“Zaccheus: A Sinner Who Was Saved by the Seeker”
(Sunday Morning October 18th, 2009)
Passage: Luke 19:1-10
O.S. We Hear a Lot in Church Circles Today About “Seekers”
-> In Fact, Those of Us Who are Pastors are Encouraged by Church Growth Gurus to Make Our Churches “Seeker Sensitive”
-> And Yet, the Apostle Paul Tells Us in Romans 3:11 That…“…THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD”
-> I Believe That Means That There are None Who Seek for God Until God Has First Sought Them
-> Which is Why Jesus Said This in John 6:44, He Said, "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him…”
-> So, We are Told in That Verse That There is a Such Thing as a Seeker, But the Seeker is Not a Man or a Woman; the Seeker is God
-> And This is, Listen to Me Now, This is the Most Glorious and the Most Important Truth Revealed in Scripture
-> It is a Theme That Can be Traced All the Way Back to Genesis 3:9
-> Because in That Verse We are Told That God Came Into the Garden of Eden Immediately After the Fall of Man Looking for Adam and Eve, and He Began Calling Out to
Them Saying “Where are You?”
-> You See, the First Thing That God Did After the Fall of Man Was to go Into the Garden Seeking Adam and Eve, Who Were Now Lost Spiritually, so That He Could Save
Them and Bring Them Back Into a Right Relationship With Him
-> And He Has Been Seeking Men and Women in Their Lost Condition so That He Can Save Them and Bring Them Into a Right Relationship With Him Ever Since
-> And Let Me Also Say, That God is Passionate About This
St = In Fact, in Luke 15, Jesus Gave Us Three Parables That Were Designed to Give Us a Glimpse of God’s Intense Passion for Seeking the Lost
a. The First is a Parable About a Lost Sheep
-> And Jesus Said That
a Shepherd Who Has One Lost Sheep Will Leave Ninety Nine Others to go and Find That
One Lost One
-> And When He Finds It, He Will Lay It on His Shoulders and REJOICE
->
And Then, in Luke 15:6, He Said, “…when he comes home, he calls together his friends
and his neighbors, saying to them, ' REJOICE with me, for I have found my sheep
which was lost!'”
b. The Second is a Parable About a Lost Coin
-> A Poor Widow Lost a Coin; So, She Swept Her Entire House Until She Found
It
-> And After She Found It, We are Told in Verse 9 “…she calls together her
friends and neighbors, saying, ' REJOICE with me, for I have found the coin which
I had
lost!'”
-> And in Verse 10, Jesus Added This; He Said, "In the same way, I tell you, there is JOY in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents’”
Q.n = Do You Know What God Gets Excited About?
Q.n = Do You Know What Causes a Celebration
in Heaven?
-> This is It is My Friends
-> Every Time a Lost Person Repents
and Places Their Faith and Trust in Jesus Christ, the Bible Says That All of Heaven
Erupts in Praise
Ex. I Believe That Happened Two Weeks Ago When a Woman in Our Church
Made Her Public Profession of Faith in Christ
Ex. And I Believe That Happened This
Past Thursday When Richard Wells and I Had the Privilege of Leading a Young Man to
Faith in Christ
c. The Third is a Parable About a Lost Son
-> And Most of Us Know This Story
-> It Has Been Called the Greatest
Short Story Ever Written
-> It’s About a Prodigal Son Who Wandered Off Into
the Far Country Where He Squandered All of Wealth and Became Impoverished
->
But He Decided to Come Home to His Father Hoping to Simply Become One of His Father’s
Hired Servants
-> In Luke 15:20, the Bible Says, "So he got up and came to
his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion
for him, AND RAN
(Don’t Miss That He Ran to Him) and embraced him and kissed him”
-> And Then, in Verse 23-24, We are Told Some More About How the Father Reacted, Because We are Told That He Said This to His Servants; He Said, “ …bring the
fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son (I Want You to Notice That He Didn’t Call Him a Servant) of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was
lost and has been found.' And they began to CELEBRATE”
Q.n = Oh, Can’t You Just Picture That Scene in Your Mind’s Eye?
-> And Listen, I Believe That Jesus Told All Three of These Parables for the
Same Reason, and I Believe That Those Verses Represent His Crescendo
-> Because
They Give Us a Picture of the Father and His Passion for the Lost
Pt = There is a Seeker, But the Seeker is Not a Man or a Woman; the Seeker is God
-> And That is What This Passage of Scripture is All About
-> It
is About a Sinner Who Was Saved by the Seeker
-> Only This is Not a Parable;
This is a True Story
-> And So, With This in Mind, I Want Us to Examine What
the Bible Has to Say About How This Man Rich Named Zaccheus Came to Know the Lord
and How His Life Was
Totally Transformed by Him
I. Zaccheus Was a Sinner With a Passion to See
1) His Occupation
-> We are Told in Verse 2 of Our Text That Zaccheus Was a Chief Tax Collector, and He Was Rich
a. This Means That He Was a Traitor
-> For You See, When the Romans Conquered a City, They Left Things Pretty Much in Place Except for the Fact That They Drew Tax Revenues From the Region
-> And So, They Liked to Hire Insiders Who Knew the Area and the People Who Lived There, Because They Would Know How Much Wealth They Possessed
-> Of Course, This Means That Zaccheus Was a Jew Who Worked for the Roman Government and That Automatically Labeled Him as a Traitor
-> Tax-Collectors Were Not Allowed to Come Inside of the Temple or Even a Local
Synagogue
-> Tax-Collectors Were Also Despised and Hated by All of Their Fellow
Jews
-> They Were Ostracized, Because They Were Considered to be Unclean
-> And They Were Even Considered to be Outside the Reach of Redemption
->
In Other Words, Salvation for a Tax-Collector Was Considered by Most in That Day
to be a Religious Impossibility
-> In Fact, We Can Get Some Idea of How Much Disdain the Other Jews Had for These Men by the Fact That Jesus Tells Us in Matthew 18:17 That One of the Final Stages of
Church Discipline Involves Ostracizing the Unrepentant Believer to the Point That They are to be Treated Like “…a Gentile and a tax collector”
-> Let Me Put It This Way
-> If Zaccheus Had Sent in an Application to the
Lonely Hearts Club, They Would Have Sent the Application Back With a Note Attached
That Said, “We’re Not That Lonely”
-> And Yet, Jesus Spent so Much Time Fraternizing With These Kinds of People
That He Was Called “A Friend of Tax-Gatherers and Sinners” in Matthew 11:9
b. This Means That He Was a Crook
-> The Tax Gathering System of the Romans Was Designed to be Corrupt
-> The Roman Government Would Ask for a Certain Amount, But a Tax Gatherer Could Receive as Much as He Desired
-> So, if Rome Wanted One Million Dollars, the Tax-Collector Could Draw in Two Million, and as Long as Rome Got Their Money, Everything Was Fine
-> Tax-Collector’s Also Received Military Protection; and Therefore, They Were Known for Being Extortionists
-> In Fact, One of Their Ploys Involved Walking Up to Someone and Accusing
Them of a Crime They Had Not Committed
-> And Then, Telling Them That if
They Did Not Pay a Higher Tax, They Would Soon be in Jail (Some of You May Think
That Not Much Has Changed Since Then)
-> Now, Since Zaccheus Mentions “Defrauding”
People in Verse 8, We Have Every Reason to Believe That He Was Guilty of Doing That
Sort of Thing
-> Moreover, We are Told That Zaccheus Was a Chief Tax-Collector
in Jericho
-> There Were Three Main Tax Centers; One Was on the Seashore in Caesarea, the Other Was in Capernaum, and the Other Was in Jericho
-> So, We Know That Zaccheus Was at the Top of the Pyramid; He Was the Kingpin of the Jericho Tax Cartel; He Was the Jericho Mobster
-> Let Me Put It This Way; if I Were to Make a Movie About Zaccheus, I
Would Want Danny Devito to Play His Part
-> So, the Fact That a Tax-Collector
Was a Sinner Was Undeniable, and That is Why Jesus Said This to the Pharisees in
Matthew 21:31; He Said, “…' Truly I say to you
that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom
of God before you”
-> By the Way, That is Probably Why Jesus Spent so
Much Time With Them
-> Because He Didn’t Have to Convince Them of the Fact
That They Were Sinners in Need of a Savior
2) His Pre-occupation
-> We are Told in Verses 3 and 4 That Zaccheus Desperately Wanted to See Jesus
-> So Much So, That He Risked His Life by Trying to Make His Way Through a Crowd to See Him
-> For You See, Everyone Knew Who He Was; and Anyone Could Have Stabbed Him, and Nobody Else Would Have Cared
-> And It Doesn’t Take Much for Us to Imagine That Those in the Crowd Took at Least a Little Bit of Delight in the Fact That He Was Short; and Therefore, They Could Easily
Get in His Way and Prevent Him From Seeing the Lord
-> But Listen, Zaccheus Was Short, But He Was Also Smart and Fast
-> He Figured Out Which Route Jesus Was Going to Take, and He Ran Ahead
-> Then, He Got Up Into the Limbs of a Sycamore Tree so That He Could Get a Glimpse
of Him as He Walked By
Q.n = Now, Can You See How Much Passion There is in All of
This?
Q.n = And Doesn’t This Make You Want to Know What Was Going on in Zaccheus’ Mind?
-> Maybe, He’d Heard About Matthew’s Conversion
-> Matthew Had Been a Tax-Collector
Like Zaccheus Was, But We are Told in Matthew 9:9 That Jesus Called Him to Become
One of His Disciples
-> Or Maybe He’d Heard About How Jesus, This Great Rabbi and Healer, Had Befriended Tax-Collectors Like Him
-> Or Maybe Zaccheus Was Just Secretly Hoping That He Would be Found
-> For You See, This Was Spring-Time, and Sycamore Trees Had Two Special Features;
They Had Low Lying Limbs and Big Leaves to Hide Behind
-> So, Zaccheus Was, in Some Ways, Hiding in the Shadows
-> And Listen, I Believe That There are People Who Walk Into Churches in America Every Sunday With This Same Kind of an Attitude (Elaborate)
II. Jesus is the Seeker With a Passion to Save
1) His Invitation
a. Jesus Called to Zaccheus
-> We are Told in Verse 5 That When Jesus Came to This Place He Stopped; He Looked Up, and He Said, “Zaccheus, hurry and come down…”
-> Now, I am Sure That Zaccheus’ Heart Must Have Jumped Into His Throat at That Moment
-> And He Was Probably Surprised by the Fact That Jesus Knew His Name
Q.n = And How Did Jesus Know His Name?
-> Well, Jericho Was Not an Incredibly Large City; So, It so It is Possible That Jesus Had Been Told About Zaccheus, But I Believe That Jesus Was Revealing His Divine
Insight Here
-> For You See, He is the Good Shepherd, and We are Told in John 10:3 That… “…He
calls His own sheep by name”
-> And We are Also Told in John 10:3-4 That His
Sheep“…hear His voice…4 and follow him because they know His voice…”
-> And Here We Have a Perfect Example of That
-> In Fact, This Has All of the Characteristics of a Divine Appointment
->
For You See, When Jesus Invited Himself to Dinner, He Used the Greek Word “DEI”
(Transliterated “D-E-I”) Which Refers to an Absolute Divine Necessity
-> In Fact,
He Used the Same Word, for Example, in Luke 2:49 When He Said,“…”Did you not know
that I MUST be in My Father’s house”
-> And He Used the Same Word in Luke 24:7 When He Said,“…the Son of Man MUST be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise
again” (Elaborate)
St = Now, This is the Only Time That Jesus Ever Invited Himself to Dinner
Q.n = And
Why do You Think He Did That Here?
Ans = Well, I Think the Answer is Fairly Obvious
-> Zaccheus Never Would Have
Even Thought About Inviting Jesus to Come to His House and Dine With Him
-> In Fact, This Was, in Many Ways, a Public Relations Disaster for Jesus
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Q.n = Could You Imagine, for Example, Seeing Someone Like Senator John McCain Doing Something Like This?
-> Let’s Just Say That Someone Like John McCain Got Nominated to be a Presidential Candidate at the Republican Convention
-> But as Soon as the Convention Was Over, He Walked Out to Where There are Television Cameras and Reporters Everywhere
-> And at That Precise Moment, When Everyone in the Country is Watching Him, a Limousine Drives Up
-> One of Those Long Black Limousines With Tinted Windows and a Bumper Sticker That Says “Keepa U Hands Off”
-> And the Window Opens Very Evenly (Electric Window)
-> And Inside Sits a Man Who Everyone Knows Has Mob Connections
-> And Then, the Door Opens, and This Presidential Hopeful Climbs Inside
-> Well, I am Sure That Everyone’s Mouth Would Drop Open, and That is Exactly What Happened Here
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
-> The Bible Says That “Everyone” Murmured.
-> And by the Way, That is an Onomatapoetic Word; It Sounds Like What It Means; It is the Greek Word “Da Ga Da Gudzo,” and That is What They Did
-> But of Course, This is Understandable Isn’t It? (Elaborate = The Jericho Mobster)
Q.n = What Does This Tell Us About Jesus?
Ans = Well, One Thing It Tells Us is That He Was Willing to Come Down so That Zaccheus Could Come Up
Q.n = And Again, Can’t You See the Passion in This?
-> Jesus Didn’t Care One Iota About How These Other People Felt About Him Going
to Stay in the House of the Chief Tax-Collector in Jericho
Q.n = And Why Not?
Ans = Because This is Why He Came
Verse 10 (Read)
-> That’s Why He Didn’t Care
-> Jesus Didn’t Care About His Own Reputation, Because He is the Great Seeker of Lost Men and Women
-> And So, He Was Only Concerned About One Thing, and That Was Bringing Zaccheus Into the Kingdom
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
App: Well, Now, I Want to Bring All of This Right Down to Where We Live Today by
Asking You a Simple Question
Q.n = Do You Have Any Friends at All Who do Not Know
the Lord?
-> Sometimes, We Wonder Why We Don’t See More People Coming to the Lord in Our Churches, and I Believe That This is One of the Major Reasons Why
-> Many of Us Have Not Cultivated a Friendship With Someone Who Does Not Already Know the Lord for Many Years
-> We Love Our Christian Fellowship, and We Should; But Oftentimes, We Become so Inbred in Our Fellowship That We Just Don’t Reach Out to Lost People Anymore
-> And Perhaps, We are Even a Little Bit Concerned About What Our Christian Friends Might Think if They Were to See Us in the Company of Someone That Everyone
Knows to be a Very Sinful Person
-> But That Didn’t Stop Jesus From Going to Stay in Zaccheus’ House (Elaborate = The Word Here Refers to Staying Overnight)
St = There is Another Reason That He Didn’t Care About His Own Reputation, and That is That He Loved Zaccheus Just as He Loves All Men
-> And Love Has Two Great Characteristics (Elaborate = Bonus)
a. First, Love is the Greatest of All Energizers
-> In Thessalonians 2:7-9, the Apostle Paul Compared His Love for Those in Thessalonica
to That of a Nursing Mother for Her Newborn Child
-> And Then, in Verse 9, He Said, “For you recall, brethren, our labor and hardship, how working night and day so as not to be a burden to any of you, we proclaimed to
you the gospel of God”
-> I’ve Seen Sonja Exhibit This Kind of Love for Children by Expending a Tremendous Amount of Energy for Them
b. Second, Love is the Greatest of All Motivators
i. It
is a Greater Motivator Than Fear
-> That’s Why the Apostle John Said This in 1 John 4:18; He Said, “There is
no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear,…”
ii. It is a Greater
Motivator Than Dignity
-> In 2 Corinthians 5:13-14, Paul Said to the Corinthians“
For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; or if we are of sound mind, it is
for you. For the love of Christ
compels us,…” (NKJV)
Q.n = So, Listen to Me Now, Are You Listening?
Q.n = What is It Going to Take to Get Us to Become Energized and Motivated Enough to Share Our Faith With Our Lost Friends and Neighbors?
Ans = The Love of God
-> In Fact, This Love is What Carried Jesus All the Way
to the Cross
-> And It Not Only Did That, It Kept Him There (Heb 12:2)
b. Zaccheus Came to Jesus
-> I Want You to Notice That There Was Some Urgency Associated With All of
This
-> Jesus Told Him in Verse 5 to “Hurry and Come Down”
Q.n = Why?
Ans = Because This Was Zaccheus’ Day
-> That’s Why Jesus Said “TODAY I Must Stay at Your House”
Q.n = Do You Remember What We Learned From Jesus’ Close Encounter With Nicodemus?
Ans = Jesus Said, "The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit." (John 3:8)
-> He Was Referring to the Holy Spirit, and He Was Saying, in Essence, That
the Holy Spirit Acts and Moves in Mysterious Ways
-> So, if We Sense the Moving
of His Spirit, We Need to Respond With a Sense of Urgency, Because We May Not Have
Another Opportunity
-> That is Why the Writer of Hebrews Gave Us This Warning Hebrews 4:7; He Said, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS”
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Ill:
Many of You Have Heard That Familiar Story That His Been Told About the Evangelist
D.L. Moody
-> On October 8th, 1871, He Concluded a Sermon in the City of Chicago Without Giving an Invitation
-> Instead, He Told Everyone to Think About This Question for One Week
Q.n = What Will I do With Jesus Who is Called the Christ?
-> But Later, on That
Same Night, Mrs O’Leary’s Cow Kicked Over a Lantern
St = Well, Fortunately, Zaccheus Didn’t Hesitate
-> We are Told in Verse 6 That…“…he hurried and came down and received Him gladly”
-> And Now, Let Me Test Your Memory
Q.n = Do You Remember How the Rich Young Ruler
Responded to Jesus?
Ans = We are Told in Luke 18:16 That…“…when he had heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich”
-> And Then, Jesus Said That It is Very Difficult for a Rich Man to Enter the Kingdom of God
-> In Fact, He Said That It is Easier for a Camel to go Through the Eye of a
Needle
-> But Listen, We Know That It is Not Impossible for a Rich Man to Come
Into the Kingdom of God, Because, in This Very Next Chapter, We Find a Man Who is
About to go
Through the Eye of That Needle
-> C.S. Lewis Said This About Zaccheus; He Said, “Some of the locals would have like to see if they could put him through the eye of a needle…squeezed out in one long
bloody thread from tail to snout”
-> Well, Zaccheus Did Come Through the Eye of the Needle, But He Wasn’t Squeezed Out in One Long Bloody Thread From Tail to Snout
-> One the Contrary, the Bible Says That He’s Came Out Smiling, Because He Had Become a New Creature in Christ
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T.S. 1) His Invitation
2) His Declaration
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2) His Declaration
-> Well, We Know That Zaccheus Got Saved, Because Jesus Tells Us That He Got Saved in Verse 9; He Said, “Today, salvation has come to this house…”
-> By the Way, That Can be Interpreted in Two Ways, Because We are Told in Luke 2:30 That Simeon Looked at the Baby Jesus; and Then, He Looked Up to Heaven, and He
Said, “My eyes have seen Your salvation”
-> So, Salvation Had Come to Zaccheus’ House in More Ways Than One
-> But We Also Know That He Got Saved Because of What He Said and What He Did
-> First, He Voluntarily Gave Half of All of His Wealth to the Poor
-> And Then, He Offered to Repay Anyone He Had Defrauded Fourfold
-> By the Way, That is a First-Class Conditional Statement in the Greek That Expresses a Reality
-> So, He Was Confessing the Fact That He Had Defrauded Some People
-> But Listen, Repaying Them Fourfold Was Way Beyond What the Law Required
i. Under the Mosaic Law, if a Thief Voluntarily Confessed His Crime,
He Could Restore What He Took, and Simply Add 1/5th to It With a Trespass Offering
(Lev 6:1-7)
ii. And if He Had Not Voluntarily Confessed His Crime, But Was Caught With the Goods, He Had to Pay Back Double (Exod 22:4)
-> But Zaccheus Started by Confessing His Crime and Giving Half of All of His Possessions to the Poor
-> And Then, He Resolved to Pay Back Fourfold to Anyone He Had Defrauded
-> Zaccheus Said, in Essence, That He Would Pay Them Back With 300% Interest Which Was 15 Times More Than What the Law Required Him to Do
-> And Unlike the Rich Young Ruler, Jesus Did Not Have to Prompt Him to do This, He Voluntary Gave Away His Wealth to the Poor
Invitation:
-> Tradition Tells Us a Couple of Interesting Things About Zaccheus and With This I Will Close
-> Of Course, I Need to Point Out That This Comes From Tradition and Not Scripture; So, We Can’t be Absolutely Sure of It, But I Believe It is Worth Mentioning
a. First, We are Told by Clement of Alexandria, Who Was One of the Early
Church Fathers, That Zaccheus Became a Prominent Christian Leader
-> In Fact,
He Eventually Became the Pastor of the Church in Caesarea, and He Was Succeeded by
Cornelius, the Centurion Who is Mentioned in Acts 10
b. Second, We are Told
That Zaccheus as an Aged White Haired Man Spent a Great Deal of His Time Cultivating
a Garden That He Bought in Jericho
-> Neighbors Noticed That There Was One
Tree Under Which Zaccheus Loved to Sit and Which He Touched Almost With Reverence
->
It is Also Said That a Passing Stranger Once Asked Him Why He Cared so Much
for That Tree; So, He Lifted His Fading Eyes, and Slowly Answered … “Because From
the Boughs of This Tree, I First Saw My Lord and Heard His Voice”
-> That’s Just Tradition, But I Can Certainly Understand Why Zaccheus Might Have Cherished This Tree
Q.n =- And Isn’t It Interesting That He Met His Lord at a Tree?
Q.n = Because That is Where We All Must Meet the Lord, Isn’t It?
-> We Must Meet Him at a Tree Called Calvary Which is Where He Suffered and
Died to Make an Atonement for Our Sins
-> And That is Why Simon Peter Said
This in 1 Peter 2:24, He Said, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree”
(NIV)
-> He Made an Atonement for Our Sins and Became Our Substitute so That
We Could be Saved by Simply Placing Our Faith and Our Trust in Him