Words from the Cross // Father, forgive them // Luke 23:32-34 // Pastor Josh Evans

Amen. Can we pray together this morning? Father, what an amazing love it is that you have for each one of us. And God, as we declared this through song here this morning, we're reminded of the love that that you showed to each one of us by going to the cross willingly for each one of us. You willingly gave up your life so that we, each one of us, can be free. And that's the type of love that you have given each one of us. God, I pray for every single person in here and for any person in this place, I don't know everybody's story that's in this room here today, but God I pray if somebody's in here that does not know that love, they've never experienced that love, God I pray that today you would give them a fresh glimpse of that love so that they could trust you with their whole life.

And Father, trust you as their Savior to come into their life and be the Lord over their life. God, we give you all the praise and honor for all things. Bless the reading of your word and the preaching of your word here this morning for it's in your name we pray and all God's people said amen and amen. You guys can have a seat here today. Well, good morning.

All right, let's try that again. Good morning. It is so good to see you and we had a great 830 a.m. service and we are excited today about this service and what God wants to do and my prayer is that every single one of us I mean I'm reminded that you know I need to be prayed up as I get behind a pulpit to deliver God's Word but we also need all of you to be prayed up as you receive God's Word as well and I hope that you spend a moment this morning trying to do that and well if you have your Bible you can go to Luke chapter number 23. The verses will be up on the screen this morning and so if you forgot your Bible or whatever you can follow along there here today but we are beginning a brand new series today. Last week I got the chance to be in Honduras and and we were there with some of our missionaries David and Hannah Mora and we're super excited about what God is doing there. We had just a great trip. We got back on Friday morning really early and it is good to be home. Somebody told me this morning I need to fill out a new here card and I responded back I said if I get a free gift card then I mean I guess I will and so but no it was good I'm grateful that we have pastors on our staff that can come in and deliver the Word of God and I'll tell you many of you have asked me a lot about our trip to Honduras and we're gonna keep all of that from you until next Sunday night and so next Sunday pastor David mentioned this is our missions conference we haven't done one of these to my knowledge since before COVID and we are super excited about what God wants to do and I want to encourage every single one of you to try to be a part of it and so next Sunday we'll be kicking that off there will be evening services on Sunday night Monday night Tuesday night and Wednesday night and if you're wondering because if I was sitting where you are the biggest question I would have is hey what is there for my kids and so we are gonna have kids ministry every night of the conference and they are gonna have missionaries that are gonna be speaking to them we're rotating our missionaries so like one night we'll have a missionary in here speaking to the adults and then the next night they might be running the kids ministry the missionary and so we are gonna be doing that every night so you have some so don't let that be the reason you don't come but specifically next Sunday night we are gonna highlight the Honduras trip we're gonna be able to share a few things show some pictures and so we will tell you all about it then so you got to be there to hear more about the trip all right and so make sure that you're here we're excited about that but today we are kicking off a brand new series so it's always good to be here at the start of a series all right and so you are here on a good day and I'm grateful that you are here the series is entitled words from the cross words from the cross and we're gonna look Jesus made seven specific statements while on the cross and we're gonna look at each one of those and dissect them this series actually I can't believe we're already here but this series is gonna take us all the way to Easter Sunday Easter Sunday is April the 20th when is Easter Sunday there we go all right Easter is such a big day and this series is gonna take us all the way up to that Easter is what I like to call the Super Bowl of the church it's the biggest day it's the main event if you would and for the church and so let me encourage every single one of you to be here on Easter Sunday and celebrate with us and I want to challenge every single one of you to bring somebody with you so you have a little over a month almost two months till Easter and I want to encourage you to invite somebody to come with you here's why and let me talk to you as your pastor for just a moment they say statistically that people might say yes to an invite to church or something like that around two times a year one of those is Christmas and one of those is Easter and so what I want to challenge you to do is leverage any influence that you have with people at work people in your neighborhood people that you you know play ball with people at your school people in the community leverage your influence and your relationships and invite them and who knows through a simple invitation it might change where they spend eternity and so bring somebody with you on Easter Sunday on April the 20th we will have a sunrise service at 7 a.m. outside and then we will have one combined service at 10 a.m. no Bible fellowships and it's just going to be a great time and so make sure that you are here and bring somebody with you well today we begin this new series it's called words from the cross as we're looking at Jesus's final words from from the cross and when you think about this final words mean something don't they if you think about it you know we've even coined this phrase this was his famous last words right last words and somebody means something we remember those anybody that has lived life and at the end of their life they're trying to say something we kind of lean in just a little bit because a lot of times those are some of the wisest moments and some of the mean most meaningful words that somebody could ever share think about it many of you probably have lost maybe a loved one or something and you can still remember the last thing that they told you you see famous last words and last words mean something and here we are gonna look at some of the words of Jesus from from the cross and so in Luke chapter number 23 we are gonna read just a few verses verses 32 through 34 and and I always remember I know many of you have been in church your entire life and and I get that but every week we have some people that maybe that's not been their story they're newer to church or or maybe they don't know so I want to kind of give you a little bit of backstory about where we are in in Jesus's crucifixion here in this moment where we're gonna pick it up in verse 32 Jesus is being hung on a cross okay so before that he was betrayed remember the story he was betrayed by Judas he actually predicted that in that upper room experience where he was really redefining the cup and redefining the bread and he was basically telling them that he was about to be betrayed and then he's gonna give his life a ransom for every single one of of them and so up to this point Jesus has already experienced torture we know this to be the flogging all of that has already happened you say what is that that was what they called the whipping that they would give the cat of nine tails what they would do is they would take this whip and they would put these pieces of glass in the whip and they had given him tons of tons of lashes and what would happen to to a person experiencing this is is it would it would as the whip would go into them the pieces of glass would go deep into their skin and it would they would rip it out and the flesh would just be torn torn apart that where we're picking up our story that has already happened the torture had already been been happening for this moment abuse and the brutal walk up to Calvary and here after all of this that the heat experienced already they hung him between two two thieves now I we know this story but I don't want you to miss this because you might ever you might ask why in the world were there three crosses well I think Jesus was trying to teach us something God was trying to tell us something that really the story of all humanity was found right here in the three different crosses that we find here first you have the cross of redemption that's Jesus offering redemption but where you find yourself today and where I find myself today is one of those other crosses and here's what they are we have the cross of redemption that's the hope that Jesus offers each one of us but on one side of Jesus was the cross of rejection we know that one of the thieves did not accept Jesus and trust him with their life and to our knowledge spent eternity in a place called hell eternally separated from God but we know the other cross was the cross of repentance it was the cross of repentance of trusting in the redemption that Jesus had offered us and so the point of the three cross crosses is really the story of all humanity that he Jesus the middle cross offers redemption to all of human mankind those who reject are offered redemption and those who will repent are offered redemption and Jesus hung in between those by the way remember Jesus did not deserve to be there the two on his side they were criminals the scripture what we're gonna look at here in a moment cause them male factors you say what exactly does that word mean it literally means evil doers the two people that are on either side of Jesus they actually deserve to be there they were criminals they deserve to be hung on a cross because of everything that they had done up to this point and there in the middle of them hangs Jesus our Savior the sinless Son of God let's pick it up in verse number 32 of Luke chapter number 23 it says this and there were also two other male factors that remember I said that word means evil doers criminals led with him to be put to death and they were come to the place which is called Calvary and by the way some of your translations might say something like the place of of the skull or or we know this to be Golgotha here we see the word Calvary it means the same thing many believe the hill that Jesus was crucified on was shaped like a skull which is why it was named the place of a skull but I believe it was named this because this place was a place of death it was a place where criminals would go and the Romans would take them and they would brutally execute them because of the wrong that they had done so they take him up to a place called Calvary and there they crucified him and the male factors one on the right hand and the other on the left then said Jesus father forgive them for they know not what they do and they parted his raiment and they cast lots there at Calvary Jesus was crucified we we know this story so well and sometimes it becomes second nature if you would of what was happening but for a few moments I want to look at this crucifixion was invented really by the Persian people the Persians came up with this brutal way of making people pay for the sin and the wrongdoing that they had committed and so they came up with this idea of crucifixion but it's known history says that the Romans actually perfected this to its fullest the Roman the point of crucifixion was to make somebody pay in the absolute worst way possible for the wrongdoing that they had done the point of the process of crucifixion was to put someone through the worst pain imaginable without killing them quickly so the point was to to kill them in such a slow way that they would just experience the worst excruciating pain that you could ever imagine and they would drag it out as long as they could that's what Jesus was was going through they put him through the the lashing with the the whip the crown of thorns that was placed upon upon his head they shamed him they stripped him completely naked is what they would do and as he hung he had his nails he had nails in his hands and nails in his feet and the point of crucifixion was to drag out this as long as possible and you can imagine for just a moment you know think about what Jesus went through there on the cross they would he would struggle to breathe everybody that would go through this they would struggle to breathe and that was the point of crucifixion and so when he would try to gasp for just a little bit of air what would happen with his hands being hung up there is as he would gasp he would have to lift himself up and you can only imagine for just a moment the whipping that he had just taken how his skin was already torn apart every time he lifted for just a little bit of air those rips would just his flesh would open up even more you can think about his hands and the nails that were in his hands and his feet for just a moment and think when he lifted up to gasp for air you can imagine how that just destroyed his his flesh Jesus was crucified on a place called Calvary and on that cross Jesus said seven things that over the next several weeks I want to slowly look at and so today we are gonna look at this Jesus says this from the cross father forgive them for they know not what they do for a few moments we are gonna break down these words from our Savior we are gonna look at forgiveness and and we're gonna look at this at three things I'll give you the outline right now it's the request of forgiveness the object of forgiveness and the application of forgiveness so the first one we're gonna look at is this the request of forgiveness the request of forgiveness here in verse number 34 look at it again Jesus says they're hanging on a cross he says father forgive them for they know not what they do the amazing thing here is that Jesus's last words start with a prayer think about that for just a moment Jesus's last words here on the cross start with a prayer and if we can for just a moment I want you to think about this prayer was the last thing on everyone's mind during history's darkest moment I mean think about this could you imagine for just a moment as Jesus is hanging there and most all of his followers had pretty much fled the scene and they had abandoned him up on the cross and before we hate on them we would have probably been right there with them and they had abandoned him but could you imagine if one of his followers had us said hey before Jesus is crucified let's have a word of prayer could you imagine how out of place that would have been could you imagine how how just out of place that would have even felt here prayer was really the absolute last thing on everyone's mind but the way that Jesus occupied his time hanging up on a cross was to be in an attitude of of prayer one thing that's interesting AW pink he wrote about some of these final words of Jesus in his book about this and he reminds us that Jesus's public ministry if you remember at the beginning of Luke after John the Baptist had baptized Jesus that's when his public ministry began and it says this that he was baptized and he prayed what pink reminds us of in his book is this is that Jesus's public ministry began with prayer and here we see on the cross his public ministry ending in in prayer so there he hangs on a cross and he lifts up a prayer you say what was his request his request was simple father forgive them now let's just be real for just a moment the question I say is like father forgive them that that seems so out of place for what he is what he is experiencing it would have made much more sense for him to pray father destroy them right wouldn't that have made much more sense father destroy them for putting an innocent man through this but instead he prays father forgive them Stu Epperson jr. wrote a book about this he said this as blood flows from his wounds forgiveness flowed from his words here Jesus prays for for forgiveness which brings us to point number two the object of forgiveness so if we see the request of forgiveness that's father forgive them what is the object of forgiveness it's very simple it's found in the word them everybody say the word them them it's found in this simple word who is forgiveness for who's he praying for them so the question is who are they who's he referring to the Roman soldiers yeah the religious leaders sure the disciples that ran and abandoned him by himself on the cross absolutely the bystanders that just happen to walk by and feel like wow we get to watch this spectacle yeah the angry mob that rushed to beat him and spit upon him sure but them is much more than just that you see them who he's praying for the object of his forgiveness it's the entire human race it's you it's me you could say that Jesus was saying this father forgive put in your name there father forgive Josh for he knows not what he does father forgive fill in your name for they he or she knows not what they do he pleads for forgiveness for the entire world and and here's the point that that we need to understand about about forgiveness you can only forgive a sin if it's against you right you can only forgive a sin or a wrongdoing if it is against against youth think about think about it this way and if say you know you got Daniel James down here at the front just say Daniel and Pastor Bailey over here and Pastor David just say the three of them are you know after church today they're just having a conversation and they're here at the church and and Pastor Bailey says something to Daniel in this conversation and Pastor David's there and Pastor Bailey says something to Daniel and and Daniel gets mad at Pastor Bailey and he just hauls off and punches him right square in the face okay true story by the way now I'm just kidding and just say he just punched Pastor Bailey right in the face so much to the point because Daniel is really strong so much to the point that Pastor Bailey's nose is broken it's bleeding it's even crooked he's gonna have to go to the hospital it's terrible and as he stands there and it's just dripping in blood Daniel no right to do something like this right how would you feel if David who is in this conversation just standing there doing nothing what would it look like if David went to Daniel and said Daniel I forgive you for what you did to Pastor Bailey we're good you're completely forgiven it's all good we can move on would that make any sense to anybody no why because Pastor Bailey's sitting over there with a bloody broken nose he's probably gonna say David you have no right to forgive him because Daniel didn't punch you Daniel didn't punch you the only one that can forgive Daniel is Pastor Bailey you see that's the point you can only forgive a sin if it is actually against against you and so the point that I'm trying to make here is this is that the reason that Jesus could hang up on this cross and pray for the forgiveness of you and the forgiveness of the entire human race and the angry mob and the bystanders and the Roman soldiers and the religious crowd and you the only reason he could pray for your forgiveness is if we have to be reminded that ultimately all of our sin is against him that's the point that's the reason why he could pray for you you know for centuries there's all these secular writers and and people that that right you can google this and you can get a ton of secular writers and trying to answer this question who killed Jesus many of them will say it was pilot to allow something like this many of them would say it's the Roman government or or whatever and you get from all these secular writers you'll get all these different thoughts and stuff but here's the point every single one of us all of mankind we all had a part because of our sin by putting him up on the cross every single one of you had a part when you sin by putting him up on on the tree and what was happening here is that God had sent Jesus who knew no sin to become your sin for you you could say it this way that because he did no wrong that Jesus was sent from heaven by God to live this life this perfect life something you could never do and then when he hung up on the tree here's what he was doing he was becoming your sin for you think about it this way Jesus was becoming disobedient Adam because Adam did not obey God back in the garden so Jesus was becoming that Jesus was becoming David right the adulterer Jesus was becoming Paul or former Saul he was becoming the persecutor of the church Jesus was becoming whatever sin you struggle with Jesus was becoming your pride Jesus was becoming your judgmentalism Jesus was becoming your immorality Jesus was becoming whatever sin your disobedience whatever it is Jesus was becoming that on the cross that is what is happening here Jesus was becoming that for us and think about this when you forgive someone you absorb the consequences of their wrongdoing in and of yourself right in that what forgiveness really is so so think about it we'll go back to our story with with Daniel right and so Daniel punched Pastor Bailey and the only one that could ever forgive Daniel of his wrongdoing is the one that David wronged right which is Pastor Bailey so think about the story here for just just a moment Pastor Bailey is really faced as he's you know recovering from this incredible punch by Daniel here he's recovering with this and he's faced with three different options you know what he could do option number one is he could say we are going to I'm gonna try him for assaulting Pastor Bailey because now you have to go to the hospital you have to get a lot of work done and there's a lot of financial implications with that and so you're gonna try to accuse him of assault and you're gonna make him pay for what he did and here's the thing if Pastor Bailey did that every single one of us would say that's justified doesn't that make a lot of sense he should pay for what he did that was his first option the second option that we would see is is Pastor Bailey could say you know what if Daniel's gonna do that to him you know what I'm gonna do back I'm gonna punch him right back in his nose and so he can experience the pain and suffering that you're going through he could have done that and listen if he had a hot off and punched him back you know what all of us would have said rightfully so you deserved it if you're gonna do that to him you deserve to pay for what you did or his third option is he could forgive him think about forgiveness for a moment forgiveness is when you absorb the suffering and the pain that somebody else should have to live with because of what they did for you and you choose to forgive and what that means is you choose to absorb the pain in and of yourself here's what that would look like Pastor Bailey says he's got a bloody nose he's got hospital bills he's got surgeries coming he's got all this stuff the shame of having to walk around with a crooked nose the rest of his life perhaps who knows he's got all of that here's what forgiveness would look like hey Daniel pastor Bailey forgives him and he's not gonna make him pay for what he did but what he's gonna do instead is he's gonna live with the shame of his nose he's gonna live with the hospital you know money that he's gonna have to pay he's gonna live with the pain and live with the suffering and you are gonna look Daniel in the eye and say I forgive you you don't owe me nothing I'm taking I'm absorbing all of the pain that you have caused in myself so that Daniel can walk free you see that is what forgiveness is that's what's happening on the cross this is what happens on the cross he Jesus became sin who knew no sin right he took sin upon himself what he was doing up on the cross is he Jesus was absorbing your sin but not only that he was absorbing the pain of your sin he was absorbing the consequences of your sin he was absorbing the suffering that your sin has caused and he takes every bit of that on himself absorbing it all why so that you could be forgiven so that you could walk free you see in our world it would have made perfect sense for him to pray not father forgive them but father destroy them you wanna know why because you deserved it I deserved it entire human race deserved it but instead he hangs up on that cross taking all of your sin upon himself absorbing all the pain that you caused all the pain you should endure he absorbed all of that in and of himself so that you could be forgiven so that you could be forgiven that's the object of his forgiveness it's for them it's for you it's for for me number three the application of forgiveness say what is what does this mean for you you know we've heard this story I mean even if you're not a churchgoer and you kind of have slipped in maybe in the last couple of weeks or something and you're just here today maybe somebody invited you whatever we we know this story this is a religious story we know it it's known by you know secular people people that don't know G we know this story well so what does this mean for you what difference does this make this story that we've heard there's two things that I want to kind of land the plane with with you here today the first one is this you can be forgiven by trusting in what Jesus did on the cross for you like this is the the main thing that you need to understand you see I want to tell you why this is important for you so that you can understand this because I don't know everybody's story in here and things like that but here's what I'll tell you when God created the world back in Genesis chapter number one he spoke the world into existence and when he created mankind here's what happened he created us and his creation was good you see the problem is never God's design the problem is the sin that we have in us that corrupt God's design okay so we know he created everything good and here's what happened and he gave him Adam and Eve one commandment right one rule could you imagine that if you're a kid in here only having one rule to abide by right he gives him one rule there in the garden and it was to not eat of one certain tree well we know in Genesis chapter number three what happened they went of aid of the tree they went in aid of the tree and here's what the scripture says in that moment you want to know what happened sin passed upon every single one of us so it was in that moment that now you now we're gonna be born a sinner because of Adam sin by the way I got some words for Adam when I see him in heaven for this right all of us are now sinners because of what Adam did you say what difference does that make does that matter at all here's the problem with your sin the way God created Adam was for him to have a relationship with God that's why when he created it Adam walked with God he talked with God he enjoyed fellowship with God he enjoyed communion with God it was a relationship unlike any other but when Adam sinned here's what happened that relationship was destroyed that fellowship was destroyed so much to the point that Adam and Eve get thrown out of the garden and you want to know who guarded the garden some angels with like a spear a sword you say why is that now because of that there's distance between mankind and God you say why in the world would that happen here's why God is perfectly holy something that you're in our minds can't fully comprehend and we are sinful and here's what I'll tell you because of his holiness and our sin they can't mesh there has to be a payment for our sin there has to be a payment for the sin that we have caused so that's why from the beginning of time God is pursuing that relationship with us know the scripture says you can't get to him on your own there's not enough good things that you can do there's not enough good deeds there's not enough money you can give to the poor there's not enough good things for you to ever get that relationship with God back so because of that if we can't get to him the only way we can have a relationship with him is for him to come to us and he did in the form of his son Jesus Christ 100% deity came from heaven to earth and here's what he did for you he lived the perfect life that you could not do or you cannot live say why is that important here's why it's because the only life worthy of having a relationship with a perfect holy God is a perfect life and if none of us can live a perfect life we got to have somebody to do that for us so Jesus did that and then on top of that you know what he did he hung up on that cross on Mount Calvary and he absorbed all of the pain and all of the sin that you have ever committed all the sin that you have committed in the past and every sin that you're about to commit in the future he absorbed he took every bit of that upon himself and hung there up on a tree so that you could experience forgiveness you see that's the only way that you can have a relationship with your Creator our sin has to be forgiven we have to have a clean slate we have to be free and the only way that is is through trusting and Jesus said what exactly does that mean it just means believing that there's nothing that you can do to get to him and he came to you it's believing that the cross is the only way that can save you that's what it means and so you say what's the application what does this mean for you it's very important it's the difference between life and death for you you can be forgiven by trusting and what Jesus did for you listen if you're in here today and you've never trusted in him as Savior this would be the moment where you need to lean in just a little bit why would you reject such a free gift why would you ever say no to a free offer of forgiveness you can go free because somebody else paid the penalty for you that's what Jesus did on the cross but but secondly here's what I want you to see this application is this our forgiveness always leads us to forgive others you see the point is once you have been forgiven something changes in the root of your heart when I trust in Jesus for my forgiveness recognizing that I can't you know get that relationship with God I can't be forgiven by myself I can't be accepted by myself I had to have somebody do all that for me and pay the penalty for when I trust in him here's what happens he takes root in my life he takes root in my life and here's what changes is now because he has taken root in my heart and in my life now I can extend forgiveness to others because I have been forgiven you see the point is this forgiving people forgive others forgiving people forgive others listen I understand all of us have been wronged by someone haven't we like I don't know your story but if I was to walk through this room in here one at a time hand you a microphone and if you're honest and said hey have you ever been wronged by somebody perhaps it's a friend who you confided in said don't tell anybody what I'm about to tell you and they said sure and then you find out that they went and told five people right you were wrong or perhaps you're in your career and somebody backstabs you or undercut you and and it affects the trajectory of your your career or perhaps somebody said something bad about you at the school that you attend and they talk bad about you from behind your back or perhaps you were at a church and and somebody did something that you know church people can be pretty mean from time to time and perhaps somebody at church said something to you or did something to you and it hurt your feelings and you are harboring that here today let me tell you this I don't know where you're at here today I don't know who's wronged you but you probably had every right to be wronged and to be offended by it because we all get wronged from time to time I understand it I get it but here's the point when we live like Christ and by the way isn't that what being a Christian is it's living like Christ in our behaviors in our attitudes in our reactions when we live Christ like it means that we will forgive others to the level that he has forgiven us this means that you're willing to look at the person who wronged you and say listen you're forgiven I'll absorb all the pain that you caused me I'll absorb all of the consequences of your wrongdoing I will absorb it all in myself so that you can go free it's not looking at your at the person who wronged you and saying I want them to pay it's actually saying forgiveness is saying I'm willing to pay and absorb the consequence and pain and suffering in and of myself so that my wrongdoer can go free you see that is the gospel and here's what I'm telling you if you're in here today and you're harboring bitterness and anger towards somebody in your life let me tell you this go back to the cross because what he forgave you of is the measuring stick for how you are to forgive other people and let me tell you this every wrong that's ever been done to you fall short of the wrong that you have done to him that's the point that's what he's trying to tell us here as we close perhaps no earthly story really shows the forgiveness of Christ here on earth more than a story that I want to tell you and you've heard this then the story of Steve Saint Steve Saint Steve his father went and moved to visit the Auca Indians and him and four other missionaries this is Steve's father him and four other missionaries went and and before this was an unreached people group they were known to be very cruel and and God called them to go reach this unreached people group him and four other missionaries and these missionaries before they could go they had to learn their language they had to learn how to communicate there was no any training for this group of people so they had to do different things you can read about this there's been a movie about this but what they would do is they would ride one of them was a pilot and they would ride above this Auca Indian tribe and they would drop certain things down from the plane for the Auca Indians and they would they would read and they would use that as a way to communicate with this unreached people group that had never heard of Jesus and they used this as a way to communicate with them when they finally felt that they had built some type of relationship with this hostile cruel group of people so that they could land the plane and go into the Auca Indian tribes and share the message of the gospel with them when they finally landed down there it said that within moments all of the Auca Indians came out there of their tribe and they speared these four missionaries to death the families of these four missionaries ended up hearing about such a tragic story many lost spouses many lost parents as a result of this Steve Saint was one of those Steve lost a dad could you imagine this if that was if that was me just honest I love my dad if that was me and I get this word through a radio that they found a plane and they found the bodies of one of them being my dad because the Auca Indians had speared him to death after he was obedient to God and went there in the first place I'll be honest with you I would probably think man they deserve every single one of them to live in hell because of what they did it's probably how I would have responded Steve and his family and the rest of the families they get this terrible verdict that they had died and Steve has some choices to make is he going to retaliate is he going to you know try to make them pay for what they did or is he gonna choose to forgive so Steve he says these people need to be reached with the good news of the gospel and if my dad wasn't used to do that and God used me Steve moves his family and they begin making same contact with this Auca hostile Indian tribe and they begin to build relationships with them same way through planes and different stuff and when they eventually landed they were able to communicate with this Auca tribe and explain to them that they he was a family member of the of the missionaries that they killed with their Spears you can read about this and read Steve's writings and watch some videos online about it Steve said that in fact some of the very men that speared his dad to death are like the adopted grandparents now to his kids you say when you read a story like that how in the world could that ever happen how could you forgive to that level when something was taken from you when you experience so much pain and suffering because of somebody else shouldn't they pay for what they did Steve had a choice he was gonna forgive you say how in the world can that happen the only way we can forgive to that level is understanding the forgiveness that Jesus has offered all of mankind he hung on a cross absorbing your pain absorbing your sin you should have paid for what you did but instead God sent Jesus his only begotten son to come to this earth to pay for the pain and consequences that you deserved and there on that cross he hung there and said and prayed father forgive them for they know not what they do can we bow our heads for prayer today