No One Is Beyond His Reach

Audio Transcript

If you would, please grab your Bible and turn to Luke chapter 19 this morning. Luke 19. We’ll be looking at the first 10 verses. And once you’ve found Luke 19, also jump over to John chapter 11, where we were last week. I want to pick up a few verses at the end of that chapter. Luke 19 and John chapter 11.

When you put all four of the Gospels together, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, as we’ve been trying to do, studying through the Gospels, you begin to see the timeline of Jesus’ ministry, and you can map out where He traveled. And that’s important this morning in a sort of a secondary way, but I think it’s important enough for us to take some time and look at something before we even get to Luke 19.

Last Sunday we saw Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead. That was in John chapter 11. What we didn’t get to is this verse last week, John 11:45. We stopped just prior to that. After Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, here’s what it says. “Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary and had seen the things Jesus did believed in Him.” Now we go, “That’s wonderful, that’s great news,” except it wasn’t great news for everyone, because if you continue reading in those verses, you’ll see that the Jewish religious leaders were furious once again over the fact that people were flocking to Jesus, and they were believing in Him, and they began to conspire once again.

Look at verses 53 to 55 there in John 11. “From that day on, they,” that is the Sanhedrin, the Jewish rulers, “plotted to put Jesus to death. Therefore He no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there into the country near the wilderness to a city called Ephraim.” Keep that in mind. “And there remained with His disciples.” By the way, sometimes it’s right to stand and fight. Other times it’s right to get out of town.

Verse 55, “And the Passover of the Jews was near.” Keep that in mind as well. “And many went from the country up to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves.”

Now let me try to bring all this together quickly before we get to our verses today. Show that first map if you would. And on the live stream, if you would, show it full screen. They don’t need to see me, even though they desperately want to. But I’d rather they see the map. I’ll be back on screen in a minute, folks, at home.

So, this first map. Bethany there in green is where we were last week in John 11. And that’s where Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Then it says in the verses we just read, He left Bethany and He went up north to the wilderness area, a place called Ephraim there in the blue. And He and His disciples stayed there for a while. But we don’t pick any of this up between John 11 and John 12. In that blank space there between the end of John 11 and the beginning of John 12, it’s just blank. John doesn’t record any of these travels, but the other Gospel writers do.

So that’s one of the benefits of studying the four Gospels together. When we bring those other Gospels in, here’s what we see. Go to that second map. From Ephraim, there in the blue, Jesus went over to Bethany beyond the Jordan, also called Perea, over there in red. Now that’s where He was last week before He traveled back to Bethany to raise Lazarus. So now He’s gone back there again.

While He was over there in Bethany in Perea, that is where He encountered the rich young ruler, and that is where He healed blind Bartimaeus. We’re not going to cover those events in this round through the Bible. I have to save something for the next time through the Bible if I live to be 100.

All right, show that third map. Now from Bethany, we’re told that Jesus traveled over to Jericho there in the purple. Now that’s where we will be today in Luke 19. But it says He only passes through Jericho because He’s on His way to Jerusalem. Why? To attend the Passover, as we just read. So He’s passing through Jericho.

Now go to the fourth map. From Jericho, He goes back down to Bethany, where He has dinner with Mary and Martha and Lazarus, and you can pick that up in John chapter 12, verse 1. So now I’ve just filled in the gap between John 11 and John 12. Now go to that last map. From Bethany, He will then go over to Jerusalem there in the orange.

And I’ll come back to why all this matters at the end of the message today. Because I think it does matter. And I hope that you’ll see that. But that’s a little context for where Jesus has been, where He is today. He’s in Jericho, number three there. That’s where He is today. So Jesus has left Perea. He’s traveled to Jericho.

Now, let’s pick up our first verse, Luke 19, verse 1. “Then Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through.” I want to pause there before we even go any further. Jericho was a luxurious, very desirable place to live. We might call it a vacation spot. It was called the City of Palms. Show that first photo.

There’s a picture of Jericho today, or at least part of it. It extends back down this way out of the frame of that photo. The city was fed by multiple springs. It was filled with lush trees and all kinds of flowers. Balsam plantations were there, and all of this spread a beautiful fragrance across the entire city. In fact, the name Jericho is derived from the word fragrance or perfume.

Show that second photo. There are some of the famous palm trees still there in Jericho today. Now after approaching Jericho from a long journey through the dry and dusty lands that surrounded it on every side back in that day, this was a welcome sight for travelers to see, to suddenly walk into lush greenery and flowing water and sweet smells in the air. And for people making their way to Jerusalem from the east, from Perea over there around the Jordan River area, Jericho was the last stop to sort of refresh themselves, you know, go to the QT, fill up the tank, buy a couple candy bars and whatever, and make that final leg up to Jerusalem.

So this is where Jesus has arrived.

Verse 2 — “And a man was there named Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector, and he was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but he could not see over the crowd because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see Him since Jesus was about to pass that way.”

Now please don’t tune me out right now because you heard this in Sunday school a thousand times. We’ve all heard this many times. I pray that the Lord will write this afresh on our hearts today because there’s true beauty here beyond the flannel graph. We’re told several things about Zacchaeus right off the bat. He was a chief tax collector. He was very wealthy. He wanted to see Jesus, and he was short.

Now what’s going on here with a man like this being a part of a crowd who are all trying to see Jesus? Well, by this time in His ministry, as I’ve mentioned a couple of times now, through the life of Christ, Jesus has become incredibly popular. You would say He’s a celebrity. Not in His eyes, by the way. Let’s never make that mistake. In fact, Jesus did everything He could to get rid of the crowds who were not serious about following Him. But in the eyes of people, Jesus is a celebrity. He’s just raised Lazarus from the dead, just down the road from Jericho in Bethany. That’s just happened.

And everyone wanted to see this miracle worker for themselves. We’re even told at one point that so many people were pressing in to see Jesus that they were trampling on one another. This is not a polite gathering. This was a mob everywhere He went at this point. And Jesus is making His way toward Jericho. And as He does, word goes ahead of Him. Word spreads through the city that Jesus is headed this way. And crowds of people stop what they’re doing. They run out hoping to catch a glimpse of Him as He passed by.

Everybody wanted to see this great prophet, this possible Messiah, or the one who is claiming to be the Messiah. And among that crowd is this man named Zacchaeus. The problem is he’s too short to see over the people, so he gets resourceful, he runs ahead of the crowd and climbs a sycamore tree to get the best view in town. And by the way, those sycamore trees are still there all over Jericho. Here’s a photo of one in Jericho today. You can go there and you can climb it for yourself.

But, you know, I think it’s worth asking, why did Zacchaeus want to see Jesus? I mean, you can certainly understand why some people wanted to run out and see Him. I mean, as I said, a famous person, a celebrity was passing through their town. Today, when a celebrity shows up in Greenville at some event or a golf match, people flock to that person hoping to get an autograph and a selfie. We’re not much different from them.

But why Zacchaeus? This seems odd to me at face value. Why would this important official, this rich businessman, leave his office in the middle of the day, tell his secretary to hold his calls, race out ahead of everyone else, and embarrass himself as a dignified man by climbing a tree in his business suit? It’s almost like he was on a mission. It’s almost as though something was compelling him to go, like there was a longing or a yearning in his heart that was driving him to go, to fight through that crowd to see Jesus.

I mean, this man had reached the top of his profession. He wasn’t just the tax collector. He was a chief tax collector. And it says he was very rich. Is it possible, maybe, that he was experiencing what so many people who have everything experience? Had he been lying awake at night thinking, “Why is my life so empty? I thought all this would make me happy, but it hasn’t.”

Could it have been his conscience bothering him, as we’ll see in a moment, tax collectors stole from their fellow countrymen? Was he lying awake thinking, “Boy, you know, I got all this money. And I realize I’m making other people’s lives miserable. What am I doing with my life?” Was there something like that going on in the depths of his heart? Maybe he thought, “I’ve heard that this Jesus has the power to give people real life.” Could he have heard maybe from way back when we saw that Jesus called another tax collector, Matthew, Levi, to leave his tax business and follow Him? And Matthew had done so, and his life had been transformed. These tax collectors ran in a pretty tight circle. Is it possible he heard and he thought, “I wonder what happened to old Levi? I got to go see for myself.”

Maybe you know what that’s like. In fact, maybe that’s what brought you here this morning. You’ve been saying, “You know, I’ve got an ache inside that I can’t get rid of. I’ve tried everything. I’ve heard about this Jesus thing, and I just want to go check it out.” If that’s you, I’m glad you’re here.

Whatever it was for Zacchaeus, something led him to lay aside his pride, to push through the crowd, to run ahead and climb a tree, something a dignified man would never do in that culture, all so that he could see Jesus. There’s something powerful drawing him there. He was absolutely determined, and he didn’t let any obstacle stop him. “Crowd too big, I’ll push my way through. They’re moving faster than me, I’ll run ahead of them. Too short to see over them, I’ll climb a tree.” He’s determined. And he’s overcoming every hindrance to get there. And there he sits, straddling a limb like a little boy in front of everybody in the town. He’s traded his dignity for this calling in his heart. That’s how powerful this is. All because suddenly the need to see Jesus was stronger than the need to protect his image.

And you know, when a person is willing to give up their pride, their image, their reputation, and say, “I don’t care what anyone thinks, I need to see Jesus,” that’s when they’ll really see Him. “He resists the proud, but He gives grace to those who humble themselves.”

That’s why Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” Those don’t seem like very blessed qualities to me. Do they to you? Does that seem like something to strive for?

But it’s not until we recognize that we’re poor in spirit. It means we’re spiritually bankrupt. We have nothing in ourselves of spiritual value to bring ourselves to God. Bankrupt. We’ve got to recognize that. And once we recognize that, it causes us to be convicted and to mourn over our sin, and it puts in us such a hunger and thirst to be made new that we’ll finally see our need for Him. So yes, if you’re here this morning and you feel broken and empty and hungry and yearning for something, you are blessed. You are blessed.

And I truly believe this is what drew Zacchaeus out to make a fool of himself in front of the town to see Jesus. And in a moment, I believe that will be revealed in the text.

So Zacchaeus is sitting up there in that tree, perhaps, you know, bending little branches and pushing leaves aside so that he can see out, and something astonishing happens. He’s sitting there hoping just to catch a glimpse of Jesus, maybe catch His eye, maybe even slip down and have a word with Him. Verse 5, “And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw Zacchaeus and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.'” “So he hurried and came down and received Him joyfully.”

Now picture this, Jesus walking into this city, hundreds, maybe thousands of people mobbing Him. And this crowd, like a swarm of bees, is slowly making its way down the dusty road into Jericho. Out of all the places Jesus could have walked, He walked right up to the very tree Zacchaeus was in. He stops there, and He looks up.

Everywhere you turned that day, you would have seen throngs of people. But Jesus walks past them all, and He says, “No, I have an appointment with one man today, the one who’s up in that tree.” See, here’s the amazing thing. A desire had arisen in Zacchaeus’ heart to see Jesus, so he went out to look for Him. But the great irony is that it was actually Jesus who was looking for Zacchaeus.

Who’s looking for who? This is the great mystery of the gospel. It’s a great mystery of salvation. Who looks for who? And I know that’s proper English, not proper English, but I’m not going to say whom because it just sounds weird.

See, people come to church thinking they’re looking for Jesus, but they’re drawn there because Jesus is looking for them. You may have come here today for one of a dozen different reasons. The fact is you’re here because Jesus is looking for you. How does all that work? I have no idea.

And then Jesus looks up and He says, “Zacchaeus.” Now I imagine he must have nearly fallen out of the tree. “He knows my name. Jesus knows my name.” Was there a rush of pride in that moment or a rush of terror?

See, listen, the one searching for you already knows everything about you. He’s seen all your failures. He knows all your fears. And He still loves you and calls you to Himself.

And then Jesus says to Zacchaeus, “Come down at once. I must stay at your house today.” Not “may I.” Not “if it’s convenient.” “Must.”

This reminds me so much of back in John 4 that we looked at a long time ago, where Jesus and the disciples were headed north and they come to the border of Samaria, hated Samaria that no Jew ever wanted to walk through. And they got to that place in the road where the disciples were used to hanging a right and going around Samaria, and Jesus goes straight, and they’re, “Hey, Jesus, it’s this way.” And Jesus says, “No, I must go through Samaria.” Why? Because He had a divine appointment with a poor, broken woman at the well. An appointment that was somehow on the books before the beginning of time.

“Jesus, it’s this way.” “No, no, fellas. No, today I must go through Samaria.” And He transformed that woman’s life. He says to Zacchaeus the same thing, “Come down. Come down. I must come to your house today.” Oh boy.

Zacchaeus slid down that tree trunk so fast, bark was probably flying off. And it says he received Jesus joyfully. You think he pulled out his phone and texted his wife? “Hey, I’m so sorry about this, but straighten things up really quick. Like I left my socks in the living room, just somebody’s coming over.”

Verse 7. “But when they,” that’s the crowd, “saw it, they all complained, saying, ‘He’s gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.'” Here we go again. Why were they so angry about this?

Well, I believe, first of all, because it wasn’t them. You know how when somebody else is blessed and you’re not, when somebody else gets that new thing and you don’t, you know how we humans are. “Oh, him, but not me?”

But a quick reminder about tax collectors and why they were hated. The Jews were under Roman occupation at that time, and they hated Rome. And tax collectors were Jews who conspired with Rome to take as much money as possible out of their fellow Jews’ pockets in taxes. Tax collectors could charge whatever extra amount they wanted and keep it all for themselves as long as Rome got their required amount.

These guys were thugs. They were just a step or two away from the New York mafia or the Chicago mob. And Zacchaeus, he was the mob boss. Tax collectors were considered traitors. They were banned from the synagogue, and they were hated by everyone. In fact, children were often taught to spit whenever a tax collector walked by.

And here this Jesus, who claims to be the Messiah, is going to the home of such a sinner? Do you think some people there said, “Should we tell Him? He clearly doesn’t know who Zacchaeus is. Should we tell Him he’s a tax collector? No rabbi would be caught dead in the home of a tax collector. Yet this one is going. He said, ‘I must go.’ Why is He going to the home of a wicked sinner?”

You see, the problem was the Jews couldn’t stomach a gospel that reached that far. You know, we all want grace for ourselves, but when we see that person we despise receive grace, we tighten up sometimes, don’t we? “Whoa, they shouldn’t have been forgiven. They shouldn’t have been let off the hook.” Yeah, we’ve got to be so careful.

But folks, that’s always been the offense of the gospel, that grace doesn’t wait for us to clean ourselves up first, it comes to us where we are. Praise God. Or none of us would be saved.

So Jesus goes to Zacchaeus’ home, but then suddenly, if you notice, the narrative goes completely silent. The door of Zacchaeus’ house is closed, the drapes are pulled shut, and for whatever reason, we’re not allowed inside to hear what happened. Now, we’ve been invited into the home of numerous encounters with Jesus. We’ve been allowed to see everything that was said and done, not this time. Don’t know why. But clearly, conversations took place between Jesus and Zacchaeus between verses 7 and 8. We don’t know what was said, but we do know that Zacchaeus’s life was transformed.

Verse 8. “Then Zacchaeus,” now this is some time later, hours, I don’t know. “Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, ‘Lord, look, I will give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated or defrauded anyone, I will repay it fourfold.'” What in the world just happened?

Oh, I know. Jesus handed Zacchaeus the latest self-help book and said, “How to be a better you.” No. Zacchaeus decided to turn over a new leaf. That was probably it. No, it wasn’t that either. This man who had been defined by greed suddenly becomes generous. A man who had robbed others now wants to give back and more, something life-changing has just occurred. We didn’t hear a word of their conversation, but we know that Jesus did what Jesus always did. He preached the gospel to Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus repented, and he was saved. And you go, “Phil, you don’t know that.” Yeah, I do.

Look at verse 9. Verse 9, “And Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house.'” There it is. Salvation has come. Not a promise to be a better person, not gritting your teeth to try harder. Salvation. And it did what salvation does. It brought conviction to Zacchaeus. And it brought conviction to the very area where his sin had been most prominent. His financial dealings with others.

And he chose to pay back four times what he had stolen. Now, I can’t dwell on this, but understand quickly what’s happening here. The Old Testament Jewish law required that fourfold restitution be made only in cases of proven sheep theft. You can find that back in, I believe it’s Exodus 22, maybe verse 1, back there. So this was the harshest penalty on the books, the harshest penalty on the books for the worst kind of stealing, and Zacchaeus volunteers for it.

Notice this. Nobody accused him. Nobody sued him. He gets saved and immediately he indicts himself before he’s even asked to do the right thing. This is what salvation does. What we see taking place in Zacchaeus’ life is the natural outcome of a supernatural transformation. We’re seeing the outward working of an inner change.

The rabbis had a saying in that day, “The repentance of tax collectors is very difficult.” But not when Jesus gets hold of a tax collector. Zacchaeus is saved by grace and immediately he wants to make things right. This is the fruit, it’s the evidence of a man who has truly been born again.

Listen, I want to tell you, because this is an epidemic in churches, especially in America, it is impossible to have a genuine encounter with Jesus Christ and remain unchanged. It is impossible. You can have an encounter with religion. You can have an encounter with a church or a doctrine or a system of belief. But you cannot encounter Jesus Christ and walk away unchanged.

So can I just ask all of us, what evidence of the new birth is visible in our lives? I’ll leave that one for you to think on, as I have had to think on it for several weeks now leading up to this message for myself. What evidence of the new birth is visible in our lives? And is there any, you know, restitution, using that term broadly, that we still haven’t made since we came to know Christ?

But Jesus adds a rather odd statement at the end of verse 9. Look at verse 9 again. Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house,” comma, “because he also is a son of Abraham.” Now that’s just weird to our ears, but the Jews believed that because they were descendants of Abraham, they didn’t need to be saved.

Back in John 8, Jesus said to them, “Believe in Me and you will be set free.” And they replied to Him, “We are descendants of Abraham. We don’t need to be set free.” That was the mindset of the day.

And Jesus is saying here, by the way, it seems that these statements here in verses 9 and 10 happened as they walked out of the house to the crowd who was probably waiting. Jesus is saying here, “Take a lesson, folks. Zacchaeus has been a descendant of Abraham his entire life, but salvation only came to him today.” You get that? Your religion can’t save you. Your ancestry can’t save you. God has no grandchildren. Salvation only comes through faith in Jesus Christ. It was salvation that changed Zacchaeus, and it is still the only thing that truly changes people today.

Well, as I start winding this down, let me come back to something I started with, mentioned at the beginning. This to me is, this never dawned on me until several years ago, and I remember just feverishly writing notes down one day so that I wouldn’t forget this.

We saw in our first verse today in Luke 19:1 that Jesus was only passing through Jericho. I Jericho because He was on His way to Jerusalem for the Passover. But here’s the key detail I’ve saved until now. This wasn’t just any trip to Jerusalem. Jesus made many. And this wasn’t just any Passover. This will be Jesus’ last trip to Jerusalem. And it will be His last Passover because He will be crucified one week from this encounter with Zacchaeus.

Now I want you to take that in, really take that in. This is the last week of Jesus’ life on earth. He’s making His final trip to Jerusalem to be crucified and put to death, and He knows that. Do you not think He had maybe more important things on His mind than stopping to help a despised tax collector? With all that weighing upon Him, why did He even bother to stop and rescue Zacchaeus?

He stopped because He was staying true to His mission to the very end. And what was His mission? We find that in the last thing Jesus said to Zacchaeus, our last verse for today, Luke 19:10. “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” That’s why He came.

By the way, that statement is not a summary of this story. It’s a summary of the Gospels. Everything we’ve been looking at for the last two years in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John comes down to this. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. Seeking sinners was never a side errand for Jesus. It was His very heartbeat.

And so even on His way to what He knew was going to be an excruciating death, He wasn’t thinking about Himself. He said, “There’s one more lost soul who needs to be saved.” That hits me hard.

And the good news of the gospel is that the same Jesus who stopped for Zacchaeus still stops for lost people today. He still sees people that others overlook. He still calls people that others have written off. He still seeks those who’ve wandered far from God. And if He was willing to stop for Zacchaeus on His way to the cross, you can know this. There’s no one too far gone. There’s no one too broken. There’s no one too unworthy for Him to stop and save today. This is the gospel.

That’s what makes this encounter so much more than a story about a tax collector in Jericho. It’s a picture of the heart of our Savior. I told you when we started this, the one thing I want you to see from studying the life of Christ is to see His beauty. To see His love for us.

Maybe you’ve spent years thinking you’re too far gone. Maybe there are things in your past that you’re ashamed of, and you’re carrying them like anchors chained around your neck. Maybe, like Zacchaeus, you’ve learned to live with the fact that other people have written you off. Regardless, Jesus comes looking for you because He’s already decided that you are worth finding.

Did we not see a few weeks ago that Jesus, the Good Shepherd, goes out in the storm, in the dark of night, looking for that one lost sheep until He finds it? And when He finds it, He scolds it. No, He doesn’t. When He finds it, He picks it up and puts it on His shoulders, and He carries it home. What extraordinary love this is.

You and I are the lost sheep. What love this is for Him to come looking for us and to take us home. No one has ever loved us like Jesus. Everybody in Jericho hated Zacchaeus, but Jesus loved him. In fact, Jesus made that trip through Jericho to see Zacchaeus, find that lost sheep, and to bring him home.

And that same Jesus loves you too. He’s looking for you right now. He’s calling your name. And if you’ll respond to Him the way Zacchaeus did, you’ll discover that maybe what you thought was the end of your story was actually just the beginning of a brand new one. Because when Jesus comes into a life, He doesn’t just forgive the past, He changes the future.

The question isn’t whether Jesus is willing to stop for you. He already has. The question is, will you respond to Him? Because He’s still seeking, He’s still saving, and He’s still calling lost people by name. Is He calling your name this morning? Have you ever been saved?

This is, this is maybe the hardest thing as a pastor, is ministering in a place like Greenville, one of the buckles of the Bible Belt. Everybody’s been saved. Of course they haven’t. But they have, you know what I mean. Everybody you talk to, “Oh yeah, I know, oh yeah.” It’s so hard. I grew up on the mission field in Australia and then Africa. We saw people who’d never heard, and they came running. You preach here and it’s like, “Cafeteria is getting full.”

Have you ever been saved? If you haven’t, as we sing some closing songs, I invite you to do business with Jesus. Call out to Him from your heart. There are no special words. People were saved all kinds of different ways in the Bible, all kinds of ways. Some of them shock me, actually. But the one thing they all had in common, they all believed in Jesus. Just call out to Him, say, “Lord, I’m lost in my sin. I need You. I believe that You died on the cross for me and that You rose again, and I’m asking You to come in and be my Savior and my Lord.” If you want to talk to me about that, I’ll be at the back. Please feel free to step out and come see me.