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QUALITIES OF DISCIPLESHIP

 A Quality of Discipleship – Humility

Scripture Reading:  Luke 18:9 – 14.

Text:  Luke 18:14.

 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”  (Luke 18:14 | TNIV)

Introduction.  Today we begin a new sermon series called “The Qualities of Discipleship.”  As those who have been called by grace to follow Jesus, we want to grown in the character traits that marked our Lord Himself.  Over the coming weeks we will examine qualities like humility, faithfulness, meekness, perseverance, and love – truth Jesus often taught through parables so that listeners with ears to hear might understand.

I want to begin with humility because it’s the foundation upon which every other Christian virtue rests.  Without humility we can’t receive grace, did you know that?

But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble and oppressed.”  (James 4:6 | TNIV)

 Without humility we will never take up the cross daily and follow Christ (Luke 9:23).   And how about this:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  (Matthew 5:3 | TNIV)

That’s right!  According to Jesus Himself, we will never see ourselves rightly or see Christ as our all-sufficient Savior.  The poor in spirit – the humble – are the ones who will be blessed.  And Jesus gave a stark warning:

For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.  (Matthew 23:12 | TNIV)

The parable before us today is one of the sharpest illustrations of this truth in all the Bible.  It’s addressed to some specific people:

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable…  (Luke 18:9 | TNIV)

In other words, it’s a mirror held up to every religious heart, including our own.  So, let’s walk through this parable together, following the outline the Lord Himself has provided.

The prayer of the Pharisee.

 “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.’”  (Luke 18:10 – 12 | TNIV)

A Pharisee and a tax collector went into the Temple to pray.  We are told that the Pharisee “stood by himself” to pray.  That phrase, “by himself” is really “with himself” is telling.  The Greek suggests that his prayer never truly left the circle of his own self-regard.  He wasn’t speaking to God so much as congratulating himself in God’s presence.

Just look at the content of his “prayer.”  He actually thanked God that he, a religious man, wasn’t like other men who he described as “robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.”  Not only that, he told God that he “fasted twice a week and gives a tenth of all he gets.”

Notice what he does NOT say.  He offers not confession of sin.  He asks for nothing.  He expresses no dependence upon God’s mercy.  His prayer is simply a catalog of negatives and positives that all revolve around himself.

I suppose, depending on your attitude, you could thank God that you aren’t some kind of nefarious sinner, but we know this Pharisee had the wrong attitude.  He actually looked around and adds the stinging comparison:  He’s glad he isn’t like this tax collector.  The very presence of the despised tax collector becomes an occasion for the Pharisee to feel superior.  He doesn’t pray FOR the tax collector; he prays ABOUT him in order to build himself up.

His positive claims are equally absurd.  He claimed to fast twice a week, which was probably true.  Of course, the Law required only one fast per year, on the Day of Atonement.   So this guy had added voluntary fasts of Mondays and Thursdays.  He also claimed that he gave tithes of all he possessed.  Again, the Law required tithes on certain produce; the Pharisee extended tithing to even the smallest garden herbs.  In other words, the Pharisee wasn’t a hypocrite in the sense of doing nothing; he was a man of rigorous external evidence of his own righteousness rather than as grateful response to God’s grace.

This is the prayer of spiritual pride.  It measures righteousness by comparison with others and by religious performance.  It’s the prayer of a man who believes he has earned God’s favor and therefore has no need to ask for it.  Tragically, this kind of prayer still echoes in many hearts today – perhaps even in hours when we silently thank God we aren’t like “those people” on the other side of the political aisle, or in the other church, or living in obvious sin.

The prayer of the tax collector.

Now, contrast the posture and the petition of the tax collector.

 “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.’”  (Luke 18:13 | TNIV)

 Literally everything about this man’s approach is the opposite of the Pharisee.

He stands off at a distance.  While the Pharisee apparently took a prominent place, the tax collector remained at the very edge of the outer court, painfully aware that he had no right to draw near.  The Temple was the place where God’s presence dwelt; this man felt the distance sin had created.

He wouldn’t even look up to heaven, Jesus said.  Downcast eyes are the body language of shame and reverence.  He couldn’t look toward the holy place because he knew his sin had disqualified him.

Furthermore, he beat his breast.  This wasn’t a single polite tap; the imperfect tense of the Greek suggests repeated, vigorous striking – the ancient gesture of deep contrition and mourning over sin.  The heart is the seat of thought and will; he’s beating upon the very source of his corruption.

And then comes the prayer – only seven short words in the Greek:  “God be merciful to be a sinner.”  The word translated “be merciful” is “hilaskomai.”  It doesn’t just mean “be kind” or “overlook my faults.”  It means “be propitiated,” “make atonement for me,” “let Your wrath be turned away through sacrifice.”  This tax collector isn’t asking for a general feeling of mercy; he is begging God to provide a covering for his sin, that the holy God would be satisfied on his behalf.  He stood in the Temple where sacrifices were offered daily, and he cried out for the reality those sacrifices to be applied to himself.

He called himself “a sinner” – literally “the sinner.”  He wasn’t a sinner like everybody else, but THE sinner, the one whose sin is foremost in his own eyes.  There is no comparison with anybody else, only honest acknowledge before God.

This is the prayer of a man who has run out of excuses, comparisons, and religious credentials.  He brought nothing but his sin and casts himself entirely upon the mercy of God.

Why the condemnation of the Pharisee?

“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”  (Luke 18:14 | TNIV)

Our Lord’s verdict is shocking to religious ears.  The Pharisee, for all his fasting and tithing, left the Temple unjustified.  Why?

First, he “exalted himself,” or anther way to put it is “he trusted himself.”  The parable is told specifically to those who were trusting in themselves; in their own ability to be righteous.  Self-trust is the opposite of saving faith.  Saving faith looks away for self and to Christ.  The Pharisee’s righteousness was a righteousness of his own making, and therefore it could never satisfy the holy God.

Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.  (Romans 10:3 | TNIV)

 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ [9] and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.  (Philippians 3:8, 9 | TNIV)

Second, he exalted himself through comparison.  He measured his righteousness by the failures of others.  But God doesn’t grade of a curve.  The standard is His own perfect holiness, not the moral mediocrity of the culture around us.  When we compare ourselves among ourselves, we aren’t wise, according to 2 Corinthians 10:12 –

We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.  (2 Corinthians 10:12 | TNIV)

The Pharisee’s prayer reveals a heart that despises others – the very attitude the parable’s introduction condemns.

Third, he offered no confession or plea for mercy.  Biblical prayer always includes confession because we are sinners.  The Pharisee had nothing to confess, in his own estimation.  He therefore had no need for the atoning mercy the tax collector sought.  A religion without repentance is a religion without Christ.

Fourth, his religion was external only.  He could list all kinds of religious activities, but he couldn’t produce a broken and contrite heart.

You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. [17] My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.  (Psalm 51:16, 17 | TNIV)

Jesus later pronounced woes upon the scribes and Pharisees precisely because they cleaned the outside of the cup while the inside remained full of extortion and excess.  The Pharisee in the parable is a living embodiment of that indictment.

Because he exalted himself, he was abased.  He went home unjustified – still in his sins, still under wrath, still blind to his desperate need.

Why the commendation of the tax collector?

By contrast, the tax collector went home justified.  Justification is the great Pauline word for God’s legal declaration that a sinner is righteous on the basis of Christ’s work received by faith.  This man left the Temple declared righteous by God Himself.  Why?

First, he humbled himself.  He came with no claims, no comparisons, no credentials.  He took the lowest place – the only place a sinner can rightly take before a holy God.  This man was truly poor in spirit, and the kingdom became his.

Second, he repented genuinely.  His posture, his gesture, his words all cried out, “I have sinned against heaven and before You.”  Repentance isn’t merely feeling sorry; it’s agreeing with God about our sin and turning from it.  The tax collector didn’t defend himself because he couldn’t, nor did he minimize his guilt.  He beat his breast and called himself the sinner.

Third, he placed his hope entirely in God’s mercy.  He didn’t say, “God, be impressed with my fasting.”  He said, “God, be propitiated toward me.”  He looked for an atoning sacrifice outside himself.  In that cry we hear the heartbeat of the Gospel.  Later on, the apostle Paul would write these words:

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, [24] and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. [25] God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith.  (Romans 3:23 – 25a | TNIV)

The tax collector’s prayer actually anticipates the cross.  He was justified, not because he was better than the Pharisee, but because he believed God would provide  the mercy he could never earn.

Fourth, he depended entirely on grace.  This tax collector brought no works, no merits, no religious resume.  He brought only his sin and the empty hands of faith.  And God filled those empty hands with the righteousness of another.

This is why Jesus said the tax collector went home justified.  Not because tax collectors are inherently more virtuous than Pharisees, but because humility and repentance and faith are the only posture in which a sinner can receive the gift of justification.

Conclusion.  This simple parable isn’t in the Bible so that we can congratulate ourselves that we aren’t like that Pharisee.  That would be to repeat his very sin!  The parable is given so that we might see ourselves in both men and flee to the mercy of God.

This week, we should all examine our own prayer life.  When you get down to pray, do you begin with a silent inventory of how you are better than others?  Or do you begin with the tax collector’s cry, “Lord, be merciful to me, the sinner.”  The difference isn’t just emotional tone; it’s the difference between self-justification and Gospel-justification.

True discipleship begins right here.  The first quality of a disciple is humility – the willingness to take the lowest place, to confess sin honestly, to receive grace gladly, and to serve others gladly.  The One who told this parable is the same One who “made himself of no reputation, and took upon himself the form of a servant” (Philippians 2:7 | KJV).  Jesus humbled Himself even to the death of the cross so that proud Pharisees and broken tax collectors alike might be justified by faith in His blood.

As we move further into this series, let humility be the soil in which every other quality grows.  Without it we will never learn from the Word, never confess to one another, never serve without seeking recognition, never endure trials without complaining.  With it, we will find that those who humble themselves will be exalted – exalted not by own achievement, but by the grace of the God who lifts up the humble and casts down the proud.