Formed by Forgiveness

Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah.

It is wonderful that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah,

either by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all,

would you pray for us that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like

yourself? The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian,

I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the Bible,

they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will

do what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you are a

non-Christian checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't

hesitate to send us questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the

types of things that you're really struggling with. So God bless.

Just remaining standing, I invite you just to bow your heads in prayer. Father, we are in your

presence. We might not feel your presence, but Father, we have gathered together in the name of

Jesus to be in your presence in the power of the Holy Spirit. And we ask, Father, that the Holy Spirit

would fall with gentle but mighty power upon each one of us, so that Jesus might minister grace to us,

and that we might respond to that gift of grace that is freely given yet again today, that we might

respond to that in a worthy manner, Father, that is good for us and brings glory to you. So Father,

pour out the Holy Spirit gently but deeply upon us, and we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son,

and the only Savior. Amen. Please be seated.

So some of you know that, I mean, I don't just go to coffee shops. I also read books,

and I like reading mysteries or thrillers or something like that, and it's a very common feature

in books like this to have a type of tragic anti-hero, somebody who's going to end up being

the hero of the book, but is deeply wounded. And often, the wound is that they have done something

terrible in their life that has caused tragedy, and they've never been able to come to terms with it.

And the constant sort of ongoing theme within the book from other characters is that they need to

learn to forgive themselves. It's a very, very common thing. In fact, actually, it's one of those things

that doesn't matter if you vote for Trump or Biden, it doesn't matter if you vote for McKinney or Sutcliffe

or Shirely, that that would probably be a very common type of North American advice is that we need to learn

to forgive ourselves. The text that we're going to look at today speaks directly to this particular

piece of advice and actually points us in a way that is vastly better, that accomplishes what we desire,

because I actually think forgiving yourself doesn't actually ever work, but this points us in the

direction of something that does work. And so for those of us who are troubled in our conscience with

things that we have done or failed to do in the past that has caused harm, this is very important and

very good news for us. So I invite you to turn in your Bibles to Mark chapter 11, and we're going to

Mark 11 · chapter mention

begin at the first verse, Mark chapter 11, verse 1, and if you're using this version, it's on page 68.

Mark 11:1

And some of you are familiar with this, some of you might not be, but we're going through this

ancient biography of Jesus written by one who was an eyewitness of some of the things, but it's based on

eyewitness testimony written when eyewitnesses were still alive. And one of the ways that we,

one of the things in the story is that Jesus has predicted since chapter 8 that he's going to go to

Jerusalem, and he's going to go to Jerusalem, he's going to die. And one of the things which is,

when you're telling a story like this, it's not that you necessarily have the same number of words

for every part of a person's life. A third of the gospel of Mark is taken up with this last week

of Jesus's life. And so now he's been saying he's going to Jerusalem, now he arrives,

and this is how he arrives. It goes like this, verse 1 of chapter 11.

Now when, sorry, yeah, never mind. Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethpage and Bethany,

at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them,

go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find a colt tied on which

no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, why are you doing this? Say,

the Lord has need of it, and we'll send it back here immediately. And they, that is the two disciples,

went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street, and they untied it. And some of those

standing there said to them, what are you doing untying the colt? And they told them what Jesus had said,

and they let them go. Now just sort of pause here for a second. This is a very, very odd story

in lots of ways. In fact, actually, often what happens in Bible studies and in commentaries,

in fact, is there's a bit of a discussion about how this came to be. Had Jesus secretly arranged it

in advance? Like what was just going on? And I think one of the things that we are to take it from this,

just as it's an important aside, is, well, here's the thing. I can tell you of a couple of times

that I've had answered prayer that is just miraculous. There's no naturalistic account for it.

A couple of years ago, I was with a couple of doctors, and one of the doctors who was a Christian

said, you know, anybody who's been a doctor for a very long time, or any length of time at all,

they will tell you, if you're very honest, it comes to that point in the night, you know,

they're all having the red wine or the white wine or whatever, and it comes to that point in the night,

they'll all say that there have been medical cases they've dealt with that don't make any sense.

Now, because they're non-Christians, they wouldn't say that it was because of a miracle or answered

prayer. They would just say, I know of a case where it just, you know, the x-ray showed this,

the x-ray showed this, the x-ray showed this, and then the next day showed that there was nothing.

And so, and maybe some of us here, if we had a conversation, we could talk about something that

really did, like, really miracle is the only way to explain it, but most of our prayers are answered

in a way that there can be a naturalistic explanation. That, you know, it just happened this,

and just happened like this, and just happened like this, and in some ways, I think what is really

neat about this is that it shows that, like, that you could have a miraculous, I mean, Jesus wanted it,

and it happened that way, but maybe there was some other naturalistic explanation of it, but that's

just part of the life of faith for us as Christians. I mean, the heart of the text is going to be talking

about what it means to have faith, and part of it for us is in faith is we pray to Jesus who knows all

things, and sometimes when he says yes, it won't be clear whether it was, in a sense, just a coincidence

that nature would have produced, or some other thing happened, or whether it's a miracle, but we

don't have to care about that. Here we see Jesus sovereignly handling events so that he would enter

as he sovereignly desires to enter in. That's what happens here in verse 7. If you look at it, verse 7,

and they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and Jesus sat on it, and many spread

their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields,

and those who went before and those who followed were shouting, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in

the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!

Blessed. Now just sort of pause. You know, this week I was thinking about it. If this was organized

by Hollywood, this is how the gospel would end. Isn't this how a Hollywood movie ends? With a big

crowd cheering, and all that's missing is Jesus kissing a pretty woman, and if Jesus was to kiss a

pretty woman after this big crowd, that would be a Hollywood ending. The producers and the directors

would say, that's a wrap. Let's get it out, and we're going to make lots of money with this particular story.

But in this case, it's not the end of the story. It's in fact getting to the very point of the story.

And one of the things, those of you who are very familiar with the Bible, you'll know that all four

of the ancient eyewitness biographies of Jesus include this incident. All four of them.

And some of you will remember bits and pieces of the stories which are a bit different. I think what

Mark is doing in his telling is very significant and very important, but not...

I really love those songs that we were singing, and it's made me hoarse. I had to stop singing the last verse.

Because I was singing it too much. Can you... Where's Deborah? Can you sing too much? I don't know. I guess you can, if it hurts your voice.

But what's happening is this. Jesus didn't die on the cross in a cathedral between two candles.

Jesus did not die on the cross and rise from the dead in the way that often, like in Mormonism,

nobody sees the angels except Joseph Smith, and nobody sees the gold tablets.

And it's not that Jesus' death and resurrection happened in some secret type of way that only one person saw or nobody saw.

There were three times in the year when the city of Jerusalem increased threefold, fivefold, sixfold,

because people came from all over.

And this is one of those times. It's the Passover is about to be celebrated.

And so the population of Jerusalem is swollen immensely.

And Jesus just made it that everybody knew he was there.

Everybody knows he's there. That's what he's done.

He's orchestrated it.

So it's not... If you go back and read some of the other ancient biographies,

there's sometimes that Jesus just sort of slips into the temple.

He maybe has just a couple of interactions and he slips out or slips into Jerusalem and then leaves.

But this time, everybody knows he's there.

And when everybody would have been talking about this entrance,

some of them probably will have stains of donkey poop on their clothes that they have to get rid of.

It's going to be talked about all week.

And when he dies, everybody knows it.

You see, this is the exact opposite of a secret type of mystery religion.

The Christian faith is a public faith.

It's a public revelation that can be tested.

And Jesus is just guaranteed that everybody knows he's there.

And when he dies, everybody will know that he dies by crucifixion.

And in verse 11, remember I said that in some ways that earlier part of the story talks about Jesus,

in a sense, being sovereign, that he sovereignly wants...

It's actually really interesting.

One of the things which is sort of cool about this text is that it shows both...

The stories that we're looking at today, it throws together both the godness of Jesus and the sovereignty of Jesus and the humanity of Jesus in a very powerful way.

Jesus is so poor he doesn't own a donkey.

He has to borrow a donkey.

And a little bit later, we're going to see that Jesus is hungry.

Yet, the same one who is poor and can't even afford a donkey, he sovereignly organizes a donkey for him to come in.

And in verse 11, it doesn't look as much in English, like it's there, but it's more powerful in the original language.

And verse 11,

And Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple.

And when he had looked around at everything, as was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

Now, in the original language, this phrase, looked around, he's not looking around like a tourist.

Looking around.

Looking around.

Looking around.

Looking around.

Looking around.

Looking around.

Looking around.

The churches, which had now become museums.

He's not looking around as if one of you finally gets an opportunity to buy a house and you go sort of looking around to see if you want to buy the house.

The word looking around implies that he's the owner who's come to what he owns after being gone for a while to do an inspection.

That's what's being implied in the original language.

The owner of the temple has come.

And he's looking around to see if it's as he intended.

Now, one of the things which is so brilliant about the Gospel of Mark, and it's one of the reasons, even from a human point of view, people still read it,

is the way that Mark often will tell things without using, like, clearly explaining it, but allowing the story to unfold, to communicate at the level of a story.

And stories communicated at a deep level for us as human beings.

And so, Jesus is going to be saying something about how he is doing a new thing.

In a sense that everything that the Old Testament had been promising is about to be fulfilled.

And that God is about to do a new thing in terms of how he relates to human beings.

And that he communicates by these very clever little stories.

And then this odd aside about prayer that talks about forgiveness.

Look what happens in verse 12.

On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry.

Remember I said to you one of the things about, you know, in our day and age, we have a hard time believing that Jesus was God.

But for the first several centuries, Christians and others had a hard time believing that he was human.

And so, texts like this were very important in the forming of the early creeds and doctrinal definitions

to remind people that Jesus is fully human and fully God, but one person.

And he's hungry.

In verse 13,

And seen in the distance a fig tree and leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it.

Note it doesn't say necessarily food, just find anything on it.

And when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.

And Jesus said to it,

May no one ever eat fruit from you again.

And his disciples heard it.

Now,

this has been a,

this part and the part that's going to come in a few verses has

troubled lots of Christians off and on throughout the years.

And lots of people from outside

who look in at the text.

And it's a very puzzling text.

Like,

it seems as if,

in fact, actually,

in some ways, this text touches at one of the deep fears

that even we Christians have.

But it especially touches on a deep fear that those outside the Christian faith,

when they look at it,

they have.

And that deep fear is that,

you know, good grief,

God is just unreasonable.

He's just unfair and unreasonable.

And this story perfectly illustrates his unfairness and his unreasonableness.

that here it is.

It isn't even the season for figs.

And he still goes ahead and curses it.

Like, how unfair is that?

And for many people outside the faith,

one of the barriers to them coming in

is they have this sense that the God that they'll meet is an unfair God

who makes impossible demands

and then blames you for not being able to meet it.

Now,

the fear is real.

But the text actually doesn't illustrate it.

And part of it is,

has to do with translation issues.

That little bit for it was not the season for figs

in the original language can go in different places in the sentence.

So here's what's really going on.

It wasn't the season for figs.

And yet,

and for a fig tree,

when it's not the season for figs,

the tree has no leaves.

So it would be the same for us

in the spring

when all the trees are bare

and there's still snow on the ground

and it's not spring yet

because it's February or whatever

and all of a sudden you see a tree,

a maple tree,

with green leaves.

Or a better example,

an apple tree with green leaves.

And you go,

oh, wow,

there's an apple tree with green leaves.

Like, it draws your attention.

And so he goes to see if there's anything on it.

And I only know this

because obviously I don't know anything about fig trees.

I've depended upon commentaries for this.

And what happens is

at the very same time

in a healthy fig tree,

as soon as the figs are being produced,

the figs are also being produced.

The leaves and the figs grow at the exact same time.

So,

we're going to see more about this in a moment.

What Jesus is doing here is

one commentator called it a portent,

an old-fashioned word.

One of those little things,

a harbinger.

Sorry,

that's another old-fashioned word

that some of you won't know what it means.

It's something,

it's sending a bit of a signal

about something that's going to happen.

And the signal about what's going to happen

is that

out of all the nations on the earth,

how odd of God to choose the Jews.

And he chose them.

If you go back,

those of you who remember the stories of Abraham,

he chose Abraham and then his descendants

to be a blessing for the nations,

to be the means by which

his glory is made known to the world.

And out of all the nations,

they're the only one.

Out of all the trees in February,

there's only that one tree that has leaves.

And unlike an apple tree,

where you can have the leaves

without the beginning of the apple

and the fig tree,

you have to have both at the same time.

And he goes.

And it has the appearance of life,

the appearance of what it should have,

but it has absolutely no fruit.

It's barren.

Now, it's beyond the scope of this sermon

because one of the things

which those outside the Christian faith

have as a great dislike

about the Christian faith

is the idea of God's judgment.

It's a very peculiar fear

because, gosh,

if there's one thing about our age

we live in an un...

We live in a hyperjudgmental age.

You say the wrong word in a tweet

and the internet explodes.

You say...

There's one fellow that I watch on YouTube

called John Campbell.

It's a very interesting source

of sort of just main actual data

on COVID and other types of issues.

He's had a couple of warnings

and it's just a little aside that he made

that brought the censors down on him

and now it's almost painful to watch him

because he's worried about saying one wrong word

that will cancel him.

And it's a very puzzling thing

that we live in an age

where people feel completely and utterly free

to judge others

and condemn them to cancellation

and destruction,

but don't like a God that might judge them.

In fact, it's actually usually a feature

of being judgmental.

Ourselves.

That we don't like the idea

of someone else,

especially God, judging us.

And except as we'll see,

Jesus giving this parable

of God's judgment

on the Jewish people.

This is not a text

about God replacing the Jewish people.

It is a text about the fact

that the temple and the priesthood

will come to an end.

And in fact, it does come to an end.

In the year 70, it's come to an end.

It's never been returned.

God's not finished with the Jewish people.

But the temple

and that phase

has come to an end.

But I'm getting a little bit ahead.

You'd expect maybe to see,

just look,

remember I said how Mark

sort of tells things

by using the story to unfold it?

Look what happens in verse 15.

It's page 70 if you're using this.

And they came to Jerusalem

so that he says this to the fig tree

and then they walk away.

The fig tree is just there,

has all the leaves and everything.

And they came to Jerusalem

and he entered the temple

and began to drive out

those who sold

and those who bought in the temple.

And he overturned the tables

of the money changers

and the seats of those

who sold pigeons.

And he would not allow anyone

to carry anything through the temple.

And he was teaching them

and saying to them,

Is it not written,

My house shall be called

a house of prayer

for all the nations?

But you have made it

a den of robbers.

And the chief priests

and the scribes heard it

and were seeking a way

to destroy him

for they feared him

because all the crowd

was astonished at his teaching.

And when evening came,

they went into the city,

out of the city.

Now, this is not

an anti-capitalist text.

It's not that Jesus

has something against markets.

It's not that he has something

against selling pigeons.

It's not like that at all.

If you ever have a chance

to go to Jerusalem,

it's very interesting.

One of the things

I really recommend you do

is you go into a church

like Christ Church

in the old city of Jerusalem.

And it's a very,

very interesting place.

Not only is it

the very first Protestant,

in fact, evangelical church

that was ever set

in the Holy Land

in Jerusalem.

But it has sort of

like a bit of a,

like a lot of places there.

There's a wall around it

and everything.

There's a variety of buildings.

It's a bit of a complex.

And you're going through

the old city of Jerusalem,

which is filled with tourists

and pilgrims.

And it's noisy.

And it's, if you like crowds

and you like excitement,

it's like a very,

it's just really amazing.

The old buildings,

the stores,

the smell of the food,

which is delicious.

And you pass through this gate

into a courtyard.

And then you pass through

some other place

and then you finally get

into the church.

And if you go into the church,

the church building

is like what you would

expect it to be.

It's very still and quiet.

It's very simple.

Very simple with a lot

of Jewish symbolism in it,

obviously,

because it's a Christian,

but using Old Testament symbolism.

And it's very quiet and still.

And you can just tell

when you're in there

that this is a place

that people have prayed in.

You know,

many of you have gone

into old places.

You can have this powerful sense.

This is a place where people

have come to pray

for more than a century.

The difference between there

and a two-minute walk out

is the difference between,

as the English used to say,

chalk and cheese.

It's a huge difference.

And so here we have

a temple compound.

And it'd be no problem

if those places were all out,

people selling all that stuff

were outside.

But in fact,

not only were they not outside,

but right inside.

So there is no sense

of prayer there

with the bartering

and the haggling

and the complaints

and the yelling

and the screaming

and the baying of animals.

It's as if the busy street,

it's as if...

Actually, one other thing,

if you really want to...

An even bigger contrast,

if you go to Jerusalem,

to go to Christchurch,

but before that,

go to the Old Market,

which is just...

You crowd it.

Everybody's pushing you.

It's noisy.

It's really just...

It's quite an experience.

It's overwhelming

if you're not...

If you're from somewhere

like Ottawa,

and it's overwhelming

to be in this crowded

outdoor market.

But that outdoor market,

right in the temple,

how is that a place of prayer?

And it's taking over

the place of the courtyard

of the Gentiles,

the courtyard which is

specifically for pagans

to come to pray

to the God of Israel,

which is what God had wanted

in Genesis 12,

and all the way through

what our Jewish friends

called the Tanakh

and we call the Old Testament,

is that God wanted

the nations to come to Him.

You know, read Psalm 67.

What...

Steve, in a couple of weeks,

is going to preach

and challenge us

to have a sense

of the worldwide nature

of the church

and the missionary expansion.

And Psalm 67,

you know,

why is it that we should pray

that the gospel

goes to the ends of the earth?

Because God wants

more people to praise Him.

He wants more people

to praise Him.

That's Psalm 67.

And they're stopping it.

And He drives them all out.

My house shall be called

a house of prayer

for all nations.

It's not what I wanted.

You've just made it a place

where there's crooked

and non-crooked business people.

And there's no prayer at all.

Now the miracle of destruction.

I have a couple of different people

who when they see me

working on my sermon now,

they ask me

what I'm going to preach on

on Sunday.

And I said to one of them,

I said,

oh, I have the most popular topic

in Canada.

I'm going to talk about

the destruction.

I'm going to talk about

the judgment of God.

And I said,

you know,

that's just one of those topics.

If I was to advertise that,

it would just bring in the crowds

because everybody wants

to hear about it.

And he laughed.

He's not a Christian.

He laughed.

Look what happened.

Verse 20.

As they passed by in the morning,

they saw the fig tree

withered away to its roots.

And Peter remembered

and said to him,

Rabbi,

look,

the fig tree that you cursed

has withered.

Now just sort of pause here.

There's a very funny thing

which is happening.

But the first thing is this.

This has caused

lots of people trouble.

Now,

it shouldn't cause trouble.

If we're going to see in a moment,

it is in fact an enacted,

it's the only miracle

of destruction

in the Gospels.

Not the only miracle

of destruction

in the New Testament,

but it's the only one

in the Gospel.

And on one hand,

it's a solemn warning

that every single human being

will one day appear

before the judgment seat of God.

We don't get a pass

because we're cute

or because we're Canadian

or because we're a victim.

And the other thing about it

in terms of the death of fig tree,

it's just one of those weird things.

It's like,

okay, really?

You have a problem with that?

Like you've never once

had a cut flower in your house?

You do realize that

cutting the flower

kills the flower?

Or like,

like,

you know,

we don't think about stuff like that.

You know,

those little fall decorations,

like trees had to die

for that to happen, right?

You do realize that.

Like it's a false problem.

It's being overly sensitive

about what doesn't matter.

But now you would expect

that Jesus is going to say

more about it.

But Jesus goes

in a very different direction,

but it's an important direction

for us to understand

because he's going to go

in the direction of

what does it mean

to have fruit?

And how do we have fruit?

You see,

Jesus is going to call us

not to have a Facebook life

or an Instagram life

or a TikTok life,

but a real life.

Not all about appearances,

not about the fact

that shortly after

this picture was taken,

you and your girlfriend

had an unbelievably

terrible fight

where you said

horrible things

to each other

and you didn't speak

to each other for a month.

But the world doesn't see that.

They just see that

cool place you went to eat

and the cool food you have, right?

That's the Instagram,

Facebook life.

All appearances.

Jesus says,

there's nothing wrong

with appearances.

You know,

George,

you should wash your face

before you come

and try to comb your hair

before you come to church.

There's nothing wrong

with appearances.

But if all you have

is appearances,

that's like,

in a sense,

even in our culture,

we understand that

we don't,

like,

if you were to say

that any Canadian,

you're shallow,

they would be deeply wounded.

It wouldn't matter

whether who they vote for,

they would be deeply wounded.

We all,

whether or not we're shallow,

we actually don't want

to be shallow.

We want to have some depth.

And Jesus says,

we've seen the fig tree

and all it has is leaves

but no fruit.

And now,

I'm going to talk to you

very briefly

and it's a whole other

series of sermons

that could be done

and I'll just try to pick up

the highlights.

Is what,

how do you,

how do you be real?

What's reality?

The very first thing

he says

is

verse

22.

and Jesus answered them

and he gives a command,

have faith

in the triune God.

Have faith

in the triune God.

That's where it begins.

Now,

faith

is one of those words

that we have trouble with.

I have to take a moment

to try to help you,

help us all

to understand it.

For many of us,

faith is an emotion.

We feel

like we have faith.

but emotion

is empty.

Emotion

is just appearances.

And,

and for others

of us,

faith is like a power.

I,

I talked to several people

who watched

power,

positive thinking stuff

and,

and,

and having better control

of your life

and,

and,

and it's talked,

faith will often be talked about

in those types of things

and believing it

as a type of power,

something that

allows you

to accomplish things.

But that's not what

the Bible here

is talking about

in terms of faith.

Faith is not,

it's an odd

type of power.

You see,

when you talk about faith

as like a power

to accomplish things,

they're talking about faith

as if it's like a muscle.

And,

you know,

you want to get

really strong,

so you take up

the three classic

deadlifting exercises,

exercises,

squats,

deadlifts,

and,

and bench press.

And,

and you,

you eat the right way

to get your muscles bigger

and you get a coach

and you,

you,

you work on all three

of these different things

and,

and your muscles get bigger

and bigger and bigger

and you can lift more

and more and more things.

And,

and for many people

in our culture,

we either think of faith

as something like muscles

or something like an emotion,

but it's neither.

In fact,

if I could come up

to the simplest analogy

for what faith is,

it's like listening.

It's like listening.

It's receptive.

I could,

I could go to a dinner party

and I could be all ready

to listen,

but that doesn't make

the other person speak.

And all of us

have had the experience

of talking to people

who don't listen.

So there is something there.

There's something

that comes from us,

but at the end of the day,

the heart of it

is reset,

receiving

and connecting.

And so what he's saying is,

you need to have

this receiving of God,

this connecting of God,

this opening to God,

the triune God,

not just any God.

And one of the things

which is so significant

about these whole series

of stories is,

you see,

the fact of the matter is,

as you think about listening,

there's lots of problems

with listening,

because one of the things

you can do is you can listen

to people who lie.

You can listen to people

who are untrustworthy.

You can listen to things

which are just illusions,

which are delusions.

You know,

you can listen to all

of these things

and you can receive them

and take them in.

And Jesus,

part of the whole point

of Jesus' life

and coming within

after all these centuries

of prophecies

in his life

and his death

and his resurrection,

that there have been

rumors of God,

there have been idols of God,

there have been false gods,

and Jesus reveals

the true God

because we need to listen

and receive the truth.

And what did Mark

just do with chapter 11

with the triumphal entry

is that everybody

and their dog

now knows that Jesus

came into the community.

And when Jesus dies

on the cross,

everybody knows

that he dies on the cross.

And when his disciples

say the grave is empty

and we have seen him,

everybody in Jerusalem

can go and look

at the tomb

and look for the body

and the body

is never found.

Receive, listen,

connect to that

which is true,

the true and living God,

the triune God.

And from that

flows other things.

What flows?

What flows?

What type of fruit

is going to come

from being connected

to the triune God,

to opening yourself

to the triune God

and receiving

the triune God?

Well, the first thing

is going to be prayer.

Look at what he says

in verses 23 and following.

Truly,

if those of you

who are familiar

with the old

King James Version,

that would be translated

is verily.

And it means amen.

Like this is a solemn,

true statement.

I say to you,

whoever says

to this mountain,

be taken up

and thrown into the sea

and does not doubt

in his heart

but believes

that what he says

will come to pass,

it will be done for him.

Therefore,

I tell you,

whatever you ask

in prayer,

believe that you have

received it

and it will be yours.

Now, as I said,

you could do a whole book

trying to unpack that

just very, very briefly.

I'm already sort of

come up to the end

of my time

but I need to just say

a couple of things

here about this.

A couple of things.

First of all,

is that when you've put

your faith and trust

and as you're putting

your faith and trust

in the triune God,

one of the things

he'll tell you to do

is to pray big.

You know what?

We should be praying

for the end

of certain systemic evils

in Canada

and the devil will tell you,

you can't pray against that.

Good grief, George.

The Supreme Court

says it's a right.

Apple likes it.

Microsoft likes it.

Amazon likes it.

Hollywood likes it.

The universities all like it.

Pray anyway.

Pray for a day.

Pray for a week.

Pray for a month.

Pray for decades.

And in heaven,

we'll find out

that one of the reasons

some of those great evils

have passed

like the evil of slavery

was that because

insignificant people

like you and me

have prayed for decades.

The second thing

about this prayer thing

is remember

what I said about

that whole thing

in the beginning

about you could explain

the donkey

in naturalistic ways.

I think one of the things

that God is going to do

for us in heaven

is play nights

where we'll have

other movie nights.

I think I shared

about movie nights

for George's dumb things

he prayed for

and then, you know,

after there's been

a season in heaven,

there'll be

things which George

sort of felt grumpy

with me about.

This is how God will happen.

Things that George

was grumpy with me about

for not answering.

And they'll show me

praying for something

and then me sort of

being upset that God

doesn't answer it

because I had to,

you know,

five years later

or ten years later

or twenty years later

it happened.

And I'd completely

forgotten that I prayed

about it.

I was grumpy in the moment

I just forgot about it.

And it could be

that it's a miraculous thing,

pray big,

but it could be that,

you know,

so to speak,

there's a bomb

that knocks that part

of the mountain

off into the sea.

And George doesn't

remember that George

was praying for that.

Or it could be,

and this is another

part of prayer,

is that God says,

yes,

I want that mountain

taken down

and thrown into the sea

because I want,

you know,

this church

or this ministry

to the poor there.

So,

George,

I'm going to answer

your prayers.

George,

roll up your sleeves.

Get to work.

Get to work.

We're going to answer

that prayer.

Get to work.

Get the shovels.

Raise the funds.

Get the architect's plans.

Let's get it done.

But the main thing

is that it comes

out of our prayer.

And then this final thing,

just really final,

look at this next

particular,

and the other thing

about doubt,

sorry,

you just think about

the analogy of listening

for a second.

One of the things

I do when I go out

with my wife

is I try to sit

with my back

to the television

because it's hard

to listen to your wife

and watch the television

at the same time.

If this was a different

type of church,

there'd be,

I'd say,

do I have an amen?

And all the women

would say amen

and the men

would look sheepish

because it's hard

to listen to two things

at the same time.

And doubt just means

being in two minds.

And the same thing

about believe in your heart,

it means commit to it.

It means if I'm going

to listen to you,

I commit to listening to you.

And I'm not listening

to three things.

I'm not listening

to the radio

and watching the TV

and listening to it

at the same time.

It doesn't work.

You're not open to it

if that's happening.

And just finally,

the final thing

about forgiveness.

Look at verse 25.

And whenever you stand praying,

forgive.

If you have anything

against anyone,

so that your Father also

who is in heaven

may forgive you

your trespasses.

Now,

there's a couple of people here

who are very good

with grammar.

And one of the problems

we have with understanding

this text

is that we read it

as a conditional,

sorry,

grammar geek moment.

In the original language,

it's not a conditional

but the subjunctive.

And it makes all the difference

in the world for the text.

You see,

what this text is saying

is that,

you know what,

faith is being open to God,

receptive to God,

attentive to God,

allowing of God

to come in

and coming into God,

it's that type of receptivity.

And when we do that,

it changes us.

Like when we do that

with another person,

it changes us.

Both of us change.

In the case of God,

it's not that God changes

but that we change.

You see,

this is pointing

to the fact

that what's going to happen

on the cross,

the reason we can have faith

in God

is that what we see

when Jesus dies

on the cross

is that God

has taken the means

so by you and I

can be forgiven

by God.

Because of Christ's death

on the cross,

when I have faith in that,

when I receive it,

when I allow it

to enter into my life,

when I enter into it,

one of the things

about Jesus' death

on the cross

is we are seeing

that God

has forgiven

you

of everything

in Christ.

You see,

the fact of the matter

is that you and I

don't need,

if you are here

or if you're watching

and you're troubled

by not being able

to forgive yourself,

what is happening

is that God

is knocking

on the door

of your heart

and saying to you,

you need to accept

my son.

You are longing

to know Jesus

without recognizing him.

Because we can't

forgive ourselves,

we can't pay our debt

to ourselves,

but we have a longing

to be forgiven,

to be forgiven

by God.

And when we put

our faith and trust

in him,

we are entering

entering into

his forgiving us

of everything

that we have ever

done that is wronged.

And when we open

ourselves to the

triune God,

he shapes us

to be ones

who forgive.

And all I can say

to this,

I've really gone

over my time.

if you think

of someone

who's wronged you

and you want

to hurt them

or you want to,

you feel embarrassed,

you feel ashamed,

you have to fight

the temptation

and want others

to know how bad

they really are,

then that shows

that you have not

forgiven them.

And sometimes

when we pray

that we can

forgive another

person,

God does a miracle

and it goes away

right away.

And for others

of us,

it's a journey

of forgiveness

that we need

to pray

day in and day out

that we can forgive

that other person

until we come

to that point

where we are

free

of the hurt,

that we are

absolutely,

genuinely free,

no longer the desire

for vengeance

or to hurt

the other person

or reveal

the other person,

no longer feeling

fight or flight

or tower or cower,

that we are free.

And one of the things

our world needs

in a world

of hyper-judgment,

one of the profound

fruit that the

Christian community

can begin

to show

in our day

and age

is the truth

and the power

of forgiveness.

I invite you

to stand.

Bow our heads

in prayer.

Father,

we confess

that most of the time

we don't even think

we have to forgive people.

And,

Father,

we think that

there's nothing

in our lives

that need forgiveness,

not recognizing

those resentments

that we still carry,

those desires

to wound

that we still carry,

those times

that we get

red in the face

with embarrassment

or shame,

those things

that make us

still so angry,

Father,

and we are,

Father,

constantly inundated

by experiences

that show

our desperate need

to forgive

and do not recognize

that we ask,

Lord,

that your Holy Spirit

would do a gentle

but healing work

within us,

that your Holy Spirit

would,

Father,

help us to trust

Jesus in his death

on the cross

more and more

and more.

There would be more

real to our heart

and that that

becoming real to our heart,

that it would form us

to recognize

our profound

ongoing need

to forgive

and that you would

help us to pray

that we can forgive

and make us people

who pray,

pray,

and pray

into that profound

need for us

to forgive others

and that we might

know that wonderful

fruit that you bring

into our lives,

that that time

comes when we

can forgive

and then we can say

free at last,

free at last,

praise God Almighty,

thank God Almighty,

I am free at last.

We thank you,

Father,

that you have

forgiven us in Jesus

and may that form us

in terms of how we think

and how we pray

and how we live.

And we ask all these

things in the name of Jesus,

your Son and our Savior.

Amen.

Amen.