HOPE BIBLE FELLOWSHIP
Blank Presentation
  • o praise him
  • Heart of Worship
  • Here I Am To Worship
  • Luke 19:1–10 ESV
    1 He entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3 And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. 4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. 5 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.” 6 So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. 7 And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” 8 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.” 9 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
    Introduction:
    Well, it happened again… I chose a passage that ended up being far too long and I realized after I got the first two points done that it needed to be two sermons. So, we are only going to verse 10 today.
    Why did Jesus come in His incarnation? What was the purpose of Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, wrapping Himself in human flesh and walking the Earth as the perfect God-man. 100 percent God and 100 percent man.
    A lot of people will give you different reasons why they say Jesus came.
    Some will say He came to help poor people, some will say He came to show us how to live, some will say He came to do justice, some will say He came to die, the Jews hoped He had come to overthrow Rome, the Pharisees thought He came to steal their power and influence, someone might say He came to heal sick people, but what is the reason that Jesus gave for why He came to earth? For what purpose did He step out of heaven and live as one of us?
    Context:
    Entered Jericho - ties this passage to the one preceeding it. Jesus had healed a blind beggar. He couldn’t see and yet was made to see by Jesus. Today someone wants to see Jesus and ends up seeing Him truly.
    As we walk through these chapters in Luke, we can trace Jesus’ path toward Jerusalem. The shadow of the cross looms large. We are in the endgame now. Our minds are moving toward what is coming but we should not skip over what happens on the way because these interactions are important.
    SHOW MAPS
    Jesus arrives at Jericho and is passing through.
    There was a chief tax collector there named Zacchaeus. This is one of the most well known stories in the Bible because years ago it was turned into a children’s song. I promised I wouldn’t sing. But you likely know the song.
    Jericho was a major toll collection point for the trade route east and west. The role of a chief tax collector was as a supervisory role over a network of tax collectors serving as a sort of district manager. They would pay an estimated amount of revenue to the Roman government and then recoup this amount plus expenses from their own assessments. They would often collect more than a fair amount and as a result were both wealthy via improper gain and they were hated because they were Jews who worked for the Roman empire.
    So right away we have two marks against this guy. He’s a chief among the corrupt tax collectors AND he’s rich.
    Do you remember what Jesus said back in chapter 18 in the interaction with the Rich Young Ruler?
    Luke 18:24–25 ESV
    24 Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! 25 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.”
    So this guy isn’t a guy one would expect to make it into the kingdom of God.
    And on top of that, he’s short.
    He is interested in Jesus but we will see that:

    I. Interest in Jesus is not enough.

    Interest is a good starting point. The picture is Jesus passing through Jericho and the crowds around Him make it difficult for a short guy to see the focus of the commotion.
    Luke 19:3 ESV
    3 And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature.
    He’s a small guy but he’s interested in seeing who Jesus was. They had not met. It appears that he may have heard about this teacher who would do miraculous signs. So he wants to physically put himself in a position to see Jesus. So he goes over and climbs up a sycamore tree. He wanted to see Jesus. So he gets up where a small guy could see. Imagine this: a man who was rich and likely wearing fine clothing climbing a tree trying to see someone important. He was likely used to people reporting to him and doing his bidding and he is reduced to climbing this tree like a child to see Jesus.
    Luke 19:5–7 ESV
    5 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.” 6 So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. 7 And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.”
    I want you to see as Ryken points out that, “Zacchaeus did not stop for Jesus; Jesus stopped for Zacchaeus. He even called him by name, as if he had known him from all eternity (which of course he had!). Jesus was on a divine mission; he had come to seek and to save. To that end, he invited himself over for dinner, except that what he said to Zacchaeus was not so much an invitation as it was an imperative. Speaking with divine authority, Jesus commanded the little man to hurry down, because he must visit his house today.”
    Must - It was the day of salvation for Zacchaeus. Jesus’ was on a mission of redemption and part of that was showing that Zacchaeus was exactly the type of person He came to save. Someone who was a sinner. Someone who the Jewish world had cast aside. Someone who maybe thought they were hopeless or mistakenly thought they could be made better by their money. Jesus came for broken people and broken people are the only kind of people there are. It’s all of us. We’re all broken. Not all will receive Christ. We don’t know who will and who won’t and so we must tell everyone.
    Little man joyfully received Jesus. He welcomed Him in. This was not begrudging but he had never met Jesus before and Jesus looks up and calls him by name. Zach comes down the tree and welcomes Jesus into his home.
    To explain the saving work of the Spirit of God on the soul of a sinner, Matthew Henry wrote:
    “Jesus “brings his own welcome; he opens the heart and inclines it to receive him.”
    We have a theological term for this: effectual calling. When God calls a sinner by His Holy Spirit, it is God who does everything inside of us that must be done for us to be saved. He convicts us and convinces us of our sin. He convinces us of who Jesus truly is. He changes our hearts and our minds so that we readily receive Jesus, surrendering to Him as Savior and Lord. This happens when Jesus stops us along the road through preaching of the gospel or someone sharing about salvation and calls us to repent and believe.
    Simply being interested in Jesus wasn’t enough. You must know Jesus for who He is. Zach not only saw Him physically, put himself in place to see Jesus but when Jesus sought Zacchaeus out and came into his world, Zach welcomed Him in joyfully. He receives Jesus’ instruction and invitation.
    J. C. Ryle said,
    “If ever there was a soul sought and saved, without having done anything to deserve it, that soul was the soul of Zacchaeus.… Unasked, our Lord stops and speaks to Zacchaeus. Unasked, He offers Himself to be a guest in the house of a sinner. Unasked, He sends into the heart of a publican the renewing grace of the Spirit, and puts him that very day among the children of God.” - J. C. Ryle
    We must approach Jesus on His terms.

    II. True faith is displayed in repentance.

    Luke put this story close to the story of the blind man on the way to Jericho together for a reason. He’s inviting us, the audience, to come to Jesus in faith and repentance.
    Faith like the blind man that Jesus can make us see. Repentance like Zacchaeus with his returning of cheated money. Sometimes you may wonder to yourself which comes first, faith or repentance. Many have debated this over the years. Are you repentant first or believing first? Luke is displaying that they go together. You don’t believe without repenting and you don’t repent without truly believing. If repenting is turning away from sin and towards God then how can you repent if you don’t trust that God has forgiven you in Christ?
    Luke 19:8–10 ESV
    8 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.” 9 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
    It was not his giving that earned his salvation. It was his life showing in activity that there had been a change in his heart. A repentant person will display a change in how they view things like money and possessions. If money was their idol, then it is no longer what they worship. Jesus is now on the throne of their life. God had changed Zacchaeus’ heart and turned him from a taker into a giver. This is the kind of radical life change that happens when a sinner truly believes the gospel and repents of their sin. What changed in you when you came to know Jesus? Your desires and the way you think about life change when Jesus is your all in all.
    Those who have tasted the salvation of God in Jesus are different. It was for this reason, conversion of sinners, redemption of a people for Himself that Jesus came.

    III. Why Jesus came

    Did you notice that the crowds grumbled that Jesus was going to the house of a “sinner”?
    They turn on Him. They share a common thought that holiness means completely separating yourself from sinners and turning the shoulder to them. The issue with that is that it denies the fact that you yourself are also a sinner who deserves judgement.
    We need to be careful that we don’t end up in the same crowd, passing judgement on whether someone is worthy of meeting God or not.
    You were unworthy of salvation due to your sin and yet Jesus called you by name and extended salvation to you. “The only thing you contribute to your salvation is the sin which made it necessary.” - John Owen
    Jesus came to seek and save the lost.
    Luke 19:10 ESV
    10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
    This should come as no surprise to those of us paying attention. Jesus had said something that has a similar feel back in Luke chapter 5 when He went to another tax collector’s house to dine. He was at Levi’s house and the Pharisees did not like it at all.
    Luke 5:30–32 ESV
    30 And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
    George Whitefield said,
    “Salvation, every where through the whole scripture, is said to be the free gift of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Not only free, because God is a sovereign agent, and therefore may withhold it from, or confer it on, whom he pleaseth; but free, because there is nothing to be found in man, that can any way induce God to be merciful unto him. The righteousness of Jesus Christ is the sole cause of our finding favor in God’s sight: this righteousness apprehended by faith (which is also the gift of God) makes it our own; and this faith, if true, will work by love.” - Whitefield
    Conclusion:
    Are you only interested in Jesus or do you want to know Him intimately and personally? Do you wish to accept His invitation and obey His instruction? Does the fruit of your life display repentance?
    Has the purpose of Jesus impacted your life’s purpose? It’s one thing to know why Jesus came but it’s an entirely different thing when we believe that to the point that we also reach out to those who are tossed aside by the crowd and thought to be too far gone for God to reach.
    John Newton, a slave ship captain-turned-pastor, is a powerful narrative of repentance. Living a life steeped in sin, Newton experienced a profound conversion during a storm at sea. Recognizing the gravity of his past actions and seeking God’s forgiveness, he eventually became an advocate for abolition.
    This was part of his repentance. He wrote a song that captures teh essence of the transformation Christ had done in his life. The lyrics he penned reminds us that true repentance not only changes lives but can be used by God to alter the course of history as well. Knowing this, listen to the lyrics he penned:
    1 Amazing grace (how sweet the sound) that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.
    2 'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved; how precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed!
    3 Through many dangers, toils and snares I have already come: 'tis grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.
    4 The Lord has promised good to me, his word my hope secures; he will my shield and portion be as long as life endures.
    5 Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail, and mortal life shall cease: I shall possess, within the veil, a life of joy and peace.
    6 The earth shall soon dissolve like snow, the sun forbear to shine; but God, who called me here below, will be forever mine.
    PRAY

      • Luke 19:1–10ESV

      • Luke 18:24–25ESV

      • Luke 19:3ESV

      • Luke 19:5–7ESV

      • Luke 19:8–10ESV

      • Luke 19:10ESV

  • Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)
HOPE BIBLE FELLOWSHIP
hopeofdixon@outlook.com
815-677-9185
http://hopeofdixon.com
22 members • 7 followers