The Zacchaeus Factor (Luke 19:1-10)

  • please open your Bibles to Luke 19 this morning
  • as you open your Bibles, I want to commend those of you who have begun the 50-Day Adventure
  • this is Day 8
  • but I also want to extend a word of forgiveness to those stragglers who haven’t yet begun
  • you know, it’s not too late
  • I hope that you’ll pick up an Adventure Journal before you leave this morning
  • and don’t begin at Day 1, pick it up and Day 8
  • and if anyone missed a day last week, I extend forgiveness to you as well
  • we ask that you put a bit more money in the offering plate this morning as you leave, but beyond that you’re completely forgiven
  • let’s read the passage of Scripture this morning
  • 19:1 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through.
  • 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy.
  • 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd.
  • 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
  • 5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.”
  • 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
  • 7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a ‘sinner.'”
  • 8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
  • 9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.
  • 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”
  • many Christians can be represented by the people mentioned in verse 7
  • 7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a ‘sinner.'”
  • the word mutter in this verse is similar to the one used of the Israelites when they complained about being in the desert after the Exodus
  • to borrow a phrase from David Ring or Bill Hackett, they were bellyaching that Jesus had the audacity to hang around a sinner
  • not only was Jesus hanging around a sinner, but he was hanging around a sinner with a really bad reputation
  • we read in verse 2 that Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector, which means that he stood at the top of the collection pyramid
  • I bet you didn’t know they had pyramid schemes back then, but this was the ultimate: everyone had to pay taxes, and tax collectors could charge a commission for collecting taxes, and here Zacchaeus is taking a cut of the commission from everyone under him
  • no wonder he is a wealthy man, even though many consider his wealth ill-gotten
  • so disliked were tax collectors that in some ancient documents they were put on the same list as murderers and robbers
  • so here is Jesus befriending an out and out sinner
  • and it wasn’t the first time
  • in fact, Jesus called a tax collector to be one of his twelve disciples
  • he was known to associate with immoral women
  • so bad was his reputation that people said of Jesus, “‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and ‘sinners.'” (Luke 7:34)
  • how many sinners do you have as friends this morning?
  • some Christians mistakenly assume that it’s wrong to build relationships with sinners
  • and many of their reasons come from the Bible
  • BIBLICAL ISSUES
  • James 4:4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
  • but it’s clear from other passages such as 1 John 2:15-17, that the “world” is not referring to the people themselves, but the sin and evil that people in the world commit
  • in other words, we have to follow Christ’s command to love others without falling into the trap of loving the sins they commit
  • James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this…to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
  • John 17:14 they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.
  • but, we must read on:
  • John 17:15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one…
  • John 17:18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.
  • 2 Corinthians 6:17 “Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”
  • Paul here is talking about situations where believers are “yoked” with unbelievers
  • this does not refer to everyday friendships, but to more formal alliances
  • in fact, Paul said in an earlier letter that interaction with non-Christians is all right and even necessary
  • 1 Corinthians 5:9 I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people–
  • 1 Corinthians 5:10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.
  • SPIRITUAL DANGER
  • 1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”
  • first, the context of the verse is warning against accepting religious teachers who deny the resurrection of Christ
  • but there is a good point raised in this verse
  • namely, when we associate with someone who believes something other than the true gospel message, we need to be certain we’re the one whose influence is prevailing
  • for instance, take an office party, or going out after work
  • if you come home with a bit too much alcohol on your breath, and a headache the next day, it’s time to back away, at least for a while
  • because you’re not influencing your friends, they’re influencing you
  • but if we build friendships with a purpose — to contiguously influence people for Christ — we’ll be more likely to persevere in upholding what is morally right and true
  • RISKING YOUR REPUTATION
  • “If I start spending personal time in public places with pagans, what will the people in my church think?”
  • that’s a valid concern, because people in the church probably will misunderstand some of your efforts to relate to irreligious people
  • but you’re in good company, because Jesus not only risked his reputation, he ruined it!
  • Luke 7:34 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and “sinners.”‘
  • Matthew 9:10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with him and his disciples.
  • Matthew 9:11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?”
  • Matthew 9:12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.
  • Matthew 9:13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
  • PERSONAL DISCOMFORT
  • imagine going to a restaurant after church today
  • you see friends at two tables, and both of them want you to join them
  • one is a group of people from the church that you know and like
  • at the other table, is a friend from work
  • you see them smoking and drinking and laughing just a little too loud
  • and you know there might be an off color joke or two
  • which table do you sit at?
  • now, God doesn’t call us to go back into the environment we used to be in, but he calls us to visit it
  • and to build bridges
  • not all unbelievers are like this, but there let’s face the fact that it’s a lot easier to be around people who agree with us in matters of faith than to be around those with different lifestyles and different beliefs
  • but friends, we have to do it
  • in Luke 19:10, Jesus tells us his life mission
  • 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”
  • friends, that’s our mission too
  • what good is a hospital that won’t accept sick patients?
  • what good is church that won’t welcome sinners?
  • what good is salt if it loses its saltiness?
  • what good is a Christian who doesn’t have any unbelieving friends with whom they can share God’s love?
  • there is a man who was in President Nixon’s administration in the United States
  • Time magazine described him as “tough, wily, nasty, and tenaciously loyal to Richard Nixon”
  • he was known as the White House “hatchet man” and ex-Marine Captain, a man who supposedly once boasted that he would run over his own grandmother to reelect the President
  • his name was Charles Colson
  • one night he talked to a business friend, Tom Phillips, and said, “Uh-Brainerd tells me that you have become very involved in some religious activities”
  • and his friend replied:
  • “Yes, that’s true, Chuck. I have accepted Jesus Christ. I have committed my life to Him and it has been the most marvelous experience of my whole life”
  • it sounds as if Philips had given some thought as to what he would say
  • later on, Colson and felt drawn to visit this man at his home
  • during the evening, Philips turned the conversation to spiritual matters, gave his testimony, and a book by C.S. Lewis called Mere Christianity
  • a short time later, after reading that book, one Friday morning he prayed, “Lord Jesus, I believe you. I accept you. Please come into my life. I commit to you.”
  • and he wrote to Tom Phillips, telling him of the step that he had taken
  • Colson wrote a book about his experience called Born Again
  • a young man in prison in the Philippines was given a copy of this book by his mother
  • and he gave his life to the Lord
  • his name was Benigno Aquino, thrown into prison by Marcos
  • the same man who was assassinated, and whose wife became president of the Philippines
  • thousands across the world have given their life to Christ as a result of Colson’s ministry, but it all began with the simple witness of a man named Tom Phillips
  • and friends, this morning God can do something tremendous with the witness of a person named you
  • I can confidently say that if Jesus were in bodily form in Etobicoke today, he would be busy befriending sinners
  • and that’s his call to us this morning
  • to reach out to someone like Zacchaeus in your life
  • I’m going to suggest a tool that can be used to befriend and impact those around us who might not be believers
  • for those of you with Adventure Journals, it is found on pages 8 and 9
  • it’s called the “Missing LINK Game”
  • it is designed to help us follow the example of Jesus, who as he visited communities in Judea, Samaria, and Galilee, befriended all kinds of people
  • he wants us to reach out as well
  • we can be the missing link between Jesus and the people in our community who have not yet had the privilege of meeting Him
  • the letters in LINK spell out what we’re to do to reach out to others
  • L stands for List – List the people Jesus might want to befriend through us
  • it could be a neighbor, an employee, your hairdresser
  • list their names prayerfully in the center of the Journal or on a piece of paper that you can place in your Bible
  • I stands of Initiate – Initiate Friendship
  • we all know how to become friends with somebody
  • go out of your way to express Christ’s warmth to that person
  • by the way, it has to be genuine
  • people can spot a phony
  • and you can’t stop being their friend if they don’t respond to the Gospel
  • but begin to look for ways that you can befriend those around you
  • N stands for Notice – Notice the response
  • often your friendliness will be reciprocated
  • pay attention to the response you receive as they begin to react to your friendliness
  • and K stands for Know – Know what you’re going to say when that happens
  • this is one of the most important steps, because we get tongue-tied when the conversation turns to spiritual things
  • we should figure out what we’re going to say ahead of time, to try to link our relationship to Christ
  • as we play this LINK game, we can get to the point where we are purposefully meeting people and sharing God’s love with them
  • maybe we can invite them to church or share spiritual things with them
  • during the reign of Oliver Cromwell, the British government began to run low on silver for coins
  • Lord Cromwell sent his men on an investigation of the local cathedral to see if they could find any precious metal there
  • after investigating, they reported:
  • “The only silver we could find is the statues of the saints standing in the corners”
  • to which Cromwell replied:
  • “Good! We’ll melt down the saints and put them into circulation!”
  • I want to close this morning by asking you to play the missing LINK game with one individual
  • please close your eyes with me
  • now list, if you could, one person that you already know, and this morning you sense God prompting you to develop a friendship with them
  • it could be a neighbor, your hair dresser, a fellow employee
  • but this morning you sense that Jesus wants to befriend that person through you
  • list them in your mind’s eye
  • now think of a way you could initiate a friendship with them
  • could you plan to have lunch with them one day?
  • if you know they have a certain hobby, could you connect with them in that hobby?
  • could you just try the old-fashioned route and be friendly to them?
  • purpose to do one thing this week to initiate friendship with them
  • and then later this week, as you carry out your plan to befriend them, notice their response, and know what you’re going to say to them
  • prepare to share Christ with them, think of ways you can bring the topic up
  • let’s ask God to help us in carrying out this plan in the coming week
Darryl Dash

Darryl Dash

I'm a grateful husband, father, oupa, and pastor of Grace Fellowship Church Don Mills. I love learning, writing, and encouraging. I'm on a lifelong quest to become a humble, gracious old man.
Toronto, Canada