Sure Thing: Humility 9.03.17

Sermon Notes

SLIDE:  Sure Thing-  “Humility”

 

Latin “Humus”:  Humble: “low flying” or “staying close to the ground”  or  “of the earth”

 

Philippians 2:6-7 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness

 

 

SLIDE:  Luke 18:9-14

 

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector

 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.”   – JESUS   Pg. 851

 

Pharisee = stood by himself

 

Tax collector = stood at a distance  

 

READ:   CONTEXT!

                                  

The daily service in the temple (Jerusalem, Solomon’s temple = center of all Jewish worship) area was  “the atonement offerings”  dawn and again at three o’clock in the afternoon. Each service began outside the sanctuary at the great high altar with the sacrifice for the sins of Israel of a lamb whose blood was sprinkled on the altar, following a precise ritual. In the middle of the prayers there would be the sound of silver trumpets, the clanging of cymbals and the reading of a psalm. The officiating priest would then enter the outer part of the sanctuary where he would offer incense and trim the lamps. At that point, when the officiating priest disappeared into the building, those worshipers in attendance could offer   their private prayers to God.  Many pious Jews who were not at the temple would offer their private prayers at the time of day when they knew the incense offering was being made in the temple. In this way they could participate even when they were not able to be present. This particular service afforded the opportunity for what we today would call both public worship and private prayer.

   

:13  “God, have mercy on  me, a sinner.”

 

“Mercy”  hilaskomai. “make an atonement.”

He is asking God to apply the sacrifice for sin… to him.

 

Sinner:   (have mercy on me a sinner!)

 

The word sinner is a theological  designation. It is not a moralistic judgment. It is not a word that places humans somewhere along a continuum ranging from angel to ape, assessing them as relatively “good” or “bad.” It designates humans in relation to God and sees them as separated from God. Sinner means something is awry between humans and God. In that state people may be wicked, unhappy, anxious, and poor. Or, they may be virtuous, happy, and affluent. Those items are not part of the judgment.

 

Sinner = means a personal deviation from God’s will.

 

YOU AND I ARE SINNERS!

 

SLIDE:  Romans 3:23 :  For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  Pg. 913

 

  1. What we naturally do = Pharisee!

Judge ourselves against others!

 

Fall short of… the glory of God!

 

  1. Rank sins! BIG and SMALL!

 

SLIDE:  James 2:10  The Whole Law… Just one point.

For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.  Pg. 978

 

Guilty!

$5 in the dorm   =  Murder!

 

Matthew 22:36-40 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.

executioner = black hood

 

I never knew that stealing $5 from my dorm mate was so serious!

 

 

“If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination. Once begun upon this downward path, you never know where you are to stop. Many a man has dated his ruin from some murder or other that perhaps he thought little of at the time.”

Thomas de Quincey

 

SLIDE:  James 2:10  The Whole Law… Just one point.

For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.  Pg. 978

 

 

The tax collector is “a nice guy”.

Pharisee is a snob!

 

There is a reason within him for him to be justified!

 

He said…  I am a sinner and he humbled himself before GOD!

 

 

SLIDE:  GOD…  OPPOSES the proud.

 

James 4:6 “God opposes the proud but shows favor (GRACE) to the humble.”  (Proverbs  3:34)

 

Wrestling…  Opposition!

 

 

The tax collector humbles himself…

admitted he was a sinner…

and asked that the atonement offering would be applied to him.

 

SLIDE: 1 John 2:2 Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pastor Pete Hartwig