To forgive means to stop feeling angry or resentful toward someone for an offense, wrongdoing, or mistake. Because of passages like Isaiah 43:25, Hebrews 8:12, and Micah 7:18-19—which talk about God not remembering our sin—it would be easy to think forgiveness is the process of forgetting the wrongs people have done. However, it is not quite that simple. God knows all things (Ps. 147:5; John 3:20), so when the Bible talks about God not “remembering” our sin, it doesn’t mean He can’t recall it. When God forgives us, He doesn’t let our past sins slip out of His mind; rather, He actively chooses not to hold them against us. God chooses to love us despite our failures. The forgiveness God offers us through Jesus is powerful and life changing. Jesus’ great forgiveness should move us to greatly forgive others.

We all have traditions. Perhaps your family always goes to a candlelight service on Christmas Eve. Maybe you always have a certain type of cake on your birthday, or you always dress nice and get your picture taken on Easter. You might find some of these traditions annoying, like dressing up on Easter, but most of them are enjoyable. Traditions give us the opportunity to share meaningful moments with our friends and family members. They can be great, but it is also important to keep them in proper perspective, something many religious leaders in Jesus’ day failed to do. Today, as we look at Jesus’ discussion about the Sabbath with the Pharisees in Luke 6, we will be reminded that Jesus is Lord over all and calls all who trust Him to follow His example of doing good.

We often think life would be better if we had a bit more power or authority. For instance, students might think they’d be happier if they could decide what time they went to school or determine the rules at their house. You might think you’d be happier if you could decide how much you were paid or how much time you had to spend working. It is important to consider, however, that the way we utilize authority doesn’t just impact us—it also impacts the people around us. Today we will see Jesus exercise His authority in a powerful, profound, and good way. Jesus has power to heal

and authority to forgive sins.

If we could share a meal with anyone, most of us would choose someone famous or successful. We’d all like to pick the brain of someone who is famous for being really good at something we are into—like a famous athlete or musician. At the juncture at which we meet Jesus in this session, He was actually becoming pretty famous for His profound teaching and miraculous works. He was the kind of person who was well-known enough that He could have shared meals with all sorts of important people if he had wanted to—but He didn’t. Instead, Jesus called fishermen to follow Him and ate meals with “sinners and tax collectors.” Jesus rarely conforms to our expectations. Jesus specifically reached out to outcasts and so should we.

We have all felt rejected at one time or another. It can often feel like we live in a cruel world—people reject one another over how they look, where they are from, or even mistakes they’ve made in the past. In our culture today it is easier to write someone off and ignore them when they offend us than it is to do the hard work of loving them despite their faults. Today we will see how Jesus offered redemption to all people, but was often rejected. Jesus, however, did not let the rejection of others sway Him from His mission of bringing the good news of His kingdom to all people.

Mercy is compassion or forgiveness shown to someone it is within one’s power to harm. In the Bible, it refers to compassion shown toward someone who doesn’t deserve it. Jesus’ death and resurrection was the ultimate act of mercy because He died to pay the punishment for the sins of people who had rejected Him, betrayed Him, and rebelled against Him. Mercy, however, is not merely something that Jesus offers us—it is also something Jesus calls us to live out. Today we will see Jesus call His followers to show mercy as a way of life. Just as Jesus sacrificed to love and serve us even when we didn’t deserve it, so too are we called to love and serve others even when they don’t deserve it. Followers of Jesus are called to share His mercy with others.

This is the fist episode of our brand new series "Weekly Workshop" where teachers from all over Calvary come together to prepare for Sunday morning by going over the upcoming Sunday's material in-depth together. This week we have our Education Pastors, Cliff Ozmun and Eliot Pages, on to discuss Luke 3:7-18.