Part 2 of Kev Fengers DYM talks...its long...but well worth it :)
Luke 5:17-23 Jesus heals a paralytic
The human race is made up of a whole lot of broken people. A lot of people will deny that they are broken, that they have faults, because it hurts the ego, but it takes clarity and courage to see the truth, that I am a sinner and that God loves me. One of the names Jesus is called is the great Physician. He came to heal the sick. He healed them of their physical ailments, and then he would also add: “Your sins are forgiven”. There is a very close link in scripture between Jesus healing people and sins being forgiven. This link is not there by accident. Firstly, forgiveness is not something that we can see from the outside, it is something that we can only feel and it takes place on the inside. So in order to show that forgiveness had happened, Jesus would accompany it with a miracle that people could see.
A miracle! Wow! Imagine witnessing a miracle! I freak out at the thought. I mean, I read it so many times in the bible that it has become one of those words I read and understand what it means, but don’t GET what it means. I am such a skeptic, that if I were to see a miracle happen, I’d be like … woah … how did you do that? This has to be a con! Maybe there was nothing wrong with him in the first place and he was faking it. I mean … we are talking about something that goes against everything that is natural. It goes against nature itself, that a man who was blind can see or that a man who was paralysed can walk. It can’t and shouldn’t happen; it’s just ‘not right’.
Well do you know what? Forgiveness is a miracle! Forgiveness is just ‘not right’. It is not natural to forgive someone; in fact forgiveness deeply offends the rational mind. The rational mind calls for justice! When someone has hurt us, or abused us, or taken advantage of us; or stolen peace of mind from us, or harmed or taken the life of someone we love… Why should we let that offence go? There is no rational reason why they should ‘get away’ with it. There is no rational reason why I should ‘let it go’ let alone try to have compassion on that person or pray for their growth. No, forgiveness is not natural … nor is it easy to do. And when it is so difficult for us to do, that also makes it difficult for us to accept. Why should I be forgiven for doing what I did? Well that’s just it. You shouldn’t be forgiven. The blind man shouldn’t see. The paralysed man shouldn’t walk. But Jesus made all that happen: He made the blind see and the paralysed man get up, take his mat and go home. And, get this: He forgives you your sins. That’s a miracle right there. You can’t see it from the outside, there may be no visual evidence at all (other than a smile), but that’ a miracle
And that brings me to the second reason for the link between healing and forgiveness in scripture is that there is a great healing power in forgiveness, for both the person giving forgiveness and the person receiving it. When whatever it is you were carrying, you put down. When you feel something – very nearly ‘a thing’ has left you. You are no longer carrying the load you were. Muscular tensions ease. You are less vulnerable to infection. Your immune system lifts. There is a physical healing that accompanies forgiveness. But, there is no external evidence that forgiveness has taken place, it’s internal. The evidence may only be in how we feel.
I recall in South Africa asking a group of young people who were not yet baptised into Christ, what was holding them back… And the overwhelming response was: “I don’t feel they were good enough.” They had a perception that in order to commit your life to Christ you had to get baptised to wash away your sins and then be a better person. They had this perception that you need to transform yourself from being a sinner into being a good person. But the reason you commit your life to Christ is precisely BECAUSE you’re not good enough. And if you try to transform yourself, you’re destined to fail. The only thing that can transform you, your heart, your behaviour, is the love of God.
What you are committing to when you commit your life to Christ through baptism is a relationship with him. You are making a choice in your life to take Jesus on as your Saviour and I believe that to be a wise choice. But it is important to bear in mind that you will continue to make poor choices after that. But in Christ, through our good choices and through our bad choices he does not condemn us. We need to understand and embrace that forgiveness.
Rom 8:1 Therefore there is now NO CONDEMNATION for those who are in Christ Jesus.
So do we need to examine ourselves? Yes, but not to see if we have been good boys and girls, not to take stock of our lives, but to examine whether or not we feel forgiven. Do you feel forgiven? Do you feel free? Or are you filled with self loathing? Self loathing I believe is very detrimental to your spiritual well-being and can lead to trying to make yourself a better person. And when that fails, and it will, it can then lead to finding comfort in pulling others down. And that is not a place we want to find ourselves. That is certainly not a place of love and compassion and acting in the best interests of others. If you are feeling self-loathing and not feeling the peace and freedom of the forgiveness achieved for you, then you need to start reflecting on your relationship with God. Firstly, do you really know him? And secondly, do you really trust him? Do you believe that he loves you just the way you are?
Hebrews 10:12-14 tells us that this priest, Jesus, offered for all time one sacrifice for sins and sat down at the right hand of God, because by that one sacrifice he made perfect forever those who are being made holy. So you’re not holy yet, you’re still a sinner, you still make poor choices, but you’re being made holy,
(Phillipians 1:6 says that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ).
So you are still being made holy, but you are forever perfect in the blood of Jesus. You may not feel perfect, but that’s because you still think its all about YOU: that it is YOU who is meant to be perfect. No, Jesus is the one who is perfect and what he did has covered your sins, forever. God is working on you. He is molding you into a masterpiece. He is making you. Discover your Maker! What he has said is that the sacrifice for sin is DONE! It was one sacrifice for ALL TIME. Whatever guilt you feel: Whatever you feel you deserve! That price has been paid! If you think you are worthless and deserve to die … That sacrifice has been made. You know the high priest used to go and STAND in the Holy place and offer sacrifices for sins year after year after year, but Jesus did it once and SAT DOWN at His Father’s right hand. So the High priest had to stand because he had to keep working, year after year making sacrifice after sacrifice, but Jesus made one sacrifice and then He sat down! The job was over: it’s done. When Jesus said: “It is finished”, he meant it. He’s done all he can for you… he’s given everything, and now he waits for you to accept what he has done.
So when you sit there on any given Sunday morning thinking: “I have done such and such wrong last week and I did this again this week and I’m still sorry I did it.” “I’m sorry again.” “I feel like such a slacker because I said I was sorry last week and now I’ve done it again and I know I’ll probably do it again next week.” You need to stop it! There is no condemnation. It’s not about what you did or what you are doing or even what you are going to do; it’s about what He has done. He has nailed sin and death to the cross and there is nothing that will take that away. That is history, it is done, it has been achieved.
Negotiating with God over sins every Sunday saying I’ll do better this week is a TRAP – Repeat after me … It’s a TRAP! … You want to be better? What are you going to do? Sin less? There is NOTHING you can do… He has done it all. As soon as you think you can earn anything by being a better person, you’ve fallen back into the trap. How can you feel free if you keep slipping back into the trap?
There are many people that live under a cloud of guilt and cannot seem to free themselves from it. I was one of them. Even after I was baptised, in fact especially after baptism, I kept trying to be a better person, I kept trying to sin less, thinking that somehow my effort was linked to my forgiveness. It sounded logical to me that that was what I should be doing. But it was a trap. How could I make myself perfect? And the more I failed, the more disillusioned I became and the more I became a prisoner of guilt. I had neglected to acknowledge that I couldn’t do it in my own strength. Oh if you’d asked me directly I would have said, no of course I can’t, but that hadn’t stopped me from trying. It was only when I understood that there is NOTHING I can do and NOTHING that I need to do, that I started to fully appreciate the love of God. Jesus has done it all. He has set me free. And now that I am free, I can choose how I want to live my life in His love. If I depart from His love, then I have all kinds of problems. If I try to take my inheritance and run, then I am like the prodigal son. But in His love, I trust him.
You know Peter is such an awesome disciple, because you can learn so much about human weakness through him. When Jesus declares that all his disciples will fall away that night, Peter argues. He boasts about how much better he is than the rest. Even though everyone here falls away, I’ll never fall away. Jesus says, you will Peter, you will disown me three times before the rooster crows. And he still argues, he says even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you. What about you and I? Do we sit there on a Sunday saying: I’ll never disown you again? Peter disowned him and wept bitterly. How much did that affect him?
Well Jesus said in Luke 22:31 that Satan had desired to sift him as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers. I believe Peter had a period of self loathing after he denied Jesus. And he would have been in a dark place, being unable to forgive himself for what he had done… after he had not only promised he wouldn’t, but been told exactly what he would do … and then he still did it. He wept. He felt the guilt … and so he should have. He had made a poor choice, but he didn’t let that guilt consume him, he didn’t say I am too sinful, I’ll never get it right, woe is me … let me go and hang myself. No, that’s what Judas did. I believe Peter got to a place of despair and what echoed in his head were the same words that he had said in John 6 when everyone was leaving because Jesus had said they must eat his flesh and drink his blood.
“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe you are the Holy One of God.” He acknowledged that there was nowhere else to go…
Are you feeling guilty? Where are you going to go? You can only go to God. Trust Him. Let him work with you. You know the forgiveness of God is so soothing… There is a psalm I want you to read, but before we do, we need to mention the context.
King David was considered a man after God’s own heart. But he made a series of compounding mistakes. He got lost. He was so lost that he could here nothing from his heart. Lust had turned to adultery … God’s voice calling DAVID … couldn’t hear it. Tried to pretend it didn’t happen. God wants him to acknowledge what he has done. Bathsheba is pregnant! How does David respond? Does he acknowledge? Nope, how can I hide this? I know I’ll get her husband to come home and sleep with her and so everyone thinks it’s his child. So he turns to deceit. But Uriah is has too much integrity to go home and sleep with his wife while his soldiers are fighting the battle, so he sleeps on his mat at the entrance to the palace with David’s servants. So that didn’t work… Does David acknowledge? No way, in fact he gets angry with Uriah and has Uriah killed. Can you see how things are just getting worse? And David is getting himself in deeper trouble, his guilt is making him do anything he can to deflect, minimise, justify, deny that he has done anything wrong. He is trying to hide his guilt his own way. That is what happens when we try to do things on our own. That is what happens when we don’t go to God and acknowledge our sin. David still didn’t do that after killing Uriah. O what does God do?
Well, remember how the Father runs through the train station looking for his child? Look at 2 Sam 12 and see how God comes to find him through Nathan the prophet.
God opens David’s eyes to what he has done, and teaches him that these things have consequences and that is the reality we have to face with our sins too. They all have consequences. David, when he is confronted with what he has done immediately feels the guilt and the shame and confesses that he has sinned against the Lord. (vs 13) Nathan the prophet tells him, “Yes, but the Lord has taken away your sin and you are not going to die.”
Don’t worry about that David, I’m not here to throw you to the law of sin and death. That’s taken care of. I’m here to tell you about the consequences of your actions. You know you have made some pretty poor choices and those choices are going to have some consequences. This is not to punish you for being naughty, but to help you understand that making poor choices is really not in your best interests.
So David thought no-one would know. But God knew, God could see his boy wandering off into danger and just like the mother in the train station, the Father comes running to find His boy, running to throw his arms around him. He sends Nathan the prophet to open his eyes and acknowledge the truth: To admit that he has sinned and to know that God loves him.
How do you think David would have felt after that? Let’s read Psalm 32
That’s what it means to be forgiven. He describes his anguish before he acknowledges his sin very well. His words are just so honest… and those famous words that the truth will set you free seem so appropriate every time I read this chapter. What does it mean to him to be forgiven? His sins are carried away, removed, and will not count against him. You can almost taste the extent of the peace in his heart. That’s what it means to be forgiven. It’s a supernatural miracle from God.
Video: Chiseling Masterpiece - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyOIBnExlrw
Dad knows what’s best
Matthew 18:21-35 - The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant
So, to recap, we’ve looked at how much our Father loves us. And we’ve looked at how he’s done everything he can for us and is just waiting for us to accept His love and forgiveness.
Now we are going to look at how we forgive others… and I would like to start by saying:
Forgiveness rarely occurs in an instant. It is usually a process. You may move through the process quickly, or you might stumble along backwards and forwards, getting stuck from time to time in seasons of un-forgiveness.
Now I have a question just to think about: Why do I need to forgive someone. If God already forgives people, why does he need me to forgive them as well? What’s with the double portion of forgiveness?
Remember that forgiveness offends the rational mind. It’s unnatural for us to forgive. Why does God want us to forgive others?
He knows that forgiving is actually good for you. It’s not that you are doing the other person a favor by forgiving them. It’s actually about you and the pain you are feeling. If you’re taking notes, I have 3 key points that we’re going to look at.
Why does God want us to forgive others?
• It frees you from bitterness and releases the chains of something that was or is holding you captive.
• When you forgive someone, you are more able to receive His forgiveness, because you understand that forgiveness is not something that can be earned, but that it is a gift … freely given.
• It is also something that transforms you, by the renewing of your mind. Naturally, your mind wouldn’t want to forgive.
The need for forgiveness begins with an act of betrayal, of cruelty, of separation, or of loss. You need to think about what that might be for you. Something may jump to mind straight away, it may take you a while, or you may not be able to think of anything.
Maybe someone has put you down, or been rude or disrespectful. But then maybe you are at the other end of the spectrum and have experienced unspeakable abuse and betrayal. Or perhaps for you, the thought of having to consider forgiveness at all is a major struggle: Such is the extent of what you have been through and may be continuing to go through.
If you can’t think of anything in your life, let me give you someone else’s shoes to stand in. In the news recently, a 19 year old man was arrested for abducting an 8 year old girl from her home, using her body for his sexual pleasure and discarding it in a gutter. Think about how that child’s parents might feel toward that 19 year old.
There are a number of things we need to talk about to understand what exactly forgiveness is and what it is not. If you’re taking notes there are 4 things that forgiveness is not that you need to be very clear about.
We need to understand that when we forgive others:
• Forgiveness is not the same as pretending that something never happened. It doesn’t mean forgetting that the event took place, because it did take place! It did take place!
• It does not mean that whatever took place is acceptable. It is still not acceptable and will never be acceptable. It will never be acceptable!
• Forgiving someone does not mean you need to be friends with the person you are forgiving. You may always be disgusted by what they have done. You may find you never want to see that person, speak to that person, or spend any amount of time with them.
• Forgiving certainly doesn’t mean putting yourself back in the same situation to allow yourself to be abused or taken advantage of again. Nor does it mean you need to remain in a situation of abuse. If you are being abused, get out!
It is really important to consider these things that forgiveness is not, because if you think that forgiveness is any of these things, they can be a barrier that keeps you from forgiving.
False forgiveness: Forgiving because it is the right thing to do or forgiving out of duty - does not bring healing. This is not forgiveness from the heart, which is what God is seeking as we read in Matt 18.
It’s also worth mentioning that forgiveness can never be something that you bestow either as a triumph over someone or as a means to humiliate them or have power over them. No matter what you may call it, that is not forgiveness.
Right, so now that we are clear on what forgiveness is not, it’s time to look at what it is.
Forgiveness has a number of layers and elements and we’re going to look at 3 main aspects of what forgiveness is and what true forgiveness from the heart does mean:
• What forgiveness does mean is letting go of the anger and bitterness toward the person.
When there has been an act of betrayal, cruelty, separation or loss, bitterness toward that person can take root in your heart and Proverbs 4:23 says that ABOVE ALL ELSE, guard your heart, because from it flow all the issues of life.
Bitterness is a damaging thing and if we let that grow in our hearts, it can keep us from moving forward in the life of love that God has in store for us. Think of a rear view mirror in a car that allows you to see what is behind you, but it doesn’t get in the way of the vision required for moving forward. Now imagine that mirror were to grow and become the size of your windscreen. How do you move forward in your life of love when you are so bitter about what has happened in the past? You have let the bitterness drown out the voice of God in your heart.
• What forgiveness does mean, is taking the desire for retribution or justice and handing it over to God. 1 Peter 2:23 … So if you were to talk about the cost of forgiveness, this is it. Forgiveness is costly because it costs you your right to justice and it only costs one party. But it’s worth it.
• And what forgiveness does mean, is acknowledging that the other person is no more and no less deserving of God’s love than you are.
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