Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro:

How so free???

Jesus’ most striking and humanly incomprehensible words from the cross were, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” ().

MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1985).

Matthew (Vol.

3, p. 142).

Chicago: Moody Press.

After being betrayed, falsely convicted, beaten, spat upon, and unjustly nailed to a cross to die an agonizing death, the Son of God harbored no hatred for His tormentors but instead offered them forgiveness.

Following his Lord’s example, Stephen’s last words were, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” (Acts 7:60).

He was at that moment being pummelled to death by stones for having committed no greater crime than preaching the gospel, yet his heart was not filled with bitterness but with compassion for his executioners.

Forgiveness is the stuff of true godliness.

Although Joseph had been terribly wronged by his jealous brothers when they sold him into slavery, he held no grudge.

Years later, when they were in the midst of a great famine and he was the only person who could help them, he was quick to offer his forgiveness, to embrace them in love, to provide the food they needed, and even to give them the lush region of Goshen to live in.

When they had begged his forgiveness and fallen down before him, he “said to them, ‘Do not be afraid, for am I in God’s place?

And as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.

So therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones.’

So he comforted them and spoke kindly to them” (Gen.

50:19–21).

Imagine the awful things he experienced in jail as a slave… all because of them… who in your life has caused you the greatest pain?

Can you release that debt?

Only forgiveness can break down the barriers that sin continually and inevitably erects between people, including God’s people.

“A man’s discretion makes him slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook a transgression” (Prov.

19:11).

DO NOT SAY I WILL REPAY EVIL WAIT FOR THE LORD AND HE WILL DELIVER YOU.

Save that person or they will pay for that wrong for eternity… trust God in either.

Transition:

This is easy for me to say to you, but myself this is so unnatural.

I want to make pay my first emotion is not compassion but anger… not release but aggression.

Context:

Verses 15–20 seem harsh to modern ears but probably would not have seemed so in the first century.

Verses 21–35 have lost their force in our age, following centuries of domestication and familiarity with these texts, but they would have been shockingly radical when first spoken.

In light of the teaching on church discipline immediately preceding in vv.

15–20, Peter asks Jesus about the extent of forgiveness (vv.

21–22).

In the follow-up parable (vv.

23–35), Jesus’ central point is that forgiven people forgive.

Those who refuse to forgive comparatively paltry offenses show that they have never truly appropriated God’s far more lavish forgiveness

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The Lord was teaching that forgiveness ought to be in direct proportion to the amount forgiven.

The first servant had been forgiven all, and he in turn should have forgiven all.

A child of God has had all his sins forgiven by faith in Jesus Christ.

Therefore when someone sins against him, he ought to be willing to forgive … from the heart no matter how many times the act occurs (cf.

18:21–22; Eph.

4:32).

Once we grasp the extent God went to save us that will determine the length we go to forgive others...

Sermon on Humility and Forgiveness.

The fourth major block of Jesus’ teaching (after chs.

5–7; 10:5–42; 13:1–52).

Verses 1–14 show the lengths to which God humbles himself to save the lost, while vv.

15–35 define the extent to which we should humble ourselves to forgive others.

This does not imply being childish, but being childlike in recognizing one’s vulnerability and dependence—in this case on God.

What causes these problems?

Pride—thinking ourselves more important than we really are.

It was pride that led man into sin at the beginning (Gen.

3:5).

When Christians are living for themselves and not for others, then there is bound to be conflict and division (Phil.

2:1ff).

An unspoiled child has the characteristics that make for humility: trust (Matt.

18:6), dependence, the desire to make others happy, an absence of boasting or selfish desire to be greater than others.

By nature, all of us are rebels who want to be celebrities instead of servants.

It takes a great deal of teaching for us to learn the lessons of humility.

Are you amazed by grace?

Some of Peter’s problems

But Peter made some serious mistakes.

To begin with, he lacked humility himself.

He was sure his brother would sin against him, but not he against his brother!

Peter’s second mistake was in asking for limits and measures.

Where there is love, there can be no limits or dimensions (Eph.

3:17–19).

Peter thought he was showing great faith and love when he offered to forgive at least seven times.

After all, the rabbis taught that three times was sufficient.

humility as “that grace that, when you know you have it, you’ve lost it!”

It has well been said, “True humility is not thinking meanly of oneself; it is simply not thinking of oneself at all.”

Maybe you are an engineer and have one of those super calculators with symbols and letters on it, but the point is it’s an incalculable number

18:24 ten thousand talents.

This represents an incomprehensible amount of money.

The talent was the largest denomination of currency, and “ten thousand” in common parlance signified an infinite number.

18:27 forgave him.

Picturing the generous, compassionate forgiveness of God to a pleading sinner who owes him an unpayable debt.

Cf.

Col. 2:14.

How great our forgiveness was

Seventy times seven (some interpreters read seventy-seven) does not really mean exactly 490 here; it is a typically graphic Jewish way of saying “Never hold grudges.”

Because true repentance should involve turning from sin, some later rabbis limited opportunities for forgiveness for a given sin to three times; Peter might have thought his offer of seven times was generous.

Enslaving family members for the man’s debt was a Gentile practice that the Jewish people in this period found abhorrent.

The math does not work here; the price of an average slave was between five hundred and two thousand days’ wages, hence the king cannot recoup even one-thousandth of his losses on this sale.

But a king with better math skills would not have let the man get so far in debt to begin with!

He was a debtor (vv.

23–27).

This man had been stealing funds from the king and, when the books were audited, his crime was discovered.

The total tax levy in Palestine was about 800 talents a year, so you can see how dishonest this man was.

In terms of today’s buying power, this was probably equivalent to over $10 million.

Aha, I have officially forgiven you 78 times I NO LONGER have to forgive… or 492 tikes, I am done!

No, (some ledger with marks on it)...

The “talent” was the highest known denomination of currency in the ancient Roman Empire, and ten thousand was the highest number for which the Greek language had a particular word (myrias; cf.

our myriad).

HERE IS THE CONTROVERSY… not only will he not be punished… HE DOESN’T HAVE TO REPAY

(Me: T-shirt mentality)… that is NOT The gospel… you have been freely given, freely forgiven BUT AT GREAT COST TO THE MASTER...

When you grasp this it is not that you live repaying but your heart is transformed to model the generosity you have recieved

“Took pity” is the same word for the compassion that characterizes Jesus’ emotions and behavior in 9:36; 14:14; 15:32; and 20:34.

Instead of pointing to the innocence of a child, Jesus uses the little child as an object lesson on humility that comes from their vulnerability: “Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

In the ancient world, children were valued primarily for the benefit that they brought to the family by enhancing the workforce, adding to the defensive power, and guaranteeing the future glory of the house.

But they had no rights or significance apart from their future value to the family and were powerless in society.

The humility of a child consists of the inability to advance his or her own cause apart from the help and resources of a parent.

We must probe the Jewish background to understand the larger issues that prompt Peter’s question.

Forgiveness in the Old Testament came from the God of grace, who instituted sacrifices that benefited only because he gave the means of making atonement through the shedding of blood (Lev.

17:11).

But as God himself declared, the same God who forgives wickedness, rebellion, and sin “does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation” (Ex.

34:6–7).

In the everyday world, persons can get caught up in a regular pattern of sinning and seeking restoration.