Jesus’ Teaching on Forgiveness – Matt. 18:21-35
Aim: To help the people learn and apply the Biblical meaning of forgiveness in all of their relationships
Illustration:Not long before she died in 1988, in a moment of surprising candor in television, Marghanita Laski, one of our best-known secular humanists and novelists, said, "What I envy most about you Christians is your forgiveness; I have nobody to forgive me."
John Stott in The Contemporary Christian.
Explanation of the Aim: A good definition of forgiveness is to choose to let go of another’s wrong rather than giving them what they deserve. Someone else has said, “Forgiveness is choosing to let go of my desire to punish someone who has wronged me.”
Jesus said, “If you do not forgive your brother, neither will your heavenly Father forgive you.” We need to help the people learn how to put aside any feelings of anger, resentment or bitterness in order to practice forgiving the way Christ forgives us. Failure to forgive will inhibit our rich fellowship with the Lord as well as His empowerment in our lives.
(Matt. 18:21-35) Jesus taught Peter the importance of forgiveness in this passage so we all might learn how to overcome any hidden grudges in our minds.
When people truly appreciate how gracious the Lord has been in canceling our sinful debt through Christ’s pardon only then can we understand the reason for forgiving those who sin against us.
Failure to forgive another person from our heart is essential if we expect the Lord to continue to forgive us and remain in fellowship with Him.
Consider the dangers of failing to forgive other people.
Consider what would happen if God chose not to forgive us.
Christ describes in this passage the importance of forgiveness in all aspects of our relationships, ministries and attitudes.
Illustration:In his book. Lee: The Last Years, Charles Bracelen Flood reports that after the Civil War, Robert E. Lee visited a Kentucky lady who took him to the remains of a grand old tree in front of her house. There she bitterly cried that its limbs and trunk had been destroyed by Federal artillery fire. She looked to Lee for a word condemning the North or at least sympathizing with her loss. After a brief silence, Lee said, "Cut it down, my dear Madam, and forget it." It is better to forgive the injustices of the past than to allow them to remain, let bitterness take root and poison the rest of our life.
Michael Williams.
Consider how we can help people understand what they should do when they sin and how they should forgive others who sin against them.
When we pray the Lord’s prayer we say, “Forgive us our trespasses as we also forgive those who trespass against us.” (Matt 6:8-12)
Ask the people what are some of the dangers of failing to forgive people who have hurt you?
What tends to happen to people who become resentful, bitter or easily annoyed? Why do you suppose that the Bible teaches us to forgive as we also have been forgiven through Christ? (Eph. 4:30,31)
How can grow in our ability to be merciful, gracious and forbearing of others?
Ask the people if they know of someone who they need to ask forgiveness?
Ask the people if there is someone who they need to forgive?
Why is it always important to forgive and to seek forgiveness?
1. One day Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me?”
Jesus essentially told Peter you should always forgive your brother. Then the Lord Jesus told a parable (a earthly story with a heavenly meaning) about an unmerciful servant.
Jesus explained that heaven is a place where God forgives those who are truly repentant. However, there are many people on earth who are less merciful than the Lord.
One servant, after having been forgiven by the great King, refused to forgive one of his fellow servants a small debt. In fact the servant became so angry at his brother than he screamed, “Pay back what you owe me!” Then he grabbed the man and began to choke insisting that he be paid back everything. Even though the fellow servant fell to his knees and begged for patience, the man refused. Instead that unforgiving servant had the debtor thrown in jail until all of his debt could be repaid.
When the other servants saw this they became very distressed and reported this incident to the Master. When the Master called the servant he said, “I canceled all of your debt because you begged me but you refused to forgive your fellow servant. You should have shown mercy.
The Master turned the unforgiving servant over to the jailer to be tortured until he paid back all he owed. Jesus concludes by saying, “This is how your heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”
Illustration:In May 1924, a shocked nation learned two young men from Chicago, Richard Leopold and Nathan Loeb, had killed 14-year-old Bobbie Franks. What made the crime so shocking, and made Leopold and Loeb household names, was the reason for the killing. The two became obsessed with the idea of committing the "perfect murder," and simply picked young Franks as their victim. They were sentenced to life imprisonment, but Leopold was killed in a prison brawl in 1936. Claiming he wanted "a chance to find redemption for myself and to help others," Nathan Loeb became a hospital technician at his parole in 1958. He died in 1971.
Today in the Word, October 3, 1992.
2. Let us learn several important lessons about forgiveness from Christ’s teaching,
First, forgiving others is always based upon how much we truly appreciate the degree of God’s forgiveness for our heinous sins.
Some people forget that the Lord has not only forgiven our sins of commission (lying, cheating, stealing etc) but He has also forgiven our sins of omission (The things we ought to do but fail to do them).
Futhermore, God has forgiven us of our sins of wrong attitudes (envy, jealousy, criticism, lust etc). The Lord also forgives us of faulty assumptions or prejudices that we might have about certain people. God’s mercies are truly broader, deeper, higher and more enduring than any human mind can conceive.
Thank God for all the ways that He forgives you every hour so you can be much more merciful to those you come in contact with everyday.
3. Jesus wants us to forgive others because He does not want us to fall into the temptation of judging others with our own standards.
Only God has all the facts to judge people with perfect objectivity. Jesus said, “Do not judge or you will be judged. (Matt 7:1,2)
If anyone thinks they know all the facts about another person they are sadly mistaken. Only God’s knowledge is complete.
Only the Lord is completely impartial. Only our heavenly Father’s judgement is fair and final.
Reserve judgement for the only one who is all knowing and all powerful.
4. The Lord is the only one who is has the perfect discernment to judge people perfectly.
Only the Lord is in possession of the entire facts about a person, their situation and their motives. Stop thinking that you can read another individual’s motives.
Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart.
5. No human is fit to judge the servant of another. Paul wrote, “Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. (Rom 14:4)
Do not be guilty of the sin of presuming that you can know what is going on in a person’s mind when they do certain things. Christians are at all levels of maturity in their faith, knowledge and ministry capacities.
When we fail to forgive or try to judge other people we are actually trying to take the place of God or the law who is able to judge perfectly.
Paul said, “I do not even judge myself nor do I allow others to judge me. Judgement belongs to the Lord.” (I Cor. 4:4,5)
Trust the Lord for the ability to be less critical of yourself or others.
Be more forgiving as Christ has shown you great mercy.
Ask the Lord for the serenity to accept the things you cannot change, the courage to change the things you can and the wisdom to know the difference. God is the only one who is a position to judge another.
The Meaning for Our Lives
Ask each person to share how they have failed to forgive another person for some offense.
Ask each person to share how they plan to ask the Lord to help them forgive that person from their heart.
What are some of the consequences of failing to forgive that person?
Ask each person to share some of the problems involved with judging other people and their motives?
What should do when other people try to judge us or fail to forgive us for an offense?
Allow for time to ask God for the forgiveness of their sins of commission, omission, wrong attitudes and faulty assumptions.
Give time to the people to share how the Lord has graciously forgiven all of their past, present and future sins, if they are truly a born again child of the heavenly Father.
Jesus said, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation.” (Matt. 6:12)
Response
Song: “He forgave my sins, in Jesus name. I am born again in Jesus name. And in Jesus name, I come to you. To share God’s love and He told me to. He said, Freely, freely you have received. Freely, freely give.”
Prayer: Lord help me to forgive others and I have been so graciously forgiven and shown mercy. God please help me to avoid judging others. Let me leave all the judging to you who knows everything and has all power to make the final and correct judgement.
Ask the people to share with their friends and family about how they have forgiven someone else for something because of Christ’s forgiveness in their life.
Conclusion:There’s a Spanish story of a father and son who had become estranged. The son ran away, and the father set off to find him. He searched for months to no avail. Finally, in a last desperate effort to find him, the father put an ad in a Madrid newspaper. The ad read: Dear Paco, meet me in front of this newspaper office at noon on Saturday. All is forgiven. I love you. Your Father. On Saturday 800 Pacos showed up, looking for forgiveness and love from their fathers.
Bits & Pieces, October 15, 1992, pp. 13.
