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Matthew 18:21-35
“Then came Peter to him, and said, LORD,
how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven
times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not
unto thee, Until seven time: but, Until
seventy times seven. Therefore is the
kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his
servants. And when he had begun to
reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents. But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord
commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and his children, and all that he had,
and payment to be made. The servant
therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me,
and I will pay thee all. Then the lord
of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the
debt. But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which
owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that
thou owest. And his fellowservant fell
down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will
pay thee all. And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he
should pay the debt. So when his
fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto
their lord all that was done. Then his
lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I
forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: shouldest not thou also have had compassion
on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee? And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to
the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also
unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their
trespasses.” [if this is talents of silver or gold, it would be 10,000 x
120 = 1,200,000 lbs of either silver or gold, whichever precious metal is being
used. This is a very large sum of
money.]
Matthew chapter 18, we’re picking
up this week where we left off at verse 21. Now we’ve been studying through the Gospel of Matthew verse by verse,
it’s been a little over a year. We took
over 8 years to go through the New Testament, got back to Matthew and just
decided rather than go into the Old, we’d just go through the New again. We’re going through the Old Testament now on
Wednesday nights. But it’s been awhile,
we just slowed down in Matthew. And we
hit chapter 18, we’re on our third study [in chapter 18], and I’ve titled this
series, these studies in this chapter True
Greatness. And the reason why goes
back to the beginning of chapter 18, verse 1 where the disciples pose this
question, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”. And Jesus then goes on to illustrate and to
depict to them what true greatness is all about. Of course, greatness in the eyes of God isn’t
necessarily greatness in man’s eyes, what I would humanly speaking consider
greatness. In God’s eyes it’s different. And so he’s illustrated and he’s demonstrated
what true greatness is. It begins as he
says, true greatness begins with a sincere humility. It’s followed by a sincere and simple faith,
but especially as we got into the last study, just before in the last two
studies, it includes a heart of compassion and a heart of love. Where there is real love abounding, the love
of God abounding in a heart, you’ve got somebody whose pretty mighty in the
eyes of God. And as he shared, when you
have that love, the heart of true greatness, the love of God in your heart,
you’re somebody who cares about people, you care about those who would be
considered the little ones, the insignificant ones in the eyes of the
world. They’re a priority to you, as he
shared, their protection is important to you. They just have a big part of your ear, even the little ones. But then too, any relationship, when I love,
if I’m truly great in the sense of what he says is greatness, if I love,
relationships, the relationships that God has given to me are important to
me---relationships within my family, relationships within the church, community
work, I see these relationships, and they’re important to me. And therefore, because I have love in my
heart, as Jesus shared two weeks ago, last study, when there is a strain, when
there’s something going awry in a relationship I have with somebody else, I
don’t just ignore that, I don’t just let it roll…Because I love, I am moved, I
love this person, and I’m even moved to want to do something about it. And we noted last study, Jesus even said if
I’m offended, if somebody has come against me and done something to me, as the
offended, if necessary I’ll even go to the offender, and I will seek to win
back my brother, I will seek to bring the relationship back to where it was
before, because I love. And I want
harmony, and I want unity, I want closeness with the people whom God has
brought into my life. It’s important to
me. Well, continuing then with this
thought of relationship is where we pick up now in verse 21 in this heart of
greatness, this life of greatness. And
Jesus now speaks that such a heart is also a forgiving heart. It’s a heart where I’m gracious and I’m
merciful, and I forgive anybody of anything. And that’s also because it’s the heart of God. God’s a forgiving God. And his heart and his love is that way. So, let’s say a word of prayer, because you
know, the cool thing about going through the Word of God, two weeks ago we
talked about this issue of reconciliation and going to your brother. And the cool thing is, it was two weeks ago,
and I’ve heard multiple accounts and stories of people who actually were here
on that morning, and in the last two weeks have gone to people in their lives,
and have gone to seek to reconcile, to win back a brother or a sister. And that’s the great thing about the Word of
God. It effects our lives. It’s his Word. You know, it’s not just in hearing, hearing’s
important. But man, it’s about doing. And I think that’s beautiful, we go through
this, and who knows what the Lord may say to your life, and what may result in
your life as a result. Let’s say a word
of prayer together, and we’ll pick up with verse 21 of chapter 18. ‘Lord, thank you for this opportunity to go
through these Scriptures. Thank you for
your message to us. This is a
love-letter that you’ve written to your people, that you’ve written to
mankind. And you care so much about us,
and you remind us in the text we’re looking at today. But you remind us too that you want what’s
best for us. You want us to live great
lives, to make our lives count, and to live meaningful lives. And so, as you’ve been reminding us, that
includes a lot about our relationships with other people, and how we are, and
how we address things in those relationships. And so I thank you Lord. Help us
to hear you Lord…in Jesus name, amen.’
Matthew 18, Part 3: Forgiveness
Chapter 18, verses 21-35, “Then Peter came to him and said, ‘Lord, how
often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times? And Jesus said to him, I do not say to you,
up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a
certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. And when he had begun to settle accounts, one
was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. But as he was not able to pay, his master
commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and
that payment be made. The servant
therefore fell down before him, saying, ‘Master, have patience with me, and I
will pay you all.’ Then the master of
that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the
debt. But that servant went out and
found one of his fellow-servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and he laid
hands on him and took him by the
throat, saying, ‘Pay me what you owe!’ So his fellow-servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying,
‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’ And he would not, but went and threw him into
prison till he should pay the debt. So
when his fellow-servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and
came and told their master all that had been done. Then his master, after he had called him,
said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I
forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on
your fellow-servant, just as I had pity on you?’ And his master was angry, and delivered him
to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. So my heavenly Father also will do to you if
each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.’” Now, hearing Jesus sharing and
illuminating this heart of greatness, hearing Jesus even mention how, you know,
the heart is one to go to your brother, to seek to reconcile with your brother,
a brother or sister whose done something against you.
No limits on forgiveness
Well I’m sure hearing that, Peter
then comes to Jesus, verse 21, and he says ‘Lord, now how many times should I
forgive my brother? He does something to
me multiple times, how often should I forgive him? Seven times, Lord?’ Now, it’s true, I’m sure, Peter’s thinking
he’s being pretty gracious. For
starters, the Jewish leaders, even in the Talmud the rabbis taught that you
only needed to forgive somebody three times. After three times, three strikes you’re out, you’re done, you’re
finished. If they do something a fourth
time, no need to forgive ‘em. The three
strikes rule, you know. Something that
we I guess have in our culture to a degree today. [Jewish businessmen in the Jewish community
will give a business loan to one of their own who is trying to get into
business, but if they fail in business three times, getting three loans and not
making good, they are shunned from the Jewish business world from being able to
get any loans or financial assistance from then on. I never knew where they got that practice
until now---it’s an application of what’s in their Talmud.] So Peter’s
thinking, ‘I’m being gracious, seven times, that’s over two times as
much.’ But you know the truth is, three
times, seven times, really isn’t a whole lot of difference. I mean, sometimes it might feel that way,
depending on what somebody’s doing to me. The fourth time, fifth time, sixth time and seventh time can seem pretty
significant. But three or seven, there
really isn’t a whole lot of difference between the two, not that much. It would be nice, it is human, we like to set
limits on forgiveness. We like to put a
specific number of times, some of us have people in our lives that, boy, you
know, we’d like to set that limit, and maybe we have. I think of some of you who have folks in your
lives that struggle with addictions, and here you are. And maybe you’ve passed seven a long time
ago, you know, when it comes to deception and manipulation or taking advantage
of you, being selfish. I mean, seven you
hit that a long time ago. You’re
thinking, ‘I’m up to twenty now, twenty-seven! And I’m thinking right now, twenty-seven, that’s a lot of times. I mean, here we go again, we’ve been in this
season so many times.’ And maybe it
isn’t a person of addiction [i.e. an addicted marital mate], maybe it’s just
another person that’s in your life that’s very selfish, very brutal or perhaps
as it happens more often in our church setting, it’s a dogmatic, judgmental
person, thinking they’re always right about everything, and they’re the big
cheese on all spiritual, prophetic and world events, and ‘bow down to me
everybody, I want to run this whole church because I’m so intelligent and got
it all together spiritually’---and you’re thinking, you know, ‘I’m setting a
limit on how many times I’m gonna forgive that person.’ And maybe you’re done with this person, and
it’s human to set a limit on forgiveness, to limit the number of times you’re
gonna forgive this person. But also
maybe to limit the magnitude of the offense. Maybe it isn’t the number of times, but a lot of us, it’s the
offense. There’s a certain point where
you can do something against me, alright, but if you go beyond that level…Some
of you are maybe here, and there are things that have been done to you, that if
you were to share the story this morning, if you were to get up here and share
what had happened to you, I mean, our hearts would grieve for you. The pain that you’ve endured, the experience
that you had, the things that somebody has done to you, or multiple people, and
the magnitude of that. So, maybe you sit
here, and you’re going, ‘That’s just too high, it’s beyond the limit. And so I haven’t forgiven, and I don’t need
to forgive, that’s just beyond, that’s too hurtful, that’s too painful.’ And maybe if you were to share it, I’d go,
man, that’s intense. But, as you see
from the text, and what you want and what I want is what God says, because he
wants what’s best for us in our lives. When he says to set a limit on forgiveness, that’s the wrong
attitude. That’s the wrong attitude, and
that’s not good, to any way want to limit it, whether it’s the number of times,
I’ve bourn with somebody, or whether it’s the magnitude of the offense. To want to do that is not what God desires, and
the truth is, it’s not greatness, and also the truth is it’s even sin to want
to limit it, as you see in the text. To
go further, Jesus explains further to Peter, he says this is what greatness is,
he says greatness is to forgive. And
when he says, obviously as you see there it’s to forgive, and it’s to forgive,
and to forgive, and to forgive, and to forgive, and to forgive, and to forgive,
and to forgive, and to forgive, and to forgive, and to forgive, and to
forgive---it’s to keep on forgiving, to not have any limit in any way. Doesn’t matter the number of times, doesn’t
matter how intense, how awful, the magnitude does not matter. Jesus says to Peter, he says, “not up to seven times, Peter, but I say to
you seventy times seven.” Now, do
the math, seventy times seven is 490 times. Maybe some of you are thinking, passed that already with Joe, we passed
that a long time ago, we did that last week. You know, some of you, maybe you parents, ‘The toddler I have, we passed
that a long time ago.’ [Try parents and
teenagers.] He uses when he says that,
he uses a Greek idiom that it’s a little ambiguous to us today 1900 years
later. So for that translation some
translations may say 77, you may have 77, or 70 times 7. The point really isn’t the number, clearly in
what he’s saying. The point in what he’s
saying to Peter, ‘You say 7, 490…’ The
point is to not limit it, to not stop, to continue to go on, to forgive and to
forgive and to forgive, because as we see in the Scriptures the love of God has
no limits. In Ephesians chapter 3, Paul
even describes love, he says that you as God’s people would begin to just be
blown away by the height, depth and expanse of the love of God. And the way he lays it out is, the point is
it’s just infinite, the love of God. And
you and I never get to the end of the love of God. I mean, I can trip up every single day since
the day I was born [and we often do, if you’re being honest with yourselves],
do all sorts of awful things. I mean I
have, I can think back not too long ago, I had a day that was just a bad
day. [Now don’t kid yourselves, this is
no excuse as a license to sin. I know
this pastor personally, and he is steadily growing in the sanctification
process, growing more and more sinless. But as humans we will never in this life be without sin. We must put what the pastor is saying in
proper perspective.] And I grieve when I
think about it, ‘Oh man, you know.’ I
thank God that God’s love just keeps on going, it’s an infinite love, and
there’s no limit to it. I don’t get to
the end, and go ‘Oh no! Oh man, too far
this time.’ But there’s no limit. That’s Agape’ love. You know, 1st Corinthians 13:4-8,
describing the love of God, in the NIV it says this in verse 5, “Love is not
rude, it is not self-seeking, is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs…” And so therefore if it keeps no records of wrongs, there’s no counting,
you know. [Comment: Can you see, or even begin to see what Jesus
and God the Father, are trying to do
with us in this growth/sanctification process, well beyond the do’s and don’ts
of the Ten Commandments? God is trying
to develop his holy character within each and every one of us. Matthew 18:1-35 is a boilerplate for God’s
true character of love, which this whole three-sermon series has so clearly
expounded for us. These hurtful
life-experiences we’re placed into are designed to help us develop the loving
character of Jesus Christ and God the Father.] There’s no counting, so no number, you know what I mean. You can’t say 490, because you’re keeping
track of it if you know you’re up to 489. Forgiveness just keeps no record. I just keep bearing with you. Love bears, suffers long, I forgive, and I forgive, and I forgive. It’s human to want to set a limit, but it’s
greatness, it’s the love of God to not limit forgiveness. The Roman playwright, Plotus, who lived about
200 years before Christ, he said this, “To err is human, to forgive
divine.” Somebody else put it this
way. It is manlike to punish, but
Godlike to forgive. And that’s what he’s
saying. ‘If you guys want to know
greatness, whose the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’ Then he talks about the heart, and he says
it’s a heart that forgives---that’s divine, that’s god-like, that’s true
greatness. You know, in our society it’s
depicted that way certainly through Hollywood, you know Hollywood would say
that to be gracious and merciful is to be weak. You know, you watch the programs that come out of Hollywood, what is
seen as strong is to be hard, to be vengeful, you know, ‘I’ve got the battery
on my shoulder, come on, I dare you, knock it off, I dare you!’ And if they hit the battery they’re in
trouble. That’s Hollywood, that is what
we’re told is strength. And Jesus is
saying to the disciples and to you and I, that is weakness. What’s truly great is to be gracious, to be
merciful and to forgive. That’s when
you’re strong. An American sociologist Francis Stewart Chapin said, “Never does the
human soul appear so strong and noble as when it foregoes revenge and dares to
forgive an injury.” So, today, where
are you at in your life? Is there that
area of real weakness that you’ve got this thing of unforgiveness towards this
somebody? And maybe you’re listening,
and your emotions are being stirred, and you don’t like mornings like
this. ‘I don’t like you going there,
Steve’, because you’ve got this thing, you know, and you don’t even want to
think about it, because of what happened to you and the way you were treated
and what was done to you. And you’ve
just put a limit on it, and said ‘No, I just keep that down in my heart, I am
not going to forgive that person, no way, they hurt me too much, and so here I
am.’ And here we are in the Word of God. Maybe it’s unforgiveness towards an “Ex” that
you have, maybe it’s towards a sibling. Maybe it’s toward a parent, maybe it’s toward another family member or a
friend or maybe it’s even toward a church leader, things that have happened
that have been pretty painful in your life. But Jesus is saying, ‘Understand that if you are sitting there and that
is in your heart, that’s weakness.’ He
wants so much more for your life.
It’s Sin Not to Forgive
He wants your life to be so much
greater. It might be human, but as
weakness, as you’ll see and as we continue going on, it’s also disobedience to
God. It’s sin to not forgive. If I’m a believer in Jesus Christ, it is sin
for me not to forgive. And then you’re
thinking, ‘Well that’s easy to say, Steve, heard the Bible study before, yeah,
easy, but you just don’t know what I’ve been through, you just don’t know. You put on my moccasins and give the Bible
study, Steve.’ And I’m sure there are
things that people have gone through that, man, I can’t even touch it with a
hundred-mile stick, because in my life I’ve not been through that kind of
pain. And that’s certainly possible and
I’m sure it’s true. But God says to you,
God says to you, ‘No limit on forgiveness, man. I want to give you the best life, the full life, I want your life to
count.’ You know, there’s a story I was
listening to recently, a concert pianist at our headquarters church. This gal
leads worship there or has in the time past, and this is a little bit of an
intense story. But this gal went through
a time, where she was in a parking lot of a mall and as guy actually grabbed
her, beat her up, raped her, and slit her throat. As a result, she was on life-support and she
almost died. But God chose to spare her
life, so she pulled through. They caught
the guy, arrested the guy. Now they go
to court, and this is the story. This
was actually in the newspaper. It was in
the Orange County Register, as of course it was news in the area of Orange
County. In court she asked, she chose,
told the judge, I don’t want to press charges, but I’d like to talk to the
man. Well, at some point, her and this
man met and she talked to him, and then she shared Christ with him and led him
to Christ. The story continues though,
because today that man attends church with her. Now I listen to that, and you may be sitting there with pain in your
life, but that gal went through a painful experience. There are plenty of people that would say
that there is a limit to what you forgive, that is beyond the limit. Now I tell you, that lady’s living a great
life today, because she’s experienced Christ in a very special way, she sits in
church with this man who actually did that to her. And that man’s going to make it into the
kingdom of heaven. And because of the
way she treated him, he’s going into the kingdom of heaven, and she can be in
the kingdom of heaven and see his face there and see the grace of God towards
him. You know, I know there are folks
that I’m sure statistically are just sitting here that have got a deep thing in
their lives, and they’re wondering. You know, the love of God, listen to the love
of God, we have to put it in perspective with God, and not look at it
horizontally but look at it vertically with God. And that’s what Jesus does here. I could go on with story after story, I mean,
I’ve heard them, I’ve heard the stories of parents where a drunk driver kills
one of their children, and I’ve heard the stories where the parents are
wrestling through that, and here’s this drunk driver that took the life of
their children, child, but then deciding rather than just to go brutally after
that person, to forgive them. I’ve heard
of stories where they’ve gone into prison and shared Christ with the man, led
him to Christ. Later he gets out of
jail, and now he’s like a son to that family. But you talk to the people that did the forgiving, they’re not, they
won’t tell you ‘Oh, we’ve done a terrible thing in forgiving.’ They’ll tell you about the joy and the work
of God in their life.
Forgiving is a choice we have to
make---Then God empowers us
You know there’s the story of
Corrie ten Boom, and I’ve shared it many times. Somebody was making the point between services that we have to choose,
it’s a thing of the mind, it’s a thing of the will, and sometimes our heart
isn’t there. There’s something about
obedience, when God’s speaks to me, that when I do what God says, that he works
in the heart, and often the heart follows. There’s the story of Corrie ten Boom and I’ve shared it, where she was
at various concentration camps, living in concentration camps there during
World War II, and she witnessed her sister brutally treated by prison guards,
eventually her sister dies. Years later,
speaking in Germany, this wonderful Christian woman speaking, and after the
speaking engagement here comes this man walking up. She looks at the man, it’s years later, but
she recognizes his face, and he’s one of the prison guards, one of the brutal
prison guards. She’s got this deal going
on as he’s walking up, and he comes to her and he extends his hand, and here’s
this whole battle that she’s going through internally. She tells the story in one of her books,
where she reached out and grabbed his hand. She choose to grab his hand. And
she says, “The minute I did…I mean when I saw him coming I felt all that stuff,
but when I grabbed his hand, she said it was like the love of God just flooded
my heart, my mind and my soul, and suddenly this incredible compassion came
through me towards this man.” And I
believe that’s what Jesus is saying, to all of us [and not many of us can lay claim
to what Corrie ten Boom has been through in those camps]. So maybe you’re here, and you’ve got these
things, and God is speaking to you, and wants to do a mighty work in your life
and through your life. You know, to love
is to forgive. And my willingness to
forgive, that’s a good way to measure the love of God in me. Am I willing, do I set a limit in any
way? Or do I just want to forgive people
because of what God has done in my life.
Jesus gives a story to drive the point home about
forgiveness
Verses 23-27, “Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king
who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. And when he had begun to settle accounts, one
was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. But as he was not able to pay, his master
commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and
that payment be made. The servant
therefore fell down before him, saying, ‘Master, have patience with me, and I
will pay you all.’ Then the master of
that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the
debt.” Well, Jesus then goes on,
because this is something we wrestle with. And we can try to work it out, set all kinds of boundaries, but he says
‘Here’s the deal, here’s the story to kind of drive the point home. There is a man, a king, had a kingdom. One day he decides to settle accounts, maybe
he needs to pay off taxes or something, pay off some kind of thing. And he brings a notorious guy before him, a
servant, who owes him so much. The amount
that he owes is tremendous. He owes
10,000 talents. And he says to this man,
‘It’s time to settle up, you’re going to do it, you’re going to pay off your
debt.’ Now, as many of you have studied
the story before, and as you can clearly see, the king is a picture of
God. The king in the story represents
God. In fact, the one who is telling the
story, it represents him, Jesus, the one telling it, it’s him. He’s the king. This servant that now is brought to account,
that owes so much, is you or I, it’s anybody in this room, it’s all of us. So, here’s a good reason to forgive. This man owes a ton. Now, he owes 10,000 talents. People try to convert that. If I read a commentary that’s twenty years
old it’ll tell you it’s worth $100,000,000. And then you read it today, and it’s another figure. I can’t give you a dollar figure because it
changes. [A talent is a weight equal to
one of two amounts, either 120 or 180 lbs. If it’s talent of gold it will be 10,000 x say 120 lbs = 1,200,000 lbs
times the price of a pound of gold. Thus
as gold fluctuates on the market, so would the dollar figure. If it’s a talent of silver being used, it’s
1.2 million lbs of silver, plain and simple.] But the point is, the point that he’s making is this. And that is that he uses the talent because
the talent is the highest known currency of the day. And 10,000 is the highest Greek numeral. So the point is, he’s using the biggest of
the biggest to make a point. In our
culture today, it would be like saying, we use the number trillions because we
have a trillion dollar debt in our country so we use it pretty frequently. But it would be like saying ‘I owe trillions
and trillions of dollars.’ Now I don’t
know about you. On my bank account and
my pay, if I owe trillions of dollars, I’d be in trouble. I mean, if I owed it, if I actually got the
bill in the mail going ‘You owe a hundred trillion dollars’, I’d be like
‘Ouch! What am I going to do? I owe a hundred trillion dollars.’ That’s the point. This man, it’s like he owes a hundred
trillion dollars, he owes so much. And
it’s impossible then for him to pay it. It’s impossible for him to reconcile it. So then Jesus is describing, king, servant, God, me. I owe a debt, I owe a debt to God, and it’s
my sin, I’ve committed sin, I’ve sinned before a perfect and holy God. There’s such an expanse between God and I
then. I’m unholy, I’ve committed sin,
he’s perfect. He’s a consuming
fire. So there, my debt to him, it’s
infinite, it’s so enormous. It’s
immense. And it’s also something that I
cannot pay. You know there are a lot of
people today that deceive themselves, they think that, ‘Well I know I’ve done
some bad, but I do a lot of good. And
God knows I do a lot of good, and it makes a difference to God, so therefore
I’m alright.’ They’re deceiving
themselves because they don’t know what God says and the nature of God---that
my sin, I can do nothing about my sin. I
cannot erase it, I cannot do enough good. If today I left this place, and I moved into a slum in India and decided
to just live for these orphans in these slums, and I just gave up all I had and
lived every moment to love the sick in India, and I died doing that---but I
didn’t reconcile the way God has me reconcile my sin with him, if I tried to do
it myself, I couldn’t do it. I’d come up
empty. It’s a debt I cannot pay. You’re more apt to pay off a debt of a
hundred trillion dollars in your life than ever getting to a point where you
can erase your sin by your own good works. So Jesus says ‘Here’s the deal, here’s the enormity of what you owed
God, indebted to him, here is the enormity of your inability to pay. And then as he goes on, he shows us the heart
of God, because the servant then falling before God, he says ‘Oh master, oh
master, be patient with me, give me enough time and I’ll pay.’ Now, he’s asking for something he can’t
do. I mean, somebody a few years ago did
actually calculate 10,000. 10,000
talents if you convert it to the average day wage of the time, it would work
out to you would have to work about 150,000 years. And that’s a long time, you know. [laughter] I mean, you’re thinking 65 years is a long time, wait till you get to
150,000. That’s a long time. And the point is, he can’t do it. But he’s asking, ‘Just give me time and I’ll
pay the debt.’ Dude, you can’t do
it. But then we see the master, the
master responds, and he responds with compassion. Maybe you’re here today, and you don’t know
joy, you don’t have peace in your life, you don’t have hope in your life. The truth is, if you would just grab hold of
what Christ says here. Every one of us
should leave this place with joy, and be in awe of God. Because as a sinner, I couldn’t do anything
about it. Here I am, I owe the
debt. There’s the penalty, the wages of
sin is death, I can’t undo that. But
then he looked at me with compassion. He
was so moved with compassion and love for me, and he proved it by demonstrating
his love for me, he sent his very son, and he came and he died on a cross to
pay the penalty for my sin so that I could be forgiven. Imagine if you owed a hundred trillion
dollars, you got in this really bad car accident, man, all these people got
hurt, and all the attorneys showed up, and now you’ve got this big lawsuit,
hundreds of trillions of dollars is the settlement. And then you stand in court, and the judge
goes, ‘You’re forgiven.’ Imagine how
you’d feel. Imagine. Maybe you’ve been in those places. I pray with people at times, ‘Pray with me,
I’ve gotta go to court’, and then the judge is gracious. And the joy. You and I, man, we understand what God has done for us, the joy should
just be there, because I should not doubt the love of God for a moment. I should not even for a moment, I may think
I’m doing bad and questioning God and questioning life, but its just my
mind. The reality is, this is the love
of God towards me. God’s Word just
declares that God demonstrated his love for us in this, that when we were still
sinners, Christ died for us. You know,
Jesus is focusing on the enormity of the forgiveness, because he’s making a
comparison. But if he was to show the
whole story, I mean, what he would do is, he would show the king saying to the
servant you’re forgiven, and then the king going to jail to pay the debt. Because that’s really what God did. God is still just, but he’s also incredibly
loving. He’s not like a pushover and
just forgot about sin. No he went and
paid the penalty himself, because he is just, and the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (cf. Romans
6:23). You know, today I hope you’re
here, and you know the forgiveness of sin that God gives. I hope and pray that you know God personally
in your life. It is the greatest thing,
it is the most important thing. If you
don’t know it, you can know it today. You can put your faith in Jesus Christ. Ask God to forgive you of your sin and give you eternal life, and you
will know his forgiveness, and you will know his life. And it is what you’re all about, what you’re
made for is to know God and to walk with God. But understand, you’re good works won’t do it, salvation is through
faith by grace, it is not of works, lest any man boast. It is simply putting our faith in God and
accepting the gift of forgiveness. [Then
after that, God places his Holy Spirit within you, as a new believer, and he
then through this indwelling Holy Spirit proceeds to write his laws into your
heart and mind.] I guess this guy could
have said, ‘Oh no, I don’t want it, man.’ That would be pretty foolish, but there are people that do that, that
don’t want it. Well, we see the
enormity, the immense size of the debt, we see the inability to pay it, then we
see the incredible love and compassion of God. And so, the point is, look at the enormity of the forgiveness of sin you
have received, Christian, look at the expanse of it, what it means. There’s that song that when I grew up in
vacation Bible school or whatever it is, I member this song, singing it in
church: ‘He paid a debt he did not owe, I owed a debt I could not pay, I needed
someone to wash my sins away. And now I
sing a brand new song, Amazing Grace, Christ Jesus paid a debt that I could
never pay.’ And I wish that you guys
would have jumped in, but you didn’t [loud laughter, applause] I didn’t know I
was going to do a solo, man, thought you were going to be with me. But he paid a debt, I had a debt I could not
pay. He paid a debt he didn’t owe. I needed someone, man. Christ Jesus came and paid my debt. And that’s the deal. Amazing Grace…[tape switchover, some text
lost]…that God would forgive him of his sin, that is the limitless, the
limitlessness of the love of God.
“So my heavenly Father also
will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his
trespasses”
Verses 28-35, “But that servant went out and found one of his
fellow-servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and he laid his hands on him
and took him by the throat, saying,
‘Pay me what you owe!’ So his
fellow-servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, ‘Have patience
with me, and I will pay you all.’ And he
would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. So when his fellow-servants saw what had been
done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been
done. Then his master, after he had
called him, said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on
your fellow-servant, just as I had pity on you?’ And his master was angry, and delivered him to
the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. So my heavenly Father also will do to you if
each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.” Well this servant goes out, finds a
fellow-servant who owes him a hundred denarii, the comparison is very small is
the point. It’s one sixth-hundred
thousandth of what he owed to the king, one sixth hundredth thousandths. So he finds somebody who owed him a very
little, comparatively. But he lays his
hands on him, the Greek literally has it, ‘He chokes him.’ And in Roman law, when you were dragging
somebody off to court, you could treat him in an undignified way, that was
allowed. So he grabs him by the throat,
and says, ‘You pay me what you owe me!’ So the servant fell down at his feet and begged him saying, ‘Have
patience with me, and I will pay you all.’ Do you notice anything there about what this servant asks the other
servant? Very interesting, because if
you go back from verse 29 to verse 26, it’s the same prayer, it’s the same
plea. That’s the point. He asks the king, ‘Have patience with me,
I’ll pay you all.’ And now somebody else
is saying the same thing to him. Yet
this guy can actually pay it off, a hundred denarii, a denarii being a day’s
wage, in three months he could actually pay off the debt, it’s possible for
this guy to actually do it. Jesus is
showing here the comparativeness of, you know, you have people who have done
wrong to you, and maybe they are things that are really brutal, but truly God
is showing you, he’s saying what God has forgiven you of, because he is holy,
and what he’s giving you in that forgiveness the opportunity for eternal life
and to be with him forever, what he is giving you, the way he is extending
himself to you, no matter what somebody has done against you, even if it is
great in your eyes, it is yet small compared to what God has already extended
to you, the forgiveness, the forgiveness. And so if you were to forgive this person, it would be much smaller in
comparison, much, much smaller than what Jesus has done for you. Sometimes as people we say otherwise. That’s because we’re not looking at God, we’ve
lost sight of God, and our sin, and what it means before God. Well he has the same plea, the second servant
has the same plea. And yet this man, it
says he wouldn’t forgive him, but he threw him into prison till he should pay
the debt. Well as you see in verse 31,
the other servants, they’re like, ‘I can’t believe this! I can’t believe this! That he treated him that way.’ So they go back to the king, and they’re
saying, ‘King, we were there, we saw you, this man owed you a hundred trillion
dollars, and you said, ‘Forgiven, go, I’m not going to put you in prison.’ But he left, and he found this guy who hardly
owed him anything, and he treated him brutally, and he’s thrown him in
jail!’ Of course, Jesus is showing the
absurdity of not forgiving, that absurdity of not forgiving. That’s the point, it’s absurd. Well the master hears, calls for this man,
and he says ‘You wicked servant!’ And
notice the wickedness here is not because he owed the hundred trillion dollars
before, the wickedness is because he won’t forgive. ‘I forgave you all, you begged me and I
forgave you. Shouldn’t you also have the
same compassion on your fellow-servant, and just have the same pity? I was that way to you, and you won’t be that
way to him?’ Well his master is angry,
delivers him to the torturers, not just to prison, but to the torturers until
he should pay all that he was due. And
the fact is, he’s not going to ever be able to pay it. The point is as well, the king was really
angry. But Jesus says this, here’s the
point as he’s sharing with his people. “So my heavenly Father also will do to you
if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”
To not forgive is to put yourself
into a psychological torture chamber
You know, I look at the picture,
this man now being thrown to the torturers. He was released, he was forgiven of this huge debt and was released
before. But now because he will not
forgive, he is in the torture chamber in prison. And I tell you there’s a picture there, because
to not forgive is a prison. To not
forgive is the worst life. I say that so
often, but it’s true, to not forgive is the worst life. If you are sitting here, and you honestly can
look in your heart and say “I know I have not forgiven that person of that” or
“those people of that.” You are hurting
your own life. You are torturing
yourself. It’s like you’re locked up in
jail right now, and you don’t have to be. You can be released by forgiving that person. You can experience grace and healing. It is the worst life. You know, I thought it was interesting last
week, I don’t know if Chuck Allers shared it at this service, but he shared
about his family and his two sisters. I
think it was this service too. His two
sisters I think haven’t talked since the 1970s I think he said. It’s something like that, twenty-five years. They went to town, got angry at each other
years ago. For that reason his family
has not been under the same roof in years and years, decades. And he made the point, he said “If I was to
ask one sister today ‘Why are you so angry at her’, she probably doesn’t ever
remember why. And if I was to ask the
other, she probably doesn’t remember why.” But look at the pain, look at the pain, there’s bitterness. And a bitter life is an ugly life, it’s a
life of poison. If you’re bitter, you’ve
got like this volcano in you, that’s just raw and eating you, and other people
are being affected by it. I was watching
on Friday night the TV, Channel 2 [PBS station], maybe you saw this program, I
like nature kind of things. There was
this thing on a volcano in Africa. It’s
very interesting. It’s a large volcano
next to a large lake. And this volcano
is rumbling, and there’s lava inside, and they’re concerned. It blew up a number of years ago and people
got killed. But they’re really concerned
that it’s going to really let go. And
there are two million people living around the base of this volcano. And before, when it blew, a lot of people
died. But they’re worried it’s going to
be a lot more. It was interesting, they
talk about it’s not just the lava that’s the concern, but it’s the gases that
come out of it. And there’s these
fissures that run underneath the ground, and they’re running underneath this
city and out into the fields, and these fissures are channeling these gases up
through the ground. One of the gases is
carbon dioxide, which when it is in the form it is in, is deadly. So these French scientists are trying to
determine when this thing is going to go. And as they’re there, don’t you know, a couple kids die while they’re
there in the field. And all these people
gather because these young children just died. And they have a name in African for what happens in those areas, and
they know they’re to stay away from them. But he shows them, the reason why they died is the fissure underground,
it’s letting out this carbon dioxide gas. And so what he did is he took a flare, and he lit the flare, all these
people are gathered around, he took this flare and he tossed it into the field. And the smoke from the flare rose up, but
then when it went to settle it didn’t settle on the ground, but settled like on
a table, you just watched it, it just settled, perfectly flat three or four
feet off the ground. And he showed them,
below this smoke is carbon dioxide, that’s why the smoke won’t settle. And this stuff is deadly, and you can’t even
see it. They shared in the video that a
volcano in Africa a number of years ago had this similar kind of thing going
on, these fissures actually went under a small lake that was nearby, and carbon
dioxide gas was going into this lake. And when it mixed with the water, it made the water heavier, so it stays
at the bottom of the lake, a very deep lake. Well there was a rockslide one day on this lake, and when it happened it
created this chain reaction and suddenly this carbon dioxide gas came out of
this lake, created this cloud, and it went over a community of people. And just like that [in a snap of the fingers]
everybody died, every animal, every bit of life died. Well when the people came, the scientists,
they were like ‘What happened here?’ Everything just suddenly died. And they determined how it happened, it was this carbon dioxide gas that
came out of the lake. Well they’re
concerned, there’s a bigger lake next to this volcano, and it’s just filled
with that gas, and they’re just concerned that a lot of people are at
risk. My point in saying that is this,
bitterness is a volcano in your heart. It really is. And once in a while
you know it, because once in a while you just blow, you know what I mean. And there’s just lava coming flying out of
you, and people get hurt. But even at
other times, maybe there isn’t the lava, but man there’s stuff, poison working
out of you. And it’s also even defiling
other people, the Scripture says. That’s
what bitterness does, it defiles. Somebody in the family can defile others. Bitter people in the church can defile people
in the church, worst life you could live. And Jesus even says that he holds people accountable that are
bitter. He says ‘My heavenly Father, if
you will not forgive, he’s going to do the same to you.’ He’s going to do the same to you, he’s going
to deal with you, as it says there in verse
35, “So My heavenly Father also will do
to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.” You know, you look at that, and you may
wonder, if I don’t forgive, here I am as a Christian, does that mean I’m not
going to enter into the kingdom of heaven? And that’s not really the point he’s making. The point he’s making is, man, to be forgiven
by God and to experience that. So
confess your fault and Jesus will hear and cleanse. And if you’re here and you have bitterness,
there is an area of your life where you’re not experiencing that cleansing and
that healing and that forgiveness. And
the reason why is you’ve actually got this bitterness, and that’s sin, and
you’re not willing to turn and make it right, so you’re not being
forgiven. It’s a broken and contrite
heart that God will forgive. Johnson
said “A wise man will make haste to
forgive, because he knows the true value of time and will not suffer it to pass
away in unnecessary pain.” I ain’t
wasting my life away. Herbert said, “He
who cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass, if
he would ever reach the kingdom of heaven, for everyone has need to be
forgiven.” Well, pretty simple
teaching. We don’t just want to be
hearers, we want to be doers…let’s close in prayer…[transcript of a connective
expository sermon on Matthew 18:21-35, given somewhere in New England.]
Psalm 119:165, “Great peace have they which love thy law: and
nothing shall offend them.” Let’s analyze this Psalm by what we have learned in this sermon. Believers are they who love God’s Law. We see in this Psalm God gives believers the power to forgive, once they make the choice to forgive, so that they never end up in
a state of being “permanently offended.”
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