Good morning. It's good to see each and every one of you guys here.
It's always a pleasure to be able to preach to you God's Word.
As many of you guys know, I'm in the same preaching course
actually that our brother Charlie's in, and that's why we get to preach
for you guys and get the opportunity. If you notice,
my wife Christine, she's going to be recording me, so I have to watch this recording
and have a physical reaction, cringing.
I'm writing an evaluation of my own preaching.
But I love you guys, and I love this church. It's an honor.
I consider it an honor and a privilege to be able to preach from this pulpit.
Our text today comes from Matthew 18,
verses 21 to 35. It's on the parable of the
unforgiving servant.
Out of the options of the texts that we could preach for our class, I chose this text
because of its reminder of its countercultural message
to forgive.
We as a culture, we don't celebrate forgiveness.
We celebrate getting one's due.
When
a protagonist in the movie,
he's mistreated, marginalized,
forgotten.
The movie doesn't conclude with him
forgiving.
I don't know. We wouldn't like that.
We want to see him grind.
We want to see him go through his training montages,
and we want to see him get his victory,
get his revenge.
Nowadays,
if you don't like
something that someone has done to you,
we cancel them.
We label them as toxic,
and we remove them as far as we can from our lives.
But forgiveness
is the one thing.
The super glue that keeps
all our relationships intact.
It's the glue that keeps our friendships,
our marriages,
this own church together.
If we stop being a forgiving people,
this church will stop,
will cease to exist.
That's how important this message of forgiveness is.
So if you don't have a Bible,
you'd like one,
please just raise your hand,
and one of our members would happily
get you a copy.
For the rest of you,
let's open up our Bibles
to Matthew 18,
21 to 35.
Let's bow our heads in prayer
for the reading and preaching of God's word.
Well, holy God,
I am your servant.
You are our king.
Pray that you would address us
by your word,
your infallible
and inspired word.
As we remember
that the inspiration
comes not from us,
not from my own intellect
or my own lips,
but it comes from your word.
I pray that we would understand
and apply the words
that you have for us today
that we could be
a forgiving church,
a counter-cultural,
radically forgiving church,
and that the world
will know us
by our love.
We cannot forgive
as you have called us to forgive
unless you help us,
unless you supply the love
that we need to forgive.
Pray you would meet us.
Holy Spirit,
draw us close to you.
Speak to us.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Please stand,
if you are able,
for the reading of God's
infallible word.
Starting from verse 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?
Jesus said to him,
I do not say to you
seven times,
but 77 times.
Therefore,
the kingdom of heaven
may be compared
to a king
who wished to settle
accounts with his servants.
When he began to settle,
one was brought to him
who owed him
10,000 talents.
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.
So a servant
fell on his knees
imploring him,
have patience with me
and I will pay you
everything.
And out of pity
for him,
the master of that servant
released him
and forgave him
the debt.
But when that same servant
went out,
he found one of his
fellow servants
who owed him
just a hundred denarii,
a hundred denarii.
And seizing him,
he began to choke him
saying,
pay what you owe.
So his fellow servant
fell down
and pleaded with him,
have patience with me
and I will pay you.
He refused
and went
and put him in prison
until he should pay
the debt.
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.
And his master summoned him
and said to him,
you wicked servant,
I forgave you
all that debt
because you pleaded with me.
And should you not
have had mercy
on your fellow servant
as I had mercy on you?
And in anger,
his master
delivered him
to the jailers
until he should pay
all his debt.
So also
my heavenly father
will do to every one of you
if you do not forgive
your brother
from your heart.
This is God's holy
and authoritative word.
You may be seated.
In her book,
The Hiding Place,
Corrie ten Boom
recounts her ministry
during World War II
of sheltering
and hiding Jews
after Nazi Germany
invaded her home country
of the Netherlands.
But on the last day
of February 1944,
a Dutch informant
essentially ratted her out.
So the entire
Ten Boom family
was forced
to go to
concentration camps.
And there,
her father
would quickly die.
Then Corrie
and her sister Betsy,
they were sent
to Ravensbruck,
which was a
woman's labor's camp
in Germany.
And slowly
but surely,
after the suffering
that they experienced,
her sister Betsy
would also die
there as well.
But God spared Corrie
due to
a clerical error,
essentially just a miracle.
He,
she was released
from the camp
when just one week later,
all the women
in her age group,
they were sent
to the gas chambers
to their death.
And God used her.
Years later
after the war
at a church service
in Munich,
she was sharing
the gospel of Christ
when she saw
that man,
that one man.
She knew him instantly.
He used to be
a Nazi guard
at Ravensbruck.
He was part
of the people
that killed
and tortured
my friends
and family.
And as the church
was emptying,
he would
go up to Corrie,
beaming,
thrusting out
his hand,
saying,
how grateful
I am
for your message,
Frowlin.
To think
that as you say,
he has washed
away my sins.
Can you
forgive me?
Any one of us
could imagine
what she would feel.
She wasn't
exactly happy
that this man
was in front of him
sticking out his hand
asking for her
forgiveness.
Instead,
angry,
vengeful thoughts
began to flood
her mind,
remembering
this man's
horrific sin.
I'll read
what Corrie said
about this encounter.
I tried
to smile.
I struggled
to raise my hand.
I could
not.
I felt
nothing,
not the slightest
spark of warmth
or charity.
So I breathed
a silent prayer,
Jesus,
I cannot
forgive him.
Give me
your forgiveness.
this.
As I took
his hand,
the most
incredible thing
happened.
Both Corrie
and I
are amazed
of what happened.
From her shoulder
along her arm,
through her hand,
the current
seemed to pass
along.
Into her heart
sprang up
a well of love
for this stranger
that almost
overwhelmed her.
just holding
his hand
for several
moments
and her eyes
filled with tears,
she proclaimed,
I forgive you,
brother,
with all
my heart.
This is
an amazing
testimony
of powerful
forgiveness,
but Corrie
and I,
we both
don't share
this story
to be in awe
of her
or her faith.
The source
that Corrie
tapped into
wasn't the
endless reservoir
of her own love,
but it was God's.
See,
the fulcrum
that the world's
healing turns upon
is not our own
innate goodness,
but it's Jesus'
radical forgiveness
for us.
And that's why
we can ultimately
obey the main
point of our passage,
that we are to
forgive without
limit,
without limit,
ultimately because
God has forgiven
us that much more.
And in this,
he promises
to give us
the love
that we need
to be able
to love
our enemies,
to love
our offenders.
So in this sermon,
we're going to talk
about the command
of forgiveness,
the conviction
that you need
to be able
to forgive
in this way,
and the consequences
of forgiveness.
In other words,
we're called
to forgive
without limit,
forgive because
we have been
forgiven so much
more,
and forgive
because of
the consequences.
our passage
opens with
disciple Peter
coming to Jesus
and asking him
how frequently
must he forgive
his fellow brother
who sinned
against him.
You see,
it's really a natural
question to what
Jesus said earlier
in the passage
in verses 15
to 17.
In that passage,
Jesus teaches
his disciples
to confront
the sin that they
see in brothers
and sisters,
unrepentant sin.
And if they
remain unrepentant,
they must continue
to escalate the issue
and the stakes
until they have
to come to the
decision where
they remove
that person,
remove that
unrepentant person
from their midst
altogether.
This is widely
known for the
instructions of
church discipline
and even
excommunication.
But if they
repent,
which is the
whole entire
purpose of
church discipline
is to get
them to repent,
they have
gained their
brother and
sister back.
So Peter
naturally asks
just then how
many times do
I have to
forgive?
How many times
do I have to
go through this
cycle?
How many times
must I decide
to live with
the painful
consequences of
someone else's
sin and not
hold it against
them?
You see,
Peter's question
is one that
many, many of
us have asked
before.
Let me ask
you a series
of diagnostic
questions to
see if your
limit of
forgiveness,
your patience
has ever been
tested.
Number one,
number one,
are you a
driver?
Are you a
driver in
Boston specifically?
That'll test
your patience.
Number two,
do you have
roommates?
You guys are
roommates, I
know some of
you guys are
roommates in
here, don't
look at each
other here.
number three,
do you have
parents?
Do you have
siblings?
Family relationships
can get really
messy.
Number four,
this is a big
one, are you
married?
So that last
question, Ruth
Graham, wife to
famous evangelist
Billy Graham, has
widely stated one
time, the happy
union, the happy
marriage is the
union of two
good forgivers.
Unless you think
that they had a
perfect marriage,
because after all
it's Billy and
Ruth Graham, during
an interview she
was asked if she
had ever
contemplated divorcing
Billy.
And to that she
quit back, divorce?
No.
Murder?
Yes.
But the reality
is whether you're
married or not, the
bottom line is if
you're in a
relationship with
any other fellow
human being, any
other sinner, you
will experience the
need to forgive and
to ask for forgiveness
and to go through that
cycle again and again
and again.
Every one of us has
experienced the
frustration of, just
why is this person
like this?
Why would he say
something like this?
Why can't she be more
understanding?
Why doesn't he ever
learn how many times
do I have to forgive?
So Peter, the
faithful student, he
takes a stab at that
question.
He asks, seven times,
Lord?
His instincts are
really in the right
place because he's
being quite generous
according to the Jewish
standard at that time.
They were taught to
forgive up to three
times.
Essentially it's a
three strikes and you're
out rule.
And so with that
instinct, he more than
doubles that limitation
hoping that he'd get a
blessed are you, Simon
bar Jonah, not a get
behind me, Satan.
But what Jesus says in
response, it's quite
astonishing.
If you think about it,
if you sit with it, it's
astonishing.
He says, I do not say to
you seven times.
That phrase indicates he's
rewriting what the Jewish
teachings of that time
are.
I do not say to you seven
times, but 77 times.
You guys all know that he's
not being literal here.
It's not that you're just
waiting until the 77th time.
No, it's that if you're
counting at all, you've got
it wrong.
If you are keeping a record
of wrongs, you've got it
wrong.
Jesus wants us all to
forgive without limit.
Without keeping a record of
wrongs, this is a radical,
far-reaching, community-
transforming call to forgive.
If you sit with that and you
think about it, you might
start to have some questions
about that radical call.
You might ask, surely this
doesn't mean to forgive
ceaselessly.
What if my offender isn't even
repentant?
What if he's not even sorry
about that?
And in this fallen world, I
know that this applies to some
of you whose lives have been
tragically torn apart about
people who don't even seem to
care.
And so I think it's important to
clarify that forgiveness is not
the same thing as reconciliation.
We have to make that distinction.
Forgiveness is the basis of
reconciliation, but that does not
mean that they are one and the
same thing.
Forgiveness, again, is the loving
disposition toward an enemy,
toward an offender, and rejecting,
taking vengeance into your own
hands.
But complete reconciliation requires
three things.
It requires the offender's
repentance.
Repentance, it requires a change
pattern of living, and it requires
a rebuilding of trust.
Only then a relationship can be
built back to what it once was.
Forgiveness does not allow unrepentant
abusers to continue to go on
abusing.
We're not called to reconcile every
broken relationship because sometimes
those things are just simply out of
our hands.
But nonetheless, the command is that we
are always required to forgive from
our hearts.
We must always be ready to be able to
transact that forgiveness once that
time comes that is appropriate.
Because Jesus still calls us to love
our enemies and to pray for those who
persecute you.
And theologically, it's not because we
first repented that Jesus saved us.
No, we were dead in our sins.
God is the one who spoke life into
these dry bones and led us to
repentance.
We didn't even know that we needed to
repent.
But nonetheless, he extended his mercy in
such an incredible way.
And in the same way, we are called to
love and forgive our offenders even when
they don't ask for forgiveness.
forgiveness.
But you might continue to object.
It's not just to continue to forgive this
way, right?
Some people need to face justice.
Again, I say it's important to define
forgiveness carefully.
Forgiving is the rejection of taking
personal vengeance or payback into your
own hands.
Forgiving is not forgetting.
In other words, forgiveness looks like
not being the judge, the jury, and the
executioner of our offender, but forgiving
instead trusts God and sometimes trusting
his appointed governing system to uphold and
carry out institutional justice.
But still, Jesus calls us to love our enemy, to
want the very best for them, to want heaven for
them.
Because our unbelievably gracious God wants the
same thing for them.
That's why Rachel Den Hollander, the first woman to
speak up against sexual assaulter Larry Nassar, the
disgraced former team doctor of the U.S.
Women's National Gymnastics Team.
She said this in her viral testimony against him at his
criminal trial.
I pray you experience the soul-crushing weight of guilt
so that you may someday experience true repentance and
true forgiveness from God, which you need far more than
forgiveness from me.
Although I extend that to you as well.
In that testimony, she offers both forgiveness and
calls the judge to uphold justice.
She even calls for the highest level of institutional
punishment for Nassar.
You see, those things need not to be mutually exclusive.
Sometimes forgiving is loving our enemy by helping that
person see the soul-crushing weight of guilt, as she says,
through the cold water wake-up call of justice.
And so we must obey Jesus' command to forgive endlessly and
countlessly.
Even if they don't repent.
Even if they need to face institutional justice.
But again, if you compare the context of this earlier passage, the
context we're talking about is it's a repentant Christian brother.
So then how much more should you forgive ceaselessly?
So forgive your fellow Christian whom you won after confronting his or
her sin.
Forgive even if it costs you time, blood, tears, sleep, money.
Forgive in your heart.
Even the person that you excommunicated from your church and is
repentant.
Are you ready to do that?
And if that same brother sins against you again, maybe in the same
exact way, and he repents, forgive.
Forgive.
And then he sins against you again and repents, forgive.
And when he sins against you again and repents, what do you think Jesus'
answer will be?
Yes, forgive again.
And that forgiveness should naturally follow its way outside the church too.
You must forgive the person who's cut you in line and cut open your heart and
forgive everyone in between.
Forgive your parents, your siblings, your spouse, your boss, your roommate.
Forgive your previous church.
Forgive your pastor.
Forgive insults, stealing, gossiping, backbiting, betrayal, and selfishness.
Forgive without limit.
Forgive even if it hurts.
So with one final objection, you might plea, this is impossible.
I can't do this.
This is so hard.
You're right.
It is impossible for you.
This kind of forgiveness is nothing short of a miracle.
But with God, all things are possible.
It all begins with his love.
And that's why we can forgive limitlessly.
Because we were forgiven limitlessly.
We need to have that conviction if we are to ever forgive in this way.
So to prove this point, Jesus launches into his parable of the unforgiving servant.
He compares the kingdom of heaven to a king who wished to settle his accounts with his servants.
And we meet this one servant in particular.
And we found out that he has an astronomical, almost an incalculable debt of 10,000 talents to the king.
And to put that into terms that you might better understand,
a talent was originally a weight of 30 kigs of metal.
So it's typically silver.
And a common laborer at that time would expect to make around two talents over the course of his entire life.
If you do the math, simple math, you would have to work 5,000 lifetimes to be able to pay this debt back off.
And if you want to look at the sheer dollar amount of silver, it's roughly about a quarter of a billion dollars.
For a lowly servant, that is a shocking amount of debt.
How does that even happen?
How bad with your money do you have to be?
And back then, there was no filing for bankruptcy.
There's no lowering of your credit score.
There's no limited access to new loans.
No, no.
In those days, you lost everything.
You lost all your possessions.
And on top of that, you were thrown to prison, a cold, miserable prison,
until you could pay all your debt back.
And for this man, because of the sheer debt that he owed,
this is essentially equivalent to a lifetime sentence.
No, more accurately, this is a 5,000 lifetimes sentence.
And on top of that, verse 25 says that the rest of his family would be thrown into prison.
A man, he's called to be the provider, the protector of his family.
He's to make sure that his family is provided for physically, spiritually, and financially.
He's supposed to be the rock of his family.
But instead, you're looking at a man who made a complete failure of his life.
He is a complete wreck.
He's a complete failure as a husband, as a father, and as a servant.
And before we keep going and point and mock,
don't forget that the point of this parable is that Jesus is actually talking about us.
Every one of us, each one of us, is this lowly servant with an insurmountable debt to the great king.
Now, you might push back, but really?
Is this me?
You know, I don't think I've made a wreck in my life.
I have a steady job.
You know, good family.
I've got a two-bed, two-bath in Cambridge.
Keep my nose clean.
Keep out of trouble.
I'm really not that bad compared to other people in this life.
But the things are pretty good for me.
And if you're like this, this is you,
you're missing the fact that Jesus is using an analogy of extreme financial debt
to convey your extreme spiritual debt before a most holy God.
It's been said that the heinousness of sin lies not so much in the nature of sin committed,
but as in the greatness of the person sinned against.
In school, I had a frustrating experience witnessing a undergrad,
a freshman who spent a mere month studying this one subject,
wrongly claim in lecture that he knew better than the professor
who spent decades upon decades spilling her blood, sweat, tears,
trying to study the subject.
And he was completely wrong.
But he still kept on claiming that he knew better.
That pales in comparison to what we do with our God.
The creator God, infinite in wisdom, infinite in power and perspective.
He said, follow me in my ways, and you will find life and life abundant.
But to that, we said, nah.
Yeah, my ways, I think my ways are in fact higher than your ways.
My thoughts are higher than your thoughts.
I can create my own happiness.
I can create my own destiny.
I have my own meaning.
Thank you very much.
And you know what this is called?
This is called sin.
And scripture teaches that just one of them merits eternal damnation.
And it's not like that one good deed can cancel out one bad deed.
That's not how this works.
The only way out is that the almighty judge just might spare you.
Maybe you do acknowledge some spiritual debt to the king.
But you underestimate the severity that you owe.
The debt that you owe.
You operate as if you owe God $10,000.
Maybe even $20,000.
But not hundreds of millions.
And with enough elbow grease and grit, you think you could pay it back and get even with God.
When you operate like that, you know what you can become?
You become like this tiny little boat.
Tossed by the whims of the seas.
You get high.
You get elevated.
When you feel like you're doing well.
When you, you know, I'm reading my Bible a lot.
And doing a lot of good things.
I'm paying back my debt.
But then the next day you come crashing back down.
When you mess up.
When you do that thing that you said you wouldn't do again.
Always tossed by the waves of the seas.
Going up.
Coming down.
Never stable.
Never secure.
This is the definition.
The quintessential definition of the instability that works righteousness gets you in your life.
No, the debt is far worse than you can imagine.
We've all made a wreck of our lives.
And had a debt that we can never hope to pay.
And when we see how incredible this debt is.
We see that there's no way out of it.
The only right response is to repent before the king.
And to beg him for free mercy.
But in my heart.
What I see in others' hearts lately.
I don't see repentance.
I see whitewashing.
Oh, you know, that's not that bad.
I see self-pity.
I'm sorry.
For what it cost me.
I'm sorry for getting caught.
I see blame shifting.
Oh, it's not my fault.
It's her fault.
It's his fault.
I see self-flagellation.
I'm going to whip myself.
I'm going to feel so bad.
So I make up for it.
And as we see in this parable.
I see a promise to repay.
That last one is the servant.
What's the servant?
Tries to pull off.
When he comes before the king.
He falls on his knees and implores him.
Have patience with me.
And I will pay you everything.
Everything he claims.
If you think about it.
This is an incredibly audacious claim.
For a lowly servant.
Whose financial record is in the net negative.
For 5,000x times.
What he could ever hope to make in his entire life.
Whether he's making just excuses.
Or he's that bold.
Or maybe he's just that bad at math.
This is not repentance here.
Friends, I think that this is one of the hardest things.
Maybe the hardest thing to do in Christianity.
Is to accept free grace.
To humble yourself.
And to declare that I can never pay back the debt that I owe.
To believe that I made a wreck of my life.
And the only source.
The only solution.
Is not internal.
Not if I dig down deep enough.
But it's external.
Outside of me.
I need not my own righteousness.
But I need a foreign.
I need an alien.
An external righteousness.
To cover my sins.
You see, that's why the gospel is so offensive.
It says that we are more sinful than we'd like to believe.
Because the only way out is by free grace.
I find it ironic that we love free stuff.
I love free stuff.
I'd be the first to admit it.
But I'd also be the first to admit that I don't want things to be that free.
You know?
I don't want your charity.
I don't want your pity.
I can do it myself.
I got it.
But that's the message of the gospel.
We're chosen not because of any particular aspect about us.
Really, God?
You didn't choose me because of what I could do for you?
Because of my intellect?
Because of my skill set?
My resume?
My good looks?
My humor?
My money?
No.
God did not choose us because of anything about us.
He chose us in spite of us.
If people saw a film of your life, all your thoughts and all your deeds,
you know what people would say about you, about God?
They would say, wow, God could love someone like him, like her?
He would die for her?
If you're offended by some of the things that you've heard in your life,
try, you were a wretched sinner, you were rebellious, foolish, blind, ignorant, lost, immoral, adulterous,
nothing to offer God but your disobedience.
I think some of the things that we've been offended by kind of pales in comparison to something like that.
Knowing our spiritual condition, therefore, is the only way to deal with this debt,
the only way to deal with this debt is by falling on our knees, falling on our faces,
pleading with the master, not pretending, not pretending like we can pay back anything.
The master in this parable, he knows this too.
Observe how he responds back to the servant in verse 27.
Our text doesn't say, convinced he'd get his money back,
the money, the master forgave him.
No, this is, there's no, you scratch my back, I scratch yours.
He doesn't think that this is a smart financial investment.
No, he says, out of pity for him.
It's no sweeter words.
The high and mighty king, by pitying this poor man,
saved this man and his family,
saves their life from a lifetime in prison.
See, the only thing that's more shocking in this parable
than this incalculable debt that this lowly servant,
I like how could he even possibly gain that much debt?
The only thing more shocking is that the king,
he could forgive it, just like that, free of charge.
How rich must this king be in money and in mercy
to let that kind of debt slide?
Brothers and sisters, in Christ, the same is true of our heavenly king.
Our God is rich in mercy.
His well, or his grace is a well so deep
that we will never reach the bottom of.
You can dive over and over and over
and you'll never reach the bottom.
There is no limit to God's forgiveness
if we simply just ask.
You see, some of us operate as if
our heavenly fathers, like our earthly fathers,
that we're only just a few mistakes away
from messing up this relationship
and ruining it all.
No.
Nehemiah 9 teaches us that God is ready.
He is at the ready to forgive you.
I love that word.
He's ready.
He's gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
He is ready to embrace you and to forgive you.
He sits at the edge of his seat,
ready to run towards his prodigal son or daughter
who's come back home.
He's never begrudgingly receiving you back
with an attitude of,
you try this again and you see what happens.
No.
He removes our sin as far as the east is from the west.
That means the distance between our sin and us
is in an infinite space.
He casts all our sins to the depths of the sea.
He operates as if we never sinned,
just like the son.
In the high priestly prayer in John 17,
we read that the father loves us
as he loves the son with the same kind of love.
That's mind-boggling.
That's incredible.
There's no limit of the forgiveness that he has for you.
He loves you.
And see that love ultimately displayed
at the cross of Christ
because God is both perfectly forgiving
and perfectly just.
Because of that fact,
someone had to pick up the tab
even when we walk away scotch-free.
And that someone is Jesus Christ
who spilt his blood to pay for your endless debt.
See the expensive price it costs to atone for your sin.
In the Old Testament, under Mosaic law,
Israelites were commanded to sacrifice animals pure and spotless.
The best of the best.
That blood, that animal,
it was meant to hurt your wallet a little bit.
How much more precious
is the blood of the incarnate God?
Jesus, the exact embodiment of God,
the most important,
most powerful,
most lovely human being
in all the universe,
in all history,
who existed before time began,
he spilt his precious blood for you
in order to buy you.
That was the only payment sufficient to buy you.
That's how deeply in debt that you were in.
But then on the flip side,
that's how precious you are to God
that he would send his one and only son to die for you.
Paul writes that though he was rich,
yet for your sake he became poor
so that you, by his poverty,
might become rich.
So as a result of this unbelievable act of kindness,
shouldn't the servant
be transformed from the inside out?
Isn't that the natural response?
Verse 28 says that instead he goes out
and finds a fellow servant
who owed him 100 denarii,
which is 600,000 times less
than what he had just been forgiven of.
600,000 times less.
If you use the same numbers,
this is roughly 400 bucks.
Instead of showing the same forgiveness
that he received,
he violently seizes
and he chokes him.
He chokes the dude.
Demanding to pay back what he owes.
Notice what the servant pleads with him then.
He pleads the exact same thing,
almost verbatim.
Except this time,
it was very much plausible
for this servant to pay him back 400 bucks
compared to 10,000 talents.
Instead of showing the same mercy
that he had received,
he throws him into jail
until he should pay what he owe.
Now this man, technically,
he had every right to do this
because the fellow servants owed him money.
He had the individual right
to send him to jail.
But compare that to the reaction
of the bystanders.
They witnessed this
and felt deep in their bones
that exercising his right
was so wrong
in light of the mercy
that this man had received.
See that the equation
is completely flipped upside down.
He wants to equate for God's mercy,
his forgiveness,
his unbelievable love to us.
Moreover, this parable uses a phrase,
fellow servant.
It uses it four times.
I think it's meant to emphasize
the parity,
the equality between the servants
and the disparity
between the servants and the king.
But in station,
and in power,
and significance.
What that means is that
this fellow servant,
he's just a servant like him.
He's no better than him.
If he received mercy
from the high king,
ought he forgive his equal?
And likewise,
if we received
life-changing mercy
from the master
who reigns on high,
how much more
should we extend forgiveness
to our fellow brothers and sisters
whom we are no better than?
We are all equal to.
So when you are offended,
when you are hurt
by someone else's sin,
forgive,
because you have been forgiven
much more.
When it comes to you forgiving,
you guys are all smart.
I know that our church is smart.
I want you guys
to remember this number.
Remember this ratio
that Jesus presents to us.
It's 600,000 to one.
That's the ratio of debt
that we have been forgiven
compared to the debt
that we have to forgive others.
That's the first motivation
of why we should forgive.
The parable also reminds us
to forgive
because of the consequences
if we don't.
Wrapping up the parable,
the fellow servants
report him to the king
and in his righteous anger,
he proclaims,
you wicked servant.
I forgave you all that debt
because you pleaded with me
and should you not have had mercy
on your fellow servant
as I had mercy on you.
So he reinstates the debt
throws him to the jailers.
Actually, some translations
have torturers here
which just goes to show
how severe the consequences are
for unforgiveness.
Jesus makes the final admonition
of this parable very clear.
Forgive your brother and sister
from your heart.
From the very core of who you are,
everything of your being,
forgive.
If you don't,
the same will happen to you.
Forgiving from your heart
means that you can't claim
to be solid with this person
but still than ever
treat them so differently.
Treat them a little bit colder
than before.
Your answers get shorter.
Your run-ins are less frequent
because you're trying to avoid them.
Your look becomes more like a scowl.
Forgiving from your heart
means that you can't claim
to be good with this person
but now you're withholding,
giving the benefit of the doubt.
Now you assume the worst
about him or her.
Instead of bearing,
believing,
hoping,
and enduring all things,
you curse,
you doubt,
you suspect,
and you blame
all things.
If we withhold forgiveness
from our fellow servants,
we become like doormats
for Satan.
We become just doormats
for him to simply
walk into our lives
and wreak havoc
on our relationships,
on our livelihoods.
If we withhold forgiveness,
we become enslaved
and imprisoned
by our pasts,
always thinking about
what happened to us,
what we could have done,
what we should have said,
never letting that wound heal,
always living in the past,
never going into the future.
If we withhold forgiveness,
we become bitter people.
And as the famous quote goes,
we ultimately drink
the poison of bitterness
hoping that the other person
will drop dead.
Those are all infectious consequences
of unforgiveness in our lives.
If we don't deal with it now,
that infection will spread
and it'll spread.
But the greatest consequence
unforgiveness has
is on your final standing
before God.
As the parable opens,
the kingdom of heaven
is coming.
It is coming.
And one day,
the heavenly king
will settle his accounts
with all his servants.
And what our spiritual
balance sheet says
will have eternal consequences
for our souls.
Learning from this parable,
we must be wary
of forfeiting the forgiveness
that we have received
if we fail
to forgive our fellow
brothers and sisters around us.
And while this forgiveness
is freely given,
be very careful
not to presume on it.
That's an extremely dangerous thought.
In other words,
there is a motivating fear
of punishment
in this parable.
There's no denying it.
And while the more fundamental motive
to forgive
is in fact gratitude
and imitation
of the mercy
that we receive
from the great high king,
at the same time,
Jesus does still appeal
to our self-interest.
So today,
Jesus is asking you,
what will you choose?
Are you going to be found rich
in this union with Christ
by free grace,
by admitting your need
and accepting the pity
and mercy of our God
and imitating that forgiveness
to your offenders?
Or are you going to forfeit
that grace
by withholding it altogether,
by refusing to forgive?
Jesus loves us so much
that he warns us clearly.
How you measure other people
in this life
will be how God measures you.
Let me say that again
to make that clear.
How you measure other people
in this life
will be how God measures you.
If you measure others
with grace and charity,
God will measure you
the same way.
If you measure others
with a wrathful,
vengeance,
a sinic spirit,
God will do the same for you.
Because if you staunchly refuse
to offer amazing grace
to others,
that's evidence
that you likely haven't experienced it
in the first place.
You probably haven't repented,
receiving an unbelievable debt forgiven.
Still, I want to say
and hear me clearly,
this doesn't mean
that we are saved by our works.
We're not saved
by our perfect forgiveness.
We have already talked about
how this grace
is completely free.
Jesus is not saying
that he starts the work
that we then have to forgive
or we have to then finish
by our perfect obedience.
It's not that we forgive others first
in order to prove to God
that we are good.
No, we never twist God's arm
into loving us.
No, this forgiveness
forgiveness is an outpouring,
an overflow of results
of the forgiveness
you had received.
And if you have received
this forgiveness,
the command is crystal clear.
Brothers and sisters,
forgive.
There's someone on your heart
right now
that the spirit
is putting on you,
telling you to forgive
that person,
saying, hey, it's time.
It's time to let go
of that bitterness.
It's time to forgive.
If you want to grow
in forgiveness
but don't know how,
let me close
with just a few steps
that you can take.
Number one,
fall on your face
in desperate prayer.
Sean taught a class yesterday
on the power of prayer.
Loving someone
who has hurt you deeply
is one of the greatest reminders
that we cannot obey God
without his amazing grace,
his strength.
We can't do it on our own.
But the prayer
of a righteous person
has great power
as it is working.
Corrie Ten Boom
was a woman
with a nature like ours.
She prayed
that she could forgive
her Nazi captors.
And in her heart,
no bitterness reigned
upon her.
It's obviously not
what James 5 says
but forgiving feels
as much of a miracle
as not reigning
for three and a half years.
So pray.
Pray on your own.
Pray with others.
Pray with your pastors.
Confess your sins
of unforgiveness.
Pray for yourself.
Pray for your offender.
Famous theologian
Dietrich Bonhoeffer said,
I can no longer condemn
or hate a brother
for whom I pray.
No matter how much
trouble he causes me.
Because in prayer,
we begin to see
that person
as God sees them.
As someone
already forgiven
or someone
that God longs
to forgive.
Number two,
remember,
keep that in mind.
That ratio
of 600,000 to one.
Bonhoeffer also said,
if my sinfulness
appears to me
in any way
any smaller
or less detestable
in comparison
to the sins of others,
I am still
not recognizing
my sinfulness
at all.
So remember
that ratio.
Repent
of your incredible
debt of sin.
Once you see
that God
has forgiven you,
600,000
of your sins
ought to
forgive just one
of your brothers.
Number three,
trust in God's justice.
God will never
let any
sin go unpunished.
either upon
the son
or upon
the offender.
He will make
all things
that are wrong,
he will make them right.
He will vindicate
the righteous.
Trust in
the ultimate
justice
that God
will bring.
Four,
this is my last point.
Rinse
and repeat.
Forgiveness
is both
an event
and a process.
For the most
painful
of hurts,
forgiveness
needs to be
a daily choice.
The reality
is that
forgiveness
is messy.
Life is messy.
It's not
usually linear.
Some days
are harder
than others.
It's okay.
Just pick
yourself up
and rinse
and repeat.
Keep praying.
Keep remembering
that ratio.
Keep trusting
in God's
justice.
May we,
Trinity Cambridge
Church,
be known
by our
forgiving hearts.
toward one
another
and towards
the world.
Let's pray.
If you,
Lord,
kept a record
of sins,
Lord,
who could
stand?
But with you
there is
forgiveness
so that we
can,
with reverence,
serve you.
Thank you,
God,
for your
unbelievable
grace towards
us.
Wretched,
weary,
adulterous,
sinful,
lost
people,
your children,
you have
saved,
you have
redeemed.
Help us
to be like
you.
We want to
be like you,
to be able
to forgive
the people
in our lives,
to extend
that amazing
grace that
we have
received,
so that the
world will
know us
by our
love.
In Jesus'
name we
pray.
Amen.