Naylor Christian Community Church
I.
Introduction
--
turn in Bibles to Matthew 6:9-13
Matthew 6:9 “This, then, is how you should
pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’
-- on Friday at work, we were
discussing different religions and what makes those religions distinct from
each other -- because of my position in the office, I kept quiet and just
listened as my coworkers shared what they thought about Christianity and Islam
and then the various Christian denominations and cults
-- I couldn’t help but think about
the time when C.S. Lewis’ colleagues were discussing the very same topic at
Oxford -- he happened by, and knowing that he was a very vocal Christian, they
asked him what he thought made Christianity different from all the other
religions in the world
-- “Oh, that’s easy,” he said. “It’s
grace. Grace is the difference between Christianity
and all those religions.” -- he went on to explain that all the other religions
in the world tell their adherents, “Do -- do this if you want to be saved for
eternity” -- while Christianity is best summed up in the word, “Done -- because
all the work required for salvation was accomplished by Christ on the cross as
He atoned for our sins and the sins of the world, and all we have to do is
receive that forgiveness through grace”
-- I am certainly no where near the
intellect of C.S. Lewis, but I agree with what he said that day -- however, I
think there is more that sets apart Christianity and Christians from all other
religions
-- in my mind, there are three words
that define us -- three words that set us apart from all other religions -- the
first being grace, of course, as Lewis correctly pointed out -- the second is
love -- Jesus Himself said the world would come to know us by our love -- and
the third is forgiveness -- for in no other religion is forgiveness such an
encompassing and defining characteristic
-- grace -- love -- and forgiveness
-- the three attributes of God that we should be seeking in our lives and that
we see intertwined in this prayer given from Jesus to us
-- this morning, we are continuing
in our sermon series on the Lord’s Prayer -- and we find ourselves focusing on
verse 12, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against
us”
-- other translations say “debts” instead
of trespasses -- regardless of the recent discussion in the country concerning
the forgiveness of student loans and how some used this very verse to support
the action, Jesus was not talking about financial debts in this prayer -- He
was talking about forgiveness for the sins that we have committed against God
and against others -- and the sins they have committed against us -- as always,
Jesus’ focus was spiritual and relational -- and ours should be, as well
-- I do want to preface this message
by pointing out that we struggle with forgiveness in our lives -- both divine
and human forgiveness -- I’ve been a pastor now for a good while -- and out of
the all the sermons and topics I have preached on, the harshest responses have
come when I preached on the topic of forgiveness because out of all the
commands in the Bible, the command to forgive others is the most difficult for
some of us -- and we see that command emphasized in this prayer and in Jesus’
expansion of His thoughts on forgiveness in the verses that follow
-- so, let’s talk a little this
morning about forgiveness and what this sentence in this prayer means -- and
about what Jesus is telling us here about how we should be living based on our
relationship with God and with others
II. Forgiveness
-- so, look back at verse 12 with me
Matthew 6:12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
-- we see in this verse Jesus addressing two
different aspects of forgiveness
-- the first, “Forgive us our trespasses,”
is a plea to God to forgive our sins -- a plea for divine forgiveness for the wrongs
that we have done
-- the second aspect is seen in the
phrase, “as we have forgiven our trespassers,” which recognizes the royal
decree to forgive others when they sin against us
-- let’s talk about each of these
now
-- first, the forgiveness of God
-- the Bible makes it clear that we
are all sinners -- we have all committed wrong against God -- we have all
disobeyed His commands
-- Romans 3:23 says, "all have sinned
and fallen short of the glory of God" -- and Psalm 51:4 says "Against
you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you
are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge."
-- every sin -- every time we commit
a trespass or owe a debt -- even if it's to another person -- is ultimately a
sin against God -- it is an example of how we failed to follow His commands and
His standards and have missed the mark that He set before us
-- so, Jesus calls for us to go
before God daily and to ask for the forgiveness of all the sins and debts and
trespasses that we have committed -- because they were all committed against
the holiness of God
-- we do this first when we come to
Christ in recognition that we are a sinner who needs forgiveness and ask Jesus
to forgive us for our sins -- believing in our hearts that Jesus is God -- that
He died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins -- and that He rose on the
third day in proof of victory over sin and death
-- this is the good news of the
gospel -- this is how we are saved -- the Bible calls this justification --
justifying grace -- grace that forgives you of your sins and that pardons you
from all the wrongs you have committed and all the wrongs you ever will commit
-- not because of anything you have done to earn that forgiveness -- but
because of the blood of Christ and the grace of God
-- but as all of us know, salvation
does not equate to perfection -- and just because we have been forgiven of our
sins and been cleansed by the blood of Jesus, every one of us still sin on a
regular basis
-- it's a part of life -- it's a part of
being a human -- as John wrote in 1 John 1:8, “If we claim to be without sin,
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us”
-- so, we still sin -- but God makes
provision for that through His sanctifying grace -- the Holy Spirit working in
us and through us to make us more like Jesus every day, so that we begin to
choose not to sin and rely on His power to turn from our sins and to follow His
commands
-- that’s why John goes on to say in 1
John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us
our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness”
-- this is the heart of Jesus’ direction
in the Lord’s prayer for us -- this is why He tells us to pray every day,
“Forgive us our sins...”
-- it’s not that we haven’t been saved --
it’s that we have continuing sin in our life that affects our relationship with
the Father that must be dealt with -- and so, through the process of
sanctification and the grace of God, we recognize our sins and our trespasses
and ask God to forgive us of those sins, so that our relationship might be
restored and we would grow in grace to become more and more like Jesus in our
lives and might walk in His light and in His life daily
-- that’s the first aspect of forgiveness
in the Lord’s prayer -- and no one has a problem with that -- we all like to
know that God has forgiven us for our sins and our trespasses and our debts against
Him as we are justified through the atoning death of Christ on the cross -- and
we all like to know that God’s grace and mercy continue in our lives through
the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit, so that when we sin, He is ready to
forgive us of those sins when we go to Him in prayer as Jesus teaches us here,
asking the Father to forgive us for our trespasses
-- it’s the second aspect of forgiveness
that we see here in verse 12 that causes us to stumble -- and that has elicited
the harsh responses to my messages on forgiveness -- “Forgive us our
trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us”
-- this is a clear call from Christ
for us to forgive those who sin against us -- and this is perhaps the hardest
thing we are called to do in our Christian life
-- when someone sins against us, it
means they have wronged us -- sometimes seriously -- sometimes physically or
emotionally or spiritually -- it means they have hurt us -- and yet Jesus tells
us that we must forgive those people who have trespassed against us because the
Father has forgiven us for our sins against Him
-- we see a parallel passage in
regards to our call to forgive others in Colossians 3:12-15 -- if you would,
turn with me over to that passage or listen as I read it
Colossians
3:12-15
New
International Version
12
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves
with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each
other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone.
Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love,
which binds them all together in perfect unity.
15
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you
were called to peace. And be thankful.
-- here we see the Apostle Paul
echoing Jesus’ command in the Lord’s prayer -- he is reminding of us of who are
in Christ and how we are to conduct ourselves -- Paul points out that God's
people are called to demonstrate compassion and kindness -- humility and
patience -- with others -- we are called to offer God's mercy to others -- and to
forgive whatever grievances -- whatever trespasses -- whatever wrongs -- that
others have done to us, simply because we have experienced the loving grace and
forgiveness of God for the sins in our own lives
-- just as Jesus commands in the
Lord’s prayer, we are to forgive as the Lord forgave us -- as it says in Luke
6:36, "be merciful, just as your Father is merciful"
-- forgiveness is to be one of the
defining characteristics of a Christian -- and a lot of us struggle in this
area -- we hold grudges -- we refuse to forgive those who have wronged us -- we
want to see them hurt just as we were hurt
-- years ago, I preached a message
on forgiveness, and after the service, I had someone angrily tell me that I
didn’t know what I was talking about -- that God could not want them to forgive
someone who had wronged them
-- you see, one of their family
members was brutally attacked and raped -- the guy was caught and tried and put
in prison -- but this person refused to forgive the rapist -- and that
unforgiveness took hold and bitterness grew in their soul and in their spirit
-- it wasn’t enough for them that the rapist went to jail -- they wanted them
hurt -- they wanted them punished beyond belief -- and the thought of being
told to offer them forgiveness was more than they could bear
-- but that is exactly what Jesus is
telling us to do here -- what Christ is trying to get us to see in this prayer
is that if we are truly God's people -- if we have truly been touched by God's
mercy and grace and forgiveness -- then we will live out the commandment to
"love our neighbor as ourselves" by pouring out God's mercy and grace
onto others -- by forgiving others for the trespasses that they have committed
against us even though they don't deserve it
-- if we find that we cannot forgive
others, then it may be that we have never actually accepted forgiveness
ourselves -- we may be like the Jewish people in Jesus' day -- claiming to
represent God while not truly loving and serving Him with our whole hearts
-- one scholar said, "no one
can reasonably imagine himself to be the object of divine forgiveness if he is
deliberately and habitually unforgiving towards his fellow men"
-- and as the authors of the book, "Truefaced,"
point out, "if we harbor unforgiveness in our hearts towards others, how
can we even pretend that we are truly desirous of His forgiveness toward
us?"
-- the Apostle John said something
similar in 1 John 2:9 -- "Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates
his brother is still in the darkness."
-- in other words, how can we say
that we are in the light -- how can we say that we have truly received Christ's
gift of forgiveness if we refuse to forgive those who have wronged us?
-- a lot of us Christians claim to
be filled with God Himself -- we claim to possess within us His truth and His
light and His love, but then, rather than showing that love and mercy and grace
to others by forgiving them when they sin against us, we turn our backs to them
and give them our resentment and hatred and unforgiveness -- is it any wonder
that we see so much backlash against Christians in our society today?
-- but this is not the way of Christ
-- there is no question about it -- Jesus makes it perfectly clear here in this
prayer and Paul reiterates it in Colossians -- if you are a Christian -- if you
have been forgiven by Christ for your sins -- for all the debts and trespasses
against Him -- you must forgive others when they trespass against you -- you
must live a life of gracious forgiveness
-- look down at verse 14-15
Matthew
6:14-15 -- “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly. Father will
also forgive you. But if you don't forgive men their trespasses, neither will
your Father forgive your trespasses.
-- Jesus expands on what He has said
about forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer here in these verses -- He tells us that
if we forgive others when they sin against us, then the heavenly Father will
forgive us for our sins -- but if we do not offer forgiveness to those who have
trespassed against us, then God will not forgive us for our sins
-- there are a lot of passages in the
Bible that give me pause -- that really speak to how serious our actions or our
inactions are -- and this is one of them
-- Christ is literally telling us here
that if we do not forgive others -- if we do not forgive those who trespass
against us -- those who have wronged us -- then we will not be forgiven by God
-- now I want you to know that this
is not talking about your salvation -- when you come to Christ in faith and ask
Him to forgive you for your sins and to be your Lord and Savior, you are
justified in the sight of God -- you are saved from your sins and are given
eternal life in Him
-- that is not what this passage is
referring to -- this passage is talking about our relationship with God and
with others and our daily walk with Him -- about the sins that we still commit
even though we are Christians -- and about how we are to react when others sin
against us
-- Jesus tells us here that as
Christians, we are to be people who forgive -- we are to be people who love --
we are to be people of grace -- because God loved us and forgave us our sins
and gave us His grace
-- as believers, we have been forgiven
such a great debt against God -- and because of this, we are called to offer
that same forgiveness to others through the power of the Holy Spirit within us
-- this is not natural for us -- it is
impossible for us to do in our own flesh and in our own strength -- to forgive
others as Christ has forgiven us -- to forgive others as Christ commands in
these verses -- is only possible through the grace and power of the Holy Spirit
within
-- I imagine most of you in here are
familiar with the name Corrie Ten Boom -- Corrie and her sister Betsie were
arrested by the Nazis during World War II for concealing and hiding Jews in
their home in Holland and were sent to a German concentration camp -- Corrie’s
sister Betsie died a slow and terrible death in the camp as a result of the
treatment they received there
-- after the war, Corrie began a ministry
of evangelism and spoke throughout the world about Christ and His redeeming
love -- in 1947, Corrie was speaking about God's forgiveness at a church in Munich -- after the service, a man
came up to her and asked to speak to her
-- she immediately recognized him -- he
was one of the guards at the concentration camp where she and her sister Betsie
had suffered -- He told her that he had become a Christian, and with extended
hand he asked for her forgiveness
-- Corrie struggled with her feelings, but
when she recalled the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:15, she knew she had to
forgive, even though she didn’t have the strength to do so -- She silently
prayed, "Jesus, help me!" and thrust her hand into the hand of her
former tormentor and said, “I forgive you”
-- to not forgive others as Christ
commands is a “rebellious, blatant, open act of disobedience representing a
willful choice. In other words, to not forgive is to sin against God, [our]
ultimate Forgiver.
“If somebody hurts us, either deliberately
or unintentionally, and we do not forgive them, then the potential is for us to
develop bitterness, which hardens the heart -- unforgiveness hinders our
fellowship and relationship with the Lord” [Commentary by Precept Ministries,
Austin]
-- that is why Christ tells us here to ask
God to forgive us, as we forgive those who trespass against us -- it is for our
own good -- it is to heal our wounded hearts -- it is to make us like Him so
that we can be His image-bearers and reflect His grace and mercy to those who
don’t deserve it
-- “Someone has said, "Forgiveness is
not a case of 'holy amnesia' that wipes out the past. Instead, it is the
experience of healing that drains the poison from the wound."
-- God asks us to do for others what He
has done for us through Jesus Christ. He'll give us strength to forgive.” [D J.
De Haan, Our Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI.]
-- In his book, “Lee: The Last Years,”
Charles Bracelen Flood tells the story of the time when Robert E. Lee visited a
Kentucky lady after the Civil War -- she took him to the remains of a grand old
tree in front of her house -- There she bitterly cried that its limbs and trunk
had been destroyed by Federal artillery fire. -- She looked to Lee for a word
condemning the North or at least sympathizing with her loss -- After a brief
silence, Lee said, "Cut it down, my dear Madam, and forget it." -- It
is better to forgive the injustices of the past than to allow them to remain
and let bitterness take root and poison the rest of our life. (Michael
Williams)
-- in this prayer, Christ commands
us to ask God to forgive us as we have forgiven those who trespass against us
-- it is a conditional clause, but one that is intended for our good -- for the
healing of our soul -- so that we might not become bitter and poisoned by the
hate of unforgiveness
III. Closing
-- I want to bring this to a close
by sharing with you a story from Prison Fellowship Ministries, the organization
founded by Chuck Colson to reach out to prisoners with the love and forgiveness
of Christ
-- at a Prison Fellowship banquet
one night, Albert Quie, the president of the organization, was taken aback by a
statement made by a lady in attendance as she was leaving the dinner -- she
told Albert, "The man I ate dinner with tonight killed my brother."
-- she told Albert how this man had
murdered her brother during a robbery, served 18 years at the prison at Walla
Walla, and how he was then paroled and began work at a dairy farm -- learning
of this, she sought him out -- not out of vengeance or out of a desire to see
him punished even more -- but to offer him forgiveness for what he had done to
her family
-- it would be nice to say that her
actions led him to dedicate his life to Christ, but that didn’t happen -- but
her act of grace and mercy and forgiveness touched him deeply -- at that Prison
Fellowship banquet, he said, “Christians are the only people I know that you
can kill their son, and they'll make you a part of their family. I don't know
the Man Upstairs, but He sure is hounding me."
-- this man’s story is unfinished; he
hasn't yet accepted Christ -- But just as Christ died for us regardless of our
actions or acceptance, so this woman forgave him without qualification -- she
forgave him his trespasses, because of the forgiveness she had received through
Christ (Albert H. Quie, President of Prison Fellowship Ministries, Jubilee, p.
5)
-- this is unnatural -- it is
supernatural -- it is only possible through the grace and the power of Christ
within us -- but this is what we are called to pray for in the Lord’s prayer --
this is how we are called to live as Christians saved by grace
-- as we close, I want you to
consider what Jesus is saying in this prayer -- what He is calling us to do
when He tells us to ask God to “forgive us our trespasses, as we have forgiven
those who trespassed against us”
-- forgiveness is hard -- it is hard
to receive -- and it is even harder to offer
-- if any of you are struggling with
unforgiveness in your life, I would encourage you to spend some time reading
through this passage this week and reflecting on what Jesus says here in
Matthew 6 about forgiveness
-- if anyone wants to talk about it
-- or has any questions about it -- I would be happy to meet with you at any
time
-- with that, let us close, and let
us go to God in prayer
-- let’s pray
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