C, Midweek Lent 5 - The Lord's Prayer #6 - Matthew 6:10b,12 "Forgiving them on Earth"

Your will be done on earth – as we forgive those who sin against us.

Part two of God’s will is for his will to be done on earth.  This is his horizontal will.  We covered his vertical will, in part one last week.

God’s vertical will, is done in heaven when he forgives us our sin.  Put another way, God the Father makes himself responsible to humanity, by finding a way that all might be restored to a right relationship with him.  This is God and humanity, coexisting in peace with each other, in a community of tranquillity and peace, as there was before the fall in the Garden of Eden.

For God’s will to be fulfilled in heaven he sent Jesus Christ to live the perfect life as a human being.  Despite bearing the nature of God the Son, he put his rights aside as the Son of God, and faithfully lived under the responsibility of God the Father as a created Son of Man.  He was faithful to the Father, even unto death.  Never losing faith, never losing hope in God who would redeem him.

God raised Jesus to his right hand in victory over sin and death.  In his faithful death,  he bore our guilt and sin, in his innocent loss of all human rights, when he was nailed to the cross.

It was Jesus’ right to suffer for our sin!  It was his right to be lifted up in love for you.  In doing so he not only gave us the right to become children of God, through the forgiveness of sin, but he died sharing the responsibility of the Father.

God the Father at the fall made himself responsible for the salvation of humankind.  He promised to send a Saviour, who would crush the head of the snake under his heel.  Saint Paul speaks of this verse in Genesis three when he says to the Romans, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.  The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.”  (Romans 16:20 ESV)

We are children of God because of Jesus’ joy in putting aside his human rights, for yours and my eternal rights as holy adopted Sons of God.  Jesus made himself responsible to you in this life, by also sending the Holy Spirit to walk with you.  He does this to uphold your rights as children, so you and I don’t slip back into demanding the rights of self-righteousness.  But rather as God’s children we carry our crosses, bearing the rights of others, as it was Jesus’ right to die for us.

What are these rights?  These are the rights to forgive others, as we have been forgiven. 

Jesus takes our rights seriously, and we know this because he has given us the Holy Spirit, to be our helper. 

This right to forgive each other, is the will of God on earth.   Our right to forgive, is the responsibility lived and written in the Word of the Gospel, the good news of God’s responsibility, and our rights!

Our right to forgive has got nothing to do with a higher power born of our own doing!  Rather, it is solely based on forgiveness given to us as pure gift.  Likewise, our right to forgive others, has nothing to do with them showing some sort of better inclination towards us, to receive our forgiveness.  Our forgiving others is our right, born in the responsibility, good pleasure, and love of God, flowing through us by the power of the Holy Spirit.

God knows how to forgive sin!  It’s his will on earth for us to know how and why we forgive sin too!  Jesus joins the vertical with the horizontal, being the Son of God and the Son of Man.  He serves God as his faithful Son, by living as a faithful servant of humanity.

We too, being adopted as Sons of God, now function as types of Jesus Christ.  But you and I do so in a way that is greater than Jesus Christ.  We not only can forgive as he forgives, but we must continue to be forgiven, unless God ceases to function as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Recorded in Saint John’s Gospel, Jesus himself says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.”  (John 14:12 ESV)

Here we have the two sides of the coin of being a Christian,  “Confession of Sin, and forgiveness of sin!”  Jesus gives you the right to confess your sin and the right to forgive others their sins!  Or put another way, the Holy Spirit bears the responsibility of working confession within you, and your forgiveness of others.

But, if you are like most other Christians, you struggle with confessing your sin and forgiving others.  For the most, we don’t even see a fraction of what we do as being sinful, let alone confess it.  But when we come to seeing the sin of others, we easily see sin, but find it very difficult to forgive it. 

But our right to forgive, in the horizontal sense, is bound to the vertical direction of God’s love and forgiveness.  God the Father comes down in his providence of humanity, God the Son comes down in his redemption of humanity, and God the Holy Spirit comes down in his help of humanity. 

God comes down and finds us helpless!  But he comes down because he knows we are helpless!  Therefore, he comes down to take you by the hand and help you.

Returning to John 14 again, Jesus tells us how we are able to do greater things once he goes to the Father, saying, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.  Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.  If you love me, you will keep my commandments.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,  even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.  You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.  I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.  Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me.  Because I live, you also will live.”  (John 14:12–19 ESV)

As children of God, we live as Jesus lives, because he lives.  As Jesus forgives, we forgive!  We also confess because Jesus now lives to forgive! 

When Jesus finishes teaching the Lord’s Prayer in his Sermon on the Mount, he goes onto give a footnote regarding forgiveness saying, “if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you,  but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matthew 6:14–15 ESV)

Jesus hits home with the full force of the Law here, and it sounds frightening.  What is Jesus saying to us?

Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount was preached and recorded for the Jews.  Matthew’s Gospel is a catechism for Jewish believers, teaching them that through the Law no one can achieve righteousness.  If one thought they could, here Jesus extends the Law, making it obvious that no one will ever achieve righteousness under the Law.  That is, except him!

Jesus alone fulfilled all righteousness required from the Law, having every right to accuse us, but instead he champions the right to forgive, so we can live.  He neither accuses us or excuses our sin, he binds the sin and sets the sinner free.

You now have that freedom, and with it comes your right to forgive others.  We like Jesus, neither excuse the sin, nor accuse the sinner.  We pray to God the Father, for the Holy Spirit to give us the will on earth, to forgive as we have been forgiven.

After the cross, we, together with believing Jews, look at the Sermon on the Mount and cry out to God, naming his responsibility to help us forgive as we have been forgiven.

Therefore, we pray and demand, with the very demand he has given us to pray, “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” “You have forgiven us Heavenly Father, now give us the will to forgive others!”  

God will give you the will to do so!  Why?  Because he sent Jesus to die for your sin, and the Holy Spirit to make you holy in his forgiveness!  And because he would fail to be God, if he did not fulfil his promises made through sending Jesus and the Holy Spirit!

Let us live in peace, knowing you neither have to accuse others, nor excuse their sin.  It’s God’s good pleasure, that we pray individually, and, as the body of Christ, his church on earth, to bind each other’s sin to the cross and loose the sinner. 

It is God’s responsibility to bind our sin and loose us!  And it is our right to loose other sinners and bind their sin, as Jesus has bound our sin and set us free.  Pray to your Father in heaven to give you and me the will to joyfully do this.  Amen.

On Maundy Thursday we conclude the series on the Lord’s Prayer with the centre kernel of the prayer.  We learn what the Holy Spirit does in us when we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread." 

C, Midweek Lent 4 - The Lord's Prayer #5 - Matthew 6:10b,12 "Forgiving us in Heaven"

 Your will be done in heaven – Forgive us our sins

Tonight, and next week we focus on the petitions “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” and “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us”.

We will split these petitions into two parts, as we peel off another layer of the Lord’s Prayer, to see how the Holy Spirit brings us to the Father, through Jesus Christ, as the gap is bridged between our evil and the Father’s holiness.  And next week, we will examine God’s will on earth being done when we forgive each other.

But first a clarification in the word order of the text.   The English translation does not help us much with the progression of the Greek text, which actually reads, “Let become the will of you, as is in heaven also on earth.”  In the English text, God’s will on earth comes before his will in heaven.

However, the Greek version of the forgiveness petition reads much the same as the English, reading, “And send off (or forgive) to us the debts (or sins) of us, as also we have sent off (forgiven) the debtors (sinners) of us.” 

Therefore, tonight we focus on God’s relationship with us.  Theologically speaking, here we are dealing with God’s will being done in the vertical.  This is how he repairs the breach between himself and us, so we can have a relationship with him as our loving Father.

In our society today everything is geared to encourage us to follow what’s pleasing to us.   God’s will is what pleases him.  So, what does God want from us?  Or better asked, why are we here on earth?  What is our purpose, why do we exist? 

Today we have a society in deep depression over these very questions.  Left to our own efforts, understanding and feelings, we look into ourselves and see foolishness and despair.  Society lives not knowing what or why it lives.  It also dies not knowing why it dies, where it’s going, or why it’s going to experience death.  Faithlessness and hopelessness, is leaving many to question their purpose, leading to fatalistic living and chaotic dying, in the darkest possible way.

When one looks into their heart, they see what Jesus says comes out of the heart, and they see they are defiled by the commonality of their humanity. 

Jesus says, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him.  For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.  All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” (Mark 7:20–23 ESV)

Many are pleased with these things in their lives.  But when the things that please, no longer please, many lose hope rather than turn to what pleases God the Father.

So, what pleases our Father?  Last week we heard that his kingdom is coming, and we need to be led away from all kingdoms that tempt us away from his kingdom coming to us.

It pleases God when his kingdom comes to us, and we are not tempted to believe otherwise.  When we come into his kingdom, we get back what humanity lost in the garden of Eden.  We get our relationship with God, so we can once again receive from him and worship him for doing so.

In our humanity there is no way we will ever come to the decision that we need to receive from God and glorify him and worship him to fulfil our function or purpose as humans living on this earth.  Rather we are without fear in God, without trust in God, and are overcome by desires to please ourselves.  However, God the Father is pleased to come to us and implement his will of forgiveness amongst us.

It pleases God to come to us through the perfection of Jesus Christ who completes the fulfilment of the Law.  Not only does it please the father but it also pleases Jesus Christ, whom we are told in the book of Hebrews, “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God”.  (Hebrews 12:2 ESV)

Jesus’ joy was to please his Father.  We hear testimony of this when, in the Garden of Gethsemene, he prayed, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you.  Remove this cup from me.  Yet not what I will, but what you will.”  (Mark 14:36 ESV)

It was Jesus’ joy to take the blame for that which is our shame.  Likewise, even while suffering horrendous pain from the injuries that would lead him to suffocate and die a torturous death, Jesus said to his accusers and killers, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34 ESV)

And to the criminal who rightly was suffering for his crime, and said to the other crucified criminal who railed at Jesus, “‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?  And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.’  And he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’  And he said to him, ‘Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.’”  (Luke 23:40–43 ESV)

Jesus came to fulfil the will of God.  As the Apostle John says, “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.  But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,  who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.  And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:11–14 ESV)

God’s will is to forgive us through Jesus Christ.  When he does this the vertical relationship is restored.  Jesus fulfils the first table of the Law, the first three commandments from the Ten Commandments. 

It was Jesus’ pleasure to have no other Gods than our Father in heaven.  It was Jesus’ pleasure to glorify God’s name and not use it in vain.  Instead, he was faithful unto death.  And Jesus kept the Sabbath holy in his life and in his death.  Jesus did this in joy, it was our Father’s will, and this pleased our Father in heaven!

God is pleased to forgive.   God the Father does not take pleasure in the death of the wicked. 

 Through the prophet Ezekiel, God tells the exiled Jews three times, he hates death, saying, “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord GOD, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?” (Ezekiel 18:23 ESV)

“For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD; so turn, and live.” (Ezekiel 18:32 ESV)

“Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?”  (Ezekiel 33:11 ESV)

God wants nothing more than to forgive you and bless you with his presence.  Jesus has come down Jacob’s ladder and gives us access to God, by being lifted up on the cross.  This is the vertical reconciliation and God calls you to believe it.

He does not want us to try building towers to him.  Humanity has tried this before and still God had to come down and see what was going on at Babel.

Now we are reunited as one language in Jesus Christ.  The Holy Spirit showers us with Pentecostal blessings.  Now, you and I, can stand together, before God the Father believing, and receiving from him, the forgiveness of our sin.

We can ask our Abba, Father, praying, “Your will be done, not my will!  Forgive me my sin, help me to believe I am forgiven, and need not try to earn my forgiveness.”

We now live in the knowledge of Jesus Christ! Our purpose is restored.  We can praise our Father in his kingdom, for his power and glory!

This is God’s good and gracious will and it pleases him when we know who we were created to be and do, what he created us to do.  Amen.

Next week we focus on our horizontal relationships when we forgive each other through the freedom given in Jesus’ forgiveness of us and how the Holy Spirit makes the Father’s will, our will.