Northside Church - Sydney
Anchor Points Week 3: Forgiveness Is Assured Through Jesus
You're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. Guys, here's a question. What's the greatest expression of forgiveness you have ever received? The greatest expression of forgiveness you have ever received. You might be thinking of something like where you forgot an important date, like I mentioned a few weeks ago, if you forget your winning anniversary date, that can go down very badly. You might have been forgiven from that, something a more serious note. Maybe your work, through a mistake, you cost the company tens of thousands of dollars, but because of past service and your loyalty, they said, "Well, okay, we'll forgive you this time." Maybe it's within your family. See, there's been a major ruckus some years ago. You said something about somebody they overheard or got back to them. You had to kind of get forgiveness. Maybe you sent the wrong email to the wrong person. I'd love to hear some stories like that when we're all sort of getting used to the internet in the early days, and we sort of reply, not realizing that there's like a trail, a trail of emails. You've got to watch the ones that are sort of down below what they say about the person. I know people where that's happened. I know that within my ministry, within marriages, some spouses have been forgiven for huge moral failure, and there's been forgiveness and there's been reconciliation the couple has moved on. Well, I've had a chance to think about this. Can you believe that I once had to seek the forgiveness of in excess of 20 people in one hit? One hit. 20 people. And I had to seek their forgiveness. It started off great. It all revolved around a river trip that we made with some friends. Back in my last church, at one time there were a whole bunch of us who were young married, Bev and I were young, young married. And every year, we would hire two of those magnificent, huge houseboats that cruise the Murray River. Have you seen those? They are huge. We hired, had six double bedrooms each, each boat. And so you can have six couples and two bathrooms and a huge recreation area on the roof and a massive deck out the front. These were huge. And we'd hired two of them, 24 people, and you had to book in months ahead though, so popular. Well on this particular cruise, it was very special because one of our number, Tim, was he was in his 30s, was suffering from terminal cancer and it was pretty clear this was going to be his last, his last cruise. So the idea was to video every little aspect of this cruise. So one of the guys had a video camera. So we, at the end of the weekend, long weekend, we had this videotape of all of the highlights and the lowlights of this magnificent three day cruise. And my parents were coming over from Melbourne and I went to the guy who'd done the video and said, I said, Lindsey, can I borrow that video? I want to share my parents what this cruise is all about, this cruise in the room. He said, we'll grab it. I haven't edited it yet, mate. He says, holy copy, I'm a pastor, yeah, what can go wrong? And so he, with some reluctance, led it to me, right? And my parents have been there for a number of days when my dad said, hey Graham, you haven't challenged the video of the river cruise. I said, no, well, we haven't, well, let's get that. The cruise right in. What kind of on the screen, I'm reminded of this every week, what kind of the screen was tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick tonight on 60 minutes? I had recorded a whole Sunday night of viewing 60 minutes and the movie over that video. Can you believe that? Basically, you're not going to tell them that. That's what happens. I, you know, I mean, you can imagine, I was just, so I crafted this letter, pre-email days. I crafted this letter. Dear friends, when I share with you what I have to share with you, you're going to be shockingly disappointed. And I just poured up the whole thing. You're going to be so upset with me. It's going to possibly even affect their friendship. I got the feedback. People thought I was leaving bed. They thought I was running off with the keyboard player, whose name was Trevor, which was a real, a real worry, a real worry. So it kind of worked in my favor because, because when they got to the bit about the video, oh gosh, it's just the video. Oh, right. Oh, that's not so bad. So sometimes you can do that when you're looking for forgiveness, like blow up a possible scenario, and then you kind of ease it back to what is the reality, and it can go down better. So 23 people, including my own wife, Bev, had to forgive me in that one single moment. Now let me rewind. Let me rewind for a moment. See, we're talking about videos, and let me rewind. Last question again. What is the greatest expression of forgiveness for you? I know the answer. If you're a Christian, if you've committed your life to Jesus Christ, the greatest expression of forgiveness you have ever experienced is that the forgiveness of your sin. Not just one or two sins, but the forgiveness of your sin condition. Your inclination to sin, your original sin condition. That's the greatest expression of forgiveness you have ever received. And that's what we did. That's what we just read in the reading, which Nick brought to us, for by the sacrificial death of Christ, we are set free. That is, our sins are forgiven. How great is the grace of God which he gave to us in such large measure? Because they have to be two of the greatest verses in the whole of the Bible. Because they crystallize the essential elements of the Christian faith. Jesus died for our sins. And in that sense, we have been set free, free from the punishment of sin, free from the guilt of sin. We have been set free. It's fantastic. Now, this area of Christian doctrine is called the doctrine of the atonement. If you've done any theological study, that's what this area is called. And there are a number of viewpoints as to exactly how God achieved this outcome for humankind. There's the satisfaction theory, there's the ransom theory, there's the acceptance theory. There's the substitution theory. And these all represent various interpretations on some of the scriptural passages and some of the teachings of Jesus in relation to his death and to our forgiveness of sin. Now, here's the thing. It doesn't matter which of the theories you subscribe to. You might have even realized that many theories existed. It doesn't really matter which of the theories you subscribe to. But you know, what is important is the fact that we knowing we are forgiven is a crucial point, a crucial, a real point of certainly in our Christian life. That's what's important, not only because of the assurance of salvation and life eternal. But because of what it means to us right here and now, that's what this message is all about. Not just future, but the assurance of sins forgiven is an anchor point in our faith because of the benefits and the blessings right here and now. You see, receiving and embracing God's grace and forgiveness does a number of things to us, a number of things spiritually, emotionally, I would even say psychologically. You see, first of all, it strengthens our ability, strengthens our ability to extend grace and forgiveness to others. When you really know you have received forgiveness from Jesus. Now, there's no guarantee here, by the way. Remember, Jesus told a parable of the unforgiving servant? Here's a guy who the good news Bible says, owes $1 million, $1 million. And he goes to the King and he pleases his case. He says, "Oh, King, your Majesty, please forgive me." I got knocked out with GFC. The carbon tax is coming and I'm really up against it, please forgive me. And the King said, "Okay, you've been a faithful little subject forgiven, all forgiven." This is in Matthew 18. And then, of course, if you know the parable, he runs to the marketplace, finds a guy who owes you about $5, grabs him by the throat and says, "I'll see you in court if you don't pay up right now." And it's just an astonishing parable. The man in the parable refused to see that when you've been forgiven, as an expression of heartfelt gratitude, we should be much more inclined to forgive others, much more willing to extend forgiveness to other people when we know we have been on the receiving end of forgiveness. When we've received that wonderful gift, 1 John 4.11 says, "If this is how God loved us, then how should we love one another?" Now given the close relationship between love and forgiveness, we could render that verse this way. If this is how God forgives us, how then should we forgive one another? You see, friends, here's the thing. This is where the psychology comes in. We are more inclined to be critical and judgmental and negative and cynical if we haven't fully embraced the grace and the forgiveness of God, that's just the way it is. People who don't feel forgiven find it very difficult to extend forgiveness and grace to others, whereas on the flip side, we become increasingly gracious and forgiving and accepting of people as we acknowledge that God through Jesus has forgiven and accepted us. It's just the two are so different. This is something else. Receiving and embracing God's grace and forgiveness, cements our identity in Christ. It really cements it. It really solidifies it. This morning's reading provides the clue here, verse 5 of Ephesians chapter 1. Have a listen to this. Verse 5. Here it is. Because of his love, God had already decided that through Jesus Christ, he would make us his sons. This was his pleasure and purpose. He would make us his sons. Now, a number of weeks ago in a night's service, Sam Haddon gave a brilliant explanation of this verse and he said, "This use of the word 'sons' is not meant to be exclusivist or sexist. Rather, it's meant to highlight the powerful inclusiveness of God's grace because in the ancient world, only sons could inherit the family fortune. Only sons. Sorry, ladies. Well, it was in a very male-dominated society. So Paul saying, you know, technically, legally, because of God's grace, we're all sons. Whether you are male or female, everybody is a son, a very, very powerful interpretation of that verse. We're all sons. When it comes to inheriting all that God wants to give us, his grace, his forgiveness, his redemption, his renewal, ultimately life eternal. See, the prodigal son was forgiven. He was forgiven totally once he received the embrace of his welcoming father. He was forgiven. But friends with acceptance and inheritance comes responsibility. With acceptance and inheritance comes responsibility. Here's a reading exercise for this week if you're looking for something to do. Read Romans chapter 5 and chapter 6, back to back. Read them at the same time. It's an incredible reading exercise, because you see, in Romans chapter 5, Paul begins with a strong reference to our standing, our inheritance, if you like, in Jesus. Listen to the first two verses of Romans chapter 5. Now that we've been put right with God through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He's brought us by faith into this experience of God's grace in which we now live. Some versions say, in which we now stand, this is our identity. And we boast of the hope of sharing God's glory. It's a great summary of our standing sons and daughters before the living God. He's brought us by faith into this experience. And the rest of the chapter, chapter 5, is devoted to a detailed summary of God's plan of salvation, tracing it right back to Adam, explaining the inadequacy of the law and all those sort of things. And it really culminates in chapter 6, having outlined all the reasons for why we should be celebrating because of the forgiveness of God. In chapter 6, Paul says this, what are we to say then? In light of all this, all this need for celebration of forgiveness. What are we to say then? Should we keep on sinning so that God's grace will increase? You know what God loves giving our grace, let's just turn it on, let's really give them something to forgive. No. Paul says that is far from the truth, inheritance involves responsibility. You don't want to just toss it all back into your father's face when he's given you everything. What sort of totally responsible, crazy person does that? That's not how it is. We, of course, that new life that he talks about, it's not without sin. Of course, we're all involved in this, but it is a life under the renewal and reconstruction of the Holy Spirit. Bringing us increasingly, hopefully, into Christ's likeness, involving the fruit of the Spirit of Galatians 5, love, joy, peace, patience, long suffering, all those sort of things, and so this grace in which we stand is not a cheap grace, it's not a cheap grace. We have been bought at a price, and the price is the precious blood of our own Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So how important is it? How important is it to have, as an anchor point in our Christian, faith, the conviction that forgiveness of sins is assured through Jesus, well, it strengthens our ability to extend love and forgiveness and grace to others. It certainly cements our identity in Christ, and finally, it provides a key indicator, a key indicator for measuring spiritual health and vitality. Now, friends, to illustrate this point, I want to drop onto one of the best known verses of the whole Bible. This is a verse that most of your atheist friends will know of by heart, because they've said this verse, they've recited this verse at school assembly, or at a funeral they've been to. Most atheists know this verse, it's Matthew 6, verse 12, "Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us." Of course, it's the midway point of what we know as the Lord's prayer, but have you ever paused to consider what that actual verse means? Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Does that mean that God's forgiveness is commensurate with our forgiveness? In other words, if we don't forgive, he doesn't forgive, is that it? I don't think so. We can't compare our human frailty with God's eternal providence. That's how we think, I'll forgive you depending on whether you forgive me. That's how we think. That's not how God thinks. We can't restrict his eternal providence with our fallen state. The reality is his love, grace and forgiveness are constant. Friends they're constant, they fall with the freshness and the beauty of rain on a parched landscape. He can't help himself, that's God's love and grace. These things fall from heaven. But if part of the landscape is covered, some of the plants and other vegetation are prevented from receiving that rain, they will die. They won't live. They won't grow. They'll die. Not because of lack of rain, but because of the blockage in receiving the rain with the covering that's over them. It's the same with us. Nothing can prevent God dispensing his forgiveness and his grace, it's his nature. But we can block it out by harboring resentment. We can block it out and limit its effect in our lives through an unforgiving spirit. You know how this works. It can just twist your right up if you've got an unforgiving spirit, if you're harboring resentment just kills you on the inside. Not much God's stuff happening in that sort of life, right? We've all been there. Not much God's stuff happening. These are the little shelters, the little blockages we consciously or unconsciously erect over our lives, restricting the fall and the flow of God's blessing in our lives. Now friends, that's not how God intends it to be, that is not how he intends it to be. I was watching The Hour of Power the other week, Dr. Schiller's program from California, and the interview that morning absolutely stunned me. So much so, I actually placed it directly into my message, which I was presenting that night. So it goes back three or four weeks ago when I preached at night. The man whose name I didn't note had a shocking story to tell. He told him how as a boy of 16 on an Iowa farm, he had responded to a knock at the door and there was a man who said, "Can I use your telephone?" He said, "Well, country people, everybody was able to use that telephone." As he opened the door, a second man joined the first man. They both pulled guns. They said, "You know what? This is about. We're going to clean you guys out." They bound the father, they bound the mother, they bound the son, 16 years of age. They sexually assaulted his 12-year-old sister, both men, before tying her up, ransacked the house and then I was having lunch, I could barely take this, a bullet to the head, mum, dad, brother, sister, bang, everyone. Somehow miraculously this man survived. We've seen this recently with that US senator, you know, you can survive a gunshot wound, I don't know how, but he did, she did, so did his sister. He went on to become a fairly significant political figure in one of the states of America where he was residing, he was residing, and in one occasion he was visiting a state penitentiary and he knew the person who had pulled the trigger was in that penitentiary and he asked if he could see him and the governor of the prison said, "No, no way, we're not going to allow that." He said, "Well, you've forgotten for a moment. I'm actually on the board that determines funding for this prison." He said, "Oh, okay, well, sorry, forgot." So he actually went and he had a meeting with this man, my mind's racing, like why would you want to meeting, what would you say? He said he was bit disarmed because the first thing the man said was, "I'm sorry for what I did to you and your family," and that kind of surprised this guy. They talked, I don't know what they talked about, he didn't say, he said, "They talked for a while, then the interview came to an end to the meeting, came to an end and as he walked to the door to go out, back out into freedom, this man," he said, "God spoke to him in such a mighty way, he maintained a Christian life," he thought, thought he was doing okay, hadn't got onto this yet. And he said, "As he turned the door handle, God spoke to him and said, 'This is not over yet.'" And as he turned around the man was almost out of sight, he called back, called the guard back, the man came back, and he went over to this man and he said, "Ode to this prisoner, if killed his mother, killed his father, shot him and his sister," took him over the hand and said, "I forgive you." God had said, "This is not over yet," he said, "I forgive you." And then he said, he was a little shaken as he said it, when he got outside of the prison of that interview room, his words, he said, "It was like somebody had turned a tap on both feet of my body and a river of anger and bitterness and resentment just flowed for minutes," he said, "I was just a quivering mess, flowed for minutes." He went out and again his words, he said, "All of a sudden, the trees were greener than I'd ever seen them before. The sky was bluer." He said, "My whole world began to change, and now that man has a ministry, and that ministry is going around and asking the ultimate question, who do you need to forgive?" I think he's earned the right to ask that question, "Who do you need to forgive?" Wow, it was a very powerful moment. Friends, we have much to celebrate when it comes to the assurance of sins forgiven. It's a strong anchor point, not only affecting our eternal salvation, but affecting the effectiveness and the vitality of our spiritual experience here and now. How great is the grace of God which he gave to us in such large measure? Are you living in that grace today? Are you experiencing that grace? Do you believe you've got the grace of God? It's going to be essential for how you relate to those around you. That's reality. That's why it's an important anchor point. Get out that grace this week, dispense that grace this week. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the privilege of being reminded this morning that the assurance of sins forgiven is not just about going to heaven, not just about being made right with you for eternity. It's about living as you want us to live right here and now, relating to our husbands, our wives, our children, our families, our friends, our neighbors, our colleagues. We're relating to them in the way you want us to relate, as agents of peace, as agents of forgiveness. Not being doormats and letting people walk over us but working through the issues, ultimately moving to a point where we can extend grace and forgiveness even to people who've heard us deeply, knowing that's the only way to really experience the freedom you intend for us in Christ. In his name we pray.