Bill Johnson - Love Is the Context for On Earth as in Heaven
Don’t forget the heart and soul of this prayer: it’s to bring Heaven to Earth, it’s to bring transformation, it’s to fill your life with the abundance of God’s supply. I shall not want; it’s all supposed to happen that way. But the heart and soul—everything depends on this one thing: forgiveness. Learning to love. Well, thank you! Oh, good morning and Happy New Year! Happy, happy New Year! I didn’t get a joke ready for today, which is almost like backsliding. I’m so sorry! The only one that comes to mind is one you’ve already heard many times: if you suck at playing the trumpet, maybe that’s why. All right, let’s move on. That went over real well. It was actually not my turn to speak today; it was Chris’s. But I contacted him this week because I had something on my heart that I wanted to share, so we switched. I don’t want to call it a heavy experience, but I should say I had a realization last week of something that really rocked my world.
It was when Jesus was being crucified. He carried the cross, was beaten with a whip until internal organs were exposed, had his beard pulled out of his face, was hit, and mocked. All these things occurred. He took the place of a convicted criminal who was released, and he took his place to be crucified. While he was on the cross, in the middle of his betrayal and crucifixion, he prayed, «Father, forgive them; they don’t know what they’re doing.» Most of us, I think, do pretty well with the issue of forgiveness. I mean, you have to; if you’re going to walk with the Lord, you must. I’m a little concerned that I’ve watched, in the last few years, people embrace the philosophy of forgiveness without the practice of forgiveness. In other words, we hold to the value but not necessarily to the daily practice of forgiveness.
So how is it that for most of us, we experience something horrible? A friend or someone betrays us and does something very horrible to us, and we go through a process where we realize we need to forgive them. How do you arm yourself with the tool or the weapon of forgiveness so that you actually have the sword drawn while it’s being done to you? Do you understand what I’m asking? He’s in the middle of the most horrible thing that has ever happened to any human being, forgiving while he’s in the middle of it. Turn in your Bibles, if you would, to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 6. I felt it was important that we end the year with this subject, with this theme today, and we start the year with this theme as well. I am anticipating what may go down in our history as the greatest miracle of all, and that is walking at a supernatural level of forgiveness and reconciliation.
Jesus had a prayer that he wanted his disciples to learn. It’s called the Lord’s Prayer, often by the Western church anyway. It’s not a good name for it because the prayer contains a confession of sin, and Jesus had no sin. I’m not sure that it was a prayer he meant to be memorized or prayed, although I’m certainly not opposed to praying it; I try to do so every morning and every night. I like to end my day with that prayer; I like to remember and start my day with it. So I’m certainly not opposed to it because I do it constantly, but it’s representative of what prayer should look like: the values, the things that are important to address in our fellowship, in our communion with God.
I want to start in verse 9 and read through it, and then we’ll go back and read through it again. Verse 9: «In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.»
I’m going to read it again, but I want to explain a couple of things to you before I read this. When it says, «Your kingdom come, Your will be done,» Jack Taylor, our wonderful father in the faith and dear friend of this house—he’s home with the Lord now—but I remember when he taught us about the verb tense in the original language. It can actually be translated: «Kingdom of God, come. Will of God, be done.» It was actually a decree; it wasn’t a petition. A petition is when you’re pursuing something that you hope might be the will of God. This is already revealed as the will of God, so we’re joining our hearts and our faith with what he has already determined to happen: «Kingdom of God, come; will of God, be done on Earth as it is in heaven.»
«On Earth as it is in heaven» is the model for everything Jesus taught and practiced. It moves on in the prayer, and we see: «Give us this day our daily bread.» There are actually some older translations that put it this way: «Give us today tomorrow’s bread.» Many of us are accustomed to a God who provides at 11:59 all the time, but that prayer tells us He sometimes wants to provide a day ahead of time. But sometimes our disobedience delays the response: «Give us today tomorrow’s bread.»
It moves on, and it says, «Deliver us from the evil one, for Yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever.» When we acknowledge it’s our Father’s kingdom, we are acknowledging that everything about the kingdom of God has to do with family—not just the nuclear family but the family of God. I want to read it again: «Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Kingdom of God, come; will of God be done on Earth as it is in heaven. Give us today tomorrow’s bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from the evil one; Yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever.»
Here’s what gets me, though: when Jesus completes this model prayer, he could have emphasized any part of it. He could have talked about how kind and generous His Father was. He could have gone further to illustrate how Heaven is the model for Earth. He could have discussed the abundance of His provision, as in Psalm 23, «I shall not want.» He could have elaborated on any of these areas after concluding that model prayer. But this is what he emphasized: «For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. If you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.» This has to be one of the more sobering portions of Scripture where you follow this victorious, delightful, hope-filled prayer with a warning. It says, «Keep at the center of this life you have with Christ in Christ your desire, your commitment, your quickness to forgive.»
Paul mentioned in Romans, «So far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.» Imagine yourself having maybe a toolkit—you’re a carpenter or some kind of worker with many different tools. He’s basically saying make sure that you use every tool in your arsenal to be at peace; make sure you’ve done everything at your disposal to protect your relationship with people. Those who need to be proven right have the most difficult time walking out the daily practice of forgiveness. We call it our need for justice, but any definition of justice that doesn’t have forgiveness woven into the equation is a misunderstanding of justice. Because, believe it or not, you are forgiven by God because of His justice. He didn’t violate justice to forgive us; He illustrated justice by forgiving us.
See, when I forgive someone, I’m no longer the victim; I’m the victor. It doesn’t mean I control them, doesn’t mean I manipulate them; it just means I’m in a position where I am now the victor. I’m not controlled or manipulated by the good or bad decisions of anybody around me. Jesus prayed that prayer in Luke 23:34. He said, «Father, forgive them.» Imagine hanging between two thieves. Jesus has taken the place of Barabbas, a convicted criminal; He is the most innocent one to ever live, hanging between two thieves. One mocks Him, the other asks for mercy. Jesus announces that he will be with him that very day in paradise.
While hanging on the cross, suffering the most brutal death imaginable, He prays, «Father, forgive them; they don’t know what they’re doing.» Now think about that with me because they did know what they were doing. They knew they were crucifying an innocent man. They knew they had just released a guilty criminal in His place. They knew from His reputation, His ministry, His works, where He had served in that city in that region for three and a half years. They knew His reputation; they knew of the resurrections, the multiplying of food, and the crowds that cheered His messages because they brought such life. They knew all of that; but yet from Jesus’s perspective, they didn’t know enough, and so He said, «Forgive them; they don’t get it.»
It’s interesting—there’s this passage in Isaiah; I’ll just read it to you. It’s in chapter 54; it’s a prophecy about a prayer that will be prayed someday, and Jesus just prayed it. It says, «Because he poured out his soul unto death» (53:12); he was numbered with the transgressors. He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. Here’s the fulfillment of a prophetic word back in Isaiah—that this one who would bear the sin of many would be interceding for those who are the most guilty.
Now, this is fascinating to me because first of all, we know that Jesus is entirely God and entirely man—the most impossible thing to comprehend. Kendall puts it this way: He was God as though He were not man at all, and He was man as though He were not God at all. So now we have Jesus, the Son of Man, praying for their forgiveness. If he’s doing it as God, he can pronounce forgiveness. That’s good. So He’s praying, «God, forgive them; they don’t know what they’re doing.» Why was it important for Him to pray that kind of prayer?
I remember a number of years ago, when I used to do marriage counseling—thank you, Jesus! Thank you for Danny Silk and all the others, Val and all the others who do it. Thank you, God! I could just fly off the stage; I’m so happy! But when I used to, I remember sitting with a couple in my office. The wife had done something ten years earlier, and they had been in conflict ever since. So I asked him, «Have you forgiven your wife?» and he said, «Yes.» I told him the concept of bringing forth fruit of your repentance. In other words, if you claim an internal reality, it has to be measurable. If you say you love God but hate your brother, you’re lying. Why? Because what you claim to be an internal reality can’t be measured externally.
So I shared that with him. I said, «Now, do you have any fruit of your forgiveness?» He thought for a moment and said, «No.» I said, «All right, well, let’s meet next week and bring me some fruit.» About a week later, we sat down, and I thought I’d try it differently. I turned to the wife and said, «Has he forgiven you?» She said, «Nope.» I turned to him and asked, «Do you have fruit of your forgiveness?» He said, «Yes,» and started going through a list. She had become so hardened from ten years of conflict that she wasn’t able to see what had actually happened. When he went through the list, she went, «Oh.» She admitted that she was wrong. Anyway, marriage worked; they’re still together. Thank You, Jesus; miracles happen, not due to me, but I just happened to be there for that moment.
Forgiveness has to be measurable in action, amen? It can’t be an internal philosophy; it can’t just be an internal way of thinking; it actually has to be measurable. So what did Jesus do? He had measurable evidence of forgiveness. What was it? Intercession on behalf of those that were the most guilty. He prayed. Sometimes that’s what you’re left to do. Sometimes you forgive a person you can’t afford to associate with; maybe they’re a violent individual. If someone has stolen money from you, forgiving doesn’t mean you give them your checkbook to do with what they want. It means that you take care of the issue in your heart so that your thought life about them reflects your forgiveness.
True forgiveness is measurable through outward practice. So Jesus, hanging on a cross, prays and says, «God, forgive them; they don’t get it.» A number of years ago, a dear friend of the Weaverville crew, Dick Joyce, a wonderful prophet of the Lord, was ministering to us in Weaverville. We met him here, actually at Bethel, with my parents. Dick was not an outdoorsman, but a friend asked him if he wanted to go rattlesnake hunting. Dick said no, but he got curious. He said, «If I wanted to go, where would I go?» In other words, tell me so I don’t ever go there. I remember once I was going fishing on the Upper Sacramento River. I pulled into this campground, and there was a sign about the size of one of those 8×4 signs. It said «Infested by rattlesnakes.» I just turned out. It was probably put up by a fisherman enjoying that part of the river all to himself, but anyway, I wasn’t going to take any chances. I turned around and found another place to fish.
This guy asked Dick if he would like to go rattlesnake hunting. He said, «No, but if I wanted to, where would we go?» He described the kind of places where he would find rattlesnakes. He said the best place is where there are rock walls, and anytime you can find a rock wall with a stone missing, snakes like to get inside that rock wall and just coil up where there’s no connection. 1 Peter 2 describes us as a house built of living stones, built together to house a holy priesthood. The snake likes to hide with this distance between the stones where there’s no connection. You can be right or you can be reconciled.
It’s interesting that season we were learning that particular lesson—Dick was with us. I don’t remember how many days or weeks later, but I used to be an advisor to Women’s Glow. We were down in Chico at the Springs of Living Water, a conference ground there. There was a big conference, and Kathy Valon was leading in worship. She was in the back of this big hall, and come to find out a rattlesnake had crawled into the back of the sanctuary. She took a communion bottle and killed the snake with a communion bottle! Go Kathy! Come on, we should have mounted that thing! To have Dick teach us one week that the snake hides where there’s no connection and then have her prophetically kill the poisonous snake with communion—are you getting it yet? Some of us need very simple lessons to learn what He’s actually saying.
In that season and moment, we began to learn at a different level how much God values connection, walking in forgiveness. I want you to look with me, if you would, at 1 Corinthians chapter 13. If you would, open to that part of Scripture, please. 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Are you alive? I’m going to read part of this chapter to you in just a moment. One of our dearest friends, who is also home with the Lord now, Bob Jones—what a fascinating individual! How many of you were ever here when Bob Jones would come to minister? Oh, so many of you have missed the privilege of this highly gifted lover of God and people. He was a genuine prophet of the Lord. He actually announced one day that there was a comet that scientists didn’t know was coming, and it would appear on such and such a day. He was mocked by the entire scientific community, and then it appeared on that exact day! They called him to see what else was out there that they didn’t know was there. He said, «You didn’t believe me last time,» and hung up on them.
But Bob was such an unusually gifted and true prophet of the Lord. Anyway, he died back in the 70s, and when he died, he appeared before the Lord. The Lord had one question for him: «Did you learn to love?» After that question, he found himself back in his body. If you met Bob, you would have no question but that his highest value was to demonstrate the love of God to everybody he met. It was impossible to be with him for any length of time at all and not realize that his love for people and God was his supreme value. Love is to be measurable. The reason I wanted to speak to you today and trade places with Chris for this particular day is due to maybe what might be like a dream, a goal, an ambition.
I love what Ken Williams said years ago: «I love us!» I do! I love the price that so many of you have paid to be a part of this place. You come from countries all over the world just to be here with us. I love your insistence on seeing the power of God displayed in the most impossible situations. I love that so much! I love the global response and the stuff that you either do or support around the world to bring relief to broken, disastrous places. The missions work, the travel so many of you participate in to spread the gospel—I love seeing the emphasis placed on working with the troubled youth of our city, and the list goes on and on. I love all of that.
But what I’m thinking today is: what if we were to take 2024 and refine and reduce the complexity of our goal, our ambition, our desire, our dream for 2024? What if we set a corporate goal that by the end of this year we want to be known as people who love well? I would never say that to imply you don’t, but if you’re anything like me, as I go through this reading, I see I need to improve. When I visualize the suffering Jesus experienced and I see Him practicing forgiveness in the middle of that, He didn’t wait to come to the conclusion later; it was in the betrayal trial—He forgave then. I realize I need to up my game.
1 Corinthians 13:4: «Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself; is not puffed up; does not behave rudely; does not seek its own; is not provoked; thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.» Say that last phrase with me: «Love never fails.» Say it again: «Love never fails.»
I watch parts of social media; sometimes I get so mad at it I could throw my iPad across the room, but I don’t. That’s just stuff I keep to myself; you’ll never see it. I repent by the time it gets to you. Some things are frustrating, but there are things I really enjoy. I watched a video—I’ve actually seen it probably three or four times now. Maybe some of you have seen it; there’s this trial where this very hardened criminal has ruthlessly murdered a bunch of people. For whatever reason—common practice, I don’t know—the judge allowed the family members of his victims to come and say what they thought about him.
One by one, they came before him and described what he did to their loved one—daughter, son, spouse—and one by one expressed that they hoped he burned in hell. They went on and emphasized their absolute hatred. If you saw the crimes he committed, I don’t think there’s a person in the room that wouldn’t say that response makes sense. Yet towards the tail end of this long stack of relatives stood someone who said something like, «My daughter that you killed was the delight of my life, but I forgive you.»
Here was this guy who endured the most vicious words any of us would hear in our lifetime. He stood unmoved by every condemning harsh word, and one person stood before him and said, «But I forgive you.» Forgiveness broke down this man’s wall of protection—crafted for who knows how many years for how many reasons of his own personal suffering. Each side of Jesus hung a thief—one mocks Him, the other says, «Remember me.» Here is the slightest expression of faith, an expression that doesn’t fit the models we would create for how to come to Jesus. He just said, «Remember me.»
And Jesus said, «Today, you’ll be with me in paradise.» Here is the Son of God who is being crucified because of this man’s sins. If there was no one else on the planet but this one sinner, the sin Jesus was being crucified for was him. In that moment, He announced, «It’s all washed away, and today we will be together in paradise.» It would be a mistake to think that the man who brutally murdered so many people is less deserving of forgiveness than I am. Jesus forgave the criminal at His right, who expressed a desire for life, and He prayed for the guys at His feet who were gambling for His clothing, and the religious leaders who were shouting, «Crucify Him!» The most innocent person is forgiving the most guilty people all at the same time because this is a kingdom that has as its backbone the beauty, the wonder, the privilege of forgiveness.
He said, «If you have received forgiveness, forgive others. If you do not forgive others, you are not forgiven.» I had an interesting conversation with Rick Joer just a couple of months ago. What an amazing man! It’s a privilege every time I get to be with him. We had a meal together, and I remember just talking. He made a profound statement, though I wish I could quote him perfectly. It’s basically: the way we live in forgiveness and reconciliation affects our eternity.
Reconciliation and forgiveness—your greatest weapon has an effect on eternity. This is not meant to be a message of shame; it’s an invitation to a lifestyle. I express this today out of my own personal challenges and needs. I’ve been more aware of this truth in my life over the last few years than at any time in my life, probably all combined—walking out the privilege of reconciliation and forgiveness. If someone has stolen tons of money from you, forgiveness doesn’t mean you give them your checkbook. It just means you’re no longer holding a record of what they’ve done so you can win your next argument. Love doesn’t take into account a wrong suffered; it doesn’t keep an accounting.
What I just described is impossible for us to do. It’s not like, «Well, all right, just suck it up; let’s just make this happen.» It’s not that. It only comes by surrender to the grace of God because walking in His forgiveness—see, the more I discover how thorough my forgiveness is, the quicker I want to forgive anyone around me. For me to realize that some of you didn’t agree with that statement a little bit ago—that the man who killed all those people is no less deserving, or I’m not more deserving of forgiveness than he is—realizing that completely removes every religious objection to the privilege of forgiving people.
So good! Every objection! So good! Happy New Year! Would that help? I obviously should have found a joke for the beginning or maybe the end. I wonder what it would be like! It sounds like I’m trying to create a reputation—I’m not. But what would it be like for the talk in your neighborhood to be, «I don’t know how they do it, but no matter what happens to them, they forgive fast; they love well.» What would it be like? Actually, one of my ambitions in eternity is for it to be said to the citizens of this community, «Reading in California, you learn to love well.» Yes! Members of the churches throughout this great city, «You learn to love well.»
Sometimes I think, «How far do I push this one?» Sometimes to love well, you have to be okay with someone not thinking well of you. Wow! I think I’m done! I think I pretty much—you know, I’m trying to figure out how to rescue this message. It’s so good! This is not reconciliation; forgive me for my half of the argument. That’s a religious way of accusing the other person. Basically, it says, «I’m mature enough to repent. Are you mature enough to repent to me?» Wow! I should probably quit right here; I can tell I’m going downhill fast!
Yeah, keep pushing! I’ve got six more minutes! So what did I think of Christmas? It was good! It was good! What would it look like to have the most rumors? There have been one or two rumors about us—maybe three! What would it be like to have the rumors illustrate forgiveness? It’s almost like Jesus taught this prayer, «This is how you bring Heaven to Earth,» but the context is forgiveness. Don’t forget the heart and soul of this prayer: it’s to bring Heaven to Earth, it’s to bring transformation, it’s to fill your life with the abundance of God’s supply. I shall not want; it’s all supposed to happen that way. But the heart and soul—everything depends on this one thing: forgiveness—learning to love well.
All right, I’m done. Stand! Thank you, you made it! Happy New Year! I’m serious when I say I want to hear rumors of extreme forgiveness! It’s the sermon that never ends! I just won’t quit! How many of you have at least one situation where you think you need to maybe pursue reconciliation or forgiveness—some area? All right, put a hand on somebody’s shoulder next to you. Let’s pray, «Help them in the grace of God to illustrate and demonstrate forgiveness.»
May our forgiveness of others be proven in our thought life and in our actions. May our forgiveness of others be seen in our intercessions for the blessing and benefit of those around us who have hurt us. May we use the model that Jesus gave us and actually illustrate the lifestyle of forgiveness by the cries, the intercessions for the well-being of others. I ask that You help us, Father, in this next year to illustrate what it looks like to love well, and let it be said, Reading loves you well.
Let me ask quickly: if there’s anybody in the room who doesn’t have a personal relationship with Jesus but would say, «Bill, I don’t want to leave this building until I know I have found peace with God; until I know I’ve been forgiven of sin and brought into His family,» if you’re in that condition, put a hand up real quick. I just want to see your hand and agree with you. Put your hand up high; you’re saying, «I want to surrender my life to Jesus right here!» Wonderful! Thank you! Anyone else? Real quick, it’s wonderful! Anyone in that position? We’ve got a team over here that we know and trust. It’s not about belonging to this; it’s about belonging to God—to know what it is to be forgiven.
Bless, bless! Music, come! Come on up right now, ministry team! If you would, come to the front as well. Thank you! Just walk them on up. Bless you! Thanks!