Vision Series 2017

The Russian Leo Tolstoy was a great novelist, apparently.

I've never read him, but apparently he's one of the most famous novelists in the world.

I know who he is.

Historians would say that he's potentially the greatest novelist of all time.

I don't know because I don't read novels as a general rule.

I read biographies of novelists instead.

But with things like war and peace, which I do know about, to his credit, that's pretty impressive.

He wrote something about Anna, somebody at some point as well, if you're familiar with him at all.

But he's Russian, and we call him Leo Tolstoy because we can't pronounce his Russian name, for those who are English.

But it would seem that he believed the press about himself also.

He thought that he was pretty special.

There were certain things I did read about him.

For instance, this prayer that he wrote in his diary.

Help, Father, come and dwell within me.

You are already dwell within me.

You are already me.

A historian, Paul Johnson, wrote,

There are times when Tolstoy seemed to think of himself as God's brother.

Indeed, his elder brother.

Tolstoy once wrote in one of his diaries,

Read a work on the literary characterization of genius today,

And this awoke in me the conviction that I am a remarkable man.

Both as regards capacity and eagerness to work,

I have not met a single man who was more morally as good as I.

Obviously need to get out a little bit more, I think.

He wrote that he felt in his own soul an immeasurable grandeur.

He regarded himself as above the rest of humanity

as part of a historic apostolic succession of moral superiors

like Moses and Abraham and Jesus.

And down the line you get to Tolstoy.

It could be said, borrowing from today's,

the opening words of today's text,

that Leo Tolstoy was confident of his own righteousness

and looked down on everyone else.

The irony of his words is that he got this version

of a superior, moral superiority,

because of his love of Jesus' teaching

in the Sermon on the Mount and his parables.

I'm not sure if he read Luke 18.

Confident of his own righteousness

and looked down on everyone else.

Last week, we started this journey to Jerusalem with Jesus.

We saw there, quite clearly,

that Jesus demands commitment

from those who would follow him.

We saw that Jesus' journey to Jerusalem

is our journey as he sets his face to Jerusalem

to go there and die.

We must set our face to die to ourselves with him.

Luke 9, 23, 24

could not be any clearer

for the disciple of Jesus.

If anyone would come after me,

he must deny himself,

take up his cross daily,

and follow me.

Whoever wants to save his life will lose it,

but whoever loses his life for me

will save it.

Daily, taking up your cross.

Daily, taking on the position of a dead man walking.

Dead to self, alive to Christ.

So when Jesus set his face to walk the Calvary Road,

he was not merely taking our place,

where we are just the spectators in it,

watching him do it.

He was also setting our pattern.

He was both our substitute and our pace setter.

And so the question for us is why?

Why would I want to get on this road with Jesus

when his call upon my life is so massive?

The radical call,

the radical claim of Jesus

is extremely costly.

The highest possible price,

the surrendering of our lives.

Why would you want to do that?

Now, last week I touched on the answer to that question.

And tonight I want to drive down into it.

I want to use this text that's in front of us

in Luke 18 as my launching pad, if you like.

I want to dig deeper

because what we're seeing in this text here

underlies everything about radical.

and everything that's going to flow from this

about radical,

what it means to be a radical disciple.

So we've had the call last week

and now the radical foundation for that call.

And the core issue with this

is how to get right with God.

It's spelled out in verse 14.

I tell you, it says,

I tell you that this man,

rather than the other,

went home justified before God.

That's the core issue.

How to get right.

And so to help us understand that issue clearly,

to understand what it means to be declared right before God,

what it means to be justified,

Jesus tells this story about two extraordinary men.

And these men are drawn by Jesus so starkly.

They're set against each other

so that we can see the issue.

They're characterized so clearly as black and white.

We know from verse 10

that these two men go up to the temple to pray.

But as it says in verse 14,

only one of them goes home okay with God.

Only one of them is a friend of God's

at the end of the experience.

One of them, we are told,

is a tax collector.

The other one is a Pharisee.

Now, we need to sort of pause for a moment.

And it's really crucial for us not to get this all mucked up right from the start.

Because if you're familiar with the Bible at all,

and you've read through the Gospels,

you will know that Jesus constantly goes,

clash, clash, clash to every Pharisee.

Jesus and Pharisees didn't get on.

Jesus said,

the harshest words from the mouth of Jesus

was directed to the Pharisees and the scribes

and the teachers of the law.

A group of three people,

Pharisees,

just copped it from Jesus.

Woe to you.

Curse to you, Pharisees.

And so,

we just automatically think that the Pharisee is the bad guy.

But not in first century Palestine

for the followers of Jesus

who heard these words from Jesus' mouth for the very first time.

Peter, James, John, and the rest of the boys.

The Pharisee was deeply respected in first century Palestine.

They were a pillar of the community.

Trustworthy.

Very generous to the poor and needy.

And we can see in the text here,

he says,

I'm a good guy and I give a tenth of everything.

Very, very generous.

They were not men who made their money out of religion.

They were regular church attendees

who were deeply, deeply serious

about their commitment to God

and obedience to God.

On the other hand,

you've got the tax collectors.

And they are lowlifes.

They are very greedy.

No one would socialite with them.

Tax collectors were considered absolute filth

because they were traitors.

They were Jewish people

who teamed up with the occupying Romans,

joined forces with the occupying Romans

against their own people.

They had sold out their families,

their friends,

their nation,

their religion,

their God for the sake of money.

And so the Romans came in,

they occupied,

and they said,

we're going to charge a 20% tax

on everyone in this area.

And to collect the taxes,

they recruited these people

who were Jewish people,

put their hands up,

and said,

yeah,

I'll collect taxes from my own people.

And the Romans gave them permission

to put their cut on top of that.

Whatever you want,

whatever it is that you,

you know,

you want to buy yourself a fancy camel,

you know,

put an extra tax,

you know,

you want to buy yourself a bigger house,

put whatever tax.

So a tax collector could add

whatever they wanted on top of that.

And when they went in

to collect the taxes,

they had the Roman soldiers

with their spears,

protecting them

and ensuring that the people

handed over the money.

Tax collector would hand over his dollars

to the Romans

and keep the rest for himself.

So this guy,

as far as their friends,

their nations,

the other Jewish people,

these are scum.

They were not welcome

in any place of worship.

Tax collectors historically

were known

when they didn't have

the Roman soldiers around them,

were very vulnerable

and they were known

to be stabbed to death

in broad daylight

in marketplaces

and people would not come

to their aid at all.

You would spit on them

and kick them

while they're dying.

Step over them

to buy you apples

or whatever it is that you buy.

And they hated the tax collectors.

And so here we have,

these are the two men,

the pillar of the community

and the absolute scum

going up to the temple to pray.

Most likely,

it's one of the two daily

worship services

that took place in the temple.

One was at dawn,

one was around

three in the afternoon.

They were both services

of atonement offerings.

And each service would begin

in the inner sanctuary,

sorry,

outside the inner sanctuary

at the great high altar

where the sacrifice

of a lamb

for the sins of Israel

was made.

The service would include

the sound of a silver trumpet

and the clanging of cymbals

and the reading of a psalm.

And the officiating priest

would then enter

the outer part of the sanctuary

where he would offer incense

and he would trim the lamps.

And at that point,

he would take the blood

of the sacrifice,

disappear into the building

to offer the sacrifice

of atonement.

And when the priest

disappeared in the building

by himself

in the inner sanctuary,

it was time then

for those who gathered

into the outer courts

to offer private prayers

to God

while the offering

of atonement

was being made.

And here,

we read the private prayers

of our two characters.

Forget who these two men

are on the outside

and what the perceptions

of society are of them.

Their prayers reveal

their hearts

and the heart

is what God sees.

Pharisee prays like this.

Father,

God,

I thank you

that I'm not like other men.

Robbers,

evildoers,

adulterers,

or even that scumbag

tax collector

sitting over there.

How dare he?

I fast twice a week,

I give a tenth

of all that I get.

It's like he's praying

and just hugging himself

and man,

I'm a great guy.

He praises himself.

He adores himself.

He starts with,

God,

I thank you,

but instead of thanking God

for what God has given him,

he's thanking God

for what he has given God.

He's thankful for that.

And he does it so spiritually.

He spiritualizes

his self-righteousness.

He says,

God,

thank you.

God,

I thank you

that I'm okay.

And then he goes on

and explains

how different he is

from other people.

And the problem

with this Pharisee

is that his evaluation

of himself

is based on the wrong standard.

He's using the wrong measure.

He compares himself

with other people.

I'm okay, God,

because there's always

someone worse than me,

especially that

scumbag

tax collector

over there.

That's what we do

with morality.

We always,

ironically,

when it comes to wealth,

we don't think

we're wealthy

because we can always

find people richer than us.

When it comes to morality,

we always look down the line

and find people

who are morally worse than us,

which makes us feel

more comfortable

about ourselves.

We always

default

towards

an inflated

view

of self.

We're like

filthy coal miners,

you know,

five kilometers

below the earth's surface

in all the darkness

and coal dust

and dirt

and mud

and stuff,

comparing ourselves

with each other,

imagining who's

the most cleanest

in this environment.

Who cares?

You're all filthy.

We compare ourselves

with whoever

makes us comfortable

regardless of our own filth,

regardless of our own sin

and corruption.

And in this case,

the Pharisee

is feeling great

because,

well,

there's the tax collector

just over there.

You see,

a religious person

is easy

on themselves

and they're hard

on everyone else.

That's a religious person.

Easy on themselves

and hard

on everyone else.

God's assessment,

the true tape measure,

the true line

of the human condition

is quite different

and his diagnosis

is what Sam read out to us

in Ephesians 2.

Let me read it to you.

As for you,

you were dead

in your transgressions

and sins

in which you used to live

when you followed

the ways of this world

and of the ruler

of the kingdom of the air,

the spirit who is now

at work in those

who are disobedient.

All of us also lived

among them at one time,

gratifying the cravings

of our sinful nature

and following its desires

and thoughts

and like the rest,

we were by nature

objects of wrath.

And you see the diagnosis

in Romans 3.

There is no one righteous,

not even one.

There is no one

who understands,

no one who seeks God.

All have turned away.

They have together

become worthless.

There is no one

who does good,

not even one.

No one righteous,

no one who seeks God.

Worthless,

dead,

that is the natural

human condition

left to our own devices.

We are dead

in our sins.

And so the core

of human nature

is not basically good

and we just need

to mine the goodness

out of it somehow

and let people flourish.

It is in fact

fundamentally bad.

We are spiritually bankrupt.

We are spiritually dead,

born dead to God

because we are born sinners.

And so therefore,

spiritual life

is impossible

for something for us

to conjure up in ourselves

because corpses

cannot help themselves.

That doesn't mean

that we are as bad

as we all can possibly be

because God is gracious enough

not to totally remove

His sovereign and gracious hand

from our lives

and leave us

to our own devices.

What it does mean though

is that sin

has totally marred

every aspect

of the human life.

Every aspect.

We've got nothing

to offer God.

We've got nothing

to contribute.

Not only do we not

have any righteousness

in our account

but we've actually got

a massive debt

in our account.

We are spiritually bankrupt.

We are deserving

of God's wrath.

Far from being

a good person,

every person sits

under the wrath of God.

And so we don't need God

to make up the difference

between our deficiencies

and what He requires.

we need God

to provide

a remedy

for our guilt,

for our rebellion,

for our sin,

our pollution

and our offenses

against God.

What we need

is radical mercy.

We need

radical grace

to provide

a satisfaction

for God's justice

to cancel a debt

that we cannot pay.

And that

is what this

low-life

tax collector

understands.

Everything on the surface

and on the inside

tells him

that he has

no reason

to look to himself

for hope.

And his prayer

is simple.

Have a look at it there.

He beats himself

on the chest

and he says,

God,

have mercy

on me,

a sinner.

And see what Jesus

says at the end of that

about this prayer,

verse 14?

I tell you that

this man,

rather than the other,

went home justified

before God.

Now the word

justified there

means to be

approved,

legally

declared,

innocent

of all wrongdoing

and to receive

the approval

of God.

And this

lone life,

it says,

is right with God

and the pillar

of the community,

the paradigm

of virtue

goes away

not right

with God.

And you see this

if you've read

through Luke's gospel,

you'll see this

again and again

in Luke's gospel.

In Luke 7,

there's a Pharisee

and a sinful woman.

In Luke 15,

there's a father

with two sons.

One son

stays at home,

always does

what he's told.

And then there's

a younger brother

who rejects his dad,

says,

I want nothing

to do with you

but I want my

share of the hidden

runs off,

spends the money

in wild living.

And then here

in Luke 18,

we have a pillar

of the community,

we have a traitor

and in every case,

the good person,

we have a good person

and a bad person,

the bad person

is saved,

the good person

is lost

in every one

of those stories.

There are two ways,

two ways

to be your own

savior

and Lord.

There's two ways

to reject God

and be your own God.

One way

is doing

what the tax collector

has been doing,

living any way

he wants,

thumbing his nose

at God

and frankly,

using everyone else

for his own end.

That's one way

of doing it.

It's obvious

to most people.

The other way

to reject God

and be your own God

is to be

very moral,

very righteous,

very dutiful

and then saying,

well God,

look at me,

now you owe me God

and you people,

you now owe me too.

You owe me the respect

I deserve.

And the mark

of someone

being their own savior,

their own lord,

their own God,

despite all of how

they might look

on the outside,

is that they

look down

on everyone else.

You see,

religious people,

Pharisees,

the self-righteous,

the superior,

are easy on themselves

but hard

on everyone else.

So why is it

that this bad person

goes home right with God

and the good person

gets lost

as it is

with the rest of Luke?

It's not because

one is good

and the other is bad.

It's not because

God,

you know,

doesn't condemn,

you know,

God doesn't condemn

people for being good

and saves people

because they're bad.

It's not like,

you know,

it's not like

he specifically

just saves

all the bad people.

It's because

the good person

doesn't know

they are in fact bad.

They don't know

that they are rotten

and in need

of a rescuer.

They ought to know it

because according

to Luke 18,

at least one

of the symptoms

of our desperate

need of a rescuer

is that we judge

and condemn

everyone else around us

who do not meet

our standards.

We look down the nose

at other people.

That's the symptom

of someone

who needs a rescuer.

And here,

in this story,

as in the others

in Luke,

the bad person

knows that they're bad.

And see the prayer

of this tax collector?

God,

have mercy on me,

the sinner.

That is in fact

a better reading.

It's not a sinner

but the sinner.

He's not trying

to find comfort

in the fact that,

well,

you know,

we're all in the same boat.

He doesn't say,

sure,

I've made my mistakes

but I'm no different

than anyone else.

I'm only human after all.

He says,

God,

I am the sinner.

I am the model sinner.

I'm the essential sinner.

He doesn't care

how he compares

with other people.

He's not looking

at other people.

This guy knows

that he's not okay

with God

and he cries out

in despair

and he pleads

for mercy.

You see,

the religious person

is easy on themselves

and hard on others.

The disciple

of the Lord Jesus

is hard on themselves

and easy on others.

Now,

it's interesting here

in this text

that the word

mercy

is an unusual word.

The common word

for mercy

that's used

in most of the New Testament

is different

than the word

here.

And what it's saying,

and it's used

only in one other place

apart from Luke 18

in the New Testament,

this tax collector

isn't asking God

for sympathy.

He's not asking God

for compassion.

He isn't asking God

to give him a break.

The word for mercy here,

as I said,

is found in one other place

and it means

to appease

or to

turn away

someone else's

anger,

to propitiate

someone else's

anger.

So the tax collector

in this moment

is not saying,

oh Lord,

come on,

let me off the hook,

let bygones be

guy gones,

you know,

I'm not that bad

after all.

He's crying out to God

in this moment

as he sits

in the temple courts

and the sacrifice

for atonement

is happening.

He's crying out,

Lord,

atone for my sin.

I need your anger

to be turned away

from me.

He understood

his true condition.

The wages of sin

is death

according to Romans 3

and he's asking God

to pay that wage

for him.

Pay it for me.

He wants atonement.

You see,

because in this moment

the fog of his

self-righteousness

and his self-justification

has finally parted

and he now sees

who he truly is.

He finally sees

that there is a God

who created him

and keeps him alive

every second.

He finally sees

that he should do

absolutely everything

for this God.

He sees that this God

should be loved

more than anything else

that no one

should be obeyed

more than this God.

He finally sees

that he hasn't even

got close

to that standard.

He finally sees

that if anyone

was as ungrateful

to him

as he has been

to this God,

he would cut them off

forever.

He sees that

that's exactly

what he deserves.

that's what he deserves

from this God.

To be cut off

from the source

of life

and hope

and peace

and so he cries out,

God,

please pay that wage

for me.

the other place

in the New Testament

where the word

for this word

for mercy

is used

is in Hebrews

Hebrews 2:17

chapter 2

verse 17

and it tells us

why

Jesus was

on this road

to Jerusalem.

Talking about

Jesus says

for this reason

he

had to be

made like them

fully human

in every way

in order that

he might become

a merciful

and faithful

high priest

in service to God

and that he

might make

atonement,

he might make

mercy

for the sins

of the people.

In other words,

God is

infinitely holy,

he hates

evil and sin

but he came

to earth

in the person

of the Lord Jesus

and he lost

everything.

He lost

his glory,

he lost

his invulnerability,

he lost

all of his riches,

he lost his place

beside the Father,

he was tortured,

he was mocked,

he was ridiculed,

everything was

stripped from him,

even his clothes

were stripped

from him.

He was killed,

abandoned by his

disciples

and he was

doing it for you

and for me

and for humanity

and for this

tax collector

to make atonement

for our sin.

He was paying

the wage

of death

for the sins

of the world.

That is the

radical grace

of God.

And we heard

from Ephesians 2

the natural state

before God

before is that

we are dead

in our transgressions

and sins

but in the very

next verses

in Ephesians

we have the

hope of grace

but

you've got to

love the word

but

but

because of

his great

mercy for us

God who is

rich in mercy

made us alive

in Christ

even when we

were dead

in transgressions

it's by grace

you have been

saved.

We were dead

in our transgressions

but God intervened

and gave us life.

We were dead

in bondage

to sin

but God intervened

and released us.

We were objects

of wrath

but God intervened

and he poured

out his anger

upon himself.

God who is

rich in mercy

intervened.

Our condition

was hopeless

but God intervened

in grace.

The grace

of God

is his love

freely

freely

given

shown towards

guilty sinners

contrary

to their merit

and in fact

in total defiance

of all their

demerit.

that has nothing

to do with us

it's got everything

to do

with the character

of this God

and the radical

grace and generosity

of God

is the great exchange.

2 Corinthians 8

and 9

says

for you know

the grace

of our Lord

Jesus Christ

though he was

rich

speaking about

internally rich

with the Father

perfect with the Father

yet for our sakes

he became poor

he became human

for everlasting

from that point on

so that through

his poverty

we might join

into the everlasting

relationship

of the Father

that's 2 Corinthians

8 and 9

2 Corinthians 5

21

God made him

who had no sin

sinless

to be sin

for us

so that in him

we might become

sinless

the righteousness

of God

God's radical

grace is the

foundation

and the motivation

of his radical

call

the radical call

to take up our

cross and follow

him

it's his grace

radical grace

self-righteousness

leads to a life

of looking down

your nose

at everyone else

judging people

condemning people

the religious person

is easy on themselves

and they're hard

on everyone else

but the grace

fueled

disciple

of the Lord

Jesus

is hard

on themselves

and easy

on others

on everyone else

you see

God's

radical grace

to us

in the Lord

Jesus

leads to a life

of radical grace

it leads to a life

of abundant

generosity

and graciousness

towards other people

in fact I would say

grace and generosity

in every area of life

free abandonment

in every area of life

so that we take up

our cross

and we follow Christ

we've got nothing

to lose

he's been given

everything

and we see

that happens

for one tax collector

in the very next chapter

I don't want to kind of

steal too much

of my message

which I'll probably

preach on in a few weeks

about this guy

very next chapter

it's just as Jesus

gets right on the

very edge of Jerusalem

and what we introduce

there is to a young

not a young bloke

a little bloke

who is described

as the chief

tax collector

he's the chief

scumbag

he's the chief

low life

he is the lowest

I mean

he's lower than a snake

sliding on the ground

this guy

there's no one worse

in society

than Zacchaeus

self-centered

totally greedy

rejected by all

the recipient of

scorn and hatred

and vitriol

and then Jesus

comes along

and Jesus

is the only person

who looks at him

he's the only person

who speaks to him

and Jesus picks him

out

loves him

and so overwhelmed

by the grace of Jesus

to him

Zacchaeus just

overflows

in abundant

generosity

from that moment

nothing

Zacchaeus holds

nothing back

that is a disciple

who's taken up his cross

and following Christ

we will never

take up our cross

we will never

obey that call

we will never

take up our cross

and follow Christ

as his radical

disciples

until we recognize

our appalling

natural condition

without Jesus

and truly

rejoice

in the wonderful

news

of his radical

grace

we will

always

hold

something

back

from him

until we fully

understand

and appreciate

that he has

never

held anything

back from us