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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/gordon-armstrong/conversion-of-zacchaeus/
I'd like to read in the Gospel of Luke, please, in chapter number 19. Luke chapter 19. And we're going to read an account of an individual that met the Lord Jesus. And in meeting the Lord Jesus, it says that salvation came to his house.
And that is the desire of everyone that is here this evening, is that salvation would come to your house. That you would come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as a result of being here this weekend. So we'll read the first ten verses of Luke chapter 19, and we'll look to God to bless as we read it.
And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. And behold there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich. And he sought to see Jesus, who he was, and could not for the press because he was little of stature.
And he ran before and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must abide at thy house.
And he made haste and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying that he was gone to be guests with a man that is a sinner. As Zacchaeus stood and said unto the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.
And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation. Come to this house for so much as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which is lost. He was a man, and in his daily life he was going about his business.
We read about him that the Lord Jesus was entering the town that he was in, and as a result of this man Zacchaeus' encounter with Christ, his life was changed. His destiny was altered. He went from being on the broad road that leads to hell and to the lake of fire to being on the narrow road that leads to heaven.
And that is why we preach the gospel. Not that our voice might be heard, not that we can try and promote an idea or a church or a religion, but that you may come to know the Lord Jesus Christ and heaven is your home.
That you may be sure of where you are and where you are going. I want to think of a few things in the verses that we read. I want to think about the condition of Zacchaeus. I want to think of the dedication of Zacchaeus and the transformation of Zacchaeus.
And I also want to think in verse number 10 of the mission of the Son of Man. The condition of Zacchaeus. We read that Zacchaeus was the chief tax gatherer. It was a pretty despised job. You know, no one likes tax people generally, but let alone crooked tax people.
You know, he would have been the one that would have taken the tax money and made sure there was a little bit more to line his own pocket. He was a man that was known. He was a man that was known to be someone that would really rip the people off.
He worked for the Roman Empire and really to a Jewish person he was the worst of the worst. But you know, in the Gospel of Luke a few chapters back, there's a few words that are said about the Lord Jesus.
And really they're said as a criticism of the Lord Jesus Christ. These people, they saw all the things the Lord Jesus spoke and the things that he did and it says, you know, this man, he receives sinners and he eats with them.
You know, the only way that any of us will ever be in heaven is because the Lord Jesus receives sinners. And that is the great news of the Gospel. That although the religious people of the world may look at the Lord Jesus and they may have looked at him and they thought that he was violating their expectations and they were disappointed in the things that he said and the people that he associated with.
He was a man that was a friend of sinners. And that is who we present in the Gospel tonight, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. So here was a man, Zacchaeus, and perhaps he had heard about the fact that this man received sinners.
Zacchaeus wasn't a man that had a great reception in many places. He was a man that was likely pushed away from the crowds. The man that was not invited to other people's homes. The man that was not welcomed with the religious people.
But he heard there was a man that received people like him, sinners. And the Lord Jesus, he had just blessed a blind beggar and now he was going to bless a man that was a rich, crooked tax collector. And you know what we can learn in that is that regardless of who you are this evening, the Lord is able to save you.
Whether you're someone, as it were, on the bottom of society or someone that you think you're at the top of society. Whether you're rich or poor, young or old, the Lord Jesus is able to receive one type of people, sinful people.
And that includes every single one of us because the Bible says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. You know our sin, it may be different than the sin of Zacchaeus, but we still have sin.
You know, that's one of the things that we love to try and do is compare ourselves to other people. You know, if you go down and try and speak with someone about the gospel, I think of a place we normally go on a Sunday night and there can be various things that take place.
There's a lot of people that are living very obviously sinful lives, but they can always find someone that is worse off than them, that is more of a sinner than they are, that they seem to think that they are better in the eyes of God because their sin is not as bad as someone else.
But you know Zacchaeus, there was lessons that he had to learn, there were things that he had to understand, and the Lord Jesus is who he was seeking for. Because despite his sin, despite his problem, he had a desire to see Jesus.
That's what it said. He wanted, sought to see Jesus who he was. He wanted to see the Lord Jesus. There was an interest on the part of Zacchaeus to find out who is this man that I have heard about, but the problem on a physical level was he was too small.
There was all these people, there was a big crowd of people, and he knew the Lord Jesus was going to be passing, and it was just such a crowd of people that he could never really make it to get close.
I don't think there was many people that were going to tell Zacchaeus, Zacchaeus come on up front and stand here, we'll give you a front row seat. He was the one that was the rejected man, that they were probably not wanting to get very close to the Lord Jesus Christ.
But you know Zacchaeus, maybe you think well he was pretty clever, he was able to work out a way that he can get and climb up a tree and find the Lord Jesus and see him, but you know what it shows me on a spiritual level as we think of the gospel?
He had a desire to see the Lord Jesus Christ that was greater than the obstacles that he faced. There was a desire in his heart to see the Lord Jesus Christ, and yes there was a crowd, perhaps there was people that were blocking him from getting to the Lord Jesus Christ, but that was not going to hold him back.
You know if you have a desire to get saved tonight, there will be things that will try and hold you back. For the blind beggar, they told him, be quiet. For Zacchaeus it was a big crowd, and perhaps tonight you have a desire to be right with God and to have your sins forgiven, and you know that there's obstacles.
There's perhaps sin that you love, or there's a desire to try and do something on your own, a desire to try and please God with your good works, or your attendance at gospel meetings, and there's an obstacle, but you know the people that get saved are people whose desire for salvation is greater than the obstacles that they face.
Is salvation a priority for you tonight? Is salvation something that is, as it were, at the top of your list of things that need to be settled, or are you perhaps just thinking, you know, one day, one day, I think I'll get right with God.
One day, I'll end up on the narrow road that leads to heaven. You know what that verse says in Hebrews, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? No one sets out to neglect something. It's something that they intend to get to, something that at some point maybe they will attend to, but over time it becomes something that is neglected, because the obstacles, they were in the way, but salvation was not of the utmost importance.
Zacchaeus was a man that had the desire that was greater than the obstacles that he faced, and he went and he climbed up a sycamore tree. You know, I'm sure he faced some mockery, or people laughing at him, it didn't matter.
He knew why he was getting up the tree, he knew who he wanted to see, and it says that Jesus saw him and he looked up and he called him by name. You know, heaven has an interest in this meeting tonight, and God knows you by name, and the Lord Jesus, as it were, is calling you individually to repent and to believe the gospel.
He knows exactly where you are, and what you've done, and what your heart is, and whether or not you desire salvation, and what does the Lord Jesus say, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down. You know, there's two things that we can learn in that.
There was urgency, make haste, come quickly, and there was humility, come down. And if anyone is ever going to get saved, there is an urgency, and there's a humility. You need to get down, and recognize that before God, you are a guilty sinner, that you have offended a holy God, and there's nothing that you can do to save yourself.
And Zacchaeus heard from the lips of the Lord Jesus, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down. You know, the Bible tells us that the Lord Jesus is going to return someday, and that alone is a solemn thing to consider in light of the gospel, and it tells us that he will return quickly, and that is why the Bible says that today is the day of salvation.
Because we're not promised another day, elsewhere it says, boast not thyself of tomorrow, because we don't know what a day is going to bring. And Zacchaeus, as he was up in the tree, perhaps with an interest to see the Lord Jesus, or we know he had an interest to see the Lord Jesus, but having heard the words of the Lord Jesus, he had a choice to make.
Was he going to stay in the tree, or was he going to obey the Lord Jesus and come down? You know, the gospel is a message that is to be obeyed. The Bible says and speaks of obeying the gospel, speaking about those that are not saved, it says, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel?
So the Lord Jesus was calling Zacchaeus, and Zacchaeus had a choice to make. Would he obey the voice of the Lord Jesus, or would he stay in the tree? And perhaps tonight, as we look at that picture of Zacchaeus, you are up the tree.
You have an interest in the person of the Lord Jesus. You have heard about him, but are you going to obey him? Are you going to respond to his word and come down, and recognize the urgency and the humility that is necessary?
But he did, he responded and he came down, and we read that he received him joyfully. You know, Zacchaeus didn't receive a set of rules. Zacchaeus didn't receive a church membership. He didn't receive a creed or a prayer card that says he received him.
It was Christ, and the gospel is centered upon Christ. What are you depending upon for heaven? I almost started crying the other night as I sat across a table from a man at Chick-fil-A. He's a man that's been coming to hear the gospel for a number of weeks, and he said to me, I went down the front, my mother brought me when I was a kid, and I always heard ever since that, that you're only ever able to get saved once, but I just wonder if as an adult there's something that I need to do again.
And I looked at him and I said, Alan, I don't know exactly where you stand before God, but I know that that's not salvation. And in that man's eyes, I saw as it were the rug just ripped from under his feet, because what he was depending on for heaven was a walk down the front of a church building.
And it's sad. It wasn't a prayer, or it wasn't a church that Zacchaeus received, it was Christ. And before we ever seek salvation, we have to first realize that we're lost. Where do you stand tonight?
Zacchaeus, it says he received him joyfully, and salvation is a joyous thing. And on this occasion, we can look back, those of us that are saved, to a time when we received the Lord Jesus Christ, and we received him joyfully.
And salvation is not a feeling, but there are feelings associated with salvation. And I think of that night when the burden of sin was lifted, and I depended upon Christ for eternity. And I didn't know a whole lot of exactly what the gospel entailed, but I knew this, that my sins had been dealt with with Christ at the cross.
What are you depending on for heaven? As well as the dedication and the reception associated with Zacchaeus, you know, there was a transformation that took place in his life. Verse number 8 of the chapter that we read, it said, Zacchaeus stood and he said, Lord behold, or he said to the Lord, behold Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor.
If I've taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. There was a marked change in the life and the behavior of this man following his meeting with the Lord Jesus. The Bible says that when we're saved, we become a new creation.
Old things are passed away, behold all things are become new. And the Lord Jesus said, this day salvation has come to this house. It was a person that came. It was Christ that came. Salvation is Christ and Christ alone.
You know, the Collingsworth family got a shout out yesterday. So I can quote the cathedrals, they have a hymn, a song and it says this, thanks to Calvary, I'm not the man that I used to be. Thanks to Calvary, things are different than before as a result of the cross of Christ.
The fact that on that cross he suffered and he died and the judgment of God for sin fell upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Guilty sinners like me and like you can go from darkness into light. Can go from being on the broad road leading to hell to know that we're right with God and ready for heaven.
All because of the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was John Newton. Many of you will know this story. He had a tough childhood. He was raised by a godly mother and she couldn't really control him and he was sent off to the Merchant Navy and he was eventually kicked out of the Merchant Navy and went to join the slave trade boats.
And he became a drunkard, foul-mouthed and he eventually came into contact with the gospel again and he was saved. And it was later in life that he wrote the words, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now I'm found was blind. But now I see. In that hymn, he was speaking of the transformation that took place as a result of salvation. And I'm sure if Zacchaeus had those words written in his day, he would have sang the exact same thing, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.
And the Lord Jesus is the Savior that is seeking. He closed out that story by saying the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. And tonight if you're not saved, you're lost and on the road to hell.
But there is a Savior that is seeking sinners. And just like Zacchaeus, when you recognize the urgency and respond in humility and in obedience to the person and work and words of Christ, salvation too could come to your house and you will receive him joyfully.
May the Lord bless his word.