It is the first Sunday of the new year. In our culture this is a time of getting psyched up for a new year of doing our best, setting some ambitious goals, trying harder, putting our best foot forward. Maybe you expect a little encouragement from your church; give us some spiritual justification for weight loss or stopping some bad habit, starting some good habits. Well, sometimes the Bible just runs completely against the course of our culture. So here’s the word of God for us as we begin 2010 . . .
“To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: 10 "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: `God, I thank you that I am not like other men-robbers, evildoers, adulterers-or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'
13 "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, `God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'
This next verse is the shocker–the whole point of this parable. Everything makes sense up to this point in the story, and then Jesus adds:
14 "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
Introduction: This doesn’t seem like a good passage to read to get hyped up for the new year. . . unless you think there is more to life than weight loss and getting your garage organized.
One of the things that plagues many of us humans is that we overestimate our own abilities. And we usually underestimate our own weaknesses.
I’ll verbally criticize someone else’s driving, and my wife will kindly remind me that I do the same thing sometimes. It’s amazing that most people believe that they are above average drivers– statistically that isn’t possible and it doesn’t explain all the people we meet on the roads around here.
Most of us men think that we could coach the Seahawks better than the current head coach. Most guys think that we could play quarterback better too.
People on their cell phones driving is so rude, unless I get a call. We live with a double standard. When you apply that spiritually . . . . you have . . .
Moralism: thinking more highly of myself spiritually than I should (based on reality), that by my own actions, my own righteousness, I will save myself. That I am a good enough person by what I do that I am right with God. Therefore, I don’t need Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.
This parable, told just before Jesus went to the cross, addresses the problem of moralism in his day and in ours.
This is the audience for this parable: to those who had confidence in their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else.
Jesus could have said: “to the Pharisees”, but the problem of moralism is broader than that, it isn’t limited to Pharisees. In fact, I think it is epidemic in the spiritual life of Americans today (both people in churches and those who don’t go to church). It is one of the main things that keeps people from a true commitment to Jesus Christ. Overestimating my righteousness, underestimating my sin.
But Jesus uses a Pharisee as an example in his story,
I. The Good Pharisee is Pride Personified
The reason he used a Pharisee in this case isn’t because he wanted to pick on them, but because he wanted to use the perfect example of an outwardly morally upright and good person. If anyone had a right to brag before God for all the good moral deeds he had done, it was a Pharisee.
A. He stood up with pride. Pride stands tall–self confident. He was confident of his own righteousness.
1. You have to remember: Pharisees were lay-people (not preachers or pastors or priests), ordinary men who were dedicated to living out the law of God. Well motivated. They didn’t want the Law to be just intellectual, but practical, lived out. You believe in the Law of God? So what?
2. Consequently, these were people who outwardly were very pious, godly men.
3. This man in the temple was confident in his own morality– he was a law keeper, not a law breaker. Everyone knew that a good Pharisee was the kind of person you could trust, this was a man who prays, who fasts, who gives generously to the work of the Lord. It is not surprising to see a man like this in the temple praying . . . the people who hear Jesus tell this parable are like: of course, I’ve seen a hundred men pray that prayer, “I’ve prayed that prayer a hundred times!”
4. Jesus tells his parables VERY carefully. Every detail matters.
B. Who does the Pharisee compare himself to? God’s perfect standards? His law? No: He compares himself to others. The standard is “everyone else”. Look what everyone else is doing. “Everyone else” is doing is, so what’s wrong with it. It is morality by popular vote.
1. “God, I thank you that I am not like other men-- robbers, evildoers, adulterers-- or even like this tax collector.”
a. That’s a key part of moralism: comparing myself to other people, using them as our standard.
b. We can always find someone to compare ourselves to who is morally worse off than we are. And if we find someone who sins worse than we do, we can be proud! We can pray this prayer of thanksgiving that we aren’t like other people (who are at home in bed right now, not in church listening to the word of God preached).
c. The problem with comparing ourselves to others is that other people are so inconsistent. What was wrong a generation ago is now acceptable.
(1) The other problem with using the sliding scale of popular morality is that . . .
d. We exaggerate our good, overlook our bad. So, compared to other people, WE are saints. Moralism.
e. Moralism is a self-focused, self-centered religion. Listen to what this guy says. Luke 18:11-12 “The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men . . . I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'”
f. He is not praying about the world, for needy people, exalting God, but only himself. Talk about needing an I exam – here’s a guy who needs to look in a spiritual mirror.
2. Moralism is the religion of pride. Pride is thinking of yourself as better than other people- comparing yourself to other people
3. When we use the standards of the world, instead of the standards of the Word, we begin to fill up with spiritual pride.
a. We become the people to whom Jesus told this parable.
b. We think that we are good enough on our own and don’t need God’s grace.
c. So our relationship with God is cut off.
C. Another thing that the Pharisee does: he boasts about his good works. Here is the problem of moralism: we overestimate our own good works. We think more highly of ourselves than we should.
1. he fasted twice a week (more than required)
2. gave a tenth of all he had
3. he was so devoted to pleasing God that he did more than what was required by the law
4. There were two problems with Pharisees: focus of their spirituality and 2) the motive of their actions
a. Focus was outward, keeping rules, not the heart. Matt 23:23-28 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth . . . But you have neglected the more important matters of the law-justice, mercy and faithfulness. . . You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”
5. They are phonies. And (secondly) their motives are all wrong . . . Pharisees did all of these wonderful things in order to justify himself before God.
a. “No one is justified by observing the Law” Galatians teaches us.
b. Not even Pharisees, who tried so hard. Trying to save yourself leads to moralism.
c. It all leads to pride.
D. The Bible doesn’t have much good to say about pride.
Proverbs 16:18-19
“Pride goes before destruction,
a haughty spirit before a fall.
19 Better to be lowly in spirit and among the oppressed
than to share plunder with the proud.”
Pride is thinking highly of oneself–thinking more highly of yourself than you should. It is self-centered, self-promotion.
Proverbs 29:23
“A man's pride brings him low,
but a man of lowly spirit gains honor.”
Pride is lifting yourself up, but makes you low. Whereas humility is the route to true honor, being lifted up.
So the New Testament commands us Christians:
1 Peter 5:5-6 “All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because,
"God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble."
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.” Consider that for a moment. God opposes the proud!
CS Lewis states it so well in his book Mere Christianity:
"As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people, and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you." (Lewis pg 111)
Jesus picked the Pharisee because he was such a good person. He deliberately uses a tax collector for the opposite reason: he is a bad person. His profession is inconsistent with godliness (like a gangster, an assassin, a drug runner): he is a robber, an evildoer, and probably an adulterer, and everyone knew it. Jesus’ disciple Matthew was one and had to leave the profession in order to follow Jesus.
Jesus uses the tax collector in his story because he is . . .
II. Humility Personified.
A. He stood at a distance, ashamed to look up.
1. He doesn’t dare to look at God, enter God’s temple, or even the “righteous” man praying in the temple.
2. While the Pharisee approached God with self-confidence and boasting, the tax collector is afraid to draw near to God. Humility has a healthy fear of God, a reverence and awe of God.
3. If he knew the Psalms at all, he would have most related to Psalm 51:3-5 “For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are proved right when you speak
and justified when you judge.
Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” B. He knows (and everyone else knows) that he is a sinner.
1. “God, have mercy on me, I’m the one Psalm 51is talking about. I am the sinner!”
2. Outwardly, by all of his actions and principles and his life’s history, he was the unacceptable one.
3. He judged himself by God’s standards and found nothing worth mentioning
a. (easier, because even by human standards there isn’t much to mention that is good). I wonder if it is easier to admit to God that you are a sinner when you are a “sinner” by human standards, which are so much lower.
b. He knows he is not worthy of speaking to God and doesn’t expect anything from God.
c. He doesn’t say “I am a victim of a corrupt tax system” , “Lord, I’m doing the best I can with what you’ve given me”, or “I’m no worse than any other tax-collector” or “At least I’m not like that prostitute or murderer”
d. But rather, “I am a sinner.” Utterly honest.
C. He does nothing to justify himself before God. He throws himself at God’s mercy. If anything is going to save him, it’s the grace of God.
1. We could learn from that. Quit making excuses and simply admit our sinfulness, our sin, our brokenness and ask for God’s mercy.
2. Use the words of Psalm 51:9-12
Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.
Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.So you have two men in this little story of Jesus’. It makes sense–the good guy prays in the temple, the bad guy hangs his head low in shame. It’s that last verse that caught everyone off guard: 14 "I tell you that this man, the tax collector, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
III. The Gospel in this Parable
A. The great surprise of grace: sinner goes home a saint. The “saint” goes home a sinner. The Pharisee justified himself. The tax collector was justified by God.
1. The totally humble man is justified before God according to Jesus. Why?
a. because he understood his own sinfulness,
b. AND he didn't try to earn favor with God, but sought God’s forgiving grace and mercy
c. “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
d. Psalm 32:3-5
When I kept silent,
my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
4 For day and night
your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was sapped
as in the heat of summer.
5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you
and did not cover up my iniquity.
I said, "I will confess
my transgressions to the LORD"--
and you forgave
the guilt of my sin.”
2. The Pharisee exalted himself, and the text strongly condemns that self-righteousness, saying that he did not go home justified before God.
a. “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” James 4:6
3. The irony here: the good man is still lost in sin, the bad man has experienced salvation.
4. Moralism is a deadly sin because it keeps us from repentance, it keeps us from seeing our own sin and seeking forgiveness. Moralism (thinking of ourselves too highly) is deadly because it leaves us in our sin.
5. So how do we combat it ???
B. God’s Law, properly used, helps combat moralism. It can give us an accurate view of our own moral worth (unworthiness). The Pharisees abused it - focused on the externals like fasting and tithing, while ignoring commands about love and mercy. But Christians have long understood the value of the Law to teach us of our sin. Which in turn leads us to repentance and to Christ.
a. Spend time reading, studying, applying God’s word.
b. We always have a Bible-based sermon by which we are reminded of God's standards in his word
2. When we humble ourselves, God lifts us up.
C. As we progress in our Christian walk, it is easy to slip back into moralism. Even mature Christians face the temptation of moralism.
1. We get so busy doing good things (out of gratitude for grace)
2. Sometimes we slip into thinking that we are worthy because of what we do (and avoid doing), that God loves us because we teach Sunday School, lead worship, serve meals to homeless, read the Bible, etc)
3. We fall back into a legalism where we deny the power of grace, the power of the cross of Christ to save us and not our own good works.
D. The proper posture toward God is humility. Humble yourself as you begin a new year.
1. Pride insulates us from God. (conductors and insulators and semiconductors- insulators don’t allow electricity to flow through them). Pride stops the flow of God into and through us.
2. You can hook up electricity to an insulator and it has no effect. So people full of pride can be in the presence of God without effect.
3. We need the humility of a tax collector so that God’s grace can freely flow through us!
Conclusion Jesus’ new years challenge is to take an honest assessment of your own life, your spiritual life.
YOU are not better than the Pharisee in this story. MY life is totally undisciplined and godless compared to the Pharisee’s devotion.
WE, like the tax collector, need to fall completely on God’s grace.
Recognize that compared to God’s perfect holiness and his perfect standards we are sinners. Only then, with an honest view of our souls, can we move forward into 2010 in the arms of God’s grace.
Humble yourself before God and HE WILL pick you up.
