Zacchaeus- A Story Of Transformation Series

Zacchaeus- A Story of Transformation

Jeffery Anselmi / General Adult

Turn / Transform; Repentance / Luke 19:1–10

Zacchaeus interacted with Jesus and left transformed, confessing and professing a changed life.

INTRODUCTION

SLIDE #1 OPENING SLIDE

• In our world, the concept of repentance seems to be a lost concept.

SLIDE #2 THE LOST ART OF REPENTANCE

• Whenever we do something that hurts others and is a sin toward God, we tend to gravitate toward making excuses or blaming others for our problem.

• My prayer is that, as Christians, we will embrace the concept and art of repentance because, when we are able to practice it, our lives and the lives of those around us will be better.

• I believe we fear what will happen if we confess, so our fear leads us down a bad path.

• Last week we began our series, "Turn—The Heart of Repentance," by examining the importance of confession, the willingness to confess our struggle with sin to God.

• This week as we continue with our look at repentance, our focus will be on the issue of transformation.

• We must confess our sins to God and the people we hurt when we do wrong.

• As we discussed last week, simply apologizing and confessing is not sufficient; our repentance must result in transformation.

• If we express regret for our apprehension, we will not pursue transformation; instead, we will strive to avoid a similar situation in the future.

• If we are truly sorry, we will want to change our behavior so that we do not continue the actions that caused conflict with God and others.

• Today, we will examine the story of Zacchaeus, which depicts a man's transformation by Jesus.

SLIDE #3 WHO WAS ZACCHAEUS SLIDE

• As we venture through the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19:1-10, we will see the steps Zacchaeus took on his path to transformation.

• How did this rich man, hated by his countrymen for being rightfully considered a traitor, become a repentant person who was changed?

› Big Idea of the Message: Zacchaeus interacted with Jesus and left transformed, confessing and professing a changed life.

• Let’s begin our journey by turning to Luke 19:1-4.

Luke 19:1–4 NET 2nd ed.

1 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through it.

2 Now a man named Zacchaeus was there; he was a chief tax collector and was rich.

3 He was trying to get a look at Jesus, but being a short man he could not see over the crowd.

4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, because Jesus was going to pass that way.

SERMON

For repentance to lead to transformation, we must:

SLIDE 4 MAIN POINT 1 SLIDE

I. Focus on Jesus.

• I want to start off by giving you a little background concerning Zacchaeus.

• The text offers up some warning signs pertaining to Zacchaeus, things that would offer a glimpse of some of the obstacles this man would face.

• Today, the thought of tax collectors or the IRS likely evokes a negative emotional response.

• The prospect of an IRS audit would likely make most of us uneasy.

• Zacchaeus is a tax collector.

• He is not a collector of the temple taxes, but rather, he is an official representative of the Roman government.

• To make matters worse, Zacchaeus is a Jew, so he is collecting taxes for the ROMAN Government FROM the nation of Israel.

• The Romans demanded a specific amount of taxes from each territory and its people; any amount collected beyond that was kept by the collectors as their commission or for shipping and handling.

• There was a tremendous deal of dishonesty that was associated with this practice.

• Here is Zacchaeus.

• He most likely had all the material blessings one could hope for at the time, yet imagine walking the streets of your town being despised and hated.

• Why would anyone want to be a tax collector for Rome, knowing what others would think of them?

• MONEY!

• There is nothing wrong with being wealthy, but the problem comes with how one acquires wealth.

• Zacchaeus is a man who had it all, yet had nothing.

• Do you know people who are in that boat?

• Here is a man without hope, yet he finds out Jesus is in town.

• Maybe he can find what he is looking for in Jesus?

SLIDE 5 FOCUS ON JESUS

• Zacchaeus has to see Jesus.

• Verse three says he was trying to get a look at Jesus, but he was short and could not see over the crowd.

• The verse implies that Zacchaeus was trying to make visual contact, but the thought runs a little deeper.