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God wants Us to Be Forgiven and Forgiving
The Gospel of Matthew
Matthew 18:21-35
Sermon by Rick Crandall
(Prepared October 21, 2022)
BACKGROUND:
*Please open your Bibles to Matthew 18.
Last time in vs. 14-20, we studied the Lord's great priority for unity in His Church.
Our harmony is essential because Christ's greatest purpose for coming was to seek and save the lost by dying on the cross for our sins.
But Jesus knew that our selfish attitudes and arguments would be a terrible stumbling block to the Gospel.
And this was the serious problem the Lord faced in Matthew 18.
*The disciples had been arguing with each other about which one of them was the greatest.
That's why in Matthew 18:1 the disciples asked Jesus, "Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?''
*Mark 9:33-35 gives us the background and says:
33.
Then He came to Capernaum.
And when He was in the house He asked them, "What was it you disputed among yourselves on the road?''
34.
But they kept silent, for on the road they had disputed among themselves who would be the greatest.
35.
And He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, "If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.''
*On the road, maybe all of them thought they deserved to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
And they were stubborn about it, even up to the night before the cross.
That's why in vs. 1-4 Jesus explained to His disciples that they were thinking with the world's prideful, upside-down view of greatness.
And He showed them godly greatness through a humble, little child who trusted in his loving parents.
(1)
*In vs. 5-6 Jesus highlighted the importance of little children, and He gave a stern warning to anyone who tried to lead them away from God.
In vs. 7-9 Jesus also spoke of God's certain punishment for sin.
Eternal punishment in the fires of hell is what everyone deserves, and what everyone will receive, UNLESS they receive God's forgiveness by receiving Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
*Next in vs. 10 Jesus warned against despising little children, and in vs. 11-14 the Lord spoke of Himself as a good shepherd who searched the mountains to save his lost sheep.
And Jesus said, "It is not my Father's will that even one of these little ones should perish."
Thank God for that!
*Then in vs. 15-17 Jesus gave us very clear directions on how to settle disagreements in His Church.
And in vs. 18-20 He teaches Christians that our times of united, public prayer are powerful and filled with the presence of God.
*All of this truth was given in response to the proud, stubborn argument the disciples had on the road to Capernaum.
They were falling short of the Lord's expectations, and sometimes we will too.
We will also let each other down, so there will be times we need forgiveness, and times when we need to give it.
That's why Jesus began to teach about forgiveness in vs. 21-35.
MESSAGE:
*Some things go together: Peanut butter and Jelly, bacon and eggs, spaghetti and meatballs, chicken and dumplings, sun and fun, Batman and Robin.
Some things go together, and today's Scripture shows us two things that must go together for us as Christians: God wants us to be both forgiven and forgiving.
How can we get there?
1. FIRST: WE NEED TO COUNT THE COST OF OUR SIN DEBT.
*Again, the background for this discussion was an argument among the Lord's disciples.
That's why Peter brought up the issue of forgiveness in vs. 21: "Then Peter came to Him and said, 'Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?
Up to seven times?'''
*The original word for "forgive" here means "to cancel the debt," or "set someone forever free from an obligation."
And that's the way God is willing to forgive us through the cross of Jesus Christ!
But Peter's question reminds us that we will need to forgive other people, because none of us is perfect yet.
Do you think any of us have lived a perfect life this past week?
One day a man walked up to Evangelist D. L. Moody, and this man said that he had no sin in his life.
Mr. Moody just replied, "Well, I would like to ask your wife about that."
(2)
*Richard Wilson said, "Some folks think they are good, really good people.
Let's suppose that a person only sins 3 times a day: A sin in the morning, a sin during the day and a sin at night.
Sounds like a pretty good person!
But if that person lives to be 70 years old, they will commit 76,650 sins in their lifetime."
(And that doesn't include leap years!) (3)
*None of us is perfect yet.
A little boy reminds us of this truth in a conversation he had with his grandfather.
This little boy had been getting into a lot of trouble at school, so his grandfather talked to him about it.
He asked his grandson why he couldn't be good.
And the little boy said, "Granddaddy, it's not that I can't be good.
I just can't be good enough long enough."
(4)
*All of us have the same problem, and since we all will need forgiveness, we all will need to forgive others.
Peter's only question was, "How much?"
And Peter found out that we should be willing to forgive a whole lot more than we think.
*When Peter said forgive 7 times, he was expecting Jesus to give him a big pat-on-the back and say, "Way to go, Peter!" That's because Peter knew that the Jewish rabbis taught you only needed to forgive someone three times.
Peter took the required standard of 3, doubled it, and then added 1 more forgiveness for good measure.
So it must have shocked the disciple when Jesus replied, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven."
Of course, Jesus didn't mean exactly 490 times.
He meant that God wants us to love with a love that keeps on forgiving!
(5)
*And this makes sense when we see the crushing weight of our own sin debt.
That's what Jesus stressed in vs. 23-24, when He said, "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."
*Ten thousand talents.
How much debt was that?
Well, the common talent used in New Testament times weighed about 130 pounds, and the price of gold the other day was $1,655 an ounce.
That means 10,000 talents would be worth well over 34 billion dollars!
(6)
*Ten thousand talents was a staggering sum of money!
That kind of financial debt would crush just about anyone.
But our sin debt before God is infinitely heavier.
How many sins have you committed in your life?
-- Hopefully not 34 billion!
But we have sinned a lot, and we've sinned more than we think.
One reason why is because every time we think, say, or do something bad, we are not doing something good we should have done.
*Some of us have sinned a whole lot more than others, but all of us have sinned more than we think.
That's why in Psalm 19:12, King David prayed these words to God, "Who can understand his errors?
Cleanse Thou me from secret faults."
*And even if we had only sinned once, even that one sin would be a crushing weight on us, because one sin is enough to send us to hell.
We know this because God's standard for earning our way into Heaven is total perfection.
*And the Lord wants us to see the crushing weight of our sin debt.
He also wants us to see how helpless we are to pay our debt of sin.
Again in vs. 23-25 Jesus said, "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. .
."
*Jesus said, "He was not able to pay."
Another estimate I saw said that a talent of money was worth 6,000 denarii or 6,000 days' wages.
That's how long it would take to work off a debt of 1 talent.
But this wicked servant owed 10,000 talents, and that would take 60 million days to work off! -- Over 160 thousand years!
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*No wonder that servant was unable to pay!
And there was no way that we could ever pay the sin debt we owe to God.
2. THAT'S WHY GOD WANTS US TO COUNT THE COST OF OUR DEBT.
BUT HE ALSO WANTS US TO RECEIVE THE RICHES OF HIS MERCY.
*God wants everyone to receive the riches of His mercy.
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