Seeking & Saved | Luke 19:1–10

Church good morning! If you’ve got your Bibles go ahead and open them to the book of Luke. We’re going to be in Lk. 19 today looking at one the most famous Bible stories there is. If you grew up in church then you probably know the song that goes with this passage so I thought we’d all just stand and sing it. I’m kidding. We aren’t going to sing Zaccheus was a wee little man—although I’m pretty sure that’s a direct translation from the Greek.

Last week we wrapped up our series on the book of Daniel and for the next 3 weeks what we’re doing is we’re going to catch up with Jesus as he makes his way towards the cross. Zaccheus this week, Palm Sunday and the Triumphal Entry next week, and then we will have a Good Friday service and then of course, Easter Sunday.

I said this last week and I want to reiterate it. If you’re like me then you tend to get to these holidays—Christmas, Easter, etc.—and just fall back into tradition & going through the motions without ever really allowing the reality of Christ coming, living, and dying to affect and renew your heart. I want to fight against that this year. I don’t want the celebration of cross and the resurrection to be dull, cliched, predictable tradition. I want our souls to be reawakened and renewed through this season. So in order to do that, we’re going to work hard to prepare our hearts & minds this season, and today we’re doing that by looking at Luke 19:1-10. So let’s read these 10 verses, pray, and then jump into it.

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.”

This is God’s Word. Thanks be to God. Let’s pray.

So we just finished Daniel and one person we talked about quite a bit towards the end of Daniel was Alexander the Great. Remember that Alexander the Great was the young Greecian king that quickly, and effectively dominated the known world at that time. He had it all..position, legacy, money…there was quite literally nothing that was not at his disposal. Yet despite all of that, he famously said, “There are no more worlds to conquer.” Despite his power and achievements, he found himself unfulfilled and longing for more.

I think we find Zaccheus in a similar state today. And maybe we find you there too. Some of you walked in today and you’re seeking for something more. In fact, I think I could argue that if you’re very presence declares that you’re seeking for more. Maybe, like Zaccheus and Alexander the Great, you’ve “made it” in life according to the world’s standards, but you’ve found that it just leaves you want more. Maybe you’re struggling and thinking if I just had this then my heart would be satisfied. Maybe some of you in the room have tasted the Lord’s goodness and you just desire more of it. I think there are 3 points of application for us this morning from this text that will take you to the one source that can fill the longing of your heart.

Here’s the first call for us today:

Climb up a tree.

Now, I want to give credit where credit’s due. I listened to Tim Keller’s sermon on this passage this week and I loved the wording of a couple of his points, so I stole it. I didn’t steal the content of his message, just the wording of the point. What does Keller mean, what do I mean when we say, “Climb up a tree.”

Our buddy here, little old Zaccheus had to do that. What do we know about Big Z? Not only was he a tax collector, he was the chief tax collector. In other words, he was in charge of other tax collectors. He had earned or worked or manipulated and paid his way off to the top of all the tax collectors in Jericho.

Jericho was a major city in Israel during that era, so there would’ve been a lot of commerce that took place. Zaccheus had access to a ridiculous amount of money.

And remember, tax collectors were highly hated. When the Roman’s came in and took over they knew they were going to tax their new constituents, but the problem with bringing an outsider in to tax the people was that the people could hide funds from the government. So they hired from within. The Romans would get locals who knew all the hiding places and tell them what they would charge and any other money extracted the tax collector could keep. Anyone then who became a tax collector wasn’t just loyal to Rome, but also a betrayer of their own people. These guys were hated, despised, and rejected.

So here we have Zaccheus, the chief of all the tax collectors and he catches wind that Jesus is coming to town. In fact, Jesus had just been on the edge of town and healed a blind man. By this point in time Jesus’ popularity had grown and he almost always had a crowd with him.. It’s interesting that when Zaccheus heard of Jesus’ arrival that he didn’t just brush it off, but instead, he had to see who this guys was and what he was all about. Why would Zaccheus care about Jesus?

I mean, if T. Swift or if Donald Trump or if pick your famous person was coming to town, some people would fawn and faint to get up close and personal. But Zaccheus? He had position, he had wealth, he had influence—he had everything that our culture tells you to pursue, yet all of that didn’t satisfy him. So what did he do? He sought Jesus.

But there was a problem. Well, two problems really. First, he was vertically challenged. With the crowd that surrounded Jesus, there was no way he could look over all of them to see this man. But it wasn’t just that he was short, it’s that there was a crowd. And what did we determine about how this crowd would see Zaccheus? They hated him. They would’ve prevented him from seeing Jesus. They might have even thought they were doing Jesus a favor by preventing this deceptive traitor from getting close to him. In their self-righteous, moralistic superiority they prevented him from drawing close to Jesus.

Church, may that not be true of us. I think there’s a really strong warning here for us in how we treat people—especially those who are different than us or even by people we might be repulsed by. While I don’t think and I hope that this isn’t true of us, Satan would love for nothing more than for us to be formed into a bunch of “holier than thou” people that prevents others from seeing Jesus.

Isn’t this one of the biggest complaints towards Christianity? “I like your Jesus but I don’t like your people.” Self-righteous, moralistic superiority isn’t attractive to Jesus or others, it just prevents them from seeing him like the crowd did Zaccheus.

But that didn’t stop Zaccheus, did it? Instead he ran on ahead knowing the path Jesus would take and found a sycamore tree to climb up on. Here we have a man of position and influence in his community climbing up trees. In Zaccheus’ culture this would’ve been a humiliating act. This isn’t something that socially dignified people do. But that’s what it takes to see Jesus.

Jesus doesn’t draw near to those who’ve got it all put together. Jesus doesn’t break bread with the holy huddle. Look throughout the gospels and what is Jesus’ response to the religious elite? It’s rebuke! It’s calling them out. Why? Because “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (1 Pet. 5:5). In order to see Jesus Zaccheus had to humble himself before his entire community. He had to humble himself before God. But he also had to humble himself before himself. How did he do it? He climbed up a tree.

Who climbs up trees? Stick around after church for a little bit and see who climbs up those trees. I’ve been here for 8-9 years now and I’ve yet to see Gary Frost climb a tree. Or Mark Schumacher. No, it’s kids! Usually it’s my kids that are stuck up in the tree. They get it from their dad. I loved to climb trees when I was little. You get a rush of adrenaline, a sense of invincibility, but most of all, you get to see. And as a kid climbing a tree, I always knew before I started that I could make it to the top—even of those little branches. I’d be able to look out and see more than you ever could with your feet on the ground. Climbing trees inspires this sense of awe by how you feel and what you do.

Church I’m concerned that we’ve lost our sense of awe at who Jesus is and we’ve become so caught up in the day to day and trying to put on this front that we’ve lost faith and in turn humility that causes us to climb up the tree. Do you really want to see Jesus? Do you really long for him? If you say yes to that, then the question is are you willing to humble yourself, to become undignified and possibly even humiliated for the sake of seeing & hearing Jesus? Climb up a tree and know that as you do you’ll hear Jesus’ call.

That’s our second point:

Hear Jesus’ Call

As I was reading this passage the first verse for some reason really jumped out at me. What was Jesus doing? Luke 19:1

Luke 19:1 ESV

He entered Jericho and was passing through.

He was passing through. Why? Where was he headed? You’ve got to go back just a few verses to Luke 18:31-33

Luke 18:31–33 ESV

And taking the twelve, he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.”

What was Jesus doing? Jesus was on a mission to the cross. He was headed to calvary for the redemption of all creation of all time. I would say he had a pretty important mission in front of him. I know that when I’m on a mission to accomplish something that I don’t want anything to distract me from the task at hand, and can you imagine a more important mission? Yet despite being 18 miles away from the culmination of his entire existence he decided to make a sashay through Jericho all for what purpose? For Zaccheus & the blind man at the city gate. You see, Jesus wasn’t too busy for these people that their city despised and rejected. And if he’s not too busy for them, he’s not too busy for you.

In fact, this was his whole purpose of coming. Lk. 19:10

Luke 19:10 ESV

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Jesus came for those who had been overlooked or forgotten about. He came for those who were hated and belittled. He came for those who were lost and alone. Jesus took time to seek and save the lost. (Story of Hikers) He wasn’t to busy for them or too good for them. He had eyes who saw and valued them. Not only that, he actually spoke to them.

Luke 19:5 ESV

“Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.”

He comes to the sycamore tree that Zaccheus has ascended and he looks up and calls out, “Zaccheus.” We don’t know if Jesus would’ve known who Zaccheus was. I don’t think so. I think this is a situation similar to when Jesus called Nathanael to be his disciple. Jesus knew who Zaccheus was because he was Jesus.

For those of you today who feel isolated and alone, who feel ostracized and unknown, hear this today: Jesus knows your name. He knows your name and everything about you. Just like Zaccheus and Nathanael, there is nothing about you that is hidden from him, and yet just like Zaccheus, Jesus is calling you by name today. He’s calling you by name and he’s inviting himself over.

Virtually all scholars say that this invitation and the language used here indicates that Jesus actually was inviting himself over for dinner or table fellowship and probably even staying the night. Again, culturally speaking to share a meal with someone is no small thing.

I had a business meeting over lunch this week. If you walked into X10 and saw me eating with these guys you probably thought nothing of it. Just another meeting. That’s not what this was like. To go over to someone else’s house and eat dinner with them was to identify with them. It was to say I’m like you; I’m with you; we are friends and brothers. This self-invitation was a personal identification with Zaccheus. In other words, Zaccheus, if you’re despised and rejected, so am I. If you’re hated and oppressed, so am I. If you’re overlooked and unwanted, so am I. Jesus met with Zaccheus on his level at his place.

In doing this Jesus was inviting Zaccheus into intimacy with him. I think it was Keller who pointed out that it’s important that we take note of the order of grace here. Jesus doesn’t walk up to this tree and say, “Zaccheus, it’s important for you to get your act together, because if you do then I’ll come over.” “Zaccheus, I need you to right all the wrongs you’ve done and then I’ll give you the time of day.” No, what Jesus is saying is don’t get yourself put together. Come down from that tree right now because I’ve come to you as you are where you are. I see you, I love you, and I accept you, not because you’re in a tree, not because of what you’ve done, but because of who I am. I am the one who has come to seek and save the lost. I am the one who redeems and delivers those who are lost and hurting. So come down from that tree, for I must stay at your house today.

The call for Zaccheus is the same call for us today. Jesus wants you to know that he’s not too busy for you. There’s not other missions that are too important for him other than seeking and saving the lost. If you’ll climb up in the tree, then he’ll call to you and invite himself in and live intimately with you for eternity. Have you heard the call of the Jesus? You may be sensing that call today. Maybe the Spirit is working in your heart right now in a way that you are ready to climb up the tree, even here in front of all of these people, but you’re wondering now what? What is the next step? First, we climb up the tree. When we’re there we hear Jesus’ call, and finally:

Take Jesus home.

Jesus’ call to Zaccheus causes 2 different responses. The crowd and Zaccheus both are astonished at what Jesus has just said and done and they can’t just take it in stride. Let’s reread Lk. 19:6-9

Luke 19:6–9 ESV

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.

This call creates 2 responses—a positive and a negative. Let’s look at the negative first. The crowd is perturbed. They’re angry. Really, they’re jealous. They’ve followed Jesus. They’ve been with him and sat through his extremely long sermons. They’ve been hungry and waited on lunch because he wouldn’t stop preaching, and then they’ve been satisfied because he miraculously fed all of them. Now they’re walking with him to Jerusalem with the expectation that the king has come. Luke uses the title “Son of Man” to describe Jesus and what did we see in Dan. 8 about the Son of Man? He comes riding in on the clouds ready to judge. The crowd is here for this. Their long awaited Messiah has arrived and he’s about to take the kingdom of Israel back for them. Yet, he stops and goes to spend the night at Zaccheus’ house?! What about them? So what does Israel do? They grumble.

Just like their forefathers before them, the crowd grumbles. Remember in Exodus, God delivers Israel from Egypt, they plunder their captors, and then God parts the Red Sea for them to walk through on dry ground. They sing a song because they’re so happy and then 1 week into their journey towards the Promised Land they’re hungry. God, how could you? Moses, you’re the worst leader ever. Israel, having experienced the miraculous provision of God & the deliverance of God, now grumbles because they’re hungry. They’ve been inconvenienced. They feel neglected.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree and here, years later, the people continue to do the same thing. They are discontent. They are jealous. I think they feel unseen because Jesus doesn’t give them what they want based off of their own self-righteous actions. Jesus, we’ve walked with you, we’ve listened to you, and here you are going in to be the guest of a man who’s a sinner. He’s deceptive. He’s manipulative. He’s a traitor. We’ve been protecting you from him. What about us?

I wonder if we are more like the crowd than we are Zaccheus. I wonder if in our self-righteousness and jealousy we look at other people and go, it’s not fair God that you would bless them or give them that. I’ve walked faithfully with you. I’ve served the church. I’ve done all the things, yet you withhold from me blessing. Or maybe you withhold yourself from me?

Or maybe our grumbling isn’t out of envy of others but out of what the call of Jesus is. Maybe it’s to go Jesus, I got up in the tree, what more do you want from me. Obviously I believe you’re important, but you want me to get back down? Here. In front of all of these people!? I don’t want to do that. I’ve gotten comfortable here. I don’t need to take any more steps of obedience or faith. I did that when I crawled up the tree. Jesus, it’s inconvenient right now for me to do the things you’re asking because we’re just so busy. There’s so much going on and our kids have all the things, so we’ll get out of the tree things slow down. Actually, we’ve been so busy we need a vacation and then we’ll get out of the tree. Has your disposition towards the call of Jesus been grumbling? Maybe that call is towards salvation. Maybe that call is towards service—serving the church. Maybe that call is towards discipleship & accountability. Yet you hear that and grumble. That’s what the crowd. Out of their envy, out of their frustration, out of their self-righteousness they grumbled.

But then there was Zaccheus. How did Zaccheus respond to the call of Jesus? With immediate joy. Jesus has spoken to me. Me!? Of all the people here he walked up to this tree and spoke to me! How could such a wonderful thing happen? One response to hearing the call of Jesus is grumbling the second response is immediate obedience with joy. Zaccheus shimmy’s down the tree & with great joy says come on man, for your going to my house today. What would stir this sort of response from Zaccheus?

I think Zaccheus knew who he was. He had to climb up the tree to see Jesus. He was the man stranded on the rock. Everything he had done in life left him wanting for more, but now, the king of the universe has come to him. And he didn’t just wave when he walked by, he called him by name. He invited himself over. There is joy because now that man has seen me, knows me, and calls me by name. Amazing love, how can it be?! Receiving this call leads to Zaccheus to do 4 things. First, he gets down out of the tree. He doesn’t just get down, he hurries down. There is immediate obedience to the call of Jesus. I remember I was at a church in NC and our pastor was preaching a sermon that I think was on parenting and he made this statement that has stuck with me: “Delayed obedience is disobedience.” When I ask my children to do something the expectation isn’t that they finish the game or the show or whatever it is—it’s that they obey. Now, that can come from a firm hand, but it isn’t a firm hand that Jesus is calling Zaccheus with, it’s a loving hand. It’s a call to forsake position, place, and perception of others to follow him. To delay in that call is to disobey that call. It’s to say Jesus, I’ve got more important things than you right now. Immediate obedience is the first response.

Second, this leads to right confession. What does Zaccheus say to Jesus right off the bat? “Behold, Lord.” This is a statement of surrender of authority. He’s saying, Jesus, I’ve been Lord of my life and sought to satisfy my hearts desires with all sorts of other things, but that’s left me in a tree. Now I’m taking the crown off of my head and and placing it on yours. I’m bowing my knee to your will and no longer mine. And that might sound scary, or really hard, and the truth is it is, but I can & I will because you’ve called me. Being seen and known by you is enough, so you’re Lord, I’m not. Joy in getting down. Joy in confession. and then there’s joy in generosity.

That phrase, “Behold, Lord” is a statement of surrender and that surrender is then displayed in his action. “I give half of my good to the poor.” Scholars say this is a tithe. Tithes were given in the temple to support the priests and then used to care for the poor and needy. In the Old Testament the people were called to give a tithe of their firstfruits and the word tithe literally means 10%. If you grew up in church then you probably knew that and have the expectation that we’re supposed to give 10% of our firstfruits to the Lord. I get questions on this from time to time and I think Zaccheus gives us a picture of what faithful giving actually looks like. 10% may have been the Old Testament biblical mandate, but I give half, because Jesus you gave it all. You laid your reputation on the line to speak to me. And as we’re going to see here in a few weeks, you did a whole lot more than that. You crawled up on a tree, not because you wanted to see, but because you wanted to redeem. So I want to give like you because you gave yourself for me. 1/2 of my goods I give to the poor. This is extravagant generosity that reflects an extravagantly generous God.

I have a pastor friend that he and his wife made the commitment early in their marriage that the largest expense in their budget at the end of the year would be to the church. Not their mortgage. Not food. Not car payments. Not retirement. Not vacations. The church. They believed that the mission of God was the most important thing there is and they wanted their entire life to proclaim that. I get asked often if we’re supposed to give 10%, and I’ll tell you now that I believe the biblical mandate for those in Christ is to give like he gave. Maybe it is 10% for you. Maybe that’s giving in faith. Maybe that’s 2% right now. Maybe that’s 100%. I know of an older couple that was nearing retirement. They had pinched their pennies and saved for years, but as retirement approached they felt the Lord call them to missions. They recognized that Jesus came to seek and save the lost and he wasn’t done, so they took that retirement account and gave it entirely to a missions organization and then became missionaries with them. Why? Because they wanted to be a part of what God was doing. The call of Jesus leads to extravagant generosity.

50% to the poor, and then 4 fold to those that he had defrauded. In the Old Testament God commanded his people that if they stole from someone they were to payback what they took plus 20%, but Zaccheus just said I’ll pay back 400% of what I took. 50% to the poor and 400% to those he stole from. This had to be financially devastating for Zaccheus. What Zaccheus was saying wasn’t just come to my house and eat dinner. It was come and have all of me—even the stuff I treasure the most. Even the things I’ve sought to fulfill my life. Do you see what’s happening here? Jesus’ acceptance of Zaccheus set Zaccheus free from everything else he looked to for satisfaction and created a radical transformation that took greed and turned it into not just generosity but justice. Zaccheus cared not about just making things right, but making them new because that’s what Jesus did to him.

I was having a conversation with a friend of mine this week and his kids had stolen something. The parents found out and made the kids take it back and then they were looking for another way that the kids had to go above and beyond what they had taken. We then talked about how we had done something similar when we were kids, but in the middle of that conversation I asked him how do we steal now from other people? I love this statement by George Whitfield, “If ever God gives you true faith, you will never rest, till, like Zaccheus, you have made restitution to the utmost of your power.” Is there somewhere or someone that you need to get out of the tree and go make restitution with today? If God has give you true faith, you won’t rest till you’ve done all that you can not to just make it right, but to see it be made new. That’s what God does. He steps up to the tree, he calls you down, and he makes you new.

That’s what he did for Zaccheus. These 4 things point towards the true nature of who Zaccheus had become. “Salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham” Salvation didn’t come because he did the right things. He did the right things—immediate obedience, right confession, extravagant generosity, radical reconciliation & restitution—because salvation had come. Jesus came to seek and save the lost and in doing so he made them a son of Abraham. The identity that Zaccheus had worked so hard to earned was freely given. It wasn’t something he had to perform for, but something he had to receive and live out. It wasn’t based off his Jewish heritage, but by the call from Jesus.

The story of Zaccheus is significant not just because of what happened to Zaccheus. Do you know what Luke 19:1-10 comes on the heels of? Luke 18:25-27 this is the story of the rich young ruler who has walked up to Jesus and asks what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus says, sell all of your stuff and give it to the poor and then come and follow me. The rich young ruler just can’t do it. So Jesus says,

Luke 18:25–27 ESV

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.” Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”

The story of Zaccheus is significant because it shows you that by the power of Jesus a camel can go through the eye of a needle. Jesus has just shown us that he is God and with him it is possible.

You may be sitting here this morning going, I can’t crawl up the tree, but with Jesus it’s possible. You may hear his call and go, I can’t get back down, but with Jesus it’s possible. You may go, I lack the power to make right the wrongs I’ve done, but Jesus doesn’t. So will you will crawl up a tree, hear his call, and take him home? Will you give him access to every nook and cranny in your life and say, “Behold, Lord” it’s yours. Have it all? Have all of me because you gave your all for me? You weren’t too busy. You didn’t have too much going on. You saw me alone and stranded and came to seek and save me. Climb a tree, hear his call, take him home.

Crawl up a tree