Forgiveness
What a powerful service last Sunday!! I have never experienced anything like that before on a Sunday at High Street.
So much of God’s presence. So much peace. So much unity. So many shared burdens. So much strength. So wonderful.
We began with the passage:
“God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.”
“And we are witnesses of all that he did…They put him to death by hanging him on by a tree, but God raised him on the third day and…he commanded us to preach to the people…that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name” (Acts 10:38-40, 42-43).
In our modern usage of the word forgiveness, we mean a pardon of an offense, but in Jesus’ ministry and time the term forgiveness covered a lot more ground in a person’s life.
In Kingdom terms, forgiveness would mean and can be translated “release” or “liberty.” This is the same word Israel would declare over their whole society in the year of Jubilee (Leviticus 25:10 ).
In Acts, the disciples would have been witnessing to Jesus’ resurrection power releasing Jubilee over believers’ lives: debts wiped clean, enslavement ended, and original inheritance restored.
Did you realize you received that kind of forgiveness when Jesus saved you?
What might God have been intending His forgiveness to cover and restore in your life?
And after weeks of study, we “Entered into” these Kingdom realities by spending time praying and worshipping through the Jubilee Jesus released. We agreed with Jesus’ Kingdom mission, to give us the “Year of the Lord’s Favor” in the Holy Spirit (see Lev 25:8-55 & Luke 4:18-19).
And as we transition from “Unlocking the Kingdom” series, these Kingdom realities flow right into our new series for November: “The Blessing.”
“The Blessing” in scripture is the God-sourced path of favor where we experience innumerable benefits of God’s Presence upon our lives, and consider what it looks like to be a people who God’s Blessing pours through into our world.
Join us this Sunday for an edifying overview of God’s never-changing intention to bless His world through ordinary people like us.
See you Sunday!
Pastor Dave
PS. Check out the “Unlocking the Kingdom” Series Playlist on YouTube! Take a moment to dive into these key Kingdom realities that filled Jesus’ ministry and to catch any sermons you may have missed!