Parable of the Unforgiving Steward

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Short Summary

The discourse centers on the parable of the Unforgiving Steward from Matthew 18, emphasizing the importance of forgiveness in Christian life. It highlights how the servant, after receiving immense forgiveness from his master, fails to forgive a minor debt owed to him, demonstrating the necessity of extending mercy to others as we have been forgiven. The speaker urges the audience to reflect on their own hearts and avoid harboring resentment, likening it to a “trophy room” of past grievances, while reinforcing that true love does not keep account of wrongs.

Long Summary

### Summary of the Discourse on the Parable of the Unforgiving Steward

Introduction to the Topic: 
– The discourse focuses on the parable of the Unforgiving Steward, primarily found in Matthew 18.
– The intention is not to introduce new teachings but to remind the audience of important biblical principles.

Biblical Context: 
– Reference to the Jewish law, specifically the command from Moses in Deuteronomy 31, which emphasizes the importance of reading the law every seven years during the Feast of Tabernacles to instill remembrance and adherence to God’s principles.

The Parable of Forgiveness: 
– The parable begins with Peter asking Jesus how many times he should forgive someone who sins against him, suggesting seven times.
– Jesus responds, indicating that forgiveness should be limitless, suggesting “77 times” or “70 times seven” (Matthew 18:21-22).

Narrative of the Steward:
– A king decides to settle accounts with his servants.
– One servant owes an astronomical debt of 10,000 talents, which is explained to be approximately $33 billion in today’s terms, making it impossible for him to repay.
– The servant begs for mercy, and the king compassionately forgives the entire debt.

The Unforgiving Response: 
– Immediately after being forgiven, the same servant encounters a fellow servant who owes him a mere 100 denarii (a fraction of his own debt).
– Instead of showing mercy, he violently demands repayment and has the fellow servant thrown into prison for non-payment.

Consequences of Unforgiveness: 
– Other servants witness the unjust treatment and report it to the king.
– The king calls back the unforgiving servant, chastising him for not showing the same mercy he received and delivers him to the jailers until he can repay his debt (Matthew 18:32-34).
– Jesus concludes by warning that God will treat those who do not forgive their brothers from the heart similarly (Matthew 18:35).

Application of the Parable:
– The speaker emphasizes that each person has been forgiven much by God and must extend that forgiveness to others.
– The critical connection between asking for forgiveness and granting forgiveness is highlighted, referencing the Lord’s Prayer where believers ask, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12).

Personal Reflection on Forgiveness:
– The speaker encourages self-reflection on harboring grudges, likening it to a “trophy room” where individuals keep track of all perceived slights and offenses.
– This mentality is depicted as detrimental, leading to bitterness and resentment.

Biblical Warnings about the Heart:
– Reference to Jeremiah 17:9, which describes the heart as deceitful and wicked, reminding listeners to be aware of their own tendencies towards unforgiveness.

The Nature of Love:
– The discourse includes insights from 1 Corinthians 13:5, where love does not keep a record of wrongs, and encourages a mindset that seeks constructive ways to handle grievances.
– Emphasis that love is patient, does not brood over wrongs, and is not easily provoked.

Idolatry of Materialism: 
– The speaker cites Jonah’s story as a warning against valuing material comforts over people and compassion.
– God’s lesson to Jonah underscores the importance of caring for others over selfish desires.

Conclusion: 
– The discourse ends with a call to remember the importance of forgiveness and compassion in Christian life, encouraging the audience to reflect on their relationships and attitudes towards others in light of God’s immense forgiveness. 

### Key Verses Mentioned:
Matthew 18:21-35: The parable of the Unforgiving Steward.
Deuteronomy 31: The command to read the law.
Matthew 6:12: “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”
Jeremiah 17:9: The deceitfulness of the heart.
1 Corinthians 13:5: Love does not keep a record of wrongs.

Transcript

Our subject is the parable of the Unforgiving Steward, and if you open your Bible To Matthew, the 18th chapter, you’ll be right where you need to be for the bulk of the presentation.

Several writers have expressed this thought that we do not so much instruction, we do not so much instruct as to remind, and we say these things today not to bring anything new before you, but to bring to your remembrance the importance of this, and I believe there’ll be a lesson later for the young people on this parable. We’ve sent out some questions, I think, Brother Randy, good. This is something that you can really apply in your Christian life.

So the parable of the unforgiving Steward, we’re not instructing you, we’re reminding you and of the Jewish law. At the crowning moment, when Moses is imparting his final blessing to the people of Israel In Deuteronomy, chapter 31, he commands them at the Feast of Tabernacle every seven years that the law is to be read before the hearing of all the people. So in remembrance and reminder of these principles, there’s much good.

I will read the parable first. Peter came up and said to Jesus, lord, how often will my brother sin against me? And I forgive him as many as seven times. Peter thought he was being very generous. Seven times he makes the same mistake, burdens me with his difficulties.

Seven times, should I still forgive him? And Jesus, of course, said, I do not say to you seven times, but 77 times or 70 times seven, and then he tells a parable. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents.

Now, right away, we know that this is a parable. I don’t know if you’ve calculated how much 10,000 talents is worth. Like in the last week. If you’ve gone online and looked that up, I thank you. I looked it up this morning.

I talent apparently was about 75 pounds, and the price of gold per ounce this morning was $2,759.07, and 10,000 times 75 times 16 times 2759,07. It came out to a little over $33 billion.

Maybe you wonder about the king. You know, this guy’s been pilfering from the storehouses $33 billion, and the king doesn’t know it until now. Well, anyway. But the point Jesus is making is that he owed him so much that it would have been impossible for him to make amends.

Impossible to pay it back.

And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold with his wife and children and all that he had and payment to be made, and so the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, master, 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. What a massive amount of forgiveness. Can you imagine being that much indebted?

And someone says, it’s all right, I forgive it. Oddly, that same servant goes his way and happens to run into another servant, another slave, and he found this servant who owed him a hundred denarii, a fraction of a pittance of the amount that he had just been forgiven, and he said, pay me, and he seized him, and he began to choke him, saying, pay me what you owe.

So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, have patience with me, and I will pay you. He refused and went and put him into prison until he should repay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him back and said to him, you wicked servant, 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 his 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 your heart, and so I’m not instructing you this afternoon by any means, but I am reminding you and reminding myself as well, that each of us has been forgiven so much.

And ought we not to have such a level of forgiveness for those who sin against us?

Jesus said, when you pray, pray after this manner, and our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Thy kingdom come, and thy will be done in earth as it is done in heaven. Give us this daily day our daily bread, and here it comes. This is the punchline. Forgive us our debts as we forgive those who are debtors to us.

And there is that relationship there. Forgive us, Lord, as we forgive those who sin against us.

And any sin that others may have wittingly or unwittingly committed against us. Any sin that we do not forgive from the heart, is that going to compromise the Lord’s amount of forgiveness toward us? This seems to say that there’s a parable about a fellow who had a room in his home dedicated to One specific purpose, and people in town talked about this room, and no one was quite sure what it was all about, but he seemed kind of like an angry, resentful human being, and finally one day, someone was given a tour of the room by this person, and he takes them into his home.

He pulls out the keychain and unlocks several locks on this door. He wanted to keep this room very secure, and he opened the door to the room and brought him in, and as he looked around the room, the visitor could see that there were shelves and pedestals all around the room and all filled with artifacts, and he asked the man, what is this?

Why, this is my trophy room. Of all the insults, slights, offenses that people have committed against me, and I keep them here to remind me of what they have done to me. His trophy room of perceived insults, and we can have that tendency to hang on to things to have our trophy room of. I remember in that business meeting, and I made that point, and it was so clear from the scriptures that I was right in what I said.

And sister so and so shot me down. I haven’t shaken her hands since I was only seven years old at the time for that. Brother ignored me at the convention the whole time. What did I ever do to him?

Perceived insults. Not even real insults. This is a form of madness that wells up in the heart of fallen human beings, and it’s our privilege as Christians to fight the good fight against having trophy rooms filled with perceived insults. The prophet Jeremiah says this in Jeremiah 17, verse 9.

You know this one. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can understand it?

And I’d like to think that I’m well beyond that. But I confess to you, every once in a while, someone or something can push my button. Somebody can cut me off in traffic, and I feel inspired in a very negative way by being cut off in traffic from driving along, and I see someone would like to turn in front of me, and they’re waiting and waiting and waiting in traffic, and, well, they’re a little too eager, they’re pulling out and being a little too aggressive, and I’m going to teach them a lesson, and I’m just going to drive by and not even look, Adam.

And we think, oh, yes, I’m daily laying down my life for you, participating with our Lord Jesus and sacrificing on behalf of mankind, whatever we can do. But I’ll never let you get in front of me on the road, right? It’s crazy how these things come up in our Fallen hearts, and it’s a split second. We must be aware, we must fight against these things.

First Corinthians, chapter 13, verse 5. In particular, I like the Weymouth reading, but I also like the JB Phillips. So rather than try to make a decision as to which I would read, I will read them both.

Love does not brood over wrongs. Love doesn’t brood over wrongs. Oh, what she did. Oh, what he said, and brooding over that, love does not do that.

And Phillips takes it in a slightly different turn that I think, deepens our understanding, but not changes it. J.B. phillips says, this love of which I speak is slow to lose patience. It looks for a way of being constructive. It’s not possessive.

It is neither anxious to impress nor does it cherish inflated ideas of its own importance. Love has good manners and does not pursue selfish, selfish advantage, and now to the pith of that it is not touchy. It does not keep account of evil or gloat over the wickedness of others. On the contrary, it is glad with all good men when truth prevails.

Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope. It can outlast anything. In fact, it is the one thing that still stands when all else has faded.

Loving our position in life, loving our comforts in life, loving the things that surround us in life, loving our possessions is really a form of idolatry, and we have an example of that in Scripture, in the character of Jonah. Remember that story? He was to go to Nineveh and warn them of the impending doom that the Lord was going to bring upon them, and in the end, they all accept the terms of their repentance.

And Jonah. Jonah says, well, he was displeased exceedingly, and he says, I was angry. He prayed to the Lord and said, o Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish, because I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster.

Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live. Well, it’s kind of an extreme reaction, but there it is, right there on the record.

Jonah found comfort in a gourd. Remember the gourd plant? That kind of miraculously grew and shaded him and was very comforting to him. But the Lord sent a worm and a wind that killed the gourd plant, and it withered.

And again Jonah asked that he might die. Just kill me. Have you heard that expression? Better still, have you ever used that expression, Just kill me. Just shoot me, right?

And God said to Jonah, do you do well to be angry for the plant? And Jonah said, yes, I do well to be angry. Angry enough to die, and the Lord said, you pity the plant for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night.

In other words, Jonah loved the material comforts of the world and worshiped them more than the people that God had made.

That’s the grossest form of idolatry.

And so the Lord tells him, jonah, should I not pity Nineveh, that great city in which there are more than 12, 120,000 persons who don’t know their right from their left?

The worship of position, power, temporal things has caused so much injury in this world, and truly, it is idolatry. We must guard against it and beware against it. Brethren, we hope that this reminder was refreshing to you, as it was to me when we were looking these notes over.

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