Jesus Must Dine with Zacchaeus

Luke 19:1–10

Jeremiah Fyffe

That You May Have Certainty | Jesus According to Luke

LIGHTLY EDITED TRANSCRIPT

Will you please keep your Bible open with me to Luke chapter 19 this morning? We consider a passage perhaps familiar, the passage of Zacchaeus. We perhaps could have sung a song today. Maybe it is not too late. We will see.

This passage is a part of our sixteen-week series in the Gospel of Luke, That You May Have Certainty. This morning we conclude our mini-series within the larger series in Luke, Four Meals, asking the question, “Who does Jesus welcome?” We are told that the Son of Man came eating and drinking, forgiving sin of a woman who came in love and repentance, and healing a man on the Sabbath while teaching those gathered who it is that will be welcomed into the kingdom of our God.

In our passage today, what we have is Jesus inviting himself to a sinner’s table. Everybody sees what is happening. We see it before us in the record of Luke. As Jesus invites himself to a sinner’s table, Luke gives us a certainty, a certainty that Luke is recording for us: that the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.

Jesus on the Road

In this morning’s passage, we find Jesus on a road. It is interesting to me. It struck me, the road that Jesus is on. Look at verses 1 and 2 with me:

He entered Jericho and was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. (Luke 19:1–2, ESV)

Jesus was on a road passing through Jericho, it turns out making his way up to Jerusalem. Jesus is actually traveling the opposite route of the man that we saw in the parable of the Good Samaritan. He is passing through Jericho on his way up to Jerusalem, and the Samaritan found a man who was half dead on the road to Jericho, down from Jerusalem. The Samaritan found that half-dead man and brings him to an innkeeper, where he is nurtured back to health, right? Well, in our passage today, Jesus enters Jericho, and he finds a man dead in sin. And he brings himself to that man’s house that that man would dwell in his house forever. Jesus is that good shepherd of our souls.

We are told two things about Zacchaeus in our passage today. In verse 2, “Behold”—much like, you remember, when we had the woman who entered and falls at Jesus’ feet and washes his feet with her tears and her hair, we are told to behold her. Look at that. There is something going on right there. Give attention to this particular woman. Today we are told to behold a man. We are told that this man’s name is Zacchaeus, and we are told two things about him. Perhaps these are not the two things that he is most remembered by. There is a third thing, at least, in the passage. But here we have that he is a tax collector. He is a chief tax collector, and that he is rich.

His occupation brings his wealth under suspicion, and his occupation puts him at a distance from his neighbors. Meanwhile, if we are paying attention to Luke—and we will give attention to the context in a moment—his wealth, with all the evils of the love of money, puts him at a distance from his Lord. So his particular occupation is putting him on the fringe of society, and his circumstance, with the dangers of love of money, being a rich man, puts him in a position where his wealth is a barrier due in large part to the suspicion about how exactly he obtained that wealth. He is the chief tax collector in the region.

And yet what we find in our passage is that Jesus saves both. Jesus saves all of what this man is. Jesus saves Zacchaeus the tax collector, and Jesus saves Zacchaeus the rich man in our story. We will see in a moment why that is amazing, given the context of Luke. Neither his occupation nor his wealth puts Zacchaeus beyond the reach of the grace of Jesus and his saving power.

Jesus Sees (Particularization)

Look at verses 3 through 5 with me. It says:

And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because . . .

Ah, third thing about Zacchaeus:

. . . he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” (Luke 19:3–5, ESV)

We see so much about Jesus, but one of the things that we have seen about Jesus over and over again in the account of Luke—we will see it even more in the coming weeks—is that Jesus sees. Jesus sees, and Luke calls us to behold like Jesus does. Jesus sees and seeks Zacchaeus.

Up in Wisconsin, I spent about eight years in ministry there. During the course of my time, I was involved in a leadership initiative called VantagePoint3. I commend it to you. It is wonderful material. In the course of my time in that leadership ministry, I learned the word particularization. Particularize. Particularization. In that word is encapsulated something that I carry with me. I think about that weird word all the time because it has taught me something so important: that Jesus does not merely love people in general, but rather he sees and he calls particular people by name to himself. Friends, that is very good news, right? You see, Jesus sees Zacchaeus. He calls him by name, and he goes to Zacchaeus’s house.

In VantagePoint3, my friend Rob Loane, in charge of that initiative, says, “Jesus noticed people uniquely. He singled people out amidst the crowds, and he approached them for the unique persons they were.” Right there in their particular circumstance, in their particular attributes, Jesus addresses or particularizes them.

In the Gospel Partnership Course, we discuss what we call the Gospel Rhythms, for those who have partaken in it. We just had a partnership course recently, and it was great to spend that time with those who were there. We describe how at CrossPointe Coast, the first of the Gospel Rhythms is Celebration Rhythm, that we celebrate the story of our God. We celebrate the gospel that connects—the Connection Rhythm—that connects to the story of our lives. I almost always say that in that Connection Rhythm, we say that he connects to our lives individually and personally.

It is true that we celebrate the story of God that connects to our lives. In connecting to our particular lives, he connects us into a community, the third of the Gospel Rhythms. This is true, but do not miss what happened over here. He connected to my life, and he knew my name, and he knew my circumstances, and he knows my sin, and he made atonement for this soul, you see, connecting to me. In that connection, in that particularization, he has brought me into a people. So it is not about me anymore, is it? Oh, it was about me when he called my name. I heard that. But it becomes about becoming a part of a body, a body of Christ all of a sudden.

The gospel is the story of a redeemed community, and we lose that in our hyper-individualized society. Particularization is not about individualism. Particularization is about a redeemed community who have been brought together into fellowship because the Lord brings us there uniquely, one by one. How was the Lord building his kingdom? In a moment, he died for each one. In that one moment, in the atonement, he made provision for each and every one into a whole.

Zacchaeus seeks to see Jesus. It is true. You cannot miss it in this story. It is kind of shocking, the way that Zacchaeus seeks to see Jesus. But Jesus seeks fellowship with Zacchaeus, and he seeks to bring salvation into Zacchaeus’s house. When Zacchaeus climbs that tree, we see that the Spirit was already at work in such an insignificant little thing like Zacchaeus could not see, so he needed to get a little higher. God is at work in Zacchaeus’s life. Perhaps even his stature itself was part of God’s design to bring him to this place.

Jesus Calls Zacchaeus with Urgency

Verse 5, in the second half of the verse, the Lord looks up to see Zacchaeus, and he says, “Zacchaeus.” He calls him by name. I do not know how he knows his name. He is the chief tax collector. Maybe he is known. Maybe his disciples told him about what is coming up ahead in Jericho. Maybe he is the Lord God who made every human soul, and he knows that dude’s name. “Hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.”

It strikes me. Jesus calls Zacchaeus with urgency. He must go. Do you see that word? I did not. I did not see it. I had to have some help, and where to go for help but Charles Spurgeon? He helped me see. He has a whole sermon called “Must He?” Must he? He must go down to Zacchaeus’s house. He must be at his table. Zacchaeus must enjoy fellowship with the Christ.

In his sermon, Charles Spurgeon points out three things about Jesus’ urgency in this text. The first is this: according to Spurgeon, there is a necessity, a must of love. Jesus says, “I must stay at your house today.” Why? Is it because Jesus is so tired from the journey and is in need of a room? And why the urgency? Why must he go? Spurgeon says this: “Jesus felt as a mother does concerning her child when it is ill and she must nurse it.” The love of Jesus presses the necessity that Zacchaeus must bring him to his home. If you want to be well, Zacchaeus, if you want to be brought in, if you want to be a part of the kingdom, I must go to your home.

Spurgeon offers a second reason: the necessity of his sovereignty. In verse 7 it says, when they saw what Jesus did in going to his house, they all grumbled. Jesus chose Zacchaeus despite the prejudices of the crowd. Zacchaeus is the elect of the Lord, and so the Lord must go to his house that Zacchaeus would be saved. Zacchaeus would be saved because Jesus would restore the sinner to the place of the son of Abraham by bringing grace into his home, and by the Spirit’s work in Zacchaeus that he would grant him the faith to receive that grace. The sovereign call of the Lord will take the sinner and place him in the hall of faith. Zacchaeus belongs there because the Lord who is sovereign over salvation must go to his home.

Third, Spurgeon—not as wee of a little man—speaks of the necessity of the display of grace’s power. Jesus must display grace, not just before the town of Jericho, not just before Zacchaeus, but before all of the watching universe. Grace must be on display.

We make a big deal about a small man climbing a tree to see Jesus because it is funny. There is just something kind of humorous about the whole thing, and we sing a children’s song about it. It is a fascinating scene to watch unfold, at least in my mind. I do not know what it looks like in yours, but that is not actually the fascinating thing. The greater fascination that ought to capture our imagination is that the Lord of glory enters a fraudster’s home. He admits it later on. He enters a fraudster’s home with life-transforming grace, and it works. That is fascinating. That changes everything.

When Jesus calls out to Zacchaeus, he does so because he is about to work a miracle of putting grace on display. We have seen miracles. We saw Jesus heal a man with dropsy on the Sabbath, and we call that a miracle passage. My question is, do you understand that this passage is the record of a miracle? This is a miracle. Why must Jesus go to Zacchaeus’s house? So that Jesus would show what grace can make of a sinner. And that is astounding to those who would see it.

Two Responses to Grace

Verses 6 and 7: “So he hurried and came down.” Can we just pause? That actually happened. He did it. He climbed down the tree when Jesus called him out in front of all of Jericho. He actually did it. Verse 6: “He hurried and came down and received him”—that is, Zacchaeus received Jesus—“joyfully.”

“And when they saw it, they all grumbled.” They—I do not know who they are, but it is everybody else around him, all those that he is distanced from because of his occupation and his wealth. They all grumbled, and they said, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” What are they shocked by? Not Zacchaeus. Nope. They are shocked by the behavior of Jesus. They are shocked by grace. And we see two responses in Zacchaeus to grace in this section.

Zacchaeus Receives Him Joyfully

First, Zacchaeus receives him joyfully. Zacchaeus receives him joyfully. Jesus says, “Hurry,” and Zacchaeus hurries down. He rejoices in the fellowship that the crowd resents. But Zacchaeus, you get the impression he has not been particularized like this before, not by a man like a great teacher who is going about preaching about the kingdom of God. He did not expect to be called out there. He just wanted to see him from a distance, from up in a tree, and Jesus named him.

In chapter 19, in the story of Zacchaeus, there is another episode in the chapter just before, an episode of a rich young ruler. We have a rich man in chapter 18 who goes to Jesus, and he asks Jesus questions about how to obtain eternal life, how to inherit eternal life. The Lord describes the life of transformation. He describes what that life looks like, the life transformed by grace, what it looks like to be a person who is redeemed. He describes one who would loosen his grip on worldly wealth, that he would give all that he has to the poor, and that he would have his eyes opened to the storing up of treasure in heaven. Then Luke makes a point of telling us that the man was extremely rich. Luke 18:23, he says this:

But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. (ESV)

Do you hear the comparison to the response? We have a rich man again, and this time this rich man is a tax collector, people, and he acts very differently, does he not? Where the rich ruler is sad over his contemplation of what following Jesus would look like, the losing of his wealth, Luke offers Zacchaeus as the counterexample, whose wealth is surely gained by unrighteous means. He is the contrast to the rich ruler, the extremely rich ruler.

He rejoices in receiving Jesus. He rejoices in the face of his life being transformed. He considers what it would look like to walk in the life of the redeemed, and he says there is something to that. And grace begins to transform what Zacchaeus treasures. I want you to hear that. Do we believe that it is true? This is a fundamental reality. It is not an implication. It is the fruit of grace that it changes what we treasure. This is how we know that Zacchaeus was a changed man: we see the fruit of transforming grace.

The Crowd Responds with Grumbling

On the other hand, where Zacchaeus responds with joy, we have a crowd that responds with grumbling. Yes, Zacchaeus responds to the urgency of Jesus’ call. But remember, all Zacchaeus was doing initially was just looking for a glimpse at a master as he passes through, the spectacle of Jesus that everybody in the region has heard about in his traveling ministry. It is a big day in Jericho when the popular teacher passes through town.

But it is Jesus who knows the whole time that Zacchaeus would get more than a glimpse of the passing teacher. He knows, even before his entrance into that town, that he would forever link his life to the life of Zacchaeus individually, particularly. He sees him, he names him, he calls him out, and against all the grumbling of the crowd, Jesus becomes the guest of a sinner. Their grumbling would not turn Jesus from his urgent saving purpose. I love that. My father would always talk about the hound of heaven, the hound of heaven, urgency to go and seek and save the lost.

The Grace of Jesus Changes Everything

Verse 8: “And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, ‘Behold, Lord.’” Behold. Luke often is referring to the Lord as the Master, and here he puts that in Zacchaeus’s mouth:

Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold. (Luke 19:8, ESV)

The first words Luke puts into Zacchaeus’s mouth are an expression of the fruit of grace. The testimony of Zacchaeus is a testimony of repentance. I want you to listen to this. I want you to try to think about the word repentance and how it plays out in our passage today. The testimony of Zacchaeus is a testimony of repentance. He sees clearly that to follow Jesus, to become a disciple like the other men that were passing through the town with Jesus, means to lay down a former life and to take up a new life in Christ. And all who call themselves disciples must do this.

What do I mean by this, and what do I mean by must? Hear me. It means that we must clearly count the cost of discipleship. Would we take on the way of Jesus? Is that what we desire? Do we believe that that way is good, that the way of the Christ and the salvation of the way of his kingdom, his righteousness, is our way? Are we repenting unto a new way?

Grace Makes Him Generous

“Behold,” he says, “Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor.” Zacchaeus’s first profession is a sign that grace makes Zacchaeus generous, unlike he ever has been before. Grace makes Zacchaeus generous. He commits half of his possessions to the poor. It appears that Zacchaeus is announcing a new intention for his life, not boasting about the past: “Jesus, I have always been doing this.” But he is rather announcing a new intention: “This is what I do now.” His entire wealth is being redirected, and it is being redirected by the grace of the presence of Jesus in his home. His giving shows that salvation has changed this man’s heart.

His offering of 50 percent of all that he has to the poor is a demonstration that he has come to understand that all that he has belongs to the Lord. And that does not bother him like it would have five minutes ago, you see.

Grace Leads Him to Put Wrongs Right

He makes a second profession in his repentance. As he counts the cost of discipleship, what does it mean to take on the way of the Christ, to become his disciple? “And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” At great cost, more than he gained from the original fraud, certainly. Grace leads him not only to generosity; it leads him to put things right, to make restitution for any fraud that has taken place under his watch. He commits to repaying fourfold anyone he has defrauded.

It is unlikely that Zacchaeus at this point in his life was a man who was just hitting the streets as a tax collector, door to door, bringing about the tax bill and extorting people on the streets. He is a chief tax collector, an upper tier of a tax collector who would go on behalf of the Roman occupying force. He made his wealth by sending out those who were under him to make collections by whatever means necessary or available to them. They would gather whatever amount their greed would require, and then Zacchaeus would benefit off of that fraud.

So whether Zacchaeus himself defrauded anyone—I hear a note of, “I mean, surely I have. It is not like I hit the streets and did it, but surely I have”—or whether his wealth was on account of the fraud of others, he knows that walking in the way of Jesus requires not only generosity and kindness and love; it requires restitution. It requires an effort to go and, insofar as he is able, to make things right. This is the ongoing way. We live a life of generosity and a life of restitution, and we cannot lose anything by it because everything is stored up for us. We have an inheritance. It is sure.

The work of salvation changes the orientation of life. Listen, church, salvation is by grace alone. How did salvation get into that man’s house? Jesus went there. And salvation is received by faith alone. This is what I want you to think hard on together: when the Lord shines the light of his grace into our hearts, our response is not works. Our response is repentance and faith. These are one and the same. If you study the Scripture’s use of those two words, repentance and faith, it is to admit that the old way was of the flesh and of the world, and it reaps death, and the new way is of the Spirit and of the Lord, and it reaps life. That is repentance. That is faith.

If we pay attention to the nature of genuine faith, we will see that repentance is unto obedience, that it is unto another way. Repentance is not only to admit our wrong in the past as a response to cleansing grace, but it is to turn with an intention to the future toward the way of the Master and the righteousness of his kingdom. It is to say the old way is not good, and the new way is my life. It is what the good is. Repentance is to profess by faith that the way of the world and the way of the flesh is the way of death, and the way of the Lord and his grace and his righteousness is the way of life. What we see here is the self-denial and the reconciliation that Jesus is working by his grace, bringing forth a new way in the life of Zacchaeus.

Zacchaeus begins with a repentance that leads to generosity for the poor and acknowledges that repentance will mean him making restitution. John Calvin points out that giving to the poor does not replace repaying those that you have wronged. Generosity is not the same thing. He puts it in this quote. I think this is convicting, friends:

Now let us observe that Zacchaeus does not make a present to God out of his extortions, as many rich men give to God a portion of what they have obtained by dishonesty, that they may the more freely pillage in the future and that they may be acquitted of the wrongs which they have formerly done.

Restitution. Friends, it is a piercing statement. What we have here is a testimony of grace singing in the salvation of Zacchaeus. My mind just races with what happened in Jericho after Jesus went on up to Jerusalem, and especially after his atoning work and his resurrection. What happened over in Jericho? I wonder what good evangelical work was done in the lives of those to whom Zacchaeus, the chief of the tax collectors, went and made restitution in the name of Jesus. Not just generosity, but making our wrongs right insofar as we are able in this life is the way of the kingdom and bears witness to grace.

Certainty: Jesus Seeks and Saves

Verses 9 and 10:

And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham.”

We will come to that.

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. (Luke 19:9–10, ESV)

Jesus declares, “Today salvation has come to this house.” The guest brings salvation into the host’s house. Jesus has done this in the past. In Simon’s home, he forgave a sinful woman. In the home of the man in the Sabbath dinner, he heals a man with dropsy. But today he brings salvation to the host himself, do you see? That is not by accident, my friends. This is the least likely of the hosts that we have found so far to have fellowship with the Lord and to find fellowship with the Lord of glory in their own salvation. It turns out that, against all odds, Zacchaeus is the one who is the son of Abraham, which makes me ask, how?

Did Zacchaeus just find out that he is a Jew? Did he just find out, “Oh my goodness, Papa Abe”? No. Here is what Jesus is declaring that no one would have believed: that Zacchaeus is walking in the faith of Abraham, that he is a true child of Abraham. In Romans 4:12, we have this explanation of Abraham:

. . . the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. (ESV)

The important thing is not that Zacchaeus is a son of Abraham according to the flesh, but that he has been revealed to be the son of Abraham because he too believes in the promise of the Lord. And he too believes that the way of the Lord is the way of blessing and redemption, and the Lord will provide. Abraham had not seen the provision. You know who has not seen the provision also? Zacchaeus. Jesus is going to go up the road about twenty miles, and he is going to go make provision there, and Zacchaeus is going to hear word of it. And I trust that Zacchaeus rejoiced at the news of the resurrection of the Christ.

Jesus Does the Impossible — Rich Man Redeemed

What we see in our passage and the context that surrounds it is that Jesus does the actual impossible. He redeemed a rich man. Luke 18, friends, I encourage you to go back. It is just one small passage back. Flip in your Bibles with me to Luke 18:25. Luke 18:25, it says this:

For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” (Luke 18:25–26, ESV)

Those who are the most blessed in this life cannot be saved, then what about the rest of us? And Zacchaeus’s salvation answers the question that was raised in Luke 18: Who can be saved?

It turns out that it takes a small man to pass through the eye of a needle, and that is it. But the thing is, nobody is that small. There is nobody that small. Zacchaeus cannot save himself. Zacchaeus is a small man, but he becomes a small man on that day because he is humbled under grace. He admits that he is a small man. His soul is shriveled and small, perhaps dead, and that there is a way that is rich and full. Jesus saves a rich tax collector, and he overcomes every insurmountable barrier of his wealth and his sin. The salvation of Jesus displays that the only way to be saved is not to figure out how to get through the eye of that needle, but that the Lord of glory would work a miracle in the soul of a man. To humble, to humble a human soul—that is a miracle.

Verse 27 of Luke 18 says this:

But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” (ESV)

And I can prove it. I have certainty without a shadow of a doubt that the sovereign power of God can save because Zacchaeus is my brother. That is the whole point of Luke, friends, that we would have absolute certainty that God has the power to save a soul like mine because Zacchaeus is my brother. And it gives us a bold surety that the Lord has the power and authority to save me. I think if Zacchaeus really knew me, he would be shocked to hear that God saves a man like me, except God saved a man like him. And there is a surety that is working its way all around.

The Son of Man Came to Seek and to Save the Lost

Look at verse 10. It is really the whole point of Luke. It is perhaps the most clear statement: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” That is what Luke wants us to be certain of. Jesus’ table fellowship serves that saving mission of calling sinners to repentance. At the beginning of Luke, in Luke chapter 5, Jesus says:

Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. (Luke 5:31–32, ESV)

“I have called those who have become actually small to be saved.” In partnership conversations, the best part of the partnership course is to get to that partnership conversation and to hear the stories of brothers and sisters in Christ who have become low. They tell of their lowestness. And I can see the light, that they are just wanting to tell me about how great Christ is to save someone like them. I get to hear that story. And you know why I love that story so much? I am like, “Oh my goodness, I really am saved.” The Lord saves sinners. It is good news.

But friends, if you are ever having small talk at a lunch table, coffee table, maybe hanging out after church, and you are not sure what to talk about next because it turns out you like opposing sports teams, ask, “Tell me about how you were saved.” My wife is so good at that, and I love just sitting back and listening. I do not have to talk. I get to just rest on a Sunday afternoon, and I get to hear somebody preach the gospel to my soul.

Apply

Brothers and sisters today, if you have not trusted Christ, come to him. He is a miracle worker. J. C. Ryle says, “No one is too bad to be saved, or beyond the power of Christ’s grace.” It is kind of the whole point. No one is beyond Christ’s saving power. Not Zacchaeus, not you.

It is an amazing thing that a small man crawls up onto a tree, and he is not trying to make himself big. He is just trying to get a little glimpse of Jesus. And I am sure he felt a bit odd up there. He is already odd in the city, and people think weird things about him. And now that small man is up in a sycamore tree. I wonder, is anyone here who feels odd, that even coming to church this morning was like an odd thing for you? You feel like somebody who climbed up into a sycamore tree, and everybody is looking at you.

And I wonder, if there are not very many people like that here, who, church, might you particularize that you should call and say, “Will you come with me? Let us climb up the sycamore tree and go to that church together. I know you said what would happen if you ever walked through the door of a church and all that lightning and stuff, but what if I just walk through it with you, and we can go and we can hear about the word of grace?” See, if you find yourself curious about Jesus at all, do not waste what the Spirit is doing in your life. Climb the tree, and when he calls to you, hurry to him. George Whitefield says Luke in his account gives encouragement to poor undone sinners to come to Christ. That is the whole point of the passage.

Do you realize that when Jesus is passing through Jericho, he is on his way up to Jerusalem, and he is not going on vacation, and he is not making an ordinary religious pilgrimage? Jesus is on the way to Jerusalem where he will die for sinners and rise again. Let us remember that Zacchaeus is one of the names up on that cross. He dies for the particular sin of that man and all of his fraud and all the things that he would not even want to talk about. Jesus, up on a cross, bears the judgment of Zacchaeus’s sins, my sins, and all who come to him in faith. And in his resurrection, he will conquer death.

So Zacchaeus cannot purchase forgiveness. We cannot purchase forgiveness, not with our generosity and not with our restitution, but Jesus pays the price. So salvation is a free gift that came into that home that day. The call is to turn from your sin and trust in Christ, to love the new way and walk in it with rejoicing. And when we fail, to say, “Lord, you are the forgiver of sins. Continue the ongoing work until the day that you complete it, the day of Christ Jesus.” Perhaps today he makes an urgent call to you: “I must stay at your house today.” If salvation would come to your home, he must stay at your house today.

For those who have believed, give glory to the Lord. Give glory to the Lord who saved you. Know who you are apart from Christ, yes. And give thanks that in your lostness, he called your actual name. He came into your house by his Spirit. The light of the glory of the gospel in the face of Christ shined into your particular heart, that you yourself would believe and receive his grace.

Seek Particular People with Hope

And friends, seek to particularize people with hope. The crowd saw a tiny tax collector up in a tree, but when Jesus saw Zacchaeus, he called him by name. And I wonder, is there someone that you have overlooked or given up on? Everyone knows, of anyone who would follow this Master, Zacchaeus is not the one. Zacchaeus is not the one who is going to follow that. That is why they ridiculed and grumbled amongst themselves. Friends, you know better. You know better because you know you.

Pray for them. Share a meal. Speak about Jesus. Say their name. Be willing to become a guest. They do not have to enter your life, but you can enter theirs. At whose table would you hesitate to sit, but who, when you go to it, would come to know and dine with the Lord who has welcomed you at his table?

Let Grace Lead to Obedience

And let us remember, grace leads to obedience. Perhaps part of your going with the news of the gospel is for you to recognize that, yes, you have been generous, generally speaking, but there are people who know of a wrongdoing. You can acknowledge the wrong without groveling. You cannot undo the past, but you can confess the wrong and make restitution. But you can shine the light of grace because you are not afraid to be exposed: “Yeah, that is me, and I did that, and I am so sorry. Fourfold, what can I do?”

In that, you are not just making things right. Jesus is going to do that. We can be assured. Man, I want Jesus to make everything right and wipe away every tear, but you can preach the gospel. You can tell the truth. Go. Let grace lead to an obedience because you have come to know and love the way of that grace.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV Text Edition: 2025. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language. Used by permission. All rights reserved.