Hello! I am Pastor Jul Medenblink, President of Calvin Theological Seminary in the United States, which has a 150-year history. Our school has produced spiritual leaders for the Korean church and made no small contribution to its growth.
Recently, Pastor Kim Yang-jae delivered the first English sermon by a female pastor from our chapel pulpit. This was truly remarkable. The sermon carried such a powerful message that it reached over 8,000 people online. Serving you with God's Word in this way is an indescribable honor and privilege for us.
Before beginning today's message, I want to share a story first. A woman stood waiting outside a door. Inside the room lay her father, dying of cancer. His name was Ted, and he had been a man of tremendous strength and a rough temperament. This woman desperately wanted her father to say these words to her before he passed away. “My daughter, I'm truly sorry. I treated you badly. Please forgive me.” She longed to reconcile with her father and for mutual forgiveness. But that moment never came. He passed away just like that. I know this story well because I was right there in the next room. The woman standing outside the door was my mother, and the man facing death inside was my grandfather.
Our reality is living amidst such broken relationships. In ministry, I meet countless people. Seeing their tears, despair, anger, and wounds, I deeply realize how desperately we need ‘forgiveness.’ Right now, at this moment, who do you think of? Your parents? Your children? Or perhaps a coworker or someone close?
In today's passage from Matthew 18, Jesus speaks very seriously about this ‘forgiveness’. After Jesus taught about humility and lost souls, Peter came forward and asked. “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Peter probably thought seven times was sufficient. But Jesus' answer was this: “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy times seven.” Then, as Peter was about to leave, Jesus stopped him and explained the immense grace of forgiveness and the danger of stinginess through the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant. A servant had been forgiven an enormous debt of ten thousand talents—a debt impossible to repay in a lifetime. Yet this servant went out and had a fellow servant thrown into prison for owing him a mere hundred denarii. When the master learned of this, he was furious and said to the servant: “You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?” How serious is Jesus about forgiveness?
In the Sermon on the Mount, He taught us to be reconciled with our brother before bringing our gift to the altar. In the Lord's Prayer, He instructed us to pray, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” If the Lord was this earnest about forgiveness, then we who follow Him must also accept and practice forgiveness not just with our minds, but with our hearts.
Through this parable, Jesus speaks to Peter: “Peter, do you realize how much unforgivable sin you committed before God and how you received forgiveness? Having received this grace, shouldn't you also practice it?” Failing to practice forgiveness means living with bitterness or hatred in our hearts, and this does not set us free. How much we forgive is the measure of a mature Christian.
When I started my church, my mother came to see me and asked to go to a restaurant alone together. She said to me: “Son, I made so many mistakes raising you when I was too young. I was too strict instead of encouraging you enough, and I disappointed you greatly. Please forgive me.” I expected her to complain about my father, but seeing her ask me for forgiveness was a profound shock. I forgave my mother, and I too received forgiveness for my mistakes as a son. I don't remember what we ate that day, but I vividly recall that conversation with my mother. When she passed away three years ago, I didn't need to pace outside the door like she used to. Because she had given me the ‘gift of forgiveness.’ This power of forgiveness is exactly what the Apostle Paul spoke of in Colossians. “Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” (Colossians 3:12-13)
We are all Christians who live clothed in forgiveness. This coming week, will you come wearing clothes filled with regret and bitter roots? Or will you come wearing clothes that show your resolve to practice forgiveness, clothed in the forgiveness you received from God?
We humans lived burdened by a debt to God we could never possibly repay. But Jesus Christ paid off every last bit of that sinful debt on the cross. To us who have received this grace, the Lord asks: First, “Have you received this forgiveness of sins that the Lord speaks of?” Second, “If so, are you, who have been forgiven, living a life that practices forgiveness?”
We do not know how Peter resolved the conflict with his friend. But what we know for certain is that Jesus, before His death, first forgave Peter, who had denied Him three times, and met with him again.
The best way to give glory to God is to live a life practicing forgiveness. Forgiveness is the hardest thing to do in this world. Let us confess to God our inadequacy—that we know it only in our minds but fail to live a life of forgiveness in reality.
Friends, I bless you to confess the bitter roots in your hearts to God and live with the freedom He gives.
