1. "Part of God saving us is His creating an interest in Christ. You want to know about Him. You're intrigued by Him. Even if you don't like your Christian friends and the church does things that bother you, there is just something about Jesus that makes you keep looking."

2. "Friends, sinners don't run to rabbis. But Zacchaeus did here. When was the last time you saw a notoriously rich person out running in public? Not in the modern sense being dressed for it, running for your health, but like in regular business clothes, just running in desperation to get somewhere that all of his money couldn't take him."

3. "Kids, peer pressure when you're 50 is something you want to get ready for when you're 15. If you're caving to peer pressure at 14, I don't know why you think you won't when you're 40. If the crowd around you is stopping you from following Christ, change the crowd you're hanging around."

4. "If we are here as Christians, it's because Jesus has individually called us from death to life. Just as He's written our names in the Lamb's Book of Life, so He's called us out of darkness into His marvelous light."

5. "Such transparency in public can be so vulnerable as to be humiliating. But Zacchaeus, he didn't care at all that day. He didn't care if everybody saw that he wanted to see Jesus and he was willing to go for it in plain sight."

6. "Though the moral rich man up in chapter 18 had valued his stuff more than Jesus, here this despised tax collector valued Jesus more than his stuff. God does the impossible."

7. "Being lost means that our cause is lost, our hope is lost. We have no purpose that will succeed if we're lost, finally. So our only hope is that we would be saved."

8. "Salvation was not a long process of cleansing or renewing that Zacchaeus began. It was an instantaneous reality created by God's grace in Christ."

9. "Zacchaeus' decision for this repentance may have been taken in a moment, but its outworkings would be going on for a long time. What repentance is waiting for you to know in your own life as a bridge of witness into somebody else's life?"

10. "Though Jesus was the friend of sinners, He was never a friend of sin. Exactly those things that are putting the people off about Zacchaeus—the grotesqueness of his profiting from his people's servitude—these are the exact things that made Zacchaeus such a perfect sheep for Jesus to go after."

Observation Questions

1. According to Luke 19:1-2, what three things does Luke tell us about Zacchaeus before describing his actions?

2. In Luke 19:4, what specific actions did Zacchaeus take in order to see Jesus, and why were these actions necessary?

3. What exactly did Jesus say to Zacchaeus when He came to the place where Zacchaeus was in the tree (verse 5)?

4. According to verse 7, how did the crowd respond when they saw Jesus going to Zacchaeus' house, and what reason did they give for their response?

5. In verse 8, what two specific commitments did Zacchaeus make regarding his possessions?

6. What declaration did Jesus make about Zacchaeus in verses 9-10, and what reason did Jesus give for His mission?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why is it significant that Jesus spoke to Zacchaeus first and called him by name, rather than waiting for Zacchaeus to approach Him? What does this reveal about how salvation comes to people?

2. The sermon emphasized that Zacchaeus came to Jesus "quickly, publicly, and joyfully." How do these three characteristics of his response demonstrate the nature of genuine faith and repentance?

3. Jesus declared that salvation had come to Zacchaeus' house "today" (verse 9). What does this teach us about the timing and nature of salvation—is it a process we complete or an instantaneous reality God creates?

4. How does Jesus' statement that Zacchaeus is "a son of Abraham" (verse 9) connect to the broader biblical teaching about who truly belongs to God's people? What makes someone a true child of Abraham?

5. The crowd grumbled that Jesus was being "the guest of a man who is a sinner" (verse 7). How does Jesus' summary statement in verse 10—"the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost"—answer their objection and reveal His mission?

Application Questions

1. Zacchaeus overcame social embarrassment and physical obstacles to see Jesus. What obstacles—whether fear of others' opinions, busyness, or comfort—might be keeping you from pursuing Christ more earnestly, and what practical step could you take this week to overcome one of them?

2. The sermon noted that Zacchaeus' repentance involved specific financial restitution to those he had wronged. Is there anyone you have wronged—through dishonesty, harsh words, or broken commitments—to whom you need to make things right? What would that look like practically?

3. Jesus associated with Zacchaeus before Zacchaeus had publicly repented, which upset the religious crowd. Are there people in your life or community whom you tend to write off as unlikely candidates for God's grace? How might you extend friendship and the gospel to them this week?

4. Zacchaeus responded to salvation with immediate generosity toward the poor and those he had wronged. How does your use of money and possessions reflect the reality that Christ has saved you? What is one specific way you could use your resources more generously this month?

5. The sermon mentioned that peer pressure doesn't disappear with age. In what specific situations do you find yourself tempted to hide or downplay your faith because of what others might think? How can the example of Zacchaeus' public response to Jesus encourage you to be more open about following Christ?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Luke 15:1-10 — This passage shows Jesus telling parables about seeking the lost sheep and lost coin in response to Pharisees grumbling about Him receiving sinners, directly paralleling the grumbling in Luke 19:7.

2. Luke 18:18-30 — This account of the rich ruler who went away sad provides an immediate contrast to Zacchaeus, showing how the wealthy can be saved when God does the impossible.

3. Ezekiel 34:11-16 — This prophecy declares that the Lord Himself will seek His lost sheep and rescue them, which Jesus explicitly fulfills in His mission to seek and save the lost.

4. Daniel 7:13-14 — This vision of the Son of Man receiving everlasting dominion provides the Old Testament background for Jesus' self-identification as the Son of Man in Luke 19:10.

5. Galatians 3:6-14 — Paul explains that those who have faith are the true sons of Abraham, clarifying how Zacchaeus could be declared a son of Abraham through faith rather than ethnic heritage alone.

Sermon Main Topics

I. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail as a Window into Understanding Jesus' Controversial Ministry

II. A Surprising Act: Zacchaeus Runs and Climbs a Tree (Luke 19:1-4)

III. A Surprising Call: Jesus Initiates Contact with Zacchaeus (Luke 19:5)

IV. A Surprising Response: Zacchaeus Comes Immediately and Joyfully (Luke 19:6)

V. A Surprising Salvation: Jesus Seeks and Saves the Lost (Luke 19:8-10)

VI. The Crowd's Grumbling and the Nature of True Mercy (Luke 19:7)

---

Detailed Sermon Outline

Though it wasn't published until some time later, it was 60 years ago today that a surprising letter was written from the confines of an American jail cell. Toward the end of this long letter, it says, I wish you had commended the Negro sit-inners and demonstrators of Birmingham for their sublime courage. Their willingness to suffer, and their amazing discipline in the midst of great provocation. One day the South will recognize its real heroes. They will be the James Merediths with the noble sense of purpose that enables them to face jeering and hostile mobs, and with the agonizing loneliness that characterizes the life of the pioneer.

They will be old, oppressed, battered Negro women.

Symbolized in a 72-year-old woman in Montgomery, Alabama, who rose up with a sense of dignity and with her people decided not to ride segregated buses and who responded with ungrammatical profundity to one who inquired about her weariness, My feet is tired, but my soul is at rest. They will be the young high school and college students, the young ministers of the gospel and a host of their elders, courageously and non-violently sitting in at lunch counters, and willingly going to jail for conscience sake. One day the South will know that when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters, they were in reality standing up for what is best in the American dream and for the most sacred values in our Judeo-Christian heritage, thereby bringing our nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the Founding Fathers in their formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Those words were written 60 years ago by Martin Luther King, Jr. inside a jail in Birmingham, Alabama, where he was a prisoner for eight days from April the 12th to April the 20th when somebody paid bail for him. It was during that imprisonment on April 16th, 60 years ago today, The King composed this letter.

It was written in response to eight Alabama clergymen who had published on April the 12th a call to unity. And in this call they asked that all action to end racial segregation take place in the courts and not on the streets. And it was that which provoked King's long letter in response. If you've never read King's letter, today would be an appropriate day to do that. I wonder if thinking about Martin Luther King Jr. for a moment may be helpful for you this morning if you're trying to understand more of who Jesus is.

King himself for our purposes today is an important figure, but however much he personally lived up to his ideals, and to his Christian profession or failed to, was significant for him, but it's not significant for you as you live your life today. I bring King up because for him, the controversy that he stirs even in some quarters today will give you something of a feel for the way Jesus' ministry was when He was coming to the climax of His public ministry 2,000 years ago as He neared the national capital of Jerusalem. You see, in too many people's minds today, Jesus is just an of course. He's a faded picture in a grandmother's Bible. His name has been reduced to an expletive of emphasis or surprise.

But in fact, Jesus Himself in His incarnation and His three years of earthly public ministry was a figure drawing interest and stirring up hope and emotions on an unheard of scale. He was the very definition of upsetting. Intensely loved by some, He was hated by others, especially by others in power. He was hated as a disturber of the peace, and they wanted Him dead. And for some time they had been talking and scheming about His assassination.

Now His miracles of compassion for the people simply stoked the expectations that people had. They caused Him to become more popular. So healing a blind man in Luke 18 not only helped the blind man, But just look at Luke 18, look at the last sentence there. You'll find it on page 878 in the Bibles provided. If you open your Bible up, if you're not used to listening to sermons here, this will help you to listen to the sermon for the next few minutes.

I'm not sure why that would provoke laughter. Luke 18, look at the very last sentence. Page 878 of chapter 18, chapter number is the large number, verse number is the small numbers after them. But just the very last sentence in chapter 18, all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God. These miracles Jesus went about doing just made him more popular.

He became the basis for more people bringing more praise to God. But that's not all Jesus did. He also did some things that surprised the following crowds and displeased them. And that's what we look at this morning in the account of Jesus and Zacchaeus that we find at the beginning of Luke chapter 19. Listen as I read it now, Luke chapter 19.

He entered Jericho and was passing through, and behold, 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 in 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 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.

Friends, Jesus is full of surprises. And in this chapter, I want to draw your attention to four of them in our time together. First, in verses 1 to 4, a surprising act, a surprising act in verses 1 to 4. Then in verse 5, a surprising call.

Verse 6, a surprising response.

And verses 8 to 10, a surprising salvation. Surprising Acts, verses 1 to 4, call, verse 5, response, verse 6, salvation, verses 8 to 10. And I pray that as we work through this day of remembrance of the letter from the Birmingham Jail, you'll come to see how this being a day of remembrance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Is even more surprising and even more important for you today and tomorrow and forever.

Four surprises. First surprise, a surprising act. Let's just set the scene first. Let's recall what tax collectors were and how appropriate is that on this weekend. But you need to understand these tax collectors were not IRS employees.

Rome was a foreign power occupying the land. And these tax collectors were specifically agents of the occupying Romans. The Romans would sell this position really to the highest bidder, and then Rome would regularly be paid that certain amount. The collector would then go about raising those taxes with Rome's full authority by behind them and keep whatever extra he could raise above what he owed Rome, and that was his income.

Jericho itself was a wealthy area. It was down in a fertile plain. It was renowned for its balsam groves. Also, though, all the roads from the east of Jerusalem all came and met there and went from there up the rocky mounts to Jerusalem. So Jericho acted as the sort of eastern land port of Jerusalem.

So Zacchaeus' position held great opportunities to be exploited for amassing large amounts of tax wealth. Perhaps this area was so busy that Zacchaeus would even need to have hired other people to help him. This thing he's called his chief tax collector. We don't see this anywhere else. It's not a known position.

So what it may meant is that he had so much business he could to farm it out to some others, to get more money overall for himself and involve others in his wicked exploitation.

Kind of like being the head of the customs house in the port of New York years ago, a really plum job for presidents to give their best friends. Anyway, though Zacchaeus had a big job, we read here he was small in stature. And in the social regard that people had for him. He was easily overlooked physically or ignored socially. He was as much a social outcast as blind Bartimaeus begging by the road it had been, being silenced by the crowds.

Really Zacchaeus was even more of an outcast than Bartimaeus because Bartimaeus had merely suffered tragic misfortune himself.

While Zacchaeus had caused many others to suffer.

But remember, Jesus was known as the friend of tax collectors. You see that phrase occurring in the Gospels, even in Luke's Gospel earlier. Perhaps Zacchaeus had heard that.

So the first big surprise we find here is that this chief tax collector ran to Jesus. Friends, sinners don't run to rabbis. But Zacchaeus did here. Did you notice that in verse 4, he ran on ahead. When was the last time you saw a notoriously rich person out running in public?

Not in the modern sense being dressed for it, running for your health, but like in regular business clothes, just running in desperation to get somewhere that all of his money couldn't take him. He wanted to go to Jesus. Friends, part of God saving us is His creating an interest in Christ. You want to know about Him. You're intrigued by Him.

Even if you don't like your Christian friends and the church does things that bother you, there is just something about Jesus that makes you keep looking.

Looking at Him. Ultimately, you'll want to be with Him and like Him. That's what was all being stirred up in Zacchaeus here. He knew that Jesus was going to be passing by. God was stirring up Zacchaeus' interest by His grace.

So when he comes to us and he wants us to come to Him, He will make us willing to come. As Augustine prayed, Give what you command and command what you will.

That's not all. There's also the surprising fact that not only did this sinner run to a rabbi, but Zacchaeus climbed a tree and rich men don't climb trees.

They're not children, they're not laborers. I mean, there's nothing that they need or want that they can't get by having somebody else climb the tree for them. Or by cutting the tree down. If they want what's up there, they can get it. They have means.

But here Zacchaeus was desperate to see who Jesus was, and Zacchaeus was short, so he literally wouldn't be able to see this fabled teacher and hear when he was walking right by his own city. He wanted to lay eyes on Jesus to make his own estimate. So after hurrying and pushing through the crowds, he grabbed the branches of a nearby tree and started going up above the heads of those hiding the a view from him as he looked at the pilgrims. He got into some branches that would allow him to have a clear view of Jesus from above as he passed by. Friends, I want us to stop and think for just a moment, lest these surprising details hide from you who this man was.

As charming as Zacchaeus may appear in these verses, Many of us first learned about him in Sunday school as children. When we could relate to him, he was short. He had to climb up on a tree to see things. We learned songs about Zacchaeus, wee little man and wee little man was he, you know. And we would learn these songs, but the truth is, Zacchaeus had not led a very charming life.

Zacchaeus was not a very sympathetic figure. God had always had a concern that his people be generously open-handed to the poor and the needy in the land. Jesus summarized the law as loving the Lord and loving your neighbor as yourself. And Zacchaeus had instead spent his life loving himself.

And fleecing his neighbor. And he was taking money from his fellow Jews and giving it to the Roman occupiers and lining his pockets with as much as he could get out of them, all with the approval and backing of Rome. He had become rich at the expense of those around him. So it doesn't matter how Zacchaeus may be depicted in children's Bibles. There was nothing sympathetic about this man.

No amount of comic effect in his running and climbing can erase the fact that Zacchaeus was and had for some time been morally disgusting and repulsive, not merely because of local ethnic prejudice or some kind of patriotism, but because of simple human decency that he offended regularly and deeply. Causing pain in the lives of many. He was the definition of a lost sheep of the house of Israel.

I wonder if you've ever been around people who you think are as unlikely to be saved as Zacchaeus would have seemed to the people he was around. My friend, I wonder if there's anything that's keeping you from accepting public scorn in coming to Christ yourself.

Kids, peer pressure when you're 50 is something you want to get ready for when you're 15. If you're caving to peer pressure at 14, I don't know why you think you won't when you're 40.

If the crowd around you is stopping you from following Christ, change the crowd you're hanging around. Follow Christ.

Our story begins with this surprising act of a rich man running in his normal clothes and climbing a tree. But there's a second surprise. That's the surprising call we see in verse 5. You look there, verse 5.

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. There are really a number of surprises nested in this one surprise of the call that Jesus would speak to him. I know that Zacchaeus went toward Jesus, but I love the fact that here in verse 5, Jesus not only spoke to him, it's self-surprising, but that He spoke to Zacchaeus first. Jesus initiated. Luke is the only one who has this story of Jesus reaching out to the tax collector, but it's very much like Luke to include accounts of Jesus including outsiders.

I wonder if you feel like an outsider here, if you feel like you just don't fit.

Luke's gospel is full of stories like that. Luke was himself a Gentile. Luke was writing for a Greek speaker. Luke was showing him that Jesus was more than a Messiah just for the Jews. He was a Messiah for the Jews, yes, but also for everyone else who would believe in Him.

And in Christ's first coming, His purpose was a people, not a place. At His second coming, He'll establish a new heavens and a new earth. Where righteousness dwells. But in His first coming, He was establishing a people that would include Jews and believing Gentiles.

So it's surprising that Jesus would speak to him and speak to him first. It's also surprising that Jesus would call him by name. This was no general call for everyone or for all sinners to come. Jesus literally called out Zacchaeus' name. He looked up from the throngs around him, an unusual thing to do, and saw this man standing in the branches of a tree.

He looked right at him and called him by name. Zacchaeus, he said. Now Jesus said in John 10, My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. People have asked me how Jesus could have known Zacchaeus' name. I think the only convincing answer to that is that it was miraculous knowledge.

A knowledge that Jesus had from God as God's Son, knowledge of one whom He had known and elected from salvation before the beginning of time. And so Jesus called Zacchaeus by name. But friend, if you're here as a Christian, that's the way it's been with you and me. If we are here as Christians, it's because Jesus has individually called us from death to life. Just as He's written our names in the Lamb's Book of Life, so He's called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.

There was a moment at which he said, you know, Andrew, Alberto, Bailey, Allison, I want you to follow me. Live spiritually. That's the experience you've had if you're a Christian. Now, maybe for you it wasn't as clear an experience as this was for Zacchaeus, but as you look back on it you see you moved from death to life. And you did it because Christ called you.

Jesus calls us. The must here in verse 5 is alluding to God's specific plan for Zacchaeus. Brothers and sisters, God has even the details of our salvation worked out. I must stay at your house today. And that's the other aspect of the surprise to note here in verse 5 really would be that that Jesus would call him to himself.

You see, Jesus could have spoken up to Zacchaeus, this pariah, this social outcast, and he could have even called him by name, Zacchaeus. But his words could have been words of justice and vengeance and final condemnation that Zacchaeus had deserved and that the crowds would have loved. He could have said, Zacchaeus, I don't know you. I've never known you. You've never been a true son of Abraham.

Depart from me, you worker of lawlessness. And he would have been right to pronounce such words. And the crowds would have understood and they would have cheered.

But instead, Jesus looks at him and speaks to him and calls Zacchaeus to come to him in mercy and in love.

My Christian brother and sister, that's what Jesus has done when he's called us. He's called us to himself. True faith involves an actual relationship with him. We come to know him and to understand him and to love him.

And to experience more of His love for us. If you're here today and you know yourself not to be a Christian, you might find that you're beginning to hear this call from Christ. You may find your interest in Him growing, being intrigued or fascinated. It may come through Christian friends whose lives just again and again draw your attention. You can't help but notice not all of them, but this one.

And what's going on in her life and how she seems to be responding to it and how surprising that is to you and challenging and strangely sets off some questions in your own mind about whether your life could be different, whether you're weak, your whole forever could be changed. Kids asked you last week to talk to your parents over lunch about how they came to Christ to get their testimonies. I wonder if any of you did that. I wonder if in those testimonies you heard anything surprising. Was there anything surprising about the way the Lord called them to Himself?

Maybe circle back around to that today. See what they can remember and share with you. This is a surprising call here in verse 5. But a third surprise, Zacchaeus' surprising response in verse 6. Look in verse 6.

So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. I mean, I think it's surprising that Zacchaeus obeyed Christ and came to him. He had for so long served himself and served his things. And at such high cost, ostracism from his people, even even hatred. But now, now he heard Christ's call and he obeyed it.

Not only that, but it's surprising that Zacchaeus came quickly, even immediately. There was no hesitating. Jesus said, Hurry, and Zacchaeus hurried. His actions were formed by Jesus' commands. He needed no more time to stop and think and consider and weigh.

No, all that had undoubtedly been going on, but now was the time for him to respond and respond while Jesus, who verse 1 mentions, wasn't journeying to Jerusalem, or rather to Jericho, he was merely passing through Jericho on his way to Jerusalem. So Zacchaeus knew if he was going to come, he would need to come quickly. Not only that, but it's surprising that Zacchaeus came publicly. He was not like the teacher Nicodemus coming by night, concerned for his reputation, concerned how people would talk. Zacchaeus had no reputation.

He had nothing to worry about. His name was a byword of shame. Didn't matter what anybody thought about him. So he came publicly. He may have, as he rushed forward trying to get up to the edge of the crowd, even gotten a few elbows in his eyes as he went.

You can imagine people seeing this pushy man they disliked so much taking advantage of the opportunity.

He had even climbed a tree in front of them, short as he was, undignified and comical as that may have looked, revealing for all to see his interest in seeing Jesus. Are you embarrassed? For people to see what you're really interested in, what you really care about. Such transparency in public can be so vulnerable as to be humiliating. But Zacchaeus, he didn't care at all that day.

He didn't care if everybody saw that he wanted to see Jesus and he was willing to go for it in plain sight.

And it's surprising that Zacchaeus came joyfully. Did you notice that last word? There was no reluctance, no sense of defeat or surrender. No, he seemed only too glad to abandon his old life and to embrace his new Lord. The joy he experienced here, this contented happiness and expectation, he came with the joy of a prodigal running to his waiting father.

That's what he experienced. God gave Zacchaeus the grace of joy. He became eager to obey Christ's instructions. He came quickly to love Christ's people. He would no doubt love Christ's cross as he heard about it in coming days and had the gospel explained to him.

And he would no doubt love telling others about the truth about Jesus. Up in chapter 18 and verse 27, Jesus had said that the salvation of the rich was impossible. With man, but that everything is possible with God. And though the moral rich man up in chapter 18 had valued his stuff more than Jesus, here this despised tax collector valued Jesus more than his stuff.

God does the impossible. Jesus called this sinner, and the sinner came to Christ quickly and publicly and joyfully. I wonder if you associate joy with obedience. I think often when we think of obedience, we think of something a bit more grinding. But here you see this hard circumstances.

Jesus was in the process of doing that even during this incident. Remember Jesus himself for that matter. He's walking to Jerusalem. This seems to be the last Friday that would dawn on Jesus before He was arrested and crucified. He was speaking clearly about the work of the cross before Him.

But even that work of obedience was not unrelated to joy. Remember Hebrews 12:2, that for the joy that was set before Jesus.

He endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Zacchaeus responded immediately and publicly and joyfully. Fourth surprise, the surprising salvation. That's really what we see down in verses 8 to 10. Verse 10 gives the general ground, the key as it were, that explains it all.

If you want to memorize a verse from this passage, this is an easy one to start with.

Luke 19:10, For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.

Jesus, we see, talking about His surprising identity. He's the Son of Man, the Son of Man. Sometimes in the Old Testament that just means a human, a man. But it's also how the Lord addressed Ezekiel, stressing His humanity. It's what Jesus often called Himself, including when He would speak of what was going to happen to Him for our salvation.

If you remember just before this passage, look up in Luke 18, beginning at verse 31, Luke 18:31, and taking the Twelve, He said to them, See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For He will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging Him, they will kill Him, and on the third day He will rise. But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.

Jesus was speaking of Himself. The following week, as He would speak about His return one day, He says in Luke 21:27, and then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. This language of Son of Man in that sense stems from one particular prophecy in the Old Testament. It's worth me just reading it to you for a moment. It's Daniel, chapter 7, verses 13 and 14.

I saw in the night visions and behold with the clouds of heaven there came one like a Son of Man, and He came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him, and to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion.

Which shall not pass away, and His kingdom, one that shall not be destroyed. That's the Son of Man that Jesus was telling them that He was. It was this claim that was echoing in Jesus' ears and in the ears of those He was teaching as He approached Jerusalem. The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. Surprising really here also in terms of its mission.

At this time, the Son of Man had come not to judge, but to fulfill the mission of the Lord Himself when He said that He would come as He said through Ezekiel in Ezekiel 34, Behold, I Myself will search for My sheep and will seek them out. I will seek the lost and I will bring back the strayed and I will bind up the injured. So the Lord came in the person of His Son to seek and to save the lost. This whole passage is an illustration of the triumph of the grace of Christ. This was the mission of Jesus, the Messiah in His first coming.

In the original language here, the verb came is first. It's emphasizing it. Came for the Son of Man to seek and save the lost. And also that last word in the sentence, lost. That too is a significant word.

It will one day have an even heavier significance when we consider its ultimate result in being forever under the right wrath of God. To be lost today is one thing. To be lost forever is still another.

But now in this life, the lost are those among whom Jesus, the Son of Man, came seeking and saving. Jesus came to seek the weary and the heavy laden, the broken and the poor in spirit, those who hungered and thirsted after righteousness. And Jesus would not fail to save any that He was seeking for. Jesus is here doing what He illustrated in the parables in Luke 15 of the 99 leaving them to go to seek the lost sheep, or like the woman seeking the lost coin, or like the father running to embrace the prodigal son. Oh Christian brother or sister, you realize that this is Christ's attitude to you today.

Despite your own unworthiness, He has come seeking you. He has come for you, not out of your goodness drawing Him, but out of His love compelling Him. This is the same seeking Savior we know today. And if you're here as a Christian, He has found you, and He has saved you. This was a surprising salvation in terms of its nature.

This salvation was a spiritual recovery. It was a refurbishing, a renewal, a rebirth. It was taking something old and making it new. Something broken and making it whole. Something misdirected and redirecting it.

Something closed and making it open. Something self-centered and making it God-centered. Something sinful and making it holy. Something that was hard-hearted and giving it a heart of flesh. It was taking someone at odds with others and bringing peace.

It was replacing hatred with love and death with eternal life. This is the nature of the salvation that Jesus brings. This was a surprising salvation in terms of its object. Zacchaeus, as we've considered, was no winner of some local virtue.

Context. He was not voted most likely to be saved in the Jericho High School senior class vote. That was not this guy. No, this salvation was a salvation not of those who simply needed a little spiritual topping off, a little help, but those who were lost, the unlikeliest, the most hopeless of humanity. That's who Jesus was seeking and saving.

Friends, this is good news for us if we're lost. To know this is to know what Jesus is about. The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. This is a summary of Luke's gospel. It's kind of Jesus' purpose statement.

The Son of Man came to, what was the purpose? Seek and save the lost. Now, friends, for that to be good news for us, we have to recognize ourselves as lost and to understand what that means. But then we can hear that He has come to seek us and to save us. One of the things I do frequently in preparing a sermon is to read Spurgeon's sermons on the same text.

I do it really to humble myself. I could save two days, employ two days otherwise fruitlessly, stand here, read you a Spurgeon sermon, and perhaps we'd all be more edified. But it somehow seems wrong. But I still read them privately. And even his outlines are edifying.

Five sermons he preached just on this one verse. I'm out of my notes now. Back to my notes. Okay.

Friends, being lost means that our cause is lost, our hope is lost. We have no purpose that will succeed if we're lost, finally. So our only hope is that we would be saved. But knowing ourselves as lost is where we need to be in order for us to see then Jesus seeking us. He doesn't seek the self-righteous.

He doesn't seek those who think they have no problems or no need. The crowds who jeer are the crowds who must not be aware of their own need.

He comes seeking the lost. And this salvation is a surprising application we see in verse 9. Jesus said to him, 'Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham.' There was so much unexpected about this salvation. Salvation had literally come to the house. Jesus came to the house.

Salvation came to this house. I mean, Zacchaeus who had betrayed Abraham's inheritance, he now actually had Abraham's faith. Jesus could teach that those who would not repent of their sins, in Matthew 18, should be treated as what? A Gentile and a tax collector that is treated like Gentiles and those Jews who basically made themselves Gentiles by becoming a tax collector for the Gentiles. But Jesus said here that there were Gentiles and those Jews who made themselves Gentiles by their public collusion with them, but here Jesus is moving Zacchaeus from being a self-created Gentile to being a son of Abraham again, because he's believing the promises of Abraham.

He's having the faith of Abraham. He's trusting Christ. Like Paul says in Romans 4, as he puts it in Galatians, Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.

Zacchaeus was once again a true son of Abraham.

That salvation came today. Surprising. I love that today in verse 9. Jesus' confidence in Zacchaeus' salvation. Salvation was not a long process of cleansing or renewing that Zacchaeus began.

It was an instantaneous reality created by God's grace in Christ. Now, some churches have taught that we kind of save ourselves by working together with God in obeying the moral teaching of the Bible or cooperating with the sacraments of the church. And while it's true that Christians do both of these things, we do those things because we're saved, not in order to save us. That's what we have to be clear on. So Jesus could speak of Zacchaeus being saved today.

And friends, this is true for you here today. If you're trusting in Christ, Jesus came to give his life as a ransom for many. If you know that you're lost, you know that God is good and right in judging you, you know that your only hope is the righteousness of Christ that he's provided, that Christ has given himself as a sacrifice on the cross in the place of all those who would ever turn and trust in him. God raised him from the dead and he accepted his sacrifice. He calls us all now like he called Zacchaeus here.

To come to Him, which means leaving our sins and coming to Him as our Savior. Then that's what you should do today. If you're a Christian, that's what you have done. If you're visiting here with us, you want to know more about what that means, talk to any of the folks at the doors on the way out. We would love to talk to you about what it means to follow Christ.

That salvation is why we see what we see in verse 8. Again, up in chapter 18, the rich ruler we read, He went away very sad, for he was extremely wealthy. All right, well what Zacchaeus is going to do? Here we have just a few verses later another very rich guy. What's he going to do?

How will his time end? Would he too be sad? Look at verse 8. Seems like the joy he had in verse 6 in receiving Jesus was still going. So we see this in verse 8.

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.' This repentance was the fruit and proof of Zacchaeus' faith. It included a surprising generosity, an impoverishing of himself to restore goods to others. Saving faith includes financial repentance. Zacchaeus is such a good picture of a full salvation. He's the opposite of the Pharisees.

The Pharisees want to look saved, but they're not saved. Zacchaeus looks like he wouldn't be saved, but he repents and is saved. And we're given evidence of that repentance by the restitution he pledges here in verse 8. People have wondered, did he just say this in response to the crowd's grumbling in verse 7? I don't think so.

I think probably this was not made immediately after the crowd's grumbled, but a little later, after Jesus had been received in his home as a guest. Jesus was refreshed from the dusty road, fed, he talked with Zacchaeus. And now Zacchaeus makes this statement here in verse 8, because in coming to know Jesus, Zacchaeus had changed. With Zacchaeus' new faith came this repentance. He had been liberated from his bondage to his wealth.

You know, when Sam Houston got saved after his baptism, he said he wanted to pay half the salary of the local minister. And people said, Why do you want to do that? He said, well, because when I was baptized, my pocketbook was baptized too. Zacchaeus wants to use his goods to bless others. And he especially wants to give back fourfold to those he's defrauded.

I think that if there, in verse 8, is better read as a sense. There's not a question of whether or not he defrauded. He defrauded. This seems to be reaching back to provision of the law in Exodus 22. So if you want to do some afternoon work on this for background, Just look at Exodus 22, there is a fourfold repayment for sheep stealing.

So Zacchaeus is essentially confessing here that what he had done was stolen. He had broken both the tenth commandment against coveting and the eighth commandment against stealing. So he would make reparations to the victims. It's interesting also that up in 18:43, when Bartimaeus is given his sight, what does Bartimaeus do? He hops and leaves Jericho and follows Jesus up to Jerusalem.

But we don't see that here with Zacchaeus, do we? It seems like his following Jesus spiritually entailed him staying put physically and trying to make things right that he had made go wrong. Zacchaeus' decision for this repentance may have been taken in a moment, but its outworkings would be going on for a long time.

How could he untangle his tangled affairs? What would repentance look like for him? He couldn't without a lot of work, but that very work would be the means of his witness, bridges to person after person explaining the gospel, even as he gave back the money and four times as much. What repentance is waiting for you to know in your own life as a bridge of witness into somebody else's life?

Kids, when you went home last week, have you asked your parents anything at lunch about their experience of salvation? Was there anything about repentance? Maybe today at lunch you revisit that conversation. Try to think, what does it mean for me to repent If I'm nine years old, what have I really done? If I'm 12, what does repentance look like?

What would you tell me about that? That would be a great conversation to have. Another pastor in our community has suggested that this is a model for intergenerational corporate reparations for past injustices. And that would be worthy of an entire evening address. But since his case is largely based on this specific passage, and this passage is not repeated in Matthew or Mark or John, it's just here.

And since we're here, I think there should be a quick word said about this. I think while there may be some opportunity for us to consider because of historic injustices in any community, there is no obligation that can bind a person to pay for his parents' sins any more than we can be saved by our parents' faith. Jeremiah 31:29 says, In those days they shall no longer say, 'The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.

But everyone shall die for his own iniquity. Each man who eats sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge. Zacchaeus here was making restitution not for sins his father had done or his family before him, but for what he had done. This was a part of his repentance. It was a part of his faith.

True conversion always includes repentance with where possible restitution. For wrongs that had been done. We learn here that the merciful use of our stuff for the good of others is part of our living out our faith in Christ. All of this was part of Zacchaeus' surprising salvation. This whole account is surprising, isn't it, when you consider it?

And now the events begin to be compressed into one final week. In one week Jesus will be tried and crucified. But today he was still out seeking and saving the lost sheep of the house of Israel. I say that everything in this account is surprising. Everything was unexpected except maybe perhaps the crowds in verse 7.

Did their opposition surprise you?

I mean it's so unlike the crowd's response to the healing of the blind man just there in the last sentence of chapter 18, isn't it? But I guess there are certain kinds of mercy that are popular and certain kinds of mercy that aren't.

Luke has already shown that in his gospel. Back in chapter 5 when Jesus called Levi, the tax collector, we read the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled. Then in chapter 15 when we read that tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to Him, and the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled saying, 'This man receives sinners and eats with them. ' Friends, Zacchaeus was a sinner, but Jesus had been publicly identifying with sinners ever since he was baptized. The baptisms that we're just about to see this morning are, among other things, confessions of sin so comprehensive that we need to be entirely cleansed.

The baptismal waters are pictures of our being submerged completely in God's grace. So maybe as you if you hear the testimonies of Bailey and Philip, you can think about sharing your own testimonies at lunch today. Here in our own account this morning, you'll notice that Jesus announced that He wanted to see Zacchaeus and He wanted to go to his house as a guest before Zacchaeus had apparently repented. And that's why the people in verse 7 grumbled. Zacchaeus had sinned against God and others by defrauding the people for years.

By every measure other than money, Zacchaeus was lost. He'd wasted his life not loving God and not loving others. And so the crowd murmured. Friend, can you imagine being in that crowd today? Can you imagine ever murmuring in discontent at God showing mercy to anyone?

Though Jesus was the friend of sinners, He was never a friend of sin.

Exactly those things that are putting the people off about Zacchaeus, the grotesqueness of his profiting from his people's servitude to the Gentiles, the countless hardnesses he must have inflicted on those around him, all essentially for his own comfort and pleasure, his utter lostness. These are the exact things that made Zacchaeus such a perfect sheep for Jesus to go after. He had just said after his meeting with the rich ruler in chapter 18 that it is difficult for the wealthy to be saved, but, and this was his point, with God nothing is impossible. And now here will be a living example. One who is very rich and completely lost.

Jesus would capture, He would save even this one to be a display of His glorious mercy and grace. If Jesus won't be a friend of sinners, what hope do you and I have?

We hear our collection of such displays, aren't we? Each one of us, whatever gamut of grumbles we may have had to run to follow Jesus, each one of us is bringing our own unlikely luster to Jesus' power to save the lost.

I pray that His saving you will bring Him glory today and that today you too will follow Christ and so add to the glory of God that in Christ, God could even save a sinner like you. Let's pray. Lord God, we pray that we would hear your saving call today. That if we've heard it, we'd be reminded of it. If we've answered it, we would be encouraged.

And Lord, if we've yet to answer, pray that you'd give us living hearts, responsive quickly and joyfully. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.