The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant
In our exploration of the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant from Matthew 18, we delve into the profound implications of forgiveness as taught by Jesus. We begin by recognizing that forgiveness is not merely a suggestion but a command from Christ, who emphasizes that we are to forgive without limits. Peter's question about how many times one should forgive leads Jesus to illustrate the vastness of God's mercy through a parable. The first servant, who owes an astronomical debt, receives complete forgiveness from his master, yet he fails to extend that same grace to a fellow servant who owes him a mere fraction. This stark contrast highlights the expectation that those who have received mercy should likewise show mercy to others.
As we reflect on this parable, we recognize that harboring unforgiveness is not only uncharacteristic of a disciple of Christ but also places us in a dangerous position spiritually. Jesus warns that an unforgiving heart reveals a lack of compassion and understanding of the grace we have received from God. Ultimately, we are called to forgive others as God has forgiven us, which is essential for maintaining unity within the body of Christ. Our challenge this week is to identify those we need to forgive and to embody the spirit of forgiveness that reflects our understanding of God's grace in our lives.
Key Takeaways
- Forgiveness is a command from Jesus, not a suggestion, and we are called to forgive without limits.
- The parable illustrates that our debt to God is far greater than any offense against us, and we must extend the same grace we've received.
- Harboring unforgiveness is uncharacteristic of a disciple of Christ and can lead to spiritual danger.
- An unforgiving heart reveals a lack of compassion and understanding of God's mercy, which we are called to reflect in our relationships.
- Forgiveness is essential for unity within the church, and we must strive to be a congregation that embodies grace and reconciliation.
Scripture References
Discussion Questions
- Who in your life do you find it hardest to forgive, and why?
- How does understanding the magnitude of God's forgiveness towards us influence our ability to forgive others?
- What practical steps can we take to extend forgiveness to those who have wronged us?
- In what ways can harboring unforgiveness affect our spiritual health and relationships within the church?
- How can we foster a culture of forgiveness and reconciliation in our community?
Matthew 21:33-46
Parables of Jesus: The Parable of the Tenants
Matthew 21:33-46
Ken Strohmeyer
The Parable of the Tenants:
God has given us everything we need to be Righteous and Holy. Are we
squandering it?
Jesus expects that we know the scriptures.
What is your response to the cornerstone?
Parabolic Truth: We are the new people that are entrusted with the kingdom.
Transcript
· [music] Well, good morning again. Welcome to Cross Church Phoenix. I'm Pastor DJ. If you're new here this morning, welcome.
· Uh if you fill out that new card, it just comes back to me. I'd love to reach out to you to you. Uh you know, maybe not this week. Um my family and I are going on vacation, leaving after church uh today. Uh we're going to Colorado and we will be back on the 20th. And so our brother Ken, who's right now serving in the nursery, he was here for first service, but Ken will be preaching next Sunday. So be in prayer for Ken.
· One of the things that I love about our church and the ministry here is uh we are about making Jesus known, of course, and then raising up leaders here. So we have local crossurch Phoenix guys um learning and growing and and preaching and teaching the word. And so there's more to come. Ken will be preaching uh this coming Sunday. So be here for that.
· If you would now open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 18.
· Matthew chapter 18. And if you don't have a Bible, there's one should be one around the seat back in front of you.
· You can use that. Make it your own. Uh Cross Church Phoenix is also now on the Bible app. I think we were before and I don't know if I I think I accidentally like let the page die or something. I'm not sure, but I figured out how to get it back up and running and figured out how to make an event and to put the scriptures in or to put the outline in as well. So, I'm trying to keep up on that. And so, you can also find Cross Church Phoenix as uh as a church in the Bible app if you'd like.
· Well, this morning we're moving from chapter 13 to chapter 18. We're not going verse by verse through Matthew, though I'd love to. Uh we are looking at different parables and this morning we're coming to the parable of the unforgiving servant.
· Before we pray and read the scriptures together, I want to set the stage for you. I was going to try to summarize like everything that happened in between that's too much and too probably distracting. But suffice it to say this, as we come to chapter 18, there's been a lot of talk about the kingdom of heaven by now.
· Jesus, we spent four or five weeks in Matthew chapter 13. He's continued to teach on the kingdom of heaven. He introduced it earlier in his ministry.
· And now by by now, at this point in time, the kingdom of heaven has been a topic of conversation for a while. And so if you look at the beginning of chapter 18, the disciples pose a question. We've heard Jesus all about the kingdom of heaven. So who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
· And Jesus in response brings a small child next to him and begins teaching.
· And I love that picture. That's what I want to put in your mind right now as we read. Imagine as we read together, this little kid, oh, maybe he's like 5 years old, I don't know, or two or three, I don't know, seven, who knows?
· This little kid hanging out next to Jesus while he's teaching. Let's pray again. Father, we thank you for this morning. Pray that as your word goes out again, God, that it would fall on rich, fruitful soil.
· God, this text can probably will confront a lot of us.
· Maybe we're harboring unforgiveness, bitterness towards someone. [snorts] God, help us to apply your word this morning in Jesus name. Amen. Well, if you are able to, let's stand as we read God's word together. And if you're unable to, that's all right. to stand with us in spirit as we simply honor God's word together. We're going to begin in verse 21. I'm not sure if I gave you the verse number, but Matthew 18, beginning at verse 21.
· And it reads this way. Then Peter approached him and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me?" "As many as seven times." I tell you, not as many as seven, Jesus replied. but 70* 7.
· For this reason, the kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle accounts, one who owed 10,000 talents was brought before him. Since he did not have the money to pay it back, his master commanded that he, his wife, his children, and everything he had be sold to pay the debt. At this, the servant fell down before him and said, "Be patient with me, and I'll pay you everything."
· Then the master of the servant had compassion, released him, and forgave him the loan or the debt.
· That servant went out and found one of his fellow servants, key fellow servants who owed him a hundred dinari. He grabbed him, started choking him, and said, "Pay what you owe."
· At this, his fellow servant fell down and began begging him, "Be patient with me." Sound familiar? "And I will pay you back." But he wasn't willing. Instead, he went and threw him into prison until he could pay what was owed. When the other servants saw what had taken place, they were deeply distressed and went and reported to their master everything that had happened. Then after he had summoned him, his master said to him, "You wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you begged me.
· Shouldn't you also have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you?" And because he was angry, his master handed him over to the jailers. Some translations will say torturers, to the jailers to be tortured until he could pay everything that was owed.
· So also my heavenly father will do to you unless every one of you forgives his brother or sister from your heart. Amen.
· Thanks. You can be seated.
· What would you have done?
· That's the question Holocaust survivor and author Simon Weezenthal proposes in his book called The Sunflower.
· The front cover of The Sunflower. You can find this online or read or listen on Spotify. The front cover of the of the Sunflower summarizes the entire book. It says this quote, "You're a prisoner in a concentration camp.
· A dying Nazi asks for your forgiveness.
· What would you do?"
· Simon, a Jewish man in a concentration camp, is sent on a different detail, a different assignment. He's sent to an army hospital that treats wounded SS soldiers.
· He meets a Nazi named Carl Cidle or Cidle, one of those.
· Carl is a dying Nazi desperate to talk to a Jew. Any Jewish man, it doesn't matter who, as long as they're Jewish, to confess his crimes and ask for forgiveness.
· Carl shares with Simon about his participation in mass killings of Jews.
· And I'll spare you some of the details for any children. There were some in 9:00 a.m. too, but you can read or listen to the atrocities that Carl was involved with.
· After Carl tells his story, shares his story in his confession to Simon.
· Ultimately, Carl seeks Simon's forgiveness.
· Sort of representative of all he's done against the Jewish people. He wanted a Jewish man to forgive him.
· Simon quietly gets up, leaves the room, refuses to forgive, and simply says nothing, and walks away.
· Well, Simon has to report for duty the next day, and the next day, a nurse tells him Carl had died overnight.
· The rest of the book is Simon wrestling with whether or not he should have forgiven Carl.
· Simon is haunted by this and he writes this book called The Sunflower.
· And what he does is he poses the ethical question to the reader or in 21st century now, right? The listener if it's an audio book, but he poses the question back to the reader. What would you have done?
· There's a second edition to this book and in the second edition of the book there are 53 responses from different rabbis, theologians, scholars, leaders in different religions and some a few are Christian pastors. It's one of the more controversial books on forgiveness in modern history. And so it attracted and garnered a lot of attention. And so there's 53 official responses.
· There's actually a table set up of these responses online and I counted them up for you. So these are leaders in the world or leaders in different religions and some are professors and stuff like that. But there are nine uncertain.
· Nine people don't know what they would do. There are 33 do not forgives.
· There is one cannot forgive and there are 10 forgives.
· 10 people out of 53 say that that man should be forgiven.
· As you can see, there's conflicting answers, but most people most of these responses see the situation. When you read everything, all things considered, I gave you the 30,000 foot level. It's very graphic.
· Most see the entire situation as unforgivable.
· By human standards, forgiveness is often based upon our assessment of their worthiness. Right?
· We forgive if we feel like it, when we feel like it. And if we don't feel very forgiving or we don't feel like that person deserves it, we don't offer it.
· We have this, you know, scale in our minds.
· And certain people down here, I can forgive. But then there's those ones up here that say, unless you meet that standard, you're not getting my forgiveness. And you don't meet that.
· you don't deserve it. I can't stand you, etc., etc. You are unforgiven.
· What does God have to say about forgiveness?
· And that's what I'd like to walk us through this morning. If you have a handout there, there's more in the back if you'd like. If not, it should be on the screen. God's lesson on forgiveness to his disciples.
· The first thing we see number one is the command to forgive.
· This is not a suggestion.
· Jesus in context just got done teaching on what I would call restoration of broken relationships slashchurch discipline. Right? It's Matthew 18.
· These principles if a brother or sister sins against you, here's how to bring restoration. You know, go to him and talk to him directly. And if he receives you or if he listens, you've gained your brother. Great. The matter's done. If he doesn't listen to you, bring a couple more people. Maybe he'll listen then and repent or or seek that reconciliation.
· And if he won't listen, you tell it to the church. Pray to God. Hopefully, they'll repent. Hopefully, they'll get right. And if they refuse, then yeah, you kick them out of the church. But it's for a good and godly reason so that hopefully they will repent and come back and be welcomed into the fellowship.
· Well, Peter, I think rightly perceiving people sin against each other a lot.
· We hurt each other all the times. And so he's like, "Well, uh, okay. Yeah, we sin against each other a lot." So he asked Jesus, "All right, all right. All right. How many times should I or should we extend forgiveness seven times?"
· And there's a reason I think he says seven. The rabbis in those days and in in the Old Testament times, they would teach obviously on forgiveness. And the recommendation was to forgive no more than three times.
· That's rabbitical teaching.
· And if you were to look at the table of according on the sun responses to the sunflower story, it will tell you the name of the person, their job. So like so and so rabbi and then their response right and the other ones all all of the Jewish rabbis say do not forgive that that guy.
· So forgiveness is only three times after that no more for you. So Peter suggesting seven times is his attempt to be gracious and go above and beyond rabbitical teaching. He's been walking with Jesus for a while already and he already knows that he has he has taught an exceeding of the Pharisees. For example, if you want to be righteous and holy and perfect before God, your righteousness needs to exceed theirs.
· And he's already up the ante on multiple teachings of the rabbis. And so I hear Peter seven times I imagine him, this is DJ's thought, right? Lord, the rabbis teach forgiving three times. How about double that plus one?
· How about double plus one, Lord? Seven.
· And yes, seven is the number of completion. Maybe he's talking about that. But either way, Christ says, "No, not seven, but 70* 7."
· And now Jesus is not talking about 490 times. And on the 491st time, no more forgiveness for you.
· That's not what he's teaching. What he is teaching is our first subpoint under one dev 1A. Christ's disciples forgive without limit.
· That's what he's saying.
· Jesus is teaching forgiveness without counting. Forgiveness. Forgiving so much you lose count if you were forgiving. Not in a way that says this is number 249. I'm keeping track and I can't wait till I get to 490. so I don't have to forgive that guy anymore or that gal.
· No, he's saying forgive in a way that says it doesn't matter what number this is, you're forgiven.
· You might be thinking, well, that's a pretty tall order.
· Forgive people, others without limit.
· How am I supposed to do that?
· Well, thankfully Jesus doesn't just give us the command to forgive. He gives us number two, the reason to forgive. And this is where the parable is introduced in verse 23. The kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king settling accounts with his servants. So he's bringing his servants together. He wants to settle accounts, bring everything up to par.
· One of them comes and owes him 10,000 talents. That is an astronomically high number.
· A talent is a weight, a measure of weight of metal. And if there was no specific metal mentioned, the default was usually silver. If you went up to someone and said, "I got a talent." Um, if you didn't specify if it was a talent of gold, it would generally be, "Oh, so he's got a talent of silver." Either way, a talent is equivalent to 6,000 dinari.
· dinari's uh uh money like a dollar, right? But it's a a unit of money, currency. One dinarius was a day's wage in that day. So I did some math for you.
· This guy basically owes 60 million dinari or if I could put it this way, 60 million days of work.
· Have fun with that.
· If we were to measure it in silver, it would be approximately 300 tons of silver he owes.
· That should get our attention. Jesus is doing this on purpose. It It's like saying in our day, the man owes a zillion dollars.
· This is something so exorbitant, no servant could pay this off in multiple lifetimes. And that's Jesus point.
· This is an unpayable debt.
· This is unpayable in multiple lifetimes for this man. And that is why verse 26 is so ridiculous.
· He's pleading for his life and for the lives of his family. And he asked for patience. Why? So he could pay everything. Really, this guy does not have a shot in his whole life of paying everything.
· This is an impossible plea. And everyone listening to him would know it.
· But in the face of the impossible, the master had what? Compassion.
· Verse 27. Compassion.
· He had compassion, released him, and forgave his debt. This is sheer grace.
· Not only will the master have mercy, and I I messed this up in 9:00 a.m., but I got it right. So, mercy is not getting what you do deserve. Grace is receiving or getting what you don't deserve. So, not only will the master have mercy, meaning not sell him and his family into slavery. He could have said, "All right, I'm not going to sell you, your family, and everything you have into slavery, but you still have this debt."
· He doesn't just give him mercy in not doing that, but the master goes above and beyond the servant's own request and gives him grace. What? Cancels the entire debt. The guy didn't even ask for that. He asked for patience. The master goes above and beyond. Says, "Not only will I not sell you, but I'm going to cancel the whole thing.
· This is compassion and grace from the master."
· Matthew has described Jesus as compassionate multiple times, multiple occasions by now in his gospel. If we were to read it through, Jesus has compassion on this person or that crowd.
· Here the master is described as forgiving a massive great unpayable humanly speaking debt motivated by compassion for the debtor.
· The point Jesus is making clear this is second subpoint. So I have like 2 A, 3 A, 4 A. Christ disciples forgive without limit because God has forgiven them without limit.
· The standard for how we as believers, Christians, you say, "I'm in Christ." The standard for how we forgive does not come from man.
· The standard for how we forgive, if I could make it more personal, does not come from you, nor me. Of course, the standard for how we forgive comes from God.
· Ephesians 4:32 says, "Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you."
· God in Christ forgave you, forgave us an eternal debt that no amount of work could get you or I out of.
· You could work not 60 million days, a bajillion to put it in in modern terms, right? A gazillion bajillion zillion days and not pay your sin debt to a holy and righteous God.
· And Christ takes that on the cross and in a matter of hours pays it. Why?
· Because he's God.
· And so God forgave us an eternal debt we could not get our way work our way out of. Our sin against God is eternally greater than any sin against us.
· But if you have a low view of God's forgiveness of you and your sin against him, of course you'll have a low view of forgiveness to your fellow man or woman.
· But if you have a high view of how much God has forgiven you, you'll see it's nothing compared to what you've done to God, what someone else has done to you, and you forgive. Not saying it's easy.
· It is difficult. It can be hard. Yes.
· But by the power of the Holy Spirit, through the Christfilled, spiritfilled, scripturefilled life, you can.
· We have to see our sin against God for what it is and allow that to motivate us and make us ready to forgive. Our readiness to forgive others should always be present because of how much Christ has forgiven us.
· Now the parable doesn't end there.
· He continues and he provides number three the warning in refusing to forgive this man who's been forgiven multiple lifetimes worth of debt. He goes out and he finds a fellow servant key fellow servant which would mean that they have the same master.
· He finds his fellow servant who owed him a hundred dinari and he grabs him and he chokes him and he demands to be paid.
· To put it into perspective, this second servant owes 1600,000th of what the first servant owed the master.
· The first servant owed the master 60 million days wages. The second servant owes him a 100 days wages. 3 months of work approximately a debt that is easily reasonably paid in a lifetime.
· Second servant couldn't pay right away.
· So the second servant begged the first servant and look what he says in verse 29. Be patient with me and I'll pay you back the exact same thing the first servant told the master in verse 26.
· He just echoes the same words.
· But unlike his master, the first servant wasn't willing. In other words, he had no compassion.
· Unlike his master, he had no compassion.
· Throws him in prison until payment could be made.
· Well, the master has many servants, not just these two.
· And so other fellow servants hear about what happened and they go report it to their master.
· What we learn here is 3A I think it would be an unforgiving heart is uncharacteristic of a disciple of Christ.
· Note the severity of the first servant in verse 28.
· He grabs his fellow servant and chokes him, demanding payment. This is meant to sound outrageous and absurd. It's meant to get your attention.
· He's choking a guy out who owes 600,000th of what this other dude, what the guy doing the choking owed the master.
· This is a surprising lack of compassion.
· It's meant to get your attention. What?
· What is he doing? He owes pennies, fractions of a penny compared to this guy, and he's choking him out. It's meant to say, "Yes, this is ridiculous."
· That's Jesus point. It is a an alarming, if I could use that word, surprising lack of compassion. This is crazy.
· Someone forgiven so much turns right around and acts so petty. Exactly. His actions are despicable to everyone, including the master. His actions are despicable to his fellow to the fellow servants and despicable to the master.
· Why? Because they know how much he's been forgiven.
· This leads me to our final point number four. The consequence of refusing to forgive.
· the consequence of refusing to [clears throat] forgive. So Jesus now gives the assessment of this servant and it's not complicated. He's wicked and ought to have shown mercy the same way he was shown mercy.
· The master is angry and hands him over to the jailers. Now, some translations might say torturers, the word there in Greek, and I wanted to know which one. I think that that was that was important to me. The word in Greek is basically a harsh or oppressive jailer. So, instead of like a more passive who cares kind of jailer, just, you know, imagine a guy just locks you up and doesn't care. He's playing video games on his phone or whatever. Um, this is a jailer who is oppressive also to you.
· So, you're in prison to him and then he mocks you, messes with you, and whatever. is it's basically a word for a harsh or oppressive jailer. Basically, he's being handed over to merciless jailers because he himself showed no mercy.
· And then Jesus, now we get to the hard part, right? Then Jesus brings it all back to reality. Right? The end is not parable. The end is truth.
· So also my heavenly father will do to you unless every one of you forgives his brother or sister from where your heart.
· It's easy to forgive begrudgingly, right? [sighs] I guess because God said so I'll forgive, right? That's not coming from the heart.
· This is I'm you're forgiven. Why? Cuz Christ forgave me of so much. you're forgiven. And I mean it, brother or sister.
· If grace I'm sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself.
· The bottom line is this. Let me make point A and then we'll go to that. An unforgiving heart places the professing Christian in a dangerous position.
· If grace, mercy, and forgiveness are characteristic of our father in heaven and we're his children, it ought to be characteristic of his children.
· That's the point.
· And if it isn't, there's a problem.
· Now, there's a lot of conversation around the end of the parable, right?
· And it may be stirring in your own mind.
· So, does this mean that I lose God's forgiveness if I'm unforgiving towards others?
· Well, in the same gospel, we learn that every sin is forgivable except one. Matthew 12:31-32, Jesus says, "Right, therefore, I tell you, [snorts] every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the son of man will be forgiven. But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven either in this age or in the age to come.
· So you can even speak a word against Jesus Christ and eventually come to faith and trust in him and love him and be saved.
· But he's like if you speak a word, if you blas blasphe the Holy Spirit, there's no forgiveness for that. And it's taking a lot not to go down that road, but we can talk about that later if you have questions. But Jesus doesn't mention that uh not forgiving others is also unforgivable. However, there is definite caution for sure. Jesus is serious. His words about the father are sobering and serious.
· One thing we need to remember is that Jesus is teaching on the topic of forgiveness, not salvation. Right? Peter asks, "How many times do I forgive?" And Jesus says, "All the time."
· We we say like, "God is good." All the time. All the time. God is good. Well, how often do I forgive? All the time.
· All the time I forgive. There you go. I just made that up. That was free. Um, but Jesus, right, says, "Forgive without limit." And he uses the parable to show us how ridiculous it is to not forgive after we've experienced God's forgiveness. That's basically the summary of the parable. Forgive con without limit, guys. Why? Cuz you've been forgiven so much. And here's how ridiculous it looks if you did it. Cuz God has done so much for you. That's like a one-s sentence summary, I would say.
· But if you read it carefully, I believe the master granted the first servant true, real unconditional forgiveness. So he doesn't say you're forgiven the debt if you do A, B, C, and D.
· He was genuinely forgiven without any conditions or merit of the servant. The problem is the servant abused his newfound forgiveness.
· And Jesus, if we really get down to brass tax, he doesn't say [snorts] that the debt is the exact same. So in the first settling of accounts, it was going to cost his entire family and everything he had to be sold into slavery to pay the debt.
· The second time it just says only he's thrown into jail to pay everything owed.
· What we don't know is is it does he mean is it the same debt or a newly incurred debt?
· Jesus doesn't say that his whole family and everything he has being has to be sold again. Oh, sorry. Let's resell you now because you messed up. Um he's just saying that this guy needs to be disciplined for his actions. And it is consistent biblically for God to discipline or rebuke those he loves.
· Let me put it this way. You can be a child of God and yet come under his discipline.
· Reading this parable, Jesus does not seem to have any problem whatsoever with a master who can be so incredibly gracious, compassionate, and merciful.
· And that same master is disciplinary.
· Jesus doesn't see any tension between those two.
· Proverbs 3:12 says, "For the Lord reproves him whom he loves as a father the son in whom he delights. I delight in my son Elijah, but he's not.
· And I got to reprove and rebuke and discipline that boy, and I'm going to have to continue on. He's only five."
· And we're like, "All right, it's ready."
· Like, "I'm ready to start rebuking this kid." Right? But why do I do that? As a dad, I reprove or discipline all my children. Why? Because I love them, not because I'm disowning them.
· And this is echoed in the New Testament as well. Hebrews 12:6, for the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives.
· And even again to the church at Le Oysia, Jesus said in Revelation 3:19, "Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline. So be zealous and repent."
· And in the the seven letters to the churches in Revelation, Jesus is like, "If you don't, I'll shut this church down."
· You don't think God won't shut down disobedient worship? he does in Isaiah and he threatens to in Revelation, right? [snorts] I don't think it's a stretch to say Jesus is teaching that we should expect discipline, rebuke, and correction from God if our attitude and heart are not right as a child of God.
· However, I do want to add this because I think both interpretations um could could be. But I do want to add this statement, and I worked hard on it, but I believe it. A man or woman okay with receiving God's grace and forgiveness without becoming gracious and forgiving themselves is a man or woman who may not have truly experienced God's grace and forgiveness to begin with. Okay?
· Either way, right, we are warned. The warning here stands regardless of how you interpret this. Whether or not uh he was never actually forgiven in the first place or that's all conjecture really.
· Let's take it for what it is. Jesus's warning against harboring an unforgiving heart. That's the point. Let's not over complicate it.
· Our parabolic truth this morning is this. Forgiving others as God has forgiven you is characteristic of the professing Christian. Ephesians 4:32.
· However, a spirit or a heart, we could say, of unforgiveness betrays a lack of compassion in a heart that I put has yet. I could put may yet um hasn't yet or may not have embrace God's forgiveness.
· Not going to say wholesale that this person's not saved or anything like that, but I will say that God does discipline his children.
· I want to bring in some application. And I know I'm running a little bit late, but this parable is so impactful. Who do you need to forgive?
· Who are you harboring resentment towards?
· I think it's important to quickly say that there's a difference between forgiveness and trust. You can forgive someone but not trust them and take steps to keep yourself safe. Okay?
· It's especially hard to forgive an abuser, someone who's hurt you, maybe left you, maybe cheated on you, assaulted you, any number of sins against you.
· Who's that person that comes to mind when I say forgive them and you immediately think anyone but that person. That's who I'm talking about.
· That's what I'm talking about. forgive that person. You know who it is. I may not know. God does.
· I was talking with someone between services and and I don't want to leave the question maybe unanswered for the rest of you, but an example might be, you know, forgiving an abusive parent.
· Um, you can genuinely, wholeheartedly, lovingly because of what God has done in you, forgive them. But you might not send your kids over there to the grandkids, right? if it's still a problem or if there is still an abusive person. I'm not saying subject your children or subject yourself to become a punching bag for someone else.
· Forgiveness though can happen.
· Reconciliation depends, right? It depends on the other person. Sometimes we can't reconcile. It takes two to reconcile. But your forgiveness being extended to them is important.
· Maybe it's a phone call. Maybe it's a visit. I don't know. open that door.
· But forgiveness leads to bitterness and bitterness only affects you. Let me ask you a question. Somebody if you some some people have harbored unforgiveness in their heart towards someone for many years. Think about that person for a second. Do you think they're losing any sleep because you haven't forgiven them of something? No.
· No. Often times they could care less or not even know. But who's the one losing sleep? Who's the one the root of bitterness settles into? Who's the one affected by unforgiveness? Yourself.
· And so God is I I believe freedom freeing you from bitterness and resentment is simply true genuine forgiveness.
· So whoever that person is that comes to mind, that's who I'm talking about.
· forgive that person because Christ has forgiven you. And I pray that our congregation will be a congregation of forgiving forgiving people who forgive each other. One of the greatest threats to the church that I believe Satan uh utilizes is division in the church, right? People hurt each other. People sin against each other in the church.
· Yes, it's true, right? Christians ain't perfect. People say, "If I walk into your church, the thunderbolt lightning will come down because I'm a sinner."
· Try us.
· Try us. Right. Let's see. Not going to happen, right? We are all hurt. We're all broken.
· And it's echoed in the New Testament.
· Paul echoes it in Ephesians. Why?
· Because unity in the gospel is so important. So if we hurt each other as believers, as the church at Cross Church, if someone does something that hurts you, forgive them and seek restoration.
· We'll be better for it as a church. will be stronger for it. But unforgiveness and bitterness, especially in the church. That's why Jesus teaches in Matthew 18, of course. But all that stuff in the church, hurts a church, makes it weaker, brings division. And I don't want that for Cross Church Phoenix. I want us to be a healthy, strong church.
· And we be a congregation of the forgiven who are forgiving.
· I want to close in prayer and invite the worship team up as we prepare for our last song. Let me pray for us. Father, we thank you for this morning.
· I pray for every single person listening to this sermon live or online or in the future pulling it up.
· Is there any anyone on this planet that they need to forgive? Or maybe it's someone who who has passed, who's gone, that we've harbored unforgiveness towards, and they've long since died, and we still are affected by the wounds that they've given us. [snorts] God, I pray that you would work in us, every person here and listening, a spirit of forgiveness. I forgive you.
· Even when it's hard, even when I'm hurt, I forgive you. Why? Because Christ has forgiven me. That's why I may not feel like it.
· Oh well, feeling. We don't go by feelings. We go by truth. The truth is that Christ gave everything to people who are his enemies and who hated him.
· And he said, "Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing." Stephen, the first martyr, Acts chapter 7, echoed the same words. God Jesus Christ, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. As he's being stoned to death, I don't know anyone here who's been stoned to death.
· God, I pray that we be a forgiving congregation in Jesus name. Amen. Let's stand and sing our last song.
Part of Series
Parables
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· [music] Well, good morning again. Welcome to Cross Church Phoenix. I'm Pastor DJ. If you're new here this morning, welcome.
· Uh if you fill out that new card, it just comes back to me. I'd love to reach out to you to you. Uh you know, maybe not this week. Um my family and I are going on vacation, leaving after church uh today. Uh we're going to Colorado and we will be back on the 20th. And so our brother Ken, who's right now serving in the nursery, he was here for first service, but Ken will be preaching next Sunday. So be in prayer for Ken.
· One of the things that I love about our church and the ministry here is uh we are about making Jesus known, of course, and then raising up leaders here. So we have local crossurch Phoenix guys um learning and growing and and preaching and teaching the word. And so there's more to come. Ken will be preaching uh this coming Sunday. So be here for that.
· If you would now open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 18.
· Matthew chapter 18. And if you don't have a Bible, there's one should be one around the seat back in front of you.
· You can use that. Make it your own. Uh Cross Church Phoenix is also now on the Bible app. I think we were before and I don't know if I I think I accidentally like let the page die or something. I'm not sure, but I figured out how to get it back up and running and figured out how to make an event and to put the scriptures in or to put the outline in as well. So, I'm trying to keep up on that. And so, you can also find Cross Church Phoenix as uh as a church in the Bible app if you'd like.
· Well, this morning we're moving from chapter 13 to chapter 18. We're not going verse by verse through Matthew, though I'd love to. Uh we are looking at different parables and this morning we're coming to the parable of the unforgiving servant.
· Before we pray and read the scriptures together, I want to set the stage for you. I was going to try to summarize like everything that happened in between that's too much and too probably distracting. But suffice it to say this, as we come to chapter 18, there's been a lot of talk about the kingdom of heaven by now.
· Jesus, we spent four or five weeks in Matthew chapter 13. He's continued to teach on the kingdom of heaven. He introduced it earlier in his ministry.
· And now by by now, at this point in time, the kingdom of heaven has been a topic of conversation for a while. And so if you look at the beginning of chapter 18, the disciples pose a question. We've heard Jesus all about the kingdom of heaven. So who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
· And Jesus in response brings a small child next to him and begins teaching.
· And I love that picture. That's what I want to put in your mind right now as we read. Imagine as we read together, this little kid, oh, maybe he's like 5 years old, I don't know, or two or three, I don't know, seven, who knows?
· This little kid hanging out next to Jesus while he's teaching. Let's pray again. Father, we thank you for this morning. Pray that as your word goes out again, God, that it would fall on rich, fruitful soil.
· God, this text can probably will confront a lot of us.
· Maybe we're harboring unforgiveness, bitterness towards someone. [snorts] God, help us to apply your word this morning in Jesus name. Amen. Well, if you are able to, let's stand as we read God's word together. And if you're unable to, that's all right. to stand with us in spirit as we simply honor God's word together. We're going to begin in verse 21. I'm not sure if I gave you the verse number, but Matthew 18, beginning at verse 21.
· And it reads this way. Then Peter approached him and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me?" "As many as seven times." I tell you, not as many as seven, Jesus replied. but 70* 7.
· For this reason, the kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle accounts, one who owed 10,000 talents was brought before him. Since he did not have the money to pay it back, his master commanded that he, his wife, his children, and everything he had be sold to pay the debt. At this, the servant fell down before him and said, "Be patient with me, and I'll pay you everything."
· Then the master of the servant had compassion, released him, and forgave him the loan or the debt.
· That servant went out and found one of his fellow servants, key fellow servants who owed him a hundred dinari. He grabbed him, started choking him, and said, "Pay what you owe."
· At this, his fellow servant fell down and began begging him, "Be patient with me." Sound familiar? "And I will pay you back." But he wasn't willing. Instead, he went and threw him into prison until he could pay what was owed. When the other servants saw what had taken place, they were deeply distressed and went and reported to their master everything that had happened. Then after he had summoned him, his master said to him, "You wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you begged me.
· Shouldn't you also have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you?" And because he was angry, his master handed him over to the jailers. Some translations will say torturers, to the jailers to be tortured until he could pay everything that was owed.
· So also my heavenly father will do to you unless every one of you forgives his brother or sister from your heart. Amen.
· Thanks. You can be seated.
· What would you have done?
· That's the question Holocaust survivor and author Simon Weezenthal proposes in his book called The Sunflower.
· The front cover of The Sunflower. You can find this online or read or listen on Spotify. The front cover of the of the Sunflower summarizes the entire book. It says this quote, "You're a prisoner in a concentration camp.
· A dying Nazi asks for your forgiveness.
· What would you do?"
· Simon, a Jewish man in a concentration camp, is sent on a different detail, a different assignment. He's sent to an army hospital that treats wounded SS soldiers.
· He meets a Nazi named Carl Cidle or Cidle, one of those.
· Carl is a dying Nazi desperate to talk to a Jew. Any Jewish man, it doesn't matter who, as long as they're Jewish, to confess his crimes and ask for forgiveness.
· Carl shares with Simon about his participation in mass killings of Jews.
· And I'll spare you some of the details for any children. There were some in 9:00 a.m. too, but you can read or listen to the atrocities that Carl was involved with.
· After Carl tells his story, shares his story in his confession to Simon.
· Ultimately, Carl seeks Simon's forgiveness.
· Sort of representative of all he's done against the Jewish people. He wanted a Jewish man to forgive him.
· Simon quietly gets up, leaves the room, refuses to forgive, and simply says nothing, and walks away.
· Well, Simon has to report for duty the next day, and the next day, a nurse tells him Carl had died overnight.
· The rest of the book is Simon wrestling with whether or not he should have forgiven Carl.
· Simon is haunted by this and he writes this book called The Sunflower.
· And what he does is he poses the ethical question to the reader or in 21st century now, right? The listener if it's an audio book, but he poses the question back to the reader. What would you have done?
· There's a second edition to this book and in the second edition of the book there are 53 responses from different rabbis, theologians, scholars, leaders in different religions and some a few are Christian pastors. It's one of the more controversial books on forgiveness in modern history. And so it attracted and garnered a lot of attention. And so there's 53 official responses.
· There's actually a table set up of these responses online and I counted them up for you. So these are leaders in the world or leaders in different religions and some are professors and stuff like that. But there are nine uncertain.
· Nine people don't know what they would do. There are 33 do not forgives.
· There is one cannot forgive and there are 10 forgives.
· 10 people out of 53 say that that man should be forgiven.
· As you can see, there's conflicting answers, but most people most of these responses see the situation. When you read everything, all things considered, I gave you the 30,000 foot level. It's very graphic.
· Most see the entire situation as unforgivable.
· By human standards, forgiveness is often based upon our assessment of their worthiness. Right?
· We forgive if we feel like it, when we feel like it. And if we don't feel very forgiving or we don't feel like that person deserves it, we don't offer it.
· We have this, you know, scale in our minds.
· And certain people down here, I can forgive. But then there's those ones up here that say, unless you meet that standard, you're not getting my forgiveness. And you don't meet that.
· you don't deserve it. I can't stand you, etc., etc. You are unforgiven.
· What does God have to say about forgiveness?
· And that's what I'd like to walk us through this morning. If you have a handout there, there's more in the back if you'd like. If not, it should be on the screen. God's lesson on forgiveness to his disciples.
· The first thing we see number one is the command to forgive.
· This is not a suggestion.
· Jesus in context just got done teaching on what I would call restoration of broken relationships slashchurch discipline. Right? It's Matthew 18.
· These principles if a brother or sister sins against you, here's how to bring restoration. You know, go to him and talk to him directly. And if he receives you or if he listens, you've gained your brother. Great. The matter's done. If he doesn't listen to you, bring a couple more people. Maybe he'll listen then and repent or or seek that reconciliation.
· And if he won't listen, you tell it to the church. Pray to God. Hopefully, they'll repent. Hopefully, they'll get right. And if they refuse, then yeah, you kick them out of the church. But it's for a good and godly reason so that hopefully they will repent and come back and be welcomed into the fellowship.
· Well, Peter, I think rightly perceiving people sin against each other a lot.
· We hurt each other all the times. And so he's like, "Well, uh, okay. Yeah, we sin against each other a lot." So he asked Jesus, "All right, all right. All right. How many times should I or should we extend forgiveness seven times?"
· And there's a reason I think he says seven. The rabbis in those days and in in the Old Testament times, they would teach obviously on forgiveness. And the recommendation was to forgive no more than three times.
· That's rabbitical teaching.
· And if you were to look at the table of according on the sun responses to the sunflower story, it will tell you the name of the person, their job. So like so and so rabbi and then their response right and the other ones all all of the Jewish rabbis say do not forgive that that guy.
· So forgiveness is only three times after that no more for you. So Peter suggesting seven times is his attempt to be gracious and go above and beyond rabbitical teaching. He's been walking with Jesus for a while already and he already knows that he has he has taught an exceeding of the Pharisees. For example, if you want to be righteous and holy and perfect before God, your righteousness needs to exceed theirs.
· And he's already up the ante on multiple teachings of the rabbis. And so I hear Peter seven times I imagine him, this is DJ's thought, right? Lord, the rabbis teach forgiving three times. How about double that plus one?
· How about double plus one, Lord? Seven.
· And yes, seven is the number of completion. Maybe he's talking about that. But either way, Christ says, "No, not seven, but 70* 7."
· And now Jesus is not talking about 490 times. And on the 491st time, no more forgiveness for you.
· That's not what he's teaching. What he is teaching is our first subpoint under one dev 1A. Christ's disciples forgive without limit.
· That's what he's saying.
· Jesus is teaching forgiveness without counting. Forgiveness. Forgiving so much you lose count if you were forgiving. Not in a way that says this is number 249. I'm keeping track and I can't wait till I get to 490. so I don't have to forgive that guy anymore or that gal.
· No, he's saying forgive in a way that says it doesn't matter what number this is, you're forgiven.
· You might be thinking, well, that's a pretty tall order.
· Forgive people, others without limit.
· How am I supposed to do that?
· Well, thankfully Jesus doesn't just give us the command to forgive. He gives us number two, the reason to forgive. And this is where the parable is introduced in verse 23. The kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king settling accounts with his servants. So he's bringing his servants together. He wants to settle accounts, bring everything up to par.
· One of them comes and owes him 10,000 talents. That is an astronomically high number.
· A talent is a weight, a measure of weight of metal. And if there was no specific metal mentioned, the default was usually silver. If you went up to someone and said, "I got a talent." Um, if you didn't specify if it was a talent of gold, it would generally be, "Oh, so he's got a talent of silver." Either way, a talent is equivalent to 6,000 dinari.
· dinari's uh uh money like a dollar, right? But it's a a unit of money, currency. One dinarius was a day's wage in that day. So I did some math for you.
· This guy basically owes 60 million dinari or if I could put it this way, 60 million days of work.
· Have fun with that.
· If we were to measure it in silver, it would be approximately 300 tons of silver he owes.
· That should get our attention. Jesus is doing this on purpose. It It's like saying in our day, the man owes a zillion dollars.
· This is something so exorbitant, no servant could pay this off in multiple lifetimes. And that's Jesus point.
· This is an unpayable debt.
· This is unpayable in multiple lifetimes for this man. And that is why verse 26 is so ridiculous.
· He's pleading for his life and for the lives of his family. And he asked for patience. Why? So he could pay everything. Really, this guy does not have a shot in his whole life of paying everything.
· This is an impossible plea. And everyone listening to him would know it.
· But in the face of the impossible, the master had what? Compassion.
· Verse 27. Compassion.
· He had compassion, released him, and forgave his debt. This is sheer grace.
· Not only will the master have mercy, and I I messed this up in 9:00 a.m., but I got it right. So, mercy is not getting what you do deserve. Grace is receiving or getting what you don't deserve. So, not only will the master have mercy, meaning not sell him and his family into slavery. He could have said, "All right, I'm not going to sell you, your family, and everything you have into slavery, but you still have this debt."
· He doesn't just give him mercy in not doing that, but the master goes above and beyond the servant's own request and gives him grace. What? Cancels the entire debt. The guy didn't even ask for that. He asked for patience. The master goes above and beyond. Says, "Not only will I not sell you, but I'm going to cancel the whole thing.
· This is compassion and grace from the master."
· Matthew has described Jesus as compassionate multiple times, multiple occasions by now in his gospel. If we were to read it through, Jesus has compassion on this person or that crowd.
· Here the master is described as forgiving a massive great unpayable humanly speaking debt motivated by compassion for the debtor.
· The point Jesus is making clear this is second subpoint. So I have like 2 A, 3 A, 4 A. Christ disciples forgive without limit because God has forgiven them without limit.
· The standard for how we as believers, Christians, you say, "I'm in Christ." The standard for how we forgive does not come from man.
· The standard for how we forgive, if I could make it more personal, does not come from you, nor me. Of course, the standard for how we forgive comes from God.
· Ephesians 4:32 says, "Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you."
· God in Christ forgave you, forgave us an eternal debt that no amount of work could get you or I out of.
· You could work not 60 million days, a bajillion to put it in in modern terms, right? A gazillion bajillion zillion days and not pay your sin debt to a holy and righteous God.
· And Christ takes that on the cross and in a matter of hours pays it. Why?
· Because he's God.
· And so God forgave us an eternal debt we could not get our way work our way out of. Our sin against God is eternally greater than any sin against us.
· But if you have a low view of God's forgiveness of you and your sin against him, of course you'll have a low view of forgiveness to your fellow man or woman.
· But if you have a high view of how much God has forgiven you, you'll see it's nothing compared to what you've done to God, what someone else has done to you, and you forgive. Not saying it's easy.
· It is difficult. It can be hard. Yes.
· But by the power of the Holy Spirit, through the Christfilled, spiritfilled, scripturefilled life, you can.
· We have to see our sin against God for what it is and allow that to motivate us and make us ready to forgive. Our readiness to forgive others should always be present because of how much Christ has forgiven us.
· Now the parable doesn't end there.
· He continues and he provides number three the warning in refusing to forgive this man who's been forgiven multiple lifetimes worth of debt. He goes out and he finds a fellow servant key fellow servant which would mean that they have the same master.
· He finds his fellow servant who owed him a hundred dinari and he grabs him and he chokes him and he demands to be paid.
· To put it into perspective, this second servant owes 1600,000th of what the first servant owed the master.
· The first servant owed the master 60 million days wages. The second servant owes him a 100 days wages. 3 months of work approximately a debt that is easily reasonably paid in a lifetime.
· Second servant couldn't pay right away.
· So the second servant begged the first servant and look what he says in verse 29. Be patient with me and I'll pay you back the exact same thing the first servant told the master in verse 26.
· He just echoes the same words.
· But unlike his master, the first servant wasn't willing. In other words, he had no compassion.
· Unlike his master, he had no compassion.
· Throws him in prison until payment could be made.
· Well, the master has many servants, not just these two.
· And so other fellow servants hear about what happened and they go report it to their master.
· What we learn here is 3A I think it would be an unforgiving heart is uncharacteristic of a disciple of Christ.
· Note the severity of the first servant in verse 28.
· He grabs his fellow servant and chokes him, demanding payment. This is meant to sound outrageous and absurd. It's meant to get your attention.
· He's choking a guy out who owes 600,000th of what this other dude, what the guy doing the choking owed the master.
· This is a surprising lack of compassion.
· It's meant to get your attention. What?
· What is he doing? He owes pennies, fractions of a penny compared to this guy, and he's choking him out. It's meant to say, "Yes, this is ridiculous."
· That's Jesus point. It is a an alarming, if I could use that word, surprising lack of compassion. This is crazy.
· Someone forgiven so much turns right around and acts so petty. Exactly. His actions are despicable to everyone, including the master. His actions are despicable to his fellow to the fellow servants and despicable to the master.
· Why? Because they know how much he's been forgiven.
· This leads me to our final point number four. The consequence of refusing to forgive.
· the consequence of refusing to [clears throat] forgive. So Jesus now gives the assessment of this servant and it's not complicated. He's wicked and ought to have shown mercy the same way he was shown mercy.
· The master is angry and hands him over to the jailers. Now, some translations might say torturers, the word there in Greek, and I wanted to know which one. I think that that was that was important to me. The word in Greek is basically a harsh or oppressive jailer. So, instead of like a more passive who cares kind of jailer, just, you know, imagine a guy just locks you up and doesn't care. He's playing video games on his phone or whatever. Um, this is a jailer who is oppressive also to you.
· So, you're in prison to him and then he mocks you, messes with you, and whatever. is it's basically a word for a harsh or oppressive jailer. Basically, he's being handed over to merciless jailers because he himself showed no mercy.
· And then Jesus, now we get to the hard part, right? Then Jesus brings it all back to reality. Right? The end is not parable. The end is truth.
· So also my heavenly father will do to you unless every one of you forgives his brother or sister from where your heart.
· It's easy to forgive begrudgingly, right? [sighs] I guess because God said so I'll forgive, right? That's not coming from the heart.
· This is I'm you're forgiven. Why? Cuz Christ forgave me of so much. you're forgiven. And I mean it, brother or sister.
· If grace I'm sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself.
· The bottom line is this. Let me make point A and then we'll go to that. An unforgiving heart places the professing Christian in a dangerous position.
· If grace, mercy, and forgiveness are characteristic of our father in heaven and we're his children, it ought to be characteristic of his children.
· That's the point.
· And if it isn't, there's a problem.
· Now, there's a lot of conversation around the end of the parable, right?
· And it may be stirring in your own mind.
· So, does this mean that I lose God's forgiveness if I'm unforgiving towards others?
· Well, in the same gospel, we learn that every sin is forgivable except one. Matthew 12:31-32, Jesus says, "Right, therefore, I tell you, [snorts] every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the son of man will be forgiven. But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven either in this age or in the age to come.
· So you can even speak a word against Jesus Christ and eventually come to faith and trust in him and love him and be saved.
· But he's like if you speak a word, if you blas blasphe the Holy Spirit, there's no forgiveness for that. And it's taking a lot not to go down that road, but we can talk about that later if you have questions. But Jesus doesn't mention that uh not forgiving others is also unforgivable. However, there is definite caution for sure. Jesus is serious. His words about the father are sobering and serious.
· One thing we need to remember is that Jesus is teaching on the topic of forgiveness, not salvation. Right? Peter asks, "How many times do I forgive?" And Jesus says, "All the time."
· We we say like, "God is good." All the time. All the time. God is good. Well, how often do I forgive? All the time.
· All the time I forgive. There you go. I just made that up. That was free. Um, but Jesus, right, says, "Forgive without limit." And he uses the parable to show us how ridiculous it is to not forgive after we've experienced God's forgiveness. That's basically the summary of the parable. Forgive con without limit, guys. Why? Cuz you've been forgiven so much. And here's how ridiculous it looks if you did it. Cuz God has done so much for you. That's like a one-s sentence summary, I would say.
· But if you read it carefully, I believe the master granted the first servant true, real unconditional forgiveness. So he doesn't say you're forgiven the debt if you do A, B, C, and D.
· He was genuinely forgiven without any conditions or merit of the servant. The problem is the servant abused his newfound forgiveness.
· And Jesus, if we really get down to brass tax, he doesn't say [snorts] that the debt is the exact same. So in the first settling of accounts, it was going to cost his entire family and everything he had to be sold into slavery to pay the debt.
· The second time it just says only he's thrown into jail to pay everything owed.
· What we don't know is is it does he mean is it the same debt or a newly incurred debt?
· Jesus doesn't say that his whole family and everything he has being has to be sold again. Oh, sorry. Let's resell you now because you messed up. Um he's just saying that this guy needs to be disciplined for his actions. And it is consistent biblically for God to discipline or rebuke those he loves.
· Let me put it this way. You can be a child of God and yet come under his discipline.
· Reading this parable, Jesus does not seem to have any problem whatsoever with a master who can be so incredibly gracious, compassionate, and merciful.
· And that same master is disciplinary.
· Jesus doesn't see any tension between those two.
· Proverbs 3:12 says, "For the Lord reproves him whom he loves as a father the son in whom he delights. I delight in my son Elijah, but he's not.
· And I got to reprove and rebuke and discipline that boy, and I'm going to have to continue on. He's only five."
· And we're like, "All right, it's ready."
· Like, "I'm ready to start rebuking this kid." Right? But why do I do that? As a dad, I reprove or discipline all my children. Why? Because I love them, not because I'm disowning them.
· And this is echoed in the New Testament as well. Hebrews 12:6, for the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives.
· And even again to the church at Le Oysia, Jesus said in Revelation 3:19, "Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline. So be zealous and repent."
· And in the the seven letters to the churches in Revelation, Jesus is like, "If you don't, I'll shut this church down."
· You don't think God won't shut down disobedient worship? he does in Isaiah and he threatens to in Revelation, right? [snorts] I don't think it's a stretch to say Jesus is teaching that we should expect discipline, rebuke, and correction from God if our attitude and heart are not right as a child of God.
· However, I do want to add this because I think both interpretations um could could be. But I do want to add this statement, and I worked hard on it, but I believe it. A man or woman okay with receiving God's grace and forgiveness without becoming gracious and forgiving themselves is a man or woman who may not have truly experienced God's grace and forgiveness to begin with. Okay?
· Either way, right, we are warned. The warning here stands regardless of how you interpret this. Whether or not uh he was never actually forgiven in the first place or that's all conjecture really.
· Let's take it for what it is. Jesus's warning against harboring an unforgiving heart. That's the point. Let's not over complicate it.
· Our parabolic truth this morning is this. Forgiving others as God has forgiven you is characteristic of the professing Christian. Ephesians 4:32.
· However, a spirit or a heart, we could say, of unforgiveness betrays a lack of compassion in a heart that I put has yet. I could put may yet um hasn't yet or may not have embrace God's forgiveness.
· Not going to say wholesale that this person's not saved or anything like that, but I will say that God does discipline his children.
· I want to bring in some application. And I know I'm running a little bit late, but this parable is so impactful. Who do you need to forgive?
· Who are you harboring resentment towards?
· I think it's important to quickly say that there's a difference between forgiveness and trust. You can forgive someone but not trust them and take steps to keep yourself safe. Okay?
· It's especially hard to forgive an abuser, someone who's hurt you, maybe left you, maybe cheated on you, assaulted you, any number of sins against you.
· Who's that person that comes to mind when I say forgive them and you immediately think anyone but that person. That's who I'm talking about.
· That's what I'm talking about. forgive that person. You know who it is. I may not know. God does.
· I was talking with someone between services and and I don't want to leave the question maybe unanswered for the rest of you, but an example might be, you know, forgiving an abusive parent.
· Um, you can genuinely, wholeheartedly, lovingly because of what God has done in you, forgive them. But you might not send your kids over there to the grandkids, right? if it's still a problem or if there is still an abusive person. I'm not saying subject your children or subject yourself to become a punching bag for someone else.
· Forgiveness though can happen.
· Reconciliation depends, right? It depends on the other person. Sometimes we can't reconcile. It takes two to reconcile. But your forgiveness being extended to them is important.
· Maybe it's a phone call. Maybe it's a visit. I don't know. open that door.
· But forgiveness leads to bitterness and bitterness only affects you. Let me ask you a question. Somebody if you some some people have harbored unforgiveness in their heart towards someone for many years. Think about that person for a second. Do you think they're losing any sleep because you haven't forgiven them of something? No.
· No. Often times they could care less or not even know. But who's the one losing sleep? Who's the one the root of bitterness settles into? Who's the one affected by unforgiveness? Yourself.
· And so God is I I believe freedom freeing you from bitterness and resentment is simply true genuine forgiveness.
· So whoever that person is that comes to mind, that's who I'm talking about.
· forgive that person because Christ has forgiven you. And I pray that our congregation will be a congregation of forgiving forgiving people who forgive each other. One of the greatest threats to the church that I believe Satan uh utilizes is division in the church, right? People hurt each other. People sin against each other in the church.
· Yes, it's true, right? Christians ain't perfect. People say, "If I walk into your church, the thunderbolt lightning will come down because I'm a sinner."
· Try us.
· Try us. Right. Let's see. Not going to happen, right? We are all hurt. We're all broken.
· And it's echoed in the New Testament.
· Paul echoes it in Ephesians. Why?
· Because unity in the gospel is so important. So if we hurt each other as believers, as the church at Cross Church, if someone does something that hurts you, forgive them and seek restoration.
· We'll be better for it as a church. will be stronger for it. But unforgiveness and bitterness, especially in the church. That's why Jesus teaches in Matthew 18, of course. But all that stuff in the church, hurts a church, makes it weaker, brings division. And I don't want that for Cross Church Phoenix. I want us to be a healthy, strong church.
· And we be a congregation of the forgiven who are forgiving.
· I want to close in prayer and invite the worship team up as we prepare for our last song. Let me pray for us. Father, we thank you for this morning.
· I pray for every single person listening to this sermon live or online or in the future pulling it up.
· Is there any anyone on this planet that they need to forgive? Or maybe it's someone who who has passed, who's gone, that we've harbored unforgiveness towards, and they've long since died, and we still are affected by the wounds that they've given us. [snorts] God, I pray that you would work in us, every person here and listening, a spirit of forgiveness. I forgive you.
· Even when it's hard, even when I'm hurt, I forgive you. Why? Because Christ has forgiven me. That's why I may not feel like it.
· Oh well, feeling. We don't go by feelings. We go by truth. The truth is that Christ gave everything to people who are his enemies and who hated him.
· And he said, "Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing." Stephen, the first martyr, Acts chapter 7, echoed the same words. God Jesus Christ, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. As he's being stoned to death, I don't know anyone here who's been stoned to death.
· God, I pray that we be a forgiving congregation in Jesus name. Amen. Let's stand and sing our last song.
Parables