Sermon for 10/30/22 "Life Changing Meeting" 18 Minutes

Luke 19:1-10

This morning I'll be reading Luke chapter 19 verses 1 through 10. And I'll be reading from the Holman Christian Standard Bible. Luke 19:1-10 This morning we will look at the story about Zacchaeus,,, a wealthy tax collector. And like many of the scriptures that I read,,, these should be very familiar to you. And also,,, as usual,,, Jesus is still heading to Jerusalem,,, as Luke continues his narrative of Jesus' journey,,, towards the fulfillment of God's plan. Luke 19:1–10 (HCSB) — 1 He entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 There was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. 3 He was trying to see who Jesus was, but he was not able because of the crowd, since he was a short man. 4 So running ahead, he climbed up a sycamore tree to see Jesus, since He was about to pass that way. 5 When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down because today I must stay at your house.” 6 So he quickly came down and welcomed Him joyfully. 7 All who saw it began to complain, “He’s gone to lodge with a sinful man!” 8 But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, I’ll give half of my possessions to the poor, Lord! And if I have extorted anything from anyone, I’ll pay back four times as much!” 9 “Today salvation has come to this house,” Jesus told him, “because he too is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.” The word of God for the people of God,,, thanks be to God! God bless the reading and the hearing of your word this morning. Let us pray: Dear Lord,,, as we begin this morning,,, with everyone here today and all that are listening and watching by video,,, we ask that you open our ears to hear and our hearts and minds to receive the message that you have for us today,,, In Jesus' name I pray,,, Amen. ----------------------------------------------------------- Last Sunday we looked at Joel 2:23-32 and seen that God loves us,,, and we know this because of the way that He is faithful to His promise even when we fail Him.

We can see that God loved the Israelites as well because He shows it in the way that He blessed Israel,,, even though they failed Him,,, over and over.

He does that,,, “Because He Is Promising”!

This morning we will look at these verses in Luke and see how they help us in our walk with God this week.

----------------------------------------------------------- Verse 1 says: 1 He entered Jericho and was passing through.

My commentary says that this is the last of those recorded incidents that illustrate the openness of the religious outcasts to Jesus in contrast to the spiritual blindness of the unbelieving Jews,,, especially the religious leaders of that time.

And in Luke we see that the public ministry of Jesus draws rapidly to a close since He is nearing Jerusalem.

If you remember the verses before this,,, or if you'll go back and read them,,, you will see that Jesus healed the blind man as He is coming into Jericho.

The blind man hears that Jesus is coming by and he begins to shout,,, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

You see,,, apparently,,, the blind man recognized that Jesus is the Long Awaited Messiah,,, the One promised by God to save them,,, and he immediately began to shout out to Jesus.

The blind man can see better than all of the religious leaders who were blinded because of their unbelief.

The blind man is one of those,,, along with Zacchaeus,,, that would be considered an outcast,,, or someone that you ignored as you went about your daily activity.

But Jesus listened to him and healed him.

At the beginning of verse 1 that we are looking at this morning,,, Jesus has reached Jericho,,, which is about 15 miles north-east of Jerusalem.

And as Jesus is passing through,,, He meets Zacchaeus.

And in doing so,,, He makes a tremendous change in his life.

----------------------------------------------------------- Verse 2 says: 2 There was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich.

As an important border town and commercial center,,, Jericho required the service of tax collectors like Zacchaeus,,, who charged customs on goods traveling the Jerusalem highway.

And since this was a well traveled area,,, Zacchaeus has become very rich.

Even though he was a Jew,,, he had become a tax collector,,, and was even a chief tax collector,,, so he had many opportunities to charge extra money above what Rome required,,, and by doing so,,, he was able to make lots of money.

So the people had many reasons for disliking Zacchaeus.

But as we see in the next verses,,, he wanted to see Jesus.

----------------------------------------------------------- Verses 3 and 4 say: 3 He was trying to see who Jesus was, but he was not able because of the crowd, since he was a short man. 4 So running ahead, he climbed up a sycamore tree to see Jesus, since He was about to pass that way.

Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus,,, maybe he had heard about the many miracles,,, the healings,,, or the way that Jesus spoke,,, whatever it was,,, he wanted to see Him.

But,,, he had a problem,,, he was short and he couldn’t see above the people in the crowd.

So he apparently figured out the direction they were heading and run ahead of the crowd so that he could climb the sycamore tree.

A sycamore tree might grow to be thirty to forty feet tall,,, but,,, it had low,,, spreading branches,,, that even a short man could climb and that were strong enough to support his weight.

So Zacchaeus has run ahead,,, even though this was somewhat out of character for him,,, I would guess,,, since he should have been accustomed to getting his way,,, at least as far as business was concerned,,, which apparently didn’t help him here.

And,,, possibly it would have seemed funny at the time if people would have paid him any attention,,, but we have no account of that being mentioned.

He climbs the tree and we see what happens in the next verse.

----------------------------------------------------------- Verse 5 says: 5 When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down because today I must stay at your house.”

Jesus has came to the sycamore tree and looking up,,, tells Zacchaeus to hurry and come down because today I must stay at your house.”

The fact that Jesus says these words,,, implies that Jesus had a reason for being there,,, and,,, that He knew that He would be staying at Zacchaeus’ house.

Even though the Jews hated tax collectors because they worked for the Roman government that had invaded Israel,,, we can see,,, that Jesus’s decision to stay overnight with such a sinful man as Zacchaeus,,, who had sold out and mistreated his own people,,, seemed outrageous,,, and unbelievable.

Also,,, my commentary says,,, this is the only case on record,,, where Jesus ever invited Himself,,, into a home.

Usually this was an invitation by others.

But we begin to understand why,,, as we read further in the scriptures.

----------------------------------------------------------- Verses 6 through 8 say: 6 So he quickly came down and welcomed Him joyfully. 7 All who saw it began to complain, “He’s gone to lodge with a sinful man!” 8 But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, I’ll give half of my possessions to the poor, Lord! And if I have extorted anything from anyone, I’ll pay back four times as much!”

After Zacchaeus comes down and goes with Jesus to his home,,, we see that the people begin to complain.

For the reasons that I just mentioned,,, he would have been a dishonest man,,, doing things that weren’t right to increase his wealth,,, so they probably felt like they had reasons for doing so.

But it’s easy for us,,, looking back to understand why Jesus did this,,, and it also should remind ourselves that we are no better than Zacchaeus either,,, since our sins are what kept us from our relationship with God as well,,, before we turned away from sin and relied on Jesus Christ as our Savior.

And we see by Zacchaeus’ words,,, that he is a changed man,,, saved by the words of Jesus.

This is in stark contrast to the rich young ruler in 18:22–23 who denies Jesus’ command to sell his possession and follow Him.

By his words,,, I’ll pay back four times as much!,,, Zacchaeus’ pledge goes well beyond the law of Moses,,, which generally called for repaying 1.2 times the amount that was stolen or extorted (Lev 6:5; Num 5:6–7).

Only in the case of stolen livestock,,, was more required (Exod 22:1).

----------------------------------------------------------- Verses 9 and 10 say: 9 “Today salvation has come to this house,” Jesus told him, “because he too is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”

Salvation refers to deliverance from sin,,, and the beginning of a right relationship with God.

Jesus’ words,,, because he too is a son of Abraham,,, affirms Zacchaeus’ identity as a faithful Jew,,, despite his detested role as a tax collector.

And the words,,,to seek and to save ,,, according to my commentary,,, recalls Isaiah’s writings,,, which was cited by Jesus in Luke 4:18–19,,, as well as the divine initiative to seek the lost that were portrayed in the parables of chapter 15.

The conversion of Zacchaeus illustrates the truth of Luke 18:27 where Jesus says: “He replied, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.”

Zacchaeus was a rich man,,, and because of their usual attitude,,, not all of course,,, but enough so,,, that it’s hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

But Zacchaeus humbled himself before Jesus,,, and did not let his wealth come between his soul and God.

Also,,, salvation did not come because Zacchaeus was a Jew by birth.

Here the expression, “a son of Abraham” indicates more than natural descent; it means that Zacchaeus exercised the same kind of faith in the Lord that Abraham did.

And,,, salvation did not come to Zacchaeus’ home because of his charity and restitution.

These things are the fruits of salvation,,, they weren’t the things that caused his salvation,,, no more than we are saved by anything other than our belief in the saving grace of Jesus Christ.

In verse 10,,, we have Jesus’ answer to those who criticized Him for lodging with a sinner,,, where He said,,, For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”

In other words,,, the conversion of Zacchaeus was a fulfillment of the very purpose of Christ’s coming into the world.

----------------------------------------------------------- So we see that Jesus has made it a point to come to Zacchaeus’ home and bring him to a decision that has eternal consequences.

And Zacchaeus made that possible by running ahead so that he could have a “Life Changing Meeting” with Jesus.

He had to put forth his own work so that he was in a position to hear Jesus’ words.

We can have our own “Life Changing Meeting” with Jesus by making sure that we are where we can see Him today!

And we can do that by spending time reading God’s word,,, being sure that we are striving to do what’s needed to hear Jesus’ words.

It doesn’t matter what sins we have committed before meeting Jesus either,,, just as it didn’t keep Zacchaeus away,,, because all we need to do is be where Jesus can communicate with us,,, and that is easiest accomplished when we read the Bible like we should,,, so that we are where we have the opportunity for God to speak,,, or,,, I should say,,, we are in a position to hear His voice,,, since so many times we are too busy to hear God speak when He does.

So all of the things that we do to strengthen our relationship with God are needed.

So many times,,, we have a tendency to go through the motions without putting forth the effort needed to be where we have that “Life Changing Meeting”.

We want to just coast along without any worries,, but that must change.

We must make time for God,,, just as Zacchaeus had to make an effort to see Jesus,,, we must make an effort to see Jesus as well,,, if we want to hear the words from Jesus,,, that makes that “Life Changing Meeting”,,, worthwhile.

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