Matthew 17:24 – Matthew 18:35
ILLUSTRATION 1:
A Sunday school teacher was diligently teaching about Salvation, explaining how we have sinned and need to seek forgiveness from God. After this, she asked the children, “What should you do in order for you to be forgiven of your sin?” She thought she had taught really well and she was surprised at the long pause. Finally one little boy raised his hand and he said, “I have to sin!”
ILLUSTRATION 2:
A minister parked his car in a “No Parking” spot and left a note on the car saying: “I have circled around the area ten times and I could not find a parking space. I am going to be late and so I am parking here. Please forgive us our trespasses.” The police officer found this note and he left a citation for his mistake of parking and also wrote a note for the minister. When the minister came back to his car, he found the note saying, “I am a police officer. I go around this block for 10 years, and if I do not give you a ticket, I will lose my job. Lead us not into temptation!”
Today we will look into being lead into temptation in some cases, and especially forgiveness from sins and in the process what God values. What are values from God’s perspective? What do we value and how does that compare with what God values?
The Values of the Kingdom of God - 5 main points
1. Peace with authority is more valuable than money that we do or do not have.(Matt. 17:24-27)
2. Humility and simplicity are of more value than power or prestige. (Matt.18:1-9)
3. The one who is lost is temporarily more valuable than those who are not. (Matt.18:10-14)
4. Restoration of the brother who has sinned is more valuable than punishment.(Matt.18:15-20)
5. The one who has wronged me is more valuable than my rights for vengeance or justice.(Matt.18:21-35)
1. Peace with authority is more valuable than money that we do or do not have.
Matthew 17:24-27 - The relationship between us and those around us, even our relationships with the corrupt government is more important than the value of money we do or do not have.
Jesus did not have enough money to pay the taxes. He probably did not attend any of those Money Management classes, where you are taught to keep aside money for your taxes. He asks Peter throw in a hook in the sea and from the first fish, he will find the money to pay their taxes. We see here that Jesus had a way of providing.
God has a plan for those who commit themselves to ministry and He will meet our needs as He always does. He cares for us and will supply our needs.
The relationship that the church, the believers have with the government is very important. God wants us to live righteous lives. If we do not do evil and do what is right, we do not have to worry about being punished by the government. We pay our taxes and do all that is legally necessary.
Jesus said in Matt.17, “In order that we do not create an offence, go fishing.” And Jesus provided miraculously (Matt.17:24-27) to what was needed.
If you commit yourself to doing what God has called you to do and being faithful even with taxes, God will provide for you even miraculously.
2. Humility and simplicity are of more value than power or prestige.
Matthew 18:1-9 – We see in this passage that the value of person is not based on his position or influence or power, but on purity, honesty and simplicity.
An adult is not more important than a child.
ILLUSTRATION:
There was an OT Professor who taught young people that were preparing for the ministry. At the beginning of the class he would take off his coat and bow. He would bow to the class of his students. Some of his faculty members were upset at this gesture. And he said, “I bow to them because you never know which of them is going to be called of God to some great service.” The professor of course did not realize at that time that one of his students sitting there was Martin Luther, who later would establish the protestant reformation and have a huge impact on the development of the church.
Yes, children have to honor their parents and elders, however elders should respect young people too, a sense of mutuality of honoring one another.
When you look at the little child, you are seeing the elements of the Kingdom of God – the
simplicity, the humility that kids have. They get along with each other so well whereas adults have trouble with getting along with each other.
During the music school this week, I made an observation that there is no such thing as the infant atheist. Children by nature are able to trust and are honest.
ILLUSTRATION: Children are very honest.
When I was a teenager, we went to a meeting with Billy Graham in a high school football stadium. There were probably 20,000 people sitting in the bleachers in the cold of the morning to hear Billy Graham. And he related a story about how he arrived in a small village where he was going to preach. He needed to mail a letter and asked a little boy how he could get to the post office. As the boy gave the directions, Billy Graham invited the boy to come to the meeting where he was going to preach on how to get to heaven! To which the little boy replied, “I am not sure I will come. You do not even know how to get to the post office!”
ILLUSTRATION: A young woman accepted in college because of her humility.
A young woman wanted to go to college and was filling out an application. As she was filling out, she got upset when one of those points asked, “Are you a leader?” She was an honest and forthright person and she wrote, “No” to that question. She thought she may not be accepted in the college. But she was accepted and this is what the college wrote back: “Dear applicant, a study of the application forms reveals that this year our college will have 1452 new leaders. We are accepting you, because we feel that it is important that they have at least one follower. “
We often think pride and self-confidence, or emotional, spiritual and physical strength are the marks of true leadership. But the Bible teaches that humility is the mark of anyone who pursues the Kingdom of God wholeheartedly.
ILLUSTRATION:
In Africa even today people hunt monkeys. The way they do it is: they would send a jar out with some mangoes or cashew nuts. Monkeys love these and grab what is in there. But their fists would not get outside of the jar. And the hunters have actually attached the jar at the place where they have placed the jar. So the monkey just sits there, holding on to the mango and be captured, because it is not willing to let go of that little treat, thinking the treat is more important than its freedom. While the hunters are standing right there, the monkeys still sit there holding on to their treat!
In contrast:
ILLUSTRATION:
The muskrats are caught in the trap too. Its paw usually gets caught in the trap and it literally chews its paw off in order to escape from the trap.
APPLICATION:
Sometimes I think rats have more sense than people! Human beings are more like the monkeys caught in the trap. Satan will set out a little treat for us and we reach in and grab it. We do not let go of it and we are trapped. We are more willing to hold on to that treat and remain trapped, than to let go of that “thing” and be free.
In contrast a muskrat will actually chew off his limb.
Jesus said, “If your right hand offends you, cut it off. If it causes you to sin, it is better for you to cut it off and enter into heaven with a hand missing, than to enter into hell with your whole body.”
Obviously Jesus is not teaching us to destroy parts of our body, but to take sin seriously. Like the muskrat, we need to lose something to gain something better.
QUOTE by Jim Elliot:
“He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep in order to gain what he cannot lose.”
Our eternal salvation is more valuable than the pleasures of sin for a season.
3. The one who is lost is temporarily more valuable than those who are not.
Matthew 18:10-14
ILLUSTRATION:
Think for a moment, somebody in the congregation or a friend wanders off and begins to get caught up in sin – How do you respond to such a person? Some people will begin to rail on that person; will treat the person like an enemy like that they are dirty, evil and low. There are Christians who act like this. If there is a sheep who wanders off, the Good Shepherd would go after that sheep, will leave the 99 sheep in the care of an under shepherd and will personally go and find that lost one who has wandered away.
The idea is that the person who is lost is not less valuable than the ones who are in the pen. The person who has gotten caught in sin needs to be redeemed and rescued.
In fact what Jesus is teaching is that the person who has wandered away is MORE valuable than the one who has not wandered away – so greater effort is put after the one who has wandered away.
ILLUSTRATION:
My grandmother was once asked: “Who is the child that you love the most?” And she answered, “The one that is farthest away.” That has kind of become the story in my family. So whenever I wrote a letter to my mom, I wrote, “your farthest away son,” because I was the farthest away from home.
We need to realize that the person who is the farthest needs more love than the one who is the nearest, and we need to change our perspective.
ILLUSTRATION:
There was a girl named Christina, who lived in a dusty village of Brazil. In her late teens she was upset with her parents because she thought she was restricted. She had this dream of going to Rio De Janeiro, but her mother knew that she will not be able to take care of herself and told her not to go.
One morning, her mother woke up to see that her daughter’s room was empty and she was gone. Maria, her mother immediately got all the money she had and she went to the bus station. On the way she went to a photo booth and got bunches of pictures of her. As she was on the bus, she wrote on the back of every single picture. She went to Rio and searched for her everywhere, but could not find her. As she went she put those pictures of herself everywhere she went looking for her.
Christina was staying at a hotel. She had stayed here for long time and by this time; she had lost that light of excitement that is there in a young person. She was exhausted. She thought there was no way she could go home. As she came to the lobby of the hotel, she saw the picture of her mother. Her eyes were filled with tears. She pulled out the picture and turned to see it was written, “Whatever you have done, whatever you have become – it does not matter. Please come home!” And she did!
It is the person who is the farthest away that needs our love, and we need to be willing to go to extraordinary lengths to bring that person back into the flock.
4. Restoration of the brother who has sinned is more valuable than punishment.
Matthew 18:15-20
The relationship with my brother is worth sacrifice and efforts that are repeated and progressive – i.e., go to the brother, he does not listen to you. You go back with some friends to talk to him, to try to restore him. If that does not work, you bring him before the church and convince him as a group, a gathering, and a community. So it is repeated and progressive. But the price of restoration has to be paid. If he does not listen even to the church, he is treated as an outsider, yet it is worth the effort, because even this cutting of fellowship is a means of restoration and not a punishment.
How did Jesus treat the tax collectors and sinners? He went to them because He came after the sick and not the healthy.
I Cor.5:1-5 - You hand them over to the decisions they have made, so that their body can be destroyed but their spirit saved. It does not mean be judgmental or look down on them. With some people you have to be tough with them. It is called tough love. You have to love them enough to correct them, even if it means you do not fellowship with a friend!
The purpose of church discipline is restoration, even if that restoration takes place only in eternity!
5. The one who has wronged me is more valuable than my rights for vengeance or justice.
Matthew 18:21-35 – This particular parable has 2 primary points.
1. The main point here is – the person who owes me something – whether money or pain inflicted, that person is more valuable than my right to restitution and justice.
2. When we do not forgive, the iron bars of my wounded, hardened, angry heart imprison me.
QUOTE:
Mark Twain said, “Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.”
The way the world teaches you to be strong is through hardening your heart and to be unaffected by other people. But the Bible teaches that when you hurt, you choose to keep a soft and an open heart, and you choose to forgive. That requires strength!
QUOTE:
Mahatma Gandhi said, “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” That’s a biblical perspective.
ILLUSTRATION:
A lady had two children. The older son was 7 years old and the little girl about 2 ½ years old. She heard this terrible scream upstairs and as she ran upstairs she found out that the little girl was pulling the hair of her brother. He was crying out in pain. The mother gently removed the girl’s hands off her brother’s hair and says to her brother, “Sweetheart, your sister does not understand that it hurts.”
The son nodded okay to it. But as she was walking down the stairs, she heard this blood cuddling sound and ran to see what happened again. The boy was sitting next to the girl and the girl was now crying out in pain, and he said, “Now she understands!”
Many times we are like the little boy who wants to make sure that the person who has hurt us knows what it is like to be hurt. But forgiveness means we sacrifice our right to inflict pain on the one who has pained us.
ILLUSTRATION:
Corrie Ten Boom during the World War II in Holland housed about 800 Jews and helped them escape from the captivity of Germans. The Germans got the news about it and arrested her entire family. Her father died in a week’s time of being in prison. He was very old and sick and died. Her sister also died a few years later. And by a clerical accident, she was released one week before all the women in that prison camp were killed.
Years later she was speaking in Europe and was speaking about forgiveness from Matt.18:21-35. She saw as everybody was going their own way after the message, there was one man who was walking toward her. She immediately recognized him as one of the guards at this prison camp. She began to think of the humiliating experience of having to walk naked in front of this man with her sister in front of her. She remembered how her sister looked like a skeleton because they were fed so poorly. This man was walking in front of her and she was trying to walk away from himself.
And he said, “Fraulein, I enjoyed your message so much. I have become a Christian and I know that Jesus has forgiven my sin. You mentioned a jail and I was one of the guards there.” To which she realized that he did not remember her, but she remembered him. He said, “I know Jesus has forgiven my sins and it would mean a lot if I heard that from you too.” And he put out his hand to shake her hand.
I heard her on the radio many years ago and this is what she said,
“And still I stood there with coldness clutching my heart for forgiveness is not an emotion. I knew that. Forgiveness is the act of the will and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. “Help!” I prayed silently. “I can lift my hand – I can do that much.” She said to God, “You supply the feeling.” And so mechanically I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me and as I did an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.
"I forgive you, brother!" I cried with all my heart. For long moment we grasped each other’s hands – the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God’s love so intensely as I did then.”
God calls us to forgive. Try and get the book by John Bevere called “The Bait of Satan.” In that he argues many of us become offended and we hold on to that offence and we let it corrupt our hearts. And God wants us to let go of the offence and forgive people. We are held in prison. The people we do not forgive are not hurt by our unforgiveness. We are the ones that are wounded by our inability to forgive.
All of us here need to forgive someone. Let it happen now in our hearts.
Prayer:
Lord, may we value those things that You value!
