Motivated to Give
What we say we believe is not always accurate to practice (see February 5th - AM service Video - Tithing & the New Testament Believer:
Proposition:
(1) The fact that Jesus was seeking the lost (poor or rich) who all people agreed should be helped -
(i). One was poor the other rich
(ii). Both were in need of healing
(iii). Both wanted to see Jesus
(iv). Jesus stopped to save both of them
(v). Both were perceived in different ways regarding their worthiness
Grace is forever scandalous because it is forever undeserved. It is doubly scandalous for Zacchaeus, a rich oppressor, who seems so much less deserving of grace than Lazarus, a wretched outcast (16:19–31). Grace is a scandal because it insists on including those whom we wish to exclude. The story of Zacchaeus illustrates such grace. It ends not with Zacchaeus seeking Jesus but in Jesus seeking him, not in Zacchaeus’s moral perfection, but with his recovery and restoration as a “son of Abraham.”
(2) The fact that Jesus was seeking the lost, who all the people did not deem worthy of being helped -
(i). His political affiliations could not help him (v. 2)
(ii). His riches could not help him (v. 2)
(iii). His physique could not help him (v. 3 - 4)
(iv). That Christ stopped, looked his way, and spoke (v. 5 - 6)
Here it means “to lodge,” evidently recalling the noun form of the word, katalyma, which Luke used at Jesus’ birth (2:7; see also 22:11). The “guest room” denied to Jesus at his birth is now found in the home of a sinful tax collector.
Application:
(1) We have wrongly understood the aim of Jesus (v. 7)
(2) We have wrongly understood our own lostness (v. 7, 10, 11-14, 27)
(3) We wrongly hoard our possessions (v. 8) See also ,
(4) We wrongly believe that the law is a limitation upon our giving (v. 8)
Conclusion:
What is it that happened that made Zaccheaus want to give like this? See
“Today” is eschatologically charged in v. 5 and especially in v. 9. The incarnation of the Word of God incorporates dimensions of both space and time: in Jesus, the Word is bodily present