Pardoned - Matthew 18:21-35

You are listening to a message from First Baptist

Church, Wichita Falls. For more information about

First Baptist, click the link in the show notes

or go to FBCWF .org. Today's message comes from

Senior Pastor Dr. Bob McCartney. Let's open our

Bibles this morning to Matthew chapter 18 verse

Matthew 18:21

21. We are excited about opening this passage

of scripture because we're gonna talk about the

pardon. We're gonna talk about The fact that

we need to experience God's pardon and we need

to extend that pardon to other people The power

of a president to pardon someone who's been found

guilty of an offense or who might be found guilty

of an offense is one of the prerogatives that

our president has. And you know, sometimes presidents

pardon people and their pardons are a little,

well, they become infamous. Sort of like after

President Trump's first term, right at the end,

he pardoned the rapper Lil Wayne. Now, I was

worried about Lil Wayne. He had been found guilty

on a federal gun charge and was facing prison

time, and President Trump pardoned him. It means

it goes away. He can't be charged with that anymore.

President Biden famously pardoned his son Hunter.

That was kind of controversial. But there have

also been pardons in the life of presidents that

have actually been very, very important in our

nation. In 1980, or 1979 rather, President Carter

at the time, pardoned every person who had been

a Vietnam draft dodger. That was a really big

contentious thing in our society, and he just

settled it by saying, okay, we're not going to

prosecute this, we're just going to forgive this.

But perhaps the most powerful pardon that was

ever issued is one that has been long since forgotten.

In 1868, after the Civil War, President Andrew

Johnson was denied his party's nomination to

be president again. He was not nominated and

he was not re -elected. Ulysses S. Grant was

nominated and elected. And his party was completely

against him in a lot of ways. The nation was

divided over a question. What should we do with

Confederate soldiers and officers and the leaders

of the Confederacy? Should we put them on trial

for treason? And the nation was divided on this.

And on Christmas Day 1868, just before he left

office, President Andrew Johnson pardoned every

Confederate soldier, every Confederate officer,

every Confederate leader, and it settled the

question they could no longer be prosecuted.

And historians say that it, that action was one

of the most important actions in healing the

nation from this bitter divide. You see, a pardon

was the prerogative of a king in the ancient

world. They had the absolute power to set aside

a guilty sentence or an offense. And once they

had done so, it could never be brought up again.

Here's the great thing. Our king has the power

to pardon. And not only that, but he's given

us a command to extend that pardon power to others

around us. Now all of us have either been harmed,

hurt, or humiliated. by the words or actions

of other people. All of us at some point have

known what it feels like to be hurt and offended.

And because of that, we need to experience God's

grace and power to extend a pardon to people

around us. But the truth is this, all of us have

hurt, harmed, and humiliated others with our

words and actions, and we need to receive a pardon.

in many cases. So that's what we're going to

walk through over the next few weeks. We're going

to talk about how this works in the lives of

our families, our co -workers, the people in

our church. We're going to talk about what it

means to experience and extend the pardon. Now

in the passage of scripture, we're going to read

today, which is kind of lengthy So if you want

to follow along keep your Bible open, I won't

read it in its entirety, but we'll work our way

through it Peter comes to Jesus. He says Jesus

How often do I have to forgive somebody? How

many times do I have to forgive someone who's

hurt harmed or humiliated me? How often do I

have to do that and Peter has a proposition that

he offers to Jesus then Jesus responds with a

precept. He gives us a precept and then he gives

us a parable in which he illuminates this. So

that's what we're gonna walk through today. Let's

begin with Peter's question of Jesus in verse

21 of Matthew chapter 18. Then Peter came up

Matthew 18 · chapter mention

and said to him, Lord, how many times shall my

brother sin against me and I still forgive him?

Up to seven times? Jesus said to him, I do not

say to you up to seven times, but up to 77 times.

Now you may be reading from a translation that

says 70 times seven. That phrase, that mathematical

phrase is a little difficult to interpret because

it's not in a lot of other Greek manuscripts.

And so it is either 77 or it's 70 times seven.

And we're not really sure, but either way, that's

a lot, okay? Let's talk about this from the principles

that Jesus is giving us. Here's the first principle

Jesus gives us about forgiveness. Stop setting

limitations on forgiveness. Stop setting limitations

on forgiveness. You see, there was a big debate

in the society of Jesus Day and among the Jewish

rabbis who were the teachers of the people about

how many times should you forgive somebody. There

was this one group of rabbis who were teaching,

you are under no obligation to forgive anybody

unless they come to you, they say, I'm sorry,

I was wrong, please forgive me. If they come

to you in contrition and they're humbled and

they're honest about it, then you have to forgive

them. But until they do, you don't forgive them.

There were other rabbis who said, no, The first

time someone offends you, you have to forgive

them. God forgives us, and so you have to extend

forgiveness to people. Now the second time, not

so much. It's kind of the old Irish proverb,

fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame

on me. So after the first time, you don't have

to fear them anymore. There was another group

of rabbis that said, no, You have to forgive

up to seven times. Now, you need to understand

something. In the Bible, numbers are significant

many times. And the number seven is the number

for completion. Think about seven days of creation.

It was completed. So after seven, no grace for

you, okay? I mean, it is done. But up to seven,

you got to forgive. So Peter comes to Jesus and

he says, hey, Jesus. Look at how gracious, how

merciful, how spiritually mature I am. I'm siding

with the most gracious rabbis. I'm saying up

to seven times. Aren't you proud of me, Jesus?

And Jesus says, no, Pete, that's not the way

it works, bud. He says, I don't say to you up

to seven times. Now Jesus, either way you look

at it, multiplies. the numbers of times that

we have to forgive. He places an obligation on

us that is really quite eye -opening. He either

says up to 77 times or up to 70 times 7. Now,

some of you have done the math. That's 490 times.

Okay, at 491 I don't have to forgive anymore,

right? The word forgive means to erase. So I

want you to think about this. You offend me and

I've got a white marker board in my office and

I put your name on it I put one right there You

hurt me you you did something that harmed me.

You did something harm my family So you have

offended me. I got a one right there and then

I forgive you and I erase it and the count starts

all over You see what Jesus is teaching? is not

that you get to keep score. It's that there are

no limitations on forgiveness. Now that's powerful

and it's stark. And to be quite honest with you,

it seems difficult. It really does. See what

Jesus is saying to you and me is that we set

limits on forgiveness and God doesn't. This past

Monday night I got home I was actually preaching

out of town and I got back in time to see the

end of that national championship game. I must

be honest with you, I was disappointed. I'm not

a huge Houston fan, but as a Tennessee volunteer,

I was really pulling for Florida to lose. It's

not I wanted Houston to win, I just wanted Florida

to lose and I got disappointed. But with a minute

and 24 seconds left in the basketball game, one

of Houston's best players committed a silly foul.

He shouldn't have done it. I mean, he should

have been, had his head in the game more. He

committed a silly foul and he fouled out. It

was his fifth foul. And he goes to the bench

and he can't participate anymore. You see, that's

what we want to do with forgiveness. We want

to say, okay, where is the number that I get

to put people on the bench? I get to put them

out of my life. I get to no longer have to deal

with them. All the mess that they bring into

my life and what Jesus is saying to us is stop

setting limitations on forgiveness Now we rationalize

why we can set limitations on forgiveness. Let

me give you a few of these that I've tried to

think through First of all, some of us say I

can't forgive because the hurt is too big The

hurt is just too big Now I want to speak directly

to some of you and an audience this size with

campuses and I know this is out there. Some of

you have been hurt in a really big way. Some

people have suffered abuse, and some people have

suffered betrayal. Some people have been hurt

in ways that are big. And I'm going to tell you

that forgiveness doesn't mean you minimize the

hurt. It's real. It's hard. It is big. But I

want you to see this from a different angle and

that is That the longer you hang on to that big

hurt the more of a burden it becomes on your

life So some of us just keep waiting for that

person to finally come to the realization that

they're wrong and They're gonna come back and

they're gonna apologize And here's what they've

done. You've rationalized why you can't forgive.

They've minimized what they've done. And until

the Spirit of God reveals it to them, and for

some who are lost, it's not gonna happen in this

lifetime, they minimize what is done. I mean,

if you even went and talked to them and said,

how bad that they hurt you. I mean, they'd do

the, but did you die? I mean, they'd say that.

I mean, it was like, they minimize what they

did to you. I realize the hurt is too big. But

the burden is too big to carry. You need to let

it go. The second rationalization that we use,

I need more time. I need more time. Now, forgiveness

is a decision and a process. It's both a decision

and a process. It's not just either or. You must

decide to forgive, but you have to forgive over

and over and over sometimes. This past week.

I had lunch with a friend and he brought up a

situation in which quite honestly I I was hurt

and I it brought you know it brought back some

of those old memories of some of that what I

went through and I Remember going out after lunch.

I sat in my truck and I said Lord once again.

I forgive them. I set them free because I The

more time I take with that the more that digs

into my soul It's sort of like a plant a weed

and here's how the writer of Hebrews put it see

to it that no one comes short of the grace of

God and That no root of bitterness springing

up causes trouble and by it many be defiled see

what happens when I don't forgive a very real

hurt is that that offense Becomes a root of bitterness

and then it springs up and listen to what the

writer of Hebrews says by it many are defiled

I want you to understand this. You cannot be

bitter toward one person. You can't be bitter

toward one person. You can be angry with one

person, but you can't be bitter toward one person.

Because bitterness is not a rifle shot that goes

to one person. Bitterness is buckshot. And it

hits everybody around you. And it hurts everybody

around you. So this, I need more time. Now it

may take some time to work through a process

of forgiveness, but start today. Start today.

Number three, they aren't sorry. No, they're

probably not. They don't even think what they

did was wrong or somehow they've made excuses

for it. And what we want to do is that until

they tell us they're sorry, we're going to keep

them in a prison cell in our mind. We're going

to punish them. Because if I forgive them I set

a prisoner free. Yes Forgiveness sets a prisoner

free, but what I find is the prisoner is me When

I forgive I set myself free or allow God to set

me free from the burden and number four they'll

just do it again I've heard this one before you've

said it before I've said they'll just do it again

Peter's question and Jesus answer Assumes they'll

do it again up to seven times Maybe more Let

me I want you to hear me forgiveness is always

risky business It's always risky business, it's

a relational risk To say I forgive you. I wipe

the slate clean. I'm not gonna bring this up

anymore This is not going to be a barrier between

you and me As much as possible now I do need

to say one thing to bring clarity to this and

I don't have time to go into it today I promise

I will Forgiveness and reconciliation are two

different things Forgiveness is part of reconciliation,

but reconciliation goes a step farther There

are some cases when forgiveness is imperative

in your life, but reconciliation is perhaps not

possible or wise. I think specifically about

abuse cases. So let's just kind of think in terms

of that. Now, Jesus says stop setting limitations

on forgiveness, but then he tells a parable.

He goes immediately into a story about forgiveness.

And the second thing that Jesus would say to

us is, you first of all need to see your great

need for forgiveness. After you stop setting

limitations, here's why you can stop setting

limitations, because you need to see your great

need for forgiveness. He tells his story beginning

at verse 23. For this reason, the kingdom of

heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts

with his slaves. And when he had begun to settle

them, one who owed him 10, Thousand talents was

brought to him, but since he did not have the

means to repay His master commanded that he be

sold along with his wife and children and all

that he had and repayment be made So the slave

fell to the ground and prostrated himself before

him saying have patience with me and I will repay

you everything and the master of that slave felt

compassion and He released him and he forgave

him the debt. This king has a, my translation

says slave, some translations say servant. And

this servant, when the king audits the books,

the king's kinda suspicious some money's missing

or being wasted, so he has a doge. They go in

and look at all the books. And they find out

that this one guy, This King's Elan finds out

this one guy has somehow managed to either squander,

embezzle, or waste 10 ,000 talents. So when you

think slave or servant, you can't think about

the guy who cleaned the palace latrine. That's

not this servant. He would not have access to

that kind of money. But everyone who served the

king was a king's servant. So this guy is someone

who has access to a lot of money. 10 ,000 talents

is an absolutely unimaginable sum of money in

the day and age of Jesus. Our national debt is

at $37 trillion. I can't even fathom how many

zeros that is and how much money that is. I mean,

this guy has squandered that kind of money. I

mean, it's like billions and billions, maybe

trillions and trillions. He has just run up a

debt that is just incredible. And you go, how

could he have possibly done that? Well, he's

a government department head. possible sum to

repay. It is absolutely impossible for him to

repay this. And so the king is ready to throw

him in prison. Not just him, but his wife and

his children are gonna be sold as slaves. They're

gonna apply that against the debt. They're gonna

sell his house. They're gonna sell his wife's

jewelry. It's all gonna be liquidated. But the

truth is that no matter how much money he raises

in this, It's not gonna make a difference, it's

not gonna make a dent. Because this sum of money

that he owes the king is an absolute unpayable

debt. And that is exactly the picture that Jesus

wants to paint. You see, we owe our king an unpayable

debt. The picture of this king. Who hears the

pleading of his servant for mercy and? When the

king says he felt compassion for him he released

him and he forgave the debt it is the picture

of Our unpayable debt to our king we have a sin

debt That there is no way that all the rituals

all the religious ceremonies all the baptisms

all the all the tithing all the acts of service

to the kingdom, go to a foreign country, be a

missionary, devote your life to Him. You can't

make a dent in your sin debt. But we have a gracious

King who says, I will forgive your unpayable

debt. It's amazing. You see, this servant did

not deserve forgiveness. And neither do I. Couple

of weeks ago. I mean as a as the parent of a

high school student as a parent of a high school

athlete I was absolutely stunned. It's really

bothered me The story that came out of the track

meet in Frisco, Texas about one student stabbing

another student Austin Medcalf was the student

who died. By the way, there is a family connection

in our church. You could just pray for someone

without knowing their name necessarily. And I've

prayed with them and extended my compassion toward

them. But it really bothered me. But let me tell

you what challenged me. The morning after it

happened, Jeff Medcalf, Austin's father, was

talking to Fox 4 News out of Dallas. And they

asked him how he felt toward the young man who

had done this. And Jeff Metcalf's statement was,

I've already forgiven him. Now, I'm going to

tell you how challenged I was by that. I don't

know where I am on that. I mean, if I put myself

in his shoes, I don't know. I don't know if I

can say that. But I was impressed by Jeff's walk

with the Lord to be able to say, I know I needed

to forgive him and I've started. I've made the

decision and I bet it's a process. But he says,

I'm doing that. And some would say, but that

kid didn't deserve to be forgiven. No, and neither

did I. But there is a God in heaven who issues

to me a full free pardon for my unpayable debt.

And so Jesus would say, we need to see our great

need for forgiveness. You see I am convinced

of this That until you see the seriousness of

your sin, you will never grasp the greatness

of his grace Until we understand the seriousness

of our sin, we will never grasp the greatness

of his grace fourth or the third and finally

There's a misprint if you take notes, so here's

the point start practicing authentic forgiveness

Now to Jesus' audience when he tells his story

about this gracious king who forgave this incredible

sum of money, I mean, that would have been the

end of a great story. But at verse 28, Jesus,

the master storyteller, puts a twist in this

that nobody sees coming. Imagine listening to

this for the first time. But that slave, that

servant, the one who's been forgiven, went out

and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him

a hundred denarii and He seized him and began

choking him saying pay back what you owe So his

fellow slave fell to the ground and began to

plead with him saying have patience with me and

I will repay you But he was unwilling and went

and threw him in prison until he would pay back.

What was owed So when his fellow slave saw what

had happened They were deeply grieved and came

and reported to their master all that had happened,

then summoning him. His master said to him, you

wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because

you pleaded with me. Should you not have also

had mercy on your fellow slave in the same way

that I had mercy on you? And his master moved

with anger, handed him over to the torturers

until he would repay all that was owed him. My

heavenly father will also do the same to you

if each of you does not forgive his brother From

the heart there's a twist in the story This guy's

been forgiven an unpayable debt He would have

been in bankruptcy for the rest of his life,

and he's been set free He goes out There's one

of his co -workers. It says fellow slave a fellow

servant There's one of his co -workers Maybe

he's a guy that he had loaned a hundred denarii

to. And the Bible says that he goes over to him.

He demands repayment when he doesn't pay up,

he chokes him. The guy falls to the ground and

he pleads for mercy and he uses almost the exact

same words that this servant had used with the

king. He owed him a hundred denarii. Let me tell

you about a hundred denarii. I told you about

ten thousand talents like this is unpayable debt

a hundred denarii Was about four months wages

for the average working person in the days of

Jesus You made a denarii day take out the 52

Sabbaths and so that's about four months wages

Last year in America the median income was $58

,000 the median income. Let's round up to 60.

Four months' wages would be a third of that,

$20 ,000. You are forgiven an unimaginable sum

of money, and somebody owes you $20 ,000. Now

look, $20 ,000 is not nothing, right? But it's

manageable. I mean, if you look at the balance

on your car note, some of you owe more than that.

But you got a payment plan. You're paying this

debt off. This debt is manageable. It could be

it could have been repaid but this servant refuses

To extend the same forgiveness that he's received

No one challenge you With a simple statement

When it comes to those of us, especially who

are followers of Jesus who have experienced the

radical grace and mercy of God that has completely

and totally forgiven us our sin. We have embraced

the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross who has paid

our full price. We have received forgiveness.

Forgiven people should be forgiving people. Those

of us who have experienced the grace of God in

forgiveness through Jesus. should be the first

to extend that forgiveness to other people. And

when we don't practice authentic forgiveness,

there's some fallout. First of all, there are

shattered relationships. Four times in this part

of the parable, He refers to fellow slaves. These

are people that work together. These are people

who lived around one another. These were people

who forged friendships. And now because of unforgiveness,

those relationships are shattered. Unforgiveness

does that. Second, we lose the respect of others.

His fellow servants watched him. First of all,

they knew what had happened in the palace. They

knew the king had forgiven him all this debt.

And now they watch him. choking his fellow servant,

and they lose respect for him. They go to the

king. They tell the king what's going on. When

I was in college, I was from a very small town,

but when I was in college, my coach in high school,

a man that I loved and respected, got cross ways

with some folks. It's a small town, so some of

you who are small town people, you kind of get

this. He got cross with some people, some people

got mad. There were some accusations made and

eventually they fired my coach. Well, it's a

small town. He still lives in a small town. And

I came home from college one weekend and I go

into the dairy bar. It's where you got a burger

and a milkshake. I go in, my coach is in there.

I love my coach. I go over and I sit down with

my coach. We're talking. We didn't talk about

anything about the firing. We're just talking.

He's asking how college is all that sort of thing

and a few minutes some people come in and They

were talking and they said hey, have you heard

about mr. Smith? Now mr. Smith I knew was kind

of the ringleader He was kind of the one who

was really pushing for my coach to get fired.

He was instrumental in I said, have you heard

about Mr. Smith? He's been diagnosed with stage

4 cancer. There's no cure for the cancer that

he's got. And my coach said, couldn't have happened

to a nicer guy. I love my coach. I still love

my coach. He's in heaven. But my respect for

him that day wasn't drained. But it took a hit

My respect for him that day went down You see

When you are unforgiving when you let that root

of bitterness spill out It ruins your testimony.

I Mean, why would the people around you in your

office or in your neighborhood or the other parents

on your kids team? Why would they want this grace

that we talk about if that's what it produces?

It ruins our testimony. But third and finally,

when we are unforgiving, we experience the displeasure

of our king. He, in a very dramatic way in the

parable, experiences both the best favor of his

king in one moment, but now he experiences the

displeasure of his king. And just let me say

this to you. Those of you especially who are

followers of Jesus God desires to bless you God

desires to pour out his favor upon you, but there

is absolutely no doubt about this. This is biblically

true Unforgiveness blocks God's best blessings

in your life It always does If you have an unforgiving

spirit God will not pour out his blessings and

favor on you He just won't. And that's why you

need to pursue a decision that leads to a process

where you forgive. You pardon. You set them free.

You let it go. Why? Because forgiven people are

forgiving people. You've been listening to a

message from First Baptist Church, Wichita Falls.

For more information about First Baptist, including

gathering times and locations, click the link

in the show notes or go to FBCWF .org. We'll

see you next week.