The title of the sermon this morning is Zacchaeus' Salvation. This is a real common passage of
Scripture. This is something most people are familiar with if you've been in church at
all, especially if you've been in a Sunday school or if you came up in children's ministries.
Someone kind of hears the story of Zacchaeus. They sing the song, you know, Zacchaeus was
a wee little man. See, people are already catching on. A wee little man was he. Who's
ever heard that song, right? Yeah, lots of people. So this is a real familiar passage,
but I think there's some things we can look at here when it comes to salvation, particularly
in Zacchaeus' case, that we can apply and things that I think we should be mindful about
as people who go out and knock doors and try to witness to other people and share the gospel
of Christ with others. That's what we're about here. That's the thrust of what this
ministry is. That's what we'll always be about. Yes, preaching the Word. Yes, getting up and
having the preaching of the Word, the fellowship, and everything else. But we're here to accomplish
the mission in Tucson, which is to knock every door. And I think there's some things that
we can learn from Zacchaeus' salvation and keep in mind as we go about preaching the
gospel. Now, you're there in Luke chapter 19. Keep something there. We'll come back
several times, but go to Mark chapter 10. So in Luke chapter 19, the Bible says in verse
1, And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho, and behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus,
which was chief among the publicans, and he was rich. So the Scripture is telling us a
few things about this man, and it's pointing out the fact that not only was he the chief
among the publicans, but also that he was rich. So Zacchaeus was one who had a lot of
wealth. And there's a lot right there that we should learn from, is the fact that we
don't want to get this attitude where we just write off rich people. And I've seen this
kind of attitude, and I've probably even been guilty of it to some degree myself, where
we go into the more affluent neighborhoods, you go into the nicer places where people
are a little better off or wealthy, you go into the gated community, and sometimes people
can go in there with an attitude of, well, nothing's going to happen here. I mean, just
look at these houses, and they can even get such a bad attitude to the point where their
demeanor at the door is even poor. And I only bring it up because of the fact that I know
it happens. As Deacon, one of my duties is receiving the emails and the phone calls that
come into the church, and I know it's not really a problem down here. I've never gotten
a call about it down here, but we're a smaller church, and really, we haven't spent a lot
of time in the more affluent neighborhoods. We've been in south Tucson, more poor areas
of Tucson, which is where we want to go. That's where Jesus put the emphasis. But he also
did go reach the rich. This is a great example of it. And I'm kind of bringing it up because
of the fact that I do receive those calls from people who say, hey, you had some people
here, and I'm just letting you know they were kind of rude. Their attitudes kind of stank.
I said I wasn't interested, politely, and they just kind of gave me a dejected look
and turned away without even saying anything. I'm not one of these people that thinks that
if someone doesn't want to hear what I have to say, I'm just going to not say anything
and walk away. I'm going to say, okay, have a nice day. Thanks. God bless you. Happy New
Year, whatever. Merry Christmas, unless it's July or something. That would be odd. But
I say a nice warm greeting, a nice warm goodbye, and go on my way. Because you have to remember
when we're out there, whether you're going door to door, whether you're witnessing to
somebody even in your personal life and trying to share Christ with them, if they reject
you, they're not really rejecting you. They're rejecting Christ. Anyone could bring that
message and that's what they would reject. It's not necessarily you. But that's not an
excuse either to just, well, let me just treat them like mud then. Let me just treat these
people like dirt because after all, it doesn't matter if they reject me. They're rejecting
Christ. But people can develop this attitude when they get into areas that are less receptive.
They start to get this attitude of, well, these people are wealthy, so we can just treat
them however. That should not be the case. It's interesting because I got this email
from this guy. He's like, hey, I'm just letting you know your people were here. I politely
said I wasn't interested. They just literally turned away without even saying anything.
They just turned their back on me, didn't say goodbye. He's just saying, I'm just letting
you know they're not going to get anywhere with that attitude. At first, I was like,
well, I'm going to give this guy a piece of my mind. I tried to stick up for these guys,
but I was like, hey, we appreciate your feedback. I can assure you that that wasn't something
that we promote here. We always try to encourage our people to have a good demeanor at the
door. They're less than perfect. Maybe they're having a bad day. He wrote back, he's like,
well, I understand that. He even said, I'm not a believer. He says, but man, we could
really use a Christian attitude in this country today.
Even an unbeliever understands that we as Christians should be known as people of peace
and love and gentleness, that we should have a certain demeanor about us. If we're saved
and we're filled with the Holy Spirit, we should have those fruits of joy, peace, long
suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, temperance, all these things. We should have
those fruits of the spirits in our life. If we're saved and we don't have that, we may
want to take a step back and ask ourselves, why don't I have the fruit of the spirit in
my life? Why am I a cantankerous, contentious, angry person? I'm not saying there's never
a time and place to get angry or to contend, but I am saying, if that's always the case
with us, especially when we go into a rich neighborhood and we just say, well, look,
they got a nice, huge driveway and a manicured lawn. I'm just going to have a bad attitude.
That's not the fruit of the spirit. We need to check ourselves. That's not Jesus's attitude.
He didn't see Zacchaeus up in the tree. He said, well, he's rich. I'm just going to move along.
He took the time to stop and talk to the poor, to the rich. He was not a respecter of persons,
and neither should we. Jesus loved and ministered to the wealthy. We put a lot of emphasis here on
reaching the poor, and we should, but let's not forget the fact that we also are here to minister
to the wealthy. Jesus didn't walk by Zacchaeus and say, I'll come eat at your house, but how
much money do you have in your bank? What's your check balance at? What's your annual gross income
before I fellowship with you? Oh, that's too much. Sorry. I can't be seen with you.
I can't have any compassion towards you because you make too much money. That's not his attitude.
Jesus ministered to the wealthy as well as the rich. If you look there in Mark 10 verse 17,
it says, and when he was gone forth and away, there came one running and kneeled to him and
asked him, good master, what shall I do that I may inherit internal life? Look at verse 18,
Jesus said to them, why callest thou me good? There is none good, but one that is God. Thou
knowest the commandments. Do not commit, commit adultery. Do not kill. Do not steal. Do not bear
false witness. Defraud not. Honor thy father and mother. And he answered and said unto him, master,
all these have I done, I have observed for my youth. Jesus then beholding him went,
liar. Cause this is the rich young ruler, you know, we know from other contexts, right?
Now it says Jesus beholding him, loved him. I mean, despite all this guy's pride and arrogance
and those statements, I've done all these things, you know, what else, what else lack I yet,
despite this guy's, you know, his affluence, how well off he was. And we'll even see that
here in later in the scripture, it says he had great possessions. You know, Jesus still loved
him because that person, you know, he saw beyond their bank account, the things that they own,
the possessions that they had, whatever he saw beyond all that, and just saw another soul that
needed to get saved. Someone else that needed to receive Christ as savior. And that's the
attitude we should have. I think this is an important lesson we can learn from the story
of Zacchaeus and his salvation. He said unto him in verse 21, then Jesus beholding him, loved him
and said unto him, one thing thou lackest go they way sell whatsoever thou hast and give to the
poor and thou shall have treasure in heaven and come take up the cross and follow me.
And he was sad at that saying and went and grieved for he had great possessions.
And Jesus looked around about and sayeth unto his disciples, how hardly shall they that have riches
enter into the kingdom of God. You know, if that's the case with rich people, you know, that,
that should not compel us to be more, you know, to be coldhearted or to be short with them.
That should compel us to have even more compassion for them. Because they have even a
more difficult time of entering into the kingdom of God because of their riches. And Jesus clarifies
here what he means by that. He says in disciples, verse 24, were astonished at his words, but Jesus
answerth again and sayeth unto them, children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter
into the kingdom of God. So the problem was not, you know, the wealth itself, it was the fact that
the rich man was trusting in his riches. It was where his trust was. But unfortunately for wealthy
people, that's kind of what they do. They, a lot of wealthy people will view religion as something,
well, that's just for, you know, weak people. That's just for poor people who need a crutch
to lean on. You know, I'm somebody who's made something of myself. You know, I've worked hard.
I've pulled myself up by my bootstraps and went out there and worked hard and made something of
myself, you know, and what they're doing is they're trusting in themselves. They're trusting in their
own riches. They're saying, well, I don't need any of that. I mean, look how well I've done. Look how
prosperous I am. I, you know, I've worked hard and, you know, a lot of times people come into those
riches by honest means. Not every rich person out there is some corrupt individual. A lot of, you
know, a lot of people work hard and they endeavor, they make their life all about that and they make
a lot of money and they do it through honest means often. But the problem is, is that because of that,
they then begin to trust in those riches and it makes it more difficult for them to enter into
the kingdom of heaven. And that should compel us to have more compassion for them, not less. You
know, when we go into the affluent or the wealthy or the, you know, better off neighborhoods and
knock on these doors, you know, we should probably be even nicer. We should probably try, you know,
you think, oh, you're going to the ghetto. That's where you want to make sure you're extra nice in
the ghetto, right? Because, you know, you don't want to make some gang banger mad or something
like that. You don't want to get beat down out in the street, you know, say the wrong thing.
But actually it's the other way around. I'm not saying go into the ghetto and run your mouth,
by the way. Don't do that. Still be nice. Okay. But I'm just saying, you know, we should be at
least as nice as that in these rich neighborhoods. But sometimes we go in there and just think, well,
I'm in some wealthy neighborhood and these people probably aren't going to get saved anyway. And you
know what? They probably aren't. They're probably not going to come back with, you know, several
salvations in all likelihood. That's true. But again, that should compel us to be more
compassionate, not less. That should compel us to be nicer, not less.
You know, on Wednesday nights in Tempe, we've been going into the, you know, the nicer parts of
Chandler, Tempe and stuff like that. And we've been doing it for two years now. We've knocked
all the poor areas, some of them several times over in Tempe. And it gets to a point where
there's a law of diminishing returns where you've just, you know, you squeezed all the
salvations you can out of that poor neighborhood, right? And now you're starting to recognize
people. They're recognizing you. They're saying, you knocked my door, you know, multiple times.
I know people have had that happen. So now we're going in these wealthier neighborhoods and you
know what? We'll go out there with 15 people, a van load of people, and we'll come back with
one salvation. And you say, well, and we praise God for that. But you know, if I took that same
amount of people and spent that same amount of time in a more receptive neighborhood,
we'd probably get more people saved, you know? But we're just never supposed to
just completely ignore the wealthy. What about that one person there that would have gotten saved?
And maybe we'd even see more salvations of people who made sure that they had a compassionate
attitude when they went into these wealthier neighborhoods like Jesus had for a man who was
rich named Zacchaeus. Because don't forget, let's look at there in Mark chapter 10, the latter
end there, it says in verse 26, and they were astonished out of measure saying among themselves,
who then can be saved? You know, they're already getting that attitude. Well, it sounds like they're
on their way to hell. Who can get saved then? Well, you know, nuts to them, too bad.
Enjoy your wealth. But Jesus reminds them in verse 27, and Jesus looking upon them sayeth,
with men it is impossible, but not with God. For with God, all things are possible.
Look, the gospel is just as powerful in the ghetto as it is in Beverly Hills. It's just as powerful
in the low-income areas as it is in the high-income areas. The gospel still has the
same power. God could still work, God could still use that in someone's life. And here's the thing,
you know, God is the one, we understand in John, I won't go there for sake of time, but he said,
Jesus said, except the Father, no man can come on to me except the Father draw him.
You know, it takes God to get somebody saved. And I don't mean that in some Calvinistic sense like,
you know, it's God's will that only certain people get saved and others don't. You know,
God is not willing that any should perish, that he is the savior of all of men, especially those
that believe. You know, whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
But the point I'm making is this, is that, you know, it took God to draw you to salvation just
as much as it's going to take God to draw anybody else to salvation. And God didn't, you know,
just show favor because he said, well, you're not as wealthy, you know, you're poor, so let me just,
you know, make an exception for you. God, Jesus said, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men
unto me. Rich, poor, doesn't matter what income, doesn't matter what nationality, doesn't matter
any of that. God wants all men to be saved. So don't write off rich people. Don't just say,
well, that guy is driving a Benz or whatever, he's got a gold watch, not even gonna bother trying to
witness to this guy. I'm not even going to try and help this person who I perceive as being
wealthier. And, you know, wealth is such a, you know, rich is such a subjective term anyway.
You know, the person who's eating ramen every night looks at the guy who's,
you know, ordering out and says, well, that guy's rich, right? He gets to go to Chipotle
and I'm here eating ramen, you know, but the guy eating Chipotle is looking at the guy who's,
going over to some sit down dinner somewhere at a Texas Roadhouse. And he said, well,
he's the rich one. Well, we consider rich that that person might say, well, I'm really not that
wealthy. Like, here's a perfect example, being poor in America, right? Poor people. Now, there
are poor people in America, I believe. There's people that are, things are pretty rough, but
it's fewer and far between. You have to kind of go looking for that.
You know, most, especially in like the major metro areas, you know, the poor people,
they still manage to have a cell phone, they still have internet, you know, they still manage to go
and, you know, get cigarettes and everything else. But they're the poor people, right?
Like, they would say, I'm poor, you know, I got so many kids and one income. Boy, you're just,
you're destitute, apparently. But I'm up here, I got good clothes on, you know, not expensive,
but you know, they're doing the job. You know, I'm doing all right. You can tell I'm well fed,
right? I'm not hurting for my next meal. But I'm the poor person in America today, because I don't
make, you know, people who make less than X amount of dollars are considered poor. The point I'm
making is this, is that poor is a subjective, or rich, poor, it's kind of a subjective term
anyways. I believe what he's talking about with the example of Zacchaeus here is that this is a
man of great wealth. This is a man who has a lot of money, because it says there that he was the
chief of publicans. So he was like the publican of publicans. He was the guy that was overseeing
all the other publicans, and they were all ripping each other off, and it all kind of flows up. So
this guy had a lot of money. This guy really was rich. So don't write off rich people. Don't write
off people that just because, you know, they have wealth, or maybe they just seem to have what we
perceive as wealth, have compassion on them. Jesus did. But don't write off bad people with a bad
reputation either. I think that's something else you can see from the story if you look there in
Luke chapter 19. I'm going to look there at verse seven, and it says in verse seven,
And they saw it, of course Jesus was talking about him going to eat with them, and they saw it,
the Pharisees, and they all murmured, saying that he hath gone to be a guest with a man that is a
sinner. So that was Zacchaeus's reputation, that he was a sinner. Now, we understand that we're
all sinners, right? But what they're saying is that, you know, this is the Pharisees,
the Sadducees speaking, they're saying, well, this is a guy who rips people off, defrods people,
doesn't keep the law, and they were hypocrites about it anyway. But this was his reputation.
He was, you know, publicans were not popular people. They're the IRS of their day.
You know, they're the tax man. Did you write a Christmas card to the tax man this year? Did you,
you know, did you send a little box of goodies to the IRS to thank them for the good job that
they're doing, taking your money before you see any of it? No. No one here, I don't think anyway,
loves, you know, having taxes taken from them. You know, and if you do, that's fine. It's a little
odd. You know, I think maybe you bumped your head somewhere along the way, but
the point is this, is that, you know, Zacchaeus was not a popular guy. He had a bad reputation.
And he even admits it in the story. He says, if I've defrauded any man, you know, if I've lied to
some guy and took more than what was, what was, you know, if I robbed some guy, you know, and
took more than I was supposed to, I give it back, you know, fourfold or whatever. You know, he's,
he's admitting that he's a rotten guy and everyone knows it. Oh, he's going to eat with that sinner,
Zacchaeus. Did you see that? He didn't come to my house. He went to eat with that, that, that chief
of the publicans. He had a, but did Jesus write him off? Did Jesus walk up to the Sycamore tree
and say, what was your name again? Oh, I heard about you. Yeah, nevermind. Take a good look
because this is all you're going to get, Zacchaeus. No, he said, come down. I'm going to eat with you
today. And, and he went and he ate with them. You know, I think sometimes it's good for us to,
to remember, to remind ourselves that we shouldn't really look down on others. And,
and if you would go over to first Timothy chapter one, first Timothy chapter one, I'll read to us
from first Corinthians chapter six. Don't write off people that have a bad reputation,
whether it's as a tax collector or maybe they have a checkered past or something like that.
You know, people hold that over things over people's heads that they have no right holding
over their heads today. You know, and people that end up, you know, doing time or something
like that for some crime that they probably, you know, biblically speaking, they shouldn't even
gone to jail for. And yet we have a system today that just holds it over their head.
And every time they try to get a job, it's a background check. And, you know, it's,
it's stupid. People have these kinds of things held over the head and they try to give people
a bad reputation, right? Don't hold somebody's, you know, don't, don't write off people that
have a bad reputation because sometimes that bad reputation isn't even warranted.
It's not even, it's not even that right. It's wrong. You know, sometimes it's well earned,
right? In the case of Zacchaeus, you know, he didn't, he wasn't suffering unjustly. Like he
deserved what he got, right? Cause he was a thief. He was a liar. He was defrauding people.
It's no, you know, don't, don't go, you know, if you're considering what you want to do for a job,
don't go be a tax guy and expect to be everybody's best friend. You know, it's like,
kind of like the dentist, right? I remember being told that I've never fact checked this,
but someone told me that dentists for a long time had the highest suicide rate
because who likes to go to the dentist? You know, it's nothing personal doc, but it's just that,
you know, you're in there, you're drilling, you're poking, you're prodding, you're pulling things
out. You know, it's not exactly the most popular guy, right? But we're glad we have them, right?
But I think sometimes people write off people that have, you know, a bad reputation or what
they've been told is a bad reputation and they don't consider themselves. They don't consider
the fact that, you know, in God's eyes, we've all had a bad reputation. We're all sinners.
You know, in 1 Corinthians 6, you're in 1 Timothy 1, but he says, Paul wrote and he said, you know,
that the unrighteous shall not inherit the King of God, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor
adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous,
nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the King of God. So God's not gonna
have anything to do with people like this. Then he says in verse 11, and such were some of you.
And such were some of you. He says, and such were some of you, but ye are washed,
ye are sanctified, ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
You know, the only reason any of us has a reputation good enough for heaven is because
of Christ. You know, and so we shouldn't write off other people just because they have a bad
reputation or were told that they have a bad reputation, whatever. We should not write them
off. And it's interesting there, he says, and such were some of you. He doesn't say, and such
were all of you. You know, there's some people that are never gonna have a bad reputation.
You know, I think about kids that are growing up in a Christian home. You know, as long as they
walk with the Lord and they're faithful to the Lord and they do the things of God, they're
probably not gonna grow up and be known as, you know, somebody with a bad reputation. In fact,
they're probably gonna have a good reputation. But here's the thing, every single one of us has
the potential to have a bad reputation, even if we don't have one. We all have the potential to go
get one. Look at 1 Timothy 1. You want to talk about a guy that had a bad reputation? Look at
the Apostle Paul. And by the way, a reputation that was earned and warranted before he got saved.
He says, and I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me for that he counted me faithful,
putting me into the ministry, who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious.
He didn't say who was called these things. He says, no, that's exactly what I was.
I was a blasphemer. I was a persecutor and injurious, but I obtained mercy because I
did it ignorant and unbelief and the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love,
which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all expectation that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners of who I am chief. Paul's saying I had a really bad
reputation. You know what? That didn't stop God from saving. In fact, I am the exact person that
Christ came in the world to save. And we can all say that because we're all sinners.
We're all sinners and Christ came in the world to save sinners. And look, you might have a good
reputation and that's great. Keep it that way. Don't lose that. But understand this, that doesn't
give you the right to write off other people. In that term, write people off, dismiss them as
unimportant just because they have a bad reputation. That all of a sudden, well, I would
give them the gospel. I would be kind to this person except they have a bad reputation and
therefore don't deserve it. That's the wrong attitude. And I think that's why the story
of Zacchaeus is in here, to kind of check our attitude when it comes to other people,
to the unsaved. We are to be like Christ. That's what it means to be a Christian.
We are to be Christ-like. He was a compassionate person who loved people that had a bad reputation
even when it was earned. And he even loved wealthy people. He didn't just write people off. Not all
wealthy people are bad. I think sometimes people get this in their head that if you have wealth,
then you must be a bad person. That's not true at all. The Bible says in 1 Timothy,
where you are in chapter 1, verse 12,
And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me for that he counteth me faithful,
putting me in the ministry. Go to Luke 7. Not all wealthy people are bad.
We even see examples of good wealthy people in the Bible. You're going to Luke 7 and Luke 8.
He said there are certain women which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities. Mary
called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils, and Joanna the wife of Cusa, Herod's steward,
and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto him out of their substance. So this Cusa,
Cusa, however you say it, Herod's steward, the wife of Herod's steward, that's Herod the king.
Don't you think this lady had some money? If your husband has wealth and you're the wife,
you have wealth. That's kind of how it works, right? Cusa's credit card. She had the debit.
She had access to the funds, as it were, and that guy had some money. You're not the king's steward
and he's going to take care of his own. People in those kind of positions, they get paid well.
Especially back then, his inner circle, he wants to make sure it's people that he can trust that
aren't going to try to do him harm or whatever. But you know what? This lady, Cusa, the wife of
Cusa, Herod's steward, she ministered unto Jesus of her substance. So this is a very wealthy lady.
You know what? But that didn't make her a bad person because she ministered unto Christ of
her substance. Look there in Luke 7, it says,
Now when he had ended all these sayings, in verse 1, in the audience of the people,
he entered a Capernaum, and a certain centurion's servant, so this is a Roman soldier,
a centurion, so he was over a hundred men. He was an officer or whatever. He was high ranking.
He said, A certain centurion's servant who was dear unto him was sick and ready to die,
so this guy's got a servant. That's indicating this guy has wealth.
And he heard of Jesus. He sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching him that he
would come and heal his servant. And they came to Jesus, and they besought him instantly, saying,
He is worthy for whom he should do this, for he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a
synagogue. Now what does that mean? That means he went down on the nights and weekends and got out
the trowel in the cement bucket and went to work building a synagogue. What that means is that he
paid to have one built. He hath built us a synagogue. He bought some land or had some land
and donated it and gave funds and paid to have that thing built for the nation, for the Jews.
You don't do that unless you have some money. And we know how the story goes. Jesus goes on to say,
He hath not found greater faith in all Israel besides this man. It was the greatest faith
he'd seen because he said, He's not worthy for him to come into his house, but speak the word
only and my servant shall be healed. He didn't even have to go to him. He just said, Just say
it and I'll believe it. He had great faith. And Jesus was impressed by this guy. And he was
considered a good man. He had a good reputation. But what else did he have? Wealth. Not all rich
people are bad people. And I think this is something we got to get in our heads because,
you know, especially in the culture and the society we're living today, they just want to
chalk everybody up as the 1% or something like that and just say, Oh, well, if you have any kind
of wealth, you're just some capitalist, you know, scumbag or something like that. And, you know,
having money to a lot of people is considered immoral, practically. You know, even if those
people come to it by honest means, if they work hard, if they build a business, they're smart
with their money, that doesn't make them bad people. That just makes them smart and hard
working. That's all it means. You know, and praise God that you live in a place, in a country,
where you can do that. Where you can, you know, excel in that area. Now, I'm not saying that's
what we should make our life about. But it's great that we live in a place where that's something
like that. It's possible. We all enjoy the benefits from that. From people making jobs and so on and
so forth. Go over to Luke chapter 23. Luke chapter 23. I mean, there is a warning in the Word of God
to people that have wealth, right? That's what it said in 1 Timothy 6. It said, Charge them that are
rich in this world, that they be not high minded, nor trust in uncertain riches. That was the
warning that Jesus gave back in Mark 10. You know, that's what makes it difficult for rich people to
enter into heaven because they become to trust in their riches. They trust in their own wealth,
the power that they have to make money. They think that's what's going to get them in. That,
you know, they've been a good person or something and they've made something themselves. You know,
warn them, you know, that they trust not in certain riches, but in living God who giveth us
richly all things to enjoy. That they do good. That they be rich in good works, ready to
distribute, willing to communicate. Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against
the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life. So Jesus warns people that are rich,
you know, to conduct themselves in a certain way. That they shouldn't trust in those riches,
but rather they should be generous people. And they should use that wealth that they have to
further the kingdom of God and lay up for themselves, you know, treasures in heaven
where moth and rust is not corrupt, where thieves do not break through nor steal.
That's the warning there. And he also warns people that will be rich, right? In 1 Timothy he says,
but they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and to many hurtful and foolish lusts
which drown men in destruction and perdition. Because the love of money is the root of all
evil. Not money itself. It's how we treat riches, how we approach money,
how it affects our heart, essentially. That's where the danger is. Not the money itself.
I mean, money is a very useful tool. The more money you have, I mean, we can do more things
for God because we have money. Because of the funds that come in. And I'm not saying that,
you know, Faithful Word is rolling in it or something like that. You know, where this isn't
Joel Osteen's church. We're building stadiums, packing them out and charging people to come to
church, by the way. You want to come to church? You know, pay your dues. You know, but the
offerings come in. We don't really talk about money a lot. I am this morning a little bit,
you know, because we're talking about Zacchaeus. But we got a church fan out there. We're able to
go out and do trips and, you know, and reach people and do things and further the gospel,
right? Why? Because you have a right attitude about money, about riches.
Are you in Luke 23 verse 50? Look, not all rich people are bad.
And it says in verse 50 of Luke 23, And behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counselor,
and he was a good man and a just. So here, this was his reputation. The same had not consented
to counsel the deed of them. And he was of Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who also himself
waited for the kingdom of God. This man went into Pilate and begged the body of Jesus,
and he took it down and wrapped it in linen and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone,
wherein never man was before laid. And we know from parallel passages that that sepulchre that
Joseph laid Jesus's body in was his own. And look, if you had a sepulchre back then,
you had money. If you had somebody, I mean, I'm sure there's some people in the room that love me,
okay? But if I came and said, hey, I need you to go dig me a grave in the side of the mountain,
would you do that? You're not just going to do that for free.
As much as, and I'm not going to, by the way, don't ask me because I'm not doing for any of you,
right? You could stick, and by the way, you can just put me in a pine box and just bury
me right over in that lot for all I care. Not really though. Although really you could.
But I'm not going to go dig a hole in a granite mountain for you. I'm not going to go up to Mount
Lemon and find some plot of rock and just get out a chisel and a jackhammer and a sledgehammer and
just toil and sweat for days and weeks on end just so I could put your dead carcass in there.
And nobody did that for Joseph of Merimathia. You know what he ended up doing? He paid some
people to do that. How long do you think it would take to, especially back then,
there's no generators, no electricity, no air hammers, nothing like that. It's all just manual
tink-tink, just sledgehammers and chisels and everything else. And just a whole team of guys
then hauling all the rock out, getting rid of it, making it nice in there. Look, if you had that
happen, if you did that for yourself back then, and that's how you're spending your money, well,
when you're not even going to be there to enjoy it, you're going to be dead and gone, well,
I'd like to have my body put somewhere nice. You had some money. And the Bible says here that this
guy Joseph of Merimathia was a good man and just. Not all wealthy people are bad people.
And we should never get this attitude that just because somebody has money or has wealth,
that they must be evil and that we should treat them poorly. Now Zacchaeus, now Zacchaeus again,
he had a well, he had his, he earned his reputation, that it was a bad one, right?
His wealth was ill-gotten gain and he admits it by his own admission.
And the Bible does say in Proverbs 13, wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished, but he
that gathereth by labor shall increase. There's nothing wrong with the guy who does well for
himself through hard work. But the guy that gets wealth by vanity, that wealth is going to grow
wings and take flight. It's going to diminish. The guy that just spends his last few, spends every
paycheck at, you know, playing the lotto or scratch off tickets and hits it big gets a few,
you know, gets 10 grand or something like that. You know how quickly that money goes?
Easy come, easy go, is the saying. But people that work hard and gather by labor,
they shall increase. The Bible says in 1 Timothy 6 that godliness with contentment is great gain.
So don't write off people just because they have wealth. Don't write off people just because they
have a bad reputation. And don't write off people just because of their appearance.
Just because of their parents. And I really want to focus on this one because
it's really important. I'm just kidding. But this is some people do. Sometimes, you know,
we're so we get so carnal sometimes. I mean, it's just human nature to just look at people
and just start immediately making judgments about that person. You know, a lot of times
those judgments are accurate. Sometimes we can just look at people and we can say, well, you
know, they must be from this part of the world. Or we could see that the way they're dressed,
you know, we could say, well, they must do this kind of work or they're this or that or whatever.
There are certain things you could look at people and make correct assessments about them.
But a lot of times what we do is we look at people and we just our own prejudices and our own biases
come into play. And we ended up just assuming things about people based upon the way they look.
And we and a lot of times people just write people off over that one thing alone.
They haven't even spoken to this person. They haven't even talked to them. They just look at
them and they make an assessment. And a lot of times what they'll do is they'll just write
people off because of the way they look. That's not what Jesus did. Look at verse three in Luke
chapter 19. It says, And he, Zacchaeus, right, sought to see Jesus, who he was, and could not
for the press because he was of little stature. It's a really nice way of saying he was short.
And look, there's nothing wrong with being short. I was just telling my wife on the way down here
how nice it must be to be small. I just think about all the things that small people can do,
like be more active or not to worry about breaking things when they step on them.
I was talking about how I want to do this. I saw this thing on slack lining. Who knows what slack
lining is? Nobody. Well, they stretch out that little cable, that little stretchy band between
two trees and they get up and they walk on it and they do all those tricks. I thought, man,
that looks like fun. That'd be so cool. Then I remember like, you're pushing 280, bud. You have
to put that line way up there and you better not come off, right? Because when you're bouncing on
it, I look at people on trampolines and say, that must be so much fun. I remember how much
I enjoyed skateboarding when I was younger. Like I said the other night, two decades and 100 pounds
ago. I was getting pretty good at it and then it's just like, to be in a skateboard now,
I'm probably going to break it if it doesn't break me first.
There's nothing wrong with being of little stature. In fact, in a lot of ways it has
advantages. Take it from a big guy. It's true. But Jesus didn't see Zacchaeus up in that tree
and laugh. He didn't say, well, come on down short round. You look like you need to eat.
And poor Zacchaeus, he wanted to get in there. He wanted to see Jesus,
but everyone just kind of muscled him out. There was no compassion. There was no sympathy.
It says he had to run ahead of the crowd, right? Jesus is coming this way. So he said,
there's that tree. Let me get ahead of the crowd and get up in this tree. And when he comes by,
I'll be able to just look at him, see who he is. He had to do that because he was of little stature.
And we shouldn't just write people off because of their appearance. Jesus didn't.
He didn't let that get in the way and say, well, that seems silly. Would anyone ever do that?
James chapter two, if you want to turn there, you can. Verse one, it says,
my brethren have not faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with the Lord of glory with respect of
persons. For if they're coming to your assembly, a man with a gold ring in goodly apparel, and
there come also in also a poor man in vile raiment, and you have respect unto him that
weareth a gay clothing, and say unto him, sit thou here in a good place, and say to the poor,
stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool, are you not then partial in yourselves to become
judges of evil thoughts? So it might not just be their physical stature. It just might be the way
they're dressed. Somebody comes in all put together, sharp, looking, has all, just put
together just right. People will probably in all likelihood treat that person a little bit better
than the guy who comes in dressed a little rougher. Maybe the clothes have been cleaned.
Maybe he hasn't been clean in a while. Sometimes people come in that are homeless.
Some people come in that are not all there mentally. They have disabilities. They
are poor. They don't have a home. They might be rough around the edges. We should never have this
attitude of, well, I'm going to treat that person less. I'm not going to be as nice to that person.
I'm not going to have the compassion I otherwise would. But this guy that came in that has all
the money, it looks like, or is all put together, just looks like he's going to be a good church
person. I'm going to treat that person well. The Bible warns against that for a reason.
And I believe that's why we have the story of Zacchaeus, to be reminded that we should not
write people off based upon their appearance. Let's go on. Let's just move on to the story
for the sake of time. Look at verse four of Luke chapter 19. It says that Zacchaeus
and he ran before and climbed up into a sycamore toward four to see him, for he was to pass that
way. And when Jesus came to that place, he looked up and saw him and said to him,
Zacchaeus, make haste and come down. For today I must abide at thy house. I just love to put
myself in these people's shoes, to have been Zacchaeus that day. Say, man, I just like to
look at him. I would just like to get a glimpse of Jesus and then have Jesus walk over the tree
you were in and say, come on down, let's go eat. And he made haste, verse six, and came down and
received him joyfully. And I believe this here is the moment of Zacchaeus's salvation. And this is
important to understand because some people will try to take this and teach false doctrine from
this passage. I mean, this was the moment I believe that Zacchaeus got saved because it says
there that he received him joyfully, right? He was already kind of looking for Jesus. He was
always kind of, he already kind of heard about him. He knew who he was. He might even have heard
Jesus preach. In all likelihood, he probably had. And now he's able to receive him joyfully.
Because you got to kind of consider the fact that Jesus just basically invited himself over
for dinner. That's basically what he did here. I'm not saying he was being rude. He was worthy
of that honor. I think if the Lord showed up at any of our doors and said, hey, I'm here for
dinner, we would joyfully receive him. Now, if I showed up unannounced and said,
hey, what's for dinner? You know, I'm here to eat. And say, well, why should we take? Well,
I'm the deacon, right? You say, well, great, come back. You can do the dishes, right? Because
that's what deacons do. They administer the table, right? You can clear the plates when we're done,
deacon, right? I mean, Jesus here, he just basically invites himself over for dinner.
And Zacchaeus wasn't like, don't you know who I am? I don't remember asking you to come over. He
received him joyfully because he knew who he was receiving. Do you think if everybody did that to
Zacchaeus, that's the reaction he would have? If somebody just came over, hey, Zacchaeus,
I'm coming over. What's for dinner? He probably wouldn't receive every person joyfully. That
wasn't Zacchaeus's shtick. This is what he did with Jesus because he understood who Jesus was.
I believe this is when he got saved. And it's important to understand that. Let's see here in
a minute. I mean, he sought Jesus, right? He was trying to get a look at him and he received Jesus.
And because of that, he was moved to good works, okay? Because a lot of people take you to verse
seven or verse eight and they'll say, well, this is when he got saved. It was verse eight.
It says in verse eight, and Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, of course, this is after they
went to his house and ate, and said to the Lord, behold, the half of my goods I give to the poor.
And if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I will restore him fourfold,
basically saying I've taken things by false accusation. And Jesus said unto him,
this day is salvation come to this house for as much as he also is the son of Abraham.
Say, well, see, look, Jesus said that's when he got saved. He said, you know,
salvation has come to this house after he did all these good works, after he repented of all
his sin. But wait a minute. Jesus said this day, he didn't say this moment. And was he even talking
about necessarily about that type of salvation, the salvation of his soul? You know, we can read
a lot of different things into this if we wanted to. But Jesus, you know, he's saying, like, this
day is salvation come to this house, meaning, you know, it's come to this house this day,
not at this exact moment, for as much as he also is a son of Abraham.
Now, what made him a son of Abraham? It was his faith. And the Bible says in Galatians three,
know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
That means me and you are as much children of Abraham as Zacchaeus was, because we're all
children of Abraham by faith, the Bible says. So that's what made him the child of Abraham.
It wasn't the fact that he was of some lineage. You know, Jesus said that Abraham was of these
stones, or John the Baptist said it, rather, that he was of these stones to raise up children of
Abraham. Now, it does say he did some good works there, doesn't it? I mean, he's repenting of his
sin. You can't deny that. Zacchaeus, at this point in the story, is giving half of his poor
goods to the poor. But hey, if repenting your sin is what's going to take it to get to heaven,
Zacchaeus, you might want to give all your goods to the poor. Why only give half, right?
He's doing some good works, though. You know, he's trying to restore, make things right. I'm
not against that. But I am against saying that's what you got to do to get saved,
because that's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible says, for by grace you save through faith
and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
In fact, go over to Ephesians chapter 2. Go over there. Because here's the thing. There are some
things that we should do as Christians, right? And Zacchaeus is a good example of that. There's
some things that we should do, but there's some things, there's only one thing that we must do to
go to heaven. The Bible says in Ephesians 2, if you're there, in verse 9, or go to verse 10,
rather, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works. So we're not,
we don't do good works to be saved. He said we're created, we are his workmanship in Christ Jesus
unto good works. We get saved, and then we do good works after we're saved. Not before.
And I think when you read the story of Zacchaeus, it's pretty clear he got saved in the sycamore
tree when he came down. And you know what? If he decided after that to not give any of his
goods to the poor, if he decided not to, you know, restore fourfold to any man that he is defrauded,
he would still have gone to heaven. He still would have been a child of Abraham.
He just would have suffered the consequences along the way for being a thief and a liar.
There are things we should do. There are things that we have been,
there are good works that God has ordained that we should walk in. We should walk in them.
But there's only thing we must, thing we must do to be saved, right? Acts chapter 16,
what must I do to be saved? What must? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
That's the only thing. So really what we see from the story is that
there's really only two types of people in this world. You know, we want to break things down
into so many other categories with people. We want to look at people and say, well,
this person's wealthy, this person's poor, this person's middle class. And I understand,
that obviously those statements are true. But spiritually speaking, there's really
only two types of people. It's not just rich and poor. It's not just people that are of good,
upstanding citizens or people that have a checkered past. People who have a good reputation
and people who have a bad reputation. That's not how God breaks it down.
It's not even that there are some people that are of a better stature than others.
Based on appearance, this person is good looking, this person is not. This person is attractive,
this person is not. That's not how God sees things. God breaks people down into these two
categories. Saved, not saved. Saved, not saved. Born again, not born again. That's it with God.
He doesn't look at people and judge them by their race. He doesn't judge them by their riches,
their wealth. He doesn't judge them by the way they look. He doesn't judge them by their past,
any of those things. He judges people based on one thing. Have you put your faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ or not? That's how God looks at the world. And I'm just trying to admonish
this this morning to be reminded of that and to look at the world the same way. Don't write
people off. Don't write people off just because you perceive something about them. Well, they're
wealthy. They probably don't even love God just because they have money. That's not true.
Look at all the people in the Bible that loved God, that had great wealth.
Don't just look at people and say, well, I'm going to write this person off because
they're short. What a stupid reason to write somebody off because they don't meet some
physical criteria that the world has said to you, this is what people need to look like.
Or whatever it is, we write people off for all kinds of different reasons and we develop bad
attitude. Maybe we would never just come out and say it. Maybe it comes through in our attitude.
Maybe it comes through the way we treat other people. We got to understand, God only sees
people. He sees saved people and he sees lost people. And he doesn't just write people off
and neither should we don't write people off. Let's go and pray.