Zacchaeaus & Women At Well Series

Opener:

Good morning Church, so excited to be here this morning. As we move forward, we will continue to host Sunday services here at our facility. Our first service will continue be at 10 am and our second service will be at 6:00 pm. This will give us time to clean properly between the services. There will be no kid’s church and so kids will be joining their parents during the service. The board will continue to assess this along with possibly hosting our Wednesday night activities. We would like to encourage you to choose one of our available services.

Last week, we started a sermon series on encounters with Jesus. We talked about how powerful these encounters are and what we can learn from them. As you may recall, last week we talked about the women with the issue of blood who was healed by pushing through to touch the hem of Jesus garment. We also talked about the ten lepers that were healed when they encountered Jesus. In both of these stories, the people were healed as a result of encountering Jesus.

This morning, we are going to talk about two people that received a different kind of healing and that was a healing in their heart. Our stories this morning really highlight how that Jesus reaches out and cares for people that are lost. People that do not know Him in a personal way! This morning we are going to talk about the tax collector Zacchaeaus and the women at the well.

I. Zacchaeaus Encounter

A. History

a. Jesus was traveling through the city of Jericho. Jericho was an important town at the time because it was on a trade route which was located 15 miles east of Jerusalem.

b. While Jesus could have taken other routes, I believe that Jesus choose this route because someone needed to hear the message.

c. Let’s hop right into our encounter this morning which is found in the book of Luke 19:1-10(NKJV) 19 Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. 2 Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. 3 And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was going to pass that way. 5 And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him, and said to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” 6 So he made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully. 7 But when they saw it, they all complained, saying, “He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner.” 8 Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.” 9 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; 10 for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

B. Tax Collector

a. This story is of a tax collector. Not only an ordinary tax collector, but he was the chief tax collector for the region.

b. Rome appointed Zacchaeus to collect taxes over this area and they set the amount that he needed to collect and send back to Rome.

c. Rome was not micro managing their chief tax collectors. They only cared about receiving the appointed amount.

d. This obviously led to widespread fraud. Tax collectors were known to charge people more than what was required.

e. The people could not do much because the Roman army supported these fraudsters.

f. Due to his position, Zacchaeus was a very wealthy person. He stole from the hard working Jewish people.

C. Zaccheus was looking for Jesus

a. As we delve into this story, one of the things that really stand’s out is the fact that Zacchaeus was looking for Jesus.

b. Zacchaeus no doubt heard about Jesus and wanted to see him, so he could not get to him and so he climbed up a tree.

c. There were so many people around Jesus that he took the time to climb up a tree.

D. He invited Jesus into his home

a. After getting Jesus attention, Zacchaeus invited Jesus into his home.

b. Jesus knew this man’s background, Jesus knew that this man was a greedy extortioner. Yet, Jesus agreed to eat dinner with him.

i. Here is the thing, Jesus meets us where we are at. He was willing to meet with Zacchaeus at his house.