SM09S2dj7tY

Have your Bible? You can turn with me to Matthew chapter 18. We'll be looking at verses 21 to 35 this evening. Matthew chapter 18, verses 21 to 35. While you're turning there and getting settled, I want to share part of a story with you. In late December of 1944, a woman named Corey Tin Boom was released from a German concentration camp.

There's a picture of her. She went through almost incomprehensible suffering for 10 months. Her sister passed away in the camp, and she was worked basically half to death trying to make things and survive in that camp. And eventually she was released because of an administrative error, and she was a believer, and it was just God's incredible providence.

After that time of suffering, she traveled around Europe sharing her story and the gospel in different churches. And at one time, she went to Munich, Germany, and she was sharing her story in a church, and a man approached her after the service. And she recognized him immediately because it was one of the churches.

Of the guards who had initially processed her when she first arrived at the concentration camp. And the man was approaching her, and he wanted to shake her hand after the service for what a great message. And Corey froze right there because here she was, and she was confronted with the reality of everything this man had done to her, and she was confronted with the reality and the cost of biblical forgiveness.

And that story raises an important question that we all have to face. Every person wrestles with this question: Is there a limit to forgiveness? Is forgiveness nuanced, maybe conditional, transactional? You repent to my liking, and I'll forgive you, maybe eventually. In our text, in Matthew 18, Peter, Jesus' disciple, approaches Jesus with this question: Is there a limit to forgiveness?

I want to read our text. It's going to be a bit longer, but I think it's important to get the whole of this text before us. Starting in Matthew 18, verse 21. 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, 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. But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denari, 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 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 they came and reported to their Lord all that had happened. Then 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.

So Jesus' answer to Peter's question is very, very sobering. And this evening, Jesus, in the parable, Jesus wants Peter to understand the absurdity of unforgiveness so that he'll have a heart of forgiveness toward others. That's what Jesus wants for us as well. That's why God gave us this parable.

There's really three elements in Jesus' discussion of forgiveness. There's a question, an example, and a warning. So let's look first at the question, Peter's question. Look with me at verse 21. What gives rise to Peter's question? Well, we've got to look at some context first. So Matthew 18 is the fourth major sermon in Matthew.

Gospel, and it starts out with the disciples approaching Jesus and asking him, Who's the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And they've been arguing and bickering about this on the road, about which of them would be the greatest. And Jesus's response is really shocking. He says, Unless you are converted and become like little children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

The idea is that the disciples need an entire paradigm shift on how the kingdom, how greatness works in the kingdom. They need to become like little children. And Jesus will go on to explain how his disciples will treat each other in his community, in the church. They'll love one another, receive one another, and rebuke and pursue one another.

And in Matthew 18:15, Jesus says this, if your brother sins, go show him his fault in private. If he listens to you, you have won your brother. Peter gets stuck on that. And he gets stuck on verse 15. He hears that, and he probably thinks to himself, well, what happens if it keeps happening?

Do I keep forgiving? And so he approaches Jesus afterward, and he assumes he knows the answer. He offers Jesus an answer. As he asks the question, up to seven times? Peter's forgiveness quote is actually pretty generous when you consider what was being taught at the time by the rabbis.

A popular teaching was that you forgive somebody three times, and then after the third time, no more forgiveness. So it's kind of the three strikes you're out model of forgiveness. But look at verse 22, at Jesus' answer. I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to 70 times seven.

See, Peter's entire paradigm of forgiveness is wrong. That's what Jesus' answer reveals. Peter's question reveals a heart that doesn't understand God's forgiveness. What is forgiveness in a nutshell? The Greek word used in this passage, in different contexts, it's used to mean to send away or to release, to let go.

It suggests that there's no counting in forgiveness, no black books or record-keeping. And it also would suggest that unforgiveness is the opposite, to keep or to hold on, to hold an obligation over somebody. And what's interesting is that Peter and Jesus agree on the definition of forgiveness. The real question is: is there a limit?

And again, Jesus' answer up to 70 times 7. Jesus removes any limit to forgiveness. And this really flew in the face of the popular teaching at the time and the three strikes your out model of forgiveness. And it flies in the face often of many portions of Christianity.

People are often very confused about forgiveness. The reality is, real forgiveness is costly. We can send somebody's debt away a couple times, but 70 times 7, releasing the debt without limit, that's hard on our flesh. And so Jesus doesn't stop there. He gives us a parable to illustrate the reality of God's forgiveness and the absurdity of unforgiveness.

And it's powerful, it's emotional, and it's illuminating into the reality of biblical forgiveness. So let's look now at the example of unforgiveness in Jesus' parable. I skipped a few points. An example. The parable begins with a debt, and it opens with a king. Look at verse 23. It begins with this king.

He's a powerful Lord, apparently. He's very wealthy, and he's delegated to. Tasks in his kingdom to his servants or slaves, the master. It's hard to exactly know the nature of what this arrangement is, but suddenly he needs to settle accounts with them. Apparently, they have some financial stewardships.

So the king has this day of reckoning. The servants are to give an account of their financial status. In verse 24, a certain servant is brought before the king. And he owes the king 10,000 talents. This is an absolutely massive amount. This would be 15 years' wages for a day laborer at that time.

And one ancient writer, historian, at one time said that the general region of Israel alone generated 8,000 talents of tax revenue. So that just gives you some perspective. This guy's in a lot of trouble. This is probably why he was brought before the king. We're not told how he's racked up this debt, but he basically had spent himself into oblivion.

And he drove himself into financial ruin. There's no possibility of paying this back. But look at verse 25. The servant makes a plea. Have patience with me, and I'll repay you everything. The servant was to be sold into debt slavery. And he had no options, and he falls to the ground and begs for mercy.

Now, imagine if you're, let's say you're a business owner, small business owner, and you have an employee goes, takes your money, spends you $15 million into debt. You probably wouldn't want to absorb that loss. You know, you'll sue him, get every dime out of him. And that's what we would expect the king to do.

It says the king felt compassion and released him and sent him away and forgave the debt and absorbed that massive loss. That's a shocking twist in this parable. It's stunning. He did more than the servant asked, he completely canceled the debt. But look at verse 28, and notice the word but.

And that means that everything that follows is in contrast to what the king just did, or the master. The slave goes away, and the language suggests that he goes away right after being forgiven. He finds one of his fellow slaves, maybe even sought him out. The slave owed him 100 denarii, and that was about three months' income for a day laborer.

That's like, in comparison to what he'd just been forgiven, that's pennies. But the servant grabs him with physical violence and begins to choke him or strangle this other servant. And he says, pay back what you owe. Look at verse 29. Have patience with me and I will repay you.

Wherever we heard that before, that's the exact words of the forgiven servant's plea in verse 26. And the forgiven servant throws his friend, fellow servant, in prison until he should pay back what was owed. And there's such a contrast here. The king forgives the servant, releases him, forgives the debt, and the servant goes out, finds his fellow slave, and does just the opposite.

The servant's overcome, apparently, with this unforgiving fury. He won't forgive. He will not send away the debt. So let's look at the consequences. We saw the servant's response. It's one of unforgiveness. What are the consequences? What happens after this? Look at verse 31. There's a reaction to this.

The man's fellow slaves are deeply. Grieved. And we should all be. There's really no words to describe what is happening with this slave. How can somebody be forgiven $10 billion, but not forgive a couple hundred? And the king's informed in detail of the events. Look at verse 32 and 33.

The king master says this: 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.

So there was once mercy, now there is anger and judgment. The slave had exploited the king's forgiveness to indulge his own unforgiveness, and he had no, apparently no lasting sense of what he'd just been forgiven. Essentially, he mocks it, and the king locks him away forever. The end.

That's the end of the parable. That is the parable of the unforgiving servant. But Jesus gives us the interpretation. So let's look now at Jesus' warning in verse 35. Verse 35 says this, My heavenly Father will also do the same to you if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.

So if you follow this closely, Jesus, this is the key to unlocking this parable. Jesus gives us a hint as to what the elements in the parable represent. The master represents God at 10,000 talents are sin debt before God. And the unforgiving servant represents anyone who professes to be a disciple of Jesus, but walks in a continual life pattern of unforgiveness.

There's really two surprising things in this parable. And the first, of course, is the king's forgiveness. And this beautifully illustrates the reality of God's forgiveness of us. You know, many people today put a heavy emphasis on God's forgiveness, and we should. But we can't properly understand that without understanding our debt before God of sin.

The reality of unredeemed humanity is that we take God's good gifts and use them to indulge in sin against him and rebel against him. And the problem with humanity outside of Christ. We reject God and abuse his gifts. And if you think about this, one sin every hour for an average person, if you lived to be 80 years, that would be 700,000 sins in a lifetime.

And that's a generous estimate because the reality of our sin debt is far more deadly than that. The problem isn't just an occasional sin. The problem is we spend ourselves into oblivion and sin. That's what the debt represents in the parable. God's fixed a day in which He will settle accounts with all those who are unredeemed.

And there's nothing more certain in our existence that we'll stand before God's judgment seat, and the debt ledger of sin will be opened, and God will administer justice to those who don't know him. God doesn't owe us forgiveness, but he made a way for us to be forgiven.

God sent his son who lived the perfect life. The Father piled our sin debt, the sin debt of his people onto the Son, and Jesus paid our debt. 2 Corinthians 5:19 says this: God was in Christ, reconciling the world. To himself, not counting their trespasses against them. See, God owes us judgment, condemnation, but he gives us pardon through his son, mercy.

He remits and sends away our debt when we come to him. That's the reality of the king's forgiveness in the parable. And what it should produce is what Ephesians 4:32 says: Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other just as God in Christ has forgiven you. So that's the first surprising element in the parable.

The second is the slave's unforgiveness. And what's interesting is there's never an explanation given for why the slave would go and do that to his other companion. And this illustrates the irrationality of unforgiveness. It rejects logic and reason. It says, I'm going to hold on to this. I'm going to take this with me to the grave.

I'm going to hold this over you. And I might forgive you when you make enough reparation to me. And the reality is, our hearts and our feelings are more deceptive than we're often aware of. Unforgiveness is subtle, it disguises itself. But ultimately, those who cannot forgive are not forgiven.

That's the warning in verse 35. Jesus says, My heavenly Father will also do the same to you if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart. See, God's not playing games with forgiveness. This warning should be deeply sobering, unsettling. Jesus doesn't give concessions or qualify himself.

There's no remaining unscathed if someone plays around with unforgiveness. If someone's life from start to finish is an unbroken pattern of bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness, that person is not and will not be forgiven. They're under God's judgment. It doesn't matter if they're a seminary student, a deacon, never missed church.

How can I say something like that? This is the reality. The reason. The reason somebody can have a lifetime of unforgiveness is because they've never experienced God's forgiveness in Christ. That forgiveness transforms you from the inside out. You're dead in sins, and then you experience God's forgiveness, and you want to begin to share that with others.

And somebody who can't forgive ever has never experienced the forgiveness of Christ. And ultimately, those who forgive don't know God. Those who never forgive. 1 John 3:15 says, everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. Unforgiveness is a display of hatred, a settled position of unforgiveness. But those who truly tasted the forgiveness of Christ will want to forgive.

Yes, we'll struggle and resist and have seasons of deep hurt and wounds, and it'll be hard. But we'll eventually grow in a heart of forgiveness if we know Christ. And this is a hard saying. I know many, I'm sure many of you have experienced horrible hurt, betrayal, wounds.

And this is what Corey Tin Boom wrestled with that day in that church in Munich when she stood frozen, confronted with somebody who had been in her life and caused her cruelty. And she writes this in her memoir: It was at a church service in Munich that I saw him, the former SS man.

Who had stood guard at the shower room door in the processing center at Ravensbrook? He was the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since that time. He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming. How grateful I am for your message, ma'am, he said, to think, as you say, he has washed my sins away.

His hand was thrust out to shake mine, and I, who had preached so often the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side. Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him.

I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. Again, I breathed a silent prayer. Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give your forgiveness. At that moment, Corey sent away the man's debt with God's help. And that's what Jesus means with the phrase, from your heart. Forgive your brother from your heart.

This isn't superficial words. This is real sending away in your heart of the debt of someone who's deeply wounded you. The cure for unforgiveness is understanding how much you've been forgiven. We forgive. As we've been forgiven, maybe reconciliation is not possible. It's not always possible, but forgiveness is always possible.

And when Jesus calls us to forgive others, he's not asking us to do something he hasn't done himself. Jesus was betrayed at the end of his ministry by his own disciple he spent years with in ministry. On the night of his betrayal, he was abandoned by his closest friends.

He was taken through a series of sham hearings before his own government, the Jewish Sanhedrin. He was sentenced to an unjust condemnation under Pilate. He was condemned to die one of the most horrific deaths in the first century for crimes he didn't commit. What was his response to his executioners?

Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. If Jesus can suffer like that and still forgive, we can follow his example. He's been there, he'll help us. Hebrews 4:15 says this: We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize. With our weaknesses, but one who's been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.

Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Jesus will help you. Turn to him with those bitter thoughts that rise up. He'll help you. Study him in the gospels and see his example.

That's true for all of us, and he understands. And he calls us to walk in that forgiveness as we follow his example. So we've seen tonight the question of unforgiveness, Jesus' example, and his warning in verse 35. We've seen that God's serious about forgiveness. How quick we are to forgive is evidence of how much we've grasped God's forgiveness.

And a life of unforgiveness reveals a life that was never in Christ. So Jesus wanted Peter and us to see the absurdity of unforgiveness so that we'll have the heart of forgiveness toward others, reconciliation-mindedness, how much we've been forgiven. Pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, you've forgiven your people so much.

I know in my own life, so much sin, such a great debt, Lord, piled up. Thank you for sending your Son to wipe away our debt and to make a way for us to be forgiven. Lord, we're so fallible, God, we fail to grasp the significance of that.

And it's so easy for us to forget and have that gospel amnesia and to hold back forgiveness, even when we've been forgiven so much. I pray you would help us. Father, help us follow the example of your son. Lord, as he was being crucified in our place and he said, forgive them.

God, we need your help. Be with us as we go out from here, Lord, in this week. And help us to want to share the message of your forgiveness with others and extend and send away the debts of those who've wounded us. We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.