Luke 18:1-14

Discussion Questions

•  Do you sometimes find yourself at risk of prayer becoming more of a performance than a petition? What can you do to focus your attention on talking with God during prayer?
• Have you ever resonated with the idea, ‘I’m going to be fine—I’ve been pretty good’? What can we learn from the tax collector’s example about how we should approach God in prayer?
• If we take to heart the comment that our prayer life reveals how much we really want and depend on God, what should change in our prayer life?

Transcript

We study through books of the Bible here at The Village Chapel. And we have extra copies. If you didn’t bring one, and you’d like one to follow along. Raise your hand up real high. Somebody will drop one off at your row, your aisle. And that way you can follow along. We’re going to do two parables today. And before we get started, I do want to thank the folks from Reedsville, North Carolina, who joined us last week online. Either for worship or for some of the podcasts or whatever. Our online ministry is just an amazing thing that the Lord has given such a reach to that. And we’re so grateful. Reedsville, North Carolina and Sydney, Australia was with us last week in some way. Rochester, New York, anybody from Rochester? Anybody in New York? How about New York in general? Anybody in New York? About four of you. That’s good. That’s great. And then I’m not sure how to say this, but I’m going to give my best. Quezon City, Metro Manila, the Philippines. So near and far, it’s wonderful how the Lord is using the online ministry of The Village Chapel.

It sprang up out of need during the COVID era, as most of you remember. We didn’t really have much of an online ministry, but we’ve developed this over the years since COVID. And we’re so grateful for it. Thank you for supporting all of that as well, those of you that do along the way. Today, we’ll be on Luke 18, verses 1 through 14. I’m going to ask the question, does prayer work? Now, maybe you’ve wondered this question yourself before. Maybe you’ve prayed. You felt like your prayers were bouncing off the ceiling. Maybe you prayed. You didn’t know if anybody was listening. Maybe you hear people talk about prayer, and you’re not sure what they’re talking about, what they mean when they say that, because it sounds a little confusing. So, I like that question, does prayer work? I think that there are probably a lot of people that might want to find an answer to that kind of a question. And so, I put it up on the screen, hoping it’ll draw you in a little bit to this study today.

In a world that felt the weight of heaven’s silence for 400 years, Jesus comes along and speaks about prayer. Into a world that was drowning in the despair of institutional skepticism and distrust, much like ours, Jesus comes and speaks about prayer. Jesus told two parables, one about a widow and a judge. That’s the first part of chapter 18. The other is about a Pharisee and a tax collector or a publican, if you will. Some of your English translations will use that word. And it’s just another word for what we would think of as an IRS agent, or actually it’s worse than that. A tax collector, more on that in a minute. But these two stories speak directly to our own questions, I think, about prayer. And so, I’m really glad to be here and to be able to study this with you. There are more than just lessons about talking to God.

There are more than lessons about talking at God. I think there are revelations about the heart of the one we pray to. And I also think there are revelations about the hearts of those who pray. That’s all of us as well. So come along with me and let’s take a look at Luke 18 to discover how Jesus will reveal a God who is righteous, who is just, and who is welcoming. He’s eager to hear from you. And how that really changes everything that we might be able to expect when we bow to pray. Before I read the text, let’s do just that. Let’s pray for illumination: Lord, as we open our hearts and minds to Your Word, may Your promises become our inexhaustible hope and proper confidence. May Your purposes become our meaning and our mission. And may Your presence here among us become our delight and joy. Grant to us, we pray, a clearer vision of Your truth, a greater faith in Your power, and a more confident assurance of Your love for us. In Jesus’ name, we pray, amen and amen.

Luke 18 then, I’ll remind you that last week at the end of chapter 17, Pastor Tommy, led us through some of the teachings of Jesus about the eschatology, about the end times. That’s what eschatology is. It’s a study of the end of times. And so, in that context, we walk right into the two parables that we’ll have right here. And there is an interesting connection, and I’ll try to draw that connection for us as we get into it. Let me read first. “Now, He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not lose heart.” Now, a lot of times when I lose heart in life, I can stop for just a moment and think, how’s my prayer life? That’s a good thing to do. I think that there’s a connection. And I think that Luke wants us to see that, and Jesus wants us to see that as well. Especially if you live in a time where there’s a lot of fear and anxiety and a lot of acrimony, a lot of people kind of nervous and upset or angry or feeling like, oh no, the world is – mountains are crumbling, floods, tornadoes, all those kinds of things that are happening, tend to sober us up. They stop us down.

And so they should in a way. I think there’s a lot of times when the Lord is seeking to get our attention. Or in times like that, when there are struggles and storms, we’re facing giants, whatever it might be, those are the times that we look outside of ourselves. We kind of are forced to do that. And that’s actually good for us. Prayer is one of those things. This is the venue that we have to commune with, to connect with, God. And so, He wants us at all times to pray and to not lose heart. Some of your translations might say to pray and not faint. And that just means don’t faint spiritually. Don’t let this derail you, whatever it might be. So, what’s interesting about verse one is that at least it tells us in advance what this parable is about. We don’t always get that. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I read a parable that Jesus taught, and there’s plenty of them, and sometimes I’ll read them, and I go scratch in my head trying to figure out, what is He talking about here? What’s the point of this whole thing? We don’t want to overinterpret parables.

We do have a tendency to do that, some of us, in our own day and time. We try to think that this means this, and that is the same thing as this, and this means that over here. Usually there’s just one, maybe two main points to a parable. And here we are told in verse one what the point of the parable is. Jesus wants you to pray and to not lose heart. Don’t give up praying, is what He’s saying. So, He tells a story. “There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man.” Okay, that’s the resume of this judge, not a good resume. Didn’t fear God and didn’t respect others. And you know what? There’s a connection between those two as well. If you have no fear of God, if you don’t believe there’s a God, if you don’t think there’s a God, what motivates you to care about others? Just live for yourself, man. Just grab it all free. Just make life about you. Become the narcissist that everybody says you might be. Live it out. It’s all about me, myself, and I. Who cares about others? I don’t have to answer to anybody. And that’s kind of what this judge is. Watch the story as it develops.

“And there was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him [the judge] saying, ‘Give me legal protection from my opponent.’” So, she’s a widow. Her husband’s gone. This puts her in a very vulnerable social place, financial place, even physically vulnerable. Because in that day and time, people would simply do whatever they wanted to do. And women were not seen as full-on human beings anyway. And I’m not saying that’s right at all. I’m simply saying that’s the way it was. We need to understand that. Women had a much lesser role in the world in which they lived. So, she’s a widow, she’s vulnerable in every way, and she appeals to this judge. She’s got an opponent. Somebody’s after her. Somebody’s trying to get her. Somebody’s trying to do something to her, and she wants legal protection. For a while, verse 4, he, the judge, was unwilling. Well, why is that? Because he did not fear God. And he did not respect others. Doesn’t care. He just wants his paycheck. He’s entitled to it. He got the job. Now he’s got it. He’s going to coast. And again, that’s really derelict in his job. It’s where he is. He just didn’t care.

“For a while, he was unwilling; but afterward, he said to himself, ‘Even though I do not fear God nor respect men…’” Notice his self-honesty. Even though I don’t care about God and I don’t care about anybody else, I mean, look how honest he is in a way, the way Jesus tells the story. In other words, he’s not even trying to hide it from himself. His self-talk is fairly honest. Even though I don’t fear God and don’t respect others. “’Yet [verse 5] because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, lest by continually coming she wears me out.’” So evidently, she is after him. She went to the first court appearance. She’s in there. And what’s your problem? My opponent is after me. I’m just a poor widow. I have no protection. Can you protect me? I don’t want to hear anything about this. You’re dismissed. And then she waits for him outside the courtroom. And he’s going to go home. He gets in his chariot. And she walks up to his chariot, asks him to roll down the window and says, “Hey, protect me. Give me some protection, will you?” He’s like, “I don’t want to hear from you. Don’t bother me.”

He drives off in his chariot. See, somehow or another, she follows him to the house. And then she starts knocking on the door, bothering him, bothering him, bothering him. “Give me some protection. Help me out. I need some help.” He just doesn’t want to hear from her anymore. And then she keeps showing up at the courtroom as well. And so, he is going to do the right thing now, but for the wrong reason. He’s annoyed. And maybe you get annoyed by some people, too. I do. I have to admit, it’s true. Maybe I annoy some people. That’s definitely true. We know that’s true. Yeah. But because she’s bothering him, he’s now going to give her some kind of protection because, end of verse 5, “She’s wearing me out” is what it is. And so, Jesus, the narrator is Luke, and Luke is telling us that the Lord then pivots a little. And he’s going to give us a little bit of this – what a parable generally is, is a contrast. It’s a comparison. Two things laid aside beside each other so that we can see them both. And we learn from one about the other. Usually, it’s an earthly story that gives us a heavenly point.

In this case, we’re going to get a negative illustration, a reverse illustration of the kind of judge God is, the ultimate judge. This unrighteous judge, this bad judge, now Jesus is going to say, this judge here, that’s not what God is like. All right? So, Jesus says, here’s what the unrighteous judge said. Here’s what this story is about. “Now shall not God bring about justice for His elect [for His sons and daughters] who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? I tell you that He will bring about justice for them speedily.” And that word there, speedily, I don’t know what your English translation says. But it’s not as in the sense of soon. It’s more in the sense of quickly. So, the idea is that when He decides the time is up, because we’re in the context of a discussion about eschatology and end times, when the Lord decides time is up, He’s going to do it speedily. It’s going to happen quickly when He unleashes whatever it is He’s going to do to bring about justice. “However, when the Son of Man comes, [Again, eschatology, when the Lord returns.] will He find faith on the earth?”

So that’s that first parable. We’ll draw some conclusions in a moment. Let’s read the second one. “He also told this parable to certain ones who…” And again, we’re getting some backstory here, some behind the scenes understanding of the parable, because Luke is telling us that Jesus is telling this parable to people who, right there in the text, verse 9, “trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt.” Those two things go together pretty easily, too, don’t they? When you trust in yourself thinking you are righteous, it’s not long before you start looking at others with contempt, because they are not righteous, because you got it all figured out. And it’s similar to what we saw in the last one, that the judge neither feared God nor cared about others. It’s similar, but it’s a little bit different. And here is a Pharisee, a religious person. Somebody is supposed to know the law, and then here is his attitude. He thinks he doesn’t really need God to do anything for him. He’s self-righteous. He’s saving himself. There’s a lot of people that are like that in their own day and time.

I had a family member that I called one time many years ago. Called one time. I was so concerned about their eternity. What was going to happen to them in the eternal realm after they left this world? I was very concerned about that. I told them, “I love you. I’m concerned about you. I’m concerned about what’s going to happen to you when you die.” This person was sick and not long to live. And I wanted to say that to him. I wanted to take that moment to at least put it on the table that God’s grace is on offer to them as well. And this person’s response to me was, “I’m fine. I don’t need anything.” I don’t need any of that is basically what they said. And I broke my heart for that person. I don’t know what the Lord did in the quiet moments of their last little bit of their life. He may have done something. I don’t know. But from all I knew, the person was simply shutting the door on the conversation of whether or not they needed to trust Christ or trust God for salvation. They trusted themselves. And then that same thing happens to us, doesn’t it? When we are so focused on the self, me, myself, and I, we start to have contempt on others.

And that’s why we’ve said many times here at The Village Chapel that we should have no repugnant others in our lives. We don’t view others with contempt. Contempt is not attractive on anyone. Neither is arrogance or hubris attractive on anyone. And yet here we’re about to get a story where you’re going to hear it. And when I read this story, I sometimes wonder how could anybody get to the place of saying this about themselves like this Pharisee does? “Two men [verse 10] went up into the temple to pray.  One a Pharisee, the other a publican,” or in some of your English translations, it’ll say a tax collector. So, this tax collector would have already been a person that everybody hated. Everybody hated him. Why? Because he was probably a Jewish man who was literally a traitor to the Jewish people. His job was to extract taxes from them, to give those taxes to the Roman government, which was the oppressive governing force on the ground, the political force on the ground in that day.

The incentive for the tax collector is that if they could get more out of that person than was due, they got to keep the difference. So, the incentive for them is to actually be an extortionist in their taxation to get more. And then they keep it and line their pockets with it. So, they become rich on the backs of their own people. That’s why all the Jews hated the tax collectors. Conversely, the Pharisee that’s mentioned here, all of the Jews in this time especially would have looked up to the Pharisee. They knew the law so well. They memorized large swaths of it. And they lived in such a way. They followed all the rules. Do you know somebody that’s a rule follower? Are you that kind of person? This guy was a rule follower for sure. And he and that tax collector, who shouldn’t have even come to church most people would think, you shouldn’t even show up at church. They’re both in the temple. And they’re probably there at the time of the afternoon sacrifice when an animal is going to be slain and blood is going to be shed. And the whole point of that is atonement for sins. And yet watch what happens. One of them, one of the two, does not think they even need atonement. The other one is going to be completely desperate for atonement. Watch what happens.

“The Pharisee stood and was praying thus to himself…” Underline “to himself.” You can underline that in the Pew Bible if you have it as well. He was praying thus to himself. If your prayers are directed to you, you are off course. Let me just say that. If that’s all you learn about prayer today, that’d be practical, helpful, and at least get us headed in the right direction. Trajectory is everything. Don’t pray to yourself. Pray to God. If you say– our thoughts and prayers are going off here, that’s wonderful. A lot of people mean well when they say that. And that’s awesome. But I’m hoping that when you are trying to communicate to me that you’ve been praying for me, I’m hoping that what that means is that you approached Almighty God in Heaven, who’s really there, to talk to Him about your concerns for me or whatever it might be, for whatever it might be in your own life. So, pray to God. Don’t pray to yourself. This Pharisee is not starting off well. The Pharisee stood up and was praying to himself. “God…” He starts by calling himself God, or maybe he thinks he’s addressing God, but he’s praying to himself. So, I don’t think so. Look at how many “I’s” there are in his prayer. “I thank thee that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this text gatherer. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.” In other words, I’m a rule follower, and I have followed the rules.

And we know elsewhere in the gospels, they’re described as even tithing their mint and their dill and their cumin, although they’re little spices, that if they somehow or another are gardening and they get a yield from their garden, they even tithe part of their garden. It’s not just money they tithe. It’s everything. And this guy is a rule follower, and he thinks that that’s pretty awesome and that God should be really lucky to have him on God’s team. You might know somebody like that. I don’t know. I mean, I hope nobody’s thinking about me. I hope nobody’s thinking about you right now. That they think of the fact that you must think God is really fortunate to have you on God’s side. And so, he gives the list of things that he thinks qualifies him for his – he trusts in himself for salvation. And so, he gives the list of those in verse 12. I fast twice a week. I pay tithes of all that I get. And then the tax gatherer of Jesus says, verse 13, in contrast, is standing some distance away. In other words, this Pharisee must have been right in the heart of the temple area, right where everybody could see him, because a lot of their performance, a lot of the religion and religious practices were performance-based. They wanted to be seen by men. We’re told that over and over again in the gospels. They’re performing their religion in front of others so they could be seen and receive the adulation of men and women and the applause and respect and all of that. And the contrast is this tax gatherer who’s standing some distance away, maybe in the back of the room, way back in the corner back there, or way back over there in our prayer area in the back of this room. And this tax gatherer is standing back there.

He was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to Heaven, but was beating his breast like this, pounding on himself. And back in the ancient Near East, you have to understand, this was customary, but it was only customary, really, for women to be doing that as a sign of contrition and self-flagellation is what they would call it. They’re literally beating themselves out of remorse for their sin. And it wasn’t customary for men to do that. It was customary for women to do that. And so, this case in this parable, Jesus is really going to extra lengths to make sure everybody knows this guy is really remorseful and guilt-ridden, full of shame. And here’s what he says in his prayer. “God, be merciful to me, the sinner!” I want you to know the article, T-H-E, is what we call a definite article. This is not him saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” He’s saying, “The sinner,” it’s in English, the Greek word would be spelled H-O, but it would be pronounced ha, like that. So, he’s literally saying to God, “I might well be the only sinner on the planet, but I still need You to be merciful to me.” And it’s interesting too. “Halaskami” is the Greek word for mercy here. Next week, Pastor Ryan’s going to lead us through, and we’re going to end up at the end of the chapter with a story of Blind Bartimaeus, who says, “As Jesus is passing by in Jericho,” Blind Bartimaeus is going to say something like, “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me, the sinner.” And that word is a completely different word for mercy. This one here, this word, “Be merciful to me,” by this fictitious tax collector, the worst of the worst of sinners, despised by every Jew in the room. This guy is crying out to God to be propitious to him.

I know you all are going, “Okay, let’s go to lunch now.” That simply means he wants God to do whatever God can do to remove or satisfy the wrath of God towards sin in his life. He recognizes he’s a sinner. He’s not just looking for pity. He wants God’s wrath to be somehow averted or satisfied in his life. That’s a fascinating choice of language that Jesus has used there to describe the way this man is praying. God be propitiated. God be merciful to me, the sinner. I’m the chief of sinners, Paul would say later on. Verse 14, Jesus says then to that group of people that are listening, who trusted in themselves, that they were righteous and they viewed others with contempt, “I tell you, this man,” talking about the tax collector, “went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted.”

Wow, right there in the temple, where they sacrificed the lambs and the goats and the doves of the poor, the poor would bring in their doves. And right there where they did that, to in some way atone for their sin, here’s Jesus, the ultimate lamb of God, who in about a week’s time, at the very same time of day, is going to lay down his life on the cross near that same temple in that same city of Jerusalem. And he describes two people; one, the religious guy who doesn’t think he needs God’s grace at all, because he’s lived a good life, he’s done it all on his own, and this other one who’s just so aware of what a wretch he is. And he’s fallen to the same sin over and over and over again. And he doesn’t even want to get out of some of it, but he wants to want to get out of some of it. And I’ve been there before you’ve been there before, if you’re honest. And he’s the one Jesus says is going to be justified. That word means just as if I’d not sinned based on the propitious act of Jesus taking the wrath of God in my place. Jesus on the cross would take the wrath of God for my sin and for your sin and for all of the sins of the world. And that’s one of the reasons He’s such a beautiful savior and why we run to Him and why we come to Him once a month to the table of the Lord to give thanks to Him for the gift of God, salvation in the name of Jesus.

Does prayer work? I think it works really well in these two parables. And I think we can see how prayer works if we just take a little closer look. Michael Reeves is one of my favorite theologians who’s alive right now. He’s from the UK. He says, “Your prayer life reveals who you really are, how much you really want and depend on God.” All right, so if I asked how many of you want God in your life, I think most of you would probably raise your hand. How many of you are fully, complete, 100% dependent on God? I think most of you would probably, at least when you stop and think about it, you might say, “Yeah, that’s me.” But let us not fall into the self-salvation side of things like the Pharisee does, thinking that I’ve checked all the boxes, therefore I can just sit back and rest on my laurels. How much do I really want God to be God in my life? And there’s lots of easy ways to tell how much you want God to be God in your life. What’s the first thing you do each and every day? Is it about God or is it something else? What do you spend most of your time doing, most of your resources on? Where are you giving? Do you fear God and care about others in contrast to the first parable? Or is there no room really for the fear of the Lord? You just want God as Santa Claus, cosmic concierge. Fix these problems, give me this stuff, make sure I’m “happy.” I don’t care about holy, I just want happy, whatever that may be for this week.

And so, prayer is a really great opportunity for us, as Michael Reeves points out, to do a little self-analysis to figure out, do I really want God to be God? Or do I really want me to, ultimately, be God? And am I really dependent on God at all? Now I’m going to make a little confession here if you don’t mind. I’m going to freely admit that I’m one of those people who struggles with prayer. And if I were to ask you to raise your hand, how many of you struggle with praying or prayer? I’m sure a bunch of hands would go up. I don’t know how many, but I think a lot of people probably do struggle with it. I have trouble, to be honest, praying for a very long in one setting. I’m pretty sure there are angels that high five when I reach the 15 minute mark. “Look at Jim, oh, 10 minutes, wow, good dude, way to go. That’s great.” The problem is that in my prayers, I keep talking, and I never listen very much. And I’m kind of missing, it’s not really a conversation as much as it is a monologue in my prayers. That’s why I like the economy of this prayer by this tax collector. It’s few words, full disclosure. Whereas with the Pharisee, the religious dude, it’s lots of words, and there’s a whole lot of I, I, I, I, I, I, thank you that I’m not like them, like the rest of them, and I tithe, then I do all these religious things.

That’s just amazing, but people nowadays use prayer for all kinds of different things. It’s not that my prayers are as short as they might be. It’s not that they’re a fountain of praise and an adoration to God that I get right to it or anything like that. As soon as I get honest enough to tell the Lord about something, I’m often setting in my mind a scenario that God might want to use to bring about those things that I desire. In other words, I’m giving advice to the one that holds the stars in place. And I’m thinking He needs my advice on how to run my little puny little life. How should He go about helping me? Well, let me help you understand what that is. There is a massive disconnect for me in prayers. There are other people who I know use prayer, especially public prayers, to perform their King James English, you know, they’ll put a lot of ETHs on the end of their words. “Dear Lord, I pray that thou shouldest…”, a lot of ESTs too, I like those. And so there’s a lot of sort of performance praying that goes on and they want, in part, they’re praying to God, that’s true, I’m not saying they’re not, but I think in part they’re also performing in their religious thing, and they want to be heard saying something amazing or powerful or whatever. I think if we’re all honest, we might all have done that at some point in time.

There’s some of us that even go further and like to preach a sermon in our prayers or re-preach a sermon in our prayers. Have you ever been here and heard me do that? Or I go back over the sermon outline to make sure it’s drilled into you or something and you start thinking, “He’s re-preaching the sermon. He’s not praying anymore.” And people do that. There are other people that use prayer as a way to gossip. “Dear Lord, I thank you for Steph and Abbey, but I pray Lord that you’ll help them become better disciplinarians of their children.” Or “Dear Lord, we thank you so much for Amy’s enthusiasm. Lord, we pray that she’d be more enthusiastic to quit being so self-centered…” and on and on or controlling or whatever it might be. And people do that. “Thank You, Lord, for Bob. Please free him, Lord, from his big problems with overeating and lust and pornography…” and on and on the list goes, and hardly anybody laughs at that, but on and on the list goes. And people are using it to just kind of gossip. And it’s not holy gossip, it’s just gossip, you know, in their performance prayers. Does prayer work? It is still the question. And in the first parable, we see that Jesus compares God, the righteous judge, the ultimate judge to this really bad judge who doesn’t fear God and doesn’t really care about anybody. And what Jesus is saying to everybody who’s listening is, the God in Heaven that you should pray to and not faint from praying, isn’t like that unrighteous judge.

The God who’s really there, the God of the Bible, the God Jesus calls Father, and invites you to call Father as well. That God has thrown open the doors to His throne room of grace and mercy. And He invites you to come in. You’re not nagging Him by coming to Him. You’re not going to wear Him out by coming to Him. As a matter of fact, He’s excited that you’re coming to Him. He’s eager for you to come to Him. He’s completely other than that judge that is in the first parable. So, we have a parable about the heart of the one to whom we pray in verses one through eight. And in verses nine through 14, we have a parable about the hearts of the ones who pray, about your heart when you pray, about my heart when I pray, and the hearts of all of the others that we may know. Let’s for a second drift back to the first parable and ask ourselves the question. Jesus is making the point that God is a righteous judge, that God is a welcoming judge, that God is interested in justice and mercy and all of that. How do we know that? Well, I’m telling you, I’ll give you an example. It runs from Old Testament to New. That’s really true.

Just in the book of Psalms alone, and I’m going to ask you to read these aloud with me. Men, would you read this with me? Men: “God is a righteous judge, a God who expresses His wrath every day.” [Ps.7:11] Girls, women: “For the Lord is righteous, He loves righteousness; the upright will behold His face.” [Ps. 11:7] Men and boys: “The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of His unfailing love.” Women: “The Lord is righteous; He has cut in two the cords of the wicked.” Everybody together: “The Lord is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His deeds.” Wow, okay. There’s a little character sketch of the ultimate judge, the one who has the final word on everything. All outcomes belong to Him in the end, is the point Jesus even made. Because when He decides to wrap up human history on a grand scale, the mega scale, it’s going to be very swift. It’s going to be speedily wrapped up, okay? And you can read all of the eschatological passages that Jesus, where Jesus taught, you can read all of the eschatological prophecy throughout the Old Testament. And what you see is that God is in charge. He’s sovereign over human history.

So, when I, when you, pray, we are praying to a God who has thrown open the doors of His throne room to grace and mercy and comfort and peace and instruction and guidance and wisdom. And He’s bid you come in and approach Him. He’s not like that judge. Don’t bother me. You’re just annoying me. Stop it. There’s too many millions of you praying. I cannot do this. He’s not like that. He’s the infinite God who at the same time can hear a million prayers from a million people who are all, some of them complaining, some of them crying out for mercy, some of them crying out for instruction and wisdom, some of them needing comfort during a time of loss. And He, that God, says, “Come to Me!” Come to Me. As a matter of fact, Jesus put it this way in Matthew, Chapter 11. “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father, except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”

Now it’s the intrinsic union of Father and Son. This is part of the trinity, what we call the trinity. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Here is the Father and Son relationship between God the Father, Jesus the Son of God. They are inextricably tied together. But Jesus goes on to say, “Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” What a beautiful word, rest is! Rest for my anxious soul. Rest for my hurting heart. Rest for my angry heart. “Take My yoke upon you, learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble, gentle and lowly in heart. You will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” I love that so much. It’s so beautiful to read those words of Jesus. The apostle Paul knew the heart of Jesus was like that. And so, the apostle Paul wrote this, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” So, he’s instructing us on how to pray there. He’s really just picking up on what Jesus has said. “Pray and don’t lose heart, don’t faint.” Don’t think that God is annoyed by you coming to Him. That’s not true at all. So how should we respond to all of this today in these two parables? Pray persistently, that’s parable number one. Pray persistently, you will not wear God out. He’s infinite. You cannot wear Him out.

Set yourself free from the thought that He’s tired of hearing you confess that same sin. Because you might be tired of it. You might be worn out from having fallen to it so many times or being fooled by it so many times, thinking it was going to be the thing. And it didn’t end up being the thing. But He’s not worn out. He’s not tired of hearing you come to Him and say, “Father, have mercy on me. Be merciful to me.” He’s not tired of hearing that. You can come to Him over and over and over and over again. Why, His infinite grace is on offer to you and to me today, right now, right here in this place. Bow humbly like the penitent tax collector, the publican that just knew he didn’t deserve anything, knew he had sinned, knew he was struggling with stuff even right then and there, knew there were probably people in the room that hated his guts, knew there were probably people in the room that he had ruined. And there he was nonetheless saying to God, “Have mercy, be propitious to me, take Your wrath away.” And somehow or another, satisfy Your wrath, God, in some way, the sinner that I am.

And he’s the one Jesus said went home justified, not the religious rule follower. It’s kind of an upside-down kingdom, isn’t it? We are programmed, aren’t we, you guys? We’re all programmed into thinking everything we do is performance-based. And so, it’s natural in a way that we might think that our relationship with God is that way. He couldn’t love me. I’ve fallen to the same thing 10 times, no, 100 times. I’ve lost my temper. I’ve been greedy. I’ve been selfish. I’ve fallen to lust. Whatever it is, 100 times. How is it possible He would forgive me? I’ve been in the sin of pride or the sin just of unbelief, denying that God could do this at all and forgive me. And we want to be set free. That’s what these parables show us. We need to come humbly like the penitent tax collector. And then thirdly, up on the screen, say it with me: Trust Completely. All right, that’s it. We are vulnerable creatures. All of us are the woman in the first parable. We’re like her in that way. Vulnerable, needy, dependent, desperate for God’s help. In her particular case, that story was cast in such a way that some of us actually might think God’s like that unrighteous judge. But the point of the parable is that we would be set free from thinking of God that way, that we would get our theology, our study of God, that we’d get that right. That’s why what you believe about God is the most important thing about you.

This will set you free if you actually believe in the God who is there, the God that Jesus is talking about, the God whose throne room doors are wide open for you to come in, and bow humbly before Him, and trust Him completely because He has your salvation in mind. He has. That’s why Jesus even came because there are penitent sinners like that tax collector. And if that tax collector, why not me? Penitent pastors, penitent people of God as we are. Martin Lloyd-Jones said, “Prayer is beyond any question the highest activity of human soul. Man is at his greatest and highest when, upon his knees, he comes face to face with God.” I hope that’s what’s happening to us in these parables. Just as those people who first heard it, they’re literally face to face with the Son of God, Jesus Himself. And He’s telling them all of this. Don’t think it’s about religious rule following. He’s telling them. It’s about coming before God honestly and humbly and trusting Him completely. And what a great way to do it with these two stories.

I’ll close with this quote from Sinclair Ferguson. He says, “The person who is deluded always speaks about how ‘nice’ they were.” That’s like that Pharisee. I did this, I did that, I’m nice. “The person who enjoys the full assurance of eternal salvation knows only we were sinners, but we were saved by the grace of God in Jesus Christ. False assurance always speaks about what we’ve done. Real assurance always speaks about what Christ has done for us, and by His grace, what Christ has done in us.” If you have placed your faith in Christ. And by the way, I love the video of all 21 being baptized last Sunday night. It was awesome. They were making a public profession of faith in Christ. And it was just amazing testimonies and stories and the joy all around as they professed their faith in Christ. Is that you? Have you professed your faith in Christ? Then you can rest in His grace. You can trust him.

You can come up to this table that is behind me here and you can offer thanks with joy. As you repent from your sin. That’s true. But you give thanks with joy. Why? Because you know the answer from Heaven to your prayers of contrition over your sin. As you repent of your sin, you know what the response is going to be from God. It’s not going to be a wagging finger, shame, shame, shame. It’s open arms. Come home. Come home to Jesus. And one who died on the cross for you and died on the cross for me, you can trust Him. Just come to Him humbly and bow before Him. And you can trust him. Let’s pray: Lord, thank You for this text. These two parables are so rich and help us understand the heart of the one we pray to, and the heart that we can have, that honesty that we can have with You, Lord. That humbles me and blows me away that You would receive us, each and every one of us. No matter what we’ve done, no matter what we’re in the middle of, You are eager for us to turn to You. We’re grateful for that, Lord. And I pray for each person in this room, as we come to the table, to give thanks for the finished work of Christ on the cross, that You’ll do a good work in us. Apply a fresh measure of grace to us. And we might leave this place today free from all guilt and shame because of what Christ has done. In whose name we pray, amen and amen.

Songs, Readings & Prayer

Songs

“Christ Our Hope In Life and Death“ by Keith Getty, Matt Boswell, Jordan Kauflin, Matt Merker, and Matt Papa
“Holy Holy Holy“ by John Bacchus Dykes and Reginald Heber
“I Will Wait For You (Psalm 130)“ by Jordan Kauflin, Keith Getty, Matthew Merker, and Stuart Townend
“How Deep The Father’s Love For Us“ by Stuart Townend
“Lord I Need You“ by Daniel Carson, Matt Maher, Christy Nockels, Jesse Reeves, and Kristian Stanfill
All songs are used by Permission. CCLI License #2003690

Call To Worship: At The Cross

Most merciful God, thank You for sending to us Your Son, Jesus. We remember this day His redeeming death, that we might stand forgiven at the cross. Thank You for sending to us Your Son, Jesus, to whom we belong, in life and in death. He bore our infirmities and carried our sorrows. Most holy God, thank You for sending to us Your Son, Jesus, who became sin for us and suffered the punishment due to us, that we might stand forgiven at the cross. In the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.

Classic Prayer: George Herbert 1593 – 1633

Thou hast given so much to me, give me one thing more — a grateful heart: Not thankful when it pleaseth me, As if Thy blessings had spare days, But such a heart whose pulse may be Thy praise.

Confession of Sin:

Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against You this day, in thought, word, and deed; by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved You with our whole hearts; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of Your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us, that we may delight in Your will, and walk in Your ways, to the glory of Your Name. Grant to Your people pardon and peace, that in Your great mercy, we may be forgiven all our sins, and serve You with a quiet and contrite heart.  In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen.

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