And: Forgive Us

 July 14 2024

Acts 3:11-26

         One of the things that I can now admit about my humble beginnings in ministry is that I was terribly naïve. When I began, I honestly thought that everyone who came to church and sat in the pews, Sunday after Sunday, were people who had to, at some point, figured out the gospel message and became people who loved Jesus. How surprised I was to find out that such thinking was horribly optimistic. I say this because of experiences I had, like the one where I went to visit a man who was in his nineties at the local nursing home. After I had visited him several times and started to build a friendship with him, I noticed on one visit, as we talked, he began to get teary eyed, and told me that he had something he wanted to confess. Being that this was during my first time in ministry, I was rather shocked. So, I just listened, as this dear saint admitted to me that he had committed a great sin when he was younger, a sin so awful, in his eyes, that he was certain that God could not just simply forgive him for such an act. I wasn’t sure how to respond, yet I through the Spirit’s leading, I found myself telling this man that whether he realized it or not, God had already forgiven him of whatever he had done, because the blood shed at the cross is the once for all sacrifice for all of the worlds sins, even this man’s sin that he had carried around for years. Yet he was not the only person who had difficulty believing that God’s grace is greater than all our sin. I vividly remember serving on a three day retreat, where on Saturday night there is a time for those who participate to quietly ponder the greatness of God’s grace and love. As the spiritual director for the retreat, I would watch for those who needed someone to pray with them, and I saw that there was an older lady who sat all alone, crying softly. So, I went and sat next to her and asked if there was anything I could lift up in prayer. She replied, that she had committed a grave sin when she was much younger, something that she had done to someone else that she was absolutely certain God could never forgive her of such a sin. And again, I found myself replying that her sin had already been forgiven upon the cross. No more did she have to lug that heavy burden of her sin around with her, she could and she must lay it down at the cross. I sat there thinking that this women had spent years sitting in a pew where she heard perhaps thousands of sermons, and celebrated numerous Good Friday’s and Easter yet she had not realized that God’s grace is absolutely greater than all of our sin, even what we know to be so terribly wrong. I could go on to tell you of a young man, raised in a good Baptist family, who found himself addicted to pornography, a sin which he too, could not believe that God’s grace and forgiveness could simply cover over. It took many weeks of praying and talking about the amazing grace of God until at last he accepted the forgiveness of God and he, at last came home running to his Heavenly Father. He is now set free from his addiction, happily married with two kids and he serves as a missionary in Argentina. Yet this present he now lives in could only happen when he was able, through what Jesus had done for him, to let go of his past, for good. So before I even begin to take a deep dive into the forgiveness of God, I am going to pause here to ask you if you are carrying around some sin you committed in your past, something that you are just certain our God can not forgive, please today hear the good news that our Heavenly Father has given us Jesus, his only Son, to be the once for all offering of peace for those near to him and to all who are far from him. Now is the time to set those sins you carry down at the foot of the cross, and see how the blood of Jesus covers over every single sin that is laid down there. 

         You see, as we consider how the early church sprang to life after the Holy Spirit came with showers of blessings, we must remember that this new life needs the right environment to thrive and grow, and that environment is one of forgiveness. As we have looked at that wild day in the church called Pentecost, what has made all of the frenzied activity understandable is knowing that all of what happened is God answering the cry of the Lord’s Prayer. The promise that Jesus gives to us, found in the eleventh chapter of Luke, that the fulfillment of fervently praying the prayer that he taught to his disciples would be the sudden appearance of the Holy Spirit. As the disciples cried out for their Heavenly Father, the Spirit of adoption gave them certainty that God was indeed their, Abba, Father. As they prayed that their father’s name be made holy, the Spirit came to them at their baptism and raised them into resurrection life, into that place of peace that is beyond our understanding. The holiness of God is that he alone is able to bring us to that promised place where we can find rest in him alone. Then, as we cry out for the Father’s reign to come, the Spirit leads us into the freedom found in his light and truth. This brand new church was taught by the apostles, as they took prayed and taught what Jesus had given to them, so that the church grew in their relationship with their Heavenly Father. And as the church broke bread, celebrating the Lord’s Supper together, and became a community bound by love, the church experienced a life of living together in God’s promised peace. You see, they knew that they were indeed free for there you see, there is nothing in this world that can keep us from growing ever closer to our Heavenly Father and with each other, for his love endures and goes on forever. 

         Well out of this prayer to our Heavenly Father comes our response. Our desire becomes that God give us, today, to be life for someone else. This is where God created us, so that our life is always in the service of life, always concerned with the life and welfare of others. This is how this prayer that simply says, “Father, your name be holy, your reign come. Give us today, make us to be the fitting substance of bread for someone else.”, creates and forms the church through cooperating with the Holy Spirit. But the prayer is not finished because as Jesus taught us the prayer continues, saying: And forgive us our debts. And we will forgive the debts of others. And do not bring us to hard testing. Three sentences all beginning with the word, “And”, as if to say, these three should be expected to be present when the church is made present through the Holy Spirit. Here in this gathering that cries out for their Heavenly Father, that his name be holy, that his reign come, here where those who pray cry out to be given as an offering to their Father, there must be found the forgiveness of debts by God, and the forgiveness of the debts of others, and a plea to be kept from a test where we might fail our Heavenly Father.

         Luke, I believe, in his account of the early church gives us teachings that help us know just what we are praying when we ask our Heavenly Father to forgive our debts. This is what we find in the third chapter of Acts, which follows on after the spectacular events of Pentecost. In our scripture for today, we find that Peter and John have, through the power of the Holy Spirit, brought healing to a man who has been unable to walk for years. So of course people notice and soon there is a crowd forming around Peter, and John. Peter wisely takes this moment to address those who have gathered there about the forgiveness of God. Peter wanted to be perfectly clear that neither he nor John had any power to heal this man; no, this healing came to him in the name of Jesus. I imagine a hush came over the crowd when they heard Peter say his name because the name of Jesus caused them to remember just what they had done. And if by chance they had forgotten, make no mistake, Peter is going to most certainly remind them. Whereas, God had glorified his servant Jesus, Peter tells them that they, on the other hand, had denied this one called Jesus. How could they forget that they had desired a murderer instead of desiring the one who is now known as the first born of the living, the Holy and righteous one of God. And Peter continues, telling them that now is the time for all people to place their faith in the name of Jesus. So as it becomes clear that Luke here is teaching us about the petition, “And forgive us our debts”, then what should also be clear to us is that when we hear the call to place our faith in Jesus name, we should remember the second petition of the Lord’s Prayer where we are called to make this name holy. And we know that God is holy because he alone can create in us hearts that rest in his perfect peace. So when Peter tells us that now is the time to place our faith in the name of Jesus, he is in effect saying that now is the time for us to be certain that the peace that we crave so terribly is only found in the name, in the holiness, of Jesus. When Jesus, the first born from the dead, raises us up with him into resurrection life at our baptism this is when we enter into the place of God’s promised peace. So when we say that we have faith in the name of Jesus we are stating that only in the name of Jesus, this name in which we were baptized, only here can we find the peace that all of us crave.

         We have to understand this connection between this peace and God’s forgiveness because Peter, in addressing the crowd, tells them that now was the time to get right with God, to accept his forgiveness and receive his favor and welcome. But in order for them to experience the freedom found in God’s forgiveness, Peter tells them that they have to repent.  To repent is to have a change of heart or mind now that we know that Jesus is the first born from the dead. In other words, they had to change their minds as to what they trusted to give them peace. What people often turn to in order to find peace in this world is either fight, flight or fantasy. The people of God rejected Jesus in favor of a murderer because they believed that peace would only come through a hard fought battle with the Romans not by a man dying on a cross. They firmly believed that peace could only come with a fight. But sometimes, though, people seek peace through the avoidance of conflict, they take flight, withdrawing to some safe place where they can hide out in their own personal heaven here on earth. Yet, for some, they instead turn to flights of fantasy, through addictions and pleasures,  just to escape the nagging unrest for which they have no answer. You see, none of these are the answer because the peace we crave can only be found in friendship with God, not by fighting for it, taking flight or filling our days with fantasies. This is where God’s forgiveness desires to bring us, into a friendship with God.  The first step in this friendship though, is to for us to admit that the peace, this rest and contentment that we long for, this can only be ours in the name of Jesus. It is only when we stop looking at the world for answers that we  will, at last, be willing to turn toward God, just as Peter instructs us, “Repent therefore and turn again…” Here we have to ask, just where are we turning? Peter says that if we turn, then we will have times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. Unfortunately, this translation does not catch the very personal nature of what Peter is speaking about. You see, where we turn toward is none other than toward the very face of our Father. The image Peter gives to us is one a child who stubbornly refuses to turn toward their parent so that they might run into their arms and rest. Yet, Peter insists, now is the time when we should do just that; now is the time we should turn and come before the face of our Father and find peace in his presence. The people gathered around Peter that day, upon hearing of the face of God, would have perhaps thought of the blessing of Aaron, found in the sixth chapter of Numbers, that was said over the people as they were leaving their worship at the Tabernacle. This blessing goes, “The Lord bless you and keep you safe. The Lord make his face shine upon you and his grace be upon you. The Lord’s face be turned toward you, and may he give you peace.” The disciples though may have also remembered that this is one of the blessings that Jesus said would be ours, that if our heart was pure, if we had faith that peace is only found with God then we will be blessed by seeing God, by being in a face-to-face relationship with God, you might say. As we we stand there before God we find that, as Peter tells us, God blots out our sins. This is the hope heard  in Isaiah 43:25, where God promises his people that he will blot out their transgressions and remember their sins no more. Can you see how such a promise can fill us with an indescribable peace? This blotting out of our sins though, is spoken of here in a way that is so very personal, as if we were to understand that God gently cleans us up as we come before him. One of my favorite authors, Larry Crabb, in his book, ‘The Pressure’s Off”, says that this coming before the face of God is like when we are in school and we get word that the principal wants to see us. There is a fear that comes over us as we wonder just what we have done wrong. Yet when we arrive at the Principals office, he simply invites us in. So there we are, as is normal when we are young, standing before the principal, with our runny nose, our dirt-smudged face, and torn clothes from playing too rough on the playground. Yet none of this keeps the Principal from exclaiming to us, “You look wonderful!So good to see you! Then the Principal gathers us up in his arms, and he begins to sing over us in love, just as we are told God does in the third chapter of Zephaniah. The Principal is overcome with emotion as we, Principal and student, are at last together. And when we catch a glimpse of ourselves in the mirror hanging there in the Principal’s office we see that our nose has been wiped, our face is clean and our clothes are new and we have no idea how any of this has happened. I believe, this is one of the best descriptions of what we mean when we say that God blots out our sins. Can you understand why Peter says that when we come into the Fathers presence we experience times of refreshment. No longer does anxiety choke the life out of us. No, now, we can breathe easy knowing the amazing love that God has for all of us. Peter then, goes on to instruct us that, yes, Jesus is coming back and in this time of waiting we are to obey him because he indeed is the prophet whose words must be heeded. So, yes, as forgiven people who have come before God, we go forth, our hearts at peace from being overwhelmed by the Father’s love for us, ready to obey, and love just as the Father has first loved us. So we praise God that his forgiveness, leads us into friendship with him and as friends with God, we go forth in peace, a peace that is ours to enter into again and again. To the glory of God. Amen!