Forgiveness

This morning I want to look at a parable that we all need to hear. We have to be open to what God wants to teach us this morning. I am going to talk about forgiveness. Forgiveness is vital in how we treat each other. Some people have actually written that forgiveness is as important as your belief in Christ.

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Matthew 18:1-20

The disciples have seen Jesus pick up a child and He has shown them that they have to become like a child to enter the Kingdom of God. He has talked to them about His heart of compassion for the one who has gone astray. He then talked, in verse 15, about the situation where someone has hurt you in some way. He showed them that there is a procedure when this happens.

Matthew 18:21

Peter was worried about this whole relationship of brother with brother in God. He wanted to know how many times he had to forgive his brother. He had a problem with this particular point because of his character. Peter knew that in the Jewish law it was written that you should forgive your brother three times. So, he doubled it and added one, thinking that that would be sufficient.

Matthew 18:22

The effect on Peter’s face due to this reply was such that Jesus recounted this parable:

Matthew 18:23-24

In modern equivalent ten thousand talents is about £72,000,000. In this parable, for money, read sin. So here’s someone who owes £70,000,000.

Matthew 18:25-28

In a parallel sense, all of us here when we are first born are born in sin and have clocked up a life of rebellion against God. The amount of sin that you have been forgiven in coming to God is colossal; we have broken the law in every part. When Jesus went to the cross it was to forgive you and me all our sin. He completely changed our nature so that we then have the choice not to sin and the power to go the other way; before that the default is that we can’t help but sin. The amount of sin that each one of us brings to the cross is inevitability a life-full of cross. When Jesus hung on that cross, make no mistake, it was you and me banging those nails in. But, yet He still hung on that cross because of His love for us, even when were His enemies. £72,000,000 of sin was written off because of His death; He paid a debt we could not.

Matthew 18:28-31

Here we have then a person who has been totally forgiven all that amount of money in the context of the story. In the parallel, we have been forgiven all our sin by our Redeemer who paid the penalty of our sin. In monetary terms we have had £72,000,000 of sin written off. And then, I come over to this person here has £120 of debt towards me, and I take him by the throat and command him to pay back the debt. Even though this man had been forgiven so much, he threw his debtor into prison, despite his pleadings.

Matthew 18:30-36

We have to forgive our brother from our hearts. There is a duty and command of God that we forgive one another. As we will see in a moment, unless we do that, we can pray as much as we like but our hearts will be a million miles from where God wants us to be. This is a quotation from a Puritan:

“We need not climb up into heaven to see whether our sins are forgiven, let us look into our hearts and see if we can forgive others. ”

That is the bottom line because the enemy of our souls wants us to get at each other’s throats. We cherish anger when we think of the people who have wronged us, but yet all that time, my Redeemer lives and I can see His glory. If there is a source of bitterness against someone inside you, it makes no difference how much you praise God, because it is impossible to praise God whilst harbouring bitterness against others. You must leave the person who has wronged you to God, so that He can sort them out.

So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.

If we do hang on to a slight the net result will be sourness in our spirit, bitterness of heart, and God will not bless us. Now I don’t mean you should make a list of all the people you must forgive. You know in your heart whether you have forgiven someone, or whether you have held on to your bitterness against him.

Matthew 6:14-15

That is pretty clear.

James 2:12-14

In other words, we can trust God to sort things out, in the sense that, we commit everything unto Him. If we harbour bitterness against someone else it will eat into us like a cancer.

Ephesians 4:31-32

This is a direct command.

Colossians 3:13

Jesus is our example. When He was on the cross He cried out: “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. ”When Stephen was being stoned He prayed: “Lay not this sin to their charge. ”

Mark 11:24-27

This attitude can develop into a whole realm of bitterness. This is obviously important because this the way Jesus has told us to live. I know that there are some who will not let go the throttling of the £120 debtor because they did what they did. This morning it is time to let it go.

Here we are amongst the children of Israel who have just gone through the Red Sea today.

Exodus 15:23-26

The waters were bitter. What had to happen was that the tree had to be cut down and thrown into the waters, only then did they become sweet. That is a picture of us allowing God’s Holy Spirit cleansing us of any malice we have against anyone. We must do this because it will cause us to view things from a bitter and wrong viewpoint. God has showed us all a tree: Calvary’s Cross, which means that the bitterness inside us can be cleansed and made sweet.

Some of you may be thinking that you don’t need to forgive anyone. Let me be clear, God is faithful, and if there is anything that anyone of you is harbouring inside, God will have already put His finger on it. We are not to dust off that thinking process which we know if we get involved with will only end in us boiling with antipathy against an individual.

Romans 12:19

So God is sorting things out in the overall sense and we can commit everything to Him. This means I’m not going to resurrect something that someone did to me in the past.

Therefore, what are we supposed to do?

Romans 12:20-22

That is the bottom line: ‘be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good’. God has brought this to our attention this morning because He wants us to live clean and right. In your heart are you asking God who He wants you to reach todayIt is the glorious Gospel we are involved in that enables us to reach those who are lost. We are servants of the living God; that’s who we’re involved in. But we can’t harbour stuff inside. I’m convinced, more than ever, that God by His Holy Spirit wants to work through each one of us, so that He can reach others who are in desperate need. The only way that the enemy can stop us is if we allow bitterness and hatred to dwell in us against others.

Actually, Peter asked the wrong question. We should not really stop forgiving our brother when we’ve fulfilled the correct number; that is not the heart of a Christian. To anybody who wants to come into this hall: you are welcome. I’m not going to harbour stuff against anyone. This place will grow because we are going to lift up the name of Jesus, and when His name is lifted up, He draws people to Himself.

The heavenly meaning of this parable is a direct input into the way you live your life each day. It’s an attitude of heart and of mind. God in His faithfulness, mercy and love has brought it to our attention because He wants to work through us for His glory in our lives, in reaching out to others. We forgive from our hearts, we forgive fully and we forgive often.

The Lord’s Supper

As we come to the Lord’s Supper, we need to come worthily, mindful of the things He purchased for us on Calvary.

I want to talk about aspects of Holy Communion. When Jesus Christ comes into a person’s life to change them, there is a complete and utter transformation. It’s the difference between death and life.

God takes note of different things ...

Malachi 3:16

Jesus referred to something that has a bearing on each one of us.

Luke 10:17 – 20

There is a recording which is eternal. For those who are Christians, your name is written in Heaven.

Revelation 20:12

God is establishing His purposes, outworked by the recording of our names in the Lamb’s Book of Life, solely as a result of what Jesus Christ has done for each one of us.

Hebrews 10:9 – 17

“Their sins will I remember no more.” What He is remembering is that He has recorded your name in the Lamb’s Book of Life. On the other hand, things are actively being forgotten. God is active in not remembering our sin. He chooses not to remember. Some people are concerned about their past, and keep replaying things they have done wrong. The enemy delights in that. Whereas God in Christ has said, “Their sins will I remember no more.” Sometimes we dredge up things which someone else may have done, and we regard ourselves as superior. God has forgiven them, but sometimes we take part in conversations where the whole thrust is to pull someone else down. That’s not what we’re about as we partake of the bread and wine. The Psalms tell us how beneficial it is when the people dwell together in unity.

Previously I talked about how the Passover was a memorial of the angel of death passing over the houses of those who had eaten of the lamb and had the blood sprinkled on the door post. We saw how the Passover lamb became Jesus – behold the Lamb of God. And 1 Peter talks about the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

When Jesus spoke of His body being eaten, He instituted something we were to do to remember Him until He came again. Taking the bread and wine helps us remember what He has done for us until He comes again.

The Corinthian letters were very practical. There were four and we have two left.

1 Corinthians 5:6 - 8

You need to be sincere and conduct yourself in truth – no malice or wickedness.

1 Corinthians 10:16 - 21

You can’t serve God and mammon – there’s a difference between being a Christian and not being a Christian. And when you take the bread and wine, you are identifying with Christ and saying, “You have given me life. You are my life. I’ve forgotten those things which went before. I’m identifying with who You are and what You’re doing in me.”

In the Corinthian church, there were people supposedly going God’s way and people going the world’s way. Impossible! Here, we are identifying with what God has done in us.

In the Corinthian church, people were coming together, not having eaten at home, and making the most of it as a meal.

1 Corinthians 11:22 - 23

Luke 22:19 – 20

1 Corinthians 11:23 - 27

It’s possible to come unworthily. People were treating this like any old meal. Think about what it means to take things unworthily. It wouldn’t be a good idea to take part if you don’t have a clue what Christianity is all about, or if you aren’t a Christian. That can be remedied, though. What is the situation with you and God? You know all about Him, and maybe today God is saying, “What I did on the Cross was done for you and it doesn’t matter if there was no one here apart from you”. You were on Jesus’ mind when He went to the Cross and died for you. He didn’t want you to be bound in sin, to have those habits you can’t overcome because there is a power of sin which hasn’t been broken. He wants you to live clean, because He wants to give His life inside you, to take the power and penalty of sin. He wants to give you His life.

1 Corinthians 11:28 - 30

If we sorted ourselves out and got things right, we’d be ok.

1 Corinthians 11:32 - 34

We are taking part in something instituted by Jesus Christ – “This do in remembrance of me.” How frequently should we do this? It doesn’t say. But periodically, we need to do it, to remind ourselves of what Jesus Christ did for us on the Cross, and how He rose from the dead to break the power of sin. When I eat, I thank God for what He has done for me.

He loves you. He’s concerned about you. He wants you to be secure. He wants you to know that what He has started in you by giving you His life, He will complete, until that time when He meets you.

I know what God instituted by taking the bread and wine. It was a tangible thing so we would remember who He is and what He did until He comes again. And the love He expressed on Calvary for each one of us isn’t just a quick phrase in the Bible – God is love, and He didn’t want you to live your life on an impossible pathway which doesn’t work. He wanted you to live your life to fulfil His purposes, which are the best for you and will bring glory to His name.

The church is the Bride of Christ, and is fulfilling the purposes God has for His people. And there are lots of other people who will become Christ-ones through what God will do. He is acting throughout the world, and we are part of the church worldwide. It’s not my church – its God’s church. It’s all to do with an expression of God’s love for mankind. “Behold how they love one another.” You need to examine yourself right now. But as we identify with what Christ did, so it is that we are one body, one faith, one baptism.