Jesus Stops for the Lost: Zacchaeus' Radical Repentance

Because our understanding of repentance sometimes is a little bit flawed. Repentance is not a song. It's not even coming to an altar. The biblical understanding of repentance, the closest example that we get of the word is I am headed in one direction. I have some type of encounter, and I don't slightly deviate towards, you know, I'll attend church a little bit more, and I'll be a kinder person. It is a 180 degree I was headed this way, and now I am headed in a completely different way. I am turned around. I have been arrested. I have been moved in a different direction. [00:22:49] (36 seconds)  #RadicalRepentance

See, people that attempt to control Jesus will always be disappointed because you quickly find out he has no interest in completely fitting into your agenda and your narrative. There are people that were more worthy of having dinner with Jesus. There are people that should have been the ones that got to welcome into his home, but Jesus says, I'm here for desperate people. I'm here for sinners. And it is impossible to read the narrative of the gospel and come away with the conclusion that Jesus is more interested in the tradition of religion than the lost, the hurting, and the broken. [00:16:52] (35 seconds)  #JesusOverReligion

you want one factor that we see in Jesus' life that made him pause, it was lost people. Jesus, as he ascends the Hill Of Bethany and looks down on Jerusalem, it says that he begins to weep just from looking at a city. It says, how long Jerusalem would I have desired to gather you under my wings the way a mother hen does to her chicks? But you have turned your head, and you have made your heart of stone. Jesus' heart was moved. What was his motivation to the cross? It was lost people. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. [00:24:12] (38 seconds)  #HeartForTheLost

These young men had hurt a lot of people in the city, a lot of people in the schools. I remember, honestly, as a young youth pastor, remember sitting down with my senior pastor and saying, hey, man. I don't really know what to do with this. These parents have some very valid complaints about some of the students who are coming to our youth ministry, and a revolutionary life changing moment in ministry happened. My pastor looked across the desk from me, he looked at me, and he said, if your youth ministry is not for them, it's not for anyone. [00:19:32] (30 seconds)  #MinistryForEveryone

But I would say there's another side of the spectrum, which is you have no problem doing that, but nobody knows the real you. I'll be I'll be crazy in worship, but I would never be honest enough to join a small group. I would never be on enough to show up to Celebrate Recovery on Monday night to talk about my addictions. both of those things are just as much of a problem. Whether it is losing our minds a little bit of worship, responding to a message, or joining a group and pulling back the mask so someone can know the real me, all of us have steps to take towards becoming undignified in the presence of God. [00:14:10] (45 seconds)  #BeUndignified

So Zacchaeus hears a rumor that Jesus is coming through, and on account of the crowd, it says that he climbs up into a tree. Now there could not be a less likely person to climb into a tree in the time of Jesus than a rich tax collector. Like, even now, if I came in today and you guys, oh, man, what'd you do this weekend, John? I said, man, I just I climbed an awesome tree. There'd be like, oh, that's kinda weird. But for that time, even more so, a wealthy man would never have done this. [00:10:14] (34 seconds)  #KnowWhoJesusIs

the reminder of a passage like this as it relates to what we talked before is that if God is a God that sees but does not stop for people, he keeps it pushing and says, wow. There's a guy in a tree. Let's keep going. I've got more important things to do. Jesus is the author, the initiator of faith. It is not by your own works that you come to him. The spirit draws and reveals the son to you. This is who Jesus is. He's the hero of the story. He stops. All faith is initiated by Jesus, and every ounce of my faith has initiated by a God that looked at me, found me in my brokenness, and says, I've got to be with you today. I have to. He's doing the same thing today to desperate people who would show up and be undignified. [00:15:39] (54 seconds)  #SeekingSavior

The decisive seeker in the story of Luke chapter 19 is not the man that climbs a tree because every other world religion will describe a God that has power to see, that is above. But only Christianity describes a religion with a God that when he sees people climb up trees stops for them. Everything is motivated out of verse 10, for the son of man came to seek and save that whom is lost. But if you don't believe that about God, you won't have relationship with him. See, the world has a way of making me stop seeing Jesus as the God who stops. [00:26:13] (51 seconds)  #GenerosityOverComfort

And I would just tell you today, if Jesus does not have the ability to poke at your finances, he does not have your heart. He looks at the response of Zacchaeus. This is something that is he stopped in his tracks by because Zacchaeus' life is about to change forever. How? If you make all of your money defrauding people, are you going to keep this business going when you say I'm gonna pay back four times the people that I've defrauded? That's done. Business plan, rip it up. Now radical repentance. [00:22:12] (37 seconds)  #BoldlyUndignified

And so by Zacchaeus being called a tax collector, but he's apparently really good at the job. So this is a hated person. This is a person that so much so they get lumped into categories of the worst of the worst in society when you study history from the time that Jesus lived. And it says that even though Zacchaeus falls into that category, says that when Jesus is passing through a city, at that point in his ministry in his life, it would have been like a small scale riot or a parade when Jesus walked through. [00:09:41] (32 seconds)  #BehindTheTaxCollector

are maybe our our people who work for the IRS are not very popular, these were much less popular people in the time of Jesus. These were people who Rome would recruit to be enemies of the state, people that were willing to betray their own people because the way that Rome ruled such a large empire as it related to finances is that they would find people who were willing to do this and would say, hey. This is the quota that you guys owe Rome for this region. Anything else that you wanna charge on top of it is money that you get to keep. [00:09:10] (30 seconds)  #InclusiveChurchChallenge

raise their hands to the message. They come to the altar afterwards to receive prayer, and they start telling us about who they are and some of the hard things that they are now laying at the altar. And I was in our debrief meeting with my team afterwards. One of the kids that would gone to high school with those guys, he said, hey. I don't know if you know this, but those are three of the biggest drug dealers in our city. And I remember this it was amazing. These guys radically get saved. And so they start showing up every Wednesday. Say, hey. I go, hey. There's church on Sundays too. They're like, really? I'm like, yeah. Church on Sundays too. [00:18:29] (34 seconds)  #WelcomingTheUnexpected

And they're like, can can we come? I'm like, yeah. You should come. You should come early. And I'll never forget, man. These three guys were on our front steps with welcome signs, welcoming people into church. But here's the thing. It didn't take too long before I started getting emails from parents in our youth ministry saying, hey. I'd love to sit down with you. I'm not sure if you know who's serving at your church on Sunday. And In that moment, I remember sitting down and and again, as a parent, I understand. K? I I truly do. [00:19:03] (29 seconds)  #BlueSpruceMiracle

My friends and I look around, and I go, is this someone's birthday today? She goes, yeah, it's my four year old son's birthday. And at this point, I start losing my mind because I got a cake that's bigger than this kid sitting in the back of my truck. Friends and I run out there, walk in. Kids are losing their mind. The mom is sobbing, and she's just looking at me and saying, how how how? Like, I don't know, ma'am, but I know that there's a God who's real, and he loves you. We got to pray with her. It's been almost seventeen years since that happened. [00:30:22] (47 seconds)  #FriendOfSinners

It is not possible to read it that way, but here is the problem. The longer we are in church, the less wet becomes our posture. It's yeah. I know. Okay. We're inviting you guys to camp. When I was 17 and I came to an altar to rededicate my life to Jesus, I was fully aware that he was coming for the lost, the hurting, and the broken. But after fifteen years of being in church and being a part of this thing, am I still carrying the same posture for the lost, the hurting, and the broken? [00:17:27] (31 seconds)  #LiveWhatYouSing

The songs that we sing, the words that come out, we don't live them out. We read scriptures like this about the leader of a nation willing to be undignified, and we don't even respond to sermons. Zacchaeus stands as an example over thousands of years of what would happen if you would be willing to be undignified, that it slows God down. And I would tell you to say that, yes, there's that side of the spectrum. Some of you need to let your hair down, you gotta let that flag fly, man. You've gotta make it happen in worship. [00:13:36] (34 seconds)  #TechDesensitizes

Jesus is walking with his disciples, and he turns to them and says, who do people say that I am? They have answers. They say, well, some say you're a prophet. Some say you're Elijah. Jesus listens to their answers, but then looks at them but says, but who do you say that I am? And I would encourage you today, the reason why we're preaching through this series and the reason why we are going to be talking about the life of Jesus all summer is I actually think that the answer to that question is two things. One, it's deeply personal. I can't answer the question for you. [00:00:56] (31 seconds)  #JesusChangesEverything

But in addition to that, I think it's the most important question of life. I know that may seem dramatic. That may seem hyperbolic, but I will tell you today that what you think about Jesus, not what your pastor says about Jesus, not what your family says about Jesus, but who you think Jesus is could radically change everything about your life. And today, I'm gonna preach a message to you out of a story that if you have been around church, you may have heard. If not, today, it's in Luke chapter 19. We're gonna be talking about Jesus and a man named Zacchaeus. [00:01:27] (34 seconds)  #JesusCaresPersonally

story, although is a common one in church, reveals something deep about the character of God, something that was prophesied from the Old Testament, something deep, something weighty, that there would be a God that would show up. And not only would he see people, but he would be willing to stop for people, that he would leave the 99 for the one, that he would slow down in the midst of ministry and busyness to stop for people that were desperately in need of an encounter with Jesus. And so today, I'm gonna read five verses to you, and we're gonna pray. Says this, as Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through and behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. [00:02:32] (38 seconds)  #GodWhoStops

my friend directed us to a motel called the Blue Spruce Motel in Tacoma, Washington. I remember we pulled in, and it was clear, man. There was people who were really hurting in there. In the hour and a half that we were there handing out food, you know, knocking on people's doors, we saw people who were clearly involved in prostitution. I saw people strung out, man, with needles next to them. And what we did is just knock on the door and say, hey, man. We're from the church, and if you need some groceries, we've got them. And I remember we you know, a lot of people just slam the door in your face. They don't want anything. But a few people would let us in, and we got to give groceries to them and say, hey. Do you want some prayer? Most of them said no, but a few of them we got to pray with. [00:29:07] (38 seconds)  #CakeAndGrace