But what about Jesus’ words in Mark 11:25-26? Do they not indicate that we must forgive everyone of everything regardless of whether or not they request forgiveness?

And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your transgressions. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions.

This one verse does not supersede all the other verses we’ve already considered on the subject. We already know that what is so grievous to God is our refusal to forgive someone who requests our forgiveness. So we can interpret this verse in light of that well-established fact. Jesus is only emphasizing here that we must forgive others if we want God’s forgiveness. He is not telling us the more specific mechanics of forgiveness and what one must do to receive it from another.

Notice that Jesus also does not say here that we must ask God for forgiveness in order to receive it from Him. Shall we then ignore everything else that Scripture teaches about God’s forgiveness being predicated upon our asking for it (see Matt. 6:12; 1 John 1:9)? Shall we assume that we don’t need to ask for forgiveness from God when we sin because Jesus doesn’t mention it here? That would be an unwise assumption in light of what Scripture tells us. It is equally unwise to ignore everything else Scripture teaches about our forgiving others being predicated upon their asking for it.

In institutional churches, people normally solve their disputes by simply leaving one church and going to another, where the pastor, who wants to build his kingdom at any cost and who has no real relationship with other pastors, welcomes such people and sides with them as they relate their woeful tales. This pattern effectively neutralizes Christ’s commanded steps of reconciliation. And normally, it is just a matter of months or years before the offended person whom such pastors welcomed into their church has left to find another church, offended once again.

Jesus expected that churches would be small enough to fit into homes, and that local pastors/elders/overseers would be working together in one body. Thus the excommunication of a member of one church would effectively be an excommunication from all the churches. It is the responsibility of each pastor/elder/overseer to ask incoming Christians about their former church background and then contact the leadership of their former church to determine if such people should be welcomed.

All of this leads me to another question: Does God expect us to forgive everyone who sins against us, even those who don’t humble themselves, admit their sin, and request forgiveness?

As we study Scripture closely, we discover that the answer is “No.” To the surprise of many Christians, Scripture clearly states that, although we are commanded to love everyone, including even our enemies, we are not required to forgive everyone.

For example, does Jesus expect us to simply forgive a fellow believer who sins against us? No, He doesn’t. Otherwise, He would not have to told us to follow the four steps to reconciliation outlined in Matthew 18:15-17, steps that end with excommunication if the offender does not repent:

And if your brother sins, go and reprove him in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. And if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax-gatherer.

Obviously, if the fourth step is reached (excommunication), forgiveness is not granted to the offender, as forgiveness and excommunication are incompatible actions. It would seem strange to hear someone say, “We forgave him and then we excommunicated him,” because forgiveness results in reconciliation, not severance. (What would you think if God said, “I forgive you, but I will have nothing to do with you from now on”?) Jesus told us treat the excommunicated person “as a Gentile and a tax-gatherer,” two kinds of people that Jews had no relationships with and actually abhorred.

In the four steps that Jesus outlined, forgiveness is not granted after the first, second or third steps unless the offender repents. If he doesn’t repent after any step, he is taken to the next step, still treated like an unrepentant offender. Only when the offender “listens to you” (that is, repents), can it be said that you “have won your brother” (that is, been reconciled).

The purpose for confrontation is so that forgiveness can be granted. Forgiveness is predicated, however, upon the repentance of the offender. So we (1) confront with the hope that the offender will (2) repent so we can (3) forgive him.

All this being so, we can say with certainty that God does not expect us to simply forgive fellow believers who have sinned against us and who are unrepentant after confrontation. This, of course, does not give us the right to hate an offending believer. On the contrary, we confront because we love the offender and want to forgive him and be reconciled.

Yet once every effort is made for reconciliation by means of the three steps Jesus outlined, the fourth step terminates the relationship in obedience to Christ. ^[1] Just as we are not to have any fellowship with so-called Christians who are adulterers, drunkards, homosexuals and so on (see 1 Cor. 5:11), we are not to have any fellowship with the so-called Christians who refuse to repent at the consensus of the entire body. Such people prove that they are not true followers of Christ, and they bring a reproach on His church.

^[1] It would stand to reason that if the excommunicated one later repented, Jesus would expect that forgiveness would be granted then.

Water baptism symbolizes several things that have already occurred in the new believer’s life. Most simply, it represents that we have had our sins washed away, and now we stand clean before God. When Ananias was sent to Saul (Paul) soon after his conversion, he said to him:

And now why do you delay? Arise, and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name (Acts 22:16, emphasis added).

Second, water baptism symbolizes our identification with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. Once we have been born again and placed into the body of Christ, we are considered by God to be “in Christ” from that point on. Because Jesus was our substitute, God attributes all that Jesus did to our account. So “in Christ,” we have died, been buried, and have been raised from the dead to live as new persons:

Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:3-4).

Having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead (Col. 2:12).

Every new believer should be taught these important truths when he is baptized in water, and he should be baptized as soon as possible after he believes in Jesus.

Scripture does not tell us how often to partake of the Lord’s Supper, but it is clear that, in the early church, it was done with regularity in the house church meetings as a full meal (see 1 Cor. 11:20-34). Because the Lord’s Supper has its roots in the Passover Meal, was part of a full meal when it was instituted by Jesus, and was eaten as a full meal by the early church, that is how it should be practiced today. Still much of the church follows “the traditions of men.”

We should approach the Lord’s Supper with reverence. The apostle Paul taught that it was a serious offense to partake of the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner:

Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. But if we judged ourselves rightly, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord in order that we may not be condemned along with the world (1 Cor. 11:27-32).

We are admonished to examine and judge ourselves before partaking of the Lord’s Supper, and if we discover any sin, we need to repent and confess it. Otherwise, we can be “guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.”

Because Jesus died and shed His blood to free us from sin, we certainly don’t want to partake of the elements, which represent His body and blood, with any known unconfessed sin. If we do, we can eat and drink judgment upon ourselves in the form of sickness and premature death, as did the Corinthian Christians. The way to avoid God’s discipline is to “judge ourselves,” that is, acknowledging and repenting of our sins.

The primary sin of the Corinthian Christians was their lack of love; they were bickering and fighting with one another. In fact, their lack of consideration even manifested itself during the Lord’s Supper when some ate while others went hungry, and some were even drunk (see 1 Cor. 11:20-22).

The bread we eat represents the body of Christ, which is now the church. We partake of one loaf, representing our unity as one body (see 1 Cor. 10:17). What a crime it is to partake of that which represents the one body of Christ while involved in fighting and disharmony with other members of that body! Before we partake of the Lord’s Supper, we need to make certain we are in right relationship with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

The Lord’s Supper has its origins in the Old Testament Passover Feast. On the night when God delivered Israel from Egyptian slavery, He instructed each household to slay a one-year-old lamb and sprinkle its blood on the lintel and doorposts of their houses. When the “death angel” passed through the nation that night, killing all the first-born in Egypt, he would see the blood on the Israelite houses and “pass over.”

Furthermore, the Israelites were to celebrate a feast that night by eating their Passover lamb and also by eating unleavened bread for seven days. This was to be a permanent ordinance for Israel, celebrated the same time each year (see Ex. 12:1-28). Obviously, the Passover lamb was representative of Christ, who is called “our Passover” in 1 Corinthians 5:7.

When Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, He and His disciples were celebrating the Passover Feast. Jesus was crucified during the Passover feast, truly fulfilling His calling as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

The bread that we eat and the juice we drink are symbolic of Jesus’ body, which was broken for us, and His blood, which was shed for the remission of our sins:

And while they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” And He took a cup and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is to be shed on behalf of many for forgiveness of sins. But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom” (Matt. 26:26-29).

The apostle Paul told the story this way:

For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way He took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes (1 Cor. 11:23-26).

Jesus gave the church only two sacraments: water baptism (see Matt. 28:19) and the Lord’s Supper (see 1 Cor. 11:23-26). We will first study water baptism.

Under the new covenant, every believer should experience three different baptisms. They are: baptism into the body of Christ, baptism in water, and baptism in the Holy Spirit.

When a person is born again, he is automatically baptized into the body of Christ. That is, he becomes a member of Christ’s body, the church:

For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body (1 Cor. 12:13; see also Rom. 6:3; Eph. 1:22-23; Col. 1:18, 24).

Being baptized in the Holy Spirit is an experience subsequent to salvation, and this baptism can and should be received by every believer.

Finally, every believer should be baptized in water as soon as possible after he repents and believes in the Lord Jesus. Baptism should be the first act of obedience of the new believer:

And [Jesus] said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned” (Mark 16:15-16, emphasis added).

The early church regarded Jesus’ command to baptize as very important. Almost without exception, new converts were baptized immediately after their conversion (see Acts 2:37-41; 8:12-16, 36-39; 9:17-19; 10:44-48; 16:31-33; 18:5-8; 19:1-5).

In the 21st chapter of Acts, we find two recorded incidents that answer that question. The first example is when Paul landed at the Mediterranean port city of Tyre:

And after looking up the disciples, we stayed there seven days; and they kept telling Paul through the Spirit not to set foot in Jerusalem (Acts 21:4).

Because of this one verse, some commentators conclude that Paul disobeyed God by continuing on his way to Jerusalem. In the light of the rest of the information given to us in the book of Acts, however, we cannot rightly make that conclusion. This will become clear as we progress in the story.

Apparently the disciples in Tyre were spiritually sensitive and discerned that trouble awaited Paul in Jerusalem. They subsequently tried to convince him not to go. William’s translation of the New Testament bears this out, as it translates this same verse: “Because of impressions made by the Spirit they kept on warning Paul not to set foot in Jerusalem.”

The disciples in Tyre met with no success, however, because Paul continued his journey toward Jerusalem in spite of their warnings.

This teaches us that we must be very careful not to add our own interpretation to revelations we receive in our spirits. Paul knew full well that trouble awaited him in Jerusalem, but he also knew it was God’s will for him to journey there regardless. If God reveals something to us by the Holy Spirit, that doesn’t necessarily mean we are supposed to go and tell it, and we must also be careful not to add our own interpretation to what the Spirit has revealed.

Some practice baptism by sprinkling the new convert with a few drops of water. Is this correct? The verb translated baptize in the New Testament is the Greek word baptizo , which literally means “to immerse.” Those who are baptized in water should, therefore, be immersed under the water and not simply sprinkled with a few drops. The symbolism of Christian baptism, which we will study shortly, also supports the idea of immersion.

Some practice the baptism of infants, yet there are no scriptural examples of infant baptism in the Bible. Such a practice has its origins in the false doctrine of “baptismal regeneration”—the idea that a person is born again the moment he is baptized. Scripture clearly teaches that people should first believe in Jesus before they are baptized. Thus, children who are old enough to repent and follow Jesus qualify for baptism, but not babies and small children.

Some teach that, although a person may believe in Jesus, he is not saved until he is baptized in water. That is not true according to Scripture. In Acts 10:44-48 and 11:17, we read that the household of Cornelius was saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit before any of them were baptized in water. It is impossible for anyone to be baptized in the Holy Spirit unless he is first saved (see John 14:17).

Some teach that unless a person is baptized according to their particular formula, he is not really saved. Scripture provides no specific ritual to be followed for correct baptism. For example, some say that a believer is not saved if he has been baptized “in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19) rather than “in the name of Jesus” (Acts 8:16). These people demonstrate that the same spirit that dominated the Pharisees, straining out gnats and swallowing camels. What a tragedy it is that Christians debate over the correct words to say during baptism while the world waits to hear the gospel.

After at least twenty years of serving in ministry, the apostle Paul had learned well how to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. To some degree, the Spirit showed him “things to come” relative to is future ministry. For example, as Paul was concluding his ministry in Ephesus, He had some conception of the course that his life and ministry would follow for the next three years:

Now after these things were finished, Paul purposed in the spirit to go to Jerusalem after he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, saying, “After I have been there, I must also see Rome” (Acts 19:21).

Notice that Paul didn’t purpose this intended direction in his mind but in his spirit . That indicates that the Holy Spirit was leading him in his spirit to go first to Macedonia and Achaia (both located in modern day Greece), then to Jerusalem, and finally to Rome. And that is precisely the course he followed. If you have a map in your Bible showing Paul’s third missionary journey and his journey to Rome, you can follow his path from Ephesus (where he purposed his route in his spirit) through Macedonia and Achaia, onto Jerusalem, and several years later, to Rome.

More precisely, Paul traveled through Macedonia and Achaia, then he backtracked through Macedonia once again, circling the coast of the Aegean Sea, and then he traveled down the Aegean coast of Asia Minor. During that journey he stopped at the city of Miletus, called for the elders of the church of nearby Ephesus, and delivered a farewell address to them in which he said:

And now, behold, bound in spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me (Acts 20:22-23, emphasis added).

Paul said he was “bound in spirit,” meaning he had a conviction in his spirit that was leading him to Jerusalem. He didn’t have the complete picture regarding what would happen when he arrived in Jerusalem, but he stated that in every city in which he stopped on his journey, the Holy Spirit testified that bonds and afflictions awaited him there. How did the Holy Spirit “testify” of those bonds and afflictions that awaited him in Jerusalem?