Sight Lines w1: Look In

Introduction

Whats up friends! Welcome back to NXT High School. My name is Matt Velasco, if we have not met I want you to know that I am so glad that you are here and would love to meet you before you leave tonight! You’ll hear and see that we say something around these parts, we say that Wednesday night, tonight, is the best night of the week. And we firmly believe it. Not just because you get to hangout with friends and have free dinner and a ton of fun, but also because God has a funny way of showing up in special ways on Wednesday nights here at NXT.

So, if you’re new, thanks for being here! We hope you love it and I want to personally invite you to come back next week.

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April is one of my least favorite months of the year. You might be thinking, “But Matt, it means the end of winter and the almost-start of summer!” which, sure, I guess is true. April has one thing going for it: Its the false spring month. We have a few 60 degree days and we get hopeful as good Minnesotans do but then days like yesterday slap us across the face with freezing rain. But I do hear your point: Summer is on the horizon!

But do you know what April also means? All of your leaders are thinking it… taxes.

I am not going to make any political statements here. But lets just say I find it ridiculous that the IRS knows exactly how much we owe them and yet they make us figure it out through a variety of pieces of paperwork. Its the most complicated thing in the world. I. Hate. Taxes. And, April is tax month. Gotta get them done! Its the worst.

Throughout all of civilized human history taxes have existed. And for most of ancient history the people who have collected the taxes have been hated. Say for instance, the tax collectors of Jesus’ day.

Tax collectors were the scum of Jewish society, third-level lackeys fo the Roman tax system. Rome imposed taxes on all of its conquered peoples, Israel included, but the collection of those taxes was delegated to private Roman contractors known as tax farmers who then employed Jewish underlings to do the dirty work of collecting the taxes- these were the tax collectors. Now you might think that for doing such a dirty job they must have been paid well. But the thing is, they weren’t paid to do it. They were just allowed to keep whatever they were able to steal or extort from their Jewish brothers and sisters. If the person owed the equivalent of $100 the collector would say they owed $200 and keep the extra $100. No questions asked. They were thief's.

Such tax collectors were considered monsters, and in fact some were. They were religious and political traitors to Jewish society. They were disallowed from public offices and were barred from giving testimony in court for being such vicious liars. They were outcasts, untouchables. In today’s culture the closes social equivalent would be drug dealers and pimps, those who prey on society, who make money off others’ bodies and make a living off stealing from others.

On the other hand, the Pharisees of Jesus’ day were the most highly esteemed group in Jewish society. No Pharisee would ever sell out his people for gain. Like everyone else, they too were victims of the tax collectors. You could count on a Pharisee to love the Bible and God’s law and attempt to uphold it. They were religiously, culturally, and ethically trusted.

If we put on the eyes of first-century Jewish people then we would see that the tax collector is the bad guy, and the pharisee is the good guy.

Big Idea

Thats what makes what we’re about to read so shocking. We’re going to read a parable, which is a story about the dangers of a specific sin in order to set people free. The parable we’re going to read is about righteousness vs. self-righteousness.

Self-righteousness and righteousness can be understood this way: Righteousness is when you place your awe in God, and self-righteousness is when you place your awe in yourself.

Text Address

So if you have your bibles open up to Luke 18:9-14 with me

Luke 18:9–14 ESV

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Lets pray

Content

Set Up

At this point in scripture Jesus is with the elite of Jewish society. The pharisees. These are the people that everyone else would compare themselves to. Parents would want their children to be righteous like the pharisees. When they would walk through the city people would mimic how they walked and how they talked because of their closeness to God’s law. They were the ones people wanted to be like! And yet, the words we just read are what Jesus says to them. Lets read them again,

Luke 18:9–14 ESV

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Jesus is brutally confronting the realties of self-righteousness in the lives of the pharisees, and for many of us He is brutally confronting us with the realities of our self-righteousness.

So tonight we’re going to talk about the signs that you are self-righteous like the pharisees.

These signs are,

You think you’re saved by what you don’t do.

Non-Christians are afraid to talk to you.

You aren’t honest with yourself about your sin.

You think you’re saved by what you don’t do.

You know you’re self-righteous when you sound like the pharisee who says, “God I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.”

or maybe it sounds like this for you, “God I thank you that I am not like other students, the ones who lie, the ones who party on the weekends, the ones who have had sex, or even like this trans student”

To be self-righteous often means that maturity in Christ is being so much like God that you don’t need him anymore. As long as you can say you don’t do certain things then you are good to go! You are in awe of yourself and your so-called maturity.

But, true righteousness is quite the opposite. It’s recognizing your own sin and depravity and surrendering to God’s grace.

It sounds like this, “God, I thank you that I don’t struggle like some of my friends do with sex but I know that I still need so much of your grace because though I don’t struggle with sex, I can’t stop judging those around me who sin differently from me.”

I would ask you this question: Is your focus on the sins you don’t commit or the sins you do commit? Because if your focus is on what you don’t do then chances are you are self-righteous like the pharisee.

Non-Christians are afraid to talk to you.

This one might sting a little bit extra. Let me ask you straight up- do you have ANY friends who don’t know Jesus?

I don’t mean a friend who claims they know Jesus but you know by some supernatural power that they don’t actually know Jesus.

I mean do you have any friends who truly don’t know Jesus. Friends who hate the Church? Friends who actively choose not to believe? Friends who are Muslim? Jewish? Hindu?

It is so easy for us to be tribal with our friends. To sit at tables filled with Christians and maybe even cheer on whoever is brave enough to join the table of those who are not. But when was the last time someone joined your table?

Now I obviously don’t know the ins and outs of your friendships in your schools. But I wonder are non-christians afraid to talk to you? Are students a part of the LGBTQIA+ community afraid to talk to you? Are students a part of the young democrats group afraid to talk to you? Are students of other religions afraid to talk to you? Are students from other denominations afraid to talk to you?

Are these students afraid to talk to you because of how you’ve spoken about them or to them in the past?

If the answer is yes, then chances are you are self-righteous like the pharisee who looked down upon all of the “other” people and said, “God, I thank you that I am not like… them”

True righteousness is sitting at the table with people who you might be afraid of. Afraid of their questions. Afraid of their language. Afraid of their language. Afraid of their beliefs.

Jesus didn’t open up his doors to his house for the lost to come to him. Instead they opened up their doors to their house for the savior to come to them. If you wan’t to be righteous then stop expecting them to come to you, and start going to them.

You aren’t honest with yourself about your sin.

There are two postures in the parable that we read, the self-righteous pharisee who never repented of anything- and the righteous tax collector who repented and pleaded for mercy.

Paul says this about the righteousness of a pharisee, Philippians 3:7-11

Philippians 3:7–11 ESV

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Paul in the book of Acts refers to himself as the Pharisee descendent from Pharisees, meaning he was raised to be a Pharisee. This dude was as self-righteous as they came before he met Jesus. He followed the law and thought that meant he was taken care of. He was like the pharisee in this parable and believed that he was all good because he wasn’t like them. Whoever those sinners were.

But after he met Jesus he realizes something about that self-righteousness. He says he counts it all as rubbish, trash, garbage. The self-righteousness of a pharisee belongs in a trash heap because it isn’t righteousness at all. It is contains no awe of God, only awe of self.

When the pharisee in Jesus’ parable approached the Lord in prayer there was no longing for forgiveness on his tongue, instead it was the Pharisee puffing his chest out before the God of all creation- “Hey God… look at me. Aren’t you proud?”

Meanwhile the hated tax collector was beating his chest, pleading before the God of all creation saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”

One was all about themselves, the other was all about God. The Pharisee’s prayer and understanding of his sin was self-righteous and the tax collector’s prayer and understanding of sin was righteous.

Let me ask you a question, which are you? Do you have an understanding of your sin? Has your attention to sin turned more towards the sins of the world than the sins of yourself? Its ironic, the self-righteous pharisee’s prayer was all about other people’s sin. While the righteous person’s prayer was all about their own sin.

If your focus is on others’ sin instead of your own, then chances are you are self-righteous like the pharisee.

Conclusion

Here’s the worst part about self-righteousness. Its a part of all of the lives of those who have placed their faith in Jesus at some point or multiple points of their lives. Let me tell you there was no more self-righteousness in my life than when I first started working at a Church… isn’t that ironic? I believed that because I had dedicated my life to ministry that I was somehow better than my friends who were dedicating their lives to making as much money as they could. But what I noticed was my judgement of them quickly overtook me and suddenly I was standing in awe of myself. I was self-righteous.

The good news my friends is that self-righteousness is just like any other sin. The Lord is faithful and just to forgive us from it. But in order to truly receive that forgiveness we need to truly repent, which involves turning your back towards the self-righteousness in your life. If you’ve been listening tonight and you’re thinking, “you know what… I think Matt was talking about me tonight..” then your first step is to do what the righteous person did in the parable: Pray, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” Then, do the opposite of the three things we talked about tonight!.

Realize your salvation comes from the Lord not from what you don’t do. Ask the Lord to remind you of your salvation and where it comes from. You’ll quickly be reminded of what you don’t deserve in Jesus but have been given anyways because of God’s mercy and grace.

Realize you might be the Christian that everyone is afraid to talk to. Admit that you’ve failed to be like Jesus in this way and invite yourself over to other people’s tables. Not with the intention of lecturing them or hitting them over the head with your Bible… but just with the intention of showing them that you love them (after first choosing to actually love them!).

Realize you haven’t been honest with yourself about your sin. And, because of that, you haven’t asked for forgiveness and repented from your sins in quite some time. Righteous people habitually confess and repent from their sin. Self-righteous people habitually remind themselves of all of the sins they don’t commit. Make it a habit to be like the tax collector and plead with God, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”

Friends, we have a great opportunity to impact a generation that is less Christian than any other generation in human history. I’m going to leave you with a quote by a theologian by the name of Sheldon Vanauken that my pastor growing up used to always share with us on Sundays,

“The best argument for Christianity is Christians: their joy, their certainty, their completeness. But the strongest argument against Christianity is also Christians--when they are sombre and joyless, when they are self-righteous and smug in complacent consecration, when they are narrow and repressive, then Christianity dies a thousand deaths.”

Let’s pray.

Enjoy small groups!