Jesus Teaches About Pride & Marriage

Well I'm sure some of you looked at our study for tonight and thought well that's a strange combination. Jesus teaching about pride and marriage and number of ways that could be taken I guess some of your proud that you're not married some of your proud that you're married some of you think you're married to a very prideful person a lot of ways that could be put together I guess but none of those of the ways in which we intend to put them together tonight we're going to talk about two separate incidents in our Lord's life that are found back to back in the Gospels although they're not found together in the Gospels if you follow a chronological approach to our Lord's life and ministry these two do go one right after the other remember that we are in the last weeks of our Lord's life really nearing the time when he will go up to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover and ultimately his death as he's doing that he's been he's been away from Jerusalem some he's moved around a bit and we're going to find tonight if we get this far that he he moves now once more towards Jerusalem and we'll we'll take a look at that when we get to Matthew's gospel but we start with Luke tonight Luke chapter 18 and verses 9 through 14 we saw last time that Jesus was teaching about prayer and he teaches two parables about prayer in Luke chapter 18 the first one was the parable of the the persistent widow we talked about that one and the next one is a parable about prayer as well but it is not only a parable about prayer it's a parable about pride it's a story about pride and so Jesus is teaching about pride here he speaks he speaks to those who were proud he says in verse 9 to some who were confident of their own righteousness and look down on everyone else Jesus told this parable so this particular teaching is directed toward those who are proud and as we saw last time that obviously is a reference to the Pharisees now when we were studying last time two weeks ago last week was July 4th we did not have Wednesday evening service but we talked about the fact that Jesus introduces this parable by talking about two prayers two prayers to people who were praying and the two prayers in in verse 10 two men went up to the temple to pray one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector now Jesus is telling a story he may not have a particular incident specific historical incident mine most believe this was a parable which is this an illustration and so Jesus purposely chooses two people from the complete opposite end of the spectrum in in social acceptedness in his day as we saw last time the Pharisee is that group of people as a party and they are both a religious and political party in Israel this time they would be the most highly esteemed group in Jewish society the average Jew would esteem a Pharisee more highly than anyone else because these are the people that are known for their religious zeal for their unsurpassing loyalty to the Old Testament law now we know Jesus paints them differently because they had gone way beyond what the Old Testament law taught added a lot to it and ended up becoming very legalistic but the average Jew would see the Pharisee as highly esteemed at very admired the other person in the temple praying that day is the tax collector the tax collector is as far away on the other end of the spectrum as you can get the tax collector is the scum of Jewish society tax collector is is the lowest level lackey of the Roman Empire a sell out he's considered unpatriotic he's considered someone who is a traitor a monster really so much so that a tax collector could not hold public office in Israel a tax collector could not give testimony in court I mean that's how low they were viewed so Jesus picks these two people with a purpose in mind in this parable because you don't really grasp the impact of this story unless you see that in the average Jews mind the Pharisee is the good guy and the tax collector is the bad guy in fact Pharisee would be the very best of the good guys and the tax collector would be the very worst of the bad guys now when you see that great distance between these two men that Jesus picks to be the key players in his story and then you you understand how he gives a real twist to the story that drives home a point it's really quite remarkable how Jesus does this and remember he's speaking to those who are very proud who can consider themselves righteous and look down on everyone that's not quite as good as they are those are the two prayers now where we come to tonight is the two prayers the two actual prayers in verses 11 and 12 the first prayer and then verse 13 is the second prayer the first prayer really is a study in self-righteousness it is a classic statement of self-righteousness notice how the man prays the Pharisee stood by himself and prayed God I thank you that I'm not like other people robbers evil doers adulterers or even like this tax collector I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get now tell me what about this prayer speaks of self-righteousness what do you see in this prayer about self-righteousness I I I yeah he's praying about himself isn't he with an initial nod to God you know he starts out by saying God but God's never mentioned again it's all about him in your English text there are four occurrences of the pronoun I in the Greek text there five it's just a short prayer but it's full of me it's full of I it really is a self-congratulatory discourse disguised as a prayer that really is what it is he's really praying about how good he is so yeah the I I I the the pride there's a clear indication of self-righteousness what else do you see he thought he was pretty good how do you see that in the prayer he does he brags on himself doesn't he see what he said there in in verse 12 I fast twice a week I give a tenth of all that I possess he's very proud of his works isn't he again he starts by thanking God but not thanking God for what God has done of all things he's thanking God for what he has done can you imagine the absurdity of that God I thank you for what I've done it's crazy but if we were to examine some of our prayers they might sound kind of similar but he's thanking God for what he has done not for what God has done he's he's grateful for himself yeah he's very proud of himself what he's done anything else that smacks of self-righteousness in this prayer okay there is a real emphasis here on comparison isn't there in fact like Jean said while he's talking about himself he's putting other people down there really that really forms the basis of his hope is that he's better than other people his hope of being right with God isn't is a favorable comparison with other people and so he says it very clearly there in in verse 11 I thank you that I am not like other people robbers evil doers adulterers you know he's picking the worst you know socially the worst kind of sins you can think of think I'm not like them and they can almost seem looking over at this or back at this tax collector I think I'm not like him there's a real emphasis here on a favorable comparison and he kind of draws in the sleazy tax collector to make himself look really good you know self-righteousness always exposes the deficiencies in other people self-righteousness is always about how I compare to someone else and you know there's nothing that will make you more spiritually complacent than self-righteousness because you can always find somebody worse than you so if that's your basis for how good you are in the eyes of God then you'll always be okay because there's always someone worse than you and if that's if that's your hope for favor with God then you'll you'll be completely apathetic about any real holiness or righteousness because self-righteousness always makes you self-satisfied always someone worse than me yeah exactly he was comparing with others John probably did not really take place parables typically are not based on literal incidents they're just illustrations a story that is told to get across a meaning and typically the story is an imaginary one that's that seems to be the case with parables now that's not to rule out there may not have there may have been some incidents like this that may have spurred Jesus thinking but in all likelihood he's just he's painting a picture of extremes and then he's going to turn the whole thing upside down what else do you see that smacks of self-righteousness considers himself sinless doesn't he there's when he comes before God there is really no recognition of sin it's all about how good he is no recognition of sin that's a very key part of the story as best as we get to the contrast there's something that you you might not pick out until we get to the contrast with the tax collector and it's the the difference in their whole approach to God as far as how they come in how they present themselves the the Pharisee stood by himself and prayed look at verse 13 the but the tax collector stood at a distance he would not even look up to heaven that contrast gives you the impression that the Pharisee strides in you know with his garments with his head held high his factories his little boxes around his arm and his forehead showing off his reverence for scripture obviously and just you know he stands there with his head held high in prayer and and then there's here's another man who cannot even lift he said he there's a difference even in the posture here about how how they approach God which shows I think self-righteousness on the part of the Pharisee John yes yes well you know Jesus did call the Pharisees hypocrites and he talked about him in Matthew 6 being people who love to pray in public and pray repetitiously long prayers and pray to be heard by others maybe that's what this was happening here maybe that's what was happening here we're not sure about that but maybe this man was praying out loud maybe he was praying in a way that would draw attention to himself can't say that for sure but certainly one of the hallmarks of Pharisees is their hypocrisy and this man I think demonstrates hypocrisy very well in the sense that he's concerned he's very very conscious of his own goodness and of how much better he is than the tax collector but there is absolutely no evidence of any concern for the tax collector no heart for the tax collector there's no question about wonder why the tax collectors here praying he must have a heavy heart he must be burdened about something wonder if I could reach out to him to encourage him helping him there's none of that it's all I'm better than you and that that in itself is hypocrisy okay anything else about self righteousness I think you've you've touched on just about everything the second prayer excuse me as a study in humility first thirteen 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 now what about his prayer demonstrates humility he's asking for forgiveness isn't he I think for forgiveness which says what about him he knows he's a sinner yes he recognizes that he's a sinner he's deeply aware of his unworthiness I mean again his very posture shows that doesn't he comes in and he stands at a distance again I can almost see the Pharisee just striding right up you know to be seen by everybody with his head held high but here's a man who who just doesn't even feel worthy to be there so he just steps inside the court of Israel probably and and won't even lift up his head he recognizes he's unworthy to be in the presence of God and then he he calls himself a sinner doesn't he calls himself a sinner there's no gloating over how good he is he knows he's a sinner in fact the the original text actually has the sinner which indicates I'm not looking at anybody else I'm just focused on me I am I am the sinner it's not I'm one of a few sinners in here Lord and I probably am somewhere in the middle you know some better me some worse no I'm the sinner I'm the sinner and so yeah he's he's very aware of his sinfulness so he asks for forgiveness what else what else uh yes yes he recognized God in contrast to himself he's a sinner God is the one who gives mercy yeah okay anything else speak of humility to you okay beating his breast beating his chest what was what was that about why would someone do that in Bible times grief okay that would be a reason for sure what else sorry for his sin sorry yes in the sense of true repentance you know grieving over his sin he was he was grief stricken over his failure and who he was I think that's a very clear evidence of his humility he you the the beating of the chest so unlike today you know if you watch basketball the beating of the chest is a you know I'm the man you know I'm just don't try don't try to take me on man I I'll take you to the hoop and I'll dunk over you know that kind of thing well get that out of your mind because that's not the kind of beating of the chest here the beating of the chest was one of it was like tearing the garments putting dust on the head these were all outward symbols in the ancient world in the oriental world the world of the Middle East still today same way of deep sorrow grief and repentance yes almost like you know self-loathing yes in in a a good kind of way if you can if you can say that a recognition that I'm a sinner and an outward sign of that so yeah the beating of the chest is another evidence of that one one other thing I'd like to just mention about it what were you going to say something yeah yeah true yes that that's very interesting that you would say that I think that's very telling that he does not you know the normal posture in prayer for a Jew was to look up we bow our heads the normal posture for Jew was to look up because they were looking up into the face of their father that was what they would be representing and so and often with their hands raised they would look up and pray to heaven to God but this man exactly he can't look he can't he can't look God in the face he he does that's the sign of his unworthiness yeah very good his only hope he knows is God's mercy did you notice his prayer he said God have mercy on me a center the word have mercy here is an interesting word it's not the normal word in the New Testament for mercy that's the Greek word LAOS this is a different word Hilosmos which is only found two or three times in the old in the New Testament and it literally in two other places is translated propitiation the word literal it's a very rich theological term the word literally means Lord look on the mercy seat where the blood is sprinkled be satisfied with the offering of a blood sacrifice on the mercy seat remembers in the temple still worshipping as Old Testament Jews would and the way their their sins were covered was by the taking of blood by the priest high priest once a year into the holy of holies and sprinkling it on the mercy seat the mercy seat was the gold lid that covered the arc of the covenant remember all kinds of symbolism there the arc of the covenant had within it the law of God the two tablets of stone the Ten Commandments which condemned people showed them they were sinners God's mercy God's blood is sprinkled over that to cover to come between God's righteous standards and a sinful man and the symbolism is rich and this this is the word that would be used for propitiation or God being satisfied with a blood sacrifice what he is literally saying is as I come into your presence God please accept the blood of the sacrifice as covering for my sin that's literally what he's saying he's not just saying Lord Phil sorry for me or have pity on me he's literally praying for substitutionary atonement he's literally praying for the death of an innocent animal to cover his sins which as you know prefigures the death of the Lamb of God Christ in our place as our substitutionary sacrifice so he's praying for the blood to cover his sin take away his sin and that's a that is the ultimate evidence of the fact that this man realizes what it means to approach God how do you come into God's presence not with your head held high proud of everything you've done you come into God's presence recognizing that you are the center and the only way you'll ever be accepted by God is for the blood to cover his wrath and that's exactly what he's praying wow what a what a contrast between these two men the two prayers really do serve to give a beautiful contrast yes I don't think so in our in our setting it probably the normal posture of looking up might because we we think in terms of closing the eyes and bowing the head as an evidence of submission in their culture looking up was an evidence of a child who is in need of a father and was that kind of image and so it really communicated much the same thing but I think the reason this man in our minds at least should be commended for looking down is it does symbolize the fact that he could not bring himself to even look up and and consider God his father he realizes he's far from God so I think both in a sense can communicate the same thing the normal posture of prayer for a Jew would still communicate the fact that he was dependent on God as a father it's a it's a good suggestion Lindsey and Maywell B I don't know for sure how that practice got started I do think that the bowing of our head is intended to symbolize in our culture submission or humility the the bowing over and it may well go back to passages like this well yeah typically would not be found in there I think I said last time that that tax collectors would not be allowed in the temple and and that probably is not entirely correct I was I was thinking of something else and said the wrong thing they would not be allowed to give testimony in court they would be allowed to come to temple but but typically you would not find a tax collector there for two reasons first of all they they wouldn't show up there because they didn't care to be there secondly they would not be welcomed there again they were considered the scum of society so you typically would not find a tax collector in the temple evidently that's that's an evidence also that this man is in great spiritual need and he realizes it sorry for my misleading comment on that pardon me I think I think he was and I think he realizes that and I think this is the the moment at which he realizes what it means to be right with God in fact that's the very principle that Jesus is going to draw from this story is how how do you get right with God how are you declared righteous in God's sight and let's let's move on to that the two principles that he draws you got the the two prayers the two prayers and then here's the two principles in verse 14 I tell you that this man rather than the other went home justified before God that's the first principle is the principle that salvation comes by grace not goodness which man is he talking about I'll tell you this man rather than the other who's the this man and who's the other gotta keep those straight this man is the the tax collector right the other is the Pharisee okay this man the tax collector went home justified before God not the Pharisee now what does it mean to be justified you remember what justified means as if you'd never sinned that's one way to look at it count it as righteous in God's sight yes it literally is to be declared righteous it's a judicial verdict that you are now righteous it's it's a courtroom scene and God is the judge and God declares you righteous uh justification is not about being righteous it's not about becoming righteous now that's that's a different word sanctification that's something that happens in a gradual growing process in the Christian life justification is the judicial declaration of God when you trust Jesus as your savior the blood of Jesus Christ covers takes away your sin you are declared righteous and in God's record books your sin is taken off of your account and Christ's righteousness is put on and you are declared righteous it has to do with your standing before God that's the reason why because of justification we can never lose our salvation God changed his record books in heaven and he took all of your sin away and he put Christ's blood in its place and you are declared righteous your judicial standing forever before God is one of being righteous or being declared righteous now that you have the Holy Spirit within the Holy Spirit is going to make you righteous as you grow in Christ that's the goal so one is one is the judicial standing before God how he views us in Christ the other becoming righteous has to do with our lifestyle and our growth so Jesus is talking about salvation here when he talks about justified that's salvation so he says basically the way of salvation is by grace not by goodness the Pharisee was trying to get the heaven by his goodness by what he didn't do and what he did do thank you that I don't do the things other people do I fast twice in a week I give ties of all that I possess here's the things I do now measure those up and my goodness will somehow outweigh my badness and I'll get to heaven on the basis of my goodness see that's what the Pharisee was counting on he had it all wrong it's not that he wasn't in other people's eyes a good man and it's not that he didn't do all these things it's not that he wasn't far down the road toward human goodness he was on the wrong road that was the problem he was pretty far down the road he chose to go down he was on the wrong road in getting to God getting to heaven and the tax collector indicates the right road and that is I'm totally dependent upon the blood of the sacrifice to take away my sin God's mercy God's grace in giving me salvation I don't earn it by what I do it's a gift and so Jesus is making the point the person who is justified is the person who recognizes they are a sinner Jesus shed his blood the pay for their sins and they put all of their faith confidence trust in Jesus blood to take them to heaven not in their goodness okay that's the way a person gets saved and by the way if you're here tonight and you've always kind of been thinking the way you get the heaven is you know you got to be a pretty good person you know that's American pop religion that's the way most people think you hear it all kinds of funerals well if anybody all you get to heaven he will anybody ever be in heaven she will that's nothing but salvation by works what people are saying when they say that is well that was a really good person nobody gets to heaven by being good nobody gets to heaven by doing good things and living a good life we get to heaven only through the grace of God and the blood sacrifice of Christ see so if you've never trusted Jesus as your savior if you've been thinking that your own goodness might get you there I would I would just really challenge you tonight give up your own righteousness it won't get you to heaven trust what Jesus did for you on the cross when he became your sacrifice gave his sin or gave his blood for your sins trust that for your salvation okay okay second second principle that Jesus gets across here is this God honors humility and judges pride you see it there in the end of the verse for all those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humbled themselves will be exalted so God honors humility judges pride now humility is not bashing yourself or some kind of false pretense of making sure everybody knows that you feel like you're really no good that's a very subtle form of pride really is when you want everyone to know how humbled you are and to look at you well because of oh how humbled you are that's really a subtle form of pride pride is very insidious pride can sometimes be very obvious you know the very hotty person that promotes himself or herself and talks a lot about themselves and obvious self-reliance on their own skill or ingenuity or always drawing attention to themselves you know their achievements what they do pride can be very obvious but pride can be very insidious as well hidden deep in the heart and not so obvious and one of the ways that pride can manifest itself is demonstrated by the Pharisee here and that is by thanking God for what you haven't done for what you haven't been for what you are not and that can very easily slide into a looking over at the tax collector like like that person over there and starting to look down your nose at someone else compare yourself favorably to someone else that's a very very insidious form of pride that comparative glance at others that lips that are person disapproval anytime you start comparing yourself to others that's pride and that's what Jesus is that's a lesson he's drawing and it can be pride about anything it can be pride about your knowledge it can be pride about the things you've done it can be pride about how good you've been toward someone or whatever so many ways it can enter our hearts okay anything else on the teaching on pride Jesus gives John yeah it's a good good observation though the very center of pride is I it's all about me isn't it okay well we've got about 10 minutes let's talk about Jesus teaching on marriage and the next event that takes place is not in Luke's gospel here but we have to go over to Matthew to find it we'll we'll look at Matthew's account Matthew 19 the same account is found in Mark's gospel chapter 10 but we'll look at Matthew's account Jesus as we have already seen is making his way to Jerusalem he is he has been in Jerusalem then moved out to Peria for a period of time then came back to Bethany to raise Lazarus Pharisees wanted to kill him when that happened and so he fled north and ministered some there and then we've seen that he passes through the border of Samaria and Galilee headed back toward Jericho where he will then make his final approach to Jerusalem so in marks or Matthew's gospel Matthew hasn't dealt with all the things we've been seeing in recent weeks Matthew skipped a lot of that and the the gospels don't deal no one gospel deals with everything what we've been seeing from Luke 9 through Luke 17 or 18 what we saw from John 7 through 10 Matthew doesn't deal with and so that's the reason Matthew says in verse 1 when Jesus had finished saying these things he left Galilee and went into the region of Judea to the other side of the Jordan Matthew's just kind of summarizing all of these weeks of ministry that we've been seeing where Jesus left Galilee went to Jerusalem then went over to Peria then went back to Jerusalem up to the border of Samaria now he's headed back toward Jerusalem that's kind of summarized by Matthew in that statement verse 2 says large crowds followed him and he healed them there so Matthew 19 the beginning talks about where Jesus is in his ministry now look at look at the questions that that's asked and the first thing that I want to talk about here is the divine intent of marriage Jesus is going to talk about marriage he's going to be asked a question by the Pharisees the Pharisees are going to try to trap him again they've tried this many many times before with many different issues and they have failed every time this time they pick a most controversial subject in a location that Jesus answer could really get him in trouble and so they they ask a question in verse 3 some Pharisees came to him to testing they asked is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason now this was a hotly debated topic in Jesus' day the controversy centered around how different scribes interpreted Deuteronomy 24 and we're not going to take the time to go back there but Deuteronomy 24 basically says if a man divorces his wife if he finds any uncleanness or indecency in her and writes her a bill of divorcement then she marries someone else and then he divorces her can the first husband take her back and Moses pronouncement is no that's just complicating matters more it's an involved situation but the controversy of Jesus' day was what does the word indecency mean what what does that talk about what what is the uncleanness that's talked about and there were two major schools of thought in Jesus' day represented by two famous rabbis the school of rabbi Hillel basically said indecency that's anything that's anything you find wrong with your wife you can write a bill of divorce most of said you could and so divorce her for any reason for crying out loud she burns your supper write her a bill of divorcement get rid of her yeah I mean it was almost that bad in that particular interpretation of Deuteronomy 24 there were others who took a much more restrictive view of Deuteronomy 24 they were led by rabbi named Shema and that school of thought took that the only uncleanness or indecency had to do with sexual immorality so Jesus is asked this question first of all to put him on the spot with a very hotly debated topic which side are you going to come down on Jesus because whatever side you come down on there's a large segment of the population that believes otherwise and you're going to be in trouble so they thought they had him pinned in addition where they're doing this is in the region where Herod is king the same Herod who put John the Baptist to death over John saying he was illegally married he wasn't married right it messed up his life morally and the Pharisees no doubt are thinking I can just see him lick under chops salivating at the thought this kind of subject got John beheaded made when get Jesus arrested by Herod and will be done with him maybe Herod will put him to death just like he did John and our problem is solved so you see the Pharisees once again think they have Jesus right where they want him trapped a hotly debated topic no matter what answer you give you're in trouble and in the region where Herod might hear about it and get offended and they're asking wow this is a perfect setup they think and as always you know the Bible says that Jesus sometimes walked through their midst and they couldn't get him well metaphorically he did that a lot where they tried to trap him with words and Jesus just walked right through their arguments and and his answer is such a what it is is basically a seminar on marriage what Jesus will do is give a seminar on marriage and then he will touch on divorce but he's going to talk about marriage for the most of his answer and so you see what Jesus does is they're asking him about the two interpretations of Deuteronomy 24 basically what Jesus does he goes way back way back past Isaiah past Psalms past chronicles past Samuel by passes Deuteronomy goes all the way back to Genesis okay Jesus goes all the way back to the original design for marriage and so that's where Jesus starts and that's where this topic always must start now I know I'm not going to get far enough tonight some of you're going to think wow this church past John really hard on divorced people not at all we're not going to get to the latter part of what Jesus talks about but I'll tell you what when this issue comes up we need to be like Jesus and always go back to the original intent of God first that's where we have to start now there are some things called sin that have messed that up and Deuteronomy 24 Moses and Deuteronomy 24 and Jesus later in this chapter will make some concession for man's sinfulness and we'll give in this passage one acceptable reason for divorce but then he will talk further about some other things that I think give other concessions and we'll get to that later but since we're not going to get to that tonight I don't want you to get the wrong impression that you know we're going to boom boom boom if you're divorced you're living in sin you know you can never be used of God that is not what the Bible teaches this however when we talk about marriage and divorce the place to start is to go back to Genesis and start with God's original intent and that needs to be elevated and held high especially for our young people today God's original intent okay what what was the intent in one minute what was what was the intent haven't you read he replied verse four haven't you read that at the beginning the creator made the male and female and said for this reason a man will leave his father and mother be united to his wife the two will become one flesh they are no longer two but one flesh therefore what God has joined together let no one separate and what Jesus says what he does here is and we're going to kind of unpack this tear it apart next time Jesus basically makes five foundational statements about marriage five foundational truths principles whatever you want to call them about marriage and that's the place to start they ask him a question about divorce and Jesus says I'm not even going there not till we first of all get back to the original foundation for marriage that's where you have to start and Jesus will make five foundational statements about marriage and boy I would love to get into him tonight because they are so basic to the culture wars that we find ourselves in today and no matter who says what the Bible is very clear on what marriage is who founded it how it should be done who is to be involved the Bible is very clear about those things and we're going to look at five of those foundational principles then next week we're going to let you get your kids tonight okay and grandkids whatever take your husband's home whatever let's pray okay father thank you for Jesus we marvel lord at his teaching and lord we could stay in the gospels the rest of our lives and not plumb the depths of the the marvelous wisdom insight grace of our lord thank you that he made it clear how to be saved not through our goodness but through your grace and mercy thank you lord that he makes it very clear what marriage is all about and I pray that as we look at that in the coming week that you will help us to to recommit ourselves to the foundational principles of what the Bible teaches about marriage lord it is so under attack in our culture today and I pray that we would recommit ourselves to that regardless of what the politicians or the Supreme Court says help us to help us lord to base what we believe on your word and take a clear stand for that we ask in Jesus name amen