Please be seated and please turn in your copies of God's Word to the Gospel of Luke. Gospel of Luke chapter 19, and we will be considering verses 1 to 10, beginning there in verse 1. Speaking of Jesus, of course, 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 down and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled. He has gone in to be a 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. So ends the reading of God's word. Let's ask the Lord's blessing upon his word. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, even as we see in this passage your drawing of Zacchaeus and even of Christ being the one seeking and finding Zacchaeus and saving him, Lord, would you do this for each one of us? Draw our hearts to you. For those of us who have faith, may our faith be strengthened in Christ. For those who do not yet believe, would you, even through this passage and by your word and spirit, draw their hearts to trust in Christ and to see him as the Savior who came to seek and to save the lost? We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Well, in 1518, just months after he nailed his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg, Martin Luther stood before an audience of scholars at Heidelberg and presented what has been called the Heidelberg Disputation. For reference, this is several years before Luther's famous here I stand moment. But this was nonetheless a very defining moment in the Reformation. In that debate, Luther presented his views on faith and salvation and justification. And he presented the love of God in a way that really shattered the man-centered ways of thinking about salvation at the time. He said this. The love of God does not find, but creates that which is pleasing to it. Sinners are attractive because they are loved. They are not loved because they are attractive. This is the love of the cross, born of the cross, which turns in the direction where it does not find good, which it may enjoy, but where it may confer good upon the bad and the needy person. Well, this is completely the opposite way to how we love. We love things that are already beautiful. We are attracted to the attractive. We are drawn to people who impress us. But Luther says that God's love isn't like that at all. He doesn't love us because we're good. Rather, his love makes us good. He doesn't save us because we're righteous. Rather, he saves us because we're lost. His love doesn't wait for us to clean ourselves up, rather it finds us in our sin, in our mess, in our brokenness, and there it transforms us. That's exactly what we see in Luke chapter 19. Zacchaeus was the last person anyone in Jericho expected Jesus to come and speak to. Zacchaeus was the last person anyone expected would suddenly change and turn a new leaf. If there was anyone, if salvation had anything to do with worthiness or works, Zacchaeus would have been the last on that list. But what we find is that Jesus himself was searching for Zacchaeus. While Zacchaeus climbed a tree in order to catch a glimpse of Jesus, Jesus was already looking for him. This is the heart of the gospel, the heart of the gospel that Luther both taught and also risked his life to proclaim. Jesus seeks and saves the lost, not the impressive, not the righteous, not the ones who have it all together. No, he calls sinners by name, And when he calls us to himself, everything changes. That was true for Zacchaeus, and that is true for us today. Christ takes you, unworthy sinner, unclean, lost, and by his mercy, he washes you, he forgives you, and he changes you. He makes you into a new creation of his own. Let's consider how Jesus seeks and saves the unlikely, how Jesus seeks and saves personally, and how Jesus seeks and saves in order to transform. Well, first we see how Jesus seeks and saves the unlikely. So in the narrative of Luke, Jesus has been inching closer and closer to Jerusalem with each step that he takes. Most recently, he just healed a blind man on the outskirts of Jericho, a man whose desperate cry was met with Jesus' compassion. And the crowds reacted by rejoicing and glorifying God. And now as Jesus enters into the city with these crowds, Luke shifts our attention from Jesus and the crowds now to a certain man who's living in the city, an unexpected individual. The man's name is Zacchaeus. It's a Hebrew name meaning clean or innocent. But if you were to walk the streets of Jericho and ask people what they thought of Mr. Clean, well, they would have either laughed or they would have scorned in disgust. Zacchaeus, of course, was anything but clean or innocent. His name was a very poor descriptor of his character. Luke tells us he was a chief tax collector and was rich. Well, that's one of those single lines that speaks volumes. He wasn't rich because he worked hard. He wasn't rich because he made some very savvy financial investments. No, he was rich because he was a tax collector. This man became rich off the backs of his fellow Jews. Now, as you may know, the Romans didn't collect taxes directly from the people with their own people. Rather, they would basically farm out these contracts to local groups who would then collect taxes for the Romans. And the Romans were happy as long as the quotas were met. But then anything that these local groups collected above and beyond what the Romans wanted, that was just sheer profit. And so clearly, it was a system that was very corrupt and open to much These tax collectors, or the people, therefore, were not only having their resources stolen through Roman taxation, but on top of that, these tax collectors were stealing even more. These tax collectors were known to be cruel and wicked and often very violent men. A number of months ago, I quoted it from a church father who spoke to that effect. Again, these church fathers who lived in the times, similar times to these tax collectors. Another church father, Cyril of Alexandria, comments on this passage saying how only someone with no knowledge of God whatsoever, not even a kind of a pagan affirmation of the gods, some completely godless person would have to work to be a tax collector like this. So whatever image you may have of Zacchaeus being a cute wee little man, remove that from your thinking. I mean, if you want an image to think about, think of Joe Pesci and the kinds of characters he portrays in those mob movies. I mean, he may be short in stature, but there's nothing cute or friendly or cuddly about him. No, he's a frightening man. And this man was frightening. He was morally evil. This is a man who had caused pain in the lives of many, many people. And he became filthy rich in the process. So don't feel bad for him because he's short and he can't see Jesus. As we'll see, that's not really the point of the passage. This man is not a victim. This man is a villain. That's why twice in this passage, the crowds reject him. First, they block him from seeing Jesus, and then secondly, they're disgusted with Jesus for wanting to spend time with him. And you wouldn't have liked him either. If you lived in this town, this is a man you would not want to cross paths with. Nothing good would come about it. This was a terrifying individual. And so in the city of Jericho that day, there was probably no one more unlikely, no one more lost, no one more undeserving of kindness than this man. And yet, as Jesus will say, the Son of Man came for people just like this. The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. Jesus came to seek the unlikely. Jesus came to seek and save Zacchaeus. And if Jesus came for Zacchaeus, well then he can save anyone. No sinner is beyond the reach of Christ. No one is too far gone. That includes the people that we think are too far gone. That includes the people that we think are beyond saving. That includes you. I wonder if you know anyone like Zacchaeus, or if anyone comes to your mind as you think about this unlikely recipient of God's mercy. Think about your coworkers, your neighbors, your family members, the ones that you're certain will never believe, will never come to faith. Who are those ones in your mind who are so far gone? Maybe even now they mock Christianity to your face. Maybe they're hostile towards the church. Maybe they're living in just outright rebellion against God. Or think bigger. What about a public figure? Some outspoken atheist scholar? or a politician who opposes biblical truth, or a celebrity who ridicules the church. It's very easy for us to think of these people and think there's no way that God could save them. There's no way. But what if we're wrong? What if that's exactly the kind of person that Jesus came to seek and to save? The reality is that we often underestimate the power of Christ's grace. But this passage reminds us that Jesus is able and Jesus does save the worst of sinners. We need to remember that our job is not to determine who is worthy for salvation or who is closest to salvation. Our job is simply to proclaim Christ and lead sinners to him. Maybe for some of us, this means renewing our prayers for loved ones that we perhaps have given up praying for. Maybe it means extending kindness to that difficult coworker. Maybe it means sharing the gospel with that person we assume will never listen to us and will just outright reject it. Let's not lose heart in praying for the unlikely, because the truth is that when it comes to salvation, we all fell into that category. And yet, by God's grace, we have been found. Jesus seeks and saves the unlikely. Secondly, Jesus seeks and saves personally. When we think about Jesus, when we think about the way he saves, Jesus doesn't save simply a kind of a nameless, faceless group of people in some sort of detached, impersonal way. Nor does Jesus simply make salvation possible for whoever might choose. Rather, Jesus seeks and saves individuals. He saves personally, he calls them by name, and he sovereignly brings them to himself. And Zacchaeus' story is a clear example of this. Well, despite all of his wealth and power, Zacchaeus knows that he's missing something. Luke tells us in verse three that he was seeking to see who Jesus was. Well, this is unexpected. Zacchaeus is a man who, by the world's standards, has everything. He has money, he has status, he has influence, he has power. He's the chief tax collector. He's got goons who will do things for him that he needs to get done. But somehow he has heard stories about Jesus. He knows something about Jesus, but Luke tells us he doesn't know Jesus, but he wants to. Although it's not spelled out for us explicitly, I think it's very clear that God is working in his heart at this moment. Already the spirit is at work drawing Zacchaeus to himself. And that becomes even more clear in the desperate acts that Zacchaeus takes in order to see Jesus. We read on and we learn that although Zacchaeus wants to see Jesus, there are certain obstacles. We read in verse three how On account of the crowd, he could not, because he was small in stature. This is where we're told of his height. Now Jews, of course, are not maybe known for being the tallest of people in general, so this man probably was quite small. But that's not so much the focus. The focus is that phrase, on account of the crowd. The language that Luke uses suggests that there's more than just that he wasn't tall enough to see over them. Yes, he's not tall enough to see over them, but it's also the fact that the crowd are keeping him from getting closer. There is a certain force to that language. So it's not just that he's short, the crowd itself is an obstacle. The crowd do not want Zacchaeus to see Jesus, just as they tried to keep the blind beggar from Jesus, and just as the disciples tried to keep the children from Jesus. Well, now we have it for a third time in a row, the crowd preventing Zacchaeus from coming near. Again, in the minds of the crowd, this is not a man worthy to be with Jesus. Why would he even want to be with Jesus? He doesn't deserve an audience with the good teacher. Well, this is where we learn that Zacchaeus isn't just curious about Jesus, but there's something much deeper happening in his heart because he does something desperate. You know, I think it's very easy for us when we read the Bible. We recognize that we're reading something that has happened thousands of years ago and there's strange customs and strange clothes and strange diets. And so we just assume that everything described is just all part of their culture and it's all normal. And so the fact that he runs and he climbs up a tree, I guess everyone did that, you know, back in the day. But no, that's not the case. People didn't run around. That was actually a very undignified thing to do. And certainly people weren't climbing trees, scaling trees whenever they felt like it. So the fact that Zacchaeus is doing both of these things shows that he's desperate. He's doing something out of the ordinary. We read how he ran on ahead, climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Jesus. for Jesus was about to pass by that way. So whatever he's feeling, we know that he's desperate. There's something driving him. And when you feel, when you're aware that you deeply need something, but you cannot meet that need yourself, then you do whatever it takes to get help, don't you? But when we look at Zacchaeus, what is his need? He's not like some of the characters we've seen in Luke before. He's not blind. He's not lame. From what we know, he's not demon-possessed. He's not poor. He's not a widow. So what is this need that is driving him the way we've seen other figures with many needs driving them? Well, it's perhaps not altogether clear or obvious, and yet there is something within him that's compelling him to seek Jesus. Maybe that resonates with you. Maybe you don't even know why you walked into church today, but something was drawing you. Or maybe as you think back of the way the Lord drew you to himself, maybe you look back and you think, I'm not sure why I picked up that Bible or why I had that conversation about Jesus. But now you see, you look back and you realize, however before you sought Jesus, he was already seeking you and he was already drawing you to himself. So at this point Zacchaeus has scrambled on ahead of the crowd and he's scaled a tree and he's waiting for Jesus to pass by so that he can look down at Jesus. We don't even know if he's planning to say anything at that point. And so what we expect is for that to happen. We expect Jesus to walk past and Zacchaeus to get a glimpse and then we'll see what happens next. But instead, Luke shifts the camera angle, as it were, from up in the tree to down where Jesus is. And so instead, it's not Zacchaeus who sees Jesus, but it's Jesus who goes to the tree and sees Zacchaeus. Jesus even calls him by name, saying, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today. Well, this is a twist, isn't it? Our Lord not only calls him down, but he knows him by name. Zacchaeus was initially the one seeking Jesus, hoping to see him. Jesus already knew Zacchaeus by name. John 10, 14 says, Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me. Notice also the words that Jesus uses. They're very particular. Jesus doesn't say, I need somewhere to stay, could I stay at your place? Or may I stay with you? No, he says very particularly, I must stay at your house today. The word must carries the idea of divine necessity. This is a word that Luke has used repeatedly throughout his gospel. In the words of Jesus, of course, for example, Luke 2.49, I must be in my father's house. Luke 4.43, I must preach the good news. Luke 9.22, the son of man must suffer. Luke 24.44, the scriptures must be fulfilled. And there are many others. And now he says, I must stay at your house. This language of must, particularly the Greek word he uses, is language of divine necessity. And so this is part of the greater plan of salvation to fulfill all things. This is the next part of Jesus' mission, which includes the salvation of this man. And so from one perspective, as Luke told us, Zacchaeus was the one seeking Jesus. But in reality, Jesus is the one who came by divine necessity in order to seek and to save Zacchaeus. This is a picture of how Jesus seeks and saves sinners today. His pursuit of Zacchaeus reflects his pursuit of each one of us. We see that God's salvation is personal. Jesus calls Zacchaeus by name. He may have been just one man in the crowd or one man in that city, but Jesus came to that city particularly for him. He wasn't just some anonymous man. No, he was a man known and loved. ever before Zacchaeus laid eyes on him. The Bible teaches that Jesus did not die for a nameless, undefined, faceless group of people. No, he died for his people, a specific chosen people whom he loved and foreknew before the foundation of the world. Even as our brother read for us earlier from Ephesians 1, 4 and 5, he chose us in him before the foundation of the world. Christ did not merely make salvation possible. No, he came to actually save a people. Again, this is all rooted in that great plan of salvation in the covenant of redemption in which God the Father willed our salvation. God the Son was sent and willingly came to accomplish it. And God the Spirit now applies it to us and even upholds us in the faith. No, Jesus did not merely offer salvation. He does that, but more than that, he accomplished it for his people, and he will apply it to all his elect. And so be encouraged, believer. Jesus did not die for people in general, but he died for you, for you, for you. He called you personally into his grace. Take time, maybe even this week, to reflect on how he saves you and pursued you In this episode, we also see how God saves sovereignly. Again, Zacchaeus may have thought that he was simply trying to see Jesus, but in reality, we see that Jesus was coming out of divine necessity to see Zacchaeus. And the same is true for you. Your salvation was not random. It was not by coincidence or a certain timing of circumstance where you just got lucky. No, it was the outworking of God's sovereign plan. As Jesus says in John 15, 16, you did not choose me, but I chose you. And Romans 8, 30, those whom he predestined, he also called. You know, we often talk of salvation and think of salvation as a quest for God. And there is a certain sense in which that's right. Zacchaeus was on a quest for God. But here we see how ever before we begin that search, God had chosen us. God had chosen you, and he loved you, and he found you ever before you even began that search. He knew your name, and he saved you. And that's the gospel. God is not passively waiting in heaven, wringing his hands, hoping that someone, anyone will choose to believe in him. No, he is actively drawing sinners to himself. And so again, from one perspective, the lost person is pursuing God, wanting to know more about Jesus. But at a more fundamental and certainly mysterious level, it's because the spirit of God is drawing them. And so if you are a believer, be assured that your faith is no accident. You're not saved because you happen to be in the right place at the right time, or because you made a lucky choice, or maybe you are wiser than the next person. No, you're saved because Jesus ultimately sought you personally and sovereignly. Take time to look back on your life. How did Jesus call you? Can you see how God was leading you towards salvation, maybe even before you realized it? Maybe you grew up in a Christian home, Or maybe you were someone running the very opposite direction, and God called you. Maybe he used hardships, relationships, or even your own failures and sin to bring you to the point of seeing him. But at some point, Jesus drew you to himself. He called your name. Children, this evening, when you go home, maybe at bedtime, or if there's not time this evening, maybe tomorrow, but at some point, I want you to ask your parents, Ask them about how the Lord drew them. What were the things that the Lord used in their life to bring them to trust in Jesus Christ? Adults, as we fellowship after the service, let's take time. Certainly there's opportunity to speak about many things, but let's take the opportunity to ask of one another, how did Jesus seek you out? How did he find you? Well, the third and final thing we'll consider is how Jesus seeks and saves to transform. Jesus not only saves us from what our sins deserve, but he also changes us. You see, salvation isn't only about escaping hell. It's also about being made fit for heaven. When Christ saves a sinner, He also transforms their heart, changing their desires and changing the actions that flow out of their hearts. And we see this vividly with Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus responds to Jesus' call with joyful obedience. Verse six, so he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. Well here, this man had been wishing, desiring, just to see a glimpse of Jesus. And now Jesus has called him by name, and now he is gonna be staying in his home. And he's delighted, he's joyful. This is evidence of his faith. Time and time again in the Gospel of Luke, we see how this virtue of joy is the mark of one who is saved. A saved person will have joy. But in stark contrast to joy, we see the opposite vice here of grumbling. The crowds respond in verse seven with grumbling. It says, when they saw it, they all grumbled. He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner. Now on the one hand, their response is somewhat understandable. I mean, Zacchaeus is a sinner. He is a sinful man. He's not the kind of person you'd want to spend any amount of time with. So, but they're not wrong because they misunderstand Zacchaeus, no, they get Zacchaeus right, but they are wrong because they don't know who Jesus is. Jesus reveals who he is in verse 10. He is the son of man who came to seek and to save the lost, including lost sinners like Zacchaeus. Now as we think about grumbling, we probably don't think too ill of it. I mean, if we were all to take out a piece of paper and I was to ask you to list the 10 worst sins, I wonder if grumbling would even make that list. You know, we probably think of it as one of the things that you probably shouldn't do, it's not good to do, but a sin, hmm. But what's interesting is that scripture consistently identifies that grumbling and fault-finding and critical spirit as the sure sign of an unbelieving heart. In fact, with this word that Luke uses, he intentionally connects the grumbling of the crowd with the grumbling of the wilderness generation in Exodus and Numbers. Just as God was present among his people, just as he was performing signs and miracles, even as Paul says that Jesus was the rock, they had all the signs and miracles pointing to God's salvation. And yet they grumbled. Well, so also those in Jesus' day, amidst God's salvation being present, they are murmuring at the grace of Jesus. They're grumbling. You know, it's so terrible when Christians grumble, especially when God is at work in such wonderful ways. You know, it's such a contrast to heaven. Where angels rejoice over sinners who repent, well here, this crowd grumbles even as this sinner is coming to repentance. And what it shows is that this crowd do not understand the gospel, and they do not understand Jesus or why he came. Let us, beloved, be careful not to have grumbling, fault-finding, critical hearts, certainly towards one another, but especially with respect to God and the work that he does. What the crowd needs, what we need is transformed hearts. And this is the heart that God has worked in Zacchaeus. How do we see God's work in Zacchaeus's heart? Where do we see his change of heart? Well, we see how initially he was a man who had a lot of money through ill-gotten gains, and now money has no hold over him. He tells Jesus, behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold. Now certainly I think generosity is an element of what Zacchaeus is doing here, but I think we ought to think of what Zacchaeus is doing more in terms of justice and repentance. Zacchaeus had built his wealth on corruption, but now he's making restitution. He goes even beyond what the law required. A double repayment was standard for theft. A fourfold restitution was reserved for the most serious of thefts. And here Zacchaeus willingly applies the highest standard of the law, a fourfold restitution, which certainly demonstrates that he's not making excuses. He's demonstrating true repentance, and he's showing that money has no hold over him. What a contrast to the rich ruler of Luke 18, who could not let go of his wealth and went away a very wealthy man from Jesus, but also a very sorrowful man. Well, here now Zacchaeus, his bottom line is taking a massive hit for good reason, but he will go away happy, joyful. This is the real change that God works in the hearts of sinners. Then Jesus affirms Zacchaeus' salvation. He says, 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. It's a curious thing when Jesus refers to those who are Jews as children of Abraham. Previously, the woman with the, With the flow of blood, Jesus referred to us as a daughter of Abraham. And the initial response is, well, of course they're children of Abraham. They're Jews, after all. But what Jesus is doing, of course, is redefining what it means to be a child of Abraham. As Galatians goes on to teach even more clearly, we are children of Abraham, not by ethnicity or by circumcision, but by faith. And thus, this Zacchaeus is identified as a true child of God, a true child of Abraham, an heir of the promise by faith. And he has the heart of one who has been changed by Christ. You know, it's true that Jesus accepted Zacchaeus as he was, but it's equally true that Jesus didn't leave Zacchaeus as he was. When Jesus saves us, he does not leave us as we are. Rather, he takes what is broken and he makes it whole. He takes what is unclean and he purifies it. He takes what is sinful and he makes it holy. He restores what sin has corrupted. When Christ called us to himself, he also transformed us inwardly. We call this regeneration. As the prophet Ezekiel told, I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. It's very unfortunate how many misunderstand the Christian faith. People think of Christianity as mere rule-keeping. It's all about rule-keeping. Well, I'm allowed to do this. I can't do that because, well, now I have all these rules to follow. That's not Christianity. No, when Christ saves you, he gives you a new heart. so that you have new desires. So it's not that, well, now I can't do the things I want to do anymore. No, now it's that you don't want to do the sinful things that you used to do. The things that once gave you pleasure now disgust you, at least most of the time. Now those things don't bring you pleasure and delight. It's because your desires have been reordered. You have a new disposition. new habits, new virtues. Before, you sinned out of habit with your nature. Now, when you sin, you are going against that habit of grace within you. You're going against your nature. And so when you sin, you regret it, and you feel remorse, and then you confess it, and you repent, and you pray for God's grace to sanctify you. So beloved, be encouraged. The same Lord who pursued you and saved you is presently transforming you. It doesn't always happen as fast as we like it to happen. I mean, it would be nice if our sanctification was the same as our justification. Justification happens instantly. It's one and done. You can't be more justified, you can't be less justified. But sanctification is a process. It's a process that has begun, but it is a process that will span the rest of our earthly lives. But one day, it will be complete. I know how each of us, if we know ourselves truly, how we long for that day. that day of completion. And for that reason, let us make every effort to live out our new repentant lives in Christ. In his Heidelberg disposition that I read to you earlier a portion of, Luther commented on how human love is conditional. Our love is conditional. It's drawn to what is already lovely, what is already desirable. Luther reminds us that God does not wait for us to become lovable. Rather, he loves us in order to make us lovely. This is the same love that sought out Zacchaeus, the love that transformed him, and the love that is still at work even among us to this day. Oh, may we never forget this unconditional love of God for us, the one who chose us, who loved us, who called us to himself and having called us, and made us his own, who is even now at work in us to make us more lovely, to make us more like Christ, the one who is the focus of all our hearts' desires, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Let's pray. Our God, we thank you for the display of your grace at work in the life of Zacchaeus, this saint that we look forward to worshiping with in heaven. We ask that what you did for him, you would do in each of our hearts. Grant salvation, grant the eyes of faith to believe and to repent, and grant that transformation of heart where our tethering to sin and our The ties that tether us to this life would more and more be broken, and more and more we might grow in conformity to the one who is love, the one who is lovely to you, our Lord and our God. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.