Christmas Eve: To Seek and to Save

Ascension Presbyterian Church Longwood

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Well, if you'll open your Bibles with me to the gospel of Luke chapter 19 We'll be taking it

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Luke's gospel chapter 19. We'll be taking a look at the first 10 verses. Please stand for the reading of God's Word Luke 19 these are the words of God Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho Now behold there was a man named

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Zacchaeus Who was a chief tax collector and he was rich? And he sought to see who

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Jesus was But could not because of the crowd for he was of short stature

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So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him for he was going to pass that way

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And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him and said to him

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Zacchaeus Make haste and come down for today. I must stay at your house so he made haste and came down and Received him joyfully

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But when they saw it, they all complained saying he has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner

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Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord look Lord I give half of my goods to the poor and if I have taking anything from anyone by false accusation

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I restore fourfold and Jesus said to him today

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Salvation has come to this house Because he also is a son of Abraham For the

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Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost

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Let us pray Almighty God enter our hearts and so fill us with your love

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That forsaking all evil desires we may embrace you our only good

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Show unto us for your mercy sakes. Oh Lord our God what you are unto us

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Say unto our souls. I am your salvation So speak that we may hear

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Our hearts are before you open our ears. Let us hasten after your voice and take hold of you

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Amen, please be seated Well our text here tonight from Luke 19 the

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Zacchaeus account may see an odd text to consider at Christmastime and especially on Christmas Eve The text though important and glorious may seem a bit out of place among angels and shepherds

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Herod and the wise men Mary Joseph and the baby Jesus But I hope to make clear

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What the relevance of this text is at this time of year We have just retold the story of Advent and Christmas We have reviewed some of the prophecies of the coming of the

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Messiah We have reviewed some of the events that accompanied his birth Starting with the first gospel message in Genesis 3

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What the theologians call the proto Evangelion the first good news given right after the fall

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The statement by God the Father that he would raise up a Savior from the seed of a woman

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One that would crush the head of the serpent he would free us from the bondage to sin and death and Continuing through our narrative to Isaiah when we learn that this coming seed this coming

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Messiah is to be God that his name would be

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Emmanuel which means God with us and To clarify the point

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Isaiah went further and said his name would also be wonderful counselor mighty

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God everlasting Father Prince of Peace That his arrival would be miraculous that the

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Virgin would conceive and bear a son and also that his kingdom would have no end and Micah we learned that he would be born in Bethlehem and this would mark him the coming one out a being of the house and lineage of David and this was not simply of genealogical relationship to David but also the one that would wear the mantle of the office of David the king of Israel Fulfilling the promise of God that he would have a ruler over Israel forever to everlasting in Luke 1 26 through 38 the seed of the woman the one to be born of the

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Virgin is announced What we call the annunciation The angel

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Gabriel informs Mary that she is the one This announcement

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Expected from Eve to Mary had finally come And we should not be fooled by what we read in in that account where Mary was astonished by the greeting

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All expected that one day this announcement would be made. Yes.

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Mary was startled that it was her But they all knew that it was coming again from Eve to Mary They all expected it we may remember back in Genesis 4

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When Eve had conceived and bore Cain She thought that that child would be the coming one for she said behold

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I have a man from the Lord but now the time had finally come and Mary rejoices and what we call the

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Magnificat and Luke 1 46 through 56 She rejoices that the

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Savior her Savior had finally come Key to this is what we read in verse 54 she says he has helped his servant

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Israel and remembrance of his mercy God the

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Father has remembered the promises not that he had forgotten But they were finally unfolding

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Many times in the Bible when we hear the Lord remembering we it may mean more like an unfolding and This promise had been unfolding for over 4 ,000 years

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Since the time that Adam and Eve sinned in the fall to Christ The promises were unfolding and now the time was here

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And we had this confirmed in the account in Luke 2 where the birth of Christ is described

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The innate angels announced to the shepherds and they came and witnessed the newborn

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King Sometime later the Magi the wise men those sages of foreign nations came to visit the child

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Bringing their treasures to him. This was the first trickle of the promise of the Gentiles coming in The beginning of the nation's to worship the

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Lord and serve him. So what does all this have to do with Zacchaeus?

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Let's take a look at our text the Zacchaeus account is well known to us

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Especially if you grew up in the church You may have even had a Sunday school class where you learn a little song about him

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That Zacchaeus was a wee little man This account is short and fairly straightforward

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It starts with Jesus passing through Jericho This was the rebuilt

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Jericho the original Jericho was destroyed by the Israelites after the miraculous bringing down of the walls and the conch during the conquest of Canaan Our Lord had not passed through Jericho during his earthly ministry until now

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He had an appointment with Zacchaeus We read in verse 2 that Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector

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Tax collectors were Jews who had compromised with the Romans They were seen by their countrymen as traitors

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They were given a task by the Romans to collect a certain amount of tax

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Anything above and beyond that they may keep Many of them became very wealthy

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Stealing from their fellow Jews and others and our text tells us that Zacchaeus was a rich man

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It also said that he was the chief tax collector This may mean that he was the leader of the tax collectors or that he was a prominent tax collector

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Or that he was prolific in his tax collecting either way, he was well known in the community and He was a sinner

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Not because of his wealth but because he had broken the law of God He had broken the

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Eighth Commandment and this was notorious We read in verse 7

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But they saw it they all complained saying he is gone to be the guest with a man

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Who is a sinner? Sometimes we are tempted when we hear we don't know who that they are in this particular case but we could assume that it might be the

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Pharisees or the religious elite, but it could just be the local citizens and Sometimes we hear these people

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Calling others sinners that we tend to think that they may blowing it out of proportion in some way

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But we have to remember that those to whom Jesus was often found in the company with were indeed sinners harlots prostitutes tax collectors sinners and His sin was well known

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In verse 3 we see that Zacchaeus wanted to see

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Jesus Jesus by this time was famous the news of his miracles his healings his miraculous feedings

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Had become famous throughout all the land it was curiosity that motivated

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Zacchaeus and Motivated him enough to do something that was very undignified

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It motivated him to run and to climb a tree we read this so often that we didn't even

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Register on us, but a man of his stature Would never run

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This is one of the things that was so infamous in the account of the prodigal son that the father would run to meet him

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And that culture it was not dignified for men to run Let alone climb a tree

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But Zacchaeus was very motivated he wanted to see Jesus and because of his stature

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He had to get up above the crowd Perhaps he was a lot like Herod you remember later in Luke's gospel during the so -called trial of our

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Lord after Pilate had examined him he sent Jesus to Herod And Herod was excited because he had as the

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King James says Desire to see Jesus for a long season Hoping to see some miracle work by him.

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We don't know what Motivated Zacchaeus whether it was to hope to see a miracle or not

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But he was get about to get more than he hoped for in Verse 5 we read that when

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Jesus came by the place where Zacchaeus was That he looked up and saw him and said

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Zacchaeus Make haste and come down For today, I must stay in your home

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He noticed Zacchaeus and then he invites himself over to Zacchaeus his home

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Perhaps for a meal perhaps to lodge there And what was

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Zacchaeus his response Rejoicing He did make haste he did come down and received him

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Joyfully, we have recorded here for us

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Zacchaeus his conversion moment It has been captured for us by Luke the evangelist and we have had it in our possession for over 2 ,000 years

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And what was Zacchaeus his response to the grace shown him in his conversion moment?

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It was great joy Zacchaeus stood and said to the

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Lord he says here in verse 8. Look Lord. I give half my goods to the poor

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This was extravagant giving But he had received extravagantly

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His sins were forgiven But he goes on he says

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If I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation By stealing it

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I Will restore it fourfold This was far more than the law required

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But out of his great zeal and love and thanksgiving for what he had received

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He was going to go far and above beyond what was required This was nothing short of an outburst of gratitude

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Thanksgiving and joy For his salvation and our

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Lord confirms this for he says here in verse 9 today Salvation has come to this house

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That Zacchaeus is now a true son of Abraham not just a genealogical son of Abraham But a son of Abraham by faith

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For those who have the faith of Abraham in the God of Abraham Are the true sons and daughters of Abraham, but notice our last verse verse 10

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Jesus continues he says for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save That which is lost and this is where our text comes back to the incarnation

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We are sometimes caught up in this time of celebration When we may remember

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Christ's first advent will we focus upon the birth of Christ? rejoicing in the incarnation

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And that's good and right so for us to do that Sometimes we forget the reason there was a saying some years ago, and it may still be a saying today

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That Jesus is the reason for this season I kind of hope that it falls out of favor because it's rather cheesy

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Although very true, but it would perhaps be more true and more accurate to say that sin is the reason for this season

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That sin which we read in our first lesson that entered in through the disobedience of Adam and Eve That sin brought death into the world it plunges the world into darkness and misery remember what we read in the sixth lesson from Matthew's Gospel the

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Lord said to Joseph in his dream and You shall call his name Jesus For he will save his people from their sins

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In our reading we've heard several names for this coming one Emmanuel Mighty God Everlasting Father, but we also have

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Jesus Jesus is the Greek rendering of Yeshua Yeshua means y 'all that is

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Yahweh saves And this was more than his name

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It was the reason for his coming We were all lost

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We all had sinned and fallen short of the glory of God we were in a way all

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Zacchaeus's But thanks be to God the

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Son of Man came to seek and to save that which is lost

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As we celebrate later this evening and tomorrow the birth of our Savior Let us remember his name

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Jesus Yeshua And remember why he came to seek and to save those who were lost what he was to do then and what he is still doing now and As we prepare in a few moments to sing joy to the world

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May we sing it with the renewed sense of rejoicing for like Zacchaeus We have an awful lot to be thankful for Awful lot to be grateful for Because the

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Son of Man came to seek and to save those who were lost and that was us

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Let us pray God our Father in this night you have made known to us again the coming of our

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Lord Jesus Christ Confirm our faith and fix our eyes on him until the day dawns in Christ the

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Morning Star rises in our hearts to him be glory both now and forever