the casual statements that have been put forward over the years. This is the first of several messages on forgiveness. These messages will not exhaust this text but hopefully and prayerfully the Holy Spirit will help each one of us to become forgiving.

Supporting Scriptures:

Forgiveness is a command not a suggestion.
Matthew 6:14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Luke 6:37 Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:

There is no limit to forgiveness.
Matt 18:21 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.

Did Jesus mean that we keep count and after the 490th time then we can wallop them?

Unforgiveness holds one in bondage.
Mt 18:27 Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.
Mt 18:28 But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest.
Matt. 18:32 Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me:
33 Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?

Forgiveness is a volitional act.
It is a choice not a feeling. (hurt, anger, resentment, and vengence will resolve with forgiveness)
It is a purposeful decision.
It is based on Christ’s sacrifice and His power.

Reconciliation is always the answer.
Col 3:13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
Eph 4:32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

Illustrations: In his book "What’s so Amazing About Grace," Philip Yancey tells a story about a man and wife who one night had an argument about how supper was cooked, it was so heated that night they slept in separate rooms. Neither has approached the other to say I’m sorry or to offer forgiveness, and they have remained in separate rooms years after the argument, each night they go to bed hoping that the other will approach them with an apology or forgiveness, but neither goes to the other. God’s forgiveness does not wait for repentance, it initiates and calls out repentance by offering forgiveness.

Power to Forgive and Love With The Weakest Effort
Her name was 66730, or at least that was the name she went by. Her father had died in a German Concentration camp as did her sister. Her freedom, her dignity, her humanity had been stripped away by those who imprisoned her and yet she survived. They had robbed her of everything she ever possessed but they couldn’t rob her of the one who possessed her, Jesus. She saw every day in Ravensbruck as a chance to minister to someone more needy then herself, and then one day she was released. As suddenly as she had become a prisoner she was freed, and her solitary aim was to minister to others. When the war was over she began traveling and speaking sharing her Savior and the vision that He had given her. And then one day, something happened, something that shook her to the very center of her being, why don’t you let me read you her account of what happened, oh you probably wouldn’t know her as 66730, you would be more apt to know her as Corrie ten Boom.

"It was at a church service in Munich that I saw him, the former S.S. man who had stood guard at the shower room door in the processing center at Ravensbruck. He was the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since that time. And suddenly it was all there, the roomful of mocking men, the heaps of clothing, Betsy’s pain blanched face.

He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing. "How grateful I am for your message Fraulein, " he said. "To think, as you say, He has washed my sins away!"

His hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I, who had preached so often to the people in Bloemendall the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side.

Even as the angry vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man: was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him.

I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer. Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me your forgiveness.

As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.

And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that this worlds healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself."

Joseph says to his brothers: "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives." (Genesis 50:20 NIV)