Sermon for Sunday, August 30, 2026 at Unionville Presbyterian Church (BPC)
Old Testament Text:
[Psalm 86:1-17 ESV] 1 A Prayer of David. Incline your ear, O LORD, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. 2 Preserve my life, for I am godly; save your servant, who trusts in you–you are my God. 3 Be gracious to me, O Lord, for to you do I cry all the day. 4 Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. 5 For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you. 6 Give ear, O LORD, to my prayer; listen to my plea for grace. 7 In the day of my trouble I call upon you, for you answer me. 8 There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours. 9 All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name. 10 For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God. 11 Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name. 12 I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever. 13 For great is your steadfast love toward me; you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol. 14 O God, insolent men have risen up against me; a band of ruthless men seeks my life, and they do not set you before them. 15 But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. 16 Turn to me and be gracious to me; give your strength to your servant, and save the son of your maidservant. 17 Show me a sign of your favor, that those who hate me may see and be put to shame because you, LORD, have helped me and comforted me.
New Testament Text:
[Colossians 3:12-17 ESV] 12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Gospel Text:
[Mark 11:20-26 ESV] 20 As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. 21 And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” 22 And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. 23 Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25 And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” 26
SermonText:
[Matthew 18:21-35 ESV] 21 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?” 22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times. 23 “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. 24 When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. 25 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. 26 So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ 27 And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. 28 But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ 29 So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ 30 He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. 31 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. 32 Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ 34 And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. 35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
Introduction:
This text seems to me like a commentary on the petition of the Lord’s prayer which says “and forgive us out debts, as we also have forgiven out debtors.”
There is DIVINE FORGIVENESS, and WE should forgive others in the same way.
We are to pattern our forgiveness after His forgiveness.
So first we need to understand His forgiveness; divine forgiveness.
I. Divine forgiveness.
What is divine forgiveness?
It is that forgiveness we receive from God; forgiveness that all of God’s people receive.
And it is forgiveness that we do not deserve. And it is forgiveness that is without end; there is no bottom to the WELL OF FORGIVENESS of our gracious Lord.
How many times does he forgive us when we sin? Seven times? NO, seventy-seven times, this passage says. In the King James translation it says 70 times 7 which is 490. Either way, the point is that the forgiveness does not run out. It is not “3 strikes and your out,” but God’s forgiveness is IMMEASURABLE. What a great God we have.
If a person is seen as generous for forgiving someone 3 times or maybe even a full 7 times, that how much more generous is God, for his forgiveness knows no bounds.
And that is the forgiveness we need. For we are sinners. And we do not sin just once or twice or thrice; we sin many many times. We know in other places that God forgives BIG sins, now we learn that God forgives REPEATED sins.
Think of Peter who denied Christ three times and yet Christ forgave him. That is notable.
But we sin more. We even say “I’ll never do that again,” and yet we do “do it again” over and over and over. Have we therefore lost the grace of God? Have we gone beyond his limit for forgiveness? MAY IT NEVER BE.
Indeed, we are saved ONLY because God’s forgiveness doesn’t end at some number of sins. It reminds of that great saying, “If we could lose our salvation, we would.” If seven were the number of times God forgives, we would be in trouble.
And don’t think that it is literally 77 times or 490 times that is God’s limit. The meaning is obviously not that there is some number which God will not go beyond; indeed the opposite is the case. The number is LARGE, so large that it is more than our sins. Even, truly there is no number.
II. How should we forgive? – Without End.
So, I mentioned that this passage seems like a commentary on the Lord’s prayer, because it speaks of God’s forgiveness and our forgiveness, and compares them.
It is interesting that the Lord’s prayer is ordered the way it is, “forgive us AS we forgive others.” That sure seems backwards to me. Indeed we ought to forgive. And indeed we know that God forgiveness. But isn’t God’s forgiveness the pattern we should take to ours? I don’t think the prayer is asking God to forgive in the way that we forgive; rather it is praying for BOTH kinds of forgiveness; HIS and OURS.
Indeed, in other places we see that OUR forgiveness is to be PATTERNED AFTER His forgiveness.
For example,
[Ephesians 4:32 ESV] 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
[Colossians 3:13 ESV] 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
[Luke 6:36 ESV] 36 Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
As His forgiveness is WITHOUT END, so our forgiveness should be WITHOUT END.
Jesus tells Peter that we ought to forgive our brother 77 (or 70 times 7) times.
And this is just following the passage in the same chapter of Matthew 18 about “if your brother sins against you, tell him his sin between you and him alone.”
The same terms now continue forward in our passage: “brother” and “sin/forgiveness.”
And we have the answer for HOW MANY TIMES WE SHOULD FORGIVE.
But then, there is more.
III. How should we forgive? – Unconditionally
It is sometimes called “The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant.”
And it teaches us not to be unforgiving, for God is forgiving of us.
If we are forgiven, how can we not extend the same grace to others?
This really connects then, not only the QUANTITY, but the QUALITY of forgiveness; we are to forgive others as God forgives us: MANY TIMES, and we are forgive others as God forgives us: IN LIKE MEASURE. What I mean by this is that HIS GRACE IS GREAT, let ours be as well.
How then are we to forgive others.
This is a subject I’ve been thinking about a good deal for the past year. I read a master’s dissertation from one minister on the subject, and heard a sermon in person from another minster on the subject. And I respect both of these men, but I agree with one of them, and disagree with another.
One says we are to forgive ONLY when the one who sins against us asks for forgiveness.
The other says we are to forgive EVEN IF the one who sins against us DOES NOT ask for forgiveness.
I agree with the second of these views; our forgiveness of other ought not to be conditioned upon their actions, FOR (and this is key) God’s forgiveness of us is not conditioned upon our actions.
Indeed this is so central to Reformed thought, that I was shocked to learn that many believe we can only forgive others if they have repented and asked for forgiveness.
But Reformed Theology teaches that God’s forgiveness of us is UNCONDITIONAL. We call it Unconditional Election; the “U” of the TULIP acronym. God saves his people OF HIS OWN ACCORD, he forgives us SOLEY upon the death of Christ and NOT for anything we do.
God’s forgiveness and grace are UNCONDITIONAL. Nothing we can do earns his forgiveness. Our forgiveness is conditioned SOLELY on the blood of Christ.
Then, given that – given that God’s forgiveness is so grand, so freely given, unconditionally, we ought to extend the same grace and forgiveness to others.
When we forgive our debtors, it should not be only upon their request; we should do it so automatically.
To be sure, you must forgive someone who repents and asks for your forgiveness. Luke 17:3-4 says, “If he repents, forgive him.” But you should also forgive the offender if he or she does not repent. Mark 11:25-26 says, “Whenever you stand praying, FORGIVE, if you have ANYTHING against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
If I have not forgiven my brother prior to seeking his restoration, then I am the unmerciful servant of verses 21-35. If God has forgiven you – sending Christ to die for you WHILE YOU WERE STILL A SINNER (Romans 5:8) – then we ought also to forgive others; when they ask, and EVEN BEFORE they ask. We are to be forgiving, period.
We are to forgive unconditionally, because vengeance is the Lord’s. We are not to be angry with another and take it out on them. We are to forgive. We are sinners too, and have no right to put ourselves above any other person. It is not our choice to forgive our not to forgive; we are simply to forgive.
IV. How should we forgive? – As forgiven people.
The servant has been forgiving by the king.
TEN THOUSAND TALENTS.
Do you know how much money that is?
10,000 talents is equivalent to something like 200,000 years of labor. An unpayable debt. Our sins have caused this situation. Just how deep a hole we have dug?
And yet GOD in his immeasurable grace has forgiven us. What a great God. That is a major conclusion. What a great God indeed.
Then, how should we forgive? AS FORGIVEN PEOPLE!
We should not like the servant in the parable go aggressively after those who have a debt against us; without mercy.
The servant says, “While I was given a ‘get out of jail free car’, YOU MUST PAY ME!”
This is UNGRATEFUL.
It is interesting that the Lord’s Prayer is translated “debtors.” We forgive out debtors; we don’t forgive those who pay us back; there is no need for forgiveness! So it cannot be that we demand their repentance before we forgive them; if they’ve repented they are hardly our debtors any more. Yet, no doubt, repentance is a good thing.
But the non-Christian will not repent. And yet we are called in Matthew 6:14-15 to forgive “ALL MEN,” not just Christians.
[Matthew 6:14-15 KJV] 14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: 15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
So what happens to the servant? It is shown that he is not a believer; it is shown that he is not willing to extend Grace as God does; and thus God’s grace is not upon him. And he is delivered to the jailers, with a debt he’ll never be able to pay.
Questions 1: Do you hold back forgiveness? Why? And what ought you to do? Forgive others.
If you are waiting for a person to repent, you are going to be waiting a long time. That is a great burden on you. You need to forgive them so that you can move on. And I’m plenty aware of the complications on the discussion of forgiveness; it doesn’t mean that you necessarily forget what they did. It doesn’t mean that you are necessarily reconciled to them, or trust them. It might be wise to keep your distance. But, you are called to forgive; and to let vengeance by the Lords.
Or do you hold back grace?
Here’s an example, similar I think to the parable at hand, though not about forgiveness per se.
This week I had an Amish crew volunteering to rebuild my roof. With all of them combined they did over 150 hours of work. Well, then I had a neighbor ask me to help for about an hour on a small project for her. How ungrateful would it have been for me to say “no” especially while others are so giving to me.
Question 2: How Great is our God?
This is the very Gospel: God forgives the debt that you cannot repay. Freely. By his grace.
Conclusion
So let us truly forgive those who trespass against us. Not those who trespass AND repent. Such would be narrowing the petition.
Let us forgive our debtors. Not only those who have paid us back, for that wouldn’t be forgiveness.
And let us do all of this in a way reflective of God, for his divine forgiveness is great; let ours be also.
Let us pray.