Out On A Limb
Whatever we do, it is because Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for everyone, we also believe that we have all died to the old life we used to live. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live to please themselves. Instead, they will live to please Christ, who died and was raised for them. So we have stopped evaluating others by what the world thinks about them. Once I mistakenly thought of Christ that way, as though he were merely a human being. How differently I think about him now! What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun!
- 2 Cor 5:14-17
Prayer…
QUESTION – have you ever met someone who changed your life? I MEAN – before they came into your life you were…this person. YOU – thought, lived, acted and felt this way… BUT AFTER – they came into your life, you were never the same again. NOW – I am sure that most of us have had a few people that have had that kind of impact on our lives (a friend, spouse, teacher, pastor, youth minister…etc). MAN – it is pretty amazing what one person can do to AND for your life?
THIS MORNING – we are going to meet a guy who has encounter not with just anyone but with God in the flesh. NOW - before this guy met Jesus, he was this person (lonely, lost, afraid and really down on himself)… I MEAN – when this guy looked in the mirror what he saw – he didn’t like. BUT – after He met Jesus he was never the same again. YES – today we are going to meet a guy who literally climbed out on limb just to get a glimpse of Jesus… HOWEVER – that day in Jericho Zacchaeus got much more than a glimpse as he hung from the branches of that sycamore tree… AND – he was never the same again. BECAUSE – before he met Jesus – he didn’t feel like he mattered to anyone… BUT AFTER – he met Him, he knew that he mattered to God.
QUESTION – how do you ‘really’ feel about the person who stared back at you in the mirror this morning? Do you feel good about who you are and where you are? I MEAN – are you good with… the person you are and with the person you are becoming? NOW – anyone who knows me knows that I ask these kind of questions all of the time… AND – I am soo okay with that…. BECAUSE – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week we are bombarded with messages (from society, parents, family members, peers, and even other Christians) that attack our self worth… NOW - in the good US of A, we tend to base our self-worth on four things.
WE - base our worth by our appearance. How do I look? If I look good then I feel pretty good about myself.
WE - base our worth on our achievement. What have I accomplished? How successful am I?
WE - base our worth on approval – just what is my approval rating. How well am I liked? How popular am I? Do people want to be hang out with me, is everyone asking me to be in their life group? If a lot of people like us, we feel pretty good about ourselves…
AND 4th WE - base our worth on our affluence. What do I own? How much stuff do I have? Do I have more and better stuff then the next guy?
QUESTION – do you see any problems with these four standards? NONE - of them are stable. Everyone one of them can and does change. FOR - instance, can your appearance change? HEY - have you looked in a mirror lately (I graduated HS 28 years ago class of 1978) and let me tell you either some things have changed in my appearance or gravity has)… I choose to believe that gravity changed.
UNDERSTAND - Your appearance, your achievement, your approval and your affluence – are very shaky foundations to build your self worth on… AGAIN - if you choose to build your self worth on those things (appearance, achievement, approval, affluence) – HOW are you going to feel about yourself when you’re (unemployed, alone, old, ugly and broke)? BETTER YET – how do you feel about yourself right now based on appearance, achievement, approval, affluence…
LISTEN – IF you want to build your self-esteem on something that lasts… THEN - you’ve got to build it on something that can’t change. DO - you know what that something is? It’s how God feels about you. AND – when we begin to ‘really’ see ourselves; through His eyes, through His unfailing & unconditional love… WHEN – we begin to see ourselves through the lens of the blood stained cross -- the way we see ourselves will radically change. 2000 years ago a man went out on a limb and met Jesus and his life was never the same again…
GO AHEAD – and turn to Luke 19:1ff…
DO - you know where Jesus was heading when he meets this guy. He was heading to Jerusalem to die. POINT – if Jesus had time for this guy while on his way to suffering and the cross… THEN – you can be sure that He has time for you this morning April 30, 20065… AS - He sits on his throne with all power and authority… Jesus literally showed us how to live like we were dying…]
“Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. 4So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.” - Luke 19:1-4
Zacchaeus didn’t want to talk to Jesus. He was just hoping to get a glimpse, to get a look, to get close. BUT - if there was ever a man who needed his self esteem built up, if there was ever a man who needed a stronger sense of who he was, Zacchaeus was at the top of the list.
NOW - Luke in those first few verses tells us a lot about this guy. He was a chief tax collector, he was wealthy and he was short… UNDERSTAND – in the 4 ways that most people evaluate their worth Zacchaeus was striking out on three of them…
IN - the first place, Zacchaeus (like so many today) didn’t like his appearance. The Bible tells us that he was short. IN FACT - he was shorter than everybody else. Tradition tells us that Zacchaeus was the shortest man in the city of Jericho. NOW - the Greek word for “short” here literally means “the body of an undeveloped child.” SO – Zacchaeus wasn’t just short. He was a little person. His body had not developed fully into adulthood. “Zacchaeus was a wee little man…”
AND – I am sure that because of how he looked he was probably ridiculed, teased, picked on and made fun of all of his life. AND – that is not an easy way to live (being put down and beat down) because of the way you look… BECAUSE – you’re too short, tall, thin, big, your nose is the wrong shape, your skin is the wrong color… HAS – anyone ever treated you bad because of the way you looked? Ever do that to someone else? PEOPLE – did it to Zacchaeus all of the time…
TRY – to put yourself in Zacchaeus’ sandals… ALL - of His life, Zacchaeus ’s lived hating the way he looked, enduring the sting of ridicule – and probably, not liking himself very much because of it .
AND - not only that but this guy was hated by everyone in the city. IN FACT - he may have been the most hated man in entire the city of Jericho. Luke says that he was the chief tax collector. NOW - tax collector’s are never popular (I MEAN - how many here dreamed of being a tax collector when they grew up, HS year book)… BUT - in Roman days it was even worse.
To get the job of being a tax collector you had to bride a Roman official and then once you had the job you were allowed to collect more taxes then people actually owed and could pocket the difference… So Zacchaeus became a wealthy man by ripping other people off.
AND - for a Jewish person to become a Roman tax collector was absolutely unthinkable. It was high treason. It was joining up with the opposing teams. (Life leaving the Red Sox to join to play for the NY Yankees… Johnny how you do that to us bro)… AND IF - you became a Roman tax collector as a Jew three things happened. One, your family would disown you. Two, you would never be allowed to worship in the synagogue, and three, you would be put in a class of people that were considered worse than murderers.
SO – are you starting to slip into Zacchaeus’ sandals? Here was a guy who had given up on; society, on friendships, on moral decency and integrity. He had given up on all that. AND - he was betting everything he had that affluence, that wealth and possessions were the things that would give meaning and fulfillment to his life. He had bet everything on that. BUT - it wasn’t working. YOU SEE - there was still a hole in his heart that all his money and stuff could not fill.
Then he reads in the Jericho Journal that Jesus is coming to town. QUESTION – why would Jesus coming to town cause this rich, short, hated dude to climb out on a limb? UNDERSTAND - there is something about Jesus that intrigues Zacchaeus. LET ME – read a few passages and see if we can discover what that something is.
After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. "Follow me," Jesus said to him, 28and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. – Luke 5:27,28
While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples. 11When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ’sinners’?" On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.- Matthew 9:10-12 (any sick people in need of The Doctor out there?)
OKAY – did you see anything there about Jesus that would cause this ‘wee little man’ to climb a tree? Jesus not only ate with tax collectors… BUT – even had a tax collector as one of His main guys… Zacchaeus wants to get a look at this religious teacher who not only hangs around and eats with… BUT – seems to have a place for people just like him…
SO – he goes out on a limb… AND – out on that limb He learns three powerful truths that can be our truths as well…
TRUTH # 1
No Matter How Insignificant You Feel;
Jesus Notices You…
UNDERSTAND - no matter how low, no matter how lonely, no matter how insignificant you may feel… EVEN - if nobody else notices you, Jesus Christ does.
As I said Zacchaeus was a very wealthy man but he was also a very lonely man. SO - when he heard that Jesus had come to his city he wanted to get a glimpse but he was so short that he couldn’t see above the crowd. So Zacchaeus did two things that no wealthy Middle Eastern man would ever do. ONE, he ran through a crowd, and TWO he climbed a tree.
UNDERSTAND - what Zacchaeus did was shocking… IT – was radical for him and for anyone who saw it. BUT LISTEN - what Jesus did that day was even more shocking. TRY – to picture the scene…. Jesus walks straight through the city, passed thousands, possibly tens of thousands of people (it was a huge crowd) AND - He walks right up to the tree and He stops. NOTICE - what happens; “When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up…” IN - a packed out crowd among 1,000 of people Jesus notices Zacchaeus (a short tax collector who hated himself and who was hated by everyone). Jesus looks up.
QUESTION – what do you think is going through Zacchaeus mind? I MEAN - he had just ran through the crowd, climbed a tree, he’s holding on… AND – then he sees Jesus walk his way…. His heart’s pounding through his chest., his throat is tightening up, his blood is screaming through his body, he’s filled with adrenaline.
Why did He stop here?
Why is He looking up?
I sure hope this limb holds… Oh no I think He sees me!
QUESTION - why did Jesus do that? Why did Jesus stop, walk over to that tree and look up? ANSWER - because Jesus knew exactly where Zacchaeus was. AND - here’s the point: God knows exactly where you are.
YOU - may be; up a tree, out on a limb, you may be in a hole that you dug yourself. You may be between a rock and hard place. You may be thinking that God has forgotten you, that He is far off and unconcerned… BUT - that’s not true….
UNDERSTAND – God has His eyes on you, right now, this very moment, right where you sit. IN FACT – there has never been a single moment of your life, when God has taken His eyes off of you. Never.
PEOPLE - may ignore you. People may not notice you. EVEN – your own family (your wife, husband, parents, children) may look right through you… LISTEN - you may feel that other people think your life; is unimportant - doesn’t matter. BUT - God says; “you matter to me, I’ve never taken my eyes off of you. I’ve seen every hurt you’ve ever felt, every sadness, every tear you’ve ever cried. I’ve been there through it all… I’ve been paying attention” JESUS – once said;
“What’s the price of two or three pet canaries? Some loose change, right? But God never overlooks a single sparrow and He pays even greater attention to you, down to the last detail even numbering the hairs on your head.” For some of us it is not difficult! (12:6,7 Msg)
UNDERSTAND - the deepest expression of love is attention. When you give somebody your attention you’re giving them your love. HEY – take this truth home When you give somebody your attention you’re giving them your love… WHY BECAUSE – it could change someone’s life) LOVE - is paying attention. ANS - John Orteberg in his book, Love Beyond Reason, says that, one of the greatest miracles of life is that God pays attention to us… CHECKOUT – this prayer that God gave His people in Number 6:24,26
"The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace."
UNDERSTAND – to turn your face toward someone is to give that person your whole-hearted, undivided attention. It is not the casual listening of a preoccupied mind. It is a statement: ‘I have nothing else to do, nowhere else I’d rather be. I’m fully devoted to being with you.” THIS is the kind of attention God pours out on us.
AND - it gets even better. BECAUSE - God not only turns His face toward us… BUT HE – also makes His face ‘shine’ on us. NOW - the shining face is an image of delight. It is the face of a proud parent beaming while a child plays in her first piano recital (hits his first homerun, takes her first step). It is the face of a groom as he watches his bride walk down the aisle.
UNDERSTAND - we can turn our faces toward (pay attention to) anyone, with little effort. BUT our faces shine, beam and grow radiant only in they presence of those we love most deeply. AND - this God says is how He feels about you and me… HE MAKES - His face shines on us! God pays attention to us. as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you. (Isaiah 62:5) LISTEN - no matter how insignificant you feel Jesus Christ notices you… BECAUSE – you matter to Him! “I matter to God…”
The NEXT point in your outline is;
No Matter What Other People Say About You;
Jesus Affirms You…
ALL - of his life Zacchaeus had been ridiculed and rejected. FIRST – because of his appearance. SECOND - because of his actions. He was dishonest. He was corrupt. WE - can only imagine the kind of gossip that was spread about this guy. THE - cruel remarks, the criticism behind his back and the evil things that were said about him no doubt flowed throughout the streets of Jericho like a mighty river..
BUT – the Prince of Peace is about to change all of that. FOR YOU SEE – Jesus has another surprise for Zacchaeus… LUKE WRITES - When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus,
NOW IMAGINE - the shock of Zacchaeus, I - for one think, it almost knocked him out of the tree. “He knows my name. I didn’t hear anybody tell Him my name. He just knows it. How does He know my name?”
UNDERSTAND - God not only knows where you are this morning… HE - knows who you are. He knows everything about you. HE - cares about you personally. HE - cares about you as an individual. THE ONE AND ONLY TRUE God - knows your name.
AND - when Jesus looked up at Zacchaeus in front of this huge crowd and He called him by name, that shocked everybody. For two reasons: ONE – because Jesus knew the name of the biggest scoundrel in town. AND TWO - because of what his name meant. THE – name Zacchaeus means, “pure one.”
NOW - Zacchaeus was anything but pure ( and he knew it). AND – if I was a betting man I’d wager that it had probably been a long time since Zacchaeus was called by his real name. NO – I’m sure that other names like (liar, runt, thief, traitor…) were what he had become accustomed to hear. QUESTION – what names have you become accustomed to?
2,000 years ago a guy climbed out on limb met Jesus…. AND - Jesus looked at this short, lonely, man – and said, “Zacchaeus I can see beneath the hurt, the pain, beneathe all the things that other people have said about you… AND - beneath all of that stuff - I see a pure one. Zac, I didn’t make you to be a crook. I didn’t make you to live the life that you are living.” MAN – I just love that picture of Jesus doing what He does best; lifting up, affirming… telling Zacchaeus who he really was… AND OH – how those words must have flowed like cool, clear rivers of living water…
YOU KNOW – it’s my hunch that there may be a few people in this room who need that same affirmation… BECAUSE – like Zacchaeus there is a river of other voices flowing down the streets of your world trying to tell you who you are… The voices of friends, of family, of the world, of enemies even your own voices;
• You are nothing, no one
• No one cares about you
• You are a loser, a failure, an embarrassment, joke
• You’ll never amount to anything
• You’ll never be as good as them
YES – some of you have had some terrible things said to and about you over the years. AND - you keep playing those tapes over and over again in your mind. And you believed those things. BUT - they were lies! LISTEN - there are people in your life, even family members, who have lied to you.
AND – today Jesus invites you to climb out on a limb. YES – it’s risky, it could be dangerous… BUT – it is out on the limb that you will make the most important decision in your life. “Am I going to believe what other people have said about me or am I going to believe what God says about me?”
IN – just a moment I am going to read several passages of Scripture that will tell you what God, The Creator and Sustainer of all that we see; The Alpha and the Omega, the King of kings and Lord of lords… The one who knows all, sees all and is over all says about you… BUT – first I need to read you a few words that I recently came across written by a guy named Anthony DeMello in a book called, ‘The Way of Love.’ AND – the reason I need to read them is BECAUSE most of us in this room give the voices of other people far too much power in our lives.
Look at your life and see how you have filled its emptiness with people. As a result they have a stranglehold on you. See how they control your behavior by their approval and disapproval. They hold the power to ease your loneliness with their company, to send your spirits soaring with their praise, to bring you down to the depths with their criticism and rejection. Take a look at yourself spending almost every waking moment of your day placating and pleasing people, whether they are living or dead.
You live by their norms, conform to their standards, seek their company, desire their love, dread their ridicule, long for their applause, meekly submit to the guilt they lay upon you; you are terrified to go against the fashion in the way you dress or speak or act or even think. And observe how even when you control them you depend on them and are enslaved by them. People have become so much a part of your being that you cannot imagine living a life that is unaffected or uncontrolled by them.
In John’s gospel, the Jews are said to be incapable of believing because they, “look to one another for approval (John 5:44)
WOW – those are some powerful and true words. AND – listen unless you choice to ignore the voice of other people in determining your worth and hear only God’s voice the words of affirmation I am about to read will do you no good.
IN HEBREWS 4 – the writer is talking about how so many of God’s people who were delivered did not believe…
For this Good News--that God has prepared a place of rest--has been announced to us just as it was to them. But it did them no good because they didn’t believe what God told them. – Hebrews 4:2
DO – you see what the Hebrew writer is saying here?
if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 2 Cor 5:17
don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? – 1 Cor 6:19
“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus so that we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.” – Eph 2;10
You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
– 1 Peter 2:9,10
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! – 1 John 3:1
God says, “I affirm you.” You Are…
• A new creation
• The temple of the Holy Spirit
• God’s masterpiece
• Created anew in Christ
• You are – chosen, holy, royal...
• You are God’s child
No matter how insignificant you feel, Jesus notices you.
No matter what other people say, Jesus affirms you.
Truth #3;
No matter What You’ve Done;
Jesus Wants You…
Zacchaeus’ appearance made him feel lonely and insecure. HIS – accusers made him feel bitter and resentful. BUT UNDERSTAND - it was Zacchaeus’ sins, his own lifestyle, his own choices that made him feel guilty and ashamed.
So Jesus Christ did something even more shocking. He didn’t just walk up to the tree and look up and notice him. He didn’t just call him by name and affirm him… NO JESUS – took it a step further by inviting Himself to Zacchaeus’ home for dinner (only time in Scripture we see Jesus doing this).
5When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today."
This was unthinkable. That Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, would walk all the way through the city find the biggest sinner in town and say, “I’m going to go to your house. I’m going to be your guest. Out of all these people, I choose you. THAT – was totally unexpected. Jesus was definitely coloring outside of the lines here.
Let me tell you what is going on here; Jesus Christ knew that Zacchaeus was carrying so much hidden guilt, (like many of you are), that there’s no way he would ever dare to invite Jesus to his house. Because in his mind he’s thinking, “I’m not good enough to have Jesus Christ at my house. I’m not good enough to have God as my guest. You don’t know the things I’ve done. AND - many of you have felt that way or are feeling the same way. “I’m not good enough.” But you’re wrong. You’re dead wrong!
“When we were unable to help ourselves, at the moment of our need, Christ died for us although we were living against God. Very few people will to save the life of someone else. Although perhaps for a good person someone might possibility die. But God shows his great love for us in this way: Christ died for us while we were still sinners..” Rm 5:6-8 (NCV)
Having a relationship with Jesus is not based on your goodness. NO - it’s based on God’s incredible love for you, it’s based on His grace… AND – the very moment the focus of your life shifts from your badness to God’s goodness. You will experience grace and be set free!
LISTEN - in spite of all you’ve done Jesus still wants you. Right now. Today. April 30, 2006. UNDERSTAND - that Jesus is far more interested in changing you than He is in condemning you. So He looks at you and He says, “I know you, I love you AND I still want you in spite of all that you’ve done. And I want you to me, to love me, to have a relationship with Me.”
NOW - maybe you feel unworthy. Maybe you feel, “I can’t come to God because of all the stuff I’ve done in my life.” AGAIN - you’re wrong.
I have here a twenty-dollar bill. Would anybody like this twenty-dollar bill? If I crumple it, does anybody still want it? YES - if I step on it, stomp on it, does anybody still want it? Yes. No matter what I did to it, it did not lose its value.
You’ve had some hard knocks in life. You’ve made some really bad decisions in life. You’ve turned your back on God at times but you have not lost your value to God. You may have some scars, some hurts. There may be a little dirt in your life. You have not lost your value to God. It doesn’t matter where you’ve been. What matters is what direction your feet are headed today. KNOWING THIS – KNOWING THAT….
• God notices you,
• He cares about you,
• His eyes of love are constantly watching you,
• He affirms you regardless of what anybody else says.
• He has a plan and purpose for your life,
• He made you and He still wants you in spite of the fact that you’ve rejected Him in the past.
HOW - should you respond to that kind of God? The way Zacchaeus did.
Luke 19:6-10…
God is looking for 2 responses…
No matter how insignificant you feel Jesus notices you
No matter what other people say Jesus affirms you
No matter what you’ve done Jesus wants you
"The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace."
