Jesus Turns His Eyes upon Zacchaeus

Let's go ahead and read our text together. And then we'll pray and jump into things. Luke. 19 verses 1 to 10.

Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector and he was rich. And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature. So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was going to pass that way.

And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him and said to him, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down. For today, I must stay at your house. So he made haste and came down and received him joyfully. But when they saw it, they all complained saying, he has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner.

Then Zachaeus stood and said to the Lord, Lord, look, I give half of my goods to the poor. And if I've taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold. And Jesus said to him, today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham, for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save. That which was lost.

Let's go ahead and pray. Lord, you have given us your word that it may be read and heard for our own nourishment and growth. And we pray that as your word is preached, that you would open the eyes of our hearts. So that we may behold the beauties of Christ.

We pray that your word would cause us to abhor our sins and repent of them quickly. May we find great encouragement to believe your word for ourselves. To worship and to trust you as a result. And to share this good news with others.

We pray this by the authority of Jesus Christ our Lord. Now God's people said, Amen. I want to start off with a personal story. Back in 2006 in January, my family and I, we went to the ESPN zone.

They're connected to Disneyland. And we're having dinner with our extended family when one of my nephews pointed out that the interview we were looking at on TV was being held right behind us live and it was Vince Greene, the quarterback of the Texas Longhorns, who was getting ready to go into the championship against USC. In 2006. How many of you remember that football game, the 2006 championship between the Longhorns and USC?

It's noted as being one of the, the greatest college football games in history. And so I didn't really know who Vince Young was, but I knew who Reggie Bush was and I knew who Matt Leinart was, and they were there at the ESPN zone. And so we went outside of the restaurant and then all of a sudden, here comes USC marching past us with all this crowd. And I tried to get a look at Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart and what, the USC football team did not give us the time of day.

They didn't look at us, they didn't say hello. They just walked by and got on the bus. And then a few minutes later, the Texas Longhorns came by and they were high fiving everybody. They were smiling and my son and I, Josh, who at the time was 6 years old, we ran down to the end of the line.

We got right to the bus where they're about ready to enter and I kid you not that Vince Green or Vince Young, come, not Vince Green, Vince Young comes up. He looks down at my son, he says, hey there, little guy, how are you doing? And he talks to my son and he signs his hat and then he gets up on the bus and the first thing that went through my mind was, oh no, Texas is gonna win. I just thought this is a bad omen.

I, I'm not a huge USC fan, but my dad is a huge USC fan. And we were all gonna be gathered together to watch that game. And wouldn't it, with 20 seconds, 26 seconds left, 4th down and, and, and goal, right? Or 4th and 5, Vince Young takes the football, dodges around and runs into the end zone, putting, the Texas Longhorns up by 1 and then they get the 2-point conversion.

They're up by 3, and Matt Leinart doesn't have enough time to come back and Texas wins. What's the moral of that story? Be nice to people when you come out of the ESPN zone. Be nice.

But, the thing that, that hit me there is, I, I'm sure USC, they're probably just thinking they've got their game face on and they're, they're thinking about the game, but Just the fact that this, this All-Star, this, this well-known player would stop and give us the time of day. That he had been down to look at my son and sign his hat and talk to him. I didn't know who Vince Young was before that, but I'll tell you what, I've been a fan ever since. And that this guy would actually even take the time to look at us and talk to us.

we're nobody, but he took time to to consider us. In the text before us, we have a man who in the eyes of the people of his own country, he's despised and he's little and he's really He, he, in one sense, he's not a nobody, he's rich, but he is a nobody in the sense that he's looked down upon for more than one reason. And he had no expectation that Jesus would stop and give him the time of day. This is the guy who had raised Lazarus from the dead, probably had got to the ears of Zacchaeus.

This is a guy that's on his way marching to Jerusalem in in in the minds of many to become the king of the Jews. All, all Zacchaeus wanted to do is just to be able to get a look at the parade in all likelihood, but then we're gonna see in our text, Jesus stops, looks at him and regards him, and doesn't just regard him, but goes to visit a man who is considered a sinner and despised by everybody else. And so we want to take some time to look at this story and to consider the fact that Jesus would even look upon such a sinner.

Before we do, I just want to give us some historical background starting an eternity past.

And don't worry, this isn't gonna take too long. But in eternity past, we know that from Ephesians 1. that, that Jesus had chose us, and we're gonna see in this story, he had chose Zacchaeus from before the foundation of the world. We know that in the councils of the Trinity that the Father had given a love gift to the Son and John 6:37, it says, all that the Father gives me, Jesus says, will come to me.

And the one who comes to me, I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of the Father who sent me that of all he has given me, I should lose nothing, but raise it up at that day. Later in the same chapter, Jesus says, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at that last day.

Later in that same chapter, Jesus says, therefore, I have said to you that no one can come to me, unless it has been granted to him by my Father. So there's this story that's been going on long before this text of Jesus having Zacchaeus in mind from eternity past. Jesus or the Father had given Zacchaeus over to Jesus as a love gift. And, and Jesus has been marching since Luke 9.

Remember in Luke 9:51, it says Jesus set his face to go towards Jerusalem. He set his face like a flint to head towards Jerusalem. And from chapter 9, you just see Jesus plodding towards Jerusalem, knowing that he's going to eventually die on the cross. But I think according to the text that we're going to see this morning, also knowing that Zacchaeus is on that journey as well.

Romans chapter 3, Paul says, there's none righteous, no, not one. There's no one who understands. There is no one who seeks after God. There was nothing within Zacchaeus, there's nothing within us that, that any that gives us any desire to seek after God in and of ourselves.

First John 4:19 says, we love him. Why? Because he first loved us. And so what we see, what we're gonna see in this passage is a, is really a love story expressed from Christ, as he comes to meet up with this person that he had had in mind from eternity past.

I want you also to notice that in the Gospel of Luke, Luke is, he brings up tax collectors more than any other gospel writer and they're all positive. He talks about the calling of Levi back in chapter 5. And at the end of that interaction, remember the Pharisees were complaining and Jesus responds and says, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, I've not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Then we have him setting his face towards Jerusalem in chapter 9.

We have him telling the parables of the lost coin, the lost sun, the lost sheep in response to the Pharisee's criticism of Jesus hanging out with tax collectors. Then we have the rich man in chapter 18, who is, is also compelled or or or invited by Christ to lay everything down and follow him, but he goes away, to which Jesus responds, it's very difficult. In fact, it's impossible for a rich man to be saved. It's so difficult that you'd have to, it's like trying to get a camel through the eye of a needle.

And then we come to Luke 19. That is really the front end of the triumphal entry. Jesus is coming in to Jericho. He's only about 1215 miles away from Jerusalem.

And this is what kicks off this whole triumphal entry. We're gonna divide This historical narrative into 5 looks or 5 sections. And by the end, I hope that you will see. That if you look unto Jesus, He will save you, not just from your sins of the present, but the past and the future.

And that Jesus has his gaze upon many people in this room. One look, one sovereign look from Jesus is all that it takes to completely turn our lives around. Let's take a look at the first look. Zacchaeus gets a look at Jesus.

Zacchaeus gets a look at Jesus. Again, it says in verse one, therefore, Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector and he was rich, and he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was short of stature, so he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was going to pass that way. So Jesus comes into the city called Jericho, and you guys probably recall Jericho from the Old Testament.

The Jericho of the New Testament actually has quite a different face lift to it. the Jericho of the New Testament had been obtained by Herod from Caesar Augustus. And he proceeded to build aqueducts, a fortress, a winter palace with all kinds of monuments, a hippodrome, which is a, what? A horse course.

It's basically a racetrack, for chariots and horse racing, all within the vicinity of the ancient town of, of Jericho. And excavations have revealed some impressive, palaces, Herod's palace that would have been, that was built upon previous palaces that were there. This was, a trade route that was very well traveled, bringing lots of wealth to the city. It's a border town, and, it also just had boasted of incredible weather.

It's known for its balsam groves. There were aqueducts that were built that brought water into Jericho. And so when you would come into Jericho, you would just sense wealth right away. It's a very wealthy, beautiful, rich town.

Now in verse two, we see now behold, that's our first use of, of a word that has to do with look. there's a, there's approximately 8 different times where, where the Gospel writer Luke wants us to focus on the word look, look, see, seek. And so he says, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus is a Jewish name, so we're talking about a Jew.

It, the translation of this name is righteous one, innocent, pure. It appears that his parents had high hopes for Zacchaeus and, those hopes did not work out too well for, the parents, but this little Jewish guy, was out. becoming a chief tax collector. We'll talk about that here in a second.

his name appears to be mentioned here. There's lots of different people that are mentioned in the Gospels that are not mentioned by name, but Barnamaeus that we've just been introduced to in the previous context is one that's mentioned and Zacchaeus is mentioned, perhaps because, in church history, he's noted as becoming the pastor of Caesarea. It's a Clement of Alexandria that notes that he later became a pastor and that might be why his name is specifically mentioned. Now notice that he's called not just a tax collector, we've had 6 previous uses or introductions to tax collectors, but he's called a chief tax collector, and that's the only time that this word is ever used in the New Testament.

By the way, all of the uses of the, of the term tax collector, all of the means of tax collectors are all positive in Luke's Gospel as, as is this one. So what is a chief tax collector? This is a guy that would basically be, everybody else is collecting for him. So they're out collecting and then they got to give their piece of the pie to Zacchaeus, and then he gives his piece of the pie to Rome.

To even become a tax collector, you have to purchase that franchise from Rome. To become a chief tax collector, that would have been a very expensive purchase. with a guarantee of a lot of money that he's passing on to Rome and as you guys may or may or may not know, tax collectors were infamous for not just collecting the required taxes but for collecting above and beyond the required taxes so that they, could benefit and enrich themselves. Zacchia would have gotten rich anyway just by collecting what was required.

but the reputation was that these, these guys would go above and beyond. So he pretty much is equivalent to a modern mob boss. He's got his cronies running around, breaking thumbs as it were, to get money out of people and then they're giving money to him and he is getting rich on the backs of other people with the authority to throw people into jail and to bring various punishments. And as we're gonna see, almost certainly extorting and using extortion and is one of his methods.

And so the text tells us that he was, he was rich. And we've already seen right in the previous context that Jesus has told us that it is nigh impossible for a rich man to come into the kingdom because of his wealth and it's like trying to get a camel through the eye of a needle or a modern analogy might be trying to drive a car through a stirring straw. Is this not gonna happen? But all things are possible with God, right?

This guy that we've been introduced to, some people that have tried to picture in their minds what modern actor might be able to play Zacchaeus, maybe Danny DeVito, maybe Joe Pesci, something like that. So you've got the short, mean guy who's been out there, he's used to roughing people up, and, and he hasn't been treated very well himself. He's probably been a disappointment to his parents. And, and so on.

And so you've got this, this problem, though, that presents itself somehow Zacchaeus has heard about Jesus. And so in verse 3, it says that he sought to see who Jesus was. There's a doubling of these verbs, verb with an infinitive, sought to see. Luke is going to continue to use these looking type verbs.

sought to see who Jesus was. we don't know why he sought to see Jesus. It could be that he had heard about Lazarus. It could be that he knew Matthew, who was a tax collector who started to follow Jesus.

It could be that he heard of Christ's reputation as being a friend of sinners and tax collectors. We don't really know. Could be that he just was just curious what most commentators say he just probably had heard a little something, was very curious and wanted to see the parade. As it were, but there's two problems.

One is, there's a big crowd, right? this would have been an even bigger crowd than normal. There's a couple of things that would make this crowd especially big. One is, is you've got pilgrims that are coming to Jerusalem for what?

Passover, right? Not only that, you've got this entourage that's following Jesus because it wasn't too awful long ago that he rose a dead guy named Lazarus. And that's a pretty big deal, raising somebody from the dead, right? And so there's this big group.

Zacchaeus wants to see what's going on, but there's a huge crowd. He can't get in and see. you guys know how it is. Sometimes you're sitting in church and your little guys trying to see the pastor, but they're sitting behind really big people and so, what do they do?

They gotta try to move or stand up., Different ways to try to get little guys and short people up. So Zacchaeus, that's his other problem is he is short. at this time period, to be a short guy, like a, a guy my size would be pretty tall. I'd be average to tall in the Mediterranean, ancient Mediterranean period, which makes me feel pretty good.

At this time, to be called short means that you are probably less than 5 ft tall. so this guy was a very, probably a very short guy. The Greek word for small is actually the word micro, so he's microman, right? He's microman.

by Mediterranean standards. So what's the solution? So, I'm forgetting my, my pictures here. So that's our portrayal of Zacchaeus, and he can't see, he's the short guy there that can't see.

And so he comes up with, an idea here. He's gonna run ahead and, climb a sycamore tree. so that he can see, the parade, as it were. This is not a dignified thing, right?

So it's not a dignified thing for a guy to just be take off running. it's not necessarily, you wouldn't find a, a tax collector, a chief tax collector just up in a tree. how many of you who are 30 years and older have climbed a tree in the last month? 30 years and older.

OK, we've got one. All right. How many of you, like 15 years and younger, have climbed a tree in the last month? OK, we got a few more.

Yeah, see? So we got some young people who have climbed trees. You just don't see old people, right? Us old people climbing trees or mature people, right?

and so this is not all that dignified, but, he wants to, he wants to head out. There's something that's moving him to want to get out of his inhibitions to go see the parade of, of Jesus and his entourage. reminds me when I think it was when Katie and I were newly married or we may have been still dating. She didn't realize how much of a baseball fan I was until I took her to our first Dodger game.

And she had, she didn't grow up in a baseball family, so we show up to Dodger Stadium. We're just walking along. I'm holding hands. We go to the, the, the bleachers, right?

You guys been to the bleachers? All of a sudden, a ball comes out and bounces right in front of me. This, they're having batting practice. Katie's fiance slash husband, I don't remember what time it is, I take off running.

I slide on the ground, amidst other grown men. And I, and I, I can't remember if I got the baseball or if I lost it, but my wife is just sitting there like, what just happened? This was her introduction to baseball. This is undignified behavior of a grown man.

Or, me sitting up in my office years ago when Vladimir Guerrero hit this great hit in 2009 and I'm by myself saying, I love you, Vlady. What is that? so here's this, this man who's doing something that's just not very dignified, running, and moreover, he, he climbs this sycamore tree. Now, in our mind, we're in the United States, North America, or Europeans would be reading this and have a totally different picture in their minds.

This is a Mediterranean, sycamore tree. it's basically Picus sycamores, right? It comes from Wikipedia. Fussycamores.

It's a, it's a fig mulberry tree. this type of tree had a wide trunk and lateral low hanging branches for little Jewish guys to climb up so that they can look down upon the parade as Jesus is coming by. So it's just right there. Jesus planted it right here.

This is gonna be Zacchaeus' tree. In fact, you can go on YouTube and you can see Zacchaeus' tree. I don't know if it really is, but People do tours all the time and it's called Zacchaeus' Tree right there in Jericho. so it's, I wanna just maybe scoot ahead a little bit here and just ask you a question.

Do we need to lose some inhibitions in our seeking of Christ? how, how passionately are we willing to, to pursue Christ, in our worship and in our seeking of Him? There's so many things that we'll do where we're willing to lose our inhibitions for various activities, right? Baseball or what have you.

What about for Jesus? Are we willing to, to pursue him in radical ways that would even perhaps make us look foolish? But let's, let's take a look at the, the 2nd look. So we've got, Zacchaeus is, he, he gets a view of, of Jesus from the perspective of the tree.

But now Jesus gets a look at Zacchaeus in verses 5. And 6, let's read that again. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him and said to him, Zacchaeus, make haste, come down, for today I must stay at your house. So he made haste, came down and received him joyfully.

Now, this must have just been A shock. If you really think about what's going on here. First of all, Jesus comes to this place. Remember he had set his face towards Jerusalem all the way back in chapter 9.

He's marching towards Jerusalem, but then he gets to a particular place, and he stops. He stops and he looks up. And how do you think Jesus, how do you think Jesus looked at Zacchaeus? What expression did he have on his face?

Do you think he was like, What a fool. What are you doing up there? Is he looking at him saying, hey, there's that guy I warned you guys about. Don't follow him.

What expression do you think he had on his face? What expression do you think the Lord has on his face when he thinks of you? When he looks at you The text doesn't tell us exactly, but I got a feeling from the reaction. That Jesus looked up and there was something in his face that was very attractive.

Something in the way that Christ looked at Zacchaeus. Perhaps calmed his fears. But if the look didn't calm his fears, what came out of his mouth surely did. what, what might have Zacchaeus been waiting for him to say?

You just don't, what would have been going through his mind before Jesus before Jesus speaks. I'll tell you one thing he didn't expect him to say, and that is his name. Zacchaeus I don't know about you, but if I was a kid, I would have fell out of that tree. Zacchaeus, make haste, come down, for today I must stay at your house.

He knew his name. How did Jesus know that? I think at the very least, one of the things that indicates probably in Zacchaeus's mind, other people's minds that were standing around, this is a prophet. Just like remember Nathaniel back in John chapter one, just from a distance, Jesus sees Nathaniel and he says, Here is an Israelite and with whom there's no guile.

How do me? Well, I saw you standing over there by that fig tree. Oh, you're the Lord. so here he is, here he is coming to a man who's never met, and he calls him by name.

think about all the instances in the Bible where we have Jesus, he says to Jeremiah, before you were born, I knew you. Before you were born, I sanctified you. One of the things that this reminds us of, I, I love this quote from Pastor Steve Cole. He says this, Jesus does not call the mass of humanity to himself, hoping against hope that somehow, somewhere, someone will respond and come to him.

Rather, he calls individuals by name and his call is effectual. It's powerful, it accomplishes his purpose. Jesus was marching towards Jericho, looks up and says, Zacchaeus. And he doesn't make suggestions.

He doesn't say, hey, what do you think? What are you doing this afternoon? You got 10 minutes? You wanna check your daytimer?

No, what does he say? Hurry up. Get down here. I must stay at your house.

Now, now, think about this. Jesus really was not, it was not his custom just to invite himself over to people's places. This is the only occurrence that we know of where he invited himself over to somebody's house. And kids, I do not recommend that.

Don't just walk up to random people and invite yourself over to their house. But Jesus walks up, he invites himself. He says, hurry up. Why, why would Jesus say hurry up?

What's the big hurry? I was trying to think about that. What would be the big hurry? There's a couple of different possibilities.

One is, is he knows that the Holy Spirit is working in Zacchaeus's heart and he doesn't want him to delay. Hurry up and get down here. We've got some spiritual business. Don't delay.

It could be a possibility. I got a feeling that, what, Jesus has been waiting for this day for about eternity now. And he's been marching in Jerusalem, and he's been, he's known since all of eternity that there's coming a day when he's gonna call Zacchaeus. And when he gets to that moment, Jesus is like, hurry up.

Let's do this. I've been waiting for you for a long time. That's the, that's the feeling I get, reading in a little bit, but I, when you just theologically think about it, this is, this is Jesus waiting for a long time and all of a sudden, he's face to face with this. Son of Abraham that he has chosen.

He tells him to come down and he says, I must stay at your house. That little word must in the Greek, it's, it's what we call, it's a particle of divine necessity. It's the same particle that Jesus used when he said, I must go through Samaria and then he meets up with the woman at the well. What do you mean must go through Samaria?

All the Jews avoid Samaria. He says, no, I must go through Samaria. And then he meets with the woman. At the well and then he says, I'm gonna stay at your house.

The, the idea here is I'm not just gonna come and hang out for a while. The, the, the idea behind the word stay is stay the night. And you get the feeling that everybody knows that by the way that they react. So, so what does Zacchaeus do?

He, he makes haste. I like that word, make haste. It's a good old Elizabethan word. Most of your translations probably say hurry, right?

Make haste. It feels like a cooking word. It feels like we ought to get into a kitchen and make haste. But, so he comes down, he makes haste, he comes down and he receives Jesus with joy.

He is excited, right? here's this guy who everybody despises. He had no expectation that this guy would look at him or even give him the time of day. And yet he is excited.

Think about the day that you were saved, that the Lord called upon you. Why is it that the Lord would give any one of us the time of day? Right? When you consider our sin, the ways that we have violated his commands, the judgment that we deserve, the way that we've treated and despised other people, you just think through the list of sins in your lifetime.

Why would Jesus give us the time of day? And yet he shows up at some point in our lives. He knew us from eternity past. He looks and he says, Mike, come on.

We've got a meeting together. I must stay with you. Well, Zacchaeus is happy, but not everybody else. The onlookers don't like the look of things.

This is our 3rd look. They don't like to look at things. Look at verse 7. But when they saw it, that's another use of the word see or another verb of see or look, when they saw it, they what?

They all complained. Saying he has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner. Who is the they? The day here is whatever crowd part of the pilgrimage happened to be walking along with Christ at the time when he stopped, looked up and said, Zacchaeus, come down, I'm gonna stay at your place.

Notice what they say, they all complained, he has gone to be a guest with this man. The implication from this verb seems to be that Jesus has already gone into the house, and people begin to complain. Why has he gone in with somebody that we all know is categorized by this term called sinner? Now the word sinner here is not being used because the crowd knows all the specific sins that Zacchaeus had committed.

The word sinner here is a, it's a particular, it's a title. Certain people fit into this title like tax collectors, right? Like prostitutes. And Jesus all over the gospels is being accused of being a friend of what?

Tax collectors, prostitutes, and sinners. So he's hanging out with these guys. So the crowd that's all on their religious pilgrimage to go have Passover, so that they can worship. Yahweh are complaining.

That Jesus has gone in. To be with the sinner. Now, how could this have gone a little differently, right? It could have been the, the text could say, Jesus went into the house of Zacchaeus, the tax collector, and they said, praise the Lord that he has brought his grace and mercy on sinners.

But it didn't work that way. Somehow, these Jewish worshippers had lost track. of the whole deal. The whole purpose of God from the Abrahamic covenant, really from the garden on.

To send forth this seed to crush the serpent, that Abraham would be a blessing to all nations and so on. And so they're complaining, they don't like the look of things, they don't like the fact that Jesus has gone in. And don't, don't misunderstand or minimize the, the tragedy of this moment. We can easily read this because we've, we've heard this story since we were kids, many of us in Sunday school.

But many of the people that are traveling along with Jesus are expecting him to come in. Become the king, kick out the Romans and start the reign, the Davidic reign. And surely the king is not gonna associate and make himself unclean with sinners. If he makes himself unclean, how is he gonna come into the temple and, and basically establish himself as the Messiah?

And so this is huge in the minds of the crowd. He has now defiled himself. And so, no doubt the crowd would have been wondering, is this guy who we thought he was? Could he possibly be the Messiah if he's gonna defile himself with sinners?

And so, no doubt, not just were they complaining and angry, but there probably is a sense of disillusionment that comes over the crowd. But notice in verse 8, what happens here, we, Jesus has gone in the house, the door is shut, everybody's complaining. You almost, if this was a movie, you almost want to see a scene change here, right? Everything goes to black and now, we're either in Zacchaeus's house or we might be right after at dinner time, we're not really sure, but there's definitely a scene change.

And so we come. To our 4th look, and that is Zacchaeus's repentance looks legit. Zacchaeus' repentance looks legit. Look back at verse 8.

Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, Look, Lord, I give half my goods to the poor. And if I've taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold. This is a big deal. Zakia stands, the word for stand here is a formal standing up.

It's almost like he's standing up to do, this is his Toastmasters moment. Whatever's transpired beforehand, we don't really know, but he doesn't just like lackadaisically stand up. It's like, I'm standing and I'm ready to make a pronouncement. did he stand in the house?

Did he come outside? We don't really know. We do know that he stands up to the Lord, and the first thing he says is, look, Lord, so he's already calling him Lord. And by Zacchaeus's previous behavior of running and climbing a tree, it's almost like he's like, Look, Dad, look at this.

You ever have your kids? It's like they're drawing something and they're like, hey, hey, look at this, look at this. It's like, he just has a child, he just wants Jesus to look. At what's happening in his heart right now.

And what is happening in his heart, he says, I give half my goods to the poor. This is not, I will give, this is present tense. I give half my goods to the poor. It could be a present tense of intention, or it could be that he's gone into the hiding place, so to speak, in his house right now, and he's pulling stuff out and he's starting to give it away.

That's what's portrayed in this picture. This is, this could be one possible interpretation is, is he's actually presently giving his goods away to the poor. And then he says, and if I've taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold. That's very interesting because when you look at all the various Old Testament regulations, and we know that Zacchaeus, he didn't get invited down to the Bethel Temple very often, right?

Bethel Temple, I'm sorry. And, but he knew something of the law. And he could have given much less than this if it was merely that he had taken something falsely from somebody, but he goes to the maximum payment, the maximum payback for someone who had maliciously stolen goods from someone else. He says, I'm gonna give fourfold back to anybody who I may have extorted.

in essence, Zacchaeus is admitting That his extortion was theft. He is not minimizing his sin. He is maximizing his sin. Now Jesus, back in Luke chapter 3, he had told tax collectors, he'd given them some basic instructions.

And here's some things that you would want to do. Luke 3:12 says, tax collectors came to be baptized, I'm sorry, this is John the Baptist, to be baptized and said to him, Teacher, what shall we do? And he said to them, collect no more than what is appointed to you. So John the Baptist had already established, it's not wrong to be a tax collector.

Just collect the taxes that have been appointed. So if you're a tax collector today, you work for the IRS, that's OK. All right? We love you.

We welcome you at Cornerstone. You can be a member in good standing if you work for the IRS, but you are not to collect any more taxes than you're appointed to, right? And, but Zacchaeus clearly had gone above and beyond his call of duty. And, and so he wants to restore fourfold.

And isn't this just like what you see when Jesus really gets to look at people and he gets a hold of their hearts, and true repentance begins to take place. Jesus says over in John chapter 8, when he's talking to some of his enemies, he says, you need to, pray and, and that, that you would have fruits of repentance, that would demonstrate. your faith. One of the sure signs I, I remember when I, when I first particularly got saved, I got saved at 14 and even though I had, I, I would control my language around my parents when I was out of the house, I would cuss like a sailor.

Which I don't know what, why that is. That's just what kids do. I, I talk to people about their pre-Christian days. Most people do that.

And, but I, I got, I became a Christian when I was 14. I went back to school and I can remember the first time when I was playing tennis in my PE class, I got really ticked off and this expletive came out of my mouth. Suddenly this conviction came over me and I was like, what is that? What is that feeling?

And it's like I just didn't wanna do that anymore. I just remember having this desire to want to talk to people about my faith. All of a sudden I show up at church and I'm wanting to give money to church. My dad, when I, when I got to driving age, at first I wasn't all that interested in driving until somebody had suggested getting a, a 12 passenger van and all the people you could take to youth group in church.

I was like, huh. So then my dad takes me out, what do you want to drive? I want a van. Most teenagers that want a van, they don't want it for good reasons.

But the Lord had done some work in my heart and I was like, I want a van because I wanna go pick up all these kids for church. I wanna take them to youth group. My dad was like, what happened to my son? Who has stolen him?

And I did give my dad reasons to have some real worries, but I don't know that was one of them. But the Lord does this work., one other illustration, I just recently, we were, a bunch of us were at the shepherd's conference. Up there in Van Nuys and a pastor friend that I went to seminary with, he's up working in a place called Potter Valley. Pot or valley, and he began to, he led a guy to Christ who was a pot dealer that was just making loads of cash.

This guy had lots and lots of money. The way that the pastor found out or figured it out is this guy comes up, he's just wearing like these $1000 boots all the time, different pairs every time he meets them. He says, what do you do for a living? He goes, oh, I I got a cattle ranch and my pastor friend, he's a cattle rancher.

He goes, Well, how many head of cattle you got? Oh, I got 40. He's like, you ain't wearing those boots with 40 cows. Tell me the real story.

He says, oh, I sell pot. And, and so he says, brother, you just made a profession of faith, right? Yeah. He goes, you can't sell pot no more.

This guy takes $5000 out of his pocket, puts it on the table right in front of him. His wife scoops it up into her purse. She divorces him. This guy's now living at the church out of evangelizing like crazy.

He used to have all his money, cars, whatever. Now he's living in some little, little room at the church. That's the power of God to change a life where suddenly, this guy didn't care about his $1000 boots anymore. He didn't care about his pot selling, he's about ready to say ministry, but pot selling Pot selling business.

Think about Ebenezer Scrooge. that? I love that movie, but, that's a lie. Ebenezer Scrooge, nobody gets saved by just seeing a bunch of ghosts and getting afraid from the law, right?

How do you have real transformation? How, how would, what's a real Ebenezer Scrooge story? It's when, if Ebenezer Scrooge would have got to look at Jesus, and Jesus were to come into his house, And for him to suddenly see the savior and to realize this guy died on the cross for me, that would make that transformation, the transformation that Charles Dickens is trying to promote in his book is the social gospel, which basically says, if you just do kind things to people, it'll kinda multi multiply.

Still watch the movie, it's a good movie.

But here's Jesus on the way to, we don't really know exactly what Jesus says. This text doesn't tell us exactly what Jesus said when he came into the house. All we know is that Zacchaeus got to see him. The presence of Christ made a difference in his life.

What did he talk about? We don't know. Maybe Jesus was talking about that, what, after I leave here, I'm heading down to Jerusalem. Everybody thinks I'm gonna be king, but I'm gonna die on the cross.

That's what he'd been telling his disciples. All of a sudden, Zacchaeus wants to stand up and give away half of his possessions and he wants to restore fourfold. That's the work of the Holy Spirit. Let's consider the last look.

Jesus finds what he's looking for. U2 says, I still haven't found what I'm looking for. That's because you're not looking in the right place. Jesus finds what he's looking for.

Notice what it says. Then Jesus said to him, today, salvation has come to this house because he is also a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come. To seek and to save that which is lost, we see our seek again.

Jesus says today salvation has come to this house. Salvation is a strong word. It means rescue from destruction and biblically, we see it rescue from coming wrath, the coming day of the Lord, when, when judgment comes, God pours out his judgment on the planet for all of the wickedness and rebellion. Salvation is a salvation of God from God.

It's a salvation from hell. Salvation has come to this house. Why can Jesus make such a a sure pronouncement? Because he is also a son of Abraham.

He's not just a son, a blood son of Abraham, he was a Jew before him, but now he's a true son of Abraham by faith. He has come to believe when you see the, the concept of a son of Abraham on the page of the New Testament, like Galatians 3:7, Romans 9:7-916, it's the idea that he has come to believe. He's come to believe in Jesus Christ. He is now not just a Jew by blood, but a Jew by spirit.

So salvation has come to his house because he is believed. But salvation has also come to his house for this ultimate reason. Verse 10, for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. Why is salvation come to Zacchaeus's house?

Because the Son of Man, Sodom. That's why when Jesus seeks somebody, they get saved. The Son of Man is a reference to Jesus Christ, the prophecy of him being the anointed Messiah and Daniel 7, it's gonna be brought up again later in the Gospel of Luke, speaking of Christ's return as the Son of Man, it's a, it's a title of authority, it's a title of Messiah ship. It even points to his deity and many different passages in the Gospel of Luke.

So the Son of Man, he has come to seek. And not just to seek and hope, but to seek and what to save. Jesus saves everybody he seeks to save that which was lost. Let me say something else here is Jesus, he doesn't just save, it doesn't say he saves the found, he saves the lost.

For you to get yourself saved, you need to be lost. You need to know that you're lost. Jesus didn't come to the righteous. He didn't come to the found.

He came to sinners, and he came to the lost. So to be found by Jesus, you need to know that you're lost. And so by implication, Zacchaeus knew he was lost. Here's this man who had all these hopes from his parents had named him Pure One, righteous one, who went off and became a traitor of the Jews, began to collect taxes, not just some taxes, but began to extort people.

Had his own little mob bob bus or mob business there in Jericho, a prosperous place. Despised by his own countrymen, a little guy who's looked down upon, no doubt laughed at by other people. Finds out that there's this guy named Jesus who is a friend of tax collectors and sinners, and by the way, he raised a guy from the dead and he's coming through town on parade. Boy, I'd love to just get a look at that guy.

All of a sudden That Jesus stops at a place that had been foreordained from all of eternity. And he looks up and he calls out a name that he had known from eternity, and said, Zacchaeus, he didn't ask him, he commands him, come down. It is necessary I must stay at your house today. It's an amazing, powerful passage.

Let's talk about some uses of this teaching, this doctrine. First of all, some personal applications just for the family of God here. Rejoice that Christ sought you. Just think about the day that he called out to you and you responded.

That didn't happen just because you're a nice guy, you're a good person, because you did enough research. It happened because God Almighty had mercy upon you. And he sought you and he opened up your eyes and allowed you to look upon him and suddenly you saw your sin and that you were lost. Jesus in his mercy called upon you and brought you to himself.

And just know as a Christian, he doesn't stop drawing you to himself all the way to heaven. It's not just about the first look, he is looking at you throughout your lifetime. He's looking at you when you fall down, and he's helping you get up. Just look at the life of Peter.

Look at so many of the The stories that we see both in Old and New Testament of God caring for his sheep all the way from beginning to end. This is not just a story of Zacchaeus being a sinner, and then looking at Christ for one time. This reminds us that Christ is always looking to his sheep. He is the shepherd.

And because of that, we must make much of the presence of Christ. If he is our shepherd, he is, if he's the one that is the protector of the flock, then we must make much of him and be in his presence often through the word and through prayer. What made the change in Zacchaeus? What changes you?

It's, it's Jesus. It's looking to Jesus, isn't it? It's looking to Jesus and His word, it's looking to Jesus in prayer. It's, it's being gathered together like this, that this is looking to Jesus for our needs.

And he is always looking to us. He sits at the right hand of the Father, always making intercession for his people. And, he promises that those that have been given to him are in his hands. And what, we are unpluckable.

And we're also in the Father's hands, and no one can snatch his sheep out of his hands. And so be encouraged, Christian, that this is not just about a one time look. This is about Jesus gazing at his sheep, but also for the family of God. Let's join Christ on his mission to seek and save the lost.

We need to be careful that we don't forget what the mission is all about, just like these, these Jews on this pilgrimage, they had forgot what the mission was all about. I was reading about a grocery store owner this week who got so OCD about people in a store, bringing in their crying babies and doing this and that, and he finally just banned everybody from the store and just began to sell products through a little window. Brothers and sisters, that grocery, owner has forgotten what his business is about.

If you're keeping people out of the grocery store.

And we need to be about the business of, of coming alongside Christ to help him seek and save the lost. You can do that this next Sunday in inviting people to our Good Friday and Easter service. There's flyers that you can pick up on the way out. We'd encourage you to invite the lost here on Sunday.

You can do this by supporting our missionaries or going on a missions trip, this summer. There's lots of ways to be involved in seeking and saving the lost. But let me also, let's apply this Christ command to any lost that are with us this morning. Notice.

That Jesus looks at Zacchaeus and he doesn't ask him, he, he commands us. The Bible does not ask us if we want to repent, it commands us to repent. It commands us to change our mind and to, and to say, I, I will no longer be the king of my own life. I want you to be the king of my life.

I recognize that I'm lost. I recognize that I'm a sinner, and I'm not, I haven't just committed random sins I've sinned against God. Would you save me from this wrath, from this hell that is coming? The Bible indicates that we should do it today.

He said to Zacchaeus, come down today. Today is the day of salvation. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Perhaps you are here today and you are hearing the voice.

Perhaps Jesus is gazing upon you through the Holy Spirit. Be saved today. Don't wait till tomorrow. Tomorrow you could be in hell.

People die every day. I have friends that in high school, they died, they're dead. I had friends in college that died and they're dead. I'm 49 years old now.

I know a lot of dead people. Some of them are in heaven, and some of them are in hell. Today is the day of salvation. If you are hearing his voice today, repent and believe and be saved from hell.

CH Spurgeon says, if you were sick, would you send for a physician tomorrow? If your house is on fire, would you, call the firemen tomorrow? If you were robbed in the street, on your road, on, on your road home, would you say, stop, thief, tomorrow? No, but man is foolish in the things that concern his soul.

Unless divine and infinite love shall teach him to number his days, he will still go on boasting of tomorrow's until his soul has been destroyed by them, unquote. Today is the day of salvation. Finally, a warning to those who don't think they are lost. This is probably the most fearful place for a person to be.

If you think, if you do not yet know Christ, but you feel welling up within you the sense that you are a sinner, and that you are lost, that bodes well for you, brother or sister. Call upon the Lord Jesus Christ. He has not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance, right? He saves, seeks and saves the lost.

If you do not feel your need of him, if you do not feel lost, you say, oh, it is but a little sin. I am not so bad. I will not go to hell. I will not fall under judgment.

I am not sick. I would just plead with you to call upon Christ to give you a sense of your own sin. That he would cause the same spirit that fell upon Zacchaeus to fall upon you to see your need to interface with Christ and to look to Christ. There's really nothing that you need to do.

You don't need to clean yourself up. That's a lie of the devil. Jesus Christ came to save the ungodly, not the righteous. You don't clean fish before you catch them, you catch them, and then you clean them.

Jesus Christ catches fish, and then he cleans them. You don't have to clean up your life. Come to Him with all of your sin, call upon him, then he begins to clean your life up. Be saved today.

Brothers and sisters, let's pray. We ask, let's have the, the worship team come down for song and we will also give our offerings to the Lord as part of our worship. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this wonderful text of scripture that reminds us that there is great hope for lost sinners.

We thank You, Lord, for the love that is all over this passage that we see you seeking out Zacchaeus from eternity past, and there are so many in this room that have been sought and found by you, and we rejoice this day that we have been saved, not because of our own righteousness, but because Of your mercy upon us that you have shown to us through Christ as life and death. Lord, we pray for our, our children, we pray for our friends, we pray for family members, even in this room who may not yet know you, Lord, that you would grant them the ability to see their lostness.

Lord, that there would be a holy fear that would overtake hearts. We pray, Father, that you would then come and, and give them hope and help them to see.

that there is room for a look at the Savior. If they simply look at Jesus, they can be saved today and have a happy life. Not a life without suffering, but a true life of joy, a life that was meant for them here and forever. Lord, we commend this time of preaching to you.

We ask you to receive our offerings for your glory's sake. This we pray in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, and all God's people said, Amen.