What is the Vision of Revival? Luke 18:9-14, The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

⁹ Jesus also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: ¹⁰ “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ 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. ¹² I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ ¹³ 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!’ ¹⁴ 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.”

A feud was brewing at St. Unrevivable Episcopal Church. The first exchange came when after the rector preached on Taking the Gospel to the Ends of the Earth the music director chose to sing I Shall Not Be Moved. Believing it a coincidence, the rector ignored it. The next Sunday his sermon title asked Are we Doing Enough for the Gospel?  Afterwards, the congregation squirmed as the music director led them in More Than Enough.

As the rector began losing his cool, Sunday attendance swelled as the feud built. The sermon, Will God Use Us in Revival?, was followed by the singing of You Alone.  The rector informed the congregation he was close to moving on. The congregation gasped when the band began playing I’m Trading My Sorrows. No one was really surprised when the minister resigned a week later, explaining that Jesus had led him there and Jesus was leading him away—to which the music director began singing Tis So Sweet to Trust In Jesus.

There has always been a tension among God’s people about growing and going. The important question is whose vision is it to grow and go? The Bible says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18, KJV).  Or as The Message puts it, “If people can’t see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves.” The Bible tells us that we are blind without God and his guiding vision. A perfect example is the Pharisee in the temple thanking God he is not like the nearby tax collector. He has no vision of God; he only has a vision of himself in comparison to others. Without realizing it, he is perishing and stumbling all over himself.

The Pharisee is like many mainline denominations. We spend so much time gazing at our navels, that we don’t look out and see an impoverished and hungry world in dire need of hearing the good news of Jesus. The tax collector, however, has a right vision of himself in comparison to God. He knows the sin-laden, sinking boat he is in. He needs help.

Do you want to know the ultimate vision of Revival? It is in the person and work of Jesus, who comes to rescue us from our sinking boat in exile from God. He gives us new life. Like the tax collector, revival comes when we recognize we need rescuing. Then God comes among us, rescues us, and we in return praise the Lord for what he has done. And then we go out and seek others who need rescuing as well.