April 8th Easter sermon You Are Forgiven

April 8th Easter sermon You Are Forgiven
Luke 24

I have bad news. Every one of us is going to hell. I hate to be the one to break it to you, but I was reading the bible this week getting ready for this service and found in the scriptures proof this is going to happen. Romans 6 says “the wages of sin is death.” Romans 3 says “all have fallen short of the glory of God.”

When the adulterous woman was brought before Jesus, he did not justify her sins. He told the crowd “the one without sin must throw the first stone.” And they all walked away. Even those who considered themselves righteous knew they were sinful.

I hope we can all agree that God is perfect. There is no sin in God or near God. No one who has any sin in them can come near to God. In Isaiah 6, Isaiah was brought before God and instantly realized he would die. But with fire, God cleansed him of his sins.

Paul puts it in perspective for us. “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the Law; rather through the Law we become conscious of our sin.” Our goal is righteousness (whatever that means). Our downfall is the sin in our lives. Following all these rules people set up in the church and in religion doesn’t make us righteous, but only show us our sin.
Sin in ANY amount will distance us from God. “Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear,” says Isaiah “But your iniquities (that is, your evil, your mischief, your sin), your iniquities have separated you from God. Your sins have hidden His face from you, so that he will not hear.” The Apostle John tells us that “if we claim to have no sin, the truth is not in us.”

Now that we know we are bad people and we have to become righteous, what do we do? How do we become righteous? What does that mean anyway? Why do we want to do it??

Two criminals were hung on crosses on either side of Jesus. One chastised him saying “save yourself and save us.” But the other spoke up. “You and I are guilty, and we are being punished for what we did. This man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said “Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

And Jesus said “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” Could we be like that criminal? We come to Jesus, admit we are guilty, and ask for forgiveness, and then we go to heaven. Just before he died, Jesus said “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”

Jesus talked about forgiveness during his 3 years in ministry. In the Lord’s Prayer he said Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you also. If you do not forgive, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

If we want to be forgiven by God, we must forgive and accept one another. Peter came to Jesus and asked “Lord, how many times must I forgive? Is it 7 times?” Jesus said “you must forgive 70 X 7 times.” And then Jesus told this story… (with a current twist) ”There was a man who owed back taxes of $100,000.

The man begged the IRS for mercy saying he would pay back every cent, he only needed more time. The IRS agent had mercy on him, canceled the entire debt, and let him go. When he left the IRS office, the man found another who owed him $50.

In the scuffle, the man begged for mercy saying he would pay it all back in time, but the 1st refused and sued him for everything he had. Others saw this and went and told the IRS agent. The agent was furious. ‘I forgave your debt because you asked for mercy, yet you did not extend the same grace to another.’ In anger the IRS threw him in jail to be tortured until he paid back every dollar.
And Jesus said “This is how my heavenly Father will treat you unless you forgive others from your heart.” Let me repeat that. This is how my heavenly Father will treat you-unless you forgive others-from your heart.

What is our hope then and how do we become righteous? Our hope is in Jesus Christ. Righteousness (perfection before God) is imputed on us through Jesus Christ when we confess our sins before him and accept him as our Lord and Savior. Jesus died on the cross. He took every sin of ours, past-present-future, on his shoulders.

When Jesus took those sins on himself, God could not look his Son anymore. There on the cross, Jesus looked up and for the first time in his life and he did not see the Father looking back at him, but saw his Father in heaven turn away. And he cries out “Father, why have you forsaken me.”

Jesus died and we die with him, because we have sin in us. But three days later Jesus was resurrected. And that is our hope. Jesus took on our sins. When he was beaten he bled. When he was nailed to the cross, he bled. When they pushed that crown of thorns on his head he bled.




As you kneel at the cross (with that splinter filled wood just inches from your face) and confess the sinfulness that permeates your life, and ask for forgiveness, a single drop of blood falls from his beaten body and lands on your head. It’s his blood that cleanses you and makes you righteous to come before God today, tomorrow, and every day in the future.

Remember how in our scripture the women had gone to the tomb on Easter morning and the angels told them, “He is not here. He has risen.” That’s it. That is the climax of the whole story. HE IS RISEN. If you don’t believe in the resurrection, you don’t believe in Christ.

You cannot be a Christian and you cannot achieve salvation without the resurrection, because if Christ was not raised from the dead, we will not be either.
If we go back to Romans 6, it says the ‘wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.’

If you were baptized into Christ Jesus…that is if you truly accept him as your Lord and Savior and bow down before him to do everything as he did it…you are also baptized in his death. You were buried with him in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, you too will live a new life.

Since we are united with him in his death, we will also be united with him in his resurrection. Because our old selves…that is our old self absorbed, selfish, hateful, bigoted, biased, unloving, uncaring, jealous selves were crucified with him, so our sinful selves will be done away with we will be free from the grasp sin.

Then Paul goes on to tell us that because we are saved, because the stone was rolled away and the tomb was empty, we were slaves to sin before, but now we have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, and the benefits we reap lead to holiness and the result is eternal life.

More than once, Jesus said these words… “You are forgiven.” And I say them to you now. If you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior (and everything that means), “You are forgiven.” It is awesome knowing without a doubt Christ has forgiven me of everything I have done in my past and everything I will do in the future.

It is awesome knowing without a doubt, that it doesn’t matter what kind of coffin or grave I’m put in when I die because I won’t be there. It will just be a shell because I will be resurrected just as Christ was resurrected. By his blood he shed on the cross, I am forgiven.

But what about the people around me? My old self has died away and I am a new creation. What kind of forgiveness must I give to those around me? Do I have to forgive the guy who cut me off on my way to town yesterday?

Do I forgive that guy for calling me names and spreading false rumors about me? I must forgive them both. How about Bob…I saw Bob driving down the road last week. I rolled down my window and waved at him. He stared straight at me with the biggest frown on his face and completely ignored me. My presumption is Bob must hate me. Those false rumors must have been told to him too.

The truth is Bob was looking at the really ugly green car in the parking lot across from me. He didn’t see me. It’s amazing how presumptions about people can be so wrong. You are forgiven.

These three little words are the same as those other three words we like to hear. “I love you” because that’s what they mean and that’s what I have to say to every person who has hurt me in the past 34 years. Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love your neighbor. I look at Jesus and say “No. I can’t forgive them. I don’t want to be the first to forgive. They should be first.”


And Jesus says “It’s not that way. I was the first to forgive. You don’t have to be.” Love and forgive are synonymous here. If I love I have to forgive. If I forgive, it has to be from my heart. And like my transgressions and grievances before God were cast into the deepest parts of the ocean never to be seen or brought up again, I must do the same to all those who have hurt me in the past.

The manager who was so hard on me and never helped me move up.
The pastor who would not treat me like he should.
The guy who took my accounts and made me lose money.
The women who cut me off in traffic.
And those in my past who are too painful to bring up because they hurt so much.

I have to forgive them all. And I do. It’s not by my power I forgive them, but by the power of Christ that I can say “You Are Forgiven”. These are the hardest words you will ever say if they come from your heart. This church has been here for 100 years.

Christ’s church universal has been in place for 2000 years. For us to last another 2000 years or even another 100 years, we must forgive each other. We must love each other. Christ presented himself as a sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready.
And even if we hadn't been so weak, we wouldn't have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice.

But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use to him. Because of this saving act of Jesus Christ we can yell out “Praise God. Thank you Jesus.”

God gives us grace abundantly to make us righteous. Sin didn’t, and doesn’t have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When its sin verses grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death. Because God is putting everything together again through Christ, grace invites us to life; a life that goes on and on and on, world without end. Amen.

You must forgive each other, church. You must accept those who are different from you and those who do things different than you. You must love each other. Take the hymn to heart “they will know we are Christians by our love, by our love. They will know we are Christians by our love.”



That is the sign of a true Christian; one who has been born again into new life. The real Christian says “I forgive you, I love you, I accept you because Christ first accepted me.”

If you don’t know this forgiveness from Christ, I can offer it to you today. If you confess your sins and ask for the life only Christ can give, I can say the words out loud that God will say to your soul, “you are forgiven.” As we sing this last song, if you want to accept this forgiveness God so freely gives, come to the alter rail. Please stand.