The Joy of Authentic Humility

Luke 18:9-14

Today’s bible reading will be from Luke 18:9-14:

“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.”

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

What Is Authentic Christianity?

Well good morning everyone, welcome to Church at home here at St James. Today we are finishing off our series which we started last week: What is authentic Christianity?

Last week we looked at relationship with God, and today we are going to be looking at humility before God. I am going to pray for us and ask God to help us. Let’s bow our heads and pray.

Opening Prayer

Father, thank you that in your great mercy you’ve opened up a way for us to have relationship with you, and to find full joy – full satisfaction – in that relationship.

I pray that today you may help us as we seek to understand how it is that we can get into this relationship with you; how it is that we can get in on becoming part of your people, in order for us to be truly your children – to live lives that reflect that we are yours. And for us to have full joy and satisfaction in that.

I pray for all of this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

We Long For Acceptance & Relationship

Now, I am going to begin by asking you a question. Who is it, or what group of people, are you trying to get accepted by, or approved by? What group of people are you trying to get in on? Or which person are you so desperate for them to accept you, for them to receive you, for them to welcome you?

To be received, to be accepted, to be welcomed, is one of our greatest desires as people.

Let me just say up front that to be received, to be accepted, to be welcomed, is one of our greatest desires as people. In fact I might go as far as to say it’s one of our greatest needs.

What’s The End Goal?

But then here’s the thing, it’s not the end goal. You see to be received and to be accepted, that’s not the end goal. The end goal of being welcomed, of being approved, of being received, is to have deep, intimate relationship with those people that we are trying to be accepted by. To enjoy the benefits of that relationship.

Maybe it’s doing stuff with other people, enjoying stuff with other people. And so the end goal of being approved, of being accepted, is to have this deep intimacy in which we would enjoy life.

When I keep saying to my wife, “I just don’t understand why you can’t accept me as I am!” I keep saying that to her! It’s because I notice that there’s something about me that is blocking us from having a deep, intimate relationship with each other.

Authentic Relationships Are Hard

Something is holding her back. Something that she doesn’t like about me. You see, relationship is the best thing about life. And we all want deep, authentic relationships. and so when we see to be received, to be welcomed, to be approved, two things are happening there.

We Cover Up What’s Not Right

First of all, we are noticing and recognising and acknowledging that something is not right about us. There is something deeply wrong with us. And so we do things so that a particular group of people can accept us, they can receive us.

Most of the times, the things that we do cover up the stuff that is deep down in our hearts. Maybe you think that having a bigger, nicer house will help you be accepted by people. Maybe it’s clothes, maybe it’s a job, maybe it’s money. Different things that we do externally – and we push hard to get those things externally – so that we can get in on a particular group of people. With the end goal of being in relationship with them.

You see what we are actually looking for when we do those things is deep, intimate relationships. Because it is in deep, intimate relationships that we get to experience the real, the good, and the nice life.

Originally Adam & Eve Were Naked

If you go back to Genesis 1-3 you will notice that Adam and Eve were running around naked! They had no clothes. It’s quite interesting that they walked around naked – it’s something that would blow our minds if that were to ever happen!

They were welcomed, they were received, they were accepted as they were.

You see it’s an indication of the reality that they had nothing to prove. They were just as they were. There was nothing to try and get, nothing to try and become. They were welcomed, they were received, they were accepted as they were.

And that’s because they had a deep, intimate relationship with God. They had no need to look for anything external to sort of cover up any form of deficiency that they had. Deep down inside, they were fully satisfied by God.

Then They Covered Themselves With Leaves

But then if you read in Genesis 3 when they sinned, they started to realise that something was missing, something was not right. They became insecure. And so what did they do? They covered themselves with leaves. They hid from God and they covered themselves with leaves.

And that’s because that deep intimate relationship with God was broken. It was broken because they’d sinned against him; they had lost trust in him, they had failed him. And so that relationship was scarred and they began to feel inadequate; they began to feel insecure. And when that happened they began to focus on the external.

They didn’t have that deep, intimate relationship with God anymore. And so they began to focus on the external.

They started to think that something was wrong. And the first thing they saw was, “Wow! We are naked!” And so they covered themselves up.

See deep down, they were now broken. They were now empty. They didn’t have that deep, intimate relationship with God anymore. And so they began to focus on the external because they were deeply scarred within them.

Two Approaches To Establishing Relationship With God

Now this is the problem that we see in this passage today. The passage today presents two men who are seeking to be accepted into God’s presence. They are seeking to have deep relationship with God. The passage today is answering the question: “How is it that I can be accepted by God? How is it that I can be justified before God?”

And the two men that we have in the passage approach this problem differently. They have two different approaches to establishing relationship with God.

We read in Luke 18:10, “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.”

So going up to pray at the temple is them seeking to present themselves before God, to establish a relationship with God. That’s why they went to the temple, because God was in the temple.

The Pharisee’s Posture

But what is the difference in the posture that the two men take? Let’s look at verse 11: “The Pharisee” we are told that “The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed”. Now in other translations we are told that “he took position and he prayed about himself”. Meaning he stood at the right place. The place that God had prescribed for the people of Israel to stand when they prayed at the temple.

He couldn’t just pray anywhere – God had prescribed this place and people had to pray there. So he couldn’t really stand away from everyone else, no, he had to stand in the place that God had required. Because remember, he’s a Pharisee, he is serious about keeping God’s law. And so he stood in the prescribed place.

The Tax Collector’s Posture

Now it’s important for us to realise this because it relates to what the tax collector does. Look at what the tax collector does. Luke 18:13: “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast”.

Now the tax collector could not stand in the prescribed area. He was far off. He did not even look up to heaven. Because that’s what you did when you prayed: you looked up to heaven, because that’s where God was. That’s where they understood God to be. But he could not do that.

Each of these men’s postures represents their approach to God.

You see each of these men’s postures represents their approach to God. And if you look at their prayers, you will understand why it is they approach God in this way.

The Pharisee’s Prayer

For the Pharisee in Luke 18:11-12 just look it says: “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.’

You see the Pharisee understands himself to be correct before God. He is right with God. That is why he takes this rightful place of prayer – which is not a bad thing! There’s nothing wrong with that. He’s a Pharisee, he understands himself to be correct before God.

He’s a Pharisee, he understands himself to be correct before God.

He avoided things which God hated. He was not a thief, was not an evildoer, was not an adulterer. No, he did all the things that God required and even more. Fasted twice a week. He gave a tenth – now he did even more than God required because God only required the Israelites to fast once a year but he did it twice a week.

Was The Pharisee Wrong?

But there’s nothing wrong with that. You know, we understand for you to get ahead in life, for you to make it, you’ve got to put in the extra mile. You have to do extra work. If you want to get a promotion at work, if work ends at 4:00 pm, you end at 6:00 pm. You work late in the evening, you do more work in order for you to get ahead in life. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

There’s nothing wrong with what the Pharisee does per se. The stuff that he does is good stuff.

You see the Pharisee is an authentic seeker of God. You know we like to think of them as hypocrites, these Pharisees, and there is a bit of a caricature in the gospels of the Pharisees as hypocrites. But we have to take each account that they appear to its merit, and assess.

And in this account, there’s nothing wrong with what the Pharisee does per se. The stuff that he does is good stuff. God would approve of that. You see Pharisees had a genuine desire to be right with God, and they focused on the stuff that God commanded.

The Tax Collector’s Prayer

But the Tax Collector? Tax Collectors not so much. You see the Tax Collectors were the ultimate profile of sinful people. They were the scum of the earth type of people – people that everyone disapproved of.

The Tax Collectors were the ultimate profile of sinful people.

They took advantage of the poor, you know they were tax men and they took more than they were supposed to take for their own pockets. And so everyone held them in disdain. They were just these people that you can’t just stand. They were corrupt. Bad, bad people.

And that is why this Tax Collector distances himself. He understand that he cannot take the rightful place which the Pharisee took. No, he stood at a distance. He could not even look up to heaven. He beat his chest and he asked God for mercy.

And in Luke 18:14 we are told by Jesus that this man, the Tax Collector, went home justified, instead of the other.

Why Was The Tax Collector Justified?

So why did the Tax Collector go home justified? Why was he accepted? Why was he welcomed?

Well, something exciting about these parables that we’ve been looking at in the last two weeks, the writer actually tells us what Jesus is getting at. And in Luke 18:9 the writer tells us: the Pharisee was confident of his own righteousness and looked down on everyone else.

The Pharisee’s Self-Righteousness

You see he looked at all the stuff he was doing, all the efforts that he was making, all the things that he put himself through in order to please God, and he said to himself, “I am doing well”. Patted himself on the back.

“I follow God’s law to the T, I even do more than is required”. But here’s the thing, with all of that, he looked at the sinful people – he looked and the Tax Collector – and he said, “I’m better”. He compared himself to them and he thought he was better.

The Pharisee is trusting in himself, in his self-sufficiency, to be right with God.

And by that he shows exactly what he is trusting in. He is trusting in himself, in his self-sufficiency, to be right with God. Like the Judge last week, he looks at his abilities and he things to himself, “Well, I got here by myself, I’ve worked hard to get to this point”. And he looks at other people, who are not there, with disdain.

The Fallacy Of Competence

That is the fallacy of competence. To think that we get to where we are by our own abilities. To think that we are successful by our own capabilities is a fallacy. It is not true that we get to where we are on our own.

To think that we are successful by our own capabilities is a fallacy.

You see the Pharisee doesn’t recognise that even the ability of the desire to pray to God, to seek God, even that comes from God.

My Gift In Primary School

You know when I was in primary school I was a pretty good swimmer. And I am not blowing my own horn here! It’s one of the few things I was good it and I worked hard at it; I worked at my craft. I was the best swimmer in the school and people used to shout my name when I jumped into the pool.

And it was something that I really enjoyed. I took pride in it.

But I remember one swimming gala – you know the parents came and we were having an inter-house competition – and I finished my race and I won the race and I was walking back to the stands. And I walked past these parents and they started pointing at me and saying “That’s him! Yes, that’s him. His dad, do you remember? His dad was also good at swimming when we were in school”.

The Shock

And that came as a bit of a shock to me. Because I was like, my dad never told me that he was a swimmer. My dad loved my swimming and he was always there when I was swimming, but he never once told me that he was a swimmer.

And you see the thing that bugged me the most about that, was that then I realised that then, maybe, my swimming gift is not because there is anything special about me – it’s not because I work hard at it. No, it’s probably something genetic, something about our body make-up that helps us to swim well.

And that was a blow for me.

It’s Not Really Up To Us

You see, if we think a bit more about our gifts, our abilities, our success, if we just scratch the surface a little, we will realise that it has got nothing to do with us. Whether it’s genes, or the things you are taught – someone came alongside you and they taught you how to do it. It’s not really up to us.

You’ve worked hard. But even the ability to work hard, the ability to concentrate, the motivation to even do that, is a gift from God.

Or you might say to yourself, I’ve worked very hard for this degree. I’ve walked very hard to understand the markets and that’s what makes me a good investor. Yes you have. But I’ll also say to you that even the ability to work hard, the ability to concentrate, the ability and the motivation to even do that, is a gift from God.

The Key To Humility

The moment we recognise that, we will abandon our self-sufficiency.

If we recognise that all good things come from God, if we grasp that, we will be humble.

We will start to realise that we actually can’t take pride in our success. That it’s not up to us. You see if we recognise that all good things come from God, if we grasp that, we will be humble. Because we will recognise that left to ourselves all there is is badness. It’s a mess up. Left to ourselves we are just as needy as the Widow last week, and as this Tax Collector.

How Needy We Are

And once we recognise how needy we are, how much desperate we are and how dependent we are on God’s grace and God’s mercy, we will run to him with humility.

Now I shared about my daughter last week. Now one of the things – she is quite a busy baby and she walks around, she runs around a lot.

And we’ve tried our best, we are trying our best, to make sure that we protect her. And one of the places we don’t want to see her is the kitchen – which is tough. So we close the gate and make sure she doesn’t come there. Sometimes she stands at the gate and she cries – she wants to go in. But we are trying to be strict about that.

We Can’t Protect Ourselves

But a few days ago, I left the kitchen gate open. I went to the lounge and she was also there. I sat down and she sneaked away and we didn’t realise. For a moment we looked and we thought, “Oh where is she?” And then I ran to the kitchen. And there she was in the kitchen, right at the stove, and there was a boiling pot on the stove. She could have easily just dragged the pot on herself and burnt herself.

I realised how frail and fragile we are as people.

In that moment I was broken to the core. I realised how frail and fragile we are as people. How we try to put this measure, try to do that, to protect ourselves, to get ourselves somewhere, but really it’s not up to us.

She was protected by God in that moment, and I have absolutely no doubt about that.

You see God holds everything together, it’s not up to us. And when we recognise that – when we come to God understanding that nothing is dependent on our abilities – we will be filled with humility. We will trust him and we will depend on him fully.

The Goal Is Relationship With God

You see this story is not about becoming humble. Let’s get that straight. Humility is not the goal. The goal is relationship with God. So if you walk out of this thinking, “Well, I’m gonna try my best to become humble, to become like the Tax Collector”, then you are going to fail dismally.

Now this story is helping us to understand and to search deep down within us: to recognise the frailty, to recognise the weakness that is in us, to recognise that we are needy – that there is nothing in us that is good.

Trying Hard To Be Humble Won’t Work

If you try to become humble, if you try and go out there and act as if you are humble, then you will not be different from the Pharisee.

You see this story cuts both ways.

It’s possible for the Pharisee to be humble. If only he recognises that the ability to do all the things that he is doing comes from God, that it’s got nothing to do with him, that it’s the grace of God.

But that the Tax Collector can also be proud in his humility. He could have said “Lord, I thank you that I’m not like this Pharisee who depends on himself for salvation”. He could have prayed that prayer and taken pride in his humility.

You see this story is about us recognising the frailty that is in us – and that is what the Tax Collector does. He understands that he is sinful, he is broken within.

The writer C. S. Lewis said, if you try very hard to be humble then you will become conceited indeed.

Understand That We Are Messed Up

You see the way to stand before God, the way to be justified by God, is to understand that we are messed up. To understand that the only way that we can get out of this thing – that we can get out of this mess that we are in – is to trust him. To have a relationship with him; to go to him with our neediness like the Widow last week; To understand how desperate and unable to stand on our own that we are.

If we do that, then we will come to God with humility.

The Problem With Pride

There’s a passage in the Old Testament, a verse which says, “God resists the proud” (Proverbs 3:34). You see pride is the ultimate form of rejection of God. Because pride is thinking of yourself as your ultimate form of life, as your ultimate form of sufficiency. And not recognising that God holds everything together and God could easily break everything that you have; could easily take it away.

Pride is the ultimate form of rejection of God. Because pride is thinking of yourself your ultimate form of sufficiency.

And so if we are to understand and really have a deep relationship with God, we are to come to him running. understanding that we are broken, we are sinful, there is nothing good in us. Then we can humbly pray to him and ask him to forgive our sins, through his son Jesus.

The Most Important Thing To Realise

You see there is nothing more important than you coming to God in humility and understanding your weakness, your frailty. Breaking down all the strongholds that make you feel like, “Well, I’m sufficient, I am strong.”

There’s nothing more important than you coming to God in humility and understanding your weakness.

There is nothing more important than recognising that, “Well, actually deep down inside I’m a mess”, and coming to God and saying “Lord, here I am. Have mercy on me, a sinner”. Because your sin was paid for by Jesus, you can have a relationship with God once again.

And in that relationship, you can find the satisfaction – the joy – you can be received, you can be welcomed, and there will be nothing else to work out for.

The Pharisee’s Mistake

You see the Pharisee focused on the external in order for him to deal with the internal mess that he was.

The Tax Collector’s Humility

But the Tax Collector focused on the internal. The Tax Collector could have very well said to himself, “Well, I’m rich! God has blessed me! I don’t care what you say about the way I’ve got my stuff, but I’ve got them. God has blessed me”.

No, but he looked deep down inside and he said “You know, there’s a lot wrong with me in there”. And he went home more justified than the Pharisee.

That is why Jesus concludes this story by saying everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. But the one who humbles himself will be exalted. (Luke 18:14)

To be exalted means to enter into relationship with God – that’s the ultimate form of exaltation. As God sits on his throne, and Jesus at his right hand, we can ascend up to them and be in their presence and have relationship with them, by recognising that we can’t do it on our own. We need God for us to be able to stand before him.

Take Your Weaknesses Seriously

That’s why I encourage you today to actually soak yourself in your weaknesses. This is not common practical advice is it! To be realistic about your weaknesses, to take them seriously. Not to bury them, not to try to cover them, but to actually unearth them and bring them to God – and bring yourself to God – and say “Lord, I am yours. Have me. Please forgive me for all the mess that I am”. And you will be exalted.

Let’s pray.

Closing Prayer

Father, thank you so much that your word is alive and true and that it gives us guidance and direction on how it is we can once again have relationship with you. How it is that we can find full joy and satisfaction, even in our broken state.

Thank you that Jesus paid the price for our sinfulness, for our mess-up. And that now we can come back to you and we can enter into relationship with you because of what he did.

Lord we thank you for your love and for your mercy. That while we were still sinners Christ died for us. Amen.

Well I hope you’ve had a good couple of weeks taking a look at these stories that Jesus told.