Restoration 2012: Restoring Power

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Restoration Ministry

John Bradshaw

The Power of Forgiveness

Let's pray and expect the blessing of God now.

Father in heaven, we come to you in the name of Jesus our Lord and Savior.

You have said when 2 or more are gathered together in your name, you are there in the midst.

So we believe you and you want us to be blessed.

You want us to lift up our heads and look up and see Jesus.

Help tonight that He and His Word and His principles would be lifted up.

Guide us now, please, we pray, and I thank you.

Between 1948 and 1994 there existed 1 of the most controversial political policies of the 20th century, you might say 1 of the most controversial political policies in modern history.

If you were born after 1994 or even looking back these years afterwards, It seems almost bizarre that the South African system of apartheid was ever practiced or accepted.

The apartheid system, which lasted almost half a century, was 1 of legal racial segregation.

South Africans and even visitors to South Africa were classified by their race.

You were either black, colored, Indian or Asian, or white.

A law passed in 1949 made it illegal to marry somebody of a different race.

Everybody over the age of 18 was forced by law to carry a special identity card.

There were beaches and here was for whites only and here was for blacks and coloreds perhaps.

Separate public swimming pools, separate restrooms.

Blacks were relocated to live in what were called homelands and in 1970 black South Africans ceased to be South African citizens, instead they were citizens of 1 of the 10 homelands.

Of course and history tells us and your memory might tell you, that this system bred massive discontent.

There was enormous international outcry and condemnation, huge protests.

Growing up in New Zealand, our ties with South Africa were very strong owing to rugby.

We had rugby in common and South Africa was our sometimes hated and sometimes respected foe.

If they beat us, they were the hated foe.

If we beat them, they were the respected foe.

I remember earlier than this, but it really came to a head in 1981 when the Springboks, the South African rugby team, traveled to New Zealand.

And I was in Hamilton, New Zealand, very close to my hometown, at Rugby Park.

I remember standing at the embankment end, that was the end with the cheapest tickets, and I was standing with friends, young friends, and we were getting ready to watch the game.

The game was minutes away from starting and the legendary Springboks were there in our stadium, you know.

When something bizarre happened, we couldn't see what was going on, but at the far end of the ground some protesters came.

They didn't want anyone to have anything to do with South Africa because of apartheid.

It was a way of making a protest, they felt, And so they actually pushed over a fence and hundreds of them steamed into the ground and ran out onto the field and huddled in the middle of the field.

It was remarkable that the 30-odd thousand people didn't go out there and tear them limb from limb, but there were police surrounding the perimeter of the ground.

And that's not New Zealand, but that was what the security was like during the tour.

And they started to drag these guys off the field, guys and women forcibly off the field.

And then we expected to see the game go on but we were told that the protesters had dropped shards of glass all over the field.

And of course you couldn't play under those circumstances.

And then it was rumored that a man flying a light plane was going to fly it into the grandstand right into the midst of hundreds or thousands of people.

These were the emotions generated by apartheid and people's reaction to the apartheid system.

Many, many people under apartheid died and were cruelly treated and unjustly treated.

I might say you just couldn't imagine this, but I can't.

I can't say that because we're in the United States of America, and we can imagine political processes and policies that discriminate against others based on the color of their skin.

So this isn't a finger-pointing exercise I'm engaging in.

I'm just talking about some history here and I don't mean to be critical or awful.

Certainly in this country we must be very careful how we speak about another nation's civil rights because we've had and continue to have our own issues.

De Klerk was elected president of South Africa in 1990, he moved quickly to end apartheid.

The nation by 1994 was being governed by a black majority.

Now you might imagine that when a black majority took power in South Africa after half a century of apartheid that black South Africans would have only 1 thing on their mind.

Many people feared that it would be a bloodbath.

Many people feared that the black majority would have 1 thing on its mind, their mind, and that thing would be revenge.

But something really rather incredible happened.

Though it was imperfect and though many people would disagree with it, something was established that was called the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The Victims and perpetrators of violence and injustice alike could testify at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

It was chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, like the country's new president, Nelson Mandela, Tutu was committed to seeing South Africa move forward and not descend into chaos.

And after serving as the chairman, or as he served as the chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, he recognized that there was 1 key component that would grant South Africa a future.

He said, there can be no future without forgiveness.

Very interesting comments coming from Archbishop Tutu because frankly, they echo comments made by Jesus.

And I'd like you to go with me to some of those comments.

We find them in Matthew chapter 6 where Jesus talked about this remarkable thing called forgiveness.

He speaks these words right after giving us the Lord's Prayer.

In Matthew chapter 6 and verse 14, right after the Lord's Prayer, Jesus says, Matthew 6, 14, for if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

But if you forgive not men their trespasses, Neither will your father forgive your trespasses.

Now we're gonna talk about something very, very important tonight.

During this couple of weeks in Restoring Power, We're talking about experiencing the power of God in our lives.

We're talking about receiving the righteousness of God by faith and learning to grow in grace, cooperating with the power of God, becoming all that we can be through the presence of Jesus in our lives.

I don't know if you've ever had the experience where you've gone to, oh I won't use that illustration, I'll use where you've gone to run water down the kitchen sink and you realize that the water for some reason isn't going down the plug hole anymore.

And the more water you pour in there, the fuller the kitchen sink gets.

The water's not going down and out because there's a what in the pipe?

There's a clog, there's a blockage in the pipe.

And so you've got to call in the roto-rooter guy and he's going to put that snake down there or you're going to tip in the Drano or whatever it is.

Before this thing can work properly, you've got to unclog the blockage.

And I think as we discover tonight, there's a very good chance that you might perceive that there could be a blockage in your Christian experience.

Jesus said, if you want God to forgive you, you've got to first forgive.

In other words, if you are planning on receiving the righteousness of Jesus Christ, first, forgiveness has to take place.

And I want you to be aware be very cognizant of what it was Jesus said and what he didn't say Jesus did not say if you don't obey me God will not forgive you.

He did not say if you don't serve me, God will not forgive you.

He did not say if you don't believe right, God will not forgive you.

But he said if you don't forgive, God is not going to forgive you.

And that's a statement that gives us pause.

It's a statement that causes many people to struggle.

Because while you're sitting there wondering, does God really expect me to forgive that person for doing that?

The answer that I'm bringing to you tonight is based on the Word of God, yes he does.

And he says if you're planning on going to heaven, it's very, very important that you do so.

You know, back in Jesus' day, it was fashionable for people to be religiously outward and, oh sorry, religiously pure outwardly.

Let me try to say that how I meant to say it.

It was very fashionable for people to be religious outwardly but full of garbage inwardly You had the Jewish leaders saying or men we don't want to desecrate the Passover at the same time as they were in the throes of murdering the Son of God.

They wanted to make sure they had that Passover thing down.

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The Power of Forgiveness

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