Luke 19:1-27, How Do You Come to God?, Part 3

Luke 19:1-27 and the Question of How We Come to God

Luke chapter 19, the reading from verses 1 to 27, hear the word of the Lord. He entered Jericho and was passing through, and there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich, and he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd, he could not because he was small of stature.

So he ran on ahead and climbed up a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.

So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled. He has gone in to be the guest of a man who was a sinner. And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.

And Jesus said to him, today salvation has come to this house, since he also is the son of Abraham, for the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. As they heard these things, he proceeded to tell a parable, because he was near to Jerusalem and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately.

He said, therefore, a nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return. Calling ten of his servants, he gave them ten minas and said to them, engage in business until I come.

But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, we do not want this man to reign over us. When he returned, having received the kingdom, he ordered these servants, to whom he had given the money, to be called to him, that he might know what they had gained by doing business.

The first came before him, saying, Lord, your mina has made ten minas more. And he said to him, well done, good servant, because you have been faithful in a very little. You shall have authority over ten cities.

And the second came, saying, Lord, your mina has made five minas. And he said to him, and you are to be over five cities. Then another came, saying, Lord, here's your mina, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief, for I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man.

You take what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow. He said to him, I will condemn you with your own words, you wicked servant. You knew that I was a severe man, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow.

Why then did you not put my money in the bank? And at my coming, I might have collected it with interest. And he said to those who stood by, take the mina from him and give it to the one who has the ten minas.

And they said to him, Lord, he has ten minas. I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me.

May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his holy word. What do you do while you're waiting? I mean, you're expecting something like a doctor's appointment, the arrival of family or friends for Thanksgiving, maybe, or to board a bus or plane, or maybe you're on the bus or plane, you're waiting for it to get to its destination, or whatever.

When you have to wait, what do you do? Now, these days, I guess most of us would, many of us would find things to do on our phones, you play or read or watch. Do you play a game? You send a message? You read an article?

How do you like to occupy yourself? Maybe a family or friends are coming for Thanksgiving, you spend the time waiting, you know, doing that extra bit of cleaning up, cooking, getting everything in order.

What about for more long-term waits? When you, what do you do when you're waiting for, whether you'll be admitted to a school you've applied to, or a medical test, or a verdict at a trial, or maybe a baby, or to get a visa?

Hopefully a vaccine for COVID will be out soon. What do we do while we're waiting to get it? Now, do you think we should have spent all our time since the beginning of the pandemic, like in March, until the present day, until the vaccine is widely available?

Should we have spent all that time isolated at home, hunkered down, quarantining ourselves for nearly a whole year? Well, what do we do? Do we spend our time, spend our lives waiting, hoping not to die?

How do we live in the meantime? Well, some things we wait on by actually doing whatever it takes to get what we're waiting on. If we're waiting to get married, well, we've got to meet people. If we're waiting to graduate, we've got to study.

If we're waiting to make more money so I can afford that house or that nice car, well, we've got to work. If we're waiting to retire, we've got to keep working. Not all waiting is just idle, kind of wasted time.

Indeed, I don't think any of it should be. You've got to learn how to wait well. What about waiting on God? You know, from Isaiah 40, those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. By waiting upon the Lord, he doesn't mean just do nothing, right, until God does something.

Just sit around, does he? He wants you to occupy yourself in the meantime. Between the time you have the promise, you have the salvation, you have the need, whatever it is, and the time you get the fulfillment.

Do you know how to wait on the Lord well? Well, being saved means, for now, waiting, like waiting for a package that you've ordered. You paid for it and you're just waiting for FedEx or UPS to bring it by.

You're waiting for a salvation that's already been fully paid for but hasn't yet been fully delivered. We have the promise. We have the assurance. We have the Holy Spirit in our hearts, inspiring us to pray, Abba, Father.

The Spirit is a guarantee, like a security deposit. So we cry that out. We trust in God. But we don't have the fulfillment yet. That becomes especially obvious when we come near death, either for ourselves or for a loved one.

We groan inwardly as we wait for the adoption as children of God, and that happens when our bodies are redeemed. Our bodies literally are saved, physically saved from death, raised with a new body. For now, though, we have to wait.

We have to wait in hope, even if sometimes, probably more for a loved one than for ourselves, we wonder, how long, O God? How do we wait for the Lord? That brings us back to our question, three weeks in a row now, because Luke here has, seems to have, he's compiled these stories together just before the Lord Jesus enters Jerusalem about how we come to God, what we do to come to God.

Remember, persistently, penitently, childlikely, not really a will word, but I made it up, wholeheartedly, desperately. How do you come to God? Well, we see here four additional ways we come to God. First, joyfully.

Secondly, patiently. Then, lovingly. And finally, faithfully. First, we come joyfully, and we see that as Jesus's pilgrimage to Jerusalem continues now through the city of Jericho. If you remember from last week, it's not far away.

It's about like Nancyville is to Danville. Jericho is to Jerusalem. So, this is like the day before he's going to enter Jerusalem. This is the end of a long pilgrimage in the book of Luke. At the end of chapter 18, Jesus was waylaid while going into Jerusalem by a desperate blind man who cried out, Lord, have mercy on me.

And Jesus gave him mercy, and the blind man did what the rich young ruler, he was just a little bit further back down the road, wouldn't do. He followed Jesus. Now, coming into Jericho itself, we find a man named Zacchaeus who wants to see this celebrity who is passing through.

Now, he has a problem. He's short, okay? So, he can't see over the people in front of him on the roadside. So, unable to get a good look at Jesus through the crowd, he runs ahead until he finds a good sycamore tree, and he climbs up it.

Now, you might think, well, that's awfully embarrassing for a grown man to do. You don't usually see grown men just climbing up trees, and that's kind of childlike. Well, he didn't mind too much, I don't think, because he's already a tax collector.

He's here called a chief tax collector. Apparently, that means he's like the regional manager of the local taxing district with other tax collectors under him. And because tax collectors were traders and collaborators, so they were already social outcasts, he's already a reject from society.

So, he probably didn't really care what people thought of him. And so, up the tree he went, perched there like a monkey, watching the parade go by all around Jesus. Now, how does Zacchaeus come to God?

The interesting thing about this passage is it doesn't say anything about Zacchaeus having any interest in coming to God. It only says he wants to see Jesus. And you think about it, probably most of us, if we heard that a celebrity was going to come by, any celebrity, pick one, Tom Hanks, LeBron James, Joe Biden, we knew he was passing nearby, he's going to go down 86 here, we would probably be interested in having a look.

So, we could say we see him, we saw him with our own eyes, maybe take our own picture of him on our own phone. Not that there are plenty of pictures out there, but something about people, they want to have their own picture.

I don't know why. But you might not even like him, you might not like none of those people. But you just want to be able to say, yeah, I saw him, I saw someone who's famous. Luke doesn't say anything about Zacchaeus wanting to follow Jesus.

He's not like the rich young ruler. Think about this in this context, because there's been this series of stories now about people coming to Jesus. The rich young ruler came up to him asking probably the best question you could think to ask, Lord, what must I do to be saved?

And Zacchaeus doesn't, isn't like that. He doesn't come up to Jesus asking a question like that. He doesn't even take the initiative like that, does he? He doesn't approach Jesus like the rich young ruler did.

He's not even like the blind man just outside the city, screaming desperately for mercy. He doesn't do that. Zacchaeus just wants to gawk. So how does Zacchaeus come to God? Well, there he is in a tree, and Jesus stops, looks up in the tree, and invites him.

Jesus basically invites himself over to his house. In verse 5, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today. I must. Notice that. It's a necessity. He has to stay with Zacchaeus. It's not an option, not just like a possibility.

I kind of like to stay at your house. I bet you've got some good food. It's not even like an invitation. May I come over? Or I'm interested in coming over. It's a necessity. I must. Jesus says he has to do it, and he explains why he has to do it in verse 10.

He must come to Zacchaeus because he, the son of man, that is the one who brings in the kingdom of God on earth, came, this is his purpose, Jesus's purpose, came to seek and to save the lost. Jesus's purpose requires him to come to Zacchaeus.

Zacchaeus scurries down from the tree in verse 6. Man, look at that there. Receive Jesus joyfully, and when you come to God, you come joyfully. You know, like those children, unpretentiously, kind of humbly amazed, amazing grace that God has come to you.

But as Zacchaeus is happily responding, you know, yes, Lord, you're most welcome in my home, a murmur goes through the crowd. He's going to be the guest of a man who is a sinner. Now, by sinner, they probably didn't just mean that Zacchaeus had sinned because they all probably would admit that they've all sinned.

But what they meant that he was someone who didn't even try to not sin. He didn't try to keep the law. He wasn't putting out any effort to be religious, to not sin, you know, to avoid the things that the law, the Jewish law says are sins.

He was just living casually as a sinner. And the religious people thought, hey, what's going on? You know, we're waiting for the kingdom of God to come, waiting for judgment that comes with it. We're trying to keep the law.

We're trying to avoid sins. And this traitor, Zacchaeus, isn't doing anything to make himself ready. And yet he gets invited to have dinner with Jesus. Judgment is coming, and we're all waiting for it.

What are you doing while you wait? Are you trying to be moral, trying to be religious? Well, that's what the Pharisees, like the man who stood at the temple, remember, praying to himself, basically about himself, announcing how strict he was, how much he fasted and all that.

That's what he was doing. He thought that he was occupying himself while waiting for the judgment. He was getting right while that tax collector over there in the corner, penitent, although Pharisee didn't know that, he had been doing anything.

And now here is another tax collector, a chief tax collector this time, who hadn't been doing anything to be ready for judgment, but having Jesus as his guest. The religious crowd didn't think that was fair.

Zacchaeus announces, though, that now, after Jesus has taken the initiative to invite himself over, that in verse 8, Behold, Lord, Master, the half of my goods I give to the poor. This is like what the rich young ruler was asked to do, remember?

Except that he was asked to give everything. Here we see that the command, that command, when Jesus said, you give everything to the poor, that that wasn't normative. That means it wasn't a rule for everyone.

So everyone has to sell everything, wasn't a rule for every rich person. Not all rich people have to give everything away to the poor. Otherwise, Zacchaeus would have been told to. For Zacchaeus, giving half was good enough.

Of course, Zacchaeus was willing, was willing to actually do it. And he goes on, if I have defrauded anyone of anything, if I've used my authority to collect more taxes than what is owed and just kept the excess for myself, I restore it fourfold.

What Zacchaeus, who before wasn't doing anything to prepare for the, for judgment, for God, well, what's he doing now? Things have changed now for him, haven't they? What's he doing now, in the meantime?

Well, Jesus has come. Jesus has invited himself over. And now he, now things are different for Zacchaeus. Now he waits for judgment. What's he doing now? Is he doing nothing? You know, just, he's, he's just going to claim at the judgment seat.

Hey God, Jesus came over to my house. I received him joyfully, gave him good steak, potato. I said the right words to him. I'm saved, right? Eternally secure. No, he's occupying himself while he waits.

In the meantime, between salvation, between receiving Jesus joyfully and judgment, he's occupying himself with restitution, making right what he's done wrong, with bearing the fruit of repentance. And so Jesus says in verse 9, today salvation has come to this house.

Interesting the way he says it, isn't it? Very different than the way we speak today. Often people, Christians today, say so-and-so got saved, as though that person went out and took the initiative and went out and got it.

Like you go to a store and get milk. I got milk. I got saved. Jesus says it totally different, doesn't he? Salvation has come to this house. Not Zacchaeus got saved. Salvation got Zacchaeus. Notice that clearly, because this answers the question we've been asking for three weeks in a row now.

How do you come to God? How does Zacchaeus come to God? Sure, he came joyfully. He came with joy, but not because he came. He did come taking the initiative, like the rich young ruler asking, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

And Jesus said, give away half your stuff to the poor, and if you've cheated anyone, restore that four times much. And he thought, Zacchaeus thought, okay, I can do that. And he came, and he did it. So he came to salvation.

No, he came joyfully because today, first, salvation came to him. Why did salvation come to Zacchaeus? Because, Jesus explains in the second half of verse 9, he also is a son of Abraham. All you people in this crowd here in Jericho, you think you're right with God because you're children of Abraham?

He is, too. You know, this is Jericho, after all. This is Judea. Probably everyone in that crowd were sons of Abraham. So what makes Zacchaeus so different that Jesus picks him out perched in a tree? Obviously, he doesn't just mean Zacchaeus is a physical descendant of Abraham, because, again, that applies to everyone there.

But he's a spiritual child of Abraham. As Paul wrote in Galatians, everyone who has faith is a child of Abraham. Jesus had to stop and invite himself over to Zacchaeus' house because, in verse 10, his purpose as the son of man who brings in God's rule is to seek the lost, lost even in a tree, gawking and save them as restore them to where God intended them to be among his people.

How do you come to God? Zacchaeus came joyfully, but he came because Jesus first came to him. And then, as Jesus is saying these things, so in the same context, perhaps, it doesn't say clearly here in Luke, but perhaps he's still on that crowded road with this grumbling crowd listening in, or perhaps they're reclining in Zacchaeus' living room after dinner.

Either way, this is still in this context. Jesus has another parable for them. It's almost an allegory. It's different than most other parables. It comes in two parts. It's the parable of the minas. How do you come to God?

Waiting Patiently for the Kingdom of God

Well, first, patiently. They're on the verge of Jerusalem. So, Luke says, because he was near to Jerusalem, that's important, because this is telling us what this parable is about, had something to do with him about to enter Jerusalem.

And verse 11, and also, also explains the parable, because they, the common people, probably also the disciples, suppose that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. Because of all that, Jesus told this parable.

So, if you want to know what the parable means, understand what's going on. He's about to go to Jerusalem. And the way Luke puts it, tips us off that they were wrong, that the kingdom of God wasn't going to appear immediately.

Now, if we've been studying our way, just kind of straight through Luke, continually, uninterrupted by about two years from where we left off. We left off right after chapter 17, about two years ago. If we had been continually, it would have been just like three weeks ago.

We were in chapter 17. And we would immediately notice a question. Wait, I remember. Hopefully, maybe you remember two years ago. But in Luke chapter 17, verse 20, just two chapters before this, the Lord Jesus is asked, you know, when will the kingdom of God come?

And instead of saying, not immediately, he says, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you. In other words, it's here already. It's here in me. And we know that everything that he's done since then, like healing the blind man, is evidence of God's rule on earth.

The kingdom of God is now here. But now, here in this passage in Luke 19, on the verge of entering Jerusalem, and the people and the disciples think that, well, think that their wait for the kingdom of God is over, finally.

That he's going to enter Jerusalem, probably the very next day. He's going to reestablish the Davidic dynasty, organize an army. He's going to bring God's empire on earth, going to drive out the Romans, and he's going to bring Israel back to glory.

We're done waiting, they were thinking. You know, glory is almost here. Tomorrow, it's going to be here. And so he tells them this parable with the opposite meaning of that, though. You're going to have to wait.

The kingdom of God is now in your midst, and not yet. And because it's still not yet, not yet fulfilled, the physical adoption of the children of God, the resurrection, the time when you can finally say, oh death, where is your sting?

That time, the fulfillment of all things, because that is still not yet, you have to wait. So you need to be patient. We come to God patiently. How do you come to God? Well, the parable tells us in two parts.

The first part of this parable is based on a true story, on history. In 4 BC, and remember this probably happens about 30 AD, so this is like 35 or so years before this. You know, this is kind of depends on how old the people were in the crowd listening to this.

For some it's history, for some it's just memory. But in 4 BC, Herod the Great died. He was the king who tried to kill Jesus as a baby in Bethlehem. And his son, Archelaus, had to go to Rome, the far country, mentioned in verse 12, in order to lobby, to petition the emperor for the authority to become king, like his father.

But the Jews didn't want him to be king. They hated him. And so they sent a delegation asking the emperor not to make him king over Judea. And that's described in verse 14 here of this parable. So one part of the parable is about how people who are waiting for their king to return should receive the king.

A prospective king is going away to get the authority to rule. Now, how should they feel about their ruler who is supposed to return to rule over them? How should they feel about it? Well, here they hate him.

In actual history, they had good reasons to hate him because he was just about as brutal as his father. But remember the context here. Jesus is going to Jerusalem. That's what comes next. The very next story in Luke 19 is about him entering Jerusalem.

And he knows, Jesus knows what that will lead to. He just told them near the end of chapter 18, remember? He told them already what's coming, the son of man, what's going to happen to him, even though he was hidden from the disciples.

His followers are expecting, though, because it was hidden from them, they're expecting glory. They're expecting the kingdom of God on earth. Jesus sitting on a throne, expelling the Romans and putting Israel back on top again.

What's really to happen, like what he mentioned already in chapter 18, besides the mocking, the insulting, the spitting, the flogging, the killing him and the resurrection, what's really going to happen is that he is going to a far country, to heaven, to be given authority.

Like in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 25, he, Jesus, must reign until he has put all his enemies, all his enemies under Jesus's feet. He's gone to heaven to get a kingdom. The king-elect is going away to get coronated.

Now, how do we feel about that? About being ruled by him? You know, coming to God is, means coming into his kingdom, his realm, where he rules, living under his authority. It's not just about getting stuff from him, you know, like forgiveness for sin or escape from hell, a positive attitude, like getting healing, maybe wealth, maybe good advice, how to live well.

And you get that, you get what you want, and you just go about your merry way, living how you want. No, it's not like that. It's about being governed by him. How do you feel about that? How do you feel about Jesus coming and ruling you?

Do you want him ruling over you? Now, there are some American so-called Christians today who teach that you can have Jesus as your savior, but not as your lord, as your king. You can want his benefits, like forgiveness, get out of hell free cards, while also being a part of the delegation that hates him, that's trying to have him not rule over us.

Well, those people will find, as in the last verse of this parable, verse 27, that they are left out of the kingdom, that they are not saved, that they haven't come to God. How do you come to God? Well, the opposite of the people here.

They hated him. They hated his rule. They didn't want him ruling over them. They didn't want him governing them. The opposite. You come to God loving his rule. You want him to be an authority over you.

You want to do things his way. You seek first his kingdom, his authority over you, that his will be done. You come to God loving him, desiring him. How do you come to God? Well, the second part of the parable is about what we are to do while we're waiting on the return of the king, who we want to rule over us.

Faithful Stewardship While Waiting for the King

You're fateful. The king, who you want to rule over you, is going away to a distant country in verse 12. Now, that implies that it's going to take him a long time, especially in that day, right? Travel took take a long time.

Remember, they were expecting the kingdom of God to come fully immediately, like the very next day when Jesus triumphantly enters Jerusalem. So Jesus is saying here, no, there's going to be a long wait because I'm taking a long trip now.

What do you do? What do we do in the meantime? How do we occupy ourselves while he's away? Well, here the nobleman, that's the prospective king, gives his servants a mina each. A mina is about a hundred days pay, a hundred days wages.

So about three months pay for an average farm worker. So let's say in our terms, it's about averaging about $7 ,500, $7 ,500. Not a huge amount of money, but not nothing either. And he gives one instruction in verse 13.

Notice that, engage in business until I come. Always get busy. Don't waste your time. Make more. For us, that means that while we wait for the king, we work, we seek to make more out of what God gave us.

God expects us to use our time advancing somehow. Ask yourself, you know, every day, have I advanced today? Have I made progress spiritually in prayer and Bible study and serving God? Have I advanced mentally?

Have I learned something? Have I stretched my mind? Have I advanced physically? Am I in better shape today than the day before? Have I advanced financially? Have I earned money that I can save? I made money or saved or given some money or have I rested and refreshed myself so that I can do those things better tomorrow?

The lesson is John Piper would don't waste your life, invest it, work on it, develop it. Whatever it is you have been given, make more out of it. Make more out of all the things that you've been given that at the end of your life, you will be the best that you could be at everything you did, whether academics or sports and teaching business, cooking, music, saving, painting, writing, whatever it is, whatever you were giving, and you do it all for the glory of God.

Remember, we're here doing business for the king. Do business, the king says, engage in business for me, he says, with my money I'm giving you with my talent until I come. He's given us his stuff and he's coming back expecting us to make more out of it for him, that more people would know about the gospel because you knew about the gospel, right?

Understand, you've been given knowledge of him. So, do other people now, are there more people who know because you knew? You multiplied the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. He's given you this knowledge, this revelation, this life, this fruit of the spirit.

Are there more now people who have that knowledge, who have that revelation, who have more life because you did? When he returns, he's going to ask you whether you made more out of that than what he left with you.

Have you? Here, the returned king examines three of his servants. Now, the first one in verse 16 can report that he multiplied what was given him by 10. This guy should be a stockbroker. He's brilliant.

He's great. He returned 1 ,000 on the interest given him. Yeah, he's the guy you want investing your money. The king exclaims in verse 17, well done, good servant, because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over 10 cities.

Here, the king delegates the authority that he got on his long trip. He rewards faithfulness. The second did half as well in verse 18, still very good actually, returning 500 on the investments given him.

He too gets rewarded. He too was faithful. But then the third one was, the third one was afraid. He didn't, he didn't trust or love the king. He was just too full of fear. He says, I was afraid of you because you are a severe man.

You take what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow. So he hid his investment in a handkerchief, you know, probably deep in a chest or drawer somewhere. While he was waiting, he did nothing.

He was afraid of losing, afraid of losing the king's money and thought, he thought just preserving it would be good enough. But as Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad wrote, winners are not afraid of losing, but losers are.

Failure is part of the process of success. People who avoid failure also avoid success. A woman in Israel about 10 years ago, apparently was too afraid of the banks, too afraid that they would somehow steal her money.

I don't know anything about banks in Israel, but so she literally stuffed all her savings, her money in her mattress. Now, one day when she was away, her daughter thought she would do her mother a great favor, give her a great gift, get rid of her old lumpy mattress.

That mattress is so lumpy and uncomfortable. And so bought her throughout the old one and bought her a new one. By the time her mother got back, it was too late. He had already hauled away the trash with the old mattress and they couldn't find it with nearly one million dollars of a life savings stuffed inside.

If you're afraid. You'll lose. Well, the king is angry at the wicked servant and he calls him. It's what he calls him in verse 22, his own words, that servant's own words condemn him. He should have at least gotten interest on the money.

Do something with it. So he condemns the servant who did nothing while waiting, who wasted his opportunity. And he has the takes the minor from him and gives the minor to the one who made 10. Some protest.

Well, that's unfair. You know, we should have equity of outcome. It's the communist dogma. Everyone should get the same reward, live the same to each according to his need is their principle of reward.

And this is a shocking parable to many people today because it turns upside down what many people expect is right. Scandalously, he doesn't reward according to need, but according to faithfulness. Indeed, the last wicked servant has his mind had taken from him and verse 24 and given to the last faithful to give me to the first faithful one, the rich get richer and the poor, poorer.

Now, sure, sometimes that's the product of greedy rich people who use their power to exploit and oppress. But sometimes it's the decree of God rewarding the faithful and punishing the faith less. Jesus himself lays down the principle in verse 26 to everyone who has more will be given.

But from the one who has not even what he has will be taken away. Notice that statement. Verse 26, it appears twice in the Gospel of Matthew. And in here is a very important principle. Jesus taught. Right to everyone who has more will be given, but from the one who has not even what he has will be taken away.

Now, given, taken by who? Who's doing the giving and the taking here? Notice a passive voice again. Another divine passive where God is the unspoken active one, an unspoken subject here giving to the fateful so that they will have more and taking away from the faithless so they will have nothing.

We can rephrase it to everyone who has. God will give more, but for the one who has not, God will take away what even he has. Then in that last verse, which ties together both parts of the parable, is the fearsome judgment, the enemies who hated the king, who were wicked, who were too afraid.

You're a severe man, too afraid of him to make more of what they were given are to be slaughtered in front of the king. They didn't love him. They didn't want him to come. They didn't want to rule him.

They didn't want him to rule over them. And they didn't come to him. How do we come to God? Well, in one way, he is a severe king. Expecting a return, expecting us to make more of what he's given us while while we wait.

But if we think. If we think he's severe to us, we're full of fear toward him. If we don't have his spirit in us, assuring us that we are children of the king, making us cry out, Abba, Father, if we're so afraid of him that we go hide our knowledge of him in the meantime, while we wait, if we don't make more out of what he's given us so that more people know about the glory of God, because we do.

If we don't make more. We're in trouble because he is coming, whether or not we come to God. He is coming to us. How do we come to God? Well, here the good service didn't really come to the king. It's kind of not even the right question, is it?

They busy themselves doing the king's work while waiting for the king to come to them. How do we come to God? Like Zacchaeus. Salvation. Jesus came to his house. We know that because he changed. He made restitution.

He returned the investment made in his life when he joyfully accepted Jesus. God came to him. The secret, the truth is that it's not really first that we come to God. It's not that we take the initiative.

Now, sure, we do come to God. But why? Why do you come to God? Because he first comes to you.