The Vision of our Church: Pursuing the Humility of the Gospel

September 27, 2009

The Vision of Church in the Boro:

Pursuing the Humility of the Gospel
Luke 18:9-14
Sunday Morning
September 27, 2009
Church in the Boro
Rob Wilkerson

Introduction

The gospel means good news. It is good news because there is bad news.
The bad news is that there is a righteous God whose holy standard for all
humans is perfection. Period. And that's bad for humans because none of
them are perfect. And none of them will ever be perfect. Except for one.
His name is Jesus Christ. He was a human being like all of us at one time.
Now He's a glorified human being in heaven. But He is also God. And that's
good news for humans because Jesus Christ is perfect. The reason that's
good news for humans is because God offers His holy standard of perfection
and righteousness in Jesus Christ to all humans as their substitute. If they
choose Jesus Christ as their substitute righteousness, they have believed the
good news. If they reject Jesus Christ and embrace their own righteousness,
they embrace the bad news...whether they like it or not.

Rejecting your own righteousness and accepting Jesus Christ's is called

humility. And when you're humble, you're made right with God. This is what
it means for a person to be justified by God. You're made right with God
because of Jesus' righteousness.

Rejecting Christ's righteousness in favor of your own is called pride. And

when you're prideful, you're an enemy of God. This is what it means for a
person to be justified by yourself. You're an enemy of God because of your
self-righteousness.

At Church in the Boro our vision is to pursue the humility of the gospel. That
means we run as fast as we can, as often as we can, for as long as we can
after a humility that makes us celebrate the substitute righteousness God
has given to us in Jesus Christ. We've happily made up our minds to pursue
rest in God's justification of us, rather than a never-ending, wearying effort of
trying to justify ourselves.
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I want to paint a picture of this part of our vision at Church in the Boro, using
the parable Jesus told in Luke 18:9-14 about the Tax-Collector and the
Pharisee.

First, let me explain what a parable is. It's a story meant to convey a main
point. In a parable the details are just part of the story, and are not meant to
be a point for point comparison to something else. That's called an allegory.
Parables are not allegories. That's important to remember so that you don't
get caught up in spiritualizing all the details in the story. They're important,
but only for fleshing out the story.

With that said, we start in verse 9 of Luke 18 where Luke tells us that Jesus
told the parable to a specific group of people. The NIV gives this reading,
that Jesus was telling the parable, "to some who were confident of their own
righteousness and looked down on everybody else." The New American
Standard says Jesus was talking, "to certain ones wh trusted themselves that
they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt." So right off the bat
then, this parable is about one thing: a self-righteousness, or self-justification
that is exclusive. It's about self-righteous people who view themselves as
elite and erudite.

Now this brings me to the two goals I want to accomplish this morning. The
first has to do with you personally. I want to challenge you personally to
examine your own heart and life to see whether or not you measure yourself
by what others are doing and what you are not doing. I want to challenge
you to see if you meausre your family by what yours is doing and what other
families are not doing. I want you to check yourself and see if you are
measuring your church by what we're doing and what others are not doing.
This is extremely important because if you continue to measure your own
righteousness by others rather than by God’s, you are in for a heap of
trouble in this life and in the next. But if you measure your self, your family
and your church and everything else that is important to you, by the only
standard in life which is God’s righteousness, then you are in good shape for
the rest of this life and the next.

The second goal I want to accomplish this morning has to do with us

corporately as Church in the Boro. I want to challenge us as a body of
believers with the application of God’s righteousness to us. You see, if we all
establish God’s righteousness in our hearts and minds as the only standard
by which we condemn or affirm others’ actions and words, then we will
experience deeper fellowship between ourselves. There will be an
immensely deep fellowship because we will judge each other by the standard
of righteousness which holds the atonement and forgiveness of God in Jesus
Christ as of primary importance. When we judge each other by each other,
we are killing this church. But when we judge each other by God’s standard
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in Christ Jesus we will constantly breathe new and fresh air into this little
body which will cause it to explode both in depth and in numbers.

I. You Are NOT Pursuing the Humility of the Gospel if

You Exalt in Yourself and Reject Christ's Righteousness
(The Pharisee in verses 9-12).

A. Do you trust in your own righteousness? (Verse 9)

1. The word “trust” here is the perfect tense form of the Greek
word peitho...

...which simply means “to be persuaded of, to seek favor or approval from, to
reassure, to rely on, have confidence in, to be confident or sure.” One
dictionary defines as “to be induced to believe” (Thayer).

Key cross references are found back in Philippians 3:3,4 which we covered
last time. In those two verses this word, peitho, is used twice. First in verse
3, Paul says, “we should put no confidence in the flesh.” This is what the
Judaizers did and what Paul rebuked. This is what the Pharisee in Luke 18 is
doing. We see him putting confidence in who he is and what he has
accomplished.

This same form of the Greek word in Luke 18:9 is also used in Philippians
1:25 where it means to be convinced of something. In Acts 5:39 another
form (the aorist) of this word is used to mean “taking advice from.” In Acts
13:43 another form (the imperfect) is translated as “urge” and again in
27:11 it is translated as “listen.” The present tense form of peitho is
translated in Rom. 2:8 (see also Gal. 5:7) as refusing to obey the truth. This
is especially fitting since Jews are subject.

Now plug these into the statement, “who trusted in themselves that they
were righteous” as Luke writes in 18:9. In short, there were many, the chief
of whom were Pharisees, who were convinced of their own righteousness
before God. They listened to themselves and to their fellow Pharisees, men
of their own “stripe”, who affirmed them. They were fully convinced and
persuaded that they were okay with God. This is what is so sad. It is
impossible to change the mind of someone who only listens to themselves or
to those with whom they agree.

2. Luke goes on to write that they “trusted in themselves that

they were righteous…”

The Greek word for “righteous” is the word dikaios. It means conforming to
the standard, will or character of God; upright, good, just, innocent, faultless,
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guiltless, to be in a right relationship with God. To be approved or

acceptable to God. Being in accordance with what God requires.

Thayer says, “of those who seem to themselves to be righteous, who pride
themselves on their virtues, whether real or imaginary…preeminently, of him
whose way of thinking, feeling, and acting is wholly conformed to the will of
God, and who therefore needs no rectification in heart or life…”

These things are what the Pharisee believed about himself. Let me put it
into perspective for you in terms of the Pharisees of today. This is most
noticeable in people today who call themselves Christians and act and think
as if they do nothing wrong. When trying to confront them about
wrongdoing, they explain it away, rationalize it or excuse it or blameshift.
They show no sign or reflect in no way that they actually think about what
they have done wrong or that they think at all with respect to them doing
wrong. There’s no self-examination, no questioning of self, no apologies,
confessions, asking of forgiveness, etc. When a standard of behavior is held
up to them, they change the standard, twist it to fit their misbehavior, or
virtually ignore it yet all the while still clinging to the thought that they are
Christians.

Now ask yourself, “Am I thoroughly aware of and completely convinced of

my unrighteousness before God? Or do I excuse myself when I do what is
wrong? Do I rationalize it away when I am confronted with something I’ve
done wrong? Do I look down on others because I don’t think they are as
godly as I am? Do I think less of others because they don’t do what I think
they should do? Do I always act in completely conformity to God’s will? Do I
try to pretend like I am always in conformity to God’s will? Do I try to hide
my failures and sins and mistakes from others so they won’t think less of
me? Am I completely honest with God about how sinful I really am? Do I
really view myself as sinful as God does? These are hugely important
questions to ask yourself.

B. Do You Look Down on Others Who are not as Spiritual as

You Think You Are?

Look at verse 9 once more. Notice there that the Pharisee is Jesus’ prime
example of those who not only trust in themselves, in their own
righteousness, but also treat others with contempt. This Greek word is
exoutheneo which means to treat as nothing; to despise and count
something as of no value or worthless; to reject or cast aside.

Is this how you view others, beloved? Is this how you treat your spouse?
Your children? Your neighbors? Your co-workers? Your employees? Do you
compare yourself to others and then think little of them because they do not
believe what you believe, go to church where you do, read the kind of books
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you read, spend their money the way you think a person should, drive the
kind of cars you think they ought, live in the kind of houses you think
Christians ought to live in, discipline their children the same way you do,
etc.?

It is so easy to allow our opinions and estimations of others be lessened and

lowered bit by bit because they don’t “measure” up to the way we do
things? It is easy to look down on others, not thinking of them as spiritual as
ourselves. This is the number one cause of church splits and fights – it is all
about judging one another. We see the Pharisee doing it in Luke 18, we’ve
seen it happen here in recent weeks, and we will continue to see it unless we
kill the Pharisee within us. We must put to death the hypocrisy, childishness,
pettiness, and self-righteousness and look only to Jesus Christ and the
righteousness He offers.

C. Why Jesus Chose a Pharisee for His Story

1. He chose them because of their childishness.

They busied themselves with elaborate discussions, disputations,

argumentation over the most trivial matters. For example, one scholar on
ancient old and new testament times (Alfred Edersheim), records that a
major controversy between the two schools of Pharisaism – the Hillel and
Shammai schools – was whether a blessing should be said over the leaves
and blossoms of a berry or just over the berry itself (Life and Times, Vol. 2, p.
206). They also had a controversy over “what blessing should be used when
a dish consisted of various ingredients, some of the product of the earth,
others, like honey, derived from the animal world.” Further, “the controversy
was long and bitter between the schools of Shammai and Hillel, on such a
point as whether the hands were to be washed before the cup was filled with
wine, or after that, and where the towel was to be deposited” (p. 210).

Going further, the three goals in life that made a Pharisee distinct from all
other Jews were (1) not to make use nor partake of anything that had not
been tithed; (2) to observe the laws of purification; and (3) to abstain from
getting too close to all those who were NOT Pharisees.

On this last point, Emil Schurer, another scholar in the same field notes that
just as an Israelite would avoid as far as possible a heathen or Gentile, so a
Pharisee would avoid as much as possible a non-Pharisee (Jewish
Backgrounds, II, ii.24). That seems to be why Nicodemus came to visit Jesus
at night in John 3. And that’s why the Pharisees hated Jesus so much,
because was found frequenting the homes of sinners, Gentiles, prostitutes,
and publicans (Mark 2:14-17; Matt. 9:9-13; Luke 5:27-32).
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Application: Does this sound like you? Are you one to quarrel with others
over petty things? There is no end to the number of church splits which have
occurred in church history over the most trivial and petty things. There is no
end to the number of relationships that have been severed among Christians
over petty things. Are you one of these Christians who gets caught up in
pettiness and childishness when it comes to your relationship with God and
others?

2. He chose them because of their hypocrisy.

The Pharisees were especially good at stretching requirements very, very far
by elevating all commandments, no matter great or small, to the same level
and they further expected everyone to obey them. In reality, however, what
they were accomplishing was an elaborate construction of hypocrisy, for
their system allowed them to focus everyone’s attention on smaller matters
of God’s law while neglecting the weightier matters.

Remember the man with the withered hand whom Jesus healed on the
Sabbath. That was a perfect example of their hypocrisy. They taught that
everyone should honor the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Then they made
up additional rules and regulations that people ought to follow to make sure
they don’t break the Sabbath command. And in their little contrived system,
healing anyone was forbidden because it meant a breaking of the Sabbath
day. But Jesus goes on to teach that mercy and love and acts of kindness
and assistance on the Sabbath are not at all acts which violate the Sabbath
command. Love is the supreme guide governing all the commands. So to
neglect to love someone just so you can keep your own understanding of one
of God’s commands is hypocrisy. It claims to be godly when in fact it largely
ignores much of what God has said.

This is what made Pharisees hypocrites, then: enforcing the Law of God but
neglecting the parts of it they didn’t like so much. This is why it was to a
Pharisee that Jesus said those famous words, “you must be born again” (John
3:3). Nicodemus, like all the other Pharisees, were so wrapped up in
following the smaller, lighter matters of life that they missed the big picture
called love. That’s why Jesus picked a Pharisee to illustrate His main point in
this parable.

Application: And as far as you are concerned, what does your meter read on
the hypocrisy scale? Do you get on to others when you do the same things
(Rom. 2)? Do you condemn others in your heart for things they do when you
do things that are just as bad, if not far worse? How often do you stop and
consider your own sinfulness before pointing out the sinfulness of others?
Do you take the telephone pole out of your own eye before trying to help
your friend take the speck of sawdust out of his eye (Matt. 7)?
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3. He chose them because of their prayer life.

The prayer life of a Pharisee really is one of the most remarkable things –
remarkably arrogant that is. Listen to a couple of Pharisee prayers I found in
my sermon preparation. They date from around the time of Jesus, and they
show that the prayer we read by the Pharisee in Luke 18 was really nothing
out of the ordinary.

• “I thank thee, Jehovah my God, that thou hast assigned my lot with
those who sit in the house of learning, and not with those who sit at
street corners. For I rise early and they rise early: I rise early to study
the words of the Torah, and they rise early to attend to things of no
importance. I weary myself and they weary themselves: I weary
myself and gain thereby, while they weary themselves without gaining
anything. I run and they run: I run toward the life of the age to come,
while they run toward the pit of destruction” (Hendrickson, Luke, p.
820).

• “I thank Thee, O Lord my God and God of my fathers, that Thou hast
cast my lot among those who frequent the schools and synagogues,
and not among those who attend the theatre and the circus. For, both
I and they work and watch – I to inherit eternal life, they for their
destruction” (Edersheim, Sketches, p. 32).

i. Look at where he stands when praying.

When we compare where Jesus says the Pharisee is standing with where the
tax collector is standing in verse 13, Jesus may be indicating that the
Pharisee is standing as close as possible to actual sanctuary, with its Holy
Place and the Holy of Holies (Hendrickson, Luke, p. 819). If this is so, then
what arrogance he possesses! When Isaiah was in the very presence of God
he feared for his life (Isa. 6). But not this Pharisee. He marches right up to
temple, getting as close to the Holy of Holies that he can get and proceeds to
pray without any inhibitions of his own sinfulness like Isaiah had.

ii. Look at who he addresses while praying.

The text reads that he prayed “by himself.” This is from the Greek pros
eauton which normally means to or about onself. These two Greek words
when used together can never mean “by himself” in the sense of “alone.”
The imperfect tense of the Greek verb for “praying” when used with the
phrase pros eauton gives one of two nuances here, both of which highlight in
different ways the principal point Jesus is making about the arrogance of the
religious leader here.
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First, it could mean that he “prayed to himself,” but not necessarily silently.
Or second, it could mean that he “prayed about himself,” with the
connotation that he prayed out loud, for all to hear. Since his prayer is really
a review of his moral resume, directed both at advertising his own
righteousness and exposing the perversion of the tax collector, whom he
actually mentions in his prayer, the latter option seems preferable. If this is
the case, then the Pharisee’s mention of God is really nothing more than a
formality (from The NET Bible, p. 1861, n. 16).

One pastor went on to point out that, “outwardly he addresses God, for he
says, ‘O God.’ But inwardly and actually the man is talking about himself to
himself…Moreover, having mentioned God once, he never refers to him
again. Throughout his prayer the Pharisee is congratulating himself.”
(Hendrickson, p. 819). His prayer starts out as thankgiving to God, but the
prayer ends up not being about God but about himself.

iii. Look at what he doesn't say in his prayer.

If you’ll notice, there’s no confession of sin anywhere. There is no mention

that he has done anything wrong. There is no asking of forgiveness. There
is no sense of guilt. “Now if he had any sense of the divine presence, would
he not also have had a sense of guilt? See Isa. 6:1-5; Luke 5:8”
(Hendrickson, p. 819). This is the surest sign of a Pharisee in my book.
Anyone who does not acknowledge that they are a sinner or that they sin is
self-deceived, as John taught in 1 John 1.

iv. Look at who he compares himself to.

Moving further, you’ll notice that the Pharisee compares himself not to other
godly Jewish leaders like Samuel or Simeon in Luke 2:25-32. Rather, he
compares himself with those of a bad reputation.

It is easy to think well of yourself because there is always someone who

behaves worse than you do. But is this really the standard of judgment?
The mark of a Christ-righteous person is one who compares himself to God
first and then to other Christians, always thinking of himself as lower than
they, and acting like it also. Pharisee ends up looking over while praying and
probably spotting the publican, which is why he probably ends his prayer
naming tax-collectors and talking about money.

v. Look at what he says in his prayer.

In verse 12 you’ll notice that the Pharisee congratulates himself on his

fastidious and strict ceremonial lifestyle with regard to fasting and giving.
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Now, it seems the two facets of life with which Pharisees held to such
rigorous rituals was eating and tithing. They treated every single meal they
ate as an official ceremonial ritual feast. So it is not surprising to find Jesus
addressing these two issues in His parable.

· His fasting – the normal fast was refraining from food and
drink for 24 hours, from sundown to sundown. It was often
accompanied by refraining from sex and from wearing leather
shoes. (Dictionary of Judaism, Neusner, “fasting” on p. 224). Jews
only required to fast once a year according to Leviticus 16:29. He
fasts twice a week. Probably on a Monday and Thursday, which just
so happened to be the very same days in which most people would
go to the market to shop. Any coincidence there? Absolutely not.
Jesus told us in Matthew 6 that the Pharisees pray and fast for one
purpose: to be seen by other people.

· His giving – Jews required to tithe only certain kinds of

income. He tithed from all of his income, including vegetagles,
fruits, and yes, even herbs and spices. – See Deut. 14:22,23; Luke
11:42. Some went so far as to not even eat with other non-
Pharisees for fear that they might be eating from food that had not
been tithed (Edersheim, Life and Times, 2:291). Hastings
(Dictionary of Christ and Gospels, 2:356), says, “In Luke 18:12
[Jesus] illustrates how compliance with external requirements,
especially when these are exceeded, as in the case of the
Pharisees, and dissociated from the corresponding state of heart,
breeds a culpable and overwhelming self-righteousness.”

Application: What is it in your Christian life that you value so dearly? Is it

how much you give? Is it how you pray? Is it what you pray? Is it the way
you parent your children? Is it the version of the Bible you use? Is it your
schooling preferences? Is it your denomination? Is it your denominational
distinctives? Is it your theological system?

D. A Summary of the Pharisee in this Story

The bottom line here is that the Pharisee’s prayer was all about himself. As I
said before it was nothing but a congratulatory speech on what he loved
most about himself. And while we may not go around talking or praying like
this, we do think like this, don’t we? We do congratulate ourselves on who
we are and what we have accomplished in life. We thank God for the
blessings He has given us and then we thank Him that we are not like “so
and so” who does this and that.

His prayer acknowledged no sinfulness. It shows no understanding

whatsoever of the fact that he even sins at all, much less a proper view of his
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own righteousness. If he did refer to his "sin" it would surely be with the
terms “mistake” or “accident” or the like. But never would he view his sin
with the utmost wretchedness as God views it. And there is the narrow gate
through which the Pharisee is unwilling to enter, and through few human
beings, for that matter, are willing to enter. How many people truly feel the
brunt of guilt as they should for the sins they commit? How many truly
sense the condition of absolute poverty they are in clothed with their own
righteousness?

How do you know if you are acting like this Pharisee? You’ll know it when
you talk or think just like he does in verse 11. You’ll know you’re acting like
a Pharisee or perhaps are a Pharisee when you say or think, “I’m glad I’m not
like other men.” This is the manifestation of contempt for others. When you
say to yourself that you’re glad you’re not like them for whatever reason,
you are acting like a Pharisee.

Perhaps you’ve even said throughout this sermon, I’m glad I’m not like that
Pharisee in Luke 18! If so, then you are that Pharisee! The challenge to you
is simply this: examine your life to see whether or not you have truly met
the Lord Jesus Christ because if you have, you would talk more like the tax-
collector than the Pharisee. Which one are you at this very moment?

Since all of us act like the Pharisee from time to time, perhaps your
resolution this morning is to put him to death within your heart – resolving
only to think of yourselves and others as sinners saved by grace, as saying
“there, but for the grace of God, would I have gone.”

II. You ARE Pursuing the Humility of the Gospel When

You Exalt in the Mercy of God and Humble Yourself (The
Tax-Collector in verses 13-14).

A. Consider Why Jesus Chose a Tax-Collector or Publican for

His Story.

Taxes were immense in the days of the Roman government, not entirely like
today. One estimate I read (Jesus and His World, John J. Russeau and Rami
Arav, p. 278), put the total tax burden on the Jewish people of that day at
49%. Some of these taxes were directly collected by the Roman
government. Others were indirect taxes collected by others not directly
connected to the government. One indirect tax was called the vectigalia,
and it was basically a toll collected on the transportation of goods and
materials. Today it would be tantamount to being stopped at a toll both and
paying not just a toll for your car to pass, but also having to get out, let the
customs officers look through all your stuff, declare a value on that stuff for
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you, and then tax you based on the value they assessed. The stated tax
percentages would be listed in large print on a huge sign beside the customs
toll booth, but in the end, the officer has the sole authority to assess and
declare the value of your stuff.

These publicani got this job for two primary reasons. They were either
wealthy or they had connections. Either way, publicanis would be notified of
a vectigalia that the government needed to collect. An amount would be
posted for each region of the country. That amount represented the dollar
figure the government wanted up front in order to sustain the cash flow of
the government, to pay soldiers and government officials in that region. If
you were a publicani you would then get together with all the other publicani
at a vectigalia auction of sorts, and you would bid on that amount, and the
rights to collect in that region would go the highest bidder. You would then
report to a procurator for the duration of your service.

If you were the winner you would then have to pay up immediately. This
then allows you to take what you paid, divide it up among the number of
people counted at the last census, and charge each traveller in your area at
least the configured minimum amount, plus whatever else you deemed fit for
your time and profit. Then you would receive some sort of certification or
badge to show people you are the publicani for that area. You would
normally sit at a city gate or along some strategic intersection on the road
system and wave people over to the side of the road. You would show them
your ID, show them the stated tax percentages (2-5% in that day), question
them, examine their stuff, assess it, declare a value, and charge them a tax
based on the value you alone assessed...no negotiating. If the traveller was
going on a long journey, they could expect to see your other
publicani colleagues throughout the course of their journey. This is why your
other title would be called a "Tax Farmer," because you were farming
commissions off the taxes.

There were only three exceptions to this taxation: materials being

transported for "the people of Rome," anything carried for religious
purposes, and items taken for personal use on the journey. If you suspected
that the traveller was lying to you about the purpose of the stuff, perhaps
trying to avoid declaring anything that might be taxed, you would have the
power to impound their goods and confiscate their livestock using a public
pasture.

If you were a keen business person you would probably hire several
publicani to work for you, and you'd have your own small business, with you
being the chief tax collector. Zaccheus was just such a person.

Now, this whole system and practice could not avoid dishonesty from its very
inception. The publicani system by its very nature made each publicani an
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institutional thief, where the government basically allowed abuse to breed.

It was all run by a few wealthy men who alone had the real financial backing
to front thousands upon thousands of dollars to the Roman government to
begin with. These oligarchs then had a system of middle managers up under
them who were known as the publicani who would collect for them. That
way the oligarchs could keep their hands clean AND make money at the
same time. And how did they make so much money? By charging insane
interest rates to people on money that was lent out. The whole system
smelled of financial debauchery. The instructions from John the Baptist in
Luke 3:12-13 show all this fraud to be true, as well as the restitution pledge
of Zaccheus in Luke 19:8. Success for a publicani depended entirely on
suspicion, intrusion, harrassment, force, and extortion.

B. Do You Live Like You Have NO Righteousness of Your

Own?

i. The Publican was the Opposite of the Person

Described in Luke 18:9.

It is no wonder then that the Rabbis viewed publicani as no different from

robbers and pimps, murderers and prostitutes. Basically, Jesus picked a
hated person in a hated group of people who paid to be a part of a hated
governmental system. This guy in Jesus' story was a rotten, thieving, dreg of
society...and he knew it.

The publican did not trust in himself. He put no confidence in himself. He

knew there was nothing worthy about his life, nothing worth trying to present
to God.

If there were any thoughts that he was innocent or not guilty…if there were
any thoughts that he was in conformity to God’s will…if there was a thought
that he was right with God, he had completely trashed them.

There is no sign whatsoever of any confidence in himself or anything that he

had done. There is no attention at all put on himself by either Jesus, or Luke
the author, or the publican himself. There is no self-defense, no
defensiveness, no blameshifting, no excuse-making, no rationalization.

This is clear evidence that he had come to completely understand himself

the way God does, and he viewed himself as God did – unrighteous,
unworthy, guilty, vile and helpless. Here is the way Jesus depicted this fact
about him. He contrasted it with the Pharisee’s prayer.

As we work through his prayer, the implications in each point are far-
reaching and will undoubtedly convict you. But as they convict you, I
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guarantee they will also bring such a swell of encouragement to your heart
as none that you have felt in a long time.

ii. A Look at the Humble Prayer Life of the Publican.

a. He stood at a distance (v. 13).

He knew that the activity going on in and around the temple area was a holy
activity. He knew he was not holy and so he stood at a distance. Listen to
one theologian’s description of this.

“He is so deeply under the impression of his utter unworthiness before God
that he remains standing far from the holier parts of the temple and does not
even venture to raise his eyes” (Geldenhuys, p. 451).

But I want you to notice in passing, that the knowledge of his lack of holiness
and the guilt associated with it was not so great that it prevented him from
coming to the temple at all. No, rather he did in fact come to the temple to
pray, as Jesus says in verse 10. He simply stood at a distance from the
temple.

Application: Beloved, there is a powerful implication in this. Your sin, your

lack of holiness, your unrighteousness, your wickedness and sinfulness is
never so great that you cannot at least come to the very edge of God’s
presence.

He would have welcomed the tax collector closer. He is a God of mercy and
grace and forgiveness. After all, the very activity going on the temple was
sacrifices – sacrifices for sin. He could have presented a sacrifice for his
sins. But he did not. I venture to say, then, that he had probably cheated so
many people out of so much money, having sinned so much time and again,
that he was so overcome with a sense of guilt that he knew he’d better not
dare come too close. So there is this balance then between coming to a God
who welcomes us with forgiveness and yet a God who is so holy and
righteous that we dare not come too close.

b. He wouldn't lift his eyes to heaven (v. 13).

Worshipers usually lifted their closed eyes to God. But here was a man who
was so convinced of his unworthiness and unrighteousness that he would not
so much as even lift his face toward heaven.

There is shame implied here. You will no doubt remember events in your
childhood when you committed an act so shameful that when you were
confronted by your parents you simply hung your head while you answered
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them. This Publican was hanging his head in shame over his life. He was
ashamed of his sins and ashamed of himself. The recurring thoughts of
those he had harmed financially and probably in many other ways, all
flooded his mind such that his voice was shaking and his lip quivering
uncontrollably, praying with all his might while trying to hold back to flood of
tears waiting to burst forth.

Application: Have you been gripped by this glimpse yet? Do you feel about
your sin what God feels? Or are you still caught up in comparing what you
do wrong to what others do wrong? Are you still saying to yourself that you
are not as bad as so-and-so sitting two pews in front of you? I’m telling you
that this glimpse has got to grab every person for it is the sure sign that
regeneration has either taken place or that it is about to happen.

Now, if you are beginning to catch this glimpse of yourself, there is no need
to fall to despondency. The Publican did not! He at least came to the temple
to pray, though he stood at a distance from it. And here he at least prays to
God, though he doesn’t lift his eyes to heaven. He was ashamed of his sins
but not ashamed to pray. Why? Because he knew that he would obtain
mercy from God just by asking for it! What prevents us then from doing the
same? Again, there is no sin too great that God cannot forgive. Be shamed
because of your sins, but be not ashamed to ask God for mercy as this
Publican did!

c. He beat his chest begging for mercy (v. 13).

And look at how he asks for it. He is seen here beating his chest while
praying to God. This means he is begging God. Beating the chest in Hebrew
times was a sign of despair. He was self-accusing on the verge of despair.

This isn’t some bowing of the head and saying of a prayer with no emotion,
no affections, no vigor, no sorrow and no despair as we are used to praying
today. This man knew what was in his heart and his condition caused him
great despair. So he did not hold it in, because he had already gone that
route and it only made him more wretched and miserable. No, he opened
the doors of his heart, the heart God already saw as naked and bare,
knowing everything else this man had done wrong which he himself had not
even thought of yet. God knew it all, the Publican knew this, so he opened
his heart to God and let the despair out. And out it came as this man who
was ripped to pieces inside over his wickedness, began beating his chest on
the outside.

This wasn’t some manufactured motion he was making as if that was the
thing to do during those days. Certainly some did it without any real
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meaning within at all. Much like so many raise their hands to God while
singing worship songs. No, this publican simply displayed his despair in a
culturally normal motion, yet with emotion. Again, this is despair here, not
mere sorrow. He is at the end of his rope. He has nowhere else to turn and
wishes to turn nowhere else again.

Application: Have you ever been here before? Have you ever experience
despair before? I know exactly what that feels like, and I’ve seen it
expressed in others. There is nothing like it. There is this feeling of being
trapped, and the knowledge that you are out of answers with no solutions in
your pocket. The walls are closing in and you know you are about to be
crushed. You’ve come up out of the water as many times as you can and
you know that you’re about to go under again, except this time it is your
last. I submit to you that this is what God brings most, if not all, His children
through at some point in their lives to bring them to Him. It may not be a
crisis moment. It doesn’t appear to be such a moment for this Publican. But
in the very least it will be a deep emotional breach and outpouring of the
most intense and painful sorrow you’ve ever felt before. This is God
breaking you. This is God showing you who you are, probably for the first
time.

I want to encourage you not to be afraid of this kind of thing. Many

Christians today have been trained to be emotionless. Yet the very thing
that marks this Publican is emotion. He is not afraid to let his heart break
wide open before God. He is not afraid because he doesn’t care what others
think. And caring what others think is the mark of Pharisaism, isn’t it?

Now, while he beat his chest the text says he was begging for mercy. Let’s
observe what he prayed, and as we do so engage your heart in serious
examination. And let’s start by asking ourselves first…

iii. A Look at the Humble Prayer of the Publican.

a. Do you live according to God's mercy? "Be merciful to

me, a sinner!"

The one thing that the Publican asked for was mercy. This was the only
thing he asked for because he knew it was the only thing he could ask for.
What else will ask for before a judge when you stand condemned, a guilty
man? Will the guilty ask the judge for any favors? Will he ask the judge to
cut him a break or go easy on him? The guilty man is a condemned man and
he has no more rights. He is stripped of them all and placed in confinement.

The Publican knew that. He knew that he was dealing with the God of the
Universe, the Almighty Judge who according to Exodus 34:7 would by no
means clear the guilty. With only the certain expectation of death and
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punishment and destruction looming in his mind, this Publican begged God
for one thing and one thing only – mercy. This is because he would also
have known the verse that came before verse 7 in Exodus 34. There Moses
proclaims, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger,
and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” He would have
remembered David’s cry in Psalm 103:8, “The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”

One scholar commented that, “The prayer is a humble call for forgiveness.
The term for mercy (hilaskomai) is associated with the concept of a request
for atonement (BDAG 473-74 s.v. 1; Ps 51:1, 3; 25:11; 34:6, 18)” (The NET
Bible, p. 1861, n. 26).

Where was this Publican standing? That’s right, at the temple! Remember,
even though he felt his conscience condemned, and even though he was in
despair, he was not so deep in his despair that he did not come to the
temple at all nor pray at all. He did both.

And when he arrived at the Temple, what do you suppose he saw? What
went on at the temple on almost a daily basis? That’s right, sacrifices for
sin! So this tax collector is looking on the site where forgiveness of sin is
reflected everyday in animal sacrifices, and he simply asks God for the real
thing! The publican is asking God to satisfy His own anger against the
publican’s sin. He is begging God, “Please do not be angry with me
anymore! Please stop your wrath! Please do something to hold back the
destruction I so rightfully deserve. I have no right to even ask this, but I feel
compelled to do it anyway!”

Could this be a greater picture of what God requires of you today? The
author of Hebrews writes that we too are to draw near to the presence of
God. “So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will
receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when in need.” Although
we feel our guilt, we must remember with the Publican that our God is the
“Father of all mercies and God of all comfort” as Paul said of Him in 2
Corinthians 1:3. Knowing this about our God, we can, therefore, come
fearfully yet also boldly because we know that this God will give us mercy if
we ask for it. This is His very nature.

Now what exactly is mercy? I define mercy for my kids as “God not giving
you what you deserve.” This is different from grace which I define as
“Getting from God what you don’t deserve.” One theologian defined mercy
as, “God’s goodness toward those in misery and distress” (Grudem,
Systematic Theology, p. 200). The tax collector was in deep mental distress
and despair, as we’ve already seen. His conscience was tormenting him
because of his sin. So he wasn’t even asking for grace here. All he knew he
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would get was all that he dared ask for - just mercy. He knew he deserved
nothing else at all.

So he did what David did in 2 Samuel 24:14. When surrounded by the

consequences of his own sinful actions, he prayed, “I am in great distress; let
us fall into the hand of the Lord for his mercy is great…” That’s just what the
publican did. And when the two blind men heard Jesus was passing by, they
cried out to Him to see their plight and rescue them. They cried out, “Have
mercy on us, Son of David” (Matt. 9:27). The publican did the same thing.
He wanted God to look on his awful plight and simply have mercy by healing
his sin-sick soul.

You deserve hell, but He doesn’t give it to you. You have no rights as a
sinner. You were condemned to die eternally where you would be confined
in hell. But God satisfied His own anger against you. And He did it simply
because you asked for it! What is more glorious than receiving the greatest
gift ever offered to any human being than mercy – a permanent stay of
execution – to a condemned criminal just for the asking!

I think Christians don’t understand that all they should ever expect from God
is mercy. Oh, yes there are glorious rights and privileges that are theirs in
Christ. But mercy is the only conduit through which it all comes. Therefore,
the mercy of God is that attribute that we exalt so highly, so loudly, so
boldly, so confidently. Without it, we would have no other blessings. The
publican realized that, which his why he is begging for it here. He knew that
in getting mercy, he would also receive the restored fellowship and company
of God Himself! So our prayer must be, “Give us mercy, O God, for that is all
we can ask! Give us mercy, O God, that in Your love we may bask!”

In the end, the publican was actually smarter than the Pharisee. The tax
collector was not a teacher of the Scriptures, ye he knew the OT better than
the Pharisee, for he prayed according to it, asking for the only kind of
righteousness that it taught – the kind that came from God’s mercy, from the
steadfast love of the Lord.

The kind of daily mindset that shows you are smarter than others is the kind
of mindset that lives with an acute and constant awareness of your need for
God’s mercy. You are smarter than the smartest preacher, scholar, and
theologian when you live in with a constant sense of need for God's mercy.

b. Do you think about your own sin more than you do other
people's sins? "Be merciful to me, a sinner!"

He thought nothing of the Pharisee, nor of his other tax collector friends
(none of this, “so and so needs to hear this sermon” kind of thing going on
here). He was asking for mercy for one person, and one person only –
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himself. It was not because that’s the only person he cared for or because
he was looking out for number one! No, he asks for himself because that
was in fact the most important thing for him to do. If he himself did not get
God’s mercy, nothing else really mattered.

Application: Concerning your life, you too must stop being concerned with
everybody else, like the Pharisee, and start being concerned with your own
heart, your own life, your own sin, your own relationship with God. Stop
being concerned about what you want to accomplish in life, who you want to
be, where you want to go. None of that matters at all if you end up in hell.
And stop being concerned with whether or not your husband is going to get
saved, or start acting godly, or whether your wife will get right with God and
start being a godly woman. None of that even matters if you yourself are not
right with God.

This tax collector thought only of himself, his condition, his sinfulness, his
unrighteousness, his plight, his need of mercy. Is that the way you think?
But you say to me, “But I’m a Christian, I am right with God, and so I can
think about others’ problems now?” Is that right? Did you forget you were
still a fallen creature? Did you forget that your holiness is more important to
God than your concern about the holiness of others? True, we must help
others be more godly, but how can we help them if we ourselves are not
godly. How can the blind lead the blind and both of them not get run over by
a car!

c. Do you think of yourself before Christ as the worst sinner

on earth? "Be merciful to me, [the] sinner!"

Now I must pause here and echo a comment made by the Baptist Greek
scholar, A.T. Robertson. The Greek contains an article before the word
“sinner.” In the Greek, the presence of an article means that the object is
being specified. The absence of an article means that an object is
generalized.

Here, our English translations should read “the sinner” and not “a sinner” as
do most translations. This is why Robertson comments, “It is curious how
modern scholars ignore this Greek article. The main point in the contrast lies
in this article. The Pharisee thought of others as sinners. The publican
thinks of himself alone as the sinner, not of others at all.”

The presence of the article belies how he truly felt about himself. As one
scholar said, the “tax collector views himself not just as any sinner but as the
worst of all sinners” (The NET Bible, p. 1861, n. 27). This is the climax of a
sinner’s prayer. He must recognize himself as God does. And his sinfulness
must come forward in his mind to such an extent that he thinks there is no
other sinner as vile and wretched as he is.
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Application: A general sign of one who has truly been justified before God is
the one who thinks of himself as the biggest sinner alive. And as we saw
with the apostle Paul several weeks ago from 1 Corinthians 15, the longer a
saint is alive, the more he knows how worse he is without Christ. Paul went
from viewing himself as least of the apostles, to least of all saints, to chief of
sinners by the end of his life. How do you view yourself? Do you look at
others and think I’m not as bad as that…I don’t do that…I don’t wear that…
my family doesn’t do that…etc.? Or do you think primarily about your own
sin and see it as being an eternally gross and horrendous abomination to the
living God?

If you compare your sins to other people’s sins then you are probably not yet
justified, that is you are not yet a Christian. You have not yet embraced the
gospel yet.

A sure sign of one who has understood and embraced the gospel is that he
or she considers himself to be the worst sinner on the planet. And they don’t
just say that or talk that way. They actually, truly, really and genuinely feel
that way about themselves. They don’t just say, “there, but for the grace of
God, go I.” They really feel that way and consequently the way they talk and
think when others are brought to their minds is immediate introspection and
reflection on their own condition and then a reminder of who they are and
would be without Christ. Their minds dwell on their own sinful condition and
not the condition of others.

C. A Summary of the Tax-Collector's Prayer

In summarizing the publican’s prayer one pastor commented, “The publican

is so overwhelmed by the sense of his own unworthiness, and rightly so. It is
a great mistake to regard the publican as a decent sort of fellow, who knew
his own limitations and did not pretend to be better than he was. It is one of
the marks of our time that the Pharisee and the publican have changed
places; and it is the modern equivalent of the publican who may be heard
thanking God that he is not like those canting humbugs, hypocrites and kill-
joys, whose chief offence is that they take their religion seriously. This
publican was a rotter; and he knew it. He asked for God’s mercy because
mercy was the only thing he dared ask for” (T. W. Manson, quoted in
Geldenhuys, p. 452).

And William Hendrickson wrote, “Being deeply conscious of God’s presence,

he takes hold of God in prayer (cf. Isa. 64:7), and from the very depths of his
being cries out, ‘O God, be merciful to me, the sinner.’ He is earnestly and
fervently begging God to be propitiated. He is hungering and thirsting for
the one great blessing, namely, that God’s anger may be removed and his
favor obtained.” “Old Testament, New Testament; David, the tax-collector,
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Paul; all unite here, in ascribing salvation, from start to finish, to the mercy
(God’s love revealed to those in misery) and grace (God’s love shown to the
undeserving) of God. See Ps. 51:1; Luke 18:13; Eph. 2:8; Titus 3:5.” (Luke,
pp. 820, 822).

III. Conclusion

The conclusion of this parable is that the publican went back to his house
justified that day he prayed, not the Pharisee. The perfect passive of this
Greek verb is used.

The passive shows us that the publican was an object whom someone else
justified. And we know who that was. It was the One to whom he was asking
for mercy. It was God. The passive shows us that only God can justify a
sole. Otherwise, a person could justify himself and self-righteousness would
be a good thing. Does your theology and life give preeminence to this most
important truth, that God alone is the justifier and you are the object on
whom He acts? Or do you possess a theology which says that you are the
deciding factor in whether or not you are justified? One gives glory to God
and the other does not.

The perfect shows us that the moment he took his first step to go back home
he was justified, made right with God, forgiven, cleansed, and declared not
guilty. The act of justification was accomplished such that the publican was
from that moment on in a permanent state of being right with God. Never
again would he be thought of in God’s mind as a sinner, but as a saint. From
that point on, the publican would be the recipient of eternal grace and
blessing.

And to prove that he is justified, he turns around and goes home. This is
meant to show us that the storm of despair he was experiencing has been
removed. There is only peace in his heart from that moment on, because he
is deeply convinced that God’s approval rested on him. God was indeed
satisfied, mercy was granted, and the publican could rest soundly that night
knowing he had been made right with God. He went home because he was
at peace with God. And his humility was the road that led him there. It is no
different when considering your own justification.

But the Pharisee goes on and has nothing! He might as well have stayed
home that day, and never gone to the temple at all, as one pastor suggests.
It might have been better for him all together to have done just that. When
he got home all he had was himself. And this is true of those who are not
justified. They go home from church and have no Lord for their friend, but
only themselves. However, when the publican got home, he had his God, his
friend, his Savior, his Lord, his Brother.
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So how do you know if you are truly justified? Measure yourself by the men
in this parable. Jesus says the whole point of the story is that those who
exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be
exalted. The Pharisee exalted himself, and the Publican humbled himself.
Does the pattern and overall tenor of your life up to this point look more like
the Pharisee or the Publican? Do you think more about the sins of others?
Or do you think more about your own sin? Do you judge the behavior and
lifestyle and problems of others? Or do you focus on the mercy of God in
your own life? You must measure yourself by these two men if you would
know the answer for sure.

But one more thing you must do. You must measure yourself by what others
observe in your life? You must ask others whom you know for sure have
been truly justified and ask them what they see in your life and listen
carefully to them. Why must you do this? Because the parable of the
Pharisee and Publican was told from an outside perspective. It was told by
Christ. He looked on them both and knew them better than they know
themselves.

Likewise you must ask others what they think because they may know you
better than you know yourself. An unbeliever's heart is deceitful above all
else and desperately wicked, as Jeremiah tells us. The Pharisee listened to
himself too much, which is why he was self-righteous. So listen to others.

Ask Christ first. As the one who looked on these two men’s lives and
identified which one was justified, ask Him to look on your life and tell you
whether or not you are justified. Romans 8 teaches us that the Holy Spirit
will mysteriously speak deep to us deep in our hearts telling us that we
belong to Him.

But this cannot be the only measure because anyone can step up and say
Christ has told them that they are a justified child of God. Their claim to
justification may be contradicted by a consistent life of sinful behavior. And
this may be something they themselves cannot see for themselves. Which is
why they need others to point it out to them. You need it pointed out to
you. So ask others. Ask them, “From what you know about me, are the
qualities evident from the publican’s life evident also in my life?” Don’t let
them go light on you. Make them be hard on you, for no matter how hard
they are, they will not be harder than God is. Listen to them, trust them if
you truly know they are justified.

Oh beloved, my greatest aim in ministry here is to know that you are all truly
justified. And that happens when we as a church family pursue the humility
of the gospel. My grandest goal is to see us all living moment by moment in
a humble sense of need for mercy of God, no matter how old we get to be.
For when mercy is all we ask for and hope to get, mercy will inevitably
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produce a field of roses in our local church in which the beautiful aroma of
mercy meanders through every hallway, every classroom, every
conversation, every meal, every home, every minute of every day. May we
seek this as the priceless pearl, casting everything aside until we have it.
Amen.