Forgiveness 4: Declaration of Forgiveness

April 11, 2011

Today’s Sermon recorded!! There is a podcast up and ready for you to listen to. Simply click here and iTunes will open, you can even subscribe to them. This sermon is number 4 in our series on Forgiveness for lent. Enjoy the notes and feel free to comment. Also, I showed a video during the sermon and you can watch it at the end of the post.

Scripture: Luke 23:33-47

Prayer: “Dear Jesus, as we move closer to the resurrection and we move closer to the cross may you move closer to us. May we feel your presence in this place and may the words I speak be your words and your spirit moving in this place.” – Amen

If this is your first time with us, welcome, we have been working through six stages of forgiveness as we journey towards Easter. We have looked at the idea that some things are just wrong and the idea that those wrong things have hurt us and hurt those around us.

This week we look at the actual idea of declaring forgiveness. Based on our scripture there are a few ideas about declaring forgiveness that we need to understand.

Only the person offended can give forgiveness.

Only the offender can ask for forgiveness.

Forgiveness is not dependent on the offenders desire to be forgiven.

This means a few practical things.

First, the church did not hurt you and you cannot forgive the church. The church is the body of Christ and can’t hurt you. The sinful people within the body can hurt you and need forgiveness.

Second, the traffic did not hurt you. Pittsburgh has two seasons, construction and winter.

Third, even if the person who hurt you doesn’t know they hurt you or doesn’t care you can still forgive them.

All that being said, look at our scripture, Jesus understands this. Jesus is on the cross and about to die and he asks God to forgive the people. The people aren’t offending Jesus, they are directly offending God. Only God can give the forgiveness.

At the cross, Jesus is paying the penalties of sins. He is not being offended, God is. God is forced to look away from his son who has taken the sins of the world on his shoulders. God is offended, as such God is the only one who can declare forgiveness.

Jesus is begging for God to forgive the people, Colossians 1:20, says that through the blood on the cross all things are reconciled to God. This means Jesus’ begging worked. At the cross, with the death of Jesus, you were forgiven. The one your actions had offended has declared that you are forgiven. You are even forgiven from all those things you didn’t know you needed forgiveness and all those things that you did that you don’t care that they were wrong you were going to do them anyway.

So then, God has declared, through the cross, that you no longer have a claim against you. That you are no longer in debt to God and you are free to simply love God.

So then, the abuse victim is the only one who can forgive the abuser. Those left behind because of suicide are the only ones who can forgive the one who took their life. The one who blames themselves for what happened on that night when they drank to much is the only one who can forgive themselves.

Here in Luke is the Greek word Aphilmei for the word forgive. Literally this means something like to depart, and abandon all claims. When Jesus asks God to forgive the people he is asking God to abandon all claims from the people. We would say it like this: “Don’t hold it against them.”

For us then, now that we have realized the wrong done to us actually hurt us, we can now not hold it against the person. Yes it was wrong, yes you still have the right to be angry. you still have the right to call the police or move out or avoid that person like the plague. To forgive them is to not let them hold you back.

Sometimes that means we don’t move back in, it means we don’t forget what they did, it means we set up boundaries and change our cell phone number.

It means we do whatever we need to do to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

However, if you are like me this is easier said than done. It is a process that we need to do over and over again. So with that, we need to start this today. We need to declare forgiveness for ourselves and for others. So then, in your bulletin is a small square of paper. Take a moment, pray to God and ask who you need to forgive the most.

Yourself?

Child?

Spouse?

Employer?

Employee?

Neighbor?

Whoever it is that you need to let go of, depart from, and release all claims from that person. Then as you write their names on the paper ask God to help you let this person go. On your way out take this paper and throw it away. You have let go of this person and now they have vanished.

When you forgive a person, their hold on you vanishes. Your right to get revenge vanishes, your right to slash their tires and cackle like a hyena is gone. Your right to be robbed of your joy is gone.

Rob Bell gave a sermon in which he said that “Forgiving is giving up your right to let others determine your joy.”

It has been said that when you let go of the hurt and forgive a person you find that the only person being held back was you.

This is only a start, it is only the beginning. It is the first step in what could be a long process to forgive someone for the things they have done. However, all journeys have a first step and that is this moment. A moment where we give up the claims against people for hurting us and lay hold to a new life, a new hope, and a new resurrection. To a life where hurt, death, and debt no longer have the last word and we can simply exist as in Christ.

As we finish continue to pray and ask God where you are holding your un-forgiveness and what you need to do to find a way to declare that they are forgiven.

Let us pray: “Dear Jesus, thank you for begging our forgiveness on the cross. Thank you, God, for forgiving us. Help us to declare forgiveness to those around us, even our ourselves. As we start this process of forgiveness may we be reminded that we are forgiven. May we have the courage to forgive those who have hurt us and may we declare that we no longer have a claim on them.” – Amen

Sermon Audio