Two Prayers Enter A Temple And Only Humility Is Heard

Two people walk into the temple. One recites a flawless spiritual résumé. The other can barely raise his eyes. Only one goes home justified. We unpack the shock of Luke 18:9–14 with fresh eyes, naming the subtle ways pride hides in our prayers and how humility opens the door to real mercy.

We start with the audience Jesus addresses—those who trust in themselves and quietly look down on others—and explore why comparison is the oxygen of pride. Then we sketch the Pharisee and the tax collector without caricature. The Pharisee was devout and disciplined, the kind of person communities often admire. The tax collector had harmed neighbors under Roman power, a figure people rightly distrusted. That complexity matters, because Jesus moves past labels to expose the spirit behind each posture: self-exaltation versus contrition.

From there, we dissect their prayers word by word and posture by posture. The Pharisee’s thanksgiving shifts into self-congratulation and horizontal comparison. The tax collector’s short cry—God, be merciful to me, the sinner—becomes a doorway to justification. We talk about the theology of mercy, why confession is not self-loathing but agreement with truth, and how honest prayer reshapes daily practices like fasting, giving, and service. Along the way, we name the modern forms of phariseeism that tempt us: moral scorekeeping, curated spirituality, and the comfort of being “better than.”

If you’ve ever prayed and sensed only the echo of your own voice, this conversation offers a path back to God-centered prayer: simple words, low posture, clear confession, and trust in grace. Come rethink what it means to be heard, to be lifted, and to go home justified.

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Transcript

Welcome And Focus On Prayer

SPEAKER_01 0:42

We're glad to be in Christ. We're glad to be in the kingdom of God's dear son. That has brought us over into the year twenty twenty-six. Praise God for what he has done. Let us surrender. In order to communicate to God, it must be done through prayer, the prayer of faith. Tonight, we want to talk to you tonight about the prayer God hears. God hears everything but the prayer that God hears we want to get from Scripture. I want you to turn with me. Luke's Gospel, chapter 18, commencing at verse 9. Let the Lord speak to us tonight. Year 2026 is God has given each of us. He entered how we to pray, prayer to God, and He hears us. Jesus Himself teaches, and when He teaches, He teaches in what it's called parables. He illustrates what He has in mind and for us to hear and heed by His grace. Luke 18, commencing at verse 9. He spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves, as they were righteous, and despised others. Listen carefully to the illustration. Two men went up into the temple to pray. The one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. Extortioners, unjusts, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess, and the publican standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be mercifully, a sinner. I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. Everyone that exalts himself shall be abased, and he that humbles himself shall be exalted. Let us listen to Jesus as he teaches us in this parable. How many of you, when you pray, you think you honored God, a God heard your prayer? You boast that you can pray? Let's look at prayer that God hears. This is a well-known parable. What Jesus does, he describes men who went to church. Their motives were poles apart. Equally extreme were the results of their church-going efforts on this particular subject. It is expedient to examine the parable from four different angles. First, we will look at the audience for this parable. Look at where the prayer is done. Second, we will examine the main characters. Third, we will analyze the prayers these men prayed in the temple. Finally, we will listen to the assessment Jesus made of these men's actions. First, the immediate audience. Look at verse nine. And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. Jesus in his congregation. Jesus had in the congregation those who considered themselves so good that they could hardly stand it. Yet there were those who were painfully honest, and they considered themselves so bad that they could hardly stand it. The latter had come face to face with the sin of their lives, with the infinite distance that existed between them and God. They were repulsed by what they saw. And in his story, he patonified Phariseeism in one man, one Pharisee. Spirit of Phariseeism is still with us in 2026. All we have, all we all have a tendency to exalt ourselves. We all have instances in our lives when we measure the deeds of others by the ruler of our own actions. It affords us a perfect opportunity to look down patronizingly on those who do not reach our standards of holiness. Jesus is showing us us that this is the sin of self worship. Secondly, the main characters we see there in verse ten. Look at verse ten. Two men went up in to the temple to pray. The one a Pharisee and the other a publican, associated to Jesus. The Pharisee and the tax collector have been oversimplified into stereotypes, and for this reason, we may have missed some of the very important facts about them. Basically, there was something quite sad about the Pharisee. He was generally very serious about his service to God. Some Christians are in earnest about their relationship with God until it touches their pocketbooks or interferes with their plans and sulfuous desires. But what not Pharisee. Whereas the publican or tax collector had a corrupting influence on the community. He loved the temple and all of its sacred precincts. By nature, the publican was a tough, callous fellow who had turned against his own people, entering the employ of the Roman Empire, the pagan force that ruled the world. He had agreed to bleed his people of every cent of taxes he possibly could. This reality is in sharp contrast to the sentimental picture we traditionally have of the contrite penitent publican. Jesus was not overlooking the man's past, whereas the Pharisee had made an obvious contribution to the religious life of the people. The publican had done just the opposite. Because of the exorbitant taxes he demanded from the people, he had taken away their pleasure in living and had turned life into a burdensome existence. Jesus was looking beyond individuals we represented in this story and dealing with the spirit that controlled them. This is why we praise the publican and condemn the Pharisees. The same spirit can control every person who lives contrary to God's commandments. God looks past the veneer with which we cover ourselves and looks deeply into the heart. We must admit that there is something of both of these men in all of us. There are those who, like the Pharisee, are judged by others as being shining examples of what a person should really be. They seem to do all of the right things in life. But what are the deep inner motives that lurk inside that private room in their hearts where no person ever goes? There may well be something of the public in each of us, too. There are those heavily burdened in their conscience because past deeds and wrong choices. Because of this, they have come to be disgusted with themselves. They can no longer cope with what has happened or is happening in their lives. As we continue to think and listen to Jesus, the prayers of the men, verses eleven to thirteen. Listen carefully. The Pharisees stood and prayed thus with himself. He says, God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjusts, adulterers, or even as this publican. I pass twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess, and the publican, standing afore all, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but swore on his breast, saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner. Let me say something about this verse. The Pharisee, as the King James Version has it, God be merciful to me, a sinner. In the Greek, there's no word for a sinner. The word is the what the Pharisee or what the publican prayed. Listen carefully. See if we can understand it. Publican standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me, the sinner, the sinner, not a sinner. I tell you, Jesus says, This man went down to his house justified rather than the other. Everyone that exalts himself shall be abased. Exalts self, he will be burnt low, abased. And he that humbles himself shall be exalted. You hear that promise? All the promises of God are yes. Praise God of Jesus. As much be learned. Entering the employee of the Roman Empire. Theseus was looking beyond individual individuals represented in this story and dealing with the spirit that controlled them. Are you listening, my friend? We should be concerned with the Holy Spirit that has been given to us, given to us, and we should allow the Holy Spirit that is given to us to reside in us and to guide us. Lots of times we work in our own spirit and we make excuses. I didn't mean that, and I didn't mean to do that. That's our spirit. Learn to walk as the Bible teaches you and me. Walk in the spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Prayer is very important. Another attitude should be as God would have it. He stood when he prayed, for that was the general posture for praying among the Jews. He began his prayer in the typical Hebrew fashion with thanksgiving. But quickly, his thanksgiving became a praise directed toward himself rather than toward God. His prayer rapidly generated, degenerated into self congratulation and pompous. Comparison of himself with the publican. We have to be careful. As we listen to Jesus, this doesn't happen to us. Very important. Publican's prayer was God-centered. See the difference? One is self-centered prayer, the other is God-centered. Publicans stood at a distance. Both men were standing. But the words Luke used were different. The word he used to describe the Pharisee indicated his standing tall and proud, showing total security and self-satisfaction. The word describing the posture of the publican suggests his humility and recognition of his unworthiness of standing with a bowed head. The publican's prayers struck the high note with God as he recognized his true state as a sinner, needing mercy. Praise God for mercy. He came to the throne of his grace to obtain mercy and to find grace to help in time of need. It was the key that opened the door to salvation and raised the gates through which flowed the unending mercy and grace of God. As we close tonight, the assessment of the man's action. In verse 14, Jesus says, I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. Everyone that exalts himself shall be abased, and he that humbles himself shall be exalted. Jesus should he showed the need for confession of guilt. Certainly, the lifestyle of a publican was despicable to Jesus as it was to any Jew in Palestine. But the reason this man went to his house justified was that he had repented of his sin. He was willing to forsake his sinful lifestyle. On the other hand, the Pharisee who was religiously correct in his attention to rituals went to his home justified before God, but condemned. He had not repented or recognized his need for divine mercy. Jesus' message in this parable is that God is not interested primarily in our good deeds, but in our willingness to let Him do the work of grace in us. Many people are crippled today by the overwhelming sense of guilt, of wrongs they have done. They do not feel good enough to go to church convinced that the church is for good people. God alone can form us into vessels of honor to be used for his glory. In our conclusion tonight, the prayer God hears is the command. Let us pray.

unknown 27:40

Let us pray.

SPEAKER_01 27:43

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Lord, we ask your grace to be upon us throughout the rest of our lives. That you might have the glory. Amen.