It was Peter, the apostle that asked The Lord concerning how often should we forgive our brethren: “Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him (Mt 18:21)? The reply from our Saviour was: “Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, until seven times: but, until seventy times seven (Matthew 18:22).
Count it not strange; Peter who asked the very question; how many times must we forgive, is the very one who stands in need of forgiveness after he had denied The Lord thrice. Jesus deals with Peter’s denial of Him in a very wise and gracious manner. Though His words pierced Peter’s heart, they were saturated with grace and love: “DO YOU LOVE ME PETER”? With great conviction and remorse Peter answered: “Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
Other than denying The Lord Peter forsook The Lord at His hour of great need. Of all the apostles only John was at the crucifixion. It is said THAT A FRIEND IN NEED IS A FRIEND INDEED.
Often when I consider this sad time in Peter’s life I ask myself what if I were Jesus: “Would I allow Pater to continue in my apostolic band, who has denied me thrice and also forsook me at my greatest hour of need.”? My answer would be a most definite NO. I would have expelled Peter from my apostolic band.
Thank God we have no part whatsoever with Peter’s failure and forgiveness. It is true that man does not forgive the way God forgives. We will always have strings attached to our forgiveness. I WILL FORGIVE YOU BUT I WILL NEVER FORGET WHAT YOU HAVE DONE.
As a Christian I always wondered whether my forgiving of those who have sinned against me was sincere. After The Lord had dealt with me concerning His forgiveness of Peter I must admit that I fall far short.
Alexander Pope really tells us how far we fall short of God’s standard of forgiveness: TO ERR IS HUMAN TO FORGIVE IS DIVINE. Error is always with man, true forgiveness is only with God and for man to express true forgiveness he has to be empowered by God’s Grace and Holy Spirit.
To determine whether our forgiveness is truly of God we have to consider the following:
RESPONSIBILITY
RESTORATION
RESPECT
After Peter had denied The Lord and forsaken Jesus at His darkest hour, he no longer felt part of the apostolic band. In his heart he felt because he denied The Lord that The Lord would deny him. Peter in his heart felt that not only did he fail The Lord, but his fellow apostles and himself. He felt unworthy to continue as an apostle. This terrible experience convinced Peter that he was NOT THE ROCK ON WHICH JESUS HAD SAID HE WOULD BUILD HIS CHURCH. He realized that he was but a man, a failure like all of us (Romans 3:23).
There are great spiritual lessons to learn from how Jesus forgave Peter. In fact there is no other way to forgive, but the way God forgives.
God’s forgiveness will convince us beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are truly forgiven, for God in His forgiveness to man uses THE THREEFOLD CORD OF FORGIVENESS THAT CONVINCES MAN THAT HE IS TRULY FORGIVEN.
RESPONSIBILITY: When we forgive those who have failed and more so MINISTERS OF THE GOSPEL, we take away their responsibilities, though at times discipline is essential. We must forever give our brethren; the understanding that their ministry awaits them after they serve their discipline and show true signs of repentance. Jesus, first and foremost did not expel Peter from the apostolic band, secondly after Peter confessed his love for The Lord, Jesus laid GRAVE RESPONSIBILITY ON PETER. NOTE THE WORDS OF JESUS TO PETER: FEED MY LAMBS, FEED MY SHEEP.
RESTORATION: Through his actions Peter lost his self confidence as an apostle. No doubt he saw himself as a failure. Jesus who knew the heart of Peter by laying RESPONSIBILITY on Peter was simply RESTORING PETERS CONFIDENCE IN HIMSELF.
HOW DID JESUS DO THIS MIGHTY WORK OF RESTORATION, HE LAID RESPONSIBILITY ON PETER. BECAUSE JESUS SHOWED CONFIDENCE AND FAITH IN PETER, PETER COULD ONCE AGAIN HAVE FAITH AND CONFIDENCE IN HIMSELF.
As an apostle because of denying The Lord and forsaking The Lord Peter had lost his dignity. When God forgives He not only deals with our sin, He also deals with THE RESTORATION OF OUR DIGNITY.
RESPECT: Many children of The Most High God readily accept God’s forgiveness and yet sadly many cannot forgive themselves. A rope of guilt hangs around their necks. It is one thing to acknowledge God’s forgiveness but it is another thing to forgive yourself. God knows of our frailty and therefore blesses us in certain ways that convinces us that we are truly forgiven and that the mere fact that God has blessed us in several ways since been forgiven helps us to forgive ourselves. Though Peter failed The Lord miserably, he was mightily blessed of the Lord with three special acts of RESPECT.
TO RESPECT A PERSON IS TO HONOUR THAT PERSON. JESUS LOVINGLY ESTEEMED PETER WITH THREE SPECIAL ACTS OF RESPECT AND GRACE. AN APOSTLE WHO DENIED AND FORSOOK THE LORD IS HONOURED BY THE LORD BY PREACHING THE FIRST CHRISTIAN SERMON ON THE DAY OF PENTECOST:
“But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, Until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:14-36).”
Peter witnessed most of Jesus miracles and was utterly amazed by them. He heard Jesus say: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father (John 14:12).” What Peter never knew was that God before the foundation of the world chose him and John to perform the very first miracle after the birth of The Church: “Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple; Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms. And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God: And they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple: and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him (Acts 3:1-10).” What an honour, what respect was shown to Peter, the man of God that denied The Lord thrice and forsook The Lord at His darkest hour.
In The Old Testament God used two great prophets to raise the dead; Elijah and Elisha. In the New Testament prior to Pentecost Jesus raised the Dead. Other than Jesus in the New Testament only two other mighty men of God raised the dead and that being Peter and Paul and that being after Pentecost. What RESPECT was shown to a man that failed God miserably: “Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas: this woman was full of good works and alms deeds which she did. And it came to pass in those days, that she was sick, and died: whom when they had washed, they laid her in an upper chamber. And forasmuch as Lydda was nigh to Joppa, and the disciples had heard that Peter was there, they sent unto him two men, desiring him that he would not delay to come to them. Then Peter arose and went with them. When he was come, they brought him into the upper chamber: and all the widows stood by him weeping, and shewing the coats and garments which Dorcas made, while she was with them. But Peter put them all forth, and kneeled down, and prayed; and turning him to the body said, Tabitha, arise.
And she opened her eyes: and when she saw Peter, she sat up. And he gave her his hand, and lifted her up, and when he had called the saints and widows, presented her alive. And it was known throughout all Joppa; and many believed in the Lord (Acts 9:36-43).”
A glorious honour was bestowed on Peter; he is the first person after Jesus that raised the dead.
LET US LEARN FROM OUR SAVIOUR OF HOW TRULY TO FORGIVE. FORGIVENESS IS MORE THAN WORDS, IT IS ACTIONS TOWARD THE OFFENDER THAT CONVINCES THEM BEYOND A
SHADOW AND A DOUBT THAT THEY ARE TRULY FORGIVEN. IT GOES WAY BEYOND WORDS, THE THREEFOLD CORD OF FORGIVENESS AND THAT BEING RESPONSIBILTY, RESTORATION AND RESPECT MUST BE EVIDENT AS WE FORGIVE OUR BRETHREN AND EVEN OUR ENEMIES.
THE GREATEST EVIDENCE OF LOVE IS THE POWER OF FORGIVENESS. WHERE THERE IS GENUINE LOVE THERE IS FORGIVENESS.
GOD BLESS
DR JOSEPH AND DOLORES D’ALLENDE
