Why did Jesus speak to people in parables?  Jordan Brannon continues in our Parables series with the tax collector and the pharisee.  God spoke in parables to help people understand the message he was trying to convey.  In this parable, Jesus is teaching that pride over others is bad and humility towards others is good.  This parable was told to those who “despised others”.  The villain is the pharisee because he dares to pray to God and thank Him that he’s better than other people.  The good guy is the tax collector who humbles himself.

There are three questions to finding the foundation of the parable:  The first question is to ask what the purpose of the parable is.  What should the foundational principle do?  The next question is to ask what the ailment is that’s being healed.  The third question to ask is what the specific sin is that is being addressed.  Once you have answered these questions, confirm it in the parable.  For this parable, Jesus told the parable to people who thought they’s made themselves righteous.  The tax collector, who cried out for God’s mercy, gets justified.  This parable tells us that the humble will be exalted.

Listen as Jordan tells us why God wants us to be in a place that depends on Him.  The first reason is because He’s God!  The next reason is because of the specific attributes that are unique to God.  The last reason is because only God alone, while we still pridefully sin against Him, has the creativity to show His love and mercy for us in a way that restores us, without betraying His nature as a just and holy God, through the justification that comes through the death of Christ Jesus!

There are four things that you should know:  The first is that God is God!  The next one is that you desperately need Him.  Another is that God has done the work to return you to Him.  The last thing you should know is that God will continue to work in you!