He is Also A Son

I just want to thank the wonderful praise band this morning.

I was sitting there and just thinking at the beauty of the diversity of God's body.

I mean that that young and old and we can minister to one another and just be brought before the throne of grace and just just uh just incredible, just praising God for that.

Turn with me to the Gospel of Luke chapter 19.

Luke 19 · chapter mention

We'll be looking at verses 1 through 10, a familiar passage of Scripture to most of us, uh maybe all of us, Luke chapter 19.

Luke 19 · chapter mention

And if you don't have your Bible with you, there should be one located there in the pew in front of you.

You can find uh the passage on page 878.

So I'd encourage you to turn there as I read and as we study this passage together.

And if you don't own a Bible, please take that pew Bible home with you as our gift to you.

We want you to have it.

Uh we would love for you to have it and read it and study it, and then join us each week as we study it together as God's people.

Luke chapter 19, verses 1 through 10.

Luke 19:1–10

He entered Jericho and was passing through.

And 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 of 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 and came down and received him joyfully.

And when they saw it, they grumbled.

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.

This is God's word.

This passage that we're studying here is tied to the previous passages in Luke's gospel that we have studied in past months, even in the immediate context of what we have been studying just in the last few months.

If you remember in chapter 18, we saw the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.

And we saw the children who were coming to Jesus and were hindered by the disciples.

We saw the rich young ruler who came to Christ, self-righteous, believing that there was just one thing that he lacked.

He wanted to know what that was so that he could secure eternal life for himself.

And Jesus confronted him to reveal to him the depths of his sin and need, and he turned away sad.

And Jesus said that it's impossible for man to be saved by himself.

That only God can do that.

And then we saw at the end of that chapter the blind beggar who wanted to see Jesus.

And so now we have another man who wants to see Jesus.

And so this passage is tied to those previous passages.

One author said, just looking at the blind man in the last passage that we studied in Luke, he says, one man was blind while the other had sight.

But they both wanted to see Jesus.

One man was beggarly poor while the other man was filthy rich, but they both needed something money can't buy.

One man showed his faith while the other man demonstrated his repentance, but they both had a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.

So writes Philip Riken in his commentary on the Gospel of Luke.

As I've been preparing this passage, one of the biggest difficulties is how familiar it is.

As we read a passage like this, we begin to think back, and some who've who teach Sunday school, or when you were in Sunday school, you remember the children's song that you would sing, and I promised Pat I wouldn't sing it.

He's on vacation, he said he'd come back early if I did, just to clean up the aftermath.

But Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he.

This story is so familiar, and this is the danger in studying a passage like this that we just gloss over it.

And we don't even stop and pause and consider the reality of what's here.

This is the last encounter Jesus has with somebody before entering Jerusalem.

In some ways, Zacchaeus is the culmination of all of those that Jesus was seeking to save.

Here was a man who was the least likely, in the eyes of others, to ever find faith.

And again, it isn't the difficulty of the passage that causes us problems, it's the familiarity of it.

It's the fact that we've read it over and over again and we've told the story to our children, and we've heard the story ourselves, and we've sung these songs.

And it's so familiar that we struggle to see it with new eyes.

And even as I was writing the sermon, I was struggling to see it with new eyes, to say, what is it here that I can take away for my own life?

What is it that God can use here for his people, for me and for you and for all of us together?

What is it that God has here in this story that's so familiar that we just read it and move on?

And I think in some ways, as I was reading this, I just felt like I could identify more and more with Zacchaeus in this story.

And we see here the grace of our Savior.

And we see that the culmination of his mission, that the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.

So let me share with you three truths that we can take away from here that we find here in this passage that we can apply in our own lives.

The first thing that we can find here, that we can draw out of here and apply to our own lives, is that in love, God uses circumstances to move us.

In love, God uses circumstances to move us.

It says here that Jesus was entering Jericho and was passing through, and it actually ties us into the previous passage because Jesus was drawing near to Jericho, leaving the old city and entering the populated city of Jericho.

And now he's going there to pass through.

He's on his way to Jerusalem.

And it says that there was a man there named Zacchaeus.

Zacchaeus' name means pure or righteous.

And that name may not have significance in our day, and we pick names for our children for a variety of reasons.

We might like the sound of it.

We go through names.

We might pick a name to say, okay, will they get picked on in middle school?

You know, we have all these reasons why we pick names.

But in the in ancient days, uh names were more significant than just how they sounded.

They were so concerned about the meaning of the names because it was the hope of the parents that those names would represent who the children were.

And Zacchaeus' name meant pure or righteous.

Boy, did they get that one wrong.

Zacchaeus was a tax collector.

More than that, he was the chief tax collector.

And he was rich.

Kent Hughes said this in his commentary.

He says, as a chief tax collector, I love some of the words he used here, as a chief tax collector, Zacchaeus was head of a tax farming corporation with collectors who extorted the people, then paid him before he paid the Romans.

He was the kingpin of the Jericho tax cartel, and he had the scruples of a modern-day crack dealer.

Zacchaeus, the pure and righteous one.

Zacchaeus was a scoundrel.

He was the kingpin of the Jericho tax cartel.

Zacchaeus was curious, though.

Look at what it says.

He was seeking to see who Jesus was.

There was something in his life.

There was something there that wasn't right.

There was something in his life that unsettled him.

We don't know what it was that motivated him.

There was something churning in him, something that struck a curiosity in him that made him seek Jesus.

We don't know what that was.

Maybe it was nothing more than mere curiosity.

Maybe it was that he had come to the end of himself and he found the emptiness of his life.

Maybe he had heard about Jesus.

We know even in Luke's gospel, over and over again we encounter tax collectors.

From the beginning pages of Luke's gospel, we see in Luke chapter 3, verses 12 and 13, that the tax collectors came to Jesus to be baptized.

Luke 3:12

Luke records the conversion of Levi, also known as Matthew.

And in Luke chapter 5, it talks about his calling.

Luke 5 · chapter mention

It says, after this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting in a tax booth.

And he said to him, Follow me.

And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.

And Levi, Matthew, made a great feast in his house.

And there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at his table.

In fact, Jesus associated so much so with tax collectors that we see in Luke chapter 7, verse 34, and that in derision they say, Here is Jesus, the friend of tax collectors and sinners.

Luke 7:34

Tax collectors were hated and despised.

They were the traitors.

They were the Benedict Arnolds, if you know history.

They were the ones that were the turncoats, the ones who had turned their backs on their own people and were extorting money and profiting and giving the taxes to the Romans who were occupying their country.

We remember in Luke chapter 15, the story of the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin and the lost sons.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

But when we look at that in the beginning of it, it says in verses 1 and 2 that Jesus tells them this parable because he's talking that the tax collectors and the sinners are coming there, and the Pharisees are offended by these lowlifes that are coming to listen to Jesus.

We saw in Luke chapter 18 the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector going up to pray.

Luke 18 · chapter mention

And Jesus, shocking his audience, says that it's the tax collector that goes away justified.

Maybe Zacchaeus had heard these stories.

Maybe Zacchaeus even knew some of those tax collectors that in his trading, in his uh in his uh dealings with others, maybe they were some of his former tax collectors.

We don't know.

Maybe he had even known Levi, Matthew, at some point.

We don't know, but something had unsettled him.

Zacchaeus was needy.

He had power and money.

People lived in fear of him, but they hated him.

He had no friends.

He had wealth, he had power, but the only people that would ever have associated with him were the Romans who were despised by the Jews or the other tax collectors.

He was needy.

There was some emptiness, there was some longing, there was some emotional pain, something God had used in his life.

Zacchaeus here was childlike.

One author writes in a book talking about Zacchaeus, reminding us of what Jesus said earlier.

Remember in chapter 18?

When the little children were coming to Jesus, the parents were bringing the children so that Jesus might bless them, and the disciples rebuked them and hindered them.

And in verse 16, Jesus calls to them, saying, Let the children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such, such like as this belongs the kingdom of God.

Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.

And this author, John Leonard, in his book Get Real, he says, Zacchaeus was like a child.

Zacchaeus looked like a child.

He was a wee little man.

We don't know how we.

We, we.

You know, we we he was he was a we little man.

He was he he was diminutive, he was vertically challenged.

I can kind of relate.

He was he was he was childlike in his stature.

He tried to get through the crowd, the crowd hated him.

He he tried to look around them.

I'm sure this was one of the times where where they felt justified in just in turning around and pushing him back and out of the way.

He was childlike in his behavior.

Look at what he does.

He runs.

Running for a grown man was undignified.

But this man, he wants so desperately to see Jesus, he's undaunted in his desire to see Jesus that he runs ahead.

And not only does he run ahead, he he climbs a tree.

When's the last time you climbed a tree?

For for for most, it was when you were a child.

How many of you in your in your in your 20s or 30s or 40s like, hey, I think I'm gonna climb a tree this afternoon?

Zacchaeus was was childlike in his behavior.

Everything in Zacchaeus' life was leading up to this point.

His job, his height, his background, his hurt, his pain, people's hatred of him, people's fear of him.

God was using all of those circumstances to bring Zacchaeus to this point.

God was preparing Zacchaeus for this encounter with Jesus.

And it wasn't just the good things that God was using.

God was using the painful things, was using his deficiencies, was using his hurt, was using even the sin of his past to show him of his need.

And we don't recognize that in our lives, that God uses things that he allows in our lives and not just the good things, the awful things and the painful things and the hard things, disease and struggle and rejection and temptation to prepare us to run to Him.

And I think sometimes we need to reevaluate the circumstances in our lives because we look at it and we look at the pain and the trouble and the difficulty and we blame God for them, not recognizing that those may be the very things that God has allowed in your life to show you your need and cause you to run to Him and to cry out to Him in pain and desperation?

Could it be that the very pain that you wish had never happened is the very thing God is using to draw you to himself?

Could it be that the very unwanted things that you struggle with are what God uses to drive you into his arms?

Could it be that the deepest anguish you wish were removed are the very things that God uses to keep you humbly dependent upon him?

Could it be the very things you hate about yourself or wish you could change are expressions of his loving providence in your life for good and for his glory?

Could it be that you're looking at your circumstances and your situations and your life wrong?

God had brought Zacchaeus to this point so that God could enter into his life in grace and mercy and forgiveness.

And the very things in Zacchaeus's life that caused him to be an outcast, even in his wealth, were the very things that God used to show him his need.

And God uses our circumstances and our situations to move us outside of ourselves so that we're brought to a place where we can encounter Jesus.

And that's what we see here in Zacchaeus.

There was something in his life.

And in love, God used those circumstances to move him.

And God uses those circumstances to move us so that we run to the arms of Jesus.

Well, secondly, first we saw God uses circumstances to move us.

Secondly, God in grace lovingly calls us.

Zacchaeus didn't expect Jesus to stop.

In fact, he was up in the sycamore tree, probably hidden within the leaves there.

He had run ahead, he had climbed up the tree.

The last thing he wanted most likely was for people to see them or for Jesus to see them.

And especially for Jesus to stop.

But Jesus stops and he looks and he calls.

The disciples were hindering them, but Jesus made a way for the children to get to him.

The blind beggar couldn't get to Jesus, but Jesus made a way.

And Zacchaeus couldn't get to Jesus.

But Jesus could get to him.

Who couldn't get to Jesus?

The poor, the children, the outcasts, the sinners, the diseased, the crippled, the tax collectors, and yet Jesus got to them.

The moment Jesus stopped and looked up, I wonder what went through Zacchaeus' heart.

What went through his mind.

I imagine Zacchaeus' pulse beginning to race and a bead of sweat forming on his brow.

He saw those eyes looking fixed at him, piercing through to his soul.

The eyes that knew everything about him, but were filled with compassion and mercy.

The look on Jesus' face that communicated grace and love.

There's a sense of urgency in Jesus' words.

He says, Hurry, come down, for I must stay at your house today.

Literally, what Jesus says here is, it is necessary.

It's a word that in the original language carries a divine imperative.

It is necessary.

This is God's appointed meeting.

This is a divine appointment that God has with you, Zacchaeus, right now, this day, this moment.

And we see God's divine sovereign call, and we see the human response of Zacchaeus, of what it says here.

It says, So he hurried and he came down and received him joyfully.

The old English pastor J.C.

Rowell says if ever there was a soul sought and saved without having done anything to deserve it, that soul was the soul of Zacchaeus.

Unasked, our Lord stops and speaks to Zacchaeus.

Unasked, he offers himself to be a guest in the home of a sinner.

Unasked, he sends into the heart of a publican the renewing grace of the Spirit and puts him that very day among the children of God.

Zacchaeus responds in saving faith.

He hurries, he comes down, it says he receives him joyfully, that there was a transforming reality in Zacchaeus.

He placed his faith in Christ.

And we see that, and Jesus says that later.

When he says, Today salvation has come to this house.

This was the moment when Zacchaeus had turned from darkness to light.

It says Zacchaeus was filled with joy and a newfound relationship with Jesus.

Everything in Zacchaeus's life was reoriented in this moment.

Notice the reaction of the crowd.

Look earlier in chapter 18, at the end of chapter 18.

The blind man receives his sight.

The blind man who is an outcast receives his sight.

And it says in verse 43 of chapter 18, immediately he recovers his sight and follows him, glorifying God.

And then it says, And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.

Here was a man whose life was transformed.

Praise God.

And now look at verse 7 of chapter 19.

And when they saw it, they all grumbled.

The same people, when the blind man encounters Jesus and was healed, body and soul, they praise God.

Now Zacchaeus, somebody that they hated, somebody that they despised, comes to Jesus.

And the reaction is so different.

When the people saw Zacchaeus come to Jesus, they were indignant.

He doesn't deserve grace.

And that's exactly the point.

Grace is undeserved favor.

When the people saw Jesus going to stay at Zacchaeus' house, they were offended.

They say he's gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.

People doubted that Jesus was the Messiah for the very reason that he came.

He came to seek and to save the lost.

And when he was in the process of saving the lost, the self-righteous were offended.

How could he be the Messiah?

Look who he associates with, look who he hangs around with, look who are his closest friends.

The very mission of Jesus was the offense that people had.

And people turned away.

Zacchaeus was the least likely person in these people's minds to ever receive mercy and grace.

Are there people in your mind that you think are beyond hope?

Maybe you've given up on?

Maybe you think that you would never say this, but you just somewhere settled in your heart that they're outside of the reach of God's grace?

I was talking to some people this week and asking them that question.

And for some, it's the usual suspects, those who are caught up in alcohol or drugs or other sins, that they're so far gone, you wonder, could they ever repent?

And one guy said to me, No, no, those people, I expect them to repent.

They know they're a mess.

And he said, You know who I don't think is going to repent?

You know, in my heart, if there was somebody who I would put in that category, and he said, Hardcore Republicans.

And I said, Okay, explain yourself.

And he said, Well, okay, you know, the people who are a mess, they know they're a mess.

You know, you tell them they're sinners, and they're like, oh, let me tell you about my sin.

They they they they know that they're a mess.

He said, but what about the people who who who are on the right side of certain issues, who are pro-life, who would never think about supporting abortion, who who are who who understand the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman, who who stand up for what is true and right, who would argue all of these moral principles, who are for traditional conservative moral values, that, that, and and who wouldn't abandon their families.

What about all of these people that from the surface, that if you would talk to them, they would look at themselves and they say, you know what?

You know, when it comes to morality, I think I'm on the right side of these issues.

And when it comes to positions, I think I've taken the right positions.

And he said, those are the people that I wonder how hard it is for them to see how desperately they need Jesus and how sinful they really are.

And I thought, you know, it makes a lot of sense.

But are there people that we look at and just say, you know, I don't know.

God, it's just so hard for me to believe, to really believe that you can save that person or this person.

And I don't know who who it is that when you think about that, you you you there's a seat of doubt.

And maybe there's people even in your own families or in your neighborhoods, maybe your own parents or your own children that you've kind of given up on.

Because you say, I I don't know.

It just it's been too long, they just seem too hard, they just seem too far gone.

Or maybe they just seem to have it all together too much.

How will they ever see their need?

And so Zacchaeus, the least likely in the eyes of others to come to faith, joyfully accepts Christ.

Well, thirdly, finally, in repentance, God practically transforms us.

Uh notice what it's it, they all grumble and complain, and and we don't know when Zacchaeus said this.

Commentators debate was it, you know, does Luke fast forward to the end and then go back?

And it's when Zacchaeus stands in front of Jesus right after climbing the tree, or is it later when he's in Zacchaeus' house and others have gathered around the crowd listening through the doors and the windows?

We don't know exactly when.

But Zacchaeus expresses his repentance in practical terms.

True saving faith is always a repentant faith.

They go hand in hand.

They're two sides of the same coin.

We turn away from sin and at this and ourselves and our self-reliance, and at the same time we turn to Jesus.

It's a total reassessment that involves turning your mind and your will and your affections towards your Savior.

And repentance and faith are two sides of the same coin.

But genuine repentance results in practical ways.

There's a practical outworking of genuine repentance.

And I want to show you this from another passage.

Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 7 for just a moment.

2 Corinthians 7 · chapter mention

And then I'll close this.

2 Corinthians chapter 7.

2 Corinthians 7 · chapter mention

The passage the Apostle Paul is dealing with the Corinthian church and some deep sins, and he had written to them about it, and they had received his letter, and their eyes were opened to their sin that they hadn't seen before, and they had allowed to go on, and they were confronted and arrested by it, and they grieved over it.

They grieved over it.

And so in chapter 7, beginning in verse 9, I'll just read verse 9 for context.

And he had written this letter, they received the letter, they grieved over it, and he says, As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, because you were grieved into repenting, for you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.

For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

There is a good grief.

There is a godly grief that produces repentance to salvation.

Which is what the text literally says, a repentance to salvation.

There is a good grief.

And there is a worldly grief.

A worldly grief is a grief over the consequences of your sin or feeling sorrow for yourself or feeling the penalty of what you have to pay.

But there is a godly grief that leads to repentance.

And that that grief is over your sin and offending a holy God, you realize that your sin is first and foremost before God.

The Christian life is a life of repentant faith.

Every day is a day of repentant faith.

Repentance is not a one-time event, but an ongoing reality.

If you're not repenting daily, either you're not taking sin seriously or you're not examining your heart closely.

Because every day we need to come before God and before others, recognizing our sin and trusting anew God's forgiveness and grace in the gospel.

And so every day of the Christian life is a life of repentant faith.

Look at what Paul says in verse 11 of 2 Corinthians, before we go back to Luke.

2 Corinthians chapter 7, verse 11.

2 Corinthians 7:11

He says, For see what earnestness this grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment.

At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter.

John MacArthur writes on this passage, and let me just summarize some of the things he points out here.

In earnestness, he says, this is an attitude that ends in difference to sin and complacency about evil and deception.

Paul says, What eagerness to clear yourselves.

He writes, the repentant sinner restores the trust and confidence of others by making his genuine repentance known.

Indignation, repentance leads to anger over one's sin and displeasure at the shame it has brought on the Lord's name and his people.

Fear, this is reverence towards God, who is the one most offended by sin.

Longing refers to the desire of the repentant sinner to restore the relationship with the one who was sinned against.

Zeal, this refers to loving someone or something so much that one hates anything or anyone that harms the object of this love.

Punishment, the repentant sinner no longer tries to protect himself.

He wants to see the sin avenged no matter what it might cost him.

Innocent in the matter, the essence of repentance is an aggressive pursuit of holiness to pursue being in a place where you are no longer guilty of this.

Now look back in Luke chapter 19.

Luke 19 · chapter mention

Zacchaeus, the fruit of his repentance, the outworking of his repentance.

Look at what he says in verse 8.

He says, Behold, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I've defrauded anyone of anything, I will restore it fourfold.

He says, half of his goods he gives to the poor.

He didn't have to do that.

Even in theft, only the original amount of plus one-fifth was required for voluntary restitution if you owned up to your sin before being brought to court.

And he says, if I've defrauded anyone, and he's not saying, he's not questioning the fact that he's defrauded people, but he's just acknowledging there may have been someone he actually didn't defraud, but for those that he did, he says he's going to return, he's going to restore it fourfold.

Now, if you read that and you begin to think about it, you're thinking, how does that math work up?

If he gives away half to the poor and re-he restores everything fourfold, how can he possibly do that?

You know, I don't think Zacchaeus was trying to do math when he was when he was saying these things.

You know, is this rational?

Probably not.

He wasn't sitting down and crunching the numbers.

But this was the expression of his heart when he realized the impact of his sin.

And he wanted to practically do what he could to address those wrongs.

Repentance itself is a gift of God.

God is the one who grants repentance.

That's what the Bible says in 2 Timothy 2.25, Acts 11, 18.

You can't change yourself, and so God is the one who does his work in us, and we respond and we repent of our sin, and God moves us in new directions.

And Jesus says, today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham.

And so, in a very literal sense, that Jesus' salvation has come to Zacchaeus' house.

And then he says that he too is a son of Abraham.

And Jesus wasn't just merely affirming the Jewishness of Zacchaeus that he also is a Jew.

He's going beyond that, and he is saying that Zacchaeus is a true Jew who follows the faith of Abraham, that he believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.

And Paul talks about that in Romans 4 to all who come to Christ.

Jesus came to seek and to save the lost.

No one is outside of the reach of God's grace.

It's a very familiar story, a story that we can look at and just gloss over.

But we need to recognize what God does here.

He does in our lives.

He uses your circumstances to show you your need and call you to himself.

He calls to you and calls you to respond in faith and trust in the gospel.

And that works out in practical ways.

Of God bringing to your life repentance and enabling you to move in new ways as you turn from your sin and turn to Him.

Is Jesus calling you today?

Is he calling you to Himself for the first time?

Maybe calling you to deal with the sin in your life that you've been holding on to and you haven't repented of.

But turn to Jesus who died to pay the penalty for that sin.

Join me as I lead us in prayer.

Father.

This is such a familiar story.

It can be lost in us.

Father, help us to not lose sight of the depth of truth that is here.

And the amazing work of the gospel of Jesus, of your spirit.

Lord, your word, your spirit calls to us to respond.

Move in our hearts, Lord, that we might turn to you in faith and repentance.

And Lord, may we live lives each day of repentant faith, admitting our sin and crying out to you and thanking you for Jesus who forgives us.

We pray in Christ's name.

Amen.