Please take your Bibles and turn with me to Luke chapter 19. Luke chapter 19. How many of you know who and what event that I'm referring to when I say baby Jessica? Baby Jessica, I see a few hands. Her name was Jessica McClure. and it was October 14th of 1987. 18-month-old Jessica McClure was walking in her aunt's backyard when she fell into a well, 22 feet below the surface. The well casing was only eight inches wide. There was constant news coverage as firefighters and emergency personnel devised a plan for how they might rescue baby Jessica. Eventually, they decided that a parallel shaft and a horizontal cross tunnel would be drilled to the well where Jessica was lodged in order to reach her and to bring her to safety. It took about 58 hours to free her, about two and a half days, but she was rescued. Some of you will remember August of 2010 when a mine collapsed in the country of Chile, trapping 33 Chilean miners for over two months. And they were trapped and confined in that mine, wondering, were they going to survive? Underground for more than two months. But in the end, all 33 were rescued. We love to hear rescue stories. We rejoice when a person in danger is brought back to safety. We rejoice when a person who was missing is found. Well, the Bible tells us of those who were lost and in great danger. and needed to be rescued. The Bible tells us of One who seeks and saves the lost and rescues those who are in grave danger. He is the Savior, the Redeemer. He seeks and saves. He searches and rescues. And His name is Jesus. Jesus said of Himself in here in Luke 19 verse 10, For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. There's a context to that. In Luke 19, there was one who was sought after and saved, rescued from danger by the Lord Jesus. Let's read the context of verse 10 by beginning in verse 1 of Luke 19. It says, He, that is Jesus, entered Jericho and was passing through. And there was a man called by the name of Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and he was rich. Zacchaeus was trying to see who Jesus was and was unable to because of the crowd for he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree in order to see him for he was about to pass through that way. When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house. And he hurried and came down and received him gladly. When they saw it, they began to grumble, saying, he has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner. Zacchaeus stopped and said to the Lord, behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much. Jesus said to him, today salvation has come to this house because he too is a son of Abraham. For the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. So here we have a rescue story. Here is one who was lost and in the most dangerous of situations. Zacchaeus was spiritually lost and in grave danger, but the one who seeks and saves the lost had mercy on Zacchaeus on that day. Rescued. Rescued by the grace of the Lord Jesus. Tonight as we prepare for the Lord's table, I want us to consider this passage. Let's begin with the context of this event. In verse 1, it says that Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. Jesus had just healed a blind beggar in Luke 18. Mark 10 identifies the blind beggar as Bartimaeus. From Jericho, Jesus would then enter Jerusalem to the shouts of Hosanna from the crowd, an event which was commonly called, or is commonly called the triumphal entry. And so this is the historical context, the timeframe there. There was much excitement in Jerusalem. The crowds were building. Verse two, enter a man named Zacchaeus. There was a man called by the name of Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and he was rich. Now from what we can surmise from the text, his name and his name, Zacchaeus was a Jew. As a Jew, Zacchaeus had the blessings and privileges of the Jewish nation. They had the glory of the covenants, the apostle Paul would say in Romans chapter nine. They had the giving of the law, the temple service that pointed to Christ. They had the promises of the coming of the Messiah. His name, Zacchaeus, meant pure, and yet he was far from pure. It tells us in verse two that he was a chief tax collector and he was rich. So he's described here as a tax collector. And as you know, tax collectors were despised at that time because they cheated people out of their money. They would take more than was truly owed to Rome and pocket the rest. They often oppressed the poor or they would take bribes. They were dishonest people. And as they did all of this, they were protected by the Roman government. And so they were hated by most. They were so despised by the Jews that the Jewish Talmud said, it is righteous to lie to and deceive a tax collector. They were not allowed to worship in the temple. They were largely cut off from Jewish life. And when Jesus wanted to portray a wicked person in his parable in Luke chapter 18, he chose to speak of a tax collector. So Zacchaeus was a tax collector, but not only that, he was a chief tax collector. That is, he had other tax collectors under him, and that made him a very rich man. And so it says so in the text. And yet that was not to his advantage. For Jesus said in Luke 18, verse 25, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. This was Zacchaeus. He was a lover of money. He traded Judaism for money. And verse seven speaks of his reputation. When they saw it, they began to grumble. The crowds knew who this man was. He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner. So he was the opposite of what his name meant. He was a liar, a deceiver, a cheat, a swindler, and a thief. He wasn't the kind of man you would want to hang around with. You would tell your children, stay far from his house. But we can all identify with Zacchaeus in this way. Zacchaeus was lost. And we once were lost. But the good news is that Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. Jesus came to save sinners. And Zacchaeus was one of those that Jesus came to seek and to save. So he was a tax collector, a chief tax collector, a sinner. He was also a short man, it tells us in verse three. That he was trying to see who Jesus was and was unable to because of the crowd for he was small in stature. So as the song goes, Zacchaeus was a wee little man. And a wee little man was he. He was small in stature. But he was a curious man. He was trying to see who Jesus was and he had two obstacles, a large crowd of people and his short stature. So it tells us in verse four what his plan was. He ran on ahead of the crowd and climbed up into a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus. For he was about to pass through that way. So here's a rather strange picture. Here is a Jew, a Jewish tax collector, a rich man, who is so short he can't see Jesus because of the crowds. So he runs along ahead, climbs up into a sycamore tree to see Jesus pass by. Now there's no indication that Zacchaeus had planned to say anything. He just wanted to see who Jesus was. He had heard about him. Maybe he had heard that Jesus had done miracles and he had heard something of his teaching. He just wanted to lay eyes on him. Here's the one that so many have talked about. By the way, curiosity might be an opportunity for evangelism. Sometimes people are curious. They're just curious about what you might believe and why you read your Bible or why you go to church or why you live a particular way. Curiosity can often lead to opportunities for the gospel. This is partly what happened to me when I was a teenager. I was invited to a Bible study and I was somewhat curious. And many others came out of curiosity about this Bible study, but God used it as a means that I and others would hear the gospel and believe. So he's a curious man. He wants to lay eyes on Jesus. He's of short stature, so he devises this plan. So here we have this rather strange picture of a Jewish tax collector, a rich man, a short man, up in the tree waiting for Jesus to pass by. But then we see, beginning in verse five, a providential encounter. It says in verse five, when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, Hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house. Now this is even more strange, you might say. Jesus suddenly stops and addresses Zacchaeus. There are all kinds of people around Jesus, and yet he chooses to speak to Zacchaeus. Maybe he noticed his unusual place up in a tree, whatever the case, God is at work in this situation. The most unusual thing is not that Zacchaeus is curious to see Jesus and has climbed up into a tree. The most unusual thing, as you just read through this, is that Jesus would seek Zacchaeus out. All the crowds of people. But here's one. That Jesus says, I'm gonna seek him out. And it would be that day that would be the day of his salvation. And so Jesus says, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house. He calls him by name. Now we don't know how Jesus knew his name. It could be like in John 1 with Nathanael, that Jesus knew Nathanael's name and he saw him already sitting under the fig tree. That caused Nathanael to say, Rabbi, you are the Son of God. You're the king of Israel because he knew his name and knew that and already had seen where he was sitting. Whatever the case, Jesus addresses him and says, hurry and come down. And then he says, I must stay at your house. He doesn't just enter into a conversation. He says, I must stay at your house. Now, this word must You've heard me speak of this word before in Greek, we transliterate it as simply D-E-I, day. It means it is necessary, absolutely necessary. When Jesus was a child in Luke 2, verse 49, He said to His parents, did you not know that I had to be in my Father's house? And translated, I had to be, is this word day. It was of necessity that I be there. We see it in Luke 4, verse 43, when Jesus said, I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose. It's something that was of necessity. I must do this. In Luke 9, verse 22. It says, the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and scribes, and be killed and raised up on the third day. It was of divine necessity. And so often this word is used to speak of something that is of absolute necessity, of divine necessity, and often speaking of the saving plan of God. And here now in Luke's Gospel, we have this word again, Jesus saying to a man, I must stay at your house today." Jesus paused from what He was doing and where He was going to seek and to save one who had been given to Him before the foundation of the world. Let me get ahead of myself a little by noting this. Jesus was not just being friendly, though He was friendly to sinners. Jesus was not simply wanting a temporary diversion from what he was doing or about to do. Jesus, in this address to Zacchaeus, is seeking a lost sinner who had no idea what was going to happen to him that day. Jesus providentially passed through Jericho, a headquarters for tax collecting for the Roman Empire. Zacchaeus had been providentially created by God to be short. A tree had to be placed in a particular path some years ago, in fact, a sycamore tree, which one day would mark the way of Jesus and would be the tree that Zacchaeus would climb. This is a providential encounter. This is God seeking the lost. God's seeking of the lost begins many years before the lost are saved. Again, I think in my own life, there's a 17-year-old, a friend, who would be saved. His name was Jim. But then I can even go back before that. It was really his brother who was saved first, who had gone to college and heard the Gospel, who came home and witnessed to his younger brother, Jim, who then would also be saved. But then I can go back before that. No, it was really, I knew Jim from the third grade on, and we had been friends for many years prior to that. And all this led up to, along with a whole host of other circumstances I won't mention, me being invited to a Bible study. For what reason, I don't remember, but I went. And it was there that I began to hear the gospel and was stirred up to read the Bible myself. Jesus providentially at his appointed time seeking and saving that which was lost. How did Jesus providentially seek you out? This would be the testimony of Zacchaeus. I just wanted to see this one that so many people are talking about. I wanted to see who he was and I couldn't see. I climbed up a tree and he stopped and he said to me, I must stay at your house today. It had been divinely appointed and providentially orchestrated and arranged. When you read, I must stay at your house, you could read it in this way or understand it in this way. I must bring salvation to you, Zacchaeus. Now we don't know what interest Zacchaeus had in Jesus on that day, but we know what interest Jesus had in Zacchaeus. He had come to seek and save that which was lost. So he says, hurry and come down for today I must stay at your house. It doesn't say that Zacchaeus argued or resisted. He didn't say, you want to come to my house? No one wants to come to my house. There's no argument from Zacchaeus. We might conclude that God was at work and had been at work in the heart of Zacchaeus. Because verse 6 says, he hurried and came down and received him gladly. But then we see a displeased crowd. In verse 7, when they saw it, the crowd saw it, they all began to grumble. They're complaining, saying, he has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner. Now this is a similar complaint that the crowds had made earlier, the Jews in particular. In Luke 5, beginning in verse 29, it says, Levi, who, by the way, was also a tax collector, gave a big reception for Jesus in his house. And there was a great crowd of tax collectors and other people who were reclining at the table with them. The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at his disciples, saying, why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners? And Jesus answered and said to them, it is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Jesus was called a friend of sinners. They meant it in a derogatory term, but it really is a very wonderful term. Zacchaeus knew he was a sinner. He knew he had cheated people out of their money and it's stolen from them. We know that from verse 8. Because on the way to the house, Zacchaeus stops. And he says to the Lord, Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much. One particular civil law in Israel. said that if you stole something from someone, you'd make restitution four times what you had stolen. So he has knowledge of the law, the moral law of God, the civil law of God. He understands that in his profession, he's stealing, he's defrauded. Here he understands, I'm a sinner. He saw something of his need He believes in Jesus and repents of his sin. And his repentance is seen by his desire and commitment to make restitution for his thievery. His repentance was a sign of inward grace and was the fruit of saving faith. Now, this is an unlikely conversion, isn't it? Zacchaeus, chief tax collector, rich man, But then again, humanly speaking, aren't all conversions unlikely? Wasn't your conversion unlikely? My conversion was unlikely. In fact, Jim that I spoke of told me after I was saved that one of his goals was to actually get another friend away from me because he was targeting Rick. to share the Gospel with him, and he said, I was a hindrance to that. He would have thought I was an unlikely person to be saved by the grace of God. But the worst sinner who seems to be entangled by sin to the worst degree, whose life is so entangled in it that it's your profession, your livelihood, now you have riches, and everything that you're living for keeping you from coming to Christ, but God can reach down and seek and save that which was lost. So we see this in the life of Zacchaeus. But then in verse 9 we see a divine and joyous proclamation. Jesus said to him, And he said, I must go to your house today. Here's another proclamation of what's going to happen or what happened in this case already that day. Today, salvation has come to this house because he too is a son of Abraham. A son of Abraham. Now, he was of Jewish descent, but now he was truly a descendant of Abraham because he was of the faith of Abraham. As it says in Galatians 3 verse 7, to be sure that it is those who are of faith who are of Abraham or sons of Abraham. It's not because of your physical lineage that he is. And now you are a son of Abraham because you have the faith of Abraham for Abraham was justified before God by faith and not by works of the law. So there's a divine proclamation, a joyous proclamation. Salvation has come to this house, forgiven, justified, rescued. And then in verse 10, we have this description. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. This is why Jesus came. He came, speaking of the incarnation, He came into the world, made like His brethren in all things, Hebrews 2 verse 17 says, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. He came to do what? To seek, to search for. and to save, to rescue from eternal danger that which was lost. That's good news. This is what Jesus came to do and this is what Jesus is continuing to do as the gospel continues to be preached. The person and work of Christ and what he has done to save sinners. He uses the Word of God, and the Spirit uses the Word of God to draw sinners to Himself. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, in a sermon on this text, in particular verse 10, said this, read the text another way. The Son of Man has come to help men to save themselves. This will not do at all. It is something like helping men to march who have no legs, or helping blind men to judge colors, or helping dead men to make themselves alive. Help to those who can do nothing at all is a miserable mockery. No, we cannot have our Bibles altered that way. We will let the text stand as it is, in all its fullness of divine grace. What is meant by the lost? Well, lost, Spurgeon says, is a dreadful word. I would need much time to explain it, but if the Spirit of God, like a flash of light, shall enter into your heart and show you what you are by nature, you will accept that word, lost, as descriptive of your condition, and understand it better than a thousand words of mine could enable you to do. Lost by the fall. Lost by inheriting a depraved nature. Lost by your own acts and deeds. Lost by a thousand omissions of duty. Lost by countless deeds of overt transgressions. Lost by habits of sin. Lost by tendencies and inclinations which have gathered strength and dragged you downward into deeper and yet deeper darkness and iniquity. lost by inclinations which never turn of themselves to what is right, but which resolutely refuse divine mercy and infinite love. We are lost willfully and willingly, lost perversely and utterly. Lost, lost, lost. I hear the dismal tolling. A soul's funeral is being celebrated. It comes up as dreadful well from far beyond the boundaries of life and hope, forth from the dreary regions of death and darkness where spirits dwell who would not have Christ to reign over them. Lost, lost, lost. Better a whole world on fire than a lost soul. Better every star quenched and the skies a wreck than a single soul be lost. Now it is for souls that soon will be in that worst condition of all conditions and are already preparing for it that Jesus came here seeking and saving. And so then Spurgeon turns to this, what joy is this? In proportion as the grief was heavy, lost, the joy is great. Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. If souls can be delivered from going down into such a state, it is a feat worthy of God Himself. Glory be to His holy name. The Son of Man came, and He has come to seek and to save that which was lost. The sinner is lost. He needs to come to the One who can save from the danger. And that one is Jesus. He is able to do it. Those of you who are here today, you've heard the gospel. You've heard of your state. And here again, the Word of God is saying, hear it again. You're lost. Eternally lost. But the good news is that Jesus has come to seek and to save that which is lost. And He is able to rescue you from what your sins deserve. And so the hymn says, Come ye sinners, poor and wretched, weak and wounded, sick and sore. Jesus ready stands to save you, full of pity joined with power. He is able. He is able. He is able. He is willing. Doubt no more. Come ye weary, heavy laden, bruised and broken by the fall. If you tarry till you're better, you will never come at all. Not the righteous, not the righteous, not the righteous. Sinners Jesus came to call. Let not conscience make you linger. Nor of fitness fondly dream. All the fitness he requires is to see your need of him. This he gives you. This he gives you. This he gives you. Tis the Spirit's rising beam. Lo, the incarnate God ascended. Please the merits of His blood. Venture on Him. Venture wholly. Let no other trust intrude. None but Jesus, none but Jesus, none but Jesus can do helpless sinners good. The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. If you're here today and you have been rescued, It is the mercy and grace of Christ. And so tonight we come to remember our Savior, our Redeemer, our Rescuer. And if you have not placed your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we beg you, we plead with you, we beseech you, be reconciled to God through faith in the one who seeks and saves the lost. Let's bow our heads together in prayer. Our Father in heaven, we thank you that the work of salvation has been accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ, that he has done everything for us, that we would be justified, that our sins would be forgiven. Oh, what love that you would seek and save that which was lost. What mercy and grace that you would save Zacchaeus, who now, by your grace, is in heaven today and has eternal life, rescued by the one who seeks and saves that which was lost. Father, we come tonight and we rejoice in your kindness to us and your mercy to us. We come rejoicing that there is a Redeemer, a Savior, a Rescuer, one who seeks out and saves that which was lost. We boast tonight and glory tonight, not in ourselves, but in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is merciful to sinners such as we. And it's in His name we pray. Amen.