His master commanded he be sold with his wife and children, all he had, and that payment be made. The servant fell down before him, said: master, have patience. I will pay you all, then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him and forgave the debt. Man, isn't that something else. So you have to understand that there's a whole area where Jesus has been teaching, on offences and issues in relationships. In the context of that, Peter sort of says: well you know, if someone upsets me, hurts me or gets me annoyed, and gets on wick; how many times should I forgive him? Once, twice, maybe seven times, how about that? And Jesus said: no, no, no and then He teaches a parable.
Parable is to open up an insight and understanding related to the issue of being hurt in relationship. This is a kingdom parable, and so you notice here that it's about a kingdom and about a king; so the first thing is, who is the parable addressed to? Well you know, maybe it's just to unsaved people. No it isn't, it's addressed to Peter, and if you read at the end of it, the application Jesus gives: so will My heavenly Father do to you, if each of you from your heart does not forgive everyone, his brother their trespasses. So twice in the parable, it's clear this is something for Christians. I'd encourage you to open your heart to listen, because what I share with you will shift your thinking about how important it is to walk in forgiveness and grace.
I guarantee that people are going to hurt. I guarantee that you will not always respond well, but if you can get an insight from this parable, it will help motivate you to make choices which ensure no matter what anyone does, two things happen: one, you respond in a way that gets you into a new flow of grace and blessing; and two, that you actually ensure you grow from the experience, become a greater person.
So the first thing is, who's it addressed to? It's addressed to Christians, addressed to you. Second thing is, what is the key issue in this parable? The key issue is this: how will you treat people? How will you respond to people who annoy you, tick you off, offend you, do an injustice to you, do something that really hurts and upsets you? How will you respond? That is the key issue. This is about the response, and you can choose to respond with the law. You can choose to respond with grace. That is the choice - law or grace. If you respond with law, you will demand your rights. You will demand justice. This is not fair, you must do something, you owe me. You have to do something to fix this up. That is the law.
Or you can respond with grace. Grace releases something to people they don't deserve. It releases forgiveness. It releases blessing. If you respond with the law, then you and the other person end up into cursing. If you respond with grace, you and the other person end up in blessing. It's always your choice. We're going to just flow through, and I want to show you this, how it works. So first of all what's the nature of the kingdom? You notice it talks about the kingdom of God, and here's the nature of this kingdom that we serve. It says the king, when faced with the man who had debts of millions - there's no way he could repay it. That king is Jesus Christ. That kingdom is the kingdom of God, and the nature of that kingdom is like this: he was moved when compassion, when the man said: I just can't do it. I can't fix this problem up. It's too big.
When you and I come to Jesus Christ, He opens His heart with compassion, and extends grace to you. None of us are saved by doing works. None of us are saved, or come right in relationship with God, by doing anything to help ourselves. We come right by receiving grace, through believing in the goodness of God. That's how you start your walk with God. You believe He is good, you believe He's done the work for you, and by that you open your heart, and you are forgiven. You enter a flow of grace. The Bible says: we're to come to the throne of grace.