The Pharisee and Tax Collector

Slide: Luke 18:9-14

All of this ties into the sermon. If you would turn with me to Luke 18:9-14. The Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector. Let’s read it together then pray.

Slide: Ephesians 2:8

The context: Parables on prayer. Also, it’s the most clear and concise picture in all of Scripture on saving faith. The most clear passage being Ephesians 2:8. For by grace you have been saved through faith and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. That is something we emphasized in witnessing to the lost. It’s a gift, all you have to do is receive it in faith, that’s saving faith.

I also chose this parable to clear up some things. After the prodigal son teachings on faith and repentance, I’ve talked to some of you and had to clear some things up. I wasn’t as clear potentially as I should have been. Also, you’ve all heard my testimony on how I was giving 99% to Christ as an unbeliever and it wasn’t until I gave up the last 1% that I was saved. Well in my head, I knew what I was talking about. But someone brought it to my attention and reminded me that 100% means perfection or completeness. And I thought, oh no. That’s true and I hope no one thought of it that way. But just in case you did:

I’d like to explain that first as it also ties into the parable. What I thought I was giving to God was part of my life, not all of it. That’s not receiving in faith. What I did not want to give up was control of my sin. I wanted to keep sin. It wasn’t until, by God’s grace, I acted in faith by receiving God’s gracious gift of salvation alone, that God saved me. You see before, I was trying to add to Christ’s saving work. It wasn’t until I gave up that idea and believed in Christ saving work alone that I was saved. I hope that makes sense. And so, I won’t be using percentages or anything like that from now on.

I was not trying to say at all that you have to clean up your life before you come to Christ or anything like that. The bible teaches the concept of come as you are. Don’t stay as you are, but come. This is essentially the hardest part of our tasks as ambassadors for Christ.

Slide: Charles Spurgeon said it best in his commentary on Luke:

“To get people to come to Jesus just as they are is not easy. To get them to give up the idea of preparing… …to get them ready to come just as they are—this is the hardest part of our work. Only the grace of God, working mightily through the Word, by the Spirit, will prepare people to come to Christ—prepared by being unprepared so far as any fitness of their own is concerned. The only fit state in which they can come is that of sinking themselves, abandoning all idea of helping Christ, coming in all their natural impotence and guilt and taking Christ to be their all in all.” That’s saving faith.

And here in this parable, we have a wonderful picture of genuine saving faith.

Slide: Vs 9:

This is who Jesus is telling the parable to: the self-righteous. Most definitely the Pharisees, who were the definition of self-righteous. They were the religious elites of their day. Jesus was constantly calling them out on their hypocrisy. How they love to use the law of God for their own purposes and sin. They were viewed as the most righteous by the populace. Jesus even used it in a metaphor to describe the standard of God. Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, you cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Vs. 10: Jesus also uses the typical pharisee in this parable as one of the two men who entered the temple to pray. Alongside him, but at a distance away, was a tax collector. The complete opposite end of the spectrum.

Tax collectors were considered the lowest most vile people in all the land. They were despised by everyone including the Pharisees. Why? Because these individuals were fellow jews who betrayed their countrymen by becoming tax collectors for the Roman empire. The romans allowed them to take however much extra money from the people they wanted as a payment to themselves. The people knew this, and the tax collectors didn’t hold back.

Imagine you go to turn in your taxes, let’s say it’s 20% or something of your income. And the person behind the desk says, actually it’s 80% today. And you knew they were taking 60% for themselves, they knew it, you knew it, they knew you knew it, and you knew they knew it. And there was absolutely nothing you could do about it, if you say one word, the roman guards were right there ready to take you to prison. And if there was anyone that was not religious at all, it was the tax collectors.

The pharisees cut them off from temple worship and considered them worse than the gentiles. This is why Jesus uses these two individuals, because Jesus is talking to individuals (Pharisees), who trusted in themselves that they were righteous. And these individuals thought if anyone was going to heaven, it would be the Pharisees, and if anyone was banned from heaven, it would most definitely be those nasty tax collectors.

Jesus says, they both went up to the temple to pray. But only one of them actually prayed.

Vs. 11

I’m going to read vs 11 again. I wish all of our translations were similar, unfortunately some don’t translate this super accurately. Some translations say the Pharisee stood by himself praying. But in the Greek and in some translations, it’s accurately translated: The Pharisee stood and was praying these things to himself or towards himself.

Slide: Spurgeon said,

“It was the fault of the Pharisee that, though he entered the temple to pray, he did not pray; there is no prayer in all that he said.” Because if we are not praying to God, we are not praying.

The Pharisee’s so-called prayer revolved around himself. How good he was, how he went above and beyond the law of fasting and tithing. The law required fasting once a year during the day of atonement, that’s it. But he boasted in fasting twice a week. The law required tithing your money, nothing else. But he boasted in tithing all things that he acquired.

Slide: Luke 11:42

- But woe to you Pharisees! For you pay tithe of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb and yet disregard justice and the love of God.

- They would literally count tiny seeds they acquired and gave them as a tithe in order to try and gain a better righteousness of their own.

What is the Pharisee’s main fault here? He says (vs 11), I am not like other people. His main fault was comparing himself to other people. He considered himself better than others because he was using other people as his standard for measuring righteousness.

The main sin here is pride. William Barclay a Scottish theologian said “pride is the ground on which all the other sins grow, the parent from which all the other sins come.”

Slide: Proverbs 6:

We see in Scripture in Proverbs 6, the list of 7 things God hates, and topping the list, the first one mentioned is haughty eyes. That’s pride. Pride is what caused Satan to fall. Pride is what caused Adam and Eve to disobey God and eat the fruit. Pride is considered the most insidious sin, because it says I don’t want to subject myself to God, I want to be God. It elevates us above God and gives us a spirit of arrogance and self-sufficiency, which is exactly what we see in this Pharisee. Arrogance (looking at others with contempt) and self-sufficiency (trusting in himself for righteousness).

Pride is the main problem of all unbelievers blinding them from coming to God, because they believe they are acting as their own God. Romans 1: They know God, they know the righteous requirement of God, but they suppress the truth, their mind becomes darkened. The law of God is written on every person’s heart, so every person tries to achieve righteousness but if God is out of the picture or they have a false view of God, they diminish His holiness and justness, then their only option is to compare themselves to others.

Slide: Proverbs 21:2

Every man’s way is right in his own eyes, But Yahweh weighs the hearts.

We can always find another person worse than us, which is why using others as the standard for measuring righteousness is faulty.

But the tax collector got it right. When we have a correct understanding of who God is and we use God alone as the standard for measuring righteousness, there is no other reaction than what the tax collector exemplified. Jesus beautifully portrays this man as contrite, repentant, humble, having the fear of God within him by his behavior and posture he displayed.

- He stood at a distance; he understood the presence of the holy God was in the temple and he dared not get too close, because he felt unworthy to be in his presence.

- He was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, showing great humility.

- He was beating on his chest. When faced with the reality of his own sin, it brought about great distress and guilt toward God.

Paul washer I think is right when he says the first thing we need to bring to an unbeliever’s attention when giving the gospel message is the holiness of God. That’s exactly what Living waters taught us and what we did when witnessing to the lost. We showed them the law, God’s standard is perfection, how we and they have broken God’s law. And then we asked them this question: When you die and are judged by a holy and just God, will you be innocent or guilty? And they admit guilty, they admit they will go to hell based on God’s holiness and then they admit that it worries them. Then we give them the good news.

Slide: Romans 3:20

But that’s what the law does. Romans 3:20: “through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.” We show them that according to God’s law and his standard of righteousness, humanity is hopeless when it comes to salvation.

Now again, it’s the power of the Word of God by the Holy Spirit to prepare people to come to Christ in faith. It’s our job just to plant that seed showing them what the Word of God says and then we pray that God moves them in such a way as to what the tax collector did next. It’s the only option when faced with the reality of humanity’s situation. That we are hopeless apart from God’s grace.

When the tax collector prayed, there was nothing but prayer in all that he said. “God be merciful to me, the sinner!” Only 7 words in English, only 5 in the Greek. But so powerful.

Let’s break this down: He addressed not himself, but God. There was nothing about how good he’s doing, no works involved, he understood he has fallen way short of God’s standard, there’s nothing he can possibly do except cry out to God for His mercy. Then comes the confession of sin. He calls himself “the sinner.” Not a sinner, he’s not grouping himself up with others, yea were all sinners, we’ve all fallen short. Because on judgement day, the scary reality is it’s just going to be you and God. No people beside you so you can look and say, I went to church more than him, or I devotional time was longer than hers.

Slide: Ephesians 2:8-9

That’s why God did it this way, Ephesians 2:8-9, so no one can boast. There’s no boasting.

The sinner. He’s literally saying, “if ever there was a sinner, I am he.” There’s no one to compare myself to except the holy perfect just God and when I compare myself to Him, when it’s just Him and me, woe is me, I am the sinner.

And then comes the punch. The jaw dropping finale. Jesus says this man, the tax collector, the unreligious, unjust swindler and thief will be justified, saved rather than the Pharisee. Why? Because it’s by God’s grace we are saved. God promises to save anyone who forsakes their way of righteousness and puts their full faith in Christ and His righteousness alone.

Another powerful true story is the thief on the cross. We liked to share a hypothetical question with non-Christians and proclaiming Christians on the street, If you get to heaven and are stopped at the gates and someone asks why should I let you in, what would you say? It’s always interesting their responses. But if you asked that to the thief on the cross that accepted Christ, why should I let you in?

- His answer would probably be, the guy on the middle cross invited me. I got nothing, I was a bad person, I believed He was the messiah and put my full trust in Him.

- The person at the gate might ask for a resume, the pharisees would hand in a 5000-page book of everything they did, all their tithes etc.… denied.

- The thief on the cross would hand in a paper with 3 crosses with the middle one circled several times. That’s all I got. Accepted. You can come in.

- Because by placing our faith in Christ alone, He places his perfect righteousness on us and we are seen by God as perfect, which is His standard to enter heaven.

For everyone who exults himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted. It’s just coming to God in full humility. The prideful who never come to Christ will be humbled in hell for eternity. Believers still have the choice to choose pride unfortunately, and boy the godly discipline that comes with it is very humbling.

What is humility? Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s not thinking of yourself. It’s taking yourself out of the equation. The 2 greatest commandments: Love God, Love others. Notice it’s not the 3 greatest commandments including love yourself.

Slide: Mark 8:34

Jesus says in Mark 8:34, if anyone wishes to come after me, he must (think less of himself) deny himself. Take yourself out of the equation. Pride blocks us off from God, but humility let’s God’s glory and power shine forth. I shared with you the story about being frightened to preach the gospel within the pride festival. Why? Because I was thinking of myself. What will they do to me? How will they treat me? What will they say to me? And that’s the wisdom God reminded me of. I had my priorities all out of Wack. It was me, then God, then others.

They trained us on this during the Academy; we cannot let our fear of man override our love for God. And by God’s wisdom and strength, I took myself out of the equation. Only then could I love God and love others, and the love of Christ compelled me. I don’t say that as a boast at all, I hope you take it as encouragement and wisdom to hold onto when you are faced with the decision to witness to the lost. Don’t think of yourself, think of love and humility.

Slide: Proverbs 22:4

says, the reward of humility which is the fear of the Lord, is riches, glory and life. Which references eternal life, riches and glory.

It’s something to look forward to. There is a great reward for humility. So, if there’s one thing to hold onto this week and beyond, is practice humility and think humbly, and if you need help with that, look to this parable and be reminded of who we are, who God is and remember His saving grace and how much mercy he showed to you.  

EXTRA IF NEEDED

I also wanted to clear up a few things as we end here. And they are pertinent to the parable, it’s stuff we’ve already been talking about. Some people may get confused on whether we have to do something in order to be saved, and they think that sounds like a work or a works-based righteousness. The biblical definition of a work is something you do in order to gain a better standing with God or achieve your own righteousness to be saved. And we know that is a false gospel.

We do have to put our faith in Christ, that is something we must do, but it’s not a work. It is what God requires, but it’s only by His grace that he gives you the ability to have faith in Christ. God acts first, It’s the Holy Spirit pushing you to faith, and it’s God who we will boast in, not ourselves. It’s a gift, but we do have to accept it.

2. We talked about repentance along with faith. Again, they go hand in hand. We believe in faith alone. Faith produces a repentance, turning from our way, turning to God’s way, and that repentance continues for the rest of our life. We repent when we are saved, and we continue to repent of things and sins we do until we die.

And finally, there may be some of you in here who are worried and asking yourself, have I ever done this, what did the tax collector did? Have I ever had faith in Christ to the point where I’ve been repentant and felt guilty toward God. Some of you may be trying to look back in time for a salvation moment but can’t pinpoint one. And so, I’m here to tell you that’s okay. Because if we are like the tax collector every day, all the time. This is what must happen to be justified but it continues in sanctification, our life with Christ. Not perfectly, but if you have an active humble and repentant heart towards God, you feel guilt for your sins, we get disciplined for them by God and that drives us to confess them to Him, you have a desire, a love and affection toward God, loving Him more, obeying him more and more each day, not perfectly, but gradually, then that is a sign that you are saved.

Some may have an wonderful exciting salvation experience and they can pinpoint the minute they were saved. Some may have no idea, sometime within this 4 year period maybe. But you know what, both of those people by God’s grace and miraculous power were born again and made children of God. And it will not matter in heaven who was saved when or what happened when we were saved, because we will all be too busy rejoicing in the glory of Jesus Christ.

Let’s pray.