Forgiveness: The Heart of the Table
Matthew 26:17-30
Harry Stoliker
August 1, 2010 EBC
Forgiveness: The Heart of the Table
Here is the message I want to give you this morning: The heart of the table is
forgiveness. The Lord's Table points us to the means of
our eternal forgiveness from God. That means was the shed blood
of Jesus Christ. Because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ on our
behalf, we are brought into an eternal relationship with God in what
is called the New Covenant. Without the blood there
would be no forgiveness. Without the forgiveness there would be no
New Covenant. V.28 "This is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured
out for many for the forgiveness of sins." Jesus directly says that the reason
His blood was poured out was that many – multiplied millions – who
repent of their sin – may be forgiven. Heb. 9:22 "Indeed, under the law almost
everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no
forgiveness of sins."Sacrificial blood was the most prominent feature
of the entire OT way of being ceremonially clean. Lev. 17:11
says "For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make
atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for
one's life." Atonement, purification, cleanings – all these
words pointed forward to the eternal forgiveness that only the blood
of Jesus Christ could bring us.
The one key highlight of the New Cov. that I want to focus on this
morning is forgiveness. God foretold of this eternal forgiveness
in Christ when he spoke about the New Cov. in Jer. 31:31-34. "The time
is coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of
Israel and with the house of Judah. 32 It will not be like the
covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them
out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them, declares
the LORD. 33 "This is the covenant I will make with the house
of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
34 No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother,
saying, 'Know the LORD,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to
the greatest," declares the LORD. "For I will forgive their wickedness and
will remember their sins no more."
God makes it clear that the NC is superior to the OC. Not only are
God's laws now written on our minds and hearts rather than on tablets
of stone, but everyone in the NC knows God personally and experiences
a complete removal of his sins through forgiveness.
Forgiveness was central in the preaching of the early apostles
as the heart of the gospel. Have you ever noticed that as you read through the
Book of Acts? Let me show you. Acts 5:31 "Peter and the other
apostles replied: "We must obey God rather than men! 30The God
of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead—whom you had killed by hanging him on
a tree. 31God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and
Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness
of sins to Israel." I'm fascinated with the connection
that the text gives between the resurrection/ascension event and the
giving of repentance and forgiveness! Repentance and forgiveness are
gifts from the Exalted Savior, our Prince and Leader. They come
from nowhere else! Jesus' resurrection and ascension made Him the fountainhead
of repentance and forgiveness. Peter preached is with full conviction as the heartbeat
of the gospel.
Not only Peter, but Paul makes a vital connection between
the resurrection of Jesus and the message of forgiveness – which is basically
shorthand for the gospel. Death-Resurrection-Ascension-Repentance-Forgiveness
= The Gospel. Turn to Acts 13:26-39. Notice that much is
said about the resurrection of Jesus and that the outflow or result
of the resurrection is that we might enjoy forgiveness through THIS MAN and no other.
Again in Acts, Paul puts forgiveness at the heart of the gospel when
he described his calling from God on the Damascus Road.
Acts 26:17-18 "Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to
appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I
will show you. 17I will rescue you from your own people and from
the Gentiles. I am sending you to them 18to open their eyes and
turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they
may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by
faith in me."
The two shorthand summary statements for the gospel Paul was to bring to
the Gentiles were forgiveness of sins and a place in the New Covenant Community
– those who are sanctified by faith in Jesus. Paul mission was to preach that the
Gentile could have forgiveness of their sins and be included in God's NC Community
by faith alone in Christ. God said exactly the same thing through Jeremiah
in Chap. 31: "I will be their God and they will be my people, for
I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."
So, this morning we are rejoicing over the truth that God has forgiven
us because of the sacrificial blood of Jesus Christ. He was the
perfect Lamb of God that takes away the sin of everyone in the world
who repents of their wicked sins. Are you able to rejoice
over this truth this morning? The first thing I want Christians here
today to do is to rejoice that your sin has been cleansed and removed
in God's eyes by the blood of Jesus. This calls for rejoicing!
One writer (JP) said that in order to really rejoice
over forgiveness we must remember how much we needed it before Christ
became our Sin-Bearer. He said: "I must feel the truth that once
I was as close to hell as I am to the chair I am sitting on – even closer.
Its darkness, like vapor, had entered my soul and was luring me
down. Its views were my views. I was a son of hell (Matt. 23:15),
a child of the Devil (John 8:44) and a child of wrath (Eph.
2:3). I belonged to the viper's brood (Matt. 3:7),
without hope and without God (Eph. 2:12). I must believe that just as a rock climber,
having slipped, hangs over the deadly cliff by his fingertips, so
I once hung over hell and was a heartbeat away from eternal torment.
I say it slowly, eternal torment!"
We rejoice too little over our forgiveness! We need to rejoice more!
The happiest, most blessed and most loving people are those who have grasped how
enormous God's forgiveness upon their souls has been.
What affect on your life, if you are truly a Biblical Christian,
should the forgiveness of Christ have? There should be many affects and evidences
in our lives if we know Christ's forgiveness. The one I want to focus on this morning
is that we will be forgiving people when we are hurt, harmed, insulted
or sinned against. Eph. 4:32 spells this out clearly: "Be kind and
compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God
forgave you." If you rejoice in how much God has forgiven you,
you will rejoice in the privilege to forgive others who harm you!
Listen to how R.C. Sproul explains it: "We tend to be far more ungenerous
in forgiving others than God is in forgiving us. If God were to be as reluctant
to forgive as we are in forgiving those who sin against us, we would be in serious
trouble. As Christians we are forgiven people. We are likewise called
to be forgiving people. Jesus clearly sets forth an ethic of charity
in His teaching and in His behavior with those who wrong us. An unwillingness
to forgive clearly has no place in the kingdom, and may in fact
signal that such a one has not experienced the initial forgiveness of
God in his or her life."
What does it mean to forgive someone who has hurt, harmed or sinned
against you? What is forgiveness? "Forgiveness is me giving up my
right to hurt you for hurting me. True forgiveness means laying down
our right to remain angry and giving up our claim to future repayment
of the debt we have suffered. The Greek term for "forgiveness" comes
from a word that means "to let go." Forgiveness is a release, a
letting go of self-destructive feelings such as anger, bitterness and
a desire for revenge. Those attitudes poison intimacy
with God and harmony with human beings. Forgiveness brings great joy,
not only to the forgiven, but especially to the forgiver." Philip Ryken
Forgiveness may be described as a decision to make four promises:
"I will not dwell on this incident."
"I will not bring up this incident again and use it against you."
"I will not talk to others about this incident."
"I will not let this incident stand between us or hinder our personal
relationship."
Author Sam Storms says the same thing very nicely: "The way we cancel
the debt of one who has sinned against us is by promising not to bring
it up to the offender, to others, or to ourselves. We joyfully resolve
never to throw the sin back into the face of the one who committed
it. We promise never to hold it over their head, using it to manipulate
and shame them. And we promise never to bring it up to others in an attempt
to justify ourselves or to undermine their reputation.
And lastly, we promise never to bring it up to ourselves as grounds for self-pity
or to justify our resentment of the person who hurt us."
How do you measure up to these definitions and descriptions of biblical forgiveness?
If you are going to take the Table this morning, you have to examine
your heart – the depths of your heart – to make sure you are not harboring any un-forgiveness
toward ANYONE past or present. That would be to take the table in an unworthy manner.
I know forgiveness is hard for our flesh. But if Christ's Spirit
lives in you, He will give you grace to forgive that person
who has damaged your life. When we think clearly, think biblically,
when we think about the Cross of Jesus, then we are able
to forgive deeply.
Listen carefully to this: "When I become bitter or unforgiving toward
others, I'm assuming that the sins of others are more serious than
my sins against God. The cross transforms my perspective. Through
the cross I realize that no sin committed against me will ever be as serious as
the innumerable sins I've committed against God. When we understand
how much God has forgiven us, it's not difficult to forgive others.
Because we are the most forgiven people in the world, we should be the most forgiving
people in the world." C.J. Mahaney
The men will distribute the bread and juice in a minute. You may take
it if you know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior from sin. If you
cannot honestly say in your heart that you are trusting Jesus blood
alone as the only way God would forgive your massive sin
against Him, then I want you to become a true Christian right now.
Pray to God, cry out to God in Jesus Name that He would forgive
you of all your sin and give you the gift of eternal life. Confess your
sins as sins, repent, determine to leave your old life of sin and
become obedient to the Lord Jesus Christ. Then you will be saved,
and then you can take the Table with Joy in your heart.
Christian, are you sufficiently rejoicing over your forgiveness in
Christ? Are you truly a forgiving person when someone hurts you in
some painful way? Then you are ready to take the table!
Let's pray for grace.