Who can encounter Jesus?
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We are continuing our series this morning Summer Stories. We have reach the end of this series this morning.
The past Three weeks we have explores the lives of three people who had profound, life-changing encounters with Jesus. We will connect their stories to other modern-day individuals who have had similar experiences.
We can all have life changing event with Christ. It just matter if you want to experience it or not.
This morning the person we are looking at had a big life changing encounter with Jesus.
If you have your bible go head an turn to Luke 19:1-10. If you do not have your bible you can follow along on the screen.
Before we look at todays passage lets do a quick look over last week.
Last week we looked at the Miracles of God. We look at how Jesus took five loaves of beard and two fish and feed 5,000 men. We saw how Phillip missed what Jesus could do because he was to concerned about the money. We saw Andrew see the boy and then become part of the Miracle.
God can do so many different thing in our life that sometimes we get so busy we over look them. We should remain watchful for opportunities to be used by God in a miraculous moment. They happen all around us. We just have to be willing to watch for them.
Have you ever had a weird encounter?
Have you ever had a weird encounter?
Whether it be from day to day. Different people.
here one that I found after going a quick google seach. The person
As a 12-year-old kid, I was sitting on a bench at a Six Flags by myself. A random average-looking guy, in what I would guess is his mid-20's, came up to me and said, "You will remember me for the rest of your life." Then he left and went about his business.
That guy knows how to play the game. 15 years later and I still remember him and think of him about every couple of months.
If you truly think about it we have all had some type of weird encounter that has stuck with us. I would most like talk about some for Best Buy but I will not today.
Let’s take a look at s Jesus encounter and what happened in this encounter.
1 He entered Jericho and was passing through.
2 There was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich.
3 He was trying to see who Jesus was, but he was not able because of the crowd, since he was a short man.
4 So running ahead, he climbed up a sycamore tree to see Jesus, since he was about to pass that way.
5 When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down because today it is necessary for me to stay at your house.”
6 So he quickly came down and welcomed him joyfully.
7 All who saw it began to complain, “He’s gone to stay with a sinful man.”
8 But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, I’ll give half of my possessions to the poor, Lord. And if I have extorted anything from anyone, I’ll pay back four times as much.”
9 “Today salvation has come to this house,” Jesus told him, “because he too is a son of Abraham.
10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”
Zacchaesus
Zacchaesus
the story we just read was a weird story just thrown into Luke here. What in the world does Zacchaesus have to do with Jesus. Why is this important.?
In fact this is one story is a a song I sang when I was a kid.
Zacchaeus was a wee little man
And a wee little man was he
He climbed up in a sycamore tree
For the Lord he wanted to see
And when the Savior passed that way
He looked up in the tree
And said, 'Zacchaeus, you come down!
For I'm going to your house today!
For I'm going to your house today!'
Zacchaeus was a wee little man
But a happy man was he
For he had seen the Lord that day
And a happy man was he;
And a very happy man was he
You see Zacchaeus was hated by everyone. With him being a tax collector he could charge whatever he wanted when collecting the Roman taxes. All the romans cared about was that they got their money. So he could charge whatever he wanted. SO people where did not like him because of this. He was most likely one the most hated men in Jericho area.
He want to see Jesus. Just took.
Jesus see Zacchaeus and calls him
Jesus see Zacchaeus and calls him
Jesus calls him down from the tree. Remember back to the first week. We all have a call on our lives. This was Zacchaeus call. He could have told Jesus nope I good right here. Have you said that to Jesus before? You see Jesus called him for a reason and it was not to make a point.
Jesus cares for all
Jesus cares for all
The people in the area could not believe that Jesus would go near a person like Zacchaeus. He was so far away from God that everyone thought he was gone for good. No one wanted to be his friend beside the other tax collectors. All the people want nothing to do with him because Zacchaeus had robbed them of their money.
Jesus didn’t care what others thought. He went and had dinner with Zacchaeus.
Zaccheaus answered the call
Zaccheaus answered the call
He gave half of the stuff to the poor and paid anyone back that he had wronged. You see because of this encounter other people were blessed. Other were able to live.
Zaccheaus was wiling to give up is posseisions for Jesus. This encounter changed his life for good.
The whole point to this.
10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”
Jesus came for the people like Zaccheaus.
You can have an encounter with Jesus too
You can have an encounter with Jesus too
no one is to far gone for Jesus. He has saved many just like Thomas Tarrants.
Despite growing up in a churchgoing home and being baptized as a kid, Thomas Tarrants became a white supremacist. He was an unlikely convert. While serving a thirty-year sentence in solitary confinement in a top-security prison, Tarrants had a miraculous conversion when he “knelt on the floor of my cell and prayed a simple prayer to Jesus, asking for forgiveness and offering my life to him if he wanted it” (Thomas Tarrants, “I Was a White Supremacist,” The Gospel Coalition, September 13, 2019,
Ask yourself, “Is my church a safe place for a nonbeliever to visit? Will they encounter an attitude of judgment or a heart like that of Jesus?”