Forgiveness and a Pandemic (Matthew 18:21-22)
Gary McManus, 08/02/2020Part of the Sermons for a Pandemic series, preached at a Sunday Morning service
August 2, 2020 Matthew 18:21-22
Christianity for Dummies by Richard Wagner.
Books like this can be good teaching tools by
pointing all of us to what is important/essential
on any topic.
Part 1: Uncovering What Christianity is All About
Chapter 1: Good News
p. 14 Grace!
God’s undeserved love shown toward all of us. . .
through Jesus. Jesus died for all OUR wrongs.
God sent Jesus for that purpose.
--Chapter 4: sin, forgiveness
Martin Thielen, “What’s the LEAST I can believe
and still be a Christian?”
Relationships with God and others—matter most. . .
(See Matthew 22:33-36 and Matthew 5:43-45)
That’s a lot of relationship to work on. . .
Things are going to go wrong in our relationships.
(We are human in a fallen world.)
We can (and do often) respond in the wrong ways.
(same reasons)
Yes, Jesus is serious about forgiveness. Why?
Because God was serious in forgiveness
and sent Jesus to die to get it done for us.
Many, including Christians,
do not really know what forgiveness is.
Forgiveness means releasing the offender
from any obligation.
We are to release the desire for RESTITUTION.
We can still want restitution but we’re not
demanding it—we could even pray for restitution.
Plenty of examples. . .
Forgiveness toward law breakers does not mean
that they still don’t owe a debt to society—
even though WE may have forgiven them.
(A law-breaking Pastor needs to be prosecuted
(and forgiven).
It’s easy to be confused:
Forgiveness is NOT a forgetting of the crime.
Sometimes victims may want a condemned
offender or sentenced offender pardoned or
released, but that is not necessary for forgiveness
to take place.
Forgiveness is about YOU, the hurt/offended.
In a pandemic there are many opportunities
for forgiveness: the Coronavirus is thought to
spread mainly from person-to-person.
There is plenty of anger, blame, even lawsuits
out there.
Christians, it is time to go to work on forgiveness.
Many more will be infected. Many more will be sick.
Can we forgive when it wasn’t out fault?
Will we be able to forgive ourselves if it is?
Some still won’t be careful. Can we forgive them?
Earlier: | Same day: | Later: |
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