FORGIVENESS FOR SPIRITUAL HEALTH GOLDEN CALVES

FORGIVENESS FOR SPIRITUAL HEALTH GOLDEN CALVES September 10, 2006 Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introduction After the very direct and hard-hitting instruction Jesus gave His followers about how the church is to carry out discipline of one another, confronting each other about sinful behaviors, Peter must have been thinking. How does this square with being forgiving and patient with each other—something Jesus also taught. When do I confront in love, and when do I just let it go? And what about forgiveness? Jesus had already taught clearly that forgiveness of others was important, and when someone wrongs us we should turn the other cheek and not retaliate. But how many times do I have to forgive before it’s time to take action? Peter decides he’ll take his question straight to Jesus. If we’ll listen carefully to this exchange, and the parable Jesus taught we might learn something important about forgiveness. The Parable Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. The servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded. His fellow servant fell on his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’ But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened. Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.” [webmasters note: Matthew 18:21-35] Please notice that last phrase: unless you forgive your brother from your heart. There are two important questions involved in this kind of forgiveness. The first is what kind of forgiveness is “from the heart” forgiveness? The second is, How can I be empowered to forgive with this level of depth and genuineness? These are two questions to keep in mind for the next 15 minutes or so. Look carefully for the answers, as they apply to you, both as one forgiven and one called to forgive others. Jesus’ answer must have stunned Peter, as it does us. I think Peter might have been trying to impress Jesus when he suggested forgiving his brother seven times. After all, the rabbis all taught that it was godly to forgive three times. So he more than doubled that figure, using the biblical number of perfection, seven. Imagine his surprise as Jesus says Not even close—77! It bears considering that Peter seemed certain his brother would sin against him, but never mentions that he might sin against his brother. It is also telling that Peter was looking for limits and measures at all. It is almost as if he is saying If you’ll give me a number, I’ll forgive my brother that many times, and then I’ll get my revenge! Jesus reminds him that wanting retaliation at all means you aren’t forgiving him from the heart. When Jesus said 77, Peter probably thought, 77? I can’t even keep count if it’s that high! Precisely! 1 Corinthians 13:5 says, real love keeps no record of wrongs. Christ-followers are not to be bookkeepers of offense, but forgiving brothers to one another. If forgiveness is really in our hearts, why count at all? Forgiveness—both being forgiven and being a forgiver—is an essential barometer of our relationship with God and our spiritual health. Nothing says you have been forgiven by God like your willingness to forgive others. Jesus earlier said, if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (Matthew 6:14-15) The Declining Spiritual Health of the Unforgiving Servant Consider with me the central character in this parable. He is probably understood by Jesus and Peter as a nobleman, or a highly trusted steward of the king. It’s time for the annual audit. Turns out he has embezzled quite a bit of money. How much is that? Translated into spendable cash today, about $10 million. One wonders how he could have embezzled that much money (a “myriad” – MURIAS) or how he could have spent it all (maybe a gambling addiction?). The point isn’t how much it was exactly, but that it was a lot of money—an astonishingly great amount—and it was unpayable by the servant. It’s safe to say, once the audit came in, this guy was a desperate debtor. As the master begins to make arrangements to sell off his family into servility and take over his house and all his assets, the servant begs for mercy. Miraculously, he is forgiven! But something is not right in this scene. Mercy and forgiveness are extended and apparently received, but our friend the servant is still not right. Forgiveness issues in joy and a changed heart. When a person repents, truly receives the Lord Jesus as his Savior, something changes in him. Being made right with God he experiences peace with God and his entire perspective should begin to change for the better. Salvation and forgiveness bring spiritual health. But not in the heart of this servant. His actions belie his new status as a forgiven person, as he callously accosts his fellow worker to collect on a loan. The amount of this loan is infinitesimally smaller than that which he was just forgiven. Nevertheless when his hapless friend can’t pay and begs him for mercy he presses charges and has him jailed. As hearers of this story, we and Peter are shocked at the servant’s impudence. We wonder, Why didn’t this guy’s heart soften once he was forgiven? What an ingrate! Having received mercy, he should be ready to extend mercy. But we see nothing but a calloused creditor. How can this be? Why didn’t his being forgiven not “work”? There are some clues. First, did you notice what he said as he begged the master for mercy? He said, Be patient with me and I will pay back everything. No way? If he gave every denarius he earned to the master for the next twenty years, he might pay off a thousand talents. What this empty promise suggests is that the servant wasn’t being honest. His pride kept him from openly admitting he was utterly unable to pay. Apparently the servant was not so much sorry for his crime or his inability to pay his master as he was sorry he got caught! A genuinely deeply repentant person says, I am guilty and there is no way I should expect forgiveness; I could never repay. I beg your forgiveness because I have no hope outside of your mercy. In another parable, a prodigal son returns home having squandered his fortune, and he meaningfully repents, telling his father, I am no longer worthy to be called your son. (Luke 15:21) Forgiveness that is really received—that is, with a pure heart—makes us not just grateful for mercy, it makes us merciful toward others. Forgiveness didn’t work for this servant because he did not really experience forgiveness; he only went through the motions in order to get off the hook. He would not let his heart be changed. God’s forgiveness requires humility. The other servants were appalled at this behavior, and they went to tell the king what his parolee had done. The master calls him in and deals ruthlessly with him, issuing him what amounts to a life sentence at hard labor. Please notice what the text says next: This is how my heavenly Father will treat you unless you forgive your brother from your heart. This passage must impress us with how terribly important God thinks it is to genuinely receive His forgiveness and to genuinely forgive others. In case you were beginning to think in worldly fashion that God couldn’t possibly punish anyone—He loves us too much—be advised. Justice and righteousness DO mean something. And if you will not respectfully receive the forgiveness God offers you’re left with nothing but your sins on your books, and the audit doesn’t look good. The perfect holiness and righteousness of God cannot ignore our rejection of mercy. Hell is not the invention of a sadistic overlord; it is the loving God’s final surrender to those who continue to stubbornly resist His grace. If he is not forgiven then what is this servant? He is a prisoner. Instead of being glad to be among the forgiven and forgiving, he was only glad to weasel out of debt so he could get his own. Unforgiveness of others imprisons the soul in self-absorption, misery and ingratitude—it is a prison with thick walls of loneliness and the dank, musty odor of self-pity and bitterness. The Increasing Spiritual Health of Forgiven and Forgiving Brothers When he did not receive the master’s freely offered forgiveness, the servant began suffering spiritual anemia. Those who are not spiritually healthy are incapable of forgiving others. By contrast, those who humble themselves before the Lord and receive His forgiveness grow in spiritual vitality. They find themselves free of guilt and condemnation, free to love and thank God, and free to forgive others. They, too, begin as desperate debtors. But they choose to appropriate God’s grace in their lives. They are liberated from the prison of self-centeredness, and free. Free to express joyous thanksgiving to God for His mercy to them. And free to extend similar mercy toward others. As a boy, Harry Emerson Fosdick was lying in bed one morning and overheard his dad and mom talking. Dad said, “Tell Harry he can mow the grass today if he feels like it.” Then as dad was leaving he called back, “And tell Harry he had better feel like it.” God commands and requires of us His children that we forgive others from the heart. But He also empowers us to do it. How? By first forgiving us. Here’s how Ephesians 4:32 puts it: Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ, God forgave you. By the way, requiring of us that we forgive one another is just another expression of His love for us. Unforgiveness breeds all kinds of ugly things in our hearts, including anger and bitterness. And bitterness kills the human heart like metastasized cancer. God does not want that for you. That is why He not only commands you to forgive others, but He also enables you to forgive by first forgiving you. He frees us to forgive others. "To forgive is to set the prisoner free, and then discover the prisoner was you." Conclusion Spiritual health is ours through forgiveness. First, we must be forgiven by God. There is only one way that is possible. He satisfied justice and love by dying in our place. And now He says to us I will forgive you if you let me. We know we have genuinely received that forgiveness through Christ when we see our hearts changed. The evidence of that change is that we love one another, especially that we forgive one another from the heart. Corrie Ten Boom and her family secretly housed Jews in their home during WW II. Their "illegal" activity was discovered, and Corrie and her sister Bessie were sent to the German death camp, Ravensbruck. There Corrie watched many die, including her sister. Here is a cutting from her book Tramp for the Lord. After the war she returned to Germany to declare the grace of Christ. It was 1947, and I'd come from Holland to defeated Germany with the message that God forgives. It was the truth that they needed most to hear in that bitter, bombed-out land, and I gave them my favorite mental picture. Maybe because the sea is never far from a Hollander's mind, I liked to think that that's where forgiven sins were thrown. "When we confess our sins," I said, "God casts them into the deepest ocean, gone forever. And even though I cannot find a Scripture for it, I believe God then places a sign there that says, 'NO FISHING ALLOWED.'" The solemn faces stared back at me, not quite daring to believe. And that's when I saw him, working his way forward against the others. One moment I saw the overcoat and the brown hat; the next, a blue uniform and a cap with skull and crossbones. It came back with a rush—the huge room with its harsh overhead lights, the pathetic pile of dresses and shoes in the center of the floor, the shame of walking naked past this man. I could see my sister's frail form ahead of me, ribs sharp beneath the parchment skin. Betsie, how thin you were! That place was Ravensbruck, and the man who was making his way forward had been a guard—one of the most cruel guards. Now he was in front of me, hand thrust out: "A fine message, Fraulein! How good it is to know that, as you say, all our sins are at the bottom of the sea!" And I, who had spoken so glibly of forgiveness, fumbled in my pocketbook rather than take that hand. He would not remember me—how could he remember one prisoner among those thousands of women? But I remembered him. I was face-to-face with one of my captors and my blood seemed to freeze. "You mentioned Ravensbruck in your talk. I was a guard there." No, he did not remember me. "But since that time, "I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips. Fraulein,"—again the hand came out—"will you forgive me?" And I stood there—I whose sins had again and again to be forgiven—and could not forgive. Betsie had died in that place. Could he erase her slow terrible death simply for the asking? It could have been many seconds that he stood there—hand held out—but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do. For I had to do it—I knew that. "If you do not forgive men their trespasses," Jesus says, "neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses." And still I stood there with coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion—I knew that too. Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. "Jesus, help me!" I prayed silently. "I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You supply the feeling." And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust out my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes. "I forgive you, brother!" I cried. "With all my heart!" For a long moment we grasped each other's hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God's love so intensely, as I did then. But even then, I realized it was not my love. I had tried, and did not have the power. It was the power of the Holy Spirit.   [Back to Top]