Sermon Tone Analysis

Text: Matthew 18:15-35

Theme: Forgiving each other their faults is a two-way street.

It requires the sinner to desire genuine forgiveness and it requires the sinned against to offer genuine forgiveness.

Does God forgive utterly and completely the sins committed by Christians?

The answer is an unqualified “Yes!”

In Christ, our pardon is full, our justification is complete, and our redemption is sure.

In Christ, God has buried our sin and refuses to mark the grave.

Of all the parables Jesus tells, this one is really interesting to me, because it’s directed at the disciples in general and Peter in particular.

It begins in Matt.

18:1 when Jesus uses a child as an illustration.

Only those who can humble themselves and come to God and a child comes to his or her father, can enter the Kingdom of God.

Then, in vs. 15, he addresses the issue of forgiveness.

It’s at that point Peter comes and asks the question, “ ... “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me?

Up to seven times?”” (Matthew 18:21, NIV84).

It gives Jesus the perfect opportunity to tell a story about two debtors.

(Matthew 18:23-35)

The first debtor in our story is a man who owed a great debt, a huge dept, a colossal debt, an unimaginable debt to his king – 10,000 talents of precious metal.

If we’re talking silver, the amount is equal to $165,000,000.

If we’re talking talents of gold, at today’s price per ounce of $1,253, the amount is equal to $12,500,000,000.

This is not a debt you can roll over onto your VISA!

This man is unable to pay off his debt when the king comes to settle his accounts.

The king ordered that the man, his wife, his children and all his possessions be sold in order to repay the debt.

This was within the king’s right at that time.

But the debtor flings himself at the king’s feet and pleads – and please note this – not for mercy, but simply for more time to straighten out his accounts.

Instead, the king graciously canceled the debt altogether.

He did not have to do it, but the Bible tells us that the king looked on this man with pity and called off the debt.

If this were the end of the story, we could all shout amen, hallelujah, praise the Lord, and go home marveling at the grace of God.

But the story that Jesus tells does not end with the first debtor being cleared of his debt.

There is a second debtor.

He does not owe the king anything, but he does owe a debt to the first debtor.

He owes about one-third of a year’s pay – about $10,000 in our culture.

Compared to the sum the first debtor owed, this is a pittance.

But the first debtor violently accosts his fellow servant and demands payment right then and there.

The second debtor also pleads for more time, but the first debtor will hear nothing of it and has the man thrown into prison until the debt can be paid.

When the king finds this out, he is enraged.

He summons the first debtor before him and calls him a wicked servant who is undeserving of the mercy he had been shown earlier.

He hands the first debtor over to the tormentors until all the debt has been paid.

Jesus concludes the story on a somber note:

““This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.””

(Matthew 18:35, NIV84)

Peter is by now regretting having every asked the question!

When God forgives us, He expects us to develop a forgiving heart and to extend His mercy toward those indebted to us.

As a matter of fact, the Bible teaches us that if we are unwilling to accept the confession and repentance of another and forgive them, chances are good that we’ve never truly been forgiven since our unwillingness to offer forgiveness indicates a heart that has itself never truly repented and confessed to our Heavenly Father.

Jesus seemed very clear about this principle.

In His Sermon on the Mount, he taught:

“Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’”

(Matthew 6:12–13, NIV84) It’s in the past tense—Jesus assumes that if we ask God for forgiveness, we’ve already forgiven others.

We all know that passage as the closing words of the Lord’s Prayer.

But listen to what Jesus say in vv.

14-15:

“For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

15 But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

(Matthew 6:14–15, NIV84)

Those are potent words folks!

If you’ve been born from above by the Most High God, you have been completely and totally forgiven by God.

Your sin has been atoned for by the precious blood of Jesus Christ.

Your are white as snow in God’s eyes though your sins be as scarlet.

That

same blood has also purchased the atonement for your brothers and sisters in Christ.

I. TRUE REDEMPTION MAKES GENUINE RECONCILIATION POSSIBLE

ILLUS.