The King Who Saves the Lost
Easter ‘24 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Jesus Came to Seek & Save the Lost
Jesus Came to Seek & Save the Lost
Is anything as frustrating as misplacing something and not being able to find it no matter how hard you look? Some people are more prone to this than others (me!). And there are always the steps you take to try and find something: look in the last place you had it; retrace your steps to see if you find it; look in the normal places the item usually is; and of course. . . intentionally looking in the UNUSUAL place for said item. Also have you ever noticed that if you lose something and cant find it, it always turns up the INSTANT you replace it?! Please tell me i’m not the only one. One time recently I lost my keys to my car. Now I have two sets, thankfully, but it’s never a good feeling to not know where your keys are. Now it’s so unusual for me to misplace things like my keys around the house, but this was different. I looked and looked and looked and couldn’t find them. You know it was serious because Melissa couldn’t even find them! They were missing for 3-4 days and I was starting to get worried. Well I was over in the shopping center on Estrella and as I was waiting to leave, the person in the car behind me honked and waived at me that something was wrong with the back of my car. And when I got out and looked….guess what I found. Yup! My keys sticking out of the trunk lock. I had unlocked the trunk and left them in the lock - parked outside my house for 3-4 days! I was beyond thankful to have found them and that no one else had found them before me. It was a great feeling of relief and happiness to find even something so small as my keys. In our passage today we discover again that there is something in the world today that is lost – something of far greater value than my car keys, people. And Jesus explains his mission this way - to seek and to save these lost people. Jesus is on a mission of recovery – He is on a search and rescue mission for lost people. This is His mission. His mission, to seek and save the lost means you should seek Him and seek the lost for Jesus.
Seek Jesus Because He Knows You (1-7)
Seek Jesus Because He Knows You (1-7)
Zacchaeus desired to see Jesus (1-4)
Zacchaeus desired to see Jesus (1-4)
Who was this man Zacchaeus?
Chief Tax Collector. The tax collectors were the worst of the worst in Jewish eyes. The Jews of Jesus day considered them to be traitors to God and country. The Romans would put out a bid for taxes for a certain region or city. Citizens of that country would then bid to receive the right to fulfill the contract. They would prepay the bid, but then they were given the latitude to collect taxes as they wanted in the region. Tax collectors then would regularly overcharge and extort the citizens around them, and they wielded Roman authority. People had no choice to pay whatever the collectors charged.
They were considered unclean by the priests and excluded from religious ceremonies. They were put on the same rung of the social ladder as prostitutes and the pagan Gentiles. (Matt 21:31-32; Matt 18:17)
They sold out their fellow Israelites for Roman money. Zacchaeus was not just a tax collector, but a chief tax collector.
Rich
Short
He desired to see Jesus, but the crowd hindered him. It is not only that the crowd was tall and he was short, but most likely that the crowd actively tried to exclude him. He was an outcast, a traitor, a wicked turncoat. They denied him the ability to come close to the Messiah, Jesus.
So he climbs up in a sycamore fig tree.
Jesus Knew Zacchaeus (5)
Jesus Knew Zacchaeus (5)
Jesus knew His name. This man was a sinner, a wicked extortioner, an outcast, yet Jesus looks directly at this man and calls him by name, Zacchaeus.
Jesus knew his name! Jesus spoke to him. Jesus looked at him, not with scorn, with judgment, but with grace, with merciful favor. Before Zacchaeus even thought to climb that tree out of curiosity and faith, Jesus KNEW HIM.
Jesus knows you! He knows your name. Perhaps you remember the first time you sought Jesus, maybe you knew a lot about Him or perhaps you knew almost nothing. Even in that first moment of curiosity, of interest, Jesus knew you. He knew your name. He knew your sins and successes, your failures. He knew you
1 O Lord, You have searched me and known me. 2 You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. 3 You comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways. 4 For there is not a word on my tongue, But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.
Psalm 139:7–12 “7 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? 8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. 9 If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10 Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me. 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,” Even the night shall be light about me; 12 Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, But the night shines as the day; The darkness and the light are both alike to You.”
13 For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them.
Perhaps you are here today and you still are like Zacchaeus looking to see who this Jesus is. Maybe you haven’t yet committed to Jesus or against Jesus. Jesus knows you. He knows who you are. He knows why you are here. He knows your thoughts. And he looks at you today and calls you by name.
This alone might not be a comfort. God’s intimacy with our soul and innermost thoughts does not ease our worries. God’s knowing gaze, his penetrating vision eposes us for who we truly are!
Hebrews 4:12–13 “12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”
Imagine what Zacchaeus must have felt? Jesus knows who I am?!?! What would he expect as a chief of the tax collectors?
The mercy of Jesus is not found simply in His knowledge, that He KNOWS you, but His disposition toward you.
Does Jesus speak condemnation to Zacchaeus?
Seek Jesus Because He Seeks You (5-8)
Seek Jesus Because He Seeks You (5-8)
Jesus offers His own presence and favor (5)
Jesus offers His own presence and favor (5)
Jesus offered His favor, His blessing, His grace on this sinful outcast. Jesus presence at Zacchaeus’ house is not simply of convenience. To the crowd around Jesus, this demonstrates Jesus’ desire for friendship with this chief tax collector. Jesus demonstrates that He wants to accept and be accepted by this man. Jesus is granting Zacchaeus a great privilege of hosting the Messiah, to be on Jesus’ side and be unified.
Urgency. “It is necessary.”
Jesus has sought out this man in particular to receive His favor. He commands Zacchaeus to immediately descend from the tree and welcome Jesus and His blessing into his house.
And Jesus today knows and seeks you. If you here even just out of curiosity or happenstance, it isn’t accident! Jesus looks at you today; He calls you by name; and he says today I MUST come to stay with you. “Make haste and welcome me!” Jesus calls. He offers you His favor and grace and blessing. No matter what you have done before, no matter what others think of you. If you will welcome Him in faith Jesus will enter and stay with you, He will grace your life with His never-ending presence.
Revelation 3:20 (NKJV)
20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.
This offer of grace is based in His gracious, cleansing sacrifice of Himself. He offers favor because He was cursed for you. He offers healing because He was scarred for you. He offers life because He died for you.
4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
Zacchaeus Demonstrates True Faith & Repentance (6, 8)
Zacchaeus Demonstrates True Faith & Repentance (6, 8)
Zacchaeus demonstrates true faith in Jesus
He obeys immediately
He receives Jesus with joy
He acts righteously without hesitation
True Faith Receives Jesus Joyfully and Without Hesitation
True repentance doesn’t seek to justify or control the narrative. True repentance recognizes one’s own sin and goes above and beyond to restore others and repay any wrongs.
The Crowd self-righteously complains about His mercy (7)
The Crowd self-righteously complains about His mercy (7)
Compare Zacchaeus with the Rich Young Ruler
Character
Jesus’ offer of discipleship
Their response
Who are you like today?
Seek Jesus Because He Saves (9-10)
Seek Jesus Because He Saves (9-10)
Jesus forgives Zacchaeus
Jesus forgives Zacchaeus
Jesus restores Zacchaeus
Jesus restores Zacchaeus
Zacchaeus was one who would have been excluded from the society and religious ceremonies. He would have been considered worse than a pagan Gentile for his betrayal. Yet Jesus says that he too is a son of Abraham.
Jewish pride in genealogical descent from Abraham.
8 Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.
Zacchaeus is a true son of Abraham, not just genetically, but spiritually. He followed God in faith and repentance.
Jesus brings those far from God near and brings them into God’s family. No matter your background, no matter your rebellion, no matter your sin Jesus offers restoration and belonging.
Seek Jesus!
Non Christians: Seek Jesus
Christians: Seek Jesus
Seek the Lost
Do you love the lost? Or do you love those who think they are righteous? Who do you love more? Those like the rich young ruler or the chief tax collector Zacchaeus?
Is there a group of people that you don’t think deserve God’s favor and forgiveness?
What about specific people? God loves and offers favor and blessing to. . . . (your parents, your sisters and brothers, your children or grandchildren).
Do you love the lost like Jesus? Do WE love the lost like Jesus? This is Jesus mission, to Seek and Save the lost! Is this our mission as a church? Are we seeking those who sinners, who are lost, who need Jesus? Or would we rather fill this building with people who have it all together, that look good on the outside, but are not willing to repent and follow Jesus?
What is our mission? To glorify God!
How do we do this? By being disciples making disciples!