SERMON TITLEA FORGIVING HEART
Matthew 18:21-35
Today we are going to look at a parable that Jesus told to his disciples. Jesus often spoke in parables. It is through the mercy and grace of God, that He would teach us complex truths through parables. He could have just said, �This is the way it is! Either get it or don�t get it, I don�t care!� But a parable, it�s like doing an end run, or coming around to the back door of our heart. Parables are like velcro which sticks to our heart. A parable is easy to remember. It�s a gracious way to be taught. We have such a gracious God! Many of the parables in the Bible start out��The kingdom of God is like��, and then would come the teaching through an understandable story a heavenly truth about God�s kingdom which would otherwise have been difficult to understand. We owe a debt of gratitude to Peter�s lack of fear in speaking out and asking questions of Jesus. Due to that fearlessness, we have this parable from which we can learn a lot about the kingdom of God. Read with me the scripture in Matthew, chapter 18, verse 21�
Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, �Lord, how many times should I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?
What a question! How many times should I forgive? Jesus had just been speaking about forgiving one another. Now Peter jumps in and says, �Well, listen, there must be something about this forgiving, but there must be a limit�maybe just seven times�how about that Lord?�
verse 22 � Jesus answered, �I tell you not seven times, but 77 times. (or 70 times 70 in some translations.)
verse 23 � Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. And as he began the settlement, a man who owed him 10,000 talents was brought to him. Since he was unable to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. The servant fell on his knees before him. �Please be patient with me,� he said, �and I will pay back everything.� The servant�s master took pity on him, and cancelled the debt, and let him go.
verse 28 � But, when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him 100 dinari. He grabbed him and he began to choke him. �Pay back what you owe me!� he demanded. His fellow servant fell to his knees, �Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.�
verse 30 � But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and went and told their master everything that had happened. Then the master called the servant in. �You wicked servant,� he said. �I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn�t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?� In anger, his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured until he paid back all he owed. verse 35 � This is how your heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your hearts.
What a parable!
I am so thankful sometimes for Peter. Had not Peter uttered the things that he uttered, we would not know a lot of things as well as we do about the kingdom of God. verse 21 � �How many times should I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Peter has his eyes on others who are sinning against him. Maybe up to seven times?
You see, Peter�s brand of forgiveness is limited. It�s situational. It�s self-centered. It�s limited up to seven times. �This is how far I can go, Lord. Can I go this far and still be righteous? Without realizing it, what Peter is doing is putting limits on God�s ability to forgive. It�s as if he would say to the Lord, �Lord, how often should I honor you? Up to seven times? And then after that I�m free? He was putting a limit on God�s grace.
It�s situational, small, provincial. Based on Peter�s criteria only. �This is how I see it, and these are the parameters of my forgiveness. I�ll offer forgiveness based on my criteria,� Peter is saying. Situational, and limited to my chosen situation.
And it�s also very self-centered. �Up to seven times!! Look at me, well past the national average! I�m able to forgive someone up to seven times!� Self-centered.
Notice that Peter did not ask Jesus, �How often will others have to forgive me when I sin against them?� He wasn�t thinking about that. Isn�t that how we all think? Peter is just revealing how we all think. I remember a long time ago, I was probably fourteen or fifteen, and I had a friend two or three years older than I was who had a car. We�d drive around and it was cool that he would take me places. One day somebody cut us off. This car went in front of us. I thought that the cool, teenaged thing to do was to stick your head out of the window, bang on the side of the door and yell at the offender. So I did that. My friend looked at me and said, �You idiot! What are you doing? Someday you�re going to be driving and you�ll do something, and you will want somebody to forgive you.� Do we ever think about that when we are driving around in our cars? The other people in their cars, they will need forgiveness and we�re going to need it as well. I was amazed at how mature my friend was, because I had never known him to be so mature. I have never forgotten that incident. Some day, somebody�s going to have to forgive us. Peter was not thinking about that at all. He was self-centered. Well, Peter revealed his heart. Now Jesus is going to reveal His heart.
There is no limit to forgiveness! Not seven times, not 490 times. In other words, who�s counting? Suppose we did count. All right�that�s one, and we mark it down. That�s two�boy don�t you get to three. That�s three�and pretty soon we�re up to six. With all of our attention on counting, is that forgiveness? I don�t think so.
You see, God doesn�t count times forgiven. Unlimited forgiveness. Complete, total forgiveness.
And God�s forgiveness is not situational. It doesn�t have boundaries on it. God is no respecter of persons. He forgives all. All situations, all circumstances.
And God�s forgiveness is not self-centered. Because it�s based on love. How often do we ever look at others, particularly those we have trouble with, and look at them through Jesus� eyes? How does Jesus see them? Would Jesus be offering them forgiveness? Right now, perhaps when I am not? Forgiveness is based on love. The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed�The kingdom of God is like a man who sowed seed in a field�The kingdom of God is like someone who found buried treasure� The kingdom of God is like a pearl of great price� The kingdom of God is like a kingdom full of people who forgive. That�s what the kingdom of God is like. It�s not the kingdom of the world. It�s the kingdom of God.
�Up to seven times Peter? Come on, I�ve given you new life. Now give life to others through forgiveness without limit� Jesus would say. This forgiveness is based on the foundation laid by God in our lives. Whether we feel it, or know about it that much, or understand it, our live is founded in the fact that we are forgiven. God doesn�t expect us to act in our own power, because something new has happened within us which makes us able to forgive.
Complete forgiveness. The price has been paid in full.
Think about the king in this parable. He was an absolute sovereign. He had absolute power. The servant had forgotten that he was accountable to the king. He walked around carrying this huge debt thinking all was O.K. Then he was called in to pay up what he owed. 10,000 talents. No way he can pay it. Sell all that he has including the servant in order for the king to get what he could. The servant falls down begging patience. But it took 15 years in that time to earn one talent for a servant. In other words, an impossible debt was owed. Completely out of the servant�s ability to pay. Perhaps a lot of people are like that with God. Not realizing how much they owe Him. Religions based on works are begging God to be patient with them while they attempt to pay what is owed through their efforts. You can see the folly of that. We have a just God who says that we have an infinite price that we owe. Some try to justify themselves, thinking that they aren�t as bad as so-and-so. God says a debt is a debt. Some try to bargain with God, trying to figure out a payment plan for God. God how much is going to church worth? Very few will admit that they cannot possibly pay.
The doorway into the kingdom of God is first admitting, �God I cannot pay, please have mercy on me, a sinner.� That�s why Jesus began the sermon on the mount with �Blessed are the poor in spirit�� When you realize that you have nothing to offer God in payment of your debt, there is where you enter the kingdom of God. By God�s grace, in the scripture, he has plainly told us that we have a debt that we cannot pay. Only Jesus, only Jesus can pay our debt. We need to learn that about the forgiveness that God offers. Jesus is the only currency that God accepts. Only Jesus has the infinite value in God�s eyes to pay our infinite debt.
Anyone who comes to Christ, all your debts are paid in full. That�s what this parable is about. That is the foundation that our lives are based on. We are more like that servant in the parable than we would like to admit. God forgives us and we finally feel free. But now there is responsibility that comes with that freedom. What did the servant do with his freedom? Did he celebrate God�s amazing grace? No, he showed more of an amazing lack of grace. He refused to forgive another who only owed him a few dollars. When your eyes are opened to what has happened, a sense of injustice arises in all of us. That is just not fair! After the great forgiveness just bestowed on him. And with a lack of forgiveness for his fellow servant, the king could not justly forgive him.
The point of the parable is that we are forgiven and that we are to forgive in turn. This is an absolute command for us who are believers. If we are holding unforgiveness in our hearts, we are sinning against the Lord. He wants us to make it right. We have received new life, we have a life based on a whole foundation of forgiveness not deserved. He who is forgiven little, loves little. Until we understand how much we have been forgiven, our response to others will lack love. The more we understand the grace given and are broken before God, the more we will be soft and tender and openhearted to those around us. The kingdom of God is made up of people who forgive.
