Luke 19:1-10
“When A Crook Met Christ”
credit given to another source of sermoncentral for the introduction of this sermon
For those of us who own and operate an automobile, we understand that our manuals as well as the car manufactures have instructed us that we should change our oil after so many thousand miles. Some cars recommend every 3,000, some every 4,000 miles, some every 5,000, and if you have what they call synthetic oil, it is suggested you could go farther than that. When we began to look at these different recommendation by our manuals, they may not all agree as to when you ought to have your oil changed, but the one thing that is common with all of them is the recognition and the acknowledgment that at some point a change is going to be needed. How long do you think you should try to live before checking in with Jesus to ask, “Lord, is it time for a change in my life?” When was the last time you went for a heart change?
By heart change, I’m not talking about that little thing you feel beating inside your chest. The heart is actually the part of your mind that decides what you are going to do about your behavior. When we invite Jesus into our heart, we’re not talking about opening up our chest and putting God on the inside of our heart. We are talking about not making decisions to do things, without first asking, is that what Christ really would want me to do. When we give our lives to Jesus Christ, we are giving Him permission to change our hearts, to change our way of thinking and our way of acting and reacting.
We all know that an alcoholic or crack addict will not change until he or she has hit the bottom and genuinely wants a change. They have to admit they’re an alcoholic or an addict. Some times we are addicts and don’t know it. Just like the alcoholic uses alcohol as means of dealing with life, we can use jealousy, bitterness, envy, materialism, greed, unforgiveness, anger, lying and a host of hidden sins to deal with life.
When we think about a changed heart, we have to think in terms of the whole heart. What would you do if you went to get an oil change in your car and the guy changed the oil and the filter but was short on new oil? So he tells you, “I put in three quarts of new oil but I ran out, so I just tapped it off with some of your old, dirty oil to fill it up completely but you don’t have to pay me for that.” Are you going to say thanks, I really appreciate it?
Sometimes we are praying to be drawn closer to God, and yet at the same time we insist on leaving in some of that old, dirty oil in our hearts. What dirty oil did you bring in to church this morning? Are you going to be brave enough to let it go and admit to God you need another change today? Or will you settle for less than what God has in mind for you? Will you walk out of here today protecting your dirty oil? I want you to know, that God does not have a problem dealing with people who carry around dirty oil in their lives. As a matter of fact the church is here to help those with dirty oil.
I want to introduce you to a man this morning that felt the need to have a change of heart. He’s a man that we have often talked about in church. Matter of fact when we were children, we used to sing that song that said:
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.
I want to introduce you to this man who saw the need for a change in his life. And upon looking at the story of Zacchaeus there is something that we can learn from this man, the story of Zacchaeus tells us about a big change in a little man. So when we look at the passage, we want to see what really happened when a crook met Christ. And all of us know the definition of a crook right? A crook is somebody who is crooked. As we look at the text this morning and we study the life of this crooked man, I want us to note several key factors about the text. First of all we want to look at Zacchaeus the sinner, secondly we’ll look at Zacchaeus the seeker, thirdly, Zacchaeus the sought, and finally we will look at Zacchaeus the saved.
I. Zacchaeus the sinner: ( 19:1-2)
He is a wealthy tax collector. You’ve got to understand this about Zacchaeus. He was rich, he was crooked, he was a sinner and he was hated by his own people. Zacchaeus was a Jew. In those days for a Jew to be a tax collector made him both a thief and a traitor. He was a thief because tax collecting was a job that went to the highest bidder. He could charge whatever fee he wanted to collect taxes. If your tax bill was $500, he could add on another $500 for collection fee. He’s the father of the bankers and credit card lenders who charge you $30 for a late fee when it cost them nothing to get the check a day later.
If he demanded $1000 that’s what you paid, but if he wanted $1500 just because; then you paid it just because you didn’t want the Roman soldiers knocking down your door. The more money he got from a person, the easier it was for the Romans to keep them as second class citizens. There were a whole lot of people who would have liked to have met Zacchaeus alone in dark alley. The Bible says not only was he a tax collector but he was the chief tax collector. This means he was good at taking all of your money and there was nothing you could do about it because he was the one that made up all the rules. So we see first of all Zacchaeus the sinner, but secondly let’s see:
II. Zacchaeus the Seeker ( 19:3-4)
He desires to see Jesus. One day he heard about Jesus from somewhere somehow. Maybe he heard about the time when Jesus had accepted another tax collector by the name of Matthew and made him a disciple. Maybe he saw how Matthew’s life had change. So he had a desire to see Jesus, but he has a problem. So when I looked at this situation with his problem, I saw something. In verse 3, I saw the source of his problem. And the source of his problem was that he was too short to see Jesus and he could not see Jesus for the crowd of people. So he had a desire to see Jesus, but he had a problem. He had a handicap; this crooked man had a problem. And I need to make an announcement this morning; all of us have a handicap that is designed to stop us from seeing Jesus. All of us were short at one time or another and couldn’t see Jesus. Romans 3:23 says, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” So when I looked at Zacchaeus the seeker the first thing that I noticed in the 3rd verse was the source of his problem.
But the second thing that I noticed about this crooked seeker was in verse 4, and that was the solution to his problem. The 4th verse says that he ran before the crowd and climbed up a sycamore tree to see Jesus. The one thing that I loved about this crooked man was the fact that he was determined to see Jesus. He was not going to allow his problem to stop him from seeing Jesus. Remember that all of us have some problems that are designed to stop us from seeing Jesus, and with that being said, I need to just tell somebody this: don’t let your problem stop you from seeing The Lord.
Too many of us allow the problems and handicaps in our lives stop us from seeing the Lord. And anything that stops you or hinders you from seeing Jesus is a problem. I see people who will stay at home on Sunday just to cook, wash a car, watch a ball game, or cut their grass, that’s a problem. And the sad part about is that the day you stay at home, Jesus just may decide to stop by the church, but some of us will not be here, because too often instead of coming up with a solution to our problems, we feed our problems and allow our problems to stop us from coming to the place where the Lord just might show up.
So before we go on to our next point there is a question that needs to be answered and that question is this: why would a man of Zacchaeus’ character and personality run in front of a crowd of people and climb up in a tree? I imagine that he had on a tailor made suit, tailor made shirt, Alligator shoes, and a pocket full of money. So why would he embarrass himself like that, to run in front of the crowd and then climb up in a tree? Well I’m so glad you asked that question. The reason he did those things were for this reason:
He had a void in his life and only Jesus could fill that void. He discovered with all of the material things that he had it wasn’t enough. He soon discovered that even with the things he was looking good in the eyes of other people, but he was not happy on the inside. And that ought to be a lesson for some of us, things don’t make you happy, things don’t fill some of the voids in our live. Some people have tried and tried and tried to fill that empty space in their lives with “Things” but they discovered that when the “Things” are gone the problem and the void are still there. I know people that will try to drink or do drugs to fill that empty space, but I need to tell you that when you come off the high the void and that empty space is still there. (David in Psalms 55, said if I had wings like a dove I would fly into the wilderness to be at rest).
III. Zacchaeus the Sought (19:5-7): The seeker now becomes the sought.
A. The Request From Christ (Verse 5): Jesus sees him and says: Zacchaeus hurry up and come down. In other words Jesus looked up and found Zacchaeus. Now keep in mind that in verses 3 and 4, Zacchaeus was the seeker, usually it is the seeker that does the finding. But when we look at verse 5, it says that Jesus finds Zacchaeus. I know we talk about: “I found the Lord.” No you didn’t find the Lord, because the Lord has never been and never will be lost.” We are the ones that go seeking, but it’s the Lord who finds us. Remember when you were on the mourner’s bench and you would hear them talk about the seekers. Now what they meant was that we came to the front of the church hoping and praying to meet Jesus not to find Jesus, but in hope that Jesus would find us, and I can’t speak for you this morning, but I thank God He found me when He did. That’s why we sing that great hymn of the church, “I once was lost, but now I’m found.” So I see the Savior’s request for Zacchaeus to come down for I must be a guest in your home. Not only did I see the request from Christ but I then saw:
B. The Response from the Crook (verse 6): He comes down and welcomes Jesus gladly. He didn’t waste time and debate or whether or not he should go down, verse 6 says that he got in a hurry and came down and received Him joyfully. Sometimes you ought to get in a hurry for Jesus. (I’ve never understood that song that said: “I know I’m a child of God, although I move so slow) sometimes when Jesus is calling it will make you get in a hurry and make haste. I see the request from Christ, I see the response from the crook, but thirdly in verse 7, I see:
C. The Reaction from the Crowd (7) they complain that Jesus is associating with this notorious, no good crook. My brother and my sister everybody is not happy when Jesus finds you, because they remember what you used to do and what you used to be. All of us up in here, up in here have some skeletons in our closets, all of us up in here; up in here have some junk in our trunks. The reaction from the crowd.
We’ve seen Zacchaeus the sinner, we’ve seen Zacchaeus the seeker and we’ve seen Zacchaeus the sought, but finally I need to look at:
IV. Zacchaeus the Saved ( 19: 8-10)
In verse 8 Zacchaeus is a changed man. He said I will give half of my wealth to the poor. And some of us have a hard time just giving 10%. Then in that same verse he says not only will I give half of my wealth to the poor, but if I have cheated, swindled, stolen, or beaten anyone out of anything by deception, I will repay them 4 times. If I’ve cheated somebody out of $80.00, then I’ll pay them back $320.00. If I’ve cheated somebody out of $320.00, I’ll pay them back $1,280.00. And if I’ve cheated some out of $1,280.00 then I’ll pay them back $5,120.00. I will repay them four times.
Then notice what Jesus said in verse 9. He said: “this day salvation has come to your house.” I tell you my brothers and sister Zacchaeus got saved, for the Lord said in verse 10, that He comes to seek and to save that which was lost. If you want to know what happens when a crook met Christ, look in the Word of God, he was a changed man. And I don’t know about you this morning, but there’s been a change in my life, Jesus on the inside working on the outside, Oh what a change in my life.
What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought
Since Jesus came into my heart!
I have light in my soul for which long I had sought,
Floods of joy o’er my soul Like the sea billows roll,
Since Jesus came into my heart.
