Sep 13th - The Anatomy of Forgiveness

Friends Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

So could you imagine owing somebody 3 billion dollars? 3 billion dollars is maybe a little bit hard for us to imagine. But maybe you are familiar with the concept of owing money, right? Maybe you've owed somebody twenty bucks before, maybe you remember getting a gas bill that's a little high. But could you imagine owing 3 billion ---thats with a "B"--- dollars?

That's what Jesus is giving us in his Parable today. When Peter asked Jesus about how much we should forgive others, Jesus tells him a parable about a guy who owed 3 billion dollars. Jesus tells this parable of a King who starts to settle accounts with people that he's lent money to and one of these people is this man who owed the equivalent of 3 billion dollars, he owed the king 10,000 talents, which, by the way, was more than any province ever owed Rome This man was in big debt! that Now a talent, just so you get the idea of how much were talking here, one talent was worth about six thousand denarii. One denarius was equivalent to about a day's wage So if we're conservative, and we're thinking all right, maybe a day's wages is maybe fifty bucks, and one talent is worth 6000 denarii, and this guy didn't owe one talent, how many he owe? Ten thousand talents? That's around 3 billion dollars! By the way, we had a financial advisor listen to the sermon on Wednesday night and he confirmed that that math was right. All right, so I got that right. And he also recommended not being in debt for 3 billion dollars. Just so you know. Free financial advice for you this morning. So this man, of course, when you're 3 billion dollars in debt, you're in deep doo-doo, right? So he asked the king for mercy and what does he ask the king? He begs for more time to pay it off! I don't know about you, but if I was 3 billion dollars in debt, you can't give me enough time to pay that off, right? This guy is delusional. He doesn't understand just how deep his doo-doo really is. He asked for more time from the King to pay it off? That's not going to happen. This guy's delusional and the king kind of knows this and he's a nice king, so he says "All right. How about this? I will just simply forgive the debt."

The king forgives a 3 billion dollar debt. So instead of giving the man more time, which would have been Mercy enough, he knows he's never going to be able to work that off, and he just forgives the debt.

But the parable keeps on going, doesn't it? The man walks out of the king's room there he gets out the door and who does he see? A fellow servant who owes him the equivalent of $5,000. Okay, $5000 is still a good bit of change, I'm sure that if any of us won $5000, we'd be feeling pretty good. And if any of us were in $5000 worth of debt, that's still a good bit of debt, but I think we could eventually pay that off, $5000, right? But this man who just got a 3 billion dollar debt forgiven, starts choking his fellow servant saying, "Pay what you owe! Or go to prison!" And he doesn't give him more time to pay it off, he says, "All right if you can't pay it now, you go to prison until you can pay it off."

Now the ironic part here, is that the servants who see this happen report to the king and the king says, "Oh, you want to play it that way, okay, if you're going to send him to prison for $5000, you can go to prison, too, until you pay off your debt." And the irony is that the guy who owed $5,000 is probably going to get out a lot sooner than the guy who owed 3 billion.

What do we learn from Jesus about being forgiven? How do we, instead of this unforgiving servant, how do we be forgiving servants? I would say that we are forgiving servants when we forgive, as Christians, we forgive in heart, word, and deed. As Christians, we forgive in heart. I want to be careful with how I talk about what it means to have a forgiving heart because we need to make sure that we get this parable right. Certainly, this parable is telling us that we as Christians should be forgiving people. You'll definitely get that message today, that we should be forgiving. But this parable is not primarily about being a forgiving person. Primarily this parable is about the forgiveness of the king. I can't really see your jaws right now, but our jaws should drop when we think of a king forgiving 3 billion dollars.

Talk about forgiveness! This parable is about Jesus's forgiveness for us. And as Christians. We have hearts that become forgiving hearts when we understand the depth of the forgiveness that Jesus has given to us! What did our theme verse say today? Psalm 103:11-12: "For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is the steadfast love of Jesus for those who fear Him And as far as the East is from the West, so far does He remove our transgressions from us!"

See, as sinners we have a debt towards God far beyond 3 billion dollars. $3 Billion would look like chump change compared to what our sins make us owe God, right? And yet our God freely forgives us. He doesn't just give more time. He doesn't just give us a second chance. He doesn't say, "Okay, now go try to better people." He just forgives. Your King forgives your debt entirely. And notice it's not a one-time transaction where He says, "Okay, you're forgiven. But now you got to start living debt-free. Now, you got to start making sure you keep up with your payments!" No, when Jesus dies on the cross, it erases our debt. And its the cross that keeps on giving because we get that bill every month that says here's what you should owe, but by the blood of Jesus, your debt is paid We have a King who not only forgives the debt, but pays it Himself. Over and over and over and over again, we are told that the cross of Christ covers our sins. We live in a Kingdom of forgiveness And when we understand the depth of the forgiveness that we have in Christ, it shapes our hearts to be forgiving hearts where we can live with an attitude of forgiveness toward others. Now, I know that that the forgiveness and that having a forgiving heart can sometimes be a really hard thing, right? Because, news flash, people can be really mean, right? People can say mean things and do mean things. It can be really hard to feel forgiving. But as Christians, we are called to have forgiving hearts. I'm going to tell you sometimes it takes time to get that kind of heart, but it's something that we pray for, and something we desire and want as Christians because we are called to have that forgiving heart because when we have a forgiving heart, that means as Christians we can also forgive in word. And that's important too. Because where forgiving in heart is simply feeling forgiving toward somebody, forgiving in word is declaring forgiveness for sin committed against you. And by that, I mean, I'm not just talking about saying, "No problem. No worries. Don't worry about it. That's okay." That's not forgiveness. That's dismissal. We are called to be forgiving. Meaning actually using extra syllables to say, "Y\ou know what? I forgive you."

Friends, I would argue that forgiveness is the foundation of human relationships. Because forgiveness is removing a debt that is owed in order for relationships to be restored. And I don't know if you've noticed but everybody that you live with happens to be a sinner, right? And what do sinners need? Forgiveness! If we want to have successful, and we want to have healthy relationships, they have to be built on the bedrock of forgiveness. We have to be forgiving each other. We have to tell each other that we are willing to restore relationships and that debt has been paid and that goes for marriages, that goes for kids, and friends, and co-workers. We are forgiving people and notice that forgiveness, when when you declare somebody to be forgiven, that is not in response to how you feel. It does not require you to feel like you are ready to forgive them. Because we're sinners right? Most of us aren't going to feel forgiving until they pay us back, until they make it up to us. We want a debt to be paid for the harm that they've done to us.

But that's not the king did is it? The king didn't demand that 3 billion dollars be paid back and then forgive him. That wouldn't be forgiveness by definition, right? He forgave him of the debt.

If you're waiting to feel forgiving until they make it up to you, the forgiveness isn't going to happen, which means that many times we as Christians are called to do the hard thing of forgiving somebody in word, even when we don't yet feel like it.

Forgiveness in word is important. It means that you are willing, that you want to have that debt forgiven so the relationship that can be restored and that forgiveness in word is not in response to how you feel about it. It's in response to repentance. Repentance is sorrow and acknowledgement of sin. It's the other person saying, "You know what you're right. I'm sorry. I hurt you, and I messed up, and I need your forgiveness." That's repentance. And repentane, by the way also accepts those earthly consequences as appropriate. So it doesn't mean that they're going to make it up to you. It means that they're willing to accept the consequences that is required of them. So if you come to my office and you say, "Hey Pastor, I murdered somebody." I'll tell you, "Okay you're forgiven, but let's take a walk down to the police station." Because that repentance. It's acknowledging the sin that you have committed, willing to accept the consequences, and also acknowledging your need for forgiveness. See, as Christians, we are called to forgive in heart. We're called to feel forgiving, so that we can also forgive in word, because what that sets up is the most important forgiveness of all, which is forgiveness in deed.

It's what we accomplish by forgiving. So where forgiveness in heart is about how you feel, and forgiveness in word is declaring somebody forgiven for the sin done against you, I would say that forgiveness in deed, that you're actually doing something, is when you declare forgiveness for somebody for what they've done against God.

Because here's the thing. Sin is sin. And even if somebody sins against you, who is that sin against primarily? God!

So if they've sinned against God by sinning against you, whose forgiveness do they need most? God's!

And dear Christian, you have been authorized by Jesus himself to give forgiveness on his account. You have the authority to give His forgiveness. And by the way, you have authority to withhold his forgiveness-- and you heard that right! You have authority to forgive and to withhold forgiveness--- not because you're mean and you don't like them and you want them to spill their guts.

No, but you have the authority to withhold forgiveness for their sake. Because you want that person to be repentant. You want them to acknowledge that they need the forgiveness of Jesus. By the way, this is a very Christian thing. In fact we did it when we started our service today! In a monotone voice, we said, "If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us," right? We say that every week and maybe you don't even think about what you're saying. But that's what repentance is. If we say that we are not sinful, we're deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us! As Christians we are repentant by acknowledging our need for forgiveness. That's the Christians faith! And you have the authority to tell somebody, "Look, you need Jesus. You need to acknowledge that you need Jesus. You need to acknowledge that you need his forgiveness. Until you do that, I'll withhold his forgiveness so that you realize you need it." It's an act of love. Because the Christian faith is acknowledging the need for forgiveness.

So you have the authority to withhold forgiveness and to give forgiveness, to tell anyone that Jesus died for them to forgive them of their sins. This is why I called it forgiveness in deed, because forgiveness in the name of Christ actually does something. By forgiving somebody in the name of Jesus, you are applying the blood of Jesus to the debt they owe God. You are saying, "This sin that you committed, it is forgiven in Jesus name." You, dear Christian, have the authority to say that.

We live in Jesus's Kingdom of forgiveness. Just like the king lives in the kind of kingdom where he forgives a debt of 3 billion dollars, we live in the Kingdom of a Jesus Who's the King who forgives all debt of sin. It's a way of living. Being in his kingdom is a way of living in forgiveness. It's a kingdom not where you pay debt, but where your debts are paid. It's a kingdom where forgiveness is not a one-time transaction, but where the cross of Christ creates an ongoing, life changing reality, where you are forgiven and forgiven and forgiven and forgiven. And you are baptized into that forgiveness. You get to chew and drink that forgiveness every week and you are reminded, you are declared, forgiven week-in and week-out. It's a kingdom where forgiveness is so overflowing that you are authorized to give that forgiveness, to declare that forgiveness on behalf of Jesus, that same forgiveness that lands people in heaven. That's the kingdom we live in. So friends, live that forgiveness. Forgive in heart, word, and deed. In Jesus name, amen.