Word of Salvation – Vol. 26 No. 33 – June 1981

Beware Of The Torturers

Sermon by Rev. Keith Vethaak on Matthew 18:21-35

Scripture Reading: 1John 3:7–24

Brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ,

What would you do if through some terrible circumstance you found yourself in debt to one man for $1.1 billion? You would be in debt over a 1,000 times a million dollars. Could you even begin to find the money to repay that person? And if your life, and the life of your wife and children depended upon your repayment of the money, what steps could you take to save your family? In your despair you might take the one course that is opened to you -- you throw yourself at the mercy of the man to whom you owe that huge amount of money. You beg him to help you find some way out of your terrible situation.

And then suddenly the man looks at you with tears of compassion in his eyes, and he says: "Be on your way, your debt is forgiven. You're free." A billion dollars cancelled just like that! How grateful you would be. Could words express the joy that would fill your heart and change your tears to a smile?

Naturally you would cancel all debts that were owed to you. What about that struggling family man who owed you just a couple of thousand dollars? "$2,000...! -- That's nothing! I've just been forgiven 1,000 million -- a billion. Go your way brother, you don't owe me anything, I want you to be free as I am."

Now that certainly sounds like a very far-fetched story doesn't it? Yet we find this story with a slightly altered ending in Matthew 18. It's a parable told by Jesus and it contains teaching of vital importance for the living of our Christian life.

Read Matthew 18:23-27.

Now the King who takes account with his servants represents God. And who is the servant? The servant is you and I. We are told that the servant owed the king ten thousand talents, which translated to our money represents well over $1 billion. This billion dollars represents the gigantic, unrepayable debt that you and I owe to God.

The Bible teaches that every sin that we commit is like a debt that we owe to God, and when we look at our debt of sin, when we add up everything we have ever thought or done wrong, then we come to a gigantic unrepayable total. The Bible says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. None of us can even begin to pay our debt against God. As it says of the servant, "He was not able to pay". That accurately describes our condition. There is no way we can pay our debt of sin. There is no way we can deserve forgiveness.

But the King, according to vs.27 was moved with compassion and forgave the debt, the enormous unpayable debt. And that's exactly what God has done for you and me. The Bible says that God loved us so much that he sent his son Jesus into our world to die on the cross, and on that cross to pay the penalty for our sins. Jesus was nailed to the cross and the Bible says that he hung there for six hours. During the last three hours from noon to three the sun refused to shine and the sky turned black. At three Jesus cried out: "My God My God why have you forsaken me?" He looked up and he saw that he was cut off from God. He was separated from his father. He was in Hell.

This man who had never sinned, who had never had a wrong thought or motive, who had never sinned in word, deed or thought, looked up and God was gone. God the Son was cut off from God the Father. And at this point all of our rottenness and all of our filth was laid on Jesus, and God could no longer look at his Son because of our sin.

Therefore Jesus cried out: "My God, my God why have you forsaken me?" God could not look upon our sin; he could not look upon his Son, and Jesus was cut off, he was damned. When Jesus cried out those words it was the most horrible cry that had ever been uttered from this earth. Even the angels must have shuddered with horror at the spectacle of the Son of God hanging between heaven and earth, cut off and damned because of our sin.

But Jesus was damned so that we might not be damned. He died that we might live. And this is the reason why we can be forgiven. This is the reason why God can just wipe out that debt - it's been paid for by his Son. We are forgiven not because we are good, not because we can pay, but because another has paid. He was our substitute. On the cross Jesus cancelled our billion dollar unrepayable debt. That's the reality behind this parable. That's the heart of the Christian faith.

- But now the parable goes on.

We see that the forgiven servant went out and he found someone who owed him 2,000 dollars. And he grabbed him by the throat and said: "Pay me what you owe me". And the second servant begged for mercy but the first servant wouldn't listen and went and cast him into prison. But the King found out about it and then - (read vs.32ff)

Now what is the point of this whole parable? What is Jesus trying to teach us? This whole episode begins with Peter asking Jesus, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me. Seven times?" Peter thought he'd be generous. But Jesus said, "No, seventy times seven." In other words forgiveness is to be continual, there is to be no end to it. Jesus, in this parable wants to teach us as Christians about forgiveness. And the whole point of this parable is to be found in the vs.34-35.

Now to understand the full import of what Jesus is saying we have to look very closely at the words he uses. In the NIV it says that the master turned that servant over to the jailors. But the word jailors isn't really there. The NIV people have decided to civilise what Jesus is saying. The word that Jesus uses is torturers or tormentors.

Jesus says, "This servant will be handed over to the tormentors until he pays his debt". "And", says Jesus, "this is exactly how my Father will treat you if you don't forgive your brother from your heart." Let's listen closely to what Jesus is saying here. He's not being woolly or wishy-washy. He's not just saying that failure to forgive is a bad thing; he is saying that failure to forgive will result in your being handed over to the tormentors.

The Greek word Tormentors has three meanings. It means torture, mental torment, and physical distress resulting from disease. In Matthew 4:24 there is an example of this word. [read]

Now the original reads like this: “And they brought to him all those who were ill, having various diseases and tortures. I wonder what those tortures were? Mental torments, physical torments ― Anguish, depression, fear, anxiety, tension, headaches, body aches and pains ― we could go on for ages listing the things that torment us.

Now Jesus is saying that when you refuse to forgive God will hand you over to the tormentors. And if God has handed you over to the tormentors, because you have failed to forgive then no amount of prayer will take those torments away ― until you forgive.

Before we go any further let me just make one comment. Don't deduce from all this that the moment that you have a headache or are tormented in any other way, that you are being tormented because you are harbouring unforgiveness in your heart. There's more than one cause for sickness, suffering and torment. Job teaches us that. But on the other hand don't underestimate the pernicious power of unforgiveness. Even Job had to pray for his misguided friends before God healed him.

If we could single out the one sin that causes most trouble in the Christian community what would that be? Well Jesus, when he taught us the Lord's Prayer singled out one thing ― and he did this again and again. He singled out unforgiveness.

I believe that there are many Christians around today whose lives are full of needless torment, because they have failed to understand what Jesus is teaching in this parable. Jesus doesn't want any Christian to live in torment or torture. He came to bring us life ― life in all its fullness. And one of the principles for that life is that we forgive as we've been forgiven.

In a moment I'm going to lead you in prayer, and in that prayer I'm going to ask God to put into your minds those people that you need to forgive. But let me just give you a warning ― don't be fooled into thinking that you have no unforgiveness. Jesus wouldn't have spent the time that he did on a sin that no body has. Don't forget that Satan has many ways of camouflaging unforgiveness and hate. Satan will try to switch labels to confuse you. "I've got no unforgiveness ― people have just always been hard on me, never given me a fair go." Or maybe you feel justifiably angry at people, maybe you've been hurt, let down, disappointed, criticised by people ― that can so easily disguise unforgiveness and resentment.0

And let me warn you that these things are sometimes close to home between parents and children, husbands and wives. It can be something that happened to you when you were very young. Unforgiveness gives a legal right to the tormentors to come in and plague us.

Jesus is calling you and me to forgiveness to forgive others even if they don't deserve it one scrap, because that's what he has done for us. God is love and love is forgiveness. Let's come to God in prayer....

1. Praise God for the forgiveness we have through Jesus.

2. Holy Spirit, drop into our minds the names of all those we need to forgive.

3. Prayer of forgiveness.

Dear Lord Jesus,You know that I have deep resentment for ................and maybe even hate for ..............I call it what it is, it is ― sin.I ask you to cleanse this resentment out of me by your blood.As a definite act of my will I choose to forgive whether he deserves it or not.You forgave me when I didn't deserve it, and so likewise I forgive him.Lord Jesus I ask you by your grace to give me YOUR love for himbecause mine is inadequate.

Amen.