This is part seven in our series on discipleship and I would encourage you to review the first six – not because they are world-beating sermons, but because they contain some truths about our journey as a disciple of the Lord Jesus which are vitally important to grasp and like most things – that only happens as we are exposed to those truths over and over again.
As we’ve journeyed down the discipleship road in this series we have encountered various tests. The submission test, the obedience test, and over the last two weeks we have been looking at the servant test. Now I want us to look at another test which we face every day and which also lies at the heart of the New Testament concept of the Christian life. It is also one of the hardest tests to face in our self-centred ‘looking-after-No.1’ society. The test we will look at here is the giving test.
Now the moment I mention the word giving, the vast majority of people immediately think of money, and yet I am sure you know that giving involves far more than money. But whenever that word is mentioned from a pulpit, we nearly always think of money. Well, I am not going to talk about money at all in this sermon. I want us to look at giving in a far broader and deeper context. Giving lies at the heart of our Christian experience and it can unlock so many doors in the kingdom of God. When I talk about giving, I am not talking about the outward action which can be carried out with little or no feeling. I am talking about the heart attitude that gives the right thing at the right time in the right way and for the right reasons. Our giving can take many different forms.
There are times to give up – not in resignation, abandonment or despair, but in surrender. Not a day goes by when we are not called in some way to give up our sense of importance and position for the sake of others and the kingdom.
Then there are times to forgive – to release what would be retained as a grudge or anger or as pain or as resentment or as internalised stress as a result of a perceived or a real injustice. We may not see forgiveness as part of the giving test, but it lies at the heart of the giving test. One of the hardest things we are called upon to give is the grace of forgiveness – particularly when we have been genuinely wronged in some way.
I remember my wife attended a Jim Glennon seminar many years ago and she came home with a statement that we have both referred to many times over the years. Jim said: “The devil of resentment is that it’s justified.” There are so many situations which we will face on the discipleship road where we are justifiably hurt or angry because of what has been done to us. Our need to give at a point like that is essential – we give up all resentment.
Then there are times to give over – to place into the hands of the Creator-judge of the universe, matters that only His might and His justice can sufficiently handle. How tightly do you clutch onto some issues and problems? What burdens are you carrying around right now, trying to ease through your own effort. Why not just give them over to the Lord.
There are also times to give to. To take from your abundance and give to someone with a greater need. The Bible makes it very clear that if we see a brother or sister in need and choose to do nothing about that need, then there is no love in us. Opportunities to give to others surround us every day. We are called to give out of our abundance. We are so blessed in this nation. I know many of us have financial struggles from time to time but compared to millions of others who share this planet with us, we have an abundance of everything.
There are also times to give in through simple obedience. Our wise God has shown us principles and patterns of giving as a discipline, intending to release us from a self-centred survival mindset or from our all-too-human self-protecting fear of want or poverty.
There are also times to give wisely because we understand the reciprocal laws of the kingdom which promise a bountiful return if we give. That return is God’s encouragement for us to learn to give over and over and over again with increasing resources and joyfulness. We don’t give in order to get something back, but the fact remains that in the kingdom of God, giving is reciprocated by God in abundant measure.
In short, giving involves everything, but never the way we most fear. Fear has taught us that to give something means we are left with less, and therefore, to give everything is to be left with nothing. This self-centred protection mindset is a sickness directly related to our fallen, sinful nature and when we are born again in our spirits to God, we should let go of this insatiable desire to keep as we let an even stronger desire to give away replace it.
But this all takes time. We don’t lose our ego-centric selfishness overnight. Our new life and growth in the kingdom will take time. Biologically, nine months in the womb and a dozen or so years following birth are just the beginning of the growth of a human being who is able to think about or care for anyone other than themselves. Similarly, our spiritual new birth in Christ is only a starting place for growth in a lifetime of learning to live in the spirit of God’s releasing grace.
God’s releasing grace is that grace in life that compels us to give as we have received … forgive as we have been forgiven … and care for and serve others as God cares for and serves us in His Son Jesus. Those words: the spirit of God’s releasing grace, create the foundation of all giving. They draw their truth from the highest principle of all … and that is: love gives. They are rooted in God’s love which is the foremost of all the attributes of His person. It is God’s love that mandates His giving and forgiving, because His nature can do nothing else. It is also His love that mandates that those who are born into His family learn to do the same.
This principle lies at the very heart of one of Jesus’ most revealing parables. It’s a lesson with the highest importance. Jesus presents it as a kingdom parable by saying that the kingdom of God is like this.
Matthew 18:23-35 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, cancelled the debt and let him go. “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him by the throat and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded. “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’ “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened. “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
I said earlier on that our challenge as disciples is to learn to give the right things in the right way at the right time for the right reasons. Jesus’ teaching in this vivid story deals with all those “right” things. He gives us a lesson in forgiveness in this story which reveals the need for forgiving others, for giving up selfish interest and giving into God’s greater wisdom.
At the very heart of this story is the reason for such a mandate for forgiveness. We need to understand the right reason for giving. This is crucial, because giving is not a wand we wave in some magical way. It is an attitude worked into the human heart through understanding God’s heart and methods. The pivotal point in Jesus’ whole teaching is at the central moment in the confrontation between the forgiving master and the unforgiving servant.
Jesus’ message is clear and pointed: forgotten grace breeds unforgiving living. His analogy is so clear. The picture of God’s greatness and grace in forgiving each of us our sins through the cross of Jesus is clearly in view in the master’s release of his debt-ridden servant.
This is the reason, the pivot point, the powerbase from which our giving springs. Jesus makes the gift of God’s love and salvation a starting point for our learning about giving. Whether mercy or money, forgiveness or resources … we must first receive and understand His grace as the fountainhead of our lives if we are to grow at all in our ability to give. The foundational elements of that growth are in the parable we have just read.
The context of Jesus telling this story is significant. Peter had just expressed what to him seemed to be a gracious offer. “Lord, should I forgive people seven times?” Peter was stretching well past the common expectation for forgiveness in his day. The school of thought present in religion at that time proposed that even God didn’t forgive people more than three times. This had been deduced from the writings of the Prophet Amos. Some Rabbis had concluded that God forgave a transgression three times but when a fourth violation occurred, judgement would strike. So, when Peter suggested that he should forgive seven times, it ought to be noted that he would have considered this to be very generous. The response Jesus gave would have therefore stunned Peter and all those with him. Jesus said: “Not seven, but seventy times seven!”
Now Jesus was not addressing fools. They recognised immediately what He meant. He didn’t expect them to keep tabs on forgiveness for each person and when you get to 490 times, then you can let them have it. No, the figure He gave was meant to be so outrageously high that people realised what He was really saying and that is that our forgiveness should be unrelenting. “Never stop forgiving,” is what He was saying. Jesus was describing what true love does. As we see in 1 Corinthians 13, love does not keep any record of wrongs – it always forgives. Then to drive the point home even further Jesus told a story. The story is profoundly simple, yet a marvellously complete picture of the salvation God offers each one of us in Christ. It clearly illustrates seven important truths.
- We are all God’s created, accountable servants.
- Our debt is our sins which are greater than we could ever repay.
- Our destiny is a complete and total loss by reason of our debt.
- Our cry for God’s mercy when uttered will always find a compassionate response.
- His forgiveness is total and unconditional.
- Our debt is cancelled through Christ’s life, death and resurrection.
- Having been forgiven completely we are expected to live in the same way towards others.
Therefore, central to Jesus’ call to live a life of giving and forgiving is the truth that our debt before God has been paid freely by Him and Him alone. He has done all this notwithstanding our responsibility for our sins and our inability to pay for them. In this lesson Jesus shows us the majesty and totality of God’s forgiveness. It is the substance which forms the foundation of all of life; life now; life eternal; and life to be lived in and through God’s amazing grace.
In order to establish this foundation for our lives it is crucial that we sense the need of the servant in Jesus’ parable. His problem was debt … which is an analogy for our sinful human condition. He was helpless and hopeless. He had no point of appeal to excuse himself from his debt. It was real and it was unpayable. His words, “Give me time” only point to the incredible way our flesh will plead for its own potential power to answer the problem. In today’s currency this debt would be in the vicinity of 100 million dollars and the man is a common wage earner on a labourer’s salary. This debt was completely beyond his means. That’s the whole point of the story!
If we are to gain a hold in this ministry and lifestyle of giving and forgiving, we must never, ever forget our true condition outside of Christ. Forgetfulness feeds our inability to see ourselves in the need or failing of others. The servant’s actions to the one who owes him money seem unimaginable until we observe our own unforgiveness. Look at these words and watch the actions of the just-having-been-forgiven-a-fortune servant.
Matthew 18:28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him by the throat and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.
The picture couldn’t be more graphic. “By the throat.” Something about this man’s violence shakes our sensitivities as we look at the absolute insanity of the horrible forgetfulness that manifests. The inability of the forgiven servant to translate his blessing into similar grace for another, causes us to rise up in indignant defence. Everything in us screams out against this brutal man.
The purpose of the text isn’t to incite our anger for anyone other than ourselves. For however guiltless we may plead to be, we have all been guilty of the same forgetfulness. Because we probably didn’t grab someone by the throat and demand money, we may not immediately see ourselves in this parable. But the same spirit of unforgiveness is present:
… when we criticise a brother or sister.
… when we judgementally condemn a gross sinner.
… when we feel vindictive against an enemy.
… when we speak unkindly to a relative.
… when we reject someone who does not meet our social tastes.
… when we tolerate condescending attitudes towards people of different ethnic backgrounds.
… when we attack fellow Christians for practices or positions that are different to ours.
… when we mock any human being or carry hatred or anger towards another person.
The list goes on. In short, virtually every clash in human relationships is due to some expression of an unwillingness to give, to forgive failure or to give understanding concerning our differences. The relatively small debt of the second servant is another key part of Jesus message. In contrast to the unpayable millions constituting the first servant’s debt. 100 denarii would relate to about $40.00 … an amount that could have been paid back over a relatively short time.
Matthew 18:29 His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’
You would think that the first servant would have been shaken awake by those words. They were a precise echo of the request he had made to his master. But he had been asking for time to pay millions – not just $40.00. Now, when he receives a reasonable request from someone for extra time to pay back an infinitely smaller debt, he’s totally oblivious to his fellow-servant’s plea for patience.
There are drastic differences in the way the two appeals were handled. In the first instance the master had compassion and forgave him the debt and let him go. This was done in the face of an impossible amount and yet the requirement of payment was totally removed. In the second instance the forgiven servant cast his fellow-servant into the debtor’s prison, disallowing the opportunity even for a schedule of repayment which could have easily been fulfilled. The human parallels are again obvious. How soon we all forget the greatness of God’s grace which looked beyond our faults and seeing our needs – totally forgave us. How easily we fall prey to hasty judgement. How slow we are to measure the relative failure of those who may violate us against the backdrop of our own violations against God. Our sin seems too small in comparison. Yet in the midst of all of this, Jesus calls us to accountability as He reminds us to never forget the dimensions of our deliverance and God’s forgiveness. This is how it is in the kingdom of God, Jesus says, and if we desire to live as the kingdom people we claim to be; if we want to truly follow Jesus; then we will face this giving test every day in so many ways, because this is the reality of the Kingdom.
Jesus has come to bring heaven’s rule and reign into our hearts right now. The forgiven are called to forgive. Those to whom so much has been given are called to give out their abundance. To the same degree that we have been entirely, unconditionally and graciously forgiven – we are to forgive others. To the same degree that we have been blessed abundantly and share in the riches of heaven – we are to bless others and allow them to share all we have. We need to understand however that none of us are going to even come close to passing this giving test if we are not connected with the giving grace of God. This is not something that we can do in the flesh. We don’t just make a resolution to be giving people. Until the spirit of God’s releasing grace connects with and saturates our spirit; until we connect with the reality, the magnitude and the power of the grace, love and forgiveness of God; we will not have the spiritual resources to give or forgive in any way at all.
Each of us needs to get on our knees before God and ask for a fresh revelation of His grace and mercy and love and His overwhelming forgiveness to us. If we don’t remain in daily contact with the power of His grace and the magnitude of what He has given us, we will not be able to live a life of giving. The only reason that we have such a death grip on our money, time and resources, is because we don’t fully appreciate the truth that everything we are, everything we have and everything we ever hope to be has come through the grace of God; we don’t accept that outside of Jesus Christ, in Whose righteousness we stand, we have and we are absolutely nothing. When the reality of that truth births afresh in our spirit, we will find it very hard not to give. For when the giving love and grace of God saturates our being, it will automatically overflow into the lives of all those we touch.