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God’s Nature towards Sinners
Greeting:
Hello, thank you all for having me here tonight.
It is a great ministry that you guys have here, that is, to help young preachers like myself get practice preaching sermons.
I always enjoy the opportunity to read and study the word together with a group of interested individuals.
My name is Matt Horne and I am the father of three rowdy boys and husband to my wife Bekah.
I am in my third year of four years here at Covenant seminary.
Several years ago, at the start of the pandemic, Russ was my first homiletic lab instructor.
So if this sermon goes poorly you can blame him.
I’m only kidding, he was a good instructor and has continued to help me whenever I reach out him.
The passage for tonight is Luke 19:1-10.
I’m going to read the scripture, pray and we’ll dive right in.
Please follow along as I read.
Luke 19:1-10 “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.””
Let’s pray.
Start of the Sermon
Every year before graduation, the seminary hosts a food truck night with all the students, faculty, and their families.
It is a glorious time with great food and fellowship.
This past school year was not only the last year for many students, but it was the last year for a particular beloved faculty member, Jerram Barrs.
Jerram got to them seminary in 1989, predating many if not all of the faculty at the seminary.
And everyone loves him dearly.
He has meant so much to generations and generations of Covenant students.
Many would say that Jerram reflects the character of Jesus better than anyone they know.
The same goes for me.
Jerram has meant so much to me in my time here at Covenant.
Now at this food truck night, all the faculty and other important people are there.
The graduates, their families and the new president.
I was standing by the drink table talking with a friend when Jerram comes up to get a drink.
I immediately come around the table to say hi to him, and as soon as he sees me, he opens his arms to give me a hug.
He begins to say in his British accent, “Matthew, I’ve wanted to see you.”
Because of what Jerram meant to me I almost wanted to cry.
I asked if we could talk and he said “let’s find seats!”
After sitting down, another professor comes by and gives him his food, and Jerram insists that I take half the dish.
Upon taking it he gives me a napkin and insists that I put some of the delicious cabbage on my food.
The food was amazing, some of the best food I’ve had in Saint Louis.
Then he asks me how I am doing.
What he didn’t know was that I was going through a challenging season, and for the next 30 minutes he listens intently and counsels me.
Keep in mind, there were professors and students there who had spent much more time with Jerram, not to mention they were much more distinguished.
I am not a TA, or heavily involved in the seminary, I am just a student, but none of that mattered to Jerram.
What I hoped would be a simple hello or maybe a short conversation turned into so much more.
Instead of a short conversation, I got an experience I’ll never forget.
That’s what this passage is like.
Zacchaeus was hoping to get a glimpse of Jesus, and instead, he gets something he’ll never forget.
He gets an experience that changes his life.
FCF: (Finite) Due to our spiritual state, we do not always get a good picture of Jesus.
We put off prioritizing Jesus, and we do not prioritize people and things that bring life.
COR: Like Zacchaeus, we also face limitations on our time.
He had a limited time window where he could see Jesus, we do not have an infinite amount of time but instead, we have what can seem like infinite responsibilities and distractions.
Garden Lens: We live in a period of time where we do not have a physical person that is a living manifestation of God, we do not have Jesus here in person with us.
In Genesis, it says God walked among Adam and Eve (Gen.
3:8).
Jesus here walked among these people, he ate with them, and at the end of time we will get to be with Jesus again.
But we do not live at that point in time right now.
With that said, I want to bring us to the question we’re going to be asking of the text.
That is...
Big Question: What do these characters teach us?
More specifically, we’ll look at the questions, “what does Zacchaeus have to teach us?
What does the Crowd have to teach us?
And, what does Jesus have to teach us?”
Let’s look together at the first of those questions, what does Zacchaeus have to teach us?
Explanation 1
The gospels often have tax collectors as characters mentioned throughout, except John’s gospel.
Mark mentions them twice, Matthew nine times, and Luke mentions them 11 times.
Mark doesn’t speak much to the character of Tax Collectors other than mentioning that Jesus ate with them and the Pharisees didn’t approve of it.
Matthew speaks of them in a positive and negative manner (5:46, 17:24, 18:17, pos=21:31-32)
Luke on the other hand speaks highly of them.
In Luke 3:12 we see repentant Tax Collectors asking John the baptist how they should respond in light John’s sermon.
In 5:27 Jesus calls Levi, the Tax Collector, to be one of his apostles.
And in several other places Jesus eats with Tax Collectors.
These people are drawn to Jesus.
In Luke 18 we see the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, the latter recognizes his sin, and the former does not.
The latter went away justified from the temple and the former did not.
In our passage here today, we see the crescendo of the Tax Collector theme.
Zacchaeus does Tax Collectors proud by his model response, but his faithfulness lived out in tangible ways.
From the get-go we see Zacchaeus dealing with his physical limitation and climbing a tree.
Not just any tree, but one further up the walking path of Jesus.
He wanted more than a brief glance, he wanted to see him walking and maybe watch him interact with the crowd.
He probably realized Jesus might not be in Jericho very long, and if he wanted to see him, now was likely the only chance.
To Zacchaeus’ surprise, Jesus stops and looks up at him and commands him to come down so he can stay at his house.
Zacchaeus doesn’t say, “no thanks, I’m not interested.”
The texts says he hurried down and recieved Jesus joyfully.
Jesus invited Zacchaeus into an experience with him, not just an glimpse but an experience.
Imagine how you would feel if Jesus were here tonight and wanted to stay at your house for the night?
What an honor that would be, and Zacchaeus saw it as that, an honor.
Luke is does not give many details and one could ask a lot of questions here, such as, where did Zacchaeus make his declaration in verse 8? At his house?
Right after coming down from the tree?
While those might be fun questions to consider, they take us away from our focus.
It is likely that his declaration in verse 8 is in a public setting, the disciples were there, and probably some people from the crowd.
The declaration is an incredible one.
In Numbers 5:7 it discusses what a person is to do when they are convicted on defrauding someone else.
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