Reading: Matthew chapter 18 verses 21-35.
Quote:
“Forgiveness is a marvellous idea;
Until you are the one who has to do it”.
Ill:
• Old Joe was dying.
• For years he had been at odds with Bill, formerly one of his best friends.
• Wanting to straighten things out,
• He sent word for Bill to come and see him.
• When Bill arrived,
• Joe told him that he was afraid to go into eternity with such a bad feeling between them.
• Then, very reluctantly and with great effort,
• Joe apologized for things he had said and done.
• He also assured Bill that he forgave him for his offences.
• Everything seemed fine until Bill turned to go.
• As he walked out of the room, Joe called out after him,
• “Bill, remember, if I get better, this doesn’t count!”
ill:
• The two brothers who went to their rabbi to settle a longstanding feud.
• The rabbi got the two to reconcile their differences and shake hands.
• As they were about to leave,
• He asked each one to make a wish for the other in honour of the Jewish New Year.
• The 1st brother turned to the other and said, “I wish you what you wish me.”
• At that, the 2nd brother threw up his hands & said, “See, Rabbi, he’s starting up again!”
In contrast to those two stories:
Ill:
Thomas A. Edison was working on a crazy contraption called a “light bulb”;
• It took a whole team of men;
• 24 straight hours to put just one together.
• The story goes that when Edison was finished with one light bulb,
• He gave it to a young boy helper, who nervously carried it up the stairs.
• Step by step he cautiously watched his hands,
• Obviously frightened of dropping such a priceless piece of work.
• You’ve probably guessed what happened by now;
• The poor young fellow dropped the bulb at the top of the stairs.
• It took the entire team of men twenty-four more hours to make another bulb.
• Finally, tired and ready for a break,
• Edison was ready to have his bulb carried up the stairs.
• He gave it to the same young boy who dropped the first one.
• That’s true forgiveness.
• One more personal and meaningful example:
Ill:
• Corrie Ten Boom writes:
• “From the crest of the hill we saw it, like a vast scar on the green German landscape:
• A city of low grey barracks surrounded by concrete walls;
• On which guard towers rose at intervals.
• In the very centre, a square smokestack emitted a thin grey vapour into the blue sky.
• The name of this prison camp "Ravensbruck!” (notorious women's extermination camp).
• “It was the third night as we were getting ready to lie down again under the sky;
• When the order came to report to the processing centre for new arrivals.
• A ten-minute march brought us to the building.
• We inched along a corridor into a huge reception room.
• And there under the harsh ceiling lights we saw a dismal sight.
• As each woman reached a desk where some officers sat;
• She had to lay her blanket, pillowcase,
• And whatever else she carried onto a growing pile of these things.
• A few desks further along;
• She had to strip off every scrap of clothes,
• Throw them onto a second pile,
• And walk naked past the scrutiny of a dozen S.S. men into the shower room.
• Coming out of the shower she wore only a thin prison dress and a pair of shoes.
• Nothing more.”
Corrie ten Boom never forgot that night or the nightmare that followed:
• Altogether, ninety-six thousand women died at Ravensbruck,
• One of whom was her sister Betsie.
• Just two days after her sister's death,
• Corrie was miraculously released and returned home.
• In 1959 Corrie revisited Ravensbruck;
• And learned that her release had been the result of a clerical error.
• One week later all women her age had been sent to the gas chambers.
In the years immediately following the end of the war:
• Corrie carried the healing message of the gospel throughout Europe,
• Encouraging people to replace the bitterness & hate of war with God's forgiveness & love.
• Nowhere was this message needed more desperately than in Germany.
• & it was while she was speaking there that Corrie's faith was unexpectedly put to the test.
• Corrie writes:
• “It was at a church service in Munich that I saw him,
• The former S.S. man who had stood guard at the shower room door;
• In the processing centre at Ravensbruck.
• He was the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since that time.
• And suddenly it was all there-the roomful of mocking men,
• The heaps of clothing, Betsie's pain-blanched face.
• He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing.
• "How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein," he said.
• "To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away!"
• His hand was thrust out to shake mine.
• And I,
• Who had preached so often to the people in Bloemendaal the need to forgive,
• Kept my hand at my side.
• Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them.
• Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more?
• Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him.
• I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not.
• I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity.
• And so again I breathed a silent prayer. Jesus, I cannot forgive him.
• Give me Your forgiveness.
• As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened.
• From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand;
• A current seemed to pass from me to him,
• While into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.
• And so I discovered;
• That it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness;
• That the world's healing hinges, but on His.
• When He tells us to love our enemies,
• He gives, along with the command, the love itself.”
CORRIE TEN BOOM'S ACT OF FORGIVENESS IS UTTERLY AMAZING:
• That she would grant such an astonishing act of forgiveness;
• Upon her former captor and tormentor is nothing short of miraculous.
• And all the more so when you consider that she was not an ‘exceptional’ person,
• But, in her own words, 'a very weak and ordinary one'.
• The truth is, we're all weak and ordinary,
• Especially when we've been hurt by someone else.
• For it's at that very moment;
• When forgiveness is desperately needed, that we feel too weak to give it,
• And our ordinariness quickly surfaces in feelings of hate and revenge.
• Yet Corrie was able to go on and perform one of life's greatest miracles.
• Questions: How could she? And how can we?
• Answer: Let's find out by listening to Corrie's Master, as He teaches in Matthew 18:
(1). Context of the parable (vs 21-22):
“”Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times””.
Peter was probably the most outspoken of the disciples:
• We know at times his ability to speak before engaging brain;
• Caused him great embarrassment.
• And at other times it wise to his credit that he spoke up;
• Walking on the water (none of the others experienced what he did).
Verse 21: Peter approached Jesus with a question concerning the limits of forgiveness.
• "Lord, how often shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me?
• Up to seven times?"
AT FIRST GLANCE IT APPEARS TO BE A GOOD QUESTION:
• But when you look a little closer;
• The question is flawed in two ways.
(a). To begin with, Peter lacked humility:
• He was sure his brother would sin against him,
• And not that he might sin against his brother!
• Peter is convinced that he will be the victim;
• And not the offender!
(b). Peter's second mistake was in asking for limits and
measures.
• The New Testament teaches (Ephesians chapter 3 verses 17-19).
• ‘Where there is love, there can be no limits or dimensions’
• Peter thought he was demonstrating great faith and love;
• When he offered to forgive at least seven times.
Ill:
• The rabbis in Peter’s day had deduced from the first chapter of Amos;
• That forgiveness could only be extended three times.
• They believed that each person got three strikes,
• And after that, they were out!
• So Peter notice what Peter does;
• He doubled the "acceptable quota" of forgiveness and then added one for good measure.
The reply of Jesus must have startled Peter:
• "Not seven but seventy times seven"
• 7x7=490 times but that leaves you with a problem;
• Who could keep count for that many offences committed against them?
• And that was exactly the point Jesus was making: “Love 'keeps no record of wrongs"
• As Peter's jaw dropped;
• And the other disciples were busy trying to multiply seventy times seven,
• Jesus punctuated his answer;
• With a parable about an unforgiving slave and a gracious king
Note:
• Jesus is not teaching;
• That we lose our salvation if we do not forgive others.
• If it meant that;
• Many of us may have lost our salvation a long time ago!
• The parable is meant to illustrate the power of forgiveness:
• It is important to note that this parable is not about salvation.
• The parable deals with forgiveness between brothers,
• Not between lost sinners and God.
• The emphasis in this chapter is on brother forgiving brother;
• Twice that is evidenced in the chapter:
e.g:
Verse 15:
“If your brother sins against you,[b] go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.”
Verse 21:
“Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?””
• So this parable is illustrating the power of forgiveness:
• And it is important to note that this parable is not about salvation;
• The parable deals with forgiveness between brothers,
• Not between lost sinners and God.
SALVATION (BEING MADE RIGHT WITH GOD) IS WHOLLY OF GRACE:
Ill:
• When a person works an eight-hour day and receives a fair day’s pay for his time,
• That is a wage.
• When a person competes with an opponent and receives a trophy for his performance,
• That is a prize.
• When a person receives appropriate recognition for his long service or high achievements,
• That is an award.
• But when a person is not capable of earning a wage,
• Can win no prize, and deserves no award—yet receives such a gift anyway;
• That is a good picture of God’s grace;
• His unmerited favour.
Salvation is unconditionally given.
• And to make God's forgiveness a temporary thing that depends on us;
• Is to violate the very truth of the gospel!
• So remember that this parable deals with forgiveness between brothers,
• Not between lost sinners and God.
• And although we do not lose our salvation by refusing to forgive;
• We do cause ourselves a whole lot of unnescercery anguish by not forgiving.
The main character in this parable went through 3 stages in his experience of forgiveness:
(1). He was a debtor (verses 23-27).
Verse 23-24:
“Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him”.
Ten thousand talents was a huge amount of money;
• It was an un-payable debt.
• In term's of today's buying power, this was probab1y equivalent to over £5 million,
• In the economy of that day, a man would have had to work 20 years to earn one talent.
• So this man would need to work ten-thousand years to pay his debt off!
Verse 25:
25Since 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.
That was the way they did things in ancient times;
• The man was said to own his wife and children,
• They would be sold into slavery to pay off the mans debts;
• Since he could never repay the debt;
• It meant his wife and children and succeeding generations would never be free again!
Verse 26:
26”“The servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’”
• The man was a hopeless case, He fell on his face and begged for mercy.
• Despite his pleading to pay off the debt, there was no way he could!
Ill:
We live in a world full of debt:
• Total UK personal debt at the end of Nov 2003 was £927bn.
• The total debt is likely to reach £1 trillion in 2004.
• Average household debt in the UK is £6,800 (excluding mortgages).
• Average personal debt for each adult in the UK is £4,426 (excluding mortgages).
• Over six million UK households;
• Are now finding it difficult to meet their financial commitments.
• One in 20 people have five or more credit cards.
• There are nearly 4,000 different types of credit cards. (Most are issued by one of 33 issuers)
• According to ‘Relate’;
• The biggest cause of rows within a relationship is not infidelity; but money,
• Ill: Larger scale:
• Original debt of the world’s 52 poorest and most indebted countries: $375 billion
Verse 27:
”The servant's master took pity on him, cancelled the debt and let him go.”
At this point in the story the king took pity on the servant and showed him mercy:
• This is beautiful picture of how God treats us;
• He has forgiven us a debt of incalculable proportions.
• The king was a man of Compassion.
• He assumed the loss, and forgave the servant.
• This meant that the man was free and that;
• He and his family would not be thrown into a debtor’s prison.
• The servant did not deserve this forgiveness;
• It was purely an act of love and mercy on the part of the master.
Ill:
Corrie Ten Boom:
• God buries our sins at the bottom of the deepest ocean;
• And places a sign above saying; ‘No fishing!’
(2). He was a creditor (verses 28-30).
“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.
29“His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’
30“But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt.”
Ill:
• A mother was preparing pancakes for her sons, Kevin, 5, and Ryan, 3.
• The boys were both very hungry;
• And they began to argue over who would get the first pancake.
• Their mother saw this as a good opportunity for a moral lesson.
• “If Jesus were sitting here, He would say,
• ‘Let my brother have the first pancake; I can wait.”
• Kevin turned to his younger brother and said,
• “Ryan, you be Jesus!”
The servant who left the presence of the king only had his own selfish interest in mind;
• Instead of rejoicing over his good fortune of being out of debt;
• He went and found a fellow servant who owed him 100 denarii (100 pence).
• The average worker earned one denarrii (1 penny) a day;
• So this debt was, insignificant compared to what the servant owed the king.
Notice:
• Despite the fact that the man who owed the penny (verse 29)
• Uses the same words as the man who owned the millions (verse 26):
• His plea has no effect, there is no compassion, no pity, no mercy being shown.
• Instead the servant mistreated his friend and demanded that he pay the debt.
• This unjust servant was unwilling to Grant to others.
• What he wanted others to grant to him!
• He may well have had the legal right to throw the man in prison,
• But he did not have the moral right.
• He had been forgiven himself;
• Therefore he should have forgiven his fellow friend.
• He and his family had been spared the shame and suffering of prison.
• Should he not spare his friends family?
(3). He became a prisoner (verses 31-34).
“When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.
32“Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. “
• The king originally delivered him from prison,
• But the servant put himself-back in.
Ill:
• Not long after a wealthy contractor had finished building the Tombs prison in New York,
• He was found guilty of forgery and sentenced to several years in the prison he had built!
• As he was escorted into a cell of his own making, the contractor said,
• “I never dreamed when I built this prison that I would be an inmate one day.”
• Although the king originally delivered him from prison,
• By his own actions and attitude the servant put himself-back in.
• The servant exercised justice and cast his friend into prison
• The king replied: "So you want to live by justice? then you shall have justice!
• Note: There is no suggestion that the entire family was sentenced.
• After all, it was the father who abused the other servant and ignored the king's kindness.
Ill:
• Dale Carnegie once noted that the only animal;
• That the grizzly bear would allow to eat with him was the skunk.
• Grizzly bears in Yellowstone Park;
• Often come to eat at the place where garbage is dumped.
• This huge bear can fight and beat almost any animal in the West,
• But it lets the skunk share its meal.
• Carnegie said that the grizzly surely resented the skunk;
• And could have easily killed the little creature in any fight.
• No doubt the bear would have liked to have gotten even with him for his intrusion.
• But he didn’t.
• Question: Why?
• Answer: Because he knew the high cost of getting even.
Most animals are not dumb:
• They are much smarter than many humans;
• Who allow their stomachs to churn all day,
• Their minds to storm all night;
• And their souls to turn black with hatred as they plot revenge.
THE WORLD'S WORST PRISON IS THE PRISON OF AN UNFORGIVING HEART.
• If we refuse to forgive others,
• Then we are only imprisoning ourselves and causing our own torment.
• Some of the most miserable people you will meet;
• Will be people who would not forgive others.
Ill:
• A childhood accident caused poet Elizabeth Barrett;
• To lead a life of semi-invalidism before she married Robert Browning in 1846.
• In her youth, Elizabeth had been watched over by her tyrannical father.
• When she and Robert were married,
• Their wedding was held in secret because of her father’s disapproval.
• After the wedding the Browning’s sailed for Italy,
• Where they lived for the rest of their lives.
• But even though her parents had disowned her,
• Elizabeth never gave up on the relationship.
• Almost weekly she wrote them letters.
• Not once did they reply.
• After 10 years, she received a large box in the mail.
• Inside, Elizabeth found all of her letters; not one had been opened!
• Today those letters are among the most beautiful in classical English literature.
• Had her parents only read a few of them,
• Their relationship with Elizabeth might have been restored.
• Instead they missed out, isolated, cut off imprisoned by an unforgiving heart!
At the start of this parable:
• Peter asked for a just measuring rod;
• Jesus told him to practice forgiveness and forget the measuring rod.
• Our Lord's warning is serious.
• He did not say that God saves only those who forgive others.
• The theme of this parable is forgiveness between brothers,
• Not salvation for lost sinners.
• We reveal the true condition of our hearts by the way we treat others.
• We imprison ourselves we refuse to forgive others.
• The servant in the parable did not have a deep experience of forgiveness and humility.
• He was simply glad to be "off the hook," He had never really repented.'"
• Many of us who are trying to forgive;
• Struggle with letting go………
Ill:
• Corrie Ten Boom (who suffered terribly in a German Concentration Camp);
• Tells of not being able to forget a wrong that had been done to her.
• She had tried forgiving the person,
• But she kept rehashing the incident in her mind and so couldn’t sleep.
• Finally Corrie cried out to God for help in putting the problem to rest.
• And after failing to sleep for two weeks.
• Her prayer was answered and help came in the form of a Lutheran pastor,
• Corrie wrote:
• Looking out of the window, he said;
• “Up in the church tower is a bell which is rung by pulling on a rope. But you know what?
• After the sexton lets go of the rope, the bell keeps on swinging.
• First ding, then dong. Slower and slower until there’s a final dong and it stops.
• I believe the same thing is true of forgiveness.
• When we forgive, we take our hand off the rope.
• But if we’ve been tugging at our grievances for a long time,
• We mustn’t be surprised if the old angry thoughts keep coming for a while.
• They’re just the ding-dongs of the old bell slowing down.”
• Corrie goes on to write:
“And so it proved to be. There were a few more midnight reverberations, a couple of dings when the subject came up in my conversations, but the force—which was my willingness in the matter—had gone out of them. They came less and less often and at the last stopped altogether: we can trust God not only above our emotions, but also above our thoughts.”
