Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
Church family.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: Let's try that one more time. I got a few away.
[00:00:11] Speaker A: Good morning, church family.
[00:00:14] Speaker B: Y'.
[00:00:14] Speaker C: All.
[00:00:14] Speaker B: Y' all slept in, obviously.
You ready to worship? Would you stand and join us?
[00:00:23] Speaker A: Oh, come all you weary Come all you thirsty Come to the well that never dry Drink of the water Come and thirst no more.
Oh, come all you sinners Come find his mercy Come to the table he will satisfy Taste of his goodness Find what you're looking for.
For God so the world that he gave us his one and only son to save us Whoever believes in you will live forever.
Oh, bring all your failures Bring your addictions Come lay them down at the foot of the cross Jesus is waiting there with open arms Running to his open eyes For God's so love the world that he gave us his one and only son to save us Whoever believes in you we live forever.
The power of hell forever defeated for it is well I walk in freedom from God so love God so love the world.
[00:02:27] Speaker D: Praise God Praise God from whom all blessings go Praise Him Praise him for the wonders of his love Praise God
[00:02:49] Speaker A: Praise God from whom all blessings flow Praise Him Praise him for the wonders of his love his amazing love for God so love the world that he gave us his one and only son to save For God so love the world that he gave us Is one and only Son to save us Whoever believes in him will live forever.
The power of hell forever defeated now we it is well I'm walking in freedom for God so love God so love the world.
Bring all your failures Bring your addictions Come lay them down at the foot of the cross Jesus is waiting God so love the world
[00:04:15] Speaker B: Amen
[00:04:19] Speaker C: Good morning, church family.
It's good to be worshiping with you today. You may grab a seat if we haven't had the opportunity to meet. My name is Rob Zimmerman, lead pastor here at Westgate, and I am thankful you've chosen to worship with us today, especially after losing that precious hour of sleep last night.
But hey, you know, it is good to be gathered together in worshiping. I really want to welcome you too if you are a guest first time here this morning. Thank. Thank you so much for choosing to worship with us today. If you're new today, if you've been new in the last few weeks, you know, I know that sometimes when people are checking out a church for the first, second, third time, trying to figure out if it's the place that they want to connect, that sometimes it takes a little bit of time before you want to take that first step. But as you think through that, the great first step to take when you're ready to get connected here at Westgate is to fill out the connection card. And you'll see that in the pew in front of you this morning. If today is that day for you, I'd encourage you to pull out that connection card. You can fill it out. And at the close of our service, what I'd love you to do is to take it out into our main lobby and at our guest center there you can hand it to the people that are standing there. They would love to answer any questions you might have about our church, our different ministries, how you can get involved and connected as well. They've got a small gift they would love to give you just to say thank you for worshiping with us today. And so I'd encourage you to stop by and check in with them as well as you're looking to get connected. One of the best ways to stay up to date on what is going on around the church is to download the Westgate Chapel app. And so if you go to your app store, Westgate Chapel, Toledo, if you don't put in that Toledo, you might end up with all the events in the state of Washington and that'll be a really long drive for you. So be sure to check that out. But if you were to open up your app this morning, some of the key things that you'll see that we have coming up first, this coming Friday evening we have our night of worship and that is for the entire family.
We've been having these nights of worship a few times throughout the year and it is a great time to come together, to sing, to seek God, together, to pray. And so I would encourage you to come and join us this Friday evening from 7 to 8pm here in the worship center as well. Another opportunity that we have is this coming Saturday is what we call our Maker's Mart and that is a fundraiser that we are doing for our short term missions department. And the funds that are raised through this fundraiser will go to help fund our short term mission trips throughout the year. And what we have done is collected a lot of people who make cool stuff and they're going to be in our gymnasium on Saturday selling those things. There's going to be a silent auction, but if you would like to come and check it out and see if there's something you would be interested in that will all go to help support our missions department. And so we would love for you to check that out this coming Saturday from 9am to 2pm in our gymnasium next. This morning we've got a really great opportunity to celebrate child dedications with some of our families. And so I'm going to invite our families to come and join me on the platform right now. Would you welcome them as they come this morning?
I also have joining us, Sarah Knox. Sarah Knox is our early childhood director in our kids ministry and she has gotten to go through a class in preparation for today with our families. We dedicated three children this morning in our first service. And so Sarah, why don't you just share a little bit about these families and what you guys have been talking about.
[00:07:57] Speaker E: So a few weeks ago I had the honor of meeting with these families for a one week class prior to our dedication where we talked about the role and the purpose of child dedication in the church. And one of those things was the partnership that these families enter with you as the church.
We really believe that families are the primary disciplers, that it is their role to raise the children up to follow Christ and that the church is here as support because discipling is so much more than just what happens on a Sunday morning or a Wednesday night program. So we want to be here to support and encourage these parents as they do one of the hardest jobs there is.
And in the class we also talked about kind of looking into the future. We know that raising kids is one of the hardest jobs. And so if you look into the future and really think about who you want your children to become, not what you want them to do, but who it is with what type of person you want them to be, and we focus on those characteristics.
It kind of gives us a look into the horizon, it gives us a goal to work towards and takes it off the nitty gritty of the moment sometimes. So this morning the families are going to introduce themselves and their children that are being dedicated and older siblings. And they'll also share either characteristics that they are praying to have instilled into their children or a verse that they have chosen to pray over their children.
[00:09:21] Speaker F: It's me, David.
This is my wife Jules.
She used to work here. She just retired. And then this is my son Leo. He got dedicated a few years ago. And this is Luca, who we're dedicating today.
Don't you guys just love baby dedications? I think they're amazing because it reminds us of the promises we make to our babies and all those things. So Leo, Leo's verse was the righteous will be bold like lions. And you can see he's just nailing righteousness right now. And Then for. For Luca, we're praying that his good works would shine before men, because Luca means bringer of light. And so it says.
Matthew 5:17 says, May your good works shine before men so they may glorify God in heaven.
I am Jack, and this is my wife, Allie Camira.
[00:10:19] Speaker C: We dedicated Miley and Maverick a few
[00:10:22] Speaker F: years ago, so today we're going to
[00:10:24] Speaker C: dedicate Ace and Ruby.
[00:10:30] Speaker B: Yeah, I can't.
[00:10:33] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:10:34] Speaker B: And the characteristics that we chose were obedient, kind, faithfulness, integrity, and forgiving.
[00:10:44] Speaker C: Well, we are so thankful for each of you guys. And. Yeah, please.
I know you guys talked about in the class that child dedication is. It's not a guarantee of the salvation of our children, but what it is is a commitment on the behalf of us as parents to steward the wonderful gift that God has given us and our children in such a way that we would teach them about Jesus in hopes that one day they would make that personal choice to give their hearts and their lives to him. And so this morning, I have a charge for you as parents, and then I will have one for us as a church family as well. Here's that charge. Believing that your children are a gift from God and that he will hold you accountable for them, will you commit yourself to the purpose of dedicating your children to the Lord and to his service today?
Will you pray with them and teach them to pray?
Will you instruct them in God's word and be a faithful example to them of Christ?
Will you teach your children to read God's word and lead a life completely dedicated to God through Jesus Christ? And will you do everything within your power to provide for them an environment where they can come to know Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior? If you will do these things, please say we will.
[00:12:04] Speaker B: Awesome.
[00:12:05] Speaker C: Church family, would you stand with us?
You know, as family, friends, church family, we also have a real great responsibility in assisting each one of these families in what they are committing to this morning. Will you, as a family, friends and church family, commit to always representing Jesus to their families and to their children?
Will you commit to praying for them as God prompts you?
And if given the opportunity, will you commit to supporting them by teaching their children about Jesus in the hope that they will one day respond and follow Christ with their whole life? If you will do these things, please say we will.
Awesome. Would you guys pray with me?
Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this morning.
And we praise you, God, for each of these families and their desire to come and to dedicate their children to you.
Lord, I pray first and foremost for each of these parents. I ask God that in the days, weeks, months, years to come, that you would take them to a deeper place of faith in you and walk with you. So that. Father, the thing that truly develops their children's faith is not just what they say, but what they have seen and what they have witnessed in their parents lives.
May that be, Father, the strongest testimony that these children receive.
And we ask God that as well for each of these children, that they would come to a saving knowledge of your son from a very young age. I ask God that you would prepare them with all the giftedness and everything God, that you intend for them through your Holy Spirit, that will enable them to live a life that is fully dedicated to you and that serves you their entire life.
Father, we dedicate them to you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, knowing and believing God, that you will fulfill your great purposes for their lives.
We pray your blessing upon each of these families this morning and we give you praise. It's in Jesus name that we pray.
[00:14:13] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:14:14] Speaker C: Well, again, would you congratulate each of these families this morning?
And as you guys walk down our threads of love ministry has made a special quilt for each of your children. And so they're dedicated and so go ahead and head on down. And as they are going down, let's turn and greet one another. Say hello to someone that you have not said hello to yet this morning.
[00:14:47] Speaker G: What kind of king would give up his throne for a manger?
What kind of God would step down from heaven to save us?
[00:14:58] Speaker A: Oh Jesus.
[00:15:00] Speaker G: From a cradle in the dirt came
[00:15:04] Speaker A: the savior of the world we cry. Holy, holy.
You are the one and only Emmanuel, Son of God, Jesus, here with us.
[00:15:31] Speaker G: Only you came into the world you created.
What a child the heavens proclaim what his name is.
[00:15:42] Speaker A: It's Jesus.
From a cradle in the dirt, King, the savior of the world we cry holy, holy, holy.
You are the one and only Emmanuel, Son of God, Jesus, you are worthy, you're worthy.
We give you all the glory, Emmanuel, Son of God, Jesus, here with us, us, Jesus, here with us.
You are holy, yes, you are, you are holy.
You're telling on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere. Go tell it on the mountain, Jesus Christ is born.
Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere. Go tell it on the mountain.
Jesus Christ is holy.
Cry holy, holy.
You are the one and only Emmanuel, Son of God, you are worthy. Jesus, you are worthy, you worthy.
On the mountain.
Go tell it on the mountain over the hills and everywhere Go tell it on the mountain Jesus Christ is born.
Go tell it on the mountain over the hills and everywhere Go tell it on the mountain Jesus Christ is. Is cry holy, holy.
[00:18:23] Speaker G: You are the one and only Emmanuel, Son of God Jesus here with us.
[00:18:37] Speaker A: Yes, yes.
[00:18:41] Speaker H: You know, I. I love that we can celebrate the resurrection of Jesus anytime, not just at Easter, right? And in kind, we can celebrate the birth of Christ, the gift that he was to us.
I sometimes think that God looked down and realized that our human minds couldn't possibly fathom just how incredible he was. And so he sent Jesus God with skin on. Essentially, right? So we would be able to better understand in Colossians chapter one, towards the middle, it actually says that Jesus was the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
For in him all things were created.
Things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. Whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through Him.
And for him he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
And he is the head of the body, the church. He's the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have supremacy.
For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, in Jesus, and through him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross.
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.
But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you wholly in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.
If you continue in your faith, steadfast and stable, not shifting from the hope held out in the Gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven. This is the gospel.
This is what we celebrate. And so my prayer is that today and every day we can live like we really truly believe this. And we can worship him for who he is.
[00:21:14] Speaker D: You were the Word at the beginning, One with God most High, Hidden glory in creation.
Now revealed in you are Christ.
What a beautiful name it is.
What a beautiful name it is the name of Jesus Christ, my king.
What a be beautiful name it is.
Nothing compares to this.
What a beautiful name it is the name of Jesus.
You didn't want heaven without us, so Jesus, you brought heaven.
[00:22:23] Speaker A: Heaven.
[00:22:28] Speaker D: My sin was great. Your love was greater.
What could se us now?
What a wonderful name it is.
What a wonderful name it is the name Of Jesus Christ, my king.
What a wonderful, what a wonderful name it is.
Nothing compares to this.
What a wonderful name it is the name of Jesus.
What a wonderful name it is the name of Jesus.
Death could not hold you.
The veil torn before you.
You silenced the boast of sin and grave.
The heavens are roaring the praise of your glory.
For you are raised to life again.
You have no rival, you have no equal.
Now and forever God you reign.
Yours is the kingdom, yours is the great glory.
Yours is the name above all name.
What a powerful name it is.
What a powerful name it is the name of Jesus Christ, my king.
What a powerful name it is nothing can stand against What a powerful name it is the name of Jesus.
You have no rival, you have no equal.
Now and forever God you reign.
[00:25:12] Speaker A: Yours is the kingdom, yours is the glory.
[00:25:19] Speaker D: Yours is the name above
[00:25:24] Speaker A: praise.
Holy, holy are you, Lord God Almighty.
Worthy is the lamb.
Worthy is the Lamb.
Holy are you, Lord God Almighty.
Worthy is the lamb.
Worthy is the lamb. Sing it out.
Rain.
[00:26:54] Speaker D: What a beautiful name it is the name of Jesus Christ, my king.
What a beautiful name.
[00:27:19] Speaker A: Jesus.
[00:27:20] Speaker D: What a beautiful name it is the name of Jesus.
What a beautiful name it is the name of Jesus.
[00:27:48] Speaker B: The beautiful name of Jesus.
Go ahead and have a seat.
We're continuing in worship this morning by receiving of our tithes and our offerings a way that we get to give back to the Lord Steward what he has very willingly and graciously given to us and trust us.
So this time I'll pray. And then we can pass our offering buckets from the center and then up top from the outside.
And so, Lord God, we know that everything that we have is from you, comes from your hands. And God, we desire for you to just use what we have. And we offer all of ourselves to you this morning for your glory, for your name.
We want more and more people to be singing the beautiful name of Jesus and knowing you as Lord and Savior.
So we give you thanks and we give these offerings back to you for the growth of your kingdom. This morning we pray this in your name, Jesus. Amen.
You go ahead and if you're in the center aisles, pass those offering buckets out.
[00:29:05] Speaker A: Sam.
[00:29:51] Speaker B: Well, good morning.
At least so far we've survived the daylight savings time switch.
Or maybe you planned on being here at the early service and then, oh, that happened. And then now you're here, I guess. Bonus of having two services.
We got done celebrating the Olympics a few weeks ago. Anybody? Olympic fans? Summer, winter, all those.
We decided to keep the Olympic energy going Friday Night, we had a dads and kids kids event with Olympics, and we had grandpas and we had an uncle even here. And just an opportunity for dads and their kids to come and play. But we had this Olympic theme, and so multiple Olympic. Very hype coming to the next Winter Olympic Games. Marshmallow toss done really well.
The ping pong balance running around a cone as fast as you can go. Also really a good game. The ping pong bouncing into cups.
And the kids were better at this than the dads were.
And then we also have, I think, the Laren family. You know, each family were team United, Team Laren. They were excited and competed well. And then finally, when we got done playing all the Games, Bethany Munn, who a chemistry teacher at one point in her life, made us all do chemistry, which the kids were okay with because with it, we made ice cream, and so got to make our own ice cream. Homemade, super fun, super good. Different states of frozenness happening there. But a good time had.
But congratulations to the Turnick family. The Turnicks, they were the champions. They came in first place. They got the gold medal, so to speak, on the podium.
And so they're over there. Congratulations. They did great.
[00:31:43] Speaker A: Great.
[00:31:45] Speaker B: We had no literal prizes, but just acknowledged that they were the best and the fastest at those events. There was a thing about the Olympics, and there's a picture here of, I think this is Breezy Johnson. She won the first US Gold at the Winter Games this time around.
And one thing you know about the gold is that you are the best. And they give you a podium to stand on, and you have silver and bronze next to it. And it's for everyone to know that you are the best at this event, at this point in time in the world, there's no one better than you.
And we like that.
We like to know what is the best and who is the best or what is the best. And so everywhere we go, we're always in this world of, like a ranking system.
I think last week I watched some NFL combine stuff of people running insanely fast. And we ranked them and projecting, like, how fast they could go.
We rank recipes, one star, three star, five star recipes of what we're gonna try in the kitchen. We rank books and we proclaim how good the book is by slapping a sticker on it says, over 1 million copies sold.
And so we rank it. And in sports, there's always rank. There's the standings. And if the standings, it's like, for some reason, we don't trust the standings because then we have our own power rankings about the standings and how they really should be if we were in charge.
And so we rank as what we think, and so we rank things, we rank products, we rank ourselves by how many likes we get on our posts.
We rank and we order ourselves, and maybe sometimes we even determine our worth by comparing ourselves with others.
This morning we're going to look at a parable of Jesus.
And that is, it's about ranking.
It's about ranking each other, ranking ourselves, ranking ourselves in connection with each other and with God.
But it also is about not being on the podium and humility.
And so to kind of prepare, I think, our minds around the topic of humility and really the desire of Christ for us.
Paul writes about this in Philippians 2, verses 3 through 5. And we're going to do something, something different this morning. It's not necessarily a call and response, but if you grab the sermon notes, it's the Philippians 2, verses 3 through 5. I'm going to read a portion and I just want you to respond by repeating that back after me. And together we're speaking of humility and maybe a way that we are called. So Philippians 2, 3, 5. I'll speak first. You kind of echo that back. And so we're all hearing and participating together. So it begins. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, rather in humility.
Value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of others in your relationships with one another.
Have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.
Let's pray. Lord God, Jesus, you are our Lord, and we need your help, especially around this topic of humility about your kingdom, how we view ourselves, how we view each other, how we pray that you give us eyes and ears to hear and to see, to be honest with you. And we want to hear your words, your parable, your teaching. And God, help us to hear, help us to hear.
If we have rocks in our ears, help chisel them out. If our hearts are maybe have a layer of hardness, chisel that off so we can be receptive to your Scripture this morning because your Word is living in active, powerful and effective. And it judges the thoughts and attitudes of our hearts. And so we invite that, hopefully not begrudgingly.
God, we want to willingly invite you, Holy Spirit, to speak to us this morning through your word.
So we ask this in your name, Jesus. Amen.
So Luke 18, 9, 14. We're going to begin by setting the stage.
Jesus is on a journey, his journey to Jerusalem, because the King is coming.
We know as we're getting closer to Good Friday, getting closer to Palm Sunday, getting closer to Easter, the king, Jesus is coming to Jerusalem, which we remember 2,000 years ago. He comes into Jerusalem, a different kind of king than what they maybe necessarily were expecting. But Even here now, 2,000 years later, we are waiting for him to come again, the king to come again. And it is within that hope, in that promise of Jesus the King, that we wait for him to come again with hope and with expectations.
And regardless, we do continue to pray. Lord, may your kingdom come. May your will be done.
And so on this journey to Jerusalem, in these chapters, we've been in these last several weeks, kind of Luke 17, and we'll kind of before Easter, we get to Luke 19 in these. We begin in Luke 17, where it says that he was in between Galilee and Samaria, kind of up in the north, and then he winds up ending in Jericho before heading over to Jerusalem. So we imagine and assume that he kind of travels down the road along the Jordan river on his way to Jericho. So he's somewhere in this journey in chapter 18.
And as he travels, he is meeting many people.
Some are traveling with him, Others he engages along the road or in the towns. And so Jesus, we know letter B, interacts with people of all places and all backgrounds. He interacts with many people, with crowds and individuals. And just in that space from 17 to 18, we. We know he interacts with lepers, he interacts with disciples, he interacts with crowds. He interacts with sick and blind. He interacts with religious leaders. He interacts with tax collectors and quote, unquote, sinners.
He interacts with all kinds of people, families, children, babies.
And he tells them about the kingdom, about the kingdom of God, last week's message, and in today's message, he is teaching them out of parables.
And parables are these stories that give us a picture of what it looks like to live out God's commands.
Parables give us a picture of what it looks like to live out God's commands. This is through a story, through an illustration in a way that helps us to learn how do we obey? What does that look like to obey the word of the Lord? What does it look like to obey the commandments of God? Well, he tells us a story because we remember stories better.
And also parables are good because they kind of come in the back door, disarm us a little bit, and then Jesus kind of gives a whack right to you, like, oh, that's.
That hurt. And we can't really be upset at Jesus because he's Jesus and he freely kind of steps on our toes, often through parables.
Parables allow us who hear and the hearers to continue to go through that story. And from time, each time we seem to pull out a different truth or a different nugget or a different piece of wisdom that Holy Spirit then works into our lives.
And so our text this morning, Luke 18, 9, 14. Most Bibles, it's like the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.
It has several focuses, include how we view one another, how we view ourselves, how we view God. But I think most importantly, it's a parable about how we enter God's kingdom.
So that's what we'll be talking about.
I'll go ahead and read verses 9 through 14 of Luke 18.
To some who were confident of 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'm 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 and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
The words of our Lord, our audience. If we look back at verse nine, that's hearing the crowd, specifically who Jesus is referring to, to some who are confident their own righteousness and look down on everyone else.
Jesus told that parable.
So we learn that with Jesus, with the crowds, there were people there, believe it or not, that thought they were better than other people.
There were people there that thought they were better looking down on others and thinking that who they were were righteous in their right with God by their own doing, their own standing.
I would like to suggest we might have similar issues in some way, shape or form. Every person in the crowd and every person here, we probably look down on somebody if we're honest.
If we take down our walls of self protection, we realize, oh man, I do, I do look down. Even the disciples we've learned in those couple chapters. The disciples were looking down on the Samaritans, the disciples were looking down on the parents that were trying to bring the kids, how dare they?
The disciples were even looking down on each other because they had to figure out the pecking order of who was greatest amongst them. Who would sit on Jesus on his right and on his left. And in that day, anytime that they would sit, like in the Lord's Supper, around that room, when they're sitting there, that's a pecking order just by how they're seated.
It was in the world and the same it's in our world of how we have a tendency to look down and rank ourselves with each other.
But it's these, the people that Jesus speaks to that were trusting in their own righteousness.
They believed they were right with God on their own by their own obedience, their own words, their own thoughts, their own actions. And so Jesus is aware of all this. In the crowd at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives like a little quick parable about that teaching. It was a lot of teaching, but he ends it by saying, for those who hear, they will be like what they will build their house on a rock.
For those that hear but don't obey or put it into practice, they will be people that build their house on sand.
And so every parable has the same idea. For those that hear and do are the ones that we want to be like. So again, we ask God help us to hear and put this parable into practice.
That's our invitation.
The people that are involved, there's two of them. Verse 10 says two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
When we have a parable that has two people, it's going to be a comparing and a contrasting of the two.
There's a comparing and a contrasting that's going to be going on.
Two examples of how to live out the biblical truth or how not to live it out. And we take that story and carry it with us.
So we understand they're both going up to the temple. So they're both going up.
And here's a picture of the temple, of the temple platform. And it's wherever you were in Jerusalem, you would have to climb up, you'd have to walk up steps to get there. So both of them are doing that. They're doing their job. They're going up the steps and they're there. And in the temple on this platform, what they would have seen were people worshiping. They would have seen people engage maybe in sacrifice. They would have seen people, maybe the money lenders and changers. All that, that Jesus flips over later on when he gets there. But they would have seen these things and they also would have seen people in prayer.
And that's what they go to do. So in that time, they would have been praying. Either there were set times for the public to pray together, or you also could go at any time to pray in public.
We understand that they're going up to go pray in public and they want to get close to God and so they're going up.
So this first guy, the Pharisee.
What do we know about Pharisees?
Shout it out. What do you know about Pharisees?
Arrogant. They wanted everyone to know.
Self righteous.
Someone over one more time, Philip, to teach us. They were teachers.
What else do we know about Pharisees?
Hypocrites.
Okay.
They were rulers, I think I heard.
Okay, rule followers. Okay, so you guys are doing a great job of looking at Pharisees from 2,000 years ago. I mean, we're 2,000 years away.
Our basic understanding of Pharisees is that they were self righteous. They, they were hypocrites. That Jesus had all these run ins, you know, head to head with the Pharisees in the day as Jesus was teaching this about Pharisees.
Pharisees were the heroes out of all the different groups, whether it's the Sadducees, the Herodians, the Zealots, or like the Essenes. The Pharisees were the ones that were the popular ones that the people wanted to be like and to follow.
Jewish historian Josephus said it was the Pharisees that probably had the most accurate way of interpreting the Torah, not just saying it and teaching it, but they did their best to live it, to be obedient to God's Word in every way that they knew how. And at times did it blind them? Yes, but they were doing the best that they possibly could.
Letter C says Pharisee means to be separate.
Because they knew that the world that they were in was being impacted by cultural influences of Rome, of Greek influence. And so they actually were this group that separated themselves because of the holiness of God.
And again, if we can think to our, like the New Testament, Paul writes again to different letters to the Romans or to the Galatians, to the Ephesians or Colossians. There are that Paul says, you used to live in this way, but don't live in that way. That's the old life. Now you have to live in this new way, the new life through the power of the Spirit.
And we are called as a church today to live separate. Right we are to be in the world, but also be different so people can see us and recognize that we are different because of Christ and how we live life differently.
So there's your Pharisees. They were the heroes.
Now, of course, we think that they're not, but in that day, the hearers, oh, Pharisee, we know where this is going to go. The Pharisee is the one that gets lifted up. We're going to follow after this guy.
The second character is the tax collector or the toll collector. And once they said this, boom. We know who the villain is.
We know who the enemy is. We know who we're not supposed to be like.
Tax collectors are generally seen in a negative light.
They were understood to be working for the evil empire.
Like the Yankees.
Yeah, sorry, apologies.
The tax collectors were working with Rome and at times collecting from the average Jew, 30, up to maybe 50% of, like, their income.
And then on top of that, there might be. Not every tax collector was corrupt, but there was an assumption.
You know, John the Baptist has this interaction with the tax collector. He says, what do we need to do? John doesn't tell him to stop being a tax collector. John just tells him, stop extorting.
Zacchaeus, his name actually means righteous. So tax collectors were in some places probably unrighteous and extorting. We don't know this about this one, but they would have been seen in a negative light. So here we have our two characters. The hero, the Pharisee, and then the tax collector, the villain. You with me?
The two characters in this story, verse 11. The Pharisee stood by himself.
This is where things start to go down for the Pharisee. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed. God, I thank you. Actually, let's go up here. All right, he's up here. He's on the podium. He's standing, he's looking around, he's praying.
God, I thank you that I am not like other people.
Robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or even like this. He's like.
Even like tax collectors.
I fast twice a week, and I give a tenth of all I get.
And praying out loud. Being up there is. This is a common practice. I have a picture.
I was in Israel, in Jerusalem, about a month and a half ago. And here's a picture of Jews praying at the Western Wall, also called the Wailing Wall. And often they would, you know, they would have a seat and read through the Tanakh or the Torah or do their studying. And then when it became time to pray, they would stand and then they would pray out loud.
Not loud loud, but in a voice. So they knew that God was hearing them. And why the western wall? Because they wanted to be as close to God as possible. The western wall is as close as they could get on the far eastern side where the holy of holies was in the temple.
So they wanted to get there as close to God as they could.
So here's this man trying to probably get as close as he could. And he's looking down on the left and the right.
And he offers his prayer, says, God, I thank you. So he starts a prayer of thanksgiving.
Very common. Many, many, many of our psalms are prayers of thanksgiving, right? And as you read through and as you pray and as you go through the psalms and you find prayers of thanksgiving, they sound like God. Thank you.
Thank you for. And you fill in the blank. God, thank you for life. Thank you for breath. Thank you for sustaining me. Thank you for the way you have provided. Thank you for being my rock. Thank you for the food. Thank you for saving me. Thank you for healing. Thank you for being faithful. Thank you for being constant in my life. Thank you for choosing, I mean, all the things to be thankful for. Except the Pharisee just goes, none of that.
Thank you. I'm not like anybody else. Again, he's on the podium declaring his own self righteousness.
Let her be the Pharisees. Declaring his righteousness based on two things.
First, comparison with others.
He says, I'm not like robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or tax collectors. Again, the Pharisee knows the word, he knows the Torah.
And what are the ten Commandments?
Not, I'm thankful. I'm not a person that steals, kills, commits adultery, extorts, lies. He's like basically going through and saying, I'm thankful that I don't break those like all these other people.
And so I am right with you.
Again, he's comparing himself with his own with everyone else being right, trying to be right in God's sight because he's just better than everyone else.
My freshman year in college, studying mechanical engineering and I got put into this calculus, like track that was.
I wasn't ready for it, to put it mildly.
And so I'm taking all these calculus classes, doing all this, and I am just lost. And we get to our first big, big exam, our first big midterm. And not like high school where you get points for doing homework.
You just have two tests and you have two grades.
So midterm, I take this test, I get a 60% D minus slightly above an F.
The professor comes in and he says, well, the scores weren't very good. Class.
Actually, the student with the best grade got an 80%. I was like, oof.
[00:55:57] Speaker A: At least.
[00:55:59] Speaker B: Well, not that bad.
So the professor says, I'm going to grade on a curve.
[00:56:07] Speaker A: Curve.
[00:56:09] Speaker B: You guys got that one.
[00:56:10] Speaker A: One.
[00:56:12] Speaker B: And so when you grade on a curve, he takes the 80% and makes it 100.
So that's 20, and then adds 20 to everyone's grade. So I went from a D minus to a B minus.
Might as well just call it a B.
And so here is this curve that the Pharisee is grading himself on a curve.
He wasn't. I wasn't being graded against the standard of the professor and the test and the material because I didn't know it all.
I was being graded compared to how the best other person did.
The Pharisee isn't grading himself on who God is and his righteousness and his standard.
He's grading himself against others and comparing himself against others. How often do I. How often do you grade yourself comparing to others?
And when we do that, we end up somewhere in this process of putting ourselves on a podium. Maybe we're this high, maybe we're this high. Maybe we're down here and we look up and we think, I'm not good as this person. So we grade ourselves really poorly, which also isn't true.
When we are allowing ourselves to compare, we're seeing ourselves in an inaccurate way. It's not what God sees.
God doesn't grade us on a curve.
Unfortunately, we are graded on his standard.
Secondly, the Pharisee is declaring his righteousness based on number two, his works and actions.
He says he fasts twice a week and gives a tenth of all that he gets.
And both of these actions, these are just disciplines. We call these spiritual disciplines. They're not bad in and of themselves.
We practice and at times we encourage fasting. Jesus says in Matthew 6, when you fast with an expectation that someday we will fast, then he gives some guidelines about how you practice or don't practice fasting. Fasting brings us closer to God because we get humbled, because we recognize everything comes from Him.
Sometimes we're led into fasting through times of difficulty or big decisions or spiritual battles, spiritual warfare. And we need to fast because we need to stop receiving the physical food, and we need to be getting the food from Jesus, relying upon him for the daily bread. And fasting is just a way to limit our physical drive to give more attention to the Lord.
He Also says, I tithe, I give a tenth of everything that I get.
Again, each week we have this portion in worship where we encourage, you know, offering and giving Again, it's a point of humility for us that we are giving back to the Lord what he has entrusted to us. And now we trust God and we're saying, God, I, I, I, I. I'm giving you something that I need, but I trust that you will continue to provide for me. Again. We're placing ourselves under the lordship when we worship God and with those spiritual disciplines.
So the Pharisee, in of itself, he's not saying things that are bad, but just with a different motive or attitude or just a different heart behind it.
Do we do things today to earn God's approval?
Do we serve because we feel like God will be more pleased with us than if we didn't?
Do you ever find yourself comparing yourself with others?
Do you find yourself in the mindset that if I do something, God will be more pleased with me and I'll be approved?
We then get to the prayer of the tax collector, verse 13. But the tax collector stood at a distance.
He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and say, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. The first thing that we see, that the physical posture is different. You know, the Pharisees up here, he's standing loud and proud and praying. And then you picture this tax collector, not even lifting his eyes to heaven, beating his chest, which is a way of saying that he has sorrow and remorse and he recognizes his need for Jesus, his need for God, and he declares, himself, I am a sinner.
I think this interaction, his prayer reminds us of a few things.
Letter A. We can approach God in any condition.
Believe it or not. We can approach God this way and we can approach God if our hearts are really over here.
We can approach. God wants us to approach no matter what we've done. A lot of times Satan lies to us and thinks, well, you can't, you can't talk to God right now. You've done this, you've done too many bad things. That's lies.
We can always approach the Lord.
He says, come to Me, all you who are weary and tired and heavy laden, come to me and I'll give you rest.
We can approach God in any condition.
It's not about exterior actions, but it is about the interior of our heart.
Why?
Because there are two things we all have in common.
The first thing that we all have in common is that we are created in his image and loved.
There are two things every single person on this earth has in common. The first is that we are created in God's image and we are loved.
No matter where you think you are on this earthly platform, whether you're high or low, whether you're looking down or looking up, whatever where you are, whatever circumstance, everyone's on the same place.
Everyone. We're all created in the image of God in his likeness.
Every single person is created with dignity because we are made in God's image.
Every person has purpose, every person has calling. Every person, we are called to reflect the character and likeness of our God, our Creator, and being made by God, having the breath of God breathed into us in Genesis, we are loved by God, where God's word says that every single person is fearfully and wonderfully made. And so how dare we get on top of a box and look down at each other or think that we're better or think that we know more.
And Satan is using this to tear us apart, to create all sorts of rift, all sorts of division, all sorts of pain, all sorts of brokenness in our world.
Every person is made in the image of God.
That's where the gospel starts.
The second thing that we all have in common is that we are sinners.
Not a fun word, but we are separated.
The gospel continues that yes, we are created and loved, but we also have rebellion and disobedience and brokenness and sin that all came upon us in the fall.
If we understand, there is no podium because we're all in the same place. Paul writes about, everyone has fallen short of God's standard.
Everyone has fallen short of God's glory.
There is no one righteous, there is no one.
Therefore, there was and has always been a separation between us and God.
And praise the Lord. He came to save it, to fix it.
The tax collector realizes this. His prayer is solely directed to God. God, have mercy on me, a sinner. I can't do anything to make it right.
There's no curve, there's no good works. There's nothing I can do to make it right. There's nothing I can do to be right with you. God, I am a sinful man.
Have mercy on me.
And so, see, we need God to intervene.
The tax collector calls upon the mercy of God.
So what happens?
We have the result of the parable, verse 14.
Jesus concludes, I tell you that this man, tax collector, rather than the other, went home justified before God.
For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will.
Will be exalted.
Jesus finishes the parable by saying, one was justified, one was made right in the kingdom of God, one was fit to be a part of the kingdom, and one was not justified means to be right in the side of God. And the parable turned the initial role of the characters around. The one that we thought was righteous, the one who is declaring himself righteous actually is the one that goes to Muhammad humbled and not righteous. The one who came, who everyone considered the audience would have considered this is the unrighteous one, now leaves. Right, because of God, not because of what he did.
Let her be. Because inclusion in God's kingdom depends upon the mercy of God in his prayer.
The word mercy is, which comes from the root of helasmos, which is a theological term meaning to atone, to cover, to pay for God. You need to atone for me. You need to cover me.
So if we pull the whole thread, the Pharisee, one of the things that he was posturing on is fasting twice a week, if we do some reading, how many times a year, if you're a Jew, are you supposed to fast? Fast, Claire, once I knew you'd know.
So the day of atonement, the Jews were required to fast one day a year. And on this day of atonement, then the high priest would go in and they were offering various, you know, animals, and then the blood would go into the holy of holies, into the ark, Indiana Jones style, right? And then the blood would be covered, put on the top of the ark. So then God, this blood would be. Make payment for the sin of the whole community, and they would all be cleansed.
So the tax collector said, you need to cover me. You need to atone for me. And so we have this whole picture of what Jesus does, what he did on the cross, what he did by shedding his blood is to atone for us. First John, chapter two, verse two.
Jesus, he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for the sins of the whole world.
2nd Corinthians 5:21. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Jesus atones for us when we place our faith, our trust, when we say, yes, Lord, when we cry out, lord, have mercy on me, Jesus, thank you for saving, for. Thank you for dying on the cross for me.
It is through him and his blood, his sacrifice, that we are atoned and made right, right with God, not by what we do. This is all in a response of a Heart that is grateful and thankful to the Lord.
So last letter C. Therefore, we are encouraged to humble ourselves because Jesus shows us the way.
He is our humble king.
We are encouraged to humble ourselves and Jesus is our humble king.
I have some reflection questions for us. And again, the point of a parable is to listen and hear and do and so what is your hearing and what is your response?
Maybe it's the first question. When have I prayed like the Pharisee?
This can get ouchy.
Be aware in your life this week, when are you looking down on others?
Or when are you looking down on yourself and you're not seeing yourself rightly as well?
When have I made a prayer like the Pharisees? I'm thankful, not like. Like that person looking for our own righteousness.
Second, have I prayed like the tax collector.
Maybe you are here this morning and this is something new for you and you have this opportunity and an invitation to respond. Jesus, I am.
I'm broken, I'm hurting. I am.
I've sinned against you and I need your mercy. I need your forgiveness.
I want to say yes to you.
If that's you this morning, I want to invite you to say yes to Jesus.
I want you to be my Lord.
I confess to you my need.
I'm going to tell somebody else about it.
If that's you this morning and that's something that you would like to do, please come and talk with our and pray with our prayer team at the end of our service.
Finally, last one. How can I grow in humility this week?
We began with those words from Paul in Philippians 2, which spoke of doing nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but rather in humility of value others above yourself, not looking to your own interests, but each to your interests of others in your relationship with one another have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.
Maybe your invitation is.
Hey, Jesus, how can my mind be more in line with you?
How can I have your mindset?
Teach me, correct me, show me,
[01:13:28] Speaker A: how
[01:13:29] Speaker B: can I be like my humble king?
Let's go ahead and we'll pray together.
Lord Jesus, thank you.
Thank you for your grace.
Thank you for your mercy.
Thank you for your sacrifice.
Thank you for taking our place, taking all of our sins upon yourself.
Thank you for new life and thank you for making us new.
We thank you for all these things, God, we desire to you be to you be the glory and the honor and the praise.
[01:14:25] Speaker A: Amen.
[01:14:53] Speaker G: You came to the world you created, treating me your crown for a cross.
You willingly died your innocent Life paid
[01:15:08] Speaker C: the cost,
[01:15:13] Speaker G: Counting your status as nothing.
The king of all kings came to serve.
Washing my face, covering me with your love.
If more of you means less of me.
[01:15:38] Speaker A: Take everything,
[01:15:43] Speaker G: Yes, all of you is all I need.
[01:15:48] Speaker A: Take every me, You, my life and my treasure, the one that I can't live without.
[01:16:13] Speaker G: Here at your feet, my desire, desires and dreams I lay down.
[01:16:23] Speaker A: Here at your feet, my desires, the
[01:16:27] Speaker D: trees I lay down, I lay them all down.
[01:16:33] Speaker A: If more of you means less of me, take every, Yes, all of you is all I need.
Take everything.
If more of you, it's less of me.
Take everything, Yes, all of you is all I me take every.
[01:17:16] Speaker D: Change me like only you can.
Here with my heart in your hands. Father I pray, make me warm like Jesus. Yes, this world is dying to know who you are.
You've shown us the way to your heart.
So Father, I pray, make me more like Jesus.
[01:17:53] Speaker A: O Lord, change me like only you can.
Here with my heart in your hand.
Father, I pray, make me more like Jesus.
This world, it's dying to know who you are.
You shown us the way to your Father I pray, make me more like Jesus.
More like Jesus, I pray, make me more like Jesus.
Give more of you.
Take everything, Yes, all of you is all I need.
Take everything.
If more of you means less of me, take every day.
[01:19:35] Speaker B: It's a powerful prayer.
More of you, Jesus, less of me.
As we close our service this morning, we have prayer warriors up here.
We have the Schwears Heisingers come forward, let them pray with you, pray for you. Whatever's going on in life, maybe it's something about this morning, something else happening in your life that you. You want others to join with you, you know, connection, community and prayer, come up and pray with them. And if you're online this morning, we do have. We want to also be able to pray. You can submit your request online through that prayer westgatechapel.org so church, church family, may you go out this week with a love of God, with the grace of a son, Jesus, and through the power of his Holy Spirit, go in peace. Amen.
