Sermon Tone Analysis

Welcome to you all, thank you Kings Grace for allowing me to preach again this Sunday.

My name is Joe Carey, I’m an Elder of Grace New Plymouth and studying towards being a full-time pastor.

Today is part 2 of a two-part series of living for God’s Kingdom.

Last week we looked to the parable of the Good Samaritan to see how Jesus’ death on the cross is why we should imitate the example of the good samaritan.

This week I bring us Luke 18, the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.

To continue to understand what living for God’s kingdom should look like in our lives.

So with that, I ask you…

Have you ever been so confident in something, only to find out that you were wrong?

My wife, Ness, and I were driving from the Coromandel back to New Plymouth.

I was so confident in my sense of direction, I made the call to go on some back roads.

I was telling Ness how North is that way, West is this way.

We were bypassing Hamilton.

And I was avoiding all the towns around, This was going to save time.

Then the confronting truth hit me, as we slowed down into Cambridge traffic like it must have been lunch hour or something.

Crying kids in the back, Ness clearly unimpressed with my confidence and sense of direction and me having to humbly say, ok babe you can use google now.

I was confident in myself, and boy I was wrong.

In the bible, there is a group of religious people who were very confident in the way they lived their lives.

We are told that Jesus is speaking to this crowd of people.

Jesus explains how to correctly be justified before God thus, how we ought to live for his kingdom.

Let's begin by understanding the context.

“To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable:”

So Jesus is speaking to some who have confidence in their own righteousness.

That is, they think they are doing what is needed to be right with God, they think they are living life right.

Last week in Chapter 10 we learn that we must Love God and Love others in order to live the right life.

This group of people, however, didn’t love others so much for they looked down on everyone else who they judged was living life wrong.

So this was a tense setting.

For Jesus has been traveling a long way on his journey to Jerusalem to die on the cross remember Chapter 9 tells us of Jesus’ mindset that he resolved to hand himself over into the hands of men, so after having had many conversations and teaching in parables, here we find ourselves with a crowd of self-righteous people, there were also the disciples, and others who have followed him thus far.

So let’s see what Jesus has to say, I’ve put this sermon into three key points:

First key point:

Two men went to the temple to pray

“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.”

First observation, these two men both go to the temple.

That’s like saying these two men both went to church.

It is the same concept for understanding this parable.

Of course, the temple does have more depth to discover, however for today, think of these two men as going to church, much the same as we would experience today, just a couple of men at church.

Second observation, these two men pray.

That is they both speak to God in what is called prayer.

Which is very much the same as we would see in the church today.

One man is a Pharisee.

I’ve just mentioned to you the crowd that Jesus is addressing.

So you could imagine the ears of the audience perking up, like okay Jesus what are you going to say about us.

Now in society at the time, the Pharisees were the ones trying to make everyone think they were living life right.

By society's standards, they were on the top of the list of impressive people.

The other man was a tax collector.

Tax collectors were pretty much the opposite of Pharisees in society’s standard.

They were near the bottom of the list of impressive people.

Now I’m not being rude here, it’s important to know how low down the ranks of society Tax collectors were in order to understand the depth of this parable.

See tax collectors worked for the Romans who were the oppressors of Jews at the time.

They also were known for adding extra tax for their own profit.

Nobody would consider a tax collector to be living life right.

So Jesus is contrasting two different ends of society's expectations for who is justified in God’s sight.

Let’s see what happens.

The Pharisee, who stands by himself at a designated place of prayer in front of the temple entrance, prays these words: “God, I thank you that I am not like other people - robbers, evildoers, adulterers- or even like this tax collector.”

Let’s just pause right here.

This Pharisee certainly gives a list of people groups that are not admired in society.

Throughout the world, you wouldn’t find a society that upholds robbers, evildoers, adulterers as titles to aspire towards.

So it makes sense in a way that someone who isn't’ those things would want to say, yea God, aren’t I doing well that I’m not like them.

The Pharisee goes on to pray: “I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.”

This guy is a step above his other Pharisee mates, Jewish law stated that only certain items were to be donated; this man donates more than he is required to.

Even in his fasting, which means to go without food for a time of prayer.

This man is doing above and beyond the requirements of Jewish law.

Basically, he’s a hard out religious man that would impress even the Pharisees

But do you see what this prayer is, pointing out other people who are bad?

Pointing out all the good he does.

This is self-righteousness.

It's a pretty common attitude.

I wonder if you have heard people speak like this? Do you ever find yourself speaking self-righteously?

Particularly when there are major issues going on in the world?

As you consider that, know that there is good news at the end of this parable.

Because at this point Jesus brings in the contrast.

He first describes the Tax Collector's actions:

“But the tax collector stood at a distance.

He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast”

Three actions are stated here.

First, Standing at a distance.

That is a distance away from the entrance of the temple.

Consider the Pharisee to be standing roughly where I am, if the door to the temple is the back wall behind me.

Our tax collector is standing way out on the other side of the road in the big car park lot out front.

He is keeping his distance.

Secondly, he doesn’t look up to heaven.

The common Hebrew prayer stance is to look up, to speak to God above.

This man does not do that.

He is at a distance and he does not lookup.

Thirdly, he beats his breast.

Now universally, a man doing this is generally expected to be someone who is deeply reflecting, I mean physically they look troubled.

They certainly do not look proud.

This tax collector is not raising himself up but standing in a humble position.

So Jesus has described a man who by his actions is humble with his approach to praying at the temple.

In contrast with the proud Pharisee, who is standing looking up and around at others.

So after giving a physical description, Jesus then tells us the tax collector's prayer:

‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

The tax collector in his simple and short prayer, says more than the Pharisee did.

The tax collector is saying a lot about who he is speaking to.

God, Have mercy on me.

This man recognizes the authority of the one to whom he is talking to.

There is no need to ask someone for mercy if that person has no ability to grant it.

For example, one might ask for mercy from a judge or a police officer, or even a debt collector.

That’s because these are groups of people who have the power to be merciful if you are subject to them.

This tax collector is speaking to God.

So what is he saying about God?