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Everybody getting excited for Christmas?
Yes.
Woo, that was an easy answer, right?
Yeah.
This morning, we are going to talk about a Christmas story, okay?
Okay.
About a very tiny person at Christmas named Jesus.
That's right, Zacchaeus.
Zacchaeus, Christmas story about Zacchaeus, right?
Not what you expected?
I know that it's a Christmas story, Zacchaeus' story, because I saw Zacchaeus in a Christmas tree on the way in this morning.
Can you look up there?
You see that?
Did anybody see that in the Christmas tree by the nursery?
Yes.
Yeah.
Zacchaeus climbing up in a Christmas tree.
That's how the story goes, right?
No.
Oh.
Well, you should look for that tree on your way out today, okay?
And Miss Angela gave me a very big book.
Did you know Zacchaeus was a very small person like many of you?
But I have a very big book about this very small person.
That's pretty cool, huh?
We can look at that later.
But I wanted to read Zacchaeus' story from the Bible instead, okay?
Can we do that together?
Do you think some of you, maybe some of you older kids, help me read this story for us?
You want to help us, Cooper?
Let's see.
We'll let you read a couple verses first, okay?
It starts right here.
This is Luke chapter 19.
You can turn there in your own Bibles if you'd like.
Starting at verse 1.
Just read a couple verses.
I'll help you out.
He entered Jericho.
He entered Jericho and was passing through.
And there was a man named Zacchaeus.
And he was a chief tax collector and was rich.
Very good.
So what that means is that Zacchaeus had gotten a lot of money stealing it from other people.
How do you think they felt about that?
Yeah.
Do you think they liked Zacchaeus very much?
No.
Nobody really liked to be around Zacchaeus.
Okay.
Does somebody else want to read a couple verses?
You want to try for us?
Go ahead, Caroline.
Where do I start?
Right here at and.
And chief tax.
And he was.
And he was seeking to see who Jesus was.
But on account of the crowd, he could not because he was small.
Oh?
In?
Stature.
Very good.
So what did he do, Lily?
Can you read at verse 4?
So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him.
For he was about to pass that way.
And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him,
Zacchaeus, hurry up and come down, for I must stay at your house today.
One more.
So he hurried and came down and received him joyful.
So Zacchaeus was excited for Jesus to come to his house.
But what did all those people who didn't like Zacchaeus think?
Were they happy about that?
Should Jesus be with Zacchaeus?
When they saw it, they all grumbled.
He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.
And what happened when Jesus got to Zacchaeus' house?
Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord,
Will you read the last verse for us, Cooper?
For the son of the man came to seek and save the lost.
The son of man came to seek and save the lost.
Do y'all like that story?
Who in that story came to seek and find Zacchaeus?
God.
Yeah, Jesus did.
That's right.
When nobody else was looking for Zacchaeus,
Jesus was looking for him, wasn't he?
Have any of y'all ever played hide and seek?
Yes.
Yeah?
Okay.
Y'all pretty good at hide and seek?
Yeah.
I bet some of you are really good hiders, aren't you?
Yeah.
You know what?
On my computer, I have a game of a class dojo.
A hide and seek game?
A dojo.
And it's also like a thing that teachers use in high school.
I go to Challenger Elementary if you don't know that.
That is so helpful.
And you love to play that game, don't you?
And Dojo Islands is the game.
And there's this little board that says hide and seek.
And if you go to it, it starts a game of hide and seek.
You can play hide and seek in person.
You can play hide and seek on the computer at your school.
It is a great.
And I bet, have you ever had a really good spot
and you've stayed there so long
that maybe you started to feel kind of alone
or uncomfortable.
Maybe it got dark.
And you kind of started wanting for somebody to find you
so that you wouldn't be alone anymore.
Yeah.
That's kind of how Zacchaeus felt.
Zacchaeus was feeling alone.
Nobody wanted to be with him.
He was feeling lost.
And he kind of wanted somebody to find him.
Didn't he?
He was looking for Jesus.
And the Bible says Jesus came to seek.
He was the one counting, right?
He came to seek and to save the lost.
He came to find us and rescue us
so that we will never, ever, ever be alone in the dark again.
Isn't that awesome?
That's why Jesus came to be born at Christmas
to seek out Zacchaeus and you and me.
Isn't that wonderful?
I love that Jesus loves us like that.
Can we pray and thank Jesus for that?
Jesus, thank you for how much you love us,
that you never leave us alone,
but you come and you find us no matter where we are.
And we're thankful for that.
And we pray that we would, especially this Christmas,
rejoice that you were born to save us.
Thank you so much.
And we thank you in your name.
Amen.
All right.
Now you can go back to your seats
and get to listen more about Zacchaeus and Jesus
unless you're going to kids' worship.
And if you are, Miss Katie will meet you
just out the back of the sanctuary.
There she is walking right out the back middle
if you're going to kids' worship.
Let all of them make sure they find the right place.
We are discussing this Advent season
why Christmas.
Reasons that Jesus tells us
why he came and was born.
Last week, we saw Jesus came for fulfillment, right?
For fulfillment of all of the Old Testament promises,
the requirements of God's law.
Jesus came to fulfill.
This morning, in that last verse of Zacchaeus' story,
Jesus explains that he came to seek
and to save the lost.
That statement of purpose in coming
is actually here an explanation
of how salvation came
to such an undeserving person as Zacchaeus,
someone you might not have thought
Jesus would come to.
He was a spiritual outsider,
a social outcast.
And how could he become an insider
in Abraham's family?
Finally, this passage says,
because Jesus came
to seek and save lost people
just like him.
That's why I mentioned hide and seek
to the kids.
In some ways, God and people
have been playing this game
for a very long time.
Just think back through the Bible story
with me for a minute, okay?
I'm gonna mention a few stories
where we see this,
people hiding, God seeking.
But you can probably think of others.
You can send them to me later
and tell me all of the good examples
you can think of.
But all the way back in the garden,
this starts.
When sin first enters the world,
what happens?
Adam and Eve, in their sin,
immediately try to hide from God,
don't they?
It's the very nature of sin
to separate us from God.
They try to sow fig leaves
for themselves to cover themselves
and it says they hide among the trees.
But what happens when they're hiding?
God comes
and he asks the first question
recorded in the Bible.
It's in Genesis 3 at verse 9.
What does God say?
Where are you?
You ever played that game with your kids?
And you walk around,
you already know where they are.
Where are you?
God, knowing exactly where Adam and Eve are,
calls them out,
seeks after them,
and so begins a game,
if you will,
that people in God have been playing
to this day.
Hagar is Sarah's servant
who gets run off
in utter despair
after having a child with Abraham.
She is helpless.
She is hopeless.
She is in the wilderness,
face down to the ground
when God comes and finds her,
restores her,
because she says,
he is the God who sees me.
When no one else seemed to see her
or want her
or care about her,
Yahweh did.
David thought he had hidden from God
after committing adultery
with Bathsheba,
murder of Uriah.
It seemed as though his sin
had gone unnoticed.
He'd gotten away with it.
But God sent the prophet Nathan
to David to expose his sin,
eventually to restore him,
rather than leaving him
distant from God,
in his sin,
God comes after him.
Maybe the most famous person
to run distant from God
is the prophet Jonah.
He famously ran the other direction
when God called him
to the Ninevites
and thought he would hide from God
in the belly of a ship
until God chased him down
and sent a storm
and eventually rescued Jonah
by sending what?
A whale
that brought him back
to God's path
to the Ninevites.
The prophet there serving
as a picture of God's people
who had also lost God's heart
to be a light
to the nations.
In fact,
God's people wandered
so far from him
and his design for them
that they were taken
into exile
out of the promised land,
scattered across the Middle East
for decades.
A lot of dark days,
a lot of lost people,
but what did God do?
God came and gathered them again,
didn't he?
He brought them back
from the nations
and he planted them
in Jerusalem again.
Time and time again, see?
The hound of heaven
has pursued his people,
has won them back to himself,
has not let them go.
And all of that
through the whole Old Testament
leads, of course,
to the coming of Jesus,
the first Christmas.
God breaking in
and dwelling among us
so that we can see
most clearly and vividly
that seeking heart of God.
It's actually embodied
as the Son of God himself
lives among us,
among people
who've been so far away
in so many ways.
And we see and we say,
yes, this is what God
is like, isn't it?
God with us.
He's always said
this was what he was like,
that he would seek after us
and be with us.
Yes, God with us, Emmanuel.
And Jesus shows us,
for example,
with the woman at the well.
And we saw this recently
in the Gospel of John,
in her story.
She's not looking for Jesus
at all, is she?
In fact, she would rather
her sin not be exposed
any more than it already is.
She's ashamed of it.
But Jesus gently
and persistently
exposes her,
reveals himself,
and rescues her
and her village
of undeserving Samaritans.
The seeking God
has come as a man
into the darkness
of our world
and our hearts
to look for the lost.
Jesus says, if you will,
ready or not,
here I come.
And the light of the world
shines in
to find us
good news
of great joy
for all people,
a savior,
the light
coming into our darkness.
It keeps happening
with the Apostle Paul
who's hiding from Jesus
in a little bit different way.
He's intentionally hiding
as far away as possible
from Jesus
in his religious zeal,
his obedience
and persecution
of this church.
But Jesus finds Saul
on the road to Damascus
in the midst
of his self-righteous pride.
His pride,
the light shines
and it humbles him
and it saves him
and then sends him
on his mission,
doesn't he?
Zacchaeus is not
the only example
of this hide-and-seek
narrative in God's word.
People keep hiding.
God keeps seeking
and now here at Christmas,
grace keeps winning
in Jesus.
Jesus.
People hide from God
in many different ways,
don't we?
I want you to think
about that for a minute,
what it looks like
in your life.
We were created
to live close
with God.
That's what he made us for,
to know him personally,
to trust him deeply,
to obey him consistently
that this was what life
was to be about.
To know and love him.
It's where we belong,
so to speak.
So being lost, then,
is really any way
and any time
that we are distant
from God.
When you drive around
a city in India,
as I've had opportunity
to do recently,
you can feel
a spiritual darkness.
Everywhere you look,
Hindu temples,
some really big
and fancy,
some as small
as dog houses
with little statues
inside.
Hindu gods
and goddesses,
idols that you can
stop by
and ask for help.
It's easy to assume
when you're there
that their idols
are different from ours.
but when you listen
long enough
to why,
for example,
some of these
Hindus have recently
been persecuting
the Christians
around them,
you'll actually realize
it's not much
about the little statues.
That's really not,
it's not the,
it's not primarily
religious,
their reasons
for doing that.
they're motivated
by a desire
to keep things
in life
the way that they are,
to maintain
their political control,
their social power,
their economic success,
all of those things
so that they can keep
their lives going
the way that they enjoy
and have the things
that they want
so that they can feel
fulfilled.
now those idols,
I'm very familiar
with those.
I recognize them.
I see those same ones
on the streets
of Huntsville.
I'm thinking that
that's where I'm going
to find life
apart from Jesus
by controlling my body
and how I look,
by maintaining
my possessions
and not letting anything
in life that I like
change.
I want life
the way that I want it
and it makes me
feel good,
right?
I know that idol.
We bring those idols
into this sanctuary
on Sundays,
I dare say.
See,
just like some of these
biblical characters
we've talked about,
we can hide from God
in a lot of places.
We can hide from God
in our selfish pursuit
of success,
can't we?
All the while thinking
that what life is about
is actually getting enough
and having life
work well enough
that I'm happy
and significant
and don't really need
to depend on God
or be close to Him
day by day.
Fine if you want to,
but maybe I'll be good enough,
I won't really need that.
We can be lost
or distant from God
in our depression.
perhaps still driven
by our deep shame,
we might despair
of His care,
of His presence with us,
even of His existence.
Many of us regularly hide
from God in our work
and busyness,
don't we?
We're just so caught up
with thinking about other things
and focused on what we're
scrolling through
all of the time,
there's too much else
to think about
to really focus much on Him.
Did you know you could hide
from God
even in church?
That's a big way
that Paul did it, right?
You can come in this building
and plenty of people
are very regular
at doing that,
at going to church,
but they are very distant
from God
because church,
for them,
is actually a place
of religious performance
where maybe if I do enough
and do well enough
and look good enough,
I'm yet again affirmed
in the fact that
I don't really desperately
need to draw near to God
to have a relationship
to day by day
actually know Him
and depend on Him.
I can just go do
that church thing
every once in a while
and I'll look good.
How about you?
How do you sometimes
feel lost,
distant from God,
alone in a dark world?
Are you either intentionally
or maybe accidentally
hiding from God,
secretly longing to be found,
wanting someone to show up
and break into the struggle
that you actually feel
but often try to cover up?
I'm convinced
that's how Zacchaeus felt.
It says he wanted
to see Jesus,
at least from a hiding spot
in the sycamore tree.
He'd have been able
to get up there.
He'd also been able
to kind of stay hidden.
I think in part,
Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus
because he'd heard
that this rabbi
was different,
specifically different
toward tax collectors.
None of the other religious leaders
gave them the time of day.
They didn't want to be
anywhere near Him.
They certainly would not
have been caught
in their presence
in their homes
but I think Zacchaeus
had heard about this Jesus.
Apparently,
one of his disciples
was a tax collector.
Rumor had it
that he was all the time
eating and drinking
with tax collectors
and other sinners
and so Zacchaeus
heard that
and he had been
left out
and hated
and sent off
as unclean
for far too long.
I think he was interested
in someone
who wouldn't
treat him that way.
Sure enough,
he meets Jesus
and Jesus not only
comes to his house,
Jesus brings
salvation
to his house,
doesn't he?
Because,
good news for lost,
desperate,
hiding Zacchaeus,
Jesus came
for people
just like him.
Y'all,
I hope
that you don't think
Jesus came
for Zacchaeus
and not for me.
I hope you don't hear
Jesus came to seek
and save the lost
and think,
well that's good
for them out there somewhere.
Friends,
this is good news
for us.
Wherever we might
be hiding from God,
however we're experiencing
that distance
from him this morning,
however we are lost,
Jesus came
to seek
and to save
the lost.
He wants to bring you
back close
to him.
He says similar things
in other places.
Mark,
chapter 2,
Jesus is eating
with tax collectors
and sinners
and the religious leaders
say,
why is he doing this?
They didn't understand
and Jesus said,
here's what you need
to understand.
Those who are well
have no need
of a physician.
It's those who are sick.
I came not to call
the righteous
but sinners.
Jesus came
expecting you
to need him,
not hoping
that you wouldn't.
That's actually,
that would be the danger,
not being too bad,
too desperately
distant from him
but in some ways
being too good,
too confidently close
that you don't even think
he's necessary.
Are you actively
admitting your sin?
The idolatry
that looks bad
to everybody else?
Even the idolatry
that looks good
to other people?
Both of those,
are you turning
to Jesus
to rescue you
from both of them,
from anything
that would keep you
from him?
He's here for that.
He's here to meet you
in that moment.
John 12, 46,
Jesus says,
another way
of his saying
why he's come,
I've come into
the world as light
so that whoever
believes in me
may not remain
in darkness.
What hope
this should give
the most discouraged
or hopeless
of us?
You can admit
the darkness
in you,
the darkness
around you
because that's
why Jesus came.
Jesus didn't come
to recruit
an all-star team.
He didn't come
to find those
who were performing
well already
who had the spotlight
on them
and pay them enough
to come over
and be on his team.
That's not what Jesus did.
That's college football.
That's what they do.
Listen,
Christmas is a rescue mission,
not a recruiting trip.
It's very different.
Jesus came
to seek the hiding,
to find the lost,
to save the sinners.
Praise the Lord.
You don't have
to attract his attention.
Your stats don't have
to be good enough
for him to pay you
to be on his team.
It's not how he works.
He's come to rescue you.
Remember,
he's embodying
the heart
of this seeking God.
Where does God
seek lost people?
It's all over the place.
God seeks us
in the heights
of our success
and our pride
and our self-confidence.
He knows we're lost there
and he comes after us
and in the depths
of depression
and despair
and discouragement.
He seeks those
with broken minds.
He seeks those
with failing bodies
who feel like
they can't even
keep it together anymore.
They don't know
how many days they have.
The Christ of Christmas
comes to the fields
of humble shepherds
as well as to the courts
of kings
and wise men.
He comes after
all those lost people.
even perhaps
especially
to those
that no one else
is looking for
or wanting to be with.
Jesus comes.
He comes for those people.
If that's you
and you think
nobody has ever
wanted to come for you,
Jesus does.
He has.
He'll come back
for you again.
He comes not merely
to locate people
like that
but to love them,
to rescue them,
to bring them home
because we are feeling
if we're honest
most days
we're feeling
some of that darkness,
some of that aloneness,
some of that longing
for fulfillment
and things
to be made right
and that is where
Jesus meets us
right where you are
in sin,
in pain,
in emptiness.
Open your heart today
to receive him.
He has come.
It's where he met Zacchaeus.
Right?
This is the point
of this story
that Jesus meets
Zacchaeus right there.
He seeks him out
even better than Zacchaeus
is seeking him
and that Zacchaeus
has money, right?
It's one of the very few
things we know about him.
We know he's short
and he's rich.
Zacchaeus had money
that he had gotten
because he was hoping
it would make him happy
and significant
and what happened
is it was leaving him empty
and searching.
He was looking
for Jesus
and then Jesus
brings salvation
to his house.
What happens?
Notice.
Zacchaeus now has
a better source of life,
doesn't he?
Of joy,
of significance,
of satisfaction
and everybody can see it.
Nobody misses this
in Zacchaeus' life.
The guy who was greedy
and stealing
is now generous
and sharing, right?
Instead of scheming
how he can get more,
Zacchaeus is scheming
how he can give more.
Give this stuff
to the poor.
By the way,
four times more
back to that guy
I took advantage of.
A little bit more
over here to them.
Give it away.
Friends,
Jesus meets us
where we are.
He seeks us out
in our lostness
but he doesn't
leave us there
as the same person
because we no longer
find life and fulfillment
in the same place.
Just like Zacchaeus,
when we get
life and fulfillment
in Jesus,
we now scheme
how to give it
to others.
How do we give life
to others?
As followers of Jesus,
we go where he goes.
Where does Jesus go?
He goes seeking
after the lost.
We go following him
after the least
and the lost
and the littlest
and the lonely
and the left out
because that's where
Jesus goes.
They are on our radar.
They are in our sights.
We're to proclaim
the excellencies
of him who called us
out of darkness
into his marvelous light,
the kingdom
of his beloved son.
Is that what marks
your life?
Is that where I'd
find you this afternoon?
Are you following Jesus
toward tax collectors
and sinners?
Are you shining light
into darkness
that you know
all too well?
In India,
perhaps because
the darkness
is a bit easier
to see,
Christians are always
talking about
the urgency
and the priority
of sharing
the light of Jesus
with family members,
with people
in their village,
with whoever
it happens to be
that's right there
and some of that,
to be fair,
is because
those people
might be ones
who would persecute you.
But mostly,
it's because
there's a new life
that we didn't have before
that we now have
to offer others.
We can offer them
a relationship
with a savior,
not a religion
of self-performance
and working your way
up the mountain
to the gods.
No,
we have something
to offer life
that is new
and so it is an urgent
and constant priority
for them.
It challenged me.
My brothers and sisters,
the darkness,
the idolatry,
as I said,
is the same here.
It's hiding
a darkness,
a lostness
that we know
very well
ourselves.
So the need
to follow Jesus
towards those
who are lost,
towards those
who are hiding
is equally
an urgent priority
in Huntsville.
Even if the people
around you
have three kids,
two cars,
and a middle-class
lifestyle,
that's not what
brings you
into relationship
with Jesus.
We need Jesus.
We need to know
of our own emptiness
and our need
for him.
Don't be fooled
by external resources.
Jesus comes
to seek
and to save
Zacchaeus
and he's already
wealthy.
That's not enough
for Jesus.
He's not going
to leave Zacchaeus
lost in his
richness.
Jesus came
to seek
and to save
undeserving you
and me
and he sends
us on that
same mission.
Why Christmas?
Because we
and many others
hide
and need
to be found.
we and many others
sin
and we need
a savior.
So Jesus
came
not just to earth
to be born
but all the way
to the cross
to die
so that you
can know
that no matter
how far away
you are
from him,
no matter
how lost
you feel
and how
impossible
it seems
that God
could even
see you
because you
can't even
see or imagine
him
that you're
never too lost
and never
too far away
for him to
find you
and save you
and bring you
home.
He sat
with his disciples
on the night
that one of them
betrayed him
and he took bread
and he broke it
and he gave it
to them
as I
ministering
in his name
give this bread
to you
and he said
take and eat
this is my body
given for you
do this in
remembrance of me
and in the same way
after supper
he took the cup
and said
this cup
is the new covenant
in my blood
shed for many
for the forgiveness
of sins
drink from it
all of you
for as often
as you eat this bread
and drink this cup
you proclaim
the Lord's death
until he comes
you proclaim
in fact
that your hope
is in his dying
in your place
this is not
the table of Southwood
or the Presbyterian church
it is the Lord's table
so if you trust
that not because
of anything
that you have done
but only because
of his amazing grace
that you were lost
and now are found
then you please come
and celebrate him
with us this morning
if in your heart
the verdict
is still out
on Jesus
perhaps you're
interested in him
it sounds interesting
and you're considering
that wonderful
but you're just
not sure yet
we're so glad
that you are here
this morning
we're glad
that you're able
to hear his heart
his purpose
and why he has come
to rescue people
just like us
we invite you
to come forward
and back
to these tables
let us pray
to stay with you
or to stay
where you are
in your seats
is just fine
but we want you
to know something
that if you stay there
while we're celebrating
together
it's not because
we're better than you are
it's not it at all
we're all hiders
who desperately
desperately
need a God
who will come
seek after us
who keeps seeking us out
and keeps setting
this table
and keeps inviting
us back to him
he's doing that
for you this morning
as well
let's pray
and we'll come celebrate
Jesus thank you
that we can now
draw near to you
would in these moments
would you help us
to do that
in our hearts
knowing that you
have already come near
to meet us
that is the good news
of Christmas
you haven't stayed
far away
you have sought us out
we don't have to climb a mountain
we don't have to pass a test
we just have to admit
that we're lost
apart from you
that we're hopeless
without you
and here you are already
to welcome us home
we thank you for that
do that through common elements
remind our hearts
strengthen our faith
in this truth
we ask it in your name
amen
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