In today’s episode of Real Life Radio, we unveil the often misunderstood parable of the unmerciful servant. Pastor Jack Hibbs guides us through Jesus’ profound lessons on forgiveness, urging believers to embrace a Christ-like approach to handling conflicts with fellow Christians. Through relatable anecdotes and biblical insights, learn how this parable underscores our need to navigate life with forgiveness, compassion, and a heart aligned with God’s teachings.
Now having been forgiven by the king, you should now go forth conducting yourself like the king. Why? Because you’ve experienced the king. This pauper in debt appeared before the king and the king forgave him.
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Wow.
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This is Real Life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I’m David Jay, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God’s Word, the Bible. You ever find yourself longing for a deeper spiritual walk? For many believers, the Holy Spirit is just a mysterious idea we hear about on Sundays but rarely live out on Mondays. What if his presence could transform your daily life, fueling you with hope and power and unstoppable joy? What if his guidance could help you navigate through decisions, strengthen relationships, and bring genuine peace to your soul? This month, Pastor Jack Hibbs is featuring Living Water by Chuck Smith. It’s a down-to-earth look at the Holy Spirit who can revolutionize the way you connect with God. Inside, you’ll uncover practical biblical insights to help you walk and step with the Spirit right where you are. No hype, no cliches, just real answers for everyday challenges.
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This book changed my life. Authored by my pastor, Chuck Smith, the book Living Water, incredible.
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Living Water is available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com slash real radio. That’s jackhibbs.com slash real radio. On today’s edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack now continues his series called The Parables of Jesus and a message titled Parable of the Unmerciful Servant Part 3. Whenever Jesus spoke to the crowds, he often spoke in parables, right? Now, these are relatable stories illustrated to us in full color, but with common themes. You see, we saw in part one what it means to forgive and to be forgiven. In part two, Jesus tells us to be compassionate toward our fellow Christians just as he is compassionate to us. Now, this takes patience and understanding, and we need to try to treat one another with respect. Here now in part three, we are called to be holy just as Jesus is holy. So today in this message, Pastor Jack teaches us that the kind of holiness that Jesus is talking about, it can’t be done by human effort. It’s putting forgiveness, compassion, and patience in the forefront of our lives with Jesus as our strength and our source. Now with his message called Parable of the Unmerciful Servant, Part 3, here’s pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs.
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Father, we ask, Lord, that tonight you would Reach deep into our hearts, Lord God, that you would touch us by the very power of your Holy Spirit. Lord, we come tonight with confidence, honestly, because you’re always in the midst of your people. Your Bible tells us that you inhabit the praises of your people. And Jesus, you said that when the word of God would be opened up, the Holy Spirit would be present to teach us all things. So Lord, no matter what, we are in a win-win situation. The challenge is, Father, we invite you now to take us by the hand, and maybe for some tonight, by the back of the neck if need be, and lead us in the way of obedience regarding this topic. So Father, we ask you now to be very present. In Jesus’ name and all God’s people said, amen. Well, grab your Bibles tonight and turn, if you would, to Matthew chapter 18. And we are in the final part of this parable. Known in the Bible, if you look it up in various studies or perhaps in a study Bible, it’s going to tell you that it is the parable of the unmerciful servant. a man who in a parable, this event did not happen in reality, it is a parable, but Jesus takes a parable and he elevates it with technicolor reality and brings into the minds of the listeners something common in their culture that everybody could grab onto. And this servant says, And what goes on in his life is something that Jesus’ hearers could all get. They got it. They knew exactly what he was talking about. And so it is a parable that we’ve come to and it’s so important to us that here we are tonight in our third part of this parable. Matthew chapter 18. Hold your finger there. Just stay there. We’ll get there in a moment. But you guys should know by now that the introduction of it in Matthew chapter 18 all began in verse 2 where there the Bible says that when Jesus called into the midst of the disciples a little child he set the little child in the midst of them all and in Matthew 18 3 it says Jesus said assuredly I say to you unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. That’s the criteria. You have got to become like a little child, because kids are faith-filled, Therefore, whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one little child like this in my name receives me. This is important because the disciples were arguing with each other about who’s going to be the greatest in heaven. Can you believe that? They’re walking with God in flesh. And probably kind of lagging behind, Jesus is walking ahead. And they start having a dispute among themselves about who’s going to be awesome in heaven. Isn’t that crazy? Well, I think I’m going to be bigger than you are. Oh, you know, and then Peter pipes up and Andrew throws his two bits in. And they’re going at it about who’s going to be the greatest. At one point, we know that James and John, remember their mom, mentions about… Her boys sitting on either side of Jesus when he enters into his glory. That’s a good mom, right? Can my boys be front and center in your parade? Jesus said, you don’t even know what you’re asking about. You don’t have a clue. That is reserved strictly for my father to decide. But it’s going to be a pretty brutal route in life for someone to get to that place. It’s going to be tough. And so Jesus now has this little child in the midst of them. And I love, no doubt, first of all, how children probably gravitated towards Jesus. Have you noticed that? You never read in the Bible kids running away from him. You read about kids being near him. That’s a good thing. Kids know people and dogs. If your dog shies away from somebody, mark that person. Something’s wrong. And your kid. If somebody knocks on your door and your kid screams and your dog runs, call 911. Jesus, children gravitated to him. And so he uses a child in a teaching moment. And that’s very significant because Peter, in his zeal, begins to pipe up and talk about forgiveness. And It’s an amazing moment. So look with me, if you would, chapter 18, beginning at verse 15. Moreover, Jesus answers and says, if your brother sins against you, notice it’s a brother in the faith. This is to believers. Go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear you, take with you one or two more. That by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may be established. Jesus is quoting now the Old Testament. Verse 17, and if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. We know now it means church leadership. You don’t blab it around. You don’t Facebook it. You don’t tweet it. It’s private, but you tell it to the church leadership. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector or a non-believer. Wow, treat a brother who’s sinning in this way, will not repent, treat them like a non-believer. Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. This is the context of church judgment. Again, I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For whoever two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst of them. This is regarding church discipline again. Verse 21, then Peter came to him and said, Lord, how often shall my brothers sin against me, and I forgive them? Isn’t that an honest question? I mean, Jesus, there’s guys that just really, really get up in my grill and upset me, and I need to know how many times do I need to forgive these guys? That is an honest question. You may not ask it, I may not ask it, but Peter asked it, and I’m grateful that he asked that question. He’s had enough. Whoever he’s thinking about, he’s had enough of it. And I’m wondering if he’s thinking about the guys talking about how great they’re going to be. Jesus, they didn’t see it my way. I don’t understand why, but up to seven times, Jesus said to him, I do not say to you up to seven times, don’t forgive him seven times, but up to 70 times seven times. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants, and when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents, an amount, as you guys know now, that he could not pay in lifetimes, like our national debt. But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold and his wife and children and all that he had and that payment be made. The servant therefore fell down before him saying, Master, have patience with me and I will pay you all, which is impossible. But then the master of the servant was moved with compassion. and released him and forgave him the debt. But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him 100 denarii, four bucks. And he laid hands on him and took him by the throat saying, pay me what you owe. And so his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay you all. And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servant saw what he had done, that they were very grieved and came and told their master all that had been done, Verse 32, then his master, after he had called him, said to him, you wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have compassion on your fellow servant just as I had pity on you? And his master was angry and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. So my heavenly father also, listen, heavenly father. this is among brothers, will do to you if each of you from his heart does not forgive his brother his trespasses. Now I want to, in our closing argument tonight regarding this, I want you to make note of this again. This parable has nothing to do about heaven and hell, about salvation or not. It has nothing to do with having salvation or losing salvation. It has nothing to do with it. It has to do with the Context of brothers who share a heavenly father. Are you with me? And they’re sinning against one another, or one is sinning against another. And that’s what it’s about. If you fall asleep in the next two minutes, get this down. This parable is about brothers and sisters, Christians, getting along. Good night and God bless. Amen. That’s what it’s about. And you know what? For three weeks we’ve been going through this because you know what? Christian brothers and sisters don’t always get along. It’s almost as though because Christians have to forgive one another, we’ve been declared by God, we’re under orders to forgive each other, that we almost seem to be a people that take advantage of that. We kind of step on somebody’s neck, so to speak, and then play upon them having to forgive us. And I want you to know, that is wrong. We should treat one another with more respect and with more honor. We are brothers and sisters. We, look at you. Okay, every one of you, are you ready? Every one of you look to the right. Oh, that wouldn’t work, huh, if you looked at the back of somebody’s head. Just turn around right now and look at each other, just for a second. Look, look at the face. Look at the faces around you. Move your neck. Some of you won’t do it. Some of you need therapy, I can tell. You’re just like this, oh! If you just took a look at a Christian, you’re gonna be with them in heaven forever. So man, that’s just crowding my space. Forever in heaven. Think of it. Absolutely amazing. We must get along. And there’s a way to do that. The parable of the unmerciful servant, we’ve learned these things thus far in the study. That we, number one, need to be like Jesus and be forgiving. We are under orders to forgive one another. No, yeah, buts, or you don’t know my pain. No way. There is no excuse. We are under orders by Jesus Christ. And for the last two weeks, we’ve studied why. Because he has forgiven you and I of so much. that our little, listen, he has forgiven us 100 million zillion denarii, as it were, lifetimes of offenses, God forgives us, because look, he forgives not only as we repent, he not only forgives our actions, he forgives our motives, and he forgives our thoughts. You see how in debt we are to God? And then if somebody who has sinned against us and upset us, the Bible, Jesus, communicates that to us in the scale of four bucks worth. His brother that sinned against him, it was like pocket change. And doesn’t that kind of describe the immaturity of the Christian church in our day and age? That somebody hurts their feelings and they build up a massive wall with cannons and bazookas and barricades. Why? Why? They hurt my feelings. Jesus says, are you crazy? Tear that stuff down and get along. Because if both of you would just look at the magnitude of forgiveness I’ve given to you. You would be blown away and then you’d be happy and extend forgiveness to others who don’t even come close to the magnitude of how you’ve sinned against me. He wants us to appreciate that and understand that, which then we learn should cause us to act compassionately. Be like Jesus and be compassionate.
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You’re listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. You know, to hear more episodes and maybe catch up in the series, just go to jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. And for now, let’s get back to our teaching. Once again, here’s Pastor Jack.
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And then last time we ended with this, be like Jesus and be patient. We need to be patient with people. Patient. So why? Again, servant, listen. Jesus says in the parable, there was a king… and he had servants. And one servant owed him so much in debt that the king was justifiable in throwing the guy and his family into prison for life to get out of him the payment due. But when the man begged and cried, the king had compassion and acted with compassion and released the man of his debt. All of that requires patience. God is patient with this. Aren’t you glad? I’m so glad. God is patient with this. And so tonight, here we go. You ready for this? Number four is this. The parable of the unmerciful servant. What do we learn out of it? Verses 32 to 34. We learn this, that we need to be like Jesus and be holy. Will you write that down? Holy? Go ahead and write it down. It’s very important. Most people don’t understand it. We’re gonna look at the word holy. When in verse 32 it says, and his master… After he had called him, said to him, you wicked servant, you evil servant, some of your translations say, I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Here it is, verse 33. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you? This is interesting. Should you not have? Jesus, listen, is calling the man out. He’s saying, you, you. should now know better. You have been brought out of debtor’s prison, so to speak, and you have been put in a different place. I just gave you the definition of holy. Did you get it? You have been brought out of one place of great debt and positioned in a spot where you have been released of your debt. And now having been forgiven by the king, you should now go forth conducting yourself like the king. Why? Because you’ve experienced the king. You know the king. This pauper in debt appeared before the king and the king forgave him. Wow. He’s been separated from the world of debt. Listen, this is important. The word holy, holiness, has been mutilated over the centuries. It’s so misunderstood, and frankly, it’s been given such a bad rap that most people don’t even know what holy or to be holy or what holiness means. For example, there’s certain groups of people who believe that they’re holy by what they wear. They are holy. Watch this. By what they wear or by what they don’t wear. You know what I’m saying? Watch this. For example, if you wear no makeup, right? I’m not wearing makeup, and so I have my hair pulled back in a bun, and I’m wearing black. I’m holy. No, you’re not. You’re not holy. Well, I have a suit, I have a special robe I wear, and I’m holy. No, you’re not. No, you’re not. I have a beanie, I have a ring, I have a thing, I have a sign, I’m holy. No, you’re not. The Bible says in Samuel, 1 Samuel, that God does not look upon the outwardness of a person, but he looks on the inwardness of their heart and of their character. So think about this, well you know what, we have to be careful what we wear. Okay, yeah, we shouldn’t stumble people. But the moment you get into a thing where, watch this, what if, what if we were a church where we were sitting here right now, and this could really happen, so think about your Christianity. I’m holy, everything around me’s got to be holy, And it’s so based upon me and my establishment of my holiness that if anything comes near me, it threatens my holiness and I could become unholy. Did you know that’s exactly how the Pharisees thought? Did you know that the Pharisees would pull their robes up close as they walked by sinners so that their shadow, the sinner’s shadow wouldn’t touch their shadow. I’m not kidding. They would watch out so they wouldn’t be defiled. Jesus said, you are like whitewashed sepulchers. You’re beautiful on the outside, but inside your life is full of dead men’s bones with evil intent and evil desires. So what if we were sitting here at church and we’re worshiping the name of the Lord Jesus. We’ve got his Bible open, and we’re hearing about forgiveness and about the power of God, and a prostitute gets dumped off in the front of the fountain or driveway out here, and she stumbles in half-clothed into the sanctuary looking for a sanctuary looking for help. There will be those who will run to her and there will be those who will run away from her. The ones who will run away from her every time will be the most vocal regarding their holiness and their awesome righteousness. This is a human fact. It’s a religious scourge. But those who know what it’s like to feel outcast, rejected and wounded and be touched by Jesus will run straight to her. Do you hear me? Those who know that they’ve been forgiven, they don’t have to pull in their robes real tight or wear a special ornament or some sort of knot stuff, whatever, because they have to maintain holiness. We do this because we are holy. You’re not holy. The word holy means you have been called out of the world and placed into Christ. Watch this. And the moment that happens, in fact, I’ll prove it to you, watch this. The moment that happens, Jesus turns you around and shoots you right back out into the world you came from. See, why doesn’t, when we get converted and come to Christ, why don’t we just drop dead right on the spot and go home to be with Jesus? Listen, because you being forgiven is so much more powerful. Your changed life is so resilient, it is so strong, it is so amazing that Jesus pulls you out of a condemned and poisonous world, wraps you up in his righteousness, changes your heart and your mind, and then infuses you right back into that world, the naked, flesh-cutting, demon-possessed man of Gadara, remember, came and went after Jesus and fell down crying and the demons were speaking out of him and they said, have you come to torment us before our time? We know who you are, thou son of God. And Jesus says, what’s your name? And they said, Legion, for we are many. Remember that? And Jesus said, get out. And they came out and they wound up possessing 2,000 pigs. And that man sat there, now clothed in his right mind, and everything about what happens at that moment is right on. That man says, Lord, I will follow you anywhere. Do you have any doubt about that guy following Jesus anywhere? Man, I don’t have any doubt.
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pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio with his message called Parable of the Unmerciful Servant, Part 3. We’re glad you stopped by to listen today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s new series called The Parables of Jesus. It’s a great series that highlights the teachings of Jesus while he was here on this earth. And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. You know, as Christians, we have this desire to live out our faith, to become more intentional in ministry, so that others we share with can have the life-changing experience of salvation through Jesus Christ. That’s exactly why the Real Life Network was created. Real Life Network offers faith-based content that will strengthen us and the beliefs we value. As big tech, big government, and big business have increased their efforts to silence the teachings of Jesus, the Real Life Network is available on your favorite device. Anytime, anywhere, it really has something for everyone. The whole family can choose from a wide range of categories like culture, current events, faith and politics, as well as programming for kids. So don’t miss out on the relevant life-changing Christian and conservative programming that will inspire you and strengthen your faith. Find the Real Life Network at reallifenetwork.com and sign up for free. That’s reallifenetwork.com. This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in His Word. We’ll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.
