We live in a world that gets but not gives. We want to receive but we don’t want to give. But our Lord Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”[1] Note that it is blessed to receive. Yet it is more blessed to give. We always want people to understand us. But we don’t always want to understand them. We always want people to listen to us. But we don’t always want to listen to them. This morning, we will talk about “What You Give Is What You Get.”
When Jesus declared, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy,”[2] his listeners could not believe what they were hearing. For the Jews were under the oppressive rule of the merciless Roman Empire. “The Romans glorified justice, courage, discipline, and power—not mercy. They considered mercy to be a sign of weakness. When a child was born the father had the right of ‘patria potestas.’ If he wanted the child to live he held his thumb up; if he wanted it to die he held his thumb down. If he didn’t want the child to live it would be exposed or killed. Roman citizens could kill slaves they no longer wanted; there was no recourse. A husband could kill his wife if he wanted to. In our society as well as the one existing at the time of Christ’s earthly ministry it might have been more accurate to say that if you are merciful to others they will step on your neck!”[3] But our Lord said, “Blessed [or happy] are the merciful…” Proverbs 11:17 says, “The merciful man does himself good, / But the cruel man does himself harm.”[4] The one who gives mercy is as blessed as the one who receives it. The New Living Translation is more graphic: “Your own soul is nourished when you are kind, but you destroy yourself when you are cruel.” So, the question is, “Do we want to help ourselves or do we want to hurt ourselves?”
That’s why we must YEARN to give that which we received from God. To have mercy is to have compassion or to have pity. But it is more than feeling sorry for others. You act upon what you feel. You reach out to people in need. Someone wrote that it is compassion in action. God did not just feel sorry about our sinful condition. He reached out to us. Titus 3:4-5 says, “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.” That’s why we must give mercy. It is because we received mercy. May I ask, “Have you responded to God’s mercy? Have you accepted our Lord Jesus as your Savior?”
I always understood mercy as something different to justice. Justice is getting what you deserve. Mercy is not getting what you deserve. We deserved to be punished for our sins. Instead, we received God’s mercy. So we must give it also.
The Greek word for the adjective “merciful” is used only twice in the New Testament. First, here in Matthew 5:7. Second, in Hebrews 2:17, “For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.” Our Lord is described here as “merciful.” CHRIST is the best example of being merciful. He became man in order to serve as “a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God”. In other words, He came to act as the go-between between God and man. He left the comforts of heaven and experienced the cruelty of man so “that he might make atonement for the sins of the people,” that is, to offer Himself as a sacrifice to save us.
Even while on the cross, the most painful death a person could experience, Jesus had mercy on people. He prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”[5] To forgive people who don’t deserve it is an act of mercy. Forgiveness is one way of showing mercy on others. And our Lord modeled it for us on the cross.
Let us look at this aspect of mercy. Let us talk about forgiving others. Open your Bibles in Matthew 18:21-35. After teaching His disciples how to correct a person who sinned against them in verses 15-20, we then read in verse 21 that “Peter came to Jesus and asked, ‘Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?’” The religious leaders at that time we can forgive a sin that is repeated three times. But after that, we need not forgive. The standing policy was “three strikes and you’re out!” Peter thought he was generous with going up to seven strikes.
But Jesus’ answer surprised him, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy seven times.”[6] Another translation says, “up to seventy times seven.”[7] You may be asking, “So is it seventy seven times or seventy times seven which is literally 490 times?” You may as well ask, “So if the person sins 78 times or 491 times, we can now withhold forgiveness?” Well, whether it is seventy seven times or seventy times seven, the point is that we should make it our habit to forgive. That we should forgive without keeping score. By the time you reach 77 or 490, forgiving others is already second nature to you. For MERCY knows no bounds. Luke 17:3-4 says, “If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.” We don’t put a limit on the number of times we will forgive a person.
Now you may be saying, “What if the person abuses my forgiveness?” Well, to forgive is our responsibility. What the person does after we forgave them is their responsibility. If we have unlimited text, we should also have unlimited forgiveness.
Second, forgiveness does not guarantee that we will not suffer the consequences of our sins. Even if God has forgiven us, the fact remains that what we sow, we shall reap. So, for example, our teenager disobeyed the curfew we set, we may still ground them even if we have forgiven them. Forgiveness and discipline complement one another. They do not contradict each other. Discipline is actually an act of mercy.
Some of you may be asking, “But the person who sinned against me is not asking for forgiveness. So, why should I forgive him?” But if we harbor bitterness, it will eventually poison us. When you forgive, you release yourself. What about the person who refuses to confess? Well, he will not enjoy forgiveness unless and until he asks for it.
Our concern this morning is that we experience the freedom of forgiveness. For REFUSAL to show mercy leads to bondage. After teaching Peter to forgive seventy seven times, Jesus shared a parable on forgiveness: “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.”[8] The servant Jesus was talking about here was actually a satrap or a governor in charge of a province in the kingdom. He ruled as a representative of the king. He also collected taxes for the king, which he would then remit to the national treasury.
But this governor embezzled ten thousand talents. To give you an idea, a talent was equivalent to 75 pounds of silver. I read somewhere that the total amount of taxes collected annually by Rome from the province of Galilee alone was only 300 talents. But this governor stole ten thousand talents! If we will compute that, he owed the king millions or maybe even billions of pesos.[9] “The debt could not be repaid by even such an extreme measure, for the price of a slave was thirty pieces of silver... The sale of the man and his whole family as slaves would not raise the needed sum… The master knew that a lifetime was not sufficient to repay the debt.”[10] The point of Jesus was that it was impossible to repay the debt.
But the governor kneeled before the king. “‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’”[11] The word “begged” came from a Greek word that means “to kiss, like a dog licking his master’s hand.”[12] Then, an amazing act of mercy happened: “The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.”[13] He deserved to be punished. Yet the king pardoned him. That was not cheap. Erasing that debt was such a great expense to the king.
Verse 28 continues: “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.” Back then, a denarius was a day’s wage for a laborer or a foot soldier. So the debt was one hundred days worth of wages. That’s a big amount. But it was peanuts compared to his astronomical debt that the king had cancelled just a few moments ago. He just “went out” from the king’s presence with the words “Your debts are cancelled!” ringing in his ears. It’s but natural that we expect him to be magnanimous also.
Verses 29-30 shows what an ungrateful person he was: “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’ But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt.”[14] Note that those were the very same words the governor spoke to the king when he begged for mercy. But he choked the person until blood ran out of his nose and mouth, as was the practice of debt-collectors at that time.[15] Then he threw him to prison.
“When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened. Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’”[16] When we get God’s mercy, He expects us to give mercy. We demand that He would forgive us no questions asked. But when people sinned against us, we say, “Why should I forgive? What about my rights?”
Since the governor refused to show mercy, “In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.”[17] Note that the king handed him over “to be tortured”. Then Jesus adds the clincher: “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”[18] That doesn’t mean we will lose our salvation or we will end up tortured in hell. But it means that God will chasten or punish us when we fail to be merciful. Forgiveness brings freedom. But unforgiveness brings bondage. It can even cause us our death. What you give is what you get.
Let us ask ourselves, “If God would forgive me the way I forgive others, would I be forgiven?” Our standard will be God’s standard. “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors… For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”[19] We will only get what we give. We give mercy, we get mercy. We keep score, God will keep score. Psalm 130:3 says, “If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?” So, we should not keep a record of wrongs done to us. When we do that, the Lord promised: “Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.”[20] We will EXPERIENCE mercy abundantly. Luke 6:36-38 says, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” What you get is more than what you give.
If we look at our outline, if we rearrange the points, we see that we form the acronym M-E-R-C-Y.
MERCY knows no bounds.
EXPERIENCE mercy abundantly.
REFUSAL to show mercy leads to bondage.
CHRIST is the best example of being merciful.
YEARN to give that which we received from God.
Brothers and sisters, the bitterness is not worth it. Don’t allow it to poison you. Is there a person you need to forgive? Release yourself. Be merciful. Like the Psalmist we are assured that “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life…”[21]
Let us pray…
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[1]Acts 20:35. All Bible verses are from the New International Version, unless otherwise noted.
[2]Matthew 5:7.
[3]Dr. John MacArthur, Jr., Happy are the Merciful (Tape GC 2202).
[4]NASB.
[5]Luke 23:34
[6]Matthew 18:22.
[7]NASB.
[8]Matthew 18:23-25.
[9]The current exchange rate is US$1=PHP45
[10]J. Dwight Pentecost, “The Words and Works of Jesus Christ (A Study of the Life of Christ).”
[11]Matthew 18:26
[12]Strong’s Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries.
[13]18:27.
[14]18:29-30.
[15]MacArthur, “Learning to Forgive Part 3.” (Tape GC2335)
[16]Matthew 18:31-33.
[17]18:34.
[18]18:35.
[19]6:12, 14-15.
[20]5:7.
[21]Psalm 23:6, KJV.
