Matthew 18:21-35
~20 min read
SERMON OUTLINE
TRANSCRIPT
The sermon for this morning's worship is entitled "The Forgiven Is Forgiving," and let me read to you the text from which we get this sermon. It is taken from Matthew 18:21-35.
Matthew 18:21-35. The Gospel of Matthew, chapter 18, verse 21, “Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven. Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants. And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents. But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt. But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. And his fellowservant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt. So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done. Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee? And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.” Amen. The Lord add his blessings upon the reading of his word.
"The Forgiven Is Forgiving." And how sweet it is to know that we are forgiven through the Lord Jesus Christ. We have to understand the sweetness, the goodness, the beauty of the forgiveness of our Lord. Being forgiven, we have peace with him. Being forgiven, we are reconciled with him. And I believe all of us here who are forgiven by the Lord Jesus Christ have this joy in our hearts. We know that we are not going to be condemned. We know that there is Heaven ahead of us. We know that we shall not be cast into the Lake of Fire, into Hell, in the Lake of Fire because we are forgiven. We can sleep at night peacefully because we know that whenever God will take us, we have a sure place in his Kingdom in Heaven.
Forgiven and being forgiven is also our desire, that others will be forgiven. That's why we do our evangelism. That's the reason we are not going out for evangelism just to bring more people into this church so that many would come and our offerings and tithes will be greater and income is bigger. We want them also to experience that peace and joy we have being forgiven.
Have you experienced this joy? Have you experienced this peace being forgiven? Or are you thinking always of the good of others? Where you want others to know of the love and the kindness and the goodness and the generosity of the Lord Jesus Christ in liberally giving us his grace, his mercy to forgive us? And God, who loves us so much, sent his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die for our sins. He giveth this love, this grace unto us not when we were already right and good and are fine people before him. He granted us this love even when we were yet sinners. What a great love we have in the Lord Jesus Christ.
This forgiveness is something that we ought to cherish. This forgiveness in our lives, in our hearts, is something that we should always give praise and honour and thanksgiving unto the Lord. This is something that we have not done. We have not earned this. Nobody among us here would say that, ‘We are forgiven because I'm better than others. We are holier than others. We come every day. We read the Bible every day. We have our quiet time. I went, or I go to FEBC as a full-time student. I give myself full-time service to the Lord. That's why I am forgiven.’ No, we understand it's all of Christ. Please be reminded of that. Nothing of our own. We did not have anything a merit in order to get or to receive this forgiveness. This is all of God. And being recipients of this forgiveness freely given to us, now we want to impart this to others. And this is what the Lord wanted us to understand here in chapter 18 of Matthew. He wants us to be peacemakers. He wants us to reach out for others. He wants us to be like little children, as he started in Matthew 18.
We know there are offenses, but let it be that we will not be the offenders. And if we are, we are given these principles of the Word of God, how we can be reconciled back as forgiven people. Because we know daily in our lives, we step on others' toes. We cause frictions. We have some problems with one another. We know we are raised up in different backgrounds. Though most of us here are from this country, there are different ways by which you were taught in your families, in your previous churches, in the society that we are in. There are many racial practices that may offend one another. That is common. That is the natural thing that will happen even among friends, even among families, and mostly also in the church. We can expect that. That's why, because it is happening always in our lives, we cause offenses. We cause others to be hurt. We sometimes harm others unknowingly.
We have to remind ourselves of how we are forgiven by the Lord, how to get over it, how to take away this heart of vengeance, the heart of retaliation, the heart to get even, these grudges in our hearts, all things that we have against one another. The Lord wants us to be reminded, ‘I have given myself for you. Now you are forgiven because of what I have done. It is now for you who is forgiven to be also forgiving.’ It is Christlikeness. It is the very motive why God came into this world, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is why he lived a perfect life and offered himself a perfect sacrifice for us, in order to forgive us. And as recipients of this forgiveness, we ought to forgive others. That is the nature and character of one who says, 'I am a Christian. I am regenerated. I am born again, able to forgive because we are forgiven.' And here it was taught by the Lord Jesus Christ. There must be forgiveness so that there will be reconciliation, discipline, and whatever steps, principles, in order to make up. Some of the problems in the church cannot be done with hatred and with anger in our hearts.
That's why here from verses 15 to 20 there must be the desire to forgive. There is already forgiveness in the heart in order to have reconciliation. But then Peter asked, and it was a good question because we know that in our lives we experience that daily we offend others and we sometimes unknowingly keep on offending. We think it is good for them, we think it is right for them, but it hurts them and it causes them to stumble. So, we have this question of Peter in verse 21 and 22, and he says, "Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?” They have to count, ‘Lord, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.’
Actually, he was trying to tell this because it has been taught among rabbis and the Pharisees in those days, and even until today, there is still a teaching among the Jews that you can forgive people only up to three times. A (Jewish) rabbi, son of Hanani, he said that you can ask for the forgiveness of your sins only three times; the fourth one, you cannot be forgiven. So, Peter here somehow says, ‘Well, I am more or beyond the teaching of the Pharisees. I can forgive seven times. Is it okay, Lord, seven times?’ And now here is a teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ: the forgiven is forgiving and is forgiving endlessly. You don't have to count 1, 2, 3, 4 up to 7 and 8, ‘I cannot forgive you’. He says here, ‘Jesus said unto him, I say not unto thee until seven times; no, Peter, you think you are great because you can forgive seven times more than the rabbis. I say unto you until seventy times seven.’ The forgiven is forgiving and he can forgive endlessly.
This is not to say that 490 times and we keep on counting. This is actually what the Lord says here in order to show to us that you cannot count. The more that you try to count and how many times you forgive, you will realise that you lose count, throughout the day of this 490. That means what the Lord is actually saying here, ‘You keep on forgiving. Until when? Until these people come to you and ask for forgiveness. You keep on forgiving; you have to forgive. If he offends you, you forgive. Don't get a note and try to tally how many times this person commits such offense to you. Continue to forgive.’ That's Christlike and that's the instruction of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's why for us who are forgiven, we can be forgiving because it is the Lord Jesus Christ who tells us. It's not me, it's not our pastor, not anyone out there. He's not the great man of wisdom or a wise person. It is the Lord Jesus Christ as recorded here in the scripture. Jesus saith unto him, it is not just to Peter, it is for you and me who are forgiven. I say not unto thee until seven times you forgive, but until seventy times seven, endlessly. ‘But it's too much, Lord. It hurts my feelings. It's too much, Lord; he keeps on doing that. It's too much, Lord; I cannot take it anymore.’ Jesus says, ‘Forgive. Why? This is the way I did it for you.’
Then the Lord Jesus Christ gave us this illustration in order for us to truly understand and even for the people around, and especially for Peter, who was always trying to bring himself front and show that he is able and he is great. And he says here in verses 23-27, "Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king”. Now this is what the Kingdom of Heaven is like, it is like unto a human king. Actually, there is this idea here of a man; king is not the king; it is God, although this symbolises God himself. And he says, "which would take account of his servants." Was just trying to take note of what they have done for the resources that were given to them. And when he had begun to reckon, try to recall and account what they have, how they have used, how they have spent their money, their resources that were entrusted to them, one was brought unto him. And this one person, he says here, owed him 10,000 talents. 10,000 talents.
Now, how much is 10,000 talents? Now, generally, if you look at Bible dictionaries and references or commentaries, it will always be a general average estimate that one talent is 6,000 denarius or 6,000 days pence. And one pence or one denarius is equivalent to a day's wage. So, meaning, one talent is equals to 6,000 days of work. And if you'll divide that to 360 days, most of you are so good in math, 16 years of work. One talent, how much he owed? 10,000 talents, 10,016 years. I don't know what he bought; we don't know how he spent the money, what great resources he got when he owed this 10,000 talents. But this is an illustration that the Lord Jesus Christ used to show the astronomical amount of the debt that he owed to the king.
Astronomical. 10,000 talents is equals to 60 million days of work that even if this person will live a thousand times, he could not pay. And even if his children, even if he has 20 children, work hundreds of years or thousands of years, they could not even pay the debt. And God shows the great magnanimity of this debt because he wants to show something for us as an illustration. 10,000 talents. And so, for as much as he had not to pay, his Lord commanded him to be sold. Not only himself, he knows that his value; he cannot even pay a portion of this 10,000 talents. Even his wife, his children—we don't know how many children he had—and all that he had, all the resources, and payment to be made. In fact, this is an unpayable debt. This is a debt that he could not ever pay even though he will live a thousand years of his life. But his servant, therefore, fell down, asked, beseeched, wept, and worshipped him, saying, ‘Lord, have patience, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.’ I told you this promise, "I will pay thee all." Is a lie. He cannot pay it, even though how much he wants to do in his life; he could not do it. But he has a desire to pay, and he asked for the Lord's patience — mercy — is a word actually here for mercy. Pity. “Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.” Because he cried, he beseeched, he worshipped, he asked. He knows that he could not do it, and so the king, the lord of that servant, knew that and saw him weeping and thought that was so serious and so sincere in asking for the forgiveness of that debt. And he was forgiven.
And it says here, he was forgiven and forgive him the debt. Forgive him all 10,000 talents. He could not pay, but because the lord, the king, was so gracious, was so merciful. He pitied this man; he forgave all. He was forgiven, loosed him and forgave him the debt. He was not put in prison, he was not sold to anyone, he was not put into a bond slave, he continued on to live as a servant but then we see here that he did something that is opposite to what was expected of him. So, you see the greatness of the debt. We know that the forgiven is forgiving and we must forgive endlessly and the forgiven is forgiving because the forgiveness that we received is described as so great that we cannot even expect how we could pay it. God forgive us of all our sins, so great a sin, so great a transgression, so great a debt that we owe to God and yet he forgave us all without doing anything so that we can be forgiven. And do you think you are forgiven because you have repented? Do you think you are forgiven because you have faith? Please understand even the faith and the repentance that we have is all of God. It was by the grace of God that He gave and He put in our hearts that we be convicted and we repent of our sins all because He was so gracious and merciful to tell us, ‘This is the greatness of your sin, you need a saviour’. And we come to the Lord Jesus Christ because of His grace and He changed our lives, He gave us the mind to understand that indeed we are debtors.
But take note of this man when he was released and was freed, he was forgiven and the master thought he was so serious because he appealed and tried to show that he was to change, he was to pay. Here in verse 28 onwards up to 33, we see that he has this different attitude. It was just an external appearance of seeking forgiveness, of repentance, of remorse. It was not heartily done and I pray we are not like this and it was showed how the same servant, the one who was forgiven, went out and found one of his fellow servants which owed him 100 pence. What is 100 pence? Well, we calculated a while ago that 10,000 talents is about 60 million pence. So, we have this 100 pence here. This is just equivalent to around 3 months or more, a little bit, of wages—100 compared to 10,000 talents, 60 million days of wages. And when he saw this man, his fellow servant— they were the same; they were all slaves—and this man owed him such an amount of 100 pence only, compared to the great and magnanimous debt that he has for his lord, “he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest." He even did not experience that to his king; he did not even hear anything, that was a voice that raised against him from the king, from his lord. But he was so cruel, wicked that when he saw this fellow servant who owed him a little bit of what he owed to the king and what he has received from the forgiveness of that king, he demanded that this man should pay him.
And when the fellow servant did what he had done to the king, the same words actually that are used here to describe that, the same approach that he had made was done also by that fellow servant. He fell down at his feet and besought him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.’ And this is truth, why? Because indeed, he can pay 100 pence, three months. He can work on that, and he can pay the debt. But this man was supposed to be forgiven; he did not want to forgive. He did not want to forgive. Have received so much compassion and pity from the Lord, but seeing this other person who owed him, cannot even forgive. How he did it? Because he would not forgive. Because when this man asked for his pity, for his mercy, he went and cast him into prison. How can a man pay and how can a man work when he is cast into the prison? That is his heart's desire. ‘I don't want really to forgive you. Even if you have that money tomorrow, I don't want to receive that. I hate you, and I don't want to forgive you. That's why I put you in prison so that you cannot pay me because I don't want to forgive.’
The heart of one who was forgiven. Do you think he understands what it means for him to be forgiving? I pray we are listening; we're not just here to come and be present in this hall to be counted as here because it is our habit to come to the church during the Lord's day. We have to pray the Lord help us, to teach us because here, the forgiven is forgiving because it necessitates us to forgive. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ now here illustrates. So, when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were very sorry; they grieved. How can this man who received such forgiveness come and do this thing to his fellow servant? And so, they come and told unto their lord all that was done. And when his lord heard that, he called him and said unto him, "O, thou wicked servant." Indeed, he was wicked. ‘I forgave thee all that debt. I did not sell you, I did not sell your children, your wife, and then ask any cent from you. I forgave you. Now that this fellow servant of yours owed you 100 pence, you don't want him to pay for you or to you. You put him into prison. What a wicked way! Shouldst not thou have had compassion on thy servant, on thy fellow servant?’
And the idea of the word here, "Shouldest not thou also”. Is a word here that describes it is necessary for you to have compassion to your fellow servant because you have received compassion. It is necessary for you to forgive because you have received forgiveness. It is necessary for you to understand the concern of this man. He owed you 100 pence, and you can give him a time to pay because you were forgiven 10,000 talents. You owed; you were released free. “Shouldst not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee?” It necessitates us as forgiven people to be forgiving. But it's difficult. Yes, we have to forgive, but it's hard. We pray we can forgive; that is the Christlike character that God wants us to have. And if we are not able to forgive, and we are not able to do that which God has done for us, how can we say we are Christians?
Jesus says here, "And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors” instead. For this man was forgiven; I understand that you are not sincere in asking for your forgiveness. I will send you to the tormentors; you'll be tormented until you pay all that was due unto him. You will be tormented for 60 million days. “So likewise shall my heavenly father do also unto you if [you], from your hearts” (that's why it's emphasised here), “from your hearts, forgive not everyone his brother their trespasses.” Forgiveness, it is the key in our relationships, in the family, in the church, in the society. Forgiveness. We come here because we are all forgiven. We come here to worship God, the God who forgive us. How can we not forgive others? Yes, they have done wrong unto us, great things, but can we not forgive? Because we are forgiven. Our own sins were even greater than what they have done unto us.
Our own sins were even far greater than the offenses that they have done. Can we say that their sins to us were far more or were greater than what we have done against the Lord? Examine yourself. Let us examine ourselves. Let us be honest to ourselves. Are we that holier than others that we think we were forgiven because we have only a little bit of sin and transgression done against God? If it was, it did not take the Lord Jesus Christ to go to the cross, to suffer such an excruciating pain during six hours there. If we sin less than what should have been paid by the Lord Jesus. And I pray that we will be mindful of this, we will understand the necessity to forgive, because the last point that we have, the Lord condemns those who are unforgiving, because the unforgiving, or unforgiveness, is a very sign of one who is not yet born again. One who has not experienced any forgiveness. One who has not known the peace and joy of God's forgiveness. That's why he keeps on hating others. He has this grudges. He has this bitterness. He has this heart to take vengeance and to get even and retaliate, because he did not experience to be forgiven. He has this trouble in his heart. He knows he still sins against God and he did not receive the Lord Jesus Christ as his Lord and saviour. He is finding fault with one another. He wants to be justified that this man and others are greater sinners than me, because he did not have received any forgiveness. I pray we will understand. Do we really understand the greatness, the magnanimity of our sins before God? That even though the greatness of our sin, we are forgiven because of his sacrifice.
In my younger days, I had bitterness and resentment against my father. I was not yet a Christian during that time. He was a good father, but there are times that when he's drunk, he was just sleeping beside the road or other places in the market, and people just come to our house and say, "Oh, your father is drunk, and he is there sleeping beside the road. You have to take him." And you know, even as a boy, I was so... It was so shameful, you know, to carry your father or go and walk along the way and many young girls seeing you, ‘Oh, his father is drunk, and this man, this boy is carrying him.’ And so, there was this hatred in my heart. I know he was a good father when he is sober, but when he's drunk, I hated him so much. So that the time that he died, I was not yet a Christian. When he died, there was joy even in my heart. There was joy in my heart, and I did not cry. I did not remember that there was a tear from my eyes. I was thankful that this father caused me shame, died already, and is gone. I don't have any more of this shameful things in our town because he is now gone. That hatred, that resentment.
It was only when I came to know the Lord Jesus Christ, God saved me when I was 30 years old, six years after my father died, that I realised I was far greater a sinner than him, and God forgave me. My life was so shameful before Him, before other people. All the things that I have done, they are so evil, wicked, that if we flash this today here, I believe all of you will run away because you don't want to see the life of a preacher, living such a wicked life, yet God freely has forgiven me all of it. And I realise how cruel I was, how unforgiving I was to my father. I did not have any heart for him during that time, and I realised that I should have loved him, I should have forgiven him. But he's not anymore there. I did not realise that I need to forgive him until I was forgiven. It was when I understand how great was my sins before God that I can forgive. My dear brethren, truly, if we are in the Lord and are forgiven, are we able to forgive? Here Buswell tells us in his systematic theology, “The solemn implication of the words of Christ is that if we cherish unforgiveness in our hearts, it is an evidence that we are not born again, that we have never truly accepted Christ as our personal saviour, as our substitute upon the cross. If we are truly forgiven and cleansed and regenerated by the atonement of Christ, we will live the crucified life and show forth the forgiveness of him who died for us.” And I pray we understand this. The Lord be gracious unto us. The Lord be merciful unto us. Let us pray.
Our Father in Heaven, we thank Thee for the precious reminder unto us this morning. And as we come before Thee during this Lord's Supper, help us to understand, Lord, that Thou has forgiven us, and we are not worthy to partake of the bread and the cup with hatred, with vengeance, with grudges in our hearts. Oh, Lord, may Thou forgive us and cleanse us and prepare us, oh, Lord, to appear before Thee, to receive the bread and the cup, and to recall of what Thou hast done for us and what Thou will do for us when Thou will come again. We pray, Father, that You will help us. And we pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.
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