Luke 17:1-10

This morning we are starting another chapter of Luke, chapter 17. I want to look at the first 10 verses with you this morning. Luke chapter 17 and verses 1 through 10. Then said he and his disciples, it is impossible that that offenses will come. But woe unto him through whom they come. It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he be cast into the sea, then he should offend one of these little ones. Take heed to yourselves. If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him. If he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive him. And the apostle said unto the Lord, increase our faith. The Lord said if he had faith as a grain of mustard seed, he might say under this sycamore tree, be thou plucked up by the root, be thou plumbed up by the root, be thou plant. in the sea and it should obey you. But which of you having a servant plowing or feeding cattle will say unto him by and by when he has come from the field, go and sit down to meet? It will not rather say unto him, make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself. and serve me till I have eaten and drunken, and afterward thou shalt eat and drink. Doth he thank the servant, that servant, because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. So likewise ye, when ye have done all those things which are commanded you, say we are unprofitable servants, we have done that which was our duty. to do. God blessed to us His sacred and holy word this morning. Did you know that the Bible never command you in any place to apologize? That’s right. You never, ever have to apologize to anyone. No matter what the circumstances are, you don’t need to apologize. You see, the word of God command you to do something. different and that is to seek forgiveness instead and there is a huge and a monumental difference between seeking forgiveness and to apologize an apology is really an inadequate substitute for seeking forgiveness it’s like serving orange Kool-Aid instead of fresh orange juice. Saying I’m sorry doesn’t really require the other person to respond. And they may even be thinking, well, I’m glad you’re sorry. I’m glad you feel bad. Asking, will you please forgive me? Demands a reply. It demands a response. You know, in football, when you have punted, the ball changes hands and now the other team has the ball and has to do something with it. Well, when you ask forgiveness, you’ve punted. You’ve put the ball in the other person’s hands. And now they have to respond to that. The burden of responsibility is shifted to the one who did the wrong to the one who was wrong. And so today we have Christ’s teaching here in this text on the subject of seeking forgiveness. Now let me begin by saying this. You have three duties to perform whenever you are wronged. One, you are required to take the initiative. You must approach the offender and rebuke him. according to verse 5, we see here the apostles see unto him increase our faith. And we see actually in Matthew’s Gospel where we know that the offender needs to be rebuked from Matthew 18. We know that you were to go to the one who has wronged you and talk to him. and approach him. Here’s what I’m thinking of in Matthew 1815. If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. The other party may not realize that a breach was created by his or her words or actions. They’re not mind readers. They don’t know. and perhaps these individuals aren’t seeing the problem that you’re seeing. And therefore we have to point out the sin endeavor to bring about a reconciliation with this person. If another sins against you, it seems that God puts the burden of responsibility on your shoulders to rebuke him or her. And that may be hard, but if you would avoid your duty, resentment will build up and create a barrier between the two of you. So you have an obligation here to endeavor to keep the unity among the family of God. And this is how we’re to do this. So Christ says you have to take the initiative. Now there may be petty things where love covers a multitude of sins, and we don’t have to continue to deal with this. But we see the problem. So you were required to rebuke in love. Verse 3, take heed to yourselves. By brother trespass against the rebuke him. If you repent, forgive him. Now, Christ uses a Greek word here with regard to rebuke. There’s several that could be used. This word means to set a weight on to chide. It’s not a railing accusation you bring against this person. It’s more tentative than the other Greek word. used for rebuke. That means to convict or refute to rebuke before all. It’s a really a legal term taken from the courtroom. It means to pursue a case against another so that he is actually convicted and sentenced. Not merely to rebuke, but effectively rebuke, so that he stands guilty. The word used in our text, however, replies that the rebuke may be undeserved. It may be ineffectual. In other words, it’s sort of like the one thief said to the other on the cross, dost thou not fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? It’s sort of one of those situations where you’re saying, how can you act like this? So when you rebuke your brother, you must do so with certain reservations. In Galatians 6.1, it says with the spirit of meekness. There’s some courtesy here. There’s some gentleness in it. 2 Timothy 2.25 in meekness instructing or correcting those who are your opponents. Notice, you may not know for sure that the rebuke is deserved. When you go to rebuke your brother, you raise the issue. You bring out the evidence as you see it. You don’t give the sentence, you don’t read the verdict, you present your case. Even when the case seems to you to be open and shut. It may not be to the other person. So you must rebuke in love. That means you must believe all things and hope all things when you do this as 1 Corinthians 137 tells us. You must be prepared to hear the evidence and be willing to give the other person the benefit of the doubt. In other words, you’re saying, here is the data that I possess. Now let me hear your side of the story. And that’s how we’re approaching if you’re required to rebuke in love. Now you’re also required to forgive if there is repentance. Forgive him, it says, in the latter part of verse 3. Now, your forgiveness is conditioned. upon repentance. You cannot grant forgiveness until the other person says I repent. Please forgive me or something that’s similar. Obviously, the matter isn’t settled when reconciliation is not produced. In that case, you have to pursue the matter further by bringing up the matter again. Perhaps the process in Matthew 18 must be pursued where you get another person and go to this individual and eventually you go to the church. But let me say this. You must grant forgiveness when the other person asks for it. If there’s repentance, then you must forgive. Forgive him, it says. You can’t hold up. you can’t refuse. You can’t say, well, let me ponder over for a few weeks. The immediate response is you forgive him. You must do so as often as he asks for forgiveness as well as the text indicates to us. So you have three duties to perform whenever you’re wrong. Take the initiative, confront the person, rebuke in love, and forgive if the person repents. Secondly, this morning, you have no excuse for failing to forgive. Now you might think, well, when I see that he is sincere, then I’ll forgive them. Look at verse four, and if he trespass against the seven times in a day and seven times in a day, turn again to thee saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive him. You can’t require our fruit is evidence before granting forgiveness. Christ’s words preclude any waiting because they could do it seven times in one day. This is clear evidence that no hypothetical waiting period is allowed. In fact, if your brother does the same thing seven times, the only evidence you would have is negative, and therefore it’s obvious Christ doesn’t base the granting of forgiveness on the behavior of the offender after the request. In other words, he doesn’t have to prove himself worthy of your forgiveness. Christ hangs the granting of forgiveness of your brother on his verbal testimony alone, I repent. Now, you must take him at his word, even if it means that he requests forgiveness seven times in one day. It is the saying, not the subsequent doing on his part, that should motivate you to forgive. And that’s what Jesus is telling us in this text. You can’t, you can judge words, and you can judge words, and you can judge actions, but you can’t judge the heart. You have to accept his repentance as sincere and genuine. Love believeth all things, and love hopeeth all things. So, you can’t use the excuse I want evidence of sincerity. You can’t use the excuse it’s too hard. Look at verses five and six. the Apostle said, under the Lord, increase our faith. The Lord said if he had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you might say under the sycamore tree, this sycamore tree, be thou plucked up by the root, be thou planted in the sea, and it should obey thee. Your objection here, if it’s too hard, is really what the disciples were saying. If you want us to grant forgiveness on those conditions, we have to have greater faith. We must be a much stronger Christian, more mature in the Lord to be able to do that. And at first, the disciples’ response seems to be quite reasonable. I mean, even commendable. But Jesus doesn’t give them a sympathetic response. Did he say yes? you must pray for more faith to be able to forgive another? No, he does not. Jesus took a dim view of their request, according to verse 6. He treated it as an excuse and not a sincere plea. Christ is saying the problem is not a lack of faith. If you had just a little bit of faith, it would do wonders. Even a tiny mount as the size of a small mustard seed can remove mountains of difficulty and have this large tree be cast into the sea. A figurative expression here. So he says here you have to, you need to exercise faith that you already possess and stop making excuses. So you can’t use the excuse it’s too difficult. you might use the excuse. Well, what if I don’t feel like it? And he takes that up in the parable of the obedient servant in verse 7 through 9. But which of you having his servant plowing or feeding cattle will say unto him by and by when he has come from the field, go and sit down to meat? And will not rather say unto him make ready wherewith I may up and gird thyself and serve me till I have eaten and drunken and afterward thou shalt eat and drink. Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. Here is a poor servant. He’s been laboring hard out in the fields all day. under the hot sun. Either he’s planting or he’s harvesting grain or he’s doing something here and he’s working hard. He’s weak, he’s hungry, and he’s exhausted. And yet when he gets home, back to the house, he has to prepare dinner for his master. The master doesn’t say, boy, look like you’re bushed. You’ve had a really hard day. I’ll prepare dinner tonight. No. Now, this person’s feelings, the servant’s feelings, tell him to forget about the hard task of feeding his master. I’m bushed, but he has no choice. He has to get dinner ready for his master as expected of him. So he sets about this difficult task. in the situation. Can you imagine him smelling the aroma of the sizzling tea bone steaks that he’s cooking? And the carrots and the peas are steaming and the mashed potatoes are cooking and he’s cutting up fruit for a fruit salad and getting everything ready for his master to eat. And his stomach is growling. But it doesn’t matter. His master has, has to be fed first. Then he can eat. He would like to eat immediately. But he’s been ordered to prepare and serve his master first the meal. So in spite of the fact that it was a hard, thankless job against his feelings, he did what was commanded in. Now, as he prayed, for doing that? No, it’s expected that he would do so. He waits upon his master serving the meal with his stomach growling, and yet his master wishes maybe even dessert afterwards, and he’s got to make some banana splits or something. He’s not quite done yet. I’m sorry, I want a banana split here. Finally, after clearing the table, the servant gets to eat, and he is. famished by the time he gets to eat. Notice here that forgiveness is a matter of your obedience, not your feelings. Verse 10. So likewise, ye, when ye have done all those things which are commanded you, say, we are unprofitable servants, we have done that which was our duty to do. Christ tells you here that forgiveness is a commandment from him. You might say, I don’t feel like forgiving that person. You have to deny your feelings and not let them interfere with God’s command to you. Nor can you claim that you’re doing what was above and beyond your duty. Something special. Something extraordinary. Something commendable. It’s what it’s expected of you, Christ says. You’re still an unprofitable servant when you do it. Isn’t this all hypocritical, you might say? Was the slave hypocritical when he served and prepared the meal against his feelings? No. It’s not hypocritical to obey a God against your feelings. You may do things every day that rub against your feelings. Like mow the grass, or wash the dishes, or pay the bills, or fix the toilet, or change diapers, or take out the trash. It’s not hypocritical to do that even when you don’t want to do it. It’s necessary to do it. Let me ask you this. Did you feel like getting up out of bed this morning when it’s zero outside? But you did anyhow? Were you a hypocrite to do that? No. you would be a hypocrite only if you pretended you enjoyed getting up or pretended did you enjoyed taking out the trash. You know, I never said I love taking out the trash. My parents would tell me I needed to say I’ll be glad to when they told me to take out the trash. And I used to say, well, I’ll take out the trash, but I won’t be glad to do it. So you must go against your feelings and honestly forgive the person who has offended you. To obey God and please him, your feelings have to take a back seat. So you have no excuse for failing to forgive. Well, the guy lacks sincerity. Well, Jesus says if he asks forgiveness seven times in a day, you have to forgive him. Well, it’s too hard. No, you you’ve got faith enough, exercise it, but I don’t feel like it. Hey, it’s what Christ commands you to do. It doesn’t matter whether you feel like it or not. Thirdly, you’re making a promise when you grant forgiveness. Forgiveness involves an agreement. God’s forgiveness of the sinner. Think about that. God doesn’t simply become emotional over someone who repents. Instead, he goes on record that he has forgiven by making a promise to you. Jeremiah 31, 34, I will forgive your iniquity and I will remember your sin no more. The word remember is not used in the sense of of he actually he forgets, it means he won’t bring it up again. Literally God can’t forget, he’s omniscient. But God promises to the sinner is, I will raise the issue no more. It’s covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. That’s what the scripture says to us. So, here’s what he commands us. Look at Ephesians chapter 4 in verse 32. with me this morning. Ephesians 4 and verse 32. He says here, and be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ’s sake, Gath forgiven you. And so, when you say I forgive you, you’re making a solemn promise to this person. Your forgiveness is a formal declaration to lift the burden of their guilt and the promise to remember their offense against them no more. So three elements are involved. One, I won’t raise these matters with you again. Two, I won’t tell others about them. And three, I won’t dwell them in my mind and, you know, engage in self-pity. When the person who is granted forgiveness is assured of this promise, he may hold you to it. So forgiveness involves an agreement. Keeping this promise leads to forgetting. Now, obviously, you can’t instantly wipe out of your mind the hurt that someone has place there. He can’t erase it from your memory banks. When someone offends you, it’s just like receiving a sharp cut with a knife. It smarts. They’ve cut you and it draws blood. When you forgive a person, you’re putting a band-aid over the hurt, a bandage. You’re attempting to heal the wound. Now, the only way you can actually forget about the cut is for it to heal over, for it to disappear. If your brother or sister keeps pulling off the bandage and scraping the scab, you’re going to have a hard time putting it out of your mind. You may forgive and never bring the matter up again or brood over it. But forgetting will be impossible. The wound won’t heal if it keeps getting reopened. So you must keep putting a forgiveness bandage over it, but the wound is never going to heal and it fade away completely if it is constantly reopened. But forgetting is possible if both you and the one who has fended you mean business, And we’re talking here about forgetting, not just forgiving. You don’t raise the matter again. He or she wants to build a new relationship with you. So if the person truly repents, there will be a change because the Bible speaks of the fruits that are meat or appropriate for repentance in Matthew 3.8. And so there will be a behavior change towards you by this other person. So when a person asked you for forgiveness, you immediately forgive them, you hope for reconciliation. And if there’s true repentance, eventually forgetting will be possible. When there is real harmony, because you both have worked, toward reconciliation, then forgetting will become easy. Let me conclude by saying this. Hopefully, you can see the advantage now of seeking forgiveness over asking, or saying an apology. By asking for forgiveness, you’re admitting that you’ve sinned. You’ve done wrong. It’s not just a mistake. You’re like the prodigal son saying, I’ve sinned against heaven, God, and in thy sight. I’ve sinned against you, too. It recognizes the serious nature of what you’ve done. An apology misses the point. The substitute, I’m sorry, does nothing to restore the relationship. It’s purely one-sided. You’re merely explaining how you feel. Asking forgiveness demands a yes or no response. And you know exactly where you stand. Seeking forgiveness opens the door for a new beginning. You’re not only repenting when you ask for forgiveness, but you’re requesting something. A promise that your sin will not be held against you. And that promise can open a brand new fellowship and cause it to give you. grow. So don’t settle for anything less than God’s method of resolving relationship problems with others. Do you have this mark of the kingdom of God? Did you seek forgiveness instead of apologize? That’s what our text indicates for us today. Let’s close with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, it is with grateful hearts, we thank you for the blessing of your word and the teaching here, which is so relevant to our everyday lives. Help us, Lord, to do what you’ve commanded us and give us your blessing as we try to obey your commands. And we pray, Lord, we could have better relationships with those who have wronged us and that they may be smoothed over and fixed and that we could rejoice with these other individuals that have wronged us and everything could be restored as it should be. What’s in the name of Christ, we ask, pray these things with Thanksgiving. And now let me ask you to stand for the benediction at this time the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the community of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen.