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Morning Message Text: Luke 19: 1-10
Zacchaeus the Tax Collector
1 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through.
2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy.
3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd.
4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.”
6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.
10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Morning Message:
We live in a very different time. This world barely resembles the world that most of us grew up in. We seldom stop to think about how much things have changed until reality occasionally jumps up and makes us realize how different things are. Did anyone here forget to turn your clocks back? That used to be a common occurrence. I can remember when I first started preaching there would be an announcement in the bulletin the week before reminding everyone to adjust their clocks the following Saturday night. The failure to do so might result in being an hour early or late for church. Now I simply tell Alexa what time to wake me up and my phone automatically adjusts.
The point is: Many things today happen all around us with little or no effort on our part. I suppose in many ways that’s a good thing, but what we lose a little of, is that desire to make sure everything happens the way we want it to. When everything is taken care of for us what happens to our desire? Yesterday was All Saints Day. When I think about the saints that came before us I marvel at their faith. Many of them lived in times of uncertainty not knowing what each new day would hold. In some cases, not knowing if they would survive. But, they had this desire for God, a desire for righteousness, and their faith was so strong even when they seemed to have so little control. Maybe that’s why they were so strong in their faith. Because they had to depend on God. Now I am not advocating for us to go through the trials and tribulations that they endured, but if you really think about it, that’s where their true desire sprouted from.
When I read the Prophets, like Isaiah, I see a loving God who is constantly giving warnings to his people. God’s desire is for the salvation of every human being made in His image. That has always been God’s desire. He uses harsh words, warning them and reminding them of what they are becoming. When God calls them Sodom and Gomorrah, He is comparing their moral corruption to the inhabitants of those two cities and reminding His people of how He had to punish them. If you listen closely to what God is saying to the nation of Judah, you will hear why He compares them to these once evil cities. Their moral corruption stems from their lack of desire for God and His ways. Sodom and Gomorrah were mainly guilty of sexual immorality. If you take the time to go back and read the story in Genesis, you can’t help but come away knowing how God feels about these things.
God is telling Judah that what they are guilty of is just as morally corrupt. Their desire is not to please God, but instead to appease Him. God says stop bring me meaningless offerings. Stop pretending that your heart belongs to Me. You may not be sinning with your bodies, but you are doing something just as bad. The people of Judah were still offering sacrifices, but they used them to attempt to manipulate God. So, God rejected their worship. God desires worship from a sincere heart. He will not accept the so-called worship of those who mistreat others.
Think about this for a moment. As we study scripture as a whole, we should start to see something very clearly. Worship is not just something that you do on Sunday morning; worship is the way you live your life. Yes, you come here for corporate worship, but God looks at your entire life, your actions, your intentions, and your desires. There is no fooling God. He is not looking for worship to be a habit or a ritual. He is looking at worship as your life of commitment. It’s a way of life that springs from the desire of your heart cultivated by the presence of the Holy Spirit that lives within true believers.
God in his loving kindness always offers a cure, a way back, forgiveness. “Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of My sight; stop doing wrong. Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.” These seem like very easy mundane requests, but only God, through a relationship with Jesus, can give you the desire to make these things right. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”
I thought that the story of Zacchaeus made more sense today with the backdrop of Isaiah. Most of us know Zacchaeus from Bible school or Sunday school. We remember the little guy who climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus. What is more important than all those things and songs that we remember is what happened to Zacchaeus. He was changed when he encountered Jesus, and he would never be the same. What changed? There is no mention of him traveling with Jesus. He may have become a great evangelist of the gospel, but we have no proof of that. He is not listed among the close disciples of Jesus. Don’t miss this today. We need to look for this simple change in our Christian lives. Remember in Isaiah why God was so upset with Judah. Their desire was misplaced. Listen: “But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, ‘Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.’” When you truly come to Jesus, not only are you sorry for your sins, but you also feel this desire in your soul to make it right.
In Christ’s Love and Peace,
Pastor Bob
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