Getting Above the Crowd
Sermon for
October 31, 2004
1. Good Morning! Let us pray. O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing to You O Lord, our Rock and our redeemer. Amen!
2. Opening
Comments: This
morning we’re going to reflect upon what eats away at a Christian’s soul – robs
him of his joy and effectively destroys his capacity to become a good and
faithful disciple of Jesus Christ and thereby destroys any capacity he would
have of being a good Discipler of others.
And then we’re going to
discover how to avoid this seduction and hopefully commit ourselves no longer
to be incapacitated by it and so to become not only better Disciples of Jesus
Christ but better Disciplers of others.
In our Gospel reading
from the Book of Luke chapter 19 verses 1 through 10 we read about a short man
by the name of Zacchaeus and in this story we see a
man separated from God and his countrymen by the choices he had made and
now he is trying to find his way back?
How did he do this? He
wanted to see who this Jesus was.
For some reason which is not clear Zacchaeus
sought Jesus out.
He had heard that this Jesus was coming to town and something in his
heart quickened. I don’t think he knew
what this was all about but in some strange way he knew one thing and one thing
only – He had to meet this Jesus!
Do you think that he came to this conclusion on his own? I don’t! I sense the hand of God in this don’t you? A force probably beyond his knowing was inexorably drawing him to Christ.
As you and I grow
into becoming great disciples and great disciplers we
can make one very very important assumption and that
is that God is inexorably drawing us to Himself and others to Himself through
us.
How many hidden Zaccheaus’ are
in your life and mine right now?
They’re just like the Zaccheaus
in these verses – short in spiritual stature
and hidden in the crowd of our acquaintances.
But they’re Zaccaeuses all the same!
There are two keys to our understanding of all of this:
·
The one has to do with us - to have the
“eyes of Christ” so that we can see them, and the “heart of Christ” to reach
out to them in His love!
·
The other is
that Zacchaeus must not be too ashamed to climb the
sycamore tree.
3. Let’s dig into these shall we? Please turn with me to
the Gospel of Luke chapter 19 beginning at verse 1:
Luke 19:1 Jesus entered
What does this
tell us about our Zachaeus’? They’re probably the most unlikely people in
our lives – the ones that we would not expect to become our brothers and
sisters. Let’s read on: verse 3:
Zachaeus wanted to see who
Jesus was, Now that’s interesting – he wanted to see who Jesus was! What does that mean do you think? He wanted to see who Jesus was.
Who was Jesus? –
The Son of the living God – God incarnate!
Zachaeus wanted to meet
God incarnate and nothing and nobody was going to stop him – even if it meant
climbing a “silly” tree and becoming the laughing stock of the entire
community!
Reading on:
but being a short man
he could not, because of the crowd. Think about that
– how often those around us make it virtually impossible for us or anybody else
to see Jesus.
The truth is that
Jesus must come to us – He must first draw us to Himself and then we can and
must respond!
But the fact remains and let us never forget it that Zachaeus was out there responding to he knew not what
except that it had something to do with Jesus!
Let’s read on:
4 So Zachaeus ran ahead and
climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. Here’s a critical key – Zachaeus
wasn’t too ashamed to climb the sycamore tree.
He was, in fact, willing to make a fool of himself to see Jesus.
This is soooooooo important isn’t it? How many people are being drawn into our Lord’s arms but are too proud to do what it takes to be able to “have a good look at Him” – for to look upon Jesus is to become captive to Him – is to become His disciple!
Let’s read on – verse 5:
Luke 19:5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house
today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
How did Jesus
know his name? Jesus already knew Him
and his being there was no accident. Can
you sense the wonder in these few words?
Jesus drew this
terrible sinner to himself – Is that how He captured you? Could He be doing that daily in your life –
drawing people into your life so that He can incarnate Himself in you and me?
But listen now how the respectable people responded – verse 7:
19:7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be
the guest of a ‘sinner.’” They have no idea
what is happening! They can’t see the
miracle that is unfolding before them if only they had the eyes of Christ! But their hatred and disdain of Zacchaeus blinded them.
How many of us
are blind to the many our Lord has sent our way? How many “undesirable” people has God
Almighty sent to me and I have ignored them?
But listen now to
the magnificent transformation that this simple interchange has wrought in Zacchaeus – verse 8:
Luke 19:8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said
to the Lord, “Look,
Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have
cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” His contrite response is so strong that he
offers more than even the law required of him!
This is grace not legalism!
This is what
happens when a person’s heart is converted!
Wealth no longer means anything!
All become secondary to Jesus and one’s intimate communion with Him!
What meant “all”
before has now become the grist for giftgiving – the
expression of grace!
But listen now to
God’s reward for His faithful response – verse 9:
Luke 19:9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” Did you hear that – not only has salvation come to Zacchaeus but full restoration as a son of Abraham!
Augustine summed up this
wonderful story in the following words:
“Jesus has welcomed Zacchaeus into His heart, and now He is
ready to be welcomed by Zacchaeus into his house.”
There’s a puzzle in this simple incident and it’s this – in no other way can a person see Jesus and believe in Him except he respond to His call and is willing in some sense to climb up into a sycamore tree to see Him!
But the magnificent fact remains the Jesus was in fact coming to Him! Listen again to verse 10 which is arguably the most critical verse in all of Luke: 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” This tells us that Jesus had come for Him – Zacchaeus and He’s coming for other Zacchaeus’ all over the world. He is both calling them and coming to them!
4.
The challenge!
God Comes A’Callin!: God comes a’callin,
but can you hear Him trying to tell us all something about what it’s going to
take for everyone of us to be used by God to draw many Zachaeus’
into His Kingdom!
We must make one clear assumption here and that is that God is drawing people into His Kingdom and they, in turn, are trying to look above the crowd to see Him!
Are you “just one of the crowd?” Indeed, are you one of the crowd who are actually getting in the way of the Zachaeus’ seeing our Lord?
Are you “just one of the crowd” or are you, like Jesus, “looking for the ones drawn?” Looking for that look and when you see it you see one who is about to become your brother or sister.
Now in light of the unfolding strategy that God is revealing to us one step at a time what is He telling us in our context?
· First – God is always and ever the “Initiator!” He’s always coming to people and drawing them to Himself!
· Second – He invites us to look with Him for the Zacchaeus’ around us and then to do as Jesus did – to reach out to them – to go into their homes and bless them!
· Third – our job is to help the Zacchaeus’ of this world to be able to get above the crowd so that they can see Jesus!
What does this mean? “ . . . to help them get above the crowd?” Climbing a tree gave Zacchaeus the elevation he needed to see Jesus – so what does that mean for us today? How do we get our Zacchaeus’ up into a tree?
A tree is a place or position from which we can see Jesus – what better place or position from which to see Jesus than in the sacred set-apart space of our Church and our worship community.
Get people into our midst at worship or at play and they will most certainly begin to feel acutely the call of Jesus in their hearts.
Please let us bow our heads now and bring to mind the name and face of a possible Zacchaeus in your circle of friends or acquaintances – now let us pray for them and invite our sovereign Lord to draw them into our midst and into Your Kingdom – Amen and Amen!
Let’s pray! . . .