Transformative Curiosity

The Gospel Leads to curiosity, repentance and transformation

Luke 19:1-10

Main Idea: The Gospel will transform your life.

Me: What happens when you are curious?

I don’t know about you but when I get curious about something I look into it.

I believe that we live in the youtube age where if you don’t know how to do something you can learn it by watching a youtube video.

When my wife Brittni and I were first married, we lived an townhouse that was ok, not in a great part of town and while the inside of the house was nice, there was still some questionable things, such as some outlets, that didn’t work.

So one day I was curious and decided to take the outlet out and replace it.

I mean how hard can it be?

Now, good lesson here, if you are ever dealing with electricity what is the first thing that you are suppose to do?

Turn off the power.

That part wasn’t on youtube, I am sure that they just figured you would be smart enough to do that.

Not this guy.

I’m playing with live wires and taking off the old outlet and by God’s miracle I had not been electrocuted yet, but then my screwdriver must have hit one of the wires and BUUUUUU— everything went dark, but the lightbulb in my head said— you should probably have turned off the power.

I didn’t fully know what I was doing.

I heard about changing outlets, I was curious enough to watch a couple videos, and then I tired it.

I got it to work and all was well.

But I learned some lessons along the way.

WE:

I think there are many of us today that have some of those thoughts of curiosity and it leads us to discover new hobbies, passions, and even new jobs.

Curiosity is awesome.

And when you get curious about something, like really curious, I think we will go to a lot of lengths to discover truth, or how to do something.

I think many of us have heard something said on the news, or seen something on social media that strikes at our curiosity and then we search out the truth.

Maybe I’m the only one who does this, but I highly doubt that, because we have a world of information at our fingertips.

But here is the thing, because we live in a world of curious people, there are people that we come in contact with everyday who are desperately curious about what their purpose is and why they are here.

And as believers we have that answer— it is Jesus and it is his gospel.

Believe me friends that there are people in your life who see your life and are curious about you.

Maybe it is the way you hold yourself, maybe it is how you treat them or treat others, maybe it is a joy that is just oozing out of your body, or they have seen you hit a hard and dark time and you seem to have peace that is unexplainable.

There are people who are watching you and are curious about the God that you serve.

Not only are they curious but they want something real and something that is going to change their life.

And we have this answer to their curiosity but what do we do with it?

Do we share the Gospel with others?

Do we scoff when we are asked about our faith?

Do we think that they don’t want Jesus?

They are not the kind of person I want to share that with?

Or maybe we are living in a way that doesn’t make people curious about our Jesus?

Maybe we are living a life that dare I say is unremarkable?

I mean if we see someone who has had an incredible health journey, where they have lost of ton of weight, people are going to ask because them about this incredible transformation in their life and they it is possibly achieve that.

It catches people curiosity.

No one goes and ask the guy who is smoking 3 packs of cigarettes a day how to quit smoking, right?

No, that wouldn’t make sense.

But if we are living in a way that make people curious there is an opportunity to share who Jesus is.

This morning I want to tell you a story about a wee little man, his name is Zacchaeus.

And as I said his name some of you began to see the song, and maybe we should just sing it altogether to get it out of our system, because I worry that if we don’t you may not hear anything else.

So join me if you know it.

Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he.

He climbed up in the sycamore tree for the Lord we wanted to see

and As the savior passed his way He looked up in the tree and he said Zacchaeus you come down.

For I’m going to you house today, for I’m going to you house today.

Perfect you all sound amazing,

Will you join me in prayer as we prepare our hearts to hear from God’s word this morning.

Lord I am thankful for our memories that we can recall your truth.

Lord thank you for bringing us all here today.

Lord we come to you this morning with open hearts ready to hear your word.

Lord I pray that this morning that we acknowledge that you are our only hope, it is you Jesus.

Lord we pray for wisdom and clarity as we dissect your word today.

Lord I pray that you use me to speak your truth this morning, that all these words are yours and that you can will use them to press upon your people today.

We love you and ask all of these things in your precious sons names, Amen.

This morning I am going to invite you to open up to Luke 19.

We are going to start in verse 1.

As you are turning there let me just set up what is happeneing.

Jesus is visiting some different towns and he is on his way to Jericho.

And before he gets there he is found teaching a lot of parables in chapter 18.

Parables about praying and not losing heart.

How not to exalt yourself but be humble.

The disciples were rebuking people who were bring their infants to Jesus, and Jesus is like, stop it, Let them come to me.

Jesus interacted with a young rich ruler who wanted to know how to get eternal life and Jesus said keep the commandments which he had, and then Jesus challenged him to sell everything and the man left away sad because he was wealth.

Jesus says it is more possible for a camel to fit through an eye of a needle then a rich man to get into heaven— but all things are possible with God, so there is hope, but that rich man, left and did not sell everything.

And then Jesus heals a blind man.

So this is how Jesus is rolling into Jericho, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem.

He is Teaching, rebuking, challenging, and doing miracles.

So naturally Jesus had a huge following and there were a lot of people who wanted to see him.

Let’s pick up in Luke 19:1-10

Luke 19:1–10 ESV

He entered Jericho and was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

God:

Here is the deal folks— Jesus has a way of drawing people to him and transforming their life.

Jesus shows up and is passing through Jericho on his way to Jerusalem and he passes through this city to make a connection with somebody.

Jesus knew there was a guy named Zacchaeus and today he was about to change his life.

Now Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector.

Meaning that in Jericho he was Thee chief tax collector.

And the deal with tax collector was they did not get paid, they would decide how much to charge the people in taxes and his cut came from that, so Roman had a certain amount they needed Zacchaeus to charge everyone, and then Zacchaeus had to cover that and the rest of his cut, his money.

So if Roman only needed 10 dollars from everyone, and for Zacchaeus’s wage he wanted 5 dollars per person, he would then charge everyone 15 dollars— the 10 goes to Rome and he pockets the rest.

That is how it worked here.

And tax collectors in general were not liked, no love for them.

And Luke who is the author here, says something a bit interesting, you see Luke says Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, meaning that he was probably very wealth, we can all assume this.

But Luke makes sure you understand that he was rich.

He was a very very wealth rich tax collector.

And we can assume that nobody had any love for his guy.

So Jesus is walking into Jericho and Zacchaeus wants to see who this Jesus is.

There is no doubt that word about this Jesus has traveled to Zacchaeus.

He may have even heard about some of Jesus’s teachings and about his miracles.

And Zacchaeus is seeking to see who Jesus was.

He is seeking to find Him, he has a desire to seek Jesus out.

I believe that we have someone who is very curious about this man Jesus.

But as Zacchaeus comes to see Jesus, he finds out that he can’t.

He is short.

He is too small to see through the crowd and nobody was letting this guy in.

And I think Luke is being a little funny here.

Because one can assume that as a chief tax collector Zacchaeus probably looked down up the people.

He was high up in his status when it came to money, but in his stature he was small.

While he looked down on the people from his place of power, he naturally had to look up to the people because of his size.

And that is saying a lot about the average height of someone at this time who was a Jew, would have been around 5’2.

And for Luke to write this, Zacchaeus had to be a very short man.

So we have Zacchaeus who wants to see Jesus, but can’t.

So we runs— in the culture that Zacchaeus lived in, if you were an adult man you would not run— it was undignified behavior.

But we see the intense curiosity of Zacchaeus to see who this Jesus is, so he begins to run ahead— so he can see Jesus.

And then he does something else that would have been undignifying, he climbs into a tree.

Not just any tree but a sycamore tree that would have been pretty good heigh and would have had pretty big leaves on it.

Here is an actually a picture of the tree that is believed to be the one Zacchaeus climbed it is in present day Jericho.

You can see that it would be pretty easy to hide up there and not be seen.

Zacchaeus thinks he has a great spot.

He knows that he is not everyone favorite person, he really just wants to see Jesus.

So he climbs into this tree, and he waits for Jesus to walk by.

Now Jesus is walking and he knows where Zacchaeus is.

He has a divine appointment with him today, because he looked up into the tree and said, Zacchaeus hurry and come down here, for I am staying at your house today.

Jesus just rolls into town and he walks to this tree that has probably the most hated man in Jericho and Jesus wants to come over, it is the only time Jesus invites himself into someone else’s home.

Growing up my mom had this rule that you were never allowed to invite yourself into someone’s home, I think it might a general unwritten rule that you don’t do this, But Jesus calls Zacchaeus, by name mind you.

And tell him to get out of the tree and he is coming to his house.

So Zaccheus hurries down the tree and he joyfully welcomes Jesus.

He is pumped that Jesus is coming to his house, the guy that Zaccheus set out to meet, he is coming over, He is pumped.

Yet, not everyone shares in his joy, the crowd starts to grumble and complain.

And they were saying audibly He (Jesus) has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.

The crowd was mad.

Everyone in that crowd thought Jesus would have been on their side.

But when he left with Zaccheus public enemy Number 1.

They could not believe their ears.

Why would Jesus do this, why Zaccheus?

Anybody else would have been fine, why him.

Here is why:

They get back to Zacchaeus’s house and Zacchaeus at some point, gets up and says to Jesus, I am giving half of my goods to the poor and if I had defrauded anyone, i will give it back 4 fold.

Anyone that I have defrauded I am going to give them back 4x times what I took.

Not a bad return right?

Not bad at all!

Zacchaeus has then an overwhelming conviction to give back, to make things right, to turn from away from what he was doing and begin to do the right thing.

And the only explanation that we have is something happened when Jesus came to his house.

Something changed in Zacchaeus’s life from verse 1 to verse 8 something changed— someone transformed his life and it was Jesus.

Zacchaeus the rich chief tax collector was giving half of his belongs to the poor and 4x back to the people he defrauded.

Meaning he was going to be left with very little or no money.

Zacchaeus was transformed this day because of who called him out of that tree.

Jesus hears this from Zacchaeus and says “Today salvation has come to this house, he is also son of Abraham, for the Son of Man came to see and to save the lost.”

Salvation has come, Zacchaeus went from lost to saved.

This rich man was saved.

If you were to look back one chapter in Luke 18, you would read a story about a young rich ruler, i mentioned it at the beginning of the message, who comes to Jesus and ask how does he inherit eternal life, and Jesus says keep all the laws and the man says I have done so what else.

Jesus responds to him by saying go and sell everything and follow me.

And the man left because he was rich.

His heart was not changed he was not transformed.

He had the motions of being a believer but he lacked the transformation, he lacked the repentance, he lacked the turning away.

It was not worth it for him.

Money mattered more to that man.

And Jesus even says:

Luke 18:24–25 ESV

Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

and the crowd was going who can be saved then?

Luke 18:27 ESV

But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”

For what is impossible for man, is possible with God.

And then we read this story of Zacchaeus who was a rich man who had many possession and he was willing to give it all up and then some.

An encounter with Jesus can lead to transformation in your life.

Zacchaeus was changed this day.

He went from lost to found.

It had nothing to do with him being a descendent of Abraham.

But it was the fruit of his repentance.

It was his turning away from his old life and receiving salvation.

The proof was in the fruit that Zacchaeus would bear from this day forward.

It was not enough for Zacchaeus to say, Jesus look I confess that I took to much money, I have sinned, I’m sorry.

He did this by turning away from what he use to do and was willing to give it back.

He said enough.

This is what repentance looks like.

It is the turning away from what we use to do and we fill it up with righteousness.

Jesus will transform your life.

This is the whole purpose of Jesus coming, he says I came to seek and to save the lost.

And that word seek is the same word that Zacchaeus used to seek Jesus, Jesus is saying I desire to seek the Lost.

When Jesus came to Zacchaeus and called him out of the tree he was seeking him out.

That is what Jesus did and he still does.

He seeks out the lost.

And he offers salvation to those who will accept it.

Those who repent.

Why is there a need to repent?

It is what is asked of us, to turn away from our old life and step into a new life with Christ at the center.

Look at what Peter says in Acts 2.

As he is talking to a large crowd and tell them about the life of Jesus.

How Jesus came to save us, How Jesus left heaven because we lived in a state of separation from God.

And God sent his one and only savior to come and life and die in our place.

And Jesus lived a perfect life and died a horrible death for you and me, for your sins and mine.

And then we rose again three days later in order that the lost could be found.

And here is what Peter said to this crowd:

Acts 2:38 ESV

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Repent and be baptized.

Zacchaeus repented— we don’t know if he was baptized, I’m sure he did at some point as an act of obedience.

Zacchaeus’s life was radially transformed this day.

You:

But let me ask you a question today?

How have you responded to the Gospel?

Maybe today you walked into church and you were just curious about church, about Freshwater, about God?

Maybe you were invited by a friend whose life is different then yours and you invited you to be here today.

Maybe you came to riverside park and saw a ton of people worshipping God and giving out free food and you got curious as to what is happening.

I am so glad that you followed that curiosity.

It is the same curiosity that put Zacchaeus in the tree.

Maybe you came into church today lost.

I would invite you to say yes to Jesus today, to invite him to be your savior and Lord.

To repent, and turn away from the life you are living and towards the life that the Lord has for you.

Zacchaeus’s life was changed.

And we know that the Gospel leads to transformation.

Jesus is the in life changing business.

And when you accept him and his free gift of salvation then you are a new creation.

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Maybe you already been made a new creation.

You have accepted that free gift and you have repented of your sins.

Then today my challenge for you is that are a lot of people in your life that are probably curious about God and Jesus.

What are you doing about that?

Are you living on mission to a lost and dying world?

Are you seeking the lost to share with them the gospel of Christ?

The hope that is in Christ?

I wonder sometimes if we get picky when it comes to the lost?

I read this story of Zacchaeus and I notice the crowd had zero love for him.

Yeah Zacchaeus was not a good dude prior to meeting Jesus.

And he may have even deserved them ignoring him.

But Jesus came to seek and save the lost, it did not matter who it was.

It did not matter what they had done.

It did not matter their job status, their social status, their skin color, their age did not mattered.

The only thing that matter was they were lost and they were looking for hope.

I wonder sometimes if we ignore people who are just curious.

I wonder if we sometimes look more like the crowd grumbling and complaining rather then people who are seeking and saving.

Jesus changes lives.

Jesus will transform your life.

Jesus can transform the lives of the people around you.

WE:

What would it look like if we started to seek the lost?

I think we would see people coming to know Jesus.

I think we would see lives transformed from all walks of life.

We would be called crazy things, we would be called rude names.

People would question who we are hanging out with.

Jesus hung with the sinners but he never became a sinner.

His influence was to great.

He was the one who did the influencing.

We have an opportunity to influence those around us with the Gospel.

If we began to invite people who were different then us into our homes, I wonder what kind of curious conversation would begin?

If we would step into those conversation, I wonder how many of them would turn out like Zacchaeus whose life was radically changed that day.

If we would just take the Gospel to those around us— I wonder what curious conversations we would have.

Right now you may be thinking, listen there is no way I can do that,

All things are possible with Christ.

He empowers you through the Holy Spirit and you have been given a great chance to seek and share the gospel with the lost.

My challenge is for you this week, have one gospel conversation with someone.

One person.

Some of you may already do that, then find another one also.

Find one person to share the good news of Jesus with.

And if you are here today and you would like to know more about the savior Jesus, then do not leave today without talking to someone, we have elders here and who on our prayer team that would love to share with you the gospel of Christ.

Don’t let that curiosity burn one more day, find out about Jesus today.

Will you pray with me?

Pray: