March 16, 2003
Morning Service
Text: Luke 19:1-10
Subject: Salvation
Title: Tree Ripened Fruit
This morning I want to share with you the story of Zacchaeus. This is not the same story as the children’s song you all know but it is the power and kind of humorous story of a man looking for meaning in his life. When we get finished with this I pray that you will be a changed person.
I. Jesus was passing through Jericho. Jesus never goes anywhere without a purpose. Look at John 4:4, "now he had to go through Samaria..." Why? To talk to a woman at a well. Matthew 8:23-27, "Jesus got in a boat..." The winds and waves obeyed him. His disciples were amazed. Jesus goes through Jericho...
Look at the map. Jesus did not have to go through Jericho to get from Galilee to Jerusalem. He had a purpose. That purpose was the spiritual knowledge that he was going exactly where the Father wanted him to go.
John 4:34, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work." He would do what the Father wanted him to do. John 5:19,"I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can only do what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does, the Son also does." He would minister to whom the Father wanted Him to minister. John 10:16, "I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them in also." Verse 2. "A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus..." He was a chief tax collector.
Tax collectors made their living by collecting more from the people than what was due to Rome. Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector. One of the main tax collectors in one of the main collection points in that part of the Roman Empire. That is why tax collectors were despised by the people. He was wealthy.
Was does that say? He cheated a lot of people.
But he wanted to see who Jesus was. He had heard about him. He had probably heard about the healing of blind Bartemaeus that happened just outside of Jericho.
That is the whole purpose of miracles; That people might be drawn to Jesus. God confirms His word with signs and wonders following. "He couldn?t see because he was very short and there was a crowd around Jesus."
There is an important spiritual principle that is being illustrated here that I don’t want you to miss. Jesus is being led by the Spirit. He was led, by the Spirit, into the wilderness. He came back in the power of the Spirit. If we are led by the Spirit we a children of God. Philip was led by the Spirit to Gaza to speak to an Ethiopian. When we are led by the Spirit that means that He is going before us preparing hearts to receive the gospel. The Spirit of God will cause people to do extraordinary things in order to find Jesus. Now Zacchaeus was a prominent figure.
What did he do? He climbed a tree in order to get a glimpse of Jesus. He was desperate to see this worker of miracles. Why? Did he think Jesus was going to lay hands on him and make him grow? Was Jesus going to bless him beyond his current financial situation? Was he looking for something special from Jesus? I believe that as Jesus was being led by the Spirit, that same Spirit was convicting Zacchaeus of his sin. Isaiah 55:6, "Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while he is still near." It has been said that "religion is man’s search for God; Christianity is God’s search for man." While Zacchaeus was looking for Jesus, Jesus was on his way to meet him.
Verse 5, "When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, ’Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today."
I must stay? He was being led by the Spirit.
"So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly!"
Verse 7 - even though people immediately began to talk about both of them, nothing would keep Jesus or Zacchaeus from responding to the Spirit of God.
III. When people respond to the invitation of Christ, fruit happens. For fruit to be any good to anyone it has to be taken off the tree. If the fruit stays on the tree too long it gets rotten. If is taken off the tree before its time it just isn’t as good.
1.Tree ripened peaches from Illinois compared to picked - green and ripened - on - the - shelf peaches from Wal-Mart. Zacchaeus ripened quickly and was taken off the tree in order to be fruit that could be useful.
Verse 8, "But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord. Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay them back four times the amount." How many times does it happen that when people spend time with the Lord they see things that need to be made right? The Law required that he replace the stolen amount plus 20 %. We don’t know if Zacchaeus knew this law or not but the fact is, he was extremely generous with his money. To make everything right would be a difficult task. Considering his wealth, Zacchaeus must have cheated many people.
Look back at Luke 18:25-27, "Indeed it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Those who heard this asked, ’Who then can be saved?’ Jesus replied, "What is impossible with men is possible with God!" In the case of the rich young ruler, he walked away from salvation. Zacchaeus is being drawn to salvation. Luke 3:8, John the Baptist confronted the Pharisees with this, "Produce fruit in keeping with repentance." That is exactly what he did. Fruit is evidence of changed lives. There was a young man who heard his pastor preach on the subject of restitution. He came under conviction from the Spirit and went to his pastor. "Pastor, I work for a shipbuilder and as you were preaching I remembered that I had stolen some brass nail for my own boat, from my employer. What do I do?" "Repay what you have taken" he replied. ’But pastor, you don’t understand. I have often witnessed to my employer. He is not a believer. He has often made the comment that the Christians he knows are hypocrites. If I repay, he will think worse of me. But if I don’t, I will know that I have done wrong." "Repay" was the answer again. The young man went to his employer to confess his theft, expecting the worst. When he told him of his deed the man said, "John, you have often told me about your Christ. I always thought church people to be hypocrites. And now you come to me with this confession. With what little was taken I would never have known. Yet you come to me in sorrow. I have to believe that maybe there is something to this religion you have found. I have to rethink my position."
Verse 9, "Today salvation has come to this house."
Not because of works.
Not because Zacchaeus was a son of Abraham by lineage.
But because he was a son of Abraham by faith.
Romans 4:16, "Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham?s offspring - not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all."
IV. The whole purpose of Jesus’ ministry.
Verse 10, "For the Son of Man came to seek and save what was lost." Even though we think we are looking for truth, all the while God is looking for us to respond to the truth.
Conclusion.
During the waning years of the depression in a small southeastern Idaho community, I used to stop by Mr. Miller’s roadside stand for farm-fresh produce as the season made it available. Food and money were still extremely scarce and bartering was used, extensively. One particular day Mr. Miller was bagging some early potatoes for me.
I noticed a small boy, delicate of bone and feature, ragged but clean, hungrily apprizing a basket of freshly picked green peas. I paid for
My potatoes but was also drawn to the display of fresh green peas. I am
A pushover for creamed peas and new potatoes. Pondering the peas, I
couldn’t help overhearing the conversation between Mr. Miller and the ragged boy next to me.
"Hello Barry, how are you today?"
"H’lo, Mr. Miller. Fine, thank ya. Jus’ admirin’ them peas ... sure
look good."
"They are good, Barry. How’s your Ma?"
"Fine. Gittin’ stronger alla’ time."
"Good. Anything I can help you with?"
"No, Sir. Jus’ admirin’ them peas."
"Would you like to take some home?"
"No, Sir. Got nuthin’ to pay for ’em with."
"Well, what have you to trade me for some of those peas?"
"All I got’s my prize marble here."
"Is that right? Let me see it."
"Here ’tis. She’s a dandy."
"I can see that. Hmmmm, only thing is this one is blue and I sort of
go for red. Do you have a red one like this at home?"
"Not ’zackley .....but, almost."
"Tell you what. Take this sack of peas home with you and next trip
this way let me look at that red marble."
"Sure will. Thanks, Mr. Miller."
Mrs. Miller, who had been standing nearby, came over to help me. With
A smile she said: "There are two other boys like him in our community,
all three are in very poor circumstances. Jim just loves to bargain with them for peas, apples, tomatoes or whatever. When they come back with their red marbles, and they always do, he decides he doesn’t like red after all and he sends them home with a bag of produce for a green marble or an orange one, perhaps."
I left the stand, smiling to myself, impressed with this man. A short
time later I moved to Colorado but I never forgot the story of this man,the boys and their bartering. Several years went by each more rapid than the previous one.
Just recently I had occasion to visit some old friends in that Idaho
community and while I was there learned that Mr. Miller had died.
They were having his viewing that evening and knowing my friends wanted to go, I agreed to accompany them. Upon our arrival at the mortuary we fell into line to meet the relatives of the deceased and to offer whatever words of comfort we could. Ahead of us in line were three young men. One was in an army uniform and the other two wore nice haircuts, dark suits and white shirts ... very professional looking.
They approached Mrs. Miller, standing smiling and composed, by her
husband’s casket. Each of the young men hugged her, kissed her on the
cheek, spoke briefly with her and moved on to the casket. Her misty
light blue eyes followed them as, one by one, each young man stopped
briefly and placed his own warm hand over the cold pale hand in the
casket. Each left the mortuary, awkwardly, wiping his eyes. Our turn
came to meet Mrs. Miller. I told her who I was and mentioned the story she had told me about the marbles. Eyes glistening she took my hand and led me to the casket."Those three young men, who just left, were the boys I told you about.
They just told me how they appreciated the things Jim "traded" them.
Now, at last when Jim could not change his mind about color or size...
they came to pay their debt. "We’ve never had a great deal of the wealth of this world," she confided, "but, right now, Jim would consider himself the richest man in Idaho."
With loving gentleness she lifted the lifeless fingers of her
deceased husband. Resting underneath were three, exquisitely shined, red marbles.
People go through their whole lives looking for Christ and don’t realize it. They try everything to find satisfaction but it doesn?t work. We all know people like that. But there are people who have gone out of the way to find Christ, climbed up the tree to see, were called by Him for fellowship, and have stayed in the tree. The fruit hangs on the tree and is no good to anyone. This is what is happening in churches today. (Take dry sponge and throw it out into the crowd). How many of you were impacted by that sponge? The person who caught it. Maybe you felt a breeze as it sailed past you. Very few actual felt any residual effect from the sponge. That is many in the church today. (now take a sponge that is half saturated with water and throw it out). How many were impacted by that sponge? Hands will go up everywhere. That is the way a Christian’s life is supposed to be.
We need to be a church full of Zacchaeus’. Not that we have to go back through our whole life and make restitution. (If the Lord speaks to you in that area do it). But we are to impact people around us. Our fruit should be a witness as well as our mouths. You know, Zacchaeus would not have just gone around giving people money back without telling them why. We are not to just live fruitful lives without telling people why. They need to hear it.we need to tell it. The world will be better for it.
