WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.080 878. So, this is the last sermon in our series through the Gospel of Luke. We've looked at the 00:00:09.080 --> 00:00:14.820 middle section, which is focused on Jesus' journey with his disciples up to Jerusalem. 00:00:15.780 --> 00:00:21.960 And Jerusalem is where Jesus is going because that's where he's going to die and rise again, 00:00:22.780 --> 00:00:28.120 and that's where Christianity is going to start. His followers are going to be there. 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:36.899 And tonight, we've come to, this is sort of the last stop on Jesus' journey. It's the city of Jericho 00:00:36.899 --> 00:00:44.780 that he's come to. Now, the main theme that we've seen through this whole section is what we might 00:00:44.780 --> 00:00:50.480 call discipleship. And that just means, what does it mean to follow Jesus? Jesus is teaching his 00:00:50.480 --> 00:00:55.960 disciples what it means to follow him. Now, they're going to be the ones who, after he leaves, after he 00:00:55.960 --> 00:01:01.200 dies and rises again and goes back to heaven, they're going to be the ones who lead the church. 00:01:02.359 --> 00:01:06.099 But, you know, Jesus doesn't start by saying, here's how you be a good leader. He starts by saying, 00:01:06.239 --> 00:01:12.000 you need to learn how to follow me before you can learn to lead other people. And so, that's been 00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:19.219 the focus of what we've been looking at. And this last section we're looking at tonight, we see two 00:01:19.219 --> 00:01:27.140 new disciples, two people who become, who join Jesus' followers and who show us what it means 00:01:27.140 --> 00:01:33.640 to be a disciple. So, let's read this passage. We're reading Luke 18, starting at verse 35, 00:01:34.159 --> 00:01:38.019 going to chapter 19, verse 10. So, here we go. 00:01:38.659 --> 00:01:43.219 As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. 00:01:43.219 --> 00:01:51.120 And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant. They told him, Jesus of Nazareth is 00:01:51.120 --> 00:01:58.280 passing by. And he cried out, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And those who were in front rebuked 00:01:58.280 --> 00:02:03.700 him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, son of David, have mercy on me. 00:02:04.659 --> 00:02:10.400 And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he came near, he asked him, 00:02:10.400 --> 00:02:17.480 what do you want me to do for you? He said, Lord, let me recover my sight. And Jesus said to him, 00:02:17.599 --> 00:02:24.140 recover your sight. Your faith has made you well. And immediately he recovered his sight and followed 00:02:24.140 --> 00:02:31.300 him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God. He entered Jericho 00:02:31.300 --> 00:02:37.480 and was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector 00:02:37.479 --> 00:02:43.679 and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd, he could not, 00:02:43.679 --> 00:02:50.039 because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, 00:02:50.120 --> 00:02:56.000 for he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, 00:02:56.000 --> 00:03:06.919 Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today. So he hurried and came down and 00:03:06.919 --> 00:03:12.960 received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled. He has gone in to be the guest of a 00:03:12.960 --> 00:03:19.580 man who is a sinner. And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give 00:03:19.580 --> 00:03:26.160 to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold. And Jesus said to 00:03:26.160 --> 00:03:34.820 him, today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham, for the son of man came 00:03:34.820 --> 00:03:45.520 to seek and to save the lost. So tonight we see these two guys. We see the blind man sitting by the 00:03:45.520 --> 00:03:55.780 side of the road. He's down and out, right? He's disabled. He's dependent. He's desperate. And he cries out to 00:03:55.780 --> 00:04:03.340 Jesus. And then we see Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector. He was on top. He was rich. He was in charge of other 00:04:03.340 --> 00:04:12.920 people. But he was also realized that he needed Jesus too. So let's look at them one by one and see what we can 00:04:12.919 --> 00:04:17.800 learn from them. So first the blind man, right? He's sitting by the side of the road. He's sitting 00:04:17.800 --> 00:04:23.699 by the roadside begging. He's an outcast. That's the only thing he can do. He can't see. So he doesn't 00:04:23.699 --> 00:04:29.319 know how to get around. He can't work, right? What are the jobs in those days? Go out in the fields and, 00:04:29.379 --> 00:04:36.060 you know, harvest. He can't do any of the jobs that they had back then. And, but he hears that Jesus is 00:04:36.060 --> 00:04:44.160 going by. And so he cries out. He starts, he decides in his mind, I have to see this Jesus. I 00:04:44.160 --> 00:04:52.379 have to find him. And, well, at first he says, what's going on, right? And they say, well, Jesus of 00:04:52.379 --> 00:05:03.579 Nazareth is passing by. Now, Jesus, the name that we call Jesus is in Hebrew, the name Joshua. And that 00:05:03.579 --> 00:05:11.419 was a common name. There were a lot of guys named Joshua. And Nazareth was a no-name town. It was 00:05:11.419 --> 00:05:17.939 sort of like Derby. Okay. Now, no offense if you're from Derby, but I drove through Derby the other day 00:05:17.939 --> 00:05:24.479 and it had a sign and it said the smallest city in Connecticut. And I'm like, okay, so what? Right? 00:05:24.579 --> 00:05:28.599 You're from Derby. Now, if you're from Derby, maybe you can enlighten me. Maybe Derby's got something 00:05:28.600 --> 00:05:36.200 going for it. But, you know, it's sort of like they say, Joe from Derby is walking by. And you say, 00:05:36.500 --> 00:05:46.200 so what? But the blind man doesn't say, so what? He says, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Now, 00:05:46.260 --> 00:05:57.580 that phrase, son of David, means a descendant of the greatest king of Israel. And it's a phrase that 00:05:57.579 --> 00:06:05.240 you would use to talk about someone who you think would be as great as David. Because God had promised 00:06:05.240 --> 00:06:10.919 David that one of his descendants would sit on his throne. And so this blind man starts crying out, 00:06:11.279 --> 00:06:16.439 saying, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And again, the crowd wants to stop him. The crowd's 00:06:16.439 --> 00:06:21.979 like, what are you talking about? I mean, it's just Joe from Derby. Be quiet. He, you know, if he's 00:06:21.980 --> 00:06:28.040 important, he doesn't want to deal with you. And the blind man just cries out louder and louder. And 00:06:28.040 --> 00:06:40.800 finally, Jesus stops. Right? Jesus is not too busy for the blind beggar who nobody else cares about, 00:06:41.540 --> 00:06:49.420 who's sitting by the side of the road on the bottom of society. Jesus is not too busy. And he says, 00:06:49.420 --> 00:06:57.420 bring this guy to me. And then he asked him a question. He says, what do you want me to do for 00:06:57.420 --> 00:07:02.879 you? And I mean, isn't that amazing? That's, that's actually a really good question to ask. 00:07:03.340 --> 00:07:09.480 Right? Jesus doesn't assume that what the crowd says is what's true about the guy. He comes to the 00:07:09.480 --> 00:07:17.259 guy and says, what do you want from me? And the blind man says, Lord, I want to see. Now, do you notice 00:07:17.259 --> 00:07:23.659 what he calls Jesus? Right? He calls him son of David, right? The coming king. And he calls him 00:07:23.659 --> 00:07:32.420 Lord. Now that word Lord, it could just mean sir. It was sort of a polite way of addressing a high, 00:07:32.819 --> 00:07:39.459 a respectful way of addressing a man. But it's also the same word that was used in the Old Testament to 00:07:39.459 --> 00:07:46.379 speak about God, the Lord. And, you know, it's interesting in the Old Testament, there are two 00:07:46.379 --> 00:07:52.339 prophecies in the book of Isaiah that talk about someone who's going to come and give sight to the 00:07:52.339 --> 00:08:02.399 blind. And one of them is Isaiah 61 that Jesus quoted when he stood up in Nazareth at the synagogue 00:08:02.399 --> 00:08:08.399 and he read this verse and he said, which says, the spirit of the sovereign Lord is upon me because 00:08:08.399 --> 00:08:14.079 he has anointed me. Notice that word anointed. That's what you would do to a king, right? He has 00:08:14.079 --> 00:08:21.000 anointed me to preach good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, and to bring recovery of sight 00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:27.639 to the blind. So that's the one passage that says this anointed king is going to come and bring sight to 00:08:27.639 --> 00:08:34.120 the blind. The other passage says one day God's going to come. And when God comes, the eyes of the 00:08:34.120 --> 00:08:40.080 blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. That's Isaiah 35 if you want to look at 00:08:40.080 --> 00:08:49.120 that. Now, I don't know if the blind man knew those passages in Isaiah, but it's interesting. He 00:08:49.120 --> 00:08:56.279 addresses Jesus in those very ways, as the king and as the Lord. Just like the prophet said, 00:08:56.279 --> 00:09:03.259 the king's going to come and recovery of sight to the blind and God's going to come. And the blind 00:09:03.259 --> 00:09:07.879 man calls out to Jesus and says, Jesus, I think you're that. I think you're that one. 00:09:10.679 --> 00:09:21.039 And so Jesus heals him. And then he says, your faith, verse 42, recover your sight. Your faith 00:09:21.039 --> 00:09:27.740 has made you well. And that sentence, it's hard to translate it because you could translate it any 00:09:27.740 --> 00:09:32.360 one of three ways. You could say your faith has healed you. That would be one way to translate it. 00:09:32.539 --> 00:09:36.039 You could say your faith has saved you. That'd be another way to translate it. You could say your 00:09:36.039 --> 00:09:41.240 faith has made you well. It sort of means all those three things, right? The word could mean healed, 00:09:41.599 --> 00:09:47.199 rescued, made whole, made well. And what we see for the blind man is that it's all three, 00:09:47.200 --> 00:09:56.040 right? He's healed physically. He can see again. And he's healed spiritually. He starts following 00:09:56.040 --> 00:10:04.620 Jesus along the road. He's made whole. And so Jesus points to this blind man and says, 00:10:05.040 --> 00:10:12.660 you're an example of faith, right? Now, what is faith? How does the blind man demonstrate faith? 00:10:12.659 --> 00:10:18.559 Faith. Well, he demonstrates faith by reaching out to Jesus and crying out to Jesus and saying, 00:10:18.759 --> 00:10:24.259 I want to see Jesus. And I want to know who this guy really is. And I want to personally encounter 00:10:24.259 --> 00:10:29.120 him no matter what anybody thinks, no matter what anybody else says, no matter what this crowd says, 00:10:30.279 --> 00:10:35.639 right? The crowd sort of dismissive. They're like, ah, he's just the guy from Nazareth. And he says, 00:10:35.699 --> 00:10:40.199 no, no, no. I want to know him. I want to see him. And then they're like, be quiet. He doesn't care 00:10:40.200 --> 00:10:45.220 about you. And he's like, I don't care. I want to see him. I want to know him. And Jesus says, 00:10:45.259 --> 00:10:51.720 that's what faith looks like. You know, you might not know a lot about Jesus, but to have faith in 00:10:51.720 --> 00:10:57.860 him means to say, I want to see him. I want to know him. And I don't want to let anything else get in 00:10:57.860 --> 00:11:09.920 the way. Not what other people think or anything else. The blind man recognizes Jesus for who he is. 00:11:10.740 --> 00:11:18.120 The son of David and the Lord. And he looks to Jesus as the object of his deepest hopes and desires. 00:11:20.940 --> 00:11:26.759 So the end of this story, verse 43, immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying 00:11:26.759 --> 00:11:35.320 God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God. So this is, this is how what he, 00:11:35.320 --> 00:11:44.440 this is how he's, he becomes a disciple or how he expresses that he's, he's following Jesus, right? 00:11:44.440 --> 00:11:50.379 He follows Jesus. He gives glory to God and he leads other people to praise God. And if you think 00:11:50.379 --> 00:11:57.840 about what does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus, that's a great place to start, to follow Jesus and 00:11:57.840 --> 00:12:04.480 keep your eyes on him, to give all glory to God and to lead other people in praising God. 00:12:04.480 --> 00:12:15.800 And if you read through the gospel of Luke, praising and glorifying God is the proper response when 00:12:15.800 --> 00:12:22.899 people see Jesus and experience his healing, saving, delivering power. So there's many people who do this, 00:12:23.420 --> 00:12:28.680 the shepherds, when they saw Jesus in the manger, it says they went and praised and glorified God. 00:12:28.679 --> 00:12:35.019 There was a paralyzed man who was healed by Jesus, picked up his mat and walked and glorified God. 00:12:35.639 --> 00:12:42.559 After Jesus raised the son of a widow, the crowd glorified God. A leper who was cleansed came back 00:12:42.559 --> 00:12:47.599 glorifying God. So there's all these examples of people who experience and encounter Jesus 00:12:47.599 --> 00:12:55.079 and their response is to glorify God. Now you might say like, what exactly does that mean? That sounds 00:12:55.080 --> 00:13:01.379 like sort of like a, you know, a phrase people throw around in church, glorify God. What does that, 00:13:01.860 --> 00:13:14.980 what does that actually mean? Well, you know, the word glorious, it means beautiful, weighty, bright, famous. 00:13:14.980 --> 00:13:26.200 One definition is having a striking beauty or splendor that brings out feelings of delighted admiration. 00:13:27.600 --> 00:13:37.139 So to glorify God means to recognize God in that way. It's to see God not just as, yeah, I believe in him, 00:13:37.139 --> 00:13:45.639 he's out there somewhere. Or yeah, God says I should do certain things. So I try to do those things 00:13:45.639 --> 00:13:57.919 sometimes at least. But to glorify God means to just be amazed by him, to be, um, to see his beauty and 00:13:57.919 --> 00:14:03.919 just be astonished by it. And it's almost like the blind man, like couldn't stop talking about how 00:14:03.919 --> 00:14:09.519 glorious God was because that's what had captivated his mind and his heart. 00:14:11.639 --> 00:14:16.379 It's realizing that God isn't just a means to an end. He's the end for which we were made. 00:14:17.199 --> 00:14:22.000 You know, it's interesting. The blind man doesn't just be like, Hey, Jesus, you may, you let me see 00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:29.519 again. That's great. Awesome. See you later. Right. I've got what I want. Right. No, he, he, he can see 00:14:29.519 --> 00:14:38.759 again and he fixes his eyes on Jesus and glorifies God. So that's the first picture of a disciple that 00:14:38.759 --> 00:14:46.000 we see in this passage. The blind man, desperate, um, disabled and cries out to Jesus and Jesus 00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:54.319 heals him and he follows him along the way. All right. Now, second story, Zacchaeus. 00:14:54.320 --> 00:15:02.180 Now, Zacchaeus is like the blind man in some ways and the opposite of the blind man in other ways. 00:15:03.120 --> 00:15:09.440 So like the blind man, Zacchaeus was an outcast, but he was a very different kind of outcast. 00:15:10.360 --> 00:15:16.060 The blind man was an outcast sort of on the bottom of society. Everybody looked down at him, 00:15:16.500 --> 00:15:22.120 right? Nobody wanted to, nobody really cared about him. He really couldn't do much. He was dependent. 00:15:22.120 --> 00:15:29.679 He was needy, right? Zacchaeus was on the top. He was a chief tax collector. That means he was in 00:15:29.679 --> 00:15:37.740 charge of the tax collectors and the, the toll collectors in that whole region. And he was rich. 00:15:38.679 --> 00:15:47.159 He, he did well for himself. But you know, if you're like the blind man on the bottom, if you've ever 00:15:47.159 --> 00:15:55.079 been there, if you've been in a desperate situation where people just look down on you and you don't, 00:15:55.240 --> 00:16:00.339 your life is a mess and you've got not much to offer, you can feel really isolated there. But you 00:16:00.339 --> 00:16:05.899 can also feel really isolated when you're in charge of everybody else and when you're rich and when 00:16:05.899 --> 00:16:14.339 you're on the top. And specifically, tax collectors, they were hated and despised along with murderers and 00:16:14.340 --> 00:16:21.420 thieves, right? Tax collectors made their money partly by collecting money from their own people 00:16:21.420 --> 00:16:26.639 who didn't have a lot of money, right? They were unpopular people because they had, they, they went 00:16:26.639 --> 00:16:35.139 around and collected money from everybody else. And the way they got rich is they just increased the 00:16:35.139 --> 00:16:41.680 rates because basically the Roman government said, okay, you collect in this area and then at the end of 00:16:41.679 --> 00:16:47.839 the year you bring, you bring me 10,000 denarii or whatever you want to call it, right? $10,000. 00:16:48.319 --> 00:16:53.059 And then whatever else you collect, that's your salary on top of it. So you just, you know, the tax 00:16:53.059 --> 00:16:58.639 collectors would just keep the taxes high because that would benefit them. And so people hated them, 00:16:59.639 --> 00:17:08.539 right? But Jesus was different. Jesus was known as a friend of tax collectors, 00:17:08.539 --> 00:17:14.879 one who welcomed tax collectors into his presence. And so Zacchaeus was drawn to Jesus. Maybe he heard 00:17:14.879 --> 00:17:21.379 about Jesus from other tax collectors. So what do we see about Zacchaeus? How does he approach Jesus? 00:17:21.500 --> 00:17:27.000 How does Jesus respond to him? And then what do we see about being a disciple from him? So he approaches 00:17:27.000 --> 00:17:33.480 Jesus, sort of in some ways like the blind man, right? He wants to see him, but the crowd's in the way, 00:17:33.480 --> 00:17:40.420 not because he's blind, but because he's short. And apparently there's a big crowd and he can't see 00:17:40.420 --> 00:17:45.000 over them. And you know, it would have been dangerous for him to just try to push through 00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:51.920 the crowd because think about it. He's the guy that nobody likes. And if you walk in the middle of a 00:17:51.920 --> 00:17:57.120 crowd and you're the guy that nobody likes and you're really rich and everybody knows that's who you are, 00:17:57.799 --> 00:18:03.299 hey, this is their time. They can beat him up. And there's a big crowd, so maybe the police won't notice. 00:18:03.480 --> 00:18:11.700 Or maybe the police will be there and the police were notoriously harsh with big crowds and Zacchaeus 00:18:11.700 --> 00:18:17.960 might get on the wrong side of that. So it was sort of dangerous for Zacchaeus to even go near Jesus 00:18:17.960 --> 00:18:29.720 when there was a big crowd. So what he does is he sees a tree. Now my son loves climbing trees. 00:18:29.720 --> 00:18:38.380 He's six years old. And a sycamore tree, we don't have sycamore fig trees here, but a sycamore tree 00:18:38.380 --> 00:18:44.299 had lots of low branches. It was a great tree to climb and they could often get really high, 00:18:44.559 --> 00:18:48.620 even up to 60 feet high. So it was a great kind of tree to climb. It has all these low branches. You 00:18:48.620 --> 00:18:54.360 can easily get up, keep climbing. And it had big leaves. So you could climb up it and hide there 00:18:54.359 --> 00:19:01.079 and nobody would see you. And that's what Zacchaeus seems to be doing. He says, I really want to see 00:19:01.079 --> 00:19:10.879 Jesus. I want to know what he's about, but I want to do it without anybody seeing. 00:19:10.880 --> 00:19:25.980 So then, verse 5, Jesus comes walking by. And what does Jesus do? He looks up, calls him by name, 00:19:26.880 --> 00:19:32.780 tells him, come down right away. And then he says, I must stay at your house today. 00:19:34.040 --> 00:19:39.740 That's an interesting word, I must. When Jesus uses that word, I must, it's a word that talks about 00:19:39.740 --> 00:19:47.440 this is God's divine purpose. It is necessary that I come to your house today. It's God's purpose that 00:19:47.440 --> 00:19:55.380 I come to your house today. And this is, you know, I mean, imagine this, right? Imagine somebody walks 00:19:55.380 --> 00:20:00.819 up to you after church tonight and says, hey, I'm coming over. That's the first time they met you. 00:20:01.079 --> 00:20:07.359 You think, that's weird. And that was weird back then too. All right? It wasn't something that people 00:20:07.359 --> 00:20:12.599 did back then. It's the only time in all the gospels where somebody invites themselves over 00:20:12.599 --> 00:20:25.759 someone else's house. Even Jesus didn't do this very often. So what's, so, so what's going on? 00:20:28.019 --> 00:20:33.159 Or, right. So Jesus invites himself over. So, I mean, again, and again, imagine this. Imagine if you're 00:20:33.160 --> 00:20:40.880 Zacchaeus, right? You're, you know, basically Zacchaeus was sort of involved in a shady business, 00:20:41.920 --> 00:20:48.140 right? Sort of like, you know, somebody who might be connected with the mafia or, right, somebody who 00:20:48.140 --> 00:20:53.360 might've been a drug dealer or some, some, a business that might've earned him a lot of money, 00:20:53.360 --> 00:20:58.040 but people would sort of look down on him. And so he's coming to a religious teacher. So imagine, 00:20:58.740 --> 00:21:01.820 right, somebody's involved in a shady business and they walk into church and they think, 00:21:01.819 --> 00:21:08.700 I want to hear what this church is all about. I'm not a church person. I didn't grow up going here. 00:21:09.539 --> 00:21:17.019 So, you know, maybe you sort of sneak in and sit somewhere on the side behind a pillar, right? 00:21:17.379 --> 00:21:20.399 You think, I don't really want anybody to see me, but I just want to see what's going on. That's 00:21:20.399 --> 00:21:25.960 sort of what Zacchaeus is doing. And then it's sort of like in the middle of his sermon, if the preacher 00:21:25.960 --> 00:21:32.160 walks over to you and says, Hey, I see you, I know your name and I want to come to your house, 00:21:32.259 --> 00:21:39.240 how would you respond? You'd be like, what? Like, I'm going to run away. Or maybe if you're polite, 00:21:39.819 --> 00:21:47.519 maybe you would say, how about next week? Then I can clean up my house and actually feel, you know, 00:21:47.519 --> 00:21:54.980 not being, feels, and then I can at least put on a good impression. But Zacchaeus, he doesn't do that. 00:21:56.000 --> 00:22:03.819 When Jesus comes to him, he says, it says he received him rejoicing, joyfully. He's like, come, sure. 00:22:05.359 --> 00:22:08.700 Yes, I want you to come to my house. 00:22:08.700 --> 00:22:21.680 And so Jesus comes. If you look at verse 7, what happens when Jesus goes to his house? 00:22:23.759 --> 00:22:33.819 What happens is the crowd's hostility and hatred towards Zacchaeus gets transferred to hostility 00:22:33.819 --> 00:22:42.059 toward Jesus. They start grumbling about Jesus, right? Because the crowd, they would have, 00:22:42.200 --> 00:22:46.579 they would not have liked Zacchaeus, but then Jesus has publicly identified with Zacchaeus. Jesus says, 00:22:46.639 --> 00:22:51.480 I'm going to his house. And the crowd is like, oh, I don't like you either. He's gone to be the guest 00:22:51.480 --> 00:22:59.839 of a man who is a sinner. Why is he doing that? But isn't this a picture of why Jesus came to earth? 00:22:59.839 --> 00:23:07.619 Jesus came to identify with us in our sin and in our shame. And he did that publicly. 00:23:09.159 --> 00:23:13.259 He didn't just do that. He didn't just find Zacchaeus privately. He did that publicly. 00:23:14.439 --> 00:23:20.039 And he took, he identified with us taking on our sin and shame so that we could have salvation. 00:23:21.480 --> 00:23:24.959 So that we could be forgiven. So that we could be accepted by God. 00:23:24.960 --> 00:23:30.900 So that we could be freed from our sin and shame. Forgiven and welcomed home. 00:23:32.180 --> 00:23:34.980 And that's what we see Jesus doing with Zacchaeus. 00:23:38.039 --> 00:23:42.019 So we've seen how Zacchaeus approaches Jesus, Jesus' response, and finally the result. 00:23:42.680 --> 00:23:47.440 Right? What does Zacchaeus do? He receives him with joy. Right? Zacchaeus doesn't. 00:23:47.440 --> 00:23:52.220 And that's a picture of what it means to trust Jesus, just to receive him with joy. 00:23:54.220 --> 00:23:59.600 You know, without, nope, there's no pretense. Zacchaeus doesn't try to prove anything. 00:24:00.539 --> 00:24:04.900 He doesn't say, oh, Jesus, let me go home and clean up my house for an hour and make you a nice meal. 00:24:05.440 --> 00:24:09.440 He just says, come. And I'm so happy to have you. 00:24:09.440 --> 00:24:23.340 And this is a picture of what the Apostle Paul calls salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ without works. 00:24:23.759 --> 00:24:29.980 Now what that means, that's a longer way of putting it, but basically it just means coming to Jesus as you are. 00:24:30.799 --> 00:24:33.019 And not trying to clean yourself up first. 00:24:33.380 --> 00:24:36.039 And not trying to put on a good appearance. 00:24:36.039 --> 00:24:40.539 It just means coming to Jesus and saying, here I am, just as I am. 00:24:41.839 --> 00:24:42.740 I'm coming to you. 00:24:43.539 --> 00:24:44.539 I receive you. 00:24:48.200 --> 00:24:50.779 And that's part of what it means to believe in Jesus. 00:24:51.740 --> 00:24:53.299 It's to come as you are. 00:24:54.960 --> 00:25:00.960 But the second half of what it means to, but there's a result of that, which we see in verse 8. 00:25:02.399 --> 00:25:04.059 Right? Jesus says, come as you are. 00:25:04.059 --> 00:25:07.159 But when you come to Jesus as you are, you know what? 00:25:07.460 --> 00:25:08.619 You're never going to be the same. 00:25:09.759 --> 00:25:14.179 Because if Jesus comes into your house, if Jesus comes into your life and you receive him with joy, 00:25:14.500 --> 00:25:16.220 your life is never going to be the same. 00:25:17.099 --> 00:25:20.960 You don't need to try to clean it up or fix it up before you come to Jesus. 00:25:21.059 --> 00:25:24.960 But if you come to Jesus and you truly receive him, you're never going to be the same again. 00:25:24.960 --> 00:25:27.059 And that's what we see in verse 8. 00:25:27.759 --> 00:25:31.059 Zacchaeus says, behold, half of my goods I give to the poor. 00:25:31.400 --> 00:25:34.440 If I've cheated anyone of anything, I'll restore it four times. 00:25:38.840 --> 00:25:39.200 Right? 00:25:39.279 --> 00:25:42.180 Zacchaeus realizes, I have all that I need in Jesus. 00:25:43.259 --> 00:25:45.819 So I don't need to hold on to my riches anymore. 00:25:45.920 --> 00:25:46.600 I can be generous. 00:25:46.720 --> 00:25:48.940 I can give them away freely and joyfully. 00:25:48.940 --> 00:25:55.420 And he says, I want to make things right with anybody that I've wronged. 00:25:56.480 --> 00:26:03.340 And you know, those are two expressions of what the Bible calls repentance. 00:26:04.380 --> 00:26:08.600 Basically, when Jesus comes into our lives, that our attitude changes. 00:26:08.660 --> 00:26:10.380 And we say, I want to make amends. 00:26:11.039 --> 00:26:13.160 If I've wronged anybody, I want to fix that. 00:26:13.580 --> 00:26:15.660 I want to do what I can to make it right. 00:26:15.660 --> 00:26:22.220 And we become generous and joyful. 00:26:24.960 --> 00:26:28.560 End of this passage, Jesus says, today salvation has come to this house. 00:26:29.240 --> 00:26:31.740 Since he, Zacchaeus, also is a son of Abraham. 00:26:31.860 --> 00:26:34.660 That means who's included in the promise of God's blessing. 00:26:35.140 --> 00:26:38.519 For the son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost. 00:26:39.320 --> 00:26:40.019 The lost. 00:26:42.580 --> 00:26:43.860 So here's what we see tonight. 00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:45.400 Right? 00:26:45.400 --> 00:26:47.560 This last sentence of Jesus, this is sort of the main point. 00:26:47.660 --> 00:26:53.480 The son of man, Jesus Christ, came to seek and rescue people who are lost. 00:26:53.940 --> 00:27:00.259 That word lost can also mean ruined, destroyed, perishing, dying, passing away. 00:27:04.259 --> 00:27:05.700 That's what we see in the blind man. 00:27:06.560 --> 00:27:06.920 Right? 00:27:06.960 --> 00:27:08.060 The blind man was on the bottom. 00:27:08.580 --> 00:27:09.240 He was desperate. 00:27:09.420 --> 00:27:10.019 He was dependent. 00:27:11.340 --> 00:27:12.340 He was disabled. 00:27:12.339 --> 00:27:16.619 And we see Jesus has come for people like him. 00:27:18.220 --> 00:27:21.379 If that's you, if you're desperate, come to Jesus. 00:27:21.679 --> 00:27:22.419 Cry out to him. 00:27:23.619 --> 00:27:24.619 He's not too busy. 00:27:25.659 --> 00:27:26.480 He'll come to you. 00:27:27.619 --> 00:27:29.959 And he'll help you to see him. 00:27:30.319 --> 00:27:31.500 So that you can follow him. 00:27:31.539 --> 00:27:32.899 And so you can bring glory to God. 00:27:32.959 --> 00:27:34.599 And lead others in giving praise to God. 00:27:34.599 --> 00:27:38.339 God will give you an amazing purpose for your life. 00:27:41.459 --> 00:27:44.259 And Jesus has also come for people like Zacchaeus who are on top. 00:27:44.259 --> 00:27:49.720 And who, maybe other people look at Zacchaeus and think he's got all that he wanted. 00:27:51.140 --> 00:27:53.180 He's got more than he needs and all that he wants. 00:27:55.779 --> 00:27:56.879 But his life is empty. 00:27:58.079 --> 00:28:01.759 And he realized he needed something more than power and money. 00:28:01.759 --> 00:28:09.420 So the invitation is seek after Jesus like Zacchaeus did. 00:28:09.480 --> 00:28:11.839 And you'll find that he has come to seek you. 00:28:12.980 --> 00:28:14.519 Receive him into your house with joy. 00:28:15.039 --> 00:28:16.779 And your life will never be the same again. 00:28:17.599 --> 00:28:18.220 Let's pray. 00:28:22.700 --> 00:28:26.400 Lord Jesus, we thank you for this good news. 00:28:26.400 --> 00:28:56.380 Lord Jesus, we thank you for this good news. 00:28:56.400 --> 00:28:57.400 And we thank you for this good news. 00:28:57.400 --> 00:28:57.740 And we thank you for this good news. 00:28:57.740 --> 00:28:58.120 And we thank you for this good news. 00:28:59.200 --> 00:29:02.160 So that we could be healed and restored. 00:29:05.280 --> 00:29:07.400 And called sons and daughters of Abraham. 00:29:08.040 --> 00:29:12.759 People who are blessed by you. 00:29:15.120 --> 00:29:18.480 Lord, we pray that we would receive you with joy. 00:29:20.560 --> 00:29:23.019 And that our lives would never be the same again. 00:29:23.019 --> 00:29:27.519 As we learn what it means to follow you. 00:29:28.059 --> 00:29:28.839 Pray in Jesus' name. 00:29:29.099 --> 00:29:29.319 Amen.