Forgiveness (2)
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Biblical Forgiveness...
Biblical Forgiveness...
Good morning everyone, I hope you are well today.
Well we are here in the month of December, and there is only 20 days till Christmas.
And with the approach of Christmas, we are working hard to get ready for this time with our family. We are beginning the search for the right gifts, the decorations are going up, and menu’s are being planned.
It’s a wonderful time. But we cannot lost sight of Jesus.
We celebrate Christmas because of Christ and His coming into the world. The gift that He brought for all mankind.
Take time daily to thank Him, to praise his name for the goodness He has brought to your life with His presence.
But let me stop right here and ask you are you free to worship and free to celebrate the loving presence of our Lord in us?
One thing that hinders individuals and families this time of year is un-forgiveness.
We hold onto things that either we did or what someone did to us and since we cannot seem to let go of that… we have great difficulty in participating in worship and allowing God to bless and speak to our lives.
People try to ignore it, but offenses are hard to over come. But it starts with practicing Biblical forgiveness.
So lets go to our main text today and we will look at several others as well.
23 “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. 24 When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. 25 And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. 26 So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ 27 And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. 28 But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ 29 So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ 30 He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. 31 When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. 32 Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ 34 And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. 35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
Now I know I have skipped a few verses coming to this one, that is OK, we will address them later.
Now Jesus has been talking about the Biblical model of forgiveness. Jesus speaks about how to approach a person who has committed an offense against you and most certainly you could reverse it and approach a person you have wronged.
The out come of this event in verses 15 to 20 is restoration.
Restoration is an important word to hold onto my friends. The word restoration means to being back to an original position or condition.
When we forgive others or seek forgiveness the mission is to restore and bring back what once was...
That is God’s mission as well, God forgives us to bring us back in correct position with Him… to restore our relationship with Him, that we might enjoy the blessing of walking with Him and others freely and correctly. And ultimately that we can one day walk in His presence face to face.
So lets begin...
The first thought is this....
1. A Great Debt....
As we open this text, we understand that Jesus is presenting a parable to His disciples and others.
And again a parable is a earthy story with a heavenly meaning. So Jesus is taking something they knew and understood and uses it to help them see what God the Father was doing on behalf of humanity.
So Jesus takes the story of debt, what one person or family owed to another and builds off of it.
Just like today, people could sell property, and in those days they could even place themselves into limited servant-tude (like an indentured servant), or that could borrow money with the promise to pay back the loan or work it off.
And just like today, there are times when something happens, crops are grown in hopes of producing a good harvest, but at times tragedy comes in one form or another, crops are ruined or diminished and suddenly someone is unable to repay the debt.
This may have been what happens here, we are not certain… but there is a unique piece to this story. Its the amount of debt owed by the person. let’s go back to the text.
23 “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. 24 When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. 25 And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made.
Look at the size of this debt… 10,000 talents. From everything we know, that is an amount so large no person or family could even come close to pay back in a life time of work. It was so large that people would have a hard time imagining it. In our world today it would be like owe a hundred million dollars to a trillion. We cannot even imagine it could we.
It is a great debt.
So what is the debt? Well Jesus uses the amount of 10,000 talents, one talent was the largest denomination of currency in that particular time. But really it is representative of our debt before God.
We know from the testimony of Scriptures, mankind, it doesn’t matter who we are, if we enter this world in a palace or a pauper's shack, we come into this world with a sinful nature and with it a sin debt.
Sin separates us from God and in the course of our days we are lost, disobedient and the very intent of our heart is continually evil. It is the sin nature we are born with...
It is a debt we cannot remedy on our own.
We cannot give enough, or do enough to please God, and we are found wanting in the scales of His justice.
Each person born of woman is apart from God, that is the natural point of life. We enter with a sin debt… You are alienated from God.
How will you settle your debt?
How will you fair on the day of judgment if you haven’t dealt with that debt?
A debt requires restitution. Sin has consequences… What will you do?
How will you stand in front of God?
And this brings me to my second thought....
2. We are Generously Forgiven...
Now this is a conditional statement…
What do I mean by that?
Just as each person enters this world with a sin debt. So each person has the wondrous opportunity to experience the forgiveness of God, but each person as to turn to God in repentance, and receive His forgiveness.
Now back to Jesus parable… look at verses 25-27
25 And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. 26 So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ 27 And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.
Do you see the debt of this person… so large he cannot pay it and since he cannot rectify this issue himself, the King is forced to take action to satisfy the debt. Debt ( especially a sin debt) always has to be rectified, settled.
The king would ordered the man and all that He has sold… property, family it doesn’t matter. Sell everything that I might regain the debt He owed the me is the King’s position.
You know a long time ago if you had a debt that you could not pay, the local government would remand you over to a debtor’s prison or the poor farm where you would work to pay off your debt… that was the only choice.
The King was determined to do this, He was going to sell him and all that he had...
But the servant bowed in humility and pleaded for mercy .... Have patience with me and I will repay it… And the Scriptures tell us the King had pity on him and forgave him the debt verse 27 tells us...
The King is so moved by the plight of the man that he is not looking for repayment of what is owed to him and cancels the debt all together…
Sheer grace is at work here… Sheer grace is at work here....
The phrase “took pity or out of pity” for him, is the key phrase, it is the same Greek word for compassion that characterizes Jesus emotions and behavior, just like in chapter 9 verse 36 and chapter 14 verse 14.
36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
14 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
Compassion moves people to have a multitude of responses when they encounter a great need… The King forgave this man’s debt, He showed him mercy and grace.
Never loose sight of the fact that this one man in this parable is a representative of the world and its entire population. The world is in need just as you were in need when you realized you could never satisfy the debt that was upon your life.
There is no amount of money that can satisfy your debt, your works, your righteous acts the Bible says in Isaiah 64:6 can only be compared to as filthy rags in front of a Holy God.
So if we cannot buy our way to heaven and if we cannot work our way there, someone might ask then why does God receive us when we call to Him.
Its based in His mercy and grace, as seen in the sacrificial death of Christ. God loved us before we could love Him. And in that love, when we call upon the name of the Lord… He receives us and forgives us. Why, because God paid our debt.
He gave His one and only Son! Jesus took our place and upon his body He satisfied the penalty of sin and of the law. He bore that upon Himself, in His own body, His blood shed for the remission of sin.
Isaiah says By His stripes we are healed… Isa 53:5.
So that we might be justified and forgiven before God the father...
Imagine with me, God provided everything we need, He generously forgave us! And He is still forgiving and saving and will keep on saving until He comes again.
Do you believe that? By faith I do! Amen!
Now just one last thought for today...
3. We Must Forgive...
Now imagine with me, you’ve been making your house payment for 30 years and you still owe 30 more years… and then suddenly some benefactor came and paid all your debt…
You would feel such a relief… the debt you could never seem to pay, it is suddenly paid. You would be shout’n from the roof tops, I’m free! This gracious person has helped me… Praise the Lord.
That is the idea of this man, he has been forgiven all that he ever owed, his family is safe and secure all because of the work of another who had mercy and compassion on him.
You know we get excited when someone in front of us buys our McD’s for breakfast one morning… and we promise, we will pay it forward! Hopefully we do if we are able...
Pay it forward… this man is free of His great debt… He should pay it forward...
Well that’s not the spirit of this man.. Let’s look at our text again...
28 But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ 29 So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ 30 He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt.
The same kind of story plays out, the only difference is the servant who was just forgiven His debt goes out and seeks repayment from another servant who owes him.
And look at his debt, this man owes him a 100 denarii, which is a 100 days wages. Now my friends a debt is simply a debt, but Jesus tells us of the enormous difference here between what was owed.
It reminds us that He has been given so much, would be in turn give back..
No He doesn’t....
This one man, attacks the other man, “...Pay me what you owe me…” ver 28. And the man in humility fell down and pleaded for mercy, “...I will repay you....”
This man attacks the other and his fellow servant pleads as he did before the King earlier, but he would not have mercy on him, He would not be gracious with him and verse 30 says he placed his fellow servant into prison until he could repay him.
It shocks us… and it shocked others… look at the Scriptures, verse 31
31 When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place.
His fellow servants are so shocked, they went and told the King about this man’s actions...
It really tells us here that this man’s actions were so appalling, people could not believe what they were seeing, in truth having been given such mercy, such grace He should have acted with grace… but he didn’t...
What does it tell us.. Never forget we have been forgiven by God, we have received His wondrous grace. We should be people filled with forgiveness when others wrong or hurt us. Hang on to these thoughts my friends....
Now moving on… look at what happens next… verses 32-35
32 Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ 34 And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. 35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
The King is so angry, the lavish mercy He extended to the servant isn’t appreciated, it is spurned. And the King vents his anger… You should of had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you...
And suddenly the King orders him imprisoned and tortured until he could repay his original debt… in truth the King has given this servant a life sentence for his wicked actions.
Then Jesus gives us one more point to consider… look at verse 35
35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
My friends forgiveness is a necessity in this life. You cannot live spiritually or physically without it.
You must be forgiven of your sins to enter into the Kingdom of God. And God offers forgiveness to anyone who would turn to Him in repentance, asking God for salvation.
The Scriptures tell us, all who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
But physically we need forgiveness as well. You see being forgiven spiritually should be reflected in the physical as well. Jesus has been teaching about this already in this chapter
Now let me take you back up to one more passage here…look at verses 21-22
21 Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.
Now Peter presents a case to Jesus… How many times do I need to forgive a brother who sins against me?
Peter presents a case that seems so generous, shall I forgive him up to 7 times? You see according to Jewish law, you were required to forgive a person for the same offense up to 3 times, after 3.. you didn’t have to according to the law. So Peter is really being generous, Shall we forgive that person up to 7 times...
And Jesus sees what Peter is doing, and it is not bad in any way, but Peter is still missing the mark.. God promises to forgive, so should we… So Jesus says not 7 times Peter, but how about seventy seven times… in truth it represented a unlimited amount.
We are always to forgive and if someone has offended you or if you have offended someone, how can we stand before God ourselves having received His generous grace.
God in His love for us, took our offenses that were against Him and Him alone and He still forgave us… and the Scriptures tell us that He has cast our offenses as far as the east is from the west, into the depths of the sea…
He has cast away our sin and forgiven us. Never to remember our sins again. By grace my friends you are saved.
And in the way you have been forgiven, we should forgive as well. So I would ask you my friends; do you have an offense, un-forgiveness toward another? Has someone done something to you… Seek out those people and forgive them and restore them and allow people to see Jesus in You.
Reflect God grace my friends....
You had a great debt, God forgave you graciously… and we must forgive as well.
So what do you see in your life?
What is there? Are you clear or do you need forgiveness or to extend forgiveness my friends? God loved you.. share HIs love with others.