We continue this morning with our theme, From
Simon to Peter, and we come to yet
another landmark of significance in the moral and
spiritual development of this apostle of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
Now, our message this morning is going to
be based on the reading, which we took
earlier from Matthew chapter 18, the passage beginning
with verse 21 and going right over to
verse 35.
We shall not read the passage again, of
course, but we shall refer to it as
we proceed.
The well-being of their first fellowship of
Christ's disciples lay ever upon his heart, as
their first and glorious pastor and shepherd.
He was concerned not only to initiate a
fellowship of believers and of followers, but to
see that fellowship perfected, to see every individual
brought to maturity, fulfilling his function, serving alongside
his brother, and ultimately that they should go
together into the outer world of need and
of sin, bearing and also expressing in their
lives the message of grace.
Now, it's not always easy for people to
live and grow together.
We've all discovered this, I'm sure.
It's one thing to have an experience of
the grace of God for ourselves, but it's
quite another thing to live up to our
Christian calling in a community.
Sometimes the first battle is in the home,
especially if it's a divided home.
Sometimes there is a battle along with other
believers.
But we shall necessarily find it difficult when
we come into confrontation with the evil, unbelieving
world around us.
Now, here our Lord shows his very real
concern for the fellowship of God's people.
Their life together, their relationships, the one to
the other, and that really is the burden
of the message we have this morning.
Personal relationships are the key to everything in
the Bible.
In New Testament Christianity, it is not sufficient
simply to do the right thing.
We have to do the right thing in
such wise as we cause no man to
stumble, if that is humanly possible.
Whilst on the other side, we should be
edifying one another, encouraging one another, ennobling one
another, and helping one another on the way.
It is not simply a matter of my
doing my bit, forgetting about everybody else.
Growth in grace means that I learn to
grow along with my fellows in the body
of Christ.
And if I cannot thus grow, then there
is something wrong with me.
Honesty and charity were two indispensables then in
our Lord's day for those who would follow
him, and they are equally so today.
The kind of honesty that is prepared to
be judged by God at every turn of
the road.
The kind of honesty that, in the words
of James, looks into the mirror of God's
law, there to see myself.
The kind of honesty that is prepared, indeed,
that yearns for God to judge every action,
and every attitude, and every desire.
And then the kind of charity that is
prepared to bear and to forbear, and, as
we shall see today, particularly to forgive others.
I suppose you may crystallize this, or summarize
all this, in terms of the Johannine twin
concepts of light and of love.
We need to walk in the light of
God's countenance and holiness and word.
But we also need to walk in the
power and by the constraints of the divine
love.
It is not either or, it is both
and.
We need to walk in the light and
we need to walk according to the love
of God, which, if we are Christian, is
shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost which is given unto us.
Light and love provide the oxygen of Christian
wholeness in which fellowship thrives, in which God
is honored, and out of which we may
go to be witnesses for our Lord in
a manner that tells in an unbelieving world.
Now, the passage before us can best be
expounded, I believe, by considering, first of all,
the Apostle Peter's question to Jesus, and then,
secondly, our Lord's answer to him.
You have Peter's question in verse 21.
Then Peter came up and said to him,
Lord, how often shall my brother sin against
me and I forgive him?
As many as seven times?
Have you ever asked that question?
How often shall my brother sin against me
and I forgive him?
As many as seven times?
Now, we begin looking at this by considering
the occasion.
You will find that there are some little
passages in the Gospels and they're almost entities
on their own.
There are paragraphs that are scarcely related to
what goes before or what comes after, but
there are others.
And you find the roots of them going
back into the beginning of a chapter or
even to the previous chapter or even the
one before that.
Now, this question posed and given to us
toward the end of the chapter, this question
really needs to be seen in the entire
context of the chapter.
The occasion is all-important.
I, therefore, must summarize it.
The context shows how Jesus had very forcefully
and very clearly addressed himself to the carnal,
self-seeking, and arrogant spirit which revealed itself
in his followers' jungle-like battle for precedence
and for honor.
You go back to the beginning of the
chapter, verses one to four.
Their whole concern has been at this point,
who's the greatest?
Who's the greatest?
On the way toward Capernaum, as Mark tells
us, this was their conversation together.
As they walked by the side, as they
walked along the road, huddled, gossiping together a
little and remote from their Lord, this is
their one concern.
Who's going to lead?
Who's going to occupy the uppermost place in
the kingdom of our Lord?
And apparently all of them had a claim
to stake.
Now, the gravity of their selfish desires is
matched, of course, on the one hand by
their own naivety, and yet on the other
hand by their Lord's wonderful condescension.
Isn't it marvelous to see and to recognize
that our Lord Jesus Christ takes men and
women like this, who talk like this about
themselves, who want the uppermost places, who are
self-seeking and arrogant.
He takes them and He molds them and
He's concerned to bring these very people into
the place where He can use them.
I find this most encouraging.
There is much to challenge us here.
I find this one of the most challenging
passages in the Gospel of Matthew, that there
is something here to comfort us.
You may be a self-seeking person today,
very arrogant, proud.
You want to be leader, you want to
be chief, you want to have your own
way.
It's part of your personality defect, maybe.
Our Lord Jesus Christ would have you in
His hand and mold you and change you
and transform you that you can fit into
the fellowship of the Church and stand not
ahead of others but alongside, together like an
army.
Such is His condescending grace.
He doesn't turn them on one side and
throw them away and disassociate Himself from them
when they raise a question like this.
But He perseveres, He continues, and so He
does still.
Now, Jesus proceeded from there to speak against
those who cause the least of His little
ones to stumble.
Now that's what you have beginning with verse
5 and 6.
Now this is a very serious thing.
Jesus sees a necessary connection.
People talking about who's going to be the
greatest, who's going to be the leader, who's
going to be the chief, who's going to
have authority.
Now the next stage, and it's a developed
thought, causing the little one or the least
one to stumble.
Giving an offense to someone who is apparently,
in our own estimation at gender rate, less
than we ourselves are.
Jesus appears to imply that this is a
peculiar peril of those who yearn for leadership
and authority over others.
It is the peril of causing a little
one to stumble.
Well, is that a serious thing?
Well, now you read the passage and you
will see what our Lord says.
It is so serious that He puts it
in this way.
If you cause one of the least of
My little ones to stumble, says Jesus, it
were better for you to have a great
millstone cast around your neck and to be
drowned in the depth of the sea.
Verse 6.
Now this is staggering.
I believe I'm far more important than everybody
else.
And I should have the leadership and I
should have authority over everybody.
And He has a little one, in my
estimation.
But Jesus says, if I cause that little
one, the least of His, to stumble, it
were better for me to be drowned in
the depths of the ocean.
You see, His little ones count with Him.
His least disciple counts with Him.
Go on through the passage.
The least counts in the kingdom of God
in this sense.
The least of His little ones has His
own angel in heaven, beholding the face of
my Father, He says.
The least in the kingdom of heaven has
His own guardian angel.
He beholds the face of our Father.
In other words, the moment the Father in
heaven, as it were, says that there is
need, that characterizes the experience of one of
His children, the least of His children, the
angel is ready to move.
Do you remember our Lord in Gethsemane?
He said, I've only two hours.
And in just a moment, legions of angels
will come to my aid.
They're waiting on tiptoe.
They behold the face of my Father.
They're ready to take action.
But that was not only true of Jesus.
It's true of the least child of God.
Their angels do always behold the face of
my Father, ready to come.
But that's not the only thing.
When one of the least of His little
ones goes into the wilderness and wanders away
from the flock, do you know what our
Heavenly Father does?
He leaves the ninety and nine, says Jesus.
He leaves the ninety and nine together, and
He goes seeking the very least that was
lost.
Can you see the point?
He puts a price on the least.
Therefore, you who think that you're better than
others, be very careful.
You'll not get away with it.
You cause the least of His little ones
to stumble, and you'll arouse the holy ire
of your Heavenly Father.
You cannot do it and get away with
it.
He puts a price on the head of
the least, and therefore cause the least to
stumble, I repeat, is to bring forth His
anger.
Now at that point, Jesus proceeded to address
Himself to those who may be offended.
Now notice the change.
Up until now, He's talking about those who
give offense.
Now He comes to the people who are
offended, those who are offended by their brethren.
But what should we do if a brother
offends us?
Well, says Jesus, here it is, and we're
dealing, of course, with personal relationships here.
Well, the first thing to do is go
to your brother privately.
Don't talk about it.
Don't shout about it.
Don't put a notice on the notice board
and say, My brother's done something against me.
I'm going to talk to him at three
o'clock on Friday.
There's no need for that.
There's no need for an announcement in the
press.
Privately.
Love covereth a multitude of sins.
Go to him privately and then tell him
his fault.
Tell him what he's done.
If he listens to you and therefore sees
the wrong that he's done and apologizes, just
forgive him.
And therefore you've healed the fellowship.
Disaster has been obviated.
Now, what if he doesn't?
Well, if you're sure that he has really
grieved you and you have a case, which
needs to be put right not only for
your sake but for the sake of the
fellowship, which is larger than the two of
you, take two or three witnesses with you.
And if he doesn't listen to the two
or three witnesses, ultimately it has to come
to the church.
And here the church, gathered in the presence
of the one who is always with the
two or three that meet in his name,
in the presence of the one Lord and
head of the church, must exercise the power
of the keys and exercise authority and decide
if this brother is wrong and refuses to
acknowledge his sin and to repent, either he
must be excommunicated from the fellowship or he
must be withheld for a while at any
rate whilst discipline is exercised.
All this was suggested by the disciples' talk
about being greatest in Christ's kingdom, greatest in
the kingdom.
This talk about greatness.
My friends, whenever you meet a Christian who
wants to be the first or a head
of his brother, there's danger for Satan is
there.
Make no bones about it.
It may come from the minister in the
pulpit.
It may come from the member in the
pew.
Make no bones about this.
The devil is there.
Jesus saw all these hideous things as almost
unavoidably following from the simple question, which of
us will be the greatest?
He saw the brood hatched before it was
born.
The occasion of it, the revelation made by
and through the question, is the next thing.
Peter's question discloses his soul.
Have you noticed that?
Most of our questions do, and not only
our questions but our answers likewise.
Let a man speak and he'll soon reveal
himself.
Perhaps Peter's personality and privileges were such as
to elicit harsh words from some of his
friends.
I don't know.
I have a feeling that is so.
You see, Peter was rather impetuous.
He was the first to talk.
And then, of course, our Lord had honored
Peter, especially alongside of James and John.
He had uttered words to Peter which were
singular, even going beyond anything he uttered to
James and John.
And therefore, it is more than probable that
some of the others were just that little
bit jealous.
Why should he lead us?
Why should he be the first one to
speak?
Why should he have authority over us?
We're as important as he.
Blessed be the Lord.
Peter had forgiven them many times, but he
was getting a bit too much.
How long has this thing got to go
on, says Peter, in effect?
My brother offends me.
How many times must I forgive him, up
to seven times?
Now notice the magnanimity of that.
To forgive once is a very beautiful thing.
I deliberately use the word beautiful because it
speaks of the beauty of holiness.
A man is never more God-like or
Christ-like than when he or she forgives
and forgets.
Do you yearn to be God-like, Christ
-like, Spirit-honoring?
Then, my friend, you are never more positively
God-like in this world than when you
forgive others.
And so Peter says, first, I'm willing to
do that, and I'm not only willing to
do it once, but...
Lord, he says, need one go up to
seven times?
As if to say, I'm willing, I'm willing
to fix that ceiling and to go as
far as that.
Now I spoke of it as Peter's magnanimity.
I say that because the rabbis in contemporary
life taught that you should never ask anyone
to forgive you, once they have done so
three times.
That is, if I have trespassed against Mr.
Lowe here, and I ask him to forgive
me three times, and then I do something
terrible, I should never ask him the fourth
time.
That was rabbinical teaching.
That was the principle operating among the synagogues
of the Jews.
Three times, full stop.
If you can't control your temper after you've
been three times reprimanded in relation to an
individual, then you don't deserve forgiveness anymore.
Said Peter, I'll double that, and I'll add
an extra one for good measure, making it
the perfect number seven.
Up to seven times?
You know that's wonderful, isn't it?
Seven times.
And yet, not only must we see the
magnanimity of Peter's soul here, we must also
see the immaturity of his approach, judged from
a Christian point of view.
That his magnanimity betokens a great change is
unquestioned, and reveals the influence of the Lord
Jesus and of his grace upon his heart.
He was willing to go that far.
But despite his advance upon rabbinic thought and
practice, Peter, you see, is also thinking of
forgiveness in terms of a fixed number of
times.
In terms of an arithmetic figure.
And forgiveness is never that in Scripture.
God's forgiveness is never that.
Though your sins be a scarlet, though they
be like the sand of the sea.
And there are many other analogies of Scripture
talking about the multiplicity of human sin, yet
in Christ God forgives the penitent.
God doesn't say to any man or any
woman, sin 70 times and I'll forgive you,
but the 71st time, too much.
Not 7,000 for that matter.
This is not divine forgiveness.
And you see, Peter is still trying to
make it a matter of a figure, rather
than the matter of an attitude.
An attitude that belongs to me as the
forgiven of the Lord.
And because it is an attitude of soul,
it is not with me today and not
tomorrow, it should always be here.
So that whenever there is a brother who
pleads for my mercy, I should be willing
and ready to forgive, as my Lord is.
Now, so much then for the question.
Come to the reply.
Jesus deemed the question to be so vital
and so terribly important, he deemed it so
necessary that we should grasp this principle that
he is enunciating, that he couched his reply,
one in parable and then in very plain,
of plainest language.
First of all, he speaks in parable, verses
23 to 34.
And we look at this first.
Jesus' reply in terms of parabolic illustration.
Now let me just go over it briefly.
Describing the kingdom of heaven in terms of
a king, settling his accounts with his servants,
Jesus described one particular servant coming before his
Lord to settle the accounts.
And lo and behold, when the books were
opened, it was discovered that he owed his
king, his master, his Lord, a fantastic amount,
ten thousand talents.
Now the value of a talent, of course,
depends, first of all, as to whether it's
a gold talent or a silver.
And then again, whether we are referring to
Attic, Syrian, or Jewish coinage, because they vary.
It is computed that however we come to
this figure, it is computed that the debt
here envisaged, we would put in our terms,
as upwards of five million dollars.
So you see, our Lord is referring here
to a fantastic debt.
It's not just a trifling.
So the king has got his books open
and he sees that this man owes him
over five million dollars.
Immediately the king says, pay up.
The man says, well now, wait a moment,
give me time.
But the king wasn't prepared to give him
time, and he determined that he should be
sold and his family, and that they should
serve to pay something of the debt for
the rest of their lives.
Their lives were mortgaged as an entire family.
Now the man began to plead for time.
Not only did the master, not only did
the king say, all right, I will have
mercy upon you.
He had such compassion upon him that he
forgave him the entire debt.
How would you feel?
Five million dollars debt, cleared in a moment.
And the books are clear, and you go
right out and you breathe freely, and in
the joy of it you don't know what
to do.
But notice what happened to this fellow.
Going out, he met one of his fellow
servants.
And this fellow servant of his owed him
a trifling debt.
Now in our coinage, the debt that the
fellow servant owed to the man who had
just been forgiven amounts to only about twenty
dollars.
So you have a tremendous dichotomy here.
On the one hand, he's been forgiven over
five million dollars.
Here's about twenty dollar debt.
And he sees him coming and he says,
man, pay up what you owe me.
And he half strangles him.
And then he's about to throw him into
prison until he pays the debt because he
has authority to do this kind of thing.
News went back to the king.
News filtered through to the king, whose anger
was seriously and justly aroused.
Calling that forgiven man back, he said to
him, Look, man, don't you understand what's happened?
I forgave you that immense debt.
Should you therefore go out and extract from
one of your fellow servants the trifling little
debt that he owed you?
Look, he says, I'm going to reverse the
whole thing.
You shall be put into the hands of
the tormentors until you pay the very last
farthing.