"Forgiveness - Part 2" Matthew 18b Nov 10 2024

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?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.

(Pray…)

The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant

Main Text & Sermon:

I want us to take a look at the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant in Matthew 18:21-35

But first, I want to clear up what I said last week – according to the Bible, forgiveness should not be our first reaction

Let’s look at the section right before this parable

Look with me quickly at Matthew 18:15 -

Jesus says, “If your brother sins against you...”

Forgive him right away?

Be a nice Christian and forgive him no matter what?

Be super spiritual - quietly forgive him without telling him?

Go talk to others?

No, look at what Jesus says:

Matthew 18:15 ESV

“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.

Confront him about his sin against you...just the two of you.

Rebuke him

According to the Bible, that's literally the first thing we should do

Some of you are thinking, “I hate confrontation, how about if I just forgive everyone??”

“Quietly - in my quiet time”

The devil wants us to give cheap, meaningless forgiveness

Jesus is calling us to have an honest conversation - he calls us to open the door to reconciliation

Here’s an additional reason to confront your brother -

It gives them a chance to tell their side of the story

Confronting your brother helps to ensure there’s no misunderstanding

If something has happened between you and a brother, there needs to be an honest conversation

Reconciliation can only come out of that conversation

The confrontation is not just about you saying something -

It gives the other party a chance to express their side

It is possible that you misunderstood something

And if you acknowledge that misunderstanding - you are friends once again

Let’s see what Jesus said in Luke 17:3-4

Luke 17:3–4 (ESV)

Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”

Rebuke him first – and see if he repents

But there’s no limit to forgiveness with repentance

Do you see how importance repentance is?

We don't just automatically forgive everyone, just because we're Christians

the Bible is clear that we do not exonerate anyone until they are sorry first

It says, “rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him”

Here’s the order:

Rebuke

Repentance

Forgiveness

Reconciliation

Nowhere in the Bible: that Christians must exonerate everyone, for any reason, at any time

God doesn't forgive without repentance – to be forgiven by God, you have to repent first

But wait: “Does God rebuke us?”

“Has God ever rebuked us?”

Yes - through his Law

The Law rebukes us by showing us that we are sinners

The Law reminds us that we can never hold to God’s standard

It literally holds up a mirror to our lives and shows us that we are wretched sinners before a holy God

I would call that a rebuke

And the Holy Spirit rebukes the sinner, when he convicts the world

Let’s go back to this passage

By the way, what if the other guy doesn’t repent? - let’s find out

Going back to Matthew 18, starting in verse 15

So Jesus is talking about what to do if someone sins against you:

Go in private, and tell him his fault – if he's owns-up and apologizes, Jesus says you've “gained a brother”

If not, your job is to take one or two more people with you as witnesses

If he still doesn't listen to you, tell it to everyone in the church

And if that doesn't work, let him be to you, as a Gentile and a tax collector

That means “Treat them like a non-Christian”

And by the way, how are we supposed to treat non-Christians?

With love, right?

Everything comes back to love

Essentially, the Bible is saying after all these steps, if there’s no repentance – release them

So Jesus is teaching on how to treat someone who sins against us

As Jesus is saying all of this in verses 15-20, he says nothing about forgiving people

Jesus is talking about conflict management - he’s talking about Church discipline -

Up to this point, he hasn’t yet mentioned forgiveness

We all need to follow-through in this process

This process is showing love - this is the biblical way to deal with conflict in the Church

This is hard!

But that’s what Jesus is telling us

Most Christians just think, “I’ll just quietly forgive him in my quiet time - so everything will be fine”

That’s not biblical

In these five verses, Matt 18:15-20, Jesus hasn’t even gotten to the forgiveness part

Peter is actually the one who brings it up in verse 21

Because he wanted to impress Jesus and all the other disciples

In verse 21,

Peter asks Jesus if he should forgive his brother seven times

Peter was trying to quantify our response –

What's the limit?

How far do I need to go?

Jesus is saying, “You’re asking the wrong question”

There is no limit to the love you need to show

And then Jesus gives this awesome parable about forgiveness

The parable unfolds like a short play in three scenes – and two locations

The first scene takes place in the king’s court - between a king and his servant

The Story of Forgiveness

Scene One:

Fade-in

Dramatic music

The scene opens with a king who wishes to settle his accounts with his servants

In the course of settling his accounts, one servant is brought to the king who owes him 10,000 talents - translation: millions of dollars

The man is terrified - he’s standing before the king with his head down, looking at the floor

He can't pay this back - there’s no possible way

He doesn’t have “millions of dollars”

So the king orders the man, and his wife, and their children to be sold off to help pay the debt

I’m sure if he had a dog - the dog would be included, too

Knowing he has nothing to lose, the servant falls on his knees and begs for patience, as he will try to somehow pay off his debt over time

Incredibly, the king has mercy on him and forgives him of all the debt - every last penny

The camera moves in to a close-up of the man - as he looks up at the king, tears running down his cheeks

He’s been forgiven of everything!

Emotional music playing as the man stands there, crying - fade-out - end of Scene One

So what type of forgiveness did the king offer the servant: exoneration, forbearance, or release?

It's exoneration –

Did the servant express repentance?

Did he try to deny any guilt?

Did the king's forgiveness wipe the slate clean?

And did the king's forgiveness restore the relationship back to a state of innocence?

It's exoneration

Jesus masterfully and simply describes what it means for us to receive forgiveness from the Father

All of our unspeakable sin, and shame - all gone, because of the grace and mercy of God

And by the way, (strange question) did we see anyone display anger in Scene One? No.

Hold that thought - because there’s a lot of anger coming up

Scene Two:

The scene takes place outside

It’s a beautiful sunny day

Steadicam shot - as the servant is walking through the streets

We hear the sounds of the hustle & bustle of the market

And birds are singing

We hear children playing

He is a new man, with a new release on life!

There’s happy music playing

He's been fully exonerated of an incredible 10,000 talents

There's no more weight on his shoulders

He feels like he's won the lottery

Imagine the wonderful story he will bring home to his wife - she won’t believe it

And as he's skipping down the road, who does he encounter?

Another servant, right? A fellow servant

And then he remembers - “this guy owes me 100 denarii”

Translation: A few dollars

Incredibly, the servant becomes angry and begins to choke the other servant and demands that he pays him his 100 denarii

This man has been cleared of millions of dollars - and he’s worried about a few dollars??

And notice the difference – the servant becomes furious...and even physically threatens the other servant –

Whereas in Scene One, the king wasn't even angry...he was merely settling his debts

We’re witnessing a servant whose initial repentance wasn’t genuine

His heart never changed

So he's literally choking the other guy and says, “Pay me what you owe me!”

And what is his response?

He says almost word for word, the same thing as the first servant! “Have patience with me, and I will pay you.”

He falls on his knees and begs for patience, and offers to pay off his debt over time

But what do you think happens?

The first servant will have none of it – and throws him into prison

But the camera cuts to some other servants across the way - they witnessed the whole thing –

And they go and tell the king what just happened

Fade-out

Scene Three:

Fade-in

We find ourselves back in the king's court – the king here's the news and summons the first servant back to him

“I remember this guy!”

And what did the King say to him?

Look at verse 32

Matthew 18:32–35 (ESV)

‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

So that's the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant

What This Means For Us

Let's notice a few things

The king was never angry in Scene One, but the first servant became angry in Scene Two

Was the servant's anger justifiable or unjustifiable? Unjustifiable.

How about the king's anger in Scene Three? Justifiable or unjustifiable? Justifiable.

Do you see how God's wrath is justifiable towards us, and how silly it is to not show love towards others?

The reason it says, “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you...” - is because -

Jesus is making the point that true Christians forgive one another

God has forgiven you of untold millions of dollars - and you can’t forgive a person for a few bucks?

Let’s be clear -

The Bible doesn’t say that in order to become a Christian, you need to first go around and forgive others

The point is that forgiveness is something that genuine Christians do

Genuine Christians do good works

Genuine Christians love the Lord and worship the Lord, etc

Genuine Christians forgive one another

These are not things that get us into Heaven - but they are evidence that we are Heaven-bound

As I was studying this - I came to the profound realization that God has forgiven me!

I was weeping over the fact that he has forgiven me

Even though he knows everything I’ve done

I’ve even confessed my sins before him

I used to owe God millions of dollars

Having been changed like this - how can I not forgive others who owe me so little?

We need to repent of our sins

But our repentance has to be genuine

The first servant proved that he wasn’t truly changed by the king’s mercy

If he was truly changed then forgiving the second servant would have been easy

How can we possibly not forgive someone who is begging us to forgive them?

How can we ignore God’s commandment that we love one another?

That's why there's a warning in the end that our heavenly Father will not forgive us if we don't forgive others

Forgiving others is not a requirement for salvation - but it is a hallmark of all Christians

Seriously, how can we call ourselves Christians, and have no love for others?

That's really what this is all about

This has nothing to do with us earning our salvation by doing the right thing

And it has nothing to do with losing our salvation for not doing something

If we're not accepting repentance from others, then we probably haven't been repentant ourselves

I know it's sometimes hard to love other people

But if someone falls to their knees and begs your forgiveness, and you don't forgive them? Then you need to pray and ask God's forgiveness first

God commands us to forgive others - we benefit, and God is glorified

Close

As I close - I want to point out how masterful Jesus is with this parable

He teaches us about forgiveness - but he also teaches us about the Father

Let’s assume God is the king in this parable

Well, God doesn't merely say to us, “You no longer owe the debt.”

You and I don't owe a debt, because the debt has been paid

He doesn't merely ignore the debt...because he paid it

He literally bought us with that payment

That's why he commands us to love one another and forgive one another – because we belong to him

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 (ESV)

You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

I can’t think of any other time in the Bible where God bought anything!

He created the universe - why would he have to “buy” something?

Why would God have to buy anything? He’s God!

But he bought us - with the blood of his Son, Jesus

We've been bought and paid for – he owns us

God's exoneration is ownership – we are his adopted children and he is our Father

When we forgive others, we are demonstrating the Gospel to them

Let me wrap up -

I mentioned last week about if someone has done something unspeakable to you in the past

Someone I would call a “monster” in your life

And maybe they’re deceased

This parable is not talking that kind of situation

If that’s happened to you - God just wants you to release that pain to him

Give it up to God and stop holding a grudge

God wants you to move on from that

This can only happen by praying - and trusting that God will comfort you

If you are a child of God, he wants you free of that

(Pray…)

(Pick one…)

Communion

Matthew 26:26–28 ESV

Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Luke 22:19–20 ESV

And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 ESV

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when 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 also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

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