Highlands Fellowship The Cross: Father, Forgive Them… Transcript
Well, hey everybody and welcome to Highlands Fellowship. It's so good to have you here today and it's always a joy to be able to gather together to worship our Lord and Savior to hear from his word, to be encouraged, and to grow together. Uh today we're in week number two of a four-part message series that we're doing leading up to Easter called the cross. And in this series, what we're talking about are phrases that Jesus said as he was hanging on the cross. And one of the things I think about leading up to Easter as well is this idea that that people are more receptive to an invitation to come to church to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ because Easter really is a holiday that celebrates the resurrection of our Lord and Savior.
And so studies show that that Easter is the time where more people come to church than any other time. And so we have to be prepared for when they come. And so if you've yet to sign up to serve or get connected, we would love for you to do that because we know that company is coming and we want to be ready and we want to invite them in so that they can connect with the church and more importantly connect with our Lord and Savior. And so sign up, get connected, uh find a place to serve so that we can reach out to those in our community and care for them as well as we possibly can.
But as we talk about this idea of the cross and and this series and these phrases of Jesus as he's hanging there on the cross before the resurrection could take place. Last week we talked about the words of Jesus when he said, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Uh we learned that God had to had to turn from Jesus because he became sin in order to die for the sin of the world, for my sin and for your sin. So God forsook Jesus so that he would never ever ever have to forsake us. And today we're going to be looking at the words of Jesus on the cross when he says, "Father, forgive them." And I pray that the spirit of God through his word would use this message to truly change your heart and your life and mine as well.
So as we get started, let me just go ahead and ask you a question. Uh how many of you and and I really do need all of you to participate. So, if you're in Bristol, Marian, jump in here, too. All right, help me out. So, how many of you would acknowledge that sometimes men can be stupid? All right, just go ahead and raise your hand if you believe that to be true. All right, almost every hand in here is up, right? And and which proves my point because even the men say, "Yeah, we can be stupid." All right, we can be crazy.
Uh some of the things that we'll do as men all for the name of fun or adventure or fixing things. And sometimes we get hurt very badly and say some crazy last words before something bad happens. And I've kind of made just a brief list of some of the craziest last words of stupid men. All right? And and maybe you knew a man who said something like this one time. You know, I've never tried this with a chainsaw, but what could go wrong, right? Stupid, right? Uh if you've ever known a man to say something like this, well, they're dead. All right, honey. Those jeans make you look fat, right? We know that they're dead. Famous last words.
Uh, another dumb guy said this. Hey, I know that I'm not an electrician, but how hard could this be? And then, zap. Stupid. You know, crazy last words of dumb guys. And then the most common phrase that you'll hear stupid guys say is this, and help me out if you know it. Hey y'all, watch this. Right? And maybe some of you have said that, but you know, game over. Do not pass go. do not collect $200. He just did something stupid. But what we're going to see in this series is we're going to look at some of the last words or the statements, the phrases of our dying savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, as he was suffering on the cross. He uttered a few phrases that that should be truly the famous the most famous last words in all of the world. And today, we're going to look at some of those last words and and and work through them.
So, we're going to look in in Luke 23:es 32 and 33. The context is this, that Jesus was on the cross. And here's what the Bible says. Verse 32, the Bible says that two other men, both criminals, were also led out with Jesus to be executed. When they came to the place called the skull, they crucified Jesus there along with the criminals, one on his right and the other on his left. Now, I want to press pause there for just a second and and let's review what led Jesus to this point.
If you remember, the the Bible says this very clearly that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son Jesus that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. God gave his son Jesus who who was born of a virgin named Mary without a sin nature. And what did Jesus do? Well, Jesus ended up living a perfect sinless life and he completely fulfilled the will of God for his life. And when you study his life story, it's absolutely amazing. The guy never did anything wrong. He he loved everyone. Like he loved with an unconditional kind of love. He he loved the ones that society rejected.
And he came with this revolutionary, this against the grain message. He he talked to the religious folks and he said to them, "You are the guys that don't get it. You're the hypocrites. You're the ones that have the plank in your own eye. You're you're the ones that preach religion, but you don't know God personally." He said, "I didn't come just to preach the law, but instead to fulfill the law." And Jesus did miracle after miracle after miracle. His teaching changed lives. He he would touch people with blind eyes and their eyes would be opened. They would be able to see. He he touched deaf ears and they would be able to hear. He had the ability to speak to those who who had died and they would end up coming back to life. Like he loved everyone and anyone that he came into contact with. and he preached the message of God's grace a and and a new life in this amazing way.
Even though he did everything just right, living to fulfill the will of God, he was actually betrayed by one of his own. He he was put on trial, even though he had done nothing wrong. And even Pilate acknowledged the fact that this man, I find no fault in him. He was falsely accused. He was tried. He was condemned even though he was an innocent man. And the creation mocked the creator, God in the flesh, Jesus Christ, and they tortured him. They took his clothes, they stripped them off, they beat beat him over and over and over again with a whip, with metal and sharp objects like glass on the end that would just rip his back completely apart. internal organs would often be exposed when a person would be beaten in this way.
They they took a crown of thorns in a mocking way and they placed it upon his brow and they drove it down on his head so that his beaten and bruised face became even more bloody. In the Old Testament, it was prophesied of him that you couldn't even recognize him as a man. So maybe he looked more like an animal, a wounded animal than even a man. They took Jesus, God's son. They blindfolded him. And then the Roman soldiers who were known for wearing these these great big old rings. They pounded him in the face and said, "Tell me who who hit you. Prophesy. Tell us who hits you." And they mocked him. And they said, "Hail, King of the Jews."
And then they forced Jesus, who was fighting to remain conscious, to carry the cross to the place of his execution. And it was there that they drove the spikes through his flesh and his hands and his feet. They lifted him up off the ground. And here Jesus is and he's suspended between heaven and earth. Yet he was in complete control the whole time. Never retaliated. Never spoke a word of evil against those who were torturing him.
And then Jesus began to speak. Now, had I been there, I think I would be leaning in, I would want to know what this man was about to say. Is he going to curse those who have been abusing him? Is he going to pray to God for for relief from his physical pain? Jesus did nothing like that. But this is what Jesus said in Luke 23 verse 34. He prayed this to his heavenly father. The Bible says Jesus said, "Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing." This is absolutely amazing that our suffering savior in the middle of his pain, he looked up to heaven and he prayed, "Father, forgive these people for they don't even know what they're doing." I mean, this is absolutely amazing.
And this prayer of Jesus, this has a ton of significance for us. And so what I want to do is I want to look at the significance of this prayer. And so we'll look at three thoughts. And if you're taking notes, this is the first one. Understand that through this prayer, Jesus fulfilled prophecy. You see, 700 years before this event took place, Isaiah the prophet, he prophesied that one day this would take place. Now imagine 700 years before the event, these words were written in Isaiah 53 in the second part of verse 12, speaking of Jesus that he poured out his life unto death and was numbered with the transgressors, a criminal on his left and a criminal on his right.
The Bible says, "For he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors." And intercession is a is a big word that means he prayed for them like he prayed for the transgressors, for his offenders. Father, forgive them. With this prayer, Jesus fulfilled a 700year-old prophecy. It's utterly amazing. The second significant thought from this prayer is this. Jesus modeled the importance of prayer, right? Jesus Jesus was a person of prayer. In fact, he taught in Matthew 6:9, "This is how you should pray. Our Father," and that's what he did. What's significant to me is that Jesus opened his public ministry with prayer. And now, a he's closing his public ministry, what did he do again? He prayed.
Now, who did he pray for? He prayed for the most unlikely people, his enemies. And this is encouraging to me on a couple of levels. First of all, uh there are people in my life that I love uh that I think to myself, you know what? They'll they'll never come into a relationship with God. They're just too far from him. And yet Jesus was praying for those who would have been considered the furthest away from God. That's encouraging to me. It It models the fact that we should never ever ever ever give up praying for somebody to come to know Jesus Christ in a very personal way.
Another encouraging thought is if you fast forward the clock a couple of months after after the crucifixion, uh Peter was preaching on the day that we call we now call Pentecost. And on that day, 3,000 people came to know God through Jesus Christ. And we can only imagine and it was very very likely that some of the very people that were mocking Jesus actually came to know him personally on that day as a result of what? As a result of the prayer that Jesus prayed on the cross. He could no longer heal by the laying on of his hands on people because his hands were bound to the cross. He could no longer walk and do life with people because his feet were bound to the cross. He could no longer preach to this lifegiving and life-changing message to the crowd because the crowds that were open to his message, they had scattered. But what could he do? The same thing that every single one of us can do today and that is to pray.
Jesus prayed. The first significant thought is that he fulfilled prophecy. The the second thing is he modeled the importance of prayer. And the third thing, if you're taking notes, is this Jesus revealed man's greatest need. He revealed man's greatest need. And to me, it's interesting to note that what what Jesus didn't pray for. All right? He didn't pray for healing. And those are important prayers to pray for. to pray for healing, to pray for blessings, to pray for this or that. But but Jesus didn't pray for those things because he was praying for man's most important need, wasn't he? And that is the forgiveness of sin. And that's why he came. He came so that we could have life.
That's why Jesus said this at the last supper sitting around the table with with his closest friends when he held up a glass of wine and he said, "What's in this cup represents my blood and it's written this way in Matthew 26 28. This is my blood of the covenant and we call it the new covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sin." Jesus revealed our greatest need. He said, "Father, forgive them for they don't even know what they're doing." Listen, ignorance does not mean you're innocent. And sometimes we don't even know what we're guilty of. They didn't know that they needed forgiveness. And yet, they still did need forgiveness. We need it. Jesus revealed man's greatest need.
And what's sad to me as I've talked to so many people over the years is how how many broken and damaged relationships that we see in the Christian community in the church. And what's sad is often times the people that I care about the most are the ones that are most frustrated with me and I'm the one uh most frustrated with them. The relationships that should be the best are often the ones that are the worst. In fact, in a group this size, the chances are are very high that there's a lot of people who are wounded very deeply. The the pain in just in just marriages today is absolutely incredible. Uh and you have to admit that. I mean, you can see it all around you if you yourself are not going through it.
But there are so many ladies that I know that absolutely hate men because of the abusive men that they've had in their lives. And there are men that don't trust women as far as they can throw them because they've been betrayed. And maybe you've been like that. Maybe somebody's made a vow to you, a a promise, and they broke it. And you feel like your life has been absolutely shattered. the pain that so many children experience now with their parents' marriage breaking up or an abusive father, a neglectful father, an abusive mother. And you throw a little bit of alcohol into a home, you throw you throw some drugs into a home, you throw some sexual addiction into a home, and you've got a bigger mess than anything you could possibly imagine. Horrible, ungodly things happening to innocent people.
You know, people have siblings, brothers and sisters, their own flesh and blood that haven't spoken for months or maybe even years. And and we've got we've got people who who are angry at the church as a whole or or angry at at Christians. And they'll say things like, "Oh, yeah. Well, I have no problem with God whatsoever. I actually like God, but I hate Christians." We've got people who call themselves ministers that do incredibly ungodly things. And we've got tons and tons of people who call themselves followers of crow Christ walking around with these huge wounds with broken relationships with grudges. We've got marriages that are kind of like a husband and wife where they're just roommates living under the same roof but there is no real intimacy at all. It's just, you know, let's just stay together for the kids.
What do you do when you've been hurt like that? What do you do when you've been wronged? What do you do when when one of your most important relationships is not where it needs to be? Well, you do what Jesus did. When you've been hurt, you pray. And we're going to look at two things. Father, forgive them for they don't even know what they're doing. We're going to look at how Jesus wants us to live this out in our lives. When when you've been hurt, number one, the first thing that he teaches us to do is this. To pray for those who hurt you. We got to pray for those who hurt us. And a side note is pray good things, not bad things. Okay?
I just want to make sure you're tracking with me and paying attention here. And we talked about this just a few weeks ago. Luke 6 28. It it was Jesus who taught bless those who curse you. Pray for those who mistreat you. Who was mistreating Jesus? Well, the Roman soldiers were. The religious leaders were. And what did he do? He prayed for them immediately. Now, if if you're anything like me, someone's mistreating me, it's like, "Oh, yeah. I'll pray for them. I'll pray for God's justice in their life." like get them back, God. You know, and and when people have wronged me, often times what I want to do is I want to elevate myself above them.
And I'll say things like, "Oh, well, they're they're just not a good person." Or, "I would never do something like that." Or, "Oh, you know, now I've got the right to be bitter." And you know what? I I may do the spiritual thing, which is to forgive, but I'll never forget. And I'll hold it against you. I may even write you off. I may push you out. I'll close you out of my inner circle. Why? Because you ticked me off and you're going to know about it, right? I mean, think about the context in which Jesus was raised. Jesus was a Jew and he was born into the system that was known as as being under the law. Now, he came and he fulfilled the law.
But according to the law in which Jesus was raised, they lived a pretty fair system. They really did. Like if somebody plucked out your eye, it was an eye for an eye. You pluck out their eye, right? If somebody knocks out your tooth, there were no dentists, so you just didn't have a tooth. And you tell them to smile and you're popping their tooth out, right? It It was pretty simple. Pretty simple. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. He also lived very near a Roman Greco world where Romans worshiped a false god known as revenge. And the Romans were famous for it. Like if somebody wronged the Romans, they were going to take it out on you like 10 times what you did to them.
Now notice this. Jesus, born in an environment known for an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, uh knew a society of revenge. And the whole time he was in control and never once did he speak a word of retaliation. Not once. Never once did he act in a way to get them back. Instead, what did he do? The same thing that God wants us to do. To pray. To pray, "Father, forgive them for they don't even know what they're doing." There are those of you here that have a relationship that is important to you and you know it's important to God as well, but it may have been severed for years. Sure, somebody did something that was wrong to you. Sure, they deserve punishment. But guess what God calls us to do? He calls us to a higher standard. and he says, "Father, forgive them for they don't even know what they're doing."
And I do think it's important to remember that that my prayer for others may or may not change them, but it always changes me. You see, I I can't pray God's blessings on someone else's life without God doing a significant work in my heart. That's why Jesus said in Matthew 5:es 43 and 44, he said, "You have heard that it was said," love your neighbor and hate your enemy. That's pretty easy to do, isn't it? But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Pray for those who persecute you.
So, so the question is, who hurt you? Like, who wronged you? And and and how do you know when you've been hurt? It's when you're having a conversation with someone and there's really two conversations going on. There's the one that you're saying and then there's the one that you're thinking, right? You're saying everything normal, but on the inside you're thinking, "You lousy, no good, pathetic jerk." You know, who do you think you are? I could take you out right now. That's what's going on in your mind. And and maybe you don't do that. Maybe it's just me. But but who hurts you? Where where is there a broken relationship? Pray. Pray like Jesus prayed. Pray for those who hurt you.
And the second thing that we learn from scripture is this. Jesus's prayer teaches us that we should pray for restoration. And again, forgiveness and restoration are two different things. But we ought to pray for restoration. Father, forgive them. I want them to be right with you. Pray for healing where there's where there's a broken relationship. Romans 12 17 and 18, Paul told the Romans and remember who worship the God of revenge, the false god of revenge, said don't be revengeful. He said, do not repay anyone evil for evil, be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
And one of the reasons this is so f powerful is because it shows me that it may not be possible. I can't control what somebody else does. All I can control is what's in my heart. And God calls us to do our part. If it is possible, as far as it depends on me or on you, live at peace with everyone. Do what God's called you to do. And and let me tell you, do it today. If there is a broken relationship in your life, seek restoration today. Don't wait until tomorrow. And there are some of you that have not handled your tension in a biblical way. And now, you don't even have the chance on this side of heaven to make it right because they're gone.
For many of you, though, you still do have the chance. And and let me tell you that tomorrow is not a guarantee. You've got a marriage that is not where it needs to be, where it's supposed to be. It's time to get up off your hind end and do something about it. Apologize, repent, forgive, have some grace. You've got a son or a daughter and you're not in a relationship with them. Dad, mom, get out there and do what it takes. kids. You've got a parent and you're not speaking to them right now or there's no real relationship, man. You've got one life to honor them. Honor them. If you've got a brother or sister and you've been fighting with them over something that that happened years ago, fighting over money or this or that, whatever it is, it doesn't really matter. It's really time to grow up. Grow up. Father, forgive them for they don't even know what they're doing.
And some of you would say, well, how in the world do I forgive? Like, practically, how when I hurt like I do? Well, I don't I don't know what works for you, but this works for me as much as anything. It's Colossians 3:13. This is how I forgive when I don't feel like it. The Bible says this, "Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone." How do I forgive when I don't feel like it? Just like this. The Bible says "Forgive as the Lord forgave you." And let me tell you this, it it's really an ugly fact that if you take all the wrongs that that someone has done to you or against you from everyone that's ever done anything bad to you and you add them all up, you multiply them by a hundred and listen, they don't even come close to the ways that you've wronged God or I've wronged God. And yet he forgives us freely. How do I forgive? as the Lord forgave me.
And why is this so important? Father, forgive them for they don't even know what they're doing. Why is forgiving others so very important? Well, Jesus said this said it this way in Matthew chapter 6 verse 14 and 15. For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your father will not forgive your sins. When man was at his worst, God's son, Jesus, was at his best. And this is what he said. Some of his last words, "Father, forgive them for they don't even know what they're doing."
Would you pray with me today? God, today we come before you and we are asking you to do something in our hearts that we cannot do on our own. We're asking you to give us a heart of forgiveness toward those people in our world who have hurt us. And the hurt comes from some of the most important relationships in our entire lives. Whether it's broken promises, abuse, whatever it happens to be, we would love to see these relationships truly restored. And we know that it cannot happen without you because we don't know the unconditional love apart from from you.
And when we think about the cross as your son Jesus is hanging on the cross, he's not even thinking about himself. He actually prays for the people who have done the wrong to him when he's still in pain. When he's still being tortured, he's dying because of what these people are doing to him. And yet he looks at them with love and compassion. And he says, "Father, forgive them for they don't even know what they're doing." And God, so often we're the ones that have no clue of what we're even doing. So God, be continue to work in our lives. Open up our hearts to be able to see what it is that we need to see so that we can start the process of getting it right. reveal to us the sin in our lives. Reveal to us the hurts and the pain. That way we can give them to you very specifically. Give them over to you and allow you to do the work that only you can do in our lives.
So God, we're asking for again for you to do a work in our hearts and in our lives that we cannot do on our own. Work in us. Reveal the hurts. reveal the pain. And even in the midst of our pain, help us to pray the prayer that you prayed. Father, forgive them for they don't even know what they're doing. And as we pray that, I believe our hearts will change. And then the way that we interact with other people will change. And then people may come to know you because they see something different in those who follow after Christ. But God, today we submit to you and we ask that you would do this very difficult work in our lives that only you can do. God, we love you. We praise you. It's in Jesus name we pray. And everybody said, "Amen."