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What are YOU thankful for? Health, family, friends, food, financial provision - the list goes on and on. ‌‌But what about being Thankful For Forgiveness, an invaluable kindness that extends from this life into eternal life. Today we are reminded of the incredible forgiveness that has been offered to us by God and how we should extend that same forgiveness to others. 

If your Christian brother or sister is living in sin, Jesus COMMANDS us to approach and point out their fault, to tell them “What you are doing is wrong.” Some might say “that’s judging” and they’d be right. Yet this IS exactly what Jesus tells us to do. We learned in Matthew 7:1-6, Jesus didn’t say we should never judge, but that we should judge WITH mercy and judge WITHOUT hypocrisy. The believer is to approach in obedience to Jesus in hopes to confront, correct, & comfort the one who turns from sin. 

• That’s the goal - to be right with the Lord Jesus and to be in right relationship with others, so that the one once living in sin is genuinely forgiven and restored, and THANKFUL FOR FORGIVENESS!

What’s it mean to treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector? Does it simply mean, treat them like a LOST SHEEP? Nope. We show tons of grace towards LOST SHEEP. We seek them out and make time for them. 

• This is NOT what we are told to do with those who claim Christ yet refuse to repent of ongoing sin. We are commanded to kick them out and have nothing to do with them.

We see how this played out in 1 Cor 5 (see our series on 1 Corinthians called, “A Beautiful Mess”) when a man was to be kicked out of church gatherings for not being willing to turn away from his sexual relationship with his step-mother. 

Handing this man over to Satan means no longer allowing him to be under the covering of the protection of God’s people. 

The destruction of the flesh is referring to the dismantling of his sinful desires.

The Church is to respond like parents kicking out disobedient teenagers who refuse to respond to discipline, in the hope that this man will finally feel the weight of his sin, his need to repent, that he be made right with the Lord and His people and on the day of the Lord (when Jesus returns) that his spirit may be saved. 

Many people think, “That doesn’t sound like a very ‘Christian’ thing to do…does it?” Well, I guess that depends on what CHRIST says, huh?

So if that’s what CHRIST tells us to do, then it IS very CHRISTian.

To NOT do that is actually ‘not very CHRISTian’.

Remember - it is the Lord Jesus who commanded these things…

Expel the wicked person from among you? Paul quotes from numerous Old Testament texts that say the same thing (Deut. 13:5; 17:7; 19:19; 21:21; 22:21, 24; 24:7). Those Israelites who disobeyed God and refused to repent would be cast out from the family. So too, New Covenant followers of Jesus are not to associate with these who claim Christ but live in disobedience to Him…UNTIL they turn from their sin. ‌

The desire is for reconciliation, to see this man come back to obedience. As a parent what is the most loving thing you can do…let your kids get away with disobedience OR discipline them and train them to obey? 

According to Jesus, the goal of discipline is to 

1. Call the brother or sister back to right relationship with God and God’s people.
2. Make sure God’s people don’t put up with disobedience in their own lives and influence others to do the same thing.

To bind and loose has nothing to do with demons, but discipline. This isn’t about praying against the devil or demons. Instead...

• To bind is to proclaim that the person is still a slave to their sin. 
• To loose is to proclaim that the person has been set free from their sin.
• To agree about anything they ask for - in context - is about the believers who agree about expelling one who disobeys and embracing the one who obeys, a decision that is recognized in heaven (by God).
• Where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them. The Presence of Jesus is among those who follow Him and meet together, but this context is all about reinforcing the reality that it is Jesus who judges through His people. Before we meet one last time to confront this ‘brother’ or ‘sister’ who is in sin, we would likely pause and ask, “Who are WE to judge him/her? After all, we have sinned too!” But that’s when the words of Jesus should stampede our thoughts of inadequacy because…Jesus is WITH us and Jesus commands us to do this.
• And if Jesus commands it and we don’t do it, then we are being disobedient. 
• The hope is to see the Christian who hasn’t been living for Christ to turn back to Him and away from their sin.

Here we see the result of the Corinthian church expelling the disobedient man from them - the one they had to discipline; the one they had hurt over and prayed for, the one they loved enough to tell the truth, the one they pushed out of the house…had come back! And as the Father welcomed back the prodigal son, the Church is to forgive, comfort, and love the repentant brother/sister! 

Depending on the translation, 70x7 (CSB, NAS, LSB, KJV, NKJV) or seventy-seven times (NIV, NET, ESV) is a bunch of times! Surely Jesus’ point is not that we keep count, but that we forgive the one who seeks forgiveness…just as the Father does.

The Greek term translated by the NIV as ten thousand bags of gold is literally 10,000 talents. A talent was a weight (75 lbs) and the term for the highest known denomination of money in the ancient Roman Empire.

• 1 talent (75 lbs of) of silver was equal to 6,000 denarius. 
• 1 denarius amounts to about 1 day’s wage of the average worker. 
• 1 Talent = 6,000 days wages = about 20 years worth of work (minus Sabbath days off)
• ❖ 10,000 talents = 200,000 years worth of work! He will NEVER be able to pay it back!!!

Josephus (ancient Jewish historian) wrote that the combined annual collections of taxes from all of Israel including Galilee, Judea, Samaria, just south of Judea (Idumea), and East of Judea (Perea) totaled 800 talents (Jos. Ant. 17.318; 320). It would have taken 12.5 years to collect that amount of money annually from all of those regions!

• The audience of Jesus would have understood the impossibility of one man getting this far in debt. He will NEVER be able to pay it back!!!

Remember, this is a story about the kingdom of heaven, and how the KING of the kingdom settles accounts that others can’t pay back. The servant owes more than he could ever pay. Rather than give the servant more time, the Master decided to fully cancel the debt and set him free! That’s IT! But rather than go celebrate with friends…

This man didn’t owe the servant anything close to the amount the previous servant had already been forgiven for. 10,000 bags of gold vs. 100 silver coins, or in Greek 10,000 talents vs. 100 denarii. Like the ancient audience Jesus was speaking to, we should see the absolute ABSURDITY of demanding such a small amount back after being forgiven SO MUCH MORE!

The answer is, “Of course!” This guy had been forgiven more than he could ever be able to pay back! What the other man owed him was nothing in comparison to all that HE had owed the Master!

According to Jesus, our heavenly Father is super GRACIOUS - willing to extend forgiveness to those who could never repay it, BUT…super JUST - withholding forgiveness from those who withhold forgiveness to their brothers and sisters in Christ. 

WHO do YOU Need to Forgive? (Write code-names below)

• Will you hold on to that HATE? Or…will you offer forgiveness from your heart?
• William Arnott “Mere human determination to have done with it will not cast the evil thing away. You must bathe your whole being in God’s pardoning mercy; and those venomous creatures will instantly let go their hold.”

Are YOU Forgiven? Are you Forgiving? 

Take some time to discuss these questions with your family, friends, or group.

Take some time to discuss these questions with your family, friends, or group.

1. What challenged or encouraged you most from today’s teaching?
2. Read Matthew 18:15-17. Why are churches so reluctant to practice church discipline even though Jesus commanded us to? What is the GOAL of this discipline? What attitude must believers take in confronting sinful brothers/sisters (Mt 7:1-6 might be helpful here)?
3. Read Matthew 18:18-20. How have you heard these terms used - “bind, loose, agree, two or three gather in my name” - IN or OUT of context? Explain your answer. How does reading these in context help you to appreciate the responsibility Jesus has given to judge with mercy?
4. Read what Paul wrote in 1 Cor 5:4-5, 1 Tim 1:19-20, Titus 3:10-11, and 1 Cor 5:9-13. Talk about the ultimate outcomes of not allowing professing Christians to live in sin without being confronted with the truth.
5. Read 2 Cor 2:5-10. What did the discipline of the man in 1 Cor 5 result in? Take a few minutes to discuss the beauty of the verbs Paul uses in commanding the church to welcome him back.
6. Read Matthew 18:23-35. Discuss the significance of why followers of Jesus must extend His forgiveness to those who have harmed us. What might it say about a person’s spiritual condition who is unwilling to forgive others? 
7. Read Colossians 3:12-15. What should a Church who loves Jesus look like in how they treat one another? Take a moment and share some ways God has forgiven YOU. 
8. Our BIG TRUTH from the Biblical text was: Forgiven People Forgive People. How might our willingness to forgive others point people to Jesus?
9. What does God want YOU to do with what we studied today? 
10. Share prayer needs and pray for one another.