Matthew 8:21-35 – The Parables

Matthew eighteen, twenty-one through thirty-five.

The parable of the unforgiving servant.

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 seventy-seven times.

Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants.

When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand 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 the servant released him and forgave him his him the debt.

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

When his fellow servants 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 not you 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 debts.

So also my heavenly father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.

That will be really helpful as we uh study, as we consider what the Lord has to say to each and every one of us.

Uh in school, uh my favorite or at least one of my favorite subjects was history.

I don't know if you enjoy history, and and I studied it for my uh leaving cert, and during your leaving cert for history, you have to have a history project.

And my project was on Cori Temboom.

That is who I chose uh to study, to uh research uh for my history project.

And Cory was a woman uh who, along with her family, helped hide Jews uh in the Netherlands during World War II.

A while ago, a few years ago, myself and Becky actually got to visit and go to the house, uh, the the watch shop that her and her family uh ran, and they lived above it, and we got to see it.

And they were Christians, and and in the time that they were seeking to do this, it is estimated that they were able to save around 800 lives, which is incredible.

And on the 28th of February 1944, Cory, her dad Casper, and her sister Betsy were arrest arrested by the Nazis, and Corrie and her sister Betsy ended up in Ravensbrook concentration camp.

During their time there, Betsy became very ill.

And on the 16th of December 1944, Betsy died.

Twelve days after that, due to a clerical error, Cory was released.

And yet, one week after she was released, all the women in Cory's age category were killed in the gas chamber.

It's hard to appreciate all that she went through.

It's hard to know the pain that she experienced at the hands of the Nazis, all that the pain that she saw that was caused.

And as you sit here and as I stand here, we can't even begin to comprehend.

After the war, Cory began to share her story.

She began to go around and talk about how central her faith was in everything that she went through.

And a significant part of what she would share was about the forgiveness of God, the forgiveness of sins.

And in 1947, she was speaking in a church in Munich, and at the close of the service, a balding man in a grey overcoat stepped forward to greet her.

Cory froze.

She knew this man well.

He'd been one of the most vicious guards at Ravensbrook, one who had mocked the women prisoners as they showered.

It came back with a rush, she wrote.

The huge room with its harch overhead lights, the pathetic pile of dresses and shoes in the center of the floor, the shame of walking naked past this man.

And now he was pushing his hand out to shake hers and saying, A fine message, Freulein.

How good it is to know that, as you say, all our sins are at the bottom of the sea.

And I, who spoke so glibly of forgiveness, fumbled in my pocket book rather than take that hand.

He would not remember me, of course.

How could he remember one prisoner among thousands of women?

But I remembered him and the leather crop swinging from his belt.

I was face to face with one of my captors, and my blood seemed to freeze.

You mentioned Ravensbrook in your talk, he was saying.

I was a guard there.

But since that time, he went on, I've become a Christian.

I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would love to hear it from your lips as well.

Royline.

Again the hand came out.

Will you forgive me?

I wonder what you would do.

In that situation, in that place, having gone through what you've gone through, what Cory went through, how would you respond?

I realize it is in many ways impossible to know how we might respond in that moment.

If we're honest and we think about forgiveness, it's not so easy.

We can think and see it as a good thing, but it is so hard to forgive at times, even for insignificant little things.

So when Peter in our text poses the question in our passage, in verse 21, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him as many as seven times?

As a Christian, you might think, of course, of course, we should forgive.

As you hear these words, they can seem like a good principle for us, but but if we're honest, when we're faced with different situations, different circumstances, the call to forgive is not so simple.

It can be so hard.

We would love to say it is easy.

I'd love to say, I forgive so easily.

I just give it out.

Forgiveness, forgiveness.

I'd love to be able to say that.

At this time, as Peter says these words, the Jewish rabbis would have debated that question.

How much should you forgive?

And it was commonly thought that you should forgive three times.

So when Peter says seven times, he's being so generous.

To consider forgiving someone seven times, that would have been a big deal.

So when we see what Jesus says, we need to realize how radical it is.

Because what does he say?

He says, I do not say to you seven times, but 77 times.

Essentially, what we're hearing here from Jesus is there is no limit.

There is no limit if we are his people.

There is no limit if we are part of his kingdom.

Forgiveness has no limit.

There is not a time, a place, or a situation in which, as a Christian, we are justified not to forgive.

I don't know what you think and how you feel about that.

But I'm sure each one of us have faced different things in our lives.

I don't know what that has been specifically for you.

Sins that have been done against you that just cut so deep.

You've gone through situations in which you have been treated in just horrible and disgusting ways.

Yet the call of our Savior in this text is a call toward forgiveness.

This is what this passage is all about.

It's not hard to get that.

What Jesus is doing in this text is helping us to understand the seriousness of unforgiveness and the way in which we are able to forgive.

So simply what I want for us to see in this text is our need for forgiveness, our means of forgiveness, and our response to forgiveness.

Our need for forgiveness.

I love the way in which Jesus often does this, and we have been thinking about this, how he helps us to understand deep truths through a story.

Because I love stories.

I'm someone who enjoys a good story, and Jesus does this to be helpful, to help us to begin to grasp these deep-rooted truths in a very understandable way.

We see this king who has servants and he's desiring to settle their accounts, that there are debts that they owe, and he brings this servant forward, and we see that the debt that he owes is so significant.

Look at verse 24 with me.

When he began to settle the settle, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents.

Now I'm gonna guess you don't have a clue what that actually means.

Maybe you do, but we don't really deal with talents these days.

I don't think you go in and be like, oh, it's a talent, take it, it's okay, pay for my shopping with that.

But here, what a talent is is the highest currency of the time.

The the currency that has the most valuable value, sorry.

And 10,000 was the highest numerical figure.

So what is being said here is this massive debt is owed, this massive amount of money is being owed.

A thousand million, billion, trillion, deillion euro.

You get the point.

It's huge, it's massive, it's beyond understanding.

And it's hard to imagine what Jesus is seeking to make clear.

It's not hard to see what he's trying to do here.

That no matter how much this man desires to pay this debt, it's never gonna happen.

He is never gonna be able to work enough to earn it.

There is nothing he can do with this debt hanging over him.

And the consequence is so severe and serious.

Look at verse 25.

Since he could not pay the debt, since he could not pay, sorry, his master ordered him to be sold with his wife and children and all that he had and payment to be made.

Do you see the weightiness?

Do you see the seriousness?

He is gonna be sold, his family is gonna be sold, everything he has is going to be sold, and he is still not met his debt, that he still needs to pay what is owed.

This is how big it is, this is how significant it is.

It is a debt that is overwhelming, and this man has nothing in order to pay it back.

In this time, being sold due to debt was common.

This would have been a known thing, and Jesus is making a dramatic and decisive point that we are this servant.

You and I, that our debt is unimaginable.

We are not even able to fully comprehend the gravity of our debt before our God.

That our sin is what condemns us, and there is no amount of striving or working that can change that.

There's nothing that we can bring, and the idea that we are somehow better than we really are is so foolish.

Consider what Jesus is doing.

Any way I can to communicate, for you to understand how serious your need is.

Seeking to illuminate the spiritual reality we all face.

A reality that we so often are blind toward because it is tragic when we minimize the seriousness of our sin before our holy God.

When you miss this, when you miss how great, how deep your need is, you will miss the beauty and the wonder of Jesus.

It does not matter how long you've been a Christian.

We need this.

I need this to be reminded of who we are before Him.

Some of you may have heard me speak and share about this recently because I recently was preaching on Hosea 3 in another church.

And you may not be familiar with Hosea, but in this book, God is displaying his love toward his people.

And this book is a book where the prophet Hosea is in his own life displaying the relationship between God and his people.

Because Hosea marries a woman named Gomer, who is described as a whore.

Throughout the opening chapters, that word is being used toward Gomer and toward God's people.

And I don't know what you think when you hear that, but as I read it, it just brussels up against me.

It is a disgusting, horrible word.

We all know that to be true when we actually appreciate what that is saying.

And we do not want to admit that we are Gomer.

We don't want to see ourselves in that position.

We don't want to think we are like a whore in the way in which we relate and the way in which we look toward our holy God.

But the point is being made of how broken we are, how tragic our situation is, how sad and disgusting the situation we are in before our holy God.

Because Gomer is not in that position because of misfortune.

If you read, you will see that she has actually pursued that life.

She has run after that.

She has let the love of her husband in Hosea and gone toward other men.

And that is what we are like with God.

We all do this.

Even when we know Him, we go to other things thinking these things are more precious, more beautiful, more satisfying than Him.

This is what our sin is like.

And throughout Scripture, time and time again, God in His love is seeking to expose to us our brokenness and our need.

Because if we truly do not see who we are, then we will not grab hold of who he is.

One of the saddest experiences I find is when I'm sharing the gospel with a non-believer.

And I think about a friend that I was sharing with, Stan in Kilkenny, and I was chatting to him about the gospel and trying to expose in his own life how he is in desperate need of Jesus.

And it came to a moment where I was asking him how he might respond.

And all he could say and think about is like, I don't really think I'm that bad a person.

He didn't think he needed anything in his life.

That he was a pretty good guy.

So why would he need Jesus?

The truth was for him and so many people, they don't want to admit their brokenness.

But for us as Christians, if you know and love Jesus, we need to be freely admit and accept our need constantly to appreciate that our debt was so overwhelming, that nothing we could contribute towards it.

That we were helpless and hopeless before our God.

You come here today, and as a family united in Christ Jesus, you don't have to fake it.

I don't want you to come in this room and think, oh, how are you?

I'm great, woo.

But really, you come from a week that is just rubbish.

You don't have to pretend that being honest and open is what we're called to.

That we can freely say, I am broken.

Being a community that embraces our weaknesses, being a community that admits our failings, being a community that displays grace and kindness toward the brokenhearted, being a community that points one another to the gospel and back to Jesus, time and time again.

This is what we are called to.

Because though our need is great, we see and we look toward our means of forgiveness.

Look at verse 26.

The servant fell on his knees, imploring him, have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.

The response, the posture that we see of this servant is so telling.

How dare you?

He's not getting angry toward his master because the truth is, when you actually rightly stand before Jesus, when we are exposed to our need, we don't have anything to say.

We don't have any excuses.

There is no grounds for us to feel or be angry or self righteous.

What we should realize, though, is the kindness of our Lord.

Because it is only His Spirit that opens our eyes to see.

To be able to see Christ for who he is, to be able to see ourselves and our need of him.

2 Corinthians 4 says, in their case, speaking about non-Christians, the God of this world, the devil, has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

Do you hear that?

This is the spiritual reality for us all before Jesus.

Satan himself wanting to keep us away from seeing who Jesus truly is.

That the devil himself seeks to keep and make us blind.

Blind to the beauty, blind to the glory of Christ.

He wants you to think that you are all okay, that you are fine.

He wants you to believe that.

He works hard for us to believe that we don't need Jesus.

He works hard.

He loves.

When we think I'm a good person.

The ability for you, for me, for anyone to truly see ourselves is only revealed through Jesus.

That's why Paul in Corinthians goes on to say, so we preach Christ.

Because that is the only way that we will see.

That we are blind, that we are dead spiritually speaking.

It is an act of grace when our sin is exposed.

It doesn't mean that it's comfortable.

It doesn't mean that it just feels good.

It can be hard, it can be difficult.

But do not forget, do not think that it is not grace because it is grace.

It is what you don't deserve.

Instead, we can embrace when he exposes sin.

We don't need to excuse it.

The question is why would we?

Why would you allow yourself to hold on to your sin?

Thinking and believing the light, no, this will give me life.

I know you're saying it won't, but it will.

Why would any of us do that?

Rejecting his grace, his kindness towards us.

The truth for us is that sin in the life of a Christian should not be treated lightly.

We always need to treat sin seriously.

Our call is to put it to death by the power of the Spirit.

Our call is to look to Him, the Spirit that both reveals and enables us to put sin to death.

The consequence for this servant's debt is so serious.

Yet, how much more serious will it be for us if we are unrepentant in our sin?

If we do not humble ourselves before our loving Savior.

You know that you are not submitting.

You know that you're reluctant to turn to Jesus.

I'm just saying and crying out, please hear.

Hear your Savior say, Come to me.

Do not go after this.

Hear what Jesus says in verse 27.

Out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.

Hear the kindness of Jesus.

The servant wanted patience.

The servant falls down and says, Be patient, let me pay it back.

Because he can't even realize that he can't pay it back.

That's how blind he is.

But the master, full of mercy and grace, cancels the debt.

A debt that was too great to comprehend.

And I am in constant need of realizing and embracing this.

In part, that is why I so often want to highlight this for us.

That our debt is paid, that none of us contributed anything toward it.

It can be so easy for us to maybe think I've mucked up, I've fallen, let me strive, let me work.

That is just so instinctual within us.

And what we must do, what you must do, is look to Jesus.

To see that even in this place, even right now, even when I was mentioning that part where you know that there's this sin that you're just not submitting.

You don't have to work your way to Jesus.

It's like, forgive me.

That's it.

Do you see the beauty, the glory, the grace of who he is?

That you look towards his nail-pierced hands upon that cross, saying, It is enough.

I've done it for you.

See him defeating sin and debt, see him risen and reigning.

See him the one who is the means of our forgiveness, knowing and resting that the debt has been paid by his blood shed for us.

I just think we are so slow, aren't we?

Well, I am.

Maybe you're better than me.

How often we forget this, the very center of our faith.

How often the devil wants us to be blind to this.

No, Duncan, you're fine.

Don't look over there.

Don't.

Oh, it's so stupid.

Yet, how wonderful and glorious, how free this is.

I don't need to bring anything, I just need to lay it before Him.

This is what we need to regularly embrace, our need, so that we might regularly rejoice in the means of our forgiveness.

Our faith is not just about us earning it, it never has, it never will be, but rather being transformed by our faith.

Our faith in Him.

From enemies to children.

How glorious this is.

In one moment, this servant's future is transformed.

One moment by the kindness and the mercy of this master.

And yet his response reveals such a wicked heart.

This is a warning toward us in our response to forgiveness.

Look at verse 28.

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

And seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, Pay what you owe.

So his sir his fellow servant fell down, 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.

After what this servant has just gone through, you'd think that would be so shaping.

Yet in a moment, literally leaving from that position, in a moment, he's in this situation.

How should he not be just overjoyed at what's just happened, so thankful, so so ready and willing to show the same attitude toward others, realizing what's just come.

But as soon as he sees another servant, a fellow servant, his heart is revealed.

Instead of kindness, he shows anger.

Instead of mercy, he shows vengeance.

Jesus is intentional.

He wants us to see how how massive the contrast is.

He is not the master of this servant, but a fellow servant under the same authority.

He is not owed as much, even close to what he owes.

And this fellow servant pleads exactly as he pleaded.

And yet he doesn't show pity on him.

He doesn't show any mercy, but he is ruthless toward him.

Now we need to see a hundred denarii.

Now that's not actually insignificant.

It would be like a third of an annual wage.

So what's the debt isn't just tiny, it's not just small.

And yet, as we consider this text, it is clear that we should be shocked.

That we should find the response of this servant to be completely wrong and wicked.

The master responds decisively toward this wicked servant.

Verse 32 You wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.

And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you?

And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers.

We can hear these words and think, yeah, that is justice, what happens, what is happening here.

That is what this servant deserves.

Yet the truth is, how often are we like this?

How often am I like this?

How often we can treat those around us as though we are their master, as though we are the judge.

Jesus' words are exposing, cutting to the very heart of who we are, challenging each one of us how we should consider forgiveness, to realize that as those who have known and experienced his forgiveness, we in no way should be people who hold back forgiveness.

Who are we to do that?

It is a dangerous thing for any Christian to believe that they are right in their unforgiveness.

Because what Jesus tells us is that if this is us, if we are like this servant, unprepared to forgive, then we should not think we will be forgiven.

Brother, sister in Christ, when you hear this, when you consider what Jesus is saying, I wonder in your mind, do you have that person?

Or maybe it's a few people who you hold bitterness toward.

Who you believe that you rightly can hate.

Hate them for what they've done to you.

To believe that you're okay not to forgive them.

The truth about unforgiveness is that it is sinful.

And like all sin, it will eat you up.

It will destroy you.

It will cause spiritual decay if you do not act.

If you do not understand and grasp, the forgiveness you have received is so far greater.

It doesn't compare to what we experience.

Far more significant than any sin that has been done toward you.

If you don't know what you have received and choose to act in that, act out of that, then you will be destroyed by it, by not forgiving others, by holding on.

And I know how deep this might be for some of us.

How deep your hurts and pains are, how difficult it might seem, how gut-wrenching it might feel.

I know that there are things that you've gone through that are so hard.

But hear your savior calling you toward life itself, calling you toward freedom in being able to forgive.

This is the road that we have been called toward.

But let me be clear on this.

Forgiveness does not mean that it is done through your self-determination.

This is a work of the Spirit.

We act out of that.

A work of God to give us a heart that is experienced and known his forgiveness toward us, that we might be able to forgive others.

It is us praying, help me, help me in this.

Because in myself I do not want to do this.

Secondly, forgiveness does not remove consequences.

When you forgive, that doesn't mean you necessarily entrust yourself to that person again.

It doesn't mean that they should not face consequences for the sins that they have done.

That will be simplifying it.

And especially, especially if what they have done is illegal.

They should face consequences.

That is right.

Thirdly, forgiveness does not mean we do not hate what is evil.

These things can be held together.

We hate what is evil, and yet we can forgive.

We don't just separate them.

The call of Jesus to you right now is to forgive.

Not just with mere words, but with a genuine heart.

To be a person who lives in light of the forgiveness you've known.

As Cari Temboom stood there, confronted before this man with a choice.

Again the hand came out.

Will you forgive me?

And I stood there.

I whose sin had again and again been forgiven and could not forgive.

Betsy had died in that place.

Could he erase her slow, terrible death simply for the asking?

The soldier stood there expectantly, waiting for Cory to shake his hand.

She wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do.

Correct had to do it.

I knew that.

The message that God forgives has a prior condition that we forgive those who have injured us.

Standing there before the former SS man, Cori remembered that forgiveness is an act of the will, not an emotion.

Jesus, help me, she prayed.

I can lift my hand, I can do that much.

You supply the feeling.

And as I did, an incredible thing took place.

The current started in my shoulders, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands.

And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.

I forgive you, brother, I cried with all my heart.

Only the gospel can do that.

Nothing else.

Only when we see our Savior, only when we realize our need, when we rejoice in his mercy and grace and forgiveness for us, can we by his spirit show such forgiveness?

I just want to encourage you.

As you sit there, as you consider the words of Jesus to each one of us today, is there unforgiveness in your life?

Are there people that you continue to not forgive?

Come before the Lord in the quiet.

Don't wait.

Seek Him.

Pray that if your heart just feels so dull and cold and unable, that He would help you.

Maybe you're like me and and you can just be bad at forgiving.

You know, I know I'll have to forgive, but you just hold on to it.

No, no.

Becky comes to me.

Duncan, do you forgive me?

I have to say yes, but I don't want to.

Maybe you're like me in that.

And we need to pray that the Lord would forgive us for our own forgiveness.

That we would pray that He would help us to be quick to forgive any wrong that is done for us, no matter how big or small.

If this has landed heavy on you, I'm just thinking about situations.

I know I've gone through different things in my life, and it is not just a simple little thing.

It is deep.

I know that there is deep pain when we think about this.

Great hurt.

Can I please encourage you to seek others to be with you in this, to walk alongside you?

Because there is a lot of darkness and deep hurt that we have to deal with.

It can take time, it can be difficult to pursue this.

And the Lord has given us one another.

Brother, sister, I do not want any of us to believe that we are alone.

We weep together.

But know in this moment the love and care and the kindness of our Savior.

Know He will lead you through this even when it seems impossible.

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