難比登天? From Filthy Rich to Filthy Rag

路 Luke 19:1-10

FCF: Man in his fallen condition cannot seek God on his own effort.

I. 人想要看神Man Looks for God

A. 環境的障礙Physical barrier

B. 屬靈的障礙Spiritual barrier

II. 神看見了人God Looks for Man

A. 神接近罪人God receives sinners

B. 神饒恕罪人God forgives sinners

III. 人看不起人Man Looks down on Man

A. 怎可以？How come?

B. 神可以！Now come!

Luke 19:1-10

Right after choir:

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. – Acts 4:12

[Announce Text]

Our Scriptural passage for today is from Luke 19:1-10. We will revisit the familiar story of Zacchaeus. The title for my message is: “From Filthy Rich to Filthy Rag.”

[Scripture Introduction]

In the gospel of Luke Jesus portrayed Himself as the “Son of Man.” His mission on earth was to bring people into the kingdom of God. In chapter 18, one chapter prior to today’s story Jesus had a discussion with a rich young about what must one do to inherit eternal life. This person was eager to know what he could do in order to be accepted by God. After that the disciples asked Jesus “Who then can be saved?” Jesus’ answer was, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.” Perhaps you may have doubts what Jesus actually meant by that. Today’s story may provide some hints. It is about Jesus’ seemingly unplanned interaction with Zacchaeus. Jesus revealed His heart toward those who are lost.

[Re-announce and Read Text] Let us listen to God’s Word as I read from Luke 19:1-10.

[Prayer for Illumination] Shall we pray?

[Sermon Introduction]

A children Sunday school teacher asked her class, “What must a person do in order to be forgiven by God.” Without hesitation a kid, one of those naughty but smart kids, sitting on the front row raised his hand. “I know, I know!” He said. Since no one else responded reluctantly the teacher had to let that kid answer, hoping that he would not say anything out of this world. “OK, Jimmy, what is it?” The teacher said. Jimmy cleared his throat and said, “He has to sin first!” And the whole class burst into laughter. If you ponder on Jimmy’s answer you would agree that he had his point. Only sinners need God’s forgiveness. But the Bible tells us that sin separates us from God. As fallen creatures we will not seek God on our own [FCF] and therefore Jesus came to the world to seek us. But how does that happen? In Zacchaeus’ story recorded in the Luke’s gospel chapter 19 Luke tells us how God came to seek and save sinners. Through this encounter between Jesus and Zacchaeus God shows us His heart that…

[Proposition] Since Jesus calls sinners to Himself we must respond to His grace.

Throughout the passage the verbs “see” or “look” repeats a few times. Let us use that as a divider when we navigate through the text.

[Main Point 1] Man Looks for God

First of all, we notice that man looks for God. Verse 3 tells us that “(Zacchaeus) wanted to see who Jesus was.” The story begins by saying that on that particular day Jesus came to Jericho, and there was a person named Zacchaeus wanted to see him. The Bible does not tell us why. Perhaps it was purely Zacchaeus’ curiosity because of what he heard about this unusual teacher, or perhaps because of the rumor that Jesus performed a miracle and healed a blind man earlier that day. Verse 2 tells that that Zacchaeus “was a chief tax collector and was wealthy.” If you know the background tell you will know how Zacchaeus accumulated his wealth. At that time the Roman government sold tax collecting right to Jewish people who could come up with the highest bid. Except for the tax money that should go to the Romans Zacchaeus had the right to pocket the rest of it. The Bible says he was not only a tax collector but a chief tax collector. It means that he could easily take a cut of commission from other who worked for him. It is somewhat like a senior salesperson in one of those cosmetic companies. You get the picture here, a rich Jew oppressing other poor Jews in order to get richer. But in order to see Jesus Zacchaeus had some obstacles to overcome.

A. Physical Obstacle

First of all Zacchaeus had to overcome physical obstacle. Verse 3 says that “being a short man he could not, because of the crowd.” But those physical obstacles did not stop him. There is a Cantonese slang which says, “The short guys are full of wit.” It means that short people are usually smart people. Zacchaeus was a typical example because he quickly figured out a solution. The context continues in verse 4 and says “So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.” Picture this: a short guy in an Italian suit and black shiny dress shoes climbing up a lamp post just to get a better view of a coming parade. It had to be an interesting picture.

B. Spiritual Obstacle

Besides physical obstacle Zacchaeus also had spiritual obstacle in his heart. I am not sure if you have this same question in my mind. Why did Zacchaeus have to go through all those troubles and peek out from the branches? Why couldn’t Zacchaeus just spend a few bucks to the people around him and asked them to clear a way for him so that he could see Jesus face to face, or even shook hand with him? Perhaps deep down inside Zacchaeus felt unworthy to come close to this righteous teacher, Jesus, who was representing God. Did he know that by exploiting his own people he was sinning against men and sinning against God? Of course he did! Zacchaeus seemed to have everything a person could ask for in that society – wealth, power and privilege. But something more important was missing – he was shut out from people’s acceptance, and from God. In Zacchaeus’ heart he might be saying to himself, “If I can just get a glimpse of this Jesus I will be satisfied. Then he can go on with his way I will go back to my own life.”

[Illustration]

Cynthia was a typical mother. When her baby boy Skyler was born she and her husband dreamed about the first “dada” or “mama” from their baby. But that did not come. At age three Skylar was diagnosed to have autism. An autistic child is shut out from the outside world. Skyler could not talk. Cynthia longed to communicate with her own son but Skyler looked at her as if she did not exist. Cynthia was heartbroken because Skyler did not know she was his mother. Later Skyler was enrolled in preschool. Teachers and speech pathologist worked hard to help Skyler connect with the world around him. Then gradually Skyler picked up words and his understanding of his surrounding increased. One day he turned to Cynthia and asked, “You mom?” “Yes, Skyler, I’m mom” She replied. He then asked his teachers around him, “You mom?” “No, Skyler, no mom.” “You, my mom?” He asked Cynthia again. “Yes, Skyler, I’m your mom.” And finally, a rush of understanding in his eyes, “You, my mom.” “Yes, Skyler, I’m your mom.” Cynthia affirmed him. Then she thought, if those were the only words Skyer could ever speak it would be enough for her because finally Skyler knew she was his mother. Then one evening Skyler sat on Cynthia’s lap as she read a story to him. Then suddenly Skyler leaned back his head to look at his mom in the eyes. “Yes, Skyler?” Cynthia asked. Then with the voice of an angel Skyler said, “I love you, mom.”

[Application]

The Bible says before we received Christ we were lost in sin. We are just like the autistic child in the story. We cannot connect with God in the spiritual realm. But perhaps just like Zacchaeus on a certain day all of a sudden happens in your life that causes your interest in the God of the Bible. Perhaps someone shared the gospel with you and made you wonder if there is really a true God. Perhaps it was a movie you watched, like the “Passion”, caused you to ponder whether Jesus indeed died on the cross for the sin of the world. Perhaps someone close to you passed away or a natural disaster like hurricane Katrina or the Pakistan earthquake prompted you to think what would happen after a person died. Issues like those may arouse your interest to look for God. Don’t let that curiosity pass by. I encourage you to probe further and find out whether this Jesus is indeed the Son of God or everything about Him is just a lie. May be just like Zacchaeus you heard something about this Jesus and you came to the church to look for him. Perhaps just like what Zacchaeus did, you just want to look at this Jesus from a distance. It does not matter to you whether or not you know Jesus on a personal level. You just want to rub shoulder with Jesus, and then you go on with your life and He with His. But as we can see in the rest of the story God desires to come into your life.

[Main Point 2] God Looks for Man

When the story began it looked as though man was looking for God but as the incident further unfolded we notice that actually it was God looking for man. How can I know that? If you pay attention to verse 5 does it make you curious about why Jesus could call Zacchaeus by name? It implies that Jesus knew Zacchaeus was up there on the tree at that particular moment. Then He made two requests to this chief tax collector. Verse 5 says, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” Those two requests meant a lot to Zacchaeus and to us.

A. God receives sinners

First, it indicated that God receives sinners. It may not be such a great deal for us in nowadays culture to visit someone and to stay there for a while. But in the Jewish culture, to stay at someone’s house as guest is a means to show respect and honor to the host. Therefore, in extending a request to stay with Zacchaeus Jesus was offering an invitation to accept Zacchaeus. To that verse 6 tells us that Zacchaeus “came down at once and welcomed (Jesus) gladly.”

B. God forgives sinners

Not only that God receives sinners, He also forgives them. As Jesus made a request to stay at Zacchaeus’ house He also extended His forgiveness to Zacchaeus. How we do know that Zacchaeus was forgiven? It is because Jesus says in His own words in verse 9 that “Today salvation has come to this house…” Zacchaeus gladly invited Jesus to his house. But in fact it was Jesus who embraced Zacchaeus into His eternal house.

The forgiveness Zacchaeus received brought an instant change in his heart. He announced that he would give away half of his possessions to the poor and to repay four times to whomever he had cheated. An inward change of heart was expressed in outward change in behavior. If it was material possession that choked up his relationship with men and God then he had to deal with it. The Old Testament law demands that anyone who cheated another person must repay the full amount, plus one-fifth of that sum as a penalty. Zacchaeus was willing to go above and beyond that requirement. An interesting observation is that Zacchaeus says all these right there in front of the crowd. He was determined to make up for his previous wrongdoing even if there was a risk that people might take advantage of him. Jesus and the crowd could testify that Zacchaeus was a changed man.

[Illustration]

A seminary student in Chicago named Aaron for looking for a ministry opportunity in one summer to help pay for the fall tuition. After waiting for a long period of time he had the face the reality and worked for the only job he could find. He worked as a bus driver in a dangerous section of the city. A small gang of tough kids spotted the young driver and began to take advantage of him. For several mornings they got on his bus, walked right through him without paying, and rode until they decided to get off. Finally, Aaron thought he needed to do something about it. The next morning the gang got on as usual. But soon Aaron saw a policeman at a street corner. So he pulled over and reported the offense. The policeman told them to pay or get off. They paid. But unfortunately the policeman got off the bus too. When the bus turned another corner or two the gang assaulted Aaron. When he finally regained consciousness blood was all over his shirt, two teeth were missing, both eyes were swollen, his money was gone, and the bus was empty. When he went to bed that day he had a long night wrestling with God. “Where was God in all this? I genuinely want to serve God anywhere in any way, but this seemed a bit too much for me to handle!”

The next day Aaron decided to press charge. With the help of the policeman and other witnesses most of the gang members were arrested. At the first court hearing Aaron was sitting across from the gang who were staring at him with angry eyes. Suddenly, all the hatred was gone in Aaron’s heart. Instead, he felt a sense of compassion toward them. To everyone’s surprise he requested the permission to speak. Then he stood up and said, “Your honor, I would like you to total up the days of punishment against these men and I request that you allow me to go to jail in their place.” Everyone in the court room, especially those gang members were stunned and could not believe their ears. Then Aaron continued as he looked at the gang, “because I have forgiven all of you.” The dumbfounded judge finally reacted, “Young man, you are out of your mind. This sort of thing has never occurred before.” To that, Aaron replied, “Oh yes, your honor. It happened about two thousand years ago when a man died on behalf of the sin of the whole mankind.” Then the next few minutes Aaron shared the gospel to everyone in the court room. The judge did not grant Aaron’s request. But Aaron visited the gang in the jail, led most of them to Christ and eventually began a new ministry to the gangsters in Chicago.

[Application]

In every believer’s life there is a Zacchaeus story. God is willing to receive and forgive sinner. God used His particular means to call sinners to Him. God might have sent a Christian to preach the gospel to him/her. Or it might have been a message he/she heard on the Christian radio. Or it might have been an article or testimony he/she read from a Christian magazine. Whatever way it is God paid an unplanned visit to your life. Today you have the opportunity to come to this church. You may not even fully realize why you are willing to come. But let think about it this way: most of you came from a different country to United States, of all the different cities you ended up here in St. Louis, of all the places you could go you came to this church on this Sunday morning. Do that all happen just by chance? The fact is it looks as though you were looking for God but in fact before you come here God has been looking for you. God is willing to receive you and to forgive you. Are you willing to welcome Jesus into your life just like Zacchaeus did?

To those who are already Christians Zacchaeus’ story reminds us that when God forgives a person there has to be an inward change in his/her life. To Zacchaeus it was his attitude toward material possession. Examine your own life and ask God to reveal to us any area that needs adjustment. Perhaps it is the way you manage your time, your relationship with your family members or weakness in your personality. God by His graciousness will work in you and transform your life to become more like Christ.

[Main Point 3] Man Looks down on Man

Zacchaeus’ story seems to come to a happy ending. So far so good. But Luke tells us that there was a little side-story to develop. To summarize the effect of it, it was man looking down on man. In verse 7 it reads “All the people saw this and began to mutter, ‘He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.’”

A. How come?

The crowd was crying out loud, “How come?” To them it was an unbelievable thing for Jesus a Jewish teacher to stay at the place of a sinner like Zacchaeus. Based on the Jewish tradition tax collectors were seen as the same as murderers and robbers. That showed how much they hated the tax collectors. But the irony was the crowd was exactly right with their labeling of Zacchaeus as a sinner because before the eyes of God everyone is a sinner! How natural is it for us to look down on people who are different from us? We may have bias toward others because of things like what they are from, their social status, the way they dress or their lifestyle. Worse still, we have a stereotype for how a Christian should be like. When I was a young Christian sometimes there were seminary students coming over to our church to do internship. These people dressed like middle-age folks. That was my impression of how seminary students should look like. When I compare that image to what I see now in the seminary I am attending it totally shocks me. To put it plainly some male students do appear to be fugitives on pictures. You may expect them to act like saints in their behavior. But the truth is self-centeredness, arrogance and pride are common among them, and that includes myself too! That proves one simple truth God called us not because we are good enough to deserve His salvation but because of His grace.

B. Now come!

Jesus came to His defense in response to the crowd’s hostile remark. His reaction to the “how come” comment is an invitation of “now come.” Jesus says in verse 9 and 10, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” By physical birth Zacchaeus, being a Jew, was indeed a son of Abraham. But the problem was that he was also a lost child. Jesus came to bring this lost sheep back to His fold. God sent Jesus not only to call out the lost sheep from Israel He also extended His grace to all nations. So no matter who you are, all who put their faith in Christ will become a true son of Abraham. That is the gospel message.

[Illustration]

Samuel Colgate, the founder of the Colgate business empire, was a devout Christian, and he told of an incident that took place in the church he attended. During an evangelistic service, an invitation was given at the close of the sermon for all those who wished to turn their lives over to Christ and be forgiven. One of the first persons to walk down the aisle and kneel at the altar was a well-known prostitute. She knelt in very real repentance, she wept, she asked God to forgive her, and meanwhile the rest of the congregation looked on approvingly at what she was doing. Then she stood and testified that she believed God had forgiven her for her past life, and she now wanted to become a member of the church. For a few moments, the silence was deafening. Finally, Samuel Colgate arose and said, “I guess we made a mistake when we prayed that the Lord would save sinners. We forgot to specify what kind of sinners. We’d better ask him to forgive us for this oversight. The Holy Spirit has touched this woman and made her truly repentant, but the Lord apparently doesn’t understand that she’s not the type we want him to rescue. We’d better spell it out for him just which sinners we had in mind.” Immediately, a motion was made and unanimously approved that the woman be accepted into membership in the congregation.

[Application]

Through the ages God called sinners to Himself. God did so not because we are worthy of His saving grace. But it is exactly because we are so miserable in the eyes of God that we are worthy of nothing in exchange for His grace. Until we come to a realization of that we will never fully appreciate God’s mercy on us. Zacchaeus’ story tells that even before we know God He is willing to show His grace to us. The crowd missed the whole point by counting at one’s merit rather than looking upon the mercy of God. We may tend to commit the same mistake. Somehow we believe that “good people” are more worthy of God’s grace. It may be your college buddy, a favorite uncle or a nice young lady you are trying to date. If we think it that way we have failed to realize how wicked we are as sinners and we have totally diminished the value of grace. Someone puts it this way: God’s mission is not to make good people better but to make dead people alive. Therefore, as people of God our mission is to look for the lost, see them from the perspective of God that no one is worthy of His salvation if not because of His grace.

Sometimes we may have a sense of uneasiness when non-believers come to our church or fellowship group. The way they think or their moral standard may be different from us. Therefore, we may even feel a little awkward trying to modify our programs in order to meet the needs of the non-believers. I pray that the Lord will continue to use Zacchaeus’ story to remind Christians that He is calling sinners to Him. Our church, and every church, is established to invite people into the Kingdom of God.

[Conclusion]

There was a true a story about a young lady. Let us just call her Jane. Just like many teens today Jane got tired of home and the many restraints from her parents. She rejected her family’s religious lifestyle and said, “I don't want your God.  I give up.  I'm leaving!” She left home and decided to look for the freedom she longed for. But before long she was unable to find a job and had to sell her body on the street as a prostitute. Many years passed by, Jane’s father died and her mother grew old. Jane regretted for the bad decision she made. She wanted to go home but deep down inside she realized how unworthy she was of her family’s forgiveness and acceptance. No contact was made between Jane and her mother. But the mother did not lose hope, for she remembered God’s faithfulness to His children throughout the Bible and throughout history. One day she heard of her daughter whereabouts. She decided to make a trip to the most decadent part of the city to look for Jane. She stopped at each of the rescue missions to put up a picture. It was a picture of a smiling, gray-haired mother with a hand-written note at the bottom: “I still love you… come home!” Several months went by until one day Jane wandered into a rescue mission for a meal. She looked aimlessly around until the picture on the bulletin board caught her attention. She thought, “Could that be my mother?” She came closer and looked at the picture. Indeed it was her mother and there was the message calling her to come home.

It was night time but Jane did not wait any longer. She quickly jumped on to a bus and headed home. Even though Jane realized her unworthiness she rejoiced over her mother’s offer of forgiveness. Jane was disrespectful to her parents and took their love for granted but her mother remained faithfulness in her love toward her prodigal daughter. It was early in the morning when Jane finally got home. She kept wondering how her mother would react when they met. She knocked at the door, but was surprised to notice that it flew open on its own. She thought someone had broken into the house. Jane quickly ran into her mother’s bedroom and found her still sleeping. Jane shook her mother awake and said, “It’s me! I’m home!” The mother could not believe her eyes. They embraced each other in tears. Then Jane expressed her concern to her mother about the opened door. Her mother replied gently, “From the day you left, that door has never been locked.”

That is the heart of our God. He goes out to every street corner to call sinners to Himself and to welcome them back to His home. As the true sons of Abraham and as people of God’s kingdom our mission is to seek and save the lost in the name of Christ, just like what Jesus said to Zacchaeus, “…come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.”