Lent 2019 Love & Forgiveness

Love & Forgiveness

Luke 24

This is the last message of our Lent season and wanted to summarize what we have been studying. I will end this by using Luke 24 with Jesus appearing to the disciples. 

To begin, I would like to read what David says about keeping God’s commands and what it should mean for you and me.

Psalm 119:

1How happy are those whose way is blameless, who live according to the law of the Lord! 2Happy are those who keep His decrees and seek Him with all their heart. 3They do nothing wrong; they follow His ways. 4You have commanded that Your precepts be diligently kept. 5If only my ways were committed to keeping Your statutes! 6Then I would not be ashamed when I think about all Your commands. 7I will praise You with a sincere heart when I learn Your righteous judgments. 8I will keep Your statutes; never abandon me.

9How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping Your word. 10I have sought You with all my heart; don't let me wander from Your commands. 11I have treasured Your word in my heart so that I may not sin against You. 12Lord, may You be praised; teach me Your statutes. 13With my lips I proclaim all the judgments from Your mouth. 14I rejoice in the way [revealed by] Your decrees as much as in all riches. 15I will meditate on Your precepts and think about Your ways. 16I will delight in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word.

17Deal generously with Your servant so that I might live; then I will keep Your word. 18Open my eyes so that I may see wonderful things in Your law. 19I am a stranger on earth; do not hide Your commands from me. 20I am continually overcome by longing for Your judgments. 21You rebuke the proud, the accursed, who wander from Your commands. 22Take insult and contempt away from me, for I have kept Your decrees. 23Though princes sit together speaking against me, Your servant will think about Your statutes; 24Your decrees are my delight and my counselors.

We are taught from the scriptures, that there are two main reasons for Jesus coming, to love one another and the forgiveness of sins.  Jesus commands us to love one another as we should love ourselves. Without Jesus, loving ourselves would be very hard to do because of carrying the burden of guilt. By releasing that burden of guilt, then we can truly love others as we can now begin to love ourselves. 

Now we come to the disciples traveling on the road to Emmaus, one named Cleopas and the other was probably the wife of Cleopas. Then another has joined with them and they did not know who He was. 

Luke 24:

28Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and He indicated that He would have gone farther. 29But they constrained Him, saying, "Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent." And He went in to stay with them. 30Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight. 32And they said to one another, "Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?" 33So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, 34saying, "The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!" 35And they told about the things that had happened on the road, and how He was known to them in the breaking of bread. 

36Now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, "Peace to you." 37But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit. 38And He said to them, "Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have." 40When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. 41But while they still did not believe for joy, and marveled, He said to them, "Have you any food here?" 42So they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb. 43And He took it and ate in their presence. 44Then He said to them, "These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me." 45And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. 

Here is the commandment -- 

**46Then He said to them, "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, 47and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” .**

[Note from NKJV: Jesus had been considered a pretender and blasphemer. After his resurrection, people had to change their minds and serve Him for who He really is, the Son of God. This is the message Peter would preach at Pentecost, a message that would result in thousands of people declaring Jesus as their Lord. Jesus summarized the mission of the disciples as preaching repentance, calling people to turn from their own selfish ways to Christ, the One who had died for them. 

Remission of sins: The content of the disciples’ preaching would center on God’s gracious offer of forgiveness to all who would believe in His name:] 

Here I want to depart from the text and emphasize John 5:24 and 25, 

24 “I assure you: Anyone who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not come under judgment but has passed from death to life.

25 “I assure you: An hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live”.

We laid to rest a friend and neighbor from my home town Sunday. He was a strong witness for Jesus and often used the story of when he was in the Marine Corp and accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior. At the end of his testimony he told of a chaplain who told him that one way or another, he was going to meet Jesus. Getting to know Him now would be much better than at judgment day. 

Often times Christians are lackadaisical in their faith and take Christ for granted. We get used to the story without much thought. Ran across this poem that speaks to that.

Geoffrey Studdert-Kennedy
(1883-1929)

Matthew 25:31-46

When Jesus came to Golgotha
They hanged Him on a tree,
They drove great nails through hands and feet,
And made a Calvary.
They crowned Him with a crown of thorns;
Red were His wounds and deep,
For those were crude and cruel days,
And human flesh was cheap.

When Jesus came to Birmingham,
They simply passed Him by;
They never hurt a hair of Him,
They only let Him die.
For men had grown more tender,
And they would not give Him pain;
They only just passed down the street,
And left Him in the rain.

Still Jesus cried, “Forgive them,
For they know not what they do.”
And still it rained the winter rain
That drenched Him through and through.
The crowds went home and left the streets
Without a soul to see;
And Jesus crouched against a wall
And cried for Calvary.¹

If we learn anything from Jesus going to the cross, it must be this, that once we accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, our sins are forgiven once and forever. Our sins are like a piece of paper that Jesus rips into tiny pieces and forgotten for all time. Our past sins do not have to be our future.In the same manner, in order to be forgiven, we also must learn to forgive. It is only through forgiveness that we can love those who have hurt us. This is probably the hardest for me. I have forgiven others in my past. It is those new hurts that I struggle with the most and it takes time for me to forgive. There have been times when it is no longer possible to forgive someone directly because of circumstances. Forgiveness has to come from the heart and once it is done, life can move on. There is no greater love than the love of Jesus when He suffered with great agony His death. 

To finish, we read in Luke 24:

48And you are witnesses of these things. 49Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high."

50And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. 51Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. 52And they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen.

Praise God, He is alive and He is with us today! Emanuel!

  

Jude 1:24Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, And to present you faultless Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, 25To God our Savior, Who alone is wise, Be glory and majesty, Dominion and power, Both now and forever. Amen.