Like is Like
Matthew 18:23, “Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would ntake account of his servants.” 1
I. Review
A. Debt
B. Deserve
II. Relieve
A. Desire
B. Decide
III. Remember
A. Discover
B. Deliver
Introduction: We have come to the end of another year here on this earth in this nation called the United States. We have come through another Christmas, and I pray that the memories that were given this year will continue to bless us.
The title of the message today is “Like is Like.” That is a funny little word like. If you like something or someone it might mean that you appreciate them in your life. Does it mean love? Is like a little less of an emotion than love?
But what if someone says that I am like that person over there? Jesus used the word like to describe heaven. Like can be used instead of saying that certain things or people are similar to other things or people. So, like in that case is used to compare things one to another.
Like can also mean equal in some cases. To be like minded means that certain people have the same thoughts and agree about something. Like can also mean fair in that case. What is fair? It depends on what you think. Some people believe that if a sanctuary is in the way of what the so-called leaders want, then the like-minded thing to do is to fall in with the crowd to tear the building down. If someone has a different interpretation of fairness and they disagree, then you might say that they are not like minded with most of the people.
Jesus said that heaven is like. Jesus is always fair. In the parable that we will examine today He continues to explain the difference between this temporary place that we have changed, and the perfect place that He has prepared for us where we will spend eternity with Him.
We find Peter asking Jesus to explain something that is foreign to Peter and to us. He wanted a number. How many times should I forgive someone who has offended me? How much? Limitless is not an answer for the human but for God it is the answer.
My background is engineering. Though I never considered myself to be one, most of my family background has been with engineering people. The company I worked for paid for my education which I didn’t finish. Then before the company was rearranged to have only contract engineers, they put me over a group of engineers. They gave me a separation package and then helped me form a little consulting firm to retain my knowledge in the company.
I never saw it coming. It would have been good to have known when and how much before it happened. Hindsight, it worked out better than I could have dreamed. More than I would have imagined.
Peter wanted to know how much; how many times am I supposed to forgive? Seven is the symbolic number for completion for the Hebrew. It is a spiritual and figurative number. Some might disagree, but not everything in the Bible is to be taken literally. Jesus spoke in parables.
Engineering types work with numbers. We like literal things. If you say seven than that is what I take literally. Jesus tried to convey the truth that God’s forgiveness is limitless and complete. If we are new creations transformed into the likeness of Jesus than our forgiveness for the adverse consequences that others have caused us must be limitless as His forgiveness for us is complete and limitless. Seventy times seven!
Scripture: The scripture for this message is Matthew 18:23. Please Stand Under the reading of God’s word.
Prayer: Please be seated. Keep your Bible open to the text.
Message: Listen starting at Matthew 18:21-23, “Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, khow oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? ltill seven times? 22 Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, mUntil seventy times seven. 23 Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would ntake account of his servants.” [2]
The kingdom of heaven is like, or similar to, a kingdom who has a king. Maybe Jesus was using a fictitious kingdom with a fictitious king. I don’t know. Jesus knows. The king would take account and review who owed him what every now and then. He decided to balance the books by either receiving payment for the debt that was owed or giving the penalty deserved to the ones who could not repay their debt. He balanced his budget. Budgets must be balanced somehow sometime.
Let us read on, “24 And when he had begun to nreckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand ||talents. 25 But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be osold, and his wife, and pchildren, and all that he had, and payment to be made.” [3]
Do you suppose that the guy didn’t know that he owed the king? A talent is equal to 750 oz. of silver. That guy owed 10,000 * 750oz of silver. You do the math… He couldn’t pay the debt. Just as we cannot pay the debt that separates us from God. We must rely on God’s mercy. What do we do? Here is what the guilty servant did, “26 The servant therefore fell down, and ||worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.” [4]
The question here is, what would you do if you were the king? Would you relieve the trespasser of all that he had, or give him relief in the form of mercy? This is what that lord did, “27 Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.” [5]
This lord desired to show mercy. This lord decided to forgive the debt himself. This is a parable, or a simile of what God did for us. There is one vast difference here though. This lord or king simply forgave the debt and let the guy go free. Nobody had to pay the price here. The lord took on the debt himself.
God in three persons! God the Father cannot tolerate sin. He could not take the debt Himself. Someone had to account for the debt. God the Father knew that He had to give His most precious relationship to forgive that debt that we owe. God the Father allowed Jesus to step into this life and Jesus is the Lord who received the debt and paid the price for us. That is where the story could have ended. That is where my story should have ended. But…
“28 But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred ||pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. 29 And his fellowservant fell down at his feet, and qbesought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. 30 And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt. 31 So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and rtold unto their lord all that was done.” [6]
You see that is what I do all the time. God forgave my debt when Jesus paid the price. Jesus took my penalty on the cross. What do I do? I see people who act like me and it makes me want to lash out in anger. I get emotional. Jesus said it’s OK to be angry but not to let anger control you so that you sin. I feel myself saying, why are you doing that which I know that I can do and have done myself? Why don’t you stop! Jesus asked how long He was going to have to stay here and put up with those who didn’t get it. He is still putting up with me!
I don’t stop there with the anger thing. I want to get even. That dude has been dead for twenty years and I still have his debt of trespass in my account. He’s gone! Do you want to see them in heaven or not. Jesus said that this is what heaven is like! Jesus paid my debt. I don’t want to go to hell until I can repay my own debt. Do you? God, please give me your love which allows me to forgive. Break this emotion of anger and turn it into the emotion of sorrow for what I have done that caused you to die on the cross. Turn my emotion of anger into an emotion of joy so that my tears show others just how much I love and not hate.
Don’t forget thirty-first verse. His fellow servants saw how he acted, what he did; and they told on him. People are watching us! What are they seeing? Why don’t they want to come. Why do they leave when they get sick of what they see?
So, what happened next? We would like to forget that part. We would want God to be forgetful as we are but He’s not. God is omniscient. That means God knows all things front and back. He remembered as this lord in the parable remembered how merciful he had been. He remembered the debt that he had forgiven and how this servant could not forgive the slight debt that was owed to him. Then that king remembered the penalty again.
“32 Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou qdesiredst me: 33 Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee? 34 And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. 35 sSo likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.” [7]
When it was brought to the lord’s attention of what the guy did with the mercy he received, and he discovered the truth of how his mercy was not shared with others, he delivered the punishment that the servant deserved in the first place.
God is justice. He gives in like kind. God the Father cannot do anything else. Somebody has to pay the penalty. This morning we are going to have communion in observance of that last supper that Jesus had with His disciples before He took our sin on that cross. Paul said that we must examine ourselves and ask for forgiveness for whatever might separate us from God before we partake in this that we are about to do. Jesus has already paid the penalty, but we must never forget that which we are forgiven for.
Prayer:
Invitation: AFTER COMMUNION
We are closer to the last days than this world has ever been. People are watching the church. We are making a difference in people’s lives one way or the other. We will answer for what we have done with what we have been given.
There is only one way to give mercy to those who have trespassed against you and that is with the love that you have been given. God went farther than that. He not only forgave the debt, but He decided to allow Jesus to carry your debt on the cross. Jesus died for you. Jesus died for me. That is God’s mercy.
Then God went even farther than that. He gave us His grace by bringing us back into the family that we decided to leave. I pray that many had the opportunity to be with your family this holiday time. Some made righteous decisions to visit their families and their parents. Others chose differently. God knows. What do you do? Choose forgiveness and allow your arms to be open for when that lost one comes home. It is not for you to decide to drag them back. It is for you to decide to welcome them with open arms when they return.
My prayer for this new coming year is that we concentrate on God’s mercy and grace so that we can show the world that we depend totally on Him. If we do that then we will make the righteous decision to show those who have no love for us, what love truly is. His name is Jesus and He is getting heaven ready for us.
Let us sing that song that binds us and depart ready to show His love one for another.
n ch. 25:19 (Gk.).
[1] The Holy Bible: King James Version (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., Mt 18:23). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
k ver. 15.
l Comp. Luke 17:4. See Job 5:19.
m See ch. 6:14.
n ch. 25:19 (Gk.).
[2] Ibid., Mt 18:21–23). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
n ch. 25:19 (Gk.).
|| A talent is 750 ounces of silver, which after five shillings the ounce is 187l. 10s. ch. 25:15. So Esther 3:9?
o See Lev. 25:39.
p See Neh. 5:5.
[3] Ibid., Mt 18:24–25). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
|| Or, besought him. Gk. not as ver. 29. See ch. 8:2.
[4] Ibid., Mt 18:26). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
[5] Ibid., Mt 18:27). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
|| The Roman penny is the eighth part of an ounce, which after five shillings the ounce is seven pence halfpenny. ch. 20:2. & 22:19. Mark 12:15.
q ver. 32. ch. 8:5. & 26:53 in the Gk.
r 1 Macc. 12:8 (Gk.).
[6] Ibid., Mt 18:28–31). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
q ver. 32. ch. 8:5. & 26:53 in the Gk.
s Mark 11:26. See James 2:13.
[7] Ibid., Mt 18:32–35). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
