Why Series (part 3) – “Why do I have to forgive evil people?”

 Why question? Part 3

Why do I have to forgive evil people?

A couple of the scriptures used:

Matthew 6:12-15

¹² and forgive us our sins,
as we have forgiven those who sin against us.
¹³ And don’t let us yield to temptation,
but rescue us from the evil one.

¹⁴ “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Luke 23:34

³⁴ Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice.

I have been following a story about Saeed Abini  these past few weeks.

He is a muslim who became Christian and pastors in Idaho. If you have  been on Christian radio you might have heard about it. Saeed has a wife and two kids.

A year ago he went back to Iran to start an orphanage. He got all the government approvals he needed to start the orphanage. But as he got started he got arrested. He got arrested for being Christian and speaking about his faith. He has been put in one of the worst prisons in Iran. He has been tortured and they are trying to break him and force him to renounce Christ. They are basically wanting him to give up his faith and he would be set free.

Saeed refuses. He forgives those who are persecuting him. He is loving the ones who are causes him such pain.

This past Monday (Feb. 18th, 2013)  the  ACJL (American Christian Justice League) who is fighting for his release received a letter from Saeed.

Here is what the letter said …. (VIDEO) (click on “video” to hear letter read)

A little side note:

Almost 300,000 signatures have been collected. Our new secretary of state is involved. The United Nations is involved. But Iran hasn’t budged so far. If you want to sign the petition just click here.

They are doing all kinds of evil things against him – but yet he loves and forgives them.

His whole mission is to reach people for Christ.

• Hating them would compromise his mission
• Not forgiving them would compromise the message of Christ.
• Loving them has softened the guard’s hearts towards him.

By loving and forgiving them – his actions are speaking louder than any sermon he could ever preach.

If Saeed were preaching this sermon this morning – this is what I believe he would say to us:

1. You need to forgive those who do evil against you because you are commanded to.

Look at Luke 6: 36-37 (Jesus speaking)

36 You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.

37 “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven.  Forgive others and the evil they have done against because we are commanded to.

If you are a follower of Christ – revenge is not an option. Holding a grudge is not an option. We are not even entitled to condemn them.

The  only thing we are entitled to do is forgive them.

It doesn’t seem fair does it?

• They are the ones who did the wrong
• They are the one who done the harm
• They are the ones who sinned against you.

In our heart and mind they deserve to be punished. They deserve  something other than my forgiveness.

And I have to forgive them?  NO you don’t …. You GET to forgive them.

What if I don’t feel like forgiving them?

• I looked into that and nowhere in the scriptures does it say, “when you feel like forgiving them – forgive them.
• Jesus never says anywhere when you feel like forgiving then forgive – he simply says forgive.
• In other words we are to forgive whether we feel like it or not.
• Forgiveness is not a chore. It is freedom from being held emotionally hostage by the one who has done evil against you or someone you love.
• Forgiveness is process. It starts with saying, writing, or somehow communicating to that person who has hurt you that you forgive them. Then the process begins.
• You know you have completely forgiven when you can freely  love them again.

A friend of mine in Ohio runs a ministry called The Barn. He, I and a couple of other pastors were in an accountability group together. He has 300-400 teens come through his barn a weekend. These aren’t Christian teens (although they do show up to) – but teens of all shapes and sizes, religious and non religious, atheists, and many other kinds of kids with  broken backgrounds. In other words, a lot of hurt passes through that ministry over the weekend.

About 9 years ago, his then teenage daughter was raped by one of the guys who came to the barn every weekend. He was devastated. He was broken. He was furious. This guy (The Father)  could break a person in half.

But you want to know what this DAD did? This is he what he told us:

• He sat with the boy who raped his daughter.
• He asked the boy if he was sorry for what he did. The boy responded yes.
• He let the boy know he had forgiven him for hurting his daughter.
• Then he explained to the young man about who Jesus was.
• The young man came to know Christ.

God turned this evil act into something good because the father was willing to forgive this young man of this evil act against his daughter.

2.The second thing he would tell us that is that you need to forgive those who do
evil against you because they know not what they do.

Jesus is not the only one who used these words when evil was being done to Him.  When he was on the cross suffering the most cruel death any human has ever experienced he said “Father forgive them because they don’t know what they are doing.”

He was stripped naked to be humiliated. He was brutalized to the point you couldn’t recognize him. He was dehumanized to the point of being treated like a criminal and an object of their wrath. Yet he says “Father forgive them ……”.

When Stephen (the first martyr – look at his story in the book of Acts)  was being stoned, he said to his Father in heaven,  “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”  Guess who was watching him?  The Apostle Paul. Who, at that time, was persecuting the church. I am convinced Stephen’s death effected him.

Even when those evil things were happening to them (Jesus and Stephen), they rested in the comfort of knowing that their Father in heaven loved them and:

• Their Father in heaven was still good.
• Their Father in heaven was still faithful.
• Their Father in heaven saw the bigger picture.
• They understood that God was going to use the evil and make something good out of it.

How else could those words be on their mind in order to speak them?

How else could they have said  those words while being brutally killed by those who hated them. They knew their Father loved them. They knew He was still good. They knew he was still faithful. They knew God had a bigger plan in mind. They knew God was going to turn it into something good. They trusted Him.

Knowing that God has no intentions of harming you or hurting  you but only to prosper you and give you a hope and a future, you know that any evil thing that happens to you or someone you love is not from God.  The person is being used by the Evil one to destroy you either emotionally, physically, or spiritually.

Saeed is loving on those who are persecuting him and I am confident he is saying “father forgive them because they don’t know what they are doing.” Whether this man lives or dies,  God is going to use Him to change the lives of those around Him who are trying to destroy him.

3.The third thing Saeed would tell us that is that you need to forgive those who do evil against  you because you have been forgiven.

If you don’t forgive Matthew 6:14-15 (he not only says it here) says that if you refuse to forgive those who have sinned against you – your sins will not be forgiven by the Father.

Look at this passage again:

14 “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. 15 But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.

If you can’t forgive others then you don’t fully understand the meaning of the cross.

Jesus makes it pretty clear here. Those who follow Christ understand that because of Christ’s death on the cross we are forgiven. We deserved that death. We deserved those nails. We deserved that crown of thorns. Instead, we, like the younger brother in the parable of the prodigal son, got the robe! We got the ring! We got the party! We got the new shoes! We got new life! We got restored  to the relationship with our Heavenly Father. The TRUE OLDER BROTHER (Jesus) got the nails, the crown, and death.

Doesn’t that inspire you to want to forgive others?

Those of you who have prayed and asked Jesus forgiveness – you have been forgiven. Instead of getting what you truly deserve you were forgiven.

Now …. Jesus tells us to go and forgive others like we have been forgiven. Don’t refuse to forgive others remember what Christ did for you.

• You didn’t deserve it and neither does the person who needs to be forgiven deserve it.

What better way is there to exemplify the love of God than to forgive those who don’t deserve forgiveness? Like Saeed, forgive them so that they can know the love of Christ.

Do you know someone who has done something to you and  you  need to forgive them so that they can see Christ in you?

Do you need forgiveness?  Maybe you have wondered away or maybe you never have decided to follow him.

God is so good that he gave his one and only son not to condemn you but save and restore you.

God is so faithful that he gave his one and only son not to condemn you but to save and restore you.

God is so loving to us that he gave his one and only son not to condemn you but to save and restore you.

God sees the big picture and he knew  we would need his one and only son not to condemn us but to save us and restore us and help us so that we, too, can  forgive those who have done evil.