Allen Jackson - Forgiveness and Resentment - Part 2
I think one of the reasons that we failed to forgive and that we failed to process it is we don't really think there's too much of a consequence for sin. You know, we just don't. We don't often see immediate judgment from God. Everybody doesn't get the Ananias and Sapphira treatment. Thank God. Church would be more of a small group initiative with a lot of first time visitors. There are two prominent misconceptions I believe about sin in consequence. The first one is that if I forgive someone, they're getting away with it. If I forgive them, they're gonna get away with that. If I stay angry and resentful and embittered somehow I'm holding them accountable. No, you're not.
Most of the people that you hate and resent don't even know it. You're the one in the prison. Unforgiveness and resentment and bitterness imprison you, it limits your life so often time the people that you're pointing that don't even know. You know, this is true. Have you ever been mad at somebody you live with and they don't notice. Does that make you mad? It was like I was upset. You didn't even know. And then inevitably, you know, you've snorted or driven like a NASCAR driver and you're thrown around the car, the question comes up, you know, "Something wrong"? What do you say? Why would you ask? Fire shooting at your nostrils? You paw the ground.
Folks, forgiveness doesn't mean they're getting away with it. It's important to remember that God is both loving and just. Both of those aspects of his character are equally real and it's illegitimate to talk about a God of love if you don't talk about a God of justice. I can give you some examples from scripture. John 19, Pilate is interviewing Jesus and he's frustrated with the whole scenario that he's been handed. He understands the dynamics of it. He's trying to find a way through it. And he says to Jesus, "Do you refuse to speak to me? Don't you realize I have power to free you or to crucify you"?
And Jesus answers him really truthfully. The dynamic of this... Pilate has political authority. He can order people to be crucified, he can order people to be set free, he can release prisoners. He has that political authority. He doesn't understand that the person he's talking to has an authority that's greater than political authority. One of the great challenges in the church today when we refuse to talk about current events, we are acting as if political authority is greater than the authority that we stand in. We have an assignment to be a conscience to our culture. Human life should be treated as if it is sacred, not something to be sacrificed by choice.
Marriage wasn't created by the state, marriage was imagined by God. He's given us the boundaries. Human sexuality didn't come from a test tube or a PhD thesis. It was presented to us by our Creator and the boundaries in which it's healthy and the boundaries of the places where it's destructive are identified for us. We're not given the privilege of redefining that. Those are not political discussions. Those are discussions about the spiritual authority of Almighty God that shapes our future for time and eternity, and we've lost our balance. And Jesus is standing before Pilate and Pilate says, "Do you know who I am? I can have you nailed to a cross or I could set you free"?
And Jesus's answer amazes me. It truly does. He said, "You would have no power over me if it weren't given to you from above". That is not a passive answer. Pilot is preening. Now, he's perplexed. He's in a hard place. He's trying to sort it out. I grant that to him, but I mean, he's still but drunk on his power. He doesn't understand. And Jesus looks at him and said, "Truthfully, dude," Living Bible. "I could pull your ticket any time I wanted to. Your next breath is a gift from my Dad. That any power you think you have, he's given to you".
That's not a passive answer. But it's the next statement that I wanna call your attention to. Jesus is therefore because of that because there's an authority greater than Rome. There's an authority greater than what's been invested into you as the governor of Judea, "The one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin". And we know on the cross, Jesus prayed, "Father, forgive them," but you shouldn't imagine the consequences for their choices were eliminated. Again, we have been engaged too deeply in this idea of sloppy grace. When Jesus is coming down the Mount of Olives, you can look, it's in the Gospels and Jerusalem is in front of him, he begins to weep and he said, "If you had only understood what God had presented to you, but because you didn't understand, they are going to destroy this city. They will dash the heads of your babies against the stones".
Folks, I'm concerned that we're in a very similar place. We need a heart change and this forgiveness that you and I have the ability to release and to choose is a very important part. We have a need to be forgiven that we need to recognize. In Matthew 26, it's a very similar statement Jesus says about the one who would betray him. "Woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he'd not been born". That's not a statement of grace.
So there's something in front of him. There's a second misconception and that's that forgiveness is the equivalent of or the same as overlooking sin or overlooking ungodliness or overlooking bad choices. I didn't put that statement in your notes, but you can write that one down. That's like the old fashioned way. The misconception is thinking that if I forgive it means I've just overlooked sin. So we hear a lot of conversations amongst Christians that when the most egregious things happen, like when they mock our Lord at the opening ceremony of the Olympics, oh, we should just forgive them, which they equate with overlooking that. Forgiveness does not mean we overlook sin or we overlook ungodliness or we overlook bad choices, we acknowledge them. We're not just stamping our feet though and demanding imminent immediate justice.
2 Corinthians 11, "If someone preaches to you comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than Jesus we preached, or a different spirit from the one you received or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough". Paul is chastising the church. He said, when people bring you a false gospel with a false spirit or a false Jesus, you just give him a group hug. He is challenging them on their inclusivity.
Look at Habakkuk. Some of you prefer Habakkuk. Not many of you, but the two of you who do I brought you a verse. It's the prophet's perspective. He said, "Your eyes are too pure to look on evil, you can't tolerate wrong. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves"? God is challenging the people because they tolerate treachery. They're silent in the face of ungodliness. And yet we've been coached largely through the pulpits that it would be wrong to say anything 'cause the sin above all sins in the current culture is that you would be judgy.
Look at Revelation 2 and verse 20. It's a message to one of the seven churches of Revelation. It's worth noting that in every instance in each of those seven churches, God is so aware of their deeds that he said, "I know the good things you're doing and I know the places where you yet need transformation. And if you'll give attention, I will bring healing and blessing to you. If you don't," he says, "your lamp stand will be removed, my presence will be removed from you". Oh, we've lived arrogant lives. We have crowed about the fact that we can't forfeit anything.
Revelation 2:20. This is the church at Thyra. "I have this against you. You tolerate that woman Jezebel. She calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality". He said you're tolerant of sexual immorality and you're wrong. We've been taught for quite a season now, decades that we should accommodate every form of ungodliness. It's a way of showing love to the wicked. Folks, I believe the ungodly need encourage to choose the Lord, but I don't believe we should encourage God's people to practice ungodliness. It will destroy us and it'll bring the judgment of God.
Cultural narrative suggests that Christian love properly expressed would never criticize or warn of condemnation and the church has joined in this and we've harvested a few choice verses suggesting a New Testament perspective that love covers a multitude of sins. Therefore, our message should be pre-eminently about love and much less about holiness or purity. For the record, I believe that is both biblically inaccurate and it is very dangerous. Unfortunately, we are blamed for causing violence or acts of hatred if we acknowledge a biblical worldview. It's not correct. I don't believe it's just, but it is the practice. It's a way of marginalizing Christians and Christianity. It's a way of shutting you down. It's a way of giving permission to put a target on you. The result is a multitude of Christians who are unwilling or afraid to speak the truth.
I can give you an example. It's removed from us by a few months and it's another city, but the Focus on the Family headquarters were vandalized some months ago. There had been a shooting in their town at a gay nightclub. The shooter was identified as non binary, but the Christian organization was blamed and attacked as the instigator of the violence. It's illogical, it's irrational, but it's reality. You see, truth is incendiary to those who reject it. But that shouldn't cause you to imagine that truth is less valuable or less necessary. And we shouldn't imagine this is something new to our generation. That into the age theology, oh this is just the end of the age. There's nothing we can do. So let's just act like we don't notice. I believe is the gross misrepresentation of the invitation that's before this generation.
I can give you an example. There's a scene recorded in multiple Gospels, same scenario, it's recorded in Matthew and it's recorded also in Luke. And so it's slightly different. I'll just give you the highlights in Matthew 3. This is John the Baptist. "He saw the Pharisees and the Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, and he said to them: 'You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?' Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And don't think you can say to yourselves, 'We're children of Abraham. God can make kids of Abraham from the rocks.'" That's Matthew's take.
Luke records the same event in chapter 3, "John saw the crowds coming out to be baptized. And he said, 'You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?'" Sound familiar? Same scenario, same message. "Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And don't begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham". Well, the people respond. In Luke's version, "What should we do then? the crowd asked. And John answered, 'The man who has two tunics should share.'"
In verse 12, "The tax collectors also came to be baptized. And they said, 'Well, what should we do?' And John said, 'Don't collect any more than you're required to.' And then the soldiers said, 'Well, what should we do?' And he replied, 'Don't extort money and don't accuse people falsely, be content with your pay.'"
See, in Matthew's version, the only people Matthew identifies as being a part of the crowd were the Pharisees and the Sadducees. In Luke's version, he doesn't specifically identify the Pharisees and the Sadducees, but he identifies some other components in the crowd. He identifies the crowd in general, the general public, the tax collectors. They've betrayed their people to collect Roman taxes, the soldiers. Together, those two passages addressed four groups of people, the Sadducees, the Pharisees, the religious leaders, the power brokers of the temple in Jerusalem, the keepers of the National Bank, so they're the most affluent. The crowd, the general population, the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Luke says, they're filled with self righteousness and racial pride. The crowd, they're selfish and covetous. The tax collectors are traitorous and greedy. The soldiers, they practice extortion, they're abusive and discontent. I read you all of that to get to Jesus commentary. It's Matthew 21. This is Jesus talking about those scenes. We get to know what Jesus had to say about what John was doing and what John said.
Jesus said, "What do you think? There was a man that had two sons. He went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work today in the vineyard.' 'I won't,' he answered. He later changed his mind and went. Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. And he said, 'I will,' but he didn't go. Which of the two did what his father wanted? And they said, 'Well, the first.' So Jesus said, 'I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. John came to show you the way of righteousness, and you didn't believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even when you saw this, you didn't repent and believe him.'"
Wow! The people who knew the scripture the best, the people who were the most engaged in religious activity said, "We're not changing our heart. We've got a transaction going on with God". And the prostitutes and the thieves and the extortionist and the bullies came and they said we need to be changed. We need to be transformed. And they benefited. Jesus has an expectation that repentance is normal behavior for God's people. And he's also very clear that failure to repent will bring the forfeiture of benefits or consequences. Folks, forgiveness should not be understood as a need that someone else has nor should it be considered that something optional in your own personal set of decisions?
I'll add to that one more piece and I'm done. I believe we have a responsibility to share the truth that we know and I would put in parenthesis next to that statement, not just evangelism, not just to tell people they need to get saved. I think it's been very destructive that the only spiritual decision we have coached generations of Christians towards is how to lead somebody to salvation. I believe in the essential nature of being born again, the new birth conversion, whatever you call that. But almost the only message we've been given is to go tell our friends, our neighbors and our family members, they need to get saved.
That really isn't biblical. The gospel we have is not a gospel of salvation. It's a gospel of the kingdom. So the message we have is the gospel about the nature of the kingdom. Look at Ezekiel 33 and verse 8. "When I say to the wicked, 'O wicked man, you will surely die,' and you don't speak out to dissuade him from his ways". God said, if I make a statement about what defines wicked, that's the context here. And he said, "If you don't speak out to dissuade him from ways that wicked man will die and I will hold you accountable for his blood. But if you do warn the wicked man to turn from his ways and he does not do so, he will die for his sin, but you will have saved yourself".
Church, what does that mean for us? It means we can't find ourselves in the midst of a generation that is struggling with wickedness and depravity and remain mute and imagine that we won't bear a consequence. You can't hold up your conversion card and say it doesn't have anything to do with me. God is speaking to the prophet in the midst of the covenant people of God. And he said, when you understand the boundaries of wickedness and you don't tell the people, they will suffer the consequence and so will you. If you tell them and they choose not to participate, they'll face the consequence, but you'll be spared.
If you'll allow me, I would submit to you. We have an assignment to speak the truth in love to our generation. Not to be silent, not to say that God's changed his mind and sin has been cut in half. Not to simply deliver a message of grace. There's really no way we can imagine we can justify holding resentment and bitterness and hatred in our hearts and blaming previous generations or future generations or whomever. We have to forgive because we have a need for forgiveness. But we have a greater assignment. Is to be the light in the midst of the darkness. To be salt in a world that is lacking, not to be light salt.
It isn't helpful to rage against the darkness. In your home, turn on the light. In your extended family, be a light. In your peer group, be a light. Where you work, be light. Do not give your strength to propagating wickedness. It will not bring good things. God is moving. I've never seen, in my lifetime, God is moving in ways I have never seen nor could I have imagined. And I wanna invite you to begin to quietly, gently, and persistently say to the Lord, "How may I change? How would you help me change? I would like to be transformed more completely into the image of Jesus. Well, I have some transactions along my journey that you and I have reached some agreements, but I would like to be transformed more completely into the image of Jesus". Are you willing?
I brought you a prayer. I took it from Acts chapter 4. It's not original with me. I haven't left the reference in your notes. You can stand with me. We're gonna read it together. The disciples have been threatened. They've been told never to mention the name of Jesus in the city again. And they've been told that by the people that had him handed up to be tortured to death. So it's a legitimate threat. This is cancel culture before we had technology. We canceled your boss and we're gonna cancel you too. And they walked away from that encounter where they heard those threats and they were delivered to them and they could see the hatred and feel it.
They go back to their peer group and this is the prayer they pray. I think it's an appropriate prayer for us. We're gonna complete it after they prayed. Luke records for us the outcome. And I'm gonna record, I want us to make the outcome a part of our prayer 'cause when we prayed, I'm expecting God to respond to us. Not in the identical way that he did it in the book of Acts, but in a way that reflects what he would do in this point in history. We need God to shake the world we live in. You're ready? Let's read it together
Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and to perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus. And after they prayed the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the word of God boldly (amen).
Now, may the Lord bless you and keep you and the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn his face to you and give you peace, amen.