Luke 19:1-10 - The story of Zacchaeus' repentance

Good morning, Church.

The reading is taken from Luke chapter 19, verses 1 to 10.

Luke 19:1–10

! You'll find it in your church Bibles on page 1053.

!

And he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy.

He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short, he could not see over the crowd.

So he ran ahead and climbed the sycamore fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.

When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him,

He said, Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your home today.

So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

All the people saw this and began to mutter,

He is going to be the guest of a sinner.

But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord,

Look, Lord, here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor,

and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.

Jesus said to him,

Today salvation has come to this house,

because this man too is the son of Abraham.

For the son of man came to seek and save the lost.

Amen.

Great. Thank you for reading for us, Yvonne.

Do keep your Bible open there.

Let me pray as we come to God's word.

Let me pray for us.

Heavenly Father, we are so, so very eager to hear your word.

But we know that you are even more eager to speak than we are to listen.

And so we pray that you might be gracious to us this morning.

That as your word is open, as there are many things to distract us,

it's warm in here,

we've maybe got other things on our minds,

we pray, please, that you might give us hearts and ears to listen.

And that you might lead us to repentance and faith in Jesus,

in whose name we pray.

Amen.

Now, the story that Yvonne just read for us

is probably quite familiar to many of us in the room.

Even if you've never been to church before,

you might somewhere in a memory of school, perhaps,

remember a story about a short man climbing a tree somewhere in the Bible.

If you're my age or a bit older,

you might have learned a song.

I'm not going to sing it.

Now, Zacchaeus was a very little man.

A very little man was he.

He climbed up into a sycamore tree to see if his saviour he could see.

And when the Lord Jesus was...

Anyway, right? I'm not going to carry on.

The problem with that song,

and even with our familiarity with the story,

is that I think we can actually miss what's really going on.

Because when you look at the story in its detail,

and how Luke's told it,

you realise the story has very little to do with the size of Zacchaeus,

or really very little to do with the sycamore tree.

Those things aren't that important.

What the story is really about is about repentance.

It's a story about a man

who was heading in one direction at the beginning of the story,

who is now heading in a totally different direction,

who has been transformed.

It's about a man who was at one point an outcast,

who has now become an insider.

A renowned sinner has become a saint.

A lost person has been found and brought near.

So what I want to try and do is show you five surprises from the story

that point to this meaning.

And I have a very limited and very dull PowerPoint,

which is because my PowerPoint assistant is on camp.

That shouldn't be allowed, should it?

But anyway, there you go.

So I'm going to try and go through it.

The first surprise is this.

Jesus is searching for Zacchaeus.

Because I think when you read it,

you think that actually Jesus is being searched for by Zacchaeus.

But really the story is the other way around.

Now, Zacchaeus is eager to see Jesus.

You notice that, don't you?

Verse 3, he wanted to see Jesus.

Verse 4, you see that he ran ahead

and climbed a sycamore tree to see him.

Both of which probably took a little bit of effort for a short man.

But it seems that the contrast in the story that Luke wants you to notice

is this contrast between Zacchaeus, the running tree climber,

and Jesus, the lost person seeker.

That's the comparison we're meant to make.

So notice Zacchaeus wants to observe Jesus from the safety of a tree.

He wants to stand at a distance, get a good look at what's going on,

and make his own assessment.

It's, I think, probably almost certain that climbing the tree

is a way for Zacchaeus to actually observe Jesus

without being observed himself, right?

People don't tend to, as they walk down the street, look up, yeah?

They tend to just kind of walk along.

And so Zacchaeus presumably thinks,

well, I can see Jesus from here,

but it's probable that people won't notice that I'm up here.

Zacchaeus had his safe spot.

But your contrast is that Jesus does actually stop.

And more than that, you're told in verse 5

that when Jesus reaches what is called the spot, right,

the particular location,

Jesus has been aiming deliberately for this destination

and has now arrived at that destination

and he looks up intentionally and calls out to Zacchaeus

and asks Zacchaeus his immediate action.

I'm coming to your house.

Come down from the tree right now.

Do it.

The contrast is so strong that as we were looking at with the children,

when Jesus summarizes the story in verse 10,

he says,

this story is about the Son of Man coming to seek and save the lost.

In other words, when you actually stop to think about it,

this story is not about Zacchaeus looking for Jesus,

but Jesus looking for Zacchaeus.

Zacchaeus goes to observe from the safety of a tree.

Jesus hunts Zacchaeus down and visits him.

Now, I want to suggest to you this morning

that that dynamic is all the way through the Bible.

All the way through the Bible,

we find that Jesus is looking for his people.

That mission that he is on to come and seek and save the lost

is the mission that now carries on

through the preaching of the gospel like this this morning.

So perhaps I can say to you this morning,

maybe you're like Zacchaeus this morning.

You've not climbed a tree.

Maybe you've sat in the balcony or whatever the equivalent is.

You're hoping to observe Jesus from a safe distance.

Look and not touch.

See but not be seen.

I want to find out about Jesus.

I want to evaluate Jesus.

See what he has to offer.

See how that might fit with me.

And the surprise for you this morning

is that you might be looking to observe Jesus

from a safe distance.

But he's calling out to you

because he wants to encounter you.

He wants you to know him.

He wants to come and stay with you.

And even for us, if we're Christians this morning,

this is for us as well, isn't it?

We don't come to church to find Jesus, right?

It's not like Jesus has been hiding from us all week.

And unless we gather here like this, we won't discover him.

No, actually, Jesus has been with us all week.

And really, the dynamic of church,

and Pesh led this really well, didn't he, at the beginning,

to call us to worship.

It is God calling out to us, inviting us.

He is seeking and saving.

Again, he's not hiding from us.

He wants to have fellowship with us

and speak with us and be with us.

So that's the first surprise in the story,

that Jesus is the searcher.

Second surprise, Jesus shouldn't go to Zacchaeus' house.

Now, it's not that Zacchaeus' house wasn't very nice.

He was a wealthy man, according to verse 2.

So I imagine his house was quite impressive.

Rather, the problem is not his house,

the problem is Zacchaeus himself, right?

Verse 2 tells you,

not just that Zacchaeus was a tax collector,

which would have been bad enough,

but he is a chief tax collector.

Now, Zacchaeus was a Jewish man

who got wealthy by taking money

from his Jewish brothers and sisters

and passing it on to the occupying Roman forces.

And then, because he was a chief tax collector,

he organized other people to do the same.

Now, just think about what that means,

collecting money from your fellow Jews

and passing it on to occupying Roman forces.

What does that make you?

It makes you a traitor, doesn't it?

That's what it makes you.

You are a blasphemer of the nation.

You have traded national pride

for your own personal fast prophet.

He was a betrayer.

And in verse 7, we're told that all the people

are muttering about this.

Jesus has gone to Zacchaeus' house.

Jesus has gone to the house of a sinner.

In verse 8, which we'll get to in the detail later,

Zacchaeus is admitting, essentially, to shady dealing.

So Zacchaeus owns the badge of sinner, if you like.

But the problem isn't just Zacchaeus' sin.

It is Zacchaeus' sin along with Jesus' righteousness.

So in verse 7, their problem isn't so much

just that Zacchaeus is a sinner.

It's rather that Jesus wants to be with this guy

who is a sinner.

So notice their assumption.

The crowd assume that they know a few things about Jesus.

They've been with Jesus for a little bit.

They've heard him speak.

He's spoken with great authority

that no one ever else has had.

He's spoken about the sinfulness of sin.

He's spoken about the moral requirements of a holy God.

And now they see that man walking into the house of a sinner.

A notorious chief traitor.

And that seems to them a contradiction.

Why would Jesus go there?

Now Zacchaeus knows it.

The crowd know it.

And presumably Jesus is not unaware of it.

And I want to suggest to you this morning

that unless you actually grapple with that,

unless you wrestle with the idea of

why would Jesus go to Zacchaeus' house,

a notorious sinner,

you will not understand the story.

Jesus' eagerness to be with Zacchaeus

is the first surprise, isn't it?

He searches him down.

But it is nothing to do with Zacchaeus' worthiness.

Jesus' desire to seek and save the lost

is not because the lost are kind of attractive.

It's actually because Jesus is very gracious.

Jesus should have called Zacchaeus down from the tree

and said, right, listen.

Let me tell you that betraying your country

for the occupying Romans is a terrible thing to do.

We are going to now prosecute you for that.

But instead, he says, let me come to your home.

It's a great surprise, isn't it?

Jesus is more eager to meet with us

than we are with him.

Jesus is eager to meet with us

even though we definitely don't deserve his attention.

We deserve his judgment.

We're going to look at this in a bit more detail in a moment.

But what we really need to see here

is that this moral transformation that Zacchaeus undergoes

is not a condition on which Jesus arrives.

Jesus doesn't say, listen, I'll come round to your house

but you must tidy yourself up first.

You know, stop defrauding people

and then I'll come round.

No, it's the very opposite of that, isn't it?

Jesus comes round to the man who he knows defrauds people.

Zacchaeus' moral transformation comes as a result of Jesus' visit

not as the precondition for it.

And so for you and I this morning

if we picture ourselves, you know,

we're up the tree observing Jesus from a safe distance.

He is looking up our metaphorical tree,

whatever that might be.

He's inviting himself to come and stay with us.

You know, don't you, he's not saying to you,

listen, you can have me over

as soon as you clean your life up.

He's not saying that.

He's not saying, listen, I will come over,

I will spend time with you

as long as you stop thinking like that.

As long as you stop doing that.

Clean your act up and I'll be right over.

No.

Here's the surprise.

Jesus wants to come to you in the mess of your life.

In the mess of your life.

With all your muck and sin and dirt.

Why?

Isn't he holy?

He is holy.

But he wants you to know,

he wants me to know

that he doesn't want to be with me

because I deserve it.

It's not something about me,

but he wants to be with me

because he's gracious,

loving, kind.

I don't know whether you do this.

When you have friends around to your flat, right?

Do you have a little bit of a clean up

before they come?

Do you have that place

where you shove stuff, yeah?

So that they don't notice it.

So, you know,

I'm going to put this behind that cushion.

I'm going to put that behind the curtain.

They'll never know it's there.

They'll never check there.

I once went around to a friend's flat

and I was in the kitchen bit

and it looked like it was something weird in the oven.

Now, probably a normal person

should have just observed that,

maybe noted it mentally

and then walked on.

But I was like, what?

It's in the oven.

So I'm going to open the oven.

I opened the oven

and there is their washing up

that they've not yet done, right?

And they had shoved it in the oven

in the hope that I wouldn't notice

when I came around.

But being the person I was,

I opened the oven and went,

why have you got your washing up in the oven?

And they're like,

oh, we were hoping you wouldn't find it.

Listen, you do that with your friends, don't you?

But you don't have to do it with Jesus.

You don't have to do it with Jesus.

You don't have to pretend

that you're better than you are.

You know, you don't go,

oh, my jealousy, my anger, my selfishness.

I'm going to put those under that cushion

and Jesus will never notice it there.

Pride, lust, people-pleasing.

I'll tuck those behind the curtains.

He won't look there.

He surely won't look there.

Of course, it's a stupid mistake, isn't it?

Not only because you can't actually hide

that sort of thing from Jesus,

but also it's a stupid thing

because he's not in your life

because he thought you were all sorted anyway.

He's come to seek and save lost people.

People lost in their sin, like you and me.

He came to us knowing our brokenness and our sin.

Let me say to you,

if you're a Christian this morning,

you know, don't you,

that you have no other relationship like this.

No one else is like this to you.

No one else is like this.

No one else knows all of your faults and failings,

sins and messes.

Some people will know some of them,

but no one else knows all of them

and still seeks you out.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer,

who was a theologian killed by the Nazis in Germany,

pointed out that we're very good

not only at hiding things from other people,

we are very good at hiding things from ourselves.

We lie to ourselves all the time.

So much so, says Bonhoeffer,

that not only are you essentially a mystery

to the person sat next to you,

you are also a mystery in some sense to yourself.

You yourself will not admit to yourself

how bad you really are or what you're really like.

You know, it's as if we've shoved the moral mess

behind the cushions

and we ourselves have forgotten that they're there.

But Jesus knows all about us.

He knows our mess.

He knows our lostness.

And he seeks us out

and comes to see us.

Next thing to notice,

the third surprise,

is that hosting Jesus changes Zacchaeus.

I think for Christians reading the story,

the surprise is that it doesn't seem to mention

Zacchaeus saying that he believes in Jesus, right?

I would imagine that if any of our church members here

were rewriting the story,

they would add that line in, right?

Zacchaeus knelt down and prayed the sinner's prayer,

something like that.

But there is none of that, is there?

Now, that's not because Luke doesn't believe

in the sinner's prayer

or doesn't believe that you should believe in Jesus

or say sorry for your sin.

Of course he thinks those things are important.

The point is that he's got a better way

of showing you that that happened

than just telling you it happened.

He wants to show you this radical transformation

that Zacchaeus has,

this heart transformation

which comes through this encounter with Jesus.

And he shows you that,

not by detailing it,

but by showing you its effects in verse 8.

So in verse 8,

you're not told exactly when it is

or to whom the declaration is made,

but it seems sometime on the same day

that Zacchaeus makes some kind of public declaration

that he is going to pay back what he stole.

Verse 8,

Look, Lord,

here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor.

If I've cheated anybody out of anything,

I will pay back four times the amount.

Now, scholars will tell you

that Zacchaeus here is going way above and beyond

the legal requirements

or the expectation of the Old Testament law.

He's not deciding to give away a tenth

of what he has,

but a half of his possessions away.

He's not just making a double restitution

that is required for defrauded money.

He's paying back four times what was owed.

The transformation is incredible.

It is very thorough

beyond any of the requirements laid out by the law.

In other words,

Luke wants you to notice

that Jesus has managed to transform Zacchaeus

way above and beyond

anything that could be expected.

No list of rules would have done Zacchaeus

this transformation, right?

So Zacchaeus hasn't just received a list of rules

and said, okay, I'm going to obey those

because if he had,

he would have done less.

Jesus' transformation is deeper.

On the previous page in your Bible,

there's a story of a rich man

who comes to see Jesus.

This man is interested in Jesus.

He claims to have kept all the commandments,

but is sadly in love with his money.

And Jesus famously tells him and the crowd,

it is easier for a camel

to pass through the eye of a needle

than it is for a rich man to be saved.

In other words,

think of the largest moving object you can,

a camel,

and think of the smallest hole you can imagine,

the eye of a needle.

It is impossible

for the camel to get through the eye of a needle.

And the disciples go,

well, who then can be saved?

And Jesus replies,

what is impossible with man

is possible with God.

And so here it is.

Jesus is getting the camel of Zacchaeus

through the eye of the needle

of God's holy requirements.

Jesus has entered into the mess of Zacchaeus' life,

which was much worse

than the rich ruler of chapter 18,

and has done what could never be done on his own,

and that is he's liberated him

from his love of money

and has transformed him into a lover of others.

Generous, gracious, kind.

Now, of course, Luke doesn't preface this

with saying that Zacchaeus said the sinner's prayer

or said that he stated his faith in Jesus,

because Luke expects you to read it and go,

wow, that's a miracle.

That's a miracle.

What a miraculous turnaround.

Jesus has made this notoriously greedy sinner

into a remarkably generous saint,

all at once, immediately, on the same day.

Zacchaeus doesn't go to rehab, right?

He doesn't go on a kind of therapy program

for the greedy and the kleptomaniac.

He doesn't.

Instantly, miraculously, his life has changed.

Let me say to you,

the same can be true for us this morning.

Jesus, as we've seen, is at the foot of our tree,

inviting himself into our lives.

He's more eager to be with us

than we are to be with him.

He's not expecting us to clean up before he comes.

He's expecting us to see that his desire to be with us

is a gracious and kind desire.

But listen, he's not planning on leaving you unchanged.

In fact, the sign of a genuine encounter with Jesus

is a radical transformation

that we'll be incapable of in our own strength.

This is what the Bible means by repentance.

Repentance in the Bible is not your decision

or my decision to try and clean my life up.

Yeah?

It's not that, do you know what?

I think I'm going to start going to church.

I'm going to start trying to be a better person.

That is not biblical repentance.

Biblical repentance is an internal transformation

that God does in our hearts,

liberating us from the hold that sin has over us

so that we are able to turn to God

and live for him in a way that

way exceeds our natural ability.

And so biblical repentance is not just saying

sorry for our sin.

Biblical repentance is doing sorry for our sin,

if I can put it that way.

As we're enabled by the Spirit,

we stop loving our money.

Yes, but we also give generously.

Zacchaeus gives away half of what he has.

Biblical repentance isn't just sad

that it stole from people.

It pays back four times what was robbed.

You know, repentance isn't just regretful

or sad for its pride or its lust

or its anger or its selfishness.

Biblical repentance does all that it can

to cut those things and run from them.

I was asked a really brilliant question

after the sermon last week.

See, if you were with us last week,

we were looking at Manasseh's repentance.

And someone asked me last week,

where's the justice in all of that?

Manasseh, in the Old Testament,

filled Jerusalem with the blood of innocent people.

And then we're told that he repented

and God forgave him.

And the question, where's the justice in that?

You know, where's the price

for all that innocent blood that Manasseh shed?

You know, do you get just to repent, right?

And then God forgives you,

it's a let-off.

Is that what's going on?

Is repentance just a way of dodging

the consequences of sin?

If it is, we'd all do it, right?

No, that's not what biblical repentance is, is it?

No sin in the Bible goes unpunished.

That's what the cross of Jesus Christ is about.

That's where sin gets punished.

But the other answer to the question,

which is answered here in Luke 19,

is that genuine repentance,

biblical repentance,

seeks to make restitution for past sins.

The repentance that Jesus brings

comes with this desire to put things right.

The repentant, fraudulent tax collector

doesn't get a let-off.

Rather, his sin is punished in Christ,

and he himself seeks to put things right.

Christ pays his moral debt

before a holy God at the cross,

and through the change that God has brought in him,

he seeks to make restitution.

Imagine you were one of the people

that Zacchaeus defrauded, right?

He had taken your money off you,

yeah, taken it away from you,

and suddenly this happens to him,

and he pays you back four times what he took.

That was better than any savings account.

I wouldn't even got that in an ISA.

So, and yet Zacchaeus has put it right

because God has worked in his heart.

So, let me say, for you and me this morning,

it is not possible for us

to be both biblically repentant for our sin

and hold onto it at the same time.

We can't be Bible sorry

and also unwilling to put things right.

Sometimes it's obviously impossible, isn't it,

to fix the damage from past sins.

And we need to be clear about that.

Biblical repentance doesn't stop a criminal

from going to prison if that's where they need to go.

It loosens the chains of sin on their hearts.

But biblical repentance leads us to seek restitution.

Biblical repentance leads the unfaithful husband

to own it and face the consequences

and seek reconciliation.

Biblical repentance is prepared to say sorry publicly

when a public sorry is required.

Biblical repentance puts things in place

to remove temptation,

to find accountability,

to stop doing what it was doing

and start doing what it should.

And it doesn't do those things out of some kind of dry duty.

Rather, we do them because having met with Jesus,

we hate our sin as much as he does.

And we want to be rid of it and put it right.

So let me ask you this morning,

if you're a Christian this morning,

can I ask you,

are you doing repentance?

Not just asking,

are you saying sorry?

I'm asking you,

are you doing sorry?

Are you seeking to put right past wrongs?

Are you fleeing from the sins of the past,

from temptations of the future?

Are you putting things in your life

to help you in that battle?

Have you left that friendship group

that keeps leading you astray?

Have you spoken to that person

who you know you've wronged?

Have you put back what it was that you took?

Because if you encountered Jesus,

then that's what encountering Jesus

enables you to do,

in his strength, not your own.

Fourth surprise.

Repentance is the condition of salvation.

This is the tricky bit, right?

Notice what happens here.

Jesus hunts Zacchaeus down.

He goes to his house,

despite knowing he's a sinner,

and Jesus' visit,

or his call, if you like,

wasn't conditioned

by Zacchaeus' willingness to repent.

Rather, Jesus' call of Zacchaeus

brought to Zacchaeus

that repentance.

And then Jesus,

having witnessed the repentance

that he has brought to Zacchaeus,

says, verse 9,

today,

salvation has come to this house.

And what does that mean?

Well, it doesn't mean that

Zacchaeus' repentance

is a work that he's done

which has shown him

that he is now worthy of salvation.

It's not that, is it?

The whole story is written

to show you that Zacchaeus

is way too bad

for that to be the case.

And Jesus is far too gracious

for that to be needed.

Rather,

the point is that

this miraculous repentance

that Jesus has brought

via his visit to Zacchaeus

has become the means

by which Zacchaeus

receives salvation

salvation in Jesus Christ.

Literally,

verse 9,

he receives Jesus.

Jesus is the salvation.

Perhaps we can put it this way.

It was not possible

for Zacchaeus

to have a saving encounter

with Jesus

and keep a hold of his sin.

And in turning from his sin,

he receives Christ as saviour.

Theologically,

you might want to say

that biblical repentance

and biblical faith

are essentially

two sides of the same coin.

You cannot repent

and turn from your sin

without also turning to

and receiving Christ.

And you cannot turn to

and receive Christ

unless you have turned

from your sin.

They're on the same ticket.

They come together.

It is possible,

isn't it,

for us?

And I think we can make

this mistake.

And if you're making

this mistake this morning,

please listen to me.

It is possible for you

to be sad for your sin,

to regret what you've done,

and still not become a Christian.

Plenty of people do that.

Plenty of people feel guilty

and bad and sad

about the things that they've done.

That's why the mosque

is full on a Friday, right?

Full of people who know

that they need

some kind of forgiveness.

But if you turn from your sin

in the Bible sense,

if you have an encounter

with Jesus Christ

which turns you to hate your sin

like he hates it,

then you will also turn to him

and receive from him salvation.

Perhaps I could be bold enough

this morning to phrase it

as a question.

Let me ask you,

do you want Christ?

Do you want the salvation

that Christ alone can bring?

Do you want forgiveness?

Do you want freedom?

Do you want eternal life?

The eternal life

that Christ alone can bring.

If you want that,

then you must let go of your sin.

You must let go of your sin.

And you let go of your sin

when we've had this encounter

with Jesus

who brings this miraculous repentance.

And if you're a Christian

this morning and you're going,

do you know what?

I want more of Christ.

I want more of Christ.

I want more joy

in my Christian life.

I want a greater assurance

of future glory.

I want freedom from guilt.

I want courage

to face the future.

Well, let me say

if that's what you want,

let go of your sin.

Pray even if you're bold enough,

Lord, show me my sin

that I might repent

and have more of you.

That's what I want.

The fifth and final surprise.

Jesus brings great assurance.

Jesus brings great assurance.

Verse nine is an amazing statement

by Jesus.

It's addressed to Zacchaeus.

Everyone gets to listen.

Jesus said to him,

today salvation has come

to this house

because, here it is,

this man too

is a son of Abraham.

Now, Jesus could have really

sort of said to Zacchaeus

that he was saved

in any number of ways,

couldn't he?

But he chose to call him

a son of Abraham.

It's really cleverly put.

To be a son of Abraham

is to be a genuine part

of God's people,

a treasured member

of the family,

right at the center

of God's people.

And this is amazing,

isn't it?

Because Jesus says

to the outcast

and the sinner,

the traitor,

now listen,

now you're right

at the heart

of God's people.

You're adopted

into God's family.

You know God as Father.

It's amazing,

isn't it,

you can imagine,

can't you,

just the look

on Zacchaeus' face

as Jesus looks him

in the eyes

and says,

listen,

traitor,

you're a son of Abraham.

You're right

at the heart

of God's people.

I love you.

You're a child

of the covenant.

You're included

in the family.

Jesus invited himself

into Zacchaeus' home

so that Zacchaeus

could be invited

into Jesus' family.

And notice what that means

then for the story.

Think about what

the story is about.

You know,

Zacchaeus goes up

a tree to see Jesus,

to watch from a safe distance.

But Jesus wants more,

doesn't he?

He wants to bring salvation.

So Jesus climbed

his own tree,

but not a sycamore tree,

a tree to which

he was named.

Knowing that for Zacchaeus

to be included

in God's people

meant that he would

have to be excluded

from God's people.

For Zacchaeus

to be made holy,

Jesus would have

to be made sin.

For Jesus to be able

to say to Zacchaeus,

you are mine.

Jesus had to say

to his father,

why have you forsaken me?

So for us this morning,

if we've encountered

Jesus like Zacchaeus,

this is our assurance.

Christ was put out

so that we might

be brought in.

He was made sin

so that we could

be made holy.

So that you and I

could hear Jesus

say to us,

you're mine.

You belong to me.

You're one of my people.

You're included.

You're a son of Abraham.

You know,

the rest of the world

might not think

anything of you.

They might think

you're very insignificant

and unimportant.

But Jesus says,

I have given myself

for you.

I climbed my tree

for you

so that you might

be mine.

Let me ask,

how do you know

if you've encountered

Jesus like Zacchaeus?

It's obvious,

isn't it?

You've repented

like Zacchaeus

and you will keep

repenting like Zacchaeus,

knowing that you were

lost but Jesus

found you.

And that's the

application,

isn't it,

of the story of Zacchaeus

as we were looking

at last week.

Repent then

so that your sins

may be wiped out

and times of

refreshing

may come from the

Lord.

Let me pray

as I close.

Amen.

Heavenly Father,

we thank you so much

that you are gracious

to us

and you send

the Lord Jesus

to call out to us

not because we've

cleaned our act up

but because you love us

and you want us

to encounter you

and know you.

And thank you

that in meeting Jesus

you don't leave us

the same.

you transform us

and you enable us

to take hold

of salvation

in the Lord Jesus

and hear these

great words of assurance

that we belong to you.

And so Lord,

we pray

that you might make us

ongoingly repentant,

turning from our sin

and receiving more

and more of Christ

as we pray in his name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you.