We are a united body of believers, committed to grow in Christ and to reach others for Christ. In last week’s sermon we discovered that the Rich Young Ruler rejected Jesus because of his wealth.
Jesus commented that it was hard for the rich to enter heaven. In fact it would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God. This shocked the disciples who asked, “Who then can be saved?”
The young man wanted eternal life, but not at the cost of his things. He wanted to do something, anything, except what Jesus told him. He wouldn’t give Christ his allegiance. When we put anything—our stuff, family, jobs and careers, 401K’s—before Christ, our allegiance is divided. Christ requires total allegiance.
Today we look at another rich man. He too met Jesus. But there the similarity stops.
Luke 19:1-2. Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy.
Not long after the Rich Young Ruler rejected Him, Jesus was passing through Jericho.
For some time Jesus had been ministering in Galilee. His hometown, Nazareth, was there. Now He was headed to Jerusalem for the final Passover in which He would be the sacrificial Lamb giving His life for the sins of the world on the cross.
Not long before this He had raised Lazarus from the dead in Bethany, not far from Jericho. When you bring someone back from the dead it gets attention. Word spread, and curious people were following Jesus. Everyone in Jericho, who could, lined the streets, hoping to catch a glimpse of Him.
Zacchaeus lived there. He had gotten rich by cheating others out of their money. He was unscrupulous. As the chief tax collector—the tax commissioner for the whole tax-collecting operation in Jericho—he could collect however much tax as he wanted, and keep everything over what he owed Rome. The system encouraged dishonesty.
Jericho, because of its location on a major trade route, provided all he needed to become wealthy. Coming into town—you paid taxes. Going out of town you paid taxes; and everywhere in between. Zacchaeus was hated because he was dishonest and because he worked for the Romans.
Could this kind of man be really be interested in the Kingdom of God? The more important question is, could God be interested in this kind of man?
Luke 19:3-4. He wanted to see who Jesus was. 4So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
He wasn’t planning to meet Jesus. But he was so interested in seeing Jesus that he sacrificed his dignity to climb a tree to get a better look at Him. What made him so curious? Maybe he heard about the healing of the blind man outside of Jericho. Maybe he knew Matthew, another tax collector, who was a follower of Jesus?
Or, could it be that Zacchaeus discovered the same void in the depths of his being that the Rich Young Ruler had discovered? His wealth did not satisfy. Was the Holy Spirit of God moving in his heart drawing him to Christ? Could God really be interested in such a man?
He was an outcast, a hated man. His sin-stained hands were filled with money he had taken at the expense of poor people. To be out in public was the last place you would expect to see him. Yet instead of hiding, he desperately wanted to see Jesus.
To do this he had to overcome a number of obstacles. One was the crowd, another was his small stature. Because of who he was—a small man who cheated people out of their money, he usually avoided crowds. He risked an elbow to the jaw, a heavy kick, or even a knife in the back.
Here’s where the story takes an unexpected turn. Something happens out of the ordinary.
Luke 19:5-7. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately, I must stay at your house today.” 6So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. 7All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a ‘sinner.’”
Read these words carefully. They will help you understand who was seeking whom. Zacchaeus is probably trying to be inconspicuous. He doesn’t want to be seen by someone he has cheated out of their taxes. Yet something draws him out to see Jesus.
Jesus and the entire procession stop right under his tree, and Jesus called up to him—even calling him by name. Zacchaeus must have been staggered. He had never met Jesus before. Now Jesus is telling him that He’s going to stay at his house that day. Totally unexpected!
I don’t know how Jesus knew Zacchaeus’ name. Maybe someone in the crowd pointed him out. Maybe He knew it because of His omniscience. What I do know is that Jesus had a divinely ordained appointment with Zacchaeus. He was looking for him.
I also know that Jesus knows your name. He knows your heart. He knows what it is that comes between you and complete obedience to Him. He knows why you are hurting or lonely or sad. He knows all about you.
When Jesus said, “I must stay at your house today,” it was not a request. He was saying, “I’m coming, and I’m coming right now. It is urgent that we talk!” Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus. He didn’t have any idea that Jesus wanted to see him.
So he came down and welcomed Jesus gladly. I don’t know what Zacchaeus was thinking at that moment. Perhaps he was happy to get an escort home. Maybe he was glad because this would make him a big man in town—perhaps more respected.
But this wasn’t a casual rest stop. Jesus wasn’t there just to have a chat. He was on His way to Jerusalem to die on the cross for our sins. What He was doing was directly related to His ultimate purpose of seeking and saving the lost.
Notice the response of the people when Jesus went to his house. No self-respecting Jew would enter the home of a tax collector—an outcast and a traitor.
This is how the lost world will always respond when people are being saved and their lives changed. Unsaved people cannot understand spiritual transformation. They may make fun of you, or ridicule you; they may try to stop you, or they may become totally indifferent to you.
Have you noticed that we live in a world of quarreling, difficult people? They are self-absorbed, self-interested, often violent with others, and unreasonable.
Their only concern is themselves. They are so difficult to live with. This is exactly why they need us, and it is our purpose in life to touch them with Jesus.
This is why Jesus ignored the social prohibitions. He didn’t try to hide His interest in Zacchaeus. Everyone there knew of His intentions to stay at Zacchaeus’ house.
The people were following Him only because He raised Lazarus back to life, and because He gave sight back to the blind man. Maybe they would see more miracles.
Now Jesus is ready to do the greatest miracle of all—saving the soul of a lost person. But they missed it! Zacchaeus had needs that even he did not fully understand, and these needs could only be satisfied by Jesus on His divine mission.
Thank goodness Jesus didn’t listen to public opinion polls before deciding what to do. He had a divine appointment with a lost soul who had been drawn to Him by the Holy Spirit. Whether the crowd liked it or not, Jesus was going to spend some time with Zacchaeus.
We are not told what happened at Zacchaeus’ house. We do not know what was served for dinner, or how long Jesus stayed, or what they talked about. We do not know what Jesus said to Zacchaeus that led him to salvation.
The methodology He used is not important. When someone becomes a Christian, it is a divine miracle, and it was a far greater miracle than any that crowd had seen. There are no formulas to explain it. There is not a four or five step plan of salvation. There is not a prefabricated prayer that guarantees the eternal salvation of a person.
What we know is that, because of what happened after, Zacchaeus was a changed man. He gave his heart and life to God through Jesus. We know that Jesus confronted his sin and revealed to him that He, Jesus, was the Savior—God in the flesh. We don’t know what was said, but we know that Jesus found in Zacchaeus an open and receptive heart.
Luke 19:8. 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.”
Notice some important words: “Stood up,” means a spirit of determination. It’s the idea of taking a determined stance or a position.
“Look” seems to indicate a sudden resolve, something that just occurred to him, rather than what he and Jesus had previously discussed. The most telling word of all was that he said “Lord.”
“Lord” is Zacchaeus confessing that Jesus is his Savior and Lord. We know this because Jesus said, Luke 19:9, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.”
Prior to that day, before that very hour, Zacchaeus could not call Jesus his Lord….and he could not and would not ever deny it after that time.
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 12:3, Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.
Zacchaeus was a radically changed man. There was a complete reversal in his life. His wealth was not going to be a barrier between him and God. His heart was transformed. The taker became a giver.
The extortioner became a philanthropist. Not only would he repay those he defrauded, he would pay back four times as much. When you become a Christian you become a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17).
His mind was changed, his heart was changed, and his behavior was changed. He had opened himself to God. Jesus became his Savior. Now he wanted to obey God by doing what was right and righteous.
Jesus said Zacchaeus was a “Son of Abraham” not because he was Jewish, but because he believed. Galatians 3:7 says, Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. All believers are children of Abraham—children of the faith.
Zacchaeus did not become a Christian because he gave his money away, but because he became a believer. He was saved by faith, not by works.
Ephesians 2:8-9. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9not by works, so that no one can boast.
You can give everything away and give to the poor; you can be the busiest person in the church and still not be saved.
But what he did was important evidence that his faith was real: Ephesians 2:10. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
This is what saving faith is. It is what eternal life is. It is the purpose of salvation. Genuine saving faith changes a person’s behavior; it transforms the way he thinks, and it puts within him a new heart.
Luke 19:10. “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”
The long and short of it is that no matter who you are, God wants you to be saved. Salvation is based on a relationship with Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. The evidence of this relationship is how we speak and act. If you are not a Christian, the Savior is seeking you and urging you to commit your life to Him. If you are a believer, you need to feel the claims of God in all of your life and His desire that you integrate your faith with your life and work.