“A hacked Sony e-mail posted by WikiLeaks … reveals that Ben Affleck demanded that the PBS show ‘Finding Your Roots’ remove the fact that one of the actor’s ancestors owned slaves,” reports the Boston Globe.
In a July 22, 2014, e-mail, the show’s host, Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., asked Sony USA boss Michael Lynton what he should do about Affleck’s request: “One of our guests has asked us to edit out something about one of his ancestors — the fact that he owned slaves. Now, four or five of our guests this season descend from slave owners, including Ken Burns. We’ve never had anyone ever try to censor or edit what we found. He’s a megastar. What do we do?” Lynton advised that the revelation be removed. “I would take it out if no one knows, but if it gets out that you are editing the material based on this kind of sensitivity then it gets tricky.”
In response to the leaked emails, Affleck apologized for having made the request and admitted that he was embarrassed by his slave owning relative and wanted to distance himself from him.
If PBS was to do a documentary on finding Jesus’ roots, what do you suppose they’d find? He’s the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, so surely His pedigree is perfect, right? Wrong!
Rahab was a prostitute.
King David was an adulterer and murderer.
Truth be told, ALL of Jesus’ ancestors were imperfect, sinful souls simply because ALL human beings are imperfect, sinful souls.
What if this news gets out?! He's a megastar! It could ruin Him!
But Jesus wasn’t embarrassed by his pedigree. He didn't want to distance Himself from it. Rather, He embraced it, acknowledging that God uses imperfect, improbable, even undesirable characters to accomplish his purposes.
“The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham …” (Matthew 1:1, ESV).
“Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph … “ (Luke 3:23, ESV).
What would your past say about you? And so we come to this truth this morning that everyone has a past that they are not happy about, everyone has a memory that they wish they could get erased and thrown away for good so no one is able to rehash or rediscover the horrible, embarrassing things we did or said, yet God makes it very clear that He forgets when we repent.
“He will again have compassion on us, And will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins Into the depths of the sea.”
Micah 7:19
“As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.”
Psalms 103:12
A duck hunter was with a friend in the wide-open land of southeastern Georgia. Far away on the horizon he noticed a cloud of smoke. Soon he could hear crackling as the wind shifted. He realized the terrible truth; a brushfire was advancing, so fast they couldn’t outrun it. Rifling through his pockets, he soon found what he was looking for—a book of matches. He lit a small fire around the two of them. Soon they were standing in a circle of blackened earth, waiting for the fire to come. They didn’t have to wait long. They covered their mouths with handkerchiefs and braced themselves. The fire came near—and swept over them. But they were completely unhurt, untouched. Fire would not pass where fire already had passed.
Christ came to redeem us from the curse of the Law. The Law cannot judge what Christ has already forgiven.
One of the hardest things to do in life is understand God’s forgiveness, and this is said to be true and the reason behind this truth is not fully understanding God’s forgiveness is because sometimes we cannot understand God and the mercy He extends to those whom He has chosen to forgive, those that we believe don’t deserve forgiveness He gives and it baffles us, yet He gives us example after example why it is pivotal to forgive and forget.
“Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made. The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, ‘Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’ Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt. “But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, ‘Pay me what you owe!’ So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’ And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done. Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’ And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. “So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.””
Matthew 18:23-35
1st Point “Great Mercy”
In our text we read of a servant who owed a tremendous debt that by all means was impossible to pay. There was a great contrast between the two debtors as far as amounts owed. We will look into the debt that was forgiven by the King. The worth of that debt was approximately 2.4 million British pounds. According to studies for any man to carry that much it would take 8,600 men to carry 60 pounds each and would take up about 5 miles worth of land, that’s a lot of debt and a lot of mercy.
We hear of this and wonder how does this relate to us, this is our sin forgiven. A weight to heavy for us to bear to much for us to pay and too hard for us to completely understand. This king showed his servant a tremendous amount of mercy, the penalty was great, his wife and children were going to pay for his debt by being given into slavery yet mercy was extended to him and his family and all were spared.
Somewhere within that transaction of mercy there was a disconnect, somehow I think that he looked at his situation that seemed impossible to care for and thought that he just got away with a crime, he got away from paying a debt, he didn’t leave with a heart of gratitude or thanks giving, he didn’t leave with a heart of gracious generosity or wanting to repay he left with a slick thought of escaping the impossible, God wasn’t even in the equation of this merciful act of kindness. God’s mercy was taken for granted and was not carefully thought of and embraced as being a blessing and being forgiven.
He misunderstood the mercy of a king, this man never took a moment to examine his situation as being deadly and heart wrenching instead he looked at the situation and said “I got away without paying a single penny”, And because he misunderstood the grace and mercy of God and decided to not embrace the true forgiveness of his master, he cannot and did not extend this same forgiveness and mercy to the man who needed it.
This was what I would call great mercy, great is huge, big, large, like his debt and because the king has a great compassionate heart for his people he forgave him his debt and set him free. What a wonderful example of our Lord and King, Jesus Christ, His mercy is great and his forgiveness is beyond our understanding if we are honest this morning.
“To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him.”
Daniel 9:9 NKJV
“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace”
Ephesians 1:7 NKJV
Deliverance is the word used for ransoming a man who is a prisoner of war or a slave; for freeing a man from the penalty of death; for God's deliverance of the children of Israel(Whom we are) from their slavery in (Our sinful nature) Egypt; for God's continual rescuing of his people in the time of their trouble. In every case the conception is the delivering of a man from a situation from which he was powerless to liberate himself or from a penalty which he himself could never have paid.
Jesus the King of kings and Lord of lords, our debt is great our sin is huge, big, large we needed someone with long arms and deep pockets to pay the debt, God delivered men from a situation from which they could never have delivered themselves, and here comes God with his big ole heart for you and I and said I know how we can pay that debt, I’ll give you my son.
And He did, He gave us the debt payer, mercy was displayed by His payment for our sin, our debt, we needed someone that was big enough to pay our big debt and great mercy paid what we could not.
The voice of sin is loud but the voice of forgiveness is louder.
2nd Point “The Merciless Servant”
It’s amazing to me that liars don’t like to be lied to, and thieves do like when something is taken from them, but even more so when something good is done for you God frowns when you do not do good to and for others.
“Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”
Matthew 7:12 NKJV
Here we have a merciless servant, he was just forgiven a huge debt, he just walked away from a possible life sentence in prison and his family taken into possible slavery for the debt that he owed and yet it did not phase him one bit to have the same mercy for one as the king had for him.
There are people even Christians today that do not know how to show forgiveness towards others because they have not fully embraced the forgiveness of God in their own lives. They are no different than this un-forgiving servant. Forgiveness is the economy of the heart. Forgiveness saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, the waste of spirits.
It is to not soon forget that the master of the first servant heard of what took place and called for the forgiven man again, and replayed the act of mercy and asked him why? Why didn’t you forgive as I have forgiven you? And the scary thing was that the king called this servant wicked. Listen to me this morning, un-forgiveness is wicked, it is not of God at all, to show no mercy to lack compassion for others is wickedness that will be judged by God.
God has forgiven us our trespasses are we not commanded by God to forgive those who trespass against us?
“And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.”
Luke 11:4 KJV
“But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
Matthew 6:15 NKJV
Beloved this is a tremendous example of what really happens when we chose to not forgive, we put ourselves in prison. Un-forgiveness places an imprisonment upon our own minds and does not allow us to live in the fullness of God’s grace because we are not displaying or rather living according to the scriptures yet we want scriptures to be fulfilled in our lives. Somewhere in your life you will have to make a decision to forgive and allow yourself to be embraced in the arms of God.
3rd Point “The arms of grace are always open”
Jesus clearly speaks to us in truth of a God in heaven that is merciful and loving and long suffering. A God that is patient and kind, just and faithful to forgive.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
I John 1:9 NKJV
And if we would be obedient to the truth that is spoken to us we would have the ability and power to forgive those that have offended us. We first need to stop making the forgiveness of God so complicated, we try to explain His forgiveness, He’s just God, do we really need to try to explain why He sent His only begotten son, we can give reasons but to try to fully explain we could potentially confuse ourselves, and hinder our reasoning rather than just doing what is right.
The unforgiving servant was explaining to himself in his mind instead of just doing what was right and we are or can be guilty of the same ting, just do it and be set free.
“You have with Your arm redeemed Your people. Selah” Psalms 77:15NKJV
The redemption of God is impeccable and still able today to do what He has done since the beginning of time.
God bestows His blessings without discrimination. The followers of Jesus are children of God, and they should manifest the family likeness by doing good to all, even to those who deserve the opposite.
One who has been touched by grace will no longer look on those who stray as “those evil people” or “those poor people who need our help.” Nor must we search for signs of “love-worthiness.” Grace teaches us that God loves because of who God is, not because of who we are.
If you know that God loves you, you should never question a directive from Him. It will always be right and best. When He gives you a directive, you are not just to observe it, discuss it, or debate it. You are to obey it.
“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.”
I Corinthians13:4-5, 7-8NKJV
Do not be like the unforgiving servant, begin to understand and accept and embrace the forgiveness and love of God so that you can extend it to those who desperately in need of it. Remember the servant was called wicked and placed in prison we can be blessed because we obeyed.
