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Feb 08, 2015

I'm Glad I'm Not Like Those Others

Passage: Luke 18:9-14

Preacher: John Huizinga

Series: A hypocrite! Who, me?

Summary:

A Hypocrite! Who, me? Part 5 – There is a Big Difference Between Righteousness and Self-Righteousness.

Detail:

It’s perhaps the hardest teaching in all the Bible. In Luke 18, two men go to the temple to pray, a good man and a bad man. When they leave, it’s the bad man who is accepted and given approval and not the good man. After Jesus tells the parable there’s no reaction given. What do you say to something like that? What’s the point? The point is we all look for our temple: everybody, good and bad, religious or not. We all want someone or something we can point to that says we’re okay. So we all pull out our lists. Some of us might say something like: well, I’m a church member, I’ve been baptized, I know enough of the Bible to say God has saved me, I go to church sometimes, I pray sometimes, I give sometimes, I’m all set. Others might say: I work hard. I stay out of trouble. I live a healthy lifestyle. I’m all set. Jesus says, no, you’re not set. The bad man prays for mercy. He uses the word that specifically means, atone for me. Our acceptance and approval has to come from outside of ourselves. It can only come from one who can pay our debt. Jesus replaces the temple. It takes humility to receive this mercy, but anything less is just a patting ourselves on the back. And worth about that much, too.