Sermons 2026

Text: Fifth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer 

Outline 

1. Need Forgiveness 

2. Forgive with Christ’s forgiveness 

Sermon 

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 

My dear beloved flock, the text for our meditation is the Fifth Petition of the Lord’s prayer. 

And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. 16 What does this mean? — Answer. We pray in this petition that our Father in heaven would not look upon our sins, nor deny such petitions on account of them; for we are worthy of none of the things for which we pray, neither have we deserved them; but that He would grant them all to us by grace; for we daily sin much, and indeed deserve nothing but punishment. So will we verily, on our part, also heartily forgive and also readily do good to those who sin against us. 

Beloved Lambs, I pray that you are doing well today. One…two…three…oh, what am I doing? I am adding. I have a tally of every time you have been mean to your brothers and sisters as well as the number of times you said sorry and I forgive you. Which do you think is larger? The number of times you have been mean. Do you think I should keep adding or do you want to see what God does? You want to see what God does? Awesome! God does this! Erase! Where did the numbers go? They are no longer there. God has erased them because of Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection from the dead. How can we live like this and forgive each other as we live our lives upon this earth? How does Jesus help us to do this? Ponder those questions as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you. 

1. Need Forgiveness

 In this petition of the Lord’s prayer, our hearts and minds are turned to our most important spiritual need, the forgiveness of sins. Luther lays it bare for us. To pray for God to forgive our sins as we forgive those who sin against us, is to pray for God to forgive us for all those times we fail to fear, love, and trust in him, and instead put our hope in the gifts he’s given us. 

As Daniel confesses, “We have sinned greatly against you.’ (Daniel 9:11) All of us break the Law of God in the things that we do. This is called a sin of commission. The person cuts us off going one hundred and thirty down the highway or interstate. What is our first thought? Is it ‘Oh, thank you! Have a wonderful day!’? I highly doubt it. If I were to say what our first reply typically is, we would make everyone blush with the extreme vulgarity of language used. What crosses your mind when you see someone that has tight fitting clothing, baring more skin than if they were wearing nothing at all? Or someone who comes dressed in rags, asking for money for food, drink, or gas to get to a family member’s dying bedside? I am sure we would all wonder if it was actually going to food, drink, or gas. Our first thoughts would not to think the best of them. 

We also break the Law of God when we do not do what we know is right. This is called a sin of omission. We omit doing or saying what we know is right. Thereby we fail to prevent harm or do good when we have the opportunity or responsibility to do so. When we get something that we have been working and looking forward to for a really long time, maybe a special gift like a new car or a long vacation, or a special day, like a wedding or a trip to Disney world. Is your first thought to give it up so that your spouse or children can have something that they desire instead? It would be really hard to do that, even though we know it would be the correct thing to do. When you see someone who has fallen down in public, what do you do? We know we should help them, but many times we go the other way. Maybe we will call 911 for lift assistance but many rarely do. 

We do this in our words when we withhold the truth. When we do not warn a friend about a dangerous situation, ‘Hey, stop drinking tonight, its not good for you.’ ‘Avoid those types of friends, they are deep into debt and hard drugs.’ Rather than speaking up, Satan tempts us, “What business is it of yours? It’s their life, let them live it.’ Or maybe there’s a fault at the checkout counter in your favor, the cashier rang up one bag of corn rather than three. Three for the price of one right? After all Walmart has enough funds, they can cover the cost of two bags of corn. 

Truly, we sin much. We need the forgiveness of every single one of our sins. It is not something that we can gain by our hard work or by our own efforts. Yet, forgiveness is given to us. 

It is given freely as a gift to us by God Himself. As we celebrate Palm Sunday, we cry with the crowds, “Hosanna” Save us! Our Lord Jesus Christ does save us. He saves us from our sins by being the perfectly obedient Son of the Father, living a perfect life in our place. He saves us from the punishment and condemnation, bearing the full wrath of God upon the cross of Calvary in our stead, not just for some of our sins, but for every single one, that we might not die eternally in the fires of Hell. We know that His sacrifice was acceptable in the eyes of God because He raised Jesus to life through the power of the Holy Spirit on the third day.

 2. Forgive with Christ’s forgiveness

 Having been blessed with our Lord’s great and abundant mercy shown in the forgiveness of our sins, what do we do now? Our petition does not end merely with praying for the forgiveness of our own sins, but we pray that, having received his forgiveness and all that we need by His grace, he frees us to forgive others. Albrecht Peters describes the fifth petition, this return to God’s forgiveness, as a "crawl back again into baptism.” In the waters of Holy Baptism, God places His name upon us, gives us the forgiveness of our sins, the salvation of our souls, and life with Him forever. 

How much have we been forgiven by God? As you just heard, we have been forgiven by God because of Jesus. He has forgiven us, not a small little .five percent, or ninety-nine percent but everything! We who have been forgiven much by God, likewise forgive much in others. This is not easy as our sinful natures desire to hold onto anger. Our sinful nature enjoys watching other people squirm, hanging their sins over their heads like a fated sword of Damocles. I have heard of Christians who have not talked in years, simply because one of them made a comment and would not repent of it when asked. That is not what we are called to do. We are called to confess, to turn towards one another and say, “I am sorry. I hurt you deeply. I hurt you, I hurt those around us. I sinned, can you forgive me?” It means admitting our own faults, as well as not holding other’s fault against them, but forgiving as Christ has forgiven us. Then we live in that forgiveness! We treat the other person as though that sin was no more because it has been forgiving in Christ. 

Lord, help us that we may forgive others as you have forgiven us in Christ, that we may show forth in our thoughts, words, and deeds, Your light, forgiveness, and salvation. The Peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard, and keep, your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.