The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant

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The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant

• Matthew 1821-35

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Introduction

• Mt 1821-22
• Peters question
• He is trying to apply what he has been taught
• Probably felt 7 times was a generous number
• Jesus point is that forgiveness has no limits
• The parables main point will be to reinforce
  Jesus point

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The parable

• Mt 1823-27
• The king is owed a debt of 10,000 talents
• A talent 6,000 denarii (days wages)
• 10,000 talents 60 million days wages
• At 50 / day 3 billion
• The debt was beyond the servants ability
• Yet the servant only asked for patience
• The king was willing to forgive it entirely

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The parable

• Mt 1828-30
• That servant refuses to even have patience with
  another servants debt
• 100 denarii 100 days wages 5,000
• A large sum, but within a servants ability to
  pay given time
• The first servant wanted immediate repayment
• He was within his rights
• Used the legal avenues open to him

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The parable

• Mt 1831-34
• The king scolds the first servant for not
  learning a lesson in forgiveness
• The servants forgiveness is cancelled
• The original punishment would have been slavery
  for entire family
• Now the punishment will be worse torturers

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The lesson of the parable

• Matt. 1835
• Failure to forgive a brother will bring severe
  punishment
• God is the King
• We are his servants

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Other lessons from the parable

• We are all debtors to God (Rom 323)
• We can never repay our debt to God
• Christ bought us at the price of His life
• 1 Cor 619-20
• Only by forgiving others are we certain to be
  forgiven (Mt 614-15)
• It should be easy to forgive others when
  considering what God did for us
• The unforgiving will be destined for eternal
  torment (James 213)

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How to be forgiving

• Focus on Gods forgiveness of you (Col 313)
• Ask Gods help to forgive and forget
• Forget to disregard, to fail to mention, to
  leave behind, to be unable to remember
• God can help us get to all those definitions
• Gen 4151, 454-5, 5015-21
• Phil 313

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Conclusion

• "If I say, 'Yes, I forgive, but I cannot forget,'
  as though the God, who twice a day washes all the
  sands on all shores of all the world, could not
  wash such memories from my mind, then I know
  nothing of Calvary love."
• Amy Carmichael
• 1867-1951

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