WALKING IN FORGIVENESS
[ OUR GREAT KENOSIS ]
Mt 18:21-35
INTRO: There is an old story that came out of the Korean War. Some officers had a Korean man cooking for them. They treated him rather badly, constantly playing practical jokes on him. They nailed his shoes to the floor. They put buckets of water over the doors to spill on him. They put Vaseline on the doorknobs.
But finally they became ashamed of themselves, & decided to apologize. They told him, "We have never seen anybody like you. You have been our cook all this time & we have done all these things to you, & you have never even once tried to retaliate. So we want to apologize & ask your forgiveness."
The cook was visibly moved by this. He said, "You mean no more water over the door?" "That's right." "No more naillee shoes to the floor?" "That's right." "No more Vaseline on the doorknobs?" "That's right." Then he said, "All right, then no more spittee in the soup."
[ Melvin Newland, Christians are supposed to be different, sermon central ]
. It seems we all have a hard time forgetting the wrongs that people do to us.
. Today we are going to get back into our Walk Worthy series.
. How we are to walk worthy of calling ourselves Christians.
. Today we are going to explore Walking In Forgiveness.
. I heard about a man who really loved dogs. He devoted his life to them ¬ he read about them, studied them, and even gave talks about them to other dog lovers. One day he decided to pour a new sidewalk in front of his house. His neighbor watched from his window as he smoothed out the last square foot of cement.
Just then, a large dog appeared and walked through the fresh cement, leaving paw prints behind. The man muttered something under his breath and smoothed out the damage.
He then went inside to get some twine so he could put up a fence around the sidewalk. But, when he got back outside, he discovered some more dog tracks in his fresh cement. He smoothed out the cement and put up the fence.
He then went into the house. Five minutes later he looked outside and saw some more paw prints. He was really mad now. He got out his trowel and smoothed the cement one more time. As he got back to his porch, the dog reappeared and sat right in the middle of the sidewalk.
He went inside, grabbed his gun and shot the dog dead. The neighbor rushed over and said, “Why did you do that? I thought you loved dogs.” The man thought for a minute and said, “I do, I do like dogs. But that’s in the abstract. I hate dogs in the concrete.”
That’s how many of us feel about our theme for this morning. We love to hear about forgiveness in the abstract, but when it hits close to home, we hate it in the concrete.
[ brian bill, the standard of grace, sermon central ]
. We can talk about forgiveness when there is no need for us to give it: but when it hits home, it gets a little harder doesn’t it?
.If we are Christians here this morning, we have all been given forgiveness from the sins of our past present and future by the grace of God through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross at Calvary.
. While we love to talk about our forgiveness, many times we can’t seem to give forgiveness.
. John MacArthur in his commentary on MT 18 writes:
“Forgiveness reflects the highest human virtue, because it so clearly reflects the character of God. A person who forgives is a person who emulates godly character. Nothing so much demonstrates God’s love as His forgiveness. A person who does not forgive is therefore a person lacking in godly character and without Christ like love … An unforgiving Christian is a living contradiction of his new nature in Christ. It is central to the heart of God to forgive, and only the Christian who radiates forgiveness radiates true godliness.”
. Our scripture this morning teaches that we are to be a forgiving person, no matter who or what the offense is against us.
. When we become Christians or strive to be Christ like, we don’t really have any other choice other than to forgive for the wrongs or trespasses against us.
. We go through a great Kenosis much like Jesus did . We find this recorded in Philippians 2:5-8:
You should think in the same way Christ Jesus does.
6 In his very nature he was God. 6 But he did not think that being equal with God was something he should hold on to.
7 Instead, he made himself nothing. 7 He took on the very nature of a servant. 7 He was made in human form.
8 He appeared as a human being. 8 He came down to the lowest level. 8 He obeyed God completely, even though it led to his death. 8 In fact, he died on a cross.
. Jesus gave up his right to be God. He sacrificed that right because of his love for mankind.
. Charles Swindoll wrote, "As a Christian, I give up my privilege of hurting you because you hurt me. I give up my privilege of retaliating, of seeking revenge. I give up my privilege of nursing a grudge.
. As Christians we are commanded to forgive, to surrender ourselves to the teaching of our Lord and He teaches that if we are to Walk Worthy of calling ourselves Christians, we must WALK IN FORGIVENESS.
. Lets read our text. Mt 18 21-35
. Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?”
22“No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!
23“Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him.24In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars.25He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt.
26“But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’27Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt.
. The first thing we see here is that our forgiveness is to be:
. UNLIMITED
. We see this in verses 21&22: Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?”
22“No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!
. now you math people out there are multiplying 7x70 is 490 .
. we are supposed to forgive someone 490 times. That will be impossible to keep count of.
. That’s exactly what Jesus is saying here. Don’t even try to keep track of how many times you forgive someone.
. Your forgiveness needs to be Unlimited.
. This was a unique concept for the Jewish people. The Rabbi’s had always interpreted Amos 1:3 where God said that:
The people of Damascus have sinned again and again, and I will not let them go unpunished! As meaning that God will only forgive three times therefore they were only to forgive 3 times.
. I’m sure Peter thought that he was being very forgiving when he suggested that he forgive seven times. Twice what the Rabbi’s taught.
. Jesus said no, Peter, you are to be unlimited in you forgiveness.
. At a convention with their wives, two businessmen who had been roommates in college crossed paths. They sat in the lobby all night talking. They knew they would be in trouble with their wives. The next day they happened to see each other. "What did your wife think?"
"I walked in the door and my wife got historical."
"Don’t you mean hysterical?”
"No, historical. She told me everything I ever did wrong."
[ pat cook, sermon central, my chains fell off ]
. We can’t hold on to these things
. We must forgive if we are to be worthy of calling ourselves Christians.
Our forgiveness must be unlimited, just as Jesus taught.
IF WE ARE TO WALK IN FORGIVENESS , NOT ONLY MUST OUR FORGIVENESS BE UNLIMITED, IT MUST ALSO BE UNEARNED.
. In vs 23-27 we see this:
23“Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him.24In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars.25He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt.
26“But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’27Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt.
. There was a servant who owed millions of dollars to a king. The king called in the debt. I want my money the king said. The servant didn’t have it so the king was going to sell his whole family into slavery and just write the rest off. Much like the banks are doing today with the short sales and foreclosures.
. The servant fell down and begged the king for more time and promised that he would pay all that he owed.
. The king realized that there was no way for this man to ever make enough money to pay him back but Jesus said that the king had had pity and compassion for the man and forgave him of his debt.
. This man hadn’t earned his forgiveness. There was nothing that he could do. He was at the mercy of the king.
. During WWII a couple put their only son on the train for service in the South Pacific. As they turned to walk away from bidding their son “goodbye”, the mother had tears running down her cheeks. Dad had bitterness in his heart. "If that boy dies, I hope every Jap in the world is killed."
That boy was killed in the war. And no one will ever know the heartache, & the struggle that father, as a Christian, went through in losing his only son.
He went to the woods day in & day out & wept & prayed. He kept telling himself, "I refuse to be destroyed by bitterness."
And when the government insurance was paid on their son's death, the father took the money & gave it to missions, earmarked to send missionaries to Japan.
[ Melvin Newland, Christians are supposed to be different, sermon central ]
. Only God can bring about that kind of change in our lives. The Japanese people hadn’t earned this man forgiveness; he gave it because of his relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
. As Christians, we are going to experience times when we can’t see how we can forgive someone for the wrong that they have done to us.
. They haven’t done anything to earn our forgiveness.
. That’s when we like the king, have to show compassion for other and forgive them, even if they have done nothing to earn that forgiveness.
. IF WE ARE TO WALK IN FORGIVENESS, NOT ONLY MUST OUR FORGIVENESS BE UNLIMITED, AND UNEARNED, IT MUST ALSO BE UNCONDITIONAL.
. We see that here in vs. 28-31:
.28 But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment.
29“His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time. ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,’ he pleaded.30But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full.
31“When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened.32Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me.33Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’34Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt.
35“That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.”
. The first servant had not only been forgiven for something that he hadn’t earned, he had been forgiven unconditionally.
. There were no conditions to his being forgiven.
. Many times we place conditions on our forgiveness. I’ll forgive you if you do this or ill forgive you if you that.
. The servant who had been forgiven by the king quickly forgot that he had been forgiven and found himself in trouble.
. He went out and found someone who owed him a little money and instantly grabbed him by the throat and said I want my money now.
. That guy did the same thing the first servant had done. He fell down and begged for more time.
. Instead of forgiveness, he got thrown into prison.
. It seemed that unlike the king, this servant had some conditions to his forgiveness.
. If we are to be worthy of calling ourselves Christians, we must be like the king. We can’t have conditions on our forgiveness.
. The last verse here says that we are to forgive our brothers and sisters form our hearts. No conditions.
. You see that’s how God forgives us.
. His forgiveness is unlimited, it is unearned and there are no conditions set on it.
.If we are to Walk Worthy of calling ourselves Christians, that is how we are to forgive.
. With the Great kenosis, Jesus emptied himself and became human so that he could unconditionally forgive us of our sins against God.
. We must also empty ourselves and become people who forgive, just as Jesus has taught us.
INVITATION
