"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
Review: Mark 11:25-26 | Luke 11:4 | Luke 17:4 | 1 Cor 2:8
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:35-00:39
Open up your Bibles with me please to Luke chapter 23.
00:41-00:56
Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, knew that His very purpose for coming to the earth was to die for our sins.
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If you go through the Old Testament, Isaiah chapter 53 talks about the Messiah, the coming Christ rejected by man, crushed by God for our sins.
01:11-01:46
Matthew 16.21, during Jesus' earthly ministry, He told His disciples here and many other places, He told His disciples, "I must go to Jerusalem where I will suffer and be killed and be raised from the dead." One of the clearest teachings of Jesus being completely self-aware of His purpose is in John chapter 10, when Jesus said, "I am the Good Shepherd." The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.
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He said, "No one takes my life from me.
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I lay it down of my own accord." He said, "I have the authority to lay it down, and I have the authority to take it up again." this charge I received from my Father." So Jesus knew.
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He knew.
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Not just that it would happen, but that it was the very purpose for His coming.
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And actually, it wasn't even a surprise how Jesus would suffer for you and for me.
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Deuteronomy 21.23 says, A man hanged on a tree is cursed by God.
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And that phrase "hanged on a tree" that became a euphemism by New Testament times for crucifixion.
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I believe Paul refers to that in the book of Galatians.
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Christ was cursed for us.
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Psalm 22 we'll be talking about here in the coming weeks.
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Psalm 22 perfectly describes, vividly describes crucifixion before such a thing even existed.
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I'd like us to recall the events that led us to these hours that we're going to be spending the next seven weeks studying.
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Jesus enters Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover.
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Passover was Israel's celebration of deliverance from Egypt.
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Takes you back to the book of Exodus.
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There Jesus had what we call the Last Supper.
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He shared that last Passover meal with His disciples.
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And from there Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray.
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he was arrested, sold out by Judas for a handful of change, brought to the Romans, accused by the Jewish religious leaders on trumped up charges that made Jesus' trial a circus.
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The Bible tells us Jesus was scourged and then he was mocked.
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Matthew 27-26 and following.
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I'm going to talk about this for a few minutes, because you know when the Bible talks about Jesus being scourged, that's all it says. It doesn't describe what all was involved with that.
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And it would do us well to understand the extent of Jesus' suffering even before the crucifixion, which this led up to the crucifixion, But Roman floggings were absolutely brutal.
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There were usually 39 lashes, but sometimes more, depending on the mood of the guard.
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And they used a whip of braided leather thongs.
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So understand, when it says Jesus was whipped, it wasn't just like a belt that might leave a smack.
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Woven in these thongs were metal balls and pieces of bone.
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So the idea wasn't to smack the flesh, the idea was to hit the flesh, embed in the flesh, and rip part of the flesh off when the whip was pulled back.
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And they would whip from the shoulders, down the back, the buttocks, down the back of the legs.
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The third century historian Eusebius chronicled it.
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He said that when someone was scourged by the Romans - listen to this - it exposed veins, muscles, sinews, and bowels.
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They would beat you until we could see your insides.
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Many people would die just from the beating.
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This is what Jesus Christ endured before the crucifixion.
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Bible tells us that Jesus was crucified.
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He was nailed to the cross between two criminals.
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You have your Bible open.
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Look at Luke 23.
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Look at verse 33.
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It says, "When they came to the place that is called the skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, One on his right and one on his left.
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The person would be laid down and their hands nailed to a horizontal beam using 5 to 7 inch long spikes.
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And when that cross was raised up, the bones in the shoulder would be dislocated.
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And death on the cross usually occurred by asphyxiation.
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that position, your chest was stuck in the inhaled position. And you would go into cardiac arrest. Crucifixion wasn't designed to be a quick thing, like a hanging, or lethal injection, or the electric chair. Crucifixion was designed to make it as long, and painful, and humiliating humiliating as possible, that this is what your God did for you.
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This is what Jesus Christ endured for six hours.
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And during those hours, the Holy Spirit records for us, preserved in God's Word, seven statements that Jesus made while He suffered.
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The first one that we'll be looking at today is one of the most profound.
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One of the most amazing because it is one of the least expected.
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Jesus has been at this point falsely accused, had a mockery of a trial, beaten half to death and ridiculed, spit on and slapped, stripped down and nailed to a cross.
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So when we get to this point of the passage, I would expect Jesus to say something like this, "Father, kill them for this!" Or "Father, save me!" Or "Father, ease my pain!" Instead, His first response is, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." Forgiveness was a theme that Jesus taught throughout His ministry, right?
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Mark 11, verses 25-26, Jesus said, "Whenever you stand praying, forgive.
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If you have anything against anyone.
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It's pretty inclusive, isn't it?
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When he taught us to pray, Luke 11.4, Jesus said, "Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us." Pretty inclusive, isn't it?
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Pretty exhaustive.
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Luke 17.4, Jesus said, "If your brother sins against you seven times in the day and turns to you seven times saying, 'I repent,' you must forgive him.
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He taught it, and at the hour of the worst offense, the most heinous crime, the greatest act of wickedness that ever happened or ever will happen on this planet.
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Jesus Christ lived what He taught when He said, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." And I'll be honest with you, when I was reading this, there was something I struggled with Jesus said they know not what they do.
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Wait a second here.
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They knew exactly what they were doing, right?
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Actually they didn't understand who Jesus truly was.
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Actually Paul talks about that in 1 Corinthians 2.8.
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They wouldn't have done that if they really comprehended that this is God.
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But in their blindness, in their refusal to acknowledge His identity, Jesus said they know not what they do.
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And to display their, I didn't know whether to call it wicked ignorance, or ignorant wickedness, but look at the same verse.
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You have your Bibles open.
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Look at verse 34.
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After Jesus says, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." Look at the next statement.
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It says, "And they cast lots to divide his garments." Casting lots.
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What's casting lots?
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It's like rolling dice.
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It's gambling.
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So do you have this scene in your head?
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I never really noticed it before like I noticed it this week.
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But you have this scene that while these soldiers were throwing dice and gambling for literally the only thing Jesus owned, the clothes on his back, behind them, the backdrop of their wickedness was Jesus Christ praying for their forgiveness.
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And then I thought, well, Jesus was a pretty effective prayer, wasn't he?
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So we could say, "Were these people forgiven?" I mean, if Jesus said, "Father, forgive them," if Jesus directly asked for their forgiveness, were those people forgiven?
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Well eventually some of them were, for sure.
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Many of them came to saving faith at Pentecost.
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But listen, church.
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More than a statement about the hearts of the people, this says what you need to know about the heart of God.
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And this is the disposition of the heart of God He commands to us, and He commands to us, that we too would have an inclination towards, we too would have a bent towards forgiveness in our hearts.
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So let's talk about forgiveness.
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Honestly.
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When it comes to forgiveness in the church, Let's be completely honest.
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When it comes to forgiveness in the church, we have romanticized that concept.
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Forgiveness is beautiful, and it's appropriate, and it's essential, and we should all learn to forgive one another.
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And it's lofty, and it's godly, and it's certainly biblical, and we preach on it, and we sing about it, and we celebrate it, and we're all for it!
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Until it's our turn to forgive someone who's offended us.
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And when it's our turn, listen, when it's my turn, when it's your turn, here comes the parade of excuses.
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I'm too offended.
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They aren't sorry.
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They're never going to change.
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They don't care that they hurt me.
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They won't acknowledge that I'm right.
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I am justified to be angry with them.
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And we can take all of our excuses, and we can hold them so tightly, and we can justify them in our minds, and we can defend them to others.
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And then we look at Christ on the cross, crying out for forgiveness for the people who were killing Him.
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Suddenly, suddenly we feel a little less justified and insisting on our hard-hearted forgiveness.
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We can preach sermon series, we can have counseling sessions, we can write books about it, but none of that matters.
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None of it makes a difference.
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If you don't have a heart that is bent towards forgiveness.
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If you don't have a heart that genuinely longs for reconciliation.
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If you don't have a heart that says, "The relationship matters to me more than my being offended." What if they don't want to be forgiven?
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What if they don't want to reconcile, Pastor Jeff?
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What if they refuse?
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That's not your concern.
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Your concern is your heart, not theirs.
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Is your heart bent towards forgiveness as our Lord's was when He suffered?
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Whenever someone's response to you, like Jesus, the people that He was praying for obviously weren't responding at that moment, were they?
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Your heart must be inclined towards, "I'm ready to forgive." I am sincerely praying for the one who is offending me.
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Because, because, because this is the heart of my God.
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And this is the heart that my God wants for me.
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So do you have someone in your life right now that you've had a falling out with?
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Do you have someone in your life that's offended you?
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If you're not sure, I want you to ask yourself this.
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Do you have someone in your life that you would avoid if you saw them at the store?
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Or if their name came up on your phone, would you send it straight to voicemail?
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Is there someone in your life of whom you have said, "I will never forgive them"?
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Well, how does your attitude reflect the one that you call the Lord?
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Because I've got great news.
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There is a list of things of amazing things that happen when you have a heart that's bent towards forgiveness.
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I'm going to give you the list from lesser to greater.
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From lesser to greater.
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Here are the things that happen when you say, "Like my Lord, I want to always be inclined towards forgiveness.
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My heart bent towards forgiveness because only good can come from it." You're like, "What good?" First of all, you release bitterness.
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It's good for you.
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That's at the bottom of the list, but it's on the list.
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It's good for you.
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You release bitterness.
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I don't have to walk around with some chip on my shoulder or thinking about how disgusted or offended I am towards this person.
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You release bitterness.
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Secondly, even better, you may heal a relationship.
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You may heal a relationship.
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Thirdly, even greater, is you honor God by obedience.
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You honor God by obedience.
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That should probably be the top of the list.
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But when I give you the last one, you're going to say, "Yeah, I can understand why you might put that one at the top." Honor God by obedience.
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But to me, when I was thinking about this, yeah, that probably should be at the top, but when I was thinking about this, and I thought, "What's great about forgiveness?" To me, the greatest thing about having a heart bent towards forgiveness is you give the awesome experience of, on a smaller level, but the awesome experience of imitating our Lord.
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When He said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." As we close today, I simply want to lead us in a prayer.
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Because maybe you have struggled with unforgiveness.
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But today we are looking to the cross.
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Today we are allowing the example of Jesus Christ to transform us with His astonishing first statement that He made while He suffered for us when He said, "Father, forgive them.
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they know not what they do.
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I'd like you to bow your heads.
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And we're going to pray.
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Bow your heads, and don't think about the people beside you, around you, or anything.
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I just want you to focus on your heart right now.
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That's all.
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Because for some of you, maybe your heart is not there.
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For some of you, maybe your heart is not there.
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I want to help you get there.
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And I want to lead us in a prayer.
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And in your head and in your heart, I'm going to ask you to just silently agree with me on this, and pray this along with me.
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Because maybe you're not there, but you want to be.
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But in your head and in your heart, I want you to first of all pray, Lord, thank You for the example that You've given us.
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Lord, first of all, Thank You for that example.
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Lord, You would have been in the right to turn all of Your enemies into ash in that moment as the sinless Son of God was horribly treated and crucified.
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So Father, first of all, we want to say thank You for the example.
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And secondly, God, thank You for the power that You give us the faith to obey.
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We don't have that ability in ourselves that comes from Your Holy Spirit.
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God, You know my flesh, the flesh of my brothers and sisters here who have their heads bowed.
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Our flesh says, "Hate." Our flesh says, "I'm in the right." Our flesh says, "That person can go to hell." That's what we say in our flesh.
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Let us look to Christ for the example that He set on the cross, but also to the power that He provides to say no to bitterness and yes to forgiveness.
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Father, I pray right now for myself and for my brothers and sisters here, I pray that You would bring a person to mind whom we need to forgive.
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that we need, that make the call, send an email, shoot a text, get the ball rolling.
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Bring that person to our minds and hearts. Do you have somebody like that? I want you to ask God right now. I want you to ask God right now, "Bring someone to my mind." If the Lord brings someone to your mind, if He did, today is the day.
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Today is the day.
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Not sometime this week.
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Not even tomorrow morning.
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Not even after supper.
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Let's do this now.
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Let's do this now.
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That before you leave this building, you pull out your phone and you send that text.
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You make that call and say, "Hey, I'd like to talk to You." And before you talk yourself out of it, before your flesh tries to justify again in your mind the reason for your offense, I want you to look at Christ on the cross.
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I want you to consider everything He endured leading up to that moment that He was on that cross.
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And when lifted up, I want you to look again at those words.
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Burn them into your heart.
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Reflect them in your life.
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Father, forgive them.
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For they know not what they do.
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Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Luke 23:34
Why did Jesus say, "They know not what they do?" What does that tell you about those who executed Him? See (1 Corinthians 2:8).
Were all of these men forgiven because of Jesus' prayer? Explain your position!
Why are we, even in the church, "all about forgiveness" until it is our turn to forgive someone?
How does Jesus' prayer on the cross motivate me to forgive?
Breakout Questions:
Who do you need to forgive? Have you taken that step? What’s stopping you? Pray for that person, if there is one, and discuss (and hold each other accountable) for next steps!