Zacchaeus: “Lost…But Didn’t Know It”

Luke 19:1-10

Looking at Luke:
-Widow of Main and Dead Son (Unnamed)
-Sinful Woman (Unnamed)
Jairus Daughter and Woman w/Issue of Blood (Unnamed)
-Good Samaritan (Unnamed)
-Lost Sheep, Coins and Sons (Unnamed)
-Ten Lepers (Unnamed)
-Zaccheus (NAMED)

Zaccheus: “The Just” “The Righteous One”
-He does not live up to his name
-He is called a sinner by the crowd
-Seems to seek Jesus, but Jesus is seeking him
-Lost…and didn’t know it!

Honor/Shame Culture
-Men did not run in public
-Men would not climb trees in public
-Not acceptable for Jesus to invite himself to a home

Revelation 3:20
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

Crowds and Sycamore Trees

Crowds:
~Followed Jesus
~Prevented Zaccheus from seeing Jesus

Sycamore-Fig Trees:
-Low and wide-spreading branches
- “…he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree.”
-The means by which Zaccheus was able to see Jesus

Luke 19:10
“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

“There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus.”

-Blaise Pascal

John 6:44
No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him…

1 John 4:19
We love him because he first loved us.

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.”

Ephesians 2:8-10
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Ephesians 4:28
Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.

Confess – homologeo: To say the same thing

Repent – metanoia: To have a change of mind, to think differently, to turn around

Save - sozo: To deliver, heal, make whole, preserve

Are WE lost, but do not know it?

-Are we the crowd, who follow Jesus, but yet our lives can hinder others from seeing Jesus?
or…
-Are we the Sycamore tree, which elevates others to see Jesus?