Our Feelings About Forgiveness

Introduction

Good morning. I am glad to be here this morning, and I am glad you are here this morning. If you are visiting with us, you are our guests of honor, and we ask that you stay a while after the service, visit with us, and come to know us a little better. And if you are our members of the Church of Christ at South Bumbi, we say, welcome back to another study of what saith the Lord. Forgiveness is not fiction. Forgiveness is real.

And in the hiding spots of our mind, we grit our teeth and seethe and stew over how God could contrive a way to forgive such a merciless foe. We say we don’t understand his grace. Yet we litigate in our mind very quickly who we designate as worth God’s choice of grace. Much like Jonah, we know Nineveh might receive God’s grace. And somewhere in our mind’s eye, we judge the ones we feel are worth God’s balm of Gilligan. But there is a point where we don’t verbalize this. We just kind of mull it over in our mind. Consider it, and then in a fleeting way, we dismiss it because academically we know in the Bible where God has said, Well, I will forgive people. And we read where God will say, I will forgive Manasseh, I will forgive the Israelites, I will forgive Israel, and I will forgive those who crucify Jesus if they repent.

So we just say, okay, I guess that they’re really forgiven when I just can’t really figure it out. I can’t really pinpoint why God would grant them pardon, but I have faith in God. So he must be doing something beyond me and beyond my estimation of others. Yet then there is an ominous cloud that hangs over our head and our station where we stand. We may feel happy sometimes. We may feel average at other times, but from time to time we feel downright in the depths of gloom because we ask ourselves, how can God forgive me when I don’t really feel forgiven? How can he forgive me? I don’t feel forgiven. That’s the question for this morning’s lesson. How does that work? It is this question we wish to explore.

It’s not a question of, is my name written in heaven, which was a wonderful lesson that Brother Jeffrey’s preached last week. He very clearly said, if our names are in the Lamb’s book of life, we’re knowing for sure that we can go to heaven if our names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. Sometimes the feeling, though, momentarily or occasionally is such that we don’t think maybe we’re deserving to be there. A frequent reoccurrence, for some a constant struggle. I’d like you to, with all due respect, consider with me five different things this morning that help us understand that if we are following God, if we are not in sin, and if we are striving to obey God, we can know with confidence, with assurance, we’re forgiven.

1. Our Feelings About Forgiveness

And the fifth point, I’m just going to go ahead and tell you right now before the lesson even gets to that point. I’m just going to tell you what the fifth point is. That’s this. All of those of us that are thinking, well, what about all those other people that are feeling maybe they’re not forgiven? We can be the ones that can help them and assist them and be the type of people that can encourage them when they’re feeling down and out. So first to our feelings about forgiveness. We go to Acts chapter 16. Let me look at verse 23 through 24. Acts chapter 16, 23 through 24. This is Paul and Silas imprisoned and the jailers there. They had laid many stripes on Paul and Silas.

They threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard them and keep them very secure. And having received such a charge, he put them in the inner prison and fastened them in the stocks. But at midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s chains were loosed. And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, supposing that the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself. But Paul called out with a loud voice and said, Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.

Then he, that is the jailer, called for a light, ran in, fell down trembling before Paul and Silas, and he brought them out of the prison, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? So they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you’ll be saved, you and your household. And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he that is the jailer took them, that is Paul and Silas, the selfsame hour of the night, and washed their stripes, and immediately he and all his family were baptized. But look at the very next verse. Now, when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them, and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household.

He knew he needed saved, he trembled, he washed the wounds, he heard Jesus spoke to him, he and his family were baptized. But notice, right after that, his emotions and his feelings were written. Specifically for clarity for us, it says, He set food before Paul and Silas, and he rejoiced. Often we get flustered and we sin and error, we commit a small infraction of imperfection, and we simply can’t turn loose of that error. We pray, we repent, but we can’t get past 30 minutes after over a three-second word of an ill-thought-out foible. Please, by all means, if somebody says they forgive you, learn the three words to help us remedy ourselves from wallowing in the stew. If they say we forgive you, just say, moving right along and let it go.

2. Facts About Forgiveness

Remember the keeper of the prison in Philippi. He went from a nervous wreck to rejoicing in he and his families’ sins being forgiven and being washed away. One cannot prevent the birds of guilt from flying over us. There’s no way to prevent the birds of guilt from flying over us in life. But we can prevent them from nesting in our hair. We don’t have to stew within that. That’s what the jailer recognized. He didn’t dwell on sin, he transformed to rejoicing because his sins were washed away. Second, let’s look at some facts about forgiveness. Guys up in the booth, the screen is showing this side, and I don’t know if that’s a thing on the uh side issue, it’s showing what’s on my screen. Okay, second fact about forgiveness.

We’ll go to 1 Peter 1 13 through 21. Let’s turn there together, our dear brethren. 1 Peter 1 13 through 21. Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind and be serious, and rest your hope fully on the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts as in your ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in your conduct, all of it, because it is written, Be holy for I am holy. And if you call on the Father who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear. He’s basically saying, live right, repent, don’t do evil.

But then he talks about how you can be forgiven. He says, Know this, that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by the traditions from your fathers, but you were redeemed with a precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who through him believe in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and your hope are in God. I like that. Tie up the loose sins, gird up the loins of your mind, rest your hope fully in God. Be holy, for I am holy. You will redeem, verse 18.

Your faith and hope are in God, verse 21. God wrote grace for you. And yes, it is amazing. Forgiveness is offered. It’s offered only to those who want it and do the things necessary to receive it, but you can be forgiven. But you have to tap into his sweet grace. You have to tap into his forgiveness, just like a maple tree. Tap the tree to get the maple syrup out of it. It’s very sweet, it’s very good, it’s very excellent. But that tree bleeds. That tree resonates from within something that is there to help somebody else get something that is sweet. Doesn’t that sound a lot like the cross? What Jesus did for us? We tap his grace. It is amazing. Similarly, like the cross, Christ died on the tree of shame, and his blood is shed not only for one but for all to be placed on the table of the sure mercies and offered to all those who want the sweet results of its power.

Knowing you are forgiven, it feels good. But then we have to talk definitively about what forgiveness is. Biblical forgiveness is the deliberate act of releasing someone from the debt of guilt or sin, motivated by the love of God and his grace and restoring relationships as God has restored us through Christ. Not just overlooking some wrong or suppressing some sort of emotion, saying, I really don’t like this guy or this girl, I’m just gonna uh not forgive them. It’s God making a conscious decision to release another from the debt of sin or offense. It involves both a judicial aspect where God removes the penalty of sin, but it also deals with the relationship aspect where the broken relationship is restored. 1 John 1 9. Forgiveness is rooted in God’s mercy and his grace, and that shows he wants to reconcile all of humanity with him.

3. Our Foundation About Forgiveness

Those are facts about what forgiveness is. Look at our foundation about forgiveness now. There are things we need to seek forgiveness for, okay? We should not be the type of people that say, I don’t need forgiveness. I’ve not done anything to be sorry about. That type of expression stands set against what the cross is all about. Maybe this sounds a little cheesy, but I’m gonna say it anyways. The cross is all about all. It’s all about all. It’s displaying to the globe the uniformity of the sin plight of the whole of humanity in her entirety. There are no worse off or lesser sins. All sin is the breaking of divine law. And the foundation of forgiveness is the Son of God and His full mission to achieve salvation to deliver us from lawlessness and set us upon the heavenly plane of being forgiven individuals.

God made the cross choice to clarify his foundational principle to forgive.

Through faith in Christ Jesus to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference, or all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood through faith to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed to demonstrate at the present time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. He’s saying Christ shed his blood for us and he loves us, and he wants us to repent and be forgiven, and then stay on the straight and narrow. As it is written, he is the justifier of the one that hath faith, that his blood actually forgives sins.

4. Paul’s Pattern: Finally, Forgiveness

The foundation of our forgiveness is basically summed up in saying the whole realignment or justifying is done by Jesus. You’re forgiven if you’ve allowed the blood of the cross to be applied. How does that happen? At baptism. Think of justifying like this. Our sin life is like a misaligned back that causes us to stoop down and to feel discouraged. Jesus, via the application of the blood at the cross, and through baptism, realigns the back and helps us look up, smile, and say, Oh, happy day that fix my choice on thee, my Savior and my God. Justification is being aligned aright and placed back as entire as we once were before sin. And oh, how happy that can and should be. Amen. So now let’s speak of an apostle who lived his life as a pattern, who dealt with the ups, the downs, the ebbs, the flows, the highlights, the challenges of life.

Saul of Tarsus, he had the same Jesus and the same level of forgiveness as you and I.

Standing before his countrymen to whom he referred to his brethren, not brethren in the Christian sense, for they were not baptized for the forgiveness of sins, but they were brethren in the sense of his countrymen, like Julius Caesar said, friends, brethren, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears in the same premise. He’s calling out his nation as a brotherhood to listen to him, for Israel to hear him. And he says, I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaleo, taught according to the strictness of our father’s law, and was zealous towards God as you are today. Paul said, I persecuted this way, that would be Christians, to the death. Paul said he delivered and bound up in prison, both men and women.

As also the high priest bears him witness, he says in Acts chapter 22, verse 5, and all the counsel of the elders from whom I also received letters to the brethren, and went to Damascus to bring in chains, even those who were there to Jerusalem to be punished. He says in verse 12 of Acts 22, a man by the name of Ananias, a devout man according to the law, that is a good Jew, having a good testimony with all the Jews who dwelt there, came to Paul and stood and said to him, Brother Saul, receive your sight. And at that self same hour I looked up at him. Then he said, The God of our fathers has chosen you that you should know his will, and to see the just one and hear the voice of his mouth, for you will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard.

And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord, verse 19. So I said, Lord, they know that in every synagogue I imprisoned and beat those who believe on you. And when the blood of your martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, consenting to his death, and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him. Then he said to me, Depart, I will send you far from here to the Gentiles. First Timothy 1, verse 12 through 17.

And we read together, 1 Timothy 1, 12 through 17. He says to Timothy, one of the ones he met, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has enabled me because he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry. Although I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and an insolent man, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Then listen to what Paul says about his guilt, his forgiveness, and his life. He says, This is a faithful saying.

However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all long suffering as a pattern, a pattern to those who are going to believe on him for everlasting life. Now the King, eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, the honor and glory fore and ever. Amen. 2 Timothy 4, 7 through 8. 2 Timothy 4, 7 through 8 says this.

I have kept the faith. Finally there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous judge will give to me on that day, and not to me only, but also to all who have loved his appearing. And then back to the book of Acts in chapter 20 and verse 26 through 27. That’s Acts chapter 20. And verse 26 through 27. Paul stands before the elders, kneels by the seaside, if you will, and is talking to the Ephesian elders who he loves, and he says, Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. I read about, I don’t know, eight scriptures.

But what are they? They’re a chronology of the development of someone who felt guilt, felt he wasn’t forgiven, developed his faith, realized these challenges were real in his life, and then he transformed his life to do what was good instead of what was evil.

Hey, I’ve messed up historically, so I need to impart grace to other people because I know what I did that was evil. So in his transformation for forgiveness, he sets forth to us a pattern wherein he basically says, I was the chief of sinners, but then later he says, But I know something. I know my forgiveness is real. And I know, just like every one of you today, need to know that if you’re living your life for the Lord and you’re striving to do good, but you’re vacillating in your mind between am I forgiven or am I not forgiven? But you’re trying to do as good as you can do. Look at what Paul said. He says, henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.

5. Our Friends Help Us

I know when I go to heaven, I will be rewarded, but it’s not just a Paul reward, it’s a reward for all those who love his appearing. And then he said to the guys at the shoreline of Miletus, those wonderful elders that he loved, he said, I’m innocent of the blood of all men because I’ve done what God told me to do to change. That is powerful, brethren. That is just powerful. He could say, finally, forgiveness. Our friends help us when our forgiveness seems to be momentary. Paul was not in this alone. And I’m gonna venture to guess. Listen, brethren, I am gonna venture to guess that if Paul had to struggle with this immense weight of woe that we just described, he dealt with. If he had to struggle with that alone, he probably would not have stayed as level-headed and as fervent for the gospel as he was.

Our friends help us when forgiveness is a challenge when we’re having trouble forgiving ourselves. If there is one thing we can say about Christians, it is that we are to be one. The foot does not say to the hand, I’ve got no need of you, nor the eye say to the ear, I’ve got no need of you. Our faith in the church is described as the body. And chances are, if you’re feeling like you’re working diligently for God, but spinning your wheels and feeling less than forgiven, when you really know, well, God is radically saved people like Saul of Tarsus in the Bible. Perhaps you need to realize Saul of Tarsus always remembered his old life of sin, but he didn’t allow the sin to nest in his hair forever.

He let the Lord replace the sin nest with the crown of righteousness. He did this with the help of other people who aided him in getting his work done. He almost consistently traveled with a group of people wherever he preached. You are probably familiar with Timothy, Romans chapter 16, verse 21, 1 Thessalonians 3:2. And even Silas, 1 Peter chapter 5, verse 12. Those may be familiar names. But some of the people he traveled with were way younger than him, like decades younger. Other were older than him. Some were very, very poor people in monetary gain. Others were super rich. Some were of the nobility. Some were of the home of the very house of Caesar himself. But all of them in some way helped. Listen, helped Paul in the journey to help him realize he was forgiven.

Apollos, 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 9, helped him understand that. Agabus, a Christian prophet from Jerusalem, who also visits the Christian Antioch, Acts chapter 11, 28, helped him understand that. Ananias, a disciple in Damascus, who restored Paul’s sight, he actually baptized him when he knew he was a scary guy to baptize. Acts chapter 9 and 22, 12. Afippa, a woman addressed in the Bible as our sister, probably a member of the household of Philemon, Philemon Philemon 2, helped him. Who could forget his great companions that also built uh uh tents, Aquila and Priscilla, a married couple, natives of Pontius who were expelled from Rome around 49 AD due to the edict of Claudius in Acts 18, 1 through 3, close co-workers of Paul’s early mission in Corinth and 1 Corinthians 16, 19.

Archipus, a fellow soldier of Paul, connected with Philemon, Aristarchus, a Christian from Thessalonica in Macedonia, a traveling companion, Acts chapter 19, 29, 24, and 27, 2, too. And a fellow prisoner with Paul, Colossians 4:10, a fellow worker of Paul, Philippon 24. Do you think these men and women just say, oh, Paul, this is a terrible guy, not going to help him, leave him alone. No, they helped. Artemis, got a good name, Artemis. It’s in the Bible, okay. Titus chapter 3, verse 12, Paul’s messenger to Titus. Carpus, Paul left his books in the parchments with him at Troas, and asked Timothy in 2 Timothy 4 and 13, go retrieve those documents from Carpus. Cephas, an alternative name for Peter, whose nickname Petrus, which means Rocky. Come on, neat nickname for Peter.

He is kind of like Rocky. Clemet, a co-worker with Eodian Syntegian and others, of whom Paul says, like we just studied from Brother Jeffrey’s last week, their names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. Philippians 4 3. Crispus, a synagogue official in Corinth, Acts 18 8, one of the very few people Paul personally baptized, which it’s mentions in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 14. Demarius, a woman who was one of Paul’s converts in Athens, Acts 17 33, Demas told Paul he wished to send greetings in Colossians chapter 4 and verse 14 to the church. That is nice. When you are traveling and you meet people you know, and you meet other people that know people you know, and they say, please send a greeting to so and so.

What does that mean? They care about them, they love about them, they know that they are forgiven, and they are common, faithful Christians. And this is the type of thing that’s going on with Paul and all of these people we’re mentioning. Dionysus the Areopagus, you may be familiar with in Acts chapter 17 and verse 34, or on Mars Hill, he’s converted. Epaphras, a native of Colossium, Paul’s beloved fellow servant, who probably helped make uh the Colossians his hometown. He sends Ephaphorus’s greetings back to the Colossians, and he calls him, quote, a servant of the Christ, who prays on their behalf, Colossians 4 12. Erastus, we could go on and on, and I will for a little bit. I want to. Erastus, the city treasurer, Romans 16 23, 2 Timothy 4 20.

In Acts 19, he sends him to Macedonia. Ubulus, Paul conveys greetings to Timothy for Eubulus, Pudens, Linus, and Claudius, 2 Timothy 4 21. Eunice, the mother of Timothy, she’s also a Christian. 2 Timothy 1 5. Fortunus and Achaichus. Christians from Corinth who visited Paul in Ephesus, he commends them along with Stephanus to the community, saying, 1 Corinthians 16 17, listen to this one. They refreshed my spirit. You guys do that for me. When I come here on a Wednesday night, and I’m busy all week trying to do this, trying to go here, go there, go there. And I come into the church services, I’m like, okay, it’s been a long day, but you guys refresh my spirit. Make me feel good when I’m with you. Paul says that of his brethren.

They refreshed his spirit. Do you think they helped him? Or do you think they had him feeling downtrodden, despondent, despised, rejected? Or do you think they appreciated that he was forgiven? I think he tells us they refreshed him. Gaius, a Christian from Macedonia, who becomes a traveling companion of Paul, is one who in Ephesus, hosts Paul, and the church in Corinth. Acts 19 29 24, Romans 16 23. And he is another one that Paul baptized. Barcibus, an early disciple and representative of the community in Jerusalem, the Christians in Antioch, after the council of Jerusalem, he and Silas are leaders among the brothers. Acts 15, 24. What does that mean? Some things were tough. This is a point we need to make with all this. Some things were tough.

Conclusion

Acts 15 was not an easy peasy conversation. It was not. But they dealt with it, they worked with it, they realized what was going on, and they solved the issue without division. Justice, Lois, Lucius, Lydia, Marca, Mary, Niacin, Nymphe, Onisimus, Onesophorus, Philemon, Cortus, Secundus, Sopater, and Zenus, the lawyer, whom Paul tells Titus to send along that they lack nothing. Titus 3 12. If there is anything we can get out of this lesson about forgiveness, it is that we all from time to time don’t feel that we’re forgiven, and we feel we don’t deserve it, and we know we can’t earn it, but we can, as Paul affirmed in Acts chapter 20, verse 27, affirm it that forgiveness is real. It is actual and it is available.

And when others are really, really, really needing encouragement, we as brethren are to shoulder the responsibility of not only remembering how it felt when we were feeling unforgiven, but also with weeping with the woes of those who right now are feeling those sorrows. Okay, little levity.

I am. I like music. So I’ve got to put in a line of poetry. My kids say, Dad, when you pray, you rhyme all the time. Do you preach in rhyme ever? Well, maybe. Five lyricists, Bebo Norman, Jason Ingram, Mike Donahy, Lauren Ashley Daigle, you maybe familiar with that name, Paul Brendan Mabry, they wrote a song about what God wishes to convey when we are feeling low, lost, and small, and how he wishes to exalt us, help us feel found, and keep us from feeling insignificant. Here are the lyrics. These authors, five of them together, write this. I keep fighting voices in my mind that say, I’m not enough. Every single lie that tells me I’ll never measure up. Am I more than just the sum of every high and every low?

Remind me, Lord, once again, just who I am, because I need to know. You say I am loved when I can’t feel a thing. You say I’m strong when I think I’m weak. And you say I’m held when I’m falling short, and when I don’t belong, you say, I am yours. I believe, oh, I believe. What you say of me, I believe. The only thing that matters now is everything you think of me. In you, I find my worth. In you, I find my identity. You say I am loved when I can’t feel a thing. You say I’m strong when I am weak. You say I am held when I am falling short, and when I don’t belong, you say I am yours. And now I’m laying it all at your feet.

You have every failure, you have every victory, you say I am loved when I can’t feel a thing. You say I am strong when I think I am weak. You say I am held when I am falling short when I don’t belong, and yet you say I am yours, O Lord. I believe. That’s pretty good. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Romans 10 17. Believing in Christ’s blood, and that it was shed is so important. John 3 16 helps us understand it was shed for you. Repent of your sin. Stop sin. Acts 2.38. Say, get out, sin and get in, Jesus. Call out and affirm, oh, I believe that Jesus is the Son of the Living God, Acts 8.37. And then be baptized.

For with God’s word is the treasured verse of truth. Let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. Acts 2 38. And if you remain on the straight and narrow path, you can call out like Paul, finally, forgiveness. And when it comes my time to quit the walks of men, for me, the crown of righteousness is for me and not only for me, but also for all of those who love the day when the Lord returns.

If you need encouragement or restoration to the Lord, please come forward and sit on one of the front rows while we stand and sing.