Preached September 13, 2009
from
Luke 19:1-10
Theme: The story of Zacchaeus teaches us about God’s saving grace..
I invite you to turn with me this morning to one of the Bible’s stories about Jesus. It’s a very important story, because it teaches us about one of the most important things we could ever know about—God’s grace to save sinners.
This passage is found in Luke 19:1-10—a very good passage to look to in order to learn about this very important subject. It tells the story of a very sinful man—a man so sinful, in fact, that no one would have ever imagined that he could be saved. I suspect that even he himself thought that he was too much of a sinner to have any hope of salvation.
And I suggest that if anyone was truly interested in the subject of “salvation”, then they ought to pay careful attention to his story; because at the end of it, we’re told that Jesus Christ Himself said that salvation had come to this sinful man’s house. Even though he had been a hopeless sinner in the eyes of everyone else, Jesus declared him to have been saved. And if Jesus Himself would say that someone is saved, then we can take His word for it!
This sinful man’s name was Zacchaeus. And here’s what Luke tells us about him:
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 of short 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 of 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” (Luke 19:1-10).
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Luke tells us that Jesus had just come to Jericho. If you’re thinking that you’ve heard the name of that place before, you’re right. Jericho was the ancient city that the children of Israel had marched around when they entered into the promised land. When they blew the trumpets at God’s command, the walls of the city of Jericho came down; and the people of Israel took the city as their own.
This ancient city still existed in Jesus’ day. He was passing through it on His way to Jerusalem—about ten miles away. And it’s important that I tell you why He was going to Jerusalem. In Luke 18:31-33, Jesus took His twelve disciples aside and told them,
“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished. For He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon. They will scourge Him and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again” (Luke 18:31-33).
The disciples didn’t understand all this, of course. But Jesus was letting them know several important things. He was reaffirming to them that He was “the Son of Man”—the promised Messiah, who was the Son of God in human flesh. He was reminding them that the Old Testament Scriptures spoke about Him; and that he was fulfilling the promises that they had made concerning Him. He explained to them that He was going to Jerusalem in order to be put to death on the cross, and to be God’s atoning sacrifice for the sins of humanity. And finally—as proof that God accepted the sacrifice He made for our sins—He told them that, on the third day, He would be raised from the dead.
That’s important to tell you; because we always need to remember that when Jesus talks about saving sinners, He means that it was by His own sacrifice on the cross that they are saved. God forgives sinners; but He doesn’t forgive their sins simply by ignoring them and saying that their sins aren’t important. Rather, He is able to forgive our sins because His Son Jesus Christ paid the full price for our sins on the cross.
So; the Lord Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem to do just that! And on the way there—as if to give proof of the greatness what He was about to do—Luke tells us about His encounter with a blind man:
Then it happened, as He was coming near Jericho, that a certain blind man sat by the road begging. And hearing a multitude passing by, he asked what it meant. So they told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. And he cried out, saying, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Then those who went before warned him that he should be quiet; but he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” So Jesus stood still and commanded him to be brought to Him. And when he had come near, He asked him, saying, “What do you want Me to do for you?” He said, “Lord, that I may receive my sight.” Then Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he received his sight, and followed Him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God (Luke 18:35-43).
The story of how Jesus healed the blind man is a pretty wonderful one; and it would make a good sermon all its own! But I better stick to the one about Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was a man who lived in that ancient city Jericho; and I believe he would have heard a lot of these things that were circulating about Jesus. I believe the news about Jesus would have been working away in his mind—until he heard the announcement that Jesus was passing through!
And though the Bible doesn’t say it this way; I believe it would be right to say that one of the reasons Jesus made the trip through Jericho was to meet-up with Zacchaeus; and, through that meeting, to teach us some important lessons about His own grace to save sinners.
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Look at this passage again with me. One of the first lessons Zacchaeus’ story teaches us is . . .
1. THAT SALVATION CAN COME TO ANYONE—NO MATTER HOW SINFUL (vv. 1-2).
And Zacchaeus would have been considered a very sinful man indeed! When Jesus went to his house, everyone was complaining about it! They were amazed that Jesus would do something so scandalous; and said, “Look at that! He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner! How could He do such a thing?”
Look at the first few verses in this passage about this man. The first thing we see is that his name is Zacchaeus. This is a Jewish name; and I was interested to find that it comes from the Hebrew word for “pure”. But I wonder if there was a little bit of sarcasm involved in that name. The original language of Luke’s story has it that this was a man “by name being called Zacchaeus”. I wonder if he was being called by that name—”pure”—because he was anything but pure!
Another thing we see is the line of work that he was in. We’re told that he was a chief tax collector. Now; I know that sometimes people just automatically ‘boo’ and ‘hiss’ when they hear the Bible’s mention of tax collectors; because most people don’t like paying taxes. But this man wasn’t simply someone who was working for the ancient equivalent of the IRS. Rather, a ‘tax collector’ in those days—or a ‘publican’, as the Bible sometimes calls them—was a Jewish man who was collecting taxes from his own Jewish kinsmen for the occupying Roman government. In other words, Zacchaeus was a traitor and a turn-coat to his own people. What’s more, Zacchaeus wasn’t just a tax collector. He was a “chief tax collector”. He had lots of people working for him and under his direction. As far as the Jewish people were concerned, he would have been a sinful leader in a sinful line of work!
And notice also that Luke adds this comment: “and he was rich”. The way that a tax collector made his living was through extracting more tax money from their people than the Roman government required. And the excess money was their “take”. If you didn’t pay what the tax collector demanded, he would have no problem making a false accusation about you to the Roman government. So, there was lots of extortion, and threats, and riff-raff involved in the whole “tax collecting” business; and Zacchaeus had made a bundle at it! Just think of some of the people who have stolen millions of dollars from innocent folks in some of the ‘wall-street’ scandals in recent years; and just imagine those people being under the protection and sanction of a brutal, occupying, foreign nation while they did it—and you might get just a hint of how the Jewish people felt about “a chief tax collector”. In Jesus’ day, it was common to speak of “tax collectors and harlots” in the same breath (see Matthew 21:31-32).
And if I may speculate a bit, I suspect that Zacchaeus didn’t think too highly of himself either. I believe that he would have done what a lot of people who have plunged head-long into a life of sin would have done—and that is, harden his heart against the idea of ever being saved. Zacchaeus would have believed that there was no hope for him; that when he died, there would be no redemption for all that he had done. And so, I suspect that he resolved himself to simply work his life away as “chief tax collector”—and accept that there would be no hope for him when his life was over.
And that’s why I love this man’s story. The fact that Jesus’ saving grace reached even this notorious sinner—even Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector who had made himself rich—shows us that there is no one who is so far gone in their sin that Jesus cannot save them. His story teaches us what Romans 5:20 says—that “where sin abounded, grace abounded much more . . .”
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Now; how did this saving grace first begin to show itself in Zacchaeus? I believe that the inner-workings of God’s saving grace showed itself in the fact that—as someone put it to me the other day—he went ‘out on a limb’ in order to see Jesus. This passage teaches us . . .
2. THAT IT SHOWS ITSELF IN A SINCERE DESIRE TO SEEK JESUS (vv. 3-4).
Now; you’d think that such a man as Zacchaeus, when he heard that Jesus was coming through the town, would have hid himself in shame. What right would such a sinner have to come anywhere near someone so holy and truly ‘pure’ as Jesus?
But that’s not what Zacchaeus did. He had heard about Jesus. The news about him had affected him deeply. And now, this sinful man had a burning passion within him that drew him to the Savior. In fact, the Bible’s way of putting the matter is very interesting. It literally says that “he sought to see Jesus—who He is”. He had heard the reports about this Man—that He claimed to be the long-awaited Messiah; and that He healed the lame, gave sight to the blind, cleansed the lepers, and even raised the dead. Hadn’t He just healed a well-known blind man in that very city? He wanted—with everything in him—to see Jesus, “who He is”.
Now apparently, Zacchaeus was a short man. As Jesus was passing by on the street, he wanted to see Him; but he couldn’t hop up high enough to do so. He couldn’t see over the shoulders of those who were in front of him—and you could be pretty sure they weren’t going to go out of their way to accommodate someone like him! And so, we’re told that “he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was going to pass that way” (v. 4). Sycamore trees were plentiful; and they didn’t care who climbed them!
And I suggest that here’s something else we learn about God’s saving grace through the Lord Jesus. God takes the initiative. In love, He begins the process by putting into us a longing to be saved from our sins; and—when we hear about Him—a longing for Jesus who is the Savior from sins. It’s a longing so powerful that nothing keeps us from being drawn to Him. That hunger in us is from God, because it makes us willing to seek Jesus even when other people stand in our way. It even makes us willing to look foolish before the eyes of others if we have to in order to “see Jesus, who He is.”
Do you have the recognition in your heart that you are a sinner? Do you recognize that you have sinned against a holy God; that you have not kept His righteous standards; and that you have the stains of sin in your heart that make you unworthy of Him? But have you also heard about His Son Jesus—that He has died to wash you clean of your sins, and make you acceptable in the sight of a holy and loving God? And are you drawn to Him? Are you saying within your heart, “Is it true? Can I truly be clean? Can Jesus truly save me?” If so, that’s the Holy Spirit whispering in your ear to come to Jesus! That’s a manifestation of the saving grace of God already at work in your heart—pointing your attention to Jesus and drawing you to Him.
Jesus Himself once said something about that gracious work of God to draw sinners to His saving grace. He said, “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself” (John 12:32).
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So, Jesus came to where Zacchaeus was—this unworthy, needy sinner. And this leads us to a third thing this passage teaches us about God’s saving grace . . .
3. THAT IT INVOLVES AN OBEDIENT RESPONSE TO JESUS’ GRACIOUS CALL (vv. 5-6).
I love the thing that Luke tells us next. I wish I could have seen it. He says, “And when Jesus came to the place”—that is, the place where Zacchaeus had ran ahead to see Him—He looked up and saw him, and said to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house” (v. 5).
What an amazing thing that must have been to everyone! First, we see that Jesus didn’t simply pass by unworthy Zacchaeus. Surely, there would have been many people who were far more worthy for Jesus to give His time to. But Jesus deliberately stopped where Zacchaeus was. Second, we see that Jesus called him by name. Think of that! How did Jesus know this man? It’s because He knows the name of everyone who hungers for Him. Such people are important and precious to Him—even the ones that the world thinks are unworthy and rejected. And third, we see that Jesus didn’t simply wave at Zacchaeus, or smile at him and greet him as he sat on a tree branch. I’m sure that everyone was already looking and laughing at Zacchaeus by that time; and Jesus could have just joined in. Instead, Jesus told him to come down quickly; and said—with everyone listening—that He must stay at Zacchaeus’ house that day!
We’re told that, at that, Zacchaeus “made haste and came down”! I don’t doubt that he practically fell out of the tree, do you? And notice that he didn’t drop to his knees before Jesus and say, “Oh no, Lord! I’m not worthy! You mustn’t come to my house! I’m a sinful man! I’ve betrayed the Jewish people! I’ve stolen from them, and have accused them falsely! And besides that, my house is filled with things that I would be too ashamed for You to see!” Instead, we’re told that he “received Him joyfully” (v. 6).
Again, here’s an important principle of God’s saving grace—we must receive it when it comes. Jesus says to us, as in the words of Matthew 11:28-30;
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).
And when we hear that call, the proper response is to obey that call faithfully and come to Him. We mustn’t try to clean up our lives and make ourselves worthy first. We can never make ourselves worthy. But He invites us to come to Him as we are—to come joyfully and fellowship with Him—and He Himself will clean us up.
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Now this was pretty scandalous to everyone who saw it. Jesus didn’t walk up to a priest, or a scribe, or a Pharisee—someone that everyone would have considered “holy” and “worthy” and “respectable”. Instead, as Luke tells us, “But when they saw it, they all complained, saying, “He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner” (v. 7).
But I’m glad that He is willing to be the guest of sinners; aren’t you? The Bible tells us that Jesus grew to have a reputation as “a friend of tax collectors and sinner” (Matthew 11:19). But when they become His friends, they don’t stay “sinners” for long. And that leads us to something else this passage teaches us about the saving grace of God when it comes into our lives . . .
4. THAT IT INCLUDES A HEART-FELT REPENTANCE FROM SIN (vv. 7-8).
Look at how Zacchaeus responded to Jesus’ gracious condescension to be the guest in his home. You’ll notice that he didn’t say, “Well; I guess it doesn’t matter how I live after all! Jesus is my friend; and He has come to stay at my house before I did a single thing to reform my ways! So, I suppose this means I can keep on living the way I used to!” Not at all! Instead, his heart was convicted about the sin in his life; and he said, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore it fourfold” (v. 8).
This remind me of something that I had to do for my computer recently. I had purchased a new program that I needed. But because it was a brand new program that had just come out into the market, and because my computer was using a slightly older operating system, I had to download something called a “service pack”. It was something that didn’t change the way my old operating system worked in any respect. Absolutely nothing else about my computer changed. All that changed was that I now had the necessary upgrades to this old system that would allow my new program to work. Well; that illustrates how I think some people treat the grace God offers us through His Son Jesus. It’s as if they look at accepting Jesus as if He were simply making necessary “upgrades” to their old operating system; but that it doesn’t really require that they change anything, or live their lives in any new way.
When Jesus comes into our lives, the whole operating system of our inner being changes! We can’t just keep holding on to those old sins in our lives as if they don’t matter. And this inner transformation is what Zacchaeus experienced. His story teaches us that God’s saving grace involves a genuine, heart-felt, sincere, progressive turning away from the old sins of our past life; and leads us to a brand new way of living in Him.
If you have experienced God’s saving grace in your life, one of the indications of it is that you will see yourself changing more and more with respect to sin. The sinful things you used to love to do will lose their attraction to you. You won’t want to do them anymore. The things that you used to have no interest in—the things that build up your faith in Jesus Christ; the things that He calls you to do—will now be things you genuinely want to do. As the apostle Paul put it;
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works (Titus 2:11-14).
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So; here are the things that Zacchaeus’ story has taught us so far. First, it teaches us that none of us—no matter how bad—is so bad off that the grace of God through Jesus Christ cannot save us. Second, it teaches us that this saving grace first shows itself by a work of God in us—that we long to be free from our sins, and that we long to get to know Jesus who is the Savior from sins. Third, it teaches us that we must respond to God’s gracious call; that when we hear Jesus call us to Himself, we must come. And fourth, it teaches us that though we don’t need to be sinless in order to come to Jesus—because who could come to be freed from their sins if they needed to be sinless first?—His saving grace does demonstrate itself through our sincere repentance from the sins of the past.
And that leads us to one more thing this passage teaches us. What good news it is! It’s Jesus’ own testimony about Himself with respect to the salvation of sinners. It’s . . .
5. THAT JESUS HIMSELF SAID THAT HE CAME TO SEEK AND SAVE THE LOST (vv. 9-10).
I love what He has to say about Zacchaeus. And I believe He meant to say it in order to insure that people like you and me would hear it and believe it even today. He pointed to Zacchaeus, and said, “Today, salvation has come to this house . . .” (v. 9). That is, in this house of a notorious sinner—in the house of this scandalous man who has filled it with the ill-gotten goods of others—salvation had come!” Jesus was letting the whole world know that Zacchaeus—the tax collector—will be with Him in heaven forever!
How can this be? It’s because saving sinners like Zacchaeus is why Jesus came into this world. He said, “. . . because he also is a son of Abraham”; and He said that He had come to seek “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 10:6). Zacchaeus was a lost sheep. He had betrayed the Jewish people. He had despised the covenant relationship his kinsmen had with God. But Jesus sought Him. And then, Jesus adds these words: “for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost” (v. 10).
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Are you someone like Zacchaeus? Are you a sinner—and very much aware of it? Do you feel as if your sin is too great for God to ever forgive you and wash you clean? Well; I believe even Zacchaeus himself—a sinner far worse than you or I would likely be—would say to you that he knows a Savior! And that Savior has come specifically to “seek and to save that which is lost”.
If in hearing Zacchaeus’ story this morning, you have become awakened to your need for the forgiveness of sin that God offers you in Jesus, then don’t hold back. Don’t stay up the tree! Come down, and receive Jesus joyfully!