April 5, 2017
“Forgive us as we forgive those who trespass against us” – “God's will is to forgive our trespasses through Jesus Blood on the Cross!”
“Forgive us as we forgive those who trespass against us” – “God's will is to forgive our trespasses through Jesus Blood on the Cross!”
Tonight’s Gospel and Sunday’s Gospel are nearly identical
and that was intentional. The biggest
difference, is that there are two verses added to the beginning for tonight. And these two verses cut to the heart of the
issue we face in our world, our country and especially in our community. Matthew writes, ““Lord, how often shall my brother
sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus *said to him, “I
do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.””
Jesus words specifically apply tonight to us, when we
consider the Fifth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us as we forgive those who trespass against us”. We are called to forgive as Christians. We are called to love even our enemies. We are called to understand that from God’s
perspective, “God's will is to forgive
our trespasses through Jesus Blood on the Cross!” For the Cross is the only power we need or can
have as Christians. The Cross isn’t a
get out of ‘jail free card’. The Cross
isn’t meant to cover ‘all sin’ in order to free us to sin all the more. The Cross is meant to point us in a clear
direction not of domination, not of disrespect, not of power, but simply of
forgiveness.
When Jesus taught the disciples, “Forgive us as we forgive those who trespass against us” Jesus
looked with eyes to not only the future of the Cross, but even knowing what the
future would bring in His relationships.
Jesus willingly went to the Cross of Calvary to offer all of mankind the
forgiveness that no one could offer. An
eternal forgiveness that only Jesus Christ innocent Blood would be able to
offer eternal life and salvation. For it
is “God's will is to forgive our
trespasses through Jesus Blood on the Cross!” It is God’s will for us to be in His Kingdom
and it is God’s will to forgive us for all that we do.
God’s forgiveness knows no bounds. God’s forgiveness does have boundaries
though. If we do not honor, respect or
treat our fellow man with respect and honor, no matter if they are our
children, spouse, family, friends or even our brothers or sisters in Christ, we
are on a slippery slope. For God taught,
we need to “Forgive us as we forgive those
who trespass against us”. And God
will be the ultimate judge.
Man at times is incapable of forgiving, because we want
power. Even Adam and Eve wanted God’s
power and knowledge, but man cannot handle it, hence why we treat others with
blatant disrespect all in the name of control.
But, it is “God's will is to
forgive our trespasses through Jesus Blood on the Cross”. For it is God Who forgives us even when we
don’t deserve it. God forgives us,
because He is God. And this is why God
calls us to “Forgive as we forgive those
who trespass against us”.
As we come closer to Good Friday, since this is the last
Wednesday night service, no better demonstration of Jesus teaching the
disciples to pray the Lord’s Prayer can be found than what we hear from Jesus
Himself. As Jesus was being nailed to
the Cross of Calvary, once Jesus hung from the Cross, Jesus pleaded with His
Father in heaven a simple request.
“Father, forgive them”. This is
the same plea we need to make as well when we are wronged, spoken of in an
unkind way and even when others break the 8th Commandment of
‘bearing false witness against our neighbor’.
We need believe “God's will is to
forgive our trespasses through Jesus Blood on the Cross” and as Jesus
modelled for us even on the Cross of Calvary, we are called to “Forgive as we forgive those who trespass
against us”. AMEN.
Check out Pastor on the Prairie (ProtP)
Subscribe to ProtP
No comments:
Post a Comment