We've been on a journey in our church family on the gospel of Luke, looking at the journey of Jesus, and really what we're watching is Jesus is on the road towards Jerusalem. He has a goal, he knows where he's going, he knows what's going to happen at the end of that goal he's heading to the cross. But on the way, there's a number of events or peoples that he connects with, and particularly the Pharisees, and he continually has these dialogues with them about the kingdom of God, which is also the second thing that he continues to talk about, the kingdom, the coming kingdom, what this kingdom is about, and who might be able to be a part of it. So he is now, we have seen as we've journeyed through this series at King's Table, has been that Jesus will often use comparisons, comparative looks at different groups of people. He's just done that in the previous chapters already, or the previous verses, just as we get to this, these verses here in verse 9, and now he does this again. He's using a Pharisee and a tax collector as examples. Before we get to that passage again and start to unpack it, I do want to ask a question of each one of us. Maybe it's a statement, maybe it's not even a question, but I do think that we, being human, like to think of ourselves more independently capable and even better than we actually are. I'm not gonna have you raise your hands if that's you, because I already know all of us should raise our hands. I mean sometimes thoughts go through our minds such as, you know, I might have issues but at least I'm not like that other guy, you know, or I'm so thankful that I'm a harder worker than my brother, right honey? Aren't I better than him? You know, maybe those are some conversations you've had in your home. I don't know, but maybe it's some thoughts along those lines where we constantly compare to prove that we're smarter, that we're more talented, that we're more productive than the people around us. And sometimes we see this evidence in a disregard even of other people's achievements as insignificant, well exaggerating our own. Or maybe there's this, we have this condescending attitude where we're unnecessarily explaining obvious things, you know, you give a little snort as you share, well really, come on, you didn't know that? We use a dismissive tone sometimes during the disagreement. Sometimes it's even where we're wanting to be the center of every single conversation where we're always trying to turn the conversation to our own life and overshadow other people's contributions. Here's the thing, the foolishness of sin tells us that we have all that we need within ourselves and that we're pretty good. You know, even if I must say so myself. So what do we do? We defend ourselves when the people around us point at a weakness or a wrong. When we turn back at them and say, I'll take care of the log in your own eye, brother. We hold our struggle within even at times and keep it silent to ourselves, not taking advantage of the resources that God has given us, which by the way one of those resources is the gathering of God's people together community. Here, the lie of the garden was that Adam and Eve could be like God, you know, independent, self-sufficient. And I think we still tend to buy into that lie even today. I look at my own life. When I tell my stories, I become more the hero than I ever was. I look wiser in my narratives than I've ever been. In view of my history, my choices were better than what they actually were. And what I also find is that often it isn't my sin that keeps me from coming to God. Sadly, I don't come to him because I don't think I need the grace that can be found only in him. My posture is wrong because my posture is indicating that I am self-sufficient. Or maybe it's the opposite that maybe my posture indicates that I'm not worthy to even approach Jesus. And that's a wrong posture too because it means I don't trust then Jesus to deal with my issue, my problem, my sin. There's a speaker from the 19th century pastor. His name was Charles Spurgeon. He used to tell a story about a duke who boarded a galley ship and went below to talk with the criminals that were manning the oars. He asked several of them what their offenses were. Almost every man claimed that he was innocent. It wasn't me, somebody else. I was framed. Maybe he was a judge, took a bribe. One young fellow, however, replied, sir, I deserve to be here. I stole some money. Nobody's at fault but me. I'm guilty. And upon hearing this, the duke shouted, you scoundrel you. What are you doing here with all these honest men? Get up out of this company. Get out of here. The duke ordered that this prisoner be released. He was set free while the rest were left to tug at the oars. The key to this prisoner's freedom was his admission of his guilt. It was his recognition that he wasn't the center of the world. And by the way, that's true of salvation. Until a person is willing to admit that they're not good enough to gain salvation, until they recognize that they are a sinner in need of salvation, until they recognize that he or she are not the center of the universe, he or she cannot then experience freedom from guilt and condemnation and from the chains that hold them to the oars. But the sooner we learn that we're not righteous enough, that we all need to repent of our sin, that none of us can ever be good enough to even be good enough, the sooner we understand our place in the kingdom of God, in our place before the glory of Jesus Christ, the better. It's in this passage that we, that I just read a few moments ago that we're also told by Jesus that the way to be justified, that that entry into the kingdom and all the blessings to gain from that kingdom is through a posture of humility. And it all begins in a parable contrasting, of contrasting postures. Look at verse 9. He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else. So what Jesus is doing, he's directing the story. Again, he's now inter-dialoguing with the Pharisees and he's directing this story to those of them who think that their sins smell better than other people's and then who look down on those who sin even differently than they do. These folks were obnoxiously self-righteous and they looked at everybody else as pretty much as nobodies. You weren't part of my club so you don't count. That's pride. Pride is a problem in so many ways, but for one it causes us to think too highly of ourselves and gives us permission to become harsh with those we think fall below our standards. You know, when Jesus came to this earth, he came and he said, I came to seek and save the hood. You know? Who? Somebody help me out. The lost. Why did he see people that way? Because he had compassion. But too often we look at people as losers. Somebody cuts us off on the highway. Somebody doesn't give us the right money back. Somebody doesn't do the best job. Somebody just doesn't fit within my circle and we can look at them as losers and when we see people as losers there's contempt. We need to have the eyes of Jesus who sees people as lost where there's compassion. And not so Jesus is, but we too often do the opposite because when we compare ourselves with others it's easy to condemn them and even look on them with contempt. C.S. Lewis wrote in his book, Mere Christianity, these words, as long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people. And of course as long as you're looking down you cannot see something that is above you. Isn't that good? That's so true. So now Jesus addressing those who are self-righteously looking down their noses on others deemed lesser than them. Jesus introduces a parable describing two different people. One's a Pharisee and the other of course is a tax collector. The temple by the way was Israel's most holy site and people often go there to praise and to pray twice a week. They were very, very, very intense on their practice. And it's in that place that we see the hypocrisy and the legalism of the Pharisee. In fact, when we read his prayer we immediately smell his self-righteousness, don't we? And we're right to do that and Jesus intends us to smell self-righteousness all over the pages here but Jesus also knew that his original audience wouldn't have recoiled with disgust even at the prayer of this Pharisee because there were qualities even in this prayer that they would have admired. First of all, they were already predisposed to admire the Pharisee because the Pharisee was part of this back to God movement that had been going on in Israel for already 500 years. And so this guy was great, didn't matter what he did, it had to be good because he did it. He was all about the Torah, Pharisee, this Pharisee prayer was. He was all about God's Word. He was viewed in their eyes as the equivalent of a godly ruling elder or deacon who you know leads the Bible studies and engages in cohorts and men's groups and men's breakfasts and serves on the local community's tourism board. This guy was pretty good. He has a great reputation in in his dealings with other people. He's faithful to his wife and his family and he's involved in his community. This is one upstanding man of respect and Jesus knew that his audience would be predisposed to say, well that's a good man. So when he starts praying there, first reaction actually wouldn't have been to recall in horror at this self-righteous hypocrite but to actually admire him, maybe even take notes of how he prayed. They would have admired his morality, his religiosity, his sinlessness. First off notice again look at verse 11. The Pharisee was standing and praying like this about himself. God I thank you that I'm not like other people. Greedy, unrighteous, adulterous or even like this went over. Tax collector. He's identifying himself as an upright citizen. He's a moral man. He doesn't rip off people in business. He doesn't cheat on his taxes. He doesn't cheat on his wife. He hasn't betrayed his country like that tax collector has who's been working for the accursed Romans and probably skimming some off the top to boot. So he's saying you know what I'm a pretty good guy if I must say so myself. Quite the moral man in fact. And the people in Jesus' audience would have applied and said yeah that's so marvelous isn't he great. Then he says I'm not only a moral man, I'm a religious man. You can see that when he says in verse 12 I fast twice a week and I give a tenth of everything I get. Pharisees by the way were big, big into fasting and certainly showing it off and they were also big into tithing. They in fact didn't just fast on special occasions so they would do that as well but they would fast regularly on Tuesdays and Thursdays and tell everybody else about it. They wouldn't even drink water when they're fasting. Furthermore they'd gone through the Torah, gone through the Torah again and gone through the Torah again and again and again and discovered every tithe listed and they added them all up and do you know how much of their income they gave? They gave over a minimum of 20% of their income to God. 20%. I mean now what pastor wouldn't want a leader like this in his congregation who doesn't cheat on his taxes, who has an honorable reputation in business, who doesn't cheat on his wife, who isn't a betrayer in his community and who gives over 20% of his income to the work of God. I mean boy you got pastors lined up for a guy like that in his church. So you can see Jesus is setting us up of course and people are applauding this guy's amazing and the Pharisees of course are going boy I think Jesus has turned a corner he's now one of our friends. Furthermore notice he not only indicates that he's a moral man and a religious man but he thanks God for his sinlessness. I don't know if you caught that in verse 11 again. God I thank you that I'm not like other people. You see what's going on? He's thanking God for his morality. He's giving God credit that he's a moral guy and that's what he's getting at in his prayer. In other words he's saying I thank you Lord that you've made me a moral man and you've made me a religious man. The credit goes to you but notice a couple of things that are entirely missing from his prayer. There's no sense of sin or need of repentance whatsoever. And by the end of the story Jesus wants that to be screaming in our eardrums. There's not the slightest sense that this man has anything that he needs to be forgiven for. You see the Pharisee is self-righteous because he's proud of what he doesn't do and he's religious because he's proud of what he does do. This reminds me of the old Mac Davis song. Some of you may have remembered this song. Some of you it's gonna be brand new. I will not sing it but I'll share a line. Oh Lord it's hard to be humble when you're perfect in every way. I can't wait to look in the mirror because I get better looking each day. Do you know some of you know that song? We're not singing as a hymn here please. So he gives God credit but his thanks to God is all about what a great guy he is. There's no humility. You see his posture is all wrong. Then we have this tax collector guy. This is the one who the audience would then immediately as if they were in a show go boo hiss. In contrast to the Pharisees he tax collectors were considered the low lives of society. They were working for the pagan Romans. They owned tax franchises and they would charge exorbitant rates and keep most of the money for themselves. They're seen as traitors. I mean if the Pharisee was a good guy the wearer of the white hat the the tax collector would have been considered the villain. The guy with the you know the twirled mustache and wearing the black hat. Tax collector he's the most despised, disrespected and despicable individual around. And these two men were at the opposite ends of the spiritual spectrum. So knowing that let's look at his prayer. Verse 13. But the tax collector standing far off would not even raise his eyes to heaven but kept striking his chest and saying God have mercy on me a sinner. Now think about this posture. Well the Pharisee was probably standing as close to the holy place as possible so that everybody could see him. The tax collector is far off standing timidly on the outer edge. We see in his posture and hear in his prayer the presence of humility and and and God focused trust. Even before he he opens his mouth his head is bowed. He can't bear to look up to heaven because he knows that he doesn't deserve heaven's blessings but yet he he still has this this great need. And what is that need? He's a sinner and he needs to be forgiven of his sins if he's going to be cleared just by God and so he prays God God have mercy on me. He identifies himself as a person who must either be the object of God's mercy or be the object of God's wrath. And that leads us to something else. Notice that he doesn't ground his hope for acceptance with God on anything in himself. It's turned to God. It's a prayer that says God have mercy on me not because I'm good because I'm not. I'm a sinner but be merciful to me because you're merciful. By the way this phrase have mercy literally means to be propitiated towards me. This this big word propitiated simply means to be satisfied. In other words the only way God would be satisfied with the sinner would be if God chose to be merciful. This is the verb form of a noun that refers to the mercy seat which was the old lid on the Ark of the Covenant. Once a year on the day of atonement a goat would be slaughtered and his blood would be sprinkled over top of the mercy seat over top of this lid. And when God looked down he would see the blood of the sacrificial substitute that covered the sins of his people. So that's a picture here that Luke is allowing us to get a peek into. John says this about Jesus in 1st John 2.2 and he himself is the propitiation. He's the satisfier for our sins and not for ours only but also for the whole world. This tax collector is saying God please apply the atonement to me. Be merciful to me not on the basis of what I've done but on the basis of the blood shed by the substitute. So you see this picture here right? The contrasts. One man gushed with spiritual pride and the other oozed spiritual poverty. One felt religiously rich, the other knew he was spiritually bankrupt. One man was impressed with his own accomplishments, the other was depressed by his failures. One boasted, the other begged. And Jesus uses this story to surprise his audience with this shocking summary in verse 14. Because up to this point they were applauding the Pharisees still. They were looking at the tax collector and going see what a shameful man he is. Of course he should be begging. He's not gonna get help but he should be begging. Jesus shocks them with this in verse 14. I tell you this man talking about the tax collector went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted. What an outrageous reversal to the ears of the religious guys listening in. I mean it would have made them gasp. Maybe even sick to their stomachs. Surprisingly to too many it's a despised tax collector and not the Pharisee who the Lord commends. Really? How? How could you do that? But that's because he had the right posture. A posture of humility before God. And church that's the posture that pleases God. He acknowledged and confessed to sin. He approached God in humility. He recognized that his own goodness is as filthy rags and that his only hope was to seek God and to plead for his grace. So Jesus told this parable to illustrate that being a good person was not good enough. Being good and doing good works is important but they're insufficient for justification for righteousness. He's using this parable to tell us that almost recognize that our good works cannot save. Doesn't matter how good we are. We're never good enough to be good enough. It's only yielding to God by committing to live for God and confessing our sins committed against God can open that door to salvation. And when we pray as a tax collector did we set aside pride and then what we do is we posture ourselves to receive God's forgiveness. Which is why Luke tells Luke next tells the story of the little children here being brought to Jesus to drive this point home that humility is the posture that pleases God. Let's read verse 15. People were bringing infants to him so that he might touch them but when the disciples saw it they rebuked them. Jesus however invited them. Let the little children come to me and don't stop them because the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it. Those should be sobering words. They should be words that cause us to sit up and take notice so that is my prayer that we would. Now what Luke is doing is is pairing these two scenes together structurally to emphasize a singular truth. Neither religious pedigree nor status grants entry into the kingdom. Just as the tax collector had nothing to bring but his need for mercy one must approach God with absolute complete unmerited dependence like a child. You have to understand or know that in that society children were often treated with contempt not as much compassion. In fact they were viewed as property or as a future retirement plan. In fact there was a papyrus letter that had been written by a man named Hilarion to his expectant wife Elias. It was dated June 17th 1 BC it's her natural letter and in this letter Hilarion instructs his wife if it's a male child let it live. If it's female cast it out and that would not have been uncommon in that day. In ancient Rome in fact fathers held absolute power over their children this power is called patria potes tas. A father could condemn a child to die simply by commanding it to be done. So what Jesus does here is counterculture. That is so Jesus isn't it? Counterculture he does something he elevates children to a place of importance. But the disciples of course as we read here they they just thought that Jesus is too busy to be interrupted we can't do that. I mean especially for a bunch of kids so they try to stop the tots and the moms from coming. But when they rebuke the parents Jesus immediately steps in and uses this moment as a teaching opportunity. For one Jesus knows that children are trusting, humble and they're dependent aren't they? They're so trusting that have to be warned not to talk to strangers. Most children small children are full of acceptance. They have to be taught not to. They usually have complete confidence in other people in that a child doesn't expect any person to be a bad person. Everybody must be good because my mom and my dad are. The child hasn't learned to suspect the world yet. They believe the best about others and quite honestly that trust is is a lovely thing to see isn't it? It's so sad when it gets ruined. They're also dependent. They simply rest in the ability and the willingness of those around them to meet their needs. I mean they don't worry about food, they don't worry about clothing, they don't worry about shelter, they don't worry about who's going to pay the bills tomorrow. In fact they seem to think that mom dad grand and grandpa are just merely money trees and food stations. So children are humble, they're trusting, they're dependent. So here's the point. The kingdom isn't offered to those who have much to give or those who think highly of themselves. I mean we already saw that with the Pharisee and the parable. Rather the kingdom is for those who are aware of the greatness of their need. Those are the requirements for a person to come to Jesus, for a person to be touched by God and saved regardless of their age. They must be willing to humble themselves before God and to approach him with the humility and dependence of a child. They must one, be willing to lay down their pride over the life they've lived in, the achievements of that life. Who cares what I've done in the past? Who cares how great I've been? We lay that aside when we come to Jesus. And two, we need to come to a place where we recognize our helplessness and overcoming our troubles on our own. I have this habit that I just can't get rid of. I give it to Jesus. We must come to those places. That means coming to the place where we like a little child simply look to Jesus in pure faith, trusting that he'll do everything that he's promised to do. This requires a child like qualities of trust, humility, and dependence. This is the only way anyone can enter into God's kingdom. That's what Jesus said. And then did you notice that the mothers brought their children to Jesus to touch them? Why? Why specifically to touch them? Well, there's a lot in that act of touch. They'd heard about and possibly seen Jesus at work already, and they want Jesus to touch and shape the hearts of their children. You see, touching is a means of bringing a blessing. But touch is especially a means whereby Jesus brings healing. Whenever Jesus touches someone, that someone has changed in some way. Think about the woman who had been bleeding for 20 years. When she touched Jesus, she was healed. Think of the man who was deaf. When Jesus touched him, he could hear. I mean, he made the lame walk. He gave sight to the blind. He raised people from the dead. The same one who hung the stars in place, who set the galaxies in motion, who specifically placed earth in the safest possible place in the cosmos, came to earth to touch us. Why? Why? Because of his great love for us. You know, Jesus will receive us just as he as we are, but he also loves us enough to not leave us where we are, but rather he will touch us when we come to him, healing us from our sin and depravity, and so begin a work of new creation in us, which one day will be complete and perfect, and I for one can't wait for that day. Listen, church, he gave up. He gave up everything. This is Jesus. He gave up his glory in heaven. He gave up his power, eventually even giving his life. This is a story we see in Luke as he makes his way to Jerusalem, and he did this all even while remaining fully God, and he came to this little insignificant space rock called planet earth. Why? To touch us. What better way to demonstrate that love than by coming from the cosmos to earth and sitting with and demonstrating his love and acceptance of these small children. Think about that. Those members of the community who were considered a nuisance by the disciples, and I'm sure by many others even there at that time, and who seem to have been considered unworthy of Jesus's time, yet it's in these small children we see a model of ourselves, you and me, people who know that we have nothing to bring except ourselves, but through that everything to gain. You may feel, I don't know where you are today, but you might feel that you are too unimportant, too dirty inside, too angry, too bitter, too insignificant, too unworthy. He said that unless we receive the kingdom like little children, we won't enter it, but maybe we like the disciples think Jesus is too busy, or we're not important enough to come to him, but Jesus invites us, invites him not just even us. He actually invites himself into our lives. He's taken the initiative in the first move. Jesus shows that he always has time for even the least of us. We just need to come to him and receive his touch. The other night, I stood on my deck in the backyard. Maybe some of you had done this thing, or whether you're camping, or wherever it is you live, and you looked up and you gazed up into the night sky. Anybody ever done that? It can be so amazing, can't it? You can just stand in awe the stars, and sometimes you see a shooting star, sometimes there's a satellite that goes across, and you're just amazed at the night sky, seeing the expanse of the universe. Anyways, the other day I was just out in the back, and I was looking up, and I was reminded about, wow, how big God is. I mean, he's so much bigger than I can imagine. I'm trying to think past the galaxies and just realizing God is bigger than that. He is big. And it caused me to think about the fact that I don't have control of the universe, let alone my universe. And I was humbled. It's a humbling experience, and as I was humbled, I was reminded that the invitation to come to him is meant for all of us, for you and me. If we're humble enough, like children, to recognize our need, we're invited to come to Jesus, the creator of this universe, who came to this earth, and because of that, we can trust him, we can accept him, we can obey him, and we can accept his forgiveness. Ultimately, entrance into the kingdom of God depends not on our merits, but truly on God's mercy. Our posture needs to be one of humility, not self-righteousness. God's justice is satisfied by the Savior's death on our behalf. His blood blots out our sins. Propitiation has been accomplished, providing our justification. God helps those who are helpless, not those who believe they can help themselves. Many strive to be a good person by doing good deeds and considering themselves good because they compare themselves to the chief sinners of the world. Well, you know, comments like, well, at least I'm better than Hitler. That's not a good measuring tape. Maybe they say I'm good because I don't perpetuate violence or steal. These kind of comments, they lead to self-righteous thinking, and they miss the need to seek God for forgiveness for grace and salvation. Really, they're more excuses than anything else. You might even see people who can, they might save millions. Some can help tens of thousands. Some can give billions of dollars to charity. Some can preach, even teach to the masses. But nothing, no deed, save accepting Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord can save, can allow us entry into the kingdom. We find God by humbly entering into a relationship with Him through His Son Jesus Christ. This is the path of entry into the everlasting kingdom. Romans 3, 23 says this, that all have sinned. Later on, Romans 6, just three chapters later, says that the punishment of that sin is death. Humanity desires justification and in different ways strives for righteousness. But we have to understand that the divide between a holy God and a sinful humanity is too great for any human to be able to cross, to navigate. Therefore, God sent Jesus to be a light and a bridge that leads to heaven and a right standing before God. Thank you, Lord. Jesus lived a sinless life and He became the final and perfect sacrifice at Calvary 2,000 years ago. He finished that journey to Jerusalem and He accomplished it. And because Jesus shed His blood on Calvary and rose again on the third day, we, like the unlikely tax collector, coming to Him in a simple trusting faith like little children can find justification, where we can find redemption. However, however, if we, like the Pharisee and the parable, don't recognize our spiritual need and we rest in self-righteousness, we will not receive the blessing God desires to give, entry into His kingdom and a life where our sins are forgiven. We have to ask ourselves, are we standing like the Pharisee trusting in our own goodness? It's not gonna work for you. How's it been going so far? Do you still feel the weight of sin and guilt and you're just still trying to achieve the goodness? Don't be the Pharisee. Are we standing like the tax collector and we're desperate for mercy? Are we still growing up? We think we can take care of all our needs through our own strength? Well, I can do it. Or do we come as little children, trusting in God, care for all our needs, coming to our Father with our hands open? Touch me, Father. Take me. Church, listen. Choose a posture of humility, the posture that pleases God so that the world can see the work of Jesus Christ in your life and so that we can live in true freedom from guilt and shame.