So when you hear the phrase cancel culture, what do you think about? Maybe that phrase is not so familiar to you. It's been overused over the last few years, but cancel culture. What do you think about when you hear that phrase? Do you think of the latest person to be boycotted or shunned or held in disrepute by the social media or the popular media perhaps.

One example recently, the writer J. K. Reilly wrote all the Harry Potter books and members of the team who were part of the movies decided to cancel J. K. Rowling because of her orthodox views on what is a man and what is a woman.

Cancel culture. Julie Lowe in a blog for CCAF, a Christian counselor wrote this. She said, cancel culture, which online acts like a public execution of reputation, has quietly crept into private living rooms, extended family text threads, and holiday gatherings. What began as public outrage over immoral and wrong behavior now flows out of an unwillingness to live with differing views or beliefs. It becomes personal exile when I do not get what I want from a relationship.

We must ask ourselves as Christians, are we buying into that posture? You see, the danger is cancel culture is not always just out there. It can actually creep into the life of the of the local church as well. Those who perhaps don't share our political or social or cultural values, and we have that tendency and that temptation to set them aside, set them over here, cancel them. What a contrast when we come to this passage here.

Rather than canceling someone, we utter these words to the person who has sinned against us but is truly repentant. We use those words. I forgive you. Or perhaps we are the person who uses the words ourselves, please forgive forgive me. Those are two incredibly difficult phrases for us to use, and yet they're so important.

As we see these words here, Jesus is teaching in the context of life together. What does it mean to be a part of the kingdom of God? What does it mean to be a part of a local church? And he makes it very clear here what it means in his famous parable in answer to one of his disciples' questions, Peter's question about forgiveness in God's kingdom. So we're gonna think again about life together, life in the kingdom.

We're gonna look at this passage in two ways. First of all, we're gonna look at kingdom math verses twenty one and twenty two, and then we're gonna look at kingdom mercy. Kingdom math and kingdom mercy. Let's begin there. If your Bibles open, let's look together at verses twenty one and twenty two.

Peter has taken on board Jesus teaching about going to a brother or sister who has sinned against him. And now he has a question that he really needs to have answered by the Lord Jesus. How often does he need to forgive that brother or sister who has sinned against him? Peter comes up with a number, seven. If you're good at math, you're gonna track with me here.

Peter's number, seven, the the Jewish teaching of the day traditionally said three was all that you needed. Just forgive that person three times and then move on. Peter says seven, seems generous. Peter's math, as some of our math is often, is faulty here. It's incorrect.

Look at verse 22. Jesus makes it clear. He says, I do not say to you seven times but 77 times. Or perhaps you have a little footnote in your Bible there which says, 70 times seven, which is, I was gonna ask for a show of hands, but it's four ninety. So we're tracking the math here.

You've got three of the religious traditions. Peter has seven, Jesus has 77 times here for forgiveness. Now, if some of you are remembering the book of Genesis and the story of Lamech, way back in Genesis four verse 24, we have a story of Lamech who wanted to have revenge on anyone who wounded him, and we read there, if Cain's revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech's is 70 sevenfold. So there's a reversal here. We're we're turning away from a a vindictive desire for revenge to get our own back.

And now we have this number here which is really a number that points to unlimited forgiveness. We could get lost in the math here. We could say, well, if that person sins against me this week and they have reached time number 78, I can wash my hands off them. It's great. I don't have to forgive them any longer.

77 times, that's what Jesus said, I've reached 78 times. No, he's not putting a ceiling on forgiveness. Whether that's 77 or four ninety, it doesn't matter. Instead, Jesus teaches us here that our forgiveness of a truly repentant sinner is to be unlimited. We forgive them again even when that friend who sinned against us as they show evidence of true repentance as they forgive us as we forgive them tomorrow.

We forgive them the next day. We forgive them the next day and on and on. Jesus says, this forgiveness is unlimited. So, we don't keep score. If there's genuine evidence of repentance, we forgive.

Now, again, this teaching here is not calling believers, Christians to be to be naive or to take on the role of some kind of doormats. The Christian spouse, the Christian wife who is being abused by that husband doesn't stay. She says, let's not see if I've got to get out of this. That dad or mom whose 13 year old is abusing the use of the internet, you don't have to share the new WiFi password with that 13 year old. There's that recognition that sin has actual consequences even for the one who is repentant.

We don't pretend that we haven't been sinned against. As we forgive that person from our heart, we also confront them with their sin. We take deliberate steps to address their their sinful behavior. Again, we think about someone who is who has lied about us, who has slandered our name. We forgive them, but we also make sure that they take concrete steps to clear our name, to rectify that situation.

That person perhaps in church leadership who has fallen into sin is asked to step aside from that position of leadership for a time. Yet forgiveness, even with this, is such a a powerful tool to a watching world. The church as it demonstrates this forgiveness. Christians as they demonstrate this forgiveness in incredibly challenging situations. Back on Wednesday, October 2 in a Texas courtroom, Dallas courtroom, a young man, an 18 year old man called Brand Jean, was called to make a witness, an impact statement to the court where there was a sentencing of Amber Guy, a ten year prison ten year police officer who was guilty of shooting to death Brandt Jean's brother, Botham.

Geiger was an off duty police officer. She entered the man's apartment. He was working on his laptop, and she assumed him to be an intruder and shot him dead. So his brother, his 18 year old brother's words were gracious. They offered forgiveness.

These are the words he used. If you are truly sorry, I can speak for myself. I forgive. And I know if you go to God and ask him, he will forgive you. He then asked his brother's killer to surrender her life to the Lord Jesus Christ, and he asked if he could give her a hug.

You can watch the video online. It's a powerful testimony to the power of forgiveness from believers. And you say, how is that possible? How is such forgiveness possible for God's people? Well, it's only as daily we grasp the power and strength and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ as we have been shown mercy by him.

We are enabled, empowered supernaturally to show that forgiveness and that mercy. And that brings us here to Peter's question. Question. This is the bridge from Peter's question now to the famous parable of Jesus here. Let's look together from verse 23 down to the end of the chapter.

Let's go from the math of the kingdom to the mercy of the kingdom of God. Look at verse 23. Jesus introduces it there. He says, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. So this parable, very basic facts here, the the king is God our father.

The servants in the story are are you and I, followers of Jesus Christ, and God extends his mercy to all his servants by canceling the debts of their sin. And as he does so, he calls the Christian to also cancel the deaths of others, to extend His mercy to kingdom people. So let's look at the parable here. It's like a three act play. We're gonna look at it in little chunks here.

Let's look begin there verses 24 to 27. Act one, we have mercy supplies. So you can read the story there, the first debtor in the story has a debt load of 10,000 talents. Now, a talent was the largest unit of currency of the day. 10,000 talents here represents a debt that is incalculable.

You just cannot calculate the extent of this debt here. I was thinking about this preparing this message and I thought about what's the federal debts of say our own country Canada. The federal debt today or back in November was $1,280,000,000,000. Mathematicians among you will know that's a 13 figure number, you can see me afterwards if that's wrong, but $1,280,000,000,000 of debt. If you are from The US, you don't feel comfortable there because the debt, The US federal debt, as of November was $38,000,000,000,000.

Now those numbers just they blow my mind away for starters. They're just incalculable. You just cannot get your head around those numbers, and that's the death of this servant in the story here. Verse 25, and since he could not pay, his plight is so obvious here, he could work for the rest of his life. His whole family could be sold into slavery, and it would only make a tiny little dent in this man's debts.

He could never pay. That's why verse 26, his request for an extension is is just so ludicrous here. What does the master do? Well, he doesn't tell the servant to come back in a year's time. He doesn't postpone the death here in any way.

Instead, with one stroke of his pen, he just cancels the death. Look at verse 27. Out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debts. So act one in the story is a reminder to you and I this morning of that vast death of sin that you and I have before a holy god. Do a little bit more math, same world math this morning.

If you're aged 45 here this morning, you're 45 years old, you have been sinning at a rate of five sins per day since the age of five. Now we're being generous here, you were sinning before you were five, but let's start from five, go to 45 and sinning at five times a day, that would give you a debt load of 73,000 sins. Now if you're slightly older than 45 as I am, the math is truly horrendous when you do it. So you get a picture here, here, like the servant in the story, this is a debt, my sin, your sin, this is a debt that we can never hope to pay on our own. Making God's mercy and patience in withholding his righteous judgment upon our sins so incredibly amazing.

Because to appreciate a debt being canceled, we have to understand the extent of the debts. I could say to you or a friend could say to you, I've cancelled all your debts, and you'd say, well, well, what debts? Is it my my cellphone debts? Is it my student loan debt? Is it my car repayment debt?

Is it my mortgage payment debt? Is it my credit card debt? You'd have to know the extent. If it was just your your cell phone, that's one thing, but all those other debts taken together, cancelled, and we would truly appreciate the incredible grace and mercy shown to us. Maybe we ask ourselves a question, well, how can a just God cancel our debt of sin and declare us justified or or right with God?

Well, it's only by his mercy. It's only by God's mercy that mercy revealed ultimately the extent, the width of that mercy revealed as Jesus' arms are stretched out upon that cross. Paul describes this death being canceled through the blood of Jesus Christ in Colossians two verse 14. There we read by canceling the record of death that stood against us with its legal demands, this he, that is Jesus, set aside, nailing it to the cross. What a beautiful picture there.

Your debt, my debt, there on the cross, pinned, nailed to the cross. That debt is canceled, Christian, today. Mercy supplied. Let's look at Acts two here in the story. We're gonna look at mercy denied.

Let's look at verses 28 to 30. The second servant's debt in the story is trivial in comparison to the first. You could say few thousand dollars. It's significant, but it doesn't compare to the first. Rather than giving this fellow servant time to pay the debt, the servant who's just had his incalculable debt canceled proves himself to be unmerciful.

He ignores his fellow servant's plea that he himself had just used. You you can picture him there. He's got his two hands on his neck. He's trying to choke the man, and then he has him thrown into prison until he is able to pay the debts. He's unmoved by his own master's mercy.

Now as you and I consider how vast our death of sin is before a holy god, we have to see that the deaths of our fellow believers are to be seen in a whole new light. I love the words of John Stotts, the writer. He said, once our eyes have been opened to see the enormity of our offense against God, the injuries which others have done to us appear by comparison extremely trifling. If on the other hand, we have an exaggerated view of the offenses of others, it proves we have minimized our own. Think of that one offense that you have exaggerated, that one suit, that one sin that just consumes your your thinking and damages your relationship with that brother or sister in Christ when secretly in your mind you're saying, when can I stop forgiving that person?

When our debt seems like just a tiny pittance compared to their deaths. Here we see the importance of this. The story goes on, the servants, coworkers, well, they're horrified, verse 31. They they run, they're they're whistleblowers, you could say. They run to their boss and they they share in detail just what has happened here.

So we have had mercy supplied. We have had mercy denied. Now Jesus brings the story to a conclusion and we have mercy applied here in this situation. The mercy unmerciful servant is called into the office. The master calls him out.

Verse 32, he says, you wicked servant. His feet is sealed. He's handed over verse 34 to the the jailers. That word literally means torturers. They will turn the screw on that wicked servant.

It's a picture of hell as a place of conscious, eternal punishment for the unrepentant sinner. So Jesus makes the application there. Look at verse 35. God will withhold mercy from the unmerciful. Jesus' words there, so also my heavenly father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your hearts.

So to keep score, to harbor that grudge, maybe it goes back years and years in your life, is to leave ourselves open to God's coming judgment. Verse 35, will do to everyone of you. Now, just in case we're going there, this is not a a case of a work salvation here. If I forgive others, then God will forgive me. No, our willingness to forgive is a consequence of our having been forgiven by God and saved by his grace.

Think of the words of the Lord's prayer in Luke chapter 11 verse four. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. So to be devoid of this mercy, to be devoid of a spirit that is willing to forgive that repentant sinner actually calls into question if we have actually received God's grace and understood his mercy. Sadly, our hearts often reflect our world's cancel culture and our world's refusal to forgive the one who has sinned against him. Go back to that article by Julie Lowe.

She goes on to write, the heart behind council culture whispers, I am right, you are wrong, therefore, I remove you from my life. But the gospel declares, all have sinned and God moved toward us while we were still sinners. Romans five verse eight. Can you imagine if God applied that same logic to his relationship with us? Can you hear the Lord saying, I am right, you are wrong, therefore I remove myself from you?

We would all be in serious trouble. God didn't cancel us. He came close. And so must our relationships be shaped by that same costly love. You see, lack of forgiveness reflects our lack of gratitude for the death of sin that Jesus cancelled for us on the cross.

First Peter one verse three, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to his great mercy. He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. So again, we come back to this word death. Someone has to pay the debt. You're right in the stores in this coming week.

You're parked in the parking lot and you come back to your vehicle and you realize there's a scratch down the side of your vehicle. You look at the wipers and you see a little note placed there and someone has given you contact information so that if you want them to cover the cost of the repair, you can be in touch with that person. It's good news. But you decide, well, I don't wanna bother them. I don't wanna make that call.

It's it's only a small scratch after all. Well, the truth is that someone will have to pay for that repair, and that person will be you. Someone has to cover the debts. Either on the cross, Jesus Christ, in his death, paid the debt of your sin, or one day we pay as we face the Lord in judgments. Jesus bore our debt of sin, and his perfect righteousness is reckoned to our account that we would be spiritual billionaires, you could say.

Again, use an illustration. It's this is a truth for those who are in Christ. It's like a a young girl who is a a law student perhaps in Toronto working through her school. She comes to an end, and she is wooed at the end of law school by this multimillion dollar businessman downtown Toronto. They get married.

What happens to her debt? Her debt is absorbed. It is canceled by her very wealthy new husbands. And she is now rich. She is now a a co heir of this multi million dollar kingdom of which she is part.

This is the good news in this parable here. Those who have been shown mercy have this death cancelled. And those who have been shown mercy will be merciful. The forgiven are those who forgive. Now again, this is not to belittle the sins that have been committed against you, the pain that you you suffered when that brother or sister sinned against you is very real.

It's there with you today. You were cheated on. You were verbally abused, perhaps lied to, stolen from, or perhaps even just abandoned in a time of need. The reality is that pain is real. If that person is truly repentant over a period of time, we see that God gives us that grace so that we too can forgive even that sin.

How do we begin that journey? That person perhaps that you hold a grudge to today, someone you haven't spoken to for years perhaps, someone that you have literally canceled in that circle of relationships and friendships. Maybe it's a birthday text after years of silence. Maybe it's a card at Christmas without expecting one in return. It may be an email just simply saying, I'm thinking of you today.

It may be we begin to pray for that person's well-being. Maybe that we refuse to demonize that person or criticize them with our friend group. Just small, small baby steps on that path to forgiveness. Think of the person today you're most reluctant to forgive and then think of Jesus' words from the cross in in Luke 23 verse 34. Remember those who had Jesus crucified, the Roman soldiers, the Jewish religious leaders.

And what did Jesus say there? Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. He went there to the cross for you to satisfy the justice of a holy God as he paid down that immeasurable debt that you and I deserve to pay. Maybe you're here this morning. You're not yet a believer.

I would invite you to enter into the kingdom and know the the joy of your sins being forgiven. If you haven't yet entered the kingdom of God, I ask you to confess your debt of sin. Ask the Lord Jesus Christ to cleanse you from that debt that just weighs down upon you like a heavy backpack even here this morning. And as you enter into God's kingdom, your response to his mercy is to take those first small steps towards that brother or sister who is repentant and seeks your forgiveness. Are you bearing a grudge?

Are you endlessly replaying in your mind what that person said or did to you? If so, it will consume you. Turn. Turn to Christ for grace and strength. Ask him to empower you to forgive others as you recognize how vast that death of sin is today.

Let's pray together. Our father in heaven, we are so thankful that as believers, for those who are in Christ this morning, we know the joy of the the weight of that debt of sin being removed from our shoulders, that in Christ Jesus, we are forgiven. And Lord, as we look around at our circle of friendships, family relationships, church relationships, Lord, you know those grudges. You know what we have been replaying in our mind even over these past few days. Lord, may we reach out and show mercy as you have shown mercy.

May we reach out and forgive as we have been forgiven much. Lord, for those who are not yet believers, that they might enter into your kingdom today by faith, receiving again that joy of sins washed away, forgiveness through the saving work of Jesus Christ, crucified, risen, and ascended. Hear us, Lord, as we pray in Jesus name. Amen.