To See and Be Seen

By Jesus!

Discipleship Questions for Sunday

November 4, 2007

Scripture Readings:

First Reading: Isaiah 1:10-20

Psalm: 145

Second Reading: 2Thessalonians 1:1-12

Gospel: Luke 19:1-10

Isaiah 1:10-20
¹⁰Hear the word of the LORD, You rulers of Sodom; Give ear to the law of our God, You people of Gomorrah: ¹¹" To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?" Says the LORD. " I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, Or of lambs or goats. ¹²" When you come to appear before Me, Who has required this from your hand, To trample My courts? ¹³Bring no more futile sacrifices; Incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies- I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. ¹⁴Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; They are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them. ¹⁵When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. ¹⁶" Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, ¹⁷Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow. ¹⁸" Come now, and let us reason together," Says the LORD, " Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool. ¹⁹If you are willing and obedient, You shall eat the good of the land; ²⁰But if you refuse and rebel, You shall be devoured by the sword"; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken. -- NKJV

Psa. 145:1

I will exalt you, my God the King;

I will praise your name for ever and ever.

2 Every day I will praise you

and extol your name for ever and ever.

Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise;

his greatness no one can fathom.

4 One generation will commend your works to another;

they will tell of your mighty acts.

5 They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty,

and I will meditate on your wonderful works.

6 They will tell of the power of your awesome works,

and I will proclaim your great deeds.

7 They will celebrate your abundant goodness

and joyfully sing of your righteousness.

The LORD is gracious and compassionate,

slow to anger and rich in love.

9 The LORD is good to all;

he has compassion on all he has made.

10 All you have made will praise you, O LORD;

your saints will extol you.

11 They will tell of the glory of your kingdom

and speak of your might,

12 so that all men may know of your mighty acts

and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,

and your dominion endures through all generations.

The LORD is faithful to all his promises

and loving toward all he has made.

14 The LORD upholds all those who fall

and lifts up all who are bowed down.

15 The eyes of all look to you,

and you give them their food at the proper time.

16 You open your hand

and satisfy the desires of every living thing.

The LORD is righteous in all his ways

and loving toward all he has made.

18 The LORD is near to all who call on him,

to all who call on him in truth.

19 He fulfills the desires of those who fear him;

he hears their cry and saves them.

20 The LORD watches over all who love him,

but all the wicked he will destroy.

My mouth will speak in praise of the LORD.

Let every creature praise his holy name

for ever and ever.

2 Thessalonians 1:1-12
¹Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: ²Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ³We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other, ⁴so that we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure, ⁵which is manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you also suffer; ⁶since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, ⁷and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, ⁸in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, ¹⁰when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed. ¹¹Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power, ¹²that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. -- NKJV

Luke 19:1-10
¹Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. ²Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. ³And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature. ⁴So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was going to pass that way. ⁵And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him, and said to him, "Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house." ⁶So he made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully. ⁷But when they saw it, they all complained, saying, "He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner." ⁸Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold." ⁹And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; ¹⁰for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." -- NKJV

Discipleship Questions:

1. Lets focus on the Gospel reading. Zacchaeus – a tax collector. What does God want to teach us through this interesting man? in the Gospel we read about Jesus’ special blessing upon the tax-collector Zacchaeus and we saw Him called to a deep conversion and those who were watching were also being called to a deeper conversion into a Kingdom in which all are welcome – the least and the lost and the lonely!

So, while Zacchaeus is a most fascinating character I’m convinced that the real focus of this reflection should be upon our deeper conversion - it’s not easy but it is possible – and it is imperative!

Let’s begin by asking ourselves these questions:

· How ready am I to change and to grow into greater maturity?

· Do I think that I have arrived and that I really don’t need to grow up any more?

· Am I secretly unsure that I can change any more? Or perhaps . . .

· Am I secretly unwilling to change any more? It’s just too too hard!

2. It fascinates me that you could be the President of America and remain a spiritual infant. You can be a Priest and remain infantile in your faith. Or you can be someone of small stature despised by the prevailing culture yet personally chosen by our Lord to be loved and redeemed and ushered into His Kingdom on earth!

I have to wonder about a person who calls himself a Christian and yet gets to be say 60 years old and is still childish in his faith. I have to wonder who they have been following all of these years?

I think that they think they have been following Jesus but in fact they’ve been following their own construct of who they think He might be.

Could it be possible that some people who call themselves Christians may in fact be following a make believe Jesus and not the real one - for the real Jesus will most certainly be calling His precious disciples to deeper commitment to Him but those who don’t really follow Him will ignore His call to this deeper conversion!

3. What I’m suggesting here is that this morning our Lord is calling you and me to a deeper commitment to Him – a deeper conversion of our lives and He’s using a most interesting – less than likely character - to do this and indeed He’s commending Zacchaelus’ behavior to us – to imitate – if we really want to grow in spiritual commitment then learn from this man Zacchaeus!

Please listen now as I read from the Gospel of Luke once again but this time I’ll be reading from Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase called “The Message:”

Luke 19:1

Then Jesus entered and walked through Jericho. 2 There was a man there, his name Zacchaeus, the head tax man and quite rich. 3 He wanted desperately to see Jesus,

Did you hear that – he was “desperate” just to see Jesus – desperate enough to make a fool out of himself – to climb up a tree and in that way to make himself not only able to see Jesus but also to make himself more visible to the crowd who already hated him and would certainly despise him even more when they saw him seeking to get the attention of this local celebrity. This is how desperate Zacchaeus was to see Jesus!

Do you honesty think that he just wanted to “see” Jesus. Ah! I think it was more than that!

Let’s read on . . .

but the crowd was in his way—he was a short man and couldn’t see over the crowd.

Ah! Something was obstructing Zachaeus’ access to Jesus – what could that be in our lives? What obstacles are separating us from seeing Jesus? Are you and I desperate enough to do whatever it takes to see to Jesus but again I don’t think it was just about “seeing” Jesus I believe that Zacchaeus wanted to also be seen by Jesus!

Ah! He not only wanted to see Jesus but more importantly to be seen by Jesus! And He was willing to do just about anything even to run the risk of the disdain of the crowd.

Let’s read on:

4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up in a sycamore tree so he could see Jesus when he came by.

Luke 19:5

When Jesus got to the tree, he looked up and said, “Zacchaeus, hurry down. Today is my day to be a guest in your home.”

Wow! Did you hear that? How did Jesus know his name? And what did Jesus do? He did the very thing that Zacchaeus wanted – Jesus recognized him!

Remember what Jesus said in the Book of Revelation:

Rev. 3:20

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

Jesus comes to us – to the base of our tree – He knocks at our door! Our own door! He comes to us even when we thought we were coming to Him!

And He looks at us and calls us by name!

Jesus came to the door of Zacchaeus’ life and invited Him to come into Jesus’ life and then Jesus offered to come into his life – forever! Ha! Did you hear that – forever!

4. Now it’s important for us to realize that Zachaeus was stating the fact that he “had already” been giving away half of his income to the poor. You see, the verb “give” is in the “present tense” – it talks about what he is presently doing. It’s not in the “future” tense – that he “will give” away half of his income to the poor. It appears that Zachaeus was already a charitable man and may have been a “god fearing” man and when he heard about Jesus wanted to connect with him – not just see him at a distance.

Now what was he hoping to achieve in this encounter? I can only speculate that he wanted to continue his conversion!

So let me ask us this question – what did you do during this last week to further your conversion to our Lord? What did you do to draw closer to your Lord?

Read a devotional book – perhaps a book on theology – perform an act of charity out of love for Jesus and others and not out of a need to be seen as “religious.”

What did you do in the last 7 days that was like Zachaeus’s climbing the tree?

To Zachaeus Jesus said:

Luke 19:9 “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.”

And so too does Jesus say this to you and to me as we lean in and seek to see and be seen by Jesus!