“Moved by Mercy”
(Matthew 18:21-35)
Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD
Henderson’s First Baptist Church, Henderson
Thank you choir. That anthem both begins and ends with the phrase, “A debtor to mercy alone.” If grace is our getting what we don’t deserve, then mercy is our not getting what we do deserve. So when God shows us mercy, He is withholding punishment and not requiring that we pay Him what we owe—better, He is actually taking care of that punishment and payment Himself.
Apart from Jesus Christ everyone stands before God in debt. We have a sin debt we can’t pay. We owe God infinite works of righteousness to atone for our sin. In other words we would have to “Be good” perfectly and forever. So there’s no way we could ever make it right with Him. Because God is infinite and holy, our sins against Him require an infinite payment. To an infinitely holy God, no amount of human works could ever satisfy His laws and demands.
So God makes it right for us. God—in Christ—makes things right for us. If we believe that Jesus—who is infinitely holy—lived a perfect life for which we may receive credit, and, if we believe He died an atoning death for our sin as our substitute, and that He rose from the dead indicating the Father’s acceptance of His work, then we are no longer indebted to God. We are a debtor to His mercy alone. We live a life motivated and moved by that mercy.
We live a life of continual reflection, remembering, looking back to the cross, and continuing to be “moved by mercy,” moved by the mercy God has extended to us through Jesus Christ.
That’s what we celebrate in the Lord’s Supper and that’s what we celebrate in the study of His Word each week—especially this morning as we turn in our Bibles to Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 18.
I invite you to find your place there in Matthew chapter 18, or through the YouVersion Bible app or the church Bible).
We’re going to be reading this parable that Jesus tells. It’s a story. Parables are stories with one main point. And Jesus is telling this story because of a question Peter asked Him. In fact, before we read the story, let’s look at this question Peter asks. It’s in chapter 18 of Matthew and verse 21:
21 Then Peter came to Him (Jesus) and said (or asked Him), “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?”
That verse nearly always makes me smile, at least on the inside! Peter’s just so honest in his ways. He knows that following Christ means the bar is a little higher than it is for the person who isn’t following Christ, so He’s like, “Hey, Jesus, just wondering, how high is the bar?!”
“I know forgiveness is good and I want to be a forgiving person, so let’s say I’ve got a brother or sister in the Lord and they’ve hurt my feelings or wronged me in some way—by the way, it doesn’t seem to occur to Peter that he may be the one sinning against someone else!—“but my brother has sinned against me, and I’m just wondering how many times should I forgive? How many times—like, seven?”
The number seven is often considered in the Scriptures as a number of perfection or completion. So, how about 7? What’s the limit? Peter seems more concerned about forgiving someone too much than too little! “I don’t want to forgive more than I have to!”
You know when we are sinned against, usually, our first reaction is the wrong one. Our old nature doesn’t want to forgive as much as it wants revenge! Our initial reaction is often to “get even.”
Like the mother who ran into her little boy’s bedroom when she heard her him scream. She got into the room and saw the little boy’s younger sister pulling his hair. She gently released the little girl’s grip on her brother’s hair and told him, “There, there. She didn’t mean it. She’s only two—she doesn’t know that hurts.” The little boy nodded his head and the mother left the room, started down the hall and then heard the little girl scream. She rushed back in and said, “What happened?” The little boy said, “She knows now!”
22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.
Some translations have, “Seventy-seven times.” Either way, Jesus’ point is that a Christian always forgives. There is no limit. Why? Well, that’s what the parable illustrates, but in sum, the reason why a Christian always forgives others and there is no limit to his forgiving others, is because the Christian is a debtor to God’s mercy.
So listen for that teaching in the text, being a debtor to God’s mercy and, consider how that mercy motivates us, moves us, to extend the same mercy to others. Listen for that truth as I read the passage.
Let me invite you to stand in honor of the reading of the Word of God. Jesus speaking beginning in verse 23:
23 “Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.
24 “And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.
25 “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.
26 “The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, ‘Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’
27 “Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt.
28 “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!’
29 “So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’
30 “And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt.
31 “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.
32 “Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me.
33 ‘Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’
34 “And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him.
35 “So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”
Let’s Pray: Our Lord we pray the words of an old hymn:
Make the book live to me O Lord,
Show me Yourself within Your Word,
Show me myself and show me my Savior
and make the book live to me—through Christ Jesus our Lord we pray, amen.
So Jesus tells this story about a king who had a man brought before him who owed the king a huge sum of money. The Bible says “ten thousand talents.” In Bible days, ten thousand talents was a debt no one could repay. It’s kind of like saying the guy owed the king “a gazillion dollars.” So the king says, “You can’t pay this debt? Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to get what you owe by selling you as a slave. We’ll sell you, your wife, your children, and liquidate everything you have in order to get this money back.” Debtor’s prison. And that causes the guy to fall down on his knees and begin to beg for mercy. He cries out to the king, “Please, have patience with me and I will pay back every single penny.”
And the servant’s actions cause something wonderful to happen to the king. Do you remember what happened? Look again at verse 27:
27 “Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt.
The king extends mercy to the man. The man doesn’t deserve it, but the king gives him mercy anyway. He was moved with compassion, released him and forgave him the debt. If he had kept the servant’s debt records in a ledger, then he ripped out the man’s page and threw it away. Mercy.
Now if that guy who had been forgiven—that servant—if he had really known what it meant to receive such mercy, how do you think he will live? You know, how will he treat others? What we would expect to happen next in the story, doesn’t happen.
Jesus says the man goes out and finds someone who owes him “a hundred denarii.” Now, compared to a gazillion dollars, a hundred denarii is something like “20 bucks.” So the guy has been forgiven a gazillion dollar debt and the first thing he does is find someone who owes him 20 dollars and what does he do? He takes him by the throat and says, “Pay me what you owe me!”
Then this man falls down and says, “Be patient with me and I’ll pay it all back.” That sounds familiar. But the unmerciful servant shows no mercy to the man. He locks the man up in prison until the $20 debt is paid.
Then the king hears about it—and the sense is, “Uh, oh!”—and so the king calls for the servant to come back and appear before him. It’s like he issues a summons. And the king says to the servant, “You wicked servant. I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. I had pity on you!” You know, “I showed you mercy!” Then, in verse 33:
33 ‘Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’
34 “And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him.
Jesus’ point is clear: Just as the king had shown mercy to the servant who was indebted to him, so should the servant have shown mercy to those who were indebted to him.
But is this parable only about a nameless king and an unknown servant? Remember back in verse 23 Jesus said that “the kingdom of heaven is like” this, like this parable?
Don’t we Christians identify with this servant? I mean, don’t we know what it is like to be brought before our King. God sits on the throne and we appear before Him and, because of our sin, we owe a huge debt to God—a debt we could never repay. And God, in His mercy, His mercy because of the power of the Gospel, through Christ’s work on the cross, God freely forgives our debt.
And just as the servant should have been moved by the king’s mercy and should have shown that same mercy to others, so we—we Christians—who have received God’s mercy, should be moved to show that same mercy to others.
This is consistent with Jesus’ teaching in the Lord’s Prayer, isn’t it? “Forgive us our sins, forgive us our debts, even as we also forgive everyone indebted to us” (Luke 11:4).” Moved by the mercy we have received, so shall we extend mercy to others. Or as Paul writes in Ephesians 4:32, “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ [extended mercy to you and] forgave you.”
I want to share a secret with you. Let me invite you to think about this:
I think one of the reasons many professing Christians have difficulty showing mercy to others is largely because they have not really received nor understood the mercy God has extended to them. So, for example, the reason many Christians seem powerless to forgive may well be because they don’t really understand the depth of the forgiveness extended to them through Christ. It’s theology. It’s always theology. Theology matters.
What is the doctrine of justification if it is not that which liberates us to stand freely before the eternal King of the universe without guilt and shame?!! To know that, “having been justified [made right with God, justified] by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ? (Romans 5:1).” To know that “there is therefore now no condemnation to those which are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).”
Because of Christ Jesus my Lord I may stand before the eternal King of the universe—the Supreme Judge—eternal, immortal, invisible, God who alone is wise—and I stand before Him “not guilty.”
This is “The Great Exchange.” I owed a debt I could not pay. Jesus paid a debt He did not owe. Through the power of the Gospel at Calvary’s cross, God looks on Him—Jesus—who suffered and died in my place as my substitute—God looks on Him—Jesus—the one about whom Paul writes when he says, God “made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21),” God looks on Him and then looks at us and says, “Because of Jesus Christ, I forgive you. You are forgiven.” The choir sang earlier:
My Savior’s obedience and blood
Hide all my transgressions
From view
I shared the Gospel the other day with a fella and I had my hands like you know I do. And I said if this hand is me and this hand is Jesus, then here am I alone without Christ. God looks at me and sees my sin. And over here, this hand is Jesus. And if I am “in Christ” then Christ covers me with His righteousness. God looks on me and He sees Christ’s righteousness all over me. I didn’t earn that! He did that. His righteousness covers me completely.
So if I truly “get” that, if I know that truth experientially, in other words I not only know that truth in my head, but I feel that truth deeply in my heart, experiencing that truth, well if I know God’s mercy like that, I am “moved by that mercy,” and I am moved to the extent that I show that same mercy to others. That’s it. The key to forgiveness is not so much to read a book and figure out some seven-step process or something. It’s you are a servant who is in way over your head. Your sin and rebellion against the king put you in a position of serious trouble. And then the king said, “I forgive you. I love you. Here’s my mercy, receive it.”
And if you know you don’t deserve that mercy, and you know how filthy and shameful is your sin and that this good God chooses to forgive you of all of that, and you know that in your head and feel that in your heart—well then, you will be in a position to show that same mercy to others.
On the other hand—and listen carefully—on the other hand, if you haven’t fully appropriated that mercy, and really felt the love of God deeply in your heart and running through all your veins and arteries, you’re probably going to be like the wicked, unmerciful servant, running around demanding others pay you what they owe.
Do you know the word resentment is from the Latin which means to “re-feel?” When you resent someone or some thing, you “re-feel” the hurt over and over again. So if you don’t know God’s mercy, you’ll be like the unmerciful servant, continuing to feel bitterness, “re-feeling” the hurt someone did to you over and over, continuing to be in a state know as resentment.
And you’ll never get over that church member who spoke harshly without thinking. You’ll not forgive the family member who was unkind to you, choosing instead to “re-feel” the hurt over and over again. In a sense you will live your life wishing ill of those who have offended you, like the unmerciful servant as if to say, “Pay me what you owe!”
You’ll be bound and chained by hatred in your heart toward persons who have offended you, perhaps years ago, and you’ll miss the joy of being able to truly “love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who insult you and persecute you (Matthew 5:44).”
Remember what happens to the unmerciful servant? Verse 34:
34 “And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him.
35 “So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”
That phrase in verse 35, “from his heart,” suggests that there is a kind of forgiveness that is not from the heart, but only in the head or only in the mouth, an incomplete forgiveness, a forgiveness that is insincere, a mere mouthing of the words, “I forgive,” without meaning it. Forgiveness means nothing if it doesn’t flow from the heart.
What happens if we are not moved by mercy, moved deeply in our hearts, to show the same mercy to others?
According to the parable, we are “delivered to the torturers” and I don’t know what that means and I don’t want to find out! Whatever it is, it is not good.
And while we don’t know all that that phrase means, we can infer from the parable that it is a punishment that we bring upon ourselves. When you become resentful and unforgiving, do you know who you are hurting? You are hurting yourself.
Before I was in the ministry, most of you know I worked for several years as a parole officer. And as a parole officer I had been inside a number of jails and prisons. Those of you in jail ministry know what its like to step through those doors and the gate shuts behind you and there is steel, and bricks, and mortar, and the echoing of lock clamping into place.
Yet I really believe the toughest prisons are not those made by bricks and stone and steel, but those prisons we make ourselves by bricks of resentment. Someone offends us or hurts us and we place a brick between them and us. And we “re-feel” that hurt and it’s another brick upon which to build. And every time we “re-feel,” we place another brick, and brick after brick after brick, until we have walled ourselves in, creating a prison of resentment—a self-made unmerciful prison of bitterness.
“So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother—his sister, his mother, her father, her enemy—their trespasses.”
Let’s pray.
“Father, as Christians we identify with the servant in the parable. We identify with the servant when we choose not to forgive someone as quickly as we should. Too often we are sinners seeking revenge rather than sinners showing mercy. Forgive us.
“And as we prepare to worship you in the Supper, help us to continue reflecting on Your mercy. Thank you that, in the words of the psalmist, You have not treated us as our sins deserve, nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is Your mercy toward those who fear You (Psalm 103:10-11). You have blessed us, guided us, and continue to show mercy to us.
“Give us the grace to be moved by Your mercy as we partake of the bread and the cup. Show us in our minds someone who needs our mercy—a family member, a church member, a friend, someone who hurt us recently, someone who did to us the very things we are guilty of doing to others. Continue to remind us of the great mercy you have shown to us through the perfect work of Your Son, Jesus Christ, amen.”
With God’s help we will continue to reflect on His mercy as we observe the ordinance of the Supper. The Lord’s Supper is something Jesus asked us to do from time to time as a means by which to remember Him. Of the Supper, He said, “Do this in remembrance of Me.”
So when we partake of these powerful symbols, the bread and the cup, we are remembering Christ—the bread symbolizing His body broken for us, the cup of the vine symbolizing His blood poured out for us on the cross so that we could receive the mercy of God’s forgiveness.
The Lord’s Supper is a time for us as a church family to come together and remember Jesus—and to remember one another as we are together members of His body, the church. We have covenanted together as members, living out the church covenant, a copy of which is in your bulletin today. I invite you to read through that again later.
We are a family and this is a family meal. If you are not a member of this family, a member of Henderson’s First Baptist Church, but you are a member of a church of similar faith and practice—a Bible-believing church similar to ours—you are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone, we invite you to partake of the Supper. This is a meal for Christians.
On the other hand, if you are not yet a Christian, this is a time to consider the claims of Christ. Think about what He did on the cross for you, because your greatest need is not to participate in the Lord’s Supper—your greatest need is to be saved from your sin and follow Jesus. So we invite you to take this time to bow and reflect on God’s mercy through Christ and the power of the Gospel.
Our deacons will serve the elements of bread and juice. The word “Deacon” means “Servant” so it is fitting that these godly servant leaders should serve you this morning.
By the way, Tuesday evening I was blessed to be part of one of the best deacons meetings in some time—the majority of the meeting spent praying over the church campus, walking seven times around the church building (like Joshua!), praying for the ministries of the church. Thanks to our deacons for that.
These deacons will distribute the bread and juice together and you’ll want to carefully remove the two cups and wait for one another so that we can partake together—and I will guide us at that moment.
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 11:28 that Christians should “examine themselves” before partaking of the bread and cup.
I’d like to invite you to prepare by bowing for silent prayer and confessing any known sin to the Lord, asking for His forgiveness. Silently ask the Lord to reveal your sins and confess them to Him. After a minute or so, I will close. Let’s bow for prayer.
“Our Father, we come knowing that we have failed you. We have strayed from the right path. We have not done all that you would have us do. Please forgive us. Thank you for your mercy. May we ever be “Moved by mercy,” the mercy You have shown to us on the cross. And may that mercy move us to love and forgive others just as You have loved and forgiven us. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ we pray, Amen.”
“The Bible says that on the same night in which Jesus was betrayed, that He took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me” (1 Corinthians 11:23-24).
I invite you to carefully remove the two cups and eat the bread, this powerful symbolic reminder of Jesus’ body broken for us. Remember Jesus.
[Eat bread]
“Then the Bible says that in the same manner, Jesus also took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes again” (1 Corinthians 11:25-26).”
Let’s remember the blood of Jesus Christ shed for us as we drink.
[Drink cup]
Amen. We praise God by remembering Him in the Supper. And we praise Him now in song. Let me invite you to remain seated as we sing the Doxology. Many of you know this. We have the words on the wall if you don’t know it. It is a chorus of praise to our Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost.
We’ll sing without music. Just listen to the first line:
Praise God from Whom all blessings flow
Ready? Let’s praise Him together in song:
Praise God from Whom all blessings flow
Praise Him all creatures here below
Praise Him above ye heavenly host
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, amen
It has been a joy to worship our Lord with you this morning!
If you’d like more information about following Christ, baptism, or membership we’d love to hear from you! I was teaching Wednesday on the ordinance of baptism and two different folks came up afterwards and said, “I need to be baptized.” Praise the Lord! Maybe that’s your desire, too. I will be standing outside between worship services this morning so feel free to come by so I can meet you and pray with you! You can also come by the church office tomorrow afternoon and a minister will be present to meet with you.
Visitors remember to turn in your Connection Card to one of our ushers or at the Connection Center to get a gift bag as you leave.
Tonight we’ll be celebrating in worship and having our members’ meeting, too. Worship tonight is from your pastor’s favorite verses, Proverbs 3:5-6. We’ll celebrate what God is doing and will be doing through our church family in a theme entitled, “Moving forward, trusting the Lord.” Each of our staff will report tonight. I look forward to seeing you back here at six o’clock.
Let’s stand as we prepare to go to Sunday school and enter into our mission field.
Alan will dismiss us in prayer and lead us in our benediction song, thank you, Alan. Love you church family! See you back here tonight at six.
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