Worship & Prayer
TRUST YOURSELF? - Simon Lister
06/07/08
Thank you all for coming tonight, I hope you have been enjoying the evening so far! Right, I’m going to start with a question, how many people watched some of Wimbledon this year? For 2 weeks, we British claim to have a huge knowledge of tennis, talk about Murray’s improved stamina; and Federer’s dominance on grass, and manage to fool people into thinking we know what we’re talking about. But do you know anything about the superstitions of tennis players? This year’s finalist, Serena Williams, is one of the main culprits; she ties her shoelaces the same way every game, uses the same shower before each match and is said to favour the same socks throughout an entire tournament. Not only that, but she bounces the ball 5 times before a first serve, and 2 points before the second serve.After losing to Justine Henin in last year’s French Open, Williams was quoted as saying:
"And I'm not losing because I didn't play well, I lost because I didn't tie my shoe the right way and it's totally ridiculous because I have to use the same shower, I have to use the same sandals, I have to travel with the same bags."
"I didn't tie my laces right and I didn't bounce the ball five times and I didn't bring my shower sandals to the court with me.
"I didn't have my extra dress. I just knew fate, it wasn't going to happen."
And Williams isn’t the only one, ex-Wimbledon winner Goran Ivanisevic has a food routine, reportedly sitting at the same table at the same restaurant and ordering the same meal of fish soup, lamb and ice cream with chocolate sauce during a tournament. Ivanisevic also always tries to rise from his courtside chair after his opponent, if he serves an ace he asks for the same ball again, if he wins he then attempts to follow the same routine as closely as possible the following day and he doesn't like to stand on the court lines.
Most of us listening tonight are probably thinking that that is absolutely ridiculous!! How can these professional players believe that so much rests on the rituals they do before and during a game? I want to suggest tonight that perhaps it’s not that ridiculous, and perhaps many of us try to live our lives in the same way.
I want to look tonight at the words of Jesus Christ, a man who walked our Earth some 2000 years ago, and yet I would stand with Christians today to profess that he is the Son of God, and the only way to an eternal relationship with God. I’m going to take these words from a book which is on the table in front of you, which is an account of Jesus’ life written in the first century by a historian and doctor, called Luke. I believe there is good reason to think that the words in this book are reliable for showing what Jesus said at least, but I’m not going to justify that now for the sake of time. Please feel free to ask more about that at the end though!
So, after that intro, would you like to turn with me to page 59, and I’m going to read the section under the heading ‘The Pharisee and the Tax Collector’
He [Jesus] also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.' But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted."
So, here we have 2 men. One, a Pharisee; those of the day who were the most devout, the most careful to keep all of the legal requirements of their religion. The equivalent today of the most faithful and devout Muslim, who has faithfully kept to all of the 5 pillars for their entire life. And yet Jesus turns natural justice on its head, he does exactly what we wouldn’t expect him to do. He says that for all the effort of the Pharisee; it is the tax collector who goes home justified, not the Pharisee.
What we see here, is that for all the righteous, pious acts of the Pharisee, he gets the main thing wrong. Ultimately, he thinks he can be good enough for God. He compares himself to others around him. Look again at the words he says, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men”, even comparing himself to the tax collector right in front of him. We do the same things in our lives all the time, maybe we make a mistake at school or work, but try to cast it off by blaming or someone else, or saying, “well, I’m not as bad as so and so..”. It’s human nature to compare ourselves to others, and that’s exactly what Jesus is saying is pointless in this story.
Many of us like to think of life as a skyscraper of ‘goodness’. We think that the very best people, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, maybe even Jesus himself, are on the top floor. The people who have lived good lives, serving others, and really ‘made a difference’. Then, in the very lowest basement, we have Hitler, Stalin, Mao, the slave traders and more. And we think of ourselves as somewhere on the scale, not perfect, but maybe 3-quarters of the way up. We then think God will say, all those on level 43 or above are fine, you’re into heaven, and all those below don’t make the grade. That is exactly what religion tells us, we will be saved by being better than someone else, by reaching a certain grade, or level. That is the essence of all world religion!
But that is NOT the Christianity Jesus teaches here. Earlier on in his life, on page 38 of this book if you want to look it up later, Jesus is asked what someone must do to inherit eternal life. His reply is devastating, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself." How many here today can tick that box and say, yes, done that?
Even the very top of that skyscraper, is miles and miles below God’s perfect standard. That is what the tax collector had realised! He was realistic, he knew that he wasn’t perfect, but God was. He knew that he didn’t need a new set of rules, or religion, but a rescue from a helpless position before God. He was not confident in his own ability to save himself, because he knew that was just wasting his time. He would not even lift his eyes up to heaven, he knew that he was a sinner, i.e. not perfect before God, and we are all in that same position. What Jesus says here is that it is perfectly possible to be a nice, middle class person, who trains to become a teacher, goes and lives in dangerous places to teach vulnerable children, and loves them, yet does not inherit eternal life. Simply because that person is doing what they think is best, not what God says is best, God has been removed from the centre of our lives and we need a rescue.
Jesus himself claims to be that rescue; and it’s a glorious, exciting truth! Jesus was a saviour who came to rescue, not a teacher who came to bring a new law. Jesus is the solution to tax collector’s plea for mercy. Jesus himself claims to be the way, the truth and the life. The way to get to God, the absolute, objective truth, and the holder of the keys to eternal life. That is what this man claims to be!
Jesus says that all who put their trust in him will come to eternal life. Jesus dies a death, hanging on a Roman cross, to take the punishment for our wrong so that we don’t have to. He rises again from the dead to give us hope of eternal life with him in glorious, joyful union. That is the offer he presents to all of us today, and all we have to do is stop trusting in ourselves and turn to him, coming into glorious freedom!
So, which are we? Are we the Pharisee? Like the superstitious tennis players we saw before, those who trust that if we do certain things, in certain ways, we will be alright in the end? Or are we like the tax collector? Do we know that we have not lived up to God’s perfect standards and we need the rescue offered in Jesus Christ? How do we know which one we are?
Well, there is one simple way to find out which you are. If, right this minute, the church was to explode and all of us were instantly to stand before God, what would be your response to the question, “Why should I let you into my heaven?”
Would it be because I helped many people learn lots of new skills, because I brought great joy to people with my amazing musical talent, because I gave lots of money away to charity? Or will it be because Jesus, because Jesus died on that cross to deal with all my mistakes and set me right before you? That is where we should put our confidence, in Jesus, not in ourselves. We know longer have to live wondering which side of floor 43 we are, but we can live in the amazing assurance that Jesus has done it for us!
Now, I hope tonight that this hasn’t been something that sounds like it’s deliberately out to scare people. I strongly believe that the most loving thing to do is to tell you about this great salvation in Jesus, and if we don’t know what we’re being saved from, we can’t understand why we need it. I don’t know about you, but if I was in a car hurtling towards a brick wall, I’d rather be awake, alert and thinking, than soundly asleep, and blissfully unaware of the impending tragedy. Are you still prepared to trust yourself to get into heaven?
I hope you can see that these are the words of Jesus. Maybe tonight is the first time you’ve heard this, and you want to go away and think about it. That’s fine, these books are completely free, take it away, read it, and listen to Jesus’ words as you do it, rather than mine. Maybe you have burning questions right now, that’s fine, I’m around afterwards, please feel free to come and ask them. Or maybe you want to chat to it with a Christian you know on your table, again, that’s fine, respond in the way that you feel is appropriate.
Thank you for your time tonight, and please take seriously the claims that Jesus made about himself, and consider whether you’re currently the Pharisee or the tax collector.