In this special New Year’s sermon, Pastor Dave Capoccia examines Jesus’ teaching on forgiveness in Matthew 18:21-35. Jesus shows you three reasons why God’s children, the forgiven, always forgive others:
1. God Has Forgiven Your Great Debt (vv. 21-27)
2. God Demands You Forgive Lesser Debts (vv. 28-30)
3. God Will Not Forgive the Unforgiving (vv. 31-35)
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let’s pray together great god living word speak to us now from the revelation you gave to the apostles and others marked out by you thank you for preserving that word till today the lord help us to value it to listen to it and to put it into practice by your spirit we ask that you do this jesus name amen i just don’t think i can forgive him she doesn’t deserve to be forgiven i’ll forgive but i won’t forget ever found yourself saying or thinking statements along those lines certainly they are common in our society our modern american culture doesn’t really understand the concept of forgiveness refusing to forgive and seeking revenge are almost exalted as virtues today at the very least inability to forgive is treated as normal even the expected the normal inevitable outcome of experiencing hurt yet our lord jesus in the bible he declares something in stark contrast jesus says that those who do not practice a lifestyle of forgiveness they are also those who have not been forgiven by god to say it another way if you find that you are not able to exercise both frequent and full forgiveness with others even those who sin against you in frequent and substantial ways it is probably because you do not know god and have not been forgiven by him does that sound shocking to you it really shouldn’t be because this truth is all over the bible especially in the new testament it’s just another application of the golden rule do unto others as you would have them do unto you and it is the logical outcome the logical results when you understand the wonderful news of salvation in jesus christ which is what we’ve been celebrating over the past few weeks isn’t it a few months ago in our biblical counseling 101 sunday school class which you can still find online i recommend that to you on one of the lessons we talk through the what and how of biblical forgiveness we didn’t have much time to explore the why why should we forgive others therefore as we start another year 2022 i want to return with you to a crucial passage of the new testament it is all about why the gospel should motivate us to forgive and my prayer is that as we are making various commitments and resolutions before god as to how we want to live this upcoming year one clear resolution will be i pray that this year even today we will forgive others their offenses and seek with all diligence to reconcile with them because we have been forgiven by god please take your bibles and open to matthew 18 verses 21 to 35 matthew 18 21-35 the title of today’s message is forgive as you are forgiven forgive as you are forgiven just a quick word of background before we read our text matthew 18 represents part of our lord jesus’s teaching to the disciples about how to live in a time when god’s kingdom is coming but is delayed and as we heard read earlier the discourse of matthew 18 starts out with a foundational truth and that is true disciples of jesus if they want to get into the kingdom of god they must become like humble children pride will surely keep you away from heaven god’s kingdom and salvation only those who have been transformed into humble dependent trusting obedient children will know god’s mercy and see god’s salvation this position as children will manifest in the lifestyle of those children of those children of god and the rest of matthew 18 illustrates how in some pretty profound ways including when it comes to the issues of sin and forgiveness which is what we’ll see let’s now read our text matthew 18 verses 21 to 35.
then peter came and said to him lord how often shall my brother sin against me and i forgive him up to seven times jesus said to him i do not say to you up to seven times but up to seventy times seven for this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves when he had begun to settle them one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him but since he did not have the means to repay as lord commanded him to be sold along with his wife and children and all that he had and repayment to be made so the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him saying have patience with me and i will repay you everything and the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt but that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii and he seized him and began to choke him saying pay back what you owe so his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him saying have patience with me and i will repay you but he was unwilling and he went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed so when his fellow slaves saw what had happened they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened and summoning him his lord said to him you wicked slave i forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave in the same way that i had mercy on you and his lord moved with anger handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him my heavenly father will also do the same to you if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart as you see matthew 18 21-35 is the parable of the unmerciful slave and this is a parable that is as engaging as it is instructive in this parable we find profound teaching on forgiveness both and how man needs god’s forgiveness and how man needs to forgive his fellow man in this parable jesus shows us three reasons three reasons why god’s children the forgiven always forgive others i’ll give you those reasons as we go along but before that let’s look at the question that prompts jesus’s teaching in parable go back to verse 21 and then peter came and said to him lord how often shall my brother sin against me and i forgive him up to seven times this is the question that is the foundation for this whole section how often should i forgive someone or to say it another way is there some limit to forgiveness and if so what is that limit notice peter’s offers peter offers a seemingly generous answer to his own question by saying up to seven times some jewish teachers in that day taught that one should forgive a person only three times and they based that off of something in amos chapters one and two where god says for three transgressions and for four i will not revoke punishment that’s taken out of context but that’s what they said three repeated sins must be god’s limit so it should be ours too that was their thinking and besides offering any more forgiveness that would just encourage people to sin more only three but not for peter look at peter he goes as high as seven here that might seem pretty biased i’m more forgiving than most i’ll forgive up to seven times but after that you’re dead to me but our lord jesus gives a response that would have surprised peter and the other disciples we see it in verse 22 jesus said to him i do not say to you up to seven times but up to 70 times seven and that latter number there could mean in the original degree could mean 77 or four hundred and ninety now with jesus statement we’re not we might ask wait wait wait wait is jesus saying that the limit for forgivable sins is just further out than peter thought that there are more strikes before you strike out no that’s not the way to understand this as the parable will definitely confirm for us rather jesus is making a point by contrast peter you think seven times is generous try ten times that try seventy times that the point is our forgiveness is to have no limit no matter how many times a person comes to you in repentance seeking forgiveness you are to forgive him just as luke 17 verses 3 and 4 says and no matter how many times or in what terrible ways and people can sin in pretty terrible ways against you no matter how much you are to as the lord’s child and as jesus’s disciple forgive that person in your heart and look to see with eagerness repentance and reconciliation play out in your relationship and we are talking about a real forgiveness here this is not gritting your teeth and forcing an i forgive you from your lips verse 35 of our passage if you just glance ahead it emphasizes that real forgiveness is forgiveness from the heart what your heart really affirms you must as a child of god fully forgive someone and release him from his debts that he has to you by his sin from the heart now there is a i think apparent beauty loftiness and holiness in this standard that jesus gives to us and it is pattern after god’s own heart and his forgiveness but is it possible can god’s people really forgive like that yes if you have a humble child-like heart that loves and trusts god if you have if you become like a child before god you can forgive you can immediately repeatedly and fully forgive from the heart even the worst offenses the worst misunderstandings the greatest neglect the deepest betrayals you can forgive and you are called to do so the key in achieving this and the key encouragement to this is becoming more acquainted with god and his forgiveness which is what jesus’s parable will help us do this morning as i said in this parable jesus shows you three reasons why god’s children the forgiven always forgive others and we see the first reason in the beginning verses of the parable verses 23 to 27 number one god has forgiven you your great debt why should you forgive god has forgiven you your great debt let’s reread these verses for this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves when he had begun to settle them one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him but since he did not have the means to repay his lord commanded him to be sold along with his wife and children and all that he had and repayment to be made so the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him saying have patience with me and i will repay you everything and the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt notice the phrase kingdom of heaven in the beginning of verse 23 jesus is telling us here about an aspect of how god’s kingdom operates which means that understanding it will be key to entering into that kingdom and receiving salvation a situation that jesus presents illustrative of the kingdom of god as of the lord or king calling his slaves to account for their debts to him now the slaves here are clearly no ordinary slaves we can see that they are allowed to use vast amounts of wealth they own property and they can be sold to others along with their families some have suggested that the picture here is evocative of an oriental king and his ministers like a great king of babylon or persia he’s settling accounts with these ministers or these vice governors who were servants to the king and even slaves in a certain sense that may be the picture but regardless we see that the situation of one of these slaves is extraordinary notice verse 24 says that this one slave owed the king ten thousand talents now maybe that number that description doesn’t mean much to us but it certainly would have meant a lot to the original audience original audience probably would have gasped at hearing this amount that is a staggering debt you see one talent was a large unit of money one talent was worth about six thousand denarii and one denarius a silver coin it was the wage of the average manual labor for one day if you emanuel labor you would earn a denarius by working all day a talent is six thousand daenery e and this first slave by owing ten thousand talents he owed the equivalent of 60 million days of labor to underline the crushing nature of this debt from what we can tell there were not even 10 000 talents in circulation as money in the ancient world he owed more than the money that existed and could you imagine the equivalent today could you imagine having a debt that was greater than the amount of circulation in our world according to one source there’s an estimated 80 trillion dollars in world circulation today 80 trillion can you imagine having a personal debt that is greater than that that was this slave’s debt therefore those listening to jesus would have thought of this debt in only one way absolutely unpayable it’s unpayable there’s no way that any slave could ever pay off this kind of debt this yields for us then two important implications the detail of this debt amount yields two implications and the first is this slave must be the worst money manager of all time how could a person manage to rack up a debt this extreme it’s like the slave was trying to mismanage his lord’s money but this slave of course is only a figure remember this is a parable of the kingdom of heaven so who does this first indebted slave represent you you are this first slave whose debt is so vast and absolutely unpayable and your mismanagement is the disobedience of your life you were born a sinner and everything you do is sin think of all the lies you’ve said every mean word you’ve said every lustful thought that you thought every worry that racked you every complaint you uttered or thought every hateful idea you had every hateful deed you did and these are just the beginning of your sins fundamentally we all have to admit outside of jesus we do not love god with all our heart nor do we serve him as he deserves which is the essence of god’s law even the supposedly good things that we do are tainted by selfishness and pride and are therefore an offense to a holy god so you and i in our beginning state we have an incredible debt to pay back to god and we cannot pay it there’s another implication here though based on this debt amount and it’s about the king secondly this king is incredibly almost irresponsibly generous i mean we might wonder at the ineptness of this slave to accrue this debt but we also have to ask why the king would let him get away with it i mean either the king is similarly inept and irresponsible or the king is so good so powerful and so patient that he not only desires but can afford to be patient with this terrible slave even up to a debt of ten thousand talents and any time before this moment in the text the thing the king could have said what are you doing slave are you trying to ruin me it’s time to get rid of you and get some compensation but the king hasn’t done that instead he has said i won’t call him to judgment yet i’ll give him a little more time now again this king or lord he’s just a figure in this parable and who’s the king really the king is god god is so great he’s so good he’s so powerful that he has decided to be patient with your incredible debt your incredible sin debt before him god was not obligated to be patient with you or to give you more time but he has been because that’s who he is he’s that loving and he’s that merciful he chose to extend that mercy to you you have not served god nor honored him as god but god has not judged you the way that you deserve he has given you more time but what have you done with it outside of jesus we have to admit we have not used this extended time to make amends but rather only to rack up more debts such a state how do you think god will react to you now should you not run to god for mercy seeing the true nature of your debt look what happens next in the parable according to verse 25 the king crunches the numbers and discovers what would have been obvious to all the slave is not able to repay the king and seeing how there’s no real prospect of future repayment the king decides to at least get a few pennies worth of repayment by selling this slave or if it’s indeed a minister by selling him into slavery along with the man’s family and his possessions this by the way would hardly make a dent in the man’s debt but at least the sale would allow the king to see some justice after so much financial unfaithfulness and mismanagement but notice something stops the king from this course look at verse 26 again the slave humiliates himself as much as he can he throws himself on the ground he lies prostrate with his face to the floor and he asks the king for mercy have patience with me the slave says and i will repay you everything now in one sense this request is ludicrous more patience to you almost unworthy of slaves more patience so that you can rack up more debt using my money the slave even promises that he will pay back everything which i’m sure must have gotten a laugh from the original hearers because there’s no way that anyone’s going to be able to pay back ten thousand talents that is unpayable besides the slaves track writer track record is not exactly in his favor it’s not like the debt’s been going down over time it’s only gotten worse yet how many people even some of you are saying the same thing to god god give me more time and i’ll i’ll make things right with you i’ll do more good works i’ll say more prayers i’ll do more bible reading i’ll attend church more i’ll give to the church more god i will pay off this debt i promise don’t speak or think so foolishly you cannot pay off your debt by works none of us can you are like this slave your attempts to pay the debt to repay the debt they only increase the debt eventually god’s patience with your brilliant repayment plan will run out and you also will be sold not to satisfy the debt but to satisfy god’s justice and to whom or to what will you be sold to the eternal punishment of a place called hell not to work off your debts it cannot be repaid even through eternal suffering but to satisfy god’s holiness and anger and justice with such a terrible future surely you would not continue to insist on repaying god this way why not instead ask god for mercy because look at what god does for the slave in the form of the king here verse 27 and the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt don’t misunderstand the master didn’t spare the slave because the master appreciated the slave’s desire to repay the debt i’m sure the king totally ignored that senseless promise rather the king felt compassion it felt pity compassion for this foolish desperate debtor and decided to show mercy he forgave the slave’s debt he totally released him from it no work no penance no compensation required the lord merely decided to show mercy when the slave asked for it and is that not incredible forgiveness what incredible forgiveness for such an incredible debt and to such an undeserving debtor but how any bank or creditor who forgave such a massive debt would be instantly ruined you cannot forgive that much and not be destroyed by the financial consequences so how is it that god can absorb the consequences of his forgiveness was as the bible testifies it was not without great cost because god is holy and just he is not able as some imagine to just sweep sin under the rug and say no biggie just forget about it no sin is a big deal to god if god let even one sin one evil act one word one thought go unpunished the way it deserves he would fail to be good he would fail to be holy he would contradict his very being as god he would need to go out of existence all sin needs repayment if not by the debtor then by some creditor on the debtor’s behalf but who could possibly intercede to pay your debt and my debt it’s ten thousand talents only one person only god himself again god did not need to do this but because he is that good in his heart because he is that forgiving god determined to totally pay off the sin debt of his children and this god did by sending his son the word our lord jesus god in the flesh he sent him into the world to live a perfectly righteous life and to die a death on a cross suffering the wrath of god hell itself the price that our sin deserves though this debt of sin is unpayable for any mere man it can be paid by someone whose wealth so to speak is infinite the god man only god can pay off man’s sins once and for all and this jesus our lord jesus did for all those who believe in him he did it at the cross jesus not only paid the sin debt of all sinners but then he credited to each one of them his own righteousness his own perfect life so that each of those believers even us if we have come to know the lord jesus christ might be forgiven and fully reconciled to god jesus doubled exchange his taking the debt is crediting his righteousness it was accepted by the father proven by some of the last words of jesus on the cross when he says it is finished all done and it was proven again by jesus’s own resurrection from the grave three days later that meant that the father accepted his sacrifice his payment as we sometimes sing jesus paid it all how does one become one of god’s forgiven children it’s by doing what any person ought to do when they’re seeking forgiveness you come humbly just like a little child and you ask for mercy you confess to god that he is who he says he is and your sin is what he says it is and you repent of your sins you turn from your sins in your old life and you ask for god’s mercy on you not on the basis of what you’ve done or what you will do but on the basis of what god has done and on the basis of who he is in his heart you embrace jesus christ as your only savior your saving substitute and the master of your life your lord and you begin following him no matter what the cost don’t misunderstand this repentance and faith it is no work rather this faith this belief is what the bible testifies is a gift from god himself ephesians 2 8 9 for it is by grace you have been saved through faith and this not of yourselves it is the gift of god so that no man may boast god gives the faith and in response to the faith he promises that you will be saved acts 16 31 believe in the lord jesus and you will be saved first john 1 9 also says if we confess our sins he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness you don’t have to wonder oh i hope god will save me you know he will how if you come to him in repentance and faith and just ask him for mercy jesus has done it all and when we believe that when we take the lord at his word and believe him we can echo the words of king david in psalm 32 1. psalm 32 1 how blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered each of you if it has not already happened you can be forgiven today by god your 10 000 talent debt you can be forgiven god is ready to forgive he’s calling you even from this passage to come be forgiven so what stops you from doing so why not come to him for mercy just like this slave does we see the first reason that god’s children forgive number one god has forgiven their great debt and this is already an amazing story especially for what it’s showing us about god and his forgiveness but there’s more to it a very instructive second reason made by contrast number two why do god’s children always forgive because god demands you forgive lesser debts number two god demands that you forgive lesser debts and we see this reason illustrated verizon verses 28 to 30.
let’s just start with verse 28.
but that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii and he seized him and began to choke him saying pay back what you owe just when you thought the story couldn’t get any more surprising after that incredible forgiveness the parable takes a shopping a shocking turn you think the reaction to having your 10 000 talent debt forgiven would be celebration adoration of the king telling others the good news about how they can have their debts forgiven or something along those lines but not for this slave unthinkably what he does next according to the story is that he goes to collect a debt from a fellow slave and notice it says he went out and found him it wasn’t like he just ran to him and said oh by the way you have a debt against me he went look for him consider the size of this lesser debt 100 denarii it says now this is no amount to sneeze at it it’s a little more than three months wages now imagine someone owed you three months of your own salary or your husband’s salary that’s no chump change that’s a decent amount of money but what is it in comparison to ten thousand talents i like one calculation i found this second debt is approximately 0.0001 [Music] percent of the first debt it’s 100 thousandth the first debt was unpayable the second debt though substantial it is payable but consider the first slave’s approach to his fellow slave about the debt he seizes him and chokes him what can’t you remind somebody about his debt without resorting to bodily violence especially after you yourself receive this life-giving good news and then we hear what the first slave actually says to the second slave he says pay back what you owe or more literally pay back if you owe he’s basically quoting a proverb to this fellow slave those who owe have to pay back that’s just law of the world pay up no exceptions the irony is of course almost painful you’re gonna quote this proverb even after what just happened to you anyone listening to this story has to think what is wrong with this slave why is he acting like this what happened to the humble desperate grateful slave that we saw just a verse ago now we have this proud greedy selfish self-righteous despicable debt collector and it only gets worse because notice how the fellow slave responds verse 29 so his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him saying have patience with me and i will repay you does that sound familiar it’s almost the exact same thing the first slave had done and said to the king the second slave doesn’t react as he might have reacted you might have fought back against the first slave or told him off or invoke the aid of some other slaves to restrain this one intent on choking him but the second slave doesn’t do that he humbles himself before the first slave despite being mistreated by him and he confesses his genuine debt and need for mercy surely at such a humble response so reminiscent of the first slave’s own response to the king the first slave would have mercy right the dead is so small by comparison and his fellow slaves so humbled himself in his request why not grant mercy why not forgive my brothers and sisters is it not the same for us and our sin debts to one another in this fallen world it is inevitable that people will sin against us and not just the people of the world but people in the church people who you love and who say they love you they will still sin against you sometimes in small ways and sometimes in very big ways the debts that others incur with us they are substantial they can’t just be brushed aside yet what are they in comparison with what we have been forgiven we who are in christ should be in a constant state of happy celebration for forgiveness that we’ve received we will not be sold into judgment why fuss about some smaller debt we’ve been forgiven by the king indeed to forgive one another is to walk in the very footsteps of god and to magnify his forgiveness we demonstrate to others the same kind of forgiveness that we’ve received and say look at god he’s forgiven this way i want to forgive this way too if you’re forgiven this morning don’t you want to exalt god and his great character and his forgiveness in your own life christians ought to be known for their readiness to forgive and the fullness of their forgiveness no matter the offense this is all pattern after god and his forgiveness but sadly this is often not the case too many people even we christians imitate the shocking behavior of the slave that we see in verse 30.
look there now but he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed this first slave wasn’t willing to forgive he wasn’t even willing to patiently extend the loan rather he had his fellow slave locked up until the debt should be repaid now here’s where a big question emerges in this story how can the second slave pay off his debt when he’s been thrown into prison that’s a good question you know what the answer is he can’t this is why debtors prisons are illegal in our country and why they were not even known in the roman world in which jesus was living if you throw a debtor in chains you’ve essentially doomed him to death and life long and or lifelong imprisonment because he can’t do the work that will enable him to get out of debt it’s not like he can run a business from the dungeon and certainly the dungeon caretakers are not going to pay him anything in such a case the debtor’s only hope would be for his friends and family to scrape together enough to pay off the debt and get the man out but without the imprisoned man’s own work the family will have a much harder time securing enough money to live let alone pay off this man’s debt and what if the man has no friends or family who are able or willing to intercede on his behalf by throwing him in prison this first slave has in cruelty damned his fellow slave into a kind of living hell suffering his debt but never able to repay and all this from the one who only moments earlier was forgiven ten thousand talents what an outrage what an injustice what disgusting ingratitude and selfishness we should have an emotional reaction to this detail in this story yet how many profession christians even us do exactly the same thing despite your own forgiveness you won’t forgive others you constantly nurse the hurts you’ve received reminding others by mistreating them or by retreating from them how much they’ve hurt you and how much they now owe you even though you do this at the same time you are never willing to release them from their bondage from the prison you’ve constructed for them you actually want them to suffer as a punishment as a lesson and as they get frustrated at your continual lack of forgiveness you only dig in your heels more and become even more committed to not forgiving them you want to put people in a type of unforgiveness hell to satisfy a twisted sense of justice that has come from your own heart warped by pride now have others genuinely sinned against you they have should they have known better yes they should have do they need to genuinely repent and seek forgiveness forget forgiveness they do but you have your own obligation is your heart ready to forgive because of how ready god’s heart was ready to forgive you are you like the father of the prodigal in another parable in luke 15 who had the very first sign of repentance when the other was still a long way off but was beginning to come back do you run to that person put your arms around them because you’re so desirous to see them reconciled to god and to you yes it may take time to rebuild your relationship in some cases but won’t you go forward in the rebuilding process together totally releasing your fellow slave who is just like you releasing him from the wrong he’s done to you won’t you do to others which you would have them do to you and indeed what has been done and is continually continually being done for you by god you must take this seriously because if you say yeah yeah pastor dave i hear all that but i just can’t forgive him or i forgive him but i don’t want to see him anymore if your heart is still unforgiving if you take the path to the first slave in this parable then you must beware because his outcome will be yours in verses 31 to 35 we see the third and final reason why god’s children forgive number three god will not forgive the unforgiving god will not forgive the unforgiving look at verses 31 to 34.
so when his fellow slaves saw what had happened they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened and summoning him his lord said to him you wicked slave i forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slaves and in the same way that i had mercy on you and as lord moved with anger handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him this part of the story is not that mean surely the first slave did not believe that his cruel action against another one of the king’s slave would go unreported i mean did he word got back to the king and so the king summoned again his first slave may i say as an assad that if you are nursing unforgiveness or bitterness in your heart towards anyone then be warned word is getting back to god about it he knows he hates to see that kind of injustice especially when he kindly offers the forgiveness that he does will you really impugn the goodness of god when you insist that you shouldn’t forgive the ones that god himself is willing to forgive god your king eventually will summon you and deal with your behavior as it deserves and look what god via the figure of the king does with the slave here verse 32 the master calls the slave what he is wicked you wicked slave he reproves the slave for the same reason that any of us would that slave did not show the same mercy to his fellow slave that the master had shown to him only a wicked slave unaffected and unappreciative of his master’s mercy could do this so what does the master do he revokes the first slave’s pardon and saddles him again with the ten thousand talent debt now someone will ask wait how can the king nullify his previously expressed forgiveness doesn’t that make his forgiveness false and more importantly if we’re studying the figure figurative nature of the king does this mean that god can revoke his forgiveness withdraw salvation people can lose their salvation is that what this parable is saying well here’s what we need to remember that parables are all about the main details not the side details there are too many verses in the bible that clarify that those who are truly saved cannot lose it they cannot be lost even through their own sin so this is not proving that god can revoke his forgiveness nevertheless the bible is also clear that those who are truly saved will be changed to become lovers of god lovers of good and lovers of obedience to god and they will ultimately persevere in righteousness until the end you know what that righteousness includes the good fruit of forgiveness thus jesus in other passages is able to say matthew 6 14-15 if you forgive others for their transgressions your heavenly father will also forgive you but if you do not forgive others then your father will not forgive your transgressions these truths go together mark 11 25 whenever you stand praying forgive if you have anything against anyone so that your father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions and now back here in our passage in matthew 18 the king decides to use the same standard on the first slave that the first slave attempted to use on this fellow slave you won’t forgive your fellow slave then i won’t forgive you you’re determined to leave your fellow slave in unforgiveness hell then i will do the same to you thus verse 34 says and his lord moved with anger handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him now again we have to ask how will the first slave be able to repay his debt now that he’s in prison and even under torture well the answer is the same as it was before he can’t the first slave already never could have repaid the debt even when he was not in prison but now after showing such wickedness and ingratitude the king is determined to exact a new measure of justice by torturing the slave for the slaves great wickedness and a torture that will never end in so doing the king chooses to do to the slave as a slave sought to do to others now brothers and sisters here the very sober conclusion that our lord jesus gives in verse 35.
right when we read about that terrifying moment in verse 34 jesus then adds my heavenly father will also do the same to you if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart wow let that sink in make no mistake the price of your unforgiveness or my unforgiveness is eternal torment in hell what a fearful prospect what a fearful thing it is to face the unforgiveness of god to refuse his forgiveness and to be eternally therefore unforgiven if the unforgiveness of man is torture how much more the unforgiveness of god especially when his generous way has been so freely and sincerely given so dear friends consider what an awesome word our lord jesus has given us in this passage today awesome in all the facets of that word awe-inspiring beautiful glorious joyous but also unsettling very serious christ’s main message to us is clear god’s children as to forgiven always forgive others and jesus has shown us why in the parts of this striking parable number one god has forgiven our great death number two god demands we forgive lesser debts and number three god will not forgive the unforgiving so consider your response this morning have you first of all sought the forgiveness of god simply by faith in christ if you come to him in repentance in faith and ask for mercy and if you have if you do know god’s forgiveness you must ask yourself do i forgive others do i forgive others with the same kind of forgiveness that i was given do i forgive others from my heart and do i look to see that forgiveness play out in a reconciled relationship ask yourself also this to whom do you need to grant heart forgiveness today who’s that person you’ve been avoiding who’s that person every time you think about them you just feel filled with bitterness who’s that person that you are determined not to do them any good because of how they’ve hurt you in the past you need to forgive that person from your heart you know that god will take care of it if there’s some justice that needs to be administered there god says let me handle that don’t take your own vengeance rather do good to those who don’t do good to you overcome evil with good god is sovereign he allowed that hurt to happen to you in his own wisdom and goodness so you can say god i don’t need to hold on to this hurt i can trust you with it and i can forgive that person in my heart to whom do you need to extend heart forgiveness today and as a follow-up with whom do you need to work out as much as you are able reconciliation and the rebuilding of relationship today we can’t always bring about transactional relational forgiveness we should always forgive from our heart but we long to see if someone has indeed wronged us that person come to repentance so that there can be forgiveness in the relationship there can be restored fellowship there can be the rebuilding of that bond do you forgive from the heart and do you look to see forgiveness played out in a relationship where does that need to happen in your life today the lord’s spirit is directing you to think on that and to act on that don’t be a mere hearer be a doer of the word and remember an important word from jesus in another place in the bible matthew 5 matthew 5 verses 23 to 24 i’ll just paraphrase it you must seek reconciliation with an estranged brother before any of your worship or service to god is acceptable he says if you have your all your sacrifice on the altar you’ve been on a long line just as you could offer it and then you remember that your brother has something against you leave the offering there and go and be reconciled to your brother that’s more important to god don’t test god’s forgiveness of you with your own unforgiveness of others rather forgive as you have been forgiven let this be your new resolution and our new resolution as a church for this year starting from today if we will do this we know the church will be blessed and the lord will be glorified let’s pray lord your forgiveness is amazing our debt was indeed unpayable our sins were so heinous in your sight and yet you forgave us oh lord people sin against us in some pretty hard ways some pretty terrible ways yet by comparison it is so little and you are able to take care of us so for whatever forgiveness needs to happen today this morning my lord god our lord god whether it’s forgiveness between us and you or forgiveness between us and one another i pray that you’d bring it about by your spirit glorify yourself as we extend your forgiveness that you’ve given to us in jesus name amen