Matthew 18:21-35 The Necessity of Forgiveness

To the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsak takes us through his series on the book of Matthew called, Not Your Average Savior. Let's listen in.

Good morning, everybody, and welcome to Recast Church. I'm Don Filsak. I'm the lead pastor here, and it is glad, I am glad, not it is glad, I am glad. It is a glad thing for us to gather together this week, and it's a privilege, obviously one that we didn't get to experience for a couple of months, and so every chance that we have to get together again is just a joy in my heart.

I want to point out to, most of us know this, but I like to keep it in front of us. Recast is an acronym for our core values. It's a little bit of a double meaning to it. It's the idea of the disciples fishing all night and catching nothing, and Jesus comes to them on the shoreline and says, recast the nets to the other side.

So they do something different that Jesus asked them to do, and they catch a haul, and he says, no longer are you going to be fishing for fish, you're going to be fishing for men, and so that's part of that, but then it also happens to be an acronym, replication, community, authenticity, simplicity, and truth, and those are our core values here, and the core value of truth is the one that keeps us coming back to God's word every week.

It is, if you haven't been to Recast before, it's something that stands out a little bit unique, and that is that we are going to always tackle a section of scripture anytime that we gather together. We're going to be walking through books of the Bible and taking that on paragraph by paragraph, verse by verse, and sometimes chapter by chapter, but we believe that the scriptures, as revealed in the comprising the 66 books comprising the Old and the New Testaments, are accurate and a faithful guide into three crucial areas, into other areas as well, but these are three crucial areas that we turn to scriptures for.

That is to know who God is. That's fundamental, and then to know who we are in the reality of what humanity was made to be, and what we're supposed to be, and what we actually are, and that kind of ties in a little bit with the brokenness of the world around us, and our own brokenness, and then most importantly it shows, I guess I can't say most importantly because those two are foundational, but further it shows us how God has moved to reconcile broken humanity with himself, and so our passage this morning is a radical passage about part of that healing, part of that thing that he's trying to fix in us, and really use us in terms of the society and the culture around us.

The Scandal of Forgiveness and the Question of How Often to Forgive

Our passage has caused some people to hang their head and walk away. They read this passage and they say this is too difficult, there is no way, and I would suggest to you that anybody who would do that is accurate to this degree.

You cannot do what this passage is calling you to do in and of yourself. You must have a supernatural change in your heart to be able to follow this, and others have read this passage and added to it so many caveats and exceptions to the words of Jesus here in our text that it gets clouded in confusion, and eventually the main point gets washed away in all of the exceptions.

Oh you don't have to do this, and you don't have to obey this in this instance, or this instance, or this instance, and the text is about it a shocking and scandalous word, and so let me just ask you to honestly raise your hand if you have ever had to, here's the word, forgive someone.

Raise your hand if you've ever had to forgive somebody. Keep your hand up if there's somebody you ought to be forgiving now. I think that pretty much is all of us, right? Like at the end of the day there are probably unresolved issues relationally in every single human life.

So the scandalous word that we're talking about here today is forgiveness, and although at face value it might not sound like a scandalous word, some of you have had to put it in practice in a way that has felt scandalous.

How could I forgive that person? So you can put yourself in the position of listening to this text and letting God speak into you this morning. The first two verses serve as an excellent introduction to the topic.

Jesus has just told his followers how we are to pursue someone who goes astray from the flock into sin. That's kind of the bulk of chapter 18, and we talked about that over the last couple of weeks. You could go back and listen to those on the podcast and kind of see where we've been.

And at each stage of church accountability, Jesus said if the person caught in sin, if you go to them and you confront them and you say, hey what you did was sin and it hurt and it was painful, and they confess it and they take it as caution and they repent, then you have won back your brother and sister in Jesus Christ.

A glorious thing has happened. But Peter has a logical question for us to consider this morning, and it's a question that I think many of us when we hear that, if you go to somebody they've sinned and then they repent and they confess, then you receive them back.

It's a logical question. So how many times should I forgive? Jewish tradition had a three strikes and you're out. That was the tradition of the time when Jesus was talking about this, when this was written by Matthew.

You were given three times to come in to apologize, to confess, and then the fourth time you were not to forgive them. You were to put them out. You're done with them. Fourth time, it's over. So Peter, knowing Jesus and his radical ways, suggests more than double, more than double the going rate, more than double the tradition.

I truly believe that Peter thinks he's being over the top generous with his suggestion in this passage that we're about to read of seven. How many times should I forgive my brother who sins against me?

Culture says three. Jesus, I know you're not going to settle on culture, so how about seven? But Jesus shocks him with a corrective response here in the text. I don't say, says Jesus, I don't say seven, but, and the word but could be translated far from that.

I don't say seven, but far from that I tell you 77 times. And compared to a custom of three, how many of you think 77 is a pretty huge jump? But to keep us from thinking that Jesus is just encouraging a more detailed, longer spreadsheet, your spreadsheet has three rows, and once they've, once they've filled in those three rows, you're done with them.

Now, oh no, no, Jesus is saying you got to add more to it. You got to get 74 more lines on your, on your chart, and then you're okay. That's not what he's encouraging. He's not encouraging more accounting, longer term accounting, and math equations to determine when to stop forgiving.

As a matter of fact, if you feel compelled to dig deeper into the specific number like Jesus was in our text, I mean Peter was in our text, if you're asking to know how many times must I forgive someone who asks for it, then sit tight as we read this, because one scholar, I think by the end of this, we're going to at least all agree with this scholar named R .T. France that I read this week.

In his commentary, he says, if you're counting, you are not forgiving, according to Jesus. If you're counting, you are not forgiving. So let's open our Bibles, if you're not already there, to Matthew chapter 18, verses 21 through 35, a little bit longer text, but again, recast, this is God's holy and precious word, a word that is seeking to change you.

It's seeking to change us. It's not, it's not just kind of like, yeah, these are some good words from a good teacher. This is a word that when adopted, when understood, what is, what the calling is here, it can radically change and alter the course of your life.

So let's listen in. Then Peter came up and said to him, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times. Jesus said to him, I do not say to you seven times, but 77 times.

Therefore, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. And when he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him 10 ,000 talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold with his wife and children and all that he had and payment to be made.

So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, have patience with me and I will pay you everything. And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii and seized him and began to choke him saying, pay what you owe.

So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, have patience with me and I will pay you. He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. And when his fellow servant saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place.

Then his master summoned him and said to him, you wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should you not have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you?

And in anger, his master delivered him to the jailers until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. Let's pray.

Father, I thank you for a text that I would guess is pretty timely to all of us. At any given point, I need this message. There is forgiveness that I need to seek and there's forgiveness I need to give because we all live in a fallen world.

And so this is a very eminently practical message to all of us in terms of what you're calling us to be and what you're calling us to do. I pray that you would open our eyes to the glory and the reality of what we have been forgiven and from that place of having been forgiven such an amazing load of debt that was on our shoulders through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

I pray that we would worship you with glad hearts, with joy-filled hearts, and with hearts that are transformed towards our brothers and sisters around us and towards the culture around us that we would be transformed by the love we have received and the grace and the mercy and the forgiveness we have received that that would transform us into a forgiving and gracious and loving people.

And I pray that that reality would settle on each and every heart here. There's no accidents and and you have brought people here to hear this message today and I pray that it would have impact and I thank you for the opportunity we have to worship you in spirit and in truth right now in Jesus name.

Amen. Amen and thanks for the prayer Spencer and also thanks to David for leading in Dave Bunt's absence too. Just glad we've got guys who can step in like that. Get comfortable and keep your Bibles open in Matthew 18 21 through 35 and so you can kind of see and especially a text this long so you can see that I'm kind of following the flow of the text and we're as we're working our way through but let me just start by identifying what probably those of you who have kicked around the Bible for a while know and that's Peter was pretty brash wasn't he?

The King Who Settles Accounts and the Debt We Cannot Pay

Peter. Peter was a direct individual but often what we find is that in his brashness he's very quick to ask a question very quick to put his foot in his mouth and very very quick to put himself out there but but that's helpful to me.

I don't know if it is for you I mean he's the guy in class who raises his hand and asks the question that everybody was wondering but nobody wanted to ask right so he's just raising his hand he's just got it out there going well what about this?

And the question that he's asking here in this in in Jesus' class as Jesus is teaching about the way that we're supposed to interact with one another in the church the way we love one another by even pursuing one another when we see uh one of the sheep or one of our friends one of our um brothers and sisters in Christ begin to wander away from the faith what do we do.

And he says um so Jesus you're telling us to confront sin and to win back those who go astray about that says Peter so how many times is it reasonable to do that? How many times is it reasonable to pursue them before we just let them go their own way.

Would we would we just maybe uh if they if they uh at the end of the day if they they say they're sorry. How many times should we accept that apology. Maybe maybe seven says Peter. But Jesus corrects him and he uses a story to so he corrects him first and then he uses a story to kind of mega correct him.

Jesus is unsatisfied with with Peter's numbers so what he chooses to do is add some numbers of his own and he gives us the key to understanding right up front we are talking about the kingdom of heaven he says uh the kingdom of heaven is like this in other words the kingdom of God.

We're we're gonna learn learn something here today this morning in this text about the way that God views forgiveness here that's that's that's that's the point. And I think at the end of the day that really is what Peter was asking it really genuinely was how do you want your followers to do this forgiveness thing.

And he at least assumed that it was more than three strikes. And you're out like I said was common in his culture. But the story begins. Jesus uh weaves a parable like he often did to try to teach and to try to bring truth to his followers.

And so he tells a story and he says there was a king who wanted to settle accounts with those who serve him. And we don't know. I mean if you're a king and you have all kinds of servants there's all everywhere from governors that are are levying taxes to all kinds of people who would serve the king.

And so we need not think of like lowly servant. Obviously these were servants that were entrusted with much. Right. You'll see that by the numbers that are here they might have been governors who were levying taxes.

But it doesn't really matter much at the end of the day it's a parable and as such it's seeking to get across the primary point and Jesus can use whatever illustration he wants in this context he's telling a story not a true story just a story.

But in verse 24 one of his servants one of the king's servants is brought before him. Now even that phrase brought before him. We'll get there here in a second. But that's significant. The guy didn't.

The implications is that the guy didn't come on his own on his own legs. He didn't come out on his own. Free will he. Because and and here's I think part of the reason why in the story that Jesus would would highlight that or use that word he was brought before him because uh he owes him ten thousand talents.

Okay you're all supposed to go. Oh my goodness when you say he owes him ten thousand talents. Let's practice. Everybody's gonna give me a little bit of astonishment when I say that he owed him ten thousand talents.

What. What I mean. This is crazy. This is a spit out your coffee kind of number. Like what. One talent one talent alone is 20 years of wages. There you go. Now you understand why you ought to be astonished by this number.

One talent is 20 years wages. Do the math and figure out how many years is 20 10 000 talents. It's a ludicrous amount. It's actually a talent is not a coin. They didn't have a coin that large. It's not like or printed money like hey here's a here's a you know bazillion dollar bill or something like that.

It wasn't. It wasn't like that. It's actually a weight. It's a it's a weight of silver. It amounts to about 75 pounds of silver. This is this is as ludicrous as some of the numbers that many of us are familiar with numbers like zillions or bazillions or bajillions or brazilians.

But whatever it is it's a large amount. Okay. It's a lot of dollars. A lot in currency. Right. Um in modern currency some have said that this is upwards of 20 plus billion dollars. Just if you were to take that amount and the equivalent there and bring it into our modern currency.

It's a it's it's a crazy debt. Can you imagine being in debt for 20 billion dollars. That's the image you're supposed to have. You're supposed to feel that. You're supposed to think that through. You're supposed to be like like shocked by this.

We're suddenly talking about numbers bigger than three or seven or even 77. Aren't we. We're talking about a substantial debt here. And jesus is using that. And he's escalating to these ludicrous amounts for more than just mere drama.

It's to identify where we are at or where we have been. So what does a person do when they're in debt to someone for a bazillion dollars. What do you do. Well i would suggest tremble in fear. That's a good start.

They have to be brought. The servant has to be brought to the place of accounting as i said before. And the king orders the man and he can't make a count. Obviously he doesn't have the money. And so the the king orders the man and his entire family to be sold as punishment.

There was no way the king was going to get back what was owed to him in this context. But this faithful faithless servant who obviously has squandered the wealth of his master is to be severely punished with his whole household.

But the servant as many of us can imagine falls flat on his face and pleads please don't let this punishment fall upon me. Give me. What does he ask for. Give me more time. Please be patient. And then he says this ludicrous statement a statement that maybe has been on the lips of us in the context in which jesus is saying it i'll pay it all back everything i owe you.

Just give me more time. I'll pay it all back and out of pity. The word in the english standard version is pity. I i like the word compassion better. And it's a it's an equal translation but at the end of the day with the word that's used there for pity is moved in his heart.

It is the king whose heart moves. It is the king who it looks at this person uh blubbering in front of them. I cannot imagine that there's not supposed to be implied some kind of desperation in the voice of this servant maybe even tears fear and pleading.

Please oh please be patient with me. Please oh please give me time. And moved in his heart of compassion the master of that servant. A couple of simple phrases here that have just eternal weight of significance.

He released him and he forgave him the debt. Just like that do you guys recognize undeserved kindness when you see it. Do you recognize undeserved mercy when you see it. This is undeserved kindness. This is unmerited grace.

This is forgiveness that could never be earned. And even despite the way that the servant wanted to try to pay off a debt that he could never pay back in a thousand lifetimes. The good king. But notice in the text he gives him more than he asked for.

Doesn't he. This is a good king. This is a kind and generous and gracious king. How many of you want to serve under a guy like that. He is extremely generous. You see the servant asked for patience and time.

But what did he get. He got forgiveness and amazing grace. But now in verses 28 through 31 we see that the amazing grace and mercy that that had no impact on the life of this servant. He has been forgiven so much that you would think he would be radically changed for life.

Right. He's been forgiven an astronomical debt. But instead he went out and found a peer a fellow servant a guy that's kind of at his social level who owed him probably just a little south of 20 grand.

And he roughed him up a bit it says in the text. I mean it's pretty graphic. You grabbed him by the throat. He's choking this guy out for 20 grand. And when his fellow servant pleaded with him. And it's intentional that he uses almost the identical same phrase as the servant had before the king.

But now he's in the driver's seat and his fellow servant pleaded with him to have patience not even with the the ignorance statement i'll pay everything back. Just just please be merciful to me i'll do my best.

And the wicked servant refused and had the guy who owed him locked up in debtor's prison prison which was a common thing in ancient times. And how many and how many of you. It's ever been confusing to you.

If you're familiar with this passage how in the world does somebody go to debtor's prison and pay off their debt. Has that ever been confusing you locking somebody up for debt doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

But here's the way it worked in the culture. How many of you if your father mother brother sister best friend were locked up might pony up some money to get them out. That's how it worked. So the idea is if you want your dad you want your mom you want your brother you want your sister you want your family you want your friend you want your neighbor you want this person that you love to get free then you give money up till the twenty thousand dollars is paid and then he gets to go free.

So that's the way that this whole debtor's prison thing worked. Just to clarify. But the very wicked action from this servant got back to the king. This isn't going to go. Well he calls him back into his presence and he says you wicked servant.

You wicked servant. In verse 32 he says i forgave you. In the emphasis in the greek language in this sentence is on the word all i forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And then a rhetorical question that assumes a positive answer should you not have had mercy on your fellow servant even as even in the same way that i had mercy on you.

And that wicked servant was turned over to the jailers until his debt was covered. Which we know a debt like that could never be covered. It could never be covered. And then we bring it back to the point of forgiveness.

Jesus hasn't been telling an economic story here he's been telling a story about forgiveness. The heavenly father is the king in the story. And this is the economy of his kingdom. You are in trouble if you cannot forgive one of your brothers or sisters who pleads with you for mercy.

Why. Because you have been forgiven. So and further jesus is calling us to forgiveness from our hearts. Look with me at verse 35 here at the very end of chapter 18. So also my heavenly father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart not from your lips.

A warm and genuine forgiveness is expected here from those who have been set free from such an extreme debt not lip service but a restoration of relationship to those who would seek our forgiveness. And i want to point out to you in the context even if they were confronted we have this weird notion in our in our culture that if a person confesses before they're caught that they're better.

But how many of you know that somebody can genuinely repent even after they've been caught in sin. Did you know that that's possible. I mean that's the whole nature of chapter 18. If somebody has offended you and sinned against you go to them and talk with them about it.

And occasionally they will repent. They'll say i was wrong i'm sorry. And you've won back your brother or your sister. But yeah sometimes they have to be confronted first. But go back and see the previous two sermons for how to deal with one who will not repent and apologize when confronted.

That's a different story that's a different scenario. That's not what we're talking about here we we live in a culture where the assumption is that just we ought to forgive regardless. And and we're going to get there here in the notes in just a moment.

But anyone who tells me that i cannot forgive that person whoever fill in the blank for what they have done will be met with this parable. I've used this parable in my office many times. This is a good reason to review the weight of sin that god has canceled for you.

This is a good point for you to review how much you have been forgiven and to consider his forgiveness as a model for how we forgive anyone who repents when they're confronted. If you have i don't have time to get into all the details this morning about forgiveness.

Uh forgiveness is a very confusing uh a confusing idea in the church that at the end of the day is so in so wrapped up and tangled with pop psychology and all kinds of quips and things that you've learned that you ought to unlearn about forgiveness.

Uh there's a book that i highly recommend. I would love it if everybody here would uh get a copy. And if you can't if you can't find a copy or you can't buy a copy i would get one for you. But it's um by christopher braun.

Chris braun is his name b-r-a-u-n. Um it's called unpacking forgiveness. I think it's the most biblical and uh helpful book that i've ever read on the subject of forgiveness. If you're get to the end of this message you find unforgiveness in your heart.

Obviously stick with the words of jesus here first and foremost they are the most vital and most valuable. But i found uh christopher braun's unpacking forgiveness to be extremely helpful in my understanding of this subject.

And it helped me to understand the necessary step of repentance and confession in forgiveness. The notion that we just forgive people who are not sorry is unbiblical and unhelpful. That's not the way that it works.

You notice in this story what do they do. I mean literally the guy pleads please forgive me please help. I need your help here. It's the asking that releases that jesus isn't saying by the way you need to forgive people who are unrepentant uh just despite what pop psychology tells you forgive them for your sake is the most secular and unhelpful category when it comes to forgiveness we're often told just forgive them because it's for your benefit.

And i think that at the end of the day that precludes the relationship that needs to somehow be connected with a heart that recognizes the amazing debt god has released from us makes us able to forgive what can never be as heavy as that debt that was on our shoulders.

Seven Observations About the King’s Economy of Forgiveness

So let's wrap up our time by going back over the story with a more careful consideration of the story jesus is telling us about his kingdom. There are seven brief observations that also hopefully will lead to some applications in your life.

The first is as found in verse 23 there will be a settling of accounts. Jesus takes that for granted. And it's right there in the middle of his story. And it's all throughout the new testament we see that that clearly spelled out and this can motivate all kinds of applications.

But one that i'd like to point out is the fact that there's going to be a reckoning of accounts. We have a debt of sin before a holy god. Right. And all of us will face him in judgment. All of humanity will face him in judgment.

So consider what this implies for your unsaved friends for your unsaved family members for co-workers for neighbors around you. Our task is to encourage others around us to run to god for mercy. Everyone that you've ever met without christ has a crazy high debt over them just as we once did.

And only in as much as we are connected to christ and his sacrifice for us is that debt lifted. Bring that message to others. The second thing our debt is more than we can pay verse 24. We are not able to work this one off as much as we like to fix stuff as much as we like to take care of ourselves.

It is extremely necessary for us to come face to face with the insurmountable debt of our sin before a holy and righteous god. Jesus could have used a reasonable number in his text. It was just a story.

But he picked an unattainable number to show the utter foolishness of any thought that we could ever pay it back. What we need is forgiveness. We need his mercy and grace. Or we will be buried under the weight of our sin.

So the second thing was our debt is more than we can pay. The third thing we see here is in verse 25. We deserve punishment again a given in the text. The king would be right to cast us away and to sell us off for the debt that we owed.

Because that really we've incurred through our sin. We have mismanaged the life that god has given to us. We have squandered abilities we have even at stages and points in our lives given our time and energy to the enemy of our king.

Treason would be the right word over our lives. We are guilty under a weight of sin against a holy god. And every human stands worthy of condemnation before the one who has the right to settle accounts.

We deserve punishment. The third thing. The fourth thing. We are often misguided into our own thoughts that we can pay our own debt. You'll see that in verse 26 the servant pleaded for more time so he could pay off a debt that would take him thousands of years to pay off.

Do you see the futility in that. How many raise your hand. If you think that just seems silly like at the end of the day just give me a little more time. Just a little more time. He's not what's a little time gonna do.

Probably just rack up more debt. How often do we do this church. Do we think we can do enough good to impress him. Do we think we can scratch the surface of this debt by doing a few kind things. But we know that the mechanism of our salvation is that our debt was paid for by jesus.

Praise god he took the debt of our sin on himself so that by faith and trust in his sacrificial substitution for us we can be set free from the burden of that unreasonably crushing debt. Nobody can pay back that debt but jesus christ himself.

But so many try. Let's be a people who are in awe of the sacrifice because we know how utterly incapable we are of paying for it. And that breeds joy and life and hope and love and peace in a heart that knows that it has been set free.

Fifth. We don't need more time to get it right. What we need is forgiveness. Without a savior we will be left with that debt on our shoulders. But god our savior has shown to forgive the debt of his servant.

In this parable he released him and forgave the debt. And my question to all of you this morning is do you feel that relief. The man or woman of pride has a hard time accepting help has it has a hard time even accepting the reality that they need help.

Why do you think that the man in the illustration of jesus is suggesting an extended payment plan. Jesus knows how the human heart works. And that's why. Remember jesus making up a story about humans and how he knows our hearts has us trying to pay it on our own.

Verse 27 brings is meant to bring to us a genuine humility. We need god to provide for us mercy that we cannot earn. And we need an amazing and unmerited unearned undeserved grace. The sixth thing. The way of salvation changes the way we relate to others.

And i'm not saying it ought to change the way if it is truly understood. If you have come through the door of the forgiveness that you have in jesus christ then it will. Jesus is saying here it will change the way you interact with one another.

That's really the bulk of this thing. 28 through 34 is is this last uh second to the last one. The way of salvation changes the way we relate to each other. The way we treat each other will be radically transformed.

If we have come through the awesome grace and forgiveness of god it is clear that the king expects a loving kind gentle and even quick attitude of forgiveness in his kingdom. Why. Because we follow his king.

And when we understand the exorbitant debt that our sin represents and how jesus paid for that on the cross we become defined as a people. One of the definitions of a christian is a person who is intimately acquainted with forgiveness saturated with forgiveness.

Defined maybe even by forgiveness. Motivated by forgiveness empowered by forgiveness set free by forgiveness. And finally and let's let this be a warning to all of us. Unforgiveness from a follower. A person who claims to be a follower of jesus christ must always be a red flag in your life.

Not a yellow flag not an orange flag but a red flag. It's significant. Jesus is saying that you really should have no reason to believe that you are forgiven by the king. If you cannot forgive somebody who is asking you for it.

That's a hard word. That's a that's a hard thing to say. Let me be clear that i know that so many exceptions are coming to your mind. Maybe you've even tuned out into exceptions this morning. What about abuse.

What about domestic violence. Or the drunk driver who took the life of my loved one. Or on and on. And i cannot for a moment speak into every situation of hurt and pain and harm that is here. And as small as this gathering is i'm confident that we could spend the rest of the day rehearsing hurts and pains that are hard for us to take this passage and apply.