Jesus' Parables about Money (2)

The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant

Last week we looked at the Parable of the Talents. As stewards, God calls us to be faithful with our time, our talents and our treasure.

We live in a society that expects return on investment. The master in the Parable was pleased with his servants’ faithfulness, not productivity. Let’s keep being faithful to God and leave the results to HIm.

Today, we’re going to look at mercy and forgiveness.

Let’s read Matthew 18:21-27

Matthew 18:21–27 NLT

Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?” “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven! “Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt. “But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’ Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt.

Jesus told practical stories that the people of His day could understand. Before we address Peter’s question, let’s look at the story that Jesus told.

He starts by comparing the Kingdom of Heaven to a king that wanted to settle debts that were owed to him.

Paid on Account

Every month, customers would come into the store where I worked to pay off their account.

Many would pay off the whole bill, while some would only pay off part of the account, while still others wouldn’t do anything. .

Personally, I have never had a bank call in a loan before it was due, but I’ve heard of horror stories where this has happened. Whether real estate or a mortgage, or a car payment. This could be more common in the States than Canada, but it does happen.

But…in our story there was

An Unpayable Debt

Somehow the king in this story had let a servant get indebted to him by millions of dollars. It was time for the debt to be paid.

The NKJV said that he owed 10,000 talents which was between 58-80# a talent. 1# of gold is worth $40,773.92 CDN. One talent of gold is worth between $2.36 million and $3.26 million. When I start to calculate the numbers, my small calculator gives me an error sign. The number is just too big.

This servant had no means to pay the money off, so the king planned to sell the man, his wife, his children, and all the possessions to pay the debt.

Apparently, this was quite common in the ancient world. People and their possessions were the security on a loan.

The servant was between a rock and a hard place, so he gets down on his knees and pleads and begs that the master will allow him to keep working to pay off the debt.

Impossible! It was an unpayable debt…so the king has compassion on him and forgives the debt. I call that financial freedom. Can you imagine looking at your online banking and seeing that your mortgage is paid off. Your car loan is paid off. Your overdraft is paid off. The balance on your credit cards are all $0.00.

I don’t know how to describe it other than saying,

Relief

Several years ago, there was a family that came to the church we were pastoring. Their tires were toast, their brakes were virtually shot, and they had no means to take care of the debt.

As a church, we bought some tires. A mechanic fixed the brakes, and when Derrick asked what he owed for fixing the brakes, the bill was nothing. All he could say was, “Thank you Jesus!”

What would your expectation be for this servant who had received so much grace?

Great mercy?

Let’s see how the story goes...

Matthew 18:28–35 NLT

“But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment. “His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time. ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,’ he pleaded. But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full. “When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened. Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt. “That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.”

It’s hard to believe how somebody that had received so much mercy could be so unmerciful. A man owed him thousands, as compared to the millions that he owed the king and yet absolutely no mercy was shown his fellow servant.

It reminds me of the story when Nathan the prophet came to King David and told him the story of the ewe lamb that had been taken.

David was incensed, and wanted the man killed. Nathan declared, “You are the man.”

I’m sure that what Jesus said had shocked the people listening by how unmerciful and how ungrateful the servant who had been forgiven much was.

Let’s look at

Peter’s question...

Matthew 18:21–22 NLT

Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?” “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!

Peter thought that forgiving seven times would be more than enough. A common answer for the day from rabbinic debates was three. (LANTC)

Seven would be enough wouldn’t it?

Here Jesus said 70X7.

In other words, we need to forgive and not count. It’s so easy for us to become impatient with people that sin against us, and yet Jesus says that we must forgive.

Neil T. Anderson wrote a manual called, “Freedom in Christ.” It’s a seven step manual to find freedom in Christ.

The 3rd step is Forgiveness vs Bitterness. I want to read a couple excerpts from this step. He says,

“Forgiveness is a choice, a decision of the will, because God requires you to forgive, it is something you can do. Some people hold on to their anger as a means of protecting themselves against further abuse, but all they are doing is hurting themselves. Others want revenge. The Bible teaches, “‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord.” (Romans 12:19) Let God deal with the person. Let him or her off the hook because as long as you refuse to forgive someone, you are still hooked to that person. You are still chained to your past, bound up in your bitterness. By forgiving, you let the other person off your hook, but he or she is not off God’s hook. You must trust that God will deal with the person justly and fairly, something that you simply cannot do.

But you don’t know how much the person hurt me? No other human really knows another person’s pain, but Jesus does, and He instructed us to forgive others for our sake. Until you let go of your bitterness and hatred, the person is still hurting you. Nobody can fix your past, but you can be free from it. What you gain by forgiving is freedom from your past and those who have abused you. To forgive is to set a captive free and then realize you were the captive.” (90 Bonus session)

He goes on to say this, “Forgiveness is choosing not to hold someone’s sin against him or her anymore. It is common for bitter people to bring up past offenses with those who have hurt them. They want them to feel as bad as they do! But we must let go of the past and choose to reject any thought of revenge. This doesn’t mean you continue to put up with the abuse. God does not tolerate sin and neither should you. You will need to set up scriptural boundaries that put a stop to further abuse. Take a stand against sin while continuing to exercise grace and forgiveness toward those who hurt you...

Don’t wait until you feel like forgiving. You will never get here. Make the hard choice to forgive, even if you don’t feel like it. Once you choose to forgive, Satan will lose his hold on you, and God will heal your damaged emotions.” (91 Bonus Sessions)

What does the Bible say about forgiveness?

Ephesians 4:26–27 NIV

“In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.

Ephesians 4:31–32 NIV

Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Something happens when we hold on to an offense. It germinates. Relationships are broken. The devil wants to steal, kill, and destroy our relationships.

He wants us to hold resentment against each other. He wants us to be angry with each other so that we aren’t praying and holding each other up.

He knows that a house divided against itself cannot stand.

A friend of mine used to say, we need to go to the throne, not to the phone.

This is what James said about the tongue.

James 3:1–12 NLT

Dear brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged more strictly. Indeed, we all make many mistakes. For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way. We can make a large horse go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth. And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot chooses to go, even though the winds are strong. In the same way, the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches. But a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire. And among all the parts of the body, the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself. People can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, but no one can tame the tongue. It is restless and evil, full of deadly poison. Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God. And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right! Does a spring of water bubble out with both fresh water and bitter water? Does a fig tree produce olives, or a grapevine produce figs? No, and you can’t draw fresh water from a salty spring.

Our words are powerful. They have power of life and death. With our words we can choose to bring life to people or we can speak death. We can choose to forgive with our mouths and we can choose to curse with our mouths.

Luke 6:45 NKJV

A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

Brothers and sisters, we need to

Proverbs 4:23 NLT

Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

What we let in our heart, will eventually come out. It will come out at the most inopportune time, because no one can tame the tongue.

Our mind is a battlefield. Satan wants to bombard us with thoughts that are opposed to God. He wants us to hold grudges, and think about what others have done to us. He wants to tempt us with thoughts that we wouldn’t normally think.

2 Corinthians 10:3–5 NIV

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Forgive as you have been forgiven...

Matthew 6:14–15 NIV

For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

This comes full circle back to the parable. If we don’t forgive, if we are unmerciful to those who have sinned against us, we are like the man whose debt was unpayable. We can’t do enough good to pay for our sin.

The payment for our sin is the Blood of Jesus.

What can wash away my sin?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

What can make me whole again?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

As we come to the Lord’s Table, I want to invite you to join with me in Communion.

At LifePoint Church, if you have asked Jesus to come into your heart, I’d like to invite you to join in sharing the Lord’s Supper.

If you haven’t, I want to invite you to receive Christ into your heart.

Sinner’s prayer:

Lord Jesus, I believe that you died for my sin, so I ask that you would forgive me of my sin, and come into my heart and my life to be my Lord and Saviour. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Communion:

This morning, I want to invite you to allow Holy Spirit to search you

Psalm 139:23–24 NIV

Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

As we prepare our hearts this morning, let’s give thanks for the cross, for Jesus’ shed blood, for the forgiveness of sins.

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 NIV

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night 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, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Is there somebody who would like prayer for healing this morning?

We believe that Jesus took stripes on His back so that we can be healed: physically, emotionally, spiritually.

Let’s pray