Gospel Project Unit 22 Session 2: The Unmerciful Servant

Big Picture Question

Why did Jesus tell Parables?

Jesus told Parables to teach people about God and His Kingdom

Tonight we are going to hear a story, a parable that Jesus taught. In the story there is a man who owe’s the King a lot of money, more money than he could pay back.

As we watch the video and see what the King does with the man and how the man reacts to the King we will be learning about God and His Kingdom.

Play Video

Lesson - The Unmerciful Servant

So our video began with Peter, one of Jesus’ followers, asking Jesus how many times he should forgive someone.

Ask:

How many times did Peter think he should forgive someone?

Seven Times! Peter thought that was pretty good since 3 was the expectation of the Jewish people.

But Jesus answered with a much different number. Does anyone remember what Jesus said?

Seventy times Seven. Does anyone know how many times that is?

It is 490 times. Jesus said to forgive someone 490 times. Three was normal, Peter thought he was being generous by going up to 7 and Jesus takes that number all the way to 490 times.

But Jesus’ point is not that we count how many times someone does something wrong to us and how many times we forgive them. The point that Jesus is making is that we should always forgive people.

And to make his point, he tells a parable, a story about a King and an unmerciful Servant.

The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant

Ask:

So who were the people in the Parable that Jesus told?

The King

The servant who owed the King

The man who owed the servant

The whole story is about people who owe money that they can not pay back because they owe so much.

Ask:

How much money is a LOT of money?

In this Parable, the servant owed so much money that he could never actually pay it back.

So to get was was owed him, the King was going to punish the servant by selling him and his family into slavery. But the servant begged the King for more time and promised that he would pay back the money.

But he owed more than he could ever pay back. And the King knew it, it was impossible for the servant to pay the King back.

So the King forgave the man’s debt. He told the servant that he did not have to pay anything.

Mercy of God

Ask:

What does this tell us about the King?

He was a merciful King.

And remember, Jesus told the parable, the story to teach about God and His Kingdom.

So this tells us that God is merciful.

Sinfulness of Man

But the story also tells us something about ourselves.

Ask:

Does anyone know what the story tells us about us?

It tells us that we owe God a debt that we can not pay.

That debt is not money. We don’t owe God because he gave us money. We owe God because we all have sinned and deserve His punishment.

And that debt is more than we could ever pay becuase when we sin, we are disobeying the eternal God who is perfectly Holy. He could punish us for all eternity and it would not be enough to pay for our sin.

But like the King in our story, God is merciful.

Ask:

Does anyone know how God has shown is mercy?

That’s right, by sending His son Jesus.

Jesus came and lived a perfect life. He never sinned and then he went to the cross and died for our sins. When Jesus died on the cross, he was punished by God for our sins.

God in His mercy made a way for us to be saved, if we trust in Jesus and have faith in him.

But our parable did not stop with the King being merciful to the servant who owed a debt he could not pay.

There was a second man who owed a debt he could not pay. But this man’s debt was small in comparison to the debt that the servant owed the King.

When the servant left the King who had just forgiven him, the servant saw the man who owed him and demanded his money. But the man could not pay, so the servant threw the man in prison.

The servant, who had been forgiven so much, was unwilling to forgive the man who owed him so little in comparison.

And when the King heard of this, what did he do? He punished the servant and made him pay the debt, likely selling the servant and his family into slavery.

Repentance

What does this part of the story tells us about God and His Kingdom?

It tells us that when we trust in Jesus and our sins are forgiven, we are to forgive others. It takes us back to the beginning of our lesson where Peter asked Jesus how many times he should forgive someone.

Jesus said, 70 times 7, that we should be forgiving just as God has forgiven us.

It also tells us that those who do not forgive others are not actually forgiven by God and not part of his kingdom and will have to pay for their sins.

God in his mercy sent Jesus to die in our place and take the punishment that we deserve. When we trust in Jesus and have faith in Him, our lives will be different, we will be like God. We will be merciful and compassionate like God the Father and His Son Jesus.