Thank you David for opening up and welcoming us all to this evening. So last week we began where the Bible insists we must always begin, not with what we do but with what God has done. And last week we established the source of forgiveness, God’s gracious heart towards sinners.

But tonight we want to press on to the implication for God’s people. Forgiven people, forgive. What I want to call the Gospel Echo.

(0:37 – 2:26)

Now there are some questions that some of this raises but we don’t want to jump too quickly on them. In the weeks ahead we’re going to wrestle with various things, practical questions like should we overlook? When should we confront? What about justice and boundaries and consequences? What if the hurt remains? And all of these kinds of questions matter. Scripture speaks to these things.

Sure we won’t cover every situation over the weeks ahead but nothing will make sense unless we lay down the foundations and the biblical foundations. And putting these valid questions to the side, we do need to grapple with the need for Christians to forgive as a reflection of God’s heart and an outworking of the Gospel. If we think forgiveness is optional for the Christian or that others aren’t worthy of it, then we haven’t really grappled or understood the Gospel.

So where do we start tonight? Well let’s start with the call to forgive. And firstly Jesus taught it. He taught his disciples to pray in Matthew 6, forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.

He then makes it clear what he’s talking about. He says if we forgive others, our Father forgives us. If we refuse, we should not expect forgiveness in return.

Jesus says similar things elsewhere. For example in Mark, Mark 11, when you pray he says if you hold anything against someone, forgive them so that your Father may forgive you. So forgiveness flows from a relationship with our Father God.

(2:27 – 7:27)

And we’re being called to forgive those who sin against us even before they ask or take responsibility. Paul the Apostle talks about it too. He says it plainly in Ephesians 4, be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave you.

And Colossians also echoes the similar truth. What the Bible does though is place forgiveness squarely in the realm of discipleship. Forgiving others is flowing from a relationship with God in Christ.

In fact it’s a mark of our life in Christ. Those who’ve been forgiven by Jesus are called to reflect him. God is saying this, look at how I forgive.

Start there. That’s why we began where we did last week, God’s forgiveness towards us. And if you haven’t listened to Colin’s sermon yet, let me encourage you to do so.

Now in our culture, forgiveness is often framed as emotional self-care, something we do to feel better, find peace or release anger. But the Bible presents forgiveness rather differently. It’s not something that we wait for to feel ready for.

And it’s not mainly about emotional relief because feelings are really rather poor leaders. But at the heart of biblical forgiveness is the gospel, God’s costly forgiveness in Christ. And when we forgive, we’re really choosing to live in step with God’s character and his ways, not simply chasing an inner calm.

And so that means forgiveness is a relational and covenantal commitment before God. It’s not a therapeutic exercise. And we’re going to think about that later in the series to carefully address emotions and hurts because they do matter, but they’re not the centre of forgiveness.

And as we start, we need to remember that we need God’s help. Jesus commands his disciples to forgive, but as he does so, it’s in the context of prayer. We read some verses from Matthew there and in Mark, and there’s another reference in Luke 17.

They’re all in the context of praying. We need God’s help. We need humility.

And we also need wisdom, don’t we? Because the Bible doesn’t present forgiveness as one simple process. Jesus himself spoke about it in different ways. We refer to Mark 11 and Luke 17, both speaking differently about forgiveness that show to us how Christians have wrestled with the tensions of what forgiveness looks like because they’re not abstract ideas.

They involve real wounds and real relationships. But again, let’s stress we’re going to unpack some of these things as we go through our series. It’s a bit like taking a rather large meal.

We’re going to take it slowly and a little bite at a time. And we’re not trying to pack everything into the one course. So hang in there over the few weeks.

And if I can recommend you again, please pick up one of the books or even just one of the little booklets to help you progress and work through these things over time. But let’s not get too diverted tonight from the call to forgive and the nature of forgiveness. Before we keep going, let me say what we’re not saying it is.

Not every irritation or tension is sin to be forgiven. Weaknesses, mistakes, differences, failed attempts to do good call for patience. They call for love.

They call for encouragement, not forgiveness. And when we turn everyday irritations into kind of moral offences, then we’re kind of placing ourselves as judge and jury. And our preferences are really becoming centre stage.

They become the standard by which we judge. But rather, forgiveness is about sin. And sin is sin regardless of scale or perspective.

And I’m not going to talk tonight about the difference between maybe what we might call small sins or big sins. It might be small sins in the perpetrator’s eyes, but large in the victim’s eyes. Yet before God, sin is sin.

(7:29 – 12:13)

And I’m aware too that some make distinctions between what they might frame as unintentional sins that are to be covered over and freely forgiven, but deliberate ongoing sins. Well, that calls for something more. It calls for repentance.

Well, we’re going to unpack that sort of thing over the weeks ahead. So what is forgiveness? How might we best describe what it is? What’s the nature of it? The dynamic of it that scripture gives us? Well, as David’s mentioned, we’re going to look at Matthew chapter 18, because this incident between Peter and Jesus really helps us answer this. So turn in your Bibles then please to Matthew chapter 18.

It’s page 985 in your red pew Bibles there if you have it. And we’re going to follow it down as we go. Okay.

So keep looking down there in verse 21. It says, Peter comes to Jesus with a personal question about forgiveness. Peter asks, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me? And I forgive him as many as seven times.

Peter’s asking, when’s enough enough? When can I walk away? But Jesus replies, verse 22, not seven times, but 70 times seven. The meaning is clear, I think. Be radically merciful.

Keep forgiving. Hold nothing back. I want you to be unrestrained and repetitive in your forgiveness.

And with this answer, Jesus is echoing an older story that I think Peter would have been pretty familiar with. This phrase 70 times seven was used in a different context long ago back in Genesis, in the context of revenge. Lamech, Cain’s son, said, I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me.

If Cain’s revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech’s is 77 fold. And what Lamech’s doing here is he’s boasting to his wives. He’s so proud.

He can’t bear his reputation being sullied, being damaged, this young man striking him. And he goes straight from being wounded, and obviously it’s not just physically, but reputationally, so he strikes back and severely. It’s an over-the-top revenge.

And so Jesus is telling Peter something of the dynamic of what forgiveness is to look like. And so he expands it with this story. So Jesus says, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants, down there in verse 23.

And in the story, Jesus sets forgiveness in the context of God’s kingdom. God is the king. We are the servants.

Jesus knows forgiveness is hard. We’re hurt and angry, and sometimes we don’t like the person who has offended us or wronged us. And the instinct, the natural instinct is self-protection, guarding our pride, guarding our reputation, a desire for payback.

But what Jesus is doing here is he’s reorienting us. Retaliation feels justified, but that’s more about building our own little kingdoms. Instead, we’re to entrust ourself to God himself.

Remember too, Jesus taught the context in which we’re to forgive is, Father God, may your kingdom come, may your will be done. When we remember that God reigns, that he sees everything, and he judges justly in his time, then revenge takes the back burner. Seeing ourselves rightly as servants, not the king makes forgiveness possible.

It’s the starting point. So Jesus continues. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents.

Now, here Jesus reveals a fundamental context of the forgiveness we’re to practise, that it involves a debt. Something is owed. And we learned this from last week as we looked in Psalm 32, that God’s forgiveness involves a cancellation of a real debt.

(12:14 – 13:40)

That’s how Scripture speaks of sin as a record that stood against us, a genuine moral liability towards God. And Jesus uses this debt language as we’ve already read. Remember in the Lord’s prayer, forgive us our debts as we forgive those who are debtors to us.

Debt is the metaphor for sins and falling short of God’s standards. But there’s more. The size of the debt is brought into view.

Today’s money, this is billions of pounds. And the point is simple. The debt before the king is beyond the servant.

Jesus magnifies it like a telescope so that we can see it clearly. This is an unimaginable sum. It’s unpayable.

That’s what Jesus says. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold with his wife and children and all they had, and payment to be made. It’s a strange turn in the story.

But Jesus is reminding us that there are consequences to debt. It needs to be paid. Forgiveness is not to simply forget.

(13:41 – 15:42)

To forgive does not mean we simply forget what has been done to us. God’s forgiveness himself of our sin is not amnesia. We may think it’s that way when Scripture says God will remember our sins no more.

But that means really that God promises not to treat us according to our sins. It’s not simply letting people off the hook. Forgiveness does not erase the facts or remove the consequences.

God does not deny the record against him. But Jesus continues. The servant fell on his knees imploring him, have patience with me and I will pay everything.

This servant wants a payment plan. He falls down and pleads for time to pay, but he can’t. It’s a sum so large that even if the servant sold his entire life and family, he could not even put a dent in what he owed.

And so what Jesus is starting to do is relate this question about forgiveness to our lives and says something about how we are like this servant. For we too owe a debt for our sins. We too are unable to pay for our sins against God.

We too cannot earn our way out of sins debt. No amount of good works can erase it. No payment plan for us is good enough.

And what Jesus is doing is pointing to the gospel truth that someone else needs to pay the cost of the debt. So Jesus continues. And out of pity for him, verse 26, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.

Here’s what happens. The king forgives the debt. He doesn’t demand a payment plan or some other form of retribution.

(15:44 – 16:49)

This is gospel forgiveness. It’s not earned. It’s not negotiated.

It’s given freely. But there’s another aspect to it. It costs.

Sin creates a debt and someone must bear it. And here the king bears the cost. He absorbs it.

It costs him. And again, this shows us something of the truth of the gospel. We’re on the cross.

Jesus took our place and absorbed the punishment for our sin that we deserved. And forgiveness flows from the heart of the forgiver, not the merit or ability of the sinner. That’s how Jesus puts it.

Listen to what Jesus says. Out of pity for him. God forgives because he is full of compassion, slow to anger, kind and gracious.

(16:51 – 19:00)

What Jesus is telling Peter, showing Peter is that when others wrong us, even again and again, we’re not to take revenge or ignore the offence. Instead, forgiveness means we’re to absorb the cost ourselves. It’s going to cost us.

And that mirrors the gospel. And we’re to figure too with a compassion and a kindness towards the one who owes us. We don’t treat them as their sin deserves.

So let’s think further about how we’re to forgive and to underline the radical implications of forgiving as Christ has forgiven us. Jesus’ story takes another turn. So point three on the slide, how are we to forgive and what are its radical implications? But when the same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii.

And seizing him, he began to choke him saying, pay what you owe. So this servant, this 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.

And when the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened. But Jesus says, the king responds, I forgive you everything. Should you not have had mercy as I had mercy on you? The tragedy and even shock of the parable, the story here is the forgiven servant being so unmerciful.

After receiving what is a monsoon of grace from the king, he refuses a mere trickle to his fellow servant. The fellow servant’s debt is not insignificant. It’s maybe three, four months wages.

It’s not insignificant. It’s way smaller. Yes.

(19:01 – 19:27)

But he grabs him, he chokes him and demands payment with no mercy. But there’s more. Jesus continues.

And in anger, his master delivered him to the jailers until he should pay all his debts. So, so also my heavenly father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from the heart. So there’s two things here.

(19:28 – 19:44)

Jesus’ parable is turning sharply and it’s to deliver a warning that’s unmistakable. It’s really quite sobering. Withholding forgiveness carries real danger.

(19:46 – 20:27)

Jesus is not being casual or hypothetical. He’s really warning that an unforgiving heart leads to consequences of significance. A refusal to forgive may reveal that we have never truly grasped the forgiveness that we claim to have received ourselves.

That the gospel has not gone deep, it’s superficial. An unforgiving heart signals a heart still closed to grace. And we expose the danger that we do not truly know God’s mercy at all.

(20:29 – 21:01)

When we fail to grasp the magnitude of God’s grace, then pride is taking over. And we’re clinging to grudges and we’re blocking the gospel’s work in us. When we fixate on other sins and forget our own, well, revenge may feel justified and we act harshly but we’re blind to how merciful God has been towards us.

(21:02 – 21:15)

Yes, offences wound deeply. Justice and consequences still matter. Forgiveness does not mean ignoring harm or becoming a doormat, but here’s the danger.

(21:16 – 21:27)

Victims can become victimisers. We place ourselves in God’s seat. We become the king and the judge, just like Lamech.

(21:28 – 21:47)

And the truth that Jesus is warning us of is that unforgiveness is spiritually deadly. It imprisons and it hardens. Anger can feed a self-centredness.

(21:48 – 22:14)

Keeping score becomes the dominant narrative. Treating others as perpetual debtors is the way it goes. Resentments build up.

Bitterness comes to roost. Keller puts it in his book like this. He says, bitterness is like drinking poison and hoping the other person dies.

(22:17 – 22:30)

You see, the consequences, the judgement is being played out internally. It’s a gotcha moment. What we put out there actually is coming back here.

(22:31 – 22:34)

That’s the judgement. That’s the warning. That’s the consequences.

(22:35 – 22:56)

What’s really going on is you start to suffer internal toxins. That’s the judgement of the consequences that Jesus is warning of because hearts become prideful, self-righteous, resentful, unforgiving. It’s like a hidden insidious weapon.

(22:56 – 23:31)

Like a Trojan horse. Remember the story? And like the citizens of Troy, we don’t detect it until it’s done its deadly work. And the Hebrews writer warns of this too.

He calls it the root of bitterness. In chapter 12, he says, see to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble and by it many become defiled. And so that brings us finally then to Jesus’ most important phrase, from the heart.

(23:34 – 25:47)

What we hear from Jesus is that at its most foundational level, forgiveness is an attitude from the heart. It’s about our minds and all the imagination, the thinkings and beliefs that go on there. It’s our desires and all the wants and passions and fears that go on there.

It’s about our wills and all the choices and decisions and plans and acts that come from that. And they’re all aligned. It’s an internal posture, an attitude.

Our thinking about the person and what has happened is to be rewired so that we don’t lord it over them and think ourselves as above. And we don’t obsess about it over and over and over again, seeking to sort it all out on our own apart from God because, hey, we’re in control and we can sort this. And also what we desire for the person who has wronged us is to be reoriented.

So we look to avoid feelings of hate and harm, meaning we don’t let them fester. We’re not like the wife of Tam o’ Shanter who nurses them. We don’t nurse feelings and desires to want to treat the person as their sins deserves.

And what we willingly choose to do with the cost of the sin against us is to be redirected. We choose to absorb the cost of the offence and we choose to treat the offender not as their sins deserve. It’s got to be at the heart level because forgiveness has to be practised again and again and again.

Did you notice Peter asked at the very beginning, how many times? Forgiveness may be spoken in a moment, I forgive you, but we have to continue to forgive. We choose again and again not to think those thoughts or cultivate those desires or choose to act in revenge or retribution and that internal posture orients us towards showing mercy. And this is what is always required.

(25:48 – 28:04)

This is the work you do before God and it’s unconditional and it doesn’t depend on apology or repentance or then becoming a better person. It comes before confronting the offender and even seeking repentance or looking for trust. We are to come to God and cultivate a forgiving, merciful heart.

How many times does God forgive us in a single day? His mercy has no limits. Are we tempted to place limits where God is not? And I know this is not easy or simplistic and it does require wisdom, especially with repeated and harmful sins. Some offences may be forgiven more quickly than others.

Others require boundaries and discernment before trust and relationship might ever be restored. And we’re going to return to that. But it always begins here, from the heart.

And the point is simple yet hard. Treat those who sin against you as God has treated you in Christ. Show mercy, reflecting that your far greater debt has already been paid. Do it with kindness and compassion because forgiven people are forgiving people. His good purpose is that from the rches of His mercy toward us, we extend in forgivenes and generosity too.

And as we do that, God’s glory is in view. And so is our maturity. Ours as a victim, but also theirs as an offender.

And as we forgive and continue to forgive, God is at work reshaping our hearts from the inside out, as well as holding out the opportunity that in the hearts of those who have wronged us, they too may be being transformed by God’s mercy and grace. God forgives us and his glory is on display. And when we forgive, we reflect and display that glory too.

(28:06 – 28:15)

When we forgive, it’s an echo of the gospel. Forgiven people, forgive. Let me pray.

(28:18 – 28:50)

Father, we thank you for the gospel and thank you for all your grace and mercy towards us. Thank you for your kindness and compassion towards us. May that evermore work deeply in our hearts from the inside out, so that we too are able to walk in step with your spirit, to be people who are kind and compassionate and forgiving.

So help us God, we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

The post Forgiven People Forgive – Matthew 18v21–35 appeared first on Greenview Church.