Zacchaeus

Good morning. All right, this morning we are continuing our series,

Conversations Jesus Had.

The conversation that we are covering today is the conversation that Jesus had with Zacchaeus.

And before I even read it and explain it, let's go ahead and get one big issue out of the way.

Many of you think of this as a children's story. Am I correct?

Yeah, Zacchaeus is a children's Bible story. And why is it that you believe

that Zacchaeus is a children's Bible story?

Yeah, because of the song. So if you didn't grow up in church,

there's a little song about Zacchaeus.

And if you didn't grow up in church, you didn't hear that song.

And I think, I honestly think you will be just fine.

But if you did grow up in church, then you know the song, right?

So Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was? Yeah,

a little pitchy, but you got the lyric, right?

He climbed up in a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to. And as the Savior

passed that way. He looked up in the tree, and what did he say?

Zacchaeus, you come down. That's right, because I'm going to your house today.

Okay, so that song, and because it has a very sing-songy cadence to it,

it has caused the whole story of Zacchaeus in the Bible to be perceived as a children's story.

This happens sometimes with Bible stories, where they will take on a spin that

they did not inherently have.

So I'll give you an example that's not Zacchaeus. The book of Esther.

The book of Esther is commonly viewed as a woman's Bible study.

Did you know this? It's a woman's Bible story. And so women have Bible studies

and what are we going to learn?

A lot of times it's like, well, is it Esther or Ruth? Right?

And so that's what we're going to do.

And so people think of it as like, these are women's stories.

In fact, there's a famous, like well-known, I think it was a good selling Bible study on Esther.

And it was tight. And I think we did it here even at this church, like years ago.

Anyway, the Bible study's title is Esther, it's tough being a woman.

That was a big deal Bible study back, I don't know, maybe about 10 years ago.

Esther, it's tough being a woman.

But if you actually read the book of Esther, that's not what it's about.

I mean, I'm not saying I can't call it that, but when you look at the cover

of the Bible study and it says,

Esther, it's tough being a woman, you think, oh, this is a Bible study about

the book of Esther, which must be about femininity or how to handle womanhood

or how to handle the difficulties of womanhood. And it's not.

That's not what the book of Esther is about.

Esther is not like a woman's book any more than Luke is a book that's meant only for men.

In fact, there are two main characters in the book of Esther,

Esther and Mordecai. Esther's the girl, Mordecai's the boy.

And if they had named it Mordecai, which they could have, if they had named

that book Mordecai, it would make the same point, which is that God providentially

protects his people, right?

But nobody would have ever come out with Bible studies to say,

Mordecai, it's tough being a woman, right? They wouldn't have done that because

it's not what it's about.

So this also happens with stories that get branded as children's stories,

even though they're not.

David and Goliath is often presented as a children's story, right?

And we use it to teach our children about courage.

It's not a children's story. That story ends with David cutting Goliath's head

off with his own sword. It's violent. It's not a children's story.

Noah's Ark and the Noah's Flood, I mean, goodness gracious, that is like seen

as the quintessential children's story, isn't it? Until you read it.

Have you ever read that story? It's great. Now, I understand how it became a

children's story because if you make a little toy boat and you have a little

toy elephant that goes in there and a toy giraffe that goes in there,

a little figurine of Noah on the top, right? That's great for a toy.

And there are children's ministries all over the United States where they got,

at some point they got a building and then there was this big wall that when

you first walk in or there's a hallway that leads to the children's classrooms

and someone said, what are we going to put on this wall?

And almost every time someone went, Noah's Ark.

And so they do that, right? Because they go, yeah, because there's a rainbow

and there's a monkey that can wave at the children, right? It's so great.

It's not, I mean, you read it, read the story, okay? It's the time God drowned everyone.

It's not a children's story. So Zacchaeus' story is not a children's story.

It is as serious as the woman at the well that we learned a few weeks ago, right?

But no one thinks of the woman at the well as a children's story.

Why? Because she never got a song, right?

And can you imagine if she did? You've had five husbands and the man you now

have is not really your husband.

Like no, no one's sending their kids to that kid zone. That wouldn't have been a hit.

So, today I begin by telling you this is not a children's story about a little

cartoon leprechaun that peeks out of a tree at Jesus.

This is a story about an adult man who was probably an extortionist and Jesus changed his life.

So, we're going to read this text the same way we have read all of the other

texts in this series. If you have your Bible, go to Luke chapter 19.

Luke 19 · chapter mention

I'm going to read to you verses 1 through 10. That is the story of the conversation

between Jesus and Zacchaeus. Luke 19, starting in verse 1.

He entered Jericho and was passing through. The he there is Jesus.

He entered Jericho and was passing through. There was a man named Zacchaeus

who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich.

He was trying to see who Jesus was, but was not able to because of the crowd,

since he was a short man. That's it.

That's what caused the whole Weedle Little Man and the whole song right there,

is he was shorter than most of the people, since he was a short man.

So running ahead, he climbed up a sycamore tree to see Jesus,

since he was about to pass that way. When Jesus came to the place,

he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down because today I must stay at your house.

So he quickly came down and welcomed him joyfully.

All who saw it began to complain. He's gone to lodge with a sinful man.

But Zacchaeus stood there and

said to the Lord, Look, I'll give half my possessions to the poor, Lord.

And if I've extorted anything from anyone, I'll pay back four times as much.

Today salvation has come to this house, Jesus told him, because he too is a son of Abraham.

For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.

So that's our story. And I would like to help you sort of imagine what it would

have been like to have lived through this story.

And so as we kind of analyze it, I want to point out, I think there are three scenes in this story.

Like when you look at these 10 verses, I think there are three scenes where

this happened, three locations where the story unfolds.

In other words, if I were the director of a play and this was the script,

I think I would have to have three different sections of the stage to tell this

story because it happened in three different places.

So scene one is whatever side of town it is that Jesus walked in on and the crowd appears.

So this is Luke 19, verse 1. He entered Jericho and was passing through.

Luke 19:1

So he comes into Jericho on whatever entrance he came in, and he is passing

through, meaning he's trying to get from whatever side he walked in on to the

other side of the town and through it, right? So he's passing through.

There was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector,

and he was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but he was not able to

because of the crowd, right?

So there was this crowd of people that gathered around him as he enters into town.

That's scene one. Scene one is the scene where Zacchaeus can't see him,

wherever that location is.

Scene two is the tree. You can tell because when you get to verse four, he's not able to see him.

So it says, so running ahead. Running ahead of what?

Running ahead of scene one. Like he left the geographical location of where

Jesus was in the crowd and he went on ahead to another place.

What place did he go? To the tree.

Apparently, he knew Jesus is going to travel through this city.

He's going to take this particular street, and there's a tree along the side

of the street at such and such point.

If I get up on the tree, I can just wait for him to come past.

So scene two takes place at the tree, and the conversation between Jesus and

Zacchaeus begins at the tree.

When Jesus came to the place, he looked up. So again, if this is on a stage

and I'm the director, he's going to have to walk over to where this tree is

and then look up. And why did he look up?

Because the guy's up in a tree. And he said to him, Zacchaeus,

hurry and come down, because today I must stay at your house.

So he quickly came down and welcomed him joyfully. That's the next verse.

And this brings us to scene three.

So scene one is at the beginning of when he first walks into the town.

Scene two is at the tree. And I think here's where we move to scene three,

which would be Zacchaeus' house.

I know it's not mentioned at this point, but I think it's implied.

I think you can see it in multiple verses.

It says he quickly came down and he welcomed him joyfully. This is important. Welcomed him where?

I think it means welcomed him into his house. The Greek word that's used here

is a word that people would use to mean receiving someone as a guest.

So when it says he quickly came down and welcomed him, I know it doesn't specifically

say that they traveled to Zacchaeus' house at this point, but I think that's

what's implied. That's where he welcomed him. I don't think...

He climbed down to the base of the tree and then went, welcome, right?

He climbed down to the base of the tree and then said, okay,

let's go to my house. Why? Because the sentence before was, I need to go to

your house. So he welcomed into his house joyfully.

We also could tell by the next sentence, all who saw it began to complain he's

gone to lodge with a sinful man, right?

So the rest of this conversation is not taking place at the base of the tree.

The people are upset that it doesn't take place at the base of the tree.

The people are upset that they're

going to his house. And then you get to verse 9, and it makes sense.

After Zacchaeus says he's going to live his life differently from now on,

Jesus says, today salvation has come to this house, which it seems to me,

even though it doesn't say that they walked to the house, they must have.

It doesn't seem to me that Jesus would have said today salvation has come to

this house there at the tree.

So scene one is when he first walks in with the crowd, scene two happens at

the tree, and scene three happens at Zacchaeus' house later on that day.

The other thing I think you need to know when we look at a story like this is

there were probably many, many more words that were spoken between Jesus and

Zacchaeus than simply the words that are recorded in this story. Okay. Did you know this?

This is important. I don't, some Christians got this memo, some didn't.

But I think sometimes when we read this, we think like, oh, everything that

happened is what is recorded, which I mean, as a, I think that as a kid,

that's what I thought. Like, well, what did they say?

Well, they said what it says and they said nothing more than what it says.

I don't think that's a good way to view the Bible. First of all,

no one tells stories that way.

If you, let's say you go to a party, okay, and you have a friend and you say,

okay, I'm going to go to the party, I'll see you later.

And then you go back to that friend later and they go, hey, how was the party?

And you say, oh, this is what happened.

Okay, then what do you do? You tell them some of what happened,

right? You tell them the most important parts, at least the things that are most important to you.

You might even tell them what some of the people at the party said,

but you don't give them a transcript of everything that everybody said at the

party, right? You just say some of the things that some of the people said that

are important to the story.

I think that's the same exact thing happening here. That's important to make sense of this.

If you just go, no, all they said is what it says they said,

you're going to have a problem.

So here's one issue, because you might go, well, I think Mario,

I think everybody knows that about the Bible.

I don't know, because there are people who come to verse five,

and this comes up a lot. When you look at verse five, could we have verse five?

Yeah, when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him,

Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, because today I'm going to stay at your house.

This is something that is commonly said about this story. They go,

how did Jesus know his name was Zacchaeus?

If this is the first time that these two people have ever seen each other,

how did he look up in the tree and say, and call him Zacchaeus?

And so the idea, there's some sort of miracle that took place that Jesus called him by name.

Now I will say this, first of all, that is possible.

Jesus did have supernatural knowledge.

There are times he knew things that ordinary people wouldn't know.

It is possible that he knew Zacchaeus' name and called him by name before meeting him.

But I'm also letting you know it is possible that this is just an excerpt from the story.

And that he talked to Zacchaeus while he was up in that tree.

And he learned his name, and he learned Jesus' name, and they talked.

And then at some point in this tree conversation, he said, come on down.

I need to go to your house.

It's possible nothing miraculous happened. Maybe something miraculous happened, but not necessarily.

And that's the thing I'm trying to get you to realize. There probably were more words than this.

And if there weren't, the story's actually really weird. Because Jesus says

this, and if we're trying to analyze the conversation between Jesus and Zacchaeus,

we're going to have a problem.

Because the next thing that Zacchaeus says.

Is completely unmotivated by this sentence.

Like it almost seems like there had to have been something in the middle.

If the only things that were said is what is recorded, then this is what you

have. You have Jesus. So he comes up to Zacchaeus.

He says, I'm going to go to your

house. And that's the very first thing he ever said to the guy, right?

Like the very first sentence out of Jesus' mouth to a total stranger is, take me to your house.

And then that guy didn't say anything back because it doesn't say he did.

So apparently he climbed down the tree in silence and then motioned for Jesus

to follow him to his house.

And then they silently walked to his house.

Then I guess with no words, Zacchaeus motioned for them to all sit at the table

or whatever place that he had.

And he maybe silently motioned for his slaves to bring the food or whatever it is that happened.

And then verse eight happens. Here's the next person.

Here's the next time Zacchaeus talks. Verse eight, Zacchaeus says,

so keep in mind, nothing's been said at this point. If you believe that everything

that was said was written down.

So he said, I need to go to your house. They silently go to the house. They silently sit down.

And then with no motivation whatsoever, other than maybe Jesus making judgmental

facial expressions, apparently Zacchaeus just says, look, I'll give half my

possessions to the poor. Like, that's just the next thing he said.

No, that's not the next thing he said. Zacchaeus came down and they talked as

they were walking to his house.

And then they went into his house and they talked more.

And then at some point in the evening or in the whatever time of day it was,

as they're there at the house, at some point, Zacchaeus said,

look, I'll give half my possessions to the poor.

And he was saying that in reaction to something that Jesus had said.

Lord, and if I have extorted anything from anyone, I'll pay back four times as much.

Jesus had said something, some sort of conversation happened.

And Luke records this, because this was the most important part.

At some point in the conversation, as they were talking back and forth,

Zacchaeus decided Jesus was his Lord and was worth rearranging his life for.

And so he said this in reaction to something.

And then Jesus says something in reaction to this, today salvation has come

to this house because he too is a son of Abraham.

So that's the story let's now

explore four teachings that can come from

this story four things that we can learn from Jesus and Zacchaeus's conversation

or maybe you could say four applications of how this would apply to your life

here's number one repentance is the evidence that salvation has come to someone

repentance is the evidence that salvation has come to someone how do you know that Mario?

Cool. That's what happened in the story. Verses eight and nine.

Let's look at them again.

Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, look, I give half my possessions

to the poor Lord. And if I extorted anything from anyone, I'll pay back four times as much.

So I'm calling that repentance, right? You know, what does, what does repentance mean?

Well, the way I'm using the word is when someone says, this is the way I was living my life. No more.

Repentance is a change of mind. Repentance is a change of behavior.

Repentance is I was going my own way.

Now I'm going to go the Lord's way. And so that's what he says.

I'll do whatever it is. I will do things your way from now on.

I will give half my possessions to the poor.

I will reimburse people that I sinned against and extorted from.

And Jesus, in reaction to that, says, salvation has come to this house.

So if we are people who are truly saved, it should bring about a changed life. Amen?

If we are people who are truly changed, that should bring about a changed life.

In this story, we see Zacchaeus loving Jesus more than money,

caring for the poor, and making restitution for his wrongs.

And Jesus says, salvation has come to his house, and he even uses this phrase.

He says, because he too is a son of Abraham.

Why did Jesus declare him to be a son of Abraham?

I think Jesus is speaking spiritually here. He is a son of Abraham,

especially now that salvation has come to this house.

So the reason I say spiritually is the other option would be ethnically,

like that he is the son of Abraham, meaning he is a Jewish person.

But if Zacchaeus is a Jewish person, and I would imagine he is,

he was a son of Abraham before this all happened, right?

Like ethnically, if he's ethnically Jewish, then he was ethnically Jewish the

week before and the month before and the year before.

But he says today salvation has come to this house because he too is a son of Abraham.

And I think he's saying something like this. So he is an ethnic son of Abraham.

He maybe was not considered that anymore once he became a tax collector.

Like once he sort of defected in the minds of the Jewish people and joined the

Romans, they might have been like, he's not one of us anymore.

And then Jesus is saying, no, no, this man is saved. He really is one of us now.

I think this is Jesus' way of saying, Zacchaeus truly is one of God's people,

spiritually a son of Abraham, because salvation has come to this house.

Now, it's not that you can buy your way into the kingdom of God.

I do not suspect that Zacchaeus said, look, I'll give half my possessions to

the poor in response to Jesus saying something like, there's an entrance fee

into the kingdom of heaven, right? If you want to get into heaven,

it's going to cost this much.

And Zacchaeus goes, oh, well, that's about half of everything I have. All right, I'll do that.

That's not what's going on here.

What I think is happening is Zacchaeus is changing his life voluntarily.

And so he has repented and he is surrendering to the Lord.

And the changes that he is choosing to make show that he is really repentance.

This repentance is evidence that he is truly saved, right? He is truly a follower of Jesus.

I guess the way that I could say this, the way to reply to you is this.

If you are a Christian, there should be enough evidence to convict you of Christianity, right?

Because I think that's what's happening here. He's saying, oh yeah,

he too is a son of Abraham. Okay, second point.

Repentance is connected to our whole lives and it definitely includes how we relate to our money.

Repentance is connected to our whole lives and it definitely includes how we relate to our money.

The financial aspect of this story is important to the story.

When Luke tells the story and he introduces us to Zacchaeus,

he brings up the money topic immediately. If you go back to verse two,

he says, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was what?

Rich. Luke brings up Zacchaeus' money right as he introduces the character to

us. Nothing's even happened yet.

And he's like, you need to know this guy's rich. Why? Because that's going to

have something to do with the story.

Well, at the time you get to verse seven, all who saw it began to complain.

He's gone to lodge with a sinful man. Okay, so the people thought he was awful,

right? The people thought he was sinful, and he was rich.

And then when you get to verse eight, you can kind of start putting two and two together.

In verse 8, he says, and if I have extorted anything from anyone,

I'll pay back four times as much.

So when you put all together, all of the like kind of financial details,

it looks like we have a man here who's got a lot of money, but he probably gained

in sinful ways, right? All that's important to the story.

And I think that it brings up a principle in his life that would also apply to most of us.

If Jesus is your Lord, it should change the way that you relate to money.

If Jesus is your Lord, it should change the way you relate to money.

You might go, yeah, well, that was just the case with this particular guy.

That's not everybody. No, it's not just this guy.

I'll show this to you. We'll just go back a few pages. I think it's,

I don't know, seven or eight pages, same book of the Bible, Luke chapter three.

In Luke chapter three, you have the story of John the Baptist.

Maybe it's nine or ten pages.

Okay, so when you get to Luke chapter 3, but we're still in the same book here,

Luke 3 · chapter mention

John the Baptist is preaching.

John the Baptist is the character in the New Testament that is probably most

connected to the idea of repentance, because that was John the Baptist's message, was repent.

So I want you to see what Luke says when he tells us the story of John the Baptist

teaching people to repent, because what happens in the story is he tells the

people to repent, essentially they say, okay, how do we do that?

And every example that he gives has to do with money.

So let me read it to you. Luke chapter 3, starting in verse 7.

Luke 3 · chapter mention

He then said to the crowd, so that he hears John the Baptist,

he then said to the crowds.

Who came out to be baptized by him, brood of vipers, who warned you to flee

from the coming wrath, okay?

This is very friendly, sensitive preaching.

So he said, you people are awful. Why are you trying to get away from the wrath?

Who told you the wrath is coming? Because wrath's coming for you, right?

Verse 8, therefore, produce fruit consistent with repentance,

right? That's obviously not literal.

Fruit here is the word that means like the product of, the thing that comes from.

Like what comes out of your life needs to be consistent with the life that has turned toward God.

Produce fruit consistent with repentance. And don't start saying to yourselves,

we have Abraham as our father.

For I will tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones.

He's saying, don't think you don't have to repent. And you can just say ethnically,

I'm Jewish. I'm a son of Abraham. So I'm fine.

No, you need to repent. You're not fine.

God can raise up children from Abraham from these stones. And in fact,

a few chapters later, he raises up a child of Abraham from the group of tax

collectors, which they might have thought was crazier than a stone becoming a son of Abraham.

Even now, the axe is ready to strike the fruit of the trees.

Therefore, every tree that doesn't produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown

into the fire, right? He's threatening judgment.

You need to repent or there's going to be judgment. It's coming.

Now, all of that was set up. Now, look what happens next. Verse 10.

The people on hearing this message of repentance, start asking, how do you do it?

Verse 10, what then should we do? The crowds were asking him, what does he say?

They said, how do we, how do we repent? Look what he tells them to do.

Verse 11, he replied to them, the one who has two shirts must share with someone who has none.

And the one who has food must do the same.

How do we repent? Share your resources. Now, so then a different group comes

up and goes, what about us? Look at verse 12.

Tax collectors also came to be baptized, and they asked him,

teacher, what should we do?

He told them, don't collect any more than you've been authorized.

Don't collect any more what? Money.

So then another group comes up to him. Look at this, verse 14.

Some soldiers also questioned him. What should we do?

He said to them, don't take what?

Money from anyone by force or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.

That's a code word for money, if you didn't know.

In other words, John the Baptist, as he's asked, as people are asking him how

to repent, he brings up money in every single case.

Like if you, let me just summarize what you just read.

John the Baptist goes around telling the people, repent, repent, repent.

They say to him, how, how, how? And he says, change the way you handle your

money, change the way you handle your money, change the way you handle your money.

Now, you already knew this. This is not unique to Jesus.

If you love something or if you love someone, it changes how you handle your money. Isn't that true?

That's not just Jesus that that's true about.

If you love anything or you love anyone, it affects the way you handle your money.

I'll just give you an example. Let's just say there are probably,

this probably applies to many people in this room.

There are lots of times in life where a man falls in love with a woman.

And when that man falls in love with a woman, it changes how he handles his

money, doesn't it? It does.

He starts spending money differently. He starts saving money differently.

He starts giving away things differently. He starts giving things to her differently.

Like things are just different.

I mean, just here's a small example. And maybe you need to hear this,

ladies, just so you know how we really feel about this.

There are times when men, because they are in love with a woman,

will buy her flowers, okay? This happens a lot.

Men will buy a woman flowers. Why?

Because of love, not because that's a good gift.

It's so inefficient. It's totally impractical. No man would buy flowers for

any other reason. We don't buy flowers for any other reason, do we?

Like it's not, they don't, what kind of a gift that we know you love it?

If it's important to you, then sure, we'll spend $50, $75 sometimes for a bouquet

of flowers, and they don't do anything.

Flowers don't accomplish anything, and then they only live for like a week,

and then they're dead, so they do nothing for a week, and then they really do nothing forever.

And yet, on Valentine's Day, people spend $2.6 billion on flowers.

That's on Valentine's Day alone. That doesn't even count anniversaries and apologies.

Why are so many dollars being sent to get a thing that doesn't do anything?

Because if something or someone has your heart, it always affects what you do with your money.

So does the Lord have your heart? Make sure you handle money his way.

Number three, Jesus came to seek and save the lost. And his mission is now our mission.

I guess that's kind of two points, but I'm just going to put them together and

call it point three. Jesus came to seek and save the lost, and his mission is now our mission.

Let's start with Jesus came to seek and save the lost. How do you know that, Mario?

Because Jesus literally said it in the story. Okay, so if we're going back now

to Luke chapter 19 verses like 9 and 10, they're going to come up together?

Luke 19 · chapter mention

Something that has verse 10 will be great. Luke 19, verse 10.

Luke 19:10

Do we have it? Yeah. Salvation has come to this house, Jesus told him,

because he too is a son of Abraham.

For the son of man, and that's a title that Jesus used referring to himself,

okay, that he is the son of man.

The son of man has come to seek and save the lost.

What was Jesus's mission statement? What was his purpose statement?

Why was he there? Like, why did Jesus come?

This is what he said by his own admitting. He says, this is my reason.

I came to seek and save the lost.

Jesus' mission that he said was to find people and rescue people lost in sin.

Jesus did this many times on an individual basis like he does in this story,

bringing about salvation for Zacchaeus.

And there's lots of other stories like this one. But I would say Jesus' main

way of rescuing people, seeking and saving the lost, comes up at the end of the life story of Jesus.

Jesus' main way of rescuing people really comes up at the apex of the story

of Jesus when Jesus died on the cross for our sins.

Like if we were to say, one was the way. I mean, there's a lot of different

ways where we see Jesus and he saves someone.

But if you were to say, what is like really the way? What's the scene in the

Bible? Where's the place?

How do we know that Jesus really came to seek and save the lost.

It would be at the apex of the story, Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the world.

When he was seeking to save people from their sins, when did he really do that?

When he died on the cross for our sins.

By taking on God's wrath, by taking on the curse that humanity deserved onto

himself, all the way to the point of death, he made a way for us to be forgiven.

He made a way for us to be declared righteous.

He made a way for us to be not lost. For us to be able to receive the Holy Spirit.

Jesus rose from the dead. He ascended into heaven.

And just before he ascended into heaven, he handed a mission off to us to complete.

He said, go and make disciples of all nations.

Go tell everybody. Go get everybody to follow me. You'll be my witnesses all

the way to the ends of the earth.

Jesus' mission is now our mission, to seek the lost and to reach them with the

salvation of Jesus Christ. That is now our mission.

Jesus came, so this is kind of the idea. Jesus came to seek and save the lost.

So our immediate and initial reaction to that should be to believe in him,

to trust in him, to follow him, and be one of those lost people who are rescued.

And then once that has occurred, all right, now what? Well, now his mission

is our mission, and we want to reach the lost with the salvation of Jesus.

And this is something that we have made a big deal about here at Good News Church.

It's the reason why love people who don't know God yet is written on the walls in the lobby.

But this is something that's really important for you to note.

The mission being written on the wall doesn't accomplish the mission.

Did you know that? Reaching the lost is the right goal, but we cannot pull that

off unless a bunch of you choose to make it your personal mission statement.

The wall can say, love God, love each other, love people who don't know God yet.

That won't actually happen until we as individual people decide my personal

mission statement is going to be love God, love each other, and love people who don't know God yet.

I don't know if you've ever thought about it before, but as a church,

we will accomplish whatever it is we all accomplish.

That statement is obviously true. I phrased it that way on purpose because there's

certain ways where you say something, you go, we can't argue with that.

It's like when people say what's done is done. Well, yes, that's true.

All right. Anytime you say something is itself, like that's true.

And so I'm saying we will accomplish whatever we accomplish.

Yes, that's true, Mario. But I'm trying to say something a little deeper than that.

I'm saying we're going to accomplish whatever it is we accomplish.

I'm trying to point out something we often miss. As long as a bunch of us in

this room think of the church, and a bunch of us in this whole county,

if as long as a bunch of us think of the church as a non-profit organization

that is separate from us,

and we're thankful that they are reaching the lost, as long as that's the predominant

mindset, we will probably not accomplish the mission.

It has to be understood that the church is the people.

We are the church. Therefore, the church will accomplish whatever we accomplish.

And reaching Marion County with the good news of Jesus Christ probably will

not be accomplished unless the individual Christians in Marion County decide,

I'm a missionary to Marion County.

So Jesus' mission is to seek and save the lost, and his mission is now ours.

And then here's the last point.

And this one's a big one. The gospel isn't just for people we like.

It's also for people we don't like.

That's a big part of the story. Zacchaeus just wasn't a random wee little man.

He was the guy nobody liked.

Zacchaeus' status as chief tax collector and the fact that the crowd complained

about how terrible he was and why in the world would Jesus go to somebody's

house who's so terrible, that's an important part of the story.

I want to read to you, this is a quote from N.T. Wright. N.T.

Wright is a British scholar.

He is a well-known theologian. He's written a ton of books and I found this

quote in a book where he was talking about Zacchaeus and so I want to read it

to you, because I think it helps us sort of picture what it was like culturally

at that time for those people. So let me read this to you.

And T. Wright says, nobody in Jericho liked Zacchaeus.

They would have been horrified to think that of all the inhabitants of the town,

he would be the one known by name to millions of people 2,000 years later.

He was exactly the kind of man everybody despised

not only a tax collector but a chief tax collector

that is not only did he make money on the side in addition

to his legitimate collections but he almost certainly made more money

from the tax collectors working under him one can only imagine the reaction

of neighbors and even of friends and relatives as Zacchaeus's house became more

lavishly decorated as more slaves ran about at his bidding as his clothes became

finer and his food richer,

everyone knew that this was their money and that he had no right to it.

Everyone knew that there was nothing they could do about it.

I think that's right. Zacchaeus was hated and Jesus actively pursues this sinner.

He actively pursues an outsider. He actively pursues a person who's been rejected by most.

By the way, that is very good news if you are someone who considers yourself

to be like a rotten person or you feel very rejected.

I know not everybody in the room is in this category, but there are probably

some of you that go, I always feel way below average. I always feel like I'm screwing up.

I always feel like I am. I'm a rejected person. I'm worse than most others.

And if you're here, I have such good news for you. You're the kind of person Jesus wants to save.

This aspect of the story is also a clue as to who we should care about and who we should reach out to.

Reach out to people who've been rejected. Reach out to people who we don't like, right?

Now, you might go, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's Christian stuff.

Don't you think we already know this? Love everybody, blah, blah,

blah. I think we already know this.

And I would say to you, I'm not so sure we do.

Let me give you an illustration, because this, I think, happens even at a leadership level sometimes.

So when I was in high school, I went to a youth group.

And I don't mean this as a criticism as my youth group. I loved the youth group

that I went to. God used it in my life in a wonderful and dramatic way.

I love my youth group. I love my youth pastor. I loved everything about it.

In fact, probably, maybe more than any other reason, that might be the reason I'm a pastor now.

Was because of my youth group. So I loved my youth group. And the youth group

that I went to had a mission statement.

The mission statement was a little bit more complicated than the one we have

here at this church, okay? They must have thought we were very smart.

Because it was a five-part mission statement instead of a three-part mission

statement, and this is what it was. Our youth pastor taught us that this is

why we exist as a youth group.

He said we exist to be in love with and committed to God, to be in love with

and committed to each other, to actively share Christ's message with our friends,

to use our gifts to serve the local church and beyond and to honor God with our lives.

Okay. He taught me that when I was, I don't know, maybe around 17 years old.

And so I was like, okay. And I,

I, I heard it. I obviously, I memorized it and I was on board with that.

Let's do that. Okay. We're going to be in love with the community of God,

in love with the community to each other, actively share Christ's message with

our friends, use our gifts to serve the local church and beyond,

honor God with our lives.

And then at some point, I guess in my twenties, I looked back on it and I noticed a problem with it.

And if you didn't catch it. It's the third one. It's, we promised that we would

actively share Christ's message with our friends. That's what it was written.

We exist to actively share Christ's message with our friends.

And I don't mean to be too super critical.

It is wonderful to actively share Christ's message with your friends.

But it seems to me the implication of that wording is the gospel is for people we already like.

Who's the gospel for? Your friends. It's for the people you already like.

Now think about what Jesus did in this story.

He sought out the guy that nobody likes.

So here's my challenge for you. Actually, I have two challenges,

depending on what group you're in.

If you're someone who's here and you are like a new Christian, okay?

You've become a believer in Jesus fairly recently, and you have not really shared

the message of Jesus Christ with others yet, then I would say to you,

let's go ahead and make it easy for you.

Let's do baby steps, and let's make step one not so hard, okay? So this is my challenge.

If you're a newer believer in Jesus Christ, and you haven't shared Christ's

message with others, this is my challenge for you. I would challenge you to

share what you, like when you go, wow, Jesus saved me.

Well, tell somebody, this is what I, this is now what I know about him.

This is what he, this is the difference he makes in someone's life.

This is the difference he makes in someone's eternity. I would challenge you

to share that with someone, and I'll say for you, why don't you start with someone you love?

Maybe it's a spouse you know maybe it's your aunt your nephew your best friend

but someone that you love tell them about jesus but for those of you who have

been a christian for a while and you have shared christ with your loved ones

this is my challenge for you over the next few months,

pray for care about invest in and share Christ with that guy at work that you do not currently like,

And if you need to change it to fit your situation, go for it, okay?

Maybe the woman at the side of the soccer field, that her kid's on the team

and your kid's on the team and you don't like standing next to her.

Or the kid in your class that you are like praying he will get transferred to another school.

Pray for, care about, invest in, and share Christ with that person that you do not currently like.

And I say the word currently, you're going, oh, this hurts. well, you signed up for this.

The reason I say share Christ with and invest in the person you do not currently

like, I purposely use the word currently because this has been my experience.

Once you start praying for and caring about and investing in someone,

you usually don't continue you to dislike them.

It's weird. It's weird how that works.

And so it may very well be that by the time you're sharing Christ with them,

they're not even someone you don't like anymore. That's fine. That still counts.

So let me just summarize what we've said today. Repentance is the evidence that salvation has come.

Repentance is connected to how we relate to our money. Jesus came to seek and save the lost.

And the gospel is for everyone we like and everyone we don't like. Let's pray.

God, I was praying to you earlier. I'm so aware that words can be spoken like

this and they can have a great effect or a small effect and it has everything

to do with what you choose to do.

And so I just, I realize there can be people here who say, I need to go care

for this person that I don't like.

And I need to care about their soul. And there could be people in this room

that go, I need to redo my budget and make it like a Christian one.

And then there could be people here that just flies over their head and it does nothing.

And I think it's all up to you. I think you're in control of everything.

And so God, I ask that you would apply this to our lives. That by the power

of your spirit, you would put this into our minds and into our hearts.

And that we would honor you. And we thank you, Jesus.

Thank you for seeking us out and saving us, at least on behalf of the people

in this room who are saved. Those of us who do know you.

We know that we are morally bankrupt. We know that we are sinful people and

that you would seek us out and save us is a testament to how wonderful you are,

not how wonderful we are.

And so we thank you for it and we praise you for it and we worship you for it.

And we pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Let me end with these good words from God's word. This is from the book of 1 John chapter 4.

1 John 4 · chapter mention

Love consists in this, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent

his son to be the propitiation for our sins. That is good news.