Receiving Gods Mercy. (Luke 18:9-14)
Let's begin with a question. How do we gain God's mercy?
I think the average person on the street feels like you have to somehow merit God's mercy, either by being good or doing something that is good.
However, there is a passage of scripture where Jesus talks about this very issue and in it, he tells us who not only tells us who receives God's mercy but also who does not receive it.
This is a fascinating passage of scripture, so let's talk about who gains God's mercy and who doesn't get it.
9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 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. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
13 “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.’
14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
(Luke 18: 9-14)
This is a very famous passage of scripture, and a very interesting passage of scripture. It starts with Luke giving us a sort of heads up, so to speak, of what's coming, and then we have a very simple parable after which Jesus draws the conclusion from that little story.
So, let's begin with what Luke gives us the heads up, in verse 9.
"Jesus spoke a parable to those who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else."
Although the people he is speaking to are not identified in verse 9, it becomes immediately obvious that Jesus is talking about the Pharisees again because of the two men that he uses as illustrations in the story to come.
So, Luke says this parable is directed toward the type of people who trust in themselves think they're righteous, and stand before God and think they are righteous.
Now, what they mean by that will be explained in a minute, but the other thing that is significant is he says, " they also looked down “despised”, others.
Despised is a vivid word. It means to treat others with contempt, as if they are of no account.
And the parable that follows illustrates how that can happen.
Jesus tells the story of two men who go to the temple to pray. The Jews in those days prayed three times a day. They prayed at 9:00 in the morning, at noon, and at 3:00 in the afternoon.
So, the talk about two men going up to the temple to pray was something that would have been very familiar to all the people listening to this parable.
What Jesus does then is he says, let's focus on the first fella, a Pharisee.
Verse 11 tells us, he stood by himself and prayed. Now, he addresses God, but he's really addressing himself and probably all those people around who are listening to him pray.
This guy is praying, he is offering an eloquent, sanctimonious prayer, but not to God, but rather to those listening to him.
Alright, let's listen in on his prayer:
"God, I thank you that I am not like other men."
He's already looking down his nose and comparing himself to other people. Remember in verse 9, we were told he despises others, so keep that in mind when you hear what he prays.
"I'm not an extortioner, I never stole anything. I'm not unjust like some other people. I'm not a criminal, I'm not an adulterer, and I'm certainly not like this tax collector." (I paraphrase)
So, that's the specifics of him despising others, looking at others with contempt, rendering them of no account. "I'm not like these other people." So, he is clearly comparing himself with others and he's saying, "I am not like them."
Then he says this in verse 12, "I fast twice a week and I give tithes of all that I possess."
So, verse 11 is telling us what he does not do, verse 12 is telling us what he does do. So, he compared himself with other people, and especially a tax collector, and he concluded he did not do those bad things they did, instead he considers he does some pretty good things, therefore he must be righteous.
So, when he stands before God, that is what he' says.
Let’s talk about these things he did do first.
For one thing, he fasted. The Mosaic law required that the ancient Israelites fast once a year on the Day of Atonement. Over the years, pious Jews practiced a self-imposed fast of twice a week.
They fasted on Monday, and they fasted on Thursday.
So, he is saying, "I fast twice a week." And this is where this comes from, he fasted on Monday, and he fasted on Thursday.
He probably did more than that as well. We are told by some historians that on those two days because they were fast days, Jerusalem was full of people who'd come in from the countryside.
So, those who were fasting and praying and who really wanted to impress other people would whiten their face and appear in dishevelled clothes to show their piety to the greatest possible audience.
So, he's making a show out of this, he's really flaunting the fact that he fasted.
Then he says he tithed, but notice the way he says it, "I give tithes of all that I possess." Now, the Mosaic law required tithes, by the way, tithes plural.
We talk about tithing like it's a single 10%, but if you really look at the scripture, the "tithes" in the Old Testament were plural, and there were two tithes a year which was 20%, and every third year they gave another 10%, so it came out somewhere around 23 1/2%.
Now, that included supporting the temple, and that might be some of that might be comparable to our income tax. At any rate, they gave tithes, but they gave tithes according to the Mosaic law of all they produced.
The Pharisees again extended that beyond just what was produced in the field or the farm. They extended it to include every herb that was in the garden.
At any rate, the point seems to be that he went beyond what the law was requiring and gladly told everybody who would listen about it.
Now, from all outward appearances, this is not a bad man. He was not particularly wicked; he was not a criminal. In fact, he was deeply religious. He prayed and fasted twice a week and went above and beyond what was required of him.
However, God or Jesus here in this story is not looking at his outward appearance. Jesus is looking at his heart.
But here's what you need to know about the Pharisee. This is very important if you want to understand this passage of scripture.
The key point is that in his heart, he was comparing himself to other people and concluding that he was righteous before God.
He trusted in himself that he was righteous and despised others, So he was comparing himself with others, concluding he is righteous and trusting in that to give him favour before God. That's what's going on here.
So, to sum it up, the Pharisee was a proud, self-promoting, self-centred, self-righteous, self-absorbed human being, and the main cause of his ineffectiveness in prayer was his self-sufficiency.
He did not feel the need to ask God for anything. He had it all together and under control. He was self-righteous and self-sufficient.
(Luke 18: 13-14) PPT
However, in Jesus' parable, there's another man going up to the temple to pray, and he was a tax collector.
In ancient Israel at the time of Christ, tax collectors were despised by the Jews for the simple reason that Rome controlled Palestine, and the tax collectors worked for Rome.
They also bid on the job, and the one that got it could charge anything they wanted to. So, in the first place, they worked for Rome, and every Jew hated that.
In the second place, they were extortioners; they extorted people and charged exorbitant taxes.
The passage says the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven. He wouldn't even look up. But he beat his chest, saying, "God be merciful to me, a sinner."
Look at his body language, he’s standing afar off, not looking up to heaven, and his beating his chest, saying, "God be merciful to me, a sinner," all oozes humility.
This guy says he is a sinner he knew he had missed God's standard.
So, what this fellow is doing is comparing himself to God, not other people, and in doing so, he concludes, "I've got a problem. I need God's mercy."
So, he says, "God be merciful to me, a sinner."
This was an interesting verse. Being merciful to me obviously cries out for mercy, but some commentators point out that this is not the normal Greek word for mercy.
This is the word used here is the same word used to describe the mercy seat in the Holy Place in the Tabernacle.
So, looking at this situation we see sin is involved in the process, but it does seem to imply that the mercy he needs is a basis for forgiveness, like the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies.
The doctrine of propitiation isn't talked about very much these days. I mean, that's one of those big, theological words in the Bible that we don't use very much.
But it is one of the most important doctrines. John says that Jesus died not only for our sins but for the sins of the whole world. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not ours only but for the sins of the whole world.
The idea in propitiation is that the death of Christ satisfied the debt of human sin. So, we are saved because God is satisfied with the death of Christ, and that's the basic theological idea bound up in the word propitiation.
That Christ died and God looks at the cross and says, "I accept sin has now been paid for. Now I can be merciful to you."
Embedded in this parable is the fact that this second man looked at God's law, concludes he had missed the mark, and therefore because he is unrighteous before God, he then needs God’s mercy.
Jesus then says, "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other”. He asked for mercy, and Jesus said he went home justified.
Now there's another big, word we need to talk about. Do you know what justified means?
The doctrine of justification says you are "declared righteous." It's not that you are innocent. It's that you are declared righteous by God despite the fact you have fallen short and missed the mark.
God looks at what Jesus did and your dependence upon Christ and his death on the cross, means God gives you the righteousness of Christ, and because of that he declares you righteous.
Let me quote Paul in 2nd Corinthians 5:21:
"He who knew no sin," who might that be? Jesus, "became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."
This means, He gets our sin; but we get his righteousness. That's justification. But that's what Jesus is saying in this passage.
The man who said, "I'm a sinner and I need mercy," is the one who went home justified.
So, if we come before God confess our sin, pointing to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, then we can go home justified.
Alright, there you have it, the parable. Two men, one the Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
Now Jesus explains what has happened here. I find his explanation most fascinating.
So, look at this explanation, and se if he adds anything extra at the end.
Look at the last half of verse 14: “Everyone who exalts themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
And if we boil it down like this, if I had to pick one word that describes the problem of the Pharisee, it would be this: he was proud.
He exalted himself above others. So, he stood before God, and God said, I am holy, I am righteousness.
He did not humble himself before God, but let me tell you why.
He was religious, and he counted on his religion. That's the point. "He prayed three times a day, he fasted twice a week, and I tithed of all that was required, and more.
His problem was he had too much religion. When you've got so much religion that you're depending on it as your righteousness before God, you are at the point where you have too much religion, and not enough humility.
So, Jesus then says when that happens, "He that exalts himself above other people is going to be humbled and those who are humble he will raise up.
And that's clearly the tax collector in this story.
So, the tax collector humbled himself. So how did he do that? How do you humble yourself?
Well, in this parable, the way is clearly seen, you acknowledge that you're a sinner and that you need God's mercy.
So, he went away justified.
You see, salvation is not for religious people; it's not for righteous people. It's for sinners and unrighteous people. Salvation is only for sinners.
So, the tax collector qualified, and the Pharisee did not.
Jesus is teaching us simply this: the proud who trust their righteousness to gain God's favour will be humbled before God, but those who humble themselves by recognizing their sinfulness will be raised up before God.
As it says elsewhere.
God resist the proud and gives grace to the humble." Submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded.
(James 4: 6)
So if you want to be a recipient of God's mercy, that was the question I started out with: Who gains God's mercy? Well, here is the answer: the humble.
And what do you have to do to be humble? Well, James tells you:
Submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded.
It's people who recognize they are sinners. receive God's mercy.
As a believer when you come before God as a one who knows they are not perfect in any way.
You come with empty hands, not some religious thing you've done or righteousness you think you are.
If you come before God with empty hands, and God says, "That's the person I'm going to pour out grace to." And James 4tells us, "And he gives more grace."
You come once and get grace, and you come again, and you get more grace. You come again and you get even more get grace.
It's grace upon grace upon grace.
So, the principle that I want you to get today is that God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.
So, let me go back in the context of Luke 18 to wrap this up.
Unbelievers need to see themselves as sinners who need God's mercy. The proud, like the Pharisee in Luke 18, think they are superior in what they do and in what they do not do.
So, if I were just going to go through and list the characteristics of the proud and the humble in Luke 18, I'd say something like this:
The proud are people compare themselves with others and see their superiority. They exalt themselves above others; they despise others.
The humbles compare themselves with God and see their sin. The humble see their sin and realize they need God's mercy. They see the help is found only in God, and they seek it there.
And they're the ones that go to their homes justified.
And that's what I believe this passage is telling all of us, believers and non-believers alike.
You've got to be careful that you see yourselves the right way.
If you're religious, you've got to be doubly careful if you think you're righteous. Instead simply realize that you have to come to God as a sinner to receive mercy and be justified."
When we talk to unbelievers, there's a lesson here. When we talk to unbelievers, we need to remember that the root problem of self-righteous is pride.
The problem is people do not like to admit they're sinners, and at the bottom of that is pride.
But, there are layers of pride revealed in this parable.
The top layer is religiosity. They're the hardest people in the world to reach with the true message of the bible.
And the next layer under that, is people who are not religious but don't think of themselves as sinners.
As a matter of fact, our whole society is riddled with language that avoids the word "sinner."
Using an expression like "I made an error in judgment" is socially acceptable. So, we can handle that. But if you able to say at some level I’m a sinner," that means you have some concept of God, and so that's socially unacceptable.
So, I have a suggestion as to what you say when you're talking to somebody who's religious and self-righteous and proud? I have a suggestion.
Just tell them up front, read them this passage and tell them the truth. Look, if you think your religion is going to get you to heaven, you are sadly mistaken and you will find many are in for a great shock.
If you think you're going to get to heaven because of your righteousness or your works, you're going to be shocked. You simply need to come to Christ as a sinner and trust in Him.
So, from God's point of view, the ones who receive his mercy are those who admit they are sinners in need of his help. It's easy to qualify for then for we are all a bunch of sinners.
The is a lovely story of Francis the Great who was the King of Prussia.
One day, he decided to visit a prison and talked to several of the inmates. He discovered endless tales of innocence, of misunderstood motives, tales of unfair treatment exploitation.
Finally, he stopped at the cell of a convict who didn't say a word; he just remained quiet. Francis remarked, "Well, I suppose you're an innocent victim too." The man replied, "No, sir, I'm not. I'm guilty, and I deserve to be here." Returning to the warden, the king ironically said,
Release this rascal before he corrupts all of these fine, innocent people in here."