Luke 18:9-14 The Pharisee and the Tax collector
V9- He also told this parable-
What is the purpose of the parables? Division. The purpose of the book of Luke is always division.
1. Beginning with the Genealogy of Christ ( Luke 3:23) there are those who are faithful through Gods workings and there are those who are not.
2. A tree and its fruit (Luke 6:43)
3. Build your house on a rock (Luke 6:46)
4. The purpose of the Parables (Luke 8:9)
5. The narrow door (Luke 13:22)
6. The rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19).
7. The ascension – Luke writes acts and reminds us that there are those who are able to believe and there are those who are not.
Matthew 10: Jesus did not come to bring peace but a sword. The parables are spoken to cause division, even it it means between son and father, mother and daughter.
SOME – The parable is about some, not all.
Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. C.S Lewis
There is a great divide, those who worship him or those who despise him.
V 9 b- Who trusted in themselves that they were righteous.
These men were putting their faith in their moral and religious accomplishments to qualify themselves for God’s kingdom.
1.The prayer of this man reflected his spiritual pride.
- And treated others with contempt
Contempt- The attitude or felling that a person is beneath consideration, worthless, deserving of scorn. Disregard.
2. The man considered himself to righteous for others.
If you trust in yourself, in your own righteousness, the result is to look down on others with disdain.
Calvin- If I think I am smart, I view others as dumb, If I think I am athletic, others will be unccordinated, If I think I am popular, others are not, if I think I am rich, others are paupers, This is human nature. The self-righteous will always see others as less righteous.
The biggest problem with those who feel righteous is they fell they have no need for mercy.
THE PARABLE
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V Two men went to the temple to pray, One a Pharisee and one a tax collector.
Two- Division, Alternate destinies
One has to be just and the other condemned, the tax collector must be the condemned one! Tax collectors don’t pray!
But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and 'sinners'?" Luke 5:30
The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and "sinners."'
But God‟s grace is upon this tax man just as it has been upon so many others we have seen in Luke‟s Gospel. To name a few:
The leper of chapter 5:12.
Matthew Levi, another tax collector of chapter 5:27.
The woman who brought an alabaster jar of perfume of chapter 7: 37.
The tax collectors and sinners of chapter 15: 1-2.
Lazarus the poor man of chapter 16:20.
He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things--and the things that are not--to nullify the things that are, 1 cor 1:28.
WORKS vs Grace
1. Pharisee- read v 11-12
Good things
a. He went to the temple to pray at 9 am or 3 pm the times for prayer.
b. He thanks God. He is not a legalist; he is not a Pelagian, not even a semi pelagianist.
a. He is not a thief, he is not unjust, he does not cheat on his wife, he is not a Publican. He doesn’t bother people all day trying to get their hard earned money!
b. He fasted twice a week – There were only originally to be 1 then two fast days a year. He fasted twice a week
c. Giving tithes of all he gets. Not some income but all of it.
Bad things
a. Standing by himself- Pompous attitude. Sees himself more righteous than all the other Pharisees.
b. Jesus replied, "And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them. Luke 11:46
c. Eventually the Pharisees became more than theives, more than unjust and more than adulteress. Their foundation was crumbled because it was not Christ but sand.
Em Bounds “The essentials of prayer
“That which brings the praying soul near to God is humility of heart. That which gives wings to prayer is lowliness of mind. That which gives ready access to the throne of grace is self-deprecation. Pride, self-esteem, and self-praise effectually shut the door of prayer. He who would come to God . . . must not be puffed-up with self-conceit, nor be possessed with an over- estimate of his virtues and good works.”
For all of his devotion he was unrighteous before God
The tax collector
V 13-
Recognition of Human depravity and inability
note that everything this man does is opposite to the self-righteous Pharisee (especially noted is the “stance”: the Pharisee took his stance away from the crowd of worshipers and closer to the altar, while the tax collector took his stand away from the crowd and farther away from the altar
His prayer –
The word for mercy is the same for mercy seat. The Pharisee was saying “MAKE ATONEMENT FOR ME!”
Justified- Not guilty
Condemned. Rom 8
Saved by the blood of the Lamb-
Where can I find such mercy? Heb 9:22- without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Where is the sacrifice, where is the blood, where is the mercy?
John Newton writes this in his diary lamenting in his sinful condition “But now I may, I must, I do mention the atonement. I have sinned, but Christ has died.
Gospel
Spurgeon writes “the outwardly worse of the two was accepted rather than the one who is apparently better.”
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The tax collector received what he asked for! MERCY
What’s the problem with the Pharisee?
He trusted in it! He trusted in something other than Christ.
Boasting in self, size of church, missions trips, church service, eldership, pastoral accomplishments, books, service, discipleship, leading people to Christ, awards, accomplishments, good works, church attendance, false humilty. Grace alone
If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.
7But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Phil 3
Friend story- Boasting
v. 14 b Humble/ exalted
“But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” Gal
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