Our scripture readings comes from Matthew 18, verses 21 to 35 this evening. Matthew 18, verses 21 to 35. This is the word of the living God. Then Peter came up and said to him, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me? And I forgive him as many as seven times. Jesus said to him, I do not say to you seven times, but 77 times. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents. And 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 the servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him 100 dinari, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, pay what you owe. So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, hey, patient 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 they 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 anger, his master delivered him to the jailers until you should pay all his debts. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. Amen. May the Lord bless of the reading of his word. Congregation of Jesus Christ, we are living in a sinful world, a fallen world. And in this world, we hurt each other. We sin against each other. Sometimes it is easy to leave those painful memories behind, but sometimes they stay with us and we carry the pain as long as we live. And there's only one way for us to continue and to leave the pain behind. That is the reconciliation with our offenders. To be reconciled, the offender must ask for forgiveness. And the victim must offer. Forgiveness. Because forgiveness is not overcoming an anger resentment, but it is something more. It is something different, something that involves two parties instead of one. It is not just what the offended person feels. It is not just about a therapeutic line of thinking. it involves two parties. We must understand this because what we believe about forgiveness will determine whether or not we can move forward for God's glory and for our own joy. So what does forgiveness mean then? How can we define it according to scripture? It is hard to fit everything in one definition, but we can define it as forgiveness is a promise to give in to the repented sinners to no longer remember one's sin and cease holding against them. So there are two important things in this definition. First, forgiveness is not given freely to everyone. but it requires repentance. And second, forgiveness is a promise not to remember what is forgiven. Throughout the sermon, I will come back to this definition and share some scripture verses with you to show you where this definition comes from. But today we will look at Matthew 18 verses 21 to 35 to understand what is biblical forgiveness and find out how we can equip ourself with this doctrine and how we can apply this doctrine into our daily lives. So we are going to look at our passage with three points today. The question of Peter. the answer of Jesus, and thirdly, the application in our lives. But before we begin to look at our passage, let me tell you that what this passage is not about, so we can focus its true meaning. Brothers and sisters, this passage is not about the ends of days. This passage is not about the judgment day. And secondly, this parable is not about our salvation. This parable is not a matter of soteriology about our justification. Jesus is not talking about the possibility of losing our salvation in this passage. He's not saying that God forgives us because we forgives others. No, he's not promoting salvation that is earned by good works. This parable is simply about forgiveness. If we attempt to take this parable to its context and try to turn it to something else, we will end up in error. So we need to be very careful when we deal with parables. And should not forget that these are only parables. These are examples. These are analogies. These are not allegories. So there are five discourses in Matthew. And Matthew 18 is the fourth discourse of Jesus Christ. And Matthew 18 is a discourse about the life in the church. The audience of this chapter is disciples. And Jesus explained to them how we should deal the sin, the fault of other brothers in our congregation. At the beginning of the chapter, we read that disciples came to Jesus and asked, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? In the beginning of chapter 18. And this whole chapter is the answer of this short question. That's why we cannot isolate verses 21 to 35 from the rest of the chapter. We have to look this passage in the light of the whole chapter. Usually parables of Christ Jesus are harder to understand for his hearer because Jesus communicates not to, Jesus chooses not to communicate the message clearly. As a result, sometimes we see some disciples coming to Jesus after he finishes his parable and they ask for its meaning. But here, this parable is different. Jesus communicates his message very clearly, and not just in an easy parable to understand, but Jesus even gives the application of the parable at the end of it. So Jesus makes sure that his disciples understands what he says. So our first point, the question of Peter. causes Jesus to share this parable. Peter wonders about what Jesus said exactly in verses 15 to 20, which is about what we need to do when someone sins against us among our congregation. And Jesus tells his disciples that if a person in our congregation sins against you, and ask for forgiveness, we need to forgive him as our Heavenly Father forgives us. There is no limit. But Peter doesn't understand it because Jesus doesn't talk about how many times we need to forgive our brothers and sisters. So, Peter must have thought that Jesus must have forgotten to mention the limit of how many times we must forgive our brothers and sisters. That's why Peter asks the question. And some Jewish rabbis discussed the same question in that time, and they came up with not more than three times. However, Peter offers a better deal, right? He's more gracious than those rabbis. He asked Jesus as many as seven times, and he received an unexpected answer from Jesus Christ. Jesus says not seven times, but 70 times seven, as some of the other versions translated it. This means in Hebrew culture, this means you cannot hold any grudges against each other. So Jesus says that to Peter, you must always forgive. You cannot hold any grudges. And what is this forgiveness that Jesus talks about? Is this an unconditional forgiveness? Is it offered to everyone? Jesus gives us the necessary details in the following verses. So let us look to answer of Jesus, which is our second point. There are three section of this parable that we need to have a closer look. First of all, Jesus talks about a king. which we later learn that the king is the heavenly father who wants to settle account with his servants. The king knows what happens in the kingdom. He has accounts of all the servants. And we are introduced to the main character of the parable in verse 24. A servant who owes 10,000 talents to the king. What this servant owes is so much more than the yearly income of a kingdom in those times. If he was living today, his debt could have been trillion dollars. We don't know how the king allow him to get into debt that much, but let us don't forget that this is a parable. Jesus purposely exaggerates the amount of the death to point us to a much more serious problem, a much bigger death that all of us here have. People of God, We are the servant who owes the 10,000 talents to the king in this parable. The reason that Jesus exaggerates the death of the servant is that he wants us to realize how much we owe to God. We are all debtors, and we can actually roughly estimate how much we owe to God. To calculate our debt, We will look at the event that is recorded for us in the first pages of the scripture, the fall of Adam and Eve. They just ate a fruit from the forbidden tree, yet this caused them to lose their eternal life. They removed from the garden, they removed before the Lord. Because of a single sin, because of a single disobedience, they lost everything. And here we are today. We are sinning before the Lord, before His eyes every day. If Adam and Eve lost everything because of a single disobedience, How much do we owe God? Because of our daily sins for years. And when we read verse 26, we come across a similar situation that we often observe in our lives sometimes and in the lives of others around us. When the king declares the just punishment that the servant deserve because of his unpayable death, the servant falls on his knees and implores to the king. But the servants know that he cannot pay his death. Yet he still gives promise to the king. He says, I will pay. He doesn't only lie to the king, but he also lies to himself. This is what we call self-deception. Many people of this age also living in the same mindset as this servant of the parable. They are lying to themselves. They're lying to themselves and deceiving themselves. They think that they can make everything better by themselves. They can solve all the problems in their lives by themselves. They think that it is possible to pay their debt without the help of God. Yet, they are living in deception. Also, the servant knew that he was so much in death, yet he wasn't concerned about it before he was summoned before the Lord. He didn't do anything to pay his death before he was summoned. And unfortunately, we see this mindset in our churches among our members. They share all the privileges of the kingdom, yet they live like this servant who doesn't care anything about what he owes to the king. They don't even think about their death as this servant. Those people think that they can enjoy the pleasures of this world, and yet they can call themselves Christians. However, when they are asked to give a count, which they will be surely, they realize the seriousness of the situation. Sinners are commonly careless about the pardon of their sins, till they come under arrest of some awakening word, some starling providence or approaching to death, and they then They say, like in Micah 6, with what shall I come before the Lord? But there is a good news. There is a great news. We read something that suppresses our understanding. When the servant asked the king to be more patient with himself and give him more time even though he was just lying to the king and to himself, we read that the king is moved with compassion. The king shows mercy to the servant who even doesn't ask forgiveness properly, who doesn't care about his death, doesn't respect the king because he has never tried to pay his debt. And he just behaved that he didn't owe anything. And yet, the servant asked for more time. But instead, the king forgives all of his debts. Sheer grace is at work. And this is not the only place we encounter this compassion of this grace in Matthew. Remember, Matthew recorded when Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were weary and dejected, like sheep that did not have a shepherd. And remember, two blind men, they were shouting, Lord, have mercy on us, son of David. Jesus stopped, called them and said, what do you want me to do for you? They said to him, Lord, that our eyes be opened. And having compassion, Jesus touched their eyes and immediately they received their sight and followed him. Oh, how compassionate and gracious is the King. But what does precede the compassion of the king? Let us do not forget that repentance comes before the compassion in our parable. Repentance comes before forgiveness. First, king orders the servant to be sold and his family. He doesn't automatically forgive him, forgave him. his first order to sell the servant and his family because of his unpayable debt. So do you think that the servant would have received the forgiveness even he wouldn't have asked the king to be more patient with him? Do you think that the king would have forgiven his debts before the servant imploring to him? How did we define forgiveness? Forgiveness is a promise that is given to repented sinners to no longer remember one's sins and cease holding it against them. And Jesus also teaches the same principle in Luke 17. Jesus says, pay attention to yourself. If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, Forgive him if he sins against you seven times in a day and turns to you seven times saying, I repent, you must forgive him. And also we read this in Luke 13. Jesus repeats that twice in the same verse. I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. So we can say that if the servant didn't ask the king, he would not have received the forgiveness. The second section of Jesus' answers begin in verse 28. We read about what the forgiven servant does right after he was freed from his unpayable death. Jesus pictures us the same situation. He even uses the same exact Greek words to pictures us the same situation. But this time we read that another servant only owes 100 denarii to the forgiven servant. And 100 denarii represent 100 days of a common worker's wages. And it is so hard to believe what we read in these verses. We are shocked, and we are meant to be shocked. This is the purpose of this parable, because Jesus wants us to reveal, wants to reveal the green truth about our fallen nature. Even though the servant has been shown grace and mercy abundantly, he continues to fail to understand what he was freed from. Just several minutes ago, he was about to be sold as a slave, but he doesn't understand that. He forgets that right away. The more we read, the more we are shocked. The forgiven servants began to choke his fellow servants and doesn't show even a single crumb of mercy. And when the king hears about that, Here's about the situation. He reinstates the punishment of the first servant and he delivers him to jailers, which means also torturers in Greek. But the king asked a crucial question to the forgiven servant. He says in verse 33, and should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you? This is a question Jesus asked his disciples. Let's do not forget that. He's talking to his disciples. And also, Jesus is asking the same question to his children right now, today, because we need to remember this question. Jesus says to you, to me, should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you? should not have had forgiven your brothers and sisters as I had forgiven you. And the last section of Jesus' answer consists only one center, yet this is the heart of the parable, which is the last verse. He indicates that this is the answer to Peter's question. However, this is not the first time Peter hears this teaching. So please, let us turn to Matthew 6 together, to Lord's Prayer. Let us turn Matthew 6, verses 11 to 14. In this verses, Jesus teaches that. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. So Peter needed to hear this teaching, this doctrine again. We also needed to be remembered of this doctrine, this teaching, almost every day in our life. So the key principle is to forgive everyone who asks for forgiveness. Even God forgiveness is conditional upon repentance, as we just looked in several verses. So even though the main idea of this parable is quite clear, now let us talk about some practical application, which is our last point. So how we can apply this passage into our lives? Let's think about some practical application first and I would like to look together later what happens when you forgive someone. So let's look at the practical application first and we will look what happens when you forgive someone. First of all, brothers and sisters, your responsibility is to offer forgiveness to everyone. You can encourage someone to ask for forgiveness, but you cannot force people for repentance. As we repeated several times in this sermon, forgiveness requires repentance. You cannot solve the problem by yourself until the offender asks for forgiveness. Willingness to forgive is wonderful, That is what Jesus wants you to do. But you cannot forgive someone until it is asked. It is like someone burns down your house and you suddenly show up at the TV channel and say, I forgive the person who burned down my house. No, this is not the forgiveness Jesus talks about. This is not the forgiveness the Bible talks about. This doesn't solve the problem. Reconciliation comes only after forgiving to repentant offender. And it's bring the real healing for our wounds. Only after that. You can have a real reconciliation, real healing when the person who burned down your house ask for forgiveness and when you forgive that person. Besides that, brothers and sisters, you need to pray for people who have sinned against you. God uses prayer to change our heart against those people How will you forgive? How can you forgive if you are not praying for that person? Jesus says, He even says that, pray for those who persecute you. And you will find very hard to hate someone for whom you are praying. Forgiveness also doesn't mean the elimination of all consequences. God may still discipline us for his glory and for our education, for our holiness. God will associate pain with disobedience in order to help us so that in the future we will not repeat the same mistake. When you forgive someone, you don't take away the offender's responsibility against the law. And when you forgive someone, you promise that you are not going to remember the sins. You don't mention those sins again. In Psalms, David prays. We read that David asked the Lord not to remember his sins, but remember the sins of his enemies. Because forgiveness means to forget. When you forgive someone, you promise to forget. And ask for repentance. If you know you have sinned against your brother, sinned against your sister, ask for repentance. Go to him, go to her and ask for forgiveness. Don't leave your responsibility of asking for forgiveness to time. Some wounds cannot be healed by time. You must take the first step. At the beginning of Matt chapter 18, our passage, Jesus says, truly I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Be like little children. When they offend each other, they are ready to forgive. And when they realize they offend someone, they're so quick to ask for forgiveness. Be like these little children, ask for forgiveness. And lastly, what happens when you forgive? You fulfill the will of God in your life. You became the imitator of this compassionate and gracious King. You produce the fruit of righteousness in your life. You also declare that there is another way to live in this world rather than hurting each other and hating each other nonstop. You share the gospel. You manifest the beauty of the gospel when you forgive. You also build up the church. You stop the enmity between brothers and sisters. You give no more room to Satan to divide the church. A commentator says, forgiveness brings the forgiver peace of mind and frees him or her from coercive anger. It empowers you to recognize the pain you suffered without letting the pain define you, enabling you to heal and move on with your life. This is so true, brothers and sisters. Forgiveness heals you emotionally and physically so you can move on with your life. Dear brother, dear sister, The trying God has forgiven many, many of your sins. And he paid the highest price, even more than 10,000 talents. Jesus paid it with his own body, with his own blood. So you may receive the forgiveness. You may receive forgiveness from your sins and freed from the second death, you are forgiven. And when you leave the church today, don't be like this servant who doesn't show a single crumb of mercy, but be a servant who offers forgiveness, be a servant who asks for forgiveness. Be a servant who asks for repentance. Be a servant who looks for reconciliation among your dear brothers and sisters. Be the imitators of Jesus Christ, your beloved Savior. May the Lord forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. Let us pray. Almighty God, graciously grant that your word, which we have heard, may be inscribed inwardly on our hearts. As we receive your word meekly with pure affection, may our hearts be filled with love and reverence for you. All this we pray for the honor and praise of your name,