Gospel Forgiveness

Introduction

Today, we are going to push pause in our series in Acts and talk about a subject that is not explicitly stated in our passages thus far, but I guarantee was necessary for the early church to survive.

Luke recounts for us in the Book of Acts the stories that trace the Spirit on Mission - stories of mighty miracles, dramatic conversions, powerful testimonies, but we must remember that between the lines of the miraculous disciple-making moments are often the moments of difficult disciple-shaping.

As the early church expands with the news that there is forgiveness of sin through faith in Christ, the Christians in the early church are shaped as they wrestle with what it means to forgive those around them.

Imagine these scenarios:

You’re with the apostles as they introduce Matthias as the new Twelfth Disciple and you look over at the family of Judas and remember why they were down a disciple.

As Peter or John you are in the marketplace and you pass by the captain of the temple who had arrested you the week before.

Or perhaps you hear the Sadducees telling others whom you had worshipped with in the synagogue to no longer listen to you.

You go to work and recognize one of your coworkers as one in the crowd who had stoned your Uncle Stephen.

As a single mom whose husband is in prison for being a follower of the Way, you come to church one Sunday and are shocked to see Saul telling everyone that God has chosen him for a special mission.

I can imagine some of these early Christians coming up to their leaders and asking how they could ever forgive Paul, how can there ever be justice for Stephen if they simply forgive his murderers, or how many times should they forgive the Pharisees who are still spreading bad reports against them.

It’s probably here that Peter steps us and says, I once asked Jesus the very same question.

Matthew 18:21–35 (ESV)

21 Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.

Peter is probably asking this following Jesus’ teaching on how to deal with conflict among believers.

Peter asks a natural question, “How many times should I forgive my brother before I’m done with them?

Peter is asking about the limits of forgiveness.

The rabbis of Jesus’ day had determined that a person should forgive another up to three times. Peter was being generous by more than doubling what the rabbis’ had taught and offering to forgive the same person seven times.

Jesus responds not seven but seventy-seven (some interpret 70x7=490). The point being, that unless you were keeping a ledger, you were probably going to lose count sometime after 236.

The greater point that Jesus was making is this:

Forgiveness is unlimited

Now that doesn’t sit well, does it?

Forgive the same person an unlimited number of times when they lie about me? When they hurt me? When they take advantage of me?

When what they are doing is wrong, I continue to forgive them?

Why is this so difficult for us?

Here’s why:

We tend to have this belief that if we increase the measure of forgiveness toward an offender, we will decrease the measure of justice they are held accountable to.

“If I forgive them, I will let them off the hook”

“What they have done is so bad, they don’t deserve forgiveness”

“If I keep forgiving them, I will only enable them to continue their abuse.”

Whether it is offences regarding race, the #MeToo movement, or the cancel culture, we live in a culture that seems to believe that offering forgiveness diminishes justice, or as one writer in the New York Times wrote:

“I [see] in American culture how offended people seem by the very idea of forgiveness itself. They seem to find it immoral. . .” and she also states how our culture “demands constant atonement, but actively disdains the very idea of forgiveness.”

and so we offer limit and measurements to forgiveness.

Do you, at times, look for limits and measures to justify your unforgiveness?

Jesus tells Peter, he tells the early church, he tells us, that forgiveness is unlimited.

He explains his radical statement through a story:

23 “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. 24 When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. 25 And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. 26 So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ 27 And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.

The offense

”Ten thousand talents”

talent = year’s wages = $40,000

10,000 talents = $400 billion - one author noted that this is more than the the gross national products of 80% of the countries of the world.

Reality is the number is less important than the insurmountable debt it conveyed.

talent was the greatest monetary denomination at the time and 10,000 was the highest number for which the Greek language had a single word. So, it was the greatest of the most.

Master ordered him to be sold.

debtor’s prison until debt could be paid

the amount was impossible to be repaid

Servant, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.”

laughable - put me on a payment plan!

ILLUST - avg consumer pays $430/mo for credit card payment. with $400B debt with no interest it would take (according to Chat GPT:

It would take approximately 930,232,558 months to pay off a $400 billion debt with a monthly payment of $430.

This is about 77.5 million years, so it’s not a practical payment plan at that rate!

27 And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.

The servant was asking for patience and payment plan but the king forgave him!

It’s gone! The mercy of the king was greater than the servant asked for or expected!

What does the servant do with this new freedom and mercy?. . .

28 But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ 29 So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ 30 He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt.

The freshly forgiven servant finds a friend who owes him a 100 denarii - 1/600,000 of what this servant had owed the king.

(did he see him on is way down the line from being forgiven?)

instead of settling accounts - he chooses violence - and chokes his fellow servant

notice the king even initially acted better toward his servant than the servant acted toward a fellow servant!

this second servant uses the same request as his creditor had just asked of the king

However, this servant had his fellow servant thrown in prison until he could pay his debt.

31 When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. 32 Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ 34 And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. 35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

This parable is not difficult to understand. The king is God. You and I are the servant.

10,000 talents is the debt we owe God because of our sin - and infinite debt we could never repay even if we tried (incidentally, in this parable we see that even if we worked really hard at being good and religious, we would never have enough lifetimes to pay back the debt of sin)

God (through Jesus) offers us the mercy of forgiveness.

In light of this, we are to forgive others.

OR

FORGIVEN people forgive people.

As we identify with the first servant in the parable, Jesus reveals our two needs relating to forgiveness: we all have a need to receive forgiveness, and we all have a need to grant forgiveness.

We all have a need to receive forgiveness because we have all sinned against God.

I have met anyone that has not at one time in their life needed to grant forgiveness. Whether or not they had granted it is another story.

Observations about forgiveness:

We’ve already covered the first which is Forgiveness is unlimited

And we’ve stated the obvious main point which is that FORGIVEN people forgive people

Forgiveness is not denying there was an offense.

Nowhere in the story does Jesus say, “the debt wasn’t actually real.”

Forgiveness is not allowing abuse to continue.

The king did not say, “I forgive your debt, want another loan?”

The point of this passage is not about the hands of justice, it is about the heart of forgiveness.

Forgiveness is not saying, “It’s okay”

The offense is NOT OK. Saying “it’s okay” is cheap. Saying “I forgive you” is costly.

In every act of forgiveness, someone absorbs the offense

the king was still out 10,000 talents.

Forgiveness is grounded in the gospel.

The more you understand the gospel in your life, the easier it will be to forgive.

The king forgave a debt of 10,000 talents. Big deal. The king forgave a debt equivalent to $400B. BIG DEAL!

How often have you thought about how your sin is an offense to God. We often view our sin against God as a concept and the sin others commit against us as relational. In fact, both are relational. Imagine being called to account for your sin.

The more you see the glory of God and the more you see the ugliness of sin, the more you see the beauty of the gospel!

God not only showed you mercy but justice. In the atonement, Jesus absorbed the payment of your debt of sin - God’s wrath. This is how God is both just and merciful at the same time.

When we forgive someone, we offer the mercy shown to us because it is within our power to do so. And we allow God to administer justice because it is within HIS power to do so.

Forgiveness is grounded in the gospel; it is not dependent on an apology

Without the gospel you can only hope for transactional forgiveness. With the gospel you can have transformational forgiveness.

The route to forgiveness is to remember you’re forgiven.

It is amazing how quickly the forgiven servant neglects to forgive. It’s as it he didn’t see how his “forgivenness” was connected to the fact that he should forgive.

Notice how the second servant used the same phrase that the first servant used with the king.

“Have patience with me, and I will pay you”

How often do we not forgive someone for the same offense that we have committed against our Savior?

ILLUST - ever punish your child for something then realize you’ve done the same thing yourself? “STOP YELLING!”

How dare you forget me? When have you spent time with ME?

How could you disobey me? How could you disobey ME?

(me) How could you be so ungrateful? (God) What all was on your prayer list?

The route to forgiveness is to remember you’re forgiven.

Steps to Forgive:

The king

1. “brought to him”

2. “had pity” - mercy

3. “forgave him”

Recognize the offense

Name the offense - it’s not ok

Remember the gospel

God is King

He showed you mercy and justice

He is still King

Ephesians 4:32 (ESV)

32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Colossians 3:13 (ESV)

13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

Release the offender

Sometimes we think if we refuse to forgive we give the offender what they deserve, when in face, all we do is give the offender continuing control in our lives.

Its not a release from justice

Or boundaries

Or consequences of their offense on their end

It is a release from requiring something from the offender for you to be whole or complete

The king was no less the king when he forgave the servant, the servant was no less free when his brother still owed him money. In fact, one might argue, he was more free before he required the debt to be paid and for him to be paid whole financially . To release the offender that we absorb the difference and the offense and that can be painful and I would argue is not possible without the gospel and the spirit.

ILLUST - ever have someone bring up something that you did that offended them and it had taken place so long ago you barely remember it? Who was really held captive by that unforgiveness?

Freedom is found in forgiveness - i’m not talking about for the offender.

Repeat

What offense do you need to release?

Whom do you need to forgive?

In light of the passage today, what rationale can you offer to hold onto it?