Are you tall enough?
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· 6 viewsNo excuses. Just simply do whatever it takes to get closer to Christ.
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Transcript
Has there ever been something about yourself that you wish you could change?
I grew quickly at a young age. I was the tallest one around in late elementary school through most of high school. Everybody was always saying, “Wow, you are so tall. I bet you play basketball.” I loved the attention. Especially when girls would notice me. I thought I was just going to be tall, quiet, and cool. Everyone seemed to love that I was tall so I thought I would just be quiet and let the girls come running. Then one day, a group of girls were hanging around myself and my friends. In that group was a girl that I thought was cute. So while hanging out together she said to me and to all my friends and for everyone else to hear… “You are really cute but you are way to quiet. I don’t think I could ever date someone so quiet.” OUCH!
I wasn’t using my gifts for God’s glory, I was using them for my gain and I didn’t gain anything.
What do know about Zacchaeus?
short
rich
tax collector
1 Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho.
2 Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich.
He was the chief tax collector
Being a tax collector did not make you popular with the girls or with anybody else for that matter.
Tax collectors were despised (hated) because the Jews looked at them as traitors because they worked for the Roman Empire.
He was rich.
Tax collectors would often abuse their position and power to take money for their own gain.
What Zacchaeus thought was his strength or greatest asset was really the reason why nobody liked him.
3 And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature.
He wanted to see who Jesus was but couldn’t because he was short.
Now how would you like it if someone wrote about you in their book and used an adjective to describe you that was not flattering. Something that you really didn’t want to be remembered for.
I bet when Zacchaeus and Luke met in heaven, Zacchaeus would have been like - “Dude, all you could say to describe me was short?”
What we know so far is that Zacchaeus was a hated tax collector, he was rich and he was short. But we also know that he really wanted to see Jesus and get closer to Jesus.
4 So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was going to pass that way.
There is no wasted detail in the Bible, though I don’t understand many, many of them.
A detail in this verse is that Zacchaeus “climbed up into a sycamore tree.”
Why is it important to know that it was a sycamore tree?
A sycamore tree could be a fairly tall tree. Up to forty feet tall. If you have ever climbed up trees you know that often tall trees are hard to get into because the lowest branches are 10 feet off the ground.
A sycamore tree though would have low branches making it easy for a short person to climb up.
Zacchaeus wanted to get closer and to see Jesus and he wasn’t going to let anything stop that from happening.
What are doing to see and get closer to Jesus? What are you allowing to be in your way?
Luke 19:
5 And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him, and said to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.”
When Christ called Zacchaeus, he asked him to move it.
Christ makes Zacchaeus a host which is a honor. We see Christ wanted to be with someone that no one else wants to even get close to.
6 So he made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully.
7 But when they saw it, they all complained, saying, “He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner.”
People couldn’t believe what they were seeing.
8 Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.”
Luke 19:
Giving 50% of everything he own’s away.
He repayed those that he stole from 4x’s when he was only required to pay 1.2 times back.
9 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham;
10 for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
Salvation
Christ came to seek and save the lost.
