Luke 19:1-10 NIV
Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.” 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.” Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Matthew 28:19-20 NIV
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
// “The average cost per baptism in the typical American church is….$1.5 million dollars.” – World Christian Trends
“It was characterized by groves of feathery palms rising in stately beauty, stretched gardens of roses and sweet-scented balsam plantations. The largest behind the royal gardens of which the perfume is carried by the wind almost out to the sea and which may have been given to the city…may have been used as the reason the name was given to the city, Jericho. Jericho meaning ‘the perfumed.’ It was the Eden of Palestine, the fairy land of the Old World.”
– Alfred Edersheim
// Radical
led to radical
. It was not the other way around!
// Jesus finds the one
and welcomes him in; He doesn’t meet the 12,000 priests who are on duty in the city.
>> Several implications for Vertical Life Church in how to respond:
1. We must reclaim the
of Jesus for those who do not know Him.
Luke 15:7 NIV
I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
// Two Traps: “They are fine”, and “There is no way they would ever be interested in salvation.”
“Rather than thinking about the world in the categories of simply good and evil, a biblical worldview helps us think in categories of good and redeemable.”
– Lecrae
“Almost all practicing Christians believe that part of their faith means being a witness about Jesus (ranging from 95% to 97% among all generational groups), and that the best thing that could ever happen to someone is for them to know Jesus (94% to 97%). Almost half of Millenials (47%) agree at least somewhat that it is wrong to share one’s personal beliefs with someone of a different faith in hopes that they will one day share the same faith.”
– Barna Research
// You are believing a lie if you don’t think other people are trying to convert people to other things.
// Two Core Things: The
of Humanity AND The
of Humanity
2. We Must Ask Three Questions to Steadily Learn How To Do What Jesus Did:
a)
b)
c)
“Jesus was the Son of God. Yet He never took the initiative to dream a dream or launch a new ministry. He lived his life in absolute dependence upon His Father. If Jesus was that dependent on the Father, then you and I should realize how ludicrous it is for us to set out on our own without any direction or guidance from the Father.”
– Henry Blackaby
// Speak to the Lord about the lost before you speak to the lost about the Lord.
// God invades gathered environments and sends
servants. He doesn’t send the lost into the church; He sends the
into the culture.
“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”
– Frederick Buechner
// There’s only one thing worse than being lost. No one trying to
you.
My Next Step With Jesus: