At the church where I
serve we are in the middle of a sermon series entitled “Invite”. During this
series we are looking at several events from history where Jesus engaged and
invited those who were far from Him to follow Him and live in relationship with
Him.
During this series, we
are going to discover what Jesus said to invite those who were far from Him to
follow Him and live in relationship with Him. During this series, we are going
to discover how Jesus said what He said to invite those who were far from Him
to follow Him and live in relationship with Him. And as we go through this
series, our hope and prayer is that God would move by the power of the Holy
Spirit in our heads, hearts, and hands in a way that equips and empowers us to follow the example of Jesus when it comes to inviting
those who are far from Jesus to follow Jesus and live in relationship with
Jesus.
This week I would like
for us to look at an event from history that is
recorded in a section of an account of Jesus life in the Bible called the
gospel of Luke. And it is in a section of the gospel of Luke that we see
Luke give us a front row seat to a confrontation that reveals a timeless truth
about how Jesus engaged and invited someone who was far from Him to follow Him.
However, before we jump into this event from history, we first need to understand
the context in which this event from history took place.
In Luke 18, we find Jesus
engaged in a conversation with a group of people who were the Pharisees. The
Pharisees, who were the self
righteous religious leaders of the day, asked Jesus a question about when the
Kingdom of God would arrive on the earth. Jesus after answering their question,
proceeded to engage in a conversation with His disciples surrounding what would
happen at the end of God’s story here on earth so that they would not be
deceived by any false teachers and their teaching concerning the end of God’s
story here on earth, when the Messiah would return to earth.
Jesus then told a parable
to His disciples to encourage them to live a life that pursued God in prayer
and that did not become discouraged when they did not receive an immediate
answer to their prayers. Now, as we have talked about in the past, a parable is
an earthly story designed to reveal a deeper spiritual truth. And it is in this
context that Jesus turned to the crowds that were following Him to proclaim
another parable. Now, with that context in mind, let’s jump into this event
from history together, beginning
in Luke 18:9:
And
He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they
were righteous, and viewed others with contempt:
Luke begins to give us a front row seat to this event
from history by explaining who the parable that Jesus was about to communicate
was directed to. You see, this earthly story that was designed to reveal a
deeper spiritual truth that was directed to those in the crowd who trusted in
themselves that they were righteous and viewed others with contempt.
In other words, the target audience for this parable
were those in the crowd that trusted in what they did for God in order to be
right with God. The target audience for this parable were those in the crowd
who compared what they did for God with what others did for God. The target
audience for this parable were those in the crowd that looked down on others
and who viewed others as being of little value and worth because they did not
do for God what they did for God. The
target audience for this parable were those in the crowd who looked down on
others as being of little value and worth because their performance for God did
not measure up to how they performed for God.
Because that is what self-righteous people do.
Self-righteousness, by very definition is to believe that you are right with
God because of what you do, or have done, for God. Self-righteousness.
Self-righteous people believe that they are right with God and are awesome
because of all that they do for God, while believing those who are not right
with God are awful because of what they do not do for God.
You see, self-righteous people often view others that
do not measure up to their standard of performance as being of little value and
worth, while viewing themselves as being of great value and worth.
Self-righteous people often view those who do not do what they do for God as
being of little value and worth, while viewing themselves as being of great
value and worth because of all that they do for God. After revealing the target audience for the
parable, Luke then reveals the parable that Jesus told in verse 10. Let’s look
at it together:
10 "Two men went up into the
temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11
"The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: 'God, I thank You
that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like
this tax collector. 12 'I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all
that I get.'
Jesus began His parable by introducing the two
characters of the parable, a Pharisee and a tax collector. Now in the Jewish
culture of the first century, the Pharisees were viewed by most Jewish people
as the spiritual superstars of the day. The Pharisees held positions of power
and status in Jewish culture and were viewed as being insiders who were close
to God.
By contrast, in the Jewish culture of the first
century, Jews who were tax collectors were hated by their fellow countrymen for two
reasons. First, these tax collectors were hated because they would often charge
higher taxes than necessary in order to make a profit. Since the Roman Empire
did not care what these tax collectors charged as long as they received what
was due them, many tax collectors became wealthy by charging over and above
what the Romans asked.
Second,
Jewish tax collectors were hated and were viewed as traitors because they were
working for the enemy. Jewish people so despised tax collectors that they had a
separate category for them. There were tax collectors and there were sinners.
There were those who sinned and then there were tax collectors. Jewish tax collectors
were viewed as outsiders who were far from God.
Jesus explained that both the Pharisee and the tax
collector went into the Temple to pray. Now to fully understand the picture
that Jesus is painting in this parable, we
first need to understand what prayer is and what prayer looked like in Jesus
day. Now prayer simply put, is a time where people spend
time in communion with God and in communication with God. In
the Jewish culture of Jesus day, people prayed out loud in the temple.
So, for those who wanted to show how
spiritual they were, they would pray in a raised voice so as to attract
attention and impress others. And if that wasn’t enough, they would also repeat
their prayer requests over and over again. However, Jesus
explained that while the Pharisee was having time in communion with God, the
Pharisee was not communicating to God about God.
Instead, did you notice who the Pharisee was having
time in communion with: The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself”.
You see, the Pharisee was not communicating with God. No, the Pharisee was
communicating with Himself so that God could hear the conversation that he was
having with himself. The Pharisee was praying to Himself and letting God know
how thankful he was that he was so much better than those whose performance did
not measure up to the moral standards of the day and were who viewed as being
outsiders when it came to a relationship with God.
The Pharisees prayer to himself, if communicating in
the language we use in our culture today, would have sounded something like
this: God, I thank you for me. I thank you that I am not like these other
people who are all up in here. I am not like that robber over there; I am not
like that guy over there who does not do what is just and right; I am not like
that dude over there who is always sleeping around on his wife. After all God,
just look at me and all that I do for you. I take two times a week to give something up to
create space for You. I always give 10% of the money that I get back to You.
Just admit it God, I am awesome. After all look what I do for You that makes me
so much better than everyone else that is here in church today.”
After
revealing how the Pharisee prayed about himself to God, we see Jesus transition
to reveal the prayer of the tax collector in verse 13. Tomorrow we will look at
that prayer…
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