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We will remain standing this afternoon for the reading of God's word. Our reading will come from Luke chapter 19, reading the first 10 verses. Here now, the word of the Lord. 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 Jesus, to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature. And 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, 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, Lord, look, I give half my goods to the poor. And if I have 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 a son of Abraham. For the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we are thankful for the accounts of Jesus' life that we have. We are thankful that he walked perfectly here on earth and gave himself to be the perfect sacrifice, but also gave us so many great examples of how we are to now live as Christians following in his footsteps. May we learn these lessons well today. We ask it all in the name of our precious Savior, Jesus. And all of God's people said, You may be seated. Well, it is certainly good to be back here at Church of the King, and I understand that Pastor Liberati has encouraged and challenged us these past few weeks with the importance of friendship. And so I was tempted to spend my time up here this morning sharing how six of our very good and long-term friends made our recent trip to Alaska so very special. But you probably wouldn't be as interested as we are, so if you want pictures, you can see them at lunchtime. So next, I thought, well, maybe I'll carry on and talk about the related practice of hospitality, which follows naturally from friendship and is a command in the scriptures. Again, far too much to cover in just one message. So I would encourage those who are interested in more of his work on friendship and what should be there with hospitality to get a copy of Pastor Wilkins' book, Face to Face. I do have a few extra up here if anybody wants them. And if we run out, let me know and we'll get some more. It's a great book and it really is a way to build the congregation as we practice those principles of friendship and hospitality. Well, with those two gone, in the end, I decided to return to one of the most interesting encounters that Jesus had during his earthly ministry. And yes, as we often find him, he is eating and drinking at someone's house. This encounter comes as Jesus is nearing the end of his ministry with the final journey to Jerusalem. This encounter also has an obvious parallel in the Old Testament that we should not miss. I'll give this to the kids. Can you think of anybody, anybody in another household that was saved in the city of Jericho? Tough one, huh? Madeline? Smiths? Nobody? Remembers? Jericho? Okay, you have a reading assignment. Yes, sir? Rahab! That's right. Joshua chapter 2, when you want to study it at home. The story of Rahab. comes as Joshua is entering the land. If you remember right, they've crossed the Jordan River again. They've been circumcised as God's people and God has instructed them to go in and conquer the nations of Canaan who had fallen into grievous sins. Jesus is now coming as the new Joshua to establish his kingdom, a kingdom that will fill all the earth. bringing the nations under his feet. Thus, it should not surprise us to find Jesus traveling by way of Jericho and bringing salvation to a disreputable household in that city. The story of Rahab is the story of God's gracious gift of salvation by faith. Coming to a woman and her household, which we will see again, was Zacchaeus. The writer of Hebrews tells us that by faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe when she had received the spies with peace. As the spies prepared to leave, Rahab says to them, I know that Jehovah has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on all of us. and that all the inhabitants of the land are faint-hearted because of you." As we would say today, they were scared to death. But we should note that fear is not the same as faith. Only Rahab had faith. It continues in verse 12 where it says, now therefore I beg you, says Rahab, swear to me by Jehovah since I have shown you kindness that you also will show kindness to my father's house and give me a true token and spare my father, my mother, my brothers and my sisters and all that they have and deliver our lives from death. The men tell Rahab that they will spare her and her household if, when they come into the land, she binds a line of scarlet cord from her window, a scarlet thread. to protect her household, just like the blood on the doorpost that saved the people of Israel during the Passover from the death angel. A beautiful story of salvation and God's grace. So it should not surprise us to see it repeated here with the house of Zacchaeus. Now with Zacchaeus, we find someone even more despicable than Rahab the prostitute. It says in verse two, now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a thief, I'm sorry, who was a chief tax collector. He was a thief too, but a chief tax collector, and he was rich. Now remember, being a publican or a tax collector was at the bottom of the food chain in that time of Israel. They not only collected the taxes for Rome, which was a betrayal of their people, but often used their powerful position to gather even more riches for themselves. Zacchaeus was obviously very good at his trade because he had become the chief tax collector and he was rich. Now just before the encounter, Jesus had taught his disciples that it is impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Now God is about to do the impossible. And he does so, as he does so, we should note that he uses very ordinary means. In verse 3, we read, and he sought to see who Jesus was, he was curious, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature. Zacchaeus was a short guy, and his shortness causes him to take some extraordinary steps to see Jesus. We should remember that God often uses what we might perceive as faults or weaknesses to his ends. In this case, it was Zacchaeus' shortness. So Zacchaeus ran ahead and climbed up a sycamore tree to see Jesus. Now this certainly places him where he needed to be for Jesus to stop and invite him over for dinner. But it should also remind us about childlike faith. Here is a rich, powerful man scurrying ahead and scampering up a big tree like an excited child who wanted to see Jesus. And in verse five, we read, and when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him and said, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down. For today, I must stay at your house. You see, Jesus knew where Zacchaeus was, Jesus knew his name, and Jesus knew his heart. We know from a systematic study of the scriptures that there is a general order of salvation that has been revealed to us in the scriptures. God has revealed his plan to save his people, and there is no other path to God. In the end, we will all stand in the full righteousness of Jesus, having been called, regenerated, justified, sanctified, and glorified by the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit. That's what we study year by year in the Heidelberg Catechism. This is the gospel. It's the gospel that Paul says we are to proclaim. And if anyone proclaims another, they are to be accursed. Where we have to be careful is in thinking that because we have our systematic theology down that we can, from a human perspective, see clearly how God works this out in each individual who is saved for all eternity. Often the details of how God works out his gracious salvation can get in the way of our seeing the exciting story of salvation. In verse six, we read, so Zacchaeus made haste and came down and received him joyfully. So this invites some questions. Did Zacchaeus get saved while he was up there in the tree? Was Zacchaeus saved when he had the desire to go see Jesus? Will he be converted as Jesus shares the gospel over dinner? Will Zacchaeus be saved by the good works that he now promises to do? Well, we know the answer is a resounding no to the last one, but what about the others? just exactly when was Zacchaeus saved? While we may not be able to explain all the details, we know that God is working in the heart of Zacchaeus, and the repentance and willingness to change his ways are sure evidence of what has happened. We should join Zacchaeus in being joyful rather than overthinking what happened. And then we should also note the crowd's reaction. Now this crowd of people that was with Jesus there in Jericho had just praised Him and God when He had healed the blind man there on the road before He met Zacchaeus. But when Jesus invites Himself to Zacchaeus' house, it's a very different story. In verse 7 it says, But when they saw it, they all complained. saying, he's gone to be a guest of a man who was a sinner. You see, we must be so careful that we are never the ones who become jealous of how God graciously deals with someone else as he advances his kingdom. It's so easy for us, he couldn't have done it that way. With verse eight, we have the exciting proclamations that were made by Zacchaeus. Proclamations that would not have likely come at the beginning of dinner. Although we are not given all the details by Luke, I think it's pretty safe to assume that Zacchaeus properly welcomed Jesus into his home, unlike the Pharisees who did not wash his feet, anoint him with oil, or give him a kiss. We can safely assume that Zacchaeus would have instructed the servants of his household to prepare a sumptuous feast for Jesus and the disciples. It would have been a real celebration. And we can safely assume that Jesus participated in some dinner discussion. It's what Jesus did. and taught as he always did, perhaps explaining again just how difficult it would be for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. All benefits that flow from the command to be hospitable. What if Zacchaeus had said, no, the house isn't clean, you can't come over tonight. That would not have gone well. So however God worked out the regeneration and justification of this man, he had called from eternity past. And whatever the discussion was over dinner, we now clearly see the fruit of salvation and the beginning of sanctification in the life of this new believer. Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, look, Lord, I give half my goods to the poor. And if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold. We immediately see fruit in this man's life as he promised to make restitution and to be merciful. Note that Zacchaeus, like the soldiers who had come to John the Baptist, is not told to leave his profession. There are no evil professions unless they involve sin. Zacchaeus did not give away half his money to impress Jesus, trying to earn his salvation or get on Jesus' good side, or even to earn his favor. He is now a generous man. And he's generous because Jesus has given him a new heart and is sanctifying his life. Now he kept the other part of his money. That's something that's easy to pass over. But I think that was done so that we can understand that wealth is not the problem in and of itself. It's the love of money that is the problem. But God loves to bless his people. And that's something we have to remember as we build a heritage for our family and work on inheritance, work on having resources so that we can help others. Those are all good things. But Zaccheaus also knows that how he got some of his money was a problem. Now, he likely broke no laws in that wicked Roman era, but he knew that he had taken advantage of his position to take more than he should have, making false accusations. Like, hey, if you don't give me an extra $100, you know, there might just be a Roman centurion coming by to visit your house. Zacchaeus says that he will now restore fourfold following the principles of restitution that we find in God's law. Many places, but Exodus 22 says, if a man steals an ox or a sheep or slaughters it or sells it, he shall restore five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep. And Jesus then said to him, today salvation has come to this house because he also is a son of Abraham. For the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. That's why Jesus visited the house of a sinner. Jesus confirms that Zacchaeus has received the saving gift of faith by referring to him as a true son of Abraham. Not via the flesh, which even those wicked religious leaders could claim, but rather by faith as Paul explained to us in Galatians chapter 3 where he writes, therefore he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law? or by the hearing of faith, just as Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. The writer of Hebrews reminds us of how God's grace was poured out in the life of Rahab, with Joshua and Rahab being a great foreshadowing of this account of Jesus and Zacchaeus. We have seen how God has poured out his salvation on the house of Zacchaeus, seeing the impact on his life and reminding us that Jesus has come to seek and save those who are lost. So just what does this mean for us today? Whether we were born children of the covenant or have been converted from a life of sin later in life, we stand before God under the same gracious salvation. Whether we have walked faithfully all the days of our lives or have fallen into grievous sins which we had to confess, Jesus has come to seek and save those who are lost. And we stand under that same gracious salvation. When we come to understand this, Then we will have the same reaction as Zacchaeus, who remained a tax collector and probably a very good tax collector from that time forward, but with wholly new priorities. Like Zacchaeus, we are here to serve our Savior, Jesus. We too must be generous and merciful with what God has given us. We must strive to have right relationships with those God brings into our lives, not abusing people, but building true friendships. Where we have wronged people, we should do more than is required to make things right. We should never say it's their move. It's always our move. And we must be those who practice hospitality, sharing the life of Jesus with others as much as we possibly can. Both those within the covenant and those who need Jesus. It's okay to invite sinners into your house. It's okay to visit their house. These are simple but profound steps that can and must be taken by all of God's people. Now, our individual actions in obedience to Jesus may seem like a drop in the ocean when we consider all the problems that we have around the world today. And it's not hard to miss those during a presidential year. All sides are talking about how bad things are. But we as Christians need to understand that if all of God's people are faithful, the same simple actions can become and will become a tsunami of grace that can pour over any troubled land. That's how God works, one small step at a time. I wasn't gonna use this quote, but I love P.J. O'Rourke. Everyone wants to save the world, but no one wants to wash the dishes. It's the simple steps that build the kingdom. Let's be a simple and faithful people as we go forward. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we do thank you for this wonderful example of your saving grace, converting a household again. Both Rahab in Jericho and now Zacchaeus in modern Jericho have been changed by you. And their changed lives will now change the world. May we be those faithful ones today who also follow in their footsteps as we are commanded. We ask and pray this in Jesus' name and all of God's people said. Amen. Let us rise and heartily sing our hymn of response that I buried somewhere. Psalm 80. sync.
Eating & Drinking With Jesus
Series 2024 sermons
The account of Zacchaeus the tax collector should remind us of how God save the harlot Rahab in the Old Testament, and Pastor Stoos explains why both accounts demonstrate God's gracious salvation and how we should respond to such love.
The account also reminds us about how we see food and feasting everyway in our Bibles!
Sermon ID | 721241759422835 |
Duration | 23:13 |
Date | |
Category | Sunday Service |
Bible Text | Joshua 2; Luke 19:1-10 |
Language | English |
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