The Savior Who Seeks

focusing on Christ is the most important the most transforming thing that we can do so let's look at him in a conversation in the 19th Chapter of Luke Luke chapter 19. a very familiar story but one that illustrates the greatest truth of his life Luke 19. he entered Jericho and was passing through and there was a man called by the name of Zacchaeus he was a chief tax collector and he was rich Zacchaeus was trying to see who Jesus was and was unable because of the crowd for he was small in stature so he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree in order to see him for he was about to pass through that way when Jesus came to the place he looked up and said to him Zacchaeus hurry and come down for today I must stay at your house and he hurried and came down and received him gladly when they saw it they all began to Grumble saying he has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner Zacchaeus stopped and said to the Lord behold Lord half of my possessions I will give to the poor and if I have defrauded anyone of anything I will give back four times as much and Jesus said to him today salvation has come to this house because he too is a son of Abraham for the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost that last verse is a definitive Declaration of the purpose for the Incarnation Jesus came into the world to seek and to save lost sinners this is the Divine Enterprise in God's Redemptive plan from the fall of Man God has always sought out sinners all the way back in the Book of Genesis after Adam and Eve had sinned God comes into the garden and says where are you where are you and ever since then God has been seeking sinners seeking the Lost in one of the most beautiful Old Testament texts Ezekiel quotes God saying this I will seek the Lost bring back the scattered bind up the broken and strengthen the sick Ezekiel 34 16. God is a seeking God he is not in some form of isolation waiting for us to figure out a way to get to him he rather seeks us and by the way Romans 3 11 says no man seeks after God we're neither able or willing to seek after God is Beyond human discovery God has to seek us and that is the story of the Bible that is the story of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ he seeks sinners seeks sinners and that's what this story is about and it's really counter-intuitive if you are a Jew in the Jericho and you were there this day you would have been in utter shock and dismay that he would have sought The Sinner that he sought but this is the work of the son of man son of man is the Messianic title that we find in Daniel chapter 7. emphasizing his Humanity as well as his glory and verse 10 says he has come meaning at his birth in the Incarnation why to seek and Save that which was lost or ruined or destroyed that word can mean any of those the Lord Jesus came into the world on a quest to seek and save doomed sinners he didn't come for philanthropy he didn't come to alter a culture as such he didn't come to demonstrate benevolence you didn't come to merely show kindness he came to seek and to save that which was lost and if there was to be any salvation at all he would have to do that he would have to seek The Sinner because the sinner does not seek him and he would have to save The Sinner because no sinner has the capacity for self-salvation Ephesians 4 says about all Sinners they are alienated from the life of God they don't seek after God there's none righteous no not one but God in his eternal love determined that he was going to seek and save sinners and again this goes against the grain of all typical religion religion basically says if you're good enough God will accept you and if you seek Him by being good enough or religious enough you'll find him that's that's the devil's lie you can't be good enough you have no capacity to find him the only way you can be saved is if he seeks and he saves and that is exactly what this verse verse 10 is saying you go back to the birth of Christ do you remember these words in Matthew 1 21 the angel said call his name Jesus for he will save his people from their sins call his name Jesus he will save his people from their sins in the words of First Timothy 1 15 Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners nothing produces Greater Joy in heaven than the seeking and saving work of God go back to chapter 15 in Luke very very dramatic chapter where our Lord told three stories one about a lost sheep and other about a lost coin and then finally about a lost son in each case the Sheep was found the coin was found in the prodigal son was found and then you get a commentary immediately on how important that seeking and finding was if you go back to verse 7 the last verse in the story about the Sheep I tell you that in the same way as there was joy in finding the sheep from verse six I tell you in the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance if you're in the category of those who think they're righteous you bring no joy to heaven 99 self-righteous people who don't repent give no joy to God or the angels or the redeemed in his presence but the recovery of a sinner makes Heaven ring with joy the next story verses 8 to 10 is about a woman who lost a very valuable coin and when she found it in verse 9 she called all her neighbors and said Rejoice with me and in the same way verse 10 I tell you there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents this is a validation of the whole purpose of God in human history to save Sinners it only takes one sinner to set Heaven into exuberant Joy then you have the longer story of the prodigal and do you know how that story ends verse 32 we had to celebrate and rejoice for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live and was lost and has been found and again this is a picture of Heaven's joy that means God's joy and the joy of the Angels and the joy of the spirits of just men made perfect dwelling in heaven God's joy is found in seeking and saving sinners scripture makes much of this Joy back in Isaiah 62 5 it says and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride in a wedding and that's got to be the most joyful human event as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride so your God Will Rejoice over you or Jeremiah 32 41 and I will rejoice over them to do them good and I will Faithfully plant them in this land with all my heart and with all my soul God is fully involved in joy and rejoicing over the salvation of a sinner that's his Enterprise in the world once God is Seeking a sinner The Sinner will respond and that's why there are verses like Proverbs 8 17 those who diligently seek me will find me when God begins to seek you you respond by seeking him or Isaiah 55 6 seek the Lord while he may be found as he begins to seek for you and awaken the heart of the sinner The Sinner responds by seeking him in return and the promise of Matthew 7 7 is seek and you shall find if God comes seeking for you you will also seek and you will find but not left to yourself and as far as religion goes the Assumption in religion is you you take yourself to God by your religious Deeds moral Deeds some level of righteousness or quality of life or goodness that's not how it works God does not receive the righteous I did not come to call the righteous but Sinners to repentance so that salvation comes not to religious self-righteous people but to the very opposite sinners this is the foundation truth of Redemptive history so that's what's behind the story in chapter 19. let's go back to it Jesus has come South From Galilee and it says in verse 1 he entered Jericho and was passing through because you entered Jericho in the Jordan Valley about six miles north of the Dead Sea and you went from Jericho up the mountain to Jerusalem and it was Passover time and so there were large Caravans of pilgrims coming down from Galilee and perea and crossing the Jordan into Judea through Jericho headed for Jerusalem Jericho was called the city of Palms it was sort of the Palm Springs of Israel it um it was well watered two Springs were there and the water was basically distributed through aqueducts it was a wonderful City we were told with a wall around it and four massive forts on the wall it had a theater and Amphitheater built by Herod Herod also put a new Palace there and archalayas had developed some magnificent Gardens there it was a formidable City it was a Crossroads City because roads north and south and east and west went right through Jericho [Music] you you might say that it was the Eden of paradise and Jesus comes through that City headed for Jerusalem and he's going to show us in this one account why he came why he came now the man that we meet here is named Zacchaeus Zacchaeus means pure clean but he was anything but that is an irony that probably indicates his parents had different hopes for him than materialized but the pilgrim crowd is now coming surging through Jericho on the way to what was called the Jericho Road which you ascend to Jerusalem they come right through the main part of the city and the word is out that this one who claimed to be the Messiah and did miraculous works is in the group and there are people who want to get a look at him find out if it's really true what is said about him is he the Messiah or is he not and this one encounter demonstrates to us the Divine Purpose of God to save sinners in such a dramatic fashion particularly in the light of what we read in chapter 18. in chapter 18 there was a Rich Young Ruler remember the Rich Young Ruler it is very rich he was trusting in his riches and when he talked with Jesus he had no interest in Jesus he had no need to confess his sin and he wanted to hang on to his life and his money verse 23 of chapter 18 he was extremely rich and Jesus looked at him and said how hard it is for those who are wealthy 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 so those who heard it said then who can be saved if rich people can't be saved and they've got all the money with which they can buy their way into the kingdom who can be saved verse 27 that familiar phrase the things that are impossible with people are possible with God it's not possible for the rich sinner on his own any more than you could stuff a camel through the eye of a needle and then you have the story of Bartimaeus the blind man at the end of chapter 18. and again Jesus heals this blind man he regained his sight verse 43 he was glorifying God and even the people couldn't deny the miracle so he saved a pathetic blind man you could see that as an act of Mercy he talked to a rich man the blind man the destitute man responded to our Lord the rich man did not can Richmond be saved well it doesn't take very long to find out because when we get to chapter 19 we we run into one named Zacchaeus you see it in verse two he was a chief tax collector and he was rich he was rich um this is the beginning of an outrageous story literally outrageous because Jesus seeks and saves a tax collector why is that so unique because Tax Collectors were the Pariah of Jewish culture they were Jewish people who had purchased tax franchises from the occupying Romans whom the Jews hated and with those tax franchises they extorted money from their own people they were the worst of the worst of the worst and while this uh city of Palms Jericho was a little Paradise in terms of its setting it was an honorous place because it was one of three main tax collection centers in the land of Israel caesarea Capernaum and Jericho why because it was a Crossroads the road north to Damascus tire and sidon the road south to Egypt the road West to caesarea and Joppa and the road East all went right through Jericho and the tax system basically came down to a poll tax for everybody we think from 15 to 65 and for any other thing they wanted to tax you on they were taxed people traveling with Duty tags there was a tax on the cart there was a tax on the wheels there was a tax on whatever was in the cart there was a tax on grain oil wheat anything they invented ways to tax people and there was really no recourse and to make it worse if you had a tax franchise you're required to pay a certain amount to the Romans in other words there was an annual collection that they established but anything you get beyond that you can keep and that's exactly what Zacchaeus did you shouldn't be rich if you're a tax collector but he was there were all kinds of taxes and these people were surrounded by thugs in low life kind of Mafia types who had to strong arm the people to get the money out of their pockets they were surrounded by the riffraff of society Jewish also Jewish traders who would work for a tax collector and and do the Dirty Work because of the kind of people they were they were also surrounded by prostitutes and Petty criminals it was a mafia operation and they basically extorted whatever they wanted no one would have been hated more than Zacchaeus no one because it says he was a chief tax collector literally that means he was the commissioner of taxes which probably meant that he was getting a bite into every tax he was the commissioner of taxes he was at the Apex of that hated despised profession and he was good at it he could pull it off and became very rich but in his sordid life and in The Madness of his corruption there must have been some dissatisfaction and more than that some heart guilt because he's very interested in seeing Jesus and he knows that Jesus is claimed to be the Messiah and others have claimed that he is it says in verse 3 Zacchaeus was trying to see who Jesus was pick him out of the crowd and was unable because of the crowd for he was small in stature so he ran on a head and climbed up into a sycamore tree probably what we would know is an oak tree with low-lying branches in order to see him for he was about to pass through that way this entourage is moving through Jericho headed for the road to Jerusalem he wants to get ahead of the crowd so he can see Jesus and pick him out is it curiosity well of course is it more than that was there some longing in his heart for forgiveness we don't know that we're not told that but we do know this he was a pariah he couldn't go to the synagogue he had no place in Society he had made his choice to be a traitor and he was totally isolated from the Jewish population so for whatever reasons he's interested in seeing Jesus he has two problems the crowd is too big and he's too small so he gets on ahead having run and climbs into a tree basically shunning all self-consciousness and all self-protection he knows he's hated and he's now exposed but he can't help himself so there he sits in the tree as Jesus passes by verse 5. shocking when Jesus came to the place he looked up and said to him Zacchaeus that must have jolted him how did he know his name how in the world did he know his name zacchaeth this is who he is seeking the Lord is seeking this man this wretched this worst of the worst this outcast and he says hurry and come down for today I must stay at your house you probably never expected to catch the eye of Jesus he certainly never would have expected that Jesus knew his name he would not have expected that Jesus would ask him to come down and open his home to him so he could stay in the house he would never have thought that why because nobody ate with him nobody went into his house that simple statement I must stay at your house means to spend the night this is not a request this is a command and to everybody in town this is Beyond Comprehension because this is Jesus he's supposed to be the Messiah and he's going to go into the house of the most corrupt and wretched sinner in town well Zacchaeus responded verse six he hurried and came down and received him gladly Joy Joy not fear Joy this was joy to Zacchaeus because somebody was willing to come to his house and that somebody was the one they said was Messiah this was Joy to the Lord because the Lord finds his joy in the salvation of sinners what about the population what do they think verse 7. when they saw it they all began to grumble saying he is he has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner they wouldn't assume that the Messiah would come and go to a man who's a sinner that that was part of the whole drama with Jesus because when Jesus came in the Incarnation into Israel he spent time with Sinners and tax collectors and prostitutes and he ate with them that's how chapter 15 begins verses 1 and 2. just remind you of it now all the tax collectors and the Sinners were coming near him to listen to him but the Pharisees and the scribes began to Grumble saying this man receives Sinners and eats with them what happened to Zacchaeus wasn't particularly rare in the ministry of our Lord but the crowd was profoundly affected how can this be the Messiah they knew that he had given sight to a blind man he had demonstrated Miracle power but he's he's the guest of a man who is a sinner this in one statement shows you why the Jews rejected Jesus but because he came for the sinners and if you thought you were righteous you were offended by him seriously offended so offended you crucified him at the hands of the Romans the massive offense of Jesus was that he came to save sinners this was unacceptable to the self-righteous people of Israel they had tried so hard to be righteous with the minutia of the law and Jesus actually said I have not come to call the righteous sarcastically but Sinners to repentance the attitude that you have in verse 7 he's gone to be the guest of a man who's a sinner was the fixed National attitude toward Jesus the resultant in his rejection and his execution that's why the nation rejected him it's righteous people who can't accept the gospel in order to come into the kingdom you have to be unrighteous and know it remember the Beatitudes Meek hungering after righteousness but that also was not the Jews they were smugly satisfied with their righteousness Jesus couldn't be the Messiah no matter how many people he healed no matter how many dead people he raised from the dead no matter how many profound words he said he couldn't possibly be the Messiah because all he did was spend time with sinners well this one sinner Zacchaeus hurried and came down and received him gladly and then verse 7 says there in shock and they complain and after verse 7 the curtain Falls scene one is over curtain Falls and he is gone notice how it's worded he has gone to be the guest of a man who's a sinner so he's gone he went with Jesus to his house we don't know how much time elapsed likely that night the next day and in verse 8 the curtain rises again on the next scene and what's going on Zacchaeus stopped and said to the Lord behold Lord let me just stop there if you get that right you understand what salvation is whoever confesses Jesus says what Lord behold Lord look half of my possessions I will give to the poor and if I have defrauded anyone of anything I'll give back four times as much this is a dramatic transformation from being a thief and a professional extortioner he becomes a philanthropist in one day Jesus said in verse 9 today salvation has come to this house today can you be saved in a day isn't there a process involved no today salvation has come to this house how did Jesus know that well he knew it because Zacchaeus brought forth the fruit of repentance in the fruit of salvation contrary to the Rich Young Ruler who didn't want to give up anything this man is ready to divest himself of half of his entire Fortune and a whole lot more of whatever was left if you're going to pay back people four times so whatever the conversation was at his house ended in his accepting Christ as his Lord this is the confession of lordship and with that confession comes salvation and he is a transformed man lavishly giving away everything he has you can always identify the true Christians by their Fruit by their life this is the mark of a changed man he holds everything lightly he wants to make things right he wants to as much as he can undo his corruption and his sin if I have defrauded anyone and he had probably many I'll give them back four fold at that pace giving the poor half of what you have and giving back four-fold what you extorted you could virtually wind up penniless didn't matter to him he wanted to do restitution he wanted to make it right and it becomes an immediate expression of a Salvation transformation and Jesus says in verse 9. today salvation has come to this house because he too is the son of Abraham what does that mean wasn't he already a son of Abraham a Jewish guy yeah he was naturally but not spiritually he he fits into the category of Romans chapter 2 verses 28 and 29 and you you'll remember this where the Apostle Paul says he is not a Jew who is won outwardly nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh but he is a Jew who is one inwardly and circumcision is that which is of the Heart by the spirit you can tell this is not this is not the man he was something on the inside has changed and Paul makes it clear in Galatians as well as in Romans that if you have trusted Christ you are a son of Abraham you may not be Jewish but you have followed Abraham's faith you have followed his faith in Galatians 3 just to give you another text to look at that so verse 9 those who are of Faith are blessed with Abraham the believer verse 29 if you belong to Christ then you are Abraham's descendants so there's a sense in which all of us Jew or Gentile who have come to know the Lord through the gospel and through faith are children of Abraham he's the Prototype of faith and we have followed his pattern salvation came in one day and it showed up that this was such a dramatic transformation it was inconceivable that this man could change so totally so fast this was just another reason to kill Jesus that's right just another reason for the Elite religious leaders of Israel to hate him but he's in the business of saving sinners let me close with one final illustration first Timothy chapter 1. the Apostle Paul the Apostle Paul met Jesus on another road didn't he throughout your Damascus and the Lord sought him there and stopped him in his tracks and blinded him and saved him and commissioned him but look at how Paul views that this is his personal testimony first Timothy 1 12. I thank Christ Jesus our lord who has strengthened me because he considered me faithful putting me into service even though I was formerly a scribe a Pharisee no I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor yet I was shown Mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief it was all Mercy and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus and then this marvelous verse 15 it is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save Sinners among whom I am foremost of all he came to save Sinners and I know it because I'm the worst and for this reason I found Mercy so that in me as the foremost sinner Jesus Christ might demonstrate his perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in him for eternal life that deserves praise now to the king Eternal and Mortal invisible the only God the honor and Glory forever and ever amen God is in the business of saving sinners while we were yet sinners Christ died for us when we were enemies he died for us he came to save the ungodly this is the exact opposite of every religion in the world which offers some kind of salvation for goodness and righteousness in religious conduct the gospel is for those who know their sinners and need mercy and Grace and if you're the worst sinner in the world God May save you to put his Mercy on display that's what he did with Paul Jesus came to save sinners he seeks and saves I wonder if he's knocking on the heart of some of you Revelation 3 20 behold I sat at the door and knock if he's seeking you in one day this day you can be transformed respond by embracing him let's pray Lord the message is clear we can't earn salvation [Music] by being good it only comes as a gift to those who know they're bad sinful Wicked and cry out for mercy I Pray For Your Glory that you would seek and save some who are lost even this day I'm asking Christ's name amen

Channel: Grace to You

Views: 116,258

Keywords: John MacArthur, Bible, Preaching, Christianity, Expository, Exposition, Sermon, Jesus, Christ, Grace to You

Id: xNFAG37fwgw

Length: 43min 53sec (2633 seconds)

Published: Wed May 10 2023