FIVE FORKS BRETHREN IN CHRIST CHURCH 9244 Five Forks Road Waynesboro, PA 17268-9612 Tel: (717) 762-2991 SERIES: On the Road With Jesus SERMON: Forgiveness and Faith Scripture: Luke 17:3-10 Date: August 22nd, 2021 (Acknowledgement to Tim Keller for his series of Sermons on “The Meaning of Jesus.”) Good morning! Our Scripture text for this morning is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 17, starting with verse 3. Luke 17:3-10 So watch yourselves. “If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.” The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you. “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Would he not rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink.’? Would he then thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’” Our sermon series is called On the Road With Jesus. For the past 3 week’s we’ve been on the road with Jesus and His disciples as they make their way to on the road to Jerusalem for the final time. The reason we’re joining Jesus on this journey is because all along the way, He is teaching what a disciple will look like. 1 Not a Christian, but a Disciple. And you might say, “Wait a minute...In our culture, the term that many people use to identify themselves as followers of Jesus would be the word “Christian.” That’s true, but while the terms Christian and Disciple are related, I don’t think they mean the same thing. As I’ve been working on this series, I came across a term that may not be all that familiar to you... the term is Nominalism. Ever heard of it? Nominalism is the possession of a baseless name or title. A good example would be someone who is called a king of a certain land or country, but in reality would be nothing more than a figurehead, with no power, no real authority. Nominalism exists in the church as well, as there are Christians in name only. One reason is because it’s pretty easy to be a nominal Christian. A nominal Christian can point to the fact that they once asked Jesus into his or her heart, they attend church regularly or at least from time to time, and will at times participate in the activities of the church...and they will use that as the measuring stick to indicate that they are indeed a Christian. But in reality, Jesus has no authority in the person’s life, He’s a non-factor you might say...and in the end, it’s difficult to find evidence of a transformed life. And I’ve read that Nominalism is concerning to many pastors and church leaders, as it appears to be a growing trend in our culture. A Disciple of Jesus on the other hand, is one who actually follows Him, that is, one who recognizes His authority, is completely committed to His teaching, and responds by making what Jesus teaches the driving force in his or her life. I hope you’re able to see why it’s so important to talk clearly and directly about discipleship, and what Jesus means when He extends the invitation: “Come, follow me.” 2 Because of its importance, let’s get back on the road with Jesus this morning, and see what He has to say about something that impacts all of us, and that is how we’re to respond when someone offends us...sins against us...hurts us. Ever been hurt by something someone said or did? And for all of us, the answer is a resounding “Yes”, because over the course of our lives, every one of us will be hurt many times by the words or actions of another. It will come from those who are close to us and it will come from those who are complete strangers. It will come in varying degrees, from something that we’re able put behind us fairly quickly, to something that may have to deal with for as long as we live. And because it’s bound to come, Jesus is teaching how to respond in a way that can bring healing to the one who is hurt, and is some cases, bring about change in the heart of the person guilty of the offense. Jesus is teaching about forgiveness, and the faith in Him that it takes if we hope to be able to see it through. The message is titled Forgiveness and Faith, and as always, we’ll start by looking making sure we understand What’s Happening in this passage...take a closer look at What We Don’t Want to Miss...and consider what Jesus would say is The Next Step that each of needs to take in order to respond to His teaching. So first,... 1. WHAT’S HAPPENING Throughout the gospels we’ll find wonderful promises that Jesus makes – in my Father’s house are many rooms - as well as serious warnings. We find one here in verse 3 with Jesus warning His disciples to “Watch yourselves.” This warning comes in the midst of Jesus addressing many topics, and it applies to many areas of life, including those times when we get hurt. And then Jesus follows up that warning with some pretty challenging teaching about forgiveness....Luke 17:3-4 “So watch 3 yourselves. “If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him. And what Jesus is teaching here strikes the disciples as so radical, so extreme, that they say to Jesus, “You’re going to need to increase our faith!” Luke 17:5b “Increase our faith!” And so Jesus picks up on that...He doesn’t mention the word “forgiveness” again, instead, Jesus turns His attention to teaching His disciples about how their faith – their faith in Him – can bring this about. What He tells His disciples is that all they need is just a smidgen of faith. “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed,... And then He goes into a story about an owner and a servant... “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after sheep...and it’s kind of hard to understand the point that Jesus is making, and what it has to do with forgiveness or faith. So let’s take a couple of minutes to talk about... 2. WHAT WE DON’T WANT TO MISS ...in this short but important passage. How about if we start by looking at these words of warning, where Jesus says... A. “Watch Yourselves” When somebody says or does something that offends you, that hurts you...where does your attention go? If you’re like me, your focus is on the person who hurt you...what they did and how they did it...what they said and how they said it. And we just replay it over and over in our mind...the person, the offense, the person, the offense. 4 We may be fuming...we may feel humiliated...we may be filled with self-pity...but it’s easy to focus on the offender and overlook what’s churning around inside of us. And maybe that’s because it’s hidden, underneath the surface, just like a root lies hidden underneath the surface of the ground. There’s a verse in Hebrews that says, See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. Hebrews 12:15 This image of a root is helpful in understanding how much internal and external damage can occur when we don’t first “watch ourselves.” When there’s a plant or a bush that we want to get rid of, it’s not enough to just chop it off, right? If you want to get rid of something above the surface, you have to take care of what lies beneath the surface, that is, the roots. Some of you know that I grow raspberries, the black ones, and I’ve got about 2 doZen bushes in all. A few years back I planted a couple of red raspberry bushes next to my black ones, but because I didn’t much care for the texture or the taste, a few years later I dug them up, roots and all. Back here in late June, early July I’m out there looking over my black raspberries that were forming, and wouldn’t you know there was this one place where a batch of red berries was mixed in with the black. When I dug them up there a year or so ago, there was one bush where I failed to get all of the roots, and so the bush grew up and defiled one of my black raspberry bushes.