Well, this morning I'm preaching on Luke chapter 19, verses 1 through 10. Luke 19, 1 through 10. You'll find this on page 1116. This is the story of Jesus' interaction with Zacchaeus. The title of my sermon is Lost and Found. Lost and Found. Again, Luke chapter 19, verses 1 through 10. Hear the word of our God. He entered Jericho and was passing through, and there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd, he could not, because he was small of stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today. So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled. He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner. And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold. And Jesus said to him, today's salvation has come to this house since he also is a son of Abraham. For the son of man came to seek and to save the lost. Again, this is the word of our God. Let's go to the Lord in prayer and ask for his blessing on the preaching of his word. Father, we know that we need to hear your word. We know that we're blessed to be able to gather and to hear your word proclaimed. We praise you and thank you for giving us the scriptures. We know that by them we see Christ, that through them you are revealed to us, and that these very scriptures show us the way of salvation. But Father, we also know that we need you to illuminate those scriptures by the power of the Holy Spirit so that we would understand them and believe them and receive them by faith. And we pray that you would do that very thing this morning in our midst. And I pray that you would use me as your servant. And I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, brothers and sisters, the story of Jesus' interaction with Zacchaeus, which we've just read, which we're looking at this morning. This is a story that may be familiar to many of you. It's one of the well-known incidents from the life of Jesus. It's not only a memorable story, it's also in some ways a humorous story that's loved by children. Think about it, what could be better than a man climbing up in a tree in order to see Jesus? But yet I think it's also a story that can be easily misinterpreted and misunderstood. It's quite possible to know the details of this story and yet miss the gravity of its message. J.C. Ryle actually said this. He said that the story of Zacchaeus should be frequently studied by Christians. Think about that for a minute. Quite a remarkable statement. I doubt that if I came up to you after church and asked you, to point me to a part of scripture that you thought should be frequently studied by Christians, that you would point to the story of Jesus' interaction with Zacchaeus, and yet this is what J.C. Ryle says. He says that there's something so important, something so foundational about the lesson and message of this passage that we should really never forget it as Christians. And if this is true, then the question we need to ask is what is the lesson of this text? What is it that we need to understand from this passage? And as I said already, I think this is a passage that can be easily misinterpreted. And so what I want to do this morning is to have us look at this passage through the lens of some possible misinterpretations of this text. One way to understand what a passage teaches is to think about what it doesn't teach. and that's what I want us to do this morning. So the first way that the story of Jesus' interaction with Zacchaeus can be misinterpreted, what we might call misinterpretation number one this morning, has to do with the character of Zacchaeus, and particularly it has to do with the tendency I think we have to view Zacchaeus in a better light than he really deserves. You may know that there's a children's song about Zacchaeus. It goes like this. Zacchaeus was a wee little man. A wee little man was he climbed up in a sycamore tree for to see what he could see. They said you may be familiar with that. You may have sung that song when you were a child. And as far as I can understand, that song gives us two descriptions of Zacchaeus. It really tells us that he was cute, he was a wee little man, and that he was curious, right? He wanted to see Jesus, and so he climbed up in a sycamore tree. And I think that this is how we tend to view Zacchaeus. We tend to view him as this cute little man who was curious enough to climb up in a tree to see Jesus. He might not have been an entirely good man, but he really wasn't that bad. He was a man who was cute and curious. The problem with that way of viewing Zacchaeus is that it doesn't fit with the text of the Bible. Scripture actually tells us four things about Zacchaeus. The Children's Song really only mentions two of these. It is certainly true, as the song says, that Zacchaeus was vertically challenged. 3 tells us this, it says that he was small of stature. It's also true that he was curious to see Jesus. Verse 3 says that he was seeking to see who Jesus was and that he couldn't do this because of the crowd. And so verse 4 says that he ran ahead and he climbed up in a tree to be able to see Jesus. You see, the song is true. It is actually right. Zacchaeus was a wee little man and he was curious to see Jesus. What we need to understand is that is not actually the whole picture that scripture presents to us. There's two other descriptions we've given of Zacchaeus in verse 2. We're told that he was a chief tax collector and that he was also rich. And we need to think about these two other descriptions as well if we're to have a true picture of what Zacchaeus was actually like. So the first thing we're told here is that Zacchaeus was a tax collector. And what you need to understand is that tax collectors were not well thought of in Jesus' day. This is because, of course, no one likes to pay taxes. The same is true in our day. It was also because they represented the imperial power of Rome. Tax collectors worked for Rome. They collected taxes for Rome. And of course, the Jewish people didn't like. that they had to give their hard-earned money to Rome, that Rome ruled over them. But there's another thing you need to understand. Tax collectors also were not well thought of because they had the reputation of being dishonest, being out for their own gain. This was a profession that encouraged greed and dishonesty. Tax collectors were well known for overcharging people, for lining their pockets at the expense of the poor. You see, if you were a tax collector, it was all too easy to profit through deceit. and by taking advantage of people, even your own neighbors. Now, it's certainly true that we couldn't say that every single tax collector in Jesus' day was dishonest or unscrupulous. But what you need to understand is that this reputation that they had was pervasive in Jesus' day, and it was pervasive because these practices were pervasive. In fact, they were so pervasive that in the Jewish legal system in Jesus' day, tax collectors were actually put in the same category as thieves and robbers. And there's a number of details in this text that point us to the conclusion that Zacchaeus was not an exception to this, that he too was willing to take advantage of people and to profit at the expense of others, even his own neighbors. First of all, we're told in verse two that Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector. Think about this. He wasn't just a tax collector. He was a chief tax collector. It may actually mean that he was the head of tax collection for the whole city of Jericho. We don't know for sure, but it certainly has to mean that he had men working under him. And think about it. If the men working under him were known to be corrupt and dishonest, well, then it makes sense that their leader would be the same way. It would be strange that tax collectors were known for being dishonest and corrupt if the one who was leading them, the chief tax collector, wasn't also this way. On top of this, we're told in verse 2 that Zacchaeus was rich. And what you need to understand is to get rich in such a profession as tax collecting surely meant That you are lining your own pockets and overcharging people for your own gain. And then lastly, in verse 8, we're actually given the confession of Zacchaeus himself. When he actually, when Jesus comes to his house, he actually confesses to Jesus. He says these words. If I defrauded anyone, he says, I restore it fourfold. And what you need to understand is even though Zacchaeus says here, if, if I defrauded anyone, this is clearly an admission of guilt on his part. If Zacchaeus was completely innocent, think about it, why would he say these words at all? Why would he say, if I defrauded anyone, unless he knew that this was actually true of him? And what's interesting is that the word here that's translated defrauded is a stronger word than we tend to think. It has two lexical meanings. First, it can mean this, to put pressure on someone for personal gain. It can actually be translated to harass, to squeeze, to shake down, or to blackmail someone. The second meaning is this, it can mean to secure something through intimidation, to extort. Think about those words, those meanings. These are the sort of actions, brothers and sisters, that we would associate with organized crime, blackmail, extortion, shaking people down. This is the very word that the scripture uses to describe Zacchaeus here. And from this, we need to realize that Zacchaeus wasn't really the nice little man that we tend to think that he was, someone who was simply cute and curious to see Jesus. The second thing we're told here about Zacchaeus was that he was not only a tax collector, as I said, he was also rich. And to understand the meaning of this, we need to really understand this description within the context of the book of Luke as a whole and Luke's teaching about riches. Luke emphasizes more than all of the other gospels, Jesus' teaching about the danger of riches. So for instance, in Luke chapter 12, Jesus tells a parable, the parable of the rich fool. It's about a man who lays up treasure for himself, but the scripture says is not rich towards God. He doesn't care about God. He's only caring about getting rich himself. And Jesus describes him as a fool because in the end of the parable, his life is taken away. And what happens is that all of his riches really served to do him no good. Jesus uses this to teach us that a man's life, Jesus says, does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. Jesus really teaches that wealth is actually no asset to us because it cannot provide us eternal life. It cannot make us right with God. And in the very same chapter, Luke chapter 12, Jesus commands his disciples then to sell their possessions and to give to the needy. He tells them to seek treasure in heaven, not treasure on earth, treasure in heaven that Jesus says will never fail. And then he adds these words, for where your treasure is, Jesus says there, your heart will be also. For where your treasure is, Jesus says there, your heart will be also. What is Jesus saying? He's saying here that riches can easily become an idol of our hearts. We can end up valuing riches, making them our treasure so that we value them and want them even more than God, so that we treat them as being important, more important than God. And by this, you see, our riches, our wealth can keep us from the kingdom of God. And the same, the very same thing that's taught here in Luke chapter 12 in the parable of the rich fool is also taught in Luke chapter 18, where Jesus interacts with a man who's referred to as the rich ruler. This man comes to inquire to Jesus about eternal life, but we're told that he goes away sad because he can't let go of his riches. You see, the very thing that Jesus was teaching in Luke chapter 12 is true of this man. His wealth is of greater value to him than God himself. And after he departs, Jesus says these words. He says it's hard for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. Jesus said it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. And brothers and sisters, when we're thinking about Zacchaeus and the description we have of Zacchaeus being rich, we need to understand that description within the context of all that Jesus has been teaching about riches in the gospel of Luke. You see, when Zacchaeus is described as rich here, the Bible is not actually telling us about his financial status. The Bible is telling us about the state of his heart. This is not a compliment, as if Zacchaeus was a hardworking, successful man. It's not even a neutral statement that's being made, that he was rich. In effect, what we're being told here is that Zacchaeus was far from the kingdom of God. He was enslaved to his love of wealth. The God that he worshipped was the God of money. It was the God of silver and gold. This is what Zacchaeus valued more than anything else. And if you think about it, this really explains his life, everything that we've thought about in terms of him being a tax collector. Why would he be willing to defraud his own countrymen and his own neighbors? Why would he be willing to live with the shame that went with Jews who served as tax collectors in that culture? Why would Zacchaeus do this? because Zacchaeus valued treasure on earth more than he valued treasure in heaven. This is what the scripture is telling us about this man. And brothers and sisters, what this means is that Zacchaeus was not just the sort of cute and curious little man that we tend to think that he was. He wasn't a man who was near the kingdom of God or a man who really wasn't that bad. A better way to think of Zacchaeus is to think of him as a ruthless businessman who was really willing to do anything for his own gain. He was enslaved to his love of money. And because of this, he was unable to love the true God and to love his neighbor. He was greedy and selfish to the point that he was willing to take advantage of others, even his own countrymen. And this is actually confirmed in verse 10, where Jesus says at the end of this account that he came to seek and to save the lost. Think about this. This is also a description we're given here about Zacchaeus. He was lost. Jesus came to save him. And when we're told here that Zacchaeus was lost, it's not telling us that he simply needed directions. He simply needed Jesus to point him in the right direction. He simply needed a GPS device. No, we're being told here that Zacchaeus was without God and Zacchaeus was without hope. This is how the Bible describes our sinful state. apart from Jesus. We are lost. And it means that we are under the power of sin and death. We are under the wrath of God. We are bound for hell. This is what we deserve without any hope of being a part of the kingdom of God. This is what it means to be lost. You see, the very same word that's used here in Luke chapter 19 that's described as lost is the word that the Apostle Paul uses in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 when he says this, the word of the cross, he says, is folly to those who are perishing. To those who are perishing, it's the same word. To be lost is to be perishing. It's to be without God and to be without hope. to be without the promise of eternal life. This is what was true of Zacchaeus. Think about it. He had money. He had money. This is what people value, right? He had it. He had money. But he had no future hope. He had no relationship with God. He had no hope of entering the kingdom of God. He did not have eternal life. He was perishing. He was lost. He was dead in his sins. He was under the power of sin and death. He was under the wrath of God. This is what was true of Zacchaeus. And brothers and sisters, I think that one reason that we can tend to view Zacchaeus in a better light than he deserves is because we tend to do the same thing with ourselves. People may know that the Bible teaches that we're all sinners deserving of the wrath of God, but so many people refuse to accept this because they don't want to view themselves in this light. And this keeps them from the kingdom of God. This is what keeps us from coming to Jesus. You see, we tend to think that we're really not that bad. Maybe we're not as bad as those really bad people in the world. We tend to think that we're actually pretty good. And we tend to think that because of this, because we're pretty good, that God will let us into his kingdom. That when we have to stand before God one day on Judgment Day, that God will recognize that we're pretty good people, we're not like those really bad people in the world, and because of this, God will simply let us into his kingdom. What I hope you understand, this is not what the Bible teaches. It doesn't present anywhere us as people that are good, that are already fit for the kingdom of God. It actually teaches that there's only two groups of people in the world. There are those who have been saved by Jesus, who have been set free from their sin, who have been transformed by Jesus, who have new life in Him now, the promise of eternal life. And then there are those who have not been saved by Jesus, who are still in bondage to sin and death. who are under the wrath of God and destined for hell itself. And all of us, every single person, is in one of these two groups. And Zacchaeus was in the second group. He was not saved by Jesus, and this meant that he was perishing. He was lost. He was bound for hell. He was still in bondage to sin and to death. He was not just the cute. and curious little man that we tend to think that he was. This is what was true of Zacchaeus. He was outside of the kingdom of God. This leads me to the second way that we can tend to misinterpret this account of Jesus' interaction with Zacchaeus, what we might refer to as misinterpretation number two. And this has to do with the role of Zacchaeus in this story. The first misinterpretation had to do with the character of Zacchaeus. has to do with the role of Zacchaeus, the role that he plays in his own salvation. In the same way that we can easily inflate the goodness of Zacchaeus' character, we can also inflate and make too much of his role and the importance of his actions in the events that take place in these verses. Another way to say this is to say that we can easily make Zacchaeus the hero of this story. We can think that his actions are really the main focus of this text. You can imagine how teaching based on this interpretation might sound. If I was going to preach a sermon to you this morning based on that sort of interpretation of the text, where Zacchaeus is the hero of the text, his actions are the main focus, my sermon would have a title something like this, Be Like Zacchaeus. And I would say something like this to you. I would say Zacchaeus was a man who was zealous to get to Jesus. He wouldn't let any obstacle get in his way. When the crowds blocked him, he was even willing to climb up in a tree to humiliate himself to get to Jesus. And in the same way, you must also seek Jesus no matter the cost. You must let nothing stand in your way from coming to Christ. You must be like Zacchaeus. That's the way. that sort of message would sound. Now, brothers and sisters, before you conclude that I'm going to tell you that we should reject that message, I'm going to say something that might surprise you and say that I think that in many ways that message is true and that it's a message we need to hear. It can certainly be exaggerated. But we do need to seek Jesus. The gospel calls us as sinners to do this, to forsake everything else, to seek the mercy of Christ. And think about it for a minute. It could be the case that Zacchaeus had heard about Jesus, that he had heard about the miracles of Jesus, maybe even heard that Jesus was a friend of sinners, tax collectors like himself. And maybe his curiosity to see Jesus came in some measure from the fact that he actually recognized that he was a sinner, that he needed a change in his life, he needed to be made right with God, and that this is why he was willing to behave like a child even, and run and climb up in a tree in order to see Jesus. If this is true in any way, then I say to you this morning, Zacchaeus is an example to us. We all must recognize our need of Christ. We all must come to him in order to be saved. But I also say this to you this morning, there's a danger with that sort of interpretation of this passage. And the danger is this, that we can make so much of the actions of Zacchaeus, we can make him the hero of the story in a way that we end up missing the entire point of this text. We may end up missing the fact that the focus of this passage is not actually on the actions of Zacchaeus. The focus is on the actions of Jesus. The hero of this text is not Zacchaeus. The hero of the text is Jesus, our Lord and Savior. You see, in reality, this is what I hope you understand. This is not actually a story about a man seeking a Savior. It's a story about a Savior seeking a man. This is what's so important to understand. It's not a story about a man seeking a savior. It's a story about a savior seeking a man. The emphasis of this text is entirely on the actions of Jesus. The text makes it clear that the one who's doing the seeking here is not actually Zacchaeus, but Jesus, and that this is the reason that Zacchaeus is saved. You see this in a number of ways in the text. As I said, the text makes this clear. Notice, for instance, that it's Jesus that calls Zacchaeus by name in verse five. When Zacchaeus is up in the tree and Jesus is coming by, Jesus looks up to him and he actually calls him by name, which shows that this is not some sort of random or accidental meeting that takes place here in Luke chapter 19. Jesus knew of Zacchaeus. He knew who he was and he had come to gather him. to bring him into his sheepfold. And this is what Jesus does for all of his sheep. He calls them by name. This is what he did here for Zacchaeus. Notice also that it's Jesus here that invites himself to the house of Zacchaeus. It's not the other way around. It's not Zacchaeus who sees Jesus and then decides to invite him to his house. It's Jesus that invites himself to the house of Zacchaeus. I don't know about you, But I was taught, especially by my mother when I was younger, that it's not polite to invite yourself to somebody's house. You're supposed to let them invite you, but apparently Jesus was never taught this. Because Jesus here invites himself to the house of Zacchaeus. He tells Zacchaeus that he must come down because Jesus must stay at his house today. You see, this is a divine appointment. It's as if Zacchaeus has no choice here. He's being summoned here by the Lord Jesus Christ. And brothers and sisters, what's interesting about the text is that this is the very thing that actually upsets the crowd. They know the character of Zacchaeus. They know he's not a good man. They know he's a tax collector. They know he's a thief. And they can't understand not only why Jesus would be willing even to step inside the door of his house, what they can't understand even more is why Jesus is initiating this, saying he wants to go to the house of Zacchaeus. He wants to be with Zacchaeus. And this is the very thing that Jesus is communicating here, that he wants to be with Zacchaeus. And brothers and sisters, this is what's so amazing. This is the wonder of God's grace to us in Jesus Christ, that he chooses to set his affection upon us and to love us even though we are sinners. This is what he does here for Zacchaeus. He chooses to love him. He initiates going to his house because Jesus wants to be with this man, this deceitful tax collector, this thief. And brothers and sisters, if you're still not convinced that this is a story about a savior seeking a man, that the one doing the seeking is Jesus and not Zacchaeus, then all you have to look at is the statement that Jesus makes at the end of this passage in verse 10. It's there that he says clearly that this story is an example of his coming to seek and to save the lost. You see, the one doing the seeking is Jesus. Zacchaeus is the one who is lost. It's Jesus who comes to find him. This is a divine rescue mission that's taking place here in Luke chapter 19. Zacchaeus is perishing. Jesus is the one that comes to save him. And what I hope you understand is that this is the same story of every single person who is saved by Jesus. If you know Jesus, if you have been saved by him, if he has transformed your life, this is your story as well. Because we are not saved by seeking Christ the Savior. We are saved because Christ the Savior seeks us. This is what was true of Zacchaeus, and it's true of every single person who has ever been saved. And brothers and sisters, to take this one step further, I want you to think about one last possible misinterpretation of this text, which I hope will help us help to make the message of this passage crystal clear. The final misinterpretation, what we might refer to as misinterpretation number three, has also to do with the role of Zacchaeus in his own salvation. Someone might try to argue that this passage teaches a view of salvation where our good works are necessary and contribute to our justification, to our being forgiven and made right with God. That it's because Zacchaeus repents here in Luke chapter 19 and decides to give his money away that he is then saved by Jesus. In other words, Someone might argue that while it's true that Jesus comes to Zacchaeus, nonetheless he is saved on the basis of his own repentance and of his own good works. You see, it can seem this way if you simply follow the progression of the verses in this passage. Think about it for a minute. In verse 6, Zacchaeus obeys Jesus. He comes down from the tree and he receives Jesus into his home joyfully. And then following this, in verse 8, Zacchaeus, in his home, begins to demonstrate repentance. He begins to turn from his selfish life and to give his money to the poor. This is something It's important to understand about this passage when it says, when Zacchaeus says here in verse eight, I give, you need to understand that that's in the present tense. And what that means is he's not saying, okay, Jesus, after you leave, I'll give some of my money away. He's doing it right there. It's as if Jesus is in his house, Zacchaeus is pulling out his money, he's counting it out right there. Okay, I give right now, Jesus. And he's giving it away at the very point where Jesus is talking to him there. And you see, it can appear from this that it's on the basis of what Zacchaeus does that he is saved. Because it's after this, then in verse nine, that Jesus then makes this statement. He says, today salvation has come to this house. And if you follow this progression, you see it can almost appear that it's because Zacchaeus chooses to repent, it's because of his obedience, it's because of his works, because he decided to give his money away, that Jesus then there says, okay, if you did these things, Zacchaeus, then I will save you. I'll bring you into the kingdom of God. That Zacchaeus is saved here on the basis of his repentance and of his obedience. But brothers and sisters, what I hope you understand is that the problem with that interpretation is threefold. It doesn't fit with what the Bible teaches about salvation. It doesn't fit with the meaning of Jesus' statement at the very end of this passage. And it also doesn't fit with the change that comes over Zacchaeus here in Luke chapter 19. It is certainly true That Zacchaeus demonstrates repentance, he demonstrates obedience, he even demonstrates faith in Jesus. You can't be saved without these things. But this is the crucial question. Who brings these things about? Is it Zacchaeus that brings this change in him about so that he's saved on the basis of his works? Or is it Christ? that brings this about so that he's saved on the basis of the work of Christ and the work of Christ alone. And we're helped in answering that question by the words of Jesus in John chapter 3. You may be familiar with these words. They come in Jesus' interaction with Nicodemus. He says this, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And then he follows this up and says, unless a person is born of the spirit, he says, they cannot enter the kingdom of God. And the idea that Jesus is presenting to us there in John chapter three is that to be saved, we need a new birth, Jesus says. We need to be born again. This means that we need God to give us new life. We refer to this as regeneration, being regenerated, resurrected, being given new life. What the Bible teaches is that we need God to take us from being dead in our sins and make us alive together with Christ. And what the Bible's clear about, and even the images it uses to describe this make this clear, is that this is not something that we can bring about on our own. You can't cause yourself to be born again. You can't resurrect yourself from death to life. This is only something that God can do. And Paul, the Apostle Paul, says the same thing about salvation in Titus chapter three. He says this, that God saves us not because of works done in righteousness, not because of our righteous deeds, our good works, he says, but according to his own mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. How are we saved? We're saved because God gives us life through the power of the Holy Spirit. And brothers and sisters, what this means is that Zacchaeus was saved not by his works. Zacchaeus was saved because he was the recipient of the grace of God in Christ, grace that transforms us, grace that is able to set us free from sin and death. His works, his repentance, his giving his money away to the poor, this was not the basis of his salvation. Everything that Zacchaeus did was the fruit of God's work of bringing him out of darkness and giving him the gift of eternal life. Our works are not the basis of our salvation, they're the fruit of our salvation, and we're only able to do them because God has already worked in us through Jesus Christ by his grace. And what I hope you understand is that this is actually the only explanation that fits with the change that comes over Zacchaeus, which is why it's so important to have a right understanding of his character, not just to think of him as a pretty good man, a cute and curious man. You have to understand the true character of Zacchaeus because then you understand the transformation that comes over him. Think about this again. At the beginning of this account, what was true about Zacchaeus? He was in bondage to his love of money. He was a thief. He loved money and riches more than God. This was his treasure. He loved treasure on earth, not treasure in heaven. And what we saw is he was lost. This means he was outside of the kingdom of God. He was perishing. He was under the power of sin and death, the wrath of God, bound for hell. But think about it. At the end of this passage, what's true of Zacchaeus? This man who was so in love with riches they were more important to him than God and the kingdom of God, suddenly he's giving away the thing that he loved the most, giving it away freely to the poor as if it has no hold on him whatsoever. Brothers and sisters, I hope you understand that people don't just wake up one day and shake off their idols in this way and start giving their money away. This is a miracle that only God could bring about. And we're helped here to understand this transformation that comes over Zacchaeus by what Jesus teaches us in Luke chapter 18. It's there, as I said earlier, that Jesus interacts with a man known as the rich ruler. And like Zacchaeus, this man cannot give up his riches. They're more important to him than God himself. And after that man goes away, Jesus says this. He says, it's hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. And brothers and sisters, he goes on to say that this is impossible with men, that the disciples themselves recognize this. They say, well, then how can we be saved? We can't enter the kingdom of God on our own. It's impossible. If it's this difficult, if our idols have this hold on us, then they recognize this is impossible. Jesus himself says that this is impossible with men. But then he says these amazing words. What is impossible with men, he says. is possible with God. What is impossible with men, he says, is impossible with God. We can't cause ourselves to be born again. We can't regenerate ourselves. We can't give ourselves new life. But Christ is able to do this. Christ is able to raise the dead. Christ is able to give us eternal life. This is what he does for Zacchaeus. And this is what I hope you understand. This is a resurrection story. It's a resurrection story. It's not a story about a man seeking a savior. It's a story about a savior seeking and saving a man. and everything that comes about comes about because of the work of God in Jesus Christ. We are saved because God does everything. God does the choosing, and God does the calling, and God does the regenerating, and God does the justifying, and God sets us free and brings us into the kingdom of God. It is not by our works, not 1%. It's God that does everything. This is the lesson of this story. It's not a story about a man who was close to the kingdom of God, a man who really wasn't that bad. It's a story about a man who was perishing under the weight of sin and death. It's not a story about a man who was seeking a savior. It's a story about a savior seeking and saving a man who was lost. And it's not a story about how man's good works can earn God's grace or favor. It's a story about how God in his grace can transform us so that we can do the works that God calls us to do. It is all of God from beginning to end. And brothers and sisters, there are three ways that we should respond to this story, and I want us to end by simply thinking about these three things together. First of all, I want you to think about this This is a story that should make us all aware that we are not saved by our works. We are saved only by the work of Jesus, who's able to call us out of darkness and sin and give us new life and bring us into the kingdom of God. And what this means is that if you're here this morning, And you tend to think about yourself this way, that you're not really that bad of a person, especially compared to other people in the world. You're a pretty good person. And if you tend to think that because of this, God will let you into his kingdom, when you stand before God on Judgment Day, he'll recognize you're one of the good people in the world, and that God will let you into his kingdom. I say this to you this morning, and I say it Because scripture clearly teaches that if you think that way, what it shows is that you're still lost. You're still perishing. because we cannot be saved by our own works. We're not saved because we're good or we're better than other people. We can only be saved by the work of Jesus, who died and rose for us to give us new life. You see, all of us deserve God's punishment. We deserve hell because all of us are sinners. And the only way that we can be saved, the only way that we can enter the kingdom of God, is if we can be set free from our sin, both the guilt of our sin and the power of our sin. And it's only Jesus that can do this. This is what I hope you understand. It's only Jesus that can do this. This is why he came to earth. This is why he suffered for us. This is why he went to the cross where he paid for our sin. It was to seek and to save us so that we could be freed from our sin and be made a part of the kingdom of God. And this means that rather than trusting in your good works, what you need to do is to trust in the work of Jesus. And what you need to do is to ask Jesus to transform you and to give you new life, just as he did for Zacchaeus 2,000 years ago. And so I ask you this morning, has Jesus done this for you? Has he transformed your life in this way, and is it evident that Jesus has done this as was in the case of Zacchaeus. I hope that you will think about this. Unless Jesus has done for you what he did for Zacchaeus, you're still outside of the kingdom of God, and you will still perish in your sins. Well, there's a second thing I want you to think about in light of this passage we looked at. I want you to think about this, that if you have been changed by Jesus, if what's true of Zacchaeus is true of you, then this story should lead you to have a profound sense of gratitude for the mercy of God in Jesus Christ. I say this to you if you're here this morning and you are a Christian. This is only because Jesus has done for you exactly what he did for Zacchaeus. You don't have to have had a dramatic conversion story. You don't have to have been a tax collector cheating and extorting and stealing money from people. If you have the desire today to follow Christ and to worship Christ, this is because Christ did exactly for you what he did to Zacchaeus. He called you by name. He invited himself. to your house. He resurrected you from death to life. And I say this to you this morning and I hope that you will remember this throughout your whole life. This means that you are not the hero of your story. You are not the hero of your story. I'm not the hero of my story. Christ is. You didn't come to Christ. You were rescued. You didn't seek Jesus. Jesus sought you. And you didn't contribute anything to your salvation. You received it as the gift of God's grace. Jonathan Edwards said something amazing. He said this, we contribute nothing, he said, to our salvation except the sin that made it necessary. Think about that. You contributed nothing to your salvation. It's not that God did 75% and you did 25%. You did nothing. The only thing that you contributed was the sin that made it necessary for Jesus to come and rescue you. You see, salvation is all of God. And this is the simple truth, brothers and sisters, that we need to be reminded of over and over and over again. It is the grace of God that has made us what we are, and the only proper response to that grace is worship. The scripture is clear, it is worship. If Jesus has done this for you, your response should be a life of worship. A life lived in gratitude and service to the Savior who gave his life to seek and to save you. And so the question I ask you this morning is this, does your life demonstrate this kind of gratitude? Are you living to praise and to serve the Savior who gave his life to seek and to save you? Well, there's one final thing that I want you to think about. In light of this account we've looked at this morning, lastly, I think that a story like this should lead us to greater zeal for evangelism, greater zeal to tell others about Jesus. You see, Christ is actually still doing today the very thing that he did for Zacchaeus. He's still saving lost sinners. He's still calling people by name. He's still giving dead sinners new life in Christ. And I have a friend who experienced this reality, the same thing that Zacchaeus experienced in a really dramatic way. He's the elder in a PCA church today, but this wasn't always the case in his life. There was a time when he really had no love for Jesus at all. He was a man that you would view as being quite successful. Things seemed to be going quite well in his life. He had a good job. He was in the steam fitters union. He was working his way up in the union. He was making a good wage. He had a beautiful wife, two beautiful daughters, That kind of life, as I said, that people would think was the sort of successful life that we would want to live, but there was a problem. He started using drugs. He thought he could control this. It was just recreational. He was doing this for fun, but the drugs, of course, began to control him. It started to affect his whole life, his work, his family life, his marriage. It wasn't long before he lost his job entirely because of his drug use. And then after this, his wife actually ended up leaving him. She said one day she had had enough. She left the house with the two daughters and went to live with her parents. His whole life had fallen apart. And as he tells the story, he was actually in his house one day, not knowing what he would do, realizing his whole life had fallen apart. His plan was just to get high again. This is the only thing that he was used to doing. But he had heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. He had gone to church as a young person. And amazingly, there was a Bible in their house. They had a Bible in their house. He didn't really read it usually, but there was a Bible there. On this particular day, the Lord Jesus was seeking him and caused him to notice that Bible. He picked it up and decided to read it. Instead of getting high, he would read the Bible. It changed his life forever. He never went back to the drugs. He was saved that day. He realized the gospel was true, that he was a sinner, repented of his sin. He came to the Lord Jesus Christ. But the story is even more amazing than that. After he was saved, his whole life was changed. He stopped doing drugs. He started going to church. But of course, he wanted his wife to know this and his daughters. He wanted to be restored to them, but he didn't know what to do. His wife didn't trust him. at all and wanted nothing to do with him, but he decided that he would call her up and see if she would let him take his two daughters to church with him. So he did this. He just called her up one day, and amazingly, she said yes. She, of course, didn't trust him, but it surprised her so much that he would be going to church, and how could she turn down him taking the daughters to church? But the really interesting part of the story is that when he showed up on the first Sunday to pick up the daughters, not only did they come out dressed up in nice dresses for Sunday, his wife came out dressed up as well and got in the car and told him she was going too. You see, she didn't trust him. She wanted to make sure he was really going to church and what he was up to, what had come over him. So she went with him, sat through the whole service, heard the word of God preached. And for weeks after that, he would show up to pick up the daughters. The wife would come out, too. She would go to church every Sunday. She heard the word of God. You see, Jesus was seeking and saving her, as well. She gave her life to Jesus Christ, as well. They were restored in marriage. And I can tell you that they have many more children now, quite a large family, and have been serving the Lord together for many years. I tell you that story, brothers and sisters, again, not for you to think that you have to have a dramatic conversion story like that, but to remind you that Christ is still rescuing lost sinners in our day. Christ is still gathering his church. He's still seeking and saving the lost, just like he saved Zacchaeus. He's still resurrecting the dead, giving sinners new life. And what I hope you realize is that this should give us great hope in sharing the gospel This is what we need to understand as reformed Christians, that the truth, that salvation is all of God, should give us greater incentive for evangelism, not less. That God is sovereign over salvation should give us greater incentive toward evangelism, not less. You see, sometimes we can become discouraged when we're trying to tell people about Jesus, right? Because people's hearts are hard around us. They seem blinded by their idols. They're enslaved to their love of sin and self. And we come away thinking, even after conversations we have with people, that person would never come to Jesus. We can tend to think that the people around us will never be saved. Think about it. This passage teaches us that Christ can change the hardest heart. Christ can change the hardest heart, the very kind of people we think would never come to Jesus. This is what was true of Zacchaeus. I imagine that if you lived in the day of Zacchaeus, and you went around Jericho, and you took a poll of people, and you ask everyone who knew Zacchaeus, do you think Zacchaeus would ever give his money away to the poor? You would find 100% of the people you interviewed would say never. Not that man. I could imagine somebody else doing it. Not Zacchaeus. He's the worst of the worst. Yet that's the very thing that happens. The one that people thought would never do it. He does it, he's transformed by Jesus Christ. This is what Christ is able to do, and only Christ is able to do. And what this means for you is this, that neighbor you have who's an atheist, who doesn't ever seem to want to talk to you about God, that family member who mocks Christianity and the Bible, that classmate you have who's bound up in a sinful lifestyle and doesn't seem to care about it, seems like he'll never be free from that, the people in our lives we think would never come to Christ, You must believe those are the very people that Jesus is able to save. And the proof of it, brothers and sisters, is not just that Jesus saves Zacchaeus. The proof of it is that Jesus saved you and that Jesus saved me. That's the proof of it. Because we're not saved by what we do. We're not saved by our works. We're not saved by our ability. We're not saved because we're better than other people. We're not saved because our hearts are in the right place. We're not saved because we sought Jesus. We're saved by Christ, through the work of the Holy Spirit. We're saved by the grace and the power of God. This is the message of Luke chapter 19. We are saved by the Savior who came to seek and to save the lost. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.