Forgiven People Forgive People
Matthew 6:12
Pastor Jefferson M. Williams
First Baptist Church of Chenoa
3-24-19
Drama: Hey, I’m praying here!
Review
Each week, I’ve been reviewing all that we have studied in these last few weeks. This morning, I’m going to just encourage you to go to Chenoa Baptist Church’s Facebook page and watch the sermons in this series. These verses are so important that I want to have as much time as possible to walk through it with you.
The first three petitions focus on God. We pray that His name be hallowed, that His kingdom come in us, through us, and through our churches. We pray that His will be done as it is already done in heaven.
The second three petitions focus on our needs as children of God. Last week, Jesus directed us to pray for our daily bread. We are to look to God as the sustainer and provider of everything we need for life. We confess that we sometimes forget that and live like we can handle things on our own. We can have confidence that God will provide for us and we can be content in what He does choose to provide. All of this should lead to compassion and generosity on our part as we seek to be the hands and feet of Jesus in a lost and dying world.
This morning, we come to the fifth petition – forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. This is the only petition with a human response and the only one that Jesus actually elaborates on. The first part of this verse is incredible news. The second part is terrifying.
What’s in a word?
Before we begin, let me point out something that you will notice immediately. Some of your translations use the word “debt” and some of them use the word “trespasses.” Which word is correct?
In verse 12, Matthew uses the Greek word for debt. In verse 14-15, he uses the Greek word for trespasses.
They both are conveying the same idea but “debts” is more true to the Greek.
A couple of years ago, I walked up a driveway to visit a person in our church. A man met me halfway and demanded loudly for me to get off his property. It turns out I was at the wrong house. I was trespassing. I didn’t do it on purpose. You can trespass on accident.
That’s why I think debt is a better word. In the U.S. we understand the concept of debt. The average American has $38,000 of debt and that doesn’t include a mortgage. The average student graduates college with a student debt of over $35,000. And the national debt stands at 22 trillion dollars.
We are national acquainted with debt but there is a much more important debt to consider.
When we ask for forgiveness, we are acknowledging that we owe a debt to God. It’s not accidental. Our sin is active rebellion again a holy and righteous God. God’s standard is perfection and we cannot hop high enough for His holiness. We fall short. We miss the mark. We need forgiveness. We need to seek it daily.
Forgiven?
But, wait, aren’t we forgiven of our sin when we become a Christian? Yes. When you place your full faith and trust in Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross in your place to pay the sin debt you owe, you are justified. That means you are declared “not guilty” but, even more than that, Jesus trades His righteousness for your sin.
“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Cor 5:21)
In Romans, Paul sums up the effect of our justification:
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” (Romans 5:8-10)
Jesus paid it all/ all to Him I owe / sin had left a crimson stain / He washed it white as snow
But, even after we have become Christians, we still sin. We still fall short. We still miss the mark.
There are some churches that teach that after your conversion you don’t sin anymore.
I got a call from a student named Ray when I was Mississippi. He had received a wrong number but the guy on the other end of the phone said, “Hey wait, can I ask you a question? Do you know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord?” Ray was a little startled but answered that he was a Christian and was involved in our youth group. The guy then said, “Do you still sin?” Ray answered, “Yes sir. Every day but Jesus forgives me.” At this point, the man raised his voice and said, “Ray, you are going to hell. You are not a Christian. Christians don’t sin anymore.” Ray said, “Um…you need to talk to Jeff!”
So Ray gave him my number. This guy did call me. I opened my Bible and read the Apostle John’s words:
“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us… If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.” (I John 1:8,10)
He dismissed this verse and said it was for non-Christians because Christians cannot sin. I asked him, “So you don’t sin ever?” He replied, “Never!” I said, “Well you just did!”
He became combative and I finally said, “You are really starting to p### me off!” (Yes, you pastor said that) He was quiet for a minute and said that he had known for the first second I opened my mouth that I wasn’t a Christian and that I had just proved it. I told him that I would have to ask for a lot more forgiveness if he ever contacted one of my students again!
Even after we are born again, we still sin because our sin nature is still with us until we experience glorification in heaven. We don’t become sinless, but because of the Holy Spirit’s work in our new heart, we will sin less.
Jesus directs us to pray daily for the forgiveness of our sins. And John gave us this absolutely amazing promise wedged in-between the two verses in I John:
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (I John 1:9)
When we sin, our relationship with God is disturbed.
“But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.” (Isaiah 59:1-2)
Unconfessed sin sins leads to emotional and physical pain:
“When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me, my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.” (Psalm 32:3-4)
Confession just means to agree with him that sin is sin. God says that He will forgive you your sins not based on anything you have done but because Jesus paid it all. He not only will forgive you but he will cleanse you. He will make you clean and restore the broken bridge of relationship. Jesus calls us to confess our sins and repent, which simple means a change of mind that leads to a change in direction.
David continues in Psalm 32:
“Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.” And you forgave the guilt of my sin.” (Psalm 32:5)
This is not good news but great news!
But there is another part of this verse that is terrifying. Forgive us our debts/sins as we forgive our debtors/sin against us.
The way we forgive others will be the standard that God applies to our requests for forgiveness.
The Debt
Turn with me to Matthew 18 and let’s look at a parable that Jesus told his disciples to help them understand forgiveness.
Jesus was teaching on forgiveness and Peter asked a question that was probably on everyone’s mind:
“ Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” (Matthew 18:21-22)
Peter was looking for a loophole. How many times do I have to forgive? When it reaches eight can I then punch them in the throat?
Jesus told Peter that he was looking at forgiveness entirely wrong. When He said 70X7, he didn’t mean literally 490 times. That expression basically means infinity. We are to live in a posture of heart that radiates forgiveness.
Jesus tells them a parable to help them understand:
“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 bags of gold 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.
“At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.” (Matthew 18:23-27)
In the Roman Empire, most prisoners were executed quickly so they didn’t stay in prison long. But there were a lot of prisons filled with people who couldn’t pay their debts.
The king calls one of his debtors before him. He owed something like $10 million dollars. Did he make a bad investment deal? Did he have a gambling problem? We aren’t told. We are simply told that he owed more money than he could ever pay back in twenty lifetimes.
The king ordered that all he had, including his wife and children, be sold to repay the debt. This wouldn’t come close to paying off this debt but it was the King’s prerogative.
The man was overwhelmed by the verdict and fell on his knees and begged the king for mercy and time to pay back the debt.
The king was moved with compassion and extended mercy to him. He cancelled the debt and set him free.
So far, so good?
We owed a debt far greater than ten million dollars. We were cosmic rebels again a holy God. We couldn’t pay for our sin debt. It takes perfect blood to pay that debt. We fall short. We miss the mark. We were completely hopeless and helpless and headed to hell.
So, like the man in the parable, we fall on our knees and beg for mercy. Mercy is not getting what you deserve. We all have fallen short of the glory of God and deserve hell.
We deserved to die for our sins but, instead, out of pure mercy, grace, and love, Jesus died in our place. He lived a perfect life, never sinned, and was the only human ever who was good enough to go to heaven. He went to the cross in your place to pay the penalty of your sins. God the Father turned His back on God the Son on the cross and all of His wrath for our sins was poured out on Jesus.
But we don’t just get mercy; we get amazing grace – which means getting something you don’t deserve. And by that sacrificial, substitutionary death on the cross, Jesus opened the way to heaven and a relationship with God.
“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”
That phrase “the charge of our legal indebtedness,” is translated as “written code” in some of your Bibles. It means a certificate of debt signed in the debtors own hand. When a debt was paid off the creditor would stick a nail through the certificate of debt.
On the cross, as He took has last breath, Jesus yelled, “It is finished!” The Greek work literally pays a debt that has been paid in full.
As Les is fond of saying, “We owed a debt we couldn’t pay. Jesus paid a debt He did not owe.”
So far, the parable is pretty straightforward. Jesus continues:
“But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.
“His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’
“But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.” (Matthew 18:28-31)
As he is leaving, he runs into a fellow servant who owed him about $10. He became violent with him, attacking him physically and demanded that he pay him back immediately.
This fellow servant did exactly what he had done and fell to his knees and begged for mercy.
But there was no mercy given to the fellow servant. He had the man thrown into prison until he could pay off his debt. By the way, this kind of a way of holding the person for ransom because the family would have to come up with the money to get them out.
This didn’t happen in a vacuum. There were people watching this and they were mortified. Why? Because of the unbelievable hypocrisy of the man who had been forgiven so much. It bothered them to the point that they went to the King and told him what 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?’ In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. (Matthew 18:32-24)
The king was flabbergasted. He had extended amazing grace to the man who, in turn, refused to extend that same grace to someone who owed him far less.
He then was handed over to the jailers to be tortured until he could pay the impossible debt back.
Jesus ends with these haunting words:
“This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” (Matthew 18:35)
Is God’s Love Conditional?
You may be thinking to yourself – does that mean that our forgiveness is conditional? Is Jesus really saying that if we refuse to forgive others we will not be forgiven?
In a word – Yes!
But we need to make sure we understand what He is teaching here. It’s so important that it is the only part of the prayer that we elaborates on:
“For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (Matthew 6:14-15)
Jesus is saying that if you refuse to forgive someone else after you have been forgiven of much more, you are proving that you don’t understand the depths of your sin and that you are not yet a believer and are in danger of being handed over the torturers – which is hell.
Here’s the equation – Forgiven people forgive people.
Paul said it this way:
“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” (Eph 4:32)
God has forgiven a debt so huge that we could have never paid it off. But if we turn around and refuse to extend that same mercy and grace to others, there is something deeply sick about our faith.
Forgiven Much
Jesus was invited to the home of a Pharisee and woman carrying an alabaster jar of perfume interrupted the dinner party. This woman didn’t have a good reputation in town so it was scandalous that she was even there.
She stood behind Jesus and her tears began to fall on His feet. She took down her hair; something that only prostitutes did in that day, and began to wipe her tears and perfume together on his feet.
The Pharisees were absolutely indignant:
“If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.” (Luke 4:39)
Jesus responses with a story similar to the one in Matthew:
“Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”
Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.” (Luke 7:41-43)
Simon was correct. Jesus continued:
Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.” (Matthew 7:44-47)
This was a stinging rebuke to the self-righteousness Pharisees who didn’t see themselves as sinners in need a Savior. But this woman, that they would consider trash, understood Jesus’ mission more than the religious experts of the day.
Those that have been forgiven much will love much.
Anyone convicted yet?
Forgiven Much?
Do you truly understand the depth of your sin? Do you see yourself as spiritually bankrupt? Do you understand that the only thing you are entitled to is hell?
Mickey Mantle was one of the greatest baseball players of all time. He was also an alcoholic and a womanizer who wasn’t a good husband or father or friend.
Near the end of his life, when he found out he was dying, he started trying to make amends. He realized the depth of his sin, how people he had hurt, and how much damage he had done. He gave several interviews in which he said, “Please don’t be like me.”
A former teammate of his Bobby Richardson heard that Mickey had taken a turn for the worse after a liver transplant. He got an a plane and flew to see him and shared the Gospel with him and Mickey committed his life to Christ. That burden of his past and his sins were lifted and he died with the joy of knowing God’s forgiveness.
And those who know this kind of forgiveness are the ones that extend that kind of forgiveness.
Forgiveness Ain’t Easy
But let’s just be honest. Forgiveness isn’t always easy. What if they really hurt you? What if they aren’t sorry? Isn’t there a loophole? Nope. 70X7.
I remember being a large youth conference and students could stand up and ask the speaker questions. I’ll never forget a girl, probably around 14 years old, standing up and saying, “My father did terrible things to me when I was younger and you are saying I have to forgive him?”
The speaker responded, “Honey, what your dad did is terrible. But, if you are a Christian, you’ve been forgiven far worse.”
There were 5,000 students there and it went dead silent. All you could hear was this girl crying.
Let’s face it. Forgiveness ain’t easy.
But we are commanded to do this, then how do we actually do it?
First, forgiveness is a one-time decision of the will. You choose to forgive. You choose not to hold it over their heads.
Then, God will take you on the journey of forgiveness that may take years.
What are the consequences of an unforgiving spirit? Ray Pritchard gives us a list:
* Fellowship with the Father is blocked
* Your prayers will not be answered
* The devil gets a foothold through your bitterness
* You waste time nursing a grudge
* You become enslaved to the people you hate – they live rent free inside your head
Pritchard continues:
“You are never closer to the grace of Jesus than when you confess your sins to Him. You are never more like Jesus when you forgive those who have sinned against you. You will never fully enter into freedom in Christ if you choose to live in unforgiveness.”
It’s been said that unforgiveness is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.
Forgive us of our sins AS we forgive those that sin against us. Do you feel the weight of that little word “as?” God will forgive you based on your willingness to forgive others.
What are some steps on the forgiveness journey?
1. Face what they did. Don’t minimize it. Don’t sweep it under the rug. Say it out loud. And then choose to forgive.
2. That doesn’t mean you will forget what happened. It simply means that you choose not to hold it against them anymore. That’s what God does with our sins:
I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more” (Jeremiah 31:34).
God is omniscient, which means he knows everything, so He doesn’t forget our sins. He chooses to not hold them against us anymore.
3. We don’t bring it up anymore to anyone. We refuse to speak evil of them. We pray for them. We ask God to bless them. We don’t dwell on it anymore. We let it go and move on.
Here’s an important thing to remember. When someone hurts us, we can forgive him or her but that doesn’t mean we have to trust him or her.
If you walked into my office, and then hit me with a bat breaking my leg. I could forgive you for that. But the next time you came to my door, I’m going to want to see your hands to make sure you don’t have a bat.
Let me ask you some questions:
Are you up to date on your forgiveness? Are you keeping short accounts?
Are you holding a grudge against anyone? Let it go.
Do you harbor bitterness against anyone? Let it go.
Are you talking too much about what others have done to you? (Remember, from Matthew 18, if someone hurts you, you go directly to him or her) Let it go.
Are you living out Romans 12:18?
“If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” (Romans 12:18)
A missionary told the story of being in East Africa and walking through fields and was overcome by an incredible beautiful smell. He asked his about it and the guide pointed to the flowers on the trail. When they were stepped on they release an aroma that was amazing. These flowers are called, “forgiveness flowers.”
Ask the Holy Spirit to help you aspire to reflect the kindness of God and to stand ready to forgive.
Forgiveness in Action
On May 11, 2002, Megan Napier and her friend Lisa, both 20 years old, were coming back from a day at the beach when they were t-boned by a drunk driver named Eric Smallridge. They both died in the wreck. Eric was sentenced to 22 years in prison, 11 years for each girl.
Megan’s mom knew she had a decision to make. She could live in hate and bitterness the rest of her life or she could choose to forgive Eric.
Eleven members of the family petitioned the court to reduce his sentence in half. The judge couldn’t believe it and Eric didn’t understand it. Through this experience, he committed his life to Christ.
Then Renee asked the court if he could have several leaves from the prison so he could come and tell his story with her, which to everyone’s amazing, they granted.
Eric would travel from the prison in cuffs and speak with her and then go back to his cell that night.
After nine and half years, he was released and Eric and Renee have spoken in every county in Florida.
Renee is a big fan of the Christian music artist Matthew West. She wrote him a letter detailing this story. He was so moved by the email that he printed it out and kept it in his guitar case for two years. He finally pulled it out and wrote a song “Forgiveness” about their story.
I would like you to close your eyes and listen as I read the lyrics:
It’s the hardest thing to give away?/ And the last thing on your mind today / ?It always goes to those who don’t deserve / ?It’s the opposite of how you feel / ?When they pain they caused is just too real? / Takes everything you have to say the word
Forgiveness, forgiveness
It flies in the face of all your pride / ?It moves away the mad inside / ?It’s always anger’s own worst enemy?/ Even when the jury and the judge / ?Say you’ve got a right to hold a grudge? / It’s the whisper in your ear saying set it free
Forgiveness, forgiveness / ?Forgiveness, forgiveness?
Show me how to love the unlovable? / Show me how to reach the unreachable / ?Help me now to do the impossible? / Forgiveness, forgiveness / ?Help me now to do the impossible? / Forgiveness
Let it Go
As you came in today, you were handed a rock. That rock represents unforgiveness. As you watch this video, I want you to think about what God would have you do with that rock.
