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The Spirit of Wind & Fire | Pentecost Sunday (Christ Church)

Christ Church on June 11, 2025
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The King in Galilee (CC Downtown)

Christ Church on May 28, 2025

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The Duty of Forgiveness (Practical Christianity #5) (King’s Cross)

Christ Church on April 4, 2025

INTRODUCTION

The Christian duty of forgiveness is a difficult one, but it is also a very freeing one. This is the center of Christian joy and peace: being forgiven and releasing those who have wronged us.

The Text: “Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven” (Mt. 18:21-35).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

When Peter asked how often Christians must forgive their brothers, Jesus said, seventy times seven (Mt. 18:21-22). Jesus then told a parable to explain why He said that: a story about a servant who owed 10,000 talents to his King, and was granted mercy and the debt was forgiven (Mt. 18:23-27). But when that same servant was owed 100 pence, he refused to have compassion, and had the fellow servant thrown into prison until he paid his debt (Mt. 18:28-30). When the King was told, he confronted the forgiven servant in great wrath and commanded him to be delivered to tormentors until he paid, and Jesus explains that this is what His Father will do with us if we do not forgive our brothers from our hearts (Mt. 18:31-35).

LET’S DO SOME MATH

In the New Testament a denarius (what the KJV translates “pence”) was a silver coin that was considered one day’s wage for an unskilled worker. So if you use our US minimum wage ($7.25 @ 8hr), you’d get an approximate equivalent value of $58 for a denarius. A “talent” was not a coin proper but the total weight of 60 minas and 1 mina was 100 denarii. So one talent (of silver coins) would be about 6,000 coins or approximately $348,000. This means that ten thousand talents would have probably been the equivalent of 3-4 billion dollars in modern currency. The King forgave the servant a vast sum of money, and that servant went out and demanded 100 pence (100 x $58), almost $6,000 in modern currency from his fellow servant, which is nothing close to what he was forgiven, but is still nothing to sneeze at (about 4 months of wages). And if a year’s worth of wages was around 300 denarii or 3 minas, it would have taken 20 years to make one talent, and about 200,000 years to make (pay off) ten thousand talents.

SEVENTY TIMES SEVEN

These numbers are not merely large numbers, they are loaded with symbolic significance going back to creation and the Sabbath. God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh, establishing a six and seven day rhythm to human economics. Six days of labor and one day of rest is the foundation of economic fruitfulness and faithfulness. But the Sabbath laws specifically required that this rest be given to everyone around us: “thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates” (Ex. 20:10).

This principle was extended to every seventh year, where the people were required to give rest to the land (and therefore the workers of the land) and forgive debts and release Hebrew slaves (Dt. 15), and every seven seven-year cycle was an additional sabbath year (the 50 th year) called “Jubilee,” the year of release, when all debts were forgiven and Hebrew slaves released (Lev. 25). When Judah was conquered by Babylon, it says they were carried away into exile “until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfill threescore and ten years” (2 Chron. 36:21). And if you do that math, that would suggest that they had failed to keep 70 sabbath years, or 70 7s, or 490 years’ worth of Sabbath breaking, nearly 500 years.

So “70 times 7” isn’t just a big number, it is the number of Judah’s hard-hearted sin against God. “70 times 7” is the number of Israel’s refusal to forgive, release, and give rest. It’s the number of their exile; and so it is also the number of God’s forgiveness of Israel. Jesus is not just pulling that number out of the air; He’s taking it from Old Testament history. In other words, Israel is the servant in the parable who was forgiven billions of dollars. This was initially the forgiveness/release of the Exodus from Egypt, but then also the forgiveness and return from the Babylonian exile for their refusal to practice Sabbath forgiveness. The logic of the gospel was proclaimed from the Exodus: You were slaves in Egypt, therefore, release your slaves. You were in hard labor in Egypt, therefore give rest to your people. You were redeemed from Egypt, therefore, forgive debts. You have been forgiven; so forgive.

APPLICATIONS

This brings us to the duty of forgiveness. It is what we pray week after week: “forgive us our trespasses (or debts) as we forgive those who trespass against us (our debtors).” And Jesus teaches that this is basic: “And if [thy brother] trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him. And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith” (Lk. 17:3-5).

What is forgiveness? It is a promise not to hold any offense against you for the sake of Christ. Which means that forgiveness is not a feeling, although Jesus says that we must disciple our feelings so that we forgive “from the heart” (Mt. 18:35). But forgiveness is a promise that the sin will not come between you and your brother as far as Christian fellowship is concerned.

Forgiveness is not the same thing as trust. And forgiveness does not require the restoration of privileges (job, office, marriage). Forgiveness means no animosity, no rage, no bitterness, no careful accounting of wrongs.

The differences between the King and the servant are striking: the initial plan of the King is to “sell” the servant and his family, presumably into debt slavery, where he could actually work towards paying the debt (a little mercy!). The servant, on the other hand, ordered the fellow servant thrown into “prison” until he would pay – which would seem to be never. This is bitterness: putting a fellow image bearer into a prison (if only in your heart) in which you say they can pay it off but nothing would ever really be enough because your pain and wrath are too great.

This underlines a crucial aspect of the gospel: if you think about it, we can never pay for any of our sin. Even what we consider “small sin” is against the infinite goodness and majesty of a Holy God and against our fellow servants who bear the image of that Holy God.

This is why Christ suffered torture in our place and for sin. This is why He had to be both God and man. What we (and your dad, mom, sister, son) could never pay, Christ paid in His own body on the tree. When we “forgive” we are not actually taking away anyone’s sins. We are only agreeing with God that Christ has paid all our debts, and so, they are free.

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Quoting Deuteronomy to the Devil (CC Downtown)

Christ Church on January 15, 2025

MATTHEW 4:1-11

Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.

3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

5 Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,

6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;

9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

11 Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

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A Christmas Kingdom (CC Troy)

Christ Church on January 10, 2025

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MATTHEW 2:1-18

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.” When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. And they said unto him, “In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet, ‘And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.’” Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, enquired of them diligently what time the star appeared.   And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, “Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.” When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.   And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way. And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.” When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt: And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt have I called my son.” Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.”

 

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