Sermon: "The Freedom of Forgiveness"

5th in the "Forgiveness: A Close Up" series.
Delivered July 4, 2010 by Rev. Ronald Johnson.
Sermon Text: John 8:31-42

Click to download & listen to the sermon MP3

Well good morning. It's my privilege to worship with you this morning. It really is, and as I stand here, I can really sense God's spirit with all of you here. It's good to be here. Yeah, my wife is next door preaching, and she is, most of you know who she is. Maybe some of you have met her. She is the associate for Leadership Development and Christian Education and Youth amongst other things she does. She is next door, again, and I just want to remind you that it's too late to leave the sanctuary. The doors have been chained and locked.

But I am Ron Johnson, and for the past several years I should say, I've been doing a bunch of things, mainly in Christian education and education community service, and church planning, multi-cultural ministry, a number of different things. Sort of like that Jack-of-all-trades, master of none kind of thing going on.

But this morning we really were blessed. I got a chance to hear Michael during the first service, and he really set the table for the ministry and Neal and the rest really led me through. So I'm ready to go. So we're really blessed with Michael. They were looking for someone as they were out searching for someone to come and preach and minister, they were thinking that they would try to find somebody who looked like Denzel Washington, and so, here I am.

And of course, they said, "Well, we have to have a great minister along with that, someone better than Michael W. Smith, better than Jars of Clay," and so they found Michael. Woo hoo! Amen! So again, it's my privilege to worship with you on this beautiful Fourth of July this morning, and to meet with you and to worship with you for this short time.

Let's begin with prayer. Will you do that with me?

Lord, I thank you for what you're doing in this congregation. We thank you for how you're using and going to use Pastor George, and how you're using the worship team and Pastor John. We pray that you would bless them and that your Spirit would indwell them and that Lord, you would move and transform lives through their ministry. And as we continue, and as we worship here in this place, Lord, I pray that your Spirit would move in us and through us, that you would open our ears, open our eyes, open our spirits to all that you want to do in us. And as for me, your servant, I pray that you would hide me behind the Cross so that the only thing that is seen is you. Amen.

Well for the last several weeks, you have had an opportunity to talk and to learn about forgiveness. And it's been, as I can see, a tremendous series. And you have on your website a list, actually a study guide, of grow groups, correct? And I want to encourage you that if you haven't had a chance to avail yourselves of that particular study guide and be a part of the groups, I want to encourage you to do so.

But in that study, you've been learning that forgiveness is more than just simply, as we like to talk about it sometimes, forgiveness of sins (should I say), or sin as reconciling relationships. But it has gone much, much deeper than that, which is really great. And what you've been talking about is not only the relationship with God and the forgiveness of sins with others, but you have been talking about how to forgive yourself, the freedom that comes with forgiving yourself, the relationship that you have with you, the healing that comes and takes place with forgiveness both spiritually and emotionally, and the freedom that comes with Christ.

So as we begin our lesson today, I want you to draw up a covenant with me this morning. Okay? Now, this is the covenant. The covenant is that I love to talk with you and then you have to talk back. All right, can you do that? All right, so when I say, "Good morning," you say, "Good morning." Oh yes, that's... you guys are good. You've had your coffee this morning, right? All right!

We've been talking about this forgiveness, and so today is the fifth in the series entitled, the topic is entitled The Freedom of Forgiveness. Say that with me, "The Freedom of Forgiveness." There is freedom in forgiveness. That's good news because it frees us to be who we truly, truly are. I mean really who we truly are without the hindrances of unforgiveness, the hindrances that come along with the hurt and the pain and the shame and all of those things of bitterness that can come with when we have been hurt and it's still within us, and we're still ruminating, we're still struggling.

And there are buttons that are pushed with us. We don't, sometimes, we're not even aware of the kinds of buttons that when they're pushed, we react a certain way. But Christ makes us free and those who are free in Christ are free indeed. And so I have this saying about being who we truly are because we're more than what we are. When I get up in the morning, I look at the mirror and no, I don't see Denzel, but I see Ron, and I say, "You're really more than who you think you are." I have a saying that says, "When God made you, he was just showing off." Yeah?

When God made all of you, he was just showing off. So I want you to tell your neighbor, look at your neighbor next to you, and if it's not your wife, don't look too deeply, and say to them, say to them, "When God made you, he was just showing off." That's right! That's right.

When God made you, he was just showing off. And part of that showing off is extending forgiveness, being free to forgive yourself and others. And we can gather that this topic of forgiveness is very important to Jesus. And all throughout Scripture actually, from the Old Testament to the New Testament because we can read about the subject of forgiveness. It is there either explicitly or implicitly. It was that important.

The Lord really wants us to get hold, to really lay hold of who we are and that this forgiveness that we extend and this forgiveness for ourselves is part of who we are to be a whole person. Jesus said to us that those who know the truth, the truth will set you free. The truth will set you and me free. And this is especially, I think, important because of the issue of sin in our lives that sin holds us like a slave often. We try to do or act otherwise, but it has this hold. We almost react and do things out of, just before we even know it we do it.

I heard, several years ago, from an older deacon, and older deacons seem to be so much more wiser, and the one guy gave me this terrific analogy of sin. He used the imagery of walking across the neighbor's yard and stepping in it. Now you know what "it" was, or is, right? Are you going to make me say it? It was Rolfe's contribution to fertilizing the lawn. It was the doggie doo doo. And so, he gave this analogy of walking across the neighbor's yard and he said, "You know when you step in it you just know what it is."

Neal knows what I mean. And so, when you step in it, you know what it is. The thing about it is that no matter how hard you try to get there and you know how we do, one of these numbers. We try to scrape it off, and it just sticks with us no matter where we're at. We get in the car, and down goes the window because we just...it sticks with us. And it's the same thing with sin. It sticks with us. It interrupts our relationship, how we deal with one another, and how we are really part of one another's lives. And Christ wants to free us from that.

We've been given the power by the Holy Spirit to be released, to be freed from sin and unforgiveness, and its effects on us day by day. Some people use the analogy of a plane. To escape gravity, it uses lift and velocity to lift it past, no matter what the weight, to lift it past, and into the sky. And so it's the same thing with what God wants to do with us, what the Spirit wants to do with us is to lift us past and give us velocity, freedom, freedom to not be shackled with unforgiveness.

Now this word "freedom" is a word we use often in this country. We use it a lot, and I think it means different things to different people. For example, when I was a young person, you know, it's hard to imagine when you're 50 being that young, but imagine for a moment, if you were a child, or I imagine when I was a child we would go and we would go to the neighbor's house and we would look for an opportunity to escape our parents because then if we got a chance to go over to someone else's house, we could do all the things we didn't do perhaps at ours where you sit on the edge of the furniture, you know, and you eat in places you're not supposed to eat. You know how it goes, right?

But it's freedom, children have freedom, and it might mean freedom for them being freed as they go out. The same thing with young adults. It might mean freedom for them as they go to college, or maybe move out of your parent's house, freedom. I have three boys, and I know what that kind of freedom from your kids really means. Freedom.

I'll never forget really how the conversation went between Bill Clinton and Nelson Mandela when they first met. There was a conversation that went on because this was the first time he had met Nelson Mandela, and he said to him, "Nelson, I remember the day that you were going to be freed. I woke my daughter up at 3:00 am in the morning to see this historic event."

And then he zeroed in on his real question. He said, "Nelson," he said, "I remember how it was when the look on your face when the camera zeroed in on you walking across the courtyard." He said, "As it zeroed in on your face, I could see this look of just extreme, extreme anger and even hatred that was expressed on your face that day." He said, "I've met you and spent time with you. What was that all about?"

And Mandela answered, "I'm surprised that you saw that. I really regret that you saw that kind of anger and frustration and that the camera caught that look because as I walked across the courtyard that day, I thought to myself, 'They've taken everything away from me, everything. They have taken my family away. They have destroyed my cause. They have killed my friends, and I felt such hatred and anger. I hated them for what they had taken away from me.'"

Then he said something very important. He said, "Then I heard a small voice say, 'Nelson! Nelson! They imprisoned you for 27 years, but you were always free.'" He said, "Now don't have them release you just to make you their prisoner once again."

You see we can never be free to be a whole person if we're unable to forgive. We say we believe in freedom for all, but it really depends on what economic station or situation we are really living in, depending on what gender you are, or what race you are, whether your citizenship is one place or another, there are other different kinds of realities that depend on whether or not you are truly free.

We all value, here, we all value freedom. We all value freedom of speech, freedom to vote, freedom to do as we choose, freedom to step in it. We really value that, and people die for that same freedom. They suffer for that freedom, and they've done it in this country and are doing it now, as a matter of fact, over and over again.

People swim across great spans of ocean, do things that we would think would be totally extraordinary because they believe life here is better than life there. Yet all of these freedoms are really quite different when we talk about Christian freedom. Only the freedom we find in Christ empowers us to forgive others and ourselves and to find the humility to say, or ask (should I say), for forgiveness.

For a moment, think of a miner who is trapped underground. Unless someone comes from above to release, there is no hope. If you can relate in some way to being stuck, then you want to listen to the words that Jesus speaks in this next Scripture lesson. I want you to turn, if you have your Bibles with you, turn with me to John, the eighth chapter. John, that's the Gospel of John, the eighth chapter, beginning with verse 31.

If you see the superscript, that's the little italics in your Bible, which is sometimes very helpful, and it gives us a small synopsis. It says, "Dispute over whose children Jesus' opponents are." That's the eighth chapter, beginning with verse 31.

Here we go.

"To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, 'If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.'" Excellent. "They answered him, 'We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?'

Jesus replied, 'Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know you are Abraham's descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word. I am telling you what I have seen in the Father's presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.'

'Abraham is our father,' they answered. 'If you were Abraham's children,' said Jesus, 'then you would do what Abraham did. As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. You are doing the works of your own father.' 'We are not illegitimate children,' they protested. 'The only Father we have is God himself.'

Jesus said to them, 'If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him.

When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don't you believe me? Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.'"

Once again, our key verse is... what? "Those who know the truth, the truth will set you free." The truth is not just some kind of philosophical view. It's not some kind of existential conversation about what truth is. Truth is really a person. It's Jesus. The metaphor of slavery and the truth of what's going on here, what we've been talking about in forgiveness, it's the point that Jesus has come to set us free. That's what his listeners are asking him here. They're really asking, "What do you mean by setting us free? What do you mean by being free?"

And Jesus answers that in verse 34 and 36. Every human being is a slave to sin according to what Jesus is saying here. And unless we are liberated from that enslavement, we will always do the same thing over and over again. We're stuck. We just keep doing the same thing, even without thinking. It's just implanted in us. No matter what context we're talking about when it comes to slavery and freedom, we know that a slave doesn't do or cannot be the master, or cannot make decisions, but for 24/7 they are at the mercy of the master who has absolute power over them. And the freedom that we're talking about, the truth is Christ, and it is being freed through Christ.

Jesus is saying this in the same way, "Sin has power in our hearts." If we let it, it will be like corruption to our bones. It will get in us, and it will be in us, and we will struggle with trying to be free. We can't do it. It's impossible to do because we just keep struggling with the things we've encountered, the people who have hurt us in our lives. We struggle with that, but Jesus wants to make us free.

Christ followers struggle with sin and forgiveness as well, even though we're disciples. But it's Christ who frees us, will give us the freedom, the power to forgive those who have hurt us, those who have done things to us. But it's also freedom for yourself. It is freedom for me to know that I don't have to be ruled by what someone has done to me. I'm free. I'm free to forgive. I'm free. I don't have to react with the buttons that are pushed. I'm free.

You see the byproduct of sin, the byproduct actually of unforgiveness in our lives can be that bitterness, that anger, that hatred, feelings of deep pain and shame, but we can release others, and when we release others, we release ourselves. Are you with me?

One day, it was actually yesterday, I believe it was. I was kind of surfing through the channels. I don't know if you do that. Do you? I do watch TV from time to time, and I surf through. You know how it goes. You just grab the remote and you know. Do you guys do that? Do you watch movies and things? How many people watch TV? Oh, thank you. And all the rest of you who didn't raise your hand, you don't watch TV or movies, you're praying while we're watching the movies and the TV, right? Oh, come on.

But I was watching this thing, and I'm watching the TV and it's this conversation, an interview between, they're actually interviewing two NASCAR people. One is a booth commentator, the other one is a driver. So as the conversation goes, and this interview is going on, they're asking the question, "Will this particular driver who is in the race today, will that person carry a grudge for what they had done to him?" Actually what another driver had done, which is to bump him, and then he lost the race.

And so the whole conversation, the interview is about whether that person would carry a grudge. And so the one commentator said, "You know, no, absolutely not. What is going to be on that person's mind, the focus they'll have is all about the race." So then they flashed to another, which is the driver, and they interview him, and they ask him the same question. And he says, "That's why he is a booth commentator, and that's why I'm a driver because drivers do carry grudges. And the next thing he does, it's going to be always on his mind, and so he is going to do something because people will do things out of grudges. He said, "I don't care if it was 15 or 20 years ago, they'll remember it."

You know, have you ever been in a situation or talked to someone, a conversation where someone brings up something you did 50 years ago, or 10 years ago, or three months ago, or one day, and you have no idea what they're talking about? That's what happens with us that if we don't extend forgiveness, it stays with us, and it ruins our relationship with others. But Christ wants us to be free in our relationships, free, free ourselves from the kinds of things that we often hoard within us.

I've looked at TV from time to time, and I've watched sometimes how people talk, and the conversations they have. In a moment, we're going to watch a video of Bob and Olga Gerkens, but I often wondered, "What is it in people, how are they able to be free," when I watch people whose relatives who have been murdered in Rwanda. I've watched TV, or have experienced different kinds of things. I wonder, for example, how people in the 1960s could be released from the kinds of things that were going on, the racism, and the oppression. How can someone forgive? And it's amazing what God does in people's lives to help them forgive.

We have a close-up story today. It's a story, a real story, of long-time members of the congregation that we want you to see. Please watch.

[Video]

Olga Gerkens: When the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor happened in December of 1940, it brought Southeast Asia into World War II. And two months after that, the first bombardments, and air raids started.

Bob Gerkens: The occupation of the Germans lasted about five years, and the first signs were that they put on restrictions on the people in Holland, that they rounded up Jews in camps to be sent later here to Germany here to the extermination camps, and that included my girlfriend at that time. She was 10 years old. I was 13, and she never came back.

Olga: So there we were, without protection, without income, never knowing what would happen to us from the one moment to the other. As time wore on, the first death notices started to arrive in the mail by the Red Cross.

Bob: We were trying to hide as best as we could from them, and I found a delightful farmer's family, dairy farm family who put me up in his haystack, made the room there. And with four other people we were hiding there. There was very little food available, and whatever we possessed, we tried to barter for food. And that family where we were hiding was very helpful in that respect at great cost to themselves because if they found out, of course, the whole family would be eradicated, so we have been forever grateful for them.

Olga: Gradually, we ran out of possessions to barter for food, so food became very scarce. And in my case, I would get boils on my legs due to vitamin deficiency and they would not heal until medicines were available again.

Bob: I had the extreme joy a couple of months later of liberation. The Allied troops came and with that also came food supplies and freedom itself.

Olga: After four long, hard years, the Japanese surrendered.

Bob: It became known through our liberators what Germans were really doing with the people they picked up. My uncle was killed. He was in the underground resistance, and also two nephews.

Olga: We lost four men in our lives, in our family. My father and one of his brothers died a couple of days after the war was over. One of his brothers had died earlier, and one cousin was killed when he tried to escape from the camp. How was I to forgive those who had caused so much devastation, loss, and suffering?

Bob: It is so that I had to be trained in forgiveness gradually. Murray did, in his excellent way (Pastor Murray Smoot), and I will never forget that.

Olga: All those sins that were against mankind not about me. God's Word says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

Bob: It's so that they changed learned to accept that his forgiveness, his blood, his suffering was necessary for me to forgive all those who I have hated before.

Olga: This Memorial Day, I was once again reminded of the precious blood that was shed, human blood, to set us free from the atrocities of war, but more than that, what about the precious blood shed on the Cross by Jesus? God's Word says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us from all unrighteousness," and I claim that forgiveness over and over again.

[End of video]

What a powerful, powerful witness, the capacity to go through extreme situations, to go through what they went through and then witness through the power of God, the amazing grace of God in our lives, for there is no gift that is greater than the power of the Savior to set us free.

Perhaps maybe you might be ready to pray a prayer similar to what we will pray in a few moments. Maybe you've gone through some things in your life that have been very, very hurtful to you, and you're looking for freedom. There is freedom. You are free to forgive.

Pray with me for a moment.

Oh God, the wrong and the bitterness has entered deep into our spirits, and in our own strength, we struggle with forgiveness. In many ways, we cannot forgive. Lord, the pain has been very deep for us. There is bitterness in us, anger in us, hatred in us. There is shame in us, and we desire to be free of it, Lord. Free us Lord. Free us.

Holy Spirit, wash over us to make us free to be able to live and witness and show forth forgiveness for others and for ourselves. Lift it from us, oh Lord, for through you, anything can be. We can do anything, for you oh Lord can do exceedingly, abundantly more than we can even think, or even ask. Give us freedom, in Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Amen.

© 2010, Rev. Ronald Johnson
Central Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, MD 21204 410/823-6145
www.centralpc.org