The Unforgiving Servant Part 2

Matthew 18:27-35

Let’s continue our study of Matthew 18. Last week we went over how chapter 18 is talking about believers in the context and how we need to keep that in mind when reading this parable. That is going to be especially helpful this morning when reading the rest of this parable. If you looked ahead and have already read through the end of 18, you might have seen why and have asked some questions that we are going to address today.

A quick review of last week. We saw Peter had asked a question about forgiveness in the church, and the question was asked right after Jesus talked about church discipline.

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Verse 15 “If your brother sins.” Talking about a fellow believer. And then Jesus explains the steps we are to take if a fellow believer is caught sinning because it is a threat to the congregation. We warn them once ourselves in private, if they don’t listen, we take two or three witnesses and ask them to please stop sinning. If they continue to sin this certain sin, we stand them up here and tell the whole church their sin. That is not a show and tell you want to be a part of. If they continue even after that, we are to kick them out of the church until they repent and stop committing the sin, we kicked them out for. Seems pretty harsh doesn’t it. The goal is not to get to that point, that’s the idea behind the step process, but if it does, that is what we are to do as a church body.

So, when understanding this, Peter then asked the question well how many times are we supposed to forgive a fellow believer who does this? Jesus answers and basically says an infinite number of times, there is no limit. If we have to kick them out 77 times, if they stop and they repent for the 78th time, we forgive them and let them back in.

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Why? Because as Jesus points out in the parable, God forgives us an infinite number of times, and he keeps forgiving us. Sometimes for the same sin over and over and over again. How many of you would like God to stop forgiving you at a certain point? That would be bad… for all of us. We talked about God’s unlimited forgiveness toward us and that is why we are to forgive one another, because we are supposed to represent God and be imitators of him.

1 Peter 1:15-16 We are to be set apart from the worldly ways as God is set apart. If God forgives an unlimited amount, then we are to do the same.

But also, we need to understand something else. The offenses that people do against other people, the offenses that someone has committed against you, pale in comparison to what we have done towards God.

And Jesus is going to illustrate this point in starting in verse 28 in the parable. We left off at verse 27 last week in which the king forgave the slave an incalculable, infinite debt.

Right after the king forgives this slave for his enormous debt, this is what the slave does.

Matthew 18:28-30

The King forgave the slave his debt. Again, this represents salvation. God has forgiven us our sin debt and we are now in good standing with Him. We cannot lose salvation. So, this slave represents a saved individual, a fellow believer.

Then the slave finds a person who has done him wrong. He finds one of his “fellow slaves.” That term “fellow slave,” means this is another believer, a brother in Christ. A slave of the same master. And this fellow slave owed this slave a hundred denarii. We talked about talents last week and how it was the largest measurement of weight they had. A denarius is one coin, (denarii is plural) and it usually represented a day's wage. People would work for a day and in turn receive one denarius coin. That might not seem like much, but that one denarius would buy all the food you needed for that day, so people were able to live off that payment.

A hundred denarii represented about 3 months wages. That is significantly smaller than the debt seen above, right? 10,000 talents represented a zillion dollars, an innumerable currency. A hundred denarii in today’s economic value? About 12 dollars.

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This is what makes the story so bizarre. Did the slave quickly forget that he was just forgiven such a huge debt? And he cannot forgive his fellow believer of a few dollars?

And these slaves in the story are true believers, because if they were not, the whole story falls apart. If the slave wasn’t a believer, we wouldn’t expect him to forgive. And an unbeliever is not forgiven their entire sin debt like we said last week.

When comparing these two debts, we realize the great truth Jesus is pointing out and like I said earlier, the things we do against each other, even the most horrible you can think of, are nothing compared to what we have done to God. And it really shows our depravity right, even true Christians can have a very hard time forgiving, can we not? How many of you are perfect at forgiving? This is why this parable is hard to swallow at times. It’s hard to forgive. If I asked you right now, can you think of someone who has harmed you, offended you, physically, mentally? Can you think of someone who owes you money? I can see everyone’s wheels turning now. Man, can we think of them huh?

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Have you forgiven all of them? From your heart? Or are you one to hold a grudge? Christians can hold grudges, they can not forgive, but we are called to do better than that.

Titus 3

Paul instructed Titus to remind the believers under his care that we were once lost individuals and we were only saved by God’s grace, not our deeds or righteousness.

Titus 3:2-7 We would still be like them if it were not for God’s mercy toward us.

As believers we are called to forgive like God forgives.

Ephesians 4:32 Forgive as God has forgiven us. Back in the beginning of Matthew 18, we saw Jesus using a child as an object lesson. Children of God are to be like children in every way. We are also to forgive like children and be forgiven like children. Have you noticed children playing, one of them hits the other one and they get mad, but we tell to say sorry and the other one that got hit, usually says it’s okay, smiles and keeps on playing with them like nothing ever happened. And let’s say someone hits your car with their car, it was obviously their fault, you’re mad, you get out to confront the driver and you find it’s a small child that accidentally drove their parent’s car down the road. Well now it’s suddenly okay, you now care for the child and make sure they are okay, you forgive them instantly, your whole mindset changes just because it’s a child. That is how us believers are supposed to forgive each other, like children. Forgive and forget.

You would think that what his fellow slave said to him would’ve jogged his memory. Verse 29: the same as verse 26, what this slave said to the king. But it obviously did not. And the slave began to choke the fellow slave. Can you imagine a Christian choking another Christian over a few dollars? Isn’t that bizarre, we are supposed to read this find this appalling. And not only that, the slave was so unmerciful, that he threw his fellow slave in prison, which in turn would make it harder for the slave to repay what he owed.

What’s our first reaction when someone does us wrong, especially when we are walking in the flesh? Revenge! And eye for an eye! You made me suffer, I’m gonna make you suffer! That’s our first reaction, right? And sometimes in our anger and frustration, we make unreasonable and poor choices like this slave has done.

Romans 6:11-12 Although as believers, we can still give in to our lusts, we are commanded to not let our lusts or our fleshly desires rule us, it says do not obey them.

But when a believer does not forgive, they can make irrational choices, even choke another believer and this comes as a shock to the other members of the congregation.

Matthew 18:31 Again, you see the term “fellow slaves” meaning other followers of Christ. And just like them, if we saw something like this happen within our church, we would definitely report it to somebody, and especially pray about it, bringing it to our Lord so that it can be dealt with. This is where church discipline would come into play and as we will see, other divine discipline will take place from the Lord.

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Matthew 18:32-35 “hand him over to the torturers?” “Repay all that was owed him?” That can be confusing right, because we are talking about believers here.

Matthew 6:12, 14-15

Many of the false religions out there will use these verses to teach you can lose your salvation. But that’s simply not the case because if that were true, these verses would contradict other verses and even contradict God. Let me show you what I mean. The promise of never losing salvation is never said in those terms exactly. But it is implied by understanding other points in God’s word.

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1 Peter 1:18-19 We were redeemed which refers to a purchase being made, we were purchased at the cost of Christ’s death, God paid for us with the precious blood of Christ, If we could lose our salvation, God would have to revoke His purchase and He would have to somehow take His purchase back by going back in time and make Christ not die.

John 3:16 God promises that if you believe, you will have eternal life. The Christian is promised to life forever in heaven. If we could lose our salvation, God would have to go back on His promise, therefore He would be unfaithful, and that is not the God of the Bible.

Romans 5:1 Justified means declared righteous. If we could lose salvation, God would have to go back on His word and un-declare something He had previously declared.

Romans 8:30 If you have been justified by placing your faith in Christ, then it is promised that you will be glorified.

Roman’s 11:29 the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.

Ephesians 1:13-14 If you are a true follower of Christ, your have been sealed with the Holy Spirit which was given to us as a down payment, a deposit, if you will, to guarantee the heavenly inheritance. So, to back up God’s promise to us that we will obtain heaven, He gave us a deposit of Himself, He gave us Himself to indwell in us as a promise and a guarantee.

Titus 1:2 It’s not that God doesn’t want to lie, He can’t lie. It’s His very nature, it is impossible for God to do so.

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Other verses: Romans 8:38-39 Nothing can separate a child of God from the Father’s love.

                        John 10:28-29 Nothing can remove a Christian from God’s hand. This implies not even yourself.

I took you to those verses so you would have zero doubt that your salvation is guaranteed, and you cannot lose it.  

Also, to be absolutely sure we are talking about believers in this parable, if we go back to Matthew 18, who is Jesus talking to? (Look at 18:1) His disciples. He is telling the great 12, My Heavenly Father will hand you over to the torturers and you will repay all you owe if you do not forgive another believer? He’s not just looking at Judas here when he’s talking. But this is true for all believers. This is not talking about hell or the final judgement as some think. This is divine discipline as we see elsewhere in Scripture. And to understand what it means to repay all you owe; the king is not talking about the previous debt of 10,000 talents. That has already been forgiven and as we saw, that is irrevocable. So, it must mean that a new debt has occurred that needs to be forgiven. The debt of not forgiving another believer which is sin.

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There are two types of forgiveness that we receive from God. One is a forgiveness that is eternal, the forgiveness our massive sin debt which we saw, the second type of forgiveness is a forgiveness that we need from God each and every day, each and every time we sin. We can’t lose our salvation over sinning, but we can receive divine discipline from our loving father.

If you go back to Matthew 6 verse 9, Jesus says to pray in this way: “Our Father who is in heaven.” This suggests you are a child of God if you call Him Father. Verse 12: and forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors. This suggests we accrue debt daily and we need to be forgiven for it.

And just like in the parable, we can receive divine discipline if we continue in sin such as not forgiving another believer or treating them poorly.

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Proverbs 3:11-12 God does not discipline out of hatred, but out of love.

Proverbs 6:23 Discipline brings about a godly life.

Proverbs 12:1 Although we don’t always like discipline, we know it’s because God loves us and if we are disciplined by Him, we know we are His.

Hebrews 12:6 Every son. No child of God is exempt from discipline.

Hebrews 12:8 If you are not disciplined by God, then you are not His. You are not a true Christian and therefore unsaved. So it is a very good thing and reassuring to us if we receive divine discipline.

Revelation 3:19 Christ disciplines His church, the people He loves in order that they repent.

Once we become a child of God, God is our righteous father. It is true we can continue in sin as true believers, (1 John 1:8, if we say we don’t sin, we are lying to ourselves) and if we do not repent of those sins daily, we can receive divine punishment. What does divine punishment or discipline look like? Well not all offenses are the same, so not all punishments are the same. Just like you have different punishments for your child depending on what they do. They might do something minor, or it might be major.

For minor offenses, sins we commit against God that might be just between us and God, if we do not repent, we might experience hardships in life such as stress, pressure, worry or other difficulties in life. He can take the peace we experience with Him away for a time. We may feel distant from God, feel like our prayers are bouncing off the ceiling and going nowhere. We place those spiritual barriers in between us and God.

For more major sins, these are sins committed either against church body, or is a sin that the church body sees, knows about and it can damage the church body, that can tarnish the churches reputation, and it can greatly grieve God when this happens. And Remember, God takes care of his church, His people more than anything.

Matthew 18:6-7

So, God will eliminate anything that threatens His church. Just like a Good Shepard will protect his flock with His life against any threats, including fellow believers, even children of God that threaten the church. This is why we need church discipline, it sounds harsh, but it is used as a tool to purify the church.

Galatians 5:7-9 A little bit of sin in the church that is not taken care of can spread through the whole church and run it astray, can damage it, tarnish it, and God will not put up with that.

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Here are some examples where believers experienced divine discipline even to the point where their life was cut short in order to protect them and protect the church.

1 Corinthians 5:1-5 It is reported to Paul that the Corinthian church has a believer in their midst that committed immorality, a man in the church has had relations with his stepmother. (Verse 2) The Corinthian church has failed to exercise church discipline in that they did not kick this man out of the church. (Verse 5) Paul knew the importance of discipline within the church and that this man would suffer great loss on the day of his salvation when believers obtain their rewards from Jesus. So, Paul by the power of the Holy Spirit, decided to hand this believer over to satan for the destruction of his flesh, this could be great illness hopefully leading to repentance, or even physical death, and he still goes to heaven.

This man as we see in verse 5 is a believer, Paul even says he will be saved in the day of the Lord. But even believers, if they have an evil influence against God’s church, God can discipline them up to the point where He cuts their life short, so that they will not continue to be an evil influence to the church and they will not continue to throw away their rewards in heaven. They still enter into the presence of Christ, but they can no longer hurt the church on earth.  

1 Corinthians 11:29-30 Again some of the Corinthian believers are practicing immorality within the church, and Paul says for this reason, God has caused some to be weak and sick, to have physical illness and He has caused some to even die.

Acts 5:1-10 Ananias and Sapphira lied to the Holy Spirit in front of the entire Church. The brand-new church of Christ and we have our first great offense. God had to make an example of these two quickly, and He showed His church that offenses against Him, especially in front of the church are taken very seriously.

“The sin of unforgiveness in some ways is even more wicked in a believer, because they have an infinitely greater motivation and power to be forgiving than does a person who has never experienced God’s saving grace.” – John MacArthur

Back to the parable to wrap it up. It would be bizarre and appalling for a believer in the church to treat another believer poorly, to not forgive someone of any offense publicly to the church. And to the church, if this was not taken care of with church discipline, God will discipline by handing that believer over to the tormentors until repentance takes place or the illness and death of that individual takes place for their benefit and the church’s.

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How can we apply this to us today? I’m not saying that if you are ill or dying that you have committed a great unrepentant sin towards the church, everybody gets ill and everybody dies eventually, but an unrepentant sin can lead towards those things.

Do you have great hardships in your life? Do you struggle with anxiety, depression, stress, is the peace of God gone, does God seem distant? Well, these could be caused by a number of things such as other unconfessed sins, not praying, not studying the word. But is there someone in your life that you have not forgiven from your heart? Heart forgiveness is impossible for the believer in their own power. It is supernatural and is only possible with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. So, if there is someone you have not truly forgiven from your heart, ask God for help in forgiving them, show them mercy and God will forgive you and show you mercy.

Let’s pray.