Amelia Church of Christ - Christian Church in Amelia, OH near Cincinnati in Clermont County

Welcome to our brand new series called Stories. Everyone loves a good story, and this summer, we’re going to listen to some of the best stories every told. We’re going to spend the next nine weeks sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening to the stories that he told.

Jesus’ favorite teaching tool was the story. It seems like whenever Jesus wanted to drive an important point home with his followers, he told them a story.

In his gospel, Matthew wrote that, “Jesus always used stories and illustrations like these when speaking to the crowds. In fact, he never spoke to them without using such parables. This fulfilled what God had spoken through the prophet:

“I will speak to you in parables. I will explain things hidden since the creation of the world.” (Matthew 13:34-35, NLT)

Jesus always taught through the use of a story. We refer to these stories as “parables.”

A parable is simply an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. Jesus told stories about ordinary, understandable things and used them to illustrate a heavenly truth. And for the rest of the summer, we’re going to hear his stories. And we’re going to witness firsthand how these old stories still have the power to change our lives today.

We’re kicking off the series with one of the most important stories that Jesus ever told. The parable of the unmerciful servant. We’re in Matthew 18. Let’s pray and then we’ll listen to our first story from Jesus, the greatest storyteller to ever walk the face of the earth.

Now, sit back and listen as Jesus tells the first story in our series. Matthew 18, starting in verse 21.

“Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?"

Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

"Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him.

Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

"The servant fell on his knees before him. 'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay back everything.'

The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.

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

He grabbed him and began to choke him. 'Pay back what you owe me!' he demanded.

"His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.'

"But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.

"Then the master called the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?'

In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

"This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart." (Matthew 18:21-35, NIV)

Now, we’re going to walk step by step through this story so we can fully internalize the truth that Jesus wants to teach us through this story. The messages in this series won’t be the most fast-paced things you’ve ever heard. To fully receive the truth of Jesus’ stories, you’ve got to walk through them slowly and carefully. So put all the distractions aside. Forget about what happened at home this morning or what you have to do later today. Open your ears, clear your mind, and listen to the life-changing truth in this story.

Peter is actually the one who set the stage for Jesus to tell this story. Verse 21 says, “Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” (Matthew 18:21, NIV)

At first, this might sound like a pretty weird question to us. Where did Peter get this idea of forgiving a person seven times and then cutting off the forgiveness after that? It just sounds like kind of an oddball question. But you have to understand the cultural context.

The Jewish teaching in this time period generally taught that you forgive a person twice. At most, you should forgive them 3 times. After that, you take the forgiveness card out of the deck. Three times was the max. After that, revenge and retaliation was completely justified.

So actually, Peter seems pretty generous here. By asking if he should forgive up to 7 times, he went way above and beyond the conventional wisdom of his day. He probably expected Jesus to give him a big pat on the back for being so magnanimous.

But that’s not what happened. Actually, his question showed that Peter still didn’t get it.

“Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” (Matthew 18:22, NIV)

Jesus’ answer blew Peter’s way of thinking out of the water. Forgiving someone seven times might seem like a lot, but you can still keep track of it. If seven is the limit, you can still keep a mental scorecard of how many times you’ve forgiven a person. “Ok, that’s the fifth time I’ve forgiven Bob. Two more times, buddy. That’s it. Two more times and then it’s on like Donkey Kong.”

But Jesus said, “No. Not seven times. Seventy-seven times.”

No one would be able to keep track of this. You might be able to keep a running tab if seven is your limit, but if it’s seventy-seven, you’re going to lose track. You won’t be able to keep score anymore.

And that’s exactly Jesus’ point. Jesus wasn’t actually suggesting that seventy-seven is the number for our forgiveness limit. He used this number to tell us that scorekeeping isn’t the way we approach forgiveness.

Larry Chouinard wrote, “Instead of a legalistic mindset that calculates how many offenses can be forgiven before retaliation is justified, Jesus insists that there are no limits on forgiveness. Rather than keeping track of the number of times we grant forgiveness, Jesus calls his followers to a basic mindset that is ever open to forgiveness and reconciliation.”

Peter thought he was being very generous in his offer to forgive someone seven times. But the very fact that he was keeping score at all revealed that he was still viewing the issue through eyes of flesh instead of eyes of faith. He was still thinking in very earthly, very human terms.

A couple of chapters earlier in the book of Matthew, “Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” (Matthew 16:23, NIV)

Apparently nothing had changed, because Peter was still thinking about spiritual issues in human terms. When it came to forgiveness, he didn’t have the things of God in mind.

And, as he always seemed to do, Jesus saw this as an opportunity to tell a story to drive the point home.

Jesus opened his story by saying, “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him.” (Matthew 18:23-24, NIV)

Jesus used a very important opening phrase in this story. “The kingdom of God is like…” This introductory phrase indicates that Jesus is about to draw a line of contrast between someone who lives by the pattern of this world and someone who lives under the reign of God.

In his story, Jesus tells us about a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began this settlement process, a servant was brought to the king who owed him 10,000 talents. A talent was the highest denomination of currency in that culture.

In his story, Jesus chose the figure of 10,000 talents on purpose. It’s impossible for us to determine exactly how much money was represented here, but we know that 10,000 talents is an astronomical number, equivalent to millions, if not a billion dollars. Some have even suggested that this amount would be equivalent to hundreds of billions of dollars. The reason Jesus chose this massive figure was to emphasize the fact that it would be absolutely impossible for this servant to ever repay his debt.

The only way you could possibly accrue this much debt is stupidity. To go this deep in debt, you’ve got to be stupid. Unless you’re a congressman, right? Seriously…only a fool would allow himself to sink this far into debt.

Or, instead of stupidity, this servant could have been a liar. He could have accrued this debt through deception and dishonesty. Some have suggested that this servant might have been a regional governor who collected taxes for the king, but spent them himself. But now, his plan had been uncovered and he was on the hook for all the money he stole.

However he incurred this much debt, this servant is in deep trouble. He would never be able to pay it back in his lifetime. He couldn’t pay it back in 1,000 lifetimes.

Pick up the story in verse 25. “Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

The servant fell on his knees before him. 'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay back everything.'” (Matthew 18:25-26, NIV)

The servant knew that his only hope was if the king would somehow have mercy on him. He begs for patience and he promises to repay the entire debt, even though there was no way he could ever do that. He would never be able to repay his debt.

This is where the story takes an unbelievable turn. “The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.” (Matthew 18:27, NIV)

In his plea for mercy, the servant made a promise to the king that he could never keep. If the king would just give him more time, he would pay back everything. That was a lie, and everyone knew it.

But the gracious king ignores the empty promise of repayment from this foolish servant. He has compassion on his servant and cancels the entire debt.

The king’s grace goes far beyond anything the servant could have imagined. Instead of agonizing over how he could repay this impossible debt, he was completely set free. Not owing a thing. He walks out of the king’s throne room as a free man.

You would think that this servant would immediately leave the king’s presence and share this amazing experience with everyone. But that’s not what happened.

Jesus tells us, “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.” (Matthew 18:28, NIV)

This guy leaves the king and immediately seeks out a fellow servant who owed him 100 denarii. 100 denarii was roughly equivalent to 100 days wages, so it’s not chump change. But at the same time, it is a paltry sum compared to the incomprehensible debt that this servant had owed the king.

Verse 29 of the story says, "His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.'

"But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt.” (Matthew 18:29-30, NIV)

The fellow servant falls on his knees, begging, “Be patient with me and I will pay you back.” That should have sounded incredibly familiar to the first servant, since it was the exact thing he said to the king.

But instead of extending the same grace to his fellow servant that he received from the king, he had the servant thrown into debtor’s prison.

It didn’t take long for the king to hear about what had happened. Starting in verse 32, Jesus said, “Then the master called the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?'

In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.” (Matthew 18:32-34, NIV)

The king heard about what his servant had done, so he called him to appear before him again. This time, he addressed him as “You wicked servant.” The king reminded the servant of the massive debt that he had been released from. And the king was appalled that this servant would not extend that same grace to a fellow servant…especially considering that the debt was miniscule by comparison.

So the king reinstated the entire debt, and had the servant thrown into prison to be tortured until he could pay back the entire debt, which of course he could never do. So as we read this, we need to understand that the torture and imprisonment would last forever.

Jesus wraps up the story with this. “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart." (Matthew 18:35, NIV)

Jesus makes sure that we don’t miss the point of this story. We can’t expect God to forgive us if we refuse to forgive others.

We owe God a debt that is incalculable. Through our sin, we have accrued a debt that we simply cannot pay off. We could never repay it in 1,000 lifetimes.

Some of us have tried to bargain with God, just like the servant bargained with the king in our story. The servant told the king that, if the king would be patient with him, he would pay back all that he owed. There was no way this could ever happen, but it didn’t stop the servant from trying to bargain his way out of his predicament.

Some of us have tried to bargain with God…

-God, if you let me have this, I’ll do that.

-God, if you will do this, I’ll give you that.

It’s a completely ridiculous idea to believe that you can strike a deal with God. He is the omnipotent God of the universe.

The Bible tells us that “The earth is the LORD’s and everything in it; the world, and all who live in it.” (Psalm 24:1, NIV)

What exactly are you going to use as a bargaining chip with God? How are you going to make Him a deal that He can’t refuse?

We might try, but there’s no way we can bargain our way out of our debt with God. There is nothing we can give him that will square our debt. There is nothing we can do that will pay our debt in full. In fact, it’s arrogant and offensive to even try.

In his book The Ragamuffin Gospel, Brennan Manning wrote, “Our huffing and puffing to impress God, our scrambling for brownie points, our thrashing about trying to fix ourselves while hiding our pettiness and wallowing in guilt are nauseating to God and are a flat denial of the gospel of grace.”

In Jesus’ story, the king had mercy on his servant. He knew that the servant’s promise to repay the debt was ludicrous. The king saw the desperate state of his servant, he had compassion on him, and then he did the unthinkable.

He forgave the debt. Entirely. Completely. He didn’t put the servant on some impossible payment plan. He didn’t ask for anything in return. It was a completely unmerited, undeserved gift.

It was grace. In our story, grace was the only hope that the servant had. And grace is the only hope that I have. And grace is the only hope that you have.

If you think that you can bargain with God, that you can strike some kind of deal…if you think that one day you can be good enough, that you can do enough good things to repay God for all the evil that you have done…you can forget it. You have totally missed the point of this story. You have totally missed the point of the entire Bible. You have totally missed the point of Jesus. The singular hope that you and I have is grace. You take that out of the equation, we will crash and burn.

In the book of Titus, the Bible says, “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit,

whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:4-7, NIV)

God saved us, not because of our good deeds, but because of his mercy. We have been justified by his grace. Because of grace, it is “just as if I’d” never sinned. It’s like the debt never existed.

But now, watch this. The book of Titus says that we are heirs. The Bible tells us that not only are we no longer debtors, but the pendulum has swung to the exact opposite of extreme. Instead of debtors, now we are heirs.

Debtors owe something. Heirs receive something. We are heirs of grace. We are heirs of eternal life. Not only is our debt completely forgiven, but we are heirs of an incredible inheritance from God. Not only do we not owe God anything, but instead, we receive from God the most incredible gift that you could possibly imagine.

But, here’s where the servant in our story completely missed it. Grace is not a one-time experience. It is a life-changing transformation.

The servant, after experiencing unimaginable grace, after receiving total forgiveness for his astronomical debt…he flat out refused to forgive a fellow servant who owed him what was, by comparison, a piddly amount of money.

How does that happen? How does the joy of receiving grace not translate into a life that gives grace? The servant never internalized what he received. It never shifted from short-term to long-term memory.

Mark Batterson said, “Here is one of our fundamental spiritual problems: we tend to remember what we should forget and forget what we should remember.”

If the servant had remembered the magnitude of the grace that he had received, he would have definitely given grace to someone else. But it never left his short-term memory.

This is a very real danger for us…especially those of us who have been following Jesus for a while. The longer we follow Christ, the easier it is to forget. The further we get from our initial experience with God’s grace, the easier it is to forget just how big and awesome and amazing His grace is.

You would think that the longer we follow Christ, the more forgiving we would become. Not always. Sometimes, the exact opposite proves true. The further we get from our conversion experience…the better we get at this church thing…the more self-righteous and unforgiving we become.

That’s why the Bible constantly calls us to remember. In Psalm 77, Asaph wrote, “I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. (Psalm 77:11, NIV)

Remembering is a critical component in our walk with the Lord. In the Old Testament, God’s people were constantly building altars. Altars served as visible reminders of all the things that God had done.

In the New Testament church, we take communion every week. We take it to remember. It is a physical reminder of just how extravagant the grace of God is. It is a reminder that God’s grace is so huge that it cost Jesus’ his life.

When we remember how big God’s grace is…when we remember how much we have been forgiven…then it makes us more forgiving.

The Bible tells us to, “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” (Colossians 3:13, NIV)

To forgive as the Lord has forgiven us, we have to remember what our lives used to be like. We have to remember the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. We have to remember the difference he has made in our lives.

So in a very real way, lack of forgiveness begins with lack of remembrance. The servant in our story didn’t forgive his fellow servant because he quickly forgot how much the king had forgiven him. It never made the transition from short-term to long-term memory.

If I don’t forgive someone, I have forgotten how much Jesus loves me. I have forgotten that He gave everything He had to forgive me. If I can’t forgive, then Jesus is no longer the center point of my life.

And that’s why unforgiveness is so costly. Because it puts us in the same boat as Peter at the beginning of our story. Peter wasn’t seeing things through the lens of grace. If we don’t see others through that lens…if we don’t freely offer forgiveness and grace…then Jesus cannot be at the center of our lives. Instead, we have placed ourselves and our desires for revenge and retaliation at the center of our lives.

Just like the servant in our story, we owe God a much bigger debt than anyone could possibly owe us. However another person sins against you or me, it can never begin to compare to our sins against God. And yet God has declared us not guilty. The cross declares that our debt has been paid in full. We are forgiven. We are free. It is grace.

Grace, by its very definition, is given unconditionally. And that’s usually where we get hung up in our lives. Most of us can find a way to offer forgiveness if the person asks for it. If they do something to show that they deserve it.

But grace is unconditional. It comes with no strings attached. The person doesn’t need to deserve it. They don’t need to ask for it. We forgive them as the Lord forgave us…fully. Freely. Unconditionally.

Is that tough? You’d better believe it. I actually think that forgiveness is the hardest command ever given in the Bible. The only way we can actually do it is to remember. Remember how God has forgiven us.

And remember this…ultimately, we forgive others, not for their benefit, but for God’s benefit. We do it for His honor and His pleasure. You don’t forgive someone because they deserve it. You forgive them because God deserves it. You forgive them because you have been forgiven for so much. You forgive them because Jesus has changed your life and you will never, ever be the same again.

Mike Edmisten

Tags:forgiveness,Matthew 18,parables,Stories