ARE YOU LIVING IN VICTORY?
Are you living in victory Hosea 4:6 says “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge”
Some Christians never live in victory because we never fully comprehend the total victory of Jesus and our ability by faith to appropriate all He has done for us. This sermon looks at this subject and reveals Jesus’ total triumph over sin and His ability to save anyone who wishes to come to Him despite their sin.
Luke 19:1-10 Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho
Everything Jesus did had a purpose and in this sermon we will find that although Jesus was heading to the cross in Jerusalem, (Luke 18:36) He made a detour through Jericho, a longer route. Why did Jesus do this? We will discover the answer in, The Scene, The Sinner and The Savior.
THE SCENE
Jericho meaning to blow, i.e. breathe; to smell by implication, perceive, accept, smell, touch, make of quick understanding: - is a type of our natural senses or understanding.
In Joshua 6 we find that Jericho was the first city Israel came to after they crossed the River Jordan and entered the Promised Land.
Jericho was the gateway to Canaan or in New Testament terms the stronghold or things that hold us back from appropriating the promises of God!
Israel were given a set of instructions to follow by God in order to see the city fall. The obedience of Israel to follow those instructions and see this obstacle, Jericho destroyed was an act of faith. Hebrews 11:30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days.
Today our strongholds come down and the promises of God are appropriated when by faith we obey Gods word.
But Joshua foreseeing events that could occur made this declaration - Joshua 6:26 Then Joshua charged them at that time, saying, "Cursed be the man before the LORD who rises up and builds this city Jericho; he shall lay its foundation with his firstborn, and with his youngest he shall set up its gates."
NOTICE: The firstborn in the Old Testament represented THE PROMISE of a future and a Savior, so in effect Joshua was saying if you allow Jericho’s in your life you will lose your ability to access the promises of God.
In 1 Kings 16:34 In his days Hiel of Bethel built Jericho. He laid its foundation with Abiram his firstborn, and with his youngest son Segub he set up its gates, according to the word of the Lord, which He had spoken through Joshua the son of Nun.
This act by Hiel cost him his promise, his firstborn, the rebuilt walls of Jerich represented disobedience to Gods word, because of unbelief, doubt.
Jesus then our true Joshua had to pass through Jericho because it represented Satan’s Stronghold of unbelief and disobedience and doubt. Jesus had to see these spiritual walls demolished and prove that even in the midst of the situation there He could save the worst sinner, which leads us to The Sinner.
THE SINNER
Zaccheus means just or pure. He was called a son of Abraham. Abraham we are told was the father of faith and through him, faith promises were obtained.
Romans 4:16 Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.
Not only that, but Zaccheus name was a play on living by faith: Romans 1:17 The just shall live by faith.
But Zaccheus was not living by faith our passage tells us he had a reputation of being a sinner and not only that he was a Chief Tax Collector, one who impoverished the people, mistreated and stole from them as was the custom of the day, he worked for the Romans, who represent a type of the world. So our “son of faith” was not living by faith he was living and controlled by his senses and as such was a prisoner of Satan.
Zaccheus represents then the most, imprisoned by sin, person living in the rebuilt city of unbelief, doubt and disobedience, in other words Satan’s chief prize.
Jesus then went to Jericho to demonstrate His complete victory over sin and Satan to prove that no-one is unreachable by God.
THE SAVIOUR
Jesus Christ meaning the Lord is salvation = Joshua
What does Jesus find when He comes into Jericho, does Jesus find proof that the inhabitants of this border town still rely on God and God alone to defend and preserve the Promised Land? Do the ruins of the collapsed walls of the city still remind the present inhabitants of the city that the Promised Land was a gift received by faith alone, a gift that can be retained by faith alone?
Tragically the answer is No. What Jesus finds is a new fortification. Despite the command of God not to rebuild the walls of Jericho, those walls were rebuilt and He finds Zaccheus.
Jesus is on His way to that confrontation with Satan, on His way to destroy the kingdom of Satan and establish the kingdom of God.
Jesus entered the city, and straightaway did battle with Satan. Thousands of people lived in that city, yes, and countless of them were firmly in the grip of the evil one. But one of those who were firmly in the grip of the devil Jesus publicly plucked out of the devil’s grasp. For in the heart of Zaccheus God worked faith. That tax collector who had but one obsession in life was moved by the Spirit of Jesus Christ to desire to see the Rabbi from Nazareth. Instead of that plucky character elbowing his way to the front of the crowd and so being caught up by whatever mood the crowd might have, Zaccheus chose a quiet spot above the people from which to observe the Lord more closely; he climbed that sycamore tree. When Jesus passed under the particular tree in which the curious tax collector was perched, He made a point of looking up and speaking to the man in the tree. For Jesus knew where Zaccheus was, knew what the man’s name was, and knew that Zaccheus had a house. This in itself was already a show of heavenly strength in the stronghold of Satan. But a greater show of heavenly strength was still to come; said Jesus: "Zaccheus make haste and come down; for I must stay at your house today." Jesus declares that it is necessary for Him to stay, to spend time, in this city of unbelief, to stay specifically at the house of an apostate no less than Zaccheus the chief tax co1lector. You see: here is an affront to Satan. Satan cannot keep Jesus outside Jericho, Satan cannot bind Jesus in Jericho; Satan must watch helplessly as Jesus sovereignly prepares for Himself a place to stay, as Jesus settles down in the home of His choice.
Why? To demonstrate at the entrance of the Promised Land that Satan is not greater than He. So Jesus walks into the house of that hardened sinner Zaccheus, and Satan can do nothing about it. More, He takes that hardened sinner Zaccheus and rescues him from Satan’s clutches, restores Him to God’s side. The evidence that Jesus in fact does snatch this sinner from Satan’s grasp is clear: Jesus works faith in him, gives him a new heart so that he is willing to give half of his wealth to the poor, and pay back fourfold whatever he had defrauded. The Old Testament had commanded robbers, extortionists and money finders to give a full refund to their victims plus 1/5th for restitution, that was all (Lev 6:1-5). Zacchaeus would give half his possessions to the poor – 50% gone; he would also pay back four times those he defrauded – statue of limitation gone; and he would give them here and now – interest gone.
Luke 19:8-10 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."
Why? His heart, will, mind and affections had been changed! Heart = center of this man was Jesus. Will = from self willed to doing God’s will. Mind = new thoughts of giving rather than getting. Affections = loved the people he once hated and cheated.
And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; “for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."
Christ’s coming into the house of Zaccheus, working faith in the heart of this one inhabitant of Jericho, boils down –in essence to a repeat of the destruction of the walls of Jericho in Joshua 6. In as much as the fall of Jericho in the days of the first Joshua foretold the coming destruction of all the Canaanites, so also this fall of one child of Satan from Satan’s hands foreshadowed the coming destruction of Satan and his whole domain.
BUT WHAT IS SALVATION?
It comes from a Greek word - soteria meaning: rescue or safety (physically or morally):--deliver, health, salvation, save, saving, do well, be (make) whole.
Salvation then is complete wholeness in spirit, soul and body.
But salvation came that day in a much fuller sense than only in the conversion of Zaccheus; salvation was guaranteed that day to the entire world because Christ entered the stronghold of Satan and bound the strong man so as to release one of his victims – and so He opened for Himself the whole land for victory. He came to the gateway of the Promised Land, understood the symbolism of Jericho and the influence of Satan in the city and in the land, and with one word sent the walls of Satan’s kingdom crashing down.
Jericho and the Walls in Our Lives
Zacchaeus had some walls to come down in his life, much like ourselves. But rather than scale these walls ourselves, God has placed the victory before us in and through Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 2:14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation,
The wall of sin, the wall of unbelief, the wall of doubt, the wall of slavery to other things, the walls of rejection, The walls of apathy … Are we living in Jericho – many people upon salvation destroy their walls of Jericho and start to walk in the promises of God, but over time we rebuild those walls again and wonder where our promise is…….
Let Jesus reenter our Jericho’s and pull those walls down again ….. Let us be like Zaccheus who sought to see who Jesus was, Luke 19:3a
