CHURCH IMPROVEMENT: BUILDING A CHURCH THAT HONORS
GOD AND LOVES PEOPLE
BY LIVING IN GRACE
Luke 19: 1-10
INTRODUCTION
Do people ever really change? I don’t mean do they change their hairstyle
or their clothing but do people at the core of their beings ever change?
Do angry people ever become calm, self-controlled people? Do worried and
fearful people ever become confident and joyful? Do undisciplined people
ever become disciplined people? Do cruel and unkind people ever become
kind and loving people? Do greedy people ever become generous? I think
all of us would say that we believe in the possibility of change. Some
of us may be able to point to ways in which we have changed or perhaps
we know others who have changed in significant ways.
But there does seem to be overwhelming evidence in our families and in
ourselves that people don’t change. We find ourselves having the same
destructive emotions and doing the same evil things over and over. It’s
almost like there are automatic pilots flying our homes and us. You know
exactly what’s going to happen when dad sits down to work on the taxes
or when mom comes home from a shopping trip and dad asks, "How much
did you spend?" It’s like there is an infinite loop in our families
that as soon as the first thing happens, then you know exactly what’s
going to follow. But, it’s not just in our families; it’s throughout the
world. Israel and the Palestinians have been fighting for almost 50 years.
The Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland have been fighting for
hundreds of years. There are generations of families living on welfare
in the U.S. We all know the families where there have been generations
of alcoholics. Quite frankly, everyone who is honestly facing the reality
of the human condition knows that true change is miraculous.
As Christians, we believe that change is not only possible but also required.
The command of the gospel is to repent and believe the good news. Repentance
means to change your mind, heart and will. It means to stop loving and
believing and doing one thing and to believe, love and do something quite
different. Paul says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a
new creation; the old has gone, the new has come." The command and
the promise of the gospel is that we must and we can be different.
But how does change happen? The answer the Bible gives is that the only
true change agent is the unmerited, unearned favor of God in Jesus Christ.
The reason only the grace of God can truly change a person is because
of what is wrong with us. Jesus said in Matthew 12, "Make a tree
good and its fruit will be good or make a tree bad and its fruit will
be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit." The Scriptures know
that it is our nature to believe lies, love evil and do wrong. Therefore,
if we are going to change into people who believe truth, love God and
do good, then our nature has to be changed. That is the good news of the
gospel. In Luke 19:1-10 we see a vivid picture of the grace of God changing
a human being. As we examine what happens here we are going to discover
why it is that the grace of God in Christ is the most powerful force in
the universe.
MAIN POINT
The grace of God in Christ is the most powerful life changing
force in the universe because…
I. It sees people as they are
The power of God’s grace in this story cannot be appreciated without
seeing the broader context within which this story is placed. Like every
good historian, Luke does not arrange his history of Jesus’ life in chronological
order. Rather he arranges his material in order to present Christ and
his saving work in a manner that will cause us to love Jesus. So it is
not an accident that this story ends a long narrative of Jesus’ journey
to Jerusalem that began back in chapter 9 and it begins the narrative
of the last week of Jesus’ life. Verse 10 is in many ways the theme of
Luke’s gospel. "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."
This is what Jesus has done in his life and this is what Jesus is doing
in his death. But in the more immediate context Luke uses several key
words to get us to look back a few verses to another incident where Jesus
meets another rich man.
In 18:18 a very wealthy, very devout Jewish man, who is a leader in his
local Jewish community comes to Jesus and asks him what he must do to
inherit eternal life. If you surveyed his town and asked, "Who in
our town is most likely to make it into heaven?"—he would have been
number 1 on the list. Jesus responds to his question by telling him to
obey the commandments and then he names several of them. The rich ruler
says that he has kept all of these commandments since he was a boy. However,
Jesus is not stymied by his apparent righteousness. He knows what this
man really loves and it isn’t God. He tells him to go and sell all his
possessions and give the money to the poor and then to come follow him.
He then adds, if you will do this, then you will have treasure in heaven.
What he puts in front of this man is a clear choice. He knows what is
in his heart. He in essence is asking him, "What do you believe will
give you greater happiness, money and what it provides or being a member
of God’s eternal kingdom?" "What do you love, money and what
money will get you or God?" You can’t love both. The man loves his
money more than he loves Christ and so he goes away sad. The rich ruler
said that he wanted to go to heaven. But Jesus showed him that he didn’t
really want to go to heaven. He loved money, not God. He loved a happy
life on planet earth, not the eternal joy of living with God. He would
be happy to be rich and go to heaven but he was not happy to be poor in
order to go to heaven. Heaven was not a treasure to him. Money was his
treasure.
Look at what Jesus says next, beginning in v. 24. "Jesus looked
at him and said, ‘How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of
God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle
than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’ Those who heard this
asked, ‘Who then can be saved?’ Jesus replied, ‘What is impossible with
men is possible with God.’" Listen carefully to what Jesus is saying
here as it forms the backdrop for what happens to Zacchaeus. When Jesus
says that the rich cannot go to heaven, the people who hear him are stunned.
They presumed that if a person was wealthy that was a sign of God’s blessing.
Therefore, if people like the rich ruler aren’t going to heaven than no
one must be going. Then Jesus makes one of the most hope filled statements
in the entire Bible. He says, "You are exactly right. It is impossible
for any human being to make it into heaven on his own. Every human is
just like this rich man, loving everything except for God. The main problem
with humans isn’t that they swear or have sex outside of marriage or lie
or steal or engage in homosexual behavior. The problem with humans is
that they do not want to go to heaven. The don’t love God, they love gods
of their own making. They believe they can be happy without the God who
made them. Therefore if anyone is going to make it to heaven, God has
to save. He has to not only pardon sins but make people willing to go
to heaven. He has to give them a new heart that loves God and what he
offers rather than loving money or children or careers or hobbies or drugs
or sex or… So the salvation of any person, including a rich person, comes
from God himself."
Just as Jesus was able to see the sin of the rich ruler behind the façade
of his piety and respectability so he sees Zaccheus in his greed and indifference
to God and the things of God. Zacchaeus is an irreligious person. He hasn’t
been to synagogue in years. He has no involvement with God’s people. He
never goes to temple as the Scriptures command him to. His friends and
associates are all like him, either backslidden Jews or pagan Romans.
He has engaged in a life of extortion and supervises a whole company of
men who are engaged in extortion. He is a traitor to the people of God.
He collects taxes from his Jewish neighbors for the Romans so they can
pay their soldiers to occupy their land. He has gotten very wealthy off
of his fellow Jews through coercion and threat. If the rich ruler would
have been voted most likely to make it to heaven, Zacchaeus would have
been voted least likely to make it to heaven. You might be asking yourself,
"how does John know that Jesus knows all this about Zacchaeus?"
Jesus knows his name. Jesus, in verse 9 says, "Today salvation has
come to this house because even this man is a son of Abraham."
God knows you better than you know yourself. You can’t hide anything
from him. He knows your heart and therefore he knows exactly what you
need in order to be saved. Grace sees you exactly as you are and therefore
deals with you exactly as you need. This is why grace is so powerful.
God deals only with reality, not with how we wish to be but with how we
actually are. I was listening to the tape of a sermon this week and the
speaker mentioned a seminary professor who regularly said to his students,
"Cheer up! You are worse than you realize." But we are not worse
than God knows, he knows the depths of our heart. He knows what we truly
believe, think, love and desire. Therefore he is working in accord with
reality, not fantasy.
The grace of God in Christ is the most powerful force in the universe
because…
- It sees people as they are
- And because…
II. It seeks people in spite of who they are
This just logically follows from what we saw in the first point. Zacchaeus
is the least likely of all people to go to heaven. Not only has he offended
the Jewish traditions and the commands of the OT but he is rich and Jesus
just said it is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God than
for a camel to go through they eye of a needle. If you and I were going
to pick out a person who it would be right for Jesus to pass by, it would
be this man. There is no reason in Zacchaeus for Jesus to stop. Yet, look
at what Jesus says in v. 5. "As he came to the place, Jesus, lifting
his eyes, said to him, "Zacchaeus, hurry! Come down! For today, it
is necessary that (I must stay) I stay at your house." There are
thousands of people traveling with Jesus and lining the roads to see Jesus.
Most of them are there just like Zacchaeus, curious to see him, and wondering
about who he really is. Yet, he doesn’t stop for anyone else. Out of the
thousands of people lining the road he picks out Zacchaeus. Why does he
do this? He says it is because he must, because it is necessary for him
to stay at Zacchaeus’ house.
Jesus didn’t stop and talk to Zacchaeus because of something that Zacchaeus
was doing but because of something that God was doing. The picture of
Zacchaeus running ahead and climbing the tree and wanting to see Jesus
can’t be explained by some inherent spirituality in him. Rather we are
watching the sovereign God draw a sinner to him. A plan is being worked
out and so Zacchaeus must be in the tree and Jesus must stop and must
stay at his house. Yet, at the very same time Zacchaeus is not acting
against his own desires. He wants to see Jesus. He decides to climb the
tree. He chooses to obey Jesus’ command. But when we ask ultimately why
is he, a hardened sinner, doing these things, it can only be because the
sovereign God is giving him a new heart. What is impossible with man is
possible with God.
Look at vv. 9-10 and see the logic that Jesus uses in explaining what
is happening to Zacchaeus. In v. 9 he says that salvation has come even
to the wicked tax collector Zacchaeus. Then v. 10 begins with the word
"for". Why has salvation come to Zacchaeus? Verse 10 gives the
reason. It is because Jesus seeks and saves the lost sheep of God. It
doesn’t say that Jesus seeks and saves those who are seeking God. It doesn’t
say that Jesus seeks sinners but then can’t save them unless they choose
to be saved. It says that Jesus irresistibly seeks and saves all the lost
sheep of God. Jesus is using language from Ezekial 34 where God says,
"For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for
my sheep and look after them… I will search for the lost and bring back
the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the
sleek and the strong I will destroy." Jesus seeks after and saves
the lost sheep of God.
But notice v. 7. We are told all the people who are with Jesus begin
grumbling and their grumbling becomes slander. They accuse Jesus of going
to be the guest of a sinner and therefore, by association he must be a
sinner as well. These are the same people in 18:43 who, only moments earlier,
are praising God when Jesus heals the blind man just before he enters
into Jericho. These religious people are offended because they don’t think
God saves lost people. They believe God only saves those who deserve to
be saved, like the rich ruler. They believe the lie of the devil that
God blesses people who obey. They don’t understand that God blesses people
and then they obey. Obedience to God only comes from a heart that loves
God. No heart naturally loves God and so when you see a person truly obeying
God, you know that God has saved that person. He has given them a new
heart. 1 John 2:29 says, "We know that he (God) is righteous, therefore
everyone who does righteousness has been born of God."
This is such a hopeful reality. When you look at your life and all you
can see is how much you don’t want God or don’t want to do what is right.
If you look at yourself and all you can see are the marks of lostness,
take courage. Jesus came to save people like you. If you are wondering,
how will I ever change? How will I ever live like a Christian? Take heart.
Jesus seeks and saves non-Christians. He seeks and saves people who are
wandering around like lost sheep. Perhaps you are in despair over a loved
one or over the sin and turmoil that characterizes your family. Don’t
lose heart. Jesus seeks and saves lost people and lost families. Notice
that Jesus says that salvation has come to this house. Yes, Zacchaeus
is saved but that salvation is going to affect his whole household. Ask
Jesus to seek and to save you. Ask him to seek and to save your family.
That is why he came. Jesus doesn’t save people who think they are found.
He only saves people who know they are lost. Confess all the ways you
are living like a lost sheep, turning to your own ways, rather than God’s
ways. Ask him to have mercy on you and to give you a new heart that loves
him.
The grace of God in Christ is the most powerful force in the universe
because…
- It sees people as they are
- It seeks people in spite of who they are
- And because…
III. It saves people from who they are
In v. 9, Jesus says that "salvation has come to this house because
even this man is a son of Abraham". How does Jesus know that salvation
has come to Zacchaeus? Zacchaeus’ external behavior manifests a changed
heart. This is what a "saved" life looks like. I want us to
carefully examine Zacchaeus’ emotions, actions and words in order to see
salvation at work.
First, we must note that the only people who are saved are those who
want to see Jesus. Salvation doesn’t come to people who just want to escape
hell and gain heaven. Salvation doesn’t come to people who are simply
trying to relieve some sort of psychological distress. Salvation doesn’t
come to people who are seeking Allah or Krishna or the god of the Mormons
or any of the other thousands of false gods in the world. Salvation only
comes to those who are seeking to see Jesus. Notice, his seeking isn’t
half hearted. He is determined to see Jesus. He runs ahead of the crowd
and climbs a tree.
Second, when Jesus stops and commands him to hurry up and climb down
from the tree he is filled with joy and eagerly, quickly, obeys the command
of Jesus. He joyfully welcomes Jesus as his guest. Here is a chief evidence
of faith, of the work of grace. The rich ruler went away sad, why? He
had great joy in his wealth and the thought of losing it all made him
very sad. The thought of being Jesus’ follower didn’t make him at all
happy. He had no joy in Christ and so he did not obey Christ’s command.
Zacchaeus, on the other hand can’t believe his ears. He cannot think of
anything happier than Jesus coming to live in his house. He is amazed
that Jesus would care about him, would accept him and want to be with
him. He knows who he is and he knows who Jesus is and so he is awestruck
that Jesus is coming to his house. He obeys with and out of joy in Christ’s
mercy. Zacchaeus, unlike the rich ruler, knows that there is nothing more
unexpected than that God would love him and so when he discovers that
God loves him in the person of Christ, he is full of joy and delights
to obey.
Third, in v. 8 he says that he is giving away ½ of his possessions and
repaying 4 times what he has extorted. In this declaration he is confessing,
publicly, to the sin or extortion. Extortion is the use of threat to get
people to give you money. Zacchaeus would tell people that if they didn’t
pay him what he demanded, then Roman soldiers would harm their property
or their person. His new love for Christ is manifested in his eagerness
to help others and in his determination to be reconciled to those whom
he has offended. When Christ is a treasure to you, then you are open about
your sins and not defensive. These are the two chief marks of the new
heart: generous love towards those in need and a passion to repair broken
relationships.
What is the cause of this radical transformation? What motivates such
generosity and fearless confession? First, as he comes down the tree he
can hear the grumbling of the crowd and the slander they are heaping upon
Jesus. He cannot stand the thought of Jesus being treated with contempt
and so he shows that Jesus’ reputation should not be impugned because
he is not the same man who climbed up that tree. He has been changed by
the grace of Jesus and wants everyone to know it and to praise God for
what Jesus has done rather than disparage Christ for hanging out with
sinners. He wants everyone to know that Jesus does not condone or promote
sin but that he causes holiness. Here is a chief mark of all those who
belong to Christ. They hate sin and love to do good so that others will
praise Jesus for his wonderful grace. A friend told me this week about
one of his co-workers who professes to be a Christian and was planning
this wild bachelor party. When my friend asked him, "Aren’t you a
Christian?"—he said, "Yes, I’m saved so it’s OK." This
person’s view of grace is that grace makes it possible for you to sin
without fear of judgment. The Bible teaches that grace not only pardons
sin but causes you to not want to sin but to do good. The thing that Christians
fear more than death itself is doing anything that would cast shame on
the name of their Savior.
The second reason Zacchaeus acts in this generous and open manner is
because he is amazed at grace. He loves Jesus, not money. He trusts God
to care for him, not money. His hope is in the salvation that Jesus has
promised, not in the approval of other people. He is not afraid of the
future or of what others might do to him because he knows God loves him
and will care for him. His joy in God is overflowing in generosity to
others and an open admission of his guilt with a determination to do all
he can to repair the damage he has done. This is salvation. Zacchaeus
is abandoning hope in the "salvation" of money. He is voluntarily
becoming poor as an expression of his hope in Christ. This is what repentance
and faith look like. Zacchaeus trusted money, loved money, hoped in money,
worshipped money. He believed that happiness in life came from wealth
and what wealth could provide and so he would do anything to get more
of it. Now he believes that happiness in life comes only from being loved
by Christ and loving him back and so he will do whatever it takes to know
the love of Christ. When a person discovers the greatness of Christ’s
love for them they abandon every competing hope, they will do anything
to know and love Christ more. This is the power of God’s grace in Christ.
Several weeks ago, my wife Jane and I were able to see the play "Les
Miserables". Or "Les Mis" as the cultured among us call
it. The hero of the play is a man called Jean Valjean. The play opens
with him serving time on a chain gang for stealing bread to feed his dying
nephew. His sentence was for five years but because he kept trying to
escape he has been a slave for 19 years. He is full of bitterness and
anger because of the injustice of his sentence. He is finally released
from his slavery and given his freedom. But freedom is no better than
the chain gang as he is treated like dirt by society and must live homeless
and alone. A bishop finds him lying on the street and invites him to his
home. He feeds him and clothes him and puts him up for the night. But
that night, Jean Valjean steals some of the silver cups from the bishop
and flees into the night. The police stop him and when they find the silver
they demand to know where he got it. He says the bishop gave it to him
as a gift. The police return him to the bishop’s house and ask the bishop
if he had indeed given Jean the silver cups. Jean is certain he is going
back to prison and the chain gang. But the bishop says yes he did give
him the cups and then tells Jean that he forgot the silver candlesticks
as well. The police leave and the bishop tells him to make use of the
grace that has been given him. Then Jean Valjean sings the most incredible
song of conversion you can imagine. He is overcome with the grace of God
that has come to him through the bishop. The rest of story is an amazing
tale of how grace changes everything. He lives a life given over to love
and mercy towards others.
This is what the grace of God in Christ always does to sinners. It turns
sinners into people who out of their joy in God delight to meet the needs
of others. It makes self-righteous, proud, self-defending people into
people who are open about their sins and eager to live in harmony with
others.
What do you think that a church full of lost people who Jesus has sought
and saved will look like? What would a church of Zacchaeus’ look like?
It would be a joyful church and a generous church. It would be a church
where Jesus is at the center. It would be a church that is honest about
sin and committed to working for reconciliation between people. It would
also be a church that is doing what Jesus did, seeking and saving the
lost. I am not sure how we can profess to be followers of Christ, to be
the body of Christ and be indifferent to those sheep that are still lost.
Some lost sheep come to us. They walk in our doors on Sunday mornings.
If we are going to do the work of Jesus we each one must warmly welcome
those who are our guests. We should do it because we are amazed at the
love of God for us and we want others to know and adore Christ with us.
We also need to be at work in our relationships at work, at school, in
our neighborhoods and our families seeking out those who are lost and
inviting them to join with us as we seek Christ. We need to invite our
unchurched friends to join us in our small groups, at church, when we
go to Timberlee and into our homes.
The grace of God in Christ is the most powerful force in the universe
because…
- It sees people as they are
- It seeks people in spite of who they are
- It saves people from who they are
© Copyright
2002 John Swanson.
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