A Lesson In Forgiveness

We are coming up on the Passover and our preparation for the Passover. I'm going to begin this second message with asking a question right from the beginning. I think everyone should raise their hand. I know I'll raise my hand. Here's the question. Raise your hand if you feel confident or if you answer in the affirmative. How many of you are in need of forgiving someone that has made an offense against you? Can you think of someone in your life where you're feeling urge in your heart to forgive someone? Let's see a raise of hands. Just about everyone. This whole notion, this whole issue of forgiveness is a big one, especially those who have entered into their relationship with God through the Father. I think our need to forgive someone who has offended against us, it crosses all age groups.

It touches us all, we could say. I'm going to ask you today, I'm going to start with this, to answer the call of Scripture and engage in the genuine soul-searching, gut-wrenching process of forgiving someone that has offended you. The title of our second message is a lesson in forgiveness. We're going to take a brief look at this topic of forgiveness. If you have your Bibles, I invite you to open them up.

Let's turn to Genesis 37. Genesis 37 is where we'll begin. When you think of this issue and topic of forgiveness, perhaps one individual might come to mind and be at the forefront of your thoughts. That would be how forgiveness impacted the life of Joseph and how he was faced with the challenge of forgiving his brothers. Why explore forgiveness in and through the life of Joseph? It's simply the fact that it is within this story that we discover one of the most dramatic lessons in forgiveness in all of the Bible.

Again, Joseph's forgiveness of his brothers. Genesis 37, we're going to begin in verse 1. Let me set the scene a little bit, give you a little context here. Here is Joseph in Genesis 37 at the age of 17 years old. Historians think they got that about right, right at about the age of 17. There are several here in this building who are in that range.

Young adults in their late teens or early 20s. Joseph was 17, and here in chapter 37 we find him wearing a pretty snazzy jacket. We also find him the recipient of a couple of impressive dreams here. These two elements, along with many others, created in the brothers this heightened sense of jealousy.

We pick up here in Genesis 37. Let's read verses 3 and 4 here. Genesis 37, verse 3 and 4. Speaking of Jacob here, that's Israel. This is Joseph's father. Verse 3, now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children because Joseph was the son of his old age. So he had Joseph later in his age, and it made him his favorite.

Also, he made him a tunic of many colors. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all of his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him. Let's stop there. So, snazzy jacket here. The love, the obvious, imbalanced love of his father toward Joseph created jealousy amongst the brothers.

To add to the jealousy, God would now give Joseph a dream. The dream actually foretold the fact that Joseph's brothers would one day kneel to Joseph. Look at this. Verse 5 through 7. Verse 5 through 7. Now, Joseph had a dream, and he told it to his brothers, and they hated him even more.

Perhaps that wasn't a good idea to tell the brothers the dream, maybe not the most smart thing to do. Verse 6. So he said to them, here's the dream, Please hear this dream, brothers, which I have dreamed. There we were, he says, binding sheaves in the field. Then behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright, and indeed your sheaves stood all around and bowed down to my sheaf. And the brothers said to him, shall you indeed reign over us? Or shall you indeed have dominion over us? So they hated him even more for his dreams, for these words.

Then, verse 9, if that wasn't bad enough, he dreamed still another dream. And he told it to his brothers. Amazing here. And he said, look, I've dreamed another dream. And this time, get this, brothers, the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed down to me. So he told it to his father and his brothers.

And his father, the father who loved him, rebuked him and said to him, what is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you? And so his brothers envied him, but his father kept the matter in his heart, in his mind here.

Let's stop there. So here's the the foundation here of the story. These things, no doubt, created in the brothers such a spirit of jealousy here that they conspired that on the first opportunity they were going to deal with dad's favorite here. And once such opportunity arises, Joseph's father sends Joseph out to check on the brothers, check on their well-being. And so here, staying here in chapter 37, look at the second half of verse 17. Second half of verse 17, Joseph went after his brothers, found them in Dothan.

Verse 18, now when they saw him afar off, even before he came near them, they conspired against him to kill him. Let that sink in a little bit here.

I have had some pretty bad disagreements with my brothers back in the day. I don't know if I ever reached this level of contempt and animosity here to convene in such a way as to like these brothers to conspire to kill him. Here comes dad's favorite dreamer here. You know, come, let's take care of him. And they devised a plan in order to throw him into a pit, into a cistern, and no doubt in that kind of situation, one of the animals would have come along and took care of him, would have no doubt killed him. Now, that's when I believe God, in his providential care, brought about an alternative to that when a group of Midianite traitors, slave traitors, they were, came coming. And so verse 28, then Midianite traitors, verse 28, passed by, so the brothers pulled Joseph up, lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for 20 shekels of silver, and they, the slave traders, took Joseph to Egypt. So we might as well get 20 shekels here. That wasn't actually very much money here. Sold him to the Ishmaelites. They took him to Egypt, and as a result of that, he finds himself on the slave block, sold into slavery, and for the next 22 years, he remained. 22 years, in and out, but overall in slavery there in Egypt. So if we begin at age 17, oh man, let's see, 22 years. I shouldn't have done this to myself. Okay, 17, stay with me, 27, 37, carry the one. So that's right about maybe 39 years of age, maybe around, so around 40 years of age here.

After 22 years, now at the age of about 40 years old, he would now come face to face with his brothers.

Now we know the story. After 22 years, again, Joseph coming in and out of bondage, incredible difficulty during those 22 years, finding himself raised up by God, brought back down into the pit, very difficult years. Joseph stays faithful during all that time, and now after 22 years, through God's providential care once more, he's now raised up to be in second in command in all of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh, second in command. And now that was setting up this face to face with his brothers. What do you think happened here after those 22 years now, having his brothers come before him? Well, we don't have to wonder. Of course, scripture is wonderful. We have it all recorded. If you'll turn forward to chapter 45, beginning in verse 1, here we have this moment recorded for us. Again, 22 years, and now Joseph's going to reveal himself to his brothers. The brothers are before him. He's in second in command. He's no doubt dressed up in all his Egyptian royal garb here. Here's the moment, dramatic moment here, one of the most dramatic moments in all the Bible. Chapter 45 verse 1, then Joseph could not restrain himself before all those who stood by him. And he cried out, make everybody go out from me. So no one stood while Joseph made himself known to his brothers. So he clears the room. It's just he and the brothers. And Joseph wept aloud and wept so loudly that the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard it. Verse 3, here it is. Then Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph. Does my father still live? But his brothers could not answer him. They were dismayed in his presence.

And Joseph said to his brothers, please come near to me. So they came near. And he said, I'm Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. But now, brothers, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here. For God sent me before you to preserve life. For these two years, these last two years of famine have been in the land, and there's still five years in which there will be neither plowing or harvesting. And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you who sent me here, but God. And he has made me father to Pharaoh and lord of all his house, ruler throughout the land of Egypt. Verse 9, hurry, hurry, brothers, go to my father and say to him, Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me. Do not tarry. You shall dwell in the land of Goshen. You shall be near to me, you, your children, your children's children, your flocks, your herds, all that you have. There I will provide for you, lest you and your household and all that you have come to poverty, for there's still five years of famine. And behold, your eyes and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see that it is my mouth that speaks to you. So you shall tell my father of all the glory in Egypt and all that you've seen, and you shall hurry and bring my father down here. Verse 14, Then he, Joseph, fell on his brother Benjamin's neck and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck. Moreover, Joseph kissed all of his brothers and wept over them, and after that his brothers talked with him. Let's stop there. That's just so incredible, isn't it? What a moment. You just almost stand in silence before this, you know? And they began to talk in this large room, no doubt, emptied, except he and his brother. And as he's revealing himself here, and these words are just so impactful, come to me, he says. You know, think of the contrast here. So his brothers sold him to get him as far away from them as possible. Here Joseph says, come to me. Verse 22, he gave to each of them garments. To Benjamin, he gave 300 pieces of silver and five changes of garments. Previously, his brothers tore his clothes off. Now he closed them. They sold him for money. He now gives them money here. And verse 23 goes on to say, verse 23, loads up these carts. Ten donkeys loaded with good things of Egypt. The female donkeys loaded with grain, bread, food for his father for the journey here. So now, and maybe the most impactful gift here comes in verse 24, where he gives them the gift of comforting words. So verse 24, so he sent his brothers away, and as they departed, he said to them, see that you do not become troubled along the way. He says, on your way back. You know, don't be troubled. It's okay. So what's happening here?

Well, it is an illustration of a forgiving heart, and albeit a dramatic illustration of a giving heart here. I found this quote, I think it's a pretty good one, quote, to give evil in response to good is devilish. To give good in response to good is human. To give good in response to evil is divine. All right, that's pretty good. To give, you know, evil in response to good, well, that's just devilish. To give good for good, that's human. But to give good in responding to evil that's been put on you, that's divine. That's divine. So this 45th chapter of Genesis, this is a divine expression of forgiveness here. And how does someone garner within themselves this kind of divine expression here? I think it's indicated to us when he's talking to his brothers here. We read this, you know, he says here there at the end of verse five, you know, brothers, God sent me here before you to preserve life. In verse seven, God, it was God who sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you and all the earth to save your lives by great deliverance here. And so Joseph along the way was able to build with him himself an understanding of what he had received and this grace. And, you know, 22 years is a long time. He had a lot of time to think about it, you know. Where was I in bringing this about? Where did I not act the way I should, you know? Did I have to, you know, straighten my jacket every time I saw him, you know? Did I have to share those dreams? And, you know, that's what we have recorded for us. But I'm sure along the way this animosity was building. And Joseph along the way was able to see that he had been the recipient of grace. And it was God who was actually working in and through his life here. So this is a divine expression that he's able to receive and then to express to his brothers here.

This is the key. You know, I don't know how I would have responded. If you want to just talk about our humanity, in our humanity, how would have you responded? I can tell you probably in my humanity how I would have responded, you know. You stuck it to me, brothers, for 22 years. There's no way you can pay that back to me. There's no way I can get that back. You took my father away from me. I had to learn a new language. 17 years old. Surely he had his eye on a young girl, you know, that had plans for a future. All that taken away from him. All those opportunities of his life in a young age. So now, brothers, being second in command, you're now going to understand how it feels to have something taken away from you. And you're going down into the pit. And you might not even make it into the pit. I don't know. You might. I might take your life before I might. And you definitely won't come out alive, you know. But you're going to understand what I went through. Well, incredibly, we see none of that here, do we? In fact, rather, he reveals himself here in just absolute tenderness. Please come close to me. I think if I was one of the brothers, I would have brought, you know, one of them ahead, you know, swing at him, you know. He just never could have anticipated this. Do not be grieved. Verse five again, do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. You know, can you imagine this? So reviled by his brothers. And so Joseph's not only revealing himself, you know, I'm sure when he's saying this, he is taking that royal Egyptian card off, revealing himself. That would have mystified him. But even more so, he's revealing himself in grace, and he's revealing himself in forgiveness and tenderness here. I got to tell you, this is dramatic, and he revolutionizes their life with forgiveness. And I'll just tell you, one of the greatest impacts that we are going to make today, as God's people, is through forgiveness. We will revolutionize this world if we can get this. We will change people's lives. He revolutionized their lives with his forgiveness. And so, I know you picked up on this. Just know that Joseph is a picture of Jesus Christ himself. In Joseph, we see Jesus Christ, don't we? Just as Joseph revolutionized the lives of his brothers with forgiveness, Jesus Christ has revolutionized our life, the lives of his spiritual brothers and sisters with his forgiveness.

Revolutionize their lives. Jesus came to bring this kind of revolution here, and he revolutionizes our lives with his forgiveness so that we might, as the the forgiven, might also be the forgiving. You see, this is the great impact that God's true church will make on this world. Because we are the forgiven, we are supposed to be the forgiving people. Jesus Christ has forgiven you. Can you forgive others? You know, we see the carts, the clothes, the silver, the council here, and we're beginning to see the level to which we are being called to. And again, when we think about preparing for Passover, if you have the honor and the privilege to have gone through that process, and you have a relationship with God and Jesus Christ through baptism, forgiveness is perhaps the aspect that we really need to get a hold on. And if you are in the process of preparing yourself for that, well, this should really be something that you really want to get and really begin to internalize. And Jesus taught about this. We see it all throughout Scripture. We would be remiss not to look at maybe one of the most direct words from Jesus Christ with regards to forgiveness. And we find it in a parable. So often we find these things in parables. Well, Jesus Christ told the parable, the one that speaks most clearly to this topic, and it's found in Matthew 18. So I'd like to turn to you there next. Matthew 18, where we have this wonderful exclamation about the higher call to forgiveness that God's people are to achieve here. And it comes to us in a parable. I'm going to begin a little bit before the parable. Matthew 18. Let's begin in verse 21. This is Peter. Peter opens up this discussion by asking about forgiveness here.

Jesus responds, and then he gives Peter a parable. Matthew 18 verse 21. Peter came to Jesus Christ and said, Lord, he opens up the topic, how often shall my brother sin against me? And I forgive him. Up to seven times, Peter says. You know, Peter might have thought he was doing pretty good. I know, Lord, that it's supposed to be more than one. So I was thinking seven? Does that seem like a good number? You know. Well, Christ responds, and he says, verse 22, I do not say up to seven times, but seventy times seven. Now, I set myself up earlier with adding 22 to 17. I couldn't get that. So let's see. 70 times seven. Some of you are ahead of me. 490? Is that what it is? And I know what you're thinking. Okay, 490. Well, that's good. I can think of a few people in this room that are up to 300. So I bet they'll be there within the year, you know. So I can let them have it at 491, you know. Now, it's not calculation. This is a matter of heart here. This is a, you know, could Joseph's brothers ever pay Joseph back for what he lost? No. So it's not a matter of calculation here. It's an unlimited level. This is a picture of forgiveness on an unlimited level. And then, I like to think that Jesus paused and said, let me tell you a parable, Peter. Let me tell you a parable. And he begins this parable there in verse 23. And he says, verse 23, the kingdom of heaven, he said, is like a king who wanted to settle accounts.

And we won't read through this, but I'll give you the summary. Here's a servant owes an insurmountable amount, throws himself to the mercy of the master. That's verse 26. Fell down before him. Master, have patience with me. I will pay you all. Insurmountable amount. And moved by compassion, verse 27, the master of the servant moved by compassion, released him, forgave him all the debt. There. Very merciful. Totally forgives him of his debt. But then, can you imagine, the forgiven servant goes, finds a fellow servant who owes him a hundred denarii and begins to choke that guy for his money. So the forgiven servant goes, chokes the other guy, says, give me my money that you owe me. He realizes, well, if I kill him, I'm certainly not going to give my money. So ends up throwing him in jail, as the parable goes.

And that's verse 28, you know, verse 28. But that servant went out, found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He laid hands on him, took him by the throat, saying, pay me what you owe. And the guy ends up not choking him to death, but throwing him in jail. So in summary, despite the fact that he had been forgiven and insurmountable, unpayable debt, he still goes to choke someone that owes him a few dollars. Can you imagine? Well, I think we can all imagine, honestly, if we're honest with ourselves. Because let's take money out of the picture for a minute. So in Christ, we have been forgiven an insurmountable, unpayable debt. Right? So the question, are you going to choke your brother or sister for the few offenses they've made against you?

Look at verse 32 and 33. In verse 32 and 33, the Master, after he had called him, this servant he had forgiven, he says to him, you wicked servant, I forgave you all the debt because you begged me. Verse 33, should you not have also had compassion on the fellow servant, just as I had pity on you.

So there's the lesson. This is the lesson for today. And I want to give it to you in just a few, as few of words as I can. Here it is so we can get it. Here it is. The forgiven sinner prompted by gratitude must always do everything in their power to forgive whoever has offended against them. Okay? I'll repeat that. The forgiven sinner prompted by gratitude must always, in every case, do everything in their power to forgive whoever has offended against them. I say do everything in their power. Just know that it might be a process, but the call from Scripture is to begin that process. So I want you to think of someone. You raised your hand early. I want you to think of someone who you are in need of forgiving.

And I want you, on the strength of Scripture, to consider starting the process of forgiving them, to do everything in your power. Now, you may get to that individual and you begin the process, and it doesn't go as well as you wanted. It wasn't complete. It was a start, but it started, but fizzled. That's okay. That fact that it may not be resolved quickly does not remove us from the responsibility of this to begin the process here. Because we must do all within our power to bring about complete reconciliation, just as Jesus Christ has brought us reconciliation. Okay?

So, if... I'll just say a few words in application today, and before we begin to conclude. If you have come to God in response to that wonderful invitation where Jesus Christ has said to you, come to me, come to me.

You know, that's God the Father through Jesus Christ giving you that invitation. Come to me. If you've been on the recipient of that, and you now stand before Jesus Christ, and you know you're in desperate need of forgiveness, and you don't deserve it, but He's offering you and granting you through faith and repentance for your debts to be forgiven, if you're in that position, just allow it to fill you with incredible gratitude. Incredible gratitude. You've been... you're the recipient of a grace, an undeserved mercy, that you don't deserve, and that I don't deserve. And if you haven't started that first step, I encourage you to do that this year. Ask for forgiveness, and on the strength of Scripture, raise your head from being bowed. If you're kneeling, stand up, straighten your shoulders, and know you can go for it forgiven. Don't carry it with you. The devil loves to rummage around in unforgiven sin. You know, I've said that before. Don't let him do it. You're forgiven. Be thankful, because now, at that point, you're in the right posture to be involved in the kind of revolutionary act of forgiving others. And so, again, I want you today to answer the call of Scripture, and then engage in the genuine, soul-searching, gut-wrenching process of forgiving that individual who's offended you.

And what you will find, I believe, is beauty. It will come from such beauty.

Don't require the other individual to change before you forgive them.

The story of Scripture is grace and forgiveness first, and in the recipient of that, that spurs them to change. But while you were still sinners, Christ died for you. And then that grace then prompts you and I to the change we need to make.

And I say, test me on this. Go to your brother, go to your sister who's offended against you. Work on reconciliation. Forgive them in your heart and your soul, every bit of you. And then stand back and let God do a work in them and you and in that relationship.

I know it had that effect on Joseph's brothers, no doubt.

You know, as they talk to him and as that just the weight, the weight which he lifted from them, is incredible. So it's a call to Scripture. And I hope, again, we'll all begin to participate more so this year than ever in this act of divinity, forgiving someone who's offended us.

Well, as we conclude, I just want to conclude with a part of a song that I wrote this is, I'm not going to sing it to you, don't worry, but it is very poetic. This was written by Rosamond Herkalots. This is back in the 1960s. It's titled, Forgive Our Sins as We Forgive. And I think it captures everything that we've talked about today and seen through the life of Joseph. And with this, we'll conclude. Father, forgive our sins as we forgive. You taught us, Lord, to pray. But you alone can grant us grace to live the words we say. How can your pardon reach and bless the unforgiving heart that broods on wrongs and will not let old bitterness depart? In blazing light, your cross reveals the truth we dimly knew. How small the debts men owe to us. How great our debt to you.

So, Lord, cleanse the depths within our souls and bid resentment cease. Then reconcile to God and man. Our lives will spread your peace.