Last week, we kicked off the new year and the new millennium by considering the topic of "Making a Fresh Start." We looked at what the Bible has to say about making life changes, and we especially focused on our need for God’s help in making changes that are lasting and significant. This morning, I’d like to continue in that vein as we begin a new four-week series on the topic of "forgiveness".
Why Forgiveness? Because forgiveness is about making a fresh start in the most important part of life - relationships. Would you like to get along better with your husband, your wife, your parents, your children? Would you like your home to have less animosity, less destructive conflict, less fault-finding, less ill-will - and instead to have more genuine affection, more respect, more appreciation, more love. Well, I have good news. God wants that too. In fact, He not only desires that your relationships with other people improve, He desires that your relationship with Him improve. And in His Word He has given us the key to making that happen - forgiveness.
Forgiveness is about repairing relationships that have been bent, bruised and broken. Forgiveness is about restoring relationships with those who have hurt us - and with those whom we have hurt. Forgiveness is about resurrecting relationships which have been so damaged that they are all but dead.
Over the next three weeks, we will discover key principles from God’s Word that apply to every relationship we have - from our most intimate connections with husband or wife, children, parents, friends - to our deepest spiritual connections with God. These principles will help us strengthen and improve our relationships with other people, and guide us in repairing those relationships with things break down. They will free us from the destructive cycle of hurt, anger, disappointment, and bitterness. They will allow us to build bridges instead of blowing them up.
If all this sounds too good to be true, it is. The kind of change, the kind of transformation I’m talking about, is only possible with supernatural help. Only the power of God, applied to our lives through His Word and His Spirit, can bring true, lasting change. The good news is that He makes His power available to anyone who will ask. I hope that as a result of our study of the topic of forgiveness these next four weeks, you will seek and receive this power.
This morning, we’re going to lay the foundation for the next three weeks, and look at the need for forgiveness. Because in order to embrace forgiveness as the solution to the problem, we have to be convinced that there really is a problem, and we have to understand the nature of that problem. And what is the problem? Sin. Very simple. It is sin that breaks relationships. We sin against one another, and we sin against God. As a result, we need to forgive and we need to be forgiven.
Now, someone might object that this is too negative. Well, let me give you an example. I read in the paper yesterday morning that David Letterman just had emergency quintuple bypass heart surgery on Friday, after an angiogram revealed that one of his arteries was severely constricted. Now, when the doctor completed his examination and reported the news to Dave, how do you suppose he reacted? Did he complain that the doctors were being "too negative?" In the same way, a clear look at the problem is an essential first step in correcting the problem, which is what we all want. In order to get to the good news, you have to go through the bad news. Things are going to get a little dark for a while, but when we come out at the other end of the tunnel, I promise that the light will be glorious.
The Nature of Sin
First, what is sin? These days, sin is just a "snicker word." We use it to describe something that’s naughty or mildly scandalous. [chocolate that’s "sinfully delicious", unmarried couples living together "living in sin".] Sin is something to laugh at, to make jokes about. It certainly has lost any connotation of evil. It’s something funny or cute or naughty, not something serious.
Not surprisingly, the Bible takes a different view of things. The Bible sees sin, first and foremost, as rebellion against God.
"Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight." -- Psalm 51:1-4 (NIV)
According to the Bible, God made us. He is the creator, we are His creatures. We owe our very existence to Him. Therefore, He has the right and authority to require obedience from us. Sin, very simply, is disobedience.
"Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness." -- 1 John 3:4 (NIV)
Sin is poking our thumb in God’s eye. Sin is rejecting God’s authority over us, and making ourselves the authority instead. It can be either an active rejection or a passive disregard of God.
The key to understanding the nature of sin is to realize that it’s not just specific acts of disobedience, but the inclination of the heart that produces those acts. Sin is fundamentally a state of alienation from God, an ongoing state of enmity against God, which expresses itself in specific acts of disobedience. Sinful acts come from a sinful heart.
"The things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ’unclean.’ For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man ’unclean’; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him ’unclean.’" -- Matthew 15:17-20 (NIV)
How does the nature of sin relate to the issue of forgiveness and reconciliation? It shows us that the root of broken relationships between us and other people is a broken relationship between us and God. It shows that the real problem is not just the specific things we say and do, but the heart attitude that produces those words and acts. And it shows us that real change can’t come from just trying to change behavior. What we need is a change of heart. That change of heart comes from forgiving and being forgiven.
The Universality of Sin
How common is sin? If sin were a virus, how many of us would test positive for it?
[Read newspaper clippings containing examples of sin] These newspaper articles give us an idea of how common and widespread the problem of sin is. First, it’s worldwide. Second, it afflicts different classes of people. Third, it’s so common that we find it unremarkable that even the most horrendous crimes - rape, murder - can be found in our newspaper every day of the week.
It doesn’t seem unusual to us that we have to lock our doors. We take it for granted that people lie (especially politicians). We aren’t surprised when we open the Sun Herald to read the police report and find that cars have been broken into and people have been assaulted. Sin is like air - it’s so common and pervasive that usually we don’t even notice it.
In fact, the Bible tells us that sin is common to every single human being.
"As it is written: ’There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.’" -- Rom. 3:10-12 (NIV)
"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" -- Rom. 3:23 (NIV)
"There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins" -- Ecclesiastes 7:20 (NIV)
In other words, we are all sinners. Does this surprise you? It doesn’t mean that we are all equally sinful, or that hatred is as bad as murder. But it does mean that the hater and the murderer are both sinners and both guilty. It means that every person in this room stands before God a guilty sinner.
What does this aspect of sin tell us about forgiveness and reconciliation? It tells us that we need to be forgiven. You may have been sinned against, you may have been badly mistreated. You may need to forgive those who have wronged you. But the doctrine of sin tells us that each of us needs to be forgiven also. First by God, and then also by other people. Unless we are willing to recognize our own sin and our own need of forgiveness, we will never be able to truly forgive others.
The consequences of sin
Sin leads to death and judgement.
"For the wages of sin is death" -- Rom. 6:23 (NIV)
"Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment" -- Heb. 9:27 (NIV)
Sin alienates us from God and from one another.
"But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear." -- Isaiah 59:2 (NIV)
What does lying do to a relationship? What does self-centeredness do? What does pride do? Sin corrodes and destroys relationships.
The antidote to sin - forgiveness
"God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off -- for all whom the Lord our God will call." -- Acts 2:36-39 (NIV)
(For an .rtf file of this and other sermons, see www.journeychurchonline.org/messages.htm)
