Worship Call 0690 Merciful Image

John 14:9 (NASB95) — 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

Being made children of God and being connected with God’s person, the Christ follower begins to take on the image of His Father and it is the Father who is well pleased to see His own image reflected in his Son.

We have a merciful God. and when it is that we, His Children, take up the call to be merciful in our Character, we become God’s Joy and we in turn become happy as we too will experience in reciprocal blessing the Father’s mercy upon us.

And this is another fine day in the Lord!

Matthew 5:7 (NASB95) — 7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

ἐλεήμων eleēmōn 2× merciful, pitiful, compassionate, Mt. 5:7; Heb. 2:17* [1655][1]

adjective. showing leniency, compassion, or forgiveness; especially towards someone who has offended them.

Happiness is associated with achieving or obtaining that which I am pursuing. It is reaching a measure of success as defined by God pertaining to my spiritual life.

Happiness also comes with assurance of that which we wait for is a reality even though we are in waiting for it. And so that which we wait upon the Lord for, that is his Mercy in this case, we have absolute confident assurance that we will receive mercy from the father.

Mercy is an expression of Love and Forgiveness.

As our image becomes more Christ like our Love connection with the Father and the Son grows deeper. Personal love for God equates to be virtue love (Agape or impersonal love for man) that is we love man not on the basis of attraction but on the basis of who and what God is.

Forgiveness is the act of giving another his freedom.

Debt becomes the chains that binds a person. The debt can be financial, or can be a burden of guilt because of some wrong doing.

Matthew 5:23–24 (NASB95) — 23 “Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.

Forgiveness is the lifting of that burden freeing a soul that is in debt.

Matthew 18:21–35 (NASB95) — 21 Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. 23 “For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. 24 “When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. 25 “But since he did not have the means to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made. 26 “So the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.’ 27 “And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt. 28 “But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and he seized him and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ 29 “So his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you.’ 30 “But he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed. 31 “So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened. 32 “Then summoning him, his lord said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 ‘Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?’ 34 “And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. 35 “My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.”

The King valued more the souls of his slaves. Having the debt owed to him made them his slaves. The relationship was on the terms of a business contract which involved personal wealth. That is to press one’s own right in the fulfillment of contract, which should be done, but when the payback is no longer possible then the relationship becomes estranged, and the only view is the view of payback. The issue becomes more about a person’s wealth and rights than it is about a person’s soul.

The King removed the debt and took the barrier of that relationship that stood between the man and his King away. Now the relationship is one of thanksgiving and love for the King.

Why does the king get angry at this man’s attitude when he fails to the show the same mercy to his fellow slave?

Because that slave also was under the king as well. The king’s mercy also extends to this slave. and the actions of the former slave chained up the soul of the other.

Secondly the King valued mercy that he showed upon the slave and when it was not reflected in the one whom he showed the mercy for it was apparent that the slave cared nothing for the Character of the King but for his personal relief and gain.

Our action in mercy becomes a witness to the greatest act of mercy ever in the history of man.

The Lord God is good and merciful to me full of Grace. The God of the universe Wants me to succeed. He sends His own son not only to die for me in order that I may have life, but He also sends his son, that one whom he introduces as His son whom He is well pleased.

And to Peter he says

Luke 9:35 (NASB95) — 35 Then a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My Son, My Chosen One; listen to Him!”

And what did the son tell Peter in another passage?

You are to forgive always. 70 x 7. Forgiveness is showing mercy and from the heart it is an expression of Love.

It’s not enough to tell Peter and us what mercy and forgiveness looks like that we might demonstrate and image that he wants us to be but Jesus because of his love and care for mercy demonstrates for us how we are to be merciful.

Romans 5:8–9 (NASB95) — 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Here is Jesus who knew no sin. He was innocent. He is hauled into the courts and falsely accused before illegal court proceedings.

At the same time The Father, Judge was keeping score the persecutors were building up a debt that they were going to have to pay a debt of occurred by their sin.

Then the beatings and the mocking began to take place while God the Father was keeping the score.

Jesus was painfully nailed to the cross and was hung up to die a criminal’s death while God kept score.

And then while Jesus hung suffering and dying the people on the ground mocked and ridiculed him. The guards gambled for his clothes. There was pure hatred toward the innocent lamb upon the cross as the sin debt of man continued to build up.

The one who had the power to stop it all in an instant and calls up to the father who held the certificate of debt that he would have receive in full of those who were in debt the son says to Him

“Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do.”

Forgive them father have mercy on the very ones who are abusing me who have nailed me to this cross. And not just them forgive all who have offended you and have ran of the debt of sin which has to be paid. That is your debt and mine.

And the father answers the prayer when he says “okay but somebody is going to have to pay so it will be you son to answer the prayer the only one that can pay off the debt.”

Motivated by love, Jesus took the act of mercy to the debt unmatched by any ever. The King canceled our debt and forgave us and credited us with his very own righteousness.

Not only was the sins cancel of those who stood that day in sin as they hung up an innocent man but we were also represented there that day as our sins were being wiped away because of his mercy.

Ephesians 2:1–5 (NASB95) — 1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

You and I have been shown mercy.

It is to God’s pleasure that we are to ourselves reflect his love forgiveness and mercy to others whom he loves and died for.

We pleaded for the our big debt to be forgiven and it was. Will we reflect the same mercy to others who holds a lesser debt to us.

Matthew 6:15 (NASB95) — 15 “But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.

[1]Mounce, W. D. (2006). In Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old & New Testament Words (p. 1139). Zondervan.

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