Father, Forgive Them

If you would, turn your Bibles to Luke, chapter number 23.

Luke chapter number 23.

Verse number 32.

Luke 2332.

Last week we talked about prophecy, that talked about Jesus Christ and the cross.

And from Psalm 22 and over the next few weeks, we are gonna talk about.

Cries from the cross.

There are things that Jesus said while he hung on the cross.

And we wanna focus on some of those things.

Last words are important.

If you've ever been there when someone passed away, shortly before they pass away, they have some last words they wanna share with you.

Sometimes it's I love you sometimes.

It's about some of their last wishes.

And so I think we should focus on what are some of the last things Jesus said? And so if you would verse number 32.

And there were also two other Malfactors led with him to be put to death.

And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there.

They crucified him and the Malfactors one on the right hand, and the other on the left then said Jesus.

Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.

And they parted the Raymond and cast lots and the people stood beholding.

And the rulers also with them derided him saying he saved others.

Let him save himself if he be Christ the chosen of God.

Let's pray.

Dear Lord, I pray that you'd speak to our hearts and, do something in our lives, help us to leave here different than we came today.

I thank you for these getting baptized today.

Lord, I pray that you would help them to forever live for you.

Help us to encourage them.

I pray, Lord, if there's any here today that don't know you is Savior Lord, that today would be the day.

Word that we would hear about the cross and glorify you, trust you.

We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

If you can imagine, I just wanna give a little context to what Jesus said here.

He says, father, forgive them for they know not what they do, but to give it context, we need to where did we come to this place? Thursday would've been the last supper.

He had the last supper with the disciples, and he, as he was giving the last supper he broke the bread and he said, this is my body, which is broken for you.

And then he was in the Garden of Gethsemane.

And you hear this prayer that he prays in Luke 2242, he says.

Father, if thy be willing remove this cup from me.

Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.

If you know anything about the Garden of Gethsemane, he was in such pain in the garden that the Bible says that he sweat drops of blood.

I looked up twice like that, medical term for that word and.

PR tried to pronounce it like eight times and gave up.

All right.

I just gave up.

And then I thought, I'm gonna pronounce that word to sound cool and smart.

All right.

I don't know what I wouldn't be able to pronounce that word next week, but but it is a condition where you're under such stress, such mental anguish, pain, jesus there in the garden.

He was he was in already, his agony had began to start.

Then you move to, he is betrayed with a kiss.

Judas kisses Jesus.

And that was the sign for the mob to grab him and take him.

Kim.

And then you come, to Luke 2263 says this and the men that held Jesus mocked him and smote him.

And when they had blindfolded him, they struck him on the face.

So the temple guards beat him.

It's not just physical pain, but emotional pain because they're mocking him.

The Bible tells us that they scoured him, that they whipped him, lashed him 39 times.

The Old Testament says that his back was as furrows.

Speaking of, the ground when they're plowing the ground his back was laid open, he was bleeding.

Then they added the crown of thorns as they jammed it upon his scalp, puncturing skin, and into his skull.

And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head.

They weren't done there.

The Bible says that the soldiers beat him and put a reed in his hand, and when they put that crown on, they put a scarlet robe about him and mocked him as the king.

And then you come to the place of the crucifixion.

Jesus carried his cross to Calvary.

His strength wasn't enough to carry it.

And a man by the name of Simon had to take the cross and carry it there for him because he was exhausted.

Before we even get to what he said, when I get exhausted and tired I get pretty mean.

All right.

Sometimes on Sunday nights that's a rough time for me.

All right.

After Sunday and then Sunday evening service, and then we get home and anything and everything.

Just there's no more filter.

Why? Because when you physically get tired, I would say it like this.

I'm just not feeling it.

I'm not feeling very spiritual sometimes when you get tired I'm not feeling very pastly.

You just struggle in your flesh.

So I can't even imagine Jesus to this point and agony and in pain, exhaustion.

And then we come.

They crucify him, and as he's hanging on the cross, then he looks out there and he says those words, father forgive them for they know not what they do.

Unbelievable.

It's an unbelievable statement.

It is the first thing that he says on the cross.

Jesus is practicing what he preaches.

Matthew five 43 reads this.

You have heard it has been said, thou shall love thy neighbor and hate thy enemy, but I say unto you, love your enemies.

Bless them that curse you.

Do good to them that hate you and pray for them, which spitefully use you and persecute you.

Honestly, if I had a, a certain section of the Bible that you just don't like, it's this.

To love your enemy, to do good to them, to pray for them.

Jesus.

These soldiers have beaten him.

They have tortured him.

One of the things that I wonder when Jesus says forgive them, is who was he talking about? The Roman soldiers were right there in front of him.

Was he talking about them? Was he talking about the Jewish leaders of the day? The Jewish leaders of the day had condemned him, had cried out to crucify him had pleaded with Pilate to say, Hey crucify, this man Pilate kept coming out if you know anything about the crucifixion story.

And he would come out and talk to him and he'd be like, guys, he's innocent.

He's done nothing worthy of death, and they'd be like, no, crucify him.

The crowd mocked him.

What about his disciples? They abandoned them.

When you think about the people that sometimes hate you, you just expect that they're going to do that.

I think some of the things that we deal with that are the hardest to deal with is feeling like you're abandoned.

Peter did deny them, Luke 2261.

You don't need to turn there, but Peter denied him three times and the Bible says that Jesus looked up.

I believe that Peter was in distance where he could see the Christ.

Judas betrayed him.

But then I think about that cross he was on that cross because of me.

Because of you.

This is the ultimate act of forgiveness is Jesus dying on the cross, and when he says Father, forgive them, he's.

He's going to die on the cross for me and for you.

Here's just some observations.

That he prays for his enemies.

And then he says this, they know not what they do.

It is wrong if you read and it says, doing.

It's not doing it's a due.

It's who they are as a person.

They just don't know what they're doing.

Why? Because they're sinners.

I wrote this down.

The cross is an indictment against all sin.

If there's any here today, and you're like I don't need the cross 'cause I'm a good person.

It is wrong.

I think about the story of Sodom and Gomorrah and Abraham's begging with God.

He's Hey, if there's 10 righteous, and I mean he starts going down will you not pour out your wrath upon this city? And they couldn't even find that.

This is the ultimate God pouring out his wrath on sin.

And I believe if he could have looked down here on earth and he says.

If I could just find one righteous, one person, he couldn't.

There was no one from Adam to now who was sinless.

Sometimes that's hard to hear.

I visiting people sometimes, and if you go over to someone's house and they're grandma or grandpa and they have these little babies up on the wall who knows where your pictures went? And then the grandkids go up there and if you ever heard grandma and grandpa talk about their kids, they're like, they're perfect.

Still have the sinful nature.

We're all in the same boat, because of that sinful nature we sin.

Here's just some lessons on forgiveness this morning that Jesus teaches us.

No one's beyond prayer.

Jesus is.

Talking to the father about these Roman soldiers who are placing him on the cross who are doing these things.

And for anyone here today I think these two go together.

No one's beyond forgiveness.

I've had people sometimes who are like, I don't think this person could be forgiven or I don't think this person would ever be saved or this person would ever come to Christ.

The Apostle Paul would've been one of those people.

He murdered and killed Christians.

He had letters he was going after Christians.

He stood there as Steven was stoned to death.

None of us would have picked him and said, Hey, I think that guy's gonna be a good Christian one day.

They're like, oh man, that's a real good young man.

I would really that person to come to Christ, the VIT Center.

I don't even understand it.

This is how we think of it in our mind.

When you think of the worst, they don't deserve it, but neither do you.

I know you think like somehow there's this scale and I'm bad or I've sinned, but I'm not that bad.

Listen there is only saved and lost.

There is no this scale that like the world would like us to think, are they worse or have they committed worse things than you? Absolutely.

As far as the world's concerned, there are people who should be in prison who should never come out of prison, but this is hard.

No one is beyond the reach of forgiveness.

These men took spikes and placed them into Jesus Christ hands.

For me.

Can you imagine the hatred of the disciples they would have towards these people that they would do that to the Christ who is completely innocent, who is completely pure, but Jesus says, Hey Lord, forgive them for they know not, what they do.

Forgiveness is the ultimate test.

Christian character, there is really nothing you can do more like Jesus than forgive someone who doesn't deserve it.

And I'm sure all of us have people in our lives right now who you could forgive.

Maybe it's a friend, a spouse a pastor, a coworker, or relative.

Parent a child.

You could go down a list.

I wanna give you just this thought.

This is how you probably know there's somebody maybe that you need to forgive.

If I brought their name up right now, it would send such a sharp pain in your heart.

You despise 'em.

Jesus gave us this model.

We are under divine obligation to forgive others.

Also, I wanna be careful this morning there are people in here you have had maybe.

Horrible things happen to you, and we're gonna talk about what forgiveness is not because sometimes you think forgiveness is saying what happened was, okay, that's not forgiveness.

Jesus wasn't looking at the people that day and mankind and saying, Hey, it is okay.

'cause it wasn't okay.

It wasn't okay that he was being crucified.

It wasn't okay that he was paying that price.

And so no one, when you're giving forgiveness, no one's saying, Hey, you need to say it's okay.

Forgiveness is really a lot of times dealing with our human bitterness, our pride.

Sometimes you don't want to forgive because you believe it's a lack of justice.

Forgiveness is not fair.

But neither was the cross.

Forgiveness is never fair.

And then this is a second thought on forgiveness.

Forgiveness is costly.

It always costs somebody.

And so someone must pay, and so you pay with that forgiveness.

I think about this in Genesis chapter 50.

Genesis 50 · chapter mention

Joseph says this about his brothers he saw, said, ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good.

He realized God, God had a purpose in it.

And if you know anything about Joseph's story in the Bible, his brothers took him.

They were jealous of him.

Some of you might be here today, you're their favorite, and so you feel Joseph's pain.

It's not your fault.

It's not your fault.

You're better.

But Joseph he was just liked of his father and they hated him, and so they threw him in a pit.

He was thrown into slavery.

He was thrown into prison.

Joseph's life was horrible.

It wasn't like just one thing.

Can you imagine the next day you wake up in slavery? He could have lived in that bitterness, couldn't he have? He could have every day when he was in slavery remembered, this is who put me here.

This is what a lot of us do vengeance is mine.

Can you imagine that day? If you know the story of Joseph, it is a sweet story.

His brothers roll into town because they need food.

If you know the story, he was in slavery and then he went from.

Slavery in the Potiphar's house and then he went into prison and then he interpreted some dreams and then he rose to power in Egypt.

And he's second in power in Egypt and his brothers rolling into town.

And I think a lot of us would be like, God's finally putting them where they need to be.

Judgment is coming.

This must be God.

God must have placed them here for this, but he's forgiven them.

Something unforgivable.

He forgives them.

What has happened and what we've done is unforgivable.

I wanna just give you some thoughts about what forgiveness is and is not.

Forgiveness doesn't mean you reconcile.

That doesn't mean you hang out with somebody, a lot of times.

That doesn't mean that you call 'em up and say, Hey, I just wanna tell you I have forgiven you.

If you've ever had some of those weird moments in life I've had those working on staff at a church.

One time a man came in, we're having this meeting and I don't even know why the pastor asked Kathy could and then in this meeting, this older man, he's I just wanna tell you guys, I forgive you and I've been really mad at you.

And I'm like, over what? I was like, you could have just forgave me.

And it's been nice.

Like I, it wouldn't even have mattered.

You didn't have to, I didn't even know there was a problem.

Sometimes people have problems with people and the other person doesn't even know it.

Just forgive 'em.

Forgiveness is not the absence of pain.

I could tell you this morning, Hey, there are people that you need to forgive, especially to be like Christ, but you'll still hurt.

You hurt every time you think about 'em.

It doesn't mean that you don't feel pain.

It doesn't mean you'll forget.

Generally I think you're not forgiving people when you tell people this.

I'm gonna forgive you, but I will never forget.

Like that's just honestly telling them like, I'm gonna hold this.

I do want to tell you this.

You will never forget until you forgive.

Because when you don't forgive, it's your flesh just keeps that there are right in front of you.

There are people that.

Maybe I've done things to me or my family.

And honestly, they are the farthest their thoughts.

They're the farthest thing away from me.

I've forgiven 'em and moved on.

And then this, I wanna give you this last thought about forgiveness.

It's not that you're approving sin saying what happened was, all right.

What they said was okay, that's not what forgiveness is.

Jesus wasn't saying on the cross, Hey guys, it's okay that you did this to me.

I'm okay with it.

No, he wasn't approving it.

Forgiveness is a like we said, something that is painful that you, it costs somebody, it cost him.

But for the Christians here today, I would give you just this thought.

It is a command, and then forgiveness is a act of faith.

It doesn't make sense sometimes.

The world.

My mom and dad would always fight and my dad would always call my mom a King Kong grudge holder.

My dad was like, your mom will never forget anything.

I was like, I think she keeps a book.

And then you get in fights and she didn't get.

Hysterical.

She got historical but forgiveness is just an act of faith.

God, you told me to forgive.

You forgave me for so much.

I'm gonna forgive.

You relinquish control.

You let it go.

And then just some few thoughts about forgiveness, and then you make a decision to forgive you.

Trust God with justice.

God doesn't settle out his books every Friday night, but he always settles his books.

You can trust him.

No one's ever like they got away with it and he asked us to pray for those who are like that.

And then the last it you forgiven, it can help you live free of bitterness.

No one wants to be bitter.

No one says, Hey, I wanna live this bitter life.

But I wanna give you just this thought.

I feel like a lot of people.

You struggle to forgive other people and probably one of the people you forget, you struggle to forgive is yourself.

Sometimes you've messed up, you've done things.

And I think about the guilt that gets placed upon you.

Some of you are probably guilt driven people.

You do things because you feel guilty.

Some people might come to church 'cause they feel guilty.

I'm not gonna not come to church because I'm gonna feel guilty.

I want to tell you, it's the wrong reason to come.

You should come because you love it.

You love people.

You want to open God's word.

You wanna sing praises to him, not because we're checking a box off, and I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be guilty.

Also, the law for the sin is the transgression of the law.

I just wanna tell you, we sin there is guilt because guilt is, when you think about it, theologically is put on it's on our account.

But what Jesus did for Christians is.

All the sin guilt was put on his account on the cross.

He took your guilt.

He took your sin when you were forgiven.

We'll read some verses here in a minute.

It says, as far as the east is from the west.

Some of you who pray over and over, God, forgive me for this.

I just imagine you're a person.

In a relationship and this person every day asks you to forgive 'em, the kind of person I am.

I'd be like, if you called me every week and said, pastor Mike, forgive me for talking bad about you.

I'd be like, okay, you're forgiven, but if you call me next week, you're not.

Once I say you're forgiven, it's over.

And then if you call me next week and you're like, Hey, will you forgive me? I'm like, for what? It was already done.

It was already finished.

Some of you do that with God every week, every day you come back with the same thing over and over again because of this guilt.

Lemme just give you some psychologists say that guilt is like one of the most paralyzing forces there is to human spirit to live in that place of guilt.

Unresolved guilt can shape a person.

It can cause lifelong shame.

Hesitation.

Why? Because they're like, I'm guilty.

Guilt distorts.

Our view of God we begin to believe lies.

We believe lies like this.

God can't love me after what I've done.

You get to decide the character of God because you have guilt.

Here's what some people will get in their minds because they feel guilty.

I'm not worthy to serve.

I've done too many bad things to be able to like really serve God.

I will never be clean again.

It leads loss of assurance of salvation.

It leads to like emotional turmoil.

It affects you spiritually.

And then I think about this revelation tells us.

About Satan.

He says, for the accuser of the brethren, this isn't this crazy.

What Satan tries to do, not only does he tempt you to sin, but then after you sin, he's you're worthless.

It's, I don't wanna relate it to this, but it's like the sibling who tricks you into doing something and then they tell on you.

Everyone's had that happened at times.

And he had little fear and then he would ride down these huge hills and he would like flip.

He'd come back like all messed up.

I like my mom be like, what happened? I'm like, he rode down this crazy hill.

But Satan does this.

He tempts you to sin.

You fall into sin, and then he uses that to accuse you.

God could never love you.

You're not worthy.

You've failed.

You're gonna keep doing this.

You'll never come out of it.

You've lived a life of this sin.

Whatever that sin is you've lived in it this long.

You'll never, and that is, he is the accuser of the brethren.

Why? Because he wants you to stay in that like place of guilt.

Guilt changed you to your past.

You're always there in the past stuck to the past stuck to this point in time.

It destroys your peace with God.

Romans five, one.

Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Guilt makes you doubt your salvation, makes you doubt your relationship with him.

Can you imagine being a kid and just wondering all the time, where you are in your family, your relationship, it does damage to kids when they're not secure in their relationship many times with their mom, with their dad, it makes 'em take that picture and put it towards Christ.

Guilt shuts down our service.

And our worship.

Why? Because we feel disqualified.

I wanna just give us this.

The cross is the basis of forgiveness.

All of our guilt, all of our shame, all of our sins was paid for on that cross.

The Bible says there is therefore no condemnation to those which are in Christ Jesus.

Not, some may, not a little.

He paid the price.

And so when Jesus said, Hey, forgive him, the cross was such that picture of forgiveness.

Psalm 1 0 3 12, he says your sin is removed as far as the east is from the west.

He said in Isaiah 38 17, he cast it behind his back in Micah seven 19.

He said he placed it in the depths of the sea.

Ephesians one, seven.

We have redemption through his blood like what Isaiah one 18 says.

He says, come now.

Let us read this reason together.

Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as will.

He also says in that verse, they shall be as white.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

He makes us clean.

We must receive him as savior.

Until you're saved, until you're his child, you don't really receive that cleansing.

You're outside of the family.

Baptism today is just a picture of what already happened.

On the day they turn to Jesus Christ as their savior, he washed them white as snow.

He begins to change them.

But the baptism is just a picture of the death, burial, and resurrection that we will walk in newness of life.

It's already happened.

He's already forgiven this morning.

Just some thoughts.

One, maybe you need to be saved.

Maybe you need to put your faith in Jesus Christ alone this morning.

Maybe you need to quit putting it off.

Maybe you're here this morning and you have someone you need to forgive it.

It's a weight on you.

It's imprisoned you.

It's made you bitter.

Sometimes it's for years, sometimes it's current.

I just want to tell you, if it's a person sitting next to you, you don't need to I'm going to the altar for you.

You don't need to do that.

You just need to forgive them.

Then some of you need to receive it, but you don't have to have guilt anymore.

When he forgives you, he cleanses you.

You're that perfect kid.

When you enter into heaven, it's not like there's scales.

Here's my son or daughter who's come home.

They're getting in based upon what Jesus did.

You're free.

The Bible says this about Jesus, that he who the Son free is free indeed.

You can be free from that guilt.

You can serve Jesus because you love him, not because you're guilty.

You can come to church because you love 'em, not because you have to.

You get to.

Guilt imprisons us and Jesus on the cross.

What did he said? Father, forgive them.

Listen, when Jesus forgives you, you're forgiven.

Receive it.

Don't let it put you in bondage.

Let's bow our heads here this morning.

Hey Lord, I pray that you'd be with us this morning.

Lord, we thank you for the cross, Lord, that you paid the price for our sin.

I pray, Lord, that this morning you would get ahold of hearts.

If there's one here that doesn't know you, a savior, that today would be the day I pray, Lord, that.

If there's one here that needs to be saved, Lord, maybe they'd walk the aisle, kneel down at the altar and ask you, Lord, I pray Lord for the Christians here Lord, there's many who are carrying guilt.

Shame.

Lord, I pray that.

You would help them to realize that they're forgiven, that they have a clean slate.