Rev. David Holwick M
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
April 15, 2018
Luke 17:3-4; 23:33-34
FORGIVING THOSE WHO KNOW
I. The Good Friday illustration I didn't use.
A. I got the Seven Last Words mixed up.
To compose our community Good Friday service at the
Presbyterian Church, the three pastors divided up the
devotionals.
I thought I had Jesus' forgiveness of his enemies from
the cross and prepared for it, but I was wrong.
That is too bad because I came across a thought-provoking
story.
At a similar service a few years back, Rev. Dr. Eugene Gibson
quoted the familiar words: "Father, forgive them, for
they know not what they do."
Gibson shouted out, "Yes, they do!"
In case anyone missed his heresy, he spelled it out:
"I Dis-a-GREE with Jesus!" #35294
Gibson talked about tormentors who know exactly what they are
doing.
They are not ignorant, they are evil.
Many of you have had enemies like that.
Does God expect you to forgive them?
B. Forgiveness is a tough topic.
1) Everyone knows it is one of the foundations of the Christian
faith.
a) The whole reason God sent Jesus to this earth is so our
sins can be forgiven.
b) And if we have been forgiven, we should be forgiving.
1> In the Lord's Prayer it is presented as a condition.
2) Forgiveness raises many of difficult questions.
a) It is not an easy concept.
b) C.S. Lewis once pointed out everyone says forgiveness
is a lovely idea - until you have something to
forgive.
#63723
c) Forgiveness can be hard, and sometimes it seems wrong.
II. Forgiveness is fundamentally unjust.
A. We are letting sinners off the hook.
1) The main word the New Testament uses for forgiveness has
the root meaning of forgiving a financial debt.
a) That is why some versions of the Lord's Prayer say
"forgive us our debts."
b) You are cleaning the slate and saying they owe you
nothing.
2) Is it just and right to let people off the hook like that?
a) What if they are a murderer or a child molester?
b) Does giving an offender forgiveness allow them to
go wild with no consequences?
B. Perhaps forgiveness and justice are not mutually exclusive.
1) A church holdup.
Pastor Les Snodgrass had someone who attended his church
occasionally.
During the sermon, the man stood up and showed a gun, which
he pointed at the head of the pastor's mother.
The pastor tried to divert the man's attention by saying,
"Johnny, what are you doing?"
As he spoke to him, Snodgrass moved closer, then lunged.
He pushed the man against the wall with all his might.
Then the pastor's son jumped on him and punched him twice
in the head.
The pastor's wife held a stun gun on him until the police
arrived.
Afterwards the pastor gathered his family at the church.
They all held hands and prayed and forgave Johnny on
the spot.
Pastor Snodgrass added, "But he will face justice, and
should."
#64928
2) Have they really forgiven Johnny?
It is like God saying to us, "I forgive you of your sins.
And now I am sending you to hell anyway."
That would be just, but not merciful.
The challenge to see if they have really forgiven him as
they say - if the judge declares the robber "not guilty"
would they be satisfied, or furious?
III. The parameters of forgiveness.
A. It involves a relationship.
1) We can forgive those who have hurt us.
2) We cannot necessarily forgive those who have hurt others.
a) Sometimes Christians announce they have forgiven a mass
killer, such as a school shooter.
b) They are out of bounds unless someone they know was
involved.
B. It can have levels.
1) Forgiveness can involve one side.
a) You can forgive someone even if they don't respond to
you.
b) Sometimes you hear of someone forgiving a person who
has hurt them, but is now dead.
c) This kind of forgiveness gives comfort to our own soul.
1> We are letting go of the hurt and pain that lingers.
2) It is better when forgiveness is mutual.
a) The hurt person forgives, and the perpetrator repents.
b) There have been powerful examples of murderers who
are forgiven by their victim's family, and go on to
form a friendship, as awkward as that may seem.
C. It can have conditions.
1) Luke 17:3 says we should forgive only after people repent.
a) Since they may do this seven times in one day, you may
ask yourself how effective their repentance is!
1> Just remind yourself that God wonders the same
thing about you.
b) The forgiveness we experience in salvation can be taken
this way.
1> That is why the Lord's prayer ties our being
forgiven, with the forgiveness we are extending
to others.
2) Sometimes forgiveness is given when no repentance occurs.
a) When Jesus forgave his enemies from the cross, there
is no indication they repented.
1> This is often the case for those we forgive.
2> We WANT them to change their actions and attitudes
toward us, but they may not.
3> By forgiving them anyway, we are showing that we
are not captive to them.
b) But I believe that for forgiveness to be effective
for BOTH parties, repentance must occur.
IV. You can go beyond forgiveness.
A. Hilde's story.
1) Two weeks ago Hilde S. shared a testimony with the Thursday
afternoon Bible study.
Years ago, when her mother died, her family found that the
will named only one son as the inheritor.
The government forced the estate to give the minimum
amount to the other children, $10,000.
But the bulk of it still went to the one son.
It caused a huge rift in the family.
The money was not the biggest issue - one of the other
brothers owns a business and is a multi-millionaire.
They were upset because it seemed like their mother had
disowned them.
Each of them ended up disowning the brother.
Hilde still sent birthday cards and Christmas cards, but
for 20 years she never spoke to her brother.
On her birthday this year, April 4, she decided she needed
to call him.
I had preached a sermon on forgiveness a while back and that
always stuck in the back of her mind.
So she called him.
He revealed to her that the reason the will had been like
that was because of his wife's mother.
The brother's business was in deep debt and the
mother-in-law was close to their mother, so she persuaded
her to change the will.
The brother himself had nothing to do with it.
The phone call ended with tears, and the brother told Hilde,
"I am holding you in my arms, and it feels really good."
When she visits Germany again, they will meet face-to-face.
2) Hilde had to forgive her brother, but that only wiped the
slate clean.
a) The next step is reconciliation.
b) Don't just erase the hurt, but turn it into love again.
B. Some of you need to work through this with someone.
1) They have hurt you, and it is not your fault.
2) Even so, you need to forgive them from the heart.
a) And you need to seek to reconcile.
b) Consider a small step, like a card or a phone call.
c) And pray that God will heal the hurt all around.
C. What if the other party is not willing to reconcile?
1) The Bible only calls you to do what you can do.
2) Paul writes in Romans 12:18:
"If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at
peace with everyone."
a) Reconciliation is a two-way street.
b) If the other party doesn't want it, it doesn't happen.
c) But make sure you are not the one who gets in the way.
V. It is not what we do so much as who we do it to.
A. Remember Rev. Gibson's remark?
1) It turns out he wasn't a heretic after all.
2) At the end of his message he admitted that Jesus was right
and Rev. Gibson was wrong.
a) The pastor realized that they were ignorant not of
what they were doing, but WHO they were doing it to.
b) They knew what a crucifixion was, but they didn't
know who Jesus was.
B. We also don't realize we have sinned against God.
1) It is not just the Nazis and ISIS who have sinned.
2) King David confessed that his worst sin - adultery and
murder - were actually against God alone.
3) Our sin disrespects our Creator and breaks our relationship
with him.
C. He will forgive - if we repent.
1) Admit your need for forgiveness.
2) Turn your life toward God.
3) God can give you a fresh start.
Bob Harrington was a popular figure in Christian circles
in my generation.
In 1958 he went to a revival to find people to sell
insurance to and ended up getting saved.
Three days later he preached his first sermon.
He led his parents to the Lord, and his wife and kids.
Bob felt called to be a minister and went to seminary.
In a chapel service he heard one speaker say, "Any pocket
of sin is a mission field, and the closest Christian
to it is a missionary."
So Bob Harrington started a ministry in the decadent French
Quarter of New Orleans.
The mayor proclaimed him "The Chaplain of Bourbon Street"
and his ministry expanded to nationwide crusades and
television appearances.
His theology was on the light side but his exuberance was
infectious.
At the peak of his ministry, "the devil threw him a pass
and he ran for defeat," as Bob put it.
He left the Lord, left the ministry, left his wife and
left his children.
His oldest daughter Rhonda says it was a hugely painful
time for all of them.
Rhonda says she felt convicted by God to forgive her father,
even though he did not ask for her forgiveness.
She did not want to forgive him, but eventually obeyed God
and did it.
The family prayed for Bob's restoration to God for 17 years,
and God made it happen.
Bob repented and began preached to those who had left the
Lord like he had.
In his later years, Bob Harrington had dementia.
When his daughter Rhonda walked into his small house one
afternoon, God gave her a vivid example of total
forgiveness.
Bob was watching the Jerry Springer show, and a divorced
couple was screaming at each other.
Bob looked up at his daughter and said, "Isn't it wonderful
that no one in our family has ever been divorced?
We all love each other."
Rhonda was blown away.
Bob had been divorced twice, but God had forgiven him and
taken his sin out of his conscious thoughts.
He had no memory of the time he was away from the Lord.
It was a perfect picture of forgiveness - when God forgives,
our sin is completely removed.
#65982
Have you experienced that forgiveness?
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
#35294 “They Knew Exactly What They Were Doing,” by Kelefa Sanneh
(edited by David Holwick), The New Yorker Magazine; article:
“Project Trinity, The Perilous Mission Of Obama's Church,”
April 7, 2008, page 30.
#63723 “What Is Forgiveness?” by C.S. Lewis, August 28, 2008;
<link>.
#64928 “Can Forgiveness and Justice Go Together?” by Randy Cassingham,
This Is True internet newsletter, September 4, 2015; original
source is WKMG Orlando (Florida).
#65982 “A Real-Life Story of Forgiveness: The Chaplain of Bourbon Street,”
by Rhonda Harrington Kelley, Baptist Press, December 19, 2017;
<link>.
Also see "The Chaplain of Bourbon Street: My Renewed Life
Story," by Bob Harrington, C.S.W. <link>.
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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