Forgiven to Forgive

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

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Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

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And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St.

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Matthew, chapter 18, verses 21 -35. Then Peter came to Jesus and asked,

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Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?

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Jesus answered, I tell you, not seven times, but seventy -seven times.

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Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.

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As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him.

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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.

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The servant fell on his knees before him. Be patient with me, he begged, and I will pay back everything.

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The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt, and let him go.

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But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii.

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He grabbed him and began to choke him. Pay back what you owe me, he demanded.

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His fellow servant fell on his knees and begged him. Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.

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But he refused. Instead, he went off, had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt.

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When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.

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Then the master called the servant in. You wicked servant, he said, I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to.

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Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you? In anger, his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured until he should pay back all that he owed.

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This is how my Heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.

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This is the Gospel of the Lord. Praise to You, Lord Christ. In the name of Jesus.

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Forgiveness, huh? So Peter, after hearing from Jesus that he has the keys, the keys to bind and to loose, to loose sins for the penitent, to bind sins for the impenitent, now comes up with this question, alright,

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Lord, this forgiveness thing, you want me to forgive people's sins. So, let's get some of the details straight.

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How many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? I've come up with a real generous number here, and I think this is like over the top.

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Up to seven times? Jesus tells you, not seven times, but 77 times, or seven times 70.

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Are you kidding me? Come on. How many times do you want me to be taken advantage of,

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Lord? Do you want me to be a doormat? Really? Forgive dirty, rotten people who are sinning against me?

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Not just seven times, but up to 70 times seven? In other words, as often as they sin against me, you want me to forgive them?

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Really? Really? Really? Yeah. That's what

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Jesus is saying. And then Jesus tells this parable. Now, before we get into the parable,

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I want to point something out to you before we dive into it. Notice that everybody, except for the king in this parable, everyone is referred to as a slave, as a servant.

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There's the king, and then there's servants. Everybody is a servant in this.

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This actually plays into the exegesis of this text. So Jesus tells this parable. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.

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As he began the settlement, a man who owed him 10 ,000 talents was brought to him.

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Now, let's put this in perspective. An ounce of gold. It's going for how much nowadays?

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I mean, they're selling it all the time on Fox News, right? How many ounces are in a pound? 16?

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Okay, I'm terrible at this stuff, by the way. And how many pounds are in a talent?

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A hundred. So this is a huge amount of debt.

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This is a ginormous account. You could almost say, you might as well say this is like one bazillion dollars.

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I don't know how much a bazillion is, but this is close to it. I mean, imagine this.

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This guy owes to this king 10 ,100 pounds of gold.

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I mean, how does a single human being accomplish such a debt? This guy makes Obama and the

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U .S. Congress look like they're responsible with our money. All right, let's put this in perspective here.

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Y 'all ever been on the Internet and found one of those webpages that have one of those counters that show what the national debt is at any given moment?

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And you'll notice that there's numbers that are just going, right? Okay, now, let's put this in perspective.

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10 ,100 pounds of gold. This is what you owe.

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Oh, and you've got a job at McDonald's, and the interest on this is compounding daily at what percent?

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Do you ever have a hope of actually ever paying this kind of debt off?

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No, no, no, no. I mean, every single day that goes by, you're in default on this debt.

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So this is kind of an outrageous amount, but this shows you the outrageousness of Christ's mercy and forgiveness towards us.

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So, he says, As he began the settlement, a man who owed him 10 ,000 towns was brought to him.

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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.

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The servant fell on his knees before him. Be patient with me, he begged, and I will pay back everything. No, you won't.

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No, you won't. You haven't got a chance to pay this back. Not at all.

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This debt's too big for any one human being to pay. Now, so you understand what's going on here, this is a comforting and a terrifying parable, kind of all in one bundle.

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Comforting in this sense. What we see here is that obviously, who's the king? It's Jesus, right?

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He's the king. King of kings, lord of lords. You're familiar with these terms for Jesus, right? He's the king.

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So who's this servant who owes him this huge amount of money? That's you.

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That's me. And see, when God's law goes out, and we hear it, and we hear,

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You shall have no other gods before me. You shall honor your father and mother. You shall not commit adultery.

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You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. You shall not covet. Right? God's law goes out.

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What does God's law say to you? Guilty. Guilty. You haven't been doing that.

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Right? And the reality is this, is that every single nanosecond that goes by that you do not love

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God with your whole heart and love your neighbor perfectly as yourself, your debt, the numbers are spinning and clocking up.

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And this is what the law does. The law goes out to tell you, You stand as a debtor before God.

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And the law, by the way, there's no gospel in the law. You know what the law does? It says, Pay up! Pay up!

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You owe! You owe! And when you hear

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God's law tell you that you owe, what do you do? Try to cut a deal with God?

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Just give me a little time, God. I'll get it right this time. Can you give me a mulligan? I'll get it right the second time.

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I promise that if you just be patient with me, I'll start cleaning up my act.

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Good luck on that. The law demands perfect obedience. Perfect.

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It's what Jesus said, Be ye perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect. Can you be perfect for like five minutes?

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I haven't been able to pull that one off yet. I haven't figured out how to be perfect for a minute yet. Maybe it's just me.

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And see, this is where the law does its work. Romans chapter 3 kind of lays this out for us.

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I'm going to read verses 19 through 28. If you'd like to follow along in your pew Bible, you can. Romans chapter 3, 19 through 28.

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The proper distinction of law and gospel has to be in play here.

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Here's what Paul writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.

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Therefore, get this, no one will be declared righteous in his, that's

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God's sight, by observing the law. Not one single human being from the time of Adam to the last person who's breathing on the last day will be declared righteous before God by observing the law.

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And here's the idea. Rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. That's its job.

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The law's job is to let you know that you have this ginormous debt that you owe to God.

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And it makes you conscious of it and it terrifies you. Each and every one of us have probably had those moments where we've woken up in the middle of the night and went,

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I'm going to die someday. And I'm going to stand before God. And I know

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I don't measure up. I didn't measure up yesterday, the day before, the day before, the day before.

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And you start calculating how many days you've been on this planet and you realize, I'm in deep kimchi.

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Korean term there. I learned that from a Korean war vet. So the purpose of the law is to let you know of this debt.

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But here comes the Gospel in Romans. But now, a righteousness from God. Who is it from?

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It's from God. It's not from you. It's from Him. A righteousness from God, get this, apart from the law has been made known to which the law and the prophets actually testify.

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This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.

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Whoa. This sounds like a good deal. So there's no difference. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

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God presented Him, Jesus, as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in His blood.

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He did this to demonstrate His justice because in His forbearance He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished.

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He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time so as to be just and the one who justifies, that means declares righteous, those who have faith in Jesus.

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So where then is boasting? If you're justified by faith, if you're declared righteous by faith, is there any room for boasting before God?

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Yeah, no. Hey, look at me, I'm so great, I got a gift from God. So boasting is excluded.

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On what principle? On that of observing the law? No. But on that of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.

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Is this not what our parable teaches us today? Let's go back to our parable. 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.

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The servant fell on his knees before him. Be patient with me, he begged, and I will pay back everything.

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There's the law doing its work, terrifying you, convicting you. So the servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt, and let him go.

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Notice it does not say that the master required that the servant go and sell everything he had and make a payment towards the debt as best as he could.

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He did his part, and then the master does his part. It doesn't say that, does it? The whole debt was canceled.

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Every last single bit of it. All by grace.

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Wow. This is what Colossians 2 says about us. Open your

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Bibles to Colossians 2. I'll read verses 8 -14. A little bit of context.

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See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy.

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I could probably preach for a month on that text. Just that verse. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.

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For in Christ all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form. And you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority in him.

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You were also circumcised in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with the circumcision done by the hands of men, but the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.

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Now watch this. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature,

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God made you alive with Christ. Who made you alive? God did.

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That's what the text says. And here's what it says. He forgave us all.

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Every single one of them. All of our sins. Having canceled the written code with its regulations that was against us and stood opposed to us, he took away, nailing it to the cross.

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So there was this big record of debt that the law said you owe.

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Christ took that debt and he paid it for you on the cross. This is good news.

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It's all by grace. You can't earn even one penny of it.

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All of the debt, every last cent was paid by Christ. This is what our gospel text teaches us.

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And having been set free from this debt, it changes everything.

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But this poor servant didn't think about this the right way. So the master took pity on him, canceled the debt, let him go.

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But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants. Notice, everyone in this kingdom is either the king or the servants.

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Everyone's a servant. Right? This tells us something about ourselves. We're all servants.

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So when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii.

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Now, just by a little bit of comparison, a hundred denarii, probably about a thousand bucks. It's like a month's wages if you work at Walmart.

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That's about what this is. So he grabbed him and began to choke him.

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Pay back what you owe me, he demanded. Now, by the world's standards, this guy had every right to exact from this guy the thousand bucks, right?

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There's no one in the world that's going to say, hey, he has no right to ask for that. But see, the thing is that we're dealing with a different kingdom here.

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We're dealing with the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is not about our rights. The kingdom of heaven is about forgiveness of sins.

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And this man just had the national debt forgiven him.

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And he goes out and finds some poor fellow servant and demands that he pay a month's wages.

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Pay back what you owe me, he demanded. His fellow servant fell on his knees and begged him, be patient with me and I will pay you back.

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Sound familiar? Yeah. But he refused. Instead, he went off, had the man thrown into prison until he can pay the debt.

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When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed. Notice, other servants. This is a kingdom full of servants.

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A bunch of slaves running around here. So they were greatly distressed and they went and told their master everything that had happened.

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Then their master called the servant in. You wicked servant. I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me.

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Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you? You see, this tells us what it's like to be a

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Christian then, does it not? Kind of in a back -ended way. You see, when we had all of our debts forgiven by Christ, by what he accomplished on the cross, we gave up all of our rights.

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And now everything we own belongs to our neighbor. Everything. You exist now as Christians to love and serve your neighbor.

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And when your neighbor sins against you, you forgive your neighbor. And when your neighbor takes your cloak, your coat, you know what you say to your neighbor?

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Oh, you need a coat? Here I have another one. Take this one too. Your neighbor says to you, walk with me a mile.

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You say, I'll be happy to. Would you like me to go with you too? Why? Because you've been forgiven.

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We are ambassadors of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is not a kingdom of rights.

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It's a kingdom of forgiveness. And we are its citizens. And Christ has made us ambassadors of this kingdom.

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The gospel changes everything. Everything. And this love that Christ has given to us, this is the one commandment that he gives us in the

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New Testament. He says, as I have loved you, so love one another. How has

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Christ loved us? He's loved us by dying for us, by canceling our debt, forgiving us of our sins, suffering hell in our place.

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Remember his cry of dereliction from the cross? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He was forsaken so that we would never be forsaken by God.

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And we forgive not because by forgiving we earn God's forgiveness.

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No. We forgive because we are forgiven. The gospel is that radical.

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It's so radical and such good news that the kingdom of heaven will be filled with tax collectors, prostitutes, an attorney or two, that might be stretching it, and even pastors, right?

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And some farmers. Why? Because God loves you.

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He bled and died for you and he canceled that debt. And Jesus says, the one who is forgiven much loves much.

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You are now set free in Christ. Set free from slavery to sin, to death, the devil, and now you are free to love and serve your neighbor even if your neighbor despises you and insists that he's your enemy.

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No, he's not. You keep praying for your neighbor who thinks he's your enemy because you're not his enemy, because you forgive, because you've been forgiven, right?

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And the reality is this. Jesus makes this clear. This is how my heavenly

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Father will treat each one of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart. How can we who have been forgiven so much not forgive what tiny little nuisances and offenses are committed against us?

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Somebody's called you a bad name? Forgive them. Somebody's gossiped about you behind your back? Forgive them.

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Don't get back. Don't punch back. Don't do your rights. Love them. Forgive them. Tell them of the mercy of Christ.

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This is what God tells us to do. Philippians 2.

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In light of the Gospel, here's what it says. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who being in the very nature of God, he did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but he made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant and being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross.

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Jesus was found in the form of a servant, a slave. The king becomes a slave for us so that we can be forgiven.

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So therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and heaven on earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is

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Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Or as 2 Corinthians says, for Christ's love compels us.

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His love compels us because we are convinced that one died for all and therefore all have died, and he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but live for him who died for them and was raised again.

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So from now on, from now on, Paul writes, we regard no one from a worldly point of view.

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The worldly point of view says, pay me what you owe me. I have my rights.

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No. From now on, we regard no one in a worldly way.

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Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

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That's right. Blessed saints, you are in Christ. You are a new creation.

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Christ has washed away your sins. You are a new creation.

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This new man that God has put into you, or woman, I don't want to discriminate.

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This new man, this new woman that Christ has put into you, it only wants to do good works.

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You still have your sinful flesh, but you have to drag around and make it do good works.

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It doesn't like doing them. Just kick it. Or take it to the waters of your baptism again and hold it under until the bubbles stop and then make it do the good works, right?

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This is how this works. So if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. The old is gone.

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The new has come. All of this is from God. Who is it from? God, right? God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and He gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

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That's what we have as Christians. The ministry of reconciliation. We get to go out into the world and tell everybody that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them, not doing the accounting of the law.

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And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. That's right. So to not forgive somebody their petty little sins against you is to undermine the very message that we've been given, the message of reconciliation with God.

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So we are therefore Christ's ambassadors, Paul writes, as though God were making

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His appeal through us. So we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.

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God made Him, Jesus, who had no sin, to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

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In other words, because we've been forgiven, we forgive. And because we forgive, we now have credibility when we preach the good news that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.

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To act contrary to the gospel and demand your rights and refuse to forgive is contrary to the gospel itself.

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You're not your own. You were bought with the blood of God. You, me, we're servants.

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And there's freedom in being servants. We're not God. Instead, you were bought with the blood of God.

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Christ has reconciled you to the Father. Therefore, forgive, because you are forgiven.

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In the name of Jesus. Amen. We thank you for your support.

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