I invite you to turn this morning to Matthew chapter 18, Matthew chapter 18, as we are continuing our study in Matthew, in the gospel of Matthew, and today we come to the parable of the unforgiving servant. I will begin at verse 15 and read to the end of the chapter. Let's give our attention this morning to the wonderful word of the Lord, beginning at verse 15, page 979. "This is God's word: if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church, and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Surely I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them.
And now our text this morning: "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? Jesus said to him, I do not say to you seven times, but 77 times. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold with his wife and children and all that he had in payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, "Have patience with me and I will pay you everything." And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. 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." So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, "Have patience with me and I will pay you." He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. 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. Then his master summoned him and said to him, "You wicked servant! I forgave you all the debt because you pleaded with me. And should you not have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you?" And in anger, his master delivered him to the jailers until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart
And there ends the reading of God's word today.
Well, there's nothing unclear about Jesus's teaching on forgiveness. Um, it's such an important section that we come to today. We have some of his strongest statements in the Gospels on this issue. Some of the strongest statements from the Gospels are on this particular issue. Think of right after the Lord's Prayer, and remember what Matthew is doing in the Sermon on the Mount. We see play out through the whole course of Matthew's Gospel the principles that come out of the Sermon on the Mount. We see in Jesus' teaching, as he further accentuates and helps us to understand it. But following his teaching on the Lord's Prayer, of all things he could have chosen, this is what he chose: "If you forgive others their trespasses, if you do not, your heavenly Father will not forgive you your trespasses."
Think about that great statement. "If you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses." That's a shocking statement. That's a statement that makes everyone pause. It's intended to. It's intended to be a shocking statement. It's intended to make people stop and reflect and ponder and think about what he just said.
Yet I have witnessed in ministry many people who do the work of the Lord but refuse to forgive their brother their trespasses. It's as if this particular sin is completely ignored or justified on some other premise. For Christ, there is an unbreakable connection in somebody's life, if they are truly forgiven that the fruit and evidence of somebody truly regenerated and truly forgiven by him, there's going to be evidence of that in the ability to forgive somebody else who offends them with a much lesser offense. That's the whole focus of the teaching. And not, I shouldn't even say, not just an ability to do it, but an eagerness to do it. An eagerness to do it.
We understand this, I think, greatly, for the whole basis of our own forgiveness in this life. The whole basis of the Christian gospel to us is God's free grace given to us and eagerly coming to us. We looked at last Sunday night: God sends runners to preach the gospel to us. That's the imagery of how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel." He's coming to announce summarily; in all the gospel, of everything the gospel is aimed at, it is the forgiveness of sins. He eagerly comes to us.
Could you imagine? Can you imagine the disaster the whole gospel ministry would be if the followers of Jesus, if a bunch of followers of jesus claim forgiveness of their own sins, then go out and absolutely refuse to forgive their brothers and sisters on far lesser faults? It wouldn't work. Our whole witness would be lost. It would wreck everything. This is about so you under you can appreciate why this is so important to our Lord in his teaching on forgiveness.
So we move today to this section on Jesus's teaching in Matthew 18 on forgiveness, to now this great parable. After Peter's question, where what is emphasized in this is so important: did you notice what he said? He didn't just say you must forgive; he said you must forgive from the heart. From the heart. We're going to look at that here for a moment. We see that today here in this great principle that he gives, and then this remarkable parable that he provides, and then he charts for his people and calls us to exemplify his very gospel that we confess and cherish.
I want you to notice here the context, and remember the context. All of this was set off with the disciples question. This whole section they got more than they asked for when they? asked about greatness didn't They they come up to Jesus, and that's what precipitated all of this. They ask him, about "Who is the greatest in the kingdom?" and Jesus went into a long, lengthy teaching about what discipleship looks like and how to recover wayward sheep. That was the great focus of this. And so remember, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom?" Jesus then set the little one in front of them, and he trained them by saying, "Whoever is greatest in the kingdom humbles himself like this little child." We're looking right at what that means today. What does humbling oneself in this life It's not what we often think. What does it look like? How do I humble myself? What is greatness? Well, that's what he's essentially addressing here. Jesus is helping us with this great truth on the forgiveness of sins, and the teaching on forgiveness begins.
Jesus here gives us remember a path to follow when we are when offenses are made against us. when somebody sins against us So if denial of ourselves is to have any meaning in this life, then we who are sinned against it requires something denial is this It requires going to your brother it requires going after them because you see them in that sin, which they don't see, as very part of the wayward sheep part of those who are straying and you care about that. We love our brothers and sisters. That's what we're called to. And Christ outlined what we looked at last time with personal discipline, and then mutual discipline, and then church discipline. And there was a path there that he outlined for us. And I think that is such an important text and sermon. If you want to reflect on that, I encourage you to listen to the previous sermon that ties all this together.
But it brings us to this morning's text. Peter's considering all this. Peter's really thinking about the implications of discipleship and kingdom life and what it means to be a servant and what that looks like, and how to deny ourselves. And so Peter seems he's made some kind of progress in this. What's evident is that the rabbinical tradition that created the Pharisee was still deeply embedded in Peter's heart. So he's struggling here. He's struggling. He comes to Christ and asks the question, "Lord, how often now this is a really good question, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him? How often? As many as seven times?"
I think he thinks he's pretty noble here, but the question is a good question. How often do I have to put up with this? How often do I have to continue to put up with offenses from somebody?
So the issue is not whether he needs to go through this three-step process. I think it's clear Peter has come to agree with that: I got to go to my brother. You're very clear on that, Lord. I don't wait around for them to come to me to make it right. No, it's active discipleship is I have to be the one to take the initiative to go after my brother when they've sinned against me and try to win him."
He sees the obligation. Peter's concern is really focused on the very beginning statement of our Lord in that three-step process: "If your brother sins against you if someone continues to do it if he keeps on sinning. Behind that is: "You don't you don't expect us to really to continue to forgive someone who keeps doing it?" What a question, right? What a question!
Uh, remember the word uh forgiveness means to let go. Um, jesus the beautiful imagery of that is when he's in the garden of Gethsemane, or the garden, and before he's um yeah garden gethsemane before he's going to the cross, and the soldiers come and, as they shackle him and as they take him away with clubs, he says, "Forgive them." It's a beautiful picture of letting his sheep go so that they are not incurring the judgment. Let them go. I'm taking it. That's the beautiful imagery of forgiveness: they're not under our judgment. We are not holding their sins against them. That's that's the heart of the teaching here.
Uh, we are not those who have done some kind of wrongful action to us. There's a debt that somewhat occurred. If you're using it in this kind of language, and that's that offense and to make it right, we feel there has to be some kind of reparation, some kind of thing that is made right, and it needs to be paid for, right? Does that have a limit? Does that have a limit? I agree they should be forgiven, but over and over? Some people say that, don't they? "I don't believe you. I'll believe you, know you've i don't believe you because you just keep doing the same thing."
Well, does that press us? That really presses us. It presses me.
Peter understood the rabbinic tradition, of course. Uh, that in Jewish tradition, the rabbis were teaching you only needed to forgive somebody three times. So he has this in his heart. Um, Rabbi Hosea ben Judah said, "If your brother sins against you once, forgive him. A second time, forgive him. A third time, forgive him. But a fourth time, do not forgive him." So this is right out of Judaism. It's right in their writings. Mishnah and Talmud. Rabbi Hosea ben Hanina said, "He who begs forgiveness from his neighbor must not do so more than three times."
So Peter's getting better. seven? times, right? Up to seven? That's a good biblical number. It's a number of perfection in the Bible. Peter understands that much.
Jesus gives the answer: "I do not say to you seven times, but up to 70 times 7."
And the meaning of that is clear. It's not a number past that. The meaning of that is: what's the math on that? I didn't even think about the math on that. See, I'm not a math guy, but it's 400 and something. It's indefinite. "I want your forgiveness to be indefinite. There's no number on this." That should be your heart toward your brother. You are not holding it against them. There's no end to it. In other words, "I want your lives constantly characterized as having a forgiving heart. Never would they look upon you and think that you could not be forgiven by them."
One pastor said, "It's like asking how many times I should love my wife. Does she get three wrongs? Maybe I should have reversed that. All of us men would be done." "I don't ever stop loving my wife." Christ treats forgiveness that way.
With brothers and sisters, we're not counting. We follow the process that he outlined, right? There's already a process outlined. That's the goal. But it's important to notice here, we're not remember in the process, We're not waiting for them to come. We're not waiting for them to ask. We have an obligation in discipleship to help them in that. There's a responsibility in it. So Jesus says in verse 31, "It's an issue of the human heart. You must forgive from the heart."
You know, we can talk about in society where we see people just without any remorse or people who've done something awful against them. Sometimes you'll see in news reports that somebody says, "Well, I just forgive that person," after they've done something terrible. Jesus is going after the heart of the matter. Obviously, you can't always give verbal forgiveness to someone because of context and situation. But Jesus is not talking so much just about that. What comes out of the heart comes out of the mouth at the right time. Jesus is saying, "From the heart, it will always show in a disposition that treats and loves that person. You let it go. You let it go."
Now, that is utterly freeing. Think about this, the good of it for us. There is no happier person in life than from the heart when your brother and sister has let it go. It is completely, in a sense, cleansed your own heart when you've let it go against them.
You know, the consequence of not doing that, the consequence of not doing that is what springs up in the heart toward that person. It is bitterness. It is anger. It is disregard until the debt is paid, till the debt is paid.
And again, see the challenge of discipleship: it challenges us to what love is. It challenges us to what has at its fruit the desire to cover a multitude of wrongs since that's what love is. It does it did love covers a multitude of sins.
I always think of that with the stoning of Stephen. If you if this troubles you in any way when he was losing his own life, what offense could be more offensive in this life than somebody trying to kill you? And as he's receiving the stones, remember his request to the Lord? "Lord, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." Where did he get that? At the cross. At the cross. It's the way we look at everyone who sins. There's a disposition. There's a disposition. That's Christian.
Jesus now sets this all in concrete. If we didn't get it, we'll get it now with the parable. It's such a, maybe the easiest of all Christ's parables to understand. In fact, I'm writing this, I'm thinking, "What am I going to say that's new?" And then I have to slap myself a little bit and say, "You don't say anything new. That's bad."
The kingdom of heaven verse 23 notice this the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents. And since notice this 10,000 talents and since he could not pay, he ordered him to be sold his wife and children, all that he had that payment may be made."
So this servant who incurred a great debt he comes he comes up falls on his knees and he begs his master, a nobleman: "Have patience with me, I'll pay you everything! I'll pay you everything!" He can't. It's a moving scene because it's a desperate man who has absolutely no ability to pay the debt. no ability to pay the debt
Um, in those days, it was um it was common that if debts could not be paid to a king, they would be sold into slavery and, and and the worst of all things would happen, they would also sell the wife and the children right on into slavery to collect the amount toward the debt. Imagine that.
Jesus gives a figure here to accentuate the point, to draw out the point, to make us feel the weight of the debt. It's 10,000 talents. It's a debt amassed that nobody could pay in this life, in their money. What an awful scenario! He was obviously reckless with his money. He'd obviously incurred a debt that was so bad, he was so irresponsible.
Think of the debt here: "Sell him. Sell his wife right now and his children. They're out. Separate them and get them out of my presence."
And the surprising moment of the parable is, as the man comes and begs, this good master, this really good master has compassion. Deep inside, he wells up with compassion.
Servant falls before him. The word here in Greek is to worship him. This this guy worships the master, and he comes, and he bows down, and he prostrates himself with great reverence, and he pleads, "Master, have notice notice the familiar word so at all the bio have mercy on me, great patience with me, I'll pay it."
What a rash statement! You wonder about the request here, don't you? It's probably not very even sincere.
And the most beautiful line of the parable. it's a remarkable parable. In verse 27: "And out of pity for him, the master of the servant released him, point, and forgave the dead."
The master didn't just put together a plan to try to charge interest and have him pay it back, which too would have been kind of merciful. He released it all. He just, He let it all go. He forgave the debt. I mean, you know, what a remarkable thing.
The Lord wants us to think about what a debt that was incurred. Would you ever do this?
Well, the picture here is the context is really clear It's the incredible mercy of God it's the incredible mercy of god that people in this life receive. This is what gospel ministry is! You understand this is why I make a big issue of the confession of sins and the announcement of the pardon and forgiveness. It's what we're doing!
How awful is the idea of having your family sold off because of your reckless behavior? How much worse is the truth that people will go to eternal hell and eternal fire for the debt that they have occurred against God because of sin?
Did you see this week the man caught in adultery all over the internet? You couldn't miss it. I doubt some of our older people did. And I always say, "Blessed are you if you don't see this junk." But the man's at a Coldplay concert he's the CEO of a big company and you know the verse: "Be sure your sin will find you out." That camera happens to land on him as he's holding another woman in his arms not his wife and the shocking thing of it was how this was made sport everywhere! How did you? And if you saw that, what would you think of a man like that? Could we have pity on somebody like that? He's a fool. He's indeed a fool. And look what he did in one moment he lost everything. He lost his wife unless she forgives him. I don't know. I don't know. His children imagine the damage he did. His job, and now he's a public ridicule all over the internet. That fool threw away everything good in his life.
Oh, sin, sin is awful!
And the most shocking thing was, was the next article I saw on Fox News: "Hollywood's hottest divorcees heat up summer with passionate new romances." It's as if everyone gloated in the shame of it, and in the next breath, "Don't think a thing of it. as if it was a joke." Many of us will look on disgust with homosexuality. But adultery? Not even considering the people who gloat in this? That their own sin and shame has a debt that they can't pay back to God! So they're ruthless with people like this, aren't they? We should have been weeping. This man lost everything and incurred a debt in this life. He's not going to be able to pay.
What kind of mercy does the gospel offer, right?
The master forgave it all. And God doesn't even put it on a massive screen for the world to see all your sins. This wasn't a little debt. This was a great debt. And what it cost to cover it was not cheap. Not cheap grace, is it? Not cheap grace. Oh, it came with a great cost.
The amount we owe to God is beyond comprehension. We don't even think about it very much. To put it in plain Scripture terms: the wages of sin is death. That's why we're all dying every single day. On top of that, we accumulate more and more debt every time you sin. Openly or in secret. Every single day we do things that if God numbered our sins, who could stand?
God had every right to put an end to this and throw us all into hell. But He didn't. What did He do?
You came here today to worship, and we did this. We read the law, and I had the great privilege as pastor to announce something to you: "Forgiven are all your sins."
And he made it really clear in Scripture what the ministry is to do, what it's aimed to accomplish. Right then and there this morning in the confession of sins, you know what he did? He dealt with your sin. He didn't shame you, did he? He didn't put it on a screen. It's a ministry of reconciliation. It's what it is. So the pastor, you know, announces, "All of you who look to Christ and have asked for forgiveness and by faith look to Him: forgiven are all your sins. All the debt is wiped out."
Think of the Heidelberg Catechism: "We are asking because of Christ's blood, would you not impute to us poor sinners that we are any of the transgressions that we do or the evil that constantly clings to us?" And we're constantly struggling, and we're constantly sinning, and we're sinning against him, and we do the things even we don't want to do.
And here's the big point of the parable: Does he ever stop forgiving us? Seventy times seven. He does it for you.
You see, this is the joy of it! The joy of the gospel! Hear me: every time you come and every time you confess, and don't ever stop if it's the same stupid sin, every time you sin, every time you come, he wants you to know the joy of forgiveness. "I won't make you pay the debt. I gave my son." It's gospel.
See the beauty of what he's helping us with here? He's encouraging us in the joy of our own forgiveness.
And in the gospel, the truth is: God provides for us that the debt is paid. And now comes the painful part of the parable.
Remember, it's a parable is a story illustrating a truth. It's not always a one for one kind of correspondence. In other words, this is not some salvation by works kind of teaching. It's illustrating a point. It's driving home a point.
Verse 28: "But when that servant went out. okay so this guy goes out, 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
Wow! So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him. Notice the language: "Have patience with me, I'll pay you soon." "Have patience with me." He refused.
Notice the difference here, by the way. He didn't go to his neighbor with any kind of compassion to help him who offended him. He's supposed to go to help him win the neighbor. "I want payment, and if I don't get payment, you're in trouble. You refused." And the guy asked for same word "compassion," and he puts him in prison until he should pay.
Notice that he wants him out, put him in prison. Verse 30: "Until he should pay the debt. I want that debt paid."
Did you notice in the next verse how this or the next verses here? I disrupted the whole community. That's just a wisdom verse of our Lord. The whole community got worked up about this. It was terrible what just happened.
"When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were distressed." That's that's what a lack and sin and lack of forgiveness does in the body. It distresses people. It not only distresses your own heart; it distresses everyone else. The behavior was so unnerving, it it hurt everyone else. Because this master is a good master, you pay me. You know what he owed? He owed, he owed, he owed, he owed a hundred denarii. As I would say, 100 denarii that's that's four thousand dollars It doesn't even compare. it It's mass hypocrisy. He'll worship. He'll come to worship and say, "I need forgiveness," and then this is the way he treats people? It doesn't work! He's dealing with others. He refused to forgive, and he won't forgive his fellow servant. "You pay me what you owe."
He uses the same words in verse 29, and speaking to the king and begging him, "Have patience with me." This is the same words. This man came begging this guy to forgive.
So the issue comes to the master. The issue comes back to the master, and he says, "Master hears of it, and he says, you wicked servant i forgave you the debt because you begged me would you not have compassion on your fellow servant as I had pity and compassion on you
And the master was angry and delivered him to the tormentor till he should pay all that was due to him.
So the point of the parable today is really clear. Think of how God and his gospel has been to us. And Jesus is relaying this in the most profoundly strong manner because of the kind of heart that has never understood or embrace truly the great forgiveness of God in his own life.
Do you know what you've been forgiven?
See, it belongs to the natural man's heart not to forgive. That's the crucial point here. But the gospel the gospel comes and announces forgiveness, and it doesn't stop. Creates in us, circumcised Deuteronomy 30. Cleansed hearts. circumcised hearts. And the angerness and the bitter, bitterness, he takes away. He takes it away. That's how wonderful he is. You don't have to live that way. You're the most free people in the world because you've been forgiven.
"You've softened my heart, O Lord. You've taken my bitterness and cast it all on the sea. You've taken away my anger. And your forgiveness of me."
Some of you may have been deeply hurt by someone. a parent, a spouse, a neighbor. the greatest blessing and fruit of a truly regenerate heart in this life is the ability to let it all go. That's a gift.
Heidelberg, and so now: "Forgive me just as I am fully determined." That's that language. Fully determined," Heidelberg Catechism. "As evidence of your grace, wholeheartedly to go and forgive our neighbors."
See? It's incompatible for somebody to be truly a Christian and not have this disposition when he's been forgiven and knows the grace of God in his own life. It's the work of the Spirit. And that's what Scripture's calling us to. That's kingdom life. That's discipleship. That's how we demonstrate in our lives that we are his children by the love that we have for one another in this way.
Thomas Watson once said, "You don't need to climb up into heaven to see whether your sins are forgiven. Listen to the statement. You don't need to do that. Let us look into our hearts and see if we can forgive others. If we can, we have no doubt, but God has forgiven us."
Then he said this: "A man may as well go to hell for not forgiving is not believing." He equates it on the same level. A lack of forgiveness is flat out unbelief because, you see, what's at the heart of it? A claim that God's forgiven you in Christ.
And Jesus concludes the parable that way: "Every time you sin, I want you to come to the Lord. And I want you to know that He will forgive your sins 70 times 7. Do you believe that? That's how good He is to us. Every time. Same sin. Asking for the grace to put it to death in your life. It's His work by the Spirit. If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, will live."
Coming to Him for help. And I want you to know, says the Lord, "I'll forgive your sins. And when I forgive your sins, there also is an unbreakable connection in your life, in your desires now to go out and demonstrate the same thing, because you're my children."
For all those who have offended us, the Lord is the righteous one who will deal with all sin. You need help with it. That's why the whole Heidelberg tells us to pray: "Help us." What is one of the petitions of the Lord's Prayer? "Help us. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us." Pray that. That's one of the very desires. That's why you need help with that. We've all failed. But even our lack of forgiveness at times is the very reason we need to come and ask for forgiveness that we would then go out and forgive.
"Lord, forgive my trespasses. What did he do for you today? He forgave them all. So now, Lord, help me to go out as I'm fully determined to do by your grace
And forgive one another and he promises he is promising here grace for this, for his sheep, instructing us, helping us to know what a Christian is.
So let's be about putting it back in context recovering lost sheep, wayward sheep and that'll start, by the way, we show forgiveness in the lives of our brothers and sisters who've offended us.
His gospel announces to you today the forgiveness of your sins. Believe it, and this will be the fruit that follows.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you for this text. Thank you for helping us with this. It, the lack of this in the church, has been terrible for the witness of your church. And may, in this place, oh Lord, we never harbor in our hearts that kind of lack of forgiveness or bitterness, but from the heart may we forgive our brothers and sisters their trespasses.
Thank you today for forgiving us. Thank you today for today for every time that we have come to you and confess those same old sins, you have every sunday even when we haven't done it well during the week we've confessed, and you've heard us, and you've answered us, and you've said, "Son and daughters, forgiven are your sins."
As evidence of your grace in our lives, oh Lord, if there's anyone we need to go to we've been challenged on this not wait around, but go to would you greatly not let us rest until we've done so? And would you send us on our way to go to those in our lives who have sinned against us, that we, O Lord, might have the same disposition of our Heavenly Father in sending His Son, who came to seek and to save that which is lost? May this be showcased in us as a work of Your Spirit. Thank You for instructing us on forgiveness. May, O Lord, a lack of forgiveness in our lives be put away. May we never stand in the way of the very gospel we confess.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.