MERCY
AND FORGIVENESS - by Jeremiah Deng
Text: Matthew 18:21-35
11 September 2005
British pastor and evangelist John Wesley was travelling with a General who was angry with his subordinates. This subordinate came to the General and humbly asked for mercy and forgiveness. The General answered, “I will never grant mercy and forgiveness!” John Wesley looked at the General in the eyes and said, “Then I hope, sir, that you never sin.”
We are the God’s redeemed people; God has extended his hands of mercy and
forgiveness by pardoning all our sins- small sins, big sins, awful sins. If God
can forgive our most awful sin, can we not forgive those who sin against us?
1. Extending Mercy and Forgiveness- Do it all over again and again
Matt 18: 21-22
21Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?"
22Jesus
answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.[f]
It was a common practice in the days of Jesus that forgiveness should be granted three times only. When Peter inquired concerning the giving of forgiveness seven times, he was being very generous. Jesus shocked His disciples by telling them that they must not place restrictions upon extending mercy and forgiveness.
“I do not say to you seven times,
but seventy times seven.”
Extending Mercy and Forgiveness is God’s divine desire to deliver us from
attitudes and actions that are self destructive. He recognized that to harbour
hate within our heart is to create an acid that will destroy one’s capacity to
be loving and forgiving. Our Lord recognizes that all of us will experience
mistreatment and injustice in one form or another.
In His own experience, he
developed the habit of always responding in forgiveness rather than responding
with hate, bitterness and hostility. He never resorted to retaliation.
Retaliation of evil for evil will destroy us.
Ephesians 4:32:- Be kind to one another,… forgiving one another, even as god
in Christ has forgiven you.
The Word- Forgive means You give, keep giving, keep giving forgiveness.
Let us learn from children, they like to use the phrase “I don’t friend you
anymore.” They will even go around and telling friends not to friend you. But,
after a while, they will befriend you as though nothing had happened before.
In the book of Romans 12:20-21 tells us
20On
the contrary:
"If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."
21Do
not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
A good example:- David forgave Saul again and again despite begin pursued many
time by Saul as he was after his life, so when Saul died, instead of taking
revenge, he extended mercy to his grandson- Mephibosheth 2 Samuel 9:1-13
2. Extending Mercy and
Forgiveness - Erasing the past, remembering to forget.
Matthew 18:26-27
26"The servant
fell on his knees before him. 'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay
back everything.' 27The servant's master took pity on him, canceled
the debt and let him go
When people
hurt us and then apologise, we may say that we forgive them. But
like a dog that won’t give up its bone, we may let our mind continue to chew on
past insults, hurts, words or situations that hurt us….
Love does not keep an account of wrongs.
If you want to remember something, you go over it again and again. The child
reviews his spelling words; the actress rehearses her lines; you review people’s
names that you want to remember. But love deliberately and consciously let go of
past hurts and gives them to God.
Someone once said, “Forgiveness is not a case of “holy amnesia” that wipes out
the past, instead, it is the experience of healing that drains the poison from
the wound. Unforgiveness is like toxins in our bodies it leads to bitterness,
anger, High blood pressure, heart problem, rashes and high percentage of
insomnia, where the person spent the whole night thinking of the whole events
and the people who were involved.
It eats up our body and soul. It slowly eats us up, it rob away our peace,
our joy, most of all ourselves.
3. Extending
Mercy and Forgiveness – comes from the heart.
Matthew 18:35-"This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."
Some of life’s hurts are so deep and painful that to forgive the people who caused them seems impossible. Yet Jesus says that we can’t experience His forgiveness if we have an unforgiving spirit.
In World War II, Corrie ten Boom and her sister Betsie were arrested for
concealing Jews and were sent to a German concentration camp. Betsie died a slow
and terrible death as a result of the cruel treatment.
Then, in 1947, Corrie spoke about God’s forgiveness to a church in Munich.
Afterward, a man sought her out. She recognized him as one of the guards who had
mistreated her and her sister. He told her that he had become a Christian and
with extended hand he asked for her forgiveness. Corrie struggled with her
feelings, but when she recalled the words of Jesus, in Matthew 18:35, she knew
she had to forgive. She silently prayed. “Jesus, help me!”. And thrust her hand
into the hand of our former tormentor.
The parable ends off with this serious warning, and I quote from this Bible
commentator ‘if each one of us does nor forgive one’s repentant brother or
sister from the heart, the heavenly Father will send us into the judgment of
Jesus’ parable’ I unquote. Does this not remind us of what we say each
Sunday as we come forward to partake in the breaking of the bread and drinking
of the wine? We recite the Lord’s prayer in our service book …’forgive us our
sins as we forgive those who sin against us.’ Do will really mean it from our
hearts or has it become a set prayer which we say without a second thought
before coming for Holy Communion.
As recipients of God’s mercy and forgiveness have we showed mercy and forgiveness to one another, perhaps the thoughts of showing mercy and forgiveness seemed so far fetched because the wound is just far too deep. We repressed those hurtful moments and carry on with life, pretending that nothing has happen, everything is fine but the very mentioned of that incident would cause insurmountable pain and grief. This morning, I would like to invite you to surrender your wounded hearts to Jesus, let the Lord of all mercy and forgiveness brings healing to your heart. As you receive God’s healing this day let us also approach those who have offended us and let the reconciliation process begin. Starting from your family members, brothers and sisters in the Church of the Ascension and others who we are in contact with. Let us pray.
A forgiving spirit
-prevents the devil from establishing a beachhead in our minds and thought
processes
-delivers us from becoming involved in a vicious cycle of
self-destructiveness
-prevents the acid of hate from collecting in our hearts
-brings healing to the broken heart and the injured spirit of another as
well as to ourselves
-permits us to reveal the love of God as we have experience it through
Christ
-experience God’s continuing miracle of forgiveness let each of us develop the
habit of being forgiving rather than being vindictive and retaliatory toward
those who mistreat us.
Conclusion: story of the person whose child was killed.
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