Sermon on the Mount: As We Forgive
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Sermon on the Mount – As We Forgive…
Matthew 6:9-15
9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread,
12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you,
15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
1. Introduction – Last week we looked at the first half of this petition on forgiveness.
a. Forgive us our debts.
i. And when we looked at that part of the petition, we were answering the question, “Will God forgive me?”
1. And the answer came back with a reasoning yes.
a. God’s forgiveness looks like a running Father – not merely tolerating us when we ask for forgiveness…
i. But as the running Father in the Parable shows us – God is more willing to forgive than we are to ask for forgiveness.
2. Will God forgive me? Yes – he will forgive you of your original sin when you ask Jesus to be Lord and Saviour of your life…
a. And yes, God will forgive you for your waywardness as you are still putting to death the deeds of the body.
b. Today, we come to the 2nd part of this petition.
i. And if last week we answered the question, “Will God forgive me?” This week’s petition asks the question, “Must I forgive?”
1. This is a really important petition. This is the only petition on which Jesus expands after the prayer is finished.
a. After the final petition, Jesus goes back and reiterates or strengthens what he said in this petition on forgiveness.
ii. In this petition we learn what kind of people we are to be.
1. We’ve learned a lot about God through this prayer…but in this petition we learn how we are to act.
a. We learned the one of the defining characteristics of a Christian…of a church.
i. Yes, we are a forgiven people…but we are also to be a forgiving people.
1. Hear God’s Word….Matthew 6:9-15.
c. This petition has so much to teach us…this petition can change the way we interact with people…
i. Both inside the family of faith, and those who are currently outside of it.
1. Remember, forgiveness is revolutionary…it is counter-cultural.
a. In our world – nothing is forgivable.
i. We are quick to shame, quick to blame…quick to ruin someone who has wronged us…
1. And we are long to hold grudges against those who have offended us.
ii. But along comes Jesus with his message of forgiveness….with his beautiful example of forgiveness…
1. Even while he is dying on the cross he prays, “Father forgive them…”
2. As – And as we begin our journey through the second half of this petition – our first task is to figure out what to do with this tiny word ‘as.’
a. It’s the shortest word in the prayer – but it really packs a punch, and has been the source of some serious controversy over the years.
i. So what’s in this word ‘as’? What does the added commentary in vv.14-15 mean?
1. So what is this? Is this some sort of condition on God’s forgiveness?
a. That the only way to receive God’s forgiveness is to first forgive other?
i. Is that what Jesus means when in v.14 he says, “If you forgive, then your heavenly father will forgive?
2. Is that a conditional statement? A hiccup, dare I say, a contradiction in the Bible’s teaching on God’s free gift of forgiveness?
ii. The answer is NO – this is not a condition of forgiveness.
1. It’s not that we first have to forgive in order to experience God’s forgiveness.
b. Here’s what this petition means – what the commentary in vv.141-5 teach us about forgiveness.
i. It’s not a conditional statement – but a statement of imitation.
1. What Jesus is teaching in this petition and the verses that follow is that our ability and willingness to forgive other is a sign that we have been forgiven by God.
ii. Jesus drives this point home with a parable later in Matthew’s Gospel…one that we’re going to look at in just a few minutes.
1. Forgiveness of others isn’t a condition of God’s forgiveness…but a sign of it.
a. God’s doesn’t simply lavish his forgiveness on us, so that we can wallow in our forgiven state.
i. Oh on, God forgives us, and in turn he expects his forgiven people to be a forgiving people.
2. He expects his people to show the same radical and counter cultural forgiveness that he displayed towards us.
c. The key words of us when studying this petition is…perspective.
i. Jesus is teaching that the sign of one who is truly forgiven by God…who feels the weight of that forgiveness…the sign of a truly forgiven person is that they will be forgiving towards others.
1. When we recognize the enormity of that debt we owed God…and that fact that we forgave us…
a. When we realize the price of our forgiveness was the precious blood of Jesus…
i. Once our eyes have been opened to the enormity of our offense against God…and the fact that God’s forgives us…
1. Then what others have done to us, by comparison, seem trifling.
ii. Still painful, still causing tension and hardship and conflict….but not unforgivable.
1. But when our perspective is reversed…and we have an exaggerated view of the offense done to us…
a. It causes us to minimize our offense against God.
d. As we forgive our debtors…not a statement of condition, but of imitation.
i. Since we have been forgiven…forgiven by God’s radical and counter cultural forgiveness…we as God’s people will display that same radical and counter cultural forgiveness to those who have wronged us.
3. Unmerciful Servant – The idea of God’s people imitating God’s forgiveness isn’t limited to only the SM.
a. Later in Matthew’ Gospel, in chapter 18, Jesus tells a parable that drives this point home.
i. Listen to these words….Matthew 18:21-35.
21 Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?”
22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.
23 “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants.
24 When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.
25 And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made.
26 So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’
27 And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.
28 But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’
29 So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’
30 He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt.
31 When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place.
32 Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.
33 And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’
34 And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt.
35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
1. There’s a lot that this parable has to teach us…I want to focus on 3 things.
b. First, look at Peter’s introductory question.
i. Pete thought he was being extremely generous and over the top when he suggested that he forgive someone 7 times.
1. It was more than double what the Law required of people.
a. So Jesus’ answer to Peter would have been startling.
i. Not 3 times, not 7 times, but 70x7 or 77 times.
1. What’s important in this answer is not the mathematical equation…
a. What’s important is what the equation stands for.
ii. It stands for limitless forgiveness.
1. A disciple’s willingness to forgive should be like God’s forgiveness…free and limitless.
c. The parable itself reads like an extension of the Lord’s Prayer.
i. One of the king’s servants owed the king a very large sum of money.
1. Scholars today say the sum would be equivalent to 2 or 3 billion dollars today.
a. The actual amount isn’t important…what we need to know is that this debt was unpayable.
i. And through nothing that he did or said…the king, the gracious and merciful king…wiped this man’s debt out.
ii. After receiving his pardon, this now forgiven servant runs into someone who owes him the equivalent of 2 or 3 thousand dollars.
1. Still a large sum of money, but not unpayable.
a. And did you notice that while these 2 men were talking, the debtor in this scene uses the exact same words as the creditor had previously uses in front of the king?
i. Should he not have heard himself in this man’s words?
iii. But the unforgiving servant doesn’t hear it…doesn’t clue in…he simply wants what’s his.
1. And he throws the debtor in jail.
a. Now, the king catches wind of these happenings and brings the once forgiven man back to his presence.
i. And he say to this wicked servant…I had mercy on you, I forgave you…should you have not also have mercy on your debtor?
2. And the king had the wicked servant thrown in jail until his debt could be paid…
a. And since we learned that that debt was unpayable, he would be in jail for the rest of his life.
i. Now there are 2 lessons to learn from this parable. 1 is obvious, 1 is more subtle.
d. First, the obvious point is that before God, we are like the man whose enormous debt was forgiven.
i. Our sin, isn’t just this little, itty bitty inconvenience; it is an unpayable debt, that God by his mercy and grace, has forgiven us of.
1. So, the parable teaches, since we have been forgiven an enormous debt by God, we should in turn, forgive the petty grievances, the small debts of others.
a. We can’t be like the unmerciful servant, demanding payment from others when we have been forgiven so much.
i. We must model our behaviour after the king…and recognize that it is the responsibility of the forgiven to forgive.
e. But there is a second and less obvious point to this parable, but it is equally important.
i. The man who is forgiven and then tried to wring every last cent from a debtor is a servant of the king.
1. When his debtor sees him, not only does he see a creditor, but he also sees a representative of the king.
a. What this unmerciful servant does reflects the king whom he serves.
i. As he chokes and imprisons his debtor, not only is he saying something about his own character…
1. but he is unknowingly saying something about the character of king also.
ii. The debtor would be led to think that the king himself is a ruthless, extortionist tyrant.
1. By his actions, the unmerciful and ungrateful servant is also speaking evil about the good king who had been so gracious to him.
f. What then about the church and its members? We are servants of God, forgiven much, representatives of God on earth.
i. When we refuse to forgive each other, or when all we do is point to other peoples’ shortcomings – think about how we are representing God on earth? How will other people see him?
1. At best, people see us as hypocrites, not practicing the things we believe in.
a. At worst, since we are servants of God, people come to the conclusion that our God is as harsh and as unforgiving as we are.
g. Every time we say this line from the Lord’s Prayer, we must pause and take stock of how we are forgiving.
i. Even right now, if you aren’t doing an inventory of how you forgive, if you aren’t assessing the way in which you forgive or don’t forgive…
1. Then you haven’t fully grasped the enormity and the seriousness of this concept.
a. Our main question today is “Must I forgive?”
i. And the resounding answer is Yes – as you have been forgiven, you must imitate that forgiveness to others.
4. What are we praying – And as we draw to a close today, I want us to consider what we are praying when we say this request.
a. Forgiveness is such a huge subject – often misunderstood.
i. Forgiveness isn’t saying, “Oh, its OK, it doesn’t matter.”
1. There’s a feeling that if we forgive it somehow lessens the offense.
a. But with forgiveness, the opposite is actually true.
ii. Forgiveness says, “This is huge, to huge to sit and let lie…we have to figure this out.”
1. Forgiveness isn’t tolerating sinful behaviour, or abusive behaviour…it’s not warm fuzzies or kissing and making up.
a. That’s a superficial understand of forgiveness.
b. So what are we praying here? Not for warm fuzzies.
i. The Greek word that Jesus’ uses over and over against for forgiveness is the word aphiemi.
1. And the word aphiemi means to let of…it means to open your hand and let go of something you’ve been gripping tightly.
a. So we are praying for God’s strength to let go of hurt, let go of offense.
ii. Forgiveness happens when we relinquish our right to be right…it happens when we open our hand and let go of the hurt, the bitterness, the anger, the resentment…that festering wound we’ve been holding on to.
1. Forgiveness happens, not when we develop warm fuzzies, but when we choose to release the other person, choose to release ourselves from the debt.
a. Is this petition easy? NO – it’s probably easier to brush things off or even to hold on to resentment.
i. It’s difficult to walk with someone down the long road of forgiveness.
2. But in this petition we pray that God will give us that strength to let go of offenses, the way he opened his hand, and let of our offenses.
c. These are some of the most impactful words in the Lord’s Prayer – these are definitely words that we shouldn’t breeze by or rattle off without thinking about what we are saying.
i. In them, we acknowledge that we are in need of God’s constant forgiveness.
1. And we also acknowledge that forgiveness given is to be forgiveness displayed.
a. And by forgiving others, but letting go of hurt and choosing to forgive…
i. We offer our world an alternative to its resented and offended ways.
1. As God’s people, we walk in the way of forgiveness…forgiving our own debtors…because we have been forgiven.