God wants Us to Be Forgiven and Forgiving
The Gospel of Matthew
Matthew 18:21-35
Sermon by Rick Crandall
(Prepared October 21, 2022)
BACKGROUND:
*Please open your Bibles to Matthew 18. Last time in vs. 14-20, we studied the Lord's great priority for unity in His Church. Our harmony is essential because Christ's greatest purpose for coming was to seek and save the lost by dying on the cross for our sins. But Jesus knew that our selfish attitudes and arguments would be a terrible stumbling block to the Gospel. And this was the serious problem the Lord faced in Matthew 18.
*The disciples had been arguing with each other about which one of them was the greatest. That's why in Matthew 18:1 the disciples asked Jesus, "Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?''
*Mark 9:33-35 gives us the background and says:
33. Then He came to Capernaum. And when He was in the house He asked them, "What was it you disputed among yourselves on the road?''
34. But they kept silent, for on the road they had disputed among themselves who would be the greatest.
35. And He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, "If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.''
*On the road, maybe all of them thought they deserved to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And they were stubborn about it, even up to the night before the cross. That's why in vs. 1-4 Jesus explained to His disciples that they were thinking with the world's prideful, upside-down view of greatness. And He showed them godly greatness through a humble, little child who trusted in his loving parents. (1)
*In vs. 5-6 Jesus highlighted the importance of little children, and He gave a stern warning to anyone who tried to lead them away from God. In vs. 7-9 Jesus also spoke of God's certain punishment for sin. Eternal punishment in the fires of hell is what everyone deserves, and what everyone will receive, UNLESS they receive God's forgiveness by receiving Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
*Next in vs. 10 Jesus warned against despising little children, and in vs. 11-14 the Lord spoke of Himself as a good shepherd who searched the mountains to save his lost sheep. And Jesus said, "It is not my Father's will that even one of these little ones should perish." Thank God for that!
*Then in vs. 15-17 Jesus gave us very clear directions on how to settle disagreements in His Church. And in vs. 18-20 He teaches Christians that our times of united, public prayer are powerful and filled with the presence of God.
*All of this truth was given in response to the proud, stubborn argument the disciples had on the road to Capernaum. They were falling short of the Lord's expectations, and sometimes we will too. We will also let each other down, so there will be times we need forgiveness, and times when we need to give it. That's why Jesus began to teach about forgiveness in vs. 21-35.
MESSAGE:
*Some things go together: Peanut butter and Jelly, bacon and eggs, spaghetti and meatballs, chicken and dumplings, sun and fun, Batman and Robin. Some things go together, and today's Scripture shows us two things that must go together for us as Christians: God wants us to be both forgiven and forgiving. How can we get there?
1. FIRST: WE NEED TO COUNT THE COST OF OUR SIN DEBT.
*Again, the background for this discussion was an argument among the Lord's disciples. That's why Peter brought up the issue of forgiveness in vs. 21: "Then Peter came to Him and said, 'Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?'''
*The original word for "forgive" here means "to cancel the debt," or "set someone forever free from an obligation." And that's the way God is willing to forgive us through the cross of Jesus Christ! But Peter's question reminds us that we will need to forgive other people, because none of us is perfect yet. Do you think any of us have lived a perfect life this past week? One day a man walked up to Evangelist D. L. Moody, and this man said that he had no sin in his life. Mr. Moody just replied, "Well, I would like to ask your wife about that." (2)
*Richard Wilson said, "Some folks think they are good, really good people. Let's suppose that a person only sins 3 times a day: A sin in the morning, a sin during the day and a sin at night. Sounds like a pretty good person! But if that person lives to be 70 years old, they will commit 76,650 sins in their lifetime." (And that doesn't include leap years!) (3)
*None of us is perfect yet. A little boy reminds us of this truth in a conversation he had with his grandfather. This little boy had been getting into a lot of trouble at school, so his grandfather talked to him about it. He asked his grandson why he couldn't be good. And the little boy said, "Granddaddy, it's not that I can't be good. I just can't be good enough long enough." (4)
*All of us have the same problem, and since we all will need forgiveness, we all will need to forgive others. Peter's only question was, "How much?" And Peter found out that we should be willing to forgive a whole lot more than we think.
*When Peter said forgive 7 times, he was expecting Jesus to give him a big pat-on-the back and say, "Way to go, Peter!" That's because Peter knew that the Jewish rabbis taught you only needed to forgive someone three times. Peter took the required standard of 3, doubled it, and then added 1 more forgiveness for good measure. So it must have shocked the disciple when Jesus replied, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven." Of course, Jesus didn't mean exactly 490 times. He meant that God wants us to love with a love that keeps on forgiving! (5)
*And this makes sense when we see the crushing weight of our own sin debt. That's what Jesus stressed in vs. 23-24, when He said, "Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents."
*Ten thousand talents. How much debt was that? Well, the common talent used in New Testament times weighed about 130 pounds, and the price of gold the other day was $1,655 an ounce. That means 10,000 talents would be worth well over 34 billion dollars! (6)
*Ten thousand talents was a staggering sum of money! That kind of financial debt would crush just about anyone. But our sin debt before God is infinitely heavier. How many sins have you committed in your life? -- Hopefully not 34 billion! But we have sinned a lot, and we've sinned more than we think. One reason why is because every time we think, say, or do something bad, we are not doing something good we should have done.
*Some of us have sinned a whole lot more than others, but all of us have sinned more than we think. That's why in Psalm 19:12, King David prayed these words to God, "Who can understand his errors? Cleanse Thou me from secret faults."
*And even if we had only sinned once, even that one sin would be a crushing weight on us, because one sin is enough to send us to hell. We know this because God's standard for earning our way into Heaven is total perfection.
*And the Lord wants us to see the crushing weight of our sin debt. He also wants us to see how helpless we are to pay our debt of sin. Again in vs. 23-25 Jesus said, "Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. But as HE WAS NOT ABLE TO PAY. . ."
*Jesus said, "He was not able to pay." Another estimate I saw said that a talent of money was worth 6,000 denarii or 6,000 days' wages. That's how long it would take to work off a debt of 1 talent. But this wicked servant owed 10,000 talents, and that would take 60 million days to work off! -- Over 160 thousand years! (6)
*No wonder that servant was unable to pay! And there was no way that we could ever pay the sin debt we owe to God.
2. THAT'S WHY GOD WANTS US TO COUNT THE COST OF OUR DEBT. BUT HE ALSO WANTS US TO RECEIVE THE RICHES OF HIS MERCY.
*God wants everyone to receive the riches of His mercy. And in vs. 25-27 we can see the riches of His merciful compassion:
25. But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made.
26. The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, 'Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.'
27. Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt.
*The merciful master forgave all the crushing debt that his servant owed. This is a small picture of the mercy Jesus had for us when He died on the cross for our sins. Our merciful Savior paid every single bit of our sin debt, a debt we could never pay on our own.
*We all need God's mercy. King David surely did. Please listen to part of his prayer from Psalm 25:
-In vs. 6-7 David prayed, "Remember, O LORD, Your tender mercies and Your lovingkindnesses, For they have been from of old. Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions; According to Your mercy remember me, For Your goodness' sake, O LORD."
-Then in vs. 10-11, "All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth, to such as keep His covenant and His testimonies. For Your name's sake, O LORD, Pardon my iniquity, for it is great."
-And in vs. 16-18, "Turn Yourself to me, and have mercy on me, For I am desolate and afflicted. The troubles of my heart have enlarged; Oh, bring me out of my distresses! Look on my affliction and my pain, And forgive all my sins."
*We all need God's mercy, and the only way we can get it is through the Lord Jesus Christ. In Ephesians 2:4-9, the Apostle Paul said this to all Christians:
4. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
5. even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
6. and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
7. that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
8. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
9. not of works, lest anyone should boast.
*In 1 Timothy 1:15-16, Paul also said: "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life."
*God's miraculous mercy is the only thing that will get us to Heaven, the only thing that will rescue us from hell, and the only thing that will rescue us from our own sinfulness. Thank God for the mercy we find in the cross of Jesus Christ!
*Usually, we think of the Lord's cross or maybe the three crosses on Calvary that day, but there were many more. The cross was used as an instrument of death for almost a thousand years. Countless people were cruelly put to death on a cross. And somebody had to make those crosses.
*That reality was the inspiration for a play about a little boy who lived in Jerusalem during the time of Christ. It is only a story, but it has a good point. This little boy helped in his parent's carpentry shop. But he hated one of his chores, because he had to help make crosses. The boy's parents needed their son's help, because they had a contract from the Roman authorities.
*One day after he helped make some crosses, we see the boy crying and very upset. "What's wrong?" his parents asked. He answered, "I went to the market place, and I saw Jesus of Nazareth. He was carrying OUR cross! They took Him to Golgotha and nailed Him to MY cross."
*The parents replied: "Oh no, son, that wasn't our cross. Other people in Jerusalem build crosses. That wasn't our cross."
*"Oh yes, it was!" he insisted. "When you weren't looking, I carved my name on the cross that we were making. When Jesus was carrying His cross, He stumbled right beside me. I looked, -- and my name was on His cross!" (7)
*"It was MY cross!" -- That was just a play, but in reality the Lord did die on my cross and on yours. Jesus took our place on the cross. He died for our sins. But He rose again to give eternal, abundant life to everyone who will receive it by receiving Him as their Lord and Savior. If you have never trusted in our Risen Savior, please know that He wants you to receive the riches of His mercy today.
3. GOD WANTS ALL PEOPLE TO RECEIVE THE RICHES OF HIS MERCY. THEN HE WANTS US TO MODEL HIS MERCY TO OTHERS.
*God wants us to do what that wicked servant should have done in vs. 28-35. Unfortunately, he acted in a heartless and cruel way. In vs. 28 the wicked servant "went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii . . ." Remember that a silver denarius coin was a day's pay for a working man, so 100 denarii was the usual pay for 100-days of work. Think about a 100-days' wages. If that servant made $20 an hour, and worked 8 hours a day, his total debt would only have been $16,000.
*But in vs. 28-30, the wicked servant who had been forgiven by the king "went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, 'Pay me what you owe!' So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.' And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt."
*Here was a man who had just been forgiven a debt of over 34 billion dollars! And he wouldn't forgive $16,000. -- Outrageous!
*So in vs. 31-35, "When his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done. Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?'
*And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.''
[1] HERE JESUS GIVES US AN IMPORTANT LESSON ABOUT OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO FORGIVE.
*This wicked servant was most unreasonable. He should have been rushing out to forgive others, but he rushed out to condemn. He should have modeled the mercy he had received, but he abused his freedom. And as a result, he suffered terrible consequences.
*But we must be careful about reading too much into this parable or any other parable. If we isolated this parable from other Scripture, we might think Jesus was teaching that Christians can lose our salvation. But it's always best to understand one verse in the light of other Scriptures.
*And Christians, were we saved in the first place by forgiving people who sinned against us? The answer is no. The Bible clearly teaches that we are saved by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ. We are saved when we put our trust in the cross of Jesus Christ, believing that God loves us and sent His only begotten Son into the world to die on the cross for our sins. We believe that Jesus paid the price for all of our sins, and then He rose again from the dead, so we trust Him to forgive all of our sins, and give us His eternal life.
*Christians: We were saved by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and dozens of Scriptures confirm the eternal security of our salvation.
*For example, Micah 7:18-19 begins with a question for the Lord and says:
18. Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy.
19. He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.
*In John 6:37-40, Jesus said:
37. "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.
38. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
39. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.
40. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.''
*2 Timothy 1:12 is another great statement of eternal security. There Paul wrote: "I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day."
*And in Jude 1:24-25, Jude burst out in praise and wrote, "Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen."
*Jesus was not teaching the loss of our salvation here. He was teaching us that forgiveness is not optional for believers. God knew that as long as we are in this world, there would be times when we would need to forgive other people.
*The only person who will never let us down is Jesus Christ! So, you will never need to forgive Jesus. But forgiveness will be necessary for other people. And forgiveness is not optional for Christians. Jesus wants us to live like He lived. This is why Ephesians 4:31-32 says, "Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you."
*It all goes back to the cross. Since we Christians have been forgiven, God says that we should also forgive. It's a blessing for our Heavenly Father. It can be a blessing for other people. And it's a blessing for us, because our forgiveness takes the poison of bitterness out of our hearts.
[2] THAT'S WHY FORGIVENESS IS OUR RESPONSIBILITY. BUT THERE IS ALSO A LESSON HERE ABOUT OUR ABILITY TO FORGIVE.
*Notice the way Jesus expressed Himself in vs. 35: "So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses."
*It makes all the difference in the world when the Lord's Heavenly Father becomes our Heavenly Father too. One great thing that happens is that our forgiving God gives us the ability to forgive. God puts His Holy Spirit and His nature into everyone who is born again by believing in Jesus. That's why 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."
*There is a great example of this Christlike forgiveness in one of the first deacons. Acts 6 tells us that Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit, wisdom, faith, and power. But Stephen was so effective for the cause of Christ that he was falsely arrested, and put on trial for his life.
*In Acts 7:52-60, we reach the end of that mockery of a trial. There, the Holy Spirit led Stephen to ask:
52. "Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers,
53. who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.''
*Then the Bible says:
54. When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth.
55. But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,
56. and said, "Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!''
57. Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord;
58. and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59. And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.''
60. Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, "LORD, DO NOT CHARGE THEM WITH THIS SIN.'' And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
*God gave Stephen the ability to forgive those leaders. And you may not realize it yet, but God has done the same thing for you! God gives His people the ability to forgive. That's one great reason why Jesus tells us that we must forgive.
*Also think about this: One of the reasons why God leaves us in this world is to transform the way we treat other people. God wants us to model His mercy before them. He wants us to model the ultimate spirit of forgiveness that we see on the cross of Christ.
CONCLUSION:
*God wants us to be both forgiven and forgiving. How can we get there? First: Count the cost of your sin debt. Then receive the riches of God's mercy by receiving Jesus as your Lord and Savior. And begin to model the Lord's mercy to other people.
*Is there anybody you need to forgive right now? Please talk to the Lord about it as we go back to God in prayer.
(1) See: Matthew 20:20-28, Matthew 23:11-12, and Luke 22:23-27
(2) SermonCentral illustration contributed by Guy McGraw
(3) Adapted from SermonCentral illustration contributed by Richard Wilson
(4) Dynamic Illustrations - Jan. Feb. Mar. 2001 - Topic: Sin
(5) JOHN GILL'S EXPOSITION OF THE BIBLE by Dr. John Gill, D. D. - 1697-1771 - Published in 1746-1766, 1816 - Matthew 18:21 - Downloaded to e-Sword by Rick Meyers - Copyright 2021
(6) Sources:
-STRONG'S HEBREW AND GREEK DICTIONARIES - from Strong's Exhaustive Concordance by James Strong, S.T.D., LL.D. - Published in 1890; public domain. - Downloaded to e-Sword by Rick Meyers - Copyright 2021
-WORD PICTURES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT by Archibald Thomas (A. T.) Robertson - Published in 1930-1933; public domain - Matthew 17:3 - Downloaded to e-Sword by Rick Meyers - Copyright 2021
-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talent_(measurement)
-https://www.monex.com/gold-prices/
(7) SermonCentral sermon "The Lord Is My Shepherd" by Melvin Newland - Psalm 23:1-6
