THE DANGER OF ‘ESTEEM’

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on May 5, 2021 under AM Bible Study |

AM Bible Study Group: May 5, 2021 from Luke 16:14-18

Theme: If we cling tightly to the esteem of men, we hinder our entry into the kingdom of God.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

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In the previous portion of Luke’s Gospel, Jesus spoke these words;

“No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Luke 16:13).

He spoke those words to His disciples. But as it turns out, some individuals were listening to those words who had already abandoned a devotion to God for a love for riches—even though outwardly they still pretended to love God and to be devoted to Him. Their religious exterior covered up their true inward commitments. And so, in verses 14-18, the Lord speaks to them. Luke tells us;

Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they derided Him. And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God. The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it. And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail. Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery” (vv. 14-18).

The things that our Lord is saying in this passage may—at first glance—seem disconnected from one another. But He is, in fact, making one very important point to these prideful Pharisees. And it is basically this: If we cling too tightly to the things that men esteem—and if we try to measure ourselves too much against fallen human standards—we will end up robbing ourselves of the ability to enter the kingdom on God’s terms.

What an important message this is to hear! What a dangerous one it is to ignore!

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An important way to help us understand what Jesus was saying to these Pharisees would be to go back to the beginning of the whole dialogue. Our passage this morning is a part of a larger discussion that began in 15:1-2. There, Luke tells us;

Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them” (15:1-2).

They were actually looking with contempt upon people who were needy sinners—broken in their sin and shame—who were coming to Jesus to be forgiven by Him. They were offended by the fact that He would have fellowship with them. And that was when Jesus showed the wrongness of their heart.

He told them the parable of the lost sheep—how the shepherd left the ninety-nine who were safe in the fold and went to rescue the one that was lost. And He told them the parable of the lost coin—how the woman who had ten coins turned her home upside-down to search for a single lost coin—even though she had nine remaining. And then, finally, He told them the parable of the prodigal son—how there was more rejoicing over the lost son who returned than over the older brother who never went away. These Pharisees were viewing themselves as acceptable in the sight of God and without any need to humble themselves in repentance before Him. They were the un-lost sheep, or the un-lost coins, or the non-wasteful brother. And they looked with contempt upon those who were sinners who came in repentance to Jesus.

But we can see even further the depths of their self-righteous delusion in verse 14. We’re told, “Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things …” When they heard Jesus speaking of how we cannot serve two masters—God and money—this really offended them! The Pharisees were—generally speaking—among them wealthiest people in the community; and to them, their prosperity was a sure sign of God’s favor toward them. Their position of worldly esteem added strongly to their confident sense of self-justification.

As a result of this, their contempt shifted from the poor sinners that were coming to Jesus onto Jesus Himself. We’re told in verse 14 that “they derided Him.” The word that was used, in the original language, actually means to ‘throw out the nostril’—that is to turn up the nose in a sneer of ridicule. Imagine doing such a thing to the Son of God!—and especially as He was showing mercy to poor and needy sinners! They were taking their self-righteousness to a dreadful level!

Well; Jesus responded to their derision. And what we find in this passage is that He responds with three different points—all of them showing the danger of placing the esteem of men above the mercy of God.

First, He warned them that …

1. ESTEEM BEFORE MEN DOESN’T MEAN ACCEPTANCE BEFORE GOD (v. 15).

In verse 15, we read, “And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts.” In saying that, the Lord Jesus had ripped the mask off of them. He exposed them for what they really were inside. They sought to justify themselves before men—and relied greatly on their prosperity and riches and position of esteem among other men as proof that they were ‘righteous’. But God knew the real condition of their hearts. Later on, after Jesus made His triumphant entry into the temple in Jerusalem, Matthew 23 tells us that He told them;

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness (Matthew 23:27-28).

Even today, people may be able to use what is esteemed and noble in the sight of men to hide the real condition of their hearts. But God knows the truth. And that’s when Jesus issued a remarkable warning. He said, “For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” An ‘abomination’ speaks of that which is deeply repulsive to God—something that, figuratively speaking, makes Him sick to His stomach. We need to beware of the idea that, if we present an outward show of the things that this world applauds, we have then somehow achieved ‘righteousness’. Financial prosperity, worldly recognition, the awards and plaques and honors of fallen mankind—none of these things impress our holy God. As it says in Micah 6:8;

He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8).

Another point that the Lord makes to them is that …

2. GOD’S KINGDOM IS ENTERED ONLY BY THE NARROW WAY OF FAITH (v. 16).

Those Pharisees thought that—in contrast to those wretched sinners who were clinging to Jesus—they were the ones who were acceptable in the sight of God because of the outward standards of ‘human esteem’. They thought they were ‘shoo-ins’. But Jesus gave them a lesson in God’s redemptive plan for the ages. In verse 16, He said, “The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it.”

This sounds very much like something Jesus said—on another occasion—in Matthew 11. He spoke of the ministry of John the Baptist and said,

“Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John” (Matthew 11:11-13).

John was a preacher of the old covenant era. The old testament period came to an end in his ministry; because He pointed to Jesus. Jesus was the Mediator of the new covenant. And so now, the kingdom of God—being brought into commencement through the ministry of Jesus—was something that people needed to aggressively pursue. They needed to press into it. This is most likely what Jesus was talking about in the Sermon on The Mount; when He said;

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).

It’s not through the easy way. It’s not through the popular way. It’s not by means of a way that this world applauds and esteems or even thinks is necessary. Rather, it’s through humbling one’s self, coming to God in humble brokenness of heart and repentance from sin, and trusting in the mercy God has provided through Jesus Christ.

And finally, a third point that our Lord makes is that …

3. RELYING ON SELF-JUSTIFICATION ONLY LEADS TO FAILURE (vv. 17-18).

The proud Pharisees thought that they—by their outward performance which was so esteemed by men—were justified in the sight of God. They thought that they—by their own power—had kept God’s rules and regulations to God’s satisfaction. But the fact of the matter was that they had not. Jesus warned them in verse 17, “And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail.” He was warning them that if they were going to measure themselves by the performance of God’s law, they needed to know that not one bit of God’s law would be set aside to accommodate them. Not even a ‘tittle’. A tittle was a tiny stroke of a pen that differentiated one Hebrew letter from another—just like how one single line differentiates the letter ‘E’ from the letter ‘F’. Heaven and earth would be completely destroyed before one single ‘tittle’ would fail of God’s law. (What a testimony that is, by the way, of the permanency of God’s holy word!)

So; none of the law would be set aside for them in their efforts to prove themselves just in the sight of God. The whole standard of the law would be held against them. And that’s why we find the seemingly strange thing the Lord says in verse 18: “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery.” Was He bringing up something completely unrelated? Not at all. Those Pharisees were well-known for their practice of putting their wives away in divorce and marrying other women. They had even constructed elaborate legal exceptions that permitted them to do this. Jesus, then, was showing them just one very noteworthy example of how—in spite of how ‘esteemed’ they thought themselves to be—they were actually a bunch of guilty sinners in the sight of God.

Because of the unshakable nature of every word and letter of God’s law, they could not rely on their self-righteousness to make themselves righteous in the sight of God. It actually only made worse sinners of them than ever!

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The important and practical lesson of this passage is best shown to us in a parable Jesus told in Luke 18. Luke tells us;

Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise 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, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:9-14).

Let’s beware, then, of the kind of ‘esteem among men’ that prevents us from entering into God’s kingdom by humble faith in Jesus. Let’s not be like the Pharisee who thought he had it all together—but didn’t. Let’s be like the humble tax collector who knew he was a sinner. He came humbly to God in repentance—and went home justified.

EA