LUKE 17:1-6 FORGIVE REPENTANT OFFENDERS2013 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Luke 17:1-6 Forgive Repentant Offenders

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You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2013. I don't know about you, but I love this church. I absolutely love this church. This place for me, I'm not just, you know, being a little bit mushy here, but I really feel like this church was custom made for me.

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I fit in so well here. I belong here. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt, this is exactly where God has me. And you, the people who are involved here in this body,

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You are my family. I mean, of course, I have physical blood family, but you also are my family. And there's a closeness, there's a bond, there's a love for one another that God has established here that is just, it's so unique and special. And I absolutely love

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love this fellowship and what God is doing here. It's exactly what I need, and it's amazing that God has created this unique place for me to be able to be a part of, and for me to be able to serve and minister to other people's needs. And because I love this place so much, I strongly desire to protect it. I have a passion to make sure that what we have is

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is not disrupted or destroyed. That the enemy does not get a foothold in this place to bring the destruction that he desires to bring. I want to protect it. How about you? Do you kind of feel the same way? I mean, for those, I know for some of you, this is your home church as well. This is where you belong. God has placed you here. And we should have that great desire to protect what God has established here. It's been so meaningful and special to us.

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Well, to help us protect what God has been doing here, we look at chapter 17 verses 1 through 6 this morning. And Jesus here is encouraging us, he's commanding us really, to forgive repentant offenders. That's the title of the message today. Forgive repentant offenders. And there's four points we'll be looking at from this passage to help us understand what Jesus is saying.

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If you want to kind of dig into some of the background or get a little bit different insight, the parallel for this passage we're studying today is Matthew chapter 18. And Jesus there in Matthew chapter 18 is hitting these similar points, saying these same things, but also including some other aspects that we're not going to be able to get into today. But one of the ways that you and I must...

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protect this fellowship, this body that he's called us to be a part of, is we must learn to forgive repentant offenders. That's an essential part. If we don't learn to put into practice what Jesus is instructing us here, this church will not last. If we don't put into practice what he declares to us here in this passage, we will be, well, fizzled out. We will not last unless we

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We practice what Jesus says. And so let's check out what God has for us and what he wants to speak to our hearts this morning. We begin with point number one in verses one and two, and that is offenders will come. Offenders will come. Check out verse one. It says, then he said to the disciples, it is impossible that no offenses should come, but woe to him through whom they do come.

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Now as Jesus is speaking, he's speaking to his disciples. And of course, he's speaking kind of generally to all believers. I'm applying it and speaking about it specifically regarding this fellowship because this is where we are. And so as Jesus is speaking to his disciples, I suggest to you this morning, he's speaking to his followers here in this place, here that God has gathered to this fellowship. And here's what he wants you to know.

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It is guaranteed that offenses will come into this place. It's guaranteed that there will be people offended. It's guaranteed that there will be offenses that are brought in. It's guaranteed. He says it's impossible that no offenses should come.

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You know, there's the saying, you've probably heard it many times, if you ever find the perfect church, don't go because you'll mess it up. Because if you find the perfect church, you're the offender that's coming. Offenses will come. Offenses, there's going to be problems. There's going to be difficulties. Anytime you get a gathering of people, even if they're disciples, there's going to be offenses.

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This word offenses that Jesus uses, it's describing that little piece of a trap that is the trigger. You know, so if you're setting a trap and there's that piece that's the trigger. And once that piece is touched, then boom, the trap snaps. He says it's impossible for that not to take place. For someone to not be caught in a trap. Now this word is used throughout the scripture to...

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To talk about when people are led to turn away from God. When they're led to turn away from the things of God and therefore then come to ruin. There's a few examples of this that we could look at. Remember in Matthew chapter 16, when Jesus was talking about the cross and Peter pulls him aside and says, no Lord, that's not for you. God doesn't want you to go to the cross. That's wrong. And Jesus told Peter, hey, get behind me, Satan. You're an offense to me.

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You're trying to trap me into doing something that God has not called me to do. Or you're trying to trap me into running away from what God has called me to do. I am going to the cross. And any type of exhortation or encouragement for me to not go to the cross is an offense. It's a trap to get me to do something that is not a part of God's will. And so we can understand that any kind of counsel that goes against the will of God for your life is a trap. It's an offense.

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It's a cause for stumbling. We also see in Romans chapter 14, the Apostle Paul talks about this word offense. It's translated there as a stumbling block. And he says, let's resolve this. Not to put a stumbling block or cause to fall in our brother's way. He's talking about judging one another. Bringing judgment upon each other. Being judgmental towards one another. And he says, you know, that could be a stumbling block.

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It could be something that causes someone to fall. It could be something that causes someone to turn away because they're, well, they're so offended by, they're stumbled by the judgment of others. We also see in chapter 16 of Romans, Paul talks about this word offense in regards to division or false doctrine. That division within the body of Christ can also be an offense, a trap, a

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Where people are divided, they're hurt, their relationships are torn apart. And as a result, they turn away from the things of God. And it's harmful to their spiritual life. Division or, of course, false doctrine. False doctrine is pretty obvious, right? When false doctrine creeps in and people are being taught things that are not of God. And they begin to believe they're following after those things that are not of God. And so it's an offense. It's a trap.

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Now here's what Jesus says. Those are a few examples of what we see referred to as offenses throughout the scripture. Here's what Jesus said. It's guaranteed those things are going to happen. There is going to come into the church those who bring counsel that is not according to the will of God. That's guaranteed. It's going to happen. It's guaranteed it's going to happen. There's going to be judging hearts and attitudes that happen within the body of Christ. It's going to happen.

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For sure. It's impossible that no offenses would come. It's going to happen that there's going to be some division. That there's going to be those who try to separate or make a division or cause us to choose sides. It's going to happen. It's for sure. Even if we don't see it or haven't seen it, we will see it. It's going to happen. And it's also going to happen that there will be those who will attempt to bring forth false doctrine within the body of Christ.

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Jesus says, look, this is for sure. Offenses will come. People will be stumbled, whether it's by bad counsel or judgmental attitudes and behavior, division, false doctrine, or anything else. It's going to come. It's going to happen. Offenses will come. That's going to happen. There's no getting around that. But what Jesus now goes on to say is, "...woe to him through whom they do come."

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So even though it's for sure going to happen, it doesn't remove the responsibility or the accountability for those that bring those offenses. This is important for us to know because a lot of times it feels like to us that people get away with things that they shouldn't be getting away with. That people who are instrumental in keeping others away from God, Jesus says, understand there's a woe pronounced upon them.

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There's a judgment that they will receive. They're not getting away with it, even if it seems like they are. He goes on in verse 2 to say, It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. You thought the mob invented that kind of death, huh? Those cement boots? No, no. Jesus says, It would be better to have a millstone. Now, a millstone is a big stone that would weigh anywhere between 25 and 90 pounds or so.

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So have that tied around your neck and then cast into the sea. The idea is you're stuck at the bottom. There's no escape. You will definitely drown. And Jesus said that would be better for the person who brings the offenses than what is going to happen to them. In other words, they're going to be judged. God's going to deal with them. He takes his church seriously. As passionate as I am about the church, he's more passionate. As much as I love this fellowship,

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He, even more so, to a greater extent, he's going to deal with those who bring offenses, those who keep people from God, those who cause people to turn from God, those who bring the offense will be judged. He says it would be better for them to be cast into the sea in this way than for them to offend one of these little ones.

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Now for a little bit of context, in Matthew chapter 18, as Jesus is saying these same things, just prior to this, he's called a little one unto himself. He's called a child to himself. And he has the child there with him as he's talking with his disciples. And so they understood exactly what he's talking about. As he's talking about these offenses that will come, he talks about the little ones. He's got one in his lap and he's saying, if someone causes this little precious child to

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to turn away from God or keeps them from God, I'm going to deal with them very seriously. And a horrible death is better than what's in store for those who cause one of these little children to fall. It's a very serious offense to hinder someone's spiritual progress or to cause them to turn away from God. Offenders will come. Now, that's guaranteed. What we should, I think, primarily be concerned about is

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Lord, help me not to be one of those offenders. And how can we do that? Well, John tells us in 1 John 2, verse 10, he says, It's guaranteed offenses will come. And you know what? They could easily come through one of us.

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I know we wouldn't want to think that, and of course we think the best of ourselves, but no, the reality is, yeah, we have problems. We're sinful, and our sinfulness could affect somebody else and stumble them. And so John tells us, here's what we need, love. If you love your brother, he says there'll be no cause of stumbling in you. If you love one another, you will not be

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causing each other to stumble. Now, the word offenses, you know, we kind of think like, you know, that hurt my feelings. You know, we kind of attach that to the word offenses. Offenses, the way that Jesus is using it, is a little bit more serious than that. So it's not saying that you'll never hurt anybody's feelings, but it's saying that you will never cause them to stumble in their relationship with God. If you love your brother, your sister, if you love one another, if

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That's the key. And so offenders will come, but let's make sure that we're not one of them by developing and expressing that love for one another. So for sure offenders are going to come, but what do we do when those offenders come? Well, he goes on now in verse 3, point number 2, to tell us what we need to do, and that is rebuke offenders. In verse 3 it says, take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him. And if he repents...

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Forgive him. So what are we supposed to do when these offenses come? Jesus says, you have to deal with it. He starts out by saying, take heed to yourselves. This, I think, is significant in our understanding of what Jesus is saying here. He says, take heed to yourselves.

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The word take heed, it means to hold in your mind, to give attention to. It's the idea of holding fast to something. It's actually a word that's used to describe bringing a ship into land. I don't know if you've ever had experience with that and driven a ship or piloted a ship or whatever the appropriate word is for how you navigate a ship. But if you've ever brought in a ship or a boat to a dock,

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You understand it's not something that you can just set it and forget it. Now my grandpa, he had a lake, not a lake, he had a summer home on a lake in South Dakota that we would spend some time at a couple times as I was growing up. And I remember him one time, we were on the pontoon, we were heading back to the dock, it was right outside the backyard of the house that he had. And we're headed back there and he kind of nudged me a little bit, he said, watch this. And he let go...

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of the wheel, the rudder, and he pulled in the pontoon like just perfectly, boom, right to the dock without adjusting the rudder. And that was pretty amazing. I mean, that's really hard to do. I tried to do it and I could never get close to the dock. No, when you're navigating a boat...

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The water's shifting, it's changing, there's wind, and you have to constantly have your hand there. You have to be changing and adjusting constantly, non-stop. And that's kind of the idea here of this take heed. It's have your hand on there and continually make adjustments because, well, things are changing. You can't just sit there not paying attention. You have to take heed. Constantly be watching. Constantly be correcting the course.

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And what is it that we're to take heed to? Well, Jesus says, take heed to yourselves. Now, I'd like to point out, this is a plural word, yourselves. As he's about to talk about rebuking the one who sins against you, it's essential that you understand rebuking someone else is not for your own sake.

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It's not, I need to rebuke them so that I can get an apology. So that I'm satisfied. So that what I want or what I desire is fulfilled. That's not what Jesus is talking about. He says, take heed to yourselves. The idea here is he's saying, watch out for each other. Protect your community. Protect the body of Christ. Again, do you love this fellowship and what God is doing here? Are you a part of this? If so, why?

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Take heed to yourselves. Protect this group that God has gathered together. Protect one another. And so rebuke that is brought forth is not for your own sake, but it's for the sake of the group, but also for the sake of the person who is involved in the sin. Out of love for him, out of love for one another, you have to deal with sin. Jesus is saying, watch out.

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for your community, for your gathering of believers. Watch out. Protect your group. And so I would translate this verse. I'm going to be a little bit liberal here and re-translate verse 3 and put it this way. Take heed to Calvary Chapel living water. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him. And if he repents, forgive him. Jesus is calling us to look out for one another. And in order for us to look out for one another, it means that we're going to have to deal with sin.

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And so he goes on to say, if your brother sins against you, rebuke him. You're going to have to deal with sin if you're going to take heed, if you're going to watch out and beware. Sin must be dealt with. Now, please do notice that he says the word sin. Rebuke is necessary when it is a sin issue. Now, we could be angry and upset with people over a whole lot of things that aren't necessarily sin issues, right?

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We're talking about specifically sin issues so that when you can show chapter and verse, this is where you are violating the word of God. That's the idea here. Jesus says, if someone is sinning against you, they're disregarding the word of God. It's clear. It's rebellion against God. Then you need to bring rebuke. You need to bring correction. A fellow Calvary Chapel pastor, his name is Jim Gallagher, he says this, many of us have had a well-intentioned believer come to us

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Quote Matthew 18 about confronting sin and then proceed to tell us of the recent times when we've disappointed them by neglecting to call or seeming to ignore them or sitting in a different location at church. He says, I want to suggest that these are not sins to confront but to forgive. Yeah, there's things that we do kind of in mistakes. We kind of overlook one another or we make those kinds of mistakes, but it's not an open rebellion or an outright sin.

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disregard for the word of God, he suggests. Those are sins to forgive. Like just get over that. Let them have some grace. Show them some grace and forgive them. But when a person is actively involved in sin or practicing sin, specifically Jesus is saying against you, so you're the victim of their sinful behavior, then you need to take action and bring rebuke. Bring rebuke.

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When your brother sins against you. Now there's also times when you really shouldn't be rebuking. So you should not rebuke someone when their actions aren't violating the scripture. But you think their heart is wrong in it. You're thinking I know what you're thinking. I know what your heart is. I know what your motive is. And so I'm going to rebuke you for having that heart and that motive. Now

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The scripture is quite clear. You are not capable of judging another person's motive. You don't know their own, their hearts. You don't even know your own heart. And so when the scripture talks about not judging one another, it's talking about the heart. The actions, well that's what we are to judge. That's what we are to compare with the word of God and see does it line up. But the heart, we have no business dealing with. We can't see it. We're not effective in that. And so when it's

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not an action issue. It's a heart issue. It's not really our place then to deal with that unless God supernaturally gives you some prophetic revelation and tells you to deal with it. But of course, that's not as common as we might like to think. This isn't a license to be petty and kind of bring up every time that someone has hurt our feelings. You remember people were offended by Jesus, even though Jesus was sinless and perfect. So, you know, that's going to happen as well.

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This is talking about, this is dealing with active sin, active sinfulness. And you and I as believers, in order to protect what God is doing here in our midst, in our fellowship, in the body that he has called us to be a part, we are to deal and address those who are practicing sin, those who are involved in sinful behavior. Rebuke is not something that only the leaders are supposed to do.

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This isn't something like, well, you know, Pastor George, he needs to deal with that. I don't know why he's not dealing with it, but hopefully he'll get around to it soon. Or maybe he's not dealing with it fast enough, so let me tell Pastor George so that he can go ahead and go deal with it. No, Jesus says, look, if that person's sinning against you, you're hurt, you're offended, you're the victim, then you go and rebuke them.

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That brother that's in sin. Every believer has this responsibility. Again, going back to verse 1, he says, then he said to the disciples. He's not saying, only you apostles, only you deal with sin. Don't let other people deal. No. The disciples, every follower of Jesus, has this responsibility. You have to take heed to the body of Christ. Protect the body of Christ. And that means that you must rebuke your brother, your sister, who is involved in sin.

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The word rebuke, it's, well, it's the word to rebuke, but it doesn't attach to it the necessity of change. In other words, there's another word for rebuke that's in the Greek that includes the idea when you bring the rebuke, the person repents and responds. This word that Jesus uses here is rebuke without necessarily any change. So whether there's change or not, whether the rebuke is effective or not,

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Jesus is saying the rebuke must be brought. You have a responsibility to rebuke the believer in sin, whether or not they receive it, whether or not they agree with it, whether or not they respond to it. Now, a lot of times we excuse ourselves, don't we? We think in ourselves, they're not going to listen to me anyway, so why even bother? But Jesus is saying, that's not up to you. Don't worry about the result.

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I'm not putting that in your hand and that's not the determining factor of whether or not you bring rebuke. Rebuke is to be brought when there is that brother, that sister that sins against you. Whether or not they receive it, that's really between them and God. But your responsibility, my responsibility, is to address the sin. Address the person involved in sin.

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In Matthew chapter 18 verses 15 through 20, Jesus kind of breaks down an outline for the process for addressing this kind of sin situation. First of all, he says, if someone's involved in sin, they've sinned against you, he says, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.

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The first thing you do, Jesus says, is go one-on-one, connect with that person, and let them know, here's the chapter, here's the verse, this is where you are violating the word of God, and it's affecting me, and I love you, and I don't want to see you destroyed, so repent. That's the first step. Now, what do we often do? First step, step number one, dial the phone, call up somebody, can you believe so-and-so did this and said that, and wanted me to do this, and went over there, and I can't believe it, and then their friend came in, and

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What do we do? We go to everybody else. We do exactly the opposite of what Jesus told us to do. Listen, please, take heed to Calvary Chapel Living Water. You have an issue with somebody, something happened between, someone sinned against you, don't tell other people. That's violent disobedience to what Jesus called us to do. No, go to that person directly. Jesus says, between you and them alone and share that fault.

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Reveal that sin. Deal with it. Nobody likes to do this. Well, actually, I take that back. If you like to do this, don't do it. Then you tell Pastor George and let him do it. This isn't something you should be excited about. Nobody who is dealing with sin appropriately enjoys it. It's messy. It's hard. It's difficult. It's hurtful. And we'll do everything that we can to get out of it. But Jesus says, look, if you love one another, if you're going to protect what God is doing in the body of Christ, you're going to have to deal with this.

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And you can't put it off on somebody else. You can't wait. You need to deal with it between you and them alone. Now Jesus goes on there in Matthew chapter 18 to explain, well, if that doesn't work, if you meet with them first, then they don't respond. They disagree. They're insisting that they're not involved in sin. Then Jesus says, go get a couple people.

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Now, not so that you can talk about them, but so you can go back to them. And these other people are now witnesses saying, we agree. Look, this is what the word of God says. This is what you're doing. It doesn't line up. There is some repentance that's required here. And so the idea is, you're out of love for this brother, this sister. You're saying, please hear what we're saying. Please see what the word of God says. It's not just my opinion, but

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Look, there's some other believers here who agree that this is what God says and it's contrary to what you're doing. And that's your responsibility as a believer in Jesus. First, you go one-on-one. If that doesn't work, then you bring two or three people. But again, you don't call up two or three people and just talk about it. No, you take those two or three people to the brother, to the sister and say, this is still going on. You're still involved in sin. Here's some witnesses to help you understand that

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You really are in trouble here. This really is sinful. And then Jesus says, if that doesn't work, then, well, the church needs to address it. Then it needs to be dealt with on a bigger level. Jesus never once says, if someone offends you, if someone sins against you, go and tell your friends. Or if someone offends you, then make sure the first thing you do is post it on Facebook. He doesn't say that, but that's often what we do. And again, as someone who could say, I love this fellowship.

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I love what God is doing here. I would ask you to listen to what Jesus says. Take heed to Calvary Chapel Living Water. Take heed to the body of Christ. If your brother sins against you, if your sister sins against you, then rebuke them. It's not pleasant. It's not going to be pretty. It might get messier, but it must be done. David Guzik points out, love is not going to other people about the issue.

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Love also is not bottling it up inside of you. Love is getting it straight with the person who sinned against you. Get it straight. Deal with it. Don't let it sit there. Don't let it fester. Don't let it get worse. But you need to approach that person who's involved in sin. Let's hold each other accountable to the Word of God. That's what He's calling us to do. To love one another enough to sit down with each other and say, listen, I see what's happening in your life.

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And it's different than what God's word says. And I don't want you to fall away. Offenses will come. That's guaranteed. I don't want you to be one of those who are offended. And you're stumbled and you walk away from God. I don't want that to happen to you. And I don't want your actions to cause other people to stumble either. So I need to deal with this and let you know this is what God's word says. There's some repentance that's needed. Well, he goes on in verse 3 and we'll see point number 3 now is we are to forgive offenders. So

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Our responsibility doesn't stop at bringing the rebuke. Jesus calls us now to go beyond the rebuke and now offer forgiveness to the one who has sinned against us. Again, verse 3, take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him. And if he repents, forgive him. So there's a condition here. If he repents, then your responsibility is to forgive.

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The word repent, it means a true change of heart. It's a change of mind. It's a change of heart. It's a change that takes place. We often describe it as a 180 degree turn. You're going this direction. You stop going that direction. You turn around and you go the opposite direction. That's repentance. So if you are sinning against somebody else, you're involved. You're lying about them. You're slandering them. You're talking bad about them. Repentance then is not just stop talking bad about them.

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but to turn around and go the other direction and speak well of them. If you're stealing from somebody and that's your sin against them, repentance is not just to stop stealing. Repentance is not even just to stop stealing and give them what you stole back, but it's to turn around and go the other direction, to give. Repentance is a complete change from one direction to the other. One dictionary defined it

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As regret for the course pursued, resulting in a wiser view of the past and the future. It's like the eyes are open. Not only do I decide to stop doing that, but I understand that's destructive. And so it's not just that I'm not going to do it, but I understand why. That I understand it's not good for me to do. It's not what God has for me.

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Now, how can you tell? So Jesus says, if your brother sins against you, go to them, rebuke them. If he repents, then forgive them. How do you know if they've repented? It's a good question. It's one that you'll probably wrestle with for a long time to come. If you want the quick answer, you can talk to Harvey afterwards. He has it all figured out. Well, here's some quick insight, though, of what Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians chapter 7. He gives us a really good, clear picture of what repentance looks like.

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He says that godly sorrow, talking to the Corinthians and how it works in them, he said, godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted, but the sorrow of the world produces death. He says, for observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner, and what diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication,

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In all things, you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter. Paul says, look what I can observe in you guys, Corinthians. There was repentance. There was that godly sorrow. And what did it produce in you? These are the signs of repentance. Diligence, clearing of yourselves, indignation, fear, vehement desire, zeal, and vindication. There's this passion about getting things right, about making things right.

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When a person is repentant, these, well, will be manifested in them. And so when you see that passion, that desire to make things right, Jesus says, then you must forgive. When you see that change take place. Now, just a quick heads up. Sometimes it takes time to show. And sometimes in one conversation, you can't tell if real repentance has taken place.

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It takes some time for that to show, for that to be revealed, and for that to be proven. But many times we have to take people at their word, and we'll see that even further as we go. Because we can't see their heart, as we talked about before. That's why we can't judge their heart. And so we also can't judge their repentance. And so if they declare that they're repentant, well, we're going to have to take their word for it. And we'll see that again as we go forward. But as we rebuke and there's repentance, then he says, forgive them.

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Now again, rebuke is to be brought whether or not they receive it. Whether or not they agree, whether or not they repent, that's not your responsibility. Your responsibility is to bring the rebuke. But if they repent, that furthers your responsibility. And now you must forgive them. The word forgive means to send something away or to let it go.

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I like one definition I heard. Someone described forgiveness as, it's me giving up my right to pay you back. You've hurt me. You've wronged me. I have the right to pay you back. Eye for an eye, tooth for tooth, right? I have that right to make you suffer the way that you made me suffer. But forgiveness is me surrendering that right and saying, I'm not going to pay you back for what you did for me.

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or to me. I'm not going to pay you back. I'm not going to make you suffer the way that you made me suffer. Forgiveness is not doing nothing or pretending like nothing happened, but it's setting them free from their guilt. It's setting them free. It's showing them grace, and it's to be granted immediately upon request. Now, this is starting to be some pretty tough stuff.

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Rebuke, yeah, we're not all excited about that, but okay, if I have to, I will. But now forgiveness, it's like, whoa, this is getting way too personal, Jerry. You know, just stop right here. Can we just end the service? Stop right here. No. Listen, forgiveness is to be granted immediately upon request. That is Jesus's command to you. He leaves no room for holding grudges.

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for allowing bitterness to grow and progress in us. He leaves no room for that. Forgiveness is to be granted immediately upon request. Now again, forgiveness is not, you know, just pretending like nothing ever happened. Even when forgiveness is granted, the relationship often will never be the same again, depending on what kind of offense that it was. It might not ever be the same.

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But that doesn't mean that forgiveness hasn't happened. Again, it's not pretending like, hey, you never offended me and so everything is going back to normal. It is granting that release, that relationship is now restored, but trust takes time to earn back. Relationships take time to rebuild. We must forgive immediately. But that doesn't mean that things will not be different. And so Jesus says we are to forgive offenders.

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Those who are repentant, we are to forgive. Now again, Jesus is saying, take heed. Watch out for yourselves. Watch out for your group. Protect your community. Protect the body of Christ. Don't let someone who is sinning against you destroy your family. Rebuke them. Deal with the situation. But you know what another thing that can destroy the body of Christ and destroy the family of God is? Unforgiveness.

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So don't let that become an issue either. No, take heed to yourselves and forgive those who have sinned against you. Take heed to Calvary Chapel Living Water. If your brother, your sister sins against you, rebuke them. And if they repent, then forgive them. Well, you thought that was difficult. Are you ready to be radically challenged now? Verses 4 through 6, point number 4, forgive offenders repeatedly.

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You like where this is going already, right? Forgive offenders repeatedly. You're like, okay, maybe I could forgive them, but don't you ever do that again, ever. Verse 4, and if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you saying, I repent, you shall forgive him.

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Did Jesus really say that? Let's read it again. Verse 4. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you saying, I repent, you shall forgive him. Could Jesus really mean that? Is that what he's saying? Yes. That's why the point is, forgive offenders repeatedly. Forgive offenders repeatedly. Picture the scene. I mean, put yourself there.

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Hector comes up to you and smacks you. He's like, oh, I'm so sorry. I don't know what got into me. I repent. I'm sorry. And a little bit later, he comes up. I don't know what's wrong with me today. I don't know what's going on, but oh man, I'm really sorry. Please forgive me. All right, fool me once, fool me twice. Three times, that's it, dude. That's all you get. Three strikes, you're out. Jesus says that happens seven times in a day. And seven times, he comes back and says,

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I'm so sorry. Please forgive me. I don't know what's wrong with me today. Jesus says, you are to forgive them. That is radical. That is absolutely crazy. It seems almost unreasonable. Maybe there's a translation issue here. Maybe, no, no. This is exactly what Jesus said. Now the rabbis of the day taught the best person, the person that was most like God would forgive three times.

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You do that same thing to me three times, and then that's it. I don't have to forgive you after that. Jesus says seven times in a day. Tomorrow the count starts over. That is some radical forgiveness. That's some radical grace. That is what he is calling us to do. Now again, here's where we see that we can't judge the heart. He says, if he says to you, I repent, you shall forgive him. Now after the second or third time, I'd be like,

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Dude, you're just telling me what I want to hear. You're not really repentant. But Jesus says, hey, if he comes back and says to you, I repent, forgive him. Now again, this doesn't mean, okay, everything goes back to normal. I might have my gloves on next time and kind of be ready for him. It doesn't mean I have to leave myself in that position, but I release my right to pay him back. I release my right to inflict pain upon him.

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I restore that relationship and allow the fellowship once again. That's what forgiveness is all about. Verse 5. And the apostles said to the Lord, increase our faith. So the disciples responded to this in a very similar fashion to you and I. They said, no way. This is crazy impossible. You can't be asking us to do that. If you're asking us to do that, then Lord, you're going to have to increase our faith. Because...

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I'm starting to have some doubts. Are you really Lord? Are you really the Savior? Because this is a bit much, what you're asking of us. Increase our faith, Adam Clark, the commentator says, this work of pardoning every offense of every man and that continually seems so difficult, even to the disciples that they saw without an extraordinary degree of faith, they would never be able to keep this command. Amen.

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This command that Jesus is giving us to forgive and forgive repeatedly requires a lot of faith. You're going to have to trust God. You're going to have to believe in God. You're going to have to let him work and you're going to have to hold fast to him. It requires a great amount of faith. And so they say, increase our faith. We need more faith. I can't forgive like that. I don't trust God enough to forgive like that. I need more faith to be able to trust God.

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to forgive in that way. But notice what Jesus says in verse 6. So the Lord said, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea, and it would obey you. So the disciples respond, hey, we need more faith if we're going to obey this. Jesus says, if you have faith as a mustard seed. Now the mustard seed was basically like the smallest seed that they knew about.

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It's not the smallest seed in existence, but that was what they accepted or understood as the smallest seed. It's the one that they knew about. And so Jesus is giving this contrast here. If you have this little tiny, eensy-beansy bit of faith, then you can do something great, like speak to the mulberry tree. Now Jesus here is not saying, you of little faith, you don't even have that much. You don't even have enough the size of a mustard seed. He's not rebuking them for anything.

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not having any faith. What Jesus is saying is, you already have enough faith to obey this command to forgive repeatedly. You already have enough faith so that you could speak to the mulberry tree. Now, this is referring probably to the mulberry fig tree.

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which was a particular kind of tree. It grew kind of large. I think it was about 35 feet high or so would be the extent of the height that they would grow. But what made the mulberry tree significant was it has a vast root system, which makes it really, really strong. And this root system...

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would hold the tree. And so they believed that this mulberry tree could live for 600 years as a result of this vast root system, that it could survive in all kinds of weather, in all kinds of situations. It would be able to come back and thrive even after great devastation. And so the idea of uprooting a mulberry tree was like, well, that's just impossible. But Jesus says, if you have faith as a mustard seed, then you could speak to the mulberry tree

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And it would be uprooted. Now, I'm not suggesting that Jesus is talking about physical trees. Otherwise, that might make gardening a little bit easier, right? Just like, you move over here, you move over there. Let's rearrange the trees in our yard. That would be one thing. But we often describe bitterness as that root of bitterness. Unforgiveness can take such a hold of our hearts and get its roots in every part, in every aspect.

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and sometimes letting that go and getting rid of that can seem as impossible as speaking to a tree and uprooting itself. And here's what Jesus is saying. No, I can uproot those things. You can uproot those things in obedience to me because you already have enough faith. Think about, it's kind of silly to say, I don't have enough faith to obey Jesus to forgive someone repeatedly. It's kind of silly to declare that, to think that way.

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Because on the one hand, I'm saying, I believe that Jesus can forgive me of my sins and he can do a radical work in me and make me a new creation and give me spiritual life and resurrect me from the dead and give me eternal life. But I don't think he can help me forgive that person. It doesn't make sense. You're saying, God is awesome. He's powerful. He does this radical work, but he can't help me with this little problem.

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Well, it's not a little problem, Jerry. I mean, that's a big issue of forgiveness. And I don't know if I could forget. I mean, they really hurt me really bad. I mean, that's not just a little thing. Yeah, but when you compare it to what God has done for you, and you believe what God has done for you, you believe in Jesus, that He being God, this great mystery, became man to die upon the cross. You believe that, but you don't believe that He could help you with this issue of unforgiveness.

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that's a lot like saying, I believe God is the creator of the heavens and the earth. He created the universe. He holds it all together, but he can't uproot a tree. He's not able to do that. Now, if God is the creator, that's well within his capacity. If you believe in Jesus Christ, you already have enough faith. You don't need increased faith. You already have enough faith to obey him and forgive him.

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That person repeatedly, even seven times a day. It's not an issue of enough faith. It's an issue of obedience. Will you obey him? Will you obey or will you not obey? That's the real issue. It's not really an issue of faith. You already trust God enough to forgive you, to give you everlasting life. So you have enough faith to trust God in forgiving one another. Now,

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Again, Matthew chapter 18 is kind of a parallel to this. And in Matthew chapter 18, Jesus, I'm sorry, Peter approaches Jesus and says, Lord, how often should I forgive my brother? Up to seven times? And so maybe what Jesus is talking about here is kind of in response to Peter. But there in Matthew 18, Jesus says, I'm not telling you seven times, but 70 times seven.

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So now you got to get out your Excel spreadsheet, right? Okay, this person sinned against me this way up to seven times in a day and then up to 70 times seven altogether. And then after that's done, then I don't have to forgive them. Okay, but they sinned against me another way. So let me start another column here. Okay, how many times has he sinned against me that way? Is that what Jesus is saying? No, of course not. The whole point is it doesn't matter how many times we're to forgive repeatedly no matter what.

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But then in Matthew chapter 18, Jesus goes on to give a parable. He says, look, it's like a king who had servants who owed him a great debt. And he called a servant who owed him a great debt, millions of dollars. And he said, you better pay me back what you owe me. Otherwise, I'm going to cast you in prison because you owe me millions of dollars. And the guy begged for forgiveness. He begged for mercy. He said, oh, please, I don't have it. I'll work hard. I'll try to get it. And then the king says, you know what? I'm canceling your debt.

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I'm going to let you go free and I'm not going to require you to pay it back. A great release of debt. But then this guy goes to another dude who owes him like $5 and he's like choking him and saying, look, I'm going to throw you into prison if you don't pay me back the $5 that you owe me. When he was just forgiven the millions of dollars. Jesus says, that servant, he's going to be put into prison. He will not be let out until he pays it all back.

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And then he says, so will my heavenly father do to each of you if you do not forgive your brother his trespasses. You see, the picture is someone who sinned against you, I'm not minimizing it and saying it's nothing, but when you compare it to what God has done for you, it's so much less. You've been shown so much grace. You've been given so much forgiveness. How dare you hold that little charge against someone else?

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How dare you is what Jesus is saying. How could you be so bold, so brash to say, I'm going to take God's forgiveness, but I'm not going to forgive that person. He already sinned against me four times. That's it. I'm not going to forgive. No, you must forgive. You have enough faith. It's not about that. The issue is, will you be obedient? Again, I love this fellowship. I love you guys. I want what's best for us.

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I want God to continue the work that He's doing here and doing in us and our ministry to one another. I want Him to continue what He has done. And so I must take heed to this body. You must take heed to this body or whatever body He's included you in that you're a part of. You must take heed, which means that you must rebuke offenders. Don't be surprised when it happens. It's going to happen for sure. But you need to then deal with it. Rebuke offenders.

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But then don't let unforgiveness become the new issue. You must forgive those who offend. And even if it's a repeated offense, even if it's over and over, even if it's several times daily, you can't let that be an issue. You can't let that affect the body of Christ. You must forgive. You must let it go. You must send it away.

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If you're holding on to it and now it's like, well, I'm not going to go to that event if they're going to be there. I can't go to that service because they're at that service or I don't want to be around them. I don't want to see their face ever again. I'm going to go to a different church. That's unforgiveness and bitterness. You need to let that go. You need to protect the relationships that God has established here. The unity that God is creating here. You need to protect what God is doing in our midst.

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He's given you that responsibility. Not just me, not just the leaders, but every believer. Rebuke offenders, forgive offenders, and forgive offenders repeatedly. One final thing as we close, and that is God is not asking us to do something that he does not do. And that is the amazing, wonderful truth about this passage. You look at this like, wow, this is kind of heavy. But then if you turn it around and remember,

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This is the way that God forgives you. Now there's some refreshing. God, even if I come back to you daily, multiple times a day, and say, Lord, forgive me, I repent. You're going to forgive me? You're that gracious? God is not asking us to do what he is not extending to us. And that's why John is able to say in 1 John 1, 9, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

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That doesn't just mean the limits once a day, you know. You can only get one refill, that's it. Additional refills are 25 cents. No, it's free. He paid the price at the cross so that you could have this kind of forgiveness so that then you could extend that forgiveness to other people. God wants to forgive you. He wants to restore that relationship with you, to bring you into the presence of God, to give you access to God, to release you of the guilt, to release you of the wrath.

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that is deserved from sin. He desires to set you free. And this is the kind of grace and forgiveness that he offers. And so this morning I would say, if you're not right with God, it's only on your part. God's not looking down and saying, don't even bother coming. You've already asked too many times. No, God looks at you and says, come back. Tell me you repent. Ask for forgiveness. Confess your sin to me. I'll forgive you. He promises.

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He promises this kind of grace, this kind of forgiveness. So don't hold back. Receive it. Let him release you from the guilt, from the sin, from the bonds that hold you. Let him forgive you. Let's pray. Lord, as we consider this radical passage, I pray that you would help us

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to trust you, to believe you at your word, and to be obedient to it. God, I pray for this body here, for this fellowship. Lord, that you would help us to be faithful to your word, that we would trust you enough to obey and to rebuke those who sin against us and forgive them when they repent and forgive them repeatedly when it's over and over again. Lord, help us to be that obedient, to protect this place, the work that you're doing here.

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Help us, Lord, not to be one of those who brings an offense, but Lord, that our love for one another would cause us to rebuke and forgive as is appropriate. And Lord, I pray for anyone who's here today and they're not right in their relationship with you. Maybe they one time were, or maybe they never have been. Lord, you know exactly where they're at and what they're going through, what their hearts are, what's happening within them right now, Lord. I pray for anyone that needs to hear this.

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Lord, that you would speak to their heart. Let them know how much you love them. So much that you paid the full price by dying on the cross on their behalf. So that they wouldn't have to receive the penalty of sin, but that they could receive the forgiveness that you offer. The grace that you give so freely. And so God, I pray that you would bring each one to receive your forgiveness. Thank you for your goodness to us, God. You're so incredible. In Jesus' name we pray.

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Amen.