Multiply
Pass it On
Sunday May 26, 2024 - Pastor Richard Reaves
John 3:16
Key thought
Walking in the footsteps of Jesus' forgiveness and love allows individuals to experience personal transformation, promote healing and reconciliation in relationships.
We begin today by reviewing the Lord's Prayer from Matthew 6
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
Just what exactly, does verse 12 mean?
Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Forgive us our debts
In using the concept of indebtedness, Jesus was speaking to the prevailing Jewish concepts of sin and forgiveness
Jesus changed these ideas forever with His teaching concerning both the judgment and mercy of the Father
There are four shocks in this parable
The First Shock - the extent of the first servant's debt
The Second Shock - the extent of the king's forgiveness
The First Takeaway
- We cannot hope to repay the debt we owe to God. Only God could pay it. John 3:16 (NIV)
- For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
- Life is not a ledger sheet we must keep balanced but a fountain which washes us clean.
The Method of Forgiveness
- How do we find access to this endless supply of God's grace?
- 1 John 1:8-10 (Message) If we claim that we're free of sin, we're only fooling ourselves. A claim like that is errant nonsense. On the other hand, if we admit our sins-make a clean breast of them-he won't let us down; he'll be true to himself. He'll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing. If we claim that we've never sinned, we out-and-out contradict God-make a liar out of him. A claim like that only shows off our ignorance of God.
Parable of the Unforgiving Servant (part 2): Matthew 18:28-35
The Third Shock -the refusal to forgive
The Fourth Shock - the loss of grace
The Motivation for Forgiveness
The first servant should have been inspired to forgive the second. A personal sense of gratefulness should have motivated him to do so.
To accept the grace of Christ as Savior and Lord should have a renovating effect on our hearts. W.B. Hunter has written, "Our primary motivation for forgiving others is gratitude for God's gift of forgiveness to us. Showing mercy becomes a sign that one has received God's mercy in forgiveness. Our willingness to forgive others is thus a sign of our genuine conversion."
Our Second Takeaway
- The time for forgiveness is now
- We must pay a cost to pray this part of the Lord's Prayer: Some of us need to put aside our pride, humble ourselves and ask for God's free gift of forgiveness and salvation. Some of us need to put aside our pride, give up the right to be unforgiving and hold grudges and give God's gift of forgiveness to others.