"Father, Forgive Them"

 

Everything about the crucifixion of Christ is of surpassing interest. It is almost impossible to visit the excruciatingly painful scene at Calvary and be able to move past it all in one sitting.

 

It was at CALVARY where God did His best and man did his worst.

It was at CALVARY where faith is justified, hope is assured, and love conquered all.

It was at CALVARY where the Savior's heart of grace was contrasted with man's heart of rebellion.

 

No wonder the Apostle Paul wrote in I Corinthians 2:2, "For I determined not to know anything among you save Christ and Him crucified." The hymn writers reflected upon Calvary when they wrote,

 

"In the cross of Christ I Glory, towering over the wrecks of time.

All the light of sacred story gathers round its head sublime."

 

“When I survey the wondrous cross, on which the Prince of Glory died,

My richest gain I count but lost, And pour contempt on all my pride.

 

"Marvelous grace of our Loving Lord,

 Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt,

Yonder on Calvary's mount out-poured,

There where the blood of the Lamb was spilt."

 

I suppose a man could preach his entire life and never exhaust the riches that surround Calvary. Let’s linger at the foot of His cross and watch and listen. If we pay close attention, we’ll hear not one or two utterances fall from His lips, but SEVEN all-important statements. Timeless truths are contained in them that we don’t want to miss. These SEVEN sayings become a marvelous demonstration of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. They help us in a very real sense to understand the purpose and heart of the crucifixion. Here is a summary of the Seven Words of Christ at Calvary.

 

FIRST are the words of FORGIVENESS: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." found in Luke 23:34

SECOND are the words of SALVATION: "Today shalt thou be with me in paradise." found in Luke 23:43

THIRD are the words of AFFECTION: "Woman behold thy Son!…Behold thy Mother!" found in John 19:26-27

FOURTH are the words of ANGUISH: "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" found in Matthew 27:46

FIFTH are the words of SUFFERING: "I thirst." found in John 19:28

SIXTH are the words of VICTORY: "It is finished:.." found in John 19:30

SEVENTH are the words of CONTENTMENT: "Father, into thy hands, I commend my spirit." found in Luke 23:46

 

Christ hung on the cross for 6 agonizing hours before He died. He was there from 9:00 in the morning until 3:00 in the afternoon. From 9:00 until noon, it was daylight. At noon, a strange and eerie darkness blanketed the skies, and that darkness lasted until after 3:00 in the afternoon. This timing is significant, because Christ’s SEVEN last statements fall into two groups:

 

 

The first three were said during the daylight period; the last four were uttered after the darkness came over the land.

The first three sayings had to do with other people; the last four had to do with Jesus Himself.

The first three had to do with His horizontal relationships with others; the last four had to do with His vertical relationship with God.

The first three had to do with His compassion for others; the last four had to do with His suffering and the meaning of His death.

 

While other victims cursed and screamed words of bitterness, Jesus focused His mind first on others, then on the Father. Even more amazing, after all He had been through; His first words were gracious terms of forgiveness!

 

The first utterance from the cross, the words of FORGIVENESS are found in the context of Luke 23:32-37.

 

“And there were also two other, malefactors, led with him to be put to death. (33) And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. (34) Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots. (35) And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God. (36) And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, and offering him vinegar, (37) And saying, If thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself. (38) And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew, THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

 

As we pause and consider the statement of this message found in verse 34, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” several significant observations come to mind.

 

First: Jesus’ prayer "Father, forgive them" is in fulfillment of the prophetic word predicted seven hundred years before Christ came to earth in Isaiah 53:12, “Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”

 

Christ hung there on the cross DESPISED and REJECTED, a MAN OF SORROWS, ACQUAINTED WITH GRIEF, WOUNDED, BRUISED and BEATEN, POURING OUT HIS SOUL UNTO DEATH, and yet:

 

He looked at His murderers and said, “Father, forgive them.”

He looked at those crucifying Him and said, “Father, forgive them.”

He looked at the transgressors at the cross and said, “Father, forgive them.”

He looked down the corridor of time and saw you and your sins and He saw me and my sins, and said, “Father, forgive them.”

 

Knowing that all scripture must be fulfilled, Jesus, from the cross, made intercession for the transgressors by saying, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."

 

Second: Our Lord's first saying on the cross "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." finds Him in an attitude of prayer. How significant! How instructive!

                       

The FIRST utterance from the cross was a prayer, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."

The MIDDLE utterance from the cross was a prayer, "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

The LAST utterance from the cross was also a prayer, "Father, into thy hands, I commend my spirit."

 

Jesus began his ministry in prayer; when He was baptized. The Bible says in Luke 3:21, "Jesus also being baptized, and praying…" Now He closes His earthly ministry in prayer. While dying on a cross, He prays, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."

Jesus never lost His sense of divine mission. He did not pray, "Father, forgive ME;" He prayed "Father, forgive THEM." He knew the reason He was on the cross. Jesus was dying to pay the debt of sinners.

 

Third: Jesus offers this prayer of intercession, "Father, forgive them” more than once. The word "FORGIVE" is in the Greek imperfect tense indicating continuous action in the past. In other words Jesus was praying this prayer over and over again, "Father, forgive them." "Father, forgive them." "Father, forgive them."

 

When they took the crossbeam and laid it on His shoulders, compelling Him to carry it, He prayed, "Father, forgive them."

When they drove the nails through His hands and through His feet into the cross, He was praying, "Father, forgive them."

When they took His clothing from Him, and shamed Him before His followers, He prayed, "Father, forgive them."

When Jesus looked down from the cross, and saw the crowd for whom He was dying gathered round Him, He prayed, "Father, forgive them."

 

In Matthew 27:36, the Bible tells us after “the soldiers had parted his garments and cast lots for His robe; they sat down to watch Him.” Why did they sit down to watch Him? I suggest the possibility when Jesus uttered His prayer of "Father, forgive them," for the 5th or 6th time or more, His words caught the attention of the soldiers. Their ears had grown accustomed to the bitter curses of the victims, but never had they heard words like this, "Father, forgive them." coming from one dying on a cross, Perhaps this was what caught the attention of the Roman centurion who later acknowledged, “Truly this was the Son of God.”

 

At the cross, these soldiers discovered in “Father, forgive them” the Anthem of Heaven proclaimed, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son…"

At the cross, these soldiers found God's intertwining of LOVE and JUSTICE. For in Romans 5:8 we read, "But God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

 

One day, a young boy was asked to define forgiveness. He replied, "It is the perfume that flowers breathe when trampled upon." Marvelous grace, infinite grace as forgiveness, now freely bestowed upon all who believe!

 

Grace, grace God's grace,

Grace that will pardon and cleanse within;

Grace, grace, God's grace,

Grace that is greater than all our sin.

 

As we continue to meditate upon the text, let me point out to you five significant leasons to be learned from Christ as He prayed, "Father, forgive them."

 

First: Jesus addressed his prayer to God the Father when He said “FATHER forgive them.” The next time He addresses His Father from the cross, He will cry out, “My God, My God” as He bears the full weight of the sin of the world. Remember up to this point, Jesus has never asked the Father to forgive anyone. As long as the Son of God was on earth, He had the authority to forgive sins. But now He has been raised from the earth completing the work of redemption, humbling Himself under the authority of God the Father.

 

Second: Jesus, in His prayer, makes a request, “Father, FORGIVE them.” That is an amazing request, isn’t it?

 

If someone pressed a crown of sharp thorns on your head,

If someone stripped you naked for the world to see,

If someone brutally punched you numerous times in the face,

If someone drove nails into your hands and into your feet and lifted you up on a cross to die,

Be honest, would you pray that kind of prayer for them? Today, at the slightest offense, we are ready to retaliate, defend ourselves, and fight back. Yet in His greatest moment of agony, Jesus sincerely prays, “Father, FORGIVE them.”

 

I have read that the word forgiveness means, among other definitions, "to bear the burden." For instance, if a man owed you a thousand dollars, and you forgave him his debt; you would bear the burden for those thousand dollars.

 

Likewise if Jesus was to forgive you of all your sins against God, then it would be He who would have to bear the burden of those sins. Every sin we have ever committed, Jesus bore in His own body on the cross. I Peter 2:24 tell us that, "Who His own self bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being, dead to sins, should live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed." And, thank God, He did! The hymn writer wrote,

 

Jesus paid it all,

All to Him I owe;

Sin had left a crimson stain,

He washed it white as snow.

 

Could I forgive as Christ has forgiven? Yes, a transformed child of God, a man or woman whose life has been changed by the power of God could pray such a prayer. In fact, saints down through the ages have done so, beginning with Stephen, the first martyr in the history of the church. With rocks and stones pelting his body, Stephen graciously prayed in Acts 7:60, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.” In other words, “Father, FORGIVE them.” Somewhere in the years past I read,

 

Anyone can love the lovely.

Anyone can forgive the forgivable.

But Christians are unique.

We are called to love the unlovely,

To forgive the unforgivable.

 

The way God has forgiven us through Christ is the same way we are to forgive others. All because of Calvary we can forgive. Remember Ephesians 4:32, “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” Few acts have a greater impact on those who mistreat us and abuse us than our telling them we “forgive” them!

 

Third: Jesus in His prayer addresses the object, “Father, forgive THEM.” Who is included as “THEM”? Who are “THEY”? In general terms, Jesus’ request for forgiveness refers to His immediate world.

 

It includes every Jew who initiated the trials and planned and carried out His crucifixion.

It includes every Gentile who had even the smallest part in His death.

 

But beyond that immediate world, when Jesus prayed, "Father, forgive them," He included ALL of humanity past, present and future; including you and I since the Bible teaches that, "Jesus tasted death for all men." in Hebrews 2:9.

 

Jesus prayed for me that day as much as if He had called my name and said,

 

"Father, forgive David Miklas. He has a part in my crucifixion.

He too put the nails in my hands and feet.

He too placed the crown of thorns upon my head.

He too sat there and scoffed while I died.

He is a Hell-deserving sinner even though he knows it not, “Father, forgive him."

 

 

When the Lord Jesus asked the Father to forgive, He had all of us in mind! In Colossians 2:13-14, the Holy Spirit, speaking through the pen of the Apostle Paul, confirms He did just that. “And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; (14) Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;” He forgave all our transgressions. He canceled our certificate of debt and its hostile decrees against us.

 

When a criminal was put to death on a cross, the soldiers scrawled out the identity of his crime on a sign that was nailed to the cross, above the victim’s head. That is why Jesus had the sign nailed over his head, “This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”

 

Paul says the Lord Jesus took our guilt and nailed it to His cross. He took our sins, yours and mine, and carried them with Him as He was nailed to the cross. He died for every sin that you and I have ever committed in the past and will ever commit from this day forward. Our Saviour did not utter hollow words or an empty prayer to a silent God. The Son of God said, “Father, forgive them” and the Father replied, “I forgive them.” Talk about God’s grace! In Ephesians 1:7 we read, “In whom (that is Christ Jesus) we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;”

 

Since Christ bore our sin on the cross, we have been fully forgiven. That means we have been empowered to live differently than we did before. How then ought we to act toward others who have sinned against us? In Colossians 3:12-14 we read, “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; (13) Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.”

 

Fourth: This prayer Jesus prayed contains the reason for His forgiveness. "Father, forgive them, for they know not WHAT they do." This does not mean that the enemies of Christ were ignorant of the FACT of His crucifixion.

 

They knew full well that they had cried, "Crucify Him!"

They knew full well their vile request had been granted them.

They knew full well that He had been nailed to the tree for they were eye-witnesses of the crime.

 

What then did our Lord mean when He said, "…for they know not WHAT they do?"

 

They did not know it was for their sins Jesus was on the cross.

They did not know that this was the Lord of Glory.

 

They OUGHT to have known. They should have known. Their BLINDNESS was inexcusable.

 

Had not the Old Testament prophesies given sufficient evidence to identify Christ?

Had not the sacrificial system been sufficient to identify Christ?

Had not the unique teaching of the Son of God been sufficient? Even they admitted of Him, "Never man spoke like this man."

 

How sad to think even today this terrible BLINDNESS is still being repeated over and over again by those who still are without Christ as their Saviour.

 

Little do they know, they are still REJECTING God's great Salvation.

Little do they know how awful the sin of slighting the Son of God.

Little do they know the crime of saying, "We will not have this man to reign over us."

 

The question still comes down to, "What shall I do with Jesus, which is called Christ?" If today you are still blind to God’s saving grace, may the words, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." lift that blindness from your soul so that you may see the "Marvelous, infinite, marvelous grace, freely bestowed on all who believe…"

 

Fifth: Jesus’ prayer, "Father, forgive them." was a prayer for POSTPONEMENT. Interestingly,

 

The word "forgive" is the same Greek word translated "suffer" in Matthew 19:14 when Jesus said, "Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me."

 

The word "forgive" is the same Greek word translated "let be" in Matthew 27:49, when the soldier said, "Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save Him." Here the word means "Wait, Hold back."

 

Now when the Lord was using the word "forgive" He was saying, "postpone the judgment. Hold back the wrath, WAIT! They don't know what they are doing." And thank God He is still willing to hold back the judgment because He wants people to be saved. In II Peter 3:9 we read, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” But postponement does not mean escape; and unless one turns to Jesus, someday he will die and go to hell without hope of and without the Saviour.

 

Listen to this story taken from an incident in the war between Russia and Finland. Seven soldiers were held prisoners in the town hall in Finland. They were to be shot at sunrise. They were communists and ungodly men; they had hope for neither time nor eternity. But one of them began to sing,

 

Safe in the Arms of Jesus,

Safe on His gentle breast,

There by His love o'ershadowed,

Sweetly my soul shall rest.

 

When the verse was finished, one of his follow prisoners spoke out, "Where did you get that, you fool? Are you trying to make us religious?"

 

Koshinen, the singing soldier, replied, "Comrades, listen to me. When I first heard that song I laughed, too. But that song got a hold of me. It is now cowardly for me to hide my faith. The God my mother believed in has now become my God also. Last night I prayed like the thief on the cross that Christ would FORGIVE me and cleanse my sin and make me ready for Heaven. I have accepted the crucified Saviour and I thank Him. I have kept it to myself as long as I could, but within a few hours we will face the firing squad and I will be with the Lord, saved by grace."

 

The silence that followed was broken as one man after the other came to Koshinen and said "You are right, if I only knew there was mercy for me, too. These hands have shed blood, and I have cursed God and trampled on all that is holy. Now I realize that there is a Hell and that is the proper place for me. Tomorrow I shall die, and my soul shall be in the hands of the Devil." By 4:00 in the morning all of the red communists were saved, and by 6:00 in the morning they were marched before the firing squad. As they lined up with their hands raised Heavenward, they began to sing,

 

Safe in the Arms of Jesus,

Safe on His gentle breast,

There by His love o'ershadowed,

Sweetly my soul shall rest.

 

As each was shot, they went into eternity saved by grace. God had postponed His wrath and held back His judgment until those red soldiers knew what they were doing. "Father, postpone the judgment. Father hold back the wrath. They don't know what they are doing."

 

All over this area, in every community around here as well as around the world, there are people for whom God is holding back the judgment of eternal damnation. God is postponing His wrath against people to whom we are to go and share why Christ on the cross of Calvary, cried "Father, forgive them."

 

 Here is the word of the cross that we must, first of all, take into our hearts.

 

Here is the word of the cross that we are to share with others before the door of opportunity closes upon them. Before they are lost, doomed into eternity without the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, who for them He cried, "FATHER, FORGIVE THEM, FOR THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO."

 

Here is the word of the cross that we are to express to others when they sin against us. This is powerfully spelled out for us in Colossians 3:13, “Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.” Then in a related passage in Ephesians 4:31-32 we read, “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: (32) And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.” Remember, because of Calvary it is characteristic of believers to forgive others who sin against us.

 

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If God has spoken to your heart after reading sermon #1 on the Seven Words of Christ at Calvary, "Father, Forgive Them" then right now talk to God about what He has spoken to you.

 

Do you have the assurance that one day you will go to heaven? If you have no assurance that you know Jesus Christ, then I trust you will decide to accept Him as your personal Savior. The Bible tells us in

 

                Acts 16:31, “…Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved…”

                Romans 10:13, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

This prayer is here for those who need to ask Jesus to be their personal Savior: “I do want to go to Heaven. I know I am a sinner, and I do believe Jesus Christ died for me. I realize I cannot buy this great salvation, nor can I earn it. Knowing Jesus died on the cross and arose from the grave to pay my sin debt and to purchase my salvation, I do now trust Him as my Savior, and from this moment on I am completely depending on Him for my salvation.”

If you made the decision to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, would you please let me know? Please send me an e-mail to pdmikBBM@aol.com. and in return I will send you some literature that will help you in your Christian life.

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