MATTHEW 18:21-35 FORGIVENESS ACCORDING TO JESUS2017 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Matthew 18:21-35 Forgiveness According To Jesus

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 2017. As we look at Matthew chapter 18 this morning, we're looking at what I would describe as one of the hardest teachings of Jesus. And there's maybe a lot of passages that you could look at kind of with that description, but

It's a very difficult thing that Jesus is addressing here. And it's not that it's difficult to understand or comprehend, but to put it into practice really is going to take some death to self. It's going to be very challenging for our hearts to really live out the instruction that Jesus gives us here. And really, because as we talk about forgiveness, it's an issue that is so personal.

I mean, it is so personal because it's dealing with hurts and offenses and not just like little wounds, but even deep and severe pains that you have experienced from people around you. And of course, this affects you and your relationship with your spouse if you're married and you as husband and wife are going to hurt one another and offend one another and there's going to be great need for forgiveness.

But it extends beyond that to, well, every relationship that you will ever have with anybody for the rest of your life.

It's a wide impacting issue. It's a huge difficulty in following it. And so there's great need for us to understand what Jesus is teaching here and to lean upon him to be able to live it out. I've titled the message this morning, Forgiveness According to Jesus.

There is a lot of misunderstandings and I think misconceptions about forgiveness. And so here in this passage, we have Jesus talking about forgiveness, but then giving an illustration to help us have a greater understanding of what forgiveness is. And I think as you work your way through this passage and this parable that Jesus tells, you'll understand forgiveness.

what he calls us to would be considered radical forgiveness. I mean, this is not ordinary, you know, normal forgiveness, but this is something that is really incredible.

And so we have a lot to learn from this passage. In fact, much more than we can actually cover. There's going to be, you know, great things in there still that we're going to leave uncovered or leave, you know, undealt with because there's so much here that the Lord wants to speak to us. And I would encourage you to take these things and chew on them. And there is more that God would show you on your own.

But as we look at this passage this morning, we want to take a look at what forgiveness is and then what that means for us, what we must do as a result of what Jesus says forgiveness is. And so the first thing that I would say that Jesus says forgiveness is a choice. What is forgiveness? First of all, you need to understand it is a choice that we must make.

Looking again at verse 21, Peter comes to Jesus and says, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times? We begin looking at this subject of forgiveness with Peter. And Peter comes to Jesus with a question. How many times do I need to forgive my brother? Perhaps he's pointing at one of the fellow disciples who keeps getting on his nerves. We don't know.

But the implication here and the idea behind this question is, it's the same sin being repeated by somebody in my life. How many times do I have to forgive that sin? Now, the common teaching of the day by the rabbis was, you forgive the same person the same sin up to three times. And then after that, you're not obligated to forgive. And God doesn't expect you to forgive because you've forgiven them for that same sin three times and that's it. Now, Peter...

Takes it a bit further and says, what do you think, Lord? Seven times? I mean, obviously you teach, you know, things that are even greater than what the rabbi says. So let's go with seven times. You think that's a good number, Lord, for how many times I should forgive someone in my life who offends me the same way over and over? And Jesus responds in verse 22 and says, I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to 70 times seven. Okay.

So Jesus says, Peter, no, I wouldn't suggest seven times as the amount of times you should forgive that same person for the same offense. But instead, try this number, 70 times seven. If you do the math on that, you get 490 times seven.

That you are to forgive the same person for the same sin. Now, some translations look at it a little bit differently and put it as 77 times. And if we have a preference, we'd go with that one, right? Okay, so only 77 times. That's how many times I need to forgive the same person for the same offense.

Now, in response to this question and this interaction that Jesus and Peter have, Jesus gives this parable. And so in verse 23, he says, therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. And so this whole parable that follows is directly related to this interaction, to this question and to this answer that Jesus gave. But as we begin looking at this passage, you can understand right off the bat that

Forgiveness is a choice because when you are offended, when someone sins against you, forgiveness being offered by you to that offending party is not something that is desirable, right? When you're offended, when you are hurt, when you're wounded, when you're sinned against, forgiveness is not something that's automatic. It's not something that just happens. It's not something that comes easily necessarily, right?

but it is a choice that you must make. It's actually a command that we're given, and we'll see that even as we go further. It's a command, which means it's a choice, but that also means, in contrast, that it's not a feeling. And sometimes we approach forgiveness with this kind of misunderstanding that, well, I don't feel like forgiving them, or I've forgiven them, but I just can't let it go. And it's just this like,

You know, I'm helpless in the matter. It's just, you know, I'm still holding on to it. I don't mean to. And it's just how I feel. But forgiveness is not ruled by your feelings, or at least not the kind of forgiveness that Jesus is talking about. It's a choice. It's not something that happens to you. And so you don't wake up just one day and just think, oh, wow, you know, I had this great grudge against you, but it's gone. I guess it happened. Finally, you know, I just, I forgive you.

But it's a deliberate choice that must be made. And our natural condition, the default, is to not forgive. And so in order to forgive, it has to be a choice. And so the command to forgive is one that we either obey or that we disobey.

It's a choice that we're given, a command that we're given, and we get to choose whether or not we obey or not. And so that's what forgiveness is right off the bat. Forgiveness is a choice. And what that means for us now is that, well, you must forgive. Now, maybe that sounds a little bit interesting, right? Because it's a choice, but then now you have to. But that really is the result of you deciding to be a follower of Jesus. You gave up your choices, right?

When you began to follow Jesus, it is a choice that must be made that you have to make. It's not going to happen automatically, but you also surrendered your right to choose when you became a follower of Jesus. And what Jesus would say to you this morning is that you don't have the option, even though it's a choice and you have to make the choice, you don't have the option to choose, you know,

I'm just not going to forgive you for this issue. I'm not going to forgive that person for that offense. I'm not going to forgive that person for that hurt, for that wound. That's not an option for the believer in Jesus. As a believer in Jesus, according to what Jesus is teaching here in this passage and many others, you must forgive.

None of us has any right to hold on to any grudges or bitterness or anything that we would hold over somebody and not forgive no matter what the issue is. And Jesus makes that clear. He says, I don't say that you should forgive seven times, but 70 times seven. That's how much you must forgive. That is to be ongoing. You must forgive on every occasion that

the offense that is done towards you. Now, as Jesus is teaching this, this is not the first time that this has come up. It's not the first time that he's brought forth this concept of forgiveness, the need to forgive, and then tying that into our forgiveness from God.

Jump down to verse 35 for a minute and see what Jesus says at the end there. He says, so my heavenly father also will do to you if each of you from his heart does not forgive his brother his trespasses. As Jesus gives this parable about forgiveness, he gets to the end of it and he applies the parable and he says, look, you're going to be in trouble if you don't forgive the people around you, then your heavenly father, he's not going to forgive you.

And he ties your forgiveness from God to your offer of forgiveness to the people around you. And this is pretty difficult concept. It's pretty difficult truth for us to grasp hold of. And there's some theological implications that theologians can wrestle with and you can wrestle with later if you'd like. But

I like what Pastor Chuck says about this. He says, look, it doesn't matter so much what your theology is in the sense of, you know, your system and if it fits, you know, the points that you've developed as your theology for God, but it's what Jesus taught. And so regardless of what that does with your theological system, this is what you need to obey and put into practice and understand. Here's what Jesus says. If you want to be forgiven,

then you need to be forgiving to the people around you. And just to kind of reiterate this so that you understand this isn't just a, you know, a weird quirky translation, something. No, this is something that Jesus taught. In Matthew chapter six, you might remember what we refer to as the Lord's prayer, where Jesus teaches us to pray. In Matthew chapter six, verse nine, Jesus says, "'In this manner, therefore, pray.'"

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

This is the prayer that Jesus gave to us and said, this is the pattern. Pray like this, follow this. And one element of that prayer in Matthew 6, 12, as we're praying to God, we say, God, will you forgive me as I forgive the people around me? The idea of your forgiveness and your forgivingness is permanently tied together. It's inseparable. Now, Jesus goes on after the prayer saying,

To reiterate this and even emphasize it further in verse 14 and 15 of Matthew chapter 6, he says, And so it was pretty clear in the prayer. Lord, forgive us as we forgive our debtors.

But Jesus wants to make sure this is extra crystal clear. He doesn't reiterate or emphasize any other part of the prayer. But immediately after he teaches us this prayer, he says, okay, now you need to understand if you forgive men their trespasses, then your father in heaven will forgive you your trespasses. And if you do not forgive people their trespasses, your heavenly father will not forgive your trespasses.

And so again, the point is, the application is, you must forgive. It's not an optional thing for you. In fact, it's permanently tied to your receiving forgiveness from the Father. It's a command. It's a choice. You get to choose whether or not you're going to obey the command. But as a follower of Jesus, really, there's no choice. You must forgive Jesus.

those who have hurt you and wounded you and offended you, whether they live in your home or next door or across town, or you work with them, wherever they might be, those who have offended you and hurt you, you are commanded to forgive. Now, moving on to the second point about forgiveness. What is forgiveness? It is a choice. Secondly, forgiveness is a releasing of debt.

And Jesus uses this illustration, this parable, to help us grasp hold of the idea of really what forgiveness is all about and what it looks like. And so looking again at this parable in verse 23, it says, "'Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king "'who wanted to,' notice, "'settle accounts with his servants. "'And when he had begun to settle accounts, "'one was brought to him who,' notice, "'owed 10,000 talents.'"

Verse 25, but as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold with his wife and children and all that he had and that payment be made. The servant therefore fell down before him saying, master, have patience with me and I will pay you all. Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him and notice, forgave him the debt. So Jesus uses this whole concept of debt and

as an illustration to help us grasp hold of what forgiveness really is. It's a releasing of debt. And so in this parable, there's a king. And, well, it's tax season. He's settling accounts. He's reconciling accounts. He's working on all the numbers and making sure everything balances and calling up all those who owe him and say, okay,

What's the deal? When are you going to pay me? How much, you know, are you going to be able to give right now? And he's settling accounts, working out all that. And as he's working out all these accounts, and this one servant is brought in who owes him 10,000 talents. Now we'll talk about that amount a little bit more in a few minutes. But what we understand from this number is that it is impossible to pay this back.

This servant comes in who has an impossible debt. There's no way he could work his whole life and not come close to earning or paying back this amount of debt. And so the master says, you know what, servant? You owe me this money and you don't have the money. So you're going to be sold into slavery.

That's the way that they would manage outstanding debts and crazy debts that were unpayable. They would say, well, okay, you're a servant for the rest of your life then. Not only that, but your family, your wife and your children, they're going to be sold into slavery too to help pay off the debt that you incurred. The mistake that you made, they're going to pay for as they're sold into slavery. And the servant fell on his knees and pleaded. He begged. He said, oh no, please don't do that. Have patience.

Just give me a little bit of time and I'll be able to pay it all back. Now he was very optimistic on how much he could pay back because again, this was an unpayable debt that he owed. But as he begs, as he cries out, it tells us that the master is moved with compassion, released him and forgave the debt. The master didn't just give him more time. Okay, you got two years. You better come up with that crazy amount of money. He released him from the debt.

He washed the debt away. He said, servant, you don't owe me anything anymore. Your debt is canceled. You don't have to make payments. You don't have to serve the rest of your life for nothing. Your debt has been eliminated. It's a releasing of debt. And this is a really incredible picture of forgiveness to understand, to help us understand, first of all, what God has done for us in forgiving us. But now he calls us to then turn around and extend that same forgiveness to one another.

Now, just kind of following along with the illustration that Jesus is giving here, let me run through some math with you to, again, help us understand what this forgiveness is like. Let's say I owe you $100. And it could be that you loaned me the $100, or it could be that I snuck into your wallet when you weren't looking and took the $100. $100.

Regardless of whether you wanted it to happen or not, I have $100 that belongs to you. Now, doing the math, that leaves you with negative $100, right? Not real complicated math. It's pretty easy. You understand. You now have $100 less because I have it. Whether you gave it to me or loaned it to me or whether I took it from you, you're out that $100. Now, what normally happens is

When you loan me $100 is I pay you back. So you lost $100 as you loaned it to me, but then I worked real hard, put in some extra hours, got $100 extra, and I gave it to you and I paid you back. Now the net result for you is zero. You didn't really gain anything when I paid you the $100 back because, well, you're already starting negative because it was your $100 that I took. So you're netted out at zero now. You lost $100 for a little bit. Now you got it back.

Now, maybe if you want a little bit of benefit from me using your $100, maybe you add some interest. And so you loan me $100. I pay you back that $100, but you say 10% interest. Give me $10 on top of that. And so I pay you back $110. But the reality is you really only net from that $10 because, well, the $100 was originally yours. You lost it. I gave it back, and then you got $10. It's not like a huge, you know,

you don't get $100 for loaning out $100, right? It's just a little bit of difference. You get $10 back if I pay you back the $100 with interest. So how does all this relate to forgiveness? Well, let me show you. Here's forgiveness. Forgiveness is not about getting paid back and it's not about getting interest. It's about taking the loss. So forgiveness...

I took $100 from you or you loaned $100 to me and I didn't pay you back. Either way, I have $100 that belongs to you. Now, forgiveness wipes out that debt and wipes out the expectation of payment of that debt and wipes out any expectation of interest on top of that payment that might be expected on that debt. But notice the net result then. The net result is negative $100. Okay?

Now, this is the point, and it's not so much about the money in reality, in real life. Offenses are not exactly like the money because, well, there's much more complicated things that go involved in the sins that are done to us and the hurts and the offenses that we receive. But it paints the picture, I hope, for you that forgiveness is not about netting zero. Forgiveness is about taking the whole hit. You lose the $100, right?

The reality is if someone sins against you, someone offends you, again, there's a lot of different types of sin and offenses. So the numbers paint the picture, but it's not so much about the numbers as it is you accepting the fact that I'm never going to get paid back for this pain that they have caused me, for this hurt that has been inflicted, for this wound that I've received. I'm never going to be recompensed for that. That's not going to happen. For most sin, that's not even possible.

I mean, it doesn't really work if I insult you. Okay, so I'll pay you back with 10 compliments. But you understand that really doesn't, it's not the same as money, right? It doesn't really make things different. It maybe helps your relationship a little bit, but it's not the same. But here's the point. Forgiveness then for me insulting you is you just taking the hit and not requiring, okay, now you owe me 10 compliments. Bless you.

It's about releasing the debt. I'll take the hit. You insulted me. I received that. I'm not going to require anything of you. I'm releasing you from any obligation, from any payment, from any expectation. I'm not going to try to make you pay back for that insult. Now, one option that we often try, which is not actually valid, and so I didn't take the time to put it on the screen, but it is one that we try. I suffer the loss of $100.

Because I loaned you money or you took it from me, but I'm never going to get it back. And I recognize I'm never going to get it back. So I'm going to take the hit. But I want to make sure that you understand what it's like to lose $100. So I'm going to take $100 from you and make you suffer until you know what it's like to suffer the way that I've suffered because you made me suffer. So now I need to make you suffer so you know what it's like. And so I'm going to steal $100 from you because you didn't pay me back the $100 you owe me.

Now that is absolutely invalid, wrong, bad logic. It is not something that we should engage in as believers in Jesus, and yet it is something that we often try to do. You insulted me, so I'm going to insult you, you know, this for that. And that is not what forgiveness is all about. Forgiveness is a releasing of debt. As we've talked about forgiveness over the years, I often describe forgiveness as being about access, right?

It's about the relationship. Forgiveness is about access in that it's a chance to restore the relationship. We talked about the value of relationships in Matthew chapter 5 a few weeks back. God values relationships and he wants us to work things out and to reconcile. He wants us to be united together again with those who have offended us. And forgiveness is for that. It's a chance to restore the relationship.

where I'm not expecting payment. And so we can have the freedom to reconcile and have relationship once again. Now, if you would think about it with me again, just looking at the illustration of money, think about how service would be today if you owed somebody here money. Now, this is not so much hypothetical as it is. Look, we've seen this happen over and over and over throughout the years. It happens.

Here in the body of Christ, people lend to one another. And sometimes when money is lent, paying it back is not so easy and doesn't happen very smoothly. Sometimes even money is taken and not so much borrowed. Now you can understand that that would have kind of an impact on your relationship with somebody here. And we've seen over the years it happened where, well, you stop coming to church and

because you know you're going to run into that person that you owe money to, and now it's really awkward. The relationship is tense because, well, you owe them money, and they don't want to be a jerk and demand the money from you, and you feel bad because you can't pay back the money, and so you start avoiding them, and you start, well, they come to first service, so I'll come to second service, and then every time you see them, it's hard for you. It's not just hard for them, but it's hard for you because you're like, oh man, I feel so bad because I borrowed the money, and I can't pay them back, and

And it's a hard thing. It's a painful thing for us to be in that situation. It messes up the relationship. But forgiveness is, hey, you're released of the debt. We can come and worship together. We can come and fellowship together. We can have communion together. We can talk together. We can work together. Because there is no expectation now for you to repay for that sin that you committed.

It's about access. It's about opening up that relationship once again and being reconciled. And going on from there, making sure that, you know, you don't continue to give the looks. You know, it's amazing how many times we can forgive people, but every look we give them, it's like, I remember what you did to me. I remember how you hurt me. I remember you owe me $100. I can't believe you took $100 from me. You wounded me. You hurt me. You offended me. But I forgive you.

But I just want you to remember, you hurt me. That's not the forgiveness that Jesus is talking about here. It's a release of debt. It's zeroing out. You take the hit. There is a hit. I mean, there is cost. It's not cheap forgiveness. It's costly, but you take it. Now, I'm using all of the money as illustration, just like Jesus did. Quick side note without getting into a lot of detail. There can be forgiveness and still be practical consequences, right?

So that actual money is actually owed. Let me give you an example. My first jury duty case ever. It was an attempted murder trial. Daughter and her boyfriend snuck into mom and dad's room in the middle of the night. She had, or actually he had the knife and plunged it into the dad's chest. Now the dad survived because the knife that they used wasn't very strong and the knife broke instead of putting him to death. Now she's on trial. I'm on the jury.

And the dad, taking the stand, looks to the jury and says, I forgive her. Please don't do this to my daughter. Please don't send her to prison. I forgive her. Now understanding the idea of forgiveness, that's great. You forgive her. Good. You can have a good long relationship with her and go visit her in prison. But there's still the practical consequences. There still are those consequences, but

But as far as you are concerned, as far as the relationship is concerned, forgiveness is about zeroing out the debt, just taking the hit and not expecting that you could ever pay me back for the hurt that has been inflicted. Remember David, when he was caught by Nathan the prophet and singled out for his adultery, for his murder, Nathan tells him a parable.

Kind of reels him in and then says, David, you're the man. And David realizes his sin and he confesses, I have sinned against God. And Nathan speaking on behalf of God, he says, you are forgiven, but you've given great cause for the enemies of God to blaspheme. And so your child is still going to die. There's still practical consequences many times to sin.

But the thing for us to remember is that we're not charged with inflicting those practical consequences. We need to leave those to God. Our responsibility is toward the relationship, and it's to forgive those offenses that have been given to us. Now, another side note I'm not going to get into, just going to touch on briefly. Forgiveness is not the same as trust. So you took $100 of mine. I forgive you. I'm not expecting you to pay me that back.

That doesn't mean that I keep on loaning you $100. I don't have to do, that's not the same as forgiveness. It's not trust. It's not that, okay, well, now let's pretend like it never happened. You never borrowed from me. You never failed me before. And so here's $100. And then next week, here's $100. That's not forgiveness either. It's not the same as trust. You don't have to necessarily keep putting yourself in a situation of being hurt and being wounded and

Because you've forgiven. There's a distinction there. And if you need help discerning that, we'd love to talk with you more about it later. But the other side of that is you don't always have control of those things. And you know, people are going to hurt you whether you are volunteering it or not. You don't have to be loaning out $100 for people to take $100 from you.

People are going to hurt you. They're going to offend you. They're going to wound you whether you like it or not. And sometimes we're bound up in relationships where we continue to get hurt and wounded. And it's, well, it's part of the life that we're in. It's part of the fallen world that we live in. And so your coworkers continue to offend you. And there's not much you could do about that except...

that the Lord calls you to forgive. And so that brings me to the application of this. So forgiveness is a releasing of debt. Now, here's what you must do. You must offer unlimited forgiveness. Now, again, this gets really difficult. There's some really hard stuff that Jesus is calling us to do here. I could see Peter asking, okay, so what's the dollar limit again? How much do I have to forgive the debt? $100? Okay, I can handle that.

But James borrowed $500 from me and didn't pay it back. So I don't have to forgive that, right, Lord? I mean, it's a bigger sin. It's a bigger hurt. It's a bigger wound. The forgiveness that Jesus calls you to offer is not limited by how bad the sin was. It's not limited by whether or not they knew it was going to hurt you. It's not limited by how long the effects last and how difficult or deep or hurtful it was.

And Jesus illustrates that in this parable as you compare the debts that were owed. So here's the first servant. He owed an impossible debt, 10,000 talents, it says in verse 24. But then the issue happens. He's forgiven. Great. But the issue happens when that guy who's forgiven this impossible debt turns around, grabs another servant by the throat, and starts choking them and says, pay me the money you owe me, which was 100 denarii. Now,

10,000 talents, 100 denarii, these are not terms that we use all the time. So what are those values? What are we talking about? What kind of range are we talking about here as we talk about these debts? Well, 10,000 talents measured at different times, different, you know, throughout history. But best understanding of the scholars is that's about 75 pounds of a material. Usually silver could also be applied to gold, but gold.

Assuming silver for conservity, to be conservative, 10,000 talents of silver at today's rate, I just looked it up this morning, would be about $169 million. $169 million.

So imagine that. You owe $169 million, and you can understand that's an impossible debt. I mean, that's just not something you can pay off working at Walmart. You know, you could work at Walmart for the rest of your life, and you're never going to pay that off. It's just impossible to pay back. So this guy's forgiven a debt of $169 million. I mean, that's huge.

But then he turns around and there's this other servant who owes the forgiven servant 100 denarii. A denarii was one day's wage. So taking today's minimum wage, let's say eight hours of work, that comes to about $84. So we'll call $84 a day's wage. Now, this guy owed him 100 days wages. So you can understand this was not a insignificant debt. That's $8,000 this servant owed the other servant.

And you can understand, hey, if I owed you $8,000, I might not be here for church this morning. I mean, I'd be like, I don't have any means to pay that back. It's a significant amount. If someone owed you $8,000, that's pretty steep. It's not insignificant. But as you compare the debts, you understand. The debt, the first servant was forgiven, doesn't even compare. It was so far greater. It was so much more than

that you can see how it becomes a great wicked thing for this guy now to charge this guy and choke him by the neck for $8,000 when he's just been given or forgiven $169 million. Now Jesus uses this picture in the parable to make the point, listen, nobody can ever sin against you as much as you have sinned against God. That's the point. That's what Jesus is showing us here that

$8,000, it's a significant amount. And the people who have hurt you and wounded you and sinned against you, it's not that it's nothing and you should just laugh it off and, you know, you're so silly for holding on to that. No, no, there's real pain. There's real issues. There's real hurt. But at the same time, you need to recognize it doesn't even compare to how much God has forgiven you. No one will ever sin against you as much as you have sinned against God.

Remember in Matthew chapter five, as we went through the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus made the point, you must be exceedingly righteous. We missed the mark. We sin against God greatly. Our sin against God is far beyond any ability to ever repay. We owed God a great debt, more than the $169 million. And the people who sin against us, it hurts, it's painful, it's real, but it will never amount to

to how much God has forgiven you. And that includes your spouse. Now listen, Kim has to forgive me at least seven times a day. We get to the end of our life. I still will not have sinned against her as much as I've sinned against God. That's the reality. That's the comparison. And so because you've been forgiven so much, your forgiveness to other people must be unlimited. You can't put a value on it and say, well, that's it. Seven times, now I can't forgive you anymore.

Unlimited. That's unlimited amount. That's unlimited hurt, but also unlimited frequency. In Luke chapter 17, Jesus says, if your brother sins against you seven times in a day and seven times in a day returns to you saying, I repent, you shall forgive him. So Kim, you have to forgive me seven times a day at least. That's the reality. Unlimited amount, unlimited frequency. You must forgive those who have sinned against you.

It's not a choice. I mean, it is a choice, but you have to make the choice because it's not a choice. You've decided to follow Jesus. You must forgive and it must be unlimited. If you have limits on your forgiveness, it's not the forgiveness that Jesus is talking about. It's not the forgiveness that Jesus calls you to. Well, further understanding forgiveness in point number three, forgiveness is an act of compassion.

Now, again, these are radical truths, and it really turns things around, and you have to, you have to be willing to look at this from another perspective. When we're hurt, when we're sinned against, and we're offended, all we think about typically is our own perspective. I'm hurt. I'm wounded. You did this to me, but real forgiveness stops that, breaks away. You're going to have to die to yourself. I know that's a shock, but that's what Jesus calls us to, and

And to offer real forgiveness, it's an act of compassion. Notice in verse 27, it says, then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him and forgave the debt. The master said, you owe me this debt. You can't pay me. All right, you're going to be sold into slavery. Your wife's going to be sold into slavery. Your kids are going to be sold into slavery. And the guy got on his knees and begged, please don't do this to us. Please don't do this to my wife and kids. No, please, I'll pay you back. Just give me time.

And the master was moved with compassion. You know what compassion is? It means to feel what they feel, to feel what someone else feels. The master looked at this and felt it. How would I feel being sold into slavery? How would I feel my wife being sold into slavery for my mistake? My kids being sold into slavery for my mistake? How would I feel? Jesus calls us to do the radical thing.

to turn around and feel for the offender, to feel what they feel. It's a sympathy. It's mercy that is extended because I feel for you. And Jesus calls you, the offended, to show sympathy to those who offend you. And why on earth would we do that? And what is it we're to have compassion for? There's lots of things we could talk about, but let me just throw out this one.

for the guilt and condemnation that they will feel. Anybody know what it's like to feel guilty? You don't have to show your hands, but anybody like feeling guilty? It's a horrible feeling. Even if there's not other things that we could show compassion for, we can show compassion for the guilt that will be experienced. Now, I know it's bubbling up in your mind, right? But what if they don't feel guilty? You see, we want them to feel guilty first, right? And then I'll release you.

If you don't feel guilty, well, you need to feel guilty. And then I'll release you from feeling guilty. No, no, no. That's not the kind of forgiveness that Jesus calls us to. If they don't feel the guilt, it's not your job to make them feel guilty. Release them, even if they don't feel guilty, but release them of that guilt that they might experience. Again, we might be bubbling up and ruffling feathers in our head, but they need to know how much they hurt me. And you know, there might be some truth to that. They might need to know.

In Matthew chapter 18, earlier in verse 15 through 18, Jesus gives some instruction. If someone sins against you, go and share that fault with them just between you and them alone. And so we go, okay, yes, I can grab hold of that one. You hurt me, and you hurt me, and you hurt me, and you hurt me, and we start telling everybody every little thing they did that ever offended us or hurt our feelings. But here's what you need to understand. Here's what you need to factor into this whole picture here.

That instruction in Matthew 18 to go to your brother and share the fault is for them, not for you. And many times people approach Matthew 18 and it's the whole point is so that I come to you, I tell you what you did wrong and then you apologize. And the whole point is that you apologize to me. You need to know how much you hurt me and you need to apologize to me because you sinned against me. And that is not at all what Matthew 18 is about.

It's for them. It's for their benefit to help them grow, to help them change in the same way that God forgives you. Listen, does God require you to apologize and ask him for forgiveness for every individual sin that you ever commit? Can you imagine if God required that? We would never know where we stood because there's always sin that we commit that we don't even know about.

And so if it was a requirement that I had to apologize for every single sin, I'd be in trouble because I'm always falling short in ways that I don't even know about. Now, God does show us and reveal sin to us in our lives, right? But why does he show us that? To help us change, to help us overcome, to help us look to him and repent.

And that's what Matthew 18 verse 15 is all about. It's not about getting someone to apologize to you, but you share it when it's helpful for them to change and to grow and to not let it continue. It's not about you. You got to die to yourself. Forgiveness is about dying to yourself. And you need to show compassion. It's an act of compassion to forgive. And that means, again, the application, you must initiate forgiveness. Don't wait for

For them to come to you and apologize, that's not forgiveness. That's not the kind of forgiveness that Jesus is talking about. Go to your brother when they sin against you and tell them their faults. But again, not to get an apology, but if you're going to go to your brother, apply Matthew 18, 15, and reveal that sin, it comes from a place where you've already chosen to forgive them. And that's why I'm coming to you. I've already chosen to forgive you, but I want you to know this is an issue that

So that you can grow, so that you can turn, so that you can develop as a believer in Jesus. It's not about getting something for you. It's about loving that person who has offended you enough to help them not continue in that path. But you've already chosen to forgive before you go and tell the fault. And if you think about the kind of forgiveness that Jesus is calling us to, he says we're to forgive. Ephesians 4.32 says to forgive one another even as God in Christ forgave you.

And isn't this how God has forgiven us? He didn't wait for you to come and apologize and ask for forgiveness to initiate the process of forgiveness. He loved you. And so he sent his only begotten son to die upon the cross for our sin. He initiated the forgiveness, the opportunity. He started the process. He made the way for forgiveness before you and I ever would have even dreamed about or thought about or considered or cared about asking for forgiveness.

He initiated it. Now there is a receiving part of it that we do in response to what God has done. And again, there's the parallel follows, but the point is God didn't start preparing for forgiveness or start forgiving after we apologized. He made the provision for forgiveness and then offered it to us before we ever asked for it or thought about it. That's the kind of forgiveness that God calls you to.

The person who has offended you maybe has no idea what they did or maybe they know full well what they did and they did it anyways. But as a believer in Jesus Christ, you're commanded to forgive. It's a choice you have to make, a deliberate choice. But you gave up the right to choose when you began to follow Jesus. You must forgive. You must release that debt no matter how big it is and no matter how many times it has happened. You must show compassion to those who have hurt you, to those who have offended you.

Feel for them and initiate the forgiveness. Release them of the debt even before they ask. Finally, forgiveness is an ongoing choice. And that means we must keep on forgiving. Forgiveness is a command. And to not forgive is a sin. And so in that way, forgiveness is like any other command. And to not forgive is like any other sin. And that is, there's never a once and for all decision for us. So the Lord tells you,

not to lie. And you say, okay, I received that. I'm not going to lie. But that doesn't mean that you actually never lie again in your whole life, right? You understand that. You still struggle with that perhaps. But here's the thing. When you recognize that, when you catch yourself lying, well, then you go back to your original repentance. You go back and you say, oh, I fell into it again. And you, well, you turn from it again.

And you go back to obedience to God. In the same way, forgiveness, it's a command, it's a choice, and it needs to be ongoing because the reality is, I lay down this hurt that you've given to me. I release you of the debt. But two weeks from now, I'm going to remember, man, Harvey really offended me. I already released him, but he really offended me. I can't believe he did that to me. You know, sometimes it hits you even harder later on.

And that doesn't mean that you didn't forgive initially, but that means you're still living in a fallen nature and you're going to want to pick up that debt. Notice in verse 32, when the master calls the servant back in, he says, you wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not have had compassion on your fellow servant just as I had pity on you? And his master was angry and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. Notice what happens here. The master says, I forgive you.

And then after this whole incident happens, never mind, I take it back. I unforgive you. Now you still owe that $169 million you owed initially. Now again, this causes some issues perhaps in our theological systems in our mind. I'll let you wrestle with those. But let me remind you a couple of things. This is a parable, number one. Number two, the master in this parable represents God. And God has rights that you do not have.

And so the master can choose, you know what? Nevermind. I take it back. You still owe me the debt, but you don't have that right. You're going to be tempted to try to exercise that right. You're going to be tempted to try to take back that and charge people with the things that they owe you and make them suffer and try to get them to pay back for what you have received and the hurt that you've experienced. But you don't have that right. You must keep on forgiving. It's an ongoing choice.

every time you want to take it back up again, every time you feel that creeping up in your heart again, that you lay it down, you release the debt again and again and again to forgive those who have hurt you. This is the instruction that we have about forgiveness. It's a radical forgiveness that God calls us to. It can only be done with his help. And by looking at the example, again, the one servant forgiven of a huge debt,

now is expected to forgive those of lesser debts that have been incurred to him. And this morning, as we end the service with communion, that's what we have presented before us. Jesus died upon the cross for our sin.

The means of our forgiveness, the means of our huge debt being paid for. And Jesus gave us the bread and the cup as reminders. This is my body which is broken for you. This is my blood which is shed for you. Do this in remembrance of me and remember how much I love you. Remember how much mercy and grace I extended towards you. Remember my forgiveness to you. And this morning as we partake of communion, I would encourage you, receive that forgiveness. Don't walk around with guilt.

Don't walk around with condemnation. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The forgiveness that Jesus offers you is unlimited. So receive it, accept it. Partake of communion this morning and say, yes, Jesus, I receive the forgiveness that you offer to me. But also partake of communion this morning saying, yes, Jesus, I receive this offer of forgiveness that you give to me that I might extend that same kind of forgiveness to you.

to the people who have hurt me and wounded me and sinned against me, no matter how big or small. And I would encourage you, I would challenge you to take this time of communion to receive and reflect on what Christ has done for you. And if you still think that they have hurt you in a way that's beyond what God calls you to forgive, you need to go back to the cross and reflect and consider what Christ has done for you. Nobody has sinned against you as much as you have sinned against God.

And yet he freely offers you forgiveness at the cross. The worship team is going to come up and lead us in a song and the ushers are going to pass out the bread and the cup. And as they do, I would encourage you at any time during the worship, you're free to partake as you reflect on the value of the forgiveness that was offered to you, but also do so with the understanding that, well, not only are you a recipient of this kind of forgiveness, but

But now you're commanded to give it out and to demonstrate the same kind of forgiveness to the people around you. And I would encourage you to put it into practice. Let it go. Jesus said in Matthew chapter five, if you're at the altar and you remember someone has something against you, go and make it right. And then come back and offer your offering. And that doesn't mean you can't partake of communion, but understand the urgency there. Maybe partake of communion, reflect and receive from Jesus his forgiveness, but

And maybe immediately, and I mean immediately, you need to be in person talking to the person that has offended you and forgiving them. Maybe you need to be on the phone or sending a text message or an email or whatever, but begin the process of reconciliation. Begin the process of forgiveness as you receive what Christ has done for you. Let's worship the Lord together.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.