Essentials: Forgiveness

Forgiveness is hard—but it is essential. In this message, Pastor Emily Moore explores Jesus’ call to release others from their debt just as we have been released by the mercy of God.

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Matthew 18 is where we are. We have started a series called the Essentials. The Essentials series. And this is week two in our series. We were still in Matthew, chapter 18.

We're going to start in verse 21. If you find it, you can stand up.

The words will also be on the screen. Matthew 18, verse 21. This is the word of the Lord. It says, peter came and said to Jesus, lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times.

Jesus said to him, not seven times, but I tell you, 77 times. For this reason, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. And when he began the reckoning, one who owed him 10,000 talents was brought to him. And as he could not pay, he, his Lord ordered him to be sold together with his wife and children and all his possessions and payment to be made. So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.

And out of pity for him, the Lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt. But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii. And seizing him by the throat, he said, pay what you owe. Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, have patience with me and I will pay you. But he refused.

Then he went and he threw him into prison until he would pay the debt. And when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and they went and reported to their Lord all that had taken place. And then his Lord summoned him and said to him, you were wicked slave. I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave as I had mercy on you?

And in anger his Lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt. So my Heavenly Father will also do to you, every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart. Let us pray. Jesus, these are your words for us at harvest point today. God we've gathered and God, we hear you speaking about forgiveness.

Jesus, will you help us to receive your word today? In Jesus name, Amen. And you can be seated.

A little Overview over Matthew 18. You may remember the whole text has really emphasis on children. He's talking about behavior within the body of Christ. And he points out that it is for us to be childlike in the kingdom of God that we are to be humble. He teaches that there's a warning.

He gives a warning against causing other people to. To stumble. He talks about cutting out behaviors that cause us to stumble. He gives a warning about despising those that are younger. He talks about how the shepherd goes after the one lost sheep, that he's not willing that any should perish.

And then he deals with sin and conflict within the body of Christ. And that is is where we found ourselves last week. In our first day of the Essential Series. Pastor Marshall was teaching on reconciliation and reconciliation between members of the body of Christ. You know, with reconciliation, it takes two people that are willing.

Reconciliation may not always be possible among people, but God also is always willing to be reconciled with us. And then he changes here. And our emphasis today on week two is forgiveness. Is forgiveness. I'm going to caution you that every single pair of toes in this place should probably get stepped on today.

I have prayed over and over and over as God was dealing with this message with me in my private time. That's our word for today, forgiveness. Now here we are in this text, and Peter has been listening. He's listened to Jesus talk about reconciliation between the body, brothers and sisters within the church. Peter's listening.

Don't you love Peter? And I believe Peter starts thinking about brother so and so, or sister so and so. I do not think this is a hypothetical situation. I think Peter had someone in mind who had wronged him, him repeatedly. And so Peter then turns his attention to Jesus and he says, how many times should I forgive?

He had someone in mind that he was talking about. You notice, he says, how many times if another member of the church sins against me? Oh, I think he was thinking of someone. It's almost as if he's. If he is thinking here, Jesus, how many times do I have to forgive?

Steve? Like, it's very direct, like, how many times? And then he offers this seven. Should I forgive seven times? Now, a little background.

The teachers of that day, rabbis at that time, taught that three was the acceptable number. So if someone repeatedly wronged you, three times was sufficient. So Peter here knows the teaching of the local rabbi, this three. And Peter wants to be a little extra. And so he says, Jesus, how about seven times?

Is seven enough seven? And Jesus says, no, not seven, but 77 or 70 times seven. Now, Jesus is not teaching here that we keep a count in a tally. And when you hit 490, that's it, brother. 490, is it?

No, what Jesus is teaching is that we don't keep a tally, but that we keep on forgiving Jesus is teaching and expecting that we forgive without keeping count, that we keep on forgiving. Now, forgiveness does not mean forgetting. Did you hear me? Forgiveness doesn't mean that we forget what happened, that we forget the wrong. Forgiveness doesn't mean we excuse the behavior.

Forgiveness doesn't mean that we ignore it. And forgiveness doesn't mean that you eliminate consequences. But what does forgiveness mean? If you look up the word forgive in the Greek, it's this word aphiemi, and it means to send away, to let go, to let go, to give up a debt. The word in the Greek means to send away, to let go.

That is the idea here. So Peter is likely thinking, Jesus, how in the world. I offered seven times, but to repeatedly let go, to repeatedly forgive, how is that even possible? And brothers and sisters in our own flesh, that is not what is our first reaction when we are wronged. Our reaction is anger or pain or hurt or even vengeance.

And Jesus is teaching forgiveness. Jesus is teaching an other oriented response. And Peter is thinking, to forgive repeatedly is giving and giving and giving and giving. And isn't that what Jesus does? He gives and he gives and he gives.

But I tell you, with Jesus, this forgiveness and this letting go, it is giving, but it's also at the same time healing. It's healing for us. It is a both, and it is releasing the other, and it is healing for us. How many times has Jesus forgiven you? How many times has Jesus forgiven me?

And Jesus knows this is tough. He knows it's hard. He knows the pain that we have went through, the suffering that we have went through. And so Jesus teaches with the parable. I can hear Jesus as he's teaching this, and he's thinking, peter needs a parable.

This is a parable moment. Peter needs a parable. And I know he thinks, you know what? Emily needs a parable. And Harvest Point needs a parable.

So this is a parable moment. So this is the parable. He says, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wants to settle his accounts. He has had some outstanding accounts and it's time to handle the business. So at this time, he's ready to settle.

And a slave is brought forward. And this slave owes 10,000 talents. How many talents? 10,000. You can speak back to me.

It's okay. How many talents? 10,000. Okay. I wanted to have a visual today, and I was gonna bring something, but do you know I have nothing that I have 10,000 of.

So I had nothing to visualize. I even asked Ryan, my husband, can I have 10,000 of something, and I have nothing to show you. 10,000 talents. Now, we don't operate with talents. I don't know how many of you have.

I know you have talent, but I don't know how many of you have these talents. So let me tell you a little bit about talents. Is this 10,000 pennies? Is this $10,000? What is 10,000 talents?

I'm glad you asked. 10,000 talents. So a talent was the highest form of currency at that time. One talent equaled 20 years of wages. One talent, 20 years of wages.

Now, this servant had a debt of 10,000 talents. It was his responsibility. He owed it 10,000. In today's modern value, 10,000 talents would be approximately, get this, 12 million to $1 billion. And that's how much he owed.

He was in trouble. 12 million to $1 billion. It's unpayable. It's impossible for this individual to work enough years to pay off his debt. It's useless.

He can't do it. It's absolutely hopeless for him. And the king is just in his sentencing. So he knows the guy can't pay it off. So he says, well, the punishment is going to be you and your wife and your children and all of your possessions are going to be sold.

Now, at that time, one slave, the top price was equal to one talent. And oftentimes they would actually go for a tenth of that would be more common. So one talent, he owed 10,000 talents. The king was not going to recoup what he was owed by even that punishment. But he was just in saying, this is what I'll accept.

So the slave, what was his response? In the scripture, Jesus is teaching, Jesus says this, and in the story, this slave falls prostrate. He falls down. He bows down on his knees. I'm thinking his face was in the dirt, and he begins to beg.

He says, have patience with me. The word patience, long suffering, slow to anger. Have patience with me and I will pay you everything. Now, was that possible? No.

He said, have patience with me and I will pay you everything. And the king knew that that wasn't possible. The king was fair in his judgment. But get what the king's response was out of pity for him. He is moved with compassion.

He sees the man, face in the dirt, begging patience. And he's moved with compassion. He's moved with mercy. And the text says that he releases the debt and forgives it, forgives the debt. Now think on that.

How would you feel if you owe 10,000, $12 million, you're about to be sold As a slave, you, your spouse, your children, everything. You fall and you beg for mercy. And the king's response? You're released, you're forgiven. In that moment, he is released.

The text here uses the word released, or your version may say loosed. When you look up what that means, it means to set free, to let go, to give liberty to the captive. Those who have bonds on their wrists, they are set free and they are let the captive go. Doesn't that sound like the definition of forgiveness? It was the same, remember forgiveness.

The word means to let go, to give up a debt. The king says to the slave, you are free. How would you have reacted? How would you have reacted? You think about your favorite game show, and they win a prize, and they start yelling and carrying on like, would you have been to hug him?

Would you have cried? What would your reaction have been? He says, I release you. You are forgiven. You are free.

But it says, but that same slave, as he went out, came upon a fellow slave. Now, this is not two months later. This is in two years later. This is the same moment as he went out. He still has dirt on his knees, dirt in his face.

He walks out and sees another slave. And as Jesus tells the story, he finds another slave who owes him 100 denarii. Now, what does that mean? 100 denarii was equal to 100 days wages. 10,000 talents, 1 talent, 20 years, 100 denarii, 100 days wages.

Now, was that significant? Yes. Was that a debt? Yes. But it was nothing compared to what he had owed.

If you do the math, it's like 1 in 600,000 of the debt that he owed to the king, that first slave. So what's the reaction by the former, the forgiven servant? It says that the first slave grabs him by the throat. Did you see that? Grabs him by the throat and begins to choke him.

Immediate rage. And he demands payment. Pay what you owe. Pay what you owe. To which I am reading this, and I say, excuse me, what?

He owes you a hundred days, you owed your whole life, plus some. What are you doing? What are you doing? What is happening here? So what does the second slave do?

He falls out again, face to the dirt, and he begins to beg with the very same words that the first slave said. He says, have patience with me and I will pay you. Same response. Actually, this is something that could have been done. He could have came up with 100 days wages.

He says, have patience and I will pay you. And what was the reaction of the first slave? He refused. No mercy, no pity. No compassion.

It says that he went and he threw him into prison. Said, you're going to jail. No, patience, you're going to jail. And we think, how could you have been so cruel? I can see the disciples listening to Jesus as he's teaching this.

And when they hear about the second slave, their mouth gapes open, like, what? Why would he have done that? How could he have been so cruel? And as Jesus tells the story, he says, there were fellow slaves that saw what happened. They saw the first one, forgiveness.

They saw him turn and throw the second in jail. And they were so distressed, the word is grieved. They were sorryful as they witnessed this happen. And they go and they report it to the king. They tell on him.

They go to the king and they tell him what's happened. And the king addresses the first slave, and did you see what he calls them? He says, you wicked servant. You wicked servant. I forgave all.

Shouldn't you have had mercy as I had mercy on you, you evil servant? And to those of us listening to that, we say, yes, you get them. King you go. King that is wicked, you wicked servant.

And what is the punishment? The king turned him over. The first servant to be tortured until all the debt had been paid. Until all the debt, 10,000 talents had been paid, which would be continual, which would be a lifetime plus. It's a simple parable, but it is difficult in application.

What is this parable? What is Jesus teaching to us at harvest point today? The moral of this story. The king is Jesus. The king is Jesus.

We are the servants. We are the slaves. We have a debt that we cannot pay. 10,000 talents. We have a debt that we cannot pay, that we could work our entire lifetime.

We could try really hard and do everything really good and try our best, and we could not pay it. Romans 3:23 says, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That puts every single one of us on the even playing field there. We have all sinned. We have all sinned.

And what does Romans 6:23 says, for the wages of sin? Wages. What does this mean? This is what I've earned. What I've earned for the wages of my sin is death.

The second part of that verse is the good news. But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. But the wages of sin is death. Death is the penalty for our sins. And we and ourselves are guilty, have no way of paying off our debt.

It's unpayable. We fall prostrate before the king. We ask for forgiveness and God. The King is merciful and he is compassionate. And guess what?

He sets us free. It says in Psalm 10:3, 8. The Lord is merciful, he is gracious. He is slow to anger, the opposite of the first slave. And he is abounding, never ending.

In what? Instead, fast Love. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. When I was spending time with Jesus on this sermon, I felt the Holy Spirit impress on me that that is a verse for someone here to take with you. You need to memorize that.

But the Lord is merciful and gracious, and he is slow to anger, and he is abounding in steadfast love. Lamentations 3 says, the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Aren't you glad?

They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. Hallelujah. In the second part of Romans 3:23. For the wages of sin is death.

But the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. It is not earned. We don't. It is not earned. We don't earn it.

It's not deserved. We can't work enough. But it is a gift. Are you thankful for the gift of forgiveness? Are you thankful for the gift?

He forgives completely. He cancels our debt. We have to receive it. We receive God's grace. We deserve wrath.

We deserve judgment. We deserve the penalty of sin. But we receive grace in Luke chapter seven. That's a story where Jesus is invited to a Pharisee's house. His name is Simon.

There's a lot of Simons in the Bible. This is not the disciple. He gathers there at a dinner party. The Pharisee is trying to figure out just who Jesus is. He's trying to catch Jesus in something.

I love this story. Because as they're gathered at this dinner party, a woman shows up. Not invited. I want to meet her one day. A crowded dinner party.

She shows up uninvited. And the text says that she had lived a sinful life. Does that resonate with anyone else in here? She had lived a sinful life. We don't know what that means.

People like to make judgments about that. She lived a sinful life. Some translations say she was a wicked sin sinner. Wicked sinner. And she came to Jesus.

And you remember the story. She knelt down and began to wash his feet with her tears. She kissed his feet. She is at his feet. And all the things that they would have done as hospitality that nobody had done for Jesus.

And she is there doing. And the Pharisee, Simon begins to think to himself, oh, this is not a prophet. Because if that was a prophet, he would knew what kind of woman was at his feet. If he knew what kind of woman that was, he would never have let her touch him. If he knew who she was, she wouldn't be worthy to come in this place.

Jesus knows what Simon's thinking. So Jesus looks at him and he says a stone little parable. He says, Two people owed money to a lender. One owed 500 and one owed 50. Neither had money to pay it back.

Both the man forgave who would love him most. And Simon said, I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven. And Jesus said, you have judged correctly. Jesus said, her sins were many. Get that word?

Her sins were many. But she has been forgiven. And he looked at her, turned his attention to her, and he said, your sins are forgiven. The word meaning you have been set free. You have been released.

Have you received his forgiveness? Have you been set free? Because you can, you wicked sinner, you can be set free. I tell you, it's possible. It's essential.

And then we turn in our place of a forgiven servant after we have fell and asked Jesus to forgive us. And then we turn to someone else. And how quickly we forget the mercy that we have received. And instead of walking in joy and walking in freedom and walking in love, we turn in anger when someone hurts us and we refuse to offer mercy that we have received from the king. And the king, remember what he said, you wicked.

Oh, I was rooting him on when he was talking to that servant, but then I realized that the wicked servant was me. He's talking to us. You wicked servant. How dare you not offer mercy and forgiveness? When you think of all I have offered you, not discounting the pain, not discounting the wrong that was done, not diminishing the pain, not.

However, if we're looking at the cross of Calvary, he says, forgive them. Consider the cross. Not about what they've earned, not about what they've deserved, but consider the cross and release them. We have a choice. We can release or we can refuse.

Those two are our options. When we refuse, we remain bound. And it's a choice. If you don't release, you're the one in chains. If you're holding on to something, you're the one still connected.

But if you choose to offer forgiveness and release, you can be set free. It's essential, it's necessary. For our healing. It's necessary for our wholeness. It's necessary for our holiness.

It is essential. It's not a suggestion. Listen to the words he didn't say. You should forgive. He says, so my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.

There's punishment for unforgiveness. It isn't forgiving simply with our lips or just thinking about forgiving. But he said, you need to forgive from your heart. And maybe saying it with our lips is a necessary step. But it's a heart that is key here.

It's a heart posture, It's a heart of compassion, It's a heart of love. A heart made new by Jesus. Derek read to us from Genesis the story of Joseph. And you remember of all people who had a reason to be a little bitter, wouldn't it be Joseph? So Joseph had been sold into slavery.

He was actually left for dead first. And then they got him out of the pit and then they sold him into slavery. He's taken to Egypt, way away from his family, away from everybody he knew. He was put in a really hard place. He even went to jail.

Later, God elevated him to a position and his brothers are brought there. And you know, some of you know the story. And at this part in the text that Derek read, their father had died. And the brothers think to their self, oh, now Joseph is going to punish us. Joseph is going to take out his vengeance now that daddy's dead.

So they go to Joseph and said, hey, Daddy told us before he died to ask you and have you forgive us. The text says that Joseph wept. It doesn't tell us why. In my spiritual imagination, I don't believe that the dad ever told them this story. I believe this was their self preservation, self protection here.

And I think that Joseph wept because they thought so little of his character that they thought that he had not already forgiven them. And Joseph reaction with his heart that has been transformed with his heart of love. He says, don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? Meaning God chooses consequences and God chooses punishment.

That's a God decision. That's not me. He said, it's not for me to take revenge. Even though you intended to harm me. God intended it for good.

Have you ever been in that situation where someone intended it to hurt but God used it for good? God had a purpose and God will provide for you. He forgave them, Joseph. He trusted God. And we as Christians should forgive and forgive and forgive because it's what it means to be Christlike.

Forgive. What do we say in the Lord's Prayer? And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Why do you think this daily prayer that Jesus is teaching would include forgiveness? He wants it to be ever present that we would forgive and continue to forgive.

Ephesians 4:32 says, Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as Christ has forgiven you. Matthew 6:14. For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But listen to 15. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

That part. But if you don't, your Father will not forgive you. I told you I prayed often while I was preparing this sermon, and I am praying even now. God help us to forgive as you have forgiven us. It's for our own good.

It's for our heart health. If we refuse, there is hardness. What happens when God asks you to let go of something and you say, no, I can't. No, I won't. You cut that off, it becomes encapsulated.

That's when bitterness sets in. I can't let go of that, Jesus. And Jesus says, I want you whole. I want your whole heart. I. I want you to release it to me.

When you think about the heart, medically, if there's a blockage, if it doesn't get enough circulation, what happens to that piece of the heart? It dies. The punishment of sin and unforgiveness is death. So the Merciful Father not only forgives out of mercy, but he wants us whole. And he wants us completely whole belonging to Him.

When I thought about forgiveness, I thought about some of us may react and think, it's not fair that he should be forgiven. It's not fair that she should be forgiven. And I felt the Holy Spirit say, it's not fair that you should live broken and in bondage. That's not fair. When we refuse to let go, we give them the authority to keep hurting us.

Over and over and over again, he says, forgive. I'm going to close with talking about my bestie, Corrie Ten Boom. Now you know, if you know me, that I love Corrie Ten Boom. I've never met Corrie Ten Boom, but in my mind she is my best friend. And I love Corey.

And I love Corey because I've learned about her through her books. Corrie Ten Boom was. She was actually put in a Nazi prison camp for hiding Jews in her family home. This was during World War II. And if you're a musician, you can come on forward.

And in prison, she lost her father. While she was there, she lost her oldest sister. She writes about the story in her book, the Hiding Place. Highly recommend it. So Corrie Ten Boom was at this place called Ravensbruck.

If you do your history, Ravensbruck was the largest Nazi concentration camp, and it was built for women. And Corrie Ten Boom found herself there at Ravensbrook, near Berlin. And so after she was released, she survived. She spent her entire life traveling, teaching on forgiveness. And in her devotional book, God Is My Hiding Place, she talks about an encounter she had when she was in Munich, Germany.

She had just finished teaching, and at the end, she saw a man, the congregation. He was a former SS man. He was the very same man who had stood guard at the shower room when they entered the processing center at Ravensbrook. And suddenly, when she saw that soldier, when she saw his face, it took her right back. She imagined herself there in the processing room.

She imagined herself in walking past the mocking of the soldiers as they were naked before them. And the shame filled her. And she looked in his face, and she saw her sister. She saw the pain on her sister's face. And as the church was emptying, this man walked up to Corrie, and he was beaming and bowing.

She said. And as he walked up, he said, I am so grateful for your message. He said, to think that, as you say, he has washed my sins away. And he thrust his hand out to shake her hand. And she said, and I, who had preached often about the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side.

And even as the anger and the vengeful thoughts of just bubbled over, I was frozen. And I saw the sin of my thoughts. And she thought to herself, jesus Christ has died for him. And she knew that surely he didn't recognize her out of the thousands of women. He did not know that she knew him.

So she stood there and she said, but I remembered him. And it was the first time since my release that I had faced one of my captors. And my blood seemed to freeze. He said, I was a guard at Ravensbrook now. She knew he didn't remember her.

And he said, but since that time, I have become a Christian. And I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things that I did while I was there. But I would like to hear it from you. I would like to hear it from your lips as well.

And again he reached his hand out to reach for her, and he said, will you forgive me?

And she said, I Had to do it. I knew that God's forgiveness had a prior condition that we forgive those who have injured us. And so she stood there and she said it was many seconds. She said it felt like a longer time. And he's standing there with his hand out, and she's thinking, I am wrestling with this.

It's the most difficult thing I have ever had to do. And she said, lord Jesus, she prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him. And she said. She stood there, coldness clutching her heart, and she breathed another prayer, silent prayer. And she said, jesus, I cannot forgive him, but I can lift my hand.

I can do that much. She said she mechanically took his hand. And the most incredible thing happened. She writes that from her shoulder, along her arm, into her hand, there was a current that seemed to pass from her to him. And at the same time, her heart there spoke a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed her.

And tears came unexpectedly. And she said, I forgive you, brother, with all of my heart.

She said, for a long moment, they just stood grasping each other's hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. And she said, I have never known God's love so intensely as I did then. Forgiveness, she writes, keeps our hands pliable in the master's hands. She says, when he tells us to love our enemies, he gives along with the command, the very love itself. Forgiveness.

How is your heart today? Do you need forgiveness from the king? Don't miss in the parable that the other servants saw it happen and went to the king and told him. And I think that's a word for us when we see people being mistreated, to go to the king and offer our prayers for their forgiveness. Do you need forgiveness?

You can receive that from the king today. He's merciful. His mercies are new every single day. Do you need to forgive someone? We have a choice.

We can release or we can refuse. But when we choose to refuse to offer forgiveness, it keeps us in bondage. He says, well, you can release and he will help us. He will give us a heart of love. Doesn't excuse it, but it sets us free.

He releases us. Can we then release others? Will you stand to your feet? I'm going to pray for us.