Reading from Matthew 18, 21-35. Peter's question about forgiveness and Jesus' response. The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant - A story about forgiveness and the consequences of unforgiveness. The Importance of Jesus' Parables - Understanding the Kingdom of Heaven through Jesus' parables. Engaging with Parables - The transformative nature of engaging with Jesus' parables. Prayer and Engagement - The significance of actively engaging with parables and prayer. C.S. Lewis on Forgiveness - The challenge of forgiveness and C.S. Lewis' perspective. Jesus' Teachings on Forgiveness - Jesus' explicit teachings on forgiveness and the Lord's prayer. The Kingdom's Requirement for Forgiveness - The importance of forgiveness in the Kingdom of Heaven. The Radical Nature of Forgiveness - The radical call to forgive beyond conventional limits. The Command to Forgive - The biblical command to forgive as an imperative. Unforgiveness and Bitterness - The consequences of unforgiveness leading to bitterness and pain. The Impact of Unforgiveness - The imprisoning nature of unforgiveness and its impact on peace. The Double Victimization of Unforgiveness - The dual impact of unforgiveness on the victim. The Rejection of God's Comfort - Unforgiveness as a rejection of God's comfort and love. The Healing Power of Forgiveness - Forgiveness as a source of healing and transformation. The Source of Forgiveness - The foundation of forgiveness in encountering God's love and forgiveness. The Model of Forgiveness - Jesus as the model of forgiveness in extending love and forgiveness. Forgiveness and Love - Prayer for open hearts to receive and be transformed by God's love. Reflection on the Cross - Gratitude for God's love and mercy, and a call to be transformed by His love. Acknowledgment of God's Love - Thanksgiving for God's love and a desire for lives to reflect His love.

Introduction

- The reading is from Matthew 18, 21-35, about forgiveness
- Jesus emphasizes the importance of forgiveness through the parable of the unforgiving servant
- The Kingdom of Heaven requires active engagement and transformation
- C.S. Lewis' quote on forgiveness is mentioned
- Jesus' teaching on forgiveness is explained in the context of the Lord's prayer
- Peter's question about forgiveness is addressed, with Jesus emphasizing forgiveness without limits
- The importance of forgiveness is highlighted, and the need to forgive as Jesus said is emphasized

- The speaker questions why "because Jesus said so" isn't a good enough reason to forgive
- Unforgiveness leads to bitterness and more pain
- Forgiveness starts with dwelling in the love and compassion of God
- We need God's love and forgiveness to heal our wounds and forgive others
- Forgiveness brings us back into the arms of the Father and prevents bitterness

- Forgiveness is shown through extending love to those who have hurt us
- Reflecting on childhood experiences with imperfect parents can lead to bitterness and unforgiveness
- Bitterness can impact all areas of life and hinder our walk with the Lord
- Forgiveness is not a one-time decision, but a continuous process
- Jesus is the perfect model of forgiveness, forgiving even in the midst of pain and suffering
- His forgiveness on the cross serves as a reminder of the love and comfort we receive from Christ
- Jesus not only forgave us, but also paid the price for our forgiveness
- Resting in Christ's love and forgiveness enables us to extend the same love and forgiveness to others

- The speaker prays for the ability to forgive and to be transformed by God's love
- They express gratitude for God's love, mercy, and the sacrifice of the cross
- The speaker acknowledges their need for God's love and expresses a desire to reflect that love to others
- The prayer ends with a thanksgiving and a declaration of praise to God.

- Matthew 18, 21-35 discusses the importance of forgiveness through a parable
- Jesus emphasizes forgiveness without limits, using the Lord's prayer as a context
- Unforgiveness leads to bitterness and pain, hindering our relationship with God
- Forgiveness is a continuous process and requires dwelling in God's love and compassion
- Jesus' forgiveness on the cross serves as a model for us to extend love and forgiveness to others
- The speaker prays for the ability to forgive and reflect God's love, ending with thanksgiving and praise to God

Good morning everyone, I'll be doing today's reading, which is Matthew 18, 21-35.

You can flip to that if you want or just follow on the screen.

Then Peter came up and said to him, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him?

Jesus said to him, I do not say to you 7 times, but seventy-seven times.

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

When he began to settle, 1 was brought to him, who owed him 10000 talents.

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

So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, "'Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.' And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.

But when that same servant went out, he found 1 of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii.

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

So his fellow-servant fell down and pleaded with him, Have patience with me, and I will pay you.

He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt.

When his fellow-servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and went and reported to their master all that had taken place.

Then his master summoned him and said to him, You wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me, and should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you and in his anger his master delivered him to the jailers until he should pay all his debt so also my heavenly father will do to every 1 of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.

And before we begin, I just want to say, Andrew and the music team, great job this morning, seriously.

As many of you know, Andrew and I are very good friends and I hope you all get the experience of serving with your good friends and loving those with your good friends.

You like look at them with pride, you look at them with what you've gone through, you look at them with how Christ has led you, and you're just grateful.

This morning we're going to be looking at forgiveness, and more specifically we're going to be looking at the parable of the unforgiving servants.

Now for the last few weeks we've been discussing these parables and how Jesus shared about the kingdom of heaven and as Louis very well put a few weeks ago during his sermon on the parable of the hidden treasure and the parable of the pearl, We see that an understanding of the Kingdom of Heaven requires exposure to as many of Jesus' parables as possible.

It's important to recognize that Jesus didn't provide a single concise definition of what the Kingdom of Heaven is.

Instead, he took his time and was very intentional in how he explained it.

This morning we'll be looking at how Jesus spoke about the Kingdom of Heaven and more specifically with forgiveness.

Now in general as we go through the series I want to pose the idea that the Kingdom of Heaven is not only about learning more about what it means to be a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, but it is also about being actively transformed by our Lord who is teaching these parables.

It's easy to become a passive reader, I've been I've been a victim of this or I've been I've done this, where you become so passive when you hear these and you listen to these and just kind of go in 1 ear and out the other.

But parables are meant to be engaged with and wrestle with because ultimately we can never grasp the deep mysteries and the truths of the gospel without actively being sharpened by the 1 who has given them to us.

These parables are not meant for us to only grow in our head knowledge of the kingdom of heaven but are here to transform our hearts and draws deeper to our God who has created both heaven and earth.

Thank you God for being so faithful to us when we didn't even realize we needed a Savior.

As Louis shared this morning, God, would you soften our hearts to what you have to say, Lord?

I thank you God that through worship our hearts are softened, through your presence our hearts are softened and through just your mercy our hearts are softened.

Open our hearts, open our ears and let us look to you in all things.

Now the teaching of forgiveness is something that we all agree is good.

Yeah everyone pretty much all the evangelical circles know C.S.

And as usual, it just kind of cuts to the heart.

Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea until they have something to forgive.

If I ask you, forgiveness is great, you'll be like, absolutely, forgiveness is fantastic.

Oh great, can you please forgive that person?

Well yeah, but listen, you have to understand the full story.

Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.

So we're quick to say it's good, but the application is quite difficult.

The parable of the unforgiving servant is not the first time that Jesus has spoken on forgiveness however.

To his parable, to his disciples in fact, in fact a few chapters earlier in Matthew chapter 6 verse 12, during the Lord's prayer, Jesus says this, he prays this, and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors and then a couple A couple of verses later in verses 14 to 15, Jesus goes back and explains what he just prayed.

He says, for if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

But if you don't forgive others their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses.

Now if you look at the Lord's prayer specifically within this section this is the only time where Jesus explicitly goes back and explains that specific part of the prayer.

He goes back, he says, wait, I know I prayed this, but I hope you understand, if you don't forgive others, God will not forgive you.

So we see how important this is to Christ.

He really wants us to make sure that we understand this.

Then of course we look to the parable and this exact same message is shown again in the parable of the unforgiving servant if we start in verse 32 of Matthew 18, then his master summoned him and said to him, you wicked servant, I forgave you all the debt because you pleaded with me And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servants, as I had mercy on you?" And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, which can also be translated as torturers.

So he delivered him to be tortured until he should pay all his debt." Verse 35, so also my Heavenly Father will do to every 1 of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.

If we don't forgive those who wrong us, God will not forgive us.

And as this parable states, we will be tortured.

Well as Jesus points out, we are to forgive in unlimited amount of times.

And as we read at the start of this in verse 21, Peter's first question to Jesus is, but how many times am I to forgive?

I'm not going to explain the parable verse by verse, but for our purposes this is important.

By Peter suggesting 7 times is actually pretty radical.

Because the rabbinical teaching at the time, and what Peter would have been taught, is you're to forgive someone 3 times, but no more than 4.

So by Peter actually saying 7 he's going beyond.

Wow Jesus is actually transforming Peter's life.

So imagine Peter surprised when Jesus says no no no that's not good enough.

Peter and the disciples would have been shocked.

This would have been, what do you, I don't understand.

I thought I got it, but now I really don't understand.

You are to forgive an unlimited amount of times.

Well, this is because the kingdom of heaven is about us receiving forgiveness from God and about us extending forgiveness to others because we have been forgiven.

As a side note, I want to point this out before we go deeper.

Our teaching for this morning is not suggesting that we shouldn't take legal action against those who merit it.

And it's not suggesting that we simply allow wrongful behavior.

But as I just said, the kingdom of heaven is about us receiving forgiveness from God.

And extending forgiveness to others because we have been forgiven.

So there's 4 ideas that I want to look at this morning.

Number 3, how do we know we have forgiven?

Not gonna like this answer but it's a biblical answer.

Because we feel that we deserve a better answer.

We feel that we need to be reasoned with.

Now I'm not going to go super deep into this, but I do want to use this as something to help us.

And that is, why isn't, because Jesus said so, a good enough answer for you and for me.

Now The last thing I want you to do is to hear that question and go, oh no, you're right.

The response is to be curious about your own faith.

And let it usher you into his presence not stop you from trying to fix yourself what usher you in so why should we forgive because Jesus said so and I'm fine then I'm sure some of you can attest to this too.

So I find that as I get older, I'm only 29, but I find that as I get older and I draw closer to the Lord, I realize more and more that Jesus is teaching his direction, his commandments are actually there for my well-being and for my protection and therefore forgiveness is actually for my well-being.

I should forgive because it's for my well-being.

Number 2, Unforgiveness leads to bitterness.

Well, because if you don't forgive, you're going to become bitter.

What happens when we become fixated on the offense on the wrong that has been done to us?

Well, this happened to me and I'm sure it's happened to some of you, we become bitter.

We become changed and greatly impacted by the harm that was done to us.

Do you remember how the unforgiving servant treated the person who owed him money?

So after the unforgiving servant had been forgiven, remember how he treated the 1 who owed him a little bit?

He grabbed him by the neck, he treated him like garbage, grabbed him by the neck with no compassion, with no empathy, and didn't even say I'll extend your loan, it said pay me now after he had just been forgiven.

So this parable shows us the state of the servant's heart and how bitter he had become by not forgiving.

You see when we choose to not forgive we open up the door for bitterness and resentment to creep into our hearts.

And Jesus is using this parable as a mirror to show us what happens when we don't forgive.

John MacArthur writes, Bitterness is not just a sin, it's an infection.

And bitterness can become directly traced to the failure to forgive.

It makes you caustic, sarcastic, condemning, and nasty, harassed by the memories of what you can't forgive.

Your thoughts become malignant towards others, and your whole view of life becomes distorted.

So many times we either choose to love or we choose bitterness.

And lastly, unforgiveness leads to more pain.

There's a quote that I like that says, unforgiveness will imprison you in your past.

If unforgiveness and bitterness reign in your heart then you know what can't reign in your heart, the peace of God.

And if the peace of God can't reign in your heart then the pain which caused you to go to a place of unforgiveness will flourish, will remain, and like bitterness will take root, It will grow, it will expand, it will morph, it will enter other areas of your life which you thought it wasn't supposed to enter.

I thought I had it contained but it takes on a life of its own.

As my grandfather puts it specifically to this point, you when you don't forgive you become double victimized.

You become victimized because, number 1, you feel the initial pain that you experience when someone wronged you.

And number 2, that pain continues to dwell because you hold on to it by not forgiving.

Now it makes sense why Jesus says we can't experience God's forgiveness until we forgive.

For how could we ever experience the love and forgiveness from God if we hold on to the pain through unforgiveness rather than bringing it to our Heavenly Father.

So you see holding on to pain in a sense is actually rejecting the fact that you need a shepherd.

Holding on to pain is rejecting the fact that you need a shepherd.

I'm not saying experiencing it, I'm saying holding onto it.

For how can you be comforted by God if you refuse to give up what you need to be comforted for?

When we hold onto unforgiveness in hopes that we will eventually find resolve.

But unforgiveness doesn't bring any resolve.

It just brings misery and will end up impacting our thoughts, beliefs, and actions.

But most importantly, unforgiveness prevents us from experiencing God's love towards us and healing our pain.

See, when you unforgive, you cut off God from your healing process.

Many of you know I have a background in social work as well.

And then when you refuse to cut it off, where does it go to?

It goes to the courtrooms where I also am.

And then you see it manifest itself again.

Now for the believer, and this is very important, where is Christ in your pain?

Are you able to be shepherded or are you trying to fix yourself and find your own resolve?

Are you surrendering or are you trying to be your own savior?

Number 1, because Christ commands it and we will not experience God's forgiveness until we forgive.

Number 2, if we don't forgive then we will become bitter and in the long term we will be changed so that we lose our empathy and cause pain to others.

And number 3, if we don't forgive then we will be entrapped by our pain and it will take the place of God's peace and love.

By the way, this message wrecked me this week.

Because it means that Christ is healing me.

You start with the fact that you've been forgiven.

You see, you and I cannot forgive until we have encountered the love and forgiveness of our Savior.

Much like how in 1 John, specifically 419, we read, we love because he first loved us.

In the same way we can forgive because we have been forgiven.

So we look to the fact that we've been forgiven.

Moody is 1 of my favorite writers in the in the in the Christian faith and he was reflecting on this passage, specifically he was reflecting on Peter and Peter asking the question, how many times should I forgive?

He writes, Peter did not seem to think that he was in danger of falling into sin.

His question was, how often should I forgive my brother?

But very soon we hear that Peter has fallen.

I can imagine that when Peter did fall the sweet thought came to him of what the master had said.

The voice of sin may be loud, but the voice of forgiveness is louder.

Forgiveness starts with dwelling in the fact, in the King's love and in His compassion towards us.

Remember what the King said to the unforgiving servant in verse 33?

He said, and should you not have had mercy on your fellow servant, why?

The Forgiveness and love that we have received from God heals our wounds, tends to our pains, and this allows us to forgive, and dare I say love, those who have wronged us, and extend the same forgiveness that we have experienced and received from God.

You see, brothers and sisters, we need God's love and forgiveness when we sin.

We're so quick to do that, run to God's love for when we know that we've messed up, But we need God's love and His affirmation to help us heal our wounds so that we can forgive as well.

It's not about us, it's always about Christ.

You see, when we forgive and when we cultivate the habit of forgiving, our pain becomes a springboard for knowing that you and I have been forgiven and that we can then encounter more of God's love and mercy and grace.

Our pain now doesn't prevent us to try to fix ourselves, it launches us back into the arms of the Father.

We have a Comforter because we need to be comforted.

We have a Shepherd because we cannot lead our own lives.

Pain doesn't have to draw us into bitterness.

It can be a reminder that we have a God who tends to our wounds and shepherds our soul.

Just as the king was able to extend love, you and I are able to extend love to those who hurt us, who owe us a debt.

That's proof that we're forgiving and that because we have love for them.

Now in my life, you can go to the next slide, no 1 has perfect parents and they don't always do the best job.

If I was to ask a child, by child I mean under 10, have your parents hurt you?

But it's a funny thing that happens as you get older is you look back on your childhood and you go, whoa, that was wrong.

When you're experiencing the painful behavior, and I can say actually as you get older your parents become better parents naturally.

So the same harm that they caused you when you were a kid they're not doing it when you're 15, 16, 17.

But It's when they're acting quote-unquote in a more appropriate like manner that you remember the harm that they did when they didn't act that way when you were a kid.

And I think This started happening to me as I entered my late teens, my early 20s.

I looked back and I said, that's not, whoa, that's bad.

Now, my father's a pastor and my mother taught me the Bible.

So, I was like, man, this is interesting, what's going on?

I can't believe they will not get a parent, I'm not gonna be like that.

I can't believe, they should have known better.

How many of you have kids that maybe were reflecting like that?

They should have, I can't believe they're going to pay.

You lose, just like sin, it takes you to places where you never thought you were going to go.

Bitterness takes you to places where you never thought you were going to be bitter.

It starts to impact your life, it starts to impact your ministry, and it starts to impact, most importantly, your walk with the Lord.

Because your parents have the biggest impact on how you view God.

I'm thankful that I had people who spoke truth into my life, who knew the love of the King Because I wanted to fix myself through unforgiveness.

But people spoke into my life and said, Nathaniel, the pain that you're experiencing, Don't try to fix it.

Let it drive you back to the arms of the Father.

Don't focus on the pain, on the harm that was caused to you, on the debt that someone owes you.

Focus on Christ's forgiveness for you, on His love for you.

You're not forgiving them because you're trying to fix the pain.

Let the pain remind you that you have a home with your Father, with your Heavenly Father.

Let it bring you to the shepherd who tends to our wounds and heals our iniquities.

You know what happens when you start to come to Christ out of the pain that someone has caused you?

Because someone is showing you perfect love.

God is showing you perfect love and Immediately you recognize how imperfect you are.

And you realize how hurt and broken you are as well.

We know the saying, hurt people, hurt people.

So it's no wonder why We're tortured when we don't forgive others.

We're tortured because our unforgiveness keeps our pain alive, blocks us from receiving comfort and love for Christ, and stops us from being transformed to more of Christ's likeness.

And let those painful memories serve as a reminder to go back home.

In Luke 23 we read that as Jesus was spit on, as he was tortured, as he was beat up, as he was stabbed, as his sovereignty was questioned, as he was put to shame on the cross, what did he say?

Father, forgive them for they know not what they're doing.

In the midst of his pain and misery, he extended forgiveness.

He did not become changed by the harm and the pain that was being done towards him.

He rested in the fact that his father loved him.

But on the cross he didn't just forgive us because you and I were the ones spitting at Him.

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Parables of Jesus: Parable of the Unforgiving Servant