New Kingdom Forgiveness

In Jesus’ kingdom, our default attitude must be to forgive others because we are people who need forgiveness.

Note: This transcript was auto generated and may have errors.

Well, I went once, went to an FCA pastor’s gathering that included some time for individual prayer and reflection, and it was held at a church that was sort of set off the road back in the woods. It was a really beautiful location for a building. And and right next to this building and its property was another wooded area that was a park. And in the park they had trails. And so as I often like to do, I went on a prayer hike and set about on a on a trail that was in a loop. So I went and it started at the parking lot, and the loop was was pretty big, and it went back into the woods. And so I looped back into the woods, and as I was looping back toward the church again, I came to a fork in the path. At the fork, there was a short post that told me that the blue trail went off to the left. Now I was on the blue trail, so that should have been very helpful. But off to the right, down the path and through the trees, I could see what looked like the church parking lot. So instead of just doing what I should have been obvious to me at that point, I had to think for a minute, should I stay on the blue path? Or should I trust what my eyes are telling me? I mean, never mind that I’ve never been in these woods before, and I’ve never walked this trail before, and I’ve never observed the church parking lot.

What it would look like from this position before. And never mind that the people who blazed the trail and set up the maps did so with knowledge for people like me who could very easily get lost in these woods. So I sat there, staring down each one of these paths to determine if I knew better. And sure enough, church, I decided that I knew better. I knew better, and so I went down the trail toward the church parking lot, and when I got to the parking lot, I left the path and I went through the woods, only to realize that I was not entering the church parking lot, but somebody’s backyard, like Sasquatch coming through the clear into the clearing. I was about to enter into someone’s backyard and scare their children. It wasn’t quite that bad. I did stop before I got all the way into the backyard, but I had to go back to the fork in the road. And I had to concede that that guy who made the path and put up the sign to direct my steps knew better than what my own eyes were telling me. In Luke chapter six, Jesus is blazing the path of his new kingdom through the wilderness of the kingdom of the world that was all around his disciples, and it’s all around us.

He’s showing us in this passage how to navigate. He’s putting up the signs so that we know what to value and what choices to make. How to love people. Because he knows that living in the Kingdom of God while simultaneously living in this world is going to present us with choices. And it’s not always going to be obvious which choice to make. But like blazes on the trail, the Word of God shows us which way the Lord would have us go, so that we can arrive at the place where the Lord would have us be. Jesus doesn’t just give us a fork in the road and say, hey, figure it out. Figure out which one of these ways to go will lead you where you need to go. He he forged the trail. He he he knows where the the road signs are. He put them there. He he set the direction. He has given us all we need to walk the path of righteousness for his name’s sake. And so far he has told us a few things in Luke chapter six. He’s told us the values of a blessed life. He’s told us what love looks like in his kingdom, which he says expands out even to our enemies. That’s what Kingdom Love looks like, as we saw last week. And today, he’s going to give us instructions on forgiving other people.

See, in Jesus kingdom, our default attitude must be to forgive others because we are people that need forgiveness, aren’t we? Think about the key component of Christianity. When you think of Christianity, the moment you think, well, what is what is Christianity all about? Think about the key component of it. The whole thing is built on forgiveness. If there were no forgiveness in Christianity, there would be no Christianity. The whole thing is, is built. We’re not we’re not for God’s forgiveness of our sins. We would have no inclusion in the kingdom of God. The ticket for entrance into the eternal Kingdom of God was the price of our sins paid on the cross by Jesus. That’s what secured our forgiveness. We only have hope and peace because in Christ God has removed the condemnation of our sins. And instead of that condemnation, he has given us grace. So we should not be surprised at all to learn that as as we will this morning, that while we follow Jesus, we’re called to remove our condemnation from other people and give away grace and forgiveness generously. And that’s what we’re going to hear from Jesus today. How do we, as forgiven people become people who forgive like Jesus? If you have your Bibles, you can open to Luke chapter six, where we’re going to begin in verse 37. Today I will have it on the screen as well, but you can turn there if you’d like.

We’re going to look at this short passage in two parts. In the first part, Jesus gives us a set of commands that shows the attitude that we’re supposed to have toward others when they sin, particularly when they sin against us. And then in the second part, he shows us the process for guiding others out of their sin graciously. Basically, if I’m if I’m not going to condemn someone and I’m going to forgive them, well, how is that possible? And how do I how do I do that? So first we’ll look at the heart attitude because it starts in the heart. It has to it has to start in your heart. And then we’ll look at at how to forgive and guide people in Jesus way. So let’s let’s start with the heart. Judge not and you will not be judged. Condemn not and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and it will be given to you. Good measure. Pressed down, shaken together. Running over. Will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you. This is one of those teachings from Jesus that a lot of people know. As soon as you hear that phrase, judge, not you, instantly. Oh yeah, yeah, I know that’s that’s coming from the Bible. A lot of people know this, but also a lot of people misapply this, this passage because they take it out of context and that’s done by Christians, non Christians, everybody who knows this passage, a lot of folks, they take it out of context and so they don’t really understand how it applies.

Non Christians, they love to use this passage to make God sound like he doesn’t want anyone ever to say anything about another person’s behavior. Okay, don’t ever say anything about anybody. Judge. Not right. But Christians sometimes use this passage to check out of their responsibility of holding each other accountable and correcting what other people do in any way. And I’ll tell you it really judgmental people don’t know what to do with this passage, and usually what they do is they explain it away so they can go on being judgmental toward other people, just don’t know what to do with it. But Jesus says here very boldly, very clearly judge not, or else will be judged. What do you what do you do with that? Well, the mystery over what Jesus is saying here gets cleared up if you if you look at these commandments in relation to each other and in relation to the rest of Jesus sermon. So if you look back up in verse 20 to 26 that we looked at a couple of weeks ago, you’ll see that Jesus very clearly makes a distinction between two kinds of people there, people who are blessed and people who should take caution because of their behavior.

Remember the blessings and the woes. We saw that Jesus clearly makes a judgment. But you might think, well, Kyle, he’s Jesus. Can’t Jesus make a judgment and then tell us not to make the same judgment? Well, of course he can. He’s Jesus. He can tell us to do whatever he wants, right? He’s God. But if you look down at verses 37 to 42, you’ll see that Jesus gives instructions on how to properly help people see the sin in their lives. So Jesus intends for us to make judgments too. So again, what is going on in this passage? What is he? What is he talking about here? Well, the way to understand what Jesus means when he tells us not to judge is to remember that it’s the first of four commands. There are four commands here. When you read it with the other three commands, you see what kind of judgment Jesus is referring to here. See, not all judgment is the same. We know that not all judgment is the same, that a judge’s decision in a court of law, a counselor’s fair assessment of your behavior, and your brother’s judgmental attitude toward everyone who is different than him. Those are all different kinds of judgment. They are far from the same thing. We know this. And Jesus is really only talking about one kind of judgment here.

So let’s put it with the other four commands. Judge not condemn, not forgive and give. Put it all together. Think about the person that needs to hear these four commands. It’s the person who judges and condemns other people for their behavior, withholds forgiveness, and is not giving toward those who are in need. So this isn’t this isn’t loving, fair, corrective judgment that Jesus is talking about here. Jesus is talking about the judgmental attitude of the heart. This is what we would sometimes refer to as judgmental ism, a characteristic of a person who is often judgmental. A judgmental person is one who looks at everyone through the lens of judgment. He looks at others in the world with an attitude of righteous superiority over everything in the world. I can’t believe those people would act this way. I can’t believe you would do such a thing. These are the phrases that you often hear. We’ve all been that person, by the way. We’ve all been that person. And we all know that person too. Right. It’s the screaming, talking head that you see on your cable news station who declares how awful and wrong the other people are. It’s that it’s that thing that you sometimes see where a person will talk about another person’s sin in a hushed tone. You know, I think he’s quiet. Let me tell you what’s going on.

Gossip is a form, a common form of judgmental ism. The judgment Jesus is talking about is is that ungracious judgment of superiority that is usually quickly followed by condemnation. So if you if you have any, if you have any long standing anger or coldness with anybody in your life. Okay, let’s think about it for a second. Do you have any long standing anger or coldness toward someone else? You are probably committing the sin of judgment and judgmental ism and condemnation that Jesus is talking about here. Because what what has happened with that person that you’re thinking of is that at some point you made a judgment about that person, how they behave, how they treated you, how the choices they made in life, some some incident took place between the two of you and you decided, you know what? They don’t deserve grace. They don’t. I’m done. They don’t. They don’t deserve my grace. They should get the full weight of whatever is coming to them. In fact, I hope they do. I hope they get the full weight. If you’re feeling that way, what has sneaked into your heart, whether whether you realize it or not? What’s what’s made its way subtly into your heart is condemnation. Wanting people to get what they deserve without any hope of transformation or desire to give them grace. That’s condemnation. Jesus says this, this judgmentalism and this condemnation.

They can’t reside in the heart of a person who’s been saved by grace, at least not indefinitely. They might make its way in there as a sin, but they can’t reside there. It can’t stay there because, in fact, if it does, Jesus says that that judgmental and condemnatory person is themselves judged and condemned by God. You couldn’t have a transformed heart, a heart transformed by grace. If you were to hold on to this, if you if you won’t repent of this attitude, that’s a good indication that you don’t know God’s grace at all. Christians can’t feel this way without feeling the sting of that sin. Because as I said before, our entire lives are built on the truth that Jesus was judged and condemned for us, that he took our judgment, that he took our condemnation. God’s heart attitude toward you was to take that judgment and condemnation for your sin on himself. So the attitude of all of us who enter God’s kingdom has to be adjusted so that we see sinners the way Jesus sees sinners. We have to have our hearts recalibrated to Grace. I bought a car one time with a navigation system, but the navigation system wouldn’t follow the roads. I was on the road. I was doing fine, but at first I would be okay. But then eventually the little light thing would just sort of wander off the road and through buildings and through streams and lakes and forests.

And I wasn’t even in the same town anymore. According to the navigation system, it would tell me to turn where there was no intersection to turn. I took it to the shop and they said that they were sorry, but what? They had forgotten to recalibrate the software, the map, and to reset the compass so that the software knows where I am and where I’m going. When you when you enter into Jesus kingdom, the compass has to be reset to make grace the northern point. That’s what. That’s what happens when when Christ comes into your life and he transforms your heart. He makes you a new creation. Your you’re recalibrated so that the North Star is God’s grace. It’s God’s grace to you. And now everything that we do and everything that we think about others is oriented through Jesus grace to us. And when that happens, it looks like the second of these, the second two commands that were given here, forgive and give what was once a hard attitude that started with judgment and resulted in condemnation. Now it starts with forgiveness and it ends with different kinds of generosity. I don’t look at my family member, or my friend, or my neighbor, or as a person who needs judgment and needs my condemnation. I see a person who needs grace because I need grace. I need grace, so I know my neighbor does.

I know my friend does. I know my family member needs grace because. Because I do, I’m a recipient of grace. If ever there was a person who needed forgiveness and generosity, it was me. And God gave that to me even when I didn’t deserve it because I didn’t deserve it. It had to come as a gift to me. So now, as followers of Jesus, we’re called to give that gracious forgiveness away and even deal with generously with people who’ve wronged us. Now, before we turn to how that works, you say, well, how do I how do I do that? What’s the procedure? Before we turn to how this works? Let, let me, let me address the most common objection to forgiving people that I know of. It’s it’s a it’s an argument that I’m sure you’ve heard come up many times. It’s something you’ve thought before. I think it’s this one of the hardest objections to forgiving others. And that is something like, what do you do about the lasting effects of sin? What do you do when the hurt continues? You say, Kyle. I’ll do it. I will recalibrate my heart to grace. I’m going to. I’m going to show other worldly, supernatural, gospel shaped forgiveness to this person who hurt me. But here’s the thing that doesn’t make the hurt go away. That the pain is still real. What do I do with that? This can be especially true in situations where the other person doesn’t repent and doesn’t care, doesn’t care about your forgiveness or what they’ve done.

We talked about that a little bit last week. What do you do when you forgive another person and that that doesn’t resolve the hurt? This is why I believe Jesus follows the command to forgive with the command to give. Giving is generosity. If someone takes your stuff, you don’t demand it back. That thing that you took from me just became a gift to you. So what you do in that situation is you. You bear the weight of that loss. Do you know how hard it is to steal from somebody when every time they take something, that thing becomes a gift? It’s impossible to steal from somebody who just goes, oh, no, that’s a gift to you. Now, actually, I just I just give you that as a gift. Like when I was trying to steal from you. Tough. You thought you were hurting me. I’m actually going to bear the burden of it myself. This is the heart attitude that says, I’m going to win you over with Jesus irresistible grace. But what about when you don’t win them over? And when the pain remains? And when there isn’t reconciliation? Well, this is my my fellow Christian travelers is when we’re called to give even more. And I know that’s hard, but this is when we’re called to give even more.

Jesus calls us to bear the burden of that wrong against us. Our gift is the willingness to bear the burden given to us by others. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote this about forgiveness in his famous work, The Cost of Discipleship. My brother’s burden, which I must bear, is not only his outward lot, his natural characteristics and gifts, but quite literally, his sin. And the only way to bear that sin is by forgiving it in the power of the cross of Christ, in which I now share. Thus, the call to follow Christ always means a call to share the work of forgiving men their sins. Forgiveness is the Christ like suffering, which it is the Christian’s duty to bear. See forgiving someone’s sin against you is what Jesus did for you. That’s what Jesus did for you. They’re to be cross-shaped. The measure, you say? Well, what measure should I use that would be measured back to me? As Jesus says, the measure you use matters. What is the the measure. The measure that we’re supposed to use to dish out forgiveness is the burden bearing, cross shaped forgiveness that we have received. And so if you’re looking for what measure to use, you’ve got to look to the cross. If you dish back judgment and condemnation without recognizing it and repenting of it, you’re in danger of being in a state of judgment and condemnation before God.

Because the cross is the standard. If the Lord has poured out his grace on you. That cross shows us the measure of the grace that we’re to pour out on others. If we don’t receive back in repentance from the person that we forgive, we can know for sure that our real reward for generosity is coming directly from our Savior, from our Lord. That’s the heart attitude and it’s probably the hardest thing. I’ll tell you about procedural stuff here in just a moment and what you ought to do. But getting that heart right, that’s going to be the hardest battle to fight once you have it and you’re ready to forgive and you’re ready to forgive generously. So once we have it, how do we address the sins of others in a way that that measures grace to them? Well, let’s let’s look at how to give guidance. He also told them a parable can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone, when he is fully trained, will be like his teacher. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, brother, let me take the speck that is in your eye, when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite! First take the log out of your own eye, and then you’ll see clearly to take the speck that is in your brother’s eye.

So if you’re in Jesus kingdom and someone sins against you, your first step in that moment is almost the opposite of the first step of everyone who is not in Jesus kingdom. See, worldly wisdom would come along in a situation like that and it would say, you should ask, be asking. Look what they did to me, right? Oh, I can’t believe what they did to you. Look what happened to you. Look what they did to you. That’s the first step in worldly wisdom. But in Kingdom wisdom, it starts off this way. It said, what have I done? What have I done? What have I brought to the table? You don’t start with their sin. You start with your own sin. You start with the reality of a fallen, broken, sinful, rebellious person that you are because you know you are. And how much you’ve needed God’s grace. That’s the first step. That’s the recalibration of your heart that’s needed for you to measure out grace abundantly like you’re supposed to. I can tell you right now if you’re going to, if you’re going to go and you’re going to address someone else’s sin and you don’t see how that you’re a sinner who has sinned against other people in the exact same way.

Maybe not on this occasion, but on many other occasions that conversation is going to go badly. Okay. If that’s the way you approach it, it’s going to go very, very poorly. You ever been? Have you ever been furious with somebody over their anger issue? I have, I didn’t even see it. I didn’t see the irony of that. Oh, I can’t believe how angry they are all the time. Mm. Can a blind man lead a blind man? I tested this once when I was a camp counselor. I was teaching the kids this passage, and so I blindfolded all of my campers. And then I walked through the woods just saying follow my voice. And they are all just tripping over stuff and falling over logs and rocks and into trees. I don’t know how I got away with it, quite frankly. It was fantastic. I was laughing, it was great. These kids didn’t know what to do. Now you’re rethinking about whether you’re going to send your kids to summer camp. This is what’s happening. This is what’s happening. Just 20 year olds come up with dumb ideas. And then what I did was I took the blindfolds off of half of them and I paired them up. And I said, God guide the other one. It worked. Not nearly as much fun, but they got where they needed to go because of it.

If you want to. If you want to help someone, hear the voice of King Jesus and come to a place of repentance, you need to take off your own blindfold first. You need to see clearly first. Or as Jesus says here, you got to get the log out of your own eye. You are not yet fully like Jesus. You have not attained full righteousness. None of us have. We got to get the log out of our own eye before we can judge another person helpfully. And that’s what we’re called to do to help judge. Judge. Someone helpfully guide them helpfully with grace and love. You need to see clearly all the ways that you’ve fallen short in obedience to Jesus, because if you don’t, you’re a hypocrite. Judgmental. People never talk about their own sin because if they if they did, if they if they talked about their own sin, they it would it would show that they’re not the superior person that they need to be to be as judgmental as they would like to be. But people who recognize their sin and repent of it and understand grace. Those are the people who are eager to give that grace to other people. When you, when you, when you repent, you see clearly. When you truly repent, you are now seeing clearly. When you stand before the Lord as a humble person who sees his or her need for God’s grace, you’re going to be able to gently lead that other person to see their need for God’s grace due to.

And church. That’s that’s what we’re called to. That’s ministry. That’s what we’re called to do. We’re not called to judge and condemn. They don’t need our opinion of what we think of them. They don’t need that. Our bitterness does nothing but poison our own hearts, keeps us from glorifying God, and prevents other people from seeing God’s grace. That’s all it does. Think about this. I know this is going to be hard to think about, but think about this for just a minute. Your your judgment and bitterness toward someone right now may be preventing them from seeing and understanding the grace of the gospel. Someone in your life right now may not be able to see Jesus clearly, because you have to be right. You have to be right. They need to see how right you are. And you’re preventing them from seeing Jesus. That person needs you to go and graciously show him the error of his ways, and your stubborn heart is blinding you from your own duty. We need to get the logs out of our eyes. Church. So that we can see clearly to guide our wayward friends to the throne of God’s grace. We’re going to take some time now in silent prayer.

I am certain, as we have been on this tour of forgiveness in that section of Jesus Kingdom, the Holy Spirit has brought someone to mind. To many of you, probably the spirit has brought someone to mind. There’s some relationship in your life that is not moving forward toward grace and forgiveness. And the logjam in that relationship is the log that still sticks in your own eye. I can’t tell you the number of occasions in my life where an issue between my wife and me has persisted, because I was waiting for her to come to me. When I should have been looking for where I was blind, so that I could make myself right so that I could go to her. This is this is what Jesus means in the sermon on the Mount when he says, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Church, we’re the peacemakers. We’re the ones called to make peace. I want you to take a few moments and ask the Lord to open your eyes, to see the way that you have been blind to your own sin, so that you can see clearly and go and help this other person see the speck that is in his or her eye. Relational healing begins with those of us who have been lavished with the grace of God in Christ. So take a few moments to pray silently, and then I will close us.