SERMON OUTLINE

The Absolute Necessity of Forgiving Fellow Christians Matthew 18.21-35

Introduction

-We are a community of forgiven people who forgive our brothers and sisters. We recognize that we are sinners and that God has graciously forgiven us so we forgive others.

-Matthew 18 teaching on sin, judgment and forgiveness

The King Forgives an Unpayable Debt 18.23-27

-Talent is largest weight of measure of about 66 pounds.

-10,000 is largest numerical value in Greek

-An unpayable debt is forgiven where prison was warranted

-We have a great debt of failed holiness and disobedience before God but are forgiven by the sacrifice of Christ

The Forgiven Servant Refuses to Forgive 18.28-30

-Denarii is one day’s wages for a laborer

-This was a payable debt

-The forgiven servant is determined to pay his own way rather than accept in gratitude and humility the mercy of the king. Driven by pride and expects others pay their way

-Admitting our sin and need of God’s salvation in Christ is humbling. Receiving God’s forgiveness brings gratitude and willingness to forgive others.

The King’s Judgment on the Unforgiving 18.31-34

-In anger the king’s forgiveness is revoked against this wicked servant.

Conclusion

-Those who have received God’s forgiveness must forgive other Christians or God will not forgive them. Matthew 6.12, 13-14; James 2.13.

-If God has forgiven you than you must forgive your brothers and sisters in Christ.

SERMON NOTES

The Absolute Necessity of Forgiving Fellow Christians Matthew 18.21-35

-The Christian Church is a community of people who have been forgiven by God and who forgive others, especially brothers and sisters. Christians are people who have recognized that they are sinners and have openly admitted that they are sinners both to God and to others. Christians are people who have understood that only God can forgive their sins because Jesus Christ died on the cross in payment for their sins.

-In chapter 18, Matthew has gathered together some of the teaching of Jesus on sin. Matthew speaks about God’s judgment on those who cause a believing child to sin. Jesus encourages his followers to take radical measures to prevent sin in their own life. Jesus lays out the steps that an individual should take to confront a brother who has sinned against them and gives a pattern for church discipline.

-After listening to this teaching on sin and judgment Peter approaches Jesus with a question about how often he should forgive a brother who sins against him. Peter suggests seven times. Peter was being very gracious by suggesting to forgive a brother seven times and he fully expected Jesus to commend him for such a gracious suggestion. The Rabbis taught that in forgiving a brother three times one was fulfilling the Law of God and that a brother should not be forgiven a fourth time. The Rabbis took this teaching from the OT book of Amos which pronounces judgment on Israel’s neighbors as well as on Israel, repeating the phrase “For three transgressions of …and for four, I will not revoke the punishment”. In extending his forgiving to seven times Peter may have had Proverbs 24.16 in his mind, “the righteous falls seven times and rises again”. Jesus replies to Peter that seven times is not enough but he must forgive the brother seventy times seven. This puts the extent of forgiveness beyond counting and into the range of always forgiving a brother. This short interchange between Jesus and Peter leads to the parable of the unforgiving servant. This parable does not focus on the extent of forgiveness but on the absolute necessity of those who have been forgiven by God to forgive fellow Christians.

-The parable is divided into three parts – the king and the servant who cannot pay his debt (v23-27); the forgiven servant who refuses to forgive another servant’s debt (v28-30); and the king’s judgment on the unforgiving servant (v31-34). In verse 35 Jesus sums up the teaching of the parable saying that everyone who does not forgive a brother from the heart will be judged even as the unforgiving servant was judged.

-In verse 23, Jesus tells us that this parable is to show us about living in the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God can be “compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants”. We are reminded at the very beginning of this parable that we live under the watchful eye of God and that even as believers we will give an account of our lives before God. In his summary of the meaning of the parable in verse 35, Jesus tells us again that it is the heavenly Father who makes the final judgments on our behavior on earth and in particular about how we have forgiven our brothers and sisters.

-The parable presents to us a servant who owes the king 10,000 talents. That is a big debt. A talent is not an amount of money but a measure of weight. The talent was the largest measure of weight used in Israel. A talent was about 30 kilograms, 66 pounds.  Some estimates where up to 75 pounds with the Royal talent being 150 pounds. At 66 pounds, 10,000 talents would be 330 tons. The talent would be weighed in gold, silver, copper or lead depending on the agreement with the king. If we were to value this debt today in terms of silver it would be 528 million dollars, and in gold about 8 ½ billion dollars. Herod the king received about 600 talents in taxes every year from the Idumaea, Judea and Samaria.

-The other point here is that 10,000 was the largest numerical value in the Greek language and often meant an amount that is uncountable. So Jesus used the largest weight of measure and the highest number possible to describe this debt. What the parable is telling us is not so much the amount owed by the slave but the immensity of the debt owed by this servant. Those who heard this parable for the first time would have staggered at this amount of debt and would have felt great pity for this servant for his unpayable debt.

-Obviously this servant could not pay the debt. We are not to speculate how this servant came to be so indebted to the king but to realize that this is a debt that cannot possibly be paid. The king ordered that the servant be sold along with his wife and children in order to make payment on the debt. Servants could be sold for 500 to 2000 denarii. A denarii is a day’s wages so selling the servant and his family would only pay a small fraction of the debt owed to the king. (Would take 4,400,000 days wages to pay the silver debt)

-“The servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything’”. The servant begged the king for more time and promised to pay all he owed back to the king. The king knew that this servant could never pay back this impossible debt and taking pity on the servant he forgave him the whole debt. The servant never asked for forgiveness but for more time to pay. The king knowing he could never pay forgave the debt.

-Before we go on let us apply the first part of this parable to our own lives. The king in this parable is God and the debts are sins. God keeps an account of our sins before Him. Our sins constitute such a debt of failed holiness and disobedience before God that we can never pay for those sins before God on our own. The fact is we cannot even pay for one sin that we commit before God, for the wages of sin is death and separation from God. We may go through life quite unaware of our sin before God but by His Grace God one day makes us aware of our great debt of sin which if left unpaid is deserving of eternal separation from God in hell. God offers us complete forgiveness of our great debt of sin because Jesus willingly paid for those sins by dying on the cross in payment of sin. Because of the payment of the debt of my sin in Jesus Christ, God is willing and able to forgive me, the sinner. God forgives me, not only on the basis of His love for me but also because His Holiness is satisfied in the death of Christ on the cross for my sins. Jesus described the debt of the servant of the king as 10,000 talents in order to express the crushing weight of our sin against God, the impossibility of paying the debt of our sin to God, and the overwhelming magnitude of His mercy and grace in forgiving our sins. May God open our eyes to our great sin before Him and to the great Savior that His Grace has provided for us.

-In the second part of this parable the forgiven servant immediately went out and found a fellow servant who owed him 100 denarii, about 100 days wages, and seized him, chocked him, and demanded that he be paid his debt. The fellow servant fell down and pleaded with the forgiven servant for patience so that he might pay the debt. This debt was payable, the servant only needed time to pay the debt. The forgiven servant refused and put the man in prison until the debt should be paid.

-What is going on here? It looks to me like the forgiven servant was not willing to accept the king’s forgiveness of his debt but was determined to pay his own debt to the king. One of the means of paying that debt was to collect the debts owed to him by others. His fellow servant falling down and pleading for patience, using the same words as he did before the king, should have awakened the forgiven servant to the mercy he had just received from the king but instead of gratitude for king’s mercy the forgiven servant resented that mercy and was determined to pay his own way, expecting others to also pay their way. This forgiven servant was not moved to humility and gratitude by the king’s great mercy but was driven by pride which refused to take the king’s mercy and was determined to earn his own way.

-How does this second part of the parable apply to us? It is not easy for us to ask or receive forgiveness. In asking and receiving forgiveness we must admit our sins and our inability to pay for those sins. Mankind in his fallen nature wants to earn his own righteousness before God. It is only by the grace of God that we admit that we are sinners and receive Jesus as the sacrifice of God for the forgiveness of our sins. When we are deeply moved by seeing our sins before a Holy God and receive God’s merciful forgiveness we are humbled and grateful and moved to forgive others. A true forgiveness from God will generate a forgiving spirit in our own lives toward others. This fellow servant’s debt represents sins against other brothers. Those who have truly received the forgiveness of God will forgive their brothers when they are sinned against because of the vast forgiveness that they have received from God. “There is none so tender to others as they which have received mercy themselves: that know how gently God hath dealt with them” Thomas Manton.

-In the third part of this parable we read that when the king found out how the forgiven servant refused to forgive the debt of his fellow servant and had him thrown into prison, he summoned him, called him a wicked servant, rebuked him for his lack of mercy to his fellow servant, and in anger delivered him to the jailers until he should pay his debt. This servant would never have been able to pay the debt and so we presume he remained in prison for the rest of his life because of his lack of mercy to his fellow servant. Also the Greek word for jailers is “tormentors” so more than prison is pictured here. Jesus concludes the parable by saying, “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart”.

-How does this final part of the parable apply to us? Let me make a statement which I plan on explaining next week. Those who have received God’s forgiveness must forgive others or God will not forgive them. Jesus makes the same statement in the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6.12, “and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Jesus further explains this part of the Lord’s Prayer in verses 14-15, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” James writes, “judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy.” (2.13) So we have this strong relationship between our forgiving others and God forgiving us and we need to explore this teaching further next week.

-What this parable teaches us today is: 1) Before God we have a debt of sin we could never pay, but in response to our plea for mercy and because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, God has or will fully forgiven our sins. 2) Those who have been forgiven by God are under absolute necessity to forgive fellow Christians, or God will not forgive them.

–God has graciously forgiven your great sin through Christ. In response you are to humbly and gratefully forgive those who sin against you. If you do not forgive your brother and sister, no matter what the circumstances, it reveals that you are not a true believer or that you are living in rebellion against God. The Church is a community of forgiven people who forgive fellow Christians. We are sinners who have been forgiven by God and in humility and gratitude willingly forgive others even if it would be completely just not to forgive them. Because we have been forgiven much, we must forgive always.