From Your Hearts

I'd like to read a few verses that overlap today's gospel from John 1, starting in verse 25. They asked him, Why then are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet? John answered them, I baptize with water, but among you stands one whom you do not know, even he who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie. This took place in Bethany, beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

The next day, he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. And when John said, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, the people had a clear idea in their minds of what sin can do. They had come down to John to get rid of their sin.

They knew that sin leaves a stain on our lives. Bloodshed, lies, adultery, even put a stain on the very land where we live. It's not that God is mean and hard, but that he is holy.

Sin has to be dealt with. If it isn't dealt with, then it spreads like a disease until it pollutes the whole universe. As we well know, God often allows sin to go on in our lives, or in the life of a nation, for a long time.

But there is always a reckoning. When Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, it had to be for the sake of the rest of the world. There was no other way.

And when Jerusalem was destroyed in 586 B.C., there was no other way. It had ignored every warning God had sent to it. But always before God causes the fires of judgment to fall, he first, to repent of it.

And if we repent, he makes another way for us, the way of atonement. In ancient Israel, it was the way of the lamb. An innocent animal, like a lamb, was killed and burned outside the camp.

And as the smoke of that animal rose toward heaven, mingled with the penitent prayers of the people, God, in a mystery, allowed their sin to be washed away in the blood of that animal. And they went back to their tents at peace. They were forgiven.

So when John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, he was saying, Here comes the one from God, sent from God, who is going to be the sacrifice for our guilt. Here is the one from God who is going to bear our griefs and carry our sorrows, who is going to be wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities and beaten for our healing. You could say that Jesus came to be the forgiveness of God in this world.

That's what he was and is. Son, be of good cheer. Your sins are forgiven you.

Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. His gospel was a gospel of forgiveness. His miracles were miracles of forgiveness.

His death was a death of forgiveness, an atonement. And his resurrection was the appearance for the first time in this world of a kingdom of forgiveness. When Jesus at last broke through the darkness of our sick lives with his light, and when we repented and threw our lives down at his feet, the thing that happened to us was that we were forgiven.

The veil of guilt and sin, blocking us from God, was torn. Now we could go with Jesus through that veil into the presence of God, but to live in the presence of God with Jesus inside that veil all the time before God's throne is to live in the forgiveness of God all the time. To live in the forgiveness of God all the time is to be a forgiving people, not only receiving forgiveness, but giving it.

When you stand praying, forgive. If you have anything against anyone, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. There are three kinds of forgiveness.

There is forgiveness from the mind, where with our heads we realize that we have no choice. Jesus has forgiven me. He commands me to forgive my brother, so I'm going to do it.

Okay, he's forgiven, and I may even think I did it. See, but my attitude toward my brother has not changed. Look it, I forgave him.

Just keep him out of my face. I have nothing to say to him. Like David, letting Absalom come back to Jerusalem, but refusing to see him or talk to him.

Then there's forgiveness from the mouth. Sure, you're forgiven. That's all right, we all make mistakes.

Forget it. But we don't forget it. The memory of this wrong they committed against us continues to see down in our souls, month after month, sometimes year after year.

Those words of forgiveness which we spoke with our mouth were only from our mouth. Then there's forgiveness from the heart, where the heart opens toward this person who's begging us to forgive them. Where the heart takes this burden of resentment and pushes it away, and our attitude toward that person changes.

Therefore, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began reckoning, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents, a million dollars. As he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made.

So the servant fell on his knees imploring him, Lord, have patience with me and I will pay you everything. Out of pity for him, the lord of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But that same servant, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow servants who owed him 100 denarii, 20 dollars, and seizing him by the throat said, Pay me what you owe.

So his fellow servant fell down and besought him, Lord, have patience with me and I will pay you. He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed and went and reported to their lord all that had taken place.

Then his lord summoned him and said to him, You wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you besought me. And should you not have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you? And in anger his lord delivered him to the jailers until he should pay all his debt. So also, my heavenly father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.

Now, our problem is that there are quite a few people we have forgiven from our mind. We have told ourselves that we've forgiven them. But our heart still holds them to the death.

And there are quite a number of people we have forgiven from the mouth. We've told them they're forgiven. But our heart continues to hang on to this debt of a grudge and won't let go.

Jesus says, so also shall my heavenly father do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. It has to be from the heart. It's not forgiveness if it isn't from the heart.

The biggest stumbling block to having a vision of God that is unchanged and increases as the days pass and to having a walk that is really by faith with Jesus in this world that makes some sense and that in fact reflects his nature. The biggest stumbling block to living like that is that our hearts won't let go of some wrong. Somebody's done it.

It may be a loved one. Words that a loved one spoke to us in a moment of frustration seven years ago. We're still holding on to the memory of it, torturing ourselves with this.

Poisoning our attitude toward this loved one. Twisting and warping our whole sense of who they are and what they are. But even worse, driving the mercy and the grace and the peace of God's Spirit right out of our hearts.

We may have forgiven them mentally and we may have mouthed words of forgiveness to them. But now, in his mercy, the Spirit of God today is urging us to forgive them from our hearts. Open your heart and let go of this thing he pleased with us.

Or perhaps it's somebody we live with or work with, see every day. It's an invisible barrier now, a strange distance. A strain in the relationship.

Didn't used to be like that. What's wrong? Buried deep in our heart again, see, is some injury for which we have refused to forgive him. And now, we don't look at this person anymore with love.

We look at this person with reserve. Sometimes with secret contempt. Often we can't even look them in the eye.

What's happening is that we are insisting that they pay the debt that they owe us right now. Never mind the debt we've been forgiven. Pay me what you owe.

Again, in his kindness, the Spirit of God comes to us today in the Word and says, let go. Come on. This chip on your shoulder, pay me what you owe, has to come off.

Open your heart and forgive. And in praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they shall be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

Pray, then, like this, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father also will forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Heavenly Father forgive your trespasses.

The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, forgave our sin, not just from His mind, and not just from His mouth, but from His heart. He opened His heart and took our sin into His heart. Then He offered Himself up as the atoning Lamb for the sins He took from us into Himself.

And then He rose from the dead to bring us into a life of forgiveness. God help us to enter into that life of forgiveness today, to receive His forgiveness afresh in the broken body and the shed blood, and then to forgive our brother, our sister, not from our mind only, not just from our mouth, but from our heart. From our heart.

Let's pray. We ask that the cleansing blood, Heavenly Father, shed for us, will move into those areas in our deepest hearts today, Lord, and help us to chip out and get rid of the grudges and the resentments and the bitterness which is destroying us and blinding our eyes. Help us, Lord God, by Your grace to truly repent today and to walk out of here with a burden lifted, able to deal with the problems that have to be dealt with.

Lord God, how can we deal with people who wronged us or wrong us if we're so bitter? How can we learn when to say no and yes and how to handle these things and when to lend the money and when not to lend the money if our hearts are so jammed up? Help us, Lord God, to get them cleaned out today.