Unattractive Gospel 2

Unattractive Gospel 2 – Forgiveness Matthew 18:21-35

This is week two in a three week series of what I have called the “unattractive gospel”, where we are looking at the way we need to make our actually lives match up with the faith in Jesus that we proclaim. Just as Paul wrote to the early church in Corinth 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! But sometimes some of the things of the old creation seem a lot more attractive and easier than what it really means to be a new creation in Christ.

Last week we looked at how we need to have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. While I think we all would pretty much agree that selfless attitude and the selfless life that Jesus lived to bring us back to God was completely amazing and something we want to talk about and share, it is a bit less attractive for us to live out such a lifestyle, putting others first, but that I the challenge of the gospel. Today we are going to be looking at FORGIVENESS.

Lets look at the passage again on page 1073, Matthew 18 picking up at verse 23.
the Kingdom of Heaven is like this. Once there was a king who decided to check on his servants' accounts. 24 He had just begun to do so when one of them was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. 25 the servant did not have enough to pay his debt, so the king ordered him to be sold as a slave, with his wife and his children and all that he had in order to pay the debt. 26 The servant fell on his knees before the king. 'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay you everything!' 27 The king felt sorry for him, so he forgave him the debt and let him go.
So here Jesus is telling a parable about forgiveness – so lets take a closer look.

In this parable King is just doing what kings do and checking out his financial position and seeing who owes him and how he can you know just increase his wealth a little bit more. So the king comes across a servant who owes him a large large debt, a debt that the servant can't possibly pay back. And what does the servant do? No he doesn't go to GE Money or the local bank and ask for a personal loan so he can pay it back, but he drops down on his knees and begs literally for his debt to be worked out. If he can't pay out this loan the king is going to make him a slave, but not only him, but his wife and kids are also going to be slaves. It is like he had defaulted on his home loan and is about to loose his house, but on an even bigger scale, he is desperate.

So the servant is on his knees begging, pleading with the king for mercy, that some sort of arrangement can be made to refinance the loan and alternate payments can be made. And what does the king do? Verse 27 The king felt sorry for him, so he forgave him the debt and let him go. Wow, that is an amazing outcome, the king forgave the servant the massive debt that his servant owed. The king didn't just agree to workout a way of alternate payments, or reduce the payment, the king FORGAVE AND CANCELED THE WHOLE AMOUNT!

What I am going to say today is that God is like the king in Jesus' story, and we are like the servant. We all owe God a massive massive debt that we can never repay. We are all in the same situation as the servant in the parable, unable to pay back what we owe and facing punishment – facing loosing everything.

Unlike the servant the debt that I have, that you have, that all humans have is the debt of sin, disobeying God, neglecting God, doing it all our own way. And because of our sin we are in debt that we are unable to pay off, and so we are facing punishment. We are facing death separation from God, both now and for eternity. It is not simply a case of we miss out on going to heaven when we die and having a good time and landing in hell, it is we are missing out on LIFE, missing out on BEING WITH GOD!

But like the servant in the story, if we too humble ourselves, get down on our knees before God and beg him for Forgiveness He will be like the king in the story and forgive us our full debt. And He does that on the Cross!

It was on a cross just outside of Jerusalem about 2000 years ago a man named Jesus was killed in a state approved execution. What looked like very bad luck for this Jesus – pretty much being found innocent by the Roman official of the area, but still getting executed – is the good news, the reason why God forgives our debt, our sin. It was because of Jesus, God become human, fully God yet fully human, dying on the cross that we can be forgiven. It was Jesus' bad luck that he died on a small hill outside of Jerusalem, it was all part of the plan of God so that we, you, me, everyone in the world, could have their sins forgiven! It was on the cross that Jesus took the punishment for the sin debts of the whole world. Jesus took the DEATH that we all deserve, even though he had never sinned – thus did not deserve it, but he took it for us so we could be friends with God and so we could have our sins FORGIVEN!! And God rose Jesus from death three days later!!

It is by putting your trust, your faith in Jesus that we can be FORGIVEN as and for all, and if you want to know more about this or Jesus just ask, because it is the best news – that we can be forgiven from all our sin that leads to death and separation from God.

Now that it awesome news! I am down with being forgiven, but if we look back at the story Jesus told that isn't where it all finished. Lets pick it up again in verse 28 of chapter 18.
Then the man went out and met one of his fellow servants who owed him a few dollars. He grabbed him and started chocking him. 'Pay back what you owe!' he said. 29 His fellow servant fell down and begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay back!' 30 But he refused; instead, he had him thrown into jail until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were very upset and went to the king and told him everything. 32 So he called the servant in. 'You worthless slave!' he said. 'I forgave you the whole amount that you owed me to. 33 You should have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you.' 34 The king was very angry, and he sent the servant to jail to be punished until he paid back the whole amount.”
So we have the servant who has just been forgiven, allowed to walk free from a debt that we could never pay back – walked out debt free, not with a reduced payment, but nothing to pay at all! - and he runs into a fellow servant who owed him a small amount. And what do you think we would do?

No he doesn't forgive the small debt that is owed to him, instead he gets crazily angry at the other guy - started chocking him – and doesn't even give him time to pay back the debt, instead has him thrown into prison until he can pay back the loan. The king find out about this, and well I think we would all agree that the king is very much right in his reaction to the servant. 32 So he called the servant in. 'You worthless slave!' he said. 'I forgave you the whole amount that you owed me to. 33 You should have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you.' 34 The king was very angry, and he sent the servant to jail to be punished until he paid back the whole amount.”

After telling the story Jesus warns his listeners, and us, not to be like that servant. Verse 35 And Jesus concluded, “That is how my Father in heaven will treat every one of you unless you forgive other people from your heart.” Jesus isn't just saying that being a forgiving person is a good thing to be, he is saying that if we say that we are forgiven through is death, then we too need to be forgiving people, forgiving to all.

It is easy to stop the story at the part where the servant has been forgiven the huge, unpayable debt and go WOW we are like that servant, we too have had a massive, unpayable debt forgiven for as well – THAT IS GREAT NEWS!

But if we are truelly are Forgiven people we need to be FORGIVING people as well. It is very attractive to just look at the one side of the story, but we are called to live out what seems like an unattractive lifestyle in the eyes of our society.

Just like the servant in the story we have had an unpayable debt forgiven, so what right do we have not to forgive anyone else. Compared to the how much we have been forgiven by God anything else does not compare. But that doesn't mean it is easy to forgive. We see at the start of the passage that we read today that Jesus tells this parable because Peter raises the issue of forgiveness, most likely because he does not find it easy to always forgive himself. Lets take a look verse 21 Then Peter cam to Jesus and asked, “Lord, if my brother keeps sinning against me, how many times do I have to forgive him? Seven Times?”

It seems like Peter is a bit like us, well me at least, finding it hard to keep on forgiving people who continue to wrong or upset him. It seems like Peter wanted a numerical cap on the amount of times he needed to forgive people. Like Peter I sometimes I wish that there was a magical number where you could go, 'Ok I have forgiven you x amount of times, and that is it', but that isn't the Jesus way.

In Matthew 6 Jesus said to his followers 14 For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. Jesus doesn't mince his words here. He makes it very clear that God demands us to be forgiving just as God his forgiving to us, we have no excuse.

If we are truly living the Jesus way, living the forgiven lifestyle we need to be forgivers also. And not just one forgivers, but we need to be always ready to forgive. As Paul wrote in Colossians Col 3:12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. It is because we who are now joined to Jesus have been forgiven by God, that we need to forgive others. It is not like when you are buying a car and you can add being a forgiving person on as an added extra, it is part of the core of being a follower of Jesus.

So I want to leave you today with a challenge, and this is a challenge for me as well, but it is a challenge that is worthwhile. I want to challenge you to live the Jesus way, live out the unattractive gospel – and if you believe that through Jesus' death and resurrection you have been forgiven and you are following him – LETS START BEING FORGIVING PEOPLE!

And if you haven't yet got on your knees and begged for mercy from God and accepted his Forgiveness through Jesus I challenge to seriously think about it.

SO LETS START TRULY LIVING THE JESUS WAY