Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Forgiveness may just be the most unnatural thing in the whole world.

We are very naturally resentful, vindictive, vengeful, record-keeping people, aren’t we?

Just think of it this way.

Are you more likely to remember the good that somebody does for you or the bad that they do to you?

Most of us would have to say that, honestly, we find it much easier to remember the times which we’ve felt mistreated and wounded than the times when we’ve been encouraged and experienced kindness from others.

I find this to be especially true in marriages.

You can have a couple whose marriage is 90 percent good, even great, but all they can think about, all they can talk about is that 10 percent that isn’t meeting their expectations or isn’t what they wanted.

And, this same tendency toward unforgiveness even finds its way into the church.

A pastor or a leader or a fellow brother and sister might be an encouragement to you the overwhelming majority of the time, but we harbor ill feelings toward them and even feel resentment toward them because we quickly forget the good that they bring into our lives and instead obsess over a bad experience or a negative conversation or a bad day.

And, this is what Jesus is going to be getting at this morning.

He’s going to teach his disciples that they must overcome their natural feelings of resentment, revenge, and record-keeping by supernatural means of forgiveness.

God’s Word

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Fellow Servants, Fellow Enjoyers of Grace

“Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants.”

This may just be the penetrating parable that Jesus tells.

It’s a story that would have stunned his disciples that day, and it’s a story that still stops us in our tracks today.

It’s important to remember what Jesus’ main point has been throughout , ever since his disciples first asked him about greatness in the Kingdom of heaven.

Jesus’ main point has been to teach his disciples about life and relationships within the Christian community.

And so, coming out of the discussion about chasing the straying sheep and seeking to forgive and win over your brother who has sinned against you, Peter asks Jesus a straightforward and direct question: “How often must I forgive my brother who sins against me?”

In other words, how many times can he wrong me, even hurt me and I receive him back?

To answer this question, Jesus tells the story of a king who wishes to settle accounts with his debtors.

The king comes to one servant who owes him 10,000 talents, an insurmountable, essentially infinite amount of money.

An average day laborer would have had to work 60,000,000 days or 195,000 years to pay back such a debt according to one scholar.

The man, clearly unable to ever repay his debt to the king, is condemned before the king, and he will pay his debt with all that he has, being his life in slavery along with his entire family.

The man throws himself on the mercy of the king and pleads for his life and the lives of family.

And, the king does something remarkable.

He relents.

He not only doesn’t enslave the man, but he sets the man totally free from his debt!

The man who owed billions, even zillions, has now had his record of debt washed clean!

And, what is the first thing the man does?

He seeks to collect on a debt of about $18 that he is owed by a fellow servant.

He’s been forgiven billions and yet he will collect on peanuts.

When the king who has forgiven the servant so great a debt hears of his stinginess and harshness, it says that literally he is given over to ‘torturers’ until his debt can be repaid, which is essentially an eternal sentence.

And, Jesus makes it clear exactly who these characters represent.

The King is our forgiving heavenly Father, and the servants are Christians living in the Kingdom of God together.

So, Jesus is teaching his disciples that the nature of their relationships with one another and the forgiveness that they are to offer one another is to reflect that of God himself and the grace that He has shown to them.

We are fellow servants, fellow enjoyers of grace, and as such, we must be fellow givers of grace to each other.

So, what I want us to do this morning is to look at this powerful, timely story and make three observations about the nature of forgiveness that I think we learn here.

Observation 1: Gospel-forgiven people must be forgiving people.

“Jesus said to him, ‘I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.’”

Peter must’ve believed he was being generous in his question to Jesus.

In Jesus’ day, the Rabbis taught that it was your responsibility to forgive someone three times, and after that, you could discard any relationship with them you had.

In our day, we typically don’t move past the very first offense, but here’s Peter asking Jesus if he should go so far as to forgive his brother seven times! That’s a lot of times to forgive someone who has wronged you!

And, I think we like to ask these same types of questions in our walk.

We like to know exactly how far God makes us go so that we can be considered faithful.

We love questions like, “How long should I pray?

How much must I give?

How often must I go to church?”

And, we like those types of questions because we want to know where the line is for faithfulness in God’s sight, and we want to make sure that we’re doing just enough to be considered faithful.

We don’t want to do less than what God requires, but we sure don’t want to do extra.

And, Jesus answers Peter the same way that He always answers these bare minimum types of questions: “There’s no limit.

It’s not seven times.

It’s seventy-seventy times.

It’s as often as is necessary.

There’s no threshold for forgiveness among my disciples.”

No Privilege of Grudges

Gracious, merciful living is the requirement of the Christian life.

Christians do not have the privilege of grudges, bitterness, or resentment.

This privilege is forfeited at the cross.

Gracious, merciful living is the requirement of the Christian life.

Christians do not have the privilege of grudges, bitterness, or resentment.

We have as much right toward grudges and resentment and vengeance as this servant had to demand payment from his fellow servant.

How could one who has been forgiven so great a debt demand payment for an amount so small?

And, how could we who have received grace so freely and mercy so richly be unforgiving and unwilling to be right with our brother or our sister who has wronged us?

Their offense is so small in comparison to our offense toward God, and yet God has forgiven us and we struggle to forgive them.

Grace Given, Grace Received

This privilege of bitterness and resentment is forfeited when we come to the cross that we nailed Jesus on.

Oh what grace and mercy each one of us has found at Jesus’ cross!

You have heard me frequently say that what separates the Christian from every other people on the earth is the concept of grace, and I am convinced that is true.

But, it's important for us to realize that this distinctive grace which the Christian so gloriously knows is not simply a grace received.

It is a grace known and a grace lived.

It is grace received and grace given.

God's grace is too big and too transformative to be known and not lived, received and not given.

That's how Jesus can say what He is saying throughout this text.

If you believe that you are forgiven, but you are not forgiving; you have not experienced God's grace.

If you believe that you have received grace and you are unwilling to give grace, you have likely never received this type of transformative grace, sin washing, soul-cleansing, liberating grace.

APPLICATION for the unchurched : Do you see how beautiful and abundant God's offer of mercy and grace is to you?

Why would you spurn such an offer?

Why would you reject such kindness aside from your own feelings of pride and self-assurance?

APPLICATION: "Personal forgiveness is the key to good relationships."

France

APPLICATION for the unchurched: Do you see how beautiful and abundant God's offer of mercy and grace is to you?

Why would you spurn such an offer?

Why would you reject such kindness aside from your own feelings of pride and self-assurance?

Unified Churches are Forgiving churches

APPLICATION: And, church family, what we must see is that the only way for us to be a unified church is if we are at the same time a forgiving church toward one another.

Our power in the gospel and testimony in the community will be directly proportional to the grace and mercy which we show one another.

Observation 2: Gospel forgiveness is costly.

“his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made” Now, maybe you’re thinking, but it isn’t that easy.

It sounds so easy to hear that you must forgive, but it’s altogether something different when you’re actually in a position that requires forgiveness.

Forgiveness is simple, but it isn’t easy.

In fact, it’s costly.

We learn this from our experiences, don’t we?

Your dad abandons you or abuses you or neglects you, and you know how difficult forgiveness is.

Your husband or wife has an affair or ‘falls out of love with you,’ and you know how painful it is to forgive.

Your best friend betrays you and gossips about you, and you learn of forgiveness’ difficulty.

When your brother or sister in the church is harsh with you or puts you on the receiving end of their hypocrisy, you learn how difficult and painful it is to forgive.

But, it is not just our experiences that teach us the costliness of forgiveness; it is the cross that teaches us the loudest.