15 The Two Worshippers

 

At the beginning, before Jesus launches into the parable, what is the issue that He is addressing? What is the reason why He is telling this parable?

  • Luke 18:9
    And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:
  • There was a certain group of people that trusted in themselves. They thought that they were righteous. They thought themselves in right relationship to God and probably considered themselves perfect and didn’t need any help.
  • Not only that, but what other attitude did they have?
  • They despised others. Not only did they look at themselves in such a good and righteous and perfect light, but they also viewed others in a very negative light.
    • As they compared themselves to other people, they looked down on them and considered them probably filthy, wretched and full of sin. They were self-righteous and bigoted.

With that understanding, let’s not jump into the parable.

  • Luke 18:10
    Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.
  • Who are the two characters that are highlighted here? A Pharisee and a publican.

Who would the Pharisee represent today?

  • They are the religious leaders. They would be the leaders of the church. The elder or the pastor or the deacon.

How about the publican? Who would he represent today?

  • The publican is a tax collector.
  • Let’s have a look at how the Bible describes the publican.
  • Matthew 18:17
    And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.

    • The publican is put in the same group as the heathen man.
  • What is a heathen man? A pagan person, a Gentile. Someone who doesn’t believe in God.
  • So the publican was not viewed as a good person in those days. The most famous of all tax collectors was Zacchaeus. He was rich, but nobody wanted to go to his house because he was a cheater. All tax collectors were dishonest people.
  • So there are 2 people that are highlighted in this parable. The Pharisee and publican.

Now let’s go back to Luke 18. What do we understand about the Pharisee?

  • Luke 18:11-12
    11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. 12 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.
  • So what do we know about this Pharisee? What does he do? He fasts twice a week.
  • What is fasting? Throughout a 7-day week, 2 of those days, he doesn’t eat. Imagine not eating for 2 days in a week! Seems like someone who is very religious, loves God, wants to please Him right? But we already know that this Pharisee is not cast in a good light.
  • Look, is fasting good for you? Yes, it is. It’s a good way to detox, to cleanse your system. It helps you to burn fat and lose weight. It helps your system to have a rest. This is why we shouldn’t eat in between meals as well. When you fast, your body rests for the whole day. That is good.
    • Fasting is also put together with something in the Bible. Fasting and prayer are important when it comes to casting out of evil spirits. When the disciples couldn’t cast out this evil spirit from a person, Jesus said that this kind only comes out through prayer and fasting.
    • So from a physical and a spiritual standpoint, fasting is good. Seems like a good person!
  • What else does he do? Everything he receives, he gives 10% to the church. So he’s a faithful tithe payer. He gives tithes of everything! He’s meticulous. To the very penny!
  • Look at how the Pharisees tithed.
    • Luke 11:42
      But woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
    • The Pharisees tithed even herbs. Like a leaf of a herb. They were that meticulous in following the others of God.
    • Look, we should be careful. Give to the very penny, or even round up to the whole dollar when we tithe our income. There is nothing wrong with that. What they did were good things.
  • What else do we understand about the Pharisee from verse 11? He says he is not like all these people – extortioners, unjust, adulterers.
  • If he’s not an extortioner. What is he? He is honest. Was he lying? Probably not. Unjust? No. Adulterer? Most definitely not!
  • So overall, from the outside perspective he seems like a good man, a righteous man!
  • These sorts of people in church are untouchable. Their lives are blameless.

All these things that we find in this Pharisee are good qualities, it seems. What then makes it bad?

  • Is being boastful so bad? Not really. He was probably boasting about things that were true. I don’t think the Pharisee was lying about him tithing and fasting and not being like all these other bad people.
  • So what was bad?
    • He compared himself to these other people. That was the problem.
  • What happens when you start comparing yourself to others, especially others that are not as good as you are?
    • What happens is that you begin to put your focus on them and not yourself. You see all their imperfections and it makes you blind to the issues in your own life.
    • Their issues and character might, in comparison, be worse than yours. However, the Bible says that all have sinned. All have come short of God’s glory.
  • When we focus on others, we tend to judge them rather than investigate our own lives. We look at their imperfections so much that we don’t take time to look at the mirror to see where God wants us to come up higher.

What did the publican do though?

  • Luke 18:13
    And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.
  • He wouldn’t even look up to heaven! But cried out to God to ask Him to be merciful on him.
  • He recognised the sin that he had done. He could see where he had fallen short. He didn’t look at anyone but himself and asked God for help and forgiveness!

However, what was the conclusion?

  • Luke 18:14
    I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
  • The Bible says that the publican went to his house justified. God had heard his cry and had forgiven him and showed mercy to him.
  • What does the word justified mean?
    • It means to be innocent, to be righteous, to be free.
    • The publican went home righteous.
  • But the funny thing is the Pharisee in verse 11 said he wasn’t unjust. He thought he was righteous. He thanked God that he was not unjust like these other sinners. But that is not how Jesus saw it. The publican went to his house justified, made righteous, and not the Pharisee.
  • And then the conclusion is made in verse 14 – for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
  • When you sit at the lowest seat, it can only get better because you can’t go any lower. However, when you put yourself up the highest, it can only get worse because you are already at the highest, you can’t go any higher.

When the Pharisee said that he was not like the publican, what was he thinking in his mind? He had all these thoughts of superiority. He felt better because he found someone worse than himself.

  • If we really look hard enough, we will always find someone uglier than ourselves, someone shorter than us, someone dumber, someone with more grey hair. It just depends on what is your focus.
  • What was the Pharisee literally doing though? Was it good? Were his works good? Yes it was! Is fasting good? Yes! How about paying tithe? Yes, those are all good works.
  • Don’t misunderstand this. What he was doing was good, but it became bad because of his focus. He wanted to be justified by his works alone and tried to justify himself even more by comparing himself to the publican who was standing next to him. The problem is he forgot to compare himself to Jesus. So he became puffed up and proud in his works.
  • Remember, this is the danger on focusing on others. It makes us look at others, at their faults and their failures. And we begin to think like the Pharisee looking at the publican – “you need Jesus more, you’re a tax collector.”
  • And because of this sort of attitude and focus, we fail to see the problems in our own lives and how much we actually need Jesus as well!
  • It can actually get to the point that we can justify the bad that we do because we found someone else that is worse than us. We look for the bigger problem and bigger sin in someone else’s life to minimize our problems and sins. This is why we need to be so careful because it makes us feel less our need for Jesus.

However, what was the response of the publican? How did he respond?

  • He wouldn’t even look up to heaven. He had no pride in his heart whatsoever because it was obvious to him that he had sinned and needed God. He just said “God be merciful to me, a sinner.” He would go to his house justified.

What helps us realise we are sinners? How can we have the experience of the publican?

  • 1 John 3:4
    Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
  • Sin is the transgression of the law. When we break the law, we sin. So the law of God is that which helps us to realise that we are sinners.
  • James 1:23-25
    23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: 24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. 25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
  • The law of God in this passage is compared to as a mirror. It shows us our reflection. It shows us where we have fallen short.
  • The Pharisee looks at the mirror, sees what he looks like, but as soon as he steps away he forgets. Either that or he isn’t even looking at the word of God at all. He’s caught up in all his traditions and not even spending time in God’s word.
  • This is how the Bible describes our generation:
    • Revelation 3:17
      Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
    • We are blind. We don’t know! We don’t have a true conception of our wretchedness!
  • How can we make sure we come to the point where we realise we need to change? We have to look at the law and continue to look at it. We forget too easy. So we must look and keep looking at the law. We must continue to spend time in God’s word and be familiar with His law every day.
  • I believe that if we continue to look at the law, then we won’t have time to look at other people. Or if we continue to look at the law and behold it and make it our priority, the way that we look at other people will be different as well.
  • Also, if we look at God’s law we will realise how much in desperate need we are of Jesus. Our desire for Christ would grow deeper. Our desire for change and a new heart would become more and more intense. The closer we draw to Jesus, the more sinful we would view ourselves.
  • We would have no time to look at others and judge others.
  • Too many of us are just madly rushing through life and our focus is wrong, and so we look at people wrong as well. We look at them to make ourselves feel better by comparison rather than look to Jesus and let Him make us clean and whole in Him.
  • Looking and comparing ourselves to others is trying to be justified in the wrong way. Justifying ourselves that we are better than others rather than letting Jesus justify us.

Any person that is alive today has this one problem – it’s called sin.

  • Romans 7:15
    For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

    • What I do, I actually don’t allow it. And what I want to do, I don’t do it. And what I hate, I keep doing it!
    • This is our addiction to sin. We are all slaves to sin. I do what I don’t want to do, and what I want to do I don’t do it.
  • Romans 7:19
    For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

    • Paul repeats it again the second time. Our addiction to sin.
  • But what is the problem?
    • Romans 7:20
      Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
    • Sin is dwelling in us. That is the problem!
  • This really is the problem of our lives today. We are caught up with so many things. We want to change but we can’t make that change in our lives.
  • Many of us want to sleep early to wake up early, but we can’t. We want to change our diets, we can’t. We want to stop wasting time watching movies, we can’t! We want to stop smoking or any other addiction, impossible! We have all violated our consciences at some point in time. And we all need help, we need Jesus.
  • The Pharisee forgot this because he stopped looking at the mirror, but he start looking at people, and he made himself feel better. What’s wrong with looking at people? Everybody is a sinner right? But it’s like a person in prison, “you murdered 2 people? I murdered only 1!” trying to make yourself feel better that way.

What do we need to do today?

  • What we need to do is PAUSE. Not just sit there and think about our life. You would get depressed. Yes we need to humble ourselves. But you got to sit there and think about Jesus. To meditate on His law and on His word. Give Him a chance to work in your life. God won’t just leave you there. He will reach down and help you.
  • This is why personal devotions, daily Bible reading, and Bible study is so important. It helps us have a true realisation of ourselves. We would be like the publican, “God be merciful to me a sinner!”
  • This is what justification looks like. This is what cleansing is all about. But you can’t be justified or pardoned until you know what you need to change. You can’t cry out to God for mercy and for help and for cleansing until you know what sort of help and mercy you need!

I believe that all of us know at least one thing that we need to change in our own lives right now. Not just spiritual things, but life in general. We know we need to change something. And if you know that, you are one step closer to Jesus. We got to stop comparing ourselves with each other. We need to compare ourselves with Jesus. He won’t just tell you what you’ve done wrong, but Christ will come in and clean you from the inside to the out. He will give us the right focus in life! Let’s stop looking with just our human eyes at this world but start focusing our eyes on the spiritual things and on heavenly things today!

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