The Parable Of The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

You see, pride is something that rules our society and diminishes humility.

But you see the real danger of this prideful way of thinking is that it can blind us to how we really stand before God.

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Pray with me, please.

Father, you are good.

We ask that you would step foot in this place this morning.

That your presence would be made known in our hearts.

That you would speak to us through your word.

Father, that we would understand that you are our one true hope in this world of uncertainty.

God, I thank you for the opportunity to study from your written word.

And I ask that you bless this morning to those who have ears to let them hear.

Father, we pray these things in your holy name.

Amen.

Well, good morning.

My name is Cam Frazier.

I am the student pastor here at Grand Parkway.

Really excited to get to meet some of you face to face next week.

This will be our last Sunday of uh pajama service.

And so we are really looking forward to having everybody back.

And I cannot wait to meet some of you face to face for the first time.

This morning we're gonna be in Luke, and we are continuing on our service or excuse me, our series on the parables.

We're gonna be in Luke chapter 18, verse 9.

Luke 18:9

I also want you to bookmark Psalm 51 for me.

Uh, we're gonna touch base a little bit in there.

A little bit about me.

Um, my wife and I are both from the Dallas Fort Worth area.

We have a die-hard fandom to the Dallas Cowboys as well as the Texas Rangers.

So you have to forgive us a little bit, uh, especially on Sundays if you see us wearing a little bit of blue, um, especially in the fall.

Now, uh, my wife is by far and away, aside from Jesus Christ, a spitting image of God's grace and mercy, and primarily the only reason I stand here before you.

Um, so I wanted to get that out of the way and let you know that it's because of her and the good graces of God that I'm able to stand here before you and get to bring the word uh that I feel like God has laid on my heart.

Um, it's a little weird being here.

I've never actually preached uh to an empty room.

Uh and it's a little strange.

Uh for me, I come from a football background.

I used to be a coach, and so my main relational need is affirmation because I'm a prideful sinner.

And so it's really weird to not have anybody kind of interacting with me.

But that's okay.

So we're gonna talk a little bit about that today, because I think the Lord has really put this parable uh in front of me, particularly for a reason.

And so, whenever you kind of hear something that may be stirring up or convicting, just know this is pretty much me talking straight into a mirror as well.

We're gonna pick it up, Luke chapter 18, starting in verse 9, we're going on the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.

Luke 18 · chapter mention

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves, that they were righteous and treated others with contempt.

Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

The Pharisee standing by himself prayed thus, God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I get, but this tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift his eyes up to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner.

I tell you that this man went down to his house justified rather than the other.

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.

We kind of see a main theme along this passage is that uh Jesus is talking to these men that are some Pharisees, some very akin to Pharisees as far as their heart condition, and he's showing them that humility before God and confidence in his grace brings justification, not one's own merit.

We could almost deem this the parable of the two prayers as we see two men go up to pray, and their prayers are pretty starkly different.

We read this passage, excuse me, and other passages in the Bible, and we kind of hear about Pharisees, and we can start to envision them as these really corrupt, evil guys, but in reality, most of these men were after the approval of God.

Most of these men were some of the most saintly and upright people in their community because they abided by the Old Testament law so strictly that their lives looked much more like Jesus' did than anybody else's in that society.

But they always seem to be missing this key piece of what Jesus is showing us here in the parable: that the condition of our heart is what separates us, not our good deeds or our modern-day Christianity checklist.

The Pharisee ends up actually referring to himself five times in this passage.

I thank you, that I am not like these other men.

I fast, I give all that I get.

I picture him kind of praying this prayer in the temple with kind of like one eye open as he's praying, talking to Jesus, like making sure everybody can see how holy he is and hear all these fancy words that he's spouting out.

And don't get me wrong, I'm all for demonstrative prayer.

I'm all for very powerful spirit-led prayer.

But we can get a little too far on the other side, you know what I'm saying?

People can take it a little bit too far, if you know what I mean.

We can get so caught up in just hearing people go, mmm, or yes, Lord, as we pray, it starts to fill this little demon inside of us that's prideful and like, man, these people are getting it.

I'm bringing it today.

I got the right words in my prayer today.

And we start to get filled up with this pride about impressing others with the eloquent words that are coming out of my mouth when I pray instead of speaking to God.

And this public expression of our face starts to heavily outweigh the private and intimate side that God calls us to.

This parable sounds a little bit ridiculous when we kind of say it out loud, but in reality, the condition of the Pharisees' heart is much more similar to ours.

We may not be outright exclaiming righteousness in the temple, but our hearts are very much positioned akin to the Pharisees.

You see, we come to Bible studies, we come to midweeks, we go to retreats, we have these great events, and we never miss communion.

And you better believe no one ever misses a chance to let someone else see me slide a hundred dollar bill in that offering slot.

We start chasing after these justifications through works.

I've got my checklist that I gotta make sure I get done.

I've got to chase after these things.

I've got to work to earn justification when the Bible clearly tells us, I mean, that work's already been done, believer.

You see, prayer, tithing, fasting, giving, attending church, prayer, uh, small groups, community groups.

All of these things have zero power to save us.

You see, we save, therefore, we are saved, therefore, we do these things in order to kind of live a life that's a little bit more intimate with God and step into a slight glimpse of his presence that gives us just a little bit of a sampling of what eternal glory may look like.

See, Jesus was talking to these men who thought along the same lines as we do.

Verse 9 tells us he told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt.

Jesus was talking to some of these men who trusted in themselves for salvation and also despised other people because they weren't as good as they were.

You see, the connection between these two feelings is pretty synonymous.

I credit myself for having such an awesome spiritual walk, then it's pretty easy to despise other people for stumbling in theirs.

It's pretty easy to despise other people for struggling in their early faith.

And I kind of become this haughty little jerk of knowledge that I can find the book of Obadiah faster than the guy sitting next to me because I grew up in church.

You see, the Pharisee in this parable, he yeah, he went up to the temple to pray.

But I don't really think he ended up talking to God.

I think he really ended up just speaking to himself.

You see, he glorified himself.

He rejoiced in the temple, not for who God was, but for who he was.

God, I thank you that I'm not like other men.

You see, it's really not hard to have a high opinion of yourself when you start comparing yourselves to others.

It's pretty easy to find someone else who has it worse than you, especially living here in the United States.

When we have a worldview, we've got it pretty good.

He goes on to compare himself to this tax collector alongside him in the temple praying.

And the demonstrative pronoun this that the Pharisee starts to use, this tax collector.

I mean, it pretty much says it all about how he feels about him.

Now, the tax collector, in case you didn't know, after watching Robin Hood, and I'm talking about Robin Hood Made in the 70s, the greatest little cartoon movie, uh, tax collectors, and I'm talking about kind of the sheriff of Nottingham, right?

Tax collectors were not very highly thought of.

I can just see uh Friar Tuck just kind of chasing after uh the Sheriff of Nottingham as he's kicking him out the door of his church, right?

And he's chasing after him because tax collectors were hated.

They were seen as a leech on society and traitors for having working with Rome.

Let's say that maybe the tax for that month may have been 5%.

The tax collector would go to people, he'd charge 7%.

And he'd live a pretty good life off that deceptive 2% that he kind of gets to keep for his own self.

And so we can imagine this tax collector having quite a bit of intimidation from this Pharisee preaching with the most eloquent verbiage, such a spiritual flowing and style, that anyone who heard him was like, Man, that dude's got it right there.

That guy's got something right there.

And in contrast, we kind of envision the tax collector not even looking up to heaven, just cowering in the presence of God.

Maybe stumbling and awkwardly praying through words that he couldn't really understand or didn't really understand what he was even trying to say.

He just cowered at the presence of God and beat his chest.

Now it's kind of ironic that it says he beat his chest because nowadays we look at sports and all we see is LeBron James coming up big tomahawk jam and he comes off, right?

Beating my chest, like look at me.

But in reality, back in the day, beating one's chest was a symbol that I am so aware of how sinful and deceptive my heart is.

I'm so understanding of how corrupt I am that I'm beating my own heart as punishment.

His prayer was so simple.

God have mercy on me, a sinner.

Just let that flow over you.

God have mercy on me, a sinner.

Some translations of the Bible uh say, God have mercy on me, the sinner.

As if to say, in a perfect world, if there was but one sinner, it's me.

And in a world full of sinners, I'm the primary offender.

You see, there's a pretty interesting similarity between these two men.

The Pharisee and the tax collector both thought they were not like other men.

The Pharisee thought he was better than everyone else.

Meanwhile, the tax collector thought he was much worse than everyone else.

I'm not sure if many of you have spent time around fifth through twelfth graders, and I don't know that this is necessarily age specific, but that's the demographic I get to spend most of my time around, and it's pretty great.

Uh, in our small groups, if you ask someone, hey, who wants to close us in prayer?

Crickets.

Absolute crickets.

You see, there's this kind of lack of comfortability for some reason around public prayer that the American church seems to have in our small groups.

There's this fear that kind of comes forth of uh what am I not what to say.

What am I saying the wrong thing?

I'll never forget my wife when she was early in her faith when we first started dating.

She would tell me that she was really nervous to pray.

She was afraid she was gonna say the wrong things.

And I imagine this tax collector kind of felt that same angst towards his prayer here in the temple, but he utters what little he knows about God.

You see, the tax collector's prayer is so simple, but it packs so much into a small prayer.

God have mercy on me, a sinner.

I'd like to unpack that prayer a little bit.

Um, but I feel like the Bible does a much better job than I'll ever be able to.

And so we're gonna flip over to Psalm 51 and an illustration, I feel like where this tax collector's heart really was positioned.

Psalm 51, the title, Create in Me a Clean Heart, O God.

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.

Against you and you only have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words, and blameless in your judgment.

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean.

Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.

Let me hear joy and gladness, let the bones that you have broken rejoice.

Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a spirit within me.

Cast me not away from your presence, and take me not to and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

Then I will teach your tra then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.

Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God.

O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.

O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.

For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it.

You will not be pleased with a burnt offering.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart.

O God, you will not despise.

The tax collector, I don't think, may have had the eloquence or words that David may have had in this psalm, but I think in his actions, his reverence, pounding his chest, shows his understanding of being sinful and falling short of the communion glory that God originally designed us to live in.

And he knows the only grace that can make up for that is God's.

I know how distorted and unclean my heart is.

God, please have mercy on me.

That word mercy here that Luke uses is translated into the Greek that is only used one other time in the New Testament.

And that's in Hebrews 2, where it's translated as the word propitiation.

He's saying, God, your mercy can cleanse me.

God, only your grace can cover my sins, past, present, and future.

God have mercy on me, a sinner.

It's so simple.

I came across a quote while preparing for this, and it uh it really gave me a good kick in the pants on how to view prayer.

Uh I still think this way a lot, and I often have, very wrongly so.

I feel like I have to always have the right words to pray.

When I'm sitting in kind of a small group circle, and I'm like, okay, it's gonna be my turn, and a couple people, I gotta start coming up with something to pray, I gotta sound good.

Because I'm a pastor, right?

I gotta have the right words to say, I gotta sound spiritual, because if I don't, then people aren't gonna believe that I have this awesome spiritual connection with God.

If I don't blow them away with my prayers, how are they gonna know I'm holy?

But my father-in-law, who is a spitting image of Neil, uh, first off, but that's neither here nor there, is what my wife would say, a very simple man.

I don't think he really lacks for much.

He doesn't really want for much.

He's a pretty content guy and happy at that.

But when he prays for us, he says usually the same exact words over and over.

And on the outside, that may look like it's just a little bit of a formality, like a placeholder, like, oh, he's got a prayer set and ready to go.

He doesn't have to think about it.

He may not even really mean it.

There's not a lot of depth there.

But here's the kicker.

He says the same prayer over and over, and I truly believe he means it just as much every single time he prays it.

You see, for him, it's not a reciting of words.

He asks for blessings for the people that are surrounding him, and I truly think that he means it every time.

He says it because that's the position of his heart.

The quote I came across was from Charles Spurgeon.

So, Clyde, you'll like this.

Oh, that men would learn to pray with less of language and more of meaning.

Let me say that again.

Oh, that men would learn to pray with less of language and more of meaning.

What great things are packed away in this short petition?

God, mercy, sin, the propitiation, and forgiveness.

Charles Spurgeon on this parable.

Oh, that men would learn to pray with less language and more meaning.

Forgiveness is kind of what we see happening for this tax collector.

In verse 14, Jesus is very clear.

He says that this man went away justified.

That word justified comes from the root word meaning to declare one righteous.

So we can firmly take away that this tax collector walked away from the temple a saved man.

Not from anything he did, not from anything he said, not from paying tithes, not from fasting, not from showing up to church.

No, it's because he came to the throne of grace with an understanding and extreme humility about where he stood before God.

Psalm 51 said it, right?

God, you're not delighted in sacrifices, or I'd give it.

The sacrifices are a broken and contrite heart.

You see, we have nothing to gain coming to the throne of God in the lie of our own selfish pride.

The Pharisee saw himself as something great when he really wasn't.

And the tax collector saw himself as a sinner in need of the mercy of God, which he was just like the rest of us.

1 Peter 5 tells us this.

Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another for God.

God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

You see, pride seems to be something that rules our society these days.

And it has for a long stand of time.

Humility is often rare in a society that says, hey, look how unique I am.

Look at how good I am.

I may have taken an hour to get the perfect picture on this latte and Bible to put on my Instagram.

I may not have read any of it, but look how holy I am.

Hashtag blessed, right?

And if you're still using hashtag stop it.

It's ridiculous.

You see, pride is something that rules our society and diminishes humility.

But you see, the real danger of this prideful way of thinking is that it can blind us to how we really stand before God.

It can falsify how we really stand before God, a sinner in need of mercy.

And what I mean by that is if we approach the throne of grace with the feeling that God owes me something, look at all these things I've done for you, God.

Just scroll through my Instagram page.

Look at all these things.

We're just like this Pharisee.

God, look at all of these things I've done.

But this is so common in everything we watch, right?

God, if you would just not let me have cancer, I promise I won't cuss up my family anymore.

Oh God, I promise.

And we treat the God of the Bible like he's some grace-filled piggy bank that I can withdraw whatever I want, whenever I want, because of, hey, look at, I did the right thing.

Look at, I'm a good person.

Hear me when I say this.

Being good does not get you into God's grace.

You see, God's grace transforms you into a good person because when you're covered in grace, God no longer sees you as you.

He looks down and sees you as Jesus who did all the work for you.

But when we approach God like this tax collector with humility, understanding of where we stand before God.

This radically changes the dynamic of how we see ourselves and how we see others.

Understanding we are objects of mercy breeds compassion for others, not comparison.

Because the attitude of humility rests solely on the grace of God, not ourselves.

You see, this is kind of a parable of the two prayers and kind of the parable of two hearts.

One a very prideful heart, the other one a very humble heart.

And Jesus kind of shows us through this parable.

Hey, let me contrast pride and humility for you.

Pride preaches merit.

Pride separates by putting others down.

Pride destroys relationships through alienating self-service.

It turns its nose up at others.

But humility, humility pleads for compassion.

Humility identifies with others, realizing we all have the same needs.

Humility opens doors with the power to empathize with the struggle that we all have.

Humility offers an open and uplifted hand.

You see, the Pharisee belonged to one of the most saintly movements of that day.

Well, the tax collector was part of one of the most hated professions around society.

And yet Jesus shows the folks that he's talking to it doesn't matter about your good deeds.

It doesn't matter about the boxes checked or unchecked on your schedule.

It's about the condition of your heart is what matters.

Jesus draws our attention into comparing and contrasting the condition of the hearts of these two men.

Want a very prideful heart, want a very humble heart.

The Pharisee and the tax collector were polar opposites in society.

In order for Jesus to show the opposition of a proud heart versus a humble heart, despite what their outward appearance looked like.

Revealing through this parable that God indeed justifies the humble and opposes the proud.

Let's pray.

God, I thank you for this parable.

I thank you for your words.

They're so simple.

God, I thank you for this tax collector's heart.

And the parable that you share with those who trusted in themselves.

You share this with those who despise others in order to show us compassionate and humble hearts are justified.

Father, we ask that you would step into our lives.

Reveal to us where our pride is.

Reveal to us, are we just spouting words that sound spiritual when we pray?

Are we actually talking to the God of the Bible?

God, reveal to us where our pride blinds us.

Father, reveal to us the conditions of our hearts.

That we may know where we stand before you.

A sinner in need of mercy.

Father, I pray these things in your holy name that all our hope relies on the cross of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

And it's something that I'd love for you to just consider.

These reflection questions are more about kind of an inward reflection today.

Something I feel like the Lord kind of calls us to that only you can really answer to yourself.

You may look really good on the outside, and you've got it all together when you show up here on Sundays.

But the condition of your heart is what matters.

Only you can really understand if you have humility or pride in your prayer life.

Do you regularly mean what you pray?

Or are you like me that just kind of sometimes wants to find the right words in order to get that response from someone because your words are so holy?

Does anything in your daily routine blind you to where you really stand before God?

And if so, remove it.

Is the true condition of your heart a prideful one?

Or one of compassion and humility towards others?

Feel free to screenshot these or take a picture of them.

It might be something to just consider on a daily basis.

Jesus tells us to examine our hearts through scripture.

I think the condition of our heart isn't necessarily one that's ongoing, but one that can kind of have a daily reminder of, man, am I being prideful today?

I think this idea of sanctification isn't necessarily a one-time thing, it's a process.

So maybe examine your heart through these questions.

Bring revelation into our own lives so we may understand where we stand before you.

I pray for reality to set into where we really are.

Father, we need you.

We need your mercy.

Amen.

Well, we've got a quick video announcement for you to kind of catch you up on what we've got going on.

As I said at the beginning, next Sunday is our first in-person service, and we're really looking forward to seeing everybody in person.

But here's some other things that we've got coming up.

Here's a look at what's happening at Grand Parkway Baptist Church.

Today is our last day for online only services.

Next week, June 21st, we will reopen for normal service times at 8.30, 10, and 11.30 a.m.

There will be no child care for these services, so please plan accordingly.

To see our full reopening schedule, head to Grandparkway.org.

Student Camp on Campus is scheduled for July 12th through the 16th.

The deadline to register is tomorrow.

Bridge Camp is happening July 26th through the 29th at Highland Lakes Camp near Austin, Texas.

For our kids, save the date for Pine Cove Camp in the City, happening here on our campus, July 20th through 24th.

For more information on each of these events, head to grandparkway.org slash events.

If you're new or have questions about anything from our time today, head to grandparkway.org and fill out our online connection card so we can connect you where you need to be.

May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you, believers.

May the Lord reveal where your heart has been prideful, and may the Lord offer sanctification and humility for you ongoing.

May the Lord bless you in your days.

Amen.