Welcome And Theme Of Repentance

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You're listening to Heed the Word with our pastor and teacher Ken Davis. Pastor Ken is the senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Southwest Metro in Burleson, Texas. Please join us as we study the Gospel of Luke verse by verse.

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Is there any one of us that needs no repentance? No, there's not. But there sure are a lot of people who think that they don't need any repentance, aren't there? And yet Jesus makes this point that, hey, that one that is lost, he's gonna go find it. That coin that's been misplaced, he's gonna go after it. That son that leaves because he's rebellious and doesn't want to abide in the house of his father, who later recognizes the error of his ways and repents. The Lord will receive him.

Setting Up Luke And The Need For Forgiveness

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The Gospel of Luke is the third account in the Gospels of the life and teachings of our Savior, Jesus Christ. As believers, there are few studies that will benefit us more spiritually than studying the life and teachings of the Master. The Bible teaches that no one is good. Our hearts are desperately wicked. There isn't a man or woman on the face of this earth who does not need to be forgiven by God. We've all sinned and fallen short of his glory. Thankfully, we can come to Jesus with a heart of repentance, and he will forgive and restore us to a right relationship with God. Don't forget to stay with us after today's message to hear more information about He the Word, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, please open your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 19, verse 1, as we join Pastor Ken.

Meeting Zacchaeus The Chief Tax Collector

Zacchaeus Climbs The Tree In Childlike Curiosity

Jesus Knows His Name And Invites Himself

Why Jesus Eats With Sinners

The Lost Sheep, Coin, And Son

Come Down: An Appeal To Return

Inside The House: Invisible Grace, Visible Fruit

Restitution Beyond The Law

Faith, Wealth, And The Rich Young Ruler

Such Were Some Of You: Washed And Justified

Sent To Seek And Save The Lost

All Things Work Together: Final Encouragement

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We're studying a passage of Scripture this morning that is very familiar to many people, particularly if you grew up in the church. You may even remember the song that was sung about this particular story that is almost verbatim from the scripture. How many of you know the song of Zacchaeus, right? Many of you. I won't sing it this morning. Though I was tempted to. I've been singing it all week. But um we find here today an incredible and a wonderful story that really communicates to us the heart of the gospel. Let's start in verse one as we meet the man Zacchaeus. First of all, the name Zacchaeus literally means righteous one. And that's kind of comical if you think about it, because Zacchaeus was not just a tax collector, but a chief tax collector. Now we've talked before about how hated the tax collectors were, the publicans, because not only did they take the people's money, but they were actually agents of the Roman government who had turned against their own people. They were despised and they were outcast both socially and spiritually. The tax collectors were not allowed the same access as the rest of the Jewish people to the religious system of that day. They were hated. And not only was Zacchaeus a tax collector, but he was a chief among the tax collectors. He very likely had a region that was under his authority. And Jericho was quite a profitable place to be because it was a gateway to a lot of trade that would come through. And so Zacchaeus, in the exercising of his duties, had become very, very rich. Now, tax collectors get rich by overcharging. You see, what they would do is they would bid on a particular territory and they would tell the Roman government, I believe that if you give me the rights to collect taxes in this particular region for you, I can earn so much money that I'll turn into you. And so the government would approve them for that area. They would go ahead and give them that quota that they were to meet. And so the tax collectors would go out and they would gather that tax. But then whatever they could gather above and beyond their quota, that was theirs to keep. And so the more they could extort almost out of the people, the wealthier they would be. And so not only was Zacchaeus a tax collector, not only was he one who probably had other tax collectors working under him, but he was also one who had become very rich by extorting those around him, by overcharging them, and by keeping that prophet for himself. Now in verse 5, something happens. This is probably the only time in scripture in the Gospels where we see Jesus inviting himself over to someone's house. He walks up to the tree and he looks up, and there is Zacchaeus. It must have been a comical sight because Zacchaeus, as we saw previously, was a short little guy, so short that he couldn't see over the crowds. And so he had run ahead to a sycamore tree, very likely a figure mulberry type of tree, and he had climbed up into its branches, and there he was waiting for Jesus to go by. You know, Jesus had said that if we were going to enter into the kingdom of God, it would have to be as a child, didn't he? And how childlike must this have seemed? Here was a successful businessman running ahead of the crowd and climbing trees. This is the behavior of a child, isn't it? And it was not any particular loyalty to Christ that caused him to do this, but rather it was a curiosity that he had. He wanted to know what all this was about. What's all the fuss? Who is this man Jesus? I want to see him. He was curious. He had a childlike curiosity that brought him to the place where he was going to have an encounter with the living God. And so as he's sitting there up in the tree, you can almost imagine it is, you know, little feet dangling from the limb as he hangs on there and he looks down and he's peering through the leaves and he sees the crowd coming, and there's Jesus. And so he got what he wanted. He got to see Jesus. That was all he wanted. Hadn't expected any more than that. Didn't intend to talk to Jesus. Didn't have anything to ask Jesus for. He didn't have a sick daughter at home or a servant who was ill or dying. He didn't have leprosy himself, nor was he blind or deaf in any of the physical senses. He just wanted to see Jesus. And as Jesus passed by, he got what he wanted. He got to see him. But then imagine his surprise when something happened. Jesus stops. Hey, this is a bonus. Not only do I get to see him pass by, but I actually get to see him. It's kind of like the rose parade, you know, when the marching band stops there and they they play right in front of you for a minute or two. That's that's awesome, right? So, hey, a little bonus. But then Zacchaeus hears his name. We're not given any indication that Jesus and Zacchaeus had ever met before. So how is it that Jesus knew this man's name? He knows all of our names. He knows each and every one of us. And that day, as he stood there under that sycamore tree, he knew Zacchaeus. And he called out to him, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down. For today I must stay at your home. I'm a stay at your house. Wow. He knows my name. And he wants to stay at my house. Can you imagine what that must have been like for Zacchaeus? Revelation 3.20 says this. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with me. Jesus was knocking at the door of this man's heart. And Zacchaeus responded. He climbed down out of that tree and he received Jesus joyfully. He was thrilled that this man would stay at his house. Not everybody was so thrilled about it. Luke 5, 37 through 32 shows us a similar situation. Let's turn there. Luke 5, starting in verse 27. After these things, the Lord went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office. And he said to him, Follow me. So he left all, rose up, and followed him. Then Levi gave him a great feast in his own house, and there were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with him. And the scribes and the Pharisees complained against his disciples, saying, Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? Jesus answered and said to them, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Now the scripture tells us, and we know, that there is none righteous, not even one. But the problem is that when people consider themselves to be righteous, they don't recognize the call to repentance. And so those who were complaining that he would go and eat with a sinner are failing to recognize that anybody that he went to eat with was in fact a sinner. So as Jesus came into the world, he didn't have a whole lot of choice in the matter. He was going to eat with sinners at one time or another. It's just they considered themselves to be less of a sinner than that person. You see, they deemed themselves worthy of the master to come into their home. But that man's not worthy. Oh, you know, I'm a good person, right? I can have a relationship with Christ. Sometimes we say to ourselves, but we look at other people out in the world, people who maybe work in professions that we find unsavory, or people who have experienced the deep depravity of sin. And we say that that person somehow is not worthy. Friend, the only difference between their sinfulness and ours is that theirs may be more visible outwardly. But we're no less sinful. We're no more worthy than any one of them. No more worthy than Levi, no more worthy than Zacchaeus. They had complained of his association with sinners in Luke 15 as well. Let's go to Luke 15. Jesus had been at a dinner that was being held for him in the house of one of the Pharisees by the name of Simon. And in chapter 15, verse 1, we see then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them. So he spoke this parable to them. Now remember, we studied this parable, and it's the parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. It's a tetragraph, three pictures in one frame, three different stories that all illustrate the same point. Really, though, it's three stories, it's kind of one parable, because it says here that he spoke this parable to them. Doesn't say these parables, but this parable. And remember that right after that he talked of the lost sheep. Let's look at that briefly. What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one which is lost until he finds it. And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say to you that likewise there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 just persons who need no repentance. And yet again, is there any one of us that needs no repentance? No, there's not. But there sure are a lot of people who think that they don't need any repentance, aren't there? And yet Jesus makes this point that, hey, that one that is lost, he's gonna go find it. That coin that's been misplaced, he's gonna go after it. That son that leaves because he's rebellious and doesn't want to abide in the house of his father, who later recognizes the error of his ways and repents, the Lord will receive him. The Lord will receive you. Have you fallen away from the walk that you once had with the Lord? Can you look back in your life and say, oh boy, there was a time when I was committed to Christ. Boy, I was in church, I was serving God, I was loving the Lord, and then through whatever set of circumstances in your life, you found that you compromised with the world, that you fell into sin, that you wandered away from the fellowship that you have with God. Can I tell you, He stands ready to receive you back again, to forgive you for your sins, to restore the relationship and the fellowship that you once had with him. He's calling out to you. Maybe like Zacchaeus, you've got yourself up a tree. And he's saying to you, Come down. So I want to go to your house today. Jesus wants to go to your house. He wants to live in your home, he wants to be welcome there. He wants to dwell with you and have fellowship with you. How will you receive him? Will you receive him joyfully like Zacchaeus did? Or will you say like the others, oh, Jesus can't come to my house, I'm a sinner. He receives sinners. And even eats with them. He knocks at the door and he waits for us to open it so that we can have fellowship with him. But the Pharisees, they didn't see it. The scribes, they didn't see it. The religious leaders of that day they couldn't understand. And so rather they complained. Let's go back to Luke 19. That verse verse 7 where it says, He has gone, that tells us that at that point Jesus went with Zacchaeus to his house and went inside and was his guest. He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner. Now I believe there's a break in the story here between verse 7 and verse 8. Jesus had gone to be a guest of Zacchaeus. Now we are not told what happened inside Zacchaeus' house. We are not told what Jesus said to Zacchaeus. We don't know. We're not meant to know. That was between Jesus and Zacchaeus. Just as what the Lord says to you in your heart, that's between you and the Lord. But I hope that the response that you give the Lord when his spirit speaks to you will be similar to the response that we see in the life of Zacchaeus. Because though we are not privy to their conversation, we do realize and recognize the fruit of that conversation. What do we see happening in the life of Zacchaeus? We see repentance. We see a restored man who is now doing whatever he can to rectify the wrongs that he has done. He's changed. And all it took was a visit from Jesus. How awesome is that. Now, when he says here in verse 8 that he's going to restore fourfold, right? Look with me, if you will, at Leviticus chapter 6. In Leviticus 6, starting in verse 1, and the Lord spoke to Moses saying, If a person sins and commits a trespass against the Lord by lying to his neighbor about what was delivered to him for safekeeping, or about a pledge or about a robbery, or if he is extorted from his neighbor, that would probably be Zacchaeus right there, or if he has found what was lost and lies concerning it, and swears falsely in any one of these things that a man may do in which he sins, then it shall be, because he has sinned and is guilty, that he shall restore what he has stolen, or the thing which he has extorted, or what was delivered to him for safekeeping, or the lost thing which he found, or all that about which he has sworn falsely, he shall restore its full value, add one fifth more to it, and give it to whomever it belongs on the day of his trespass offering, and he shall bring his trespass offering to the Lord, a ram without blemish from the flock, with your valuation as a trespass offering to the priest. Now, one fifth. That's twenty percent, right? So the law required that if Zacchaeus had extorted money from anyone, that he would return that to them and add 20% to it. But what do we see Zacchaeus doing here? He's saying, I will restore fourfold. I'm gonna give back what they owed, plus three times that much in addition to it. Well over what the requirement of the law was. Let me tell you something about that. When we receive Jesus as our Lord and our Savior, and we recognize what Jesus has done for us and how He has forgiven us for our sins, then we are no longer satisfied with merely meeting the requirements of the law. But the gratitude that is in our heart springs forth and overflows to the point that we want to go beyond what is required. We want to worship God above and beyond what the law would compel us to do. Service that is done in love is far greater than service that is done through obligation. Wouldn't you agree? And that's what we see in operation in the life of Zacchaeus back in Luke chapter 19. Who is a son of Abraham? Is someone a son of Abraham because they were born Jewish in a physical sense? Yes. But the scriptures tell us that those who are of faith are children of Abraham, right? So that we, when we believe and put our faith in Jesus Christ, we become children of Abraham. And that's what was happening here. Now, was Jesus commending Zacchaeus and saying that Zacchaeus was saved because of the fact that he had given all this money away? No. But rather the fact that he is giving all this money away is evidence of the fact that he has indeed been saved. Psalm 41, 1 says, Blessed is he who considers the poor. The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. First Timothy 6, 17 and 18 says, Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give and willing to share. James 1, 9 through eleven says, Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation, but the rich in his humiliation, because as the flower of the field, he will pass away. For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass, its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits. What Zacchaeus did after coming to Christ was something that the rich young ruler of chapter eighteen was not willing to do, that he might follow. Christ. And Zacchaeus, and what has happened here with Zacchaeus is an illustration of what Jesus had said in the previous chapter. Let's go back to chapter 18, to the story of the rich young ruler briefly. Chapter 18, verse 18. Now a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? So Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good? No one is good but one, that is God. You know the commandments, do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and your mother. And he said, All these things I have kept from my youth. So when Jesus heard these things, he said to him, You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me. But when he had heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich. You see, Zacchaeus received Jesus with joy, and then was able to give away most of what he had, very likely. The rich young ruler held on to his riches, and he left sorrowful. And when Jesus saw that he became very sorrowful, he said, How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God. For 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. And those who heard it said, Who then can be saved? But he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God. And he would go on to prove it in the very next chapter. It would have been impossible apart from Jesus for Zacchaeus to be saved. The fact of the matter is, it's impossible for any of us apart from Jesus to be saved. Those things which are impossible with man are possible with God. And though it may be very difficult or even impossible for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven, here we see it happening in the life of Zacchaeus through the grace of God. For the Son of Man, Jesus said, has come to seek and to save that which was lost. First Corinthians 6, verses 9 through 11 says, Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, will inherit the kingdom of God. So according to this, Zacchaeus, who was an extortioner, would not inherit the kingdom of God. But then Paul goes on to remind us in verse 11, and such were some of you. You see, when we read down that list of all those who won't go into the kingdom, we have a tendency to be very judgmental about the types of people that we find on this list, and we want to condemn them. Forgetting that apart from Christ we're no different. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. And guys, that same justification, that same salvation that is extended to us, that we have benefited from, that we have been blessed by, that we stand having eternal life because of, we are to extend to others. To those very people that we read about there, to those people who are lost in sin. Jesus received them. Should we do any less? Not only did Jesus receive them, but he went out and he went looking for them. He went out and he got them and he invited them into the kingdom of God.

How To Get The Message And Visit

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Do you ever feel like the circumstances you're going through are more than you can bear? That God is in some way punishing you? Well, consider the words of Paul, and we know that all things work together for the good. To those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. So we learn from this verse that all things, not some, but all things work together if we love God and are called according to his purpose. Just something to think about from your friends here at Heed the Word. Heed the Word is the daily Bible teaching ministry of Ken Davis, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel in Burleson, Texas. There's a great deal more that Pastor Ken has to share with us from the Gospel of Luke, so please join us again. Now, maybe you'd like to add today's message to your study library. Our online media is always available and free of charge. CD copies are also available upon request for free, but supplies are limited so order today. To order a CD, simply log on to heedtheword.org and select the order a message option. There you'll find a convenient order form to fill out. The only information you need to remember is today's date. This ensures we get you the right teaching. So log on to heedtheword.org and place your order today. Or better yet, join us this Sunday for worship at 10.30 a.m. Directions are available on our website. That's heedtheword.org. Well, we've run out of time today, but tune in next time as Pastor Ken will continue teaching verse by verse through the Gospel of Luke. That's next time on Heed the Word.