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
