How can we be free? How can we be free and let go of offences? Consider how God would have you apply this in your life. Respond to Him in the prayer at the end. I want to look at Mark's Gospel. In Mark 11:20-21 Jesus said in the context of seeing God work miracles through your life: “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”
What a wonderful passage about God answering prayer, even for miracles, but there is that little condition ‐ we must forgive. We live in a time when people are struggling to forgive. God has led me to share on the series of forgiveness. This is the eighth lesson on the issue of forgiveness. We often forget that this is key and foundational to our lives. It is a very basic Christian principle to forgive as we have been forgiven by God.
The problem is that we live in a time when people do not mean what they say. We often take what people say “with a pinch of salt.” Jesus meant it when He said to us that there is no forgiveness if we do not forgive. Today, children have learned that many times, their parents and other significant adults do not always carry through on what they have said. That has had implications for them not taking authority figures seriously in adulthood. People often do not mean what they say. You can imagine the situation where for instance, Tom a Christian, is in a hurry and going down the passage at work and he encounters Sipho. Sipho is a believer and he says, “Hello Tom my brother, how are you? It is so good to see you.” Tom is in a hurry and he just wants to get this conversation over with, while Sipho talks constantly. Tom says, “Hey, we must have lunch sometime.” The problem is that Tom has no intention of having lunch with Sipho, he is just in a hurry. Even when he says my brother, he is not sincere in that. He does not even think that this is a Christian brother that he is talking to. He's simply trying to get rid of Sipho and get on with his task at hand. He is not thinking that God has made them brothers or that he really should make time to have a meal with Sipho.
We live in a world where people often say, what they do not really intend doing. The truth is that when Jesus says something, He means it and He speaks seriously to us. He is faithful even when we are faithless. Jesus is the Truth and there is no forgiveness without forgiving. Repeatedly, Jesus has warned us about this in Matthew 6:14-15 he says: “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your Father in heaven will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” Would you want God to forgive you in the same way as you have forgiven others who have offended or sinned against you? Jesus is telling us that God will forgive you the way that you forgive others.
In the African bush one can easily get cuts from the many thorns. If cut or scratched, that would will heal in a few weeks, if it is cleaned out. Without disinfection and keeping it clean, a wound can go red, septic and ultimately lead to amputation of the limb or death. God calls us to forgive no matter how big the cut or how deep the wound. God gives us a very short period to clean out that wound. We must forgive every offence, so that the wound can go on to heal and close, perhaps even leaving a scar. Healthy healing occurs when we are not infected with the poison of bitterness, revenge, hatred and wanting to hurt others. We have been forgiven by God and we need to keep forgiving others. We need to learn that lesson. I have seen it in people's lives when they have forgiven, they become free. They are set free to experience God.
That is why Jesus speaks so strongly about forgiveness. He gives us a parable of the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18. Jesus teaches us in this parable, that we are to be reconciled to our brother or sister who has offended us. The context of that parable occurs in Matthew 18:21: “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 in Matthew 18:22: “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” In other words, every day we are to forgive constantly. Jesus wants every wound to be clean, disinfected from septic bitterness.
Jesus tells us this parable about a servant who owed ten thousand talents. If those were talents of gold, which is what it seems to imply, that would be in today's terms around about 375 tons of gold, which would be the equivalent of R 15 billion (Rand or $ 1 billion USD). Basically, the servant can never repay it. It is too much. In Matthew 18:25 Jesus says: “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.”
When offence occurs there's a debt. Every cut, nick, word, deed, unkindness, omission of love, is a wound. Every failure to do what is right is a wound. We are to forgive because we know that when somebody hurts us, we want them to pay for it. We know that we have been hurt. They are indebted to us for the pain they have caused in our lives and that is why forgiveness is the cancellation of debt. Forgiveness is cancelling what is owed.
God the Father is the king in this parable. He is the one that forgives us all our sins. Debts have been forgiven. The King has paid the unpayable debt on your behalf. His own Son, Jesus Christ died on that Roman cross two thousand years ago to take away the sins of the world, your sins and mine. Jesus has paid the full price for all sin on the cross. That is how God the Father can offer you forgiveness. It cost Jesus everything for our sin. The Father can now forgive us and we can be reconciled to our God and Creator because of what Jesus has done. Jesus is the spotless Lamb of God. Jesus Christ the Son of God who has now taken away the sins of the world.
Matthew 18:28: “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.” A Denarii isabout a hundred Rand or a day's wages depending on the going rate. Give or take it is about R 15 000 (Rand or $ 1 000 USD) today. It is about four months wages, a hundred days of your salary, a third of your annual salary, in a sense. Matthew 18:29 tells us that when he demanded this R 15 000, “the fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him. He asked for the debtor to be patient, as he could only pay later. However, he refused. The first servant refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt.” Think about this. The second man owes the first man R 15 000 yet he has just been forgiven R 15 billion.When you begin to grasp the numbers, R15 000 is not nothing. It is a relatively small painful cost, compared to R 15 billion. This is that what a forgiven life is worth. God has paid that price for us. You may have been treated very badly by somebody but it is nothing compared with your transgressions against a Holy God who created you. You have sinned against Him in thought, word and deed and in leaving undone what you should have done. If you cannot forgive then you have forgotten the great debt which you have been forgiven by God. Jesus has rescued you from an eternity in hell, where the fire never goes out and the torment is forever. Jesus has done all of that, He now asks you to forgive your neighbour as He has forgiven you R15 billion worth of sin. That is the unforgiving servant.
Secondly look at the lessons to be learned from this. What is the lesson here? Matthew 18:31 says: “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 cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to.” Jesus is talking about believers. The king is God the Father. This King has forgiven us all our sins and He is saying this is a servant of the King who goes to another servant of the King. In other words, these are two believers that he is talking about.
The first man has a great debt which is forgiven and he is saved by that forgiveness. The person that the first man would not forgive is a fellow servant. This is a believer that is not forgiving another believer. He had a relatively small debt, which is why in Matthew 18:34 it says: “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.”
There are three lessons we need to learn from this. The first lesson is the unforgiving servant is turned over to torture. The second lesson is that he has to repay the 275 tons of gold or R 15 billion worth of debt. The third lesson is that the Father will do the same for any believer who refuses to forgive a fellow believer their offence from their heart.
Let us look, firstly, at torment or torture. What is torture? A definition of torture is agony, of body or of mind; or inflicting pain or punishment to coerce. In other words, torture is to cause someone distress and suffering. This King hands them over to the torturer. What do we know from the Bible that God uses even the evil of this world's circumstances that are against us. The hard things of this world, He turns all things for good when we trust Him and love Him but if we do not, He hands us over to the torturers. Who are the torturers? Probably demonic spirits whom God gives permission to inflict pain and agony on body and mind. They can do it at will. They can torment and torture the Christian who refuses to forgive.
Do you know that until forgiveness is granted that torture will continue? That is a frightening thought. Do you begin to grasp what's happening here? There is an easy way to test yourself today. Ask yourself, am I experiencing torment in my life? Maybe it is mental torment, emotional torment or physical torment. Doctors and scientists have proven that there is a strong link between some diseases and with bitterness and unforgiveness. Some of the different cancers are caused by unforgiveness. Arthritis and other diseases like that are caused by the bitterness that people hold on to. When we are bitter, we swallow a poison and hope the other person dies, but they do not. God has called us to forgive and to let go so we can be free. Even cases of mental illness, over 60-70% percent of them can be traced back to unforgiveness.
You may be the guilty partner. You may say: “I can't forgive myself for what I have done.” Who are you not to forgive somebody that God has forgiven? If God has forgiven you in Jesus Christ and you have come to know Jesus, do you not need to forgive yourself as well? Forgive also your neighbour for all that they have done to you. Even forgive God for what you think He might have done wrong against you. As we saw last week, Jesus offended people and some people took that offence and did not forgive. You have a choice to take offence or to let it go.
One hundred percent of the time you are to forgive everyone, even yourself for all that has happened. God knows those who love Him. If you love Jesus you will obey His commands, but if you disobey His command to forgive then do you really love Him? You may say that you love God but you just do not love a particular person, or a particular group of people because of their race or background. The Bible says you are deceived. Tragically, there are going to be many South Africans who will not be in heaven because they have hated one another. They will hate what someone else has done to them and they will not forgive. Jesus warns us as individuals and as a nation that we need to forgive one another all our sins.
Deception is a terrible thing because the deceived person believes with all their heart that they are right. The person who refuses to obey the word of God deceives their own heart. That means that you need to deal with unforgiveness now, as in death you will not be able to bring relief from that torment. You need to realize that God will allow some torment in your life. A little bit of hell on earth to point you to God and forgiveness, that you might turn from bitterness and hatred in your heart now. Let that prejudice against people go. Love all people as Christ has loved you. When you die it will be too late to forgive. If you do not forgive now you will not be forgiven when you stand before Jesus because He will say to you, “I never knew you.” If you say you love Him then you have to obey His commands. He commands us all to forgive that we may be forgiven. Revelation 20:10 speaks of a lake of fire that never goes out. It burns forever and ever. We need to be so careful not to end up in a place of wailing and gnashing of teeth because of continuous, unrepentant, hatred, bitterness, unforgiveness. We need to forgive.
In conclusion, if we do not forgive we will have to repay the whole debt. What does that mean? You will have to pay what only Jesus Christ could pay for you? Your sin and my sin is too great for us to carry. There is no human big enough to pay for each one of our individual sins and all our debt throughout our whole life. Some people may say: “Well I thought that once I have trusted Jesus and committed my life to Jesus then I could never be lost?” Well hear the word of God in 2 Peter 2:20: “If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.” This is for people who have escaped from sin through salvation in Jesus Christ, who again become entangled in sin.
If you hold on to unforgiveness and will not forgive then that becomes sin. Unforgiveness is sin and you have been overcome by that and you hold on to that sin. Maybe it is from your childhood or from your adulthood and you keep holding on. If you will not change your thinking, if you will not repent and turn back to Jesus then you are worse off than if you had never known Jesus, for you have tasted and seen the blessings. You have known the joy and the peace of Jesus Christ in your life. Now keep that joy by forgiving every day even as you are forgiven daily. God the Father will not forgive any believer who refuses to forgive from their heart no matter how great the offence. You might struggle to forgive, especially when someone cannot understand the pain that they caused you. However, Jesus knows and He took all your sin. He is asking you to forgive because He has forgiven you.
This parable was one of the very few parables that Jesus explained and interpreted. He did so because He did not want us to miss the important point that there is severe judgment if you refuse to forgive. Remember, as I said at the beginning that Jesus is not fickle. Jesus is not fake like us. Jesus means what He says. There are no exceptions. There are no excuses for harbouring unforgiveness. Unrighteousness will not allow you into heaven and unforgiveness is as bad as theft, adultery, homosexuality, drunkenness or any of the other sins. Those who keep practicing these things will not inherit the kingdom of God says the Bible in 1 Corinthians 5. This is a hard message and I know that some of us are struggling with this. However, I would rather you be convicted by the Holy Spirit today than to be condemned by the judge when you stand before Him and He says, “I never knew you.” Today you need to turn back to Jesus. Confess your unforgiveness and give forgiveness to each and every person, forgive everybody. Everything they have done against you and you set them free.
You leave them to God. If there is some injustice God will deal with it. God will bring justice and He may use human systems and legal systems but leave it with God. Leave everything with God. From your heart, forgive as you have been forgiven. You need to hear that warning again, “Depart from me, I never knew you.” It is perhaps the most frightening words in the whole Bible. Today may you hear that warning and turn back to Jesus. Forgive as you will be forgiven by Him when He says, “Well done my good and faithful servant, enter into your rest.” You need to turn from the deadly sin of unforgiveness today. Today He invites you to choose because this choice is a hundred percent yours.
You choose to forgive. You give what you have received from Jesus if you have R 15 billion worth of forgiveness surely you can give away R 15 000. Every forgiveness you give away, cleans out the cuts and it disinfects the wound until every wound is stitched up and it remains just as a scar. You are free. You are whole, healed and mended again because you forgive. Now I want to invite you to forgive as you have been forgiven. If necessary, take a piece of paper, write down the name of the person that has hurt you, what they the person did that has hurt you and what they did to hurt you deeply. Write it down and then write across the paper, I choose to forgive you and let you go and leave you with God. God will deal with them if he needs to, but from your side, you choose to let go and forgive as you have been forgiven.
Let us pray as you search your heart now and put right. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus help each one of us to forgive everybody, of everything that they have ever done to offend us, wound us and to cut us deeply. Lord Jesus, help us now to clean out every wound of every unforgiveness and give to that person the gift that they do not deserve. The gift we receive from You that we do not deserve. O Lord forgive us our sins even as we forgive those that have sinned against us. Forgive us our debts against you of R 15 billion even as we forgive those who are indebted to us for R 15 000. Lord Jesus, strengthen us now to forgive and to live freely. Help us to consciously and practically, forgive everybody, everything, today. Lord, help us to live free and when the next cut comes to wash it clean with forgiveness quickly and to deal with every offence quickly. To be done with harbouring any infection in our lives. For we pray this as we come to you in your powerful name Lord Jesus. For some of us perhaps for the very first time, it is crying out to you, saying, “Jesus save me. Give me this R 15 billion gift of forgiveness and help me now to forgive everybody, everything from this day forward, I pray.” In Jesus name I ask this amen.
May you now live your life to the glory of God. If I can help you, please get in contact with me either through the comments below by emailing me at pastordrbc80@gmail.com. Now live free. Live with all your sins forgiven. Your conscience cleared. Live to the glory of God, our one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. To Him be all the praise and the honour and the power now and forevermore, amen.