pavel hanes
Fellowship of Freedom )
Forgiveness 3
Liptovský Mikuláš, 19. September 2013

I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.	
Genesis 50:15-21   Seeing that their father was dead, Joseph's brothers said, 'What if Joseph intends to treat us as enemies and pay us back for all the wrong we did him?'  16 So they sent this message to Joseph: 'Before your father died, he gave us this order:  17 "You are to say to Joseph: Now please forgive the crime and faults of your brothers and all the wrong they did you." So now please forgive the crime of the servants of your father's God.' Joseph wept at the message they sent to him.  18 Then his brothers went to him themselves and, throwing themselves at his feet, said, 'Take us as your slaves!'  19 But Joseph replied, 'Do not be afraid; is it for me to put myself in God's place?  20 The evil you planned to do me has by God's design been turned to good, to bring about the present result: the survival of a numerous people.  21 So there is no need to be afraid; I shall provide for you and your dependants.' In this way he reassured them by speaking affectionately to them.	
0.	Introduction
The story we read in Genesis is a very touching story. It’s not sure that Jacob really said those words, but the brothers are anxious so they say he did. Joseph cries: emotions are very important when we’re talking about forgiveness! Joseph talks to his brothers with love – after forgiving someone, we ought to be able to live with the person, to have a good relationship with one another.

•	Evangelicals: no time for theology? - be practical!!
- We often forget about the theology and jump right into practice. That’s why I’ve done the first two lectures on the theology of forgiveness and today we’re going to look at the consequences in the life of our fellowship.
•	Let us recall: Forgiveness is not: (1) Pardon, legal mercy, and leniency, (2) Reconciliation, (3) Condoning and excusing, (4) Justification, (5) Self-centering.
•	Remember the reality of sin: (1) nature, (2) history, (3) logic, (4) conscience, (5) Scriptures
•	Three parts On Forgiveness: (1) The Seriousness of Sin (2) The Greatness of Grace (3) The Fellowship of Freedom
•	 Forgiveness: (1) founded on the attribute of God, (2) motivated by the provision of God, (3) empowered by the work of the Holy Spirit
•	The only real and safe basis for forgiveness: The atonement/the Cross of Christ
-	To know what forgiveness means is to know what sin means
-	It’s difficult to measure sin: introspection? looking at other people? (I always find someone worse than myself) BUT the Holy Spirit – we need His revelation of our sins and of the cross
-	If my sin had time and space to develop it would become the worse sin I can ever imagine (e.g. Pilate’s sin, the sin of those, who crucified Jesus)
Freedom of a fellowship: we are able to rejoice in seeing each other, to talk even about the things we needed to forgive each other.
Forgiveness is not amnesia, forgetting what happened (David’s sin is recorded in the Bible and it’s been reminded to the readers for thousands of years), but it’s about not being afraid of talking about any topic of the past.

1.	
Atonement  Redemption  REconciliation  freedom
Christ is to us just what His cross is. All that Christ was in heaven or on earth was put into what He did there.
1.	Atonement
•	Exodus 30:10  make atonement (rP<Ki evxila,setai) on it with the blood of the sin offering of atonement (~yrIPuKi) (“Jom Kippur” – the Day of atonement)
•	Heb 2:17 Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins (eivj to. i`la,skesqai ta.j a`marti,aj) of the people.
-	Jesus has become the sacrifice of atonement – He has covered the sins of the world, even of those people who don’t believe = the objective work of salvation.
-	Atonement doesn’t mean reconciliation – there are two parties needed for reconciliation = those people who don’t believe in His sacrifice are not reconciled with God – are not saved.
-	Atonement means God loves me in spite of my worse motives.
2.	Redemption  Ransom
•	ransom: appeasement, obliteration, reparation - Something given which "covers" or cancels an incurred claim over a person or a group; the price of deliverance from an incurred status.
•	Rom 3:24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption (dia. th/j avpolutrw,sewj) that is in Christ Jesus,
•	Psalm 49:7 But no one can ever redeem (hD<p.yI hdop'-al{) himself or pay his own ransom (Arp.K' ~yhil{ale !TEyI-al{) to God,
•	Mt 20:28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
•	1Tim 2:6  …who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.
3.	Prisons
•	John 8:34  Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.
•	Rom 6:16  …the slave either of sin which leads to death…
•	Mt 5:25-26  Come to terms with your opponent in good time while you are still on the way to the court with him, or he may hand you over to the judge and the judge to the officer, and you will be thrown into prison.  26 In truth I tell you, you will not get out till you have paid the last penny.
•	Mt 18:33-34  Were you not bound, then, to have pity on your fellow-servant just as I had pity on you?"  34 And in his anger the master handed him over to the torturers till he should pay all his debt.

-	To make something dirty is much easier than to make it clean.
-	When God forgives us, He doesn’t remind us of the sin any more, but the consequences may remain – that’s why we need the sacrifice of atonement to be applied (to get out of the prison), and to apply it when we need to forgive others.
-	Sin is a slaver, when you get free, you are free from tension.
4.	liberation
1.	Ot - Jubilee year 
•	Dt 15:1 "At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release.
•	Ex 21:2 When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing.
•	Eze 46:17 But if he makes a gift out of his inheritance to one of his servants, it shall be his to the year of liberty; then it shall revert to the prince; only his sons may keep a gift from his inheritance.
•	Jer 34:17 "Therefore, this is what the LORD says: You have not obeyed Me by proclaiming freedom, each man for his brother and for his neighbor. I hereby proclaim freedom for you"-- this is the LORD's declaration-- "to the sword, to plague, and to famine! I will make you a horror to all the earth's kingdoms.
•	2 Chron 36:20-21  And those who had escaped the sword he deported to Babylon, where they were enslaved by him and his descendants until the rise of the kingdom of Persia,  21 to fulfil Yahweh's prophecy through Jeremiah: Until the country has paid off its Sabbaths, it will lie fallow for all the days of its desolation -- until the seventy years are complete.

-	God punished His people for not keeping the years of jubilee
2.	NT - 
•	Isaiah 61:1-3 The Spirit of the Lord God is on Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and freedom to the prisoners;  2 to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor, and the day of our God's vengeance; to comfort all who mourn,  3 to provide for those who mourn in Zion; to give them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, festive oil instead of mourning, and splendid clothes instead of despair. And they will be called righteous trees, planted by the LORD, to glorify Him.
•	"tlak zmizol, v duši nastal pokoj, noc bola pokojná" …the pressure disappeared, peace came into my soul, the night was peaceful…"

-	We need to forgive and let go: the way out of the prison
-	The sun shall not go down while still angry (Eph 4)
-	Forgive us as we forgive… - we should be careful not to call a curse upon ourselves! – if we don’t forgive and we ask God to forgive us in the same way, then we can’t be forgiven
-	Jesus is the One leading out of prison (Is 61) – when He read the text from Isaiah people wanted to kill Him = the reaction of a Christian to forgiveness may as well not be positive sometimes – asking: Does it mean the one who’s done something wrong doesn’t have to pay back anything? – answering: Exactly, that’s grace! = the story of the prodigal son = gospel is provocative, even to us sometimes (someone who’s harmed us or is a terrible sinner in our sight gets grace and doesn’t need to pay for his deeds)
-	If you hear His voice today, do not harden your heart! You’ve been forgiven – and why don’t you wish it to the others?
2.	Reconciliation  fellowship
1.	The Holy Spirit
•	Phil 2:1 Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion,
•	koinwni,a - the art of confrontation - building up one another - observing(!) in love
2.	receiving one another
•	Eph 4:32 And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.
•	Philemon 1:6  the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.
3.	The danger of forfeiting
•	2 Cor 6:1 Working together with Him, we also appeal to you: "Don't receive God's grace in vain."
1.	Esau
•	this-worldly mind/religion
•	"practical": (1) the immediate over the eternal, (2) the physical over the spiritual, (3) "now!" over "later", (4) the natural over the supernatural
•	contempt for spiritual matters
•	Hebrews 12:14-17   Seek peace with all people, and the holiness without which no one can ever see the Lord.  15 Be careful that no one is deprived of the grace of God and that no root of bitterness should begin to grow and make trouble; this can poison a large number.  16 And be careful that there is no immoral person, or anyone worldly minded like Esau, who sold his birthright for one single meal.  17 As you know, when he wanted to obtain the blessing afterwards, he was rejected and, though he pleaded for it with tears, he could find no way of reversing the decision.

-	I may receive forgiveness but the material things are more important to me than spirituality and I am not able to forgive the others.
-	A bowl of stew must be secondary when we’re thinking of God’s promises = we need to give up the worldly and fleshly values if we want to follow the path of eternity (= we’re able to forgive just as He’s forgiven us).
2.	David  Absalom
•	incomplete forgiveness (inconsistency)
•	2 Sa 14:28  Absalom lived in Jerusalem for two years without being received by the king. …32-33  Absalom replied to Joab, 'Look, I sent word to you: Come here, so that I can send you to the king to say, "Why come back from Geshur? Better for me to have been there still!" Now I want to be received by the king, and if I am guilty, let him put me to death!'  33 Joab went to the king and told him this. He then summoned Absalom, who prostrated himself with his face to the ground before the king. And the king kissed Absalom.

-	Decide to forgive everyone!
-	Where we’ve forgiven each other, there is love. John 13:35 “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
3.	Job's friends, Jephtah

Job’s friends had “a sound” theology and Job did not fit into it.
Yes, we do need to speak truth with one another BUT in love (love covers many sins = “covers” by sacrifice, NOT by pretending the sin never happened).
If we confront each other with truth and don’t get to an agreement, we still need to reconcile and go on loving each other.
1.	Schematic theology  monistic (all from God)
•	Job 22:5-10  [Eliphaz]No, for your great wickedness, more likely, for your unlimited sins!  6 You have exacted unearned pledges from your brothers, stripped people naked of their clothes,  7 failed to give water to the thirsty and refused bread to the hungry;  8 handed the land over to a strong man, for some favoured person to move in,  9 sent widows away empty-handed and crushed the arms of orphans. 10 No wonder, then, if snares are all around you, and sudden terrors make you afraid;
2.	Rash, unlawfull promises
•	Judges 11:30-31  And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD and said, "If you will give the Ammonites into my hand,  31 then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the LORD's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering."
4.	
The art of communication

Sometimes we can mean well but say something hurtful anyway. We need to embrace the seriousness of the situation. Wherever there is a fellowship, misunderstandings are going to happen (otherwise we would not be communicating at all). We need to uncover the problem, talk about it and forgive each other.

•	Prov 16:32  Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.
•	Eph 4:15  If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow completely into Christ, who is the head
•	(1) walk in the light, (2) walk in love, (3) listen to the other side, (4) pray for wisdom and timing, (5) expect good from your opponent
1.	understanding the seriousness of reconciliation
•	Pro 26:18-19  Like a madman hurling firebrands, arrows and death,  19 so is anyone who lies to a companion and then says, 'Aren't I amusing?'
•	Pro 14:9 Fools mock at making restitution, but there is goodwill among the upright.
2.	not holding a grudge
•	Eph 4:26  …never let the sun set on your anger
3.	open hearts - waiting for good
•	2 Cor 6:11-13  People of Corinth, we have spoken frankly and opened our heart to you.  12 Any distress you feel is not on our side; the distress is in your own selves.  13 In fair exchange -- I speak as though to children of mine -- you must open your hearts too.

-	Fellowship of freedom is only possible where we have open hearts towards each other
-	Everyone has two sides: Philemon verse 6 – I need to remember the good things in the other person
-	Admonish one another: yes, BUT not only!
4.	"Go!"
•	Mt 5:24  First go and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
•	Mt 18:15  If your brother sins against you, go and rebuke him in private.

3.	conclusion
•	Forgiveness gives freedom.
•	Freedom makes your heart open toward other people.
•	Applying freedom in the Holy Spirit creates the community/fellowship of freedom in the Spirit.