Freedom
from Death--Palm Sunday, March 24, 2013
So, within the space of one
hour we came from the first Palm Sunday, when Jesus was hailed as King, and
moved 5 days forward to Good Friday when Jesus was hailed as a heretic &
criminal, deserving of torture and execution.
Today I want for us to focus upon some of Jesus last words before he
died. He said, and please repeat after
me, ”Father, forgive them for they do
not know what they are doing.” Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.
Why did Jesus forgive them
then and there, and how did He do
it? Jesus chose to forgive them because
it is God’s will that all of us ultimately choose to forgive the sins of
others, just as we want God the Father to forgive us. Jesus forgave them because he would rather
have been right with God, then being hurt and angry against all the people who
turned against Him. Jesus forgave them
because he understood something that most of us do not—which is this: Who
suffers most? You or the one who hurt
you? You suffer the most. You see, the other person may or may not
believe that he or she has done anything wrong?
He might be insensitive and oblivious to your hurt, or she might believe that you deserved to be
hurt.
· There is no denying that you may have been unjustly
wounded by your adversary, but when we do not forgive others as we want God to
forgive us, then we mainly hurt ourselves.
· When we do not forgive, bitterness and resentment will
linger and fester, and it can have negative repercussions that we cannot even
imagine.
I remember a couple times in my life when I
did not forgive those who had offended or betrayed me. The resentment and anger grew within me, and
it eventually came out against my family.
I went from being a positive person, to becoming a negative person. After all, I was in the right. Those people should have asked for my
forgiveness.
Why do I need to forgive them when they have
not changed, when they continue hurting me and others, when they seem to get
off Scott- free? That just is not fair. But I learned the hard way something that I
hope you do not have to learn, and that is this: If you want peace with God and peace with
yourself, then you need to learn to choose forgiveness over vengeance &
self righteousness.
There are some people who say
that they are just too wounded to forgive the person who have hurt you. That they are so devastated and distraught,
that it does not seem possible now.
Well, God is patient. God
understands your pain and suffering, because Jesus went through it all on the
cross. And God weeps for you, and for
those people who are probably much worse off than you are.
In these cases then we need
to ask God for forgiveness because we are violating his command to forgive
others; and,we can ask God to help us so
that at some point, we will choose to forgive our adversaries.
You see, God has our best
interests at heart. He understands how
our refusal to forgive others will ultimately hurt us, because not forgiving
others is a sin; and that sin can have toxic
results.
Imagine that someone puts a
frog in a kettle of water. At first the
frog will swim around, not knowing that someone has placed the pot on a stove, and
turned up the burner. Initially, as the
water gently warms, the frog becomes complacent. The frog then dozes, not initially realizing
that the water becomes hotter and hotter. Shortly after that, the water begins
to boil; and the frog has unsuspectingly been killed.
When we do not forgive others
and when we do not ask God to forgive us when we don’t, we are like the frog. It may take years for the water in your pot
to become uncomfortably warm. But once the heat begins to rise and become
hotter and hotter, by them, we may be in deeper trouble than what we had
previously imagined. And that trouble,
my friends, is a spiritual death. Spiritual
death is a taste of hell, when by our attitudes and actions we push Jesus away
from us. Jesus will try reaching out to
you over and over again; but as resentment festers and grows, you may become more
and more oblivious to the help Jesus wants to give you.
You see, Jesus died on the
cross not just to give us forgiveness of our sins, but to help us when we are
caught in sin, so that we may repent and turn to His way, the way of life, not
the way of spiritual death.
So, today, you are going to
have a chance to set your soul free by the blood of the cross. In a few minutes we are going to confess our
sins; but today, we are not going to just sit in the comfortable pew, where we
can hide out and not acknowledge our own culpability. Instead, I am going to invite you, in a few
minutes, to write down the sin of your choice; and to boldly stand up and to
bring it up to the consecrated fire beneath the cross of Jesus.
You know, making a burnt offering to God for
the forgiveness of sins goes back to Old Testament times. And just like your paper, offered to God,
will totally burn up, likewise God will forgive you.
But first, we are going to
sing a song as our children rejoin us so that they can share in this offering. This old time song expresses the peace and
reconciliation that Jesus wants you to have with Him.
Today we are going to burn
pieces of paper, representing our sins.
One way to look at this is to imagine that Jesus is purifying our
hearts, like gold and precious silver are refined to remove all their
impurity. Today, you can be made pure,
too, by Jesus Christ, who wants nothing
more than your love for Him, and your wellbeing for you.
In the baskets at the end of
each pew, you will find pens and
envelopes with a purple cross on it, containing pieces of paper. Pass the pens and paper down your pew, and
during this next song, I want you encourage you to write down one or more sins,
for which you wish to receive forgiveness on this Holy day.
After you have finished, join in singing our song. At its conclusion, I will explain the offering process. Also, we want to make this a respectful and
reverent time, so I invite everyone to refrain from conversation except for the
conversation that you have here and now with God.
Remaining seated, I now invite you to open you bulletins to page
6, where you will find the words the song
once you have finished with your paper. As the choir begins, use this time to speak
to God in the quietness of your heart—because we want to be holy, set apart for
our master, ready to do his will.
Confession p. 6 bull
Offering process-----
· Come up on the left aisle , simply place your paper in
the fire pots, and then continue on your way down the right aisle and back to
your seats. Today we will begin with
those in the balcony first.
· Also, we want to continue to make this a respectful and reverent time, by
refraining from conversations. So if those in the balcony would come first, we
will consecrate this to God. Let us
pray: Almighty Father, accept this expression of
love and contrition, that in making this offering, we would glorify the cross
of Jesus, by which we are freed from sin and death, now and forever. AMEN
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