WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.400 So we're going to start this evening looking at a, we're going to do a series on Wednesday nights of people Jesus met with, 00:00:07.400 --> 00:00:09.900 named people for the most part. 00:00:09.900 --> 00:00:15.300 And we're going to start tonight with Zacchaeus. 00:00:15.300 --> 00:00:19.000 And there's a reason I'm doing this. 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:24.300 I just think because it's always good to be learning from the Master. 00:00:24.300 --> 00:00:26.300 That's just, that's what we are. 00:00:26.300 --> 00:00:27.800 That's what we do. 00:00:27.800 --> 00:00:33.299 And the way he interacted with people is really great. 00:00:33.299 --> 00:00:34.899 So we're going to do that. 00:00:34.899 --> 00:00:38.100 Now, I know that Zacchaeus is a really well known story. 00:00:38.100 --> 00:00:42.899 And if I asked you to give me the five or six main points of the story of Zacchaeus, 00:00:42.899 --> 00:00:45.799 you probably all come out with the same things as I'm going to say. 00:00:45.799 --> 00:00:47.900 But I'm hoping that will be challenged. 00:00:47.900 --> 00:00:52.900 But it's a long, long time since I preached about, spoke about Zacchaeus. 00:00:52.899 --> 00:00:56.000 So we're going to read Luke chapter 19. 00:00:56.000 --> 00:01:01.799 And we're going to read from the beginning, just the 10 verses that tell the story. 00:01:01.799 --> 00:01:07.799 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through and behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. 00:01:07.799 --> 00:01:11.200 He was a chief tax collector and was rich. 00:01:11.200 --> 00:01:15.099 And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd, 00:01:15.099 --> 00:01:19.000 he couldn't because he was small in stature. 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:22.700 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him. 00:01:22.700 --> 00:01:25.500 For he was about to pass that way. 00:01:25.500 --> 00:01:30.000 And when Jesus came to that place, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:33.900 Hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today. 00:01:33.900 --> 00:01:37.700 So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. 00:01:37.700 --> 00:01:40.300 And when they saw it, they all grumbled. 00:01:40.300 --> 00:01:43.900 He's gone to be the guest of a man who's a sinner. 00:01:43.900 --> 00:01:49.400 And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, Behold, Lord, half of my goods, I give to the poor. 00:01:49.400 --> 00:01:53.700 And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold. 00:01:53.700 --> 00:01:58.200 And Jesus said to him today, Salvation has come to your house, to this house, 00:01:58.200 --> 00:02:07.900 since he also is a son of Abraham, for the son of man came to seek and to save the lost. 00:02:07.900 --> 00:02:11.900 So it's a great story, isn't it? 00:02:11.900 --> 00:02:17.300 I know all of you are just sitting there going, Zacchaeus was a very little man 00:02:17.300 --> 00:02:20.900 because that's always what we think of when we think of Zacchaeus. 00:02:20.900 --> 00:02:24.100 Well, at least that's what I think of when I think of Zacchaeus. 00:02:24.100 --> 00:02:30.900 I think of the song that we knew the story connected to. 00:02:30.900 --> 00:02:39.800 But in Jeremiah 8 and verse 20, it says, The harvest is passed, the summer has ended, 00:02:39.800 --> 00:02:42.000 and we are not saved. 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:47.200 And that's really my motivation for beginning to look at these characters. 00:02:47.199 --> 00:02:52.799 Because for me, I feel very much that the time is short. 00:02:52.799 --> 00:02:55.799 And I feel that more and more. 00:02:55.799 --> 00:03:02.799 And I feel about, especially about my friends who I've known for a long, long time, who don't know Jesus. 00:03:02.799 --> 00:03:09.099 And I feel sometimes that the harvest is in, the summer is passed, and yet they're not saved. 00:03:09.099 --> 00:03:13.799 And so I want us all to learn a little bit from the interaction of Jesus. 00:03:13.800 --> 00:03:19.600 I want to learn again, fresh in a new way, the interaction with Jesus, with people, 00:03:19.600 --> 00:03:24.100 which was so effective and which was so kingdom centered. 00:03:24.100 --> 00:03:29.700 And I hope that will spark really great discussions in city groups 00:03:29.700 --> 00:03:34.000 and just with your friends in church and with one another as we think about it. 00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:37.100 So I really don't want to go into it in great depth. 00:03:37.100 --> 00:03:40.900 It's not going to be a theological unpacking. 00:03:40.900 --> 00:03:45.099 It's just going to, in a sense, go through the story and get some lessons 00:03:45.099 --> 00:03:47.900 that I hope will provoke discussion with you. 00:03:47.900 --> 00:03:52.700 And if at the end of the short time, if you do have any immediate questions, 00:03:52.700 --> 00:03:56.700 then it would be great to just throw them out and before we go to prayer. 00:03:56.700 --> 00:03:58.599 But the story is very well known, isn't it? 00:03:58.599 --> 00:04:04.200 Zacchaeus, he was determined to find out more about Jesus. 00:04:04.200 --> 00:04:05.000 We know that, don't we? 00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:10.300 That he was really determined and he was a small wee man and he climbed up a tree. 00:04:10.300 --> 00:04:11.600 It's a funny story. 00:04:11.600 --> 00:04:13.800 It's a nice funny story. 00:04:13.800 --> 00:04:16.000 He was a chief tax collector. 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:18.500 He wasn't really funny at that level. 00:04:18.500 --> 00:04:24.699 He would have been a pretty, we can presume he would have been a pretty ambitious character, 00:04:24.699 --> 00:04:31.199 probably quite unscrupulous, definitely wealthy, absolutely unpopular 00:04:31.199 --> 00:04:36.199 because tax collectors, well, you all know that and a chief tax collector, 00:04:36.199 --> 00:04:42.500 even more so, he was shunned by his own people and outcast clearly. 00:04:42.500 --> 00:04:47.099 So he didn't really know people in terms of having friends. 00:04:47.099 --> 00:04:50.800 He might have had a professional relationship with some of the Romans, 00:04:50.800 --> 00:04:55.800 the Romans that he worked for, but they kind of just despised him as well a little bit. 00:04:55.800 --> 00:05:06.900 If you've watched any of the tremendous online series about Jesus called Chosen, 00:05:06.900 --> 00:05:13.400 if you've seen any of that, then you'll get an insight into the whole tax collector character in Matthew. 00:05:13.400 --> 00:05:15.699 It's very interesting. 00:05:15.699 --> 00:05:21.900 But, you know, whatever made up his character, clearly spiritually, he was lost. 00:05:21.900 --> 00:05:25.199 He was empty and he needed saving. 00:05:25.199 --> 00:05:28.599 He needed to be put right with his God. 00:05:28.599 --> 00:05:30.899 And I think he clearly knew that. 00:05:30.899 --> 00:05:34.300 Whatever that meant to him, whatever he understood by that, 00:05:34.300 --> 00:05:42.000 he clearly wanted to know this Jesus who was someone very different. 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:47.500 There was a loneliness, presumably some kind of dissatisfaction and unhappiness 00:05:47.500 --> 00:05:49.899 and a desperation. 00:05:49.899 --> 00:05:51.599 Maybe he'd heard about Matthew. 00:05:51.600 --> 00:05:56.700 Probably the tax collector spoke together because no one else would speak to him. 00:05:56.700 --> 00:06:01.400 Matthew, he thought he left his tax collector's booth to follow Jesus. 00:06:01.400 --> 00:06:02.400 Weird. 00:06:02.400 --> 00:06:03.500 So maybe he'd heard through that. 00:06:03.500 --> 00:06:04.800 We don't know. 00:06:04.800 --> 00:06:08.600 But anyway, he was determined to find out about Jesus and he was badly labeled really, 00:06:08.600 --> 00:06:09.900 wasn't he? 00:06:09.900 --> 00:06:14.500 In verse 7, we're told that, you know, the crowd were disaffected 00:06:14.500 --> 00:06:18.300 because Jesus had gone to be the guest of a man who was a sinner. 00:06:18.300 --> 00:06:24.600 So really, we know that from round about there was this antipathy. 00:06:24.600 --> 00:06:25.600 Is that the right word? 00:06:25.600 --> 00:06:28.699 There was an unhappiness anyway about Zacchaeus being there. 00:06:28.699 --> 00:06:30.500 The crowd weren't sympathetic to him. 00:06:30.500 --> 00:06:31.199 He knew that. 00:06:31.199 --> 00:06:34.199 That's why he didn't kind of try and push through the crowd as a wee man. 00:06:34.199 --> 00:06:36.199 So he's like, well, let me get to the front. 00:06:36.199 --> 00:06:40.000 Because he knew people weren't going to be sympathetic to him, to his request. 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:43.300 He might have even potentially got beaten up. 00:06:43.300 --> 00:06:47.000 But he was the kind of guy, I suppose, who would be rather ignored, 00:06:47.000 --> 00:06:51.000 unnoticed, or maybe even worse than that. 00:06:51.000 --> 00:06:55.399 So he was badly labeled by the crowds really. 00:06:55.399 --> 00:06:58.300 And you know, when Jesus spoke to him, they said, well, 00:06:58.300 --> 00:07:01.300 why are you speaking to this guy for this chief? 00:07:01.300 --> 00:07:02.199 Why? 00:07:02.199 --> 00:07:05.100 You know, this he's a no hopper of all the people in the crowd. 00:07:05.100 --> 00:07:07.399 Jesus, why are you speaking to Zacchaeus? 00:07:07.399 --> 00:07:10.199 He's beyond the pale. 00:07:10.199 --> 00:07:12.300 There's a case. 00:07:12.300 --> 00:07:15.800 And then Jesus enters this great dialogue. 00:07:15.800 --> 00:07:20.800 Jesus enters into the story really in verse 5. 00:07:20.800 --> 00:07:24.900 Jesus came to the place and he looked up and said, Zacchaeus, hurry, come down. 00:07:24.900 --> 00:07:27.699 I must stay at your house. 00:07:27.699 --> 00:07:29.900 You all would have had this point, wouldn't you? 00:07:29.900 --> 00:07:31.699 He called him by name. 00:07:31.699 --> 00:07:33.100 He called him by name. 00:07:33.100 --> 00:07:36.300 Now, how did he know his name? 00:07:36.300 --> 00:07:37.800 Oh, of course he knew his name. 00:07:37.800 --> 00:07:39.900 He's God. 00:07:39.900 --> 00:07:44.300 Well, he was God who emptied himself. 00:07:44.300 --> 00:07:45.800 He was God who learned obedience. 00:07:45.800 --> 00:07:48.400 He was a God who was a baby in the womb. 00:07:48.400 --> 00:07:56.800 He was a God who was in every point just like we are, yet without sin. 00:07:56.800 --> 00:08:03.900 Surely it must have been in his relationship with the Father and in his sensitivity to the Spirit 00:08:03.900 --> 00:08:09.400 that he knew and was guided to Zacchaeus and told about Zacchaeus. 00:08:09.400 --> 00:08:11.199 He called him by name. 00:08:11.199 --> 00:08:14.000 And Jesus here was clearly doing the Father's will. 00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:19.000 We wrote that at the end of the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. 00:08:19.000 --> 00:08:21.100 That is why Jesus had come. 00:08:21.100 --> 00:08:23.899 He was calling out those who had come to save. 00:08:23.899 --> 00:08:25.199 Zacchaeus was one of them. 00:08:25.199 --> 00:08:31.199 And the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit had known that since before the creation of the world. 00:08:31.199 --> 00:08:35.299 Zacchaeus was going to be one of the ones that he would come to save. 00:08:35.299 --> 00:08:39.100 And Jesus, therefore, took the initiative here, didn't he? 00:08:39.100 --> 00:08:42.600 Jesus says, he doesn't say, 00:08:42.600 --> 00:08:44.000 Would you mind if I come to your house? 00:08:44.000 --> 00:08:48.500 He says, Zacchaeus, get down and must come to your house. 00:08:48.500 --> 00:08:52.300 Tremendous authority in what he says. 00:08:52.300 --> 00:09:01.200 That request alone would have had more power and more authority than a million sermons that Jesus could have preached. 00:09:01.200 --> 00:09:03.899 Nobody wanted to go to Zacchaeus house. 00:09:03.899 --> 00:09:05.899 Nobody. 00:09:05.899 --> 00:09:09.200 And here is this Jesus that he's come to see. 00:09:09.200 --> 00:09:12.399 And Jesus is demanding to go to his house. 00:09:12.399 --> 00:09:14.299 He's saying, I want your friendship. 00:09:14.299 --> 00:09:16.100 I want your hospitality. 00:09:16.100 --> 00:09:17.299 You have a home. 00:09:17.299 --> 00:09:18.899 I'm coming to your home. 00:09:18.899 --> 00:09:20.500 I'm coming into your life. 00:09:20.500 --> 00:09:26.899 I'm coming into the place where you're comfortable in your security zone. 00:09:26.899 --> 00:09:29.000 I'm coming in here. 00:09:29.000 --> 00:09:30.600 Took the initiative. 00:09:30.600 --> 00:09:36.899 And in all of this, we feel that Jesus has given Zacchaeus his undivided attention. 00:09:36.899 --> 00:09:40.199 He doesn't care about what the crowd are saying round about. 00:09:40.200 --> 00:09:47.400 It's as if what we have here is nobody in the universe except Jesus and Zacchaeus at this point. 00:09:47.400 --> 00:09:51.900 Tremendous interaction between the two. 00:09:51.900 --> 00:09:52.700 So Jesus. 00:09:52.700 --> 00:09:56.700 And then let's go briefly again to Zacchaeus. 00:09:56.700 --> 00:09:59.700 You know, particularly in verses 6 and 8. 00:09:59.700 --> 00:10:02.800 He hurried and came down quickly, received him joyfully. 00:10:02.800 --> 00:10:05.300 And then, you know, he's gone to his house. 00:10:05.300 --> 00:10:09.100 And we presume there's some kind of time lapse between verse 7 and 8. 00:10:09.100 --> 00:10:11.899 Because Zacchaeus stood then and said to the Lord, 00:10:11.899 --> 00:10:14.700 Behold, Lord, have my good, I give to the poor and everything. 00:10:14.700 --> 00:10:24.399 Most of the commentators presume that there's what Zacchaeus says here is after Jesus has visited and spent time in his house. 00:10:24.399 --> 00:10:31.300 But the moment that Zacchaeus starts, hurries down from the tree. 00:10:31.300 --> 00:10:36.500 I think at that point, the rebirth has begun in his life. 00:10:36.500 --> 00:10:38.800 At this stage, there's not been a sermon. 00:10:38.799 --> 00:10:41.099 There's not been a gospel presentation. 00:10:41.099 --> 00:10:47.599 He hasn't given him, you know, the Roman road to the gospel story. 00:10:47.599 --> 00:10:49.199 You know, we're all sinners. 00:10:49.199 --> 00:10:53.000 We all need Christ and here's the gospel. 00:10:53.000 --> 00:10:58.000 All we have at this point is a warm welcome and being called by name. 00:10:58.000 --> 00:11:02.299 And Zacchaeus responds to that in obedience. 00:11:02.299 --> 00:11:07.799 Obviously, there's something already clearly miraculous happening. 00:11:07.799 --> 00:11:14.799 And the first conversation he has with Jesus has changed everything in Zacchaeus's life. 00:11:14.799 --> 00:11:18.799 And that is because he had been found. 00:11:18.799 --> 00:11:22.899 Okay. The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. 00:11:22.899 --> 00:11:27.399 So we all often think this is about Zacchaeus seeking Jesus, don't we? 00:11:27.399 --> 00:11:32.699 But in reality, what comes across in this story is this is about Jesus seeking Zacchaeus. 00:11:32.700 --> 00:11:38.800 He's come to seek him and to find him. 00:11:38.800 --> 00:11:43.000 And even in the very bare bones of the story we've got here, 00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:48.600 there's inexplicable and clear evidence of someone who's been transformed 00:11:48.600 --> 00:11:55.900 by the truth of the person of Jesus, warmed by his person and by his love. 00:11:55.900 --> 00:12:00.000 Obviously, there's much we don't know and much we're not told. 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:07.299 But a new person was born and I'm not sure if there's any specific significance in it. 00:12:07.299 --> 00:12:14.700 But when Zacchaeus in verse 8 it says, 00:12:14.700 --> 00:12:19.700 and Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, I may be reading into that, 00:12:19.700 --> 00:12:23.600 but he stands up at that point to make a declaration. 00:12:23.600 --> 00:12:25.899 He's not hiding behind the crowd. 00:12:25.899 --> 00:12:28.100 He's not hiding in a tree. 00:12:28.100 --> 00:12:33.500 He's standing up and declaring in front of everything that he's been changed. 00:12:33.500 --> 00:12:36.200 In front of everything that's been changed. 00:12:36.200 --> 00:12:41.500 The one thing that's been Zacchaeus' idol, which is clearly wealth and money, 00:12:41.500 --> 00:12:49.000 has become all quickly his greatest servant and his greatest outworking of a changed heart. 00:12:49.000 --> 00:12:55.000 His greatest character failing, which I suppose was miserliness. 00:12:55.000 --> 00:13:01.200 More than anything, he wanted money rather than relationships with others. 00:13:01.200 --> 00:13:07.600 It has turned into generosity and joy and a willingness to share what he has with others. 00:13:07.600 --> 00:13:10.600 So that's the story. You all know the story. 00:13:10.600 --> 00:13:12.200 I've just gone through it quickly there. 00:13:12.200 --> 00:13:16.000 Isn't it a brilliant interaction, wonderful interaction? 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:20.500 But maybe you're thinking, well, it just all seems a bit distant from my life 00:13:20.500 --> 00:13:23.899 and my experience as a Christian. 00:13:23.899 --> 00:13:25.799 You know, this is Jesus. 00:13:25.799 --> 00:13:27.500 He knew Zacchaeus' name. 00:13:27.500 --> 00:13:31.899 There was something miraculous going on because he's the Son of God. 00:13:31.899 --> 00:13:38.100 But, you know, we're all called today to partner with Jesus who has gone back to heaven. 00:13:38.100 --> 00:13:39.600 He's ascended back to heaven. 00:13:39.600 --> 00:13:43.899 And we are called to be those who usher in his kingdom. 00:13:43.899 --> 00:13:49.199 And I would really love you at this city groups to discuss these interactions 00:13:49.200 --> 00:13:57.900 that Jesus has with people and ask, what is it mean for me? 00:13:57.900 --> 00:14:01.300 What is Jesus saying to us as a church? 00:14:01.300 --> 00:14:02.600 What's involving it? 00:14:02.600 --> 00:14:06.000 Very quickly, I want to say there's four practical points. 00:14:06.000 --> 00:14:11.600 The first is we have a duty to be praying like Jesus. 00:14:11.600 --> 00:14:16.300 There's nothing in this passage talks about Jesus praying. 00:14:16.299 --> 00:14:25.500 But it's clearly part of the revelation of his life that he was in communion with his father 00:14:25.500 --> 00:14:29.099 and was doing his, you know, that's why he's come to seek and save the lost. 00:14:29.099 --> 00:14:36.299 That was his understanding of his mission as God was continuing to reveal who he was to himself. 00:14:36.299 --> 00:14:41.500 And the Spirit made that clear and he grew and grew and learning and understanding. 00:14:41.500 --> 00:14:44.199 And he was doing God's will. 00:14:44.200 --> 00:14:56.200 And we have a responsibility to pray similarly, to learn obedience to God through prayer. 00:14:56.200 --> 00:15:03.900 And can I talk sort of evangelistically that in prayer ask God to lead us to the people 00:15:03.900 --> 00:15:09.200 who Jesus is already calling, who are God's people. 00:15:09.200 --> 00:15:13.700 Now there's, I know there's mystery there and another faith required there. 00:15:13.700 --> 00:15:19.000 But recognizing that there's a sensitivity to prayer as something that's two-way. 00:15:19.000 --> 00:15:22.000 I think we often always think of prayer as one way. 00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:24.800 We're bringing our requests and everything to God. 00:15:24.800 --> 00:15:30.700 But are we hearing and listening to who the Holy Spirit wants us to speak to? 00:15:30.700 --> 00:15:38.800 Or listening to where we are being guided and recognizing our relationship with God is a living conversation. 00:15:38.800 --> 00:15:41.300 Now, I don't know what that looks like necessarily. 00:15:41.299 --> 00:15:48.699 I'm not expecting God to speak to me and you know, audibly say go and speak to that guy over there. 00:15:48.699 --> 00:15:49.899 I don't mean that. 00:15:49.899 --> 00:15:56.099 But I mean that we're so sensitive to the Spirit's leading that we're aware of what God wants us 00:15:56.099 --> 00:16:01.899 and the friendships and the conversations and the opportunities that he's putting our way. 00:16:01.899 --> 00:16:06.500 I also think and we're praying, we should be praying. 00:16:06.500 --> 00:16:09.799 Okay, I know, stuck record, praying together. 00:16:09.799 --> 00:16:18.199 You know, I'm still so aware that as a church, there's not a lot of people have been converted through us recently. 00:16:18.199 --> 00:16:20.799 And that can become a pride thing. 00:16:20.799 --> 00:16:22.099 It can become a numbers thing. 00:16:22.099 --> 00:16:25.899 I know there's all kinds of motives we have to fight against. 00:16:25.899 --> 00:16:33.199 But we are grasping the crucial nature of our relationship with God and they're calling together 00:16:33.199 --> 00:16:36.399 to be a people who want to see His kingdom coming. 00:16:36.399 --> 00:16:37.799 So praying like Jesus. 00:16:37.799 --> 00:16:45.199 Secondly, being aware that it's very easy for us to side with the crowd rather than with Jesus. 00:16:45.199 --> 00:16:48.699 I think that's easy for us all to do. 00:16:48.699 --> 00:16:51.899 It's easy for us and this is all about relationship with people. 00:16:51.899 --> 00:16:56.599 It's easy for us to judge by appearances or by past behavior. 00:16:56.599 --> 00:17:03.799 You know, we interact with people or we see people and we think, well, I'm going to avoid them. 00:17:03.799 --> 00:17:07.899 Jesus is not going to rescue them, they're not His type. 00:17:07.899 --> 00:17:12.799 And we can judge by appearances and we forget that we are all Zacchaeus. 00:17:12.799 --> 00:17:14.399 We are all Legion. 00:17:14.399 --> 00:17:16.700 We are all Mary Magdalene. 00:17:16.700 --> 00:17:22.599 We are all those who need rescued before God without Christ. 00:17:22.599 --> 00:17:24.899 And we're in that position. 00:17:24.899 --> 00:17:27.899 So it's always vital, I think, for us never to write off people. 00:17:27.899 --> 00:17:31.799 The people that look the most unlikely converts. 00:17:31.799 --> 00:17:34.299 Might be the ones that Jesus is working. 00:17:34.299 --> 00:17:35.599 Don't write off people. 00:17:35.599 --> 00:17:39.200 See them as fellow image bearers. 00:17:39.200 --> 00:17:46.200 See people, see people broken, lost and needing a savior. 00:17:46.200 --> 00:17:53.399 And therefore taking time to know the person behind the image, the company to keep the behavior, 00:17:53.399 --> 00:18:01.000 the characteristics that are kind of ugly and annoy you and make you think, oh, I don't want. 00:18:01.000 --> 00:18:05.400 I don't even know if I want them to become a Christian. 00:18:05.400 --> 00:18:13.799 And also in terms of that whole being aware, I don't think we should presume on the heart condition of anyone based on their outward prosperity. 00:18:13.799 --> 00:18:14.700 Maybe. 00:18:14.700 --> 00:18:17.599 And by that, I mean, you know, people that look like they've got it all together. 00:18:17.599 --> 00:18:24.500 Maybe more of the type of people we mix with because of our socioeconomic background. 00:18:24.500 --> 00:18:29.400 They may seem to have it all together. 00:18:29.400 --> 00:18:32.900 In their lives, I've got no spiritual interest. 00:18:32.900 --> 00:18:37.700 They'll never be interested in reading the Bible. 00:18:37.700 --> 00:18:40.800 And there's nothing there. 00:18:40.800 --> 00:18:56.600 But they may be like Nicodemus, like Zacchaeus utterly destitute inside, completely lonely, possibly having prayed the day you met them when they woke up in the morning, 00:18:56.599 --> 00:19:01.299 a suicidal prayer for help. 00:19:01.299 --> 00:19:04.199 You might be the person that God sends. 00:19:04.199 --> 00:19:06.899 And that's that happens again and again and again. 00:19:06.899 --> 00:19:11.000 People that look like maybe life is good for them. 00:19:11.000 --> 00:19:19.299 So there's that challenge of not judging like the crowd, but but connecting like Jesus. 00:19:19.299 --> 00:19:27.000 The third thing is the power of simply reaching out. 00:19:27.000 --> 00:19:37.000 I think we spend so much time despairing about the gospel formula about what I will see, how I will get the whole picture across the people. 00:19:37.000 --> 00:19:41.000 Talk about sin and talk about their need and talk about Christ and the gospel. 00:19:41.000 --> 00:19:45.099 And that will all that will all find its place. 00:19:45.099 --> 00:19:53.899 But the first contact you have remembering someone's name, 00:19:53.899 --> 00:20:00.799 being led by the spirit to visit someone to say hello, to invite them to your home, 00:20:00.799 --> 00:20:09.299 to somehow give them in your life, their your undivided attention where nobody listens to them. 00:20:09.299 --> 00:20:12.099 They may be converted by that. 00:20:12.099 --> 00:20:22.899 They may become Christians before they've even heard about Calvary because God is at work and Calvary and the message will all come. 00:20:22.899 --> 00:20:30.099 I remember in Roskeen, someone coming in the days when we you came forward and spoke to the session before a communion. 00:20:30.099 --> 00:20:31.500 Usually it was at a time. 00:20:31.500 --> 00:20:43.400 Remember someone in Roskeen who had no no gospel background, who that week had clearly been saved and met with the elders, 00:20:43.400 --> 00:20:51.599 but who couldn't articulate it in any kind of gospel, gospel, meaningfully way. 00:20:51.599 --> 00:20:54.500 He said, there's just been an incredible change in my life. 00:20:54.500 --> 00:21:01.599 And he went on to grow and develop and become a leader in the church and an office bearer and all that came. 00:21:01.599 --> 00:21:09.299 But he was he was clearly converted without knowing the details of the gospel. 00:21:09.299 --> 00:21:17.500 But he had met with Jesus and that simple reaching out might be what Jesus uses to convert someone. 00:21:17.500 --> 00:21:19.799 It's a confidence, isn't it? 00:21:19.799 --> 00:21:21.500 That God has this person. 00:21:21.500 --> 00:21:23.500 It's not my not my convert. 00:21:23.500 --> 00:21:28.299 It's not my expert explanation of the gospel message. 00:21:28.299 --> 00:21:31.500 It's in God's eternal will. 00:21:31.500 --> 00:21:37.700 And we just go out with love and all our weakness and all our failure and reach out and remember their name. 00:21:37.700 --> 00:21:43.700 And the last thing is meeting with Jesus in truth. 00:21:43.700 --> 00:21:48.000 The truth in Jesus will always lead to a positive change. 00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:50.599 Always. 00:21:50.599 --> 00:21:55.099 And that goes that really is where it comes home and affects us. 00:21:55.099 --> 00:21:57.699 You know, all of us. 00:21:57.699 --> 00:21:59.500 Because it's an ongoing thing, isn't it? 00:21:59.500 --> 00:22:01.399 That meet on going meeting with Jesus. 00:22:01.399 --> 00:22:09.799 I'm not speaking necessarily here in conversion here, but it on going meeting with Jesus leads to positive change. 00:22:09.799 --> 00:22:13.799 It leads to generosity and overflowing. 00:22:13.799 --> 00:22:25.500 That mean and angry and judgmental and negative cynical greedy proud lustful spirit that we wrestle in battle with changes when we meet with Jesus. 00:22:25.500 --> 00:22:33.200 We don't stay the same when we're in relationship with Jesus. 00:22:33.200 --> 00:22:36.299 That's a very challenging thought. 00:22:36.299 --> 00:22:43.599 If you lurch back to your Christian life 10 years ago, as I lurch back to mine. 00:22:43.599 --> 00:22:44.699 We don't change. 00:22:44.699 --> 00:22:48.500 We don't stay the same when we're in a relationship with Jesus. 00:22:48.500 --> 00:22:50.199 There's always growth. 00:22:50.199 --> 00:22:53.500 There's always positive change. 00:22:53.500 --> 00:23:03.299 And that's again being together where we disciple one another into that change and also new Christians. 00:23:03.299 --> 00:23:08.899 So I think there's an amazing challenge there for us in St. Columbus. 00:23:08.900 --> 00:23:18.000 Living in the light of eternity and living together in the atmosphere of miraculous grace, which is how Jesus lived. 00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:24.500 And what he promises is a way that we can live in the power of the Holy Spirit. 00:23:24.500 --> 00:23:28.500 How does that affect our interactions with people? 00:23:28.500 --> 00:23:32.300 You will all spend a lot of time tomorrow with people. 00:23:32.299 --> 00:23:40.099 And that will all reflect a relationship you have with Jesus, how you deal with him, how I deal with him. 00:23:40.099 --> 00:23:45.000 And I hope there's quite a lot in that to discuss together. 00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.700 There's no pressure on Hunter at all, but Hunter's doing the questions for next week. 00:23:49.700 --> 00:23:57.899 So if you have questions from this that you would like, you think would be good as part of the city group, 00:23:57.900 --> 00:24:12.300 it's a Hunter and you'll share them, but surely there's provocative discussion we can have when we think about the way Jesus interacted with Sakeas. 00:24:12.299 --> 00:24:28.099 Okay, right, I'm done.