Luke chapter 15, remember we were doing the three parables,
we're in the parable series of Jesus and we looked at the lost
sheep, lost coin and we got part way through the prodigal son and
we learnt that it's prodigal son's plural.
So open your Bibles to Luke 15 and we'll catch up from where we
were because remember the youngest son has returned home.
And in verse 25 it says now his oldest son was in the field and
as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and the
brother dancing. So he called one of the servants
and asked him what's going on? And he said to him, your brother
has come because he's received him safe.
Your father has killed the fatted calf.
He was 28, but he was angry and wouldn't go stop there.
So the parables, a parable is an earthly story with a heavenly
meaning. And in these three parables that
Jesus is speaking, and he's speaking to the Pharisees at the
time. They're the listeners and and
it's about God is the seeker who finds us and then rejoices
greatly in heaven. Mentioned that twice and
rejoices. The seeker is God, the seeker is
God. So we've dealt with the youngest
son and the narrative then takes up the oldest son.
Verse 25, we read that. So the oldest son had received
his inheritance too. Remember we read last Wednesday
that the dad had divided up the inheritance.
He didn't just give the youngest son he's inheritance, he gave it
to them. So they both got their their
money before dad died, but he stayed around the house.
The older brother, his oldest son was in the field and when he
came and approached the house, he hears the music, there's joy,
there's dancing. And I really got the party going
really quick on the return of the son before even get get in
from the from the field before the day it even ended, he was
still working. So he summoned one of the other
workers. He said, what's what's, what's
going on? What's all the, all the noise
and all the, the joy going on. Your brother has come.
Your father has killed the fatted calf because he has
received him back safe and sound.
Verse 27, They're having a celebration because your sinful,
wretched, vile, polluted brother who lived in dissipation has
come home. This is so emblematic, isn't it,
of the tax collectors? That's the audience that's
hearing these three parables and sinners because they said,
Jesus, you're always hanging out and eating with sinners.
That's where this Jesus said then began to tell them the
stories, the parables to the Pharisees and all the sinners
came and hung out with Jesus. So the first son is so
illustrative of the outcast, the sinners, you and I and son
number 2 is definitely an illustration of the Pharisees,
the religious leaders in verse 28 it says, but he became what,
overjoyed. Oh my brother's son, awesome.
What angry he goes angry and he he said, I'm not going to the
party. He's really ticked off.
He's not about to eat dinner with a Sinner.
Notice the connection. I'm not eating with a Sinner.
He says dad came out and began entreating him.
Lo, these many years that I have been serving you verse 29.
I've never transgressed your commandment at any time.
Sounds like the rich young ruler, doesn't it?
Came to Jesus, said I want to follow you, and yet you never
gave me, not even a goat, that I might make merry of my friends.
But as soon as this son of yours said the language, as soon as
this son of yours came, who was devoured your livelihood with
harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.
And he said to him, son, you're always with me, and all that I
have is yours. It was right that we should make
merry and be glad. For your brother was dead.
He's alive again. It was lost.
And he's found many people have sympathy for the older brother.
Go. Yeah, well, he did the fair
thing now. Read the text.
Come and join me. Your brother's home.
You should be happy. That's it.
The Son did not have the heart of his father like that.
John picks that up. He loves his brother, has the
love of God within him. The Son rejoiced not in the
salvation of a lost and outcast brother, because he had not the
heart of his father. He did not love his father.
For if he'd loved his father, wouldn't he love what his father
loved? He would have entered into his
father's joy. Love does that.
Oh, Dad, you're so happy. Were you happy?
You're so. Oh, isn't that awesome?
I see, Dad. So good to see you happy.
You've been sitting out on the road waiting for him to come
home. And And now you can redo.
You don't have to sit out there all day and wait and watch.
Dad. So good.
So many years I've been serving you.
I've never neglected a command of yours.
Always been right on. As I said, sounds like the rich
young ruler. I've done all of these things.
Jesus, you've never given me even a goat, a kid.
But when this son of yours, he didn't say when This brother of
mine, it's his brother, blood brother whom I missed and loved.
Oh, great to see you home, man. I love he's devoured your wealth
with hearts. You've killed the fatted calf
for him. He's the Pharisee.
He doesn't know the heart of his father.
He has no compassion for the lost because the God the Father
3 parables The story is father has compassion for the lost.
He too is a lost son and the father seeks him as well.
Dad says, hey, why aren't you coming?
Come and join us, my child. You've always been with me.
Verse 31. All that I have is yours.
Everything that I have, I possess.
You can, you can have, but we had to be Mary and rejoice for
this brother of yours. That's what he says.
Not the son of mine, but this brother of yours is dead now.
He's alive. He's been found.
He was lost and he's been found. That's the key in all the three
parables. But self righteous people, self
righteous people cannot tolerate the forgiveness of sinners,
especially flagrant sinners. And so in this young man's heart
there is not the heart of his father.
He had no love for his father. He served only for out of duty.
For many years I've been serving him and I've been doing the
right thing. I've never neglected it.
It was all duty. That's what the religious
Pharisees do. They just do it because it's the
job. It was perfunctory duty.
And so there's no repentance in the older brother.
There's no confession of sin, no confession of sin.
And the older brother, all of sin, have fallen short of the
glory of God. There's none righteous, No, not
one. The Bible says there's no
submission to his Father's will. I'm not going.
I'm not hanging out with him. I'm not eating with him.
I'll do what I want to do. There's no entering into his
father's joy. Dad, just so wonderful.
You're happy. I'm happy.
God the father. If God's happy, I'm happy.
He doesn't know the heart of his father.
The first son in the story sees his sin.
Remember, he's sitting in the pig pen.
He feels the sorrow he repents. He humbles himself.
He says, oh man, I'm not even worthy to go home to be son.
I'm not even worth. If he could give me a job as a
worker, then that's all I hope can hope for.
And he receives the grace of his father.
He enters into the joy of his father and is restored to
sonship, the second son. No repentance, no confession of
the cold deadness of his own heart.
You know, Dad, you know I've been too much.
I should. I should be happy.
You're happy. My brother's home, man.
I I should be happy, shouldn't I?
What Luke is telling us is he gives us those 3 parables we've
done of our dear Lord is that the Lord seeks and to save those
who recognise their lostness. We're going to do chapter 4
Daniel on Sunday, one of the great chapters in the Old
Testament where a Sinner tells us about coming, coming to the
Lord. King Nebuchadnezzar comes to
comes to the Lord the apostle Paul who was so remember
snorting and breathing on his way to Damascus to get more
Christians arrested and put to death and he finds God.
You see what it is. This is that you and I if we had
the heart of the Father. We see the lostness in everyone
and we see God's heart for them. But self righteous Pharisees
notes, he's that person, my next door neighbour, that person
unsavable. Well, Nebuchadnezzar was
unsavable, greatest tyrant in the world.
Saul was unsavable. He could become Paul.
Guess what? You and I were unsavable.
But even for them, the Father says, you've always been around
and what is mine has always been available to you.
For God so loved the world. The invitation to come to
Christ, to the cross is open to everyone, to all our family, to
all our friends. The invitation, whosoever will
come, the heart of God is to seek and save the lost.
The Bible says God desires that, that all should come to
repentance. That is to be our heart today
who know Christ. The lost who come to Christ come
in recognition of sin. Sermon on the Mount.
Blessed are they who mourn. That's mourning over that.
Look, look at, look at who I am. You see, if you're a genuine
Christian, then you recognise that you're a genuine Sinner in
the 1st place. You can't come to Christ until
you recognise I'm a Sinner lost and I need a saviour.
The problem with many church services today is they allow
people to make a prayer to to God in Christ's name and they
haven't mentioned anything about repentance or confession of sin
and they have a religious experience.
They leave and go away and nothing changes in their life
because they haven't become born again.
The lost to come to Christ come in recognition of sin, in
humiliation. Are you humiliated by your old
life, by your old ways? I'm humiliated even now when I
sin and I go, God, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that.
I grieve the Holy Spirit. I'm humiliated when I grieve the
Holy Spirit. I have a repentant attitude.
It's with me all the time because I know I don't deserve
his mercy or his grace, and I desire to submit to the leading
and guiding and sobering work of the Lord.
It's not like, well, if I become a Christian, do I have to give
up? Well, stop.
Then you're not ready because all you got to give up, as Paul
says, is manure. Remember, you got a bucket of
manure. And you mean I can't keep this
bucket of manure if I become a Christian.
And I will be happy to come to Christ and be nothing but a
slave. I think that would be wonderful
to be a slave for God. That's what Paul says.
Now that is the meaning in the parable form of this statement
for the Son of man has come to seek and save that which is
lost. Now jump with me back, turn left
and go to Matthew 18 where we continue in this, the series,
Matthew 18 verse 21 to 22 tonight, where there's been talk
and, and it's been discussions about forgiveness.
Matthew 18, verse 21 and it talks about we're dealing with a
sinning brother discipline in the church.
We're two or more gathered. In other words, we'll let's,
let's go and see our brother. He won't listen to me.
Well, it's two of us. Go, let's go and see our
brother. Mate, you're living in sin.
You can't do that. Oh, sorry, I repent.
We're two or more gathered. This is what it's about.
It's about discipline, but it's being righteous and it's been,
it's been forgiven to a brother. So it's talking about brothers
in the Lord. Brothers and sisters in Christ
is the background. So let's read verse 21.
And Peter came to him and said, Lord, how often shall my brother
sin against me? And I forgive him?
Seven times. Jesus said to him, I did not say
to you up 7 times, but up 70 * 7.
Yeah. The the Jewishness behind this
is interesting because the rabbi's taught that anyone who
had been wronged was to forgive the perpetrator to and at the
most three times Peter being generous, he said, Lord, seven
times I could do 7 times, Jesus says to Peter, not seven, 490
times Peter, Peter's gone. How in the world are I'm going
to keep track of that? Laptops haven't been invented.
I can't, you know, I don't know how to use an Abacus yet.
That, in fact, was the point that Peter was being taught by
Jesus in this parable. Peter was thinking in the
measurable. How many times must I think of
the parable of the prodigals? How much you know, how much
forgiveness. It's the, it's the old brother
coming in. It's the Pharisee coming in
again. It's limited terms of law, not
the immeasurable and unlimited terms of grace.
Because grace is, we see it, an ocean and I'm drowning.
Grace is unmeasurable. Law keeps account.
That's six times you offended me.
Grace doesn't keep count. Jesus was not extending the
legal limit of forgiveness, not giving him a bigger ruler.
Jesus was teaching that a Christian with a forgiving heart
thinks nothing about forgiving, that he forgives the 100th
offence or the thousandth offence just as readily and
graciously as the first. Why?
Because that is the way he or she is forgiven by God.
How many times have you been forgiven by God since the day
you got saved? How many times have you been
forgiven today by God? Every time someone says
forgiven, the little bell goes up.
I just heard it, Tinkerbell. Another forgiveness tonight.
God wants to impart you something that has the power to
change lives. And I mean this to men, hearts
to bring healing to hurts and to release joy and strength because
there's a lot of unforgiveness around.
Remember the song 1965? Those are old enough.
Hal David wrote Burke Bacharach did the music.
What the world needs now is love.
No, what the world needs now, what marriages need now is
forgiveness. What your sons and daughters
need forgiveness. What you and I need from one
another is forgiveness. It's it's the most gracious gift
that you can give. It's godly.
It's wrapped in in the love of God.
Proverbs 15 one says a soft answer turns away wrath, but
grievous words stir up anger or what is forgiveness or to
forgive to It means to admit neglect, let go, give up a debt,
forgive to remit, to give up, to keep no longer, to allow, not to
hinder, to give up a thing to a person.
Forgiveness is surrendering. Listen to this.
I like this. Forgiveness is surrendering my
right because you've hurt me to hurt you for hurting me.
Say that again. Forgiveness is surrendering my
right to hurt you because you've hurt me.
So the background again to this parable.
Jesus has just finished teaching about discipline within the
church, verses 15 to 20. Peter himself obviously was a
believer, and his reference to a brother, if a brother sins, so
it's about fellow believers, is the context here, especially in
the light of the fact that chapter 18 focuses in on
believers, the Lord's little ones who believe in him, verse 6
and 10. So Jesus is illustrating in this
whole context of this chapter the need for believers to
forgive each other. I can't get over how many people
lead churches and I won't mention any details, but people
leave churches because someone in church offended them.
I'm going what is going on with that?
Because the first thing that you should do is the 2 of you should
get together, go to God and get it sorted out.
Well, I'm going to another church because I'm offended.
That's wrong. That's not biblical.
So we have verse 23. We go, Jesus gives us the
parable. Therefore the Kingdom of heaven
is like a certain king who wants to settle accounts with his
servants. When he had begun to settle
accounts, one was brought to him and owed him 10,000 talents, but
he was not able to pay his master commander that he be sold
with his wife and children all that he had and that payment be
made. The servant therefore fell down
man he put on a show before him saying master, have patience
with me, I'll pay you all. Now he can't because the 10,000
talents here in today's the people investigated.
It's between 10 million and and and and on up to 250 million.
It's a lot of money so he can't pay it.
Then the master of the servant was moved with compassion,
released him and forgave him the dead.
But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants
who owed him. 100 denari, it's 100 days, it's a denari, it's a
day's work, 100 days, third of a year's salary.
He laid hands on him, took him by the throat, saying Pay me
what you owe. So his fellow servant fell down,
and his feet begged him, saying, Patience with me, I'll pay you
war. But he would not went through
him in the prison until he should pay the debt.
Debtors Prison. So when his fellow servants saw
what had been done, they were grieved and came and told their
master all that had been done. Then his master, after he called
him, said to him to the guide, being forgiven a lot.
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. Notice what God says, what
Christ says there. So my heavenly Father also will
do to you, if each of you from his heart does not forgive his
brother, his trespasses. This is not the unforgivable but
sin by the way. But it's a classic story of a
man who was forgiven the dead of 10 + 1,000,000.
Just think 10 million but it's way more.
And then cast into prison because of his failure to
forgive someone who owed him roughly today 17 bucks.
So really, what is the story about?
It's we're in the story, the parables about us again.
We owe a debt we have no possible way of repaying.
What is that? Our sins we can't repay, but we
have been graciously forgiven, as was the servant by his
master. And his debt was enormous.
And it's been, it's all gone. So is yours and mine.
Verse 28 to 30. He sees a much smaller debt than
somebody else. This guy has been figuring of
everything. He savagely condemns this
fellow. It says notice, it says a fellow
servant. No.
Verses 2829, but condemns him brutally for something much less
than when he when he was in debt.
Verse 31 to 35, the servant who was first forgiven much finds
himself due to his own forgiving heart.
Now he's in prison. Note that because of his
unforgiving heart, he's in gaol. That's where unforgiveness.
It locks you up. So what's the application?
We live in a world that is void of forgiveness.
I'll get you. I owe you.
Revenge is mine. The question and context of this
passage is that sadly and often, the world has invaded the church
and the church has become a place void of forgiveness.
If ever there was a place to find forgiveness, it should be
here now. But let me qualify.
This is not excusing a sinful of offence.
Sin is always sin, and true love and mercy never try to make sin
anything but what it is. But forgiveness does not
involve. The forgiveness does does
involve, I should say, ending the bitterness, the anger, the
resentment that not only does not remove a sin, but rather
adds to it. You see, heart forgiveness is
not possible for you and I. In our own powers.
We can't do that. We get hurt, well, I'm done.
Genuine forgiveness is not natural, it's supernatural, and
it's possible only as the indwelling Holy Spirit empowers.
The wife of Charlie Kirk forgave the person openly who shot and
killed her husband, William Arthur Ward said.
We are most like beasts when we kill.
We are most like men when we judge.
We are most like God when we forgive.
Only as we walk by the Spirit are we able not to carry out the
desires of the flesh, which among other things, is to hold a
grudge rather than to forgive. What unforgiveness does to those
who withhold forgiveness, It's self torment.
If you notice with me, the king originally delivered him from
prison. The first one owed a lot of
money, but the servant put himself back in.
The servant exercised justice and cast his fellow servant who
owed him 100 dinari into prison. So the king said to him, so you
want justice, you want to live by justice, Then justice you'll
get and threw him into gaol. You want to live by justice,
Here's justice. You're going to gaol.
I will do to you as you've done to others, the world's worst
prison. Prison is that prison of an
unforgiving heart. I remember doing a funeral, and
as I'm about to enter in, the son of the guy that we're
burying said to me, you know, I hate my dad.
I hated him. I still hate him today.
He's dead. I'm thinking, man, the problem
is not with a dead person because there's no problem
there. This person is is angry and and
the person that he's angry against is is dead.
You see, if we refuse to forgive others, then we are only
imprisoning ourselves and causing our own torment.
You see, remember Jesus gave the story of who forgives much.
He's in the house having dinner. The woman came in, wept over
him. Jesus said you know you, you
haven't given me a kiss. She never washed my feet.
This woman, she's not stopped. She loves me much because she's
been forgiven much. That's the problem for you and
IA Loving church is a church that recognise we're sinners and
God loves us and only by God's grace are we here.
A church that is unloving to people as they come in and to
one another is a church that hasn't recognised that they've
been forgiven of their sins. So the context of this parable,
remember, is not salvation, but it's forgiveness between
brothers and sisters. I want to clarify something as
we draw a close to this part because people say, well I won't
forgive and they think incorrectly, God doesn't forgive
me without my repentance. Therefore, I must withhold
forgiveness from others who sin against me until they properly
repent. Correct to like change.
That thinking is wrong because I do not stand in the same place
as God in the equation, and I never can.
God stands as one who has never been forgiven and never needs
forgiveness. I stand as one who has been
forgiven and needs continue forgiveness.
So it's important to understand too, there's a distinction that
we need to make between forgiveness and reconciliation.
Reconciliation forgiveness is like, oh, let's be mates and
great, you know, we're all doesn't work that way.
We're talking about you forgiving.
We're not talking about what the other person does at all.
True reconciliation of relationship can only happen
when both parties are agreeable to it, and sometimes people
aren't, and this may require repentance on one or both of the
parties in the conflict. Forgiveness here.
This can be 1 sided for God so loved the world, but not
everyone has received it. Furthermore, forgiveness does
not necessarily shield someone from the civil or practical
consequences. The person that shot and killed
Charlie should go to gaol, should be in gaol for life.
As a matter of fact, you should get capital punishment as far as
I'm concerned. In that regard, level and
societal level should be punished by the magistrates.
Romans chapter 13 tells us that. Nevertheless, the principle
stands clearly. The parable This parable was
given to make us more forgiving, not less forgiving.
No one could reasonably read this parable and think that
Jesus was trying to restrict the forgiveness of his disciples.
How? How far do I go, people who read
this? Therefore, sometimes maybe
somewhat stingy with forgiveness.
As your father in heaven is somewhat stingy with
forgiveness. Miss the whole point of the
parable. Instead, therefore, be merciful,
just as your Father is also merciful.
It's from the heart too. You see, if we forgive in words
only, but not from our hearts, we remain under the same
condemnation. And so the last line.
But let's wrap that up. So my Heavenly Father also will
do to you. It would be wrong to make this
into the idea that unforgiveness itself is the unforgivable sin.
It's not. It is better to say that
forgiveness is evidence of truly being forgiven, and that
habitual forgiveness may show that a person's heart has never
really sorry. Habitual unforgiveness may show
that a person's heart has never really been touched by the Lord.
If someone is just, you know, they just, well, obviously God's
their heart's not touched. Those who will not forgive
cannot expect to be forgiven. As James later wrote, judgement
is is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy.
James 213. And here's the deal.
What's the greatest gift you can receive off someone?
I love it when Helen forgives me, makes me love her even more
and more. I love it when God Forgives me.
It makes me love him more and more and more.
Maybe sometimes his love is not flowing from us because we're
holding on. Guess what?
You're not forgiving someone. They're not getting hurt by it.
Like that dead person. The son person was dead.
But the son who still hated his dad even though he was dead?
He's in gaol, he's dead and he's living.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your
word. It's a lamp unto our feet and a
light unto our path. Lord, help us to be forgiving.
We can't do it when we're hurt. It hurts and we we want
vengeance sometimes. God help us not to be that way
and help us not to be like animals.
Help us to live like you and Lord, help us to be gracious.
Father, anyone here tonight and watching who's in a gaol that
they put themselves in because they're unforgiving.
Lord, I pray that they'll release, be released, that they
have the key to open the door to walk out of that prison cell
they've made for themselves. I pray that you would do this
Father now in Jesus name.