Jesus' Parables about money (7)

The Pharisee & the Tax Collector

What do you base your righteousness on? What makes you worthy to enter God’s presence?

This morning, I want to challenge the way we think. Many of us have been Christians for a long time. We’ve read the Bible. We have literally heard thousands of sermons. Our lives can become very mechanical or methodical. We do things a certain way because that’s the way we’ve always done them. That’s the way that we were taught.

Even when we go to a different church that does things a little differently, do we raise our eyebrows, because it’s not the way we do it? Do we question if the Holy Spirit can move? Do we allow the Holy Spirit to move in our lives or do we like to keep control?

As Christians, do we need to guard against rote Christianity? What I mean is,

Do we have to guard against just going through the motions?

Do we need to guard against pride?

Do we need to guard against legalism?

What is our righteousness based on?

Paul said in

1 Corinthians 2:2 NKJV

For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

It’s easy to get hung up on what we do, but let’s determine to not know anything except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Let’s read our Scripture this morning.

Luke 18:9–14 NLT

Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else: “Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not like other people—cheaters, sinners, adulterers. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’ “But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

In today’s story, Jesus talked about two different kinds of people, but more than that, He talked about two different hearts.

Background information

As we read in the Gospels, different names pop up: The Scribes, Teachers of the Law, Pharisees, Sadduccees, Priests, and Levites, and I’m sure that there are many more.

Unless we do a study, we really don’t know what they believed.

The Sanhedrin or Great Sanhedrin had 71 members. It seems that this goes back tothe seventy judges that Moses recruited to help deal with disputes that came up. Moses was the seventy-first.(Chabad.org)

In the Sanhedrin in Jesus’ day, there were Sadduccees and Pharisees. The Sadduccees

were the majority. They did not believe that there would be a resurrection of the dead.

In

Matthew 22:29–32 NIV

Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”

Pharisees

on the other hand, believed in the resurrection from the dead.

Paul, the apostle, was a Pharisee. He was so fervent for his faith that he persecuted the early church.

After he had followed Jesus for many years, he came back to Jerusalem. Accusations were made against him. Paul would have known the system well.

He grew up in it. He sat at the feet of Gamaliel, one who sat on the Sanhedrin.

Here’s a little of the story as Paul was brought before this council.

Acts 23:1–10 NLT

Gazing intently at the high council, Paul began: “Brothers, I have always lived before God with a clear conscience!” Instantly Ananias the high priest commanded those close to Paul to slap him on the mouth. But Paul said to him, “God will slap you, you corrupt hypocrite! What kind of judge are you to break the law yourself by ordering me struck like that?” Those standing near Paul said to him, “Do you dare to insult God’s high priest?” “I’m sorry, brothers. I didn’t realize he was the high priest,” Paul replied, “for the Scriptures say, ‘You must not speak evil of any of your rulers.’” Paul realized that some members of the high council were Sadducees and some were Pharisees, so he shouted, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, as were my ancestors! And I am on trial because my hope is in the resurrection of the dead!” This divided the council—the Pharisees against the Sadducees— for the Sadducees say there is no resurrection or angels or spirits, but the Pharisees believe in all of these. So there was a great uproar. Some of the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees jumped up and began to argue forcefully. “We see nothing wrong with him,” they shouted. “Perhaps a spirit or an angel spoke to him.” As the conflict grew more violent, the commander was afraid they would tear Paul apart. So he ordered his soldiers to go and rescue him by force and take him back to the fortress.

On The Pharisees Contributed by Tim Smith

Who are the Pharisees?

In 332 BC, Alexander the Great conquered the Middle East, bringing Greek culture and philosophy to Israel. By 200 BC, Greek philosophy and its worldview called Helenism were significantly impacting Jewish young men. More and more of them were abandoning the Hebrew faith and embracing the perceived superiority of Greek thought and ways. This created a crisis in Judaism. Would the "faith" and its covenant responsibilities survive in the generations to come? Thus the Pharisees was born in response to this alarming Hellenistic trend. Its two-fold purpose was to call young Jewish men back to the tenants of the Hebrew faith and to a priest-like life. (SC)

Just like many, they started out with good intentions. They were apologists, protectors of the faith. They were called to bring people back to the faith they left, but over time, they lost their purpose, and started looking down on others who didn’t match up to their flawless standards of righteousness. If you didn’t agree with their interpretation of Scripture, you were an outsider, period.

In our story today, we have two people that went to the temple: A Pharisee and a Tax Collector.

We’re talking about opposites. One followed the Law, and the other was collecting taxes for the enemy. He was doing more than that, he was cheating his own people out of their money too.