The Gospel for Outcasts | Luke 19:1-10

Amen, church family.

If you have your Bibles, would you turn with me to Luke chapter 19?

Luke 19 · chapter mention

Luke chapter 19.

Luke 19 · chapter mention

And when you get there, would you stand with me as we read God's word together?

Luke chapter 19.

Luke 19 · chapter mention

We'll just read the first ten verses together.

Luke chapter 19, God's word says, He, being Jesus, entered Jericho and was passing through.

Luke 19 · chapter mention

And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus.

He was a chief tax collector and was rich.

And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature.

So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way.

And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.

So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully.

And when they saw it, they all grumbled.

He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.

And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor.

And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I return, 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, here's our phrase, came to seek and to save the lost.

Let's pray the Lord together this morning.

Heavenly Father, this morning we are so thankful that Jesus came.

And so here during Advent, Lord, we come to just savor and to celebrate and to look deeply on the mission of Jesus, that Lord, our hearts might love Him more, that our minds might be captivated with Him more deeply, that our lives might be shaped in His image more completely.

Father, I pray that you would bring your word to bear on the hearts of your people anything that I need to forget, that I would forget anything that I need to remember, that I would remember anything that I have not planned to say that needs to be said, that it would be said.

Oh Lord, I pray for your people this morning that they would receive your word through your spirit in Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

The first time I ever remember thinking about the clothes that I wear was in the fifth grade.

And I remember exactly how it happened.

There was a girl in my class, and she came up to me, and she said that there was a different girl in my class that said that I needed some shoe advice.

Some shoe advice.

Now, up until that point in my life, I had never thought about shoes as being anything other than tools that allowed me to go outside and play, right?

And really, my shoes were fine.

They were fine.

They would just look the way a rambunctious little boy's shoes after a few months of playing in them.

But I'll tell you the truth, I felt like a complete and total loser.

I mean like loser supreme, right?

So I go home that day and it's around Christmas time, and I tell my mom what has happened at school and share with her how I felt.

And I think she felt even worse about it than I did.

And so I'll never forget this.

My mom had already bought a lot of our Christmas gifts.

And so she tells me to get in the car.

And I was like, Yes, ma'am.

So I get in the car.

And we drive to my grandmother's house.

Apparently, my mom had our Christmas gifts already hidden at my grandmother's house.

And so my mom leaves me out in the car and she goes into my grandmother's house and she walks out.

And when I see her come out of the carport, I see her holding a brand new Nike box, right?

And she hands me these shoes, and like, these were some legit Nikes.

You know what I'm saying?

Like they were legit.

And so the next day I walked into Miss Hubbard's fifth grade class, and I wasn't really just walking, I was strutting.

I mean, I felt like a boss, like James Dean, walking in to the fifth grade.

You know, feeling like an outcast is one of the worst feelings in life, isn't it?

And yet it's a feeling that in some way and at some time all of us will know.

I actually think that that experience has something to teach us about the beauty of the gospel.

That what we learn when we learn the gospel is that Jesus has, in fact, come for the outcast.

And Jesus came for the outcast, how?

By himself becoming an outcast.

This is especially important to Luke, the author of this gospel.

See, Luke was a Gentile.

Luke would have been one that was perceived and understood to be outside of the promises of God.

And so Luke, in his gospel, makes this front and center.

As a matter of fact, if you start at chapter 9, verse 51, and you go all the way through our passage, chapter 19, verse 10, what we have is this long journey of Jesus, walking to Jerusalem.

And along that journey, we see Jesus frequently encountering with the marginal of society.

And so scholars actually even call this section of Luke's gospel the gospel for the outcasts.

And so this morning, what I want us to see is I want us to see the gospel for the outcasts.

First, I want you to see that Jesus seeks the lowest.

Jesus seeks the lowest.

You know, when we think about the way that we make friends, it usually feels pretty random, doesn't it?

The friends that we make.

I mean, usually the friendships that we have are really the result of kind of us just being in the same place at the same time long enough to kind of discover some common ground and to share in some common experiences.

I think about uh how a friendship started with one of my closest friends.

Megan and I had just been called to a new church, and we really didn't know anybody.

And one day, right after church, we went to Zaxby's to eat some nibblers and to hang out and have a good time, you know.

And another guy that was on staff, another younger guy that was on staff, he comes into the Zaxby's.

And so Megan and I invite him over to our table just to just to get to know one another a little bit.

And I remember I bowed my head to ask the blessing, and I'm sure I was praying a really proper blessing because uh, you know, I've got a new guy here in my church, and I'm like, oh Lord, and he starts going, Amen.

Would you bless our nibblers?

Praise God.

And he amens all the way through my blessing.

And by the end of it, I am just in hysterical laughter, right?

Now, look, we think back, it's probably a bit irreverent, certainly immature, but the Lord used that to just knit our hearts together.

And so we would go on for 15 years to serve in two different churches with a unique complementary of personalities and gifts, and we've seen God just do some incredible things through our relationship.

You know, when I think back on that, in the moment it felt random.

In the moment it felt silly, but in retrospect, I don't think it was random at all.

And I actually think that that's a significant point of what we're to learn here from Luke chapter 19, that we learn that there are no incidental meetings.

Luke 19 · chapter mention

There are no incidental meetings.

When the way that Luke is framing up Jesus coming into Jericho is meant to sound as innocuous as possible.

He entered Jericho and he was just passing through.

No big deal, right?

That Jesus is on his path to Jerusalem, and you just had to go through Jericho if you were gonna get to Jerusalem.

Jericho was a crossroads town.

This was its cultural significance in its day.

And because it was a crossroads town, it made it the ideal location for the chief tax collector to set up shop.

Now, you'll remember last week when we began talking about tax collectors, that the tax collectors in the first century are basically like a first century mafia, okay?

They're not good dudes, they're organized crime, they're they're loan sharks, they're they're being harsh with the people, with the authority of the Roman government.

Well, if the tax collectors are a first century mafia, then this guy that we're being we're meeting named Zacchaeus, he's like the mob boss.

This is the guy that Matthew answers to.

He is the baddest of the bad.

That there's a real sense in which really he genuinely is the chief of sinners and he's being put forward that way.

As a matter of fact, he gives us another note here in verse 2.

He says that he was rich.

And the significance of that is just one chapter over.

If you were to turn your Bible to uh Luke chapter 18, what you would see is it's in Luke chapter 18 where Jesus makes that famous statement that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to get into heaven.

Luke 18 · chapter mention Luke 18 · chapter mention

And so here we have this description immediately on the heels of that, of Zacchaeus, that he is a chief tax collector.

He is the head mob boss, he is not a good dude, and he's rich because he's a tax collector, because he's not a good dude.

And so Zacchaeus is being framed up for us in the negative in every way that Luke can through the details of the story.

So the image that I have in my mind is kind of that image, if you've seen the old uh footage of Dele Plaza when JFK is in the convertible and he's making the corner, and you have the just rows of people on both sides of the sidewalks all hoping to get a glimpse of the president.

I think that's a pretty good and accurate image of what this would have looked like as Jesus is rolling through this crossroads town of Jericho, this highly populated town of Jericho.

And so here's Zacchaeus, and Zacchaeus, for whatever reason, we're not told why, is told that he wants to be able to see Jesus.

But Zacchaeus is a wee little man, right?

We we all know that from the song.

He's a he's a tiny little fellow, and so he can't see through the crowds.

He can't see over everyone's head.

And so Zacchaeus, being determined to see Jesus, decides he's gonna climb up in a sycamore tree.

Now, the expectation of the reader is that this is just a random town that Jesus is passing through, that he doesn't know people there, he's not gonna know who Zacchaeus is, he's not gonna notice Zacchaeus.

We're probably even meant to wonder why it is that the narrator is telling us that Zacchaeus is there at all and that Zacchaeus is in the top of the tree.

But Jesus comes rolling through town, and as Jesus rolls into town, he comes next to the Sycamore tree and he calls out, Zacchaeus, Zacchaeus.

Jesus wasn't supposed to know Zacchaeus, Jesus wasn't supposed to know that Zacchaeus is there, but here he is beside the Sycamore tree, and he calls out and he knows him by name.

He does know Zacchaeus, he does know Zacchaeus' story, he knows what Zacchaeus is all about.

Now that's interesting, isn't it?

That's interesting.

Zacchaeus thought that he was going to find Jesus.

But the truth of the matter is, is that Jesus had come to find Zacchaeus.

It's not an incidental meaning, it's actually a divine appointment.

It reminds me of a story of friendship between two brothers that I know.

Daniel is uh he's the chairman of Elders of the church that I served previously, and he's just the kind of dude that that really likes to think deep and go deep with people.

And so Daniel, when he was a younger man, and I knew him then he he really believed that the call on his life was to go and to study apologetics.

He's a gifted apologist so that he could go on to college campuses and sit down on park benches.

He's also a bit of a romanticist, he so that he could uh go down and sit on park benches and persuade the skeptics to follow after Jesus.

And he worked hard at his apologetics, but all the different ministry avenues that he explored, they all were frustrated and it never materialized the way that he had hoped to.

And he was always discouraged by that.

One day, Daniel is doing about the most ordinary thing that a dad can do.

He's just leaned up against the batting cages, watching his little girl take batting practice.

And leaned up against the batting cages that day was another man doing the exact same thing, a man by the name of Dustin.

Now, like I mentioned, Daniel is the kind of guy that he goes really deep really fast, and he's the kind of guy that you just feel comfortable having deep, heavy conversations with.

It's hard to explain, isn't it?

And Dustin begins to tell him some of his story.

And Dustin explains how he'd been in the military, how he'd had some church experiences, and now as a result of that, he was an atheist.

He no longer believed that there was a God, he no longer believed that he answered to anybody, he no longer believed that all of it was a fairy tale.

Well, Daniel was undeterred by that.

This is the kind of moment that he'd been living for and preparing for for a long time.

And he strikes up a friendship with Dustin.

And Dustin comes over, he and his wife, and they have dinner with Daniel and his wife.

And then Daniel had a group of men that he was discipling.

He's like, hey, look, I know you don't believe it.

Just come hang out with us.

And they they started hanging out more and more.

Well, the morning that I met Dustin was his first morning at church.

And Dustin went into a small group on his first morning at church.

He's kind of a a uh a forthright person.

Like he is willing to be an open book.

And he just raises his hand in the small group.

He says, Hey, guys, before we get started, I just want y'all to know I don't believe any of this stuff.

I'm just here to hang out.

In a matter of six weeks, we had baptized Dustin.

We had baptized Dustin.

Because that day leaned up against the batting cages.

It wasn't an accident, it wasn't an incidental meeting.

Dustin hadn't gone looking for Jesus, but Jesus had gone looking for Dustin and he found him at the batting cages and he reached him with the good news.

You know, this morning you may not know why you're here.

You may be here because you feel guilty by your wife.

You you may be here because you were a drug here by your parents.

You may have just stumbled in here because you really just didn't know where else to go.

Maybe you're not even looking for Jesus.

Can I tell you the reason that you're here is because Jesus is looking for you.

That Jesus has come to have a message that your heart might be reached by his good news.

That we see that there are no incidental meetings.

We also see from our text that there are no insignificant invitations.

There are no insignificant invitations.

That you can imagine that when Zacchaeus hears Jesus call out his name, that there was a shiver that went all the way down his spine.

Zacchaeus is the most notorious sinner, perhaps, in all of Jericho.

He has the most infamous name.

He was the guy that you did not want knocking on your door.

He was the guy that you would walk to the other side of the street just to avoid him at all costs.

And so when he hears Jesus call out his name, the expectation is that Jesus is about to humiliate him in front of the crowd, perhaps excoriate him, call down judgment on him.

But Jesus says something strange, doesn't he?

He issues what feels like a really strange invitation.

Maybe it even feels a little bit a little bit rude to us here in the hospitality capital of the world in the south.

He says, Zacchaeus, this is at the end of your text, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down.

I must stay at your house today.

We always warn our kids, you never invite yourself to somebody else's house.

Y'all probably do the same thing, right?

But here's Jesus, and Jesus is inviting himself into Zacchaeus's house.

I think there's a couple of reasons why.

First of all, first of all, here's what Jesus is actually saying by the invitation.

Zacchaeus, you don't have to be up in the tree.

Zacchaeus, you don't have to be at arm's length.

Zacchaeus, I don't reject you the way everybody else is rejecting you.

Zacchaeus, come down, I want to be friends.

Come down, Zacchaeus, I want to hang out.

Come down, Zacchaeus, let's throw a party.

Let's go to your house and let's have a conversation.

You came here looking for me.

I actually came here looking for you.

Let's talk about it.

There's a second reason, I think.

If you go back to the beginning of the gospel for outcasts in Luke chapter 10, Luke chapter 10, you might write that down.

Luke 10 · chapter mention Luke 10 · chapter mention

Jesus sends out 72 disciples, and he sends out these 72 disciples two by two.

And he gives them an interesting, an interesting instruction.

He says to them, He says, If anyone will receive you into their house, go and stay in their house and bring peace to that house.

If they will not receive you into their house, knock the dust off of your feet and go to the next house.

In other words, what he was saying is if they will receive you and they will receive your message, they will be received into the kingdom.

But if they will not receive you and they will not receive your message, then they will be rejected in the kingdom.

So the invitation, when Jesus comes to Matthew, to Zacchaeus, and he says, Hey, Zacchaeus, come down.

I need to come and hang out in your house right now.

What he's really saying is he's saying, Will you receive me?

Will you receive my message?

You see, you see, Jesus had gone.

Jesus had gone and to see if Zacchaeus would receive him, because if Zacchaeus would receive Jesus, Jesus was more than happy to receive Zacchaeus.

There's no person, no story, no sinner so notorious, no sinners so infamous, no sinners so deep, no story so bad, no past so checkered that Jesus isn't willing to receive you, so long as you are willing, willing to receive Jesus.

And so I wonder this morning, are you willing to receive him?

Are you willing to receive him?

Are you willing to receive him into your home?

Are you willing to receive him into your life?

Are you willing to receive Christ so that now you have fellowship with him because he is willing to receive whomever receives him, even the very worst, which I think again is a significant part of the story.

That not only does Jesus seek the lowest, the gospel of the outcast teaches us that Jesus changes the worst.

Jesus changes the worst.

That what we have in Luke chapter 19 is we have Jesus answering the question that comes up in Luke chapter 18.

Luke 19 · chapter mention Luke 18 · chapter mention

In Luke chapter 18, we meet one of the most, if not the most, impressive man found in all of the scriptures.

Luke 18 · chapter mention

That there's a rich young ruler, a rich leader of the synagogue, a rich elder of the synagogue.

And he goes to Jesus and he asks Jesus, What must I do to inherit eternal life?

And Jesus says that you've got to keep the commandments.

You've got to be faithful.

He says, I've kept all of them.

Good news, Jesus.

Good news.

Like I've kept all the commandments since I was a little boy.

I've been honored by being given a position of influence in the synagogue.

In fact, the Bible tells us again he was he was very rich, he was very wealthy.

And the people of God would have seen him in that day because of his life, that his wealth was the favor of God that had been bestowed upon him.

And do you remember what Jesus said?

He said, Well, there's one thing that you lack.

There's one thing that you lack.

Now, this is a man that had a resume that all of us would hire.

And Jesus here says, There's one thing that you lack.

Go and sell all that you have, give it to the poor, and come and follow after me.

Well, the man leaves and he's sad because he has great wealth and he doesn't want to give it up.

It's the favor of God he believes in his life.

And the disciples are completely dumbfounded, maybe even offended by what Jesus has said.

And they said, then who can be saved, Jesus?

And you know what Jesus said?

This is the answer to the question.

What is impossible with man is possible with God.

In other words, this is how Jesus, this is how Jesus responds to the question.

He said, Nobody can be saved.

Nobody can be saved.

Nobody's good enough.

Nobody's accomplished enough.

Nobody's polished enough.

Nobody's kept the law enough.

This is impossible.

When it comes to the to the framework and the economy of man, it's impossible.

Here's the good news.

It is possible with God.

And because it is possible with God and impossible with man, it doesn't matter if your resume is awesome or if your resume is lacking.

It doesn't matter if you're a tax collector or if you're a leader in the synagogue.

That it is impossible by all means with men, but it is possible by the means of his son with for God.

That God has come to make it possible that even the worst could be converted, that even the worst could be delivered from their sins.

And so he goes on to explain to them that he's doing this by changing what they love.

This is the nature of the new covenant, that he's changing for them what they love.

You know, it's interesting between Luke chapter 18 and Luke chapter 19, and this is not an accident in the mind of Luke, that he puts the rich young ruler in juxtaposition with Zacchaeus, the tax collector.

Luke 18 · chapter mention Luke 19 · chapter mention

Because really they're very comparable people.

The truth is, is that both of them have the same root sin.

It had just manifested differently in their lives.

You see, why was it that the rich young ruler kept all the laws?

Why was it that the rich young ruler had developed the perfect resume?

Why was it that the rich young ruler had, since he was a boy, tried to be perfect in every single way?

It was because he was focused on himself.

It was because he was living for himself.

He wanted himself to be great, he wanted himself to be promoted, he wanted himself to be able to earn God's favor.

Now, think about Zacchaeus' lie.

Why is it that Zacchaeus had stolen and betrayed his own people?

Why is it that he had robbed them as a tax collector so that he could get rich?

Well, it was for the same reason, wasn't it?

It was because he was living for himself.

So they had the same root sin.

It had just manifested itself in a different way.

The only difference, actually, between the rich young ruler and Zacchaeus is the way they responded to Jesus.

You remember that the rich young ruler, it tells us that he went away sad because he had great wealth.

He went away bitter.

But look at how Zacchaeus responded.

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

It's the exact opposite response, isn't it?

One goes away sad, never talk to him again.

The other says, I'm coming down, wait on me.

This is the best day of my life.

You see, the difference, the difference is how they found their peace and their security.

You see, the rich young ruler couldn't give up his wealth.

His wealth gave him his peace.

His wealth gave him his security.

His wealth established his significance in the community.

This had been what Zacchaeus had been chasing after.

This is why Zacchaeus had been chasing after wealth.

But in the pursuit of wealth, what Zacchaeus had actually done is ruined his life.

And so what Zacchaeus had always been pursuing in wealth, now he has found it in Jesus that Jesus is the security of his future.

That Jesus is the source of his peace.

That now in Jesus, he has finally, for the first time in his life, actually found security that here is the Son of God and he knows his name and he wants to be in his house.

What we're seeing here is the dismantling of an idol.

This is what always takes place when a sinner is converted by Jesus.

An idol is dismantled.

Why was it that Jesus asked the rich young ruler to give up all of his wealth?

Is it because wealth is evil?

Well, no, wealth is not evil.

It's because it was an idol.

He was attempting to dismantle the idol, but the rich young ruler loved his idol just too much.

He couldn't let go of it.

But Zacchaeus?

Zacchaeus had lived all of his life for money.

Zacchaeus had done it to the point where he wanted it so badly and he needed it so badly that he would steal and betray for it, that he would allow himself to be marginalized as a result of it.

And he hears Jesus and he's like, I'll leave it all.

I'll forsake it all.

I'll do without every bit of that.

There was a transformation of the affections of the needs in the lives, in the life of Zacchaeus.

What is it that you have to have?

What is it that you have to have or your life is insignificant?

What is it that you have to have or your life is insecure?

What is it that you have to have or your life will be a life of discontentment?

Probably the way that you answer that question reveals the idols in your heart.

Is it like the rich young ruler and it's money?

Maybe you spend all of your time earning money and nurturing your money and figuring out ways to enjoy your money.

My goodness, that's actually how we talk about our relationship with Jesus, isn't it?

But maybe it's not money.

Maybe for you, it's the position that you have in the company or the position that you're pursuing in your company.

And you think if I just get that position, then I will live arrived.

Then my life would matter.

Then I will finally, finally, finally have the job security I've always been chasing after.

Maybe for you it's to be super mom and to be seen by your kids and to be seen by your husband as supermom.

And you think if I could just have that, then I wouldn't matter.

Then it would feel as though I have found my place in the world.

Maybe it's your family that you feel like you can't live without.

You know the truth about those things is none of them are bad.

In fact, all of them are good things.

They're good things, but they're terrible gods.

Why?

All of them can leave you, all of them can go away, all of them forsake you.

And if you live with them as your gods, then you're gonna live all of your life without any peace and without any security because you're gonna continually worry.

Am I measuring up?

Are they gonna go away?

Do I have enough?

Is it good enough?

Do you know what Zacchaeus discovered?

Zacchaeus discovered the pathway to true freedom.

He discovered the pathway to true freedom.

All of his life he had stolen because he believed that money would give him the freedom that he needed to finally be at rest, and it had never worked.

But what he finds in Jesus, what he discovers in Jesus is that now, if as long as I have Jesus, as long as I have him in my life, then I really don't have to have anything else.

And if I have Jesus in my life, if I recognize that Jesus is all that I need, well, guess what?

Jesus isn't going anywhere.

Jesus isn't gonna forsake us, Jesus isn't going to abandon us.

So now the contentment in my life is secure, the security in my life is always there, the peace and the joy in my life are secure, the significance in my life are secure.

That once you recognize that the only thing that you have to have in this life is Jesus, and that having Jesus, you will always you will, and with Jesus, you will always have him.

Well, now, now you're secure.

Now you can actually enjoy the good gifts that you've been given.

Now your kids don't bear the weight of responsibility of assigning to you your significance by their comments.

Now your job doesn't define your identity or set up who you are.

No, that has already been decided in Christ.

So now you can go to work and you can give yourself all at work and you can leave it at work and it's all okay.

Now, now you can receive that money that you used to have stolen for, and maybe you had some unethical business practices to obtain.

Well, now you can have it and you can give it away generously, what you used to cut corners to make sure you have.

Why?

Because you don't need it.

Now you live in freedom.

The Lord has rewired your heart so that now you love something different.

This is what Ezekiel says is the net is the nature of the new kingdom that a heart of stone has been replaced by a heart of flesh, so that now you want what God wants for your life.

That He changes what we love so that He will change what we do and ultimately change how we live.

Think about how this looks in Zacchaeus' life.

Zacchaeus' repentance is not theoretical, verbal repentance, right?

That's part of it.

But that's not all that it is.

Zacchaeus' repentance is actually concrete, it's tangible.

So what he says, when he saw it, they all grumbled.

He's gone in to be the house of a man who is a sinner, and Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, Behold, the half of my goods I give to the poor.

This is not just making an amendment in a 12-step program.

Listen to what he says.

If I have defrauded anything of anyone, I will restore it fourfold.

I will not just blanket repent and say, I'm sorry, I will go to the people individually, and anything that I have cost them, I will give to them fourfold over again.

That it is a practical picture of repentance.

I heard uh Herschel Yorick say one time that when we repent, that our repentance needs to become more notorious than our sin.

We see something of that here with Zacchaeus, don't we?

We see that here with Zacchaeus.

But you know, I think there's another layer to it.

The idea of this being fourfold, it's not random.

It actually comes from Exodus chapter 22, verse 1.

Exodus 22:1

It says, if a man steals an ox or a sheep and kills it or sells it, he shall repay five oxen for an ox, or four.

See the connection?

Four sheep for a sheep.

Do you see what's taking place in Zacchaeus' life?

Zacchaeus is not just beginning to show repentance and a change of mind.

Zacchaeus is submitting himself to the law of God.

But he's submitting himself to the law of God in a way that is completely different than the way that the rich young ruler had submitted himself to the law of God.

The rich young ruler had kept all the law since he was but a boy, but he had done it so that he would build himself up.

He had done it so that he would earn the approval of his father.

He had done it so that he would make his name great.

He had done it so that he would obtain some kind of righteousness.

Zacchaeus does it for the exact opposite reason.

Zacchaeus doesn't do it so that he would catch the eye of God.

He does it because he now already has a relationship with God.

He doesn't do it so that he would earn some kind of significance in the kingdom.

He does it because he's been given the kingdom.

That there's been a transformation in his heart, a transformation of what he does, a transformation of how he lives.

And so it works its way out in all the ways so that now, joyfully, not begrudgingly, not just dutifully, joyfully, he submits himself now to the law of God to begin living out what the Lord has called for him to do.

See, here's the truth about Jesus.

Here's the truth about Jesus.

Jesus will receive any person regardless of what they've done.

Jesus will receive you exactly the way that you are.

You don't have to clean up, you don't have to act better, you don't have to be more polished, you don't have to go and try to cancel out all the bad that you've done.

Jesus will receive you exactly as you are.

But here's the thing He'll never leave you that way.

He'll never leave you that way.

Jesus will receive you exactly as you are, but Jesus will never leave you in your sin.

Jesus will always change what you love, and because he changes what you love, he will then transform how you live.

So the question that Zacchaeus asks us here is not, do you like the idea of Jesus?

Probably all of us here in the room like the idea of Jesus.

It's not even, do you think that the gospel is beautiful?

If you've ever heard the gospel winsomely articulated, even if you don't believe it, you have to acknowledge that it's beautiful.

The question is not, do you like the idea of Jesus?

The question is not, do you think the gospel is beautiful?

The question is, is have you ever received Jesus into your home in such a way that he has rearranged all of the furniture?

Have you ever received Jesus into your home in such a way that he rearranges your life and he transforms your life and he changes your life?

Because Jesus, Jesus changes the worst.

He receives the words, but he changes the worst.

Jesus receives the best, but he changes the best.

Your life will be transformed as a result.

And finally, the gospel of the outcast is that Jesus blessed the cursed.

Jesus blessed the cursed.

It's an awful feeling to realize that you're in a room where you just don't belong, isn't it?

You ever had that experience?

A couple of years ago, um, I got invited to go and participate in a conference where they were helping train pastors on how to deal with the issue of addiction.

And so I went, it was on my off day, so I was a little more casual, and I went in, and as soon as I stepped into the auditorium, I just wanted to turn around and walk right back out.

I walked into that auditorium, y'all, and every brother in the room is in a three-piece suit.

I'm talking dressed to the nines, ties, they looked like a picture of perfection.

Me, I was wearing a shirt with sailboats on it.

Okay?

A shirt with sailboats on it.

And I thought, what in the world have I stepped into the middle of right here?

So what had happened is the night before the conference, the conference leaders had called all the other participants and said, hey, we're gonna do a photo directory, and so we want everybody to dress up really nice, but they somehow lost my number and I didn't get that phone call.

And so I stepped into a meeting and I knew when I got into the room I wasn't supposed to be in the room.

Here's the thing about Jesus there is no one from any walk of life that doesn't belong in the room with him.

That's the message here.

There's no one from any walk of life with any story, with any family history, with any sin history, there's no one from any walk of life that doesn't belong in the room with Jesus.

This would have been especially sweet to Luke.

That the excluded in Christ now become the included.

See, Luke, Luke was a Gentile.

I mentioned that at the beginning of the sermon.

And being a Gentile, he was believed to be outside of the promises.

In fact, Luke was a doctor, he was a medical doctor, so he would have thought himself as a healer.

He was the kind of God that liked to be around you, touch you, and make you better.

But because he was a gentile, the Jews actually believed that if he touched you, he didn't make you better, he didn't heal you, he defiled you, he polluted you, he made you unclean.

Right?

He and Zacchaeus were alike in this way.

You remember I mentioned that last week, if you remember that a tax collector, if a tax collector came and he touched your house, that tax collector immediately polluted and defiled your house.

He rendered your house unclean.

He could render you unclean so that you have to go through all of the purification rites to be able to come in and to worship the Lord.

And so here is Luke thinking of the story of Zacchaeus.

And you have to wonder, Luke is the only gospel writer that includes the story of Zacchaeus in his gospel.

It's probably for this reason.

It's probably for this reason.

That here is Luke, and he sees this man who defiles and who pollutes everything that he touches until it comes to Jesus.

Until it comes to Jesus.

Listen to what it says.

Jesus said to him, He comes down out of the tree, he says, This is how I'm gonna respond in repentance.

I'm gonna give back fourfold, I'm gonna get half of my wealth to the poor.

And he says, Today, salvation has come to this house since he is also a what?

A son of Abraham.

Here's the significance.

Before, before old life, Zacchaeus was a son of perdition.

Luke would have been viewed as a son of perdition, someone outside of the promises, someone under the judgment, someone for whom the Messiah wouldn't be good news.

But now here's Jesus, and Jesus is coming.

He said, No, no, no, no, no.

I have kicked open the gates, I have kicked open the gates so that now sons of perdition become sons of promise.

That now all of those who come to me are sons of Abraham.

It doesn't matter what your past is, doesn't matter if you're a Gentile, doesn't matter if you're a tax collector, doesn't matter if you're a Pharisee, doesn't matter what your story is.

If you used to be a son of perdition, you can enter through Christ and now you can become a son included in the promise.

Now you get to enjoy the good news that God has promised to his people through all generations.

Now you, like he promised to Abraham, become one of Abraham's children that scatter the galaxies that are living under the blessing of God.

That's beautiful, isn't it?

That's beautiful.

That's the picture of what Jesus has come to do.

This is the nature of Jesus' mission.

This is what Advent is always about.

That Jesus has come to kick open the gate, that everybody who would enter in through the gate can now come in and enjoy his promises.

Now it's a narrow gate.

It's a narrow gate.

He tells us that.

You can't bring with you all of your favorite sins, and you can't bring with you all of your favorite idols.

You have to leave them outside the gate.

And it's a hard gate.

It's a gate that's in the shape of a cross.

Jesus says that it's a it's a hard path and only a few will find it.

But Jesus is in the business of opening up the gate to people who have continually over the course of their lives had doors shut in their faces.

And that's who we're gonna be, Orchard Church.

That's who we're gonna be.

Can we just all make an agreement, a covenant with each other that we're never gonna say somebody is a prime prospect?

Y'all ever heard that language in churches?

Brother, brother, you make sure you go talk to them, they're visiting.

That's a prime prospect.

Here's what we usually mean by that.

That's a person that fits the socioeconomic profile of the person that we're hoping will come and be a part of our church because in some way it will elevate the good news of our church.

That is someone who kind of fits what we are and who we want to be, how we want to present ourselves to the world.

That is somebody that can contribute to the offering.

That is somebody that can contribute to the they are a prime prospect.

Do you know who a prime prospect is?

Literally anybody who will come through Christ.

Anyone who will come through Christ.

It doesn't matter if they're rich or if they're poor, doesn't matter if they're black or if they're white, doesn't matter if they're young or if they're old, it doesn't matter if they're prominent for what they've done right or if they're prominent for what they've done wrong.

Whoever, whoever will come and enter in through the narrow gate, whoever it is will enter by the person of Christ.

That, that brothers and sisters, is the prime prospect for the orchard church.

Could we just be a gate opening, door opening church to our community to invite everybody to come and find hope in the promises of God?

See, the excluded in Christ become the included, and the avoided become the sought after.

When we get to verse 10, I've kind of written all over it there.

If we get to verse 10, what we discover is that the exact reason that Jesus came to seek.

Remember, that's the Advent word.

Advent means come.

It says, For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.

This is the nature of Jesus' mission.

And what we're supposed to understand is that this isn't just the summary verse of chapter 19.

This is actually the summary verse of everything that's taken place on Jesus' journey to Jerusalem.

This is the summary verse for the entire gospel to the outcast, starting in chapter 9, verse 51, going all the way through chapter 19, verse 9.

That we're supposed to have in our minds the journey that Jesus has been on in all of the different outcasts and marginalized of society that Jesus has encountered and all of those that he has encountered and then given hope to.

That we're supposed to remember that there was that there was a disabled woman that was healed, that there was a prodigal son that has come home and been celebrated.

There was a poor man named Lazarus that was raised from the dead.

There's a rich man, Zacchaeus, as we just see, who is received into the nature of the kingdom.

There is a Samaritan leper that's made clean.

There's little children that are welcomed into the house.

There's a blind beggar that is that is healed and made well.

That all of those make up the nature of Jesus' kingdom.

And those are the ones that Jesus came to seek and to save.

Those are the ones that characterize the loss.

Now here's the interesting thing.

Those would have been all of the ones that Jewish theology would have categorized as cursed.

They would have believed that if you were disabled, that you were disabled because either you sinned or your parents sinned, you were under a curse.

They would have believed, they would have believed that if you were a Samaritan and you were a leper, that you were cursed because of the sins of your forefathers and because of what they've done.

They would have certainly believed that Zacchaeus was cursed because of all the sin in his life.

They would have believed that Lazarus' death must have been justified.

And it's the exact same logic that would have called compelled them to believe that the rich young ruler was had the favor of God and was blessed by God.

But here's Jesus.

And he's taken us on this journey so that now that we can see that all of those that the world is called cursed, he has come to seek out that he might call them blessed.

And I wonder, I wonder how this applies to you.

This morning, are you running from God?

Jesus came to seek out the prodigal.

This morning, are you stealing from your company?

Jesus came to deliver the tax collector.

This morning, do you feel as though you are too insignificant to matter?

Jesus came to raise Lazarus from the dead.

Do you feel like you're an outcast in every single room that you walk into?

Y'all, Jesus came for the Samaritan.

And what all of this means, what all of this boils down to, is that Jesus came for you.

The question, the question is this morning will you receive him?

Will you receive him in such a way that he comes into your life and he changes what you love and he changes how you live and he rearranges all the furniture so that it looks completely new?

Let's pray the Lord together.