The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant - Do we freely forgive our brothers? - part 2

Well, if you would take your Bible and turn back to Matthew chapter 18, I say turn back because we have been here in this parable in a part one, but we're going to be in verses 21 to 35. Now Wednesday before last, we started what I'm calling the last group or last category of parables. These are the parables that Jesus taught that primarily have to do with judgment. Now that might surprise you, but these parables primarily have to do with judgment. Just like the other parables, these parables can teach us many different truths and lessons.

I think it's good to grab those truths and lessons and apply them, but the main point of each of these parables has to do with judgment. Tonight we're going to finish up the parable of the unforgiving servant. Even though I read the parable and even elaborated on the parable quite a bit, I never really got into the parable. We didn't have time. I spent the entire message in verse 21 and 22, and I think it was much needed. If you hadn't gotten that message, I challenge you to do so because these two messages really, really go together.

Now I want to go back and I want us to read verse 21 and verse 22, and then we'll come back to the other portion of the scripture a little later. Then Peter came up. Of course, we know this is Peter, one of the disciples. The other disciples were there, and he comes up to Jesus and he said to him, "Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him as many as seven times?" And Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you seven times, but 77 times." And of course, you know some translations like the King James have a little bit different rendering there, and I'll get to that here in a moment.

But it is obvious right away we can see that Peter comes up to Jesus and he asks him a question about forgiveness. And Peter's question was it simply, "Do I forgive my brother when he sins against me?" Peter's question was a lot deeper than that and a lot more complicated than that. He asks, "How many times do I forgive my brother when he sins against me?" And he goes on to say, "As many as seven times." And in our message tonight, I want to quickly revisit what was happening here.

This sets us up for the parable and the teaching in the parable so the quick review is needed, and I'm going to be as quick as possible so we can have the time we need in the parable. But first Peter asked a question, it's obvious, about forgiveness. Peter asked Jesus, now I'm putting this in my language, "How much or how often or how many times should I forgive my brother when he sins against me?" As many as seven times. And remember the background of this question. We spent quite a bit of time here. Actually, this question comes from two contexts. This comes from two backgrounds. There are two reasons why he was asking this question.

I called one the immediate context and I called the other the religious context. The immediate context. Jesus had just taught them the three-step process of how to deal with sin between brothers and sisters. We know this would be between Christians. We understand this is in the context of the church. And in response to what Jesus had just taught, Peter steps forward and he asks, "Lord, if this is the process that we must take as brothers when a brother sins against us, well how much and how often or how many times do I forgive that brother?" As many as seven. And see there's a giant challenge here for us. A very big challenge.

In the future, we will have to ask this question because in the future, or maybe it's already happened or maybe it'll happen today. But there's going to be a time when a brother will sin against you. Remember the context here is brothers and even in the church. And you're going to have to ask the question, "How often, how many times do I forgive that brother or that sister?" As many as seven times. And then the religious context. Popular Jewish teaching said that if a brother sinned against you, you forgave him one time and a second time and a third time, but not the fourth time.

Even though the Jews abused scripture from the Book of Amos terribly, they did say they had a biblical reason for that position. And in response to the way the Jews severely limited forgiveness, Peter steps forward and he asks, "Lord, how much or how often or how many times should I forgive my brother?" Maybe seven times. And see the question for us is this, and we're all different. Do we have some standard or tradition of limiting forgiveness? I mentioned the fact that the Jews had this teaching and this belief and this understanding and they twisted scripture. But my question for you is this.

Do we have some standard or tradition that we have in our mind and our lives that limits forgiveness? But then second, we have Jesus' response that deals with the extent of forgiveness. And here I want to ask us two questions to quickly see how Jesus responded to Peter and his question and the situation at hand. What was Peter thinking? What was Peter thinking when he asked his question? Did he have in mind what Jesus had just taught? Most definitely he did. Did he have in mind the very popular Jewish teaching which limited forgiveness? Most scholars believe that he did.

Did he have a generous attitude by asking, "Should we forgive as many as seven times when popular Jewish opinion says only three?" Well we can't know what he was thinking. The text doesn't tell us. But we certainly can know how he was thinking. He was thinking in terms of law and not grace. Remember this lesson. Remember write it down. Don't forget it. Law keeps count. It always keeps count but grace never ever keeps count. And so the big revelation for us here is this. We can limit how much and in what way we forgive others. We can.

And it might have come from a family tradition or what your parents taught you or even misconstruing scripture like the Jews did. But we can limit how much and in what way we forgive other people. But what was Jesus saying in his response? Jesus response almost sounds like a riddle. It can seem confusing. Scholars tell us his response was ambiguous. But what was Jesus saying? Jesus was saying that it is not about how much one forgives in terms of number or condition. Jesus was actually saying the opposite. He was saying that forgiveness must be limitless. Jesus was speaking of forgiveness in terms of grace and not in terms of law.

He was saying that you do not keep count or place conditions on forgiveness. He was setting the standard that forgiveness must be limitless. And the big lesson here is this. We must forgive our brothers who sin against us in terms of grace. Always coming at the situation and the brother or the sister in terms of grace. This is what we have here in these two verses. This is what we must learn and seek to live in our everyday Christian life. We die to any thought or standard of forgiveness that places limits or conditions on forgiveness. We forgive as Christ forgave and forgives.

We are to forgive brothers and sisters as many times as needed and as often as needed just like Jesus forgives. Sometimes I'll ask questions, rhetorical questions. I want you to think. We must be thinking people. We wrestle with the text. We think. We ponder over these things. But you tell me, how important is forgiveness to the spiritual health and well-being of our own spiritual condition in life? How important is forgiveness to the spiritual health and well-being of our families? How important is forgiveness to the spiritual health and the well-being of our relationships with other true brothers and sisters?

How important is forgiveness to the spiritual health and vitality in the well-being of the church? Now, this is a little instruction for you as your pastor. Everything we study is important. I think you should be good students of what we study. I think in your own personal quiet time and in your discussions at home, discussions with your spouse, I think you should discuss these things. Talk about these things. Study what we're studying on Sunday night, Sunday morning, Wednesday night. We give you enough material to go study and walk with the Lord through these things. But let me tell you, this is one you definitely need to study.

We need to study these verses, folks. This must be our standard. Families are destroyed because they don't forgive. Relationships are destroyed because of a lack of forgiveness. And even churches can have cancer. Sometimes you don't even see it. It could be right over here in one corner and it's been there with a family for generations. I'm really encouraging you to study and pray and meditate over these things. Talk about these things. Make sure they're being formed in your heart and mind. Well now we finally get to the parable.

After Peter asked this question wanting to know how much and how many times they were to forgive their brothers and after Jesus responded by saying as many times as needed and as much as needed, he told this parable. Now the parable starts in verse 23 and goes on down to verse 35. And I'm going to read it making some of these comments that I made before. So let's start with verse 23. I made these comments when I read it two weeks ago. Matthew 18 verse 23. "Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves or servants.

And when he began the accounting, one who owed him 10,000 talents was brought in." Well right there the Jews, the disciples would have been blown away. They would have said there is no way this slave could have owed a king this amount of money. There's no way he could ever pay this back. There's no situation where he should owe this amount of money. It would have taken them back. But because he could not repay, his master ordered him to be sold. That would have been sold into slavery with his wife and his children and everything that he possessed and a payment be made.

Well right here the Jews, they would have thought yes this is a Gentile situation because the Jews did not do these things. This was a Gentile practice by Gentile kings. And remember the Jews hated the Gentiles. So really and truly they would have been extremely offended. Verse 26. "So the slave fell on his knees and he begged him saying, 'Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.'" Of course that was impossible. "And his master's heart was moved with compassion and he released him and he forgave him, canceling his debt." And right there those Jews would have been shocked.

They probably thought that this was a cruel Gentile king but yet they would have been shocked because of his compassion and his grace. Again they would have been riveted here. Verse 28. "But that same slave went out and he found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii and he seized him and he began choking him saying, 'Pay me what you owe.' So his fellow slave fell on his knees and begged him earnestly, 'Have patience with me and I will repay you.' But he was unwilling and he went and he had him thrown into prison until he paid back the debt.

And when his fellow slaves saw what had happened they were deeply grieved and they went and they reported to their master with clarity and in detail everything that had taken place. And then his master called him, this would be the forgiven slave and he said to him, 'You wicked and contemptible slave, I forgave you all of the great debt of yours because you begged me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave who owed you a little by comparison?

And I had mercy on you.' And in wrath his master turned him over to the jailers or the torturers until he paid all that he owed." And the Jews, the disciples, any Jew who was listening they would have said, "Yes, we knew this was a Gentile king. We knew it all along." Now tonight I want us to look at what can seem like the main character which is this debtor who became a creditor. But yet we're going to see who the real main character is in the end. But I want us to make four observations here.

I want us to look at the debtor, verse 24 to 27, the creditor, verse 28 to 30, the prisoner, verse 31 to 34, and then the point of the whole parable in verse 35. It'll be easy for you to follow me as we progress through. So number one, I want us to see the debtor who is here in the parable. And this is out of verse 24 to 25. Now I'll not read the verses, we've read them, but I'll make some comments. Now two weeks ago I did take some time to read the parable and I made a lot of comments on the parable just like I did earlier. And we saw a lot about this debtor, his debt, and how the king related all of these things.

But we have a slave here, a servant here, and he owed his king an amount that he could never ever, ever pay. It was unrealistic that he could owe so much and totally unrealistic that he could ever pay it back, a little more insight into this unpayable debt. This is one piece of information I didn't share two weeks ago. John MacArthur points out that he owed the king 10,000 talents and at a time when the annual revenue brought in by the Roman government from four provinces was about 900 talents. He owed more than 11 years of taxes from those four provinces. But who does this debtor represent? And what does the debt represent?

The slave and his immeasurable and unpayable debt pictures two things. First the debtor represents every person who is sinned against God. And then second the debt, the slave owed the king represents the sin debt that all people owe God. Couple of questions here, follow me. Can we measure how many things we have made idols or gods, little g and put before God? Can we measure how many times we have taken the Lord's name in vain? Can we measure how many times we have dishonored our mother and our father? Can we measure how many times we have committed adultery?

Well, you might say, "Pastor, I've got you there." You might say, "I've been faithful to my wife. I've been faithful to my husband." But Jesus said in Matthew 5 verse 27 that if we have lusted after another, then we have committed adultery in our hearts. So how many times have we committed adultery? Can you count that? You want to keep going? Can we measure how many times we have committed murder? Jesus said that if we hate someone in our hearts, we've committed murder. Can we measure how many times we have stolen something? Can we measure how many times we have borne false witness, which means we have made false statements about another?

Can we measure how many times we have coveted something that didn't belong to us? That would be someone else's wife, someone else's husband, someone else's house, someone else's car, someone else's job, or any possession that belongs to another. Can we measure? You see? But who does this king represent? And what is this debt that he has forgiven the slave? The king and his merciful and gracious forgiveness represents God. He's the main character too. The king represents what God has done through Jesus' death on the cross and the forgiveness that he purchased on the cross from men and mankind. John MacArthur explains this wonderfully.

He says, and I'm quoting, "Here is an extraordinary picture of God's compassionate love for the genuinely repentant sinner who throws himself on his mercy. The man only asked for patience so that he might try to repay the king, but instead the king released him and forgave him his debt. That is what God does with the sin debt of those who come to him in humble and sincere penance." So we see the debtor. We're the debtor. We see the debt. We owe a debt we cannot owe. And we see the king who is God himself. So look at the many lessons there. Look at how this speaks to us and our sin problem and God and salvation.

Look at how all of this just fits. Then number two, I want us to see the creditor. We see the creditor here in the parable. This is in verses 28 to 30. Again, I'm not going to read them because we have read them already. But two weeks ago I read this parable thoroughly. I did tonight. And I've made comments along the way. And we saw a lot, and we do see a lot about the debtor who has turned creditor. But in the story, the slave left the king. He is forgiven. His unimaginable debt was forgiven. His torturous prison sentence was forgiven. His family, they were set free because they could have been sold into slavery for that debt.

And he was even able to keep his possessions. And when he left the king, the text says, he immediately found a fellow slave that owed him a hundred denariot. Now what is a denariot, and how much was this debt? A hundred denariot represented 100 days of earnings for a common worker. Now by comparison to the debt this first servant owed the king, this 100 denariot was a very, very, very small amount. But this was a real debt. So what does the debtor turn creditor do?

Instead of giving his fellow slave the same grace and mercy and forgiveness that he's been given, this forgiven slave, it says, seized him, he abused him, and he demanded that his debt be paid. And although this second servant begged of the first servant for mercy and grace, this forgiven servant threw the second servant into prison. And in his hardness of heart, the forgiven servant was unwilling to give to his fellow servant what had been wonderfully given to him. And think of the adjectives that we could use to describe this debtor. The debtor turned creditor. Think of the adjectives we could use here. He was cold, he was cold-blooded.

He was compassionless. He was hard. He was hard-hearted. He was heartless. He was insensitive. He was inhuman. He was unmerciful. He was ungracious. He was unloving. He was all of these things that the king was not. But who and what does the debtor turn creditor represent? Simply the way some Christians can treat other Christians. John MacArthur says this part of the parable is the unflattering picture of the sinful flesh that still resides in every believer, and that has caused great conflict and damage within the church since the birth of the church. I'll give you a biblical example.

Look at the church at Corinth and how some professing believers were treating other professing believers. There was this terrible abuse going on, two specific ways. Some were suing one another in pagan courts. That was awful. And then there were some who were abusing others in a way in the life of the church when they even celebrated the Lord's Supper. And the point here is simple to see. Those who have been forgiven, they're unimaginable and unpayable sin debt are to forgive in the same way. Ephesians 4.32 says what the point of the parable in this teaching really is.

Paul says be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven you. You see? And so we got to ask ourselves right here, and we need to really be honest here. Have we seen professing believers abuse other professing believers? Yeah? And specifically, have we seen professing believers abuse other professing believers by refusing to forgive them? Yes. And on top of their unforgiveness, they demand payment for what they say is owed to them. You see? Have we seen that even in church? It's sad, but most of us have.

But we must ask ourselves, have we acted just like this forgiven debtor turned creditor by refusing to forgive others and demanding they pay what we say they owe? Have we been like that? This reminds me of someone I knew years ago. Where was a guy? No, there was a guy who was a respected person in the life of my home church. He was in positions of leadership. But he's very spiritual. But underneath that very spiritual facade was this unforgiving spirit. When something didn't go right in the life of the church, unforgiveness, bitterness, grudge, attack. When he didn't get a position that he wanted, unforgiveness, bitterness, grudge, attack.

Really? Even when he was given opportunities to serve, even when he was exalted in positions to serve, rather than taking advantage of the opportunities that he was given when he wanted to do something in the life of the church, when something didn't work out the way he wanted it, unforgiveness, bitterness, attack. And I watched that destroy other people in the life of the church. And it was always covered over with this shroud of being very, very spiritual. But at the heart of it was exactly what we see right here. That person refused to forgive.

And not only did he refuse to forgive, he demanded that he be paid back what he said he was owed. And it always destroyed. So we have the unforgiven debt or turn creditor, and there's a whole lot there that we need to learn. But then number three, we see the prisoner here in the parable. That's out of verses 31 to 34, the prisoner. Again we've read the parable. I've read the parable quite a bit. I've made lots of comments. So the parable, it is in our minds, it should be. But I haven't talked as much about this part of the parable, if you notice.

But here we see that when his fellow servant saw how this first servant had treated his fellow servant that owed him, well they were grieved. And they went to the king and they reported accurately all that had happened. Now there's a lesson right here. When we as Christians see fellow Christians be unforgiving and stubborn in their unforgiveness, we should be grieved and hurt. We should be grieved and hurt. Now think about it. Jesus had just taught his disciples what to do when a brother sins against a brother. So when we see a fellow Christian be unforgiving and stubborn in their unforgiveness, we should be grieved and hurt.

And He's already told us what we do with that. And when we as believers see another believer in the church be unforgiving and they allow their unforgiveness to hurt other Christians and even to cause division in the life of the church, we should be deeply hurt. And we should even have a righteous anger. Now let me show you something. A church that practices church discipline properly can handle these things. But if the church cannot practice church discipline in these things, it's like capture that flows unchecked. Well the rest of the story, the king summoned this unforgiving servant and he severely rebukes him.

He tells him that he should have forgiven his fellow servant just as he had been forgiven. And he then orders that he would be thrown into prison. Now a question and a very important question. What does this mean that this first forgiven servant is now thrown into prison? Does this mean he lost his salvation? Some that believe you can lose your salvation will cite this passage. Does this mean that he wasn't a true Christian to begin with? There are some that would believe that and teach that. But we must see that this parable is primarily teaching about forgiveness and specifically forgiveness as it relates to believers and between believers.

And the point of this part of the parable is to communicate what hard-hearted, even hateful unforgiveness does in the life of believers. Warren Wiersby captures this wonderfully. I'm quoting him. He says, "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." He goes on to say, "Some of the most miserable people I have met in my ministry have been people who would not forgive others.

They lived only to imagine ways to punish these people who had wronged them, but they were really only punishing themselves." MacArthur says, "When believers forget their own divine forgiveness by God and refuse to extend human forgiveness to fellow believers, the Lord puts them under such tormentors." Tormentors is stress, hardship, pressure, and other difficulties until the sin is confessed and forgiveness is granted. So I want to ask you, are any of you in prison? You've got a smile on your face. You play the part. Or any of you in prison. Is there a part of your life that is in prison?

Is there a part of you that's holding on to unforgiveness and you are in prison? There can be believers that hold on to unforgiveness, even serious and deep-seated unforgiveness. Sometimes it may be directed at just one person or one circumstance. Sometimes a Christian has to deal with the fact that they were abused as a child. Sometimes Christians have to deal with the fact that they were deeply wronged by family. Sometimes Christians have unmet expectations in their marriage. See? And many times Christians can smile and play the part and come to small group.

They can come to church and really walk with God in many ways, but then there can be these areas of their life. Now ultimately it spreads like cancer. I remember a story I heard years ago, really a good one. It's always resonated with me. It was a documentary about some World War II veterans who were in prison camps. As a matter of fact, specifically, these particular prisoners were a part of the Bataan death march. This gentleman that they interviewed happened to be from Alabama, so you know he talked like us. But he told the story that he went into the military and he was on that forced march. You can look it up.

It was a very cruel, horrific thing. The Bataan death march, he was a prisoner of war, treated in unimaginable ways. But he was released and he comes home and he tells the story about how he struggled with bitterness and unforgiveness and he hated the Japanese. And in the interview you could tell he was professing to be a Christian. And he said, you know, with the help of his pastor, his pastor showed him that he was in a prison. Even though he was released from prison, he was still in a prison of unforgiveness and he hated the Japanese. And he said, there wasn't even a Japanese around to hate.

And he expressed that he had to forgive them and let that go. But number four, the point of the parable. The point of the parable. Now although I have read the parable quite a bit. I've made lots of comments here, but I have not said anything about verse 35. But here we see the point of the parable. Jesus tells us. And he tells us that the point of the parable is between brothers. Here's where I want you to go back and look at verse 35. Verse 35. Jesus says, "So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother," see, "from your heart." But what's the point of the parable?

Well, the point of the parable is not about forgiveness that leads to salvation. Jesus is not saying that to be forgiven by God, one must forgive. That would be a work salvation. We don't believe in a work salvation. It's by grace alone and through faith alone and in Christ alone. But the point is this. It is not enough to receive forgiveness from God or even forgiveness from other people. As believers, we must experience and live forgiveness in our own hearts and lives in such a way that we are greatly humbled and even brought low by that forgiveness.

We are so humble and we are so sensitive to how much we have forgiven that we just forgive others freely and willingly. We just have this forgiving spirit towards others. Warren Reesby says, "The great warning in the point of the parable is this." He says, "The theme is forgiveness between brothers." He says that we as believers reveal the true condition of our hearts by the way we treat others. When our hearts are humble and repentant, we will gladly forgive our brothers. But where there is pride and a desire for revenge, there can be no true repentance and this means that God cannot forgive.

So I have to ask us and we need to be honest, are we experiencing, see the Christian life is experiential folks. Are we experiencing and are we living? The Christian life is a lived life folks. Are we experiencing and living forgiveness in our own hearts in such a way that we stay humble and low? Brother Jeff calls this gospel humility. Are we experiencing and living that way so much so that unforgiveness and an unforgiveness which will lead to bitterness and even vengeful living, it just can't be in our hearts and lives. Do we experience, so live forgiveness so much so that we are humble and tender and repentant and we gladly forgive others?

Before you say yes, think about when you are tested because you will be tested. Now remember, always remember what a test is. God never brings a test into our lives to see what we are going to do. He always knows what we are going to do. He brings a test in your life to show you what you are going to do and what I am going to do. So you will be tested because someone will hurt you, someone in your family will hurt you, a brother in the life, remember the context of his brothers in the church. A brother that you are close to is going to hurt you.

A sister will let you down and you will be brought to a crossroads in a test to show you if you are truly experiencing and living forgiveness so much so that you willingly forgive them. And chances are, if you are like me, it will show you that there is a little bit of flesh and pride and ego and all that stuff in you and you will have to deal with it. Now a question, how does this fit into the theme of judgment? You thought about that? I said these were judgment parables, so how does it fit into that category? Well first we must see that those who have never been born again, they will face judgment. We must see that.

Most people will be judged. But in the parable here, we must see that brothers who hold on to unforgiveness and an unforgiveness that hurts and destroys other believers where, well there is a sense in which they end up in judgment. They end up in the judgment of bad attitudes. They end up in this judgment in prison of bitterness. They end up in this judgment in prison of this inability to get along with other people. They end up in this judgment of friendlessness. They have no close relationships. Oh, that's a prison. And they are never satisfied. What a prison. They are critical. That's a prison.

They are hard to deal with and get along with. That's a prison. They are in the judgment of this unforgiveness and all of the sins and the ramifications of those sins that go along with unforgiveness, you see? And they can walk down the aisle and they can smile and sing the songs that are on the screen, but they are in prison. Now what's the title of the message? The parable of the unforgiving servant. Do we freely forgive? But you know you could re-title this. It's the parable of the forgiving king who is always willing to forgive us and help us with our forgiveness. So I know this is a lot.

I challenge you to study this and go back and pray over these things because we really do need to get all that we can get here. And as a matter of fact, I'll let you in on the secret. I keep a running list of sermons that I know I need to come back and revisit. This one will be on it or a form of it because it's that important. Well, let me do this. Let me pray over these things and then I do want us to look at some prayer needs that we talked about a couple weeks ago, and that we need to revisit tonight.