Luke 17 (Part 1) :1-10 • The Dynamics of Forgiveness

verse one begins by saying and he said to his disciples which is kind of a shift because you'll remember the chapter 16 ended with Jesus having a conversation with the Pharisees and religious leaders in dealing with them on the issues of money and so forth but now he turns to his followers and he says this very important statement temptations to sin are sure to come but woe to the one through whom they come now if you're reading a different translation this morning from the one I'm in which is the ESV you might have noticed some different wording in your Bible this is kind of an interesting passage and I looked up a few of the different translations to see the the wording differences let me show them to you here first of all as we read here in the ESV temptations to sin are sure to come is how it is rendered if you have a new American Standard Bible it says it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come the New King James says it's impossible that no offenses should come and then the NIV the most verbose of them all says things that cause people to stumble are bound to come what's interesting about all those changes is they all center around one single Greek word and I'll highlight here the areas that are translated into that word the ESV uses three words temptations to sin and the NASB uses the stumbling blocks the New King James just the single word offenses and the NIV things that cause people to stumble but all those words are one Greek word and that is the the word skandalon skandalon and it is an interesting word let me let me put up the information right out of my Greek lexicon in case for those of you who like to look at the Greek lettering there it is transliterated it is the word skandalon and the definition is a snare a stumbling block an offense and then you can see the number of times English renderings were used for that Greek word the most there at the end stumbling block or stumbling blocks plural is used eleven times at least in the new American Standard Bible it literally means to purposely put something in somebody's way so that they'll lose their footing so that they will stumble and so that they will fall down and basically what Jesus is saying here to you and I is that the kind of stumblings that are common to man are going to come it's part of what it means to live unfortunately in a fallen world we find things that we are offended by we find things that we are hurt by we find things that cause us Istanbul and those things create issues in our lives that's not the point of what he's saying he's good the point is what he goes on to add and that is woe to the one through whom those stumblings come and this is a very strong statement and if it makes us uncomfortable it was meant to because of the fact that Jesus is is warning us here of something that is very dire something that is very dangerous and that is to cause a brother to stumble you know we don't talk about this that much we probably ought to talk about it more and if that first verse doesn't scare you enough verse 2 might add to that it says it would be better for that person the person who puts a stumbling block in front of another for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin and one of these little ones speaks not only of children but also of young believers those just learning to follow the Lord and so we're we're kind of met here at the beginning of this chapter with very strong language about being careful about how we live our lives so as to influence people around us and this is a topic that the Apostle Paul also addressed particularly in his letter to the Romans let me show this one to you as well from Romans 14 21 it says it is not good to eat meat or to drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble I suppose we could shorten that just say it's it's good not to cause your brother to stumble he brings up issues that were issues in his day eating meat that had been sacrificed to a pagan idol a lot of the Christians really were bothered by that I think drinking wine is still an issue you know there are Christians who believe that any kind of partaking of wine at all or any sort of a alcoholic beverage is wrong and there are others who believe that they have the freedom to partake as long as they never partake onto drunkenness and of course that is what the Bible says do not drink unto drunkenness but you know hey there's some people that think that to drink at all is wrong how are you gonna respond to that brother or sister who believes that it's wrong all the time to drink wine or any other alcoholic beverage how are you going to respond to them the Bible tells you and I that we have to care about what other people think that it is wrong for us to put a stumbling block in front of them by our behavior because you never know exactly what that person's life is all about you don't know if maybe they grew up around alcohol and they saw its devastating effects you don't know if they themselves were maybe at one point in alcoholic in their lives and for them you know even taking a sip is just it's too much they can't go there they just can't go there so you say you have the Liberty and you have the freedom and biblically speaking you do but you don't have the biblical freedom to cause your brother or sister to stumble that you don't have and it's interesting how we just don't seem to care as Christians about these sorts of things III see you know social media pictures of Christians raising a glass of wine now again there's nothing wrong from the standpoint you know that you know you can do that it you know you have Liberty but do you know everybody who is looking at that picture do you know everybody that gets on to your your your Facebook page and do you know how they feel about it do you know if it's okay for them to see you as a believer raising that glass of wine no you don't so don't do it on social media don't do anything that's gonna cause your brother or sister to stumble don't do it we don't have a free pass when it comes to the area of caring you don't get a free pass you have to care you have to care how other people think how other people may feel now within the privacy of your own home hey knock yourself out I mean I didn't say that literally but you know what you know what I mean the point here is care about other people you know what it takes to care it takes love it takes love if I care about my brother if I care about my sister I'm not gonna want to do anything that's gonna potentially put a stumbling block in their path that's in fact what the Apostle John says let me show you this from first John chapter 2 he says whoever loves his brother abides in the light and in him there's no cause for stumbling in other words there's no there in him there's no cause to stumble another why because he loves his brother so love is what covers and guards our actions when it comes to how we live our lives so that I don't hurt someone else now let's face it there are going to be times when we're going to offend one and we're gonna hurt one another's feelings and we're gonna hurt one another even badly what does the word say in such cases look at verse 3 pay attention to yourselves he says which means be on your guard watch out if your brother sins rebuke him and if he repents forgive him and if he sins against you seven times in the day and turns to you seven times saying I repent you must forgive him now this is this is a great great passage here we're gonna take time to think about it here for a little bit but you've got to know this must have really raised some eyebrows among Jesus's disciples because they were raised with the Jewish idea that it was honorable to forgive someone three times and after that you're done if you violate more than three times in some area of sin there's no obligation to forgive and yet Jesus says even if it happens seven times in a day and your brother turns to you in repentance he said you must forgive and it kind of brings up the question you know at what point dude do at what point is there a point that's a dumb way of saying it but you know I mean that I might say to my brother no I'm done I'm not gonna forgive you is there a point where I might say to my sister no I'm sorry I'm not gonna forgive you you've gone over the limit they're sort of a thing you know and the short answer to that question is no there's never a point there's never a point where we say to a brother or sister who offends us I refuse to forgive you because forgiveness is what we do now the reason people struggle with this area of forgiveness is because they think that forgiveness and reconciliation are the same thing in fact they believe that reconciliation is a sign of forgiveness the fact of the matter is that's not true I can forgive somebody without throwing myself back into their life or allowing them back into my life you can forgive and people will say to you sometimes hey have you have you embraced this guy have you or this person that hurt you have you invited them over for Thanksgiving or have you done this or that with this person and you say well no you know and they said well if I thought you forgave them see they're throwing something on you that actually is wrong you can forgive somebody without him opening your heart back to that individual and sometimes that's even the prudent thing to do when that individual who hurt you is continuing to hurt or continuing to live a destructive lifestyle and there's been no changes in their life I'm still called to forgive them even though they've hurt me maybe even badly and several times I'm still called to forgive even if they're still living that destructive lifestyle I don't have to open myself up to that destructive lifestyle anymore right but I still got to forgive them and if somebody comes along and says no if you don't open yourself back up to him you haven't forgive them you tell them hey you're wrong about that because forgiveness ultimately is between me and God and and and you know sometimes it's impossible to actually go to that person and and and open yourself back up to him because sometimes they're gone sometimes they've moved away sometimes they've died and finally the Lord begins to work on your heart about the hurt that you've carried because of that situation because of that person and the Lord starts moving upon your heart to forgive and you're like Lord I can't forgive this person they died for heaven's sake how can I go to him and say I forgive you now you see the deal is again forgiveness is largely between you and God have you ever noticed in the scripture when this when the Bible talks to you and I about forgiving others it always connects it with God it connects it to our relationship with God and that's kind of an interesting sort of a thing let me show you a couple of passages where this happens first of all in Matthew chapter 6 Jesus taught us to pray forgive us okay we're telling the Lord Lord I need to be forgiven but look how that's connected as I also forgive others who have a debt that they owe me right in fact it goes on to say if you forgive others their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you but if you do not forgive others their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your x' you see the connection you see you can't take it away you can't remove the forgiveness that you and I exchanged one to another and disconnected from God and then look at Ephesians chapter 4 be kind to one another tender-hearted forgiving one another he could have stopped right there but he didn't he went on to say as God in Christ forgave you see the connection whenever we're talking about forgiving one another there's a connection to God you can't separate the command to forgive from our relationship with the Lord because there's something that God wants you to understand about forgiveness and that's why it's always connected in the word he wants you to understand that no matter what that person or persons did to you to hurt you now listen this is going to be hard to hear for some no matter what happened no matter what that what what happened to you to hurt you to offend you it doesn't hold the candle to what you did against God now that's hard to hear because some people will say now wait a minute here pastor Paul you don't know what that person did to me I've never done that to anyone or to God against God you don't understand you're comparing apples with apples it's not apples and apples you cannot compare the sin that you have received from others the hurt you have received from others the offenses that you've received from others to what you've done against God here's why you see when somebody sinned against you that was a sinner offending a sinner what you did against God was a sinner offending a holy righteous pure God and that is a completely different matter altogether and that's why you can't make that kind of a comparison but that is why God always brings this whole forgiveness thing with him into the equation when he talks about it between us all right notice how all this talk affects the disciples this is pretty interesting verse five it says the apostle said to the Lord increase our faith and you you read this near like yeah I I'm right with you guys I mean they hear all this talk about forgiveness and they're like oh I'm gonna need more faith for that if you're calling us to forgive that way and the Lord said verse six if you had faith like a grain of mustard seed you could say to this mulberry tree be uprooted and planted in the sea and it would obey you I love his response because what Jesus is doing here and that's the first thing he wants to see you and I when we think of faith we always think in terms of how much we think of small faith yeah he's got some faith this guy's got a lot of faith and that's and we just naturally think along those lines and so the the the this teaching by Jesus elicits from these men this responsive mom and I need more faith if that's the case if that's the way you want us to forgive man I'll tell you crease my faith it's not so much a matter of having more faith it's a matter of having faith period because you see if you had just the kind of faith that that was be equal to the a mustard seed the smallest of the herbal seeds he said you would have enough faith to say to this mulberry tree be uprooted and cast into the sea if you had just that much faith so you see it's not a matter of having more it's just a matter of having some it's a matter of having faith period Oh interesting but again we think along the lines of I need more but what's interesting you know about Christians we forget that we can compartmentalize our faith in other words I can have faith to believe that what Jesus did on the cross was enough to forgive me for all of my sins and I have no problem with that and I never waver and I can have faith to believe in this and that and this and my marriage and my family and done it but when it comes to faith like over here maybe this is this little compartment is my health or maybe over here my finances I address a situation like that and suddenly I'm in a tailspin there's like well wait a minute Paul you had so much faith don't you believe you're a Christian you're saved yeah I don't any problem believing that it's just this area here and that happens to us you know and it could be an issue of forgiveness it could be in the area of forgiveness that you are struggling in the it with your faith and I think people do because they see it as so overwhelming they see this so potentially overwhelming how in the world how in the world can I forgive this person or this these this family or this how in the world can I forgive after what they did Jesus says I want you to know that through me there is power and if you had enough faith in me faith like a mustard seed you could say to that mulberry tree be uprooted why a mulberry tree I always thought that's interesting why not a fig tree how about a cedar of Lebanon now I picked a mulberry tree you know what's interesting the Jews would regularly talk about mulberry trees the rabbi's actually taught that the mulberry trees roots would go so deep into the ground that they were so firmly rooted the roots could last they set up to 600 years that's pretty deeply rooted I love the fact that as Jesus is talking here about the faith to forgive he's talking about uprooting a mulberry tree and he's talking about something that it would be otherwise probably impossible here's the point I think some Christians some people believe that their unforgiveness runs so deep and it is so rooted in the very fabric of their lives that they wonder if there's any possible way they could ever be free from this sort of a thing and Jesus wants you to know it is possible with just the faith of a mustard seed it is possible you can uproot that resentment that bitterness and that anger and it can be cast into the sea and that sea represents freedom freedom from bitterness freedom from anger freedom from unforgiveness because you know a person who is stuck in unforgiveness is dealing with the worst kind of slavery that a person can deal with I mean the the and and and the reason it's so bad is because it's self created we tend you know we get hurt by people and we think it's their fault that we're unable to forgive them you know I'm in this bitterness I'm in this in this area of bitterness in my life because of you know you're in this area of bitterness because if you're a response to what they did it is a self-made prison and that's what makes it so horrible so the question is are you sick and tired enough of this self-made incarceration that you're ready to lay it down before the Lord do you know how much he forgives us every single day do you know how much how much every single day he forgives us for our stuff well here's the deal he calls you and I to do the same you and I are called by God to be forgivers just like him and when you boil forgiveness down to its smallest element it's all about obedience it's about obedience it's about obeying him in this calling that he's placed upon our life to forgive and where God calls you and I to obey he gives us the power to obey do you believe that did you hear what I said I said where he calls you to obey he gives you the power to obey let me show you a passage it's out of Philippians chapter 2 and it says it is God who works in you both to will that is to have the desire and also to work and that is to do his good pleasure so God works in you both to desire to obey but also to walk out your obedience and again that's just a repeat of what I said where God gives you the command to obey he gives you the power to obey he doesn't just say do this when it's impossible for you to do it he says do it and I'll give you the power to do it and that is so true when it comes to the issue of forgiveness and that means that the forgiveness that you you've recognized in your life as so deeply rooted like that mulberry tree is something that is not too strong for him to conquer even though it is too strong for you and that's an important thing to admit Lord I can't do this I can't pull up this mulberry tree have you ever tried to pull up a tree by the roots with your bare hands Oh talk about an exercise in futility I can't even get a bush out of my yard you know without dying over the thing but but but to think about something that is so deeply rooted in our lives but you know by inviting God to remove that root of unforgiveness from your heart oh and let me make this point this is this is important by coming to the Lord and inviting him to do a work in your heart about that unforgiveness that is in no way minimizing the hurt that you've suffer okay I believe there's a lot of people when we talk about forgiveness we talk about giving this thing over to the Lord there's a sense in which they think that we're minimizing their pain in other words we're communicating somehow to them like your pain really doesn't matter and and so and it's kind of like we're just saying Oh get over yourself and give it to God no that's really not what's going on what you're doing is you're inviting the Lord you're surrendering your pain to the Lord you're acknowledging the fact that this hurt bad I mean this just this wrecked me and I'm giving you now this thing but more than that giving over your unforgiveness to the Lord is a way of saying to God I relinquish my right to hold this against this person any longer in any form of judgment and I now lay this at your feet as the final ultimate judge you are the judge Lord I give it to you I step back I am NOT certified I'm not qualified to judge in this case nor do I want any part of it I release this judgement because you do know people that unforgiveness is judgment you do know that right when you are unforgiving toward the hurt that's been caused you you are judging and you are putting yourself in that position of the final judge but by releasing this you're telling the Lord you are the final judge I give this to you I trust you to take care of this situation I choose to release this through the power of the Holy Spirit and I choose to forgive and we do that Christians because it's what we're called to do it's what servants do God commanded us he said hey even if it's seven times in a single day forgive it's what you're called to do oh but it's so hard actually it's not you know what you know it's it's it's you know what's hard about the whole issue of forgiving it's letting go of my right to be angry it's letting go of my right I have a right I'm justified in my anger I'm justified in my bitterness and so you maybe the point is are you willing to let it kill you because that's what it's going to do we forgive because it is what we're called to do and because we are also called to live in freedom and you'll never be free as long as you have unforgiveness in your heart I want you to see how Jesus kind of illustrates this thing look at verse seven he says will any one of you who has a servant who's you know he's out plowing or he's keeping sheep would you say to him when he has come in from the field okay hey come on in recline at the table with me let's have dinner no he says will he not rather say to him prepare supper for me and dress properly and serve me while I eat and drink and and afterward then you can eat and drink and then look at this question verse 9 does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded that's a rhetorical question meaning that the the the answer is implied then the implied answer of course is no he's not going to thank his servant for doing what he was told to do he's a servant you tell him to do something you expect him to do it you and I have been given a command from God to forgive now when you get around to it don't expect a big pat on the back it's what you were called to do it's what you were born to do in Christ and it's he commanded you to do and as a servant we should then that while gone look with me in verse 10 so you also and this is the point of the story when you've done all that you have were commanded and that's the case for us in forgiveness he says you ought to say we're unworthy servants we've only done what was our duty right forgiveness is our duty it's your duty to forgive you know it's interesting I if you were to do a Google search on the subject of forgiveness and getting past unforgiveness you'd have a lot of reading on your hands if you decided to visit every website that was potentially listed there because there's a lot online on forgiveness and you you you read what's what people are saying and it becomes very apparent that they're looking for answers they want to know how to get from where they are to where they want to be you know and frankly there are examples that you can find online of people who have modeled forgiveness do you do know that Jesus isn't the only one that modeled forgiveness right a lot of people have and they've done a good job hey even in the Bible Stephen you know he's sitting there being stoned to death and he looks up to heaven he says Lord don't lay this charge against them that's pretty amazing talk coming from somebody who's literally on his last few dying breaths you know before he dies so there's other people who have done a pretty good job of modeling forgiveness and those examples may inspire you but there's one thing they can't do they can't give you the power to forgive you see inspiration and power are not the same thing you may be inspired by reading an example to say you know what I'm gonna forgive I'm gonna be free from this finally and I'm gonna forgive this person but you know what you're only going to be doing it in your own strength and that doesn't work only Jesus can not only inspire you through his example but he can give you the ability the power to be able to walk in forgiveness you know every so often I I get asked the question if the Bible says anything about forgiving ourselves and and my answer is usually always the same honestly it doesn't the Bible does not specifically speak to the matter of self forgiveness but that doesn't necessarily mean you don't need to do that because I think self-hatred is a real deal I mean I think it's a real thing in fact I think that some self-destructive behaviors that happen in people's lives are at their root caused by self-hatred but you know honestly it's like what's who cares whether I here's the deal I don't think Satan much cares whether you hate yourself or hate somebody else I really don't I really don't think he cares because either way he's gotcha because he knows that you're you're a bundle of self thought because don't you understand people that when you on when you're filled with unforgiveness towards someone you're filled with your own thoughts you're filled with your own hurt and you're just sitting in just simmering festering on your own internal hurt that's one unforgiveness is all about so you see it doesn't really matter whether you're not forgiving yourself or not forgiving somebody else Satan doesn't mind it'll destroy you either way he doesn't much care we seem to think that it's a big deal whether it's self forgiveness or or forgiveness for somebody else honestly hatred is going to destroy you if you hang on to it period so you know if the threat of destroying yourself isn't enough to maybe get you to make a change maybe this will be the god of the universe who is the ultimate judge has determined to forgive you based on your faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross and who are you to argue with that determination and that judgment if he has acquitted you then how do we have the audacity to refuse to do that to ourselves one last thing over the last few months I have had the privilege of getting to know a young woman who wrote me connected with me by email after finding our teachings on our YouTube channel and her name is Amanda and I came to learn through our correspondence that she had written a book about her life so I quickly got onto Amazon and I ordered a copy and that's the cover right there it's called fighting for me fact she has a website set up I found out that the book is all about her life and her journey which included some really horrific sexual abuse and I have to tell you that even though I I dug into this book right away it was very very difficult reading some of the chapters were very hard to get through because she's pretty graphic about the pain that she suffered at the hands of her abuser and but I was also really blessed toward the end of the book to find out how she came to a point in her life after really being messed over not just about her abuse but about God because she was raised a Jehovah's Witness which served to only exacerbate the confusion the judgment the condemnation and the shame and she eventually and this is kind of the cool part she and her husband eventually found their way into a calvary chapel where she started hearing about Jesus Christ and his power to take our hurt to heal our lives and to make us into the person that he has called us to be and I'm still correspond with this gal from time to time in fact interesting I had a from another young woman in India believe it or not the northern part of India who had been writing me and asking me Bible questions you know pester power does the Bible say about what does the Bible say about and then suddenly she wrote me this note here a few weeks ago about how she had been sexually abused as a young woman and I so feel out of my element sometimes ministering to people who've gone through that sort of stuff so I I wrote her and I said hey I met someone that I want to connect you to and these two gals have been emailing back and forth between California and India and I Anna you know and and I got the sweetest note from the gal in India just a couple about a week ago and she said I have such peace and I've determined to put my life in the hands of Jesus and it was just oh it's just the kind of a thing that up every pastor wants to read you know from somebody who's been who has gone through an incredibly difficult season I bring this up because there may be there may be some here who have endured this level of pain this level of betrayal and hurt and you're like that mulberry tree that have roots that go down into the ground so deeply that you're looking at this and saying I don't know if there's any hope and I want you to know there is hope and I'd love to you know grab a copy of this we have these in our bookstore in fact I stole this one amber off to get it back to you I forgot to bring mine from home but we do have some so great great book Amanda I think her last name is pronounced Zarate anyway great testimony of the power of God to break the power of unforgiveness and bitterness and replace it with peace and joy not a perfect life but peace and joy let's stand together we're gonna have people up front here to pray with you our prayer team will be available as people are filing out and you're welcome to come up for prayer if there's something on your heart that's pressing father we thank you so much for your word and we thank you for the power to destroy unforgiveness we thank you Lord God for the power to be free from self-made prisons we thank you Lord that you are the Prince of Peace and the one who not only commands us to forgive but who empowers us to forgive Lord our eyes are looking to you as the source of what we need we trust in you Lord we lay our lives at your feet that your work might go on be with us we pray in Jesus precious name Amen

Channel: Calvary Chapel Ontario

Views: 12,641

Rating: 4.9047618 out of 5

Keywords: Bible, Bible teaching, Thru-the-Bible, verse by verse, Calvary Chapel, Bible study, Christianity, New Testament, Old Testament

Id: ey_orrxaPOA

Length: 39min 11sec (2351 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 02 2019