or the reading of the scripture, we're gonna turn to Isaiah chapter 53. One of the questions that's gonna come up tonight is how can a wretch like Zacchaeus be saved? It's gonna cause a lot of confusion. And we might ask, how can a wretch like myself be saved? And I think Isaiah 53 gives a beautiful answer to that. I'm gonna read this in the name of Christ Jesus. Who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he has grown up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness, and when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we did not esteem him. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. And he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him. And by his stripes we are healed. We like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone all to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment. And who will declare his generation? For he was cut off from the land of the living. For the transgressions of my people, he was stricken. And they made his grave with the wicked, but with the rich at his death. because he had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him, to put him to grief. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied. By his knowledge, my righteous servant shall justify many. for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide with him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he poured out his soul unto death and he was numbered with the transgressors and he bore the sin of many and he made intercession for the transgressors. And now we'll read from our New Testament passage, and that'll be Luke chapter 19. I forgot to ask you to stand, so please stand for the New Testament reading. Here is the story of the conversion of Zacchaeus. And then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was short of stature. So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was going to pass that way. 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. So he made haste and came down and received him joyfully. But when they saw it, they all complained saying, he has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner. Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, Look, Lord, I give half my goods to the poor. And if I've taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold. And Jesus said to him, today salvation has come to this house because he also is the son of Abraham. For the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. You know, Caesar Augustus was all but irrelevant to the people of the Roman age, and Jesus Christ is near and dear to us, and we have a radically different king. Let us pray to him now and ask for the Holy Spirit's presence among us as we look to the preaching of the word. God, you follow the fugitive and mysteriously bring him back to yourself. The work of your spirit is marvelous, and so much of it is invisible, hidden, and offstage. Like Hagar, we confess that you are the God who sees me. Now help us by your spirit. You see each one of us. Lord, some are lost and need conversion. Some of our covenant children are wondering if you are really who you say you are. Lord, we ask that by your spirit you would give them the gift of faith. Lord, some of us are lost under an ocean of grief. Come to us and minister there. Lord, some of us might be hiding secret sins. Give us the gift of repentance and the courage to confess. Give us by your spirit what Zacchaeus had in you. Fill us all with yourself and bless this time in your word. We pray in Christ's name, amen. Jesus came to seek and save the lost. That's the central message of Luke's gospel. And we might ask the question, what do we mean when we say that men are lost? Matthew Henry has a great quotation on this and he says, the whole world, by the fall, the whole world of mankind is a lost world. It's lost like a city overrun by rebels, lost as a traveler when he has lost his way, lost like a sick man with an incurable disease, and lost like a prisoner when the sentence has been passed. Yet the gracious design of the Son of God is that he came to seek and save the lost. He is undoing the work of Adam, and he is lifting the curse. By seeking and saving the lost, he is bringing back those who were lost, those who were perishing, those who in a manner were destroyed and cut off, those who were under the ban of exile from the presence of God, and those who were lost to God in all goodness. He came when salvation was in no other name. He came to those that were not worth seeking. He came to those who were not seeking him and asked for him not. And so as we talk about the work of Jesus Christ in recovering us, wretched sinners, we see the work of Christ and the mission of Christ so clearly in the story of Zacchaeus. And when we see how Jesus Christ loved Zacchaeus, we are looking at how he's dealing with each one of us. Well, we're in a large section of Luke's gospel. It starts in chapter nine and ends in chapter 19. Jesus in 951, Luke 951, we read, now it came to pass when the time had come for him to be received up that he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem. And so beginning in nine and concluding in 19, we have this long march. And along the way, Jesus is teaching us about what the Messiah is really doing. The very beginning in Luke nine, the disciples get it wrong. There's a Samaritan village that won't receive Jesus, that won't give hospitality to him. And they say, Lord, do you want us to call down fire upon them like Elijah? See, they'd confused the first coming and the second coming. They were waiting for this kingdom to appear immediately. And Jesus corrects them and says, you don't know what spirit you are of. And then he gives us this grand description. The Son of Man didn't come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. We read from John 3.16, the world's condemned already. Jesus didn't need to condemn the world. He came to love the world. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. And so Jesus, early on in this journey, has to correct his disciples. And then in 19, a story that we will talk about tonight, Jesus has to correct the crowds. We read in 1911, now as they heard these things, sorry, They thought that the kingdom of God would appear immediately. So they're expecting a political kingdom to soon appear. And Jesus uses the story of Zacchaeus to correct their thinking about what the mission of the Messiah truly is. And we have the other bookend on the end of this long travel narrative, which is the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. Both sections, the disciples and the crowds, Jesus has to correct and redirect what his mission truly is. Well, we'll see that there are two great themes that come together in our text. Kind of like a head-on collision, Jesus has been relentless about bringing hard words and hard teaching to the rich and the self-reliant. But he's also been so tender to reaching out to society's outcasts, welcoming the widow, the children, eating with sinners, healing the blind, the lame, and the lepers. And now we begin to be curious because Zacchaeus happens to be both of these people. He's standing at the intersection of these great themes. He's the rich outcast and we'll want to see what happens to Zacchaeus. Well, as we look at the immediate context of the chapters right before it, you'll remember the story of the rich young ruler. And maybe you might remember the story of the blind beggar. Those are the two narratives that are right before. And what we want to do is we want to compare this narrative with the blind beggar. And we're going to contrast him with the rich young ruler. The rich young ruler goes away sad and rich and doesn't enter the kingdom of God. And Zacchaeus comes into the kingdom as a poor man rejoicing. What a contrast. Well, we can also compare Zacchaeus to the blind beggar, and we'll do this in the following ways. Both of these stories happen in the vicinity of Jericho. Both men wanted to see Jesus. Both men were hindered by the crowd. Both men faced ridicule. Both men are brought to saving faith. Both stories show us Christ's desire to redeem and his power and ability to do so. And so we might ask ourselves, why does Luke include two similar stories? And I think we need to look at how they differ to understand. Where we find the difference, we'll find the purpose of including both. The beggar sought Jesus, but in the story of Zacchaeus, Jesus was the one doing the seeking. And now the message of the gospel is driven home. Jesus Christ came to seek and save the lost. Well, as we look to the text, we are looking at Luke 19, verses one through 10, and it is the story of Zacchaeus. And we could look at it very simply. Zacchaeus' life before he met Jesus, the moment that he met Jesus, and his changed life after meeting Jesus. We would see those in verses one to four, the moment that he met Jesus, five to seven, and then his changed life in verses eight and 10. But what would happen if we asked Zacchaeus, Zacchaeus, how would you divide this passage for us? And all of a sudden it would be less like a preacher's outline and become immediately very personal. And he might say something like this, Christ offered me forgiveness for I was a sinner. He offered me friendship and fellowship that I couldn't resist. He gave me freedom and a new identity, and he stored to me humanity that I thought had been lost forever. That's a beautiful story. Well, let's look a little bit into Zacchaeus' life before he met Christ. I'm gonna read verses one and two. Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. Well, Jericho's significant for both Jesus and Zacchaeus. Jericho is the last stop before Jesus enters Jerusalem to die. He's going openly, and he's going publicly. He'd gone privately before, but now he is bringing upon him the conflict of the cross. He's going to face the Sanhedrin who have resolved to put him to death. He is marching in front of the crowds as the Paschal Lamb, Jericho was on the road of Christ's humiliation, but the roads of Jericho had made Zacchaeus exceedingly wealthy. Jericho was at the heart and center of a vast trade network. It connected cities and countries. It lay on the great caravan road from Damascus to Arabia. It had a delightful climate, great soil, production, along with its location allowed for worldwide trade on Roman roads. It was also the last station of festive pilgrims that were coming from Galilee across the Jordan River and approaching Jerusalem. It was a military center, it was an economic center, and all of this combined to make Jericho a very lucrative tax district. and Zacchaeus profited from it all, all of the imports, all of the exports, all of the people passing through. He was the chief Roman officer, he was the chief officer in the Roman custom house, and this is what Luke says, and he was rich. Luke does not write, and he was hated, but we can understand that. However much the Jews hated the occupying Roman forces, They hated Zacchaeus more. Zacchaeus was a walking scandal, a notorious sinner. He was a fallen Jew. His name, by which we know that he's a Jew, means pure or right, pure or just. And I bet it sounded like mockery in Zacchaeus' own ears. Must have been a source. A sore spot. The Jews saw the Roman taxes as theft and tax collectors as extortioners. And here is Zacchaeus, the traitor, who presides over it all. He sold his soul for money. He sold his country. Luke does not write, and he was happy. We don't suspect that he was. He was a friendless outcast who had ruined his life. He was excluded from the society of his countrymen. And we know from the scriptures that the way of the sinner is hard. And those that follow after other gods have their sorrows multiplied. And so we might say, and he was miserable. But something's stirring in Zacchaeus. He wanted to see who Jesus was. Let's read verses three and four. And he sought to see, and by that we understand that there's a continual seeking. He's interested, and it's ongoing, who Jesus was. Who is this man? But he could not because of the crowd, for he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, for he was going to pass that way. Well, there are three reasons why Zacchaeus can't see Jesus. The first one is he's short. The second is that the crowd is great, And the third is that Jesus is not lifted up on men's shoulders like the Pope. He's not riding an open chariot like the princes of this world. He's hidden in the days of his humiliation. Zacchaeus does two things incredibly unbecoming of a man of his stature and power. He runs like a boy, which was a disgrace for men in that age, and then he climbs a tree. He climbs a sycamore tree that had low hanging branches and thick leaves where he could hide in the darkness. He wasn't planning on being exposed or noticed. He was just looking for a high camera angle to get a glimpse at Jesus Christ. Verses five and seven, this moment where Christ engages with Zacchaeus. It's here where Zacchaeus is in the tree where his seeking Jesus stops and Christ's begins. And when he came to that place, he looked up and he saw him. Can you imagine how Zacchaeus must have felt? when he realized he was about to be exposed, when the eyes of Christ looked at him, and then those eyes of the crowd came up. I wonder if he had a cold sweat or a chill went down his spine. I'm sure it was a terrifying moment. This was not what Zacchaeus had wanted. This is what Christ wanted. Imagine the expectation of the crowd. You're in a procession, and you think that a political economic powerhouse is about to be unleashed, and here you have him. You've got the Messiah, and you're about to see the kingdom appear. Your expectation is that maybe Zacchaeus is the first one to be overthrown. He's in a tree. Anybody got a rope? Let's get rid of him. There is a desire for justice that is intense. How long have we put up with this guy? We're finally gonna be rid of him and here's the guy to do it. But then Christ speaks. And what a great reversal of expectations that angers the crowd. Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today. What I love about this is Zacchaeus is a man who understood the use of power, the use of force and coercion. He knew how to get men to do what he wanted. And yet here he melts under the kindness of Christ, seeking him. He can't resist the warm offer of companionship in the person of Jesus Christ. There's a message implied here. I'm coming to your house means I accept you. I receive you as a friend. He melts in the gaze of Jesus. He looks into the eyes of infinite grace for him, and he responds by bouncing out of that tree rejoicing. And maybe you're curious, how does Jesus know Zacchaeus' name? They've never met before. See, Christ knew and loved Zacchaeus from eternity past. He knew his name because it was written in the book of life. He knew his name because the shepherd knows his sheep. He calls them by name and they come to him. Remarkable work of an effectual calling. You see, you're seeing nothing less than the effectual call of Zacchaeus echoing from eternity past. And it's hitting its mark in the course of a sinful life. It's hitting the heart of a rebel. It's hitting the heart of a traitor. It's hitting the heart of a fallen Jew. It's hitting the heart of a lost son of Adam, and he comes home rejoicing. Christ can call Zacchaeus down from that tree, and here we're gonna talk a little bit about justice. Christ can call Zacchaeus down from the tree because he's gonna take his place. He's gonna be lifted up. He's going to suffer the consequences of Zacchaeus' wretched life. Christ is gonna be exiled on the cross, he's gonna face the exile of God, he's gonna be put away so that Zacchaeus can come home. Well, what might Zacchaeus tell you about his conversion? My heart was greedy, dark, and dead. I had no hope of being forgiven or finding my way home. I was on the road to hell and then he found me in my sin and he saved me. He offered me forgiveness, He offered me friendship, He offered me Himself, and I was never expecting that. See, if you think your sin is too great for Him to love you, if you think there's no way back, if you think your life is over because of what you've done, then you don't know Him. I had sold my soul, and He bought me back with His blood, and then He brought me to the Father's house. That's the testimony of Zacchaeus. Luke consistently links joy with faith in salvation. Zacchaeus received Jesus, embraced him joyfully, rejoicing, full of joy. Now, I wanna go back to the blind beggar before. Do you remember what the blind beggar was calling out? Son of David, have mercy on me. What we're seeing here is none other than messianic joy. as a witness to the coming of Christ's kingdom and its power. We are seeing this messianic joy manifest in the life of Zacchaeus. Godless men are marked by anger and bitterness, and the more godless they are, the more angry and bitter they are. But Jesus' kingdom, his messianic rule and reign, brings with it the effects of the Messiah, the proof of his present reign and rule, his kingdom and power, and Zacchaeus is now on the inside looking out. Zacchaeus understands the effect of the coming kingdom of the Messiah, and the crowds remain in their fatal blindness. I'm gonna read verse seven. But when they saw it, they all complained, saying, he's gone to be a guest with that man. He has gone to be a guest with that man who is a sinner. You see, the prodigal son has come home, lost sheep has been found, coins been returned, and the older brother is fuming. Sinners are angry that the grace of God is coming. And like buzzing bees when the hive is disturbed, they begin a prolonged complaining, a muttering, a murmuring against Jesus and what he's doing. No, Jesus, you're going the wrong way. This isn't the kingdom that is supposed to be. They're grumbling at the grace of God for sinners. Well, Zacchaeus has experienced salvation. But it doesn't stop there. His life is radically transformed. And we will note that as we read verses eight through 10 here. And then Zacchaeus stood, and we're presuming that they're in the house, that some time has passed. And he said to the Lord, look, Lord, I give half my goods to the poor. And if I've taken anything from anybody by false accusation, I restore fourfold. Zacchaeus saw it all. He saw what life had been, he saw what was happening in the moment, and he knew what his future must be. Zacchaeus stands so that he can be seen and heard. This is a public vow, and it's a public confession. Some of us are terrified to confess sins to those that love us, and here we have Zacchaeus confessing sins before people that hate him. but he's got peace of conscience. And whatever he loses in the world, he has more so in Christ. And that's what the radical difference is for him. He makes a formal pronouncement in the form of the vow in the face of the grumbling crowd, but he's talking to the Lord. People don't judge you, right? Paul says, I don't even judge myself. Stand before the bar of Christ. And so here he is addressing the Lord as a royal, a dignity, as an authority. And here's what he says. Half of my things right now, my stuff, I'm gonna give to the poor. And what I have taken by false accusation, I'm gonna pay it back at a four to one rate. Zacchaeus is giving away what had been the center of his life. The whole current of his life has now changed. We see that he's radically transformed. Many of you may be familiar with this quote from Calvin, says Zacchaeus, he had been a wolf, and now he's a lamb, and now he's becoming a shepherd to the poor. The extortioner is being hospitable. The public robber is giving alms to the poor. We ought to marvel at the beauty of the gospel in its ability to deal with sin and failure, and its ability to bring justice without revenge. The world doesn't have anything like that. Zacchaeus' honesty and vulnerability are sustained by the love of Christ. That's where he got the courage. It was the love of Christ, that expulsive power of a new affection that said, everything I clung to is garbage. I don't want it if I can have you. And then Jesus stands up and makes another public proclamation. Jesus speaks of Zacchaeus's endless comfort in the hearing of all. He spoke to meet the taunts of the crowd that said, guest in that house? Like when Jesus was with lepers, Jesus isn't unclean because of his contact with you. Wasn't unclean by his contact with Zacchaeus, but we are made clean, and that's exactly what happened. Jesus declares, salvation has come to this house today. Maybe you remember, he told Zacchaeus in the tree, I must stay at your house today. I must seek and save the lost and salvation is now yours today. There's a divine necessity. This is the strong arm of God to seek and save the lost and to bring people back. And it is no less necessary than the cross. This is the mission of God. This is the mission to rescue sinners. Zacchaeus has been saved from his sins, he's been saved from the guilt of them, and he's been saved from the power of them. And here's what Christ is saying, regard this man as a son of Abraham. You think Zacchaeus ever thought he could get back here? He sold out the Jews, and now he is being restored. He is getting his humanity back. And if there's anything that the story of Zacchaeus should teach us, is that wretches are welcome. Regard this man as a son of Abraham. Like Abraham, his faith has justified him. Like Abraham, he's a friend of God. Jesus might have been Zacchaeus' first ever friend. And that's significant. Covenant children, maybe you know and believe that God is out there, but do you believe and know that God is near? That was a big turning point in my life as a child, understanding the nearness of God Mom and Dad, Jesus is with you in family worship. He's with you when you're grumpy. He's with you in private prayer. He's with you when you go to work. He's with you in the car. Jesus is drawing near as a friend. And Zacchaeus had Jesus in the house, but so do you. He is very near. He's very dear to us. We enjoy the nearness of God. We enjoy the nearness of God because Christ came to us. He sought us out. Zacchaeus has everlasting life. The physical sons of Abraham want to tear this man down and Jesus declares his name in the congregation. Maybe the confession. Openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of justice. That's what's gonna happen for you, brother and sister. Yes, there'll be confession of sin. There will be bringing to light things that we might have hidden. We'll be openly acknowledged and acquitted and remain with God for the full enjoying of Him forever. This statement by Jesus that the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost closes up and summarizes the message of salvation in the Gospel of Luke. And Jesus is quoting from Ezekiel 34, 16, where Yahweh says, I will seek what was lost. I will bring back what was driven away. I will bind up the broken. I will strengthen the weak. And something significant is happening when Jesus is making this claim. Can't you see that Jesus is proving himself to be the shepherd king? This is a claim to the messianic throne of David. He's laying claim to the throne. By quoting this passage, he's identifying himself as the Messiah, and revealing himself as the promised one of Ezekiel's prophecies. Yahweh had said, I will establish one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, my servant David. Well, it's not King David, because King David's dead. It's Jesus. He's the one that will lead his sheep, feed them. He's the good shepherd. He has crown rights to the throne, and he's come to seek and save the lost. Well, some lessons for the church. This story calls sinners that believe that they were beyond the love of God to come back to God in Christ. Maybe Jesus is calling you by name right now. He's calling you out of hiding and unto himself. What was offered to Zacchaeus is offered to all of us. And so you must answer and ask, will you have him as your own? This is that poignant moment where God is looking upon you in your hiding and he's coming to you and he's calling you and the call of the gospel is this, come to Christ rejoicing. Sinners and unbelievers aren't the only people that can hide from God. And Christians, we can hide when we're lost in secret sin. There's too much power in the gospel not to be transformed. Do you wanna just hear of the transformation of Zacchaeus, or do you want that too? How bad do you want it? You might need to follow Zacchaeus' example. Zacchaeus. confessed as publicly as his sin was, and I don't recommend telling your sins on Facebook, but do you have a dear gospel friend? Do you have a roommate? Do you have a spouse? If you want that transformation, you have to walk Zacchaeus' path. How bad do you want it, and is Jesus worth it? Holding on to secret sins is something like a dinner bell call to the Father's table. Table fellowship with God the Father. And we pull back in our hearts and say, I'm okay. I've got something else somewhere else. And when you put it like that, we see how wicked that can be. Don't think it's gonna be hidden forever. It's gonna be in broad daylight. Zacchaeus had a very public day of judgment for himself. And he came clean on the other side, and he was openly acknowledged and acquitted. And brothers and sisters, when you talk to a friend, when you talk to a spouse, when you cling to Jesus Christ and let go of whatever else that you are hedging your bets with, he's worth it. and you will be openly acknowledged and acquitted. And no matter what you might lose in terms of your name and your reputation, it's not worth it. Lastly, in the face of trouble and trials and in grief and loss, we need to look again into the face of Jesus Christ. To look only at life on earth without Christ will crush us. in what your heart needs to make it through today and then again tomorrow is to see the beauty of Christ's heart for you. And if you don't see that, I don't know where you go for any peace or comfort. You see his glory and his radiant beauty is pulling us forward to heaven. The good shepherd is leading us He is feeding us in the wilderness. Some of us are dying. We're being buried in the bosom of the Father's love and then we'll be resurrected on the last day. And we're marching to the promised land and he's adding to the church because Jesus Christ is about seeking and saving the lost. And he's asking you, play a part in the messianic kingdom. when I come that you can be with me and that those that you collect in the name of Christ will be with us there as well. Let's close in prayer. Heavenly Father, we are wretches before you and we were not worth saving and we are rebels and traitors and commit high-handed acts of treason even today. Lord, we thank you for the humility of Jesus Christ to humble himself below our sins, to die for us, and then to bring us back to the Father rejoicing. Lord, I pray for the messianic joy of the kingdom to be in our hearts, that you would make us happy and glad as the world is falling apart. Lord, we pray that your kingdom would come and that it would grow and that you would receive all the praise and glory for it. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.