Seeking and Saving the Lost.

Resolutions are made because we want something different in our lives. We want to make a change because what we want to be, is not currently who we are.

So, we resolve to make changes to see a better future. Like our personal lives, the church needs to realign its path closer to the path of Jesus. Over the past few years, we have had to deal with the effects of covid, the loss of leaders who have moved for different opportunities and the growth of new people to our body. This calls for us to make some changes so that we can be the body of disciples serving this community where God has brought us together. This morning I want to do three things. I want to:

spend a moment looking at the vision statement.

I want to introduce the mission statement.

I want to look at a passage from Luke 19 that helps us see that our vision is God’s vision.

The Vision:

As a church, we need to ask questions. What does God want from us? What good works has He created for us to do? How does He want us to accomplish these good works? Our vision statement is how we ensure what we are doing here at Crossway is what God’s vision is for us. You have been hearing it for the last few weeks, indulge me as we review it again.

At Crossway we are committed to the mission of God~ to heal and transform broken lives through the love and power of Jesus.

This is our vision statement. If we were to use a map as an illustration it is our destination. We can use all types of roads, highways or interstates to get there, but the destination is always the same... we are called to seek and save those who are lost and help all of our lives to be transformed through the love and power of Jesus. This vision is the picture of what we believe God wants us to be in this community where we live. It allows us to judge everything we do through this lens to ensure we are living out our purpose. It puts us all united in our purpose so that we can be moving in the same direction.

The way to get there is our mission statement. Using our map illustration, it is the directions we are currently following. The way we get there can change over time. Like google maps, we may reroute at times in our future, but our destination will always remain the same. Let me introduce you to our current direction, our mission:

At Crossway we accomplish our vision by providing

opportunities for people to Experience the Love of God by:

living with purpose,

connecting with God,

growing in relationships,

and being transformed by The Spirit.

I know that is a mouthful and I do not expect you to memorize it, the vision, that is concise enough for you to remember, but for the mission we created icons to help us remember these four core tenets. Our lifelong journey is to experience God’s love and help others to do the same. So, using our map illustration the mission statement lays out the current set of roads we are going to use to get to our destination.

living with purpose… We want to help each of us identify the unique gifts that God has given to us and help us practice them through Love-In- Action. This is how we prepare to help a hurting and broken world to connect to Jesus and how we grow in Christ by doing the good works He has prepared for us to do.

connecting with God… We want each person here to know Jesus as Lord. As a church, we want to provide all of us with tools and habits to help us cultivate our relationship with God through Bible study, prayer, worship, and discipleship practices.

growing in relationships… But we don’t want to stop there, because God calls us to be in community as He is in community. We want to practice community through our relationships within the body and outside of the body, allowing the love of God to permeate each relationship we have. We especially want to see that happen through our small groups where we can truly practice doing life together.

being transformed by The Spirit… We don’t pretend that these things happen only by putting plans in place, but it is only through the guidance and direction of God’s Spirit that we can see lives changed and ourselves transformed into the image of Jesus. So, we want to be seeking The Spirit in everything we do.

So that is our vision and our mission.

This morning we will begin a series called Our vision is God’s Vision. We want to spend the next few weeks examining some scriptures that were examined as we were putting together this Vision statement to help us connect with the mission that God has given to each of His followers.

Let us begin our look at this vision by seeing why Jesus came to this earth through his own words, in Luke 19.

Biblical Text:

To set the stage, Jesus is entering Jericho. He just healed a blind beggar on the side of the road, word has begun to spread throughout the town that Jesus has arrived and some of the crowd are following from outside the city. Other’s are gathering because they have heard that He has arrived. Here is where our story picks up, beginning in verse 1.

Luke 19:1–10 NIV

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.” But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. If you hear nothing else today, hear that statement. The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. Today, that is what we believe each of us are called to do. Jesus gave us this calling when he left.

Matthew 28:18–20 NIV

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

I would like to make a few observations about this text and the life of Zacheus and then challenge you to hear the calling of Jesus for each of us today.

Zacheus was a chief tax collector.

We don’t know how wealthy he was, but we know that Chief Tax collectors bid for the contract to be the chief tax collector. He had enough money to secure the contract.

This afforded him the ability to set the tax debt of those Jews underneath His control. Rome had a set amount of tax that was due. There were import taxes on goods, export taxes of items, bridge-tolls, road-money, town dues, almost anything you could be taxed for, you got taxed. Kind of like today. It’s like the IRS.

The difference between then and now is that the chief tax collectors and those under him could set the amount of the tax, as long as Rome got their required amount. So, if The bridge tax was $1.00, they could charge two.

It was so bad that you might encounter a tax collector on the road who asks you for a road tax of $1.00 and then encounter another tax collector a mile down the road who charged you a $2.00 tax.

They were listed on the level of murders and robbers in the Jewish Talmud. They were not valid witnesses in court. They were excommunicated from the synagogue. They would not even accept their money at the Temple treasury.

They were crooks and Luke paints Zacchaeus as being this way in the beginning of this narrative.

He was hated by the people.

Verse 2, points out that he was wealthy, but his wealth did not matter to those in the crowd. They did not separate just because he wanted to see Jesus. He did not matter to them.

But Zacchaeus wanted to encounter the savior even if it was only by sight from the branches of a sycamore- fig tree.

A question that was asked for our Wednesday night question series, I want to answer now.

The question is… “Our mission is to reach those who are “broken” what about the people who don’t see themselves as broken? When they say "why do I need this?"”

I would like to propose that Zacheus did not see himself as broken. Outside of most Jews not liking him, his life was not bad. He was rich, powerful, most likely had Roman friends. He had a nice house, nice clothes, ate the finest food. Probably threw some great dinner parties. He probably didn’t care much about God before this encounter.

But he was broken. He was a sinner, like all of us.

It is only when he encountered the love and power of Jesus did he realize his brokenness. Paul tells us,

Romans 3:23 NIV

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

We are all broken, because sin breaks us. It separates us from God. It puts our eternity into jeopardy. I cannot just be a good person and have a place with God in eternity. I am only made whole by the blood of Jesus that washes away my sin.

Zacchaeus did not know this yet, but he was about to find out.

Jesus sees Zacchaeus.

When Jesus encountered Zacchaeus, this sinner in the eyes of everyone around Him, He says… Come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.

Notice Jesus went to him. He did not wait for Zacchaeus to come to Him.

The crowd begins to mutter...”He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”

I am reminded here of Samuel’s response to Jesse, about Kind David, when he was just a young boy.

1 Samuel 16:7 NIV

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

This day, Jesus saw his heart. When know one else was willing to consider this man as a child of God, Jesus saw through his sin and saw the real him. The one who was not broken, but was about to be healed by God.

How many times do we judge a person by their outward appearance? How many times do we not offer someone a chance to know Jesus because we are not willing to extend an invitation?

Would it surprise you that a national survey of over 2,000 unchurched people revealed:

82 percent of the unchurched are at least “some what likely” to attend church if they are invited.

Rainer, Thom S.. The Unchurched Next Door

No one saw Zaccheus, the real Zaccheus, the one who was broken and in need of His encounter with Jesus, but Jesus did. Jesus saw him and Jesus invited himself into Zacchaeus’ life and Zacchaeus was never the same.

We need to really see the lost for who they are. Broken and in need of a savior even though on the outside they do not.

What are the Results of His Encounter with Jesus?

Even as Jesus hears the crowd muttering, he does not let it sway his resolve.

His encounter with Jesus results in true repentance. Listen to his words here in Luke.

Luke 19:8 NIV

But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”

We do not know how much money he had, but his encounter with Jesus led to him committing to give half of his possessions to the poor and restitution of four times what he had cheated people out of. That is a lot of money.

He left Jesus changed. In fact, Jesus claims salvation has come to Zacchaeus house.

The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.

Luke 5:32 NIV

I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

This day the encounter with Jesus was with a broken child of God that Jesus took the time to see and invited him to a new life. Zacchaeus accepted and lives and hearts were changed.

What do I want you to know?

I want you to know that everyone matters to Jesus. They guy who sits beside you at work, Tattooed up and talk in expletives. The woman who gossips around the office about everyone, including you. The trans-gendered teen with blue hair, hiding their pain and confusion in their changes. All of these people, all who do not have a relationship with Jesus, Jesus considers them lost and broken by their sin and calls us to share the message of Jesus with them.

I want you to hear the statistic 82% of people would consider coming to church if you just asked them.

I want you to be like Jesus and seek and save the lost. Don’t wait for them to come to you. Seek them.

What do I want you to do?

Find your one. Who is the one person you can begin to share Jesus with in your life?

This week begin asking God to help you reach that one and look for the opportunity to invite them to church.

Can you do that? Can you name one person in your life who needs Jesus? Can you accept that you just might be the only person who is able to reach out and help them to encounter Jesus.