The Church of Eleven22 - S01 E45 - Forgiveness

Episode Date: June 23, 2020

Hey church family, if you got your Bible, we're going to end up at Matthew chapter 18. But in light of this crazy world, I would like to read an appeal from the Apostle Paul to the church in Corinth. And I want to make that same appeal to us at the church of 1122. Then we'll jump to Matthew chapter 18 to talk about how we make this appeal a reality. Paul says to the church in Corinth in 1st, chapter 1, verse 10 in following, I appeal to you brothers. That means like I beg, I implore to you, brothers. By the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

that all of you agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. This is Paul's appeal. And then basically all the rest of 1st Corinthians is how they can be united, that there be no division. In fact, in John 17, one of the things that Jesus prayed for us, for his disciples, is that we would be one like he and the Father are one. All right, so what do you do?

Some people is easy to be one with, right? People that you like, people that you agree with. So what do you do when there is division where somebody has done something and you don't want to be one with them anymore? What do you do when you feel this division, particularly in the church? Matthew chapter 18. Jesus says this, if your brother sins against you,

go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. Let's just start right here. Jesus says you talk to people and not about people. It does no good for you to inform three or four other people what the other person has done against you.

In fact, if we just did this thing right here, it would change everything, particularly church. So it starts this way. If you're a brother, okay? first thing, if you feel offended, the first question you ask is, is this person my brother? If it's not your brother,

then your primary conversation is not about reconciling the two of you. Your first conversation is an evangelism conversation where you, as an ambassador of Christ, try to help this brother, or this person, this non-brother, to be reconciled first unto God. And then once they experience the forgiveness of God,

then you can talk about your forgiveness extended to them. So if your brother sins against you, The next thing to ask, is your offense a sin or is it a personal preference? And this means that you've got to know the Word of God. The thing that you're upset about, is it because you didn't get what you want? Or is it because the person legitimately sinned against you? They were anti-God's will against you. They broke a commandment against you.

So many times it is just personal preference and you didn't get what. what you want it. But if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. Facebook's not alone. Twitter's not alone. Instagram's not alone.

And just because we have these things in social media that does not nullify the command of Jesus to go and talk one-on-one with anybody who has sinned against you. Now, that's what's up to you. Now, if he listens to you, you have gained your brother.

And I'm just going to tell you so many times that happened. So many times I've been offended. I think somebody has sinned against me, has done me wrong. And so I call the person directly or I go directly to the person. I don't wait for him to just figure it out somehow. And I go directly to the person and I say, hey, listen, you hurt me when you did this. You said this, it hurt. I think you weren't telling the truth, whatever that thing is.

And I can't tell you the number of times where that person says to me, well and they give me some more information and what I end up replying with is simply this, oh, oh, well, I didn't know that. You see, this gives this, your brother, it gives them the opportunity to fill you in on what's going on and why you are offended. And so oftentimes that happened. You go straight to the person and things are reconciled, praise God. Verse 16, but if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you that every

charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. Now, this isn't to gang up on the person. This is so that you can have an objective third party. This is one reason why disciple groups are so very important. If you have a disagreement, particularly in the church, and you talk to the person and you can't seem to see eye to eye, then you can invite, like, your disciple group leader or some mature Christian, and a part of what this mature Christian is to help do is not just so that they see what you're saying, but that this mature Christian can hold up the mirror for you so that you can see your part of the argument. and if you refuses to listen to them, then tell it to the church.

And if you refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. I think this part is often grossly misunderstood. When it says, tell them to the church, it does not mean tell it to the church service. I have heard of churches where somebody sinned in the congregation and they would march that person up in front of the entire congregation and confess their sins to the home congregation. I think that's just shame tactics and condemnation. And Romans 8.1 says, therefore now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. What this means is if you and a brother in the church, you are a brother or sister in the local church, cannot be reconciled, then bring it to the authorities in the church, the pastors and the elders,

and let us help shepherd and serve you in this. And if the person who has sin against you will not repent and reconcile, then what we the church are supposed to do is to treat them like a Gentile and a tax collector. Now let me ask you, how did Jesus treat Gentiles and tax collectors? Does it mean they kick them out of the church? No. Now, we should kick wolves out. Wolves are people there to lead the sheep astray, to damage the sheep, to be predators on the sheep. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about a brother who has a sin issue. You know how Jesus treated a Gentile and a tax collector?

He rolled out the red carpet for him. Now, he didn't put him in charge of the church. There are definitely some things that could disqualify you from church leadership, but he is not excommunicating them from the fellowship. Verse 18, truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. And again, I say to you,

if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my father in heaven for where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them. Here's what Jesus is saying. That last verse, people use it in worship services all the time. That's not what it means. What you're saying is this, is that if you will be driven by grace to go and speak directly to the person that has sinned against you, that it could have eternal, it could make an eternal difference.

Like fellowship in the church, it matters for eternity. And when you do the hard work of forgiveness and restoration, then Jesus himself is among you in those tough conversations. And then to illustrate it, Jesus is going to share a parable. So he gives this teaching. And then Peter came up and said to him, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him? as many as seven times. And Peter thinks he's awesome when he says this. And the reason he thinks he's awesome

is because the Old Testament teaches eye for eye and tooth for tooth, not forgiveness. And so Peter thinks he is extending a lot of grace to give this person seven tries. And Jesus says to him, I do not say to you seven times, but 77 times. I don't think Jesus literally means seven times because in the Greek it's 70 and seven,

which means seven is the number of completion with a zero on it, which means like infinity plus a number of completion again. In other words, you should forgive people as many times as Jesus has forgiven you. So how many is that? Now he's going to tell a story to illustrate.

Therefore, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who has wished to settle accounts with his servants. And when he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents. This is tons and tons of money. like $10 million. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold with his wife and his children and all that he had and payment to be made.

So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, have patience with me, and I will pay you everything. And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denary. This would be like a day's wage, maybe. And seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, pay what you owe. And so his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him. And he's going to say the same thing that the previous guy said to his master. Have patience with me.

And I will pay you. And he refused and he went and he put him in prison until he should pay the debt. And when his fellow servant saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed. And they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. and then his master summoned him and said to him, you wicked servant, for I gave you all, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me and should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant

as I had mercy on you. And in anger, his master delivered him to the jailers until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from the heart. here's what Jesus has saying when somebody sins against you you take account of their sin

you take account of what they owe you what they have taken for you from you and then you basically have a debt ledger and then you have a decision to make you can hold on to that debt ledger and that person can owe you these things for the rest of their lives the reality is they can never repay you

for the things they have taken from you they can't give you the time back they can't give you your marriage back, they can't give you your kids back, they just can't. So you can hold on to that for the rest of your lives. I can tell you what's going to happen. It just leads to bitterness. Unforgiveness leads to bitterness. Or you can decide to cancel the debt, like the king canceled the servant's debt.

Then Jesus' real implication is this. And if your debt has been canceled, all of your debt for all time has been canceled at the cross, then how could you pull? possibly not forgive and cancel the debt of somebody against you. In other words, forgiving people, forgive people. Sometimes I say this way, if you ain't given it, maybe it's because you ain't got it. Because if we receive the forgiveness of Jesus Christ for all of our sins, how could we not then forgive the people who have sinned against us?

So Church of 1122, that includes people at your church. And so if you are offended, if you are sinned against, if you are let down, let me just tell you this. If you stick around here long enough, I guarantee you, I will offend you, I guarantee you, I will let you down. I guarantee you. There's no way I'll ever live up to all that I am supposed to be. You know why? Because I'm a wretched sinner in need of a Savior. I need your forgiveness, just like everybody else needs your forgiveness.

And what Paul was pleading for in Corinthians is that the church would be unified altogether as one. And that will require us to forgive one another. This means that you're going to have to learn how to forgive your disciple group leaders and you're going to have to forgive the people in your disciple group and you're going to have to forgive people on stage and people sitting in the rows next to you. And as long as you are around fallen humanity, you will be reminded maybe every single day of your life that every single one of us are not just mistakeers that need to try harder, but every single one of us are sinners that need a

savior. So if you have experienced the grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ, how in the world could we not extend that same grace to the people that have offended or sinned against us? So if there's somebody who has sinned against you or let you down, then I dare you this week. Reach out to them. Reach out. to them directly. And before you make a case for why you're right and why they're wrong, why don't you extend grace and forgiveness that we may be one? Because I'm telling you, as divided as our world is right now, divided racially, ethnically, socially, economically, politically, what if biblically the church in this day was one? We put aside our difference.

we bowed before the level ground at the cross of Jesus Christ, and we were unified as God the Father and God the Son are unified. That was his prayer for us, and it's my prayer for you. Let's pray. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, Lord, we confess that we are. We are wretched, wretched sinners. That our flesh wars against our spirit daily. The things that we don't want to do,

these things we keep on doing, and the things that we promised we would do, we can't seem to pull it off. The Lord, we tend to be prideful and selfish and try to just get our own way and then we're so offended when it doesn't go the way we wanted it to go. God, I pray for an outpouring of your grace on the body of Christ all over the world, God. And particularly the Church of 1122, Lord, may we lead the way. May we forgive one another.

As much as possible, may we live in peace. with one another. May we be reconciled all of us over all of our locations and including those folks that are new to 1122 online. May we all be one as you are one. I pray to Jesus in. Jesus. Amen.