Dr. Roger Parrott, Belhaven University Chapel Series

To some who were confident in their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else. Jesus told this parable. Two men went up to the temple to pray. One a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, God, I thank you that I am not like other people, robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get. But the tax collector stood at a distance.

He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. I tell you that this man rather than the other went home justified before God.

For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, but those who humble themselves will be exalted. People were also bringing babies to Jesus for him to place his hands on them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them.

But Jesus called the children to him and said, let the little children come to me and do not hinder them. For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

Truly, I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.

Well, as you know by now, Jesus told stories. He told stories to help us understand how different the kingdom of God is from the world in which we live.

And the world we know.

He tried to help us to not see the world through sin's distorted perspective, but see it through the way he designed it, the way he intended for.

Us to live and to relate and to flourish.

And so he told these stories, these.

Parables, and they all started with the.

Kingdom of heaven is like.

Or the kingdom of God is like, interchangeable.

As you know, it's upside down from what the world values. And it's not just a little different, it's totally different.

We're going to see today the difference between the self righteous and the humble and how dramatically different it is.

And as I've shared with you through the semester and will in the spring again as we continue in the parables, it's a daily process to day by day understand and internalize and live in the kingdom of God. Because the kingdom of God is not for somewhere in the future in heaven. The kingdom of God, he said, is now. And we can live in the kingdom.

Of God spirit right now, day by day, to see, to love and to follow every day just a little bit more.

So today, what God sees when we.

Pray, what does God see when we pray?

He told the story of a parable.

Of a tax collector and a pharisee.

Now, Jesus was more critical of the self righteous than any other sin that he ever talked about. More often he attacks self righteous religious.

Leaders than he attacks any other type of sin.

And today is another example of that.

In this parable, to understand the details of the story and understand the significance of it, we really have to understand the context of when they live. We have to understand some of the history about which he's referring to, and we have to understand some how the Jewish faith operates.

This was before the Messiah. This is before the Holy Spirit came. So how did people relate to God in those days?

And when you understand that, then this parable takes on even more meaning. And so the story starts like this. Two men went up to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other.

Was a despised tax collector.

Now the Temple in Jerusalem no longer stands. You see on television often Jewish people.

Or other leaders going to the wailing wall.

The wailing wall is a retaining wall of where the Temple used to be. The Temple was up on top of that where they've now built some other.

Structures and dome of the rock, these kinds of things.

But the Temple is all gone. In fact, Jesus said when he was living on earth, he said, within one generation, every stone will be removed from the Temple.

Pretty dramatic statement, because the Temple was the center of everything. The Temple was the most holy place. The Temple was kind of something everybody assumed would be there forever. But it's true.

About 40 years after the crucifixion, the Romans attacked Jerusalem and took down every single stone of the Temple and removed it. But the Temple was where the Ark of the Covenant was.

The ten Commandments that Moses wrote on stone, and those were in the Temple held there in Jerusalem. But, but more important than that, it was a place where the presence of God was. This was not an ordinary church. This was a very special place where.

The presence of God was, where glory.

Resided, where prayers were heard, where sacrifices were made. And so the Temple was constructed really with four, excuse me, five different layers to it.

The first was on the outside was the court of Gentiles, because the Jewish people were the chosen people.

They're the ones who were. It was their faith.

And they would go inside more fully. But the Gentiles could be on the outside. It was really kind of outside of.

The actual gate of the Temple.

But that was one place you could be. Then you could go into the next court, and that was called the court of women.

Now men and women could both be in that court, but women could not go Past that, into the inner courts. The next was the court of Israel. That's where Jewish men went and where priests went, because that was an elevated place for them.

And then there was the holy place, even closer into the center of the temple, where sacrifices were made and people would bring animals and follow sacrificial process there in that center. And then the center of the temple was called the holy of holies. It was the place where God dwelled on earth. It was separated from everything else.

In fact, there was a huge curtain, thick curtain, don't think of a normal curtain, I mean, a huge, thick, thick, thick curtain that surrounded it. And once a year, only one time a year, the chief priest, after he purified himself, following the ritual that were.

Prescribed in the Torah, the Old Testament,.

The first five books, he would go into the holy of holies one time.

A year into the presence of God, because it was a pure place.

So that's where the temple was that they went to.

And now in this holy of holies, just so you understand the significance of it, as I said, there was this veil, they called it a curse curtain, separated God from the sinful world. And when Jesus was crucified while he was on the cross, after he said, father, I commend to you my spirit. And he said, it is finished.

And he died on the cross. That huge veil in the temple that was so thick you couldn't imagine.

It tore open and the spirit of God came into the world in a new way.

That's how significant this place was. So when Jesus said the Pharisee and the tax collector were going to the temple to pray, this wasn't like us.

Going to church to pray.

This was a very special place to come as close as you could to.

The prayer presence of God. That's why they went to the temple to pray.

Now, in those days there were set times for prayer. They would pray at 9 o' clock in the morning and they would pray.

At 3 o' clock in the afternoon.

And these were communal prayers. So a lot of people came at those times, weren't the only times they.

Prayed, but those were the primary times they prayed.

And a lot of people would come and they'd stand in the courts, in the temple, or they'd get on their knees and. And they would lift their hands up.

Or they would stand up. One of the two was what was customary.

And they would all pray out loud.

At the same time. That was how they shared in prayer.

Well, the Pharisee came and he was a religious leader. Now the Pharisee as a religious leader, Pharisee means separated one. So he was separated as one more holy than other people in that.

In their culture and in their faith,.

Because he was to be devoted to purity and obedience to God's law. The Pharisees followed very carefully the first five books of the Old Testament, the.

Law of Moses, the Torah, as they call it.

And it was God's way in those books of giving very prescriptive direction on how to separate yourself from the world and be connected to God and impurity.

And he gave them helps and guides on how to navigate through a sinful world, emphasizing ritual, purity, tithing, fasting, prayer and sacredness of the Sabbath. So that was what the Pharisees were.

Focused on, or what they were supposed to be focused on.

There were about 6 to 10,000 Pharisees. So there was a lot of them, but they weren't, you know, a huge number. But they were respected by the people as holy men.

They probably wore some kind of robe that identified them and a sash that would stand out. And people knew that this was somebody special. They'd probably give way to them because.

These were important people in their religious tradition.

They were really feared by a lot of people because they were the moral authority. And they were the ones who decided what was moral and what was not moral.

And.

And they were judgmental about people who didn't follow the law of Moses as they did. But they were also disliked by the Romans.

The Romans couldn't stand the Pharisees because the Pharisees were about the Jewish people and the nationalism of Judea. And they were resisting the assimilation that the Romans wanted when they conquered the Judea to assimilate them into the Roman Empire.

And so there was a lot of.

Tension around the Pharisees.

So that's who we have going to this temple to pray. The Pharisee went to the temple. He should go there. That's what a Pharisee should do. But he went there to be heard and seen and to get the admiration.

Of his peers, not to get closer to God.

In fact, he goes in and begins to pray and lists his achievements and lists the sins of others and says, I'm glad I'm not like them. You see, for the Pharisee, his prayer,.

The temple, was a stage, and that's all it was.

He wanted everybody around him to hear him, to see him and to know.

How wonderful he was as a religious leader. But then we have the tax collector.

Totally different environment, totally different set of.

Circumstances than a tax collector.

You see, when the Romans occupied Judea. They had to get taxes from the.

People to pay for the Roman government and the Roman legions and all the costs of that.

And so they created a system called tax farming.

And in tax farming, what they would essentially do is assign a territory and they would say, out of these blocks or this little community or this village, whatever it may be, we need those people to pay, let's say, $100,000 in today's dollars, okay? So we need them to pay $100,000 so a tax collector could come and buy the right to. To collect those taxes in that region.

So he would pay the Roman people, Roman government, $100,000, and then he would go out and everything he could get.

Over $100,000 was his profit. So he'd try and collect 130, $140,000,.

And that was his profit from it. And so when the Pharisee says this despised tax collector, yeah, he was despised. People hated him for a lot of reasons.

First of all, he's taken money from them, and he's taking more money from.

Them than Rome required them to pay.

But they were also traitors because these were Jewish men working for Rome and the Roman culture during that time. If you think our culture's bad today, it's nothing compared to what Rome was. It was wicked, it was horrible.

It was debauched in every single way you can imagine.

There was no presence of God in the Roman Empire. And so for a Jewish man to.

Take money from Jewish people to give.

To this horrible government, that is a betrayal of God's chosen people.

But they were also corrupt. Think of a tax collector as kind of like a mafia person who strong arms, everybody, and they're corrupt in order to get what they want.

They make a lot of money, but there's no quality of life. If you ever studied what goes on in the Mafia world, it's amazing to me, they have all this money, but.

There's absolutely no quality of life to what they do.

So there was corruption to it. He was considered unclean because a Jew would not handle gentile money. To touch Gentile money would have made you unclean.

And so for a Jew to handle that money and to interact with pagan officials, he was unclean. And because of that, he was cut off. He was cut off from religious life. He was cut off from community respect.

He was cut off from all moral credibility.

People wanted nothing to do with a tax collector. Despised tax collector. Pretty accurate description.

So the tax collector also went to the temple, and the tax collector went to the temple seeking Forgiveness.

Scripture says he stood far off. The Jew probably stood in the outside of the court, probably not even went to the women's court, probably stood out.

In the Gentile court.

He didn't get close to where the.

Sacrifices were made for sins.

He was drawn to God's mercy, as close as he felt safe to get to it. But he couldn't get very far. But he came to confess. And so while for the Pharisee, the temple was a stage, for the tax.

Collector, the temple was a sanctuary. And that's the prayer we have when two men went to the temple to pray.

So when Jesus told the story of a tax collector as a spiritual hero, this was scandalous. The people couldn't believe he would tell this story. A tax collector is a spiritual hero. That doesn't make any sense.

Listeners would have been shocked. In their world, there was no more despised figure. But Jesus redeems tax collectors. Jesus redeems sinners.

Jesus redeems the people that everybody else.

Has given up on.

Jesus redeems those who.

Who are called despised because of their sin. You know the story of Zacchaeus saying.

It probably in Sunday school, about the little man climbed up to the sycamore tree to see Jesus, and Jesus came by because he wanted to see him. He said, come on, I'm going to your house. We're going to have a long talk.

Zacchaeus was a tax collector.

Levi, who Jesus called to be a disciple, was a tax collector. What he changed his name to when Jesus, he followed Jesus.

Matthew wrote the first book of the New Testament. Tax collector became a disciple.

So we have this parable.

These two men, as different as can be, tax collector who represents in the story true repentance and humility and awareness of sin and faith in God's mercy,.

Contrasted with the Pharisee, who's self righteous, who's judgmental, who's legalistic, and Jesus makes a judgment about these two men.

The Pharisee went where he could be heard and seen. He won the admiration of peers. He wanted to list out his achievements before God and. And the temple to him was a stage.

And the tax collector came seeking forgiveness, stood far off because he wasn't worthy. He came to confess.

And the temple was a sanctuary.

Now, when you get in the stories in more detail, then you begin to.

Even see more of the significance of this.

Said the Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer. I thank you, God, that I'm not like other people. Cheaters, sinners, adulterers. I'm certainly not like that.

Tax collector. So he must have seen him.

I fast twice a week and I.

Give you a tenth of my income.

You see, the Pharisee does everything right outwardly. He goes to church, he prays, he fasts, he tithes, he shows up at all the special Bible studies.

But his prayer reveals his heart. His prayer is, God, I thank youk that I'm not like other people. He's not praying to God in that.

He's holding up a mirror, a spiritual mirror, admiring himself. That's it. He stood by himself, the scripture says, as he was superior to others. He didn't want to be close to others.

He probably wanted to be separated, maybe up a little bit on a step where he made sure everybody could see him. He stood by himself because he was not like them.

And Jesus was so critical of the.

Self righteous because they can't even see it. They are so sure they're right about everything,.

They don't realize how completely wrong they are.

And then as in now the Pharisees.

Stuck together and now the self righteous stick together.

They surround themselves by other self righteous people, so they follow on exit on Facebook and whatever else other self righteous people, so they feel even more self.

Righteous in their being right about everything and everybody else is wrong. Pharisees did everything right outwardly, but inwardly there was no spirit of God.

Jesus didn't condemn the Pharisees because they loved the Scripture. He loved that they loved the Scripture. But that was the problem. They knew the Scripture inside and out.

He condemned them because they missed the heart of the script scripture. His faith was about admiration and performance. His spiritual pride is what drove him.

Or self righteousness, you can call it either one.

He was legalistic. He elevated man made traditions above God's.

Heart and spirit and he was judgmental as could be.

They controlled the religious system, kind of who's in, who's out. What sin is bad, what sin is worse. They counted with the deciders, all that.

Deciding who was worthy. And that's where they got their satisfaction, but couldn't find relationship with God. Well then we have the tax collector, it says.

But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead he beat on his chest in sorrow saying, O God, be merciful to.

Me, for I am a sinner.

He stands at a distance. He knows he doesn't deserve God.

And there are sinners who are afraid to even come close to God because they know in comparison to God's purity, they don't deserve to be there.

And that's who this guy was. I don't know what he, I mean, tax collector. We saw the characteristics of that plus everything that led into it.

We don't know the depths of all.

His sins or what his heart was, but he knew at that point he was broken. We know that self righteous people didn't care about him.

Glad I'm not like that tax collector.

He felt condemned by everybody around him.

Scripture says he wouldn't even look up. Now in those days, the tradition to pray was you either stand or, or you look up. Well, if you stood, you looked up too.

But you either stand or you hold.

Your hands up and you look up.

That's how people pray.

They didn't pray like we do now, where you bow your head and close your eyes and that kind of thing.

The physical posture reflected their spiritual posture.

But in the Roman culture, submission meant you kept your eyes down.

If a Roman leader came down the street, you, you would never look up at them. You would put your eyes down and.

Not look up because you were in submission to them. And so we have this image of this tax collector who couldn't even look.

Up because he was so broken and submitted to God. And then it says he beat on his chest in sorrow. He was broken with pain. He was self aware. He knew he's shamed, he knew he sinned.

He didn't need the Pharisee to point out his sin.

Boy, there's a lot of that that goes on, isn't there? We have Pharisees all around us every day who want to point out everybody else's sin. But you know, I don't think sinners need that. I think they know.

I think they know and they just somehow want to come closer to God. And so we prayed.

He prayed, o God, be merciful on.

Me, for I am a sinner.

He didn't make any excuses. He could have had excuses. He might have said, God, be merciful on me because I'm a sinner.

Because, you know, I didn't want to do this, but I really needed the money. I got a sick child and I got to take care of that child. I had to be a tax collector and be corrupt to do this.

Or he could have said, I, I'm a Jew and I see the hypocrites of the Pharisees and the hypocrites of everybody else. I'm giving up on the church and so that's why I did it. Or he could have been pulled into it by friends and friends said, man,.

You can make a lot of money doing this, you really ought to do it.

And he just kind of slipped into.

A life of sin and corruption. He didn't make any excuses at all. He just said, be merciful to me because I am a sinner.

He was throwing himself on God's mercy.

He brought nothing to the table other than his need. You know, pride resists grace and humility receives grace. God isn't looking for people who have it all together.

He's looking for people honest enough to.

Say, I need mercy, I'm a sinner. So let's look at what Jesus said about these two men. Story goes on.

I tell you this, I tell you this. Sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be.

Humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

The Pharisee's goodness, good acts couldn't save him. Self righteousness closed the door on grace to the Pharisee.

And the tax collector brought nothing good to the table to earn salvation. But humility opened the door to grace for him.

The Pharisee was all about comparison and self trust.

And the tax collector was all about humility and dependence.

One had the illusion of control of their spiritual life and the other was.

About complete trust in God for their future and their spiritual life. True spirituality begins with brokenness. No excuses, no justifications, no conditions. God measures hearts. He doesn't read resumes.

You see, the Pharisees religion was external.

But the tax collector's repentance was internal and became eternal. The Kingdom of God. Repentance is more powerful than reputation.

The gospel humiliates the proud and it.

Lifts up the humble over and over. The parable series we've talked about this semester talks about all of them.

Lead in to understand this kingdom of God upside down from what the world's like.

And this Pharisee and tax collector, if you want to put it, look at it in understanding the kingdom of God.

And how we're to live.

Let me give you three takeaways. Especially if you are a Pharisee.

If you are self righteous.

If.

If you think you've got it all.

Together, if you are judgmental of other people. Look carefully at what the Kingdom of God teaches Pharisees. The first is stop performing and start depending.

Grace isn't a reward.

Grace is a rescue.

The way up to God in the.

Kingdom of God is down on your knees in humility.

Humility isn't a weakness. It's a spiritual strength that comes through.

With grace and dependence. And we need to not be performing before God or performing before each other, but just depending on the Lord.

Secondly, in the kingdom of God, trade comparison for compassion.

How do you know when you've accepted God's grace?

How do you know it? You know it when you stop feeling superior to other people. That's when you know it.

And if it ever loses sight of that, you need to get back to the place you started.

Some people, their faith is built on pointing out everybody else's sins. You know, that's just an acceptable form of comparison.

So we're going to talk about how bad this sin is and that sin is and this group and what they do and that, oh, that's horrible what they do. And we've got to do this and that. That's just Phariseeism. That's all it is. It's an acceptable form of comparison.

When you really have the grace of Christ flowing through you, you have love and compassion for sinners.

You don't criticize them all day long. Trade comparison for compassion. And then be yourself before God. No pretending.

Be honest in your prayers. Stop pretending. He already knows who you're pretending for. He already knows. Be authentic in what you talk to him about.

Authenticity is what builds relationships, isn't it?

Can you imagine being in a relationship with somebody and you're playing a facade the whole time and you're not telling them all the parts about you, and you're not telling them how you really feel or where you really are? There's no relationship there. It's a show.

Relationship with God has to be built in. Authenticity. And humility isn't a moment. Humility is a lifestyle.

Humility always permeates what we do when we understand the power of God's grace to save each one of us a sinner. So I want to ask you a quick question. How long has it been since you were honest in your prayers?

How long has it been since you.

Were really honest in your prayers?

There's an old hymn I love.

I got it on my playlist too many times. It's written about when I was born, so maybe I grew up with her or whatever. But hymn is how long has it been? How long has it been?

And there's some questions asked in that.

Hymn that I just really love.

How long has it been since you talked to the Lord and told him your heart's hidden secrets? How long? How long since you prayed? How long since you stayed on your knees till the light shone through?

How long has it been since your mind felt at ease? How long since your heart knew no.

Burden how long has it been since you woke with the dawn and felt the days worth the living and the song says can you call him your friend? How long has it been since you knew that he cared for you? If it's been too long Today, last chapel of the semester.

It's a good time to start to do something about it. Well, the parable, the Pharisee and the.

Tax collector, they both went to the temple to pray. God heard them both.

And God saw their heart in both.

In one he saw pride and self.

Righteousness and superiority and in the other he saw brokenness, humility and dependency and Jesus said only one went home justified only one Pray together with me Our benediction no eye is seen, no ear is heard no mind is conceived what God has prepared for those who love him. Thanks for being in chapel this semester Been great. I'll miss you till spring and I'll see you then. God bless.