Rev. David Holwick P Lord's Prayer, #5
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
May 12, 2013
Matthew 6:12,14-15
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I. Forgiveness is easiest in the abstract.
A. Burying a terrorist.
There has been considerable controversy over where to bury the
terrorist Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
Boston doesn't want him anywhere near them.
120 people offered cemetery plots, but in each case the town
officials forbid it.
Finally a person found him a gravesite - she said she did it
because Jesus teaches us to love our enemies.
But some have said wherever he is buried, they will dig him up.
"Rest in peace" should not apply to him.
Tsarnaev is small potatoes compared to someone I remember as
a kid - Lee Harvey Oswald.
A couple of days after President Kennedy was tragically gunned
down in Dallas, Texas, a Presbyterian church from the
state of Michigan wrote to Oswald's wife.
Keep in mind that she was not only the widow of an assassin,
but she was a native of Russia.
This was one of the most intense periods of the Cold War.
The church had heard that Mrs. Oswald wished to stay in America
and learn the English language.
They took it upon themselves to write to her and invite her to
come to their community so she could get a fresh start.
Unfortunately, many people both in the local community and
from around the nation got wind of this plan and began
criticizing them harshly.
One person probably described the situation most correctly
when she said,
"I never heard of a church doing anything like this before."
The minister began the painstaking job of answering each
unkind and critical letter that came across his desk.
With great sensitivity he wrote each person a letter sharing
that he understood their feelings and emotions about their
efforts on behalf of Mrs. Oswald.
However, he ended each letter by sharing, "There is only one
thing you have not shown us.
What have we done that would not have been done by our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ?"
Forgiveness is never easy, but it is always the will of God.
#2234
B. How easy is it for you to forgive?
1) Forgiveness, both divine and human, was very important
to Jesus.
a) He preached parables about it, taught directly about
it, and practiced it in his personal life.
b) It got him into a lot of trouble.
2) He put both aspects into the Lord's prayer, and puts a
warning in the passage right after the prayer.
3) If we want to be forgiven by God, we had better learn how
to be forgiving to people.
II. What's wrong with forgiveness.
A. It is unfair.
1) Our sense of justice yearns to be vindicated.
a) More directly: we want revenge.
2) Forgiving may let a bad person off the hook.
a) They may do it again.
1> There must always be consequences for actions.
b) The only ones who should be forgiven is US.
B. It is unnatural.
1) Animals don't forgive predators.
a) Dogs eat dogs. Sharks don't apologize to dolphins.
b) Nations and economies operate on this principle.
c) Freud: "One must forgive one's enemies, but not before
they've been hanged."
2) Best-known saying of Jesus: "Forgive your enemies."
a) Seems suicidal.
b) If forgiveness was natural, it would be easier to do.
3) This unnatural, unfair trait is at heart of Christianity.
III. We need forgiveness.
A. It is the only way to deal with our sin.
1) Only Christians can really appreciate sin.
a) For non-Christians, sin is a small mistakes or a miss,
if it is anything at all.
b) A believer should know that sin is defiance against
a holy God.
1> It's a very big deal.
2> Without God's forgiveness, we are doomed.
3> You can never pay enough to atone for your sins,
or do enough good to wipe them out.
2) Christ's death is a costly payment for our redemption.
a) When he forgives us, he wipes our slate clean.
b) It is something only he can do.
B. Unforgiveness brings pain.
1) When we don't forgive, we hurt ourselves more.
a) Harboring bitterness eats away at your soul.
b) Only forgiveness can break that negative cycle.
2) When we extend forgiveness, we bring healing.
a) It allows us to reconcile with each other.
b) Even if the person in the wrong refuses to reconcile,
at least we can have peace in our own heart.
IV. Is forgiveness a matter of tit-for-tat?
A. Jesus binds human forgiveness with God's forgiveness.
1) In verse 12, we are forgiven, because we have forgiven.
2) In verse 14, if we forgive others, God will forgive us.
a) The negative side is stated as well.
3) Is God petty, and won't forgive unless we do?
a) This would make forgiveness a transaction instead of
a gift.
b) And certainly our level of forgiving never rises to
God's level.
B. God's forgiveness does not depend on ours.
1) We cannot earn forgiveness, or salvation, by anything we do.
2) But when we have been forgiven by God, we are also given
the ability to forgive others.
a) Only forgiven people can truly forgive.
b) It is part of the spiritual transformation that God
works in us.
c) And it is not just an ability - it is an expectation.
1> Notice that in the Lord's Prayer, we are stating
that we have already forgiven others.
2> Only then do we ask God to forgive us.
C. What does an unforgiving heart say about you?
1) If we cannot forgive, God's forgiveness has never lived
in us.
2) Jesus is plainly saying that if you cannot forgive, you
cannot be saved.
3) Those who cannot forgive are making a bald statement about
their spiritual condition.
General Oglethorpe, to whom the young John Wesley was
chaplain in the colony of Georgia in America, once
said to Wesley with great pride, "I never forgive."
Wesley replied, "Then I hope, sir, you never sin."
#303
V. How we can forgive others.
A. God can help us forgive. Matthew 18:35
1) Keep in mind what God has done for you.
2) Keep things in perspective - our sins vs. their wrong.
3) God can give us the power to forgive when we feel weak.
B. The other person may be unaware.
1) They may not realize what they have done, or how it has
affected us.
2) Jesus on cross - "Father, forgive them, for they do not
know what they are doing." Luke 23:34
3) Even if they are aware, and don't care, that is not our
issue. We answer to God for our own attitude only.
C. Swallow your pride and take a small first step.
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were not only Founding
Fathers of the United States, but also great friends.
But when Jefferson defeated Adams in the Presidential
election of 1800, Adams took it personally.
"You have turned me out! You have turned me out!"
They didn't speak to each other for 11 years.
Friends visited the old, bitter Adams and asked him about
it.
He replied, "I always loved Jefferson and I still love him."
The friends told Jefferson, who told a mutual friend to tell
Adams of his "affections."
Adams responded with a letter, and they began the greatest
correspondence in American history.
#250
D. It may take time and it may not work.
1) The results are not in our hands, but God's.
2) We just have to do what a Christian can do, with God's help.
VI. Our forgiveness communicates the gospel in a powerful way.
A. Bringing meaning out of a senseless crime.
Back in 1997, Jeremy Giordano and a friend were delivering
pizzas in Newton, New Jersey.
One order brought them to an abandoned house.
In cold blood, two teenagers gunned them down.
They then casually dumped the cheese pizzas on the ground.
The only motive seemed to be the thrill of killing someone.
Both murderers had previously bragged to acquaintances about
their desire to experience what it would feel like to kill
someone.
At the trial two years later, Jeremy's mother, Loretta, told
how the murder had affected her family.
One killer was too young for the death penalty but the other
one, Thomas Koskovich, was eligible.
The defense attorneys asked Loretta if she wanted the killer
to be executed.
She hesitated, then said no.
But that's not all she said:
"We'd most like to see Thomas Koskovich take the evil he's done
and turn his life over to Christ."
#4581
B. God wants the same thing for you.
1) He wants to forgive you.
2) He wants to transform your life.
3) Instead of being consumed by bitterness and hate, you
can become an agent of God's amazing love.
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
This sermon borrows material from my previous sermons “To Forgive Is
Divine” (Februry 21, 1993, Kerux sermon #21803) and “Forgive -- Or Else”
(October 20, 1996, Kerux Sermon #1076).
# 250 “The Creative Power of Forgiveness,” Thomas Fleming, Reader's
Digest, June 1988, page 100.
# 303 “I Hope You Never Sin,” Stephen Travis, from his book_ "I Believe
in thhe Second Coming Of Jesus," 1988, page 192.
#2234 “Do You Have a Forgiving Spirit?” Rev. Eric Ritz, Dynamic Preaching
(www.sermons.com), April 7, 1992.
#4581 “Spare My Son's Killer, Mom Says,” Abbott Koloff, Daily Record
Newspaper, Morris County, New Jersey, May 6, 1999, page A-1.
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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