Grace Bothers Us, Part 1

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ.

Notice something else. Jesus knows his name. He calls him Zacchaeus. Can you imagine how shocking that was to Zacchaeus? This rabbi you heard about looks up and says, Zacchaeus?

Me? He knows my name? He's just hoping to get a glimpse of the guy. Jesus knows his name. He knows yours too, and mine. Remember in Nathaniel in John 1? He said to Nathaniel, I saw you under the bush. He's Jesus. He's the Son of God.

He knows his name, but he doesn't condemn Zacchaeus at all. In fact, he says, hurry, come down today. I'm going to stay at your house. What is that? The words of grace. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana.

Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's word meets our world. What bothers you? What irritates you? What do you find annoying? Just a question, what bothers you? Texting drivers, they bother you? Lane jumpers? The media?

How about that infomercial and they promised you that magic product and it didn't take away your wrinkles? Blind referees? You see, what bothers you? See, I fear that there's something that bothers you that you'd never admit. What bothers you? It bothers lots and lots of people and it's likely to even bother many of us. It's the grace of God.

It bothers you. Now, you may say, no, no, absolutely not. Well, as we go on, we'll maybe ask the question again and we'll see if you come up with a different answer at that time. The grace of God, the undeserved, unearned, unearnable favor of God. Last week, I said that with this question, I said, why wouldn't everybody want to believe that biblical Christianity is true? Why wouldn't someone want to believe that, that we're saved by grace and grace alone by putting our faith and faith alone in Jesus Christ?

I define biblical Christianity last week in a single word. I said it's grace. That's what biblical Christianity is about. Grace is God's answer for man's dilemma. Grace is the reason that God came to Earth.

John wrote, he said the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And he's later in the same chapter said it was full of grace. And truth, all grace, all truth, all the time. John goes on and says, and we beheld his glory. And he says, we have received grace upon grace. And it sounds wonderful, but as you read many portions of the New Testament, you find something out.

Grace bothers people. I invite you to open your Bibles to Luke chapter 19. Luke chapter 19, a familiar story. Luke is describing the ministry of Christ near the end of the ministry of Christ, and he says in chapter 19, verse one, he entered Jericho. Jesus is entering Jericho. Jericho is the city of palms. It's six miles north of the Dead Sea. It's six miles east of the Jordan River, west of the Jordan River, excuse me. It's the garden city of the ancient world.

It had fun because of the springs that were found. They created aqueducts to Jericho. So they had incredible vegetation. There's a theater and an amphitheater built in Jericho by Herod the Great. The gardens in Jericho were designed by Archelaus. Alfred Edersheim, the great New Testament historian, says that it was characterized by groves of feathery palms rising stately in stately beauty. Stretched gardens of roses and sweet scented, he says, balsam plantations. It was the Eden of Palestine, the fairy land of the old world.

It's set in this hollow to the west are the limestone mountains and to the east is the sunken Jordan Valley. And you could see the distant purple mountains of Moab all from Jericho. It's about as beautiful a place as it could be. And at this time. It's unbelievably busy. There are people everywhere in Jericho because there's a Passover in Jerusalem.

And so people are moving from Jericho to the land of Jerusalem so they can get to the city and then they celebrate the Passover. Business is booming. In Jericho.

And that means so are taxes. Taxes are booming in Jericho. There are three regional tax centers the Romans set up. They set the one up in the north in Capernaum. The one in the central part of Israel in Caesarea.

And in the southern part, Jericho is one of the centers for taxation. And it says there that he entered Jericho and he's passing through. Jesus is just passing through. He's not staying at this stage.

Luke doesn't believe he's staying. We're just he's just going through the city. He has an enormous number of people with him, probably thousands. And the reason for it is everybody is now hearing that he raised Lazarus from the dead. You see, and once you knew somebody raised somebody from the dead, that's going to attract in tremendous crowds. So Jericho's already been busy.

It's already overflowing with people. And here comes Jesus through it. And it says then and there was a there was a man called by the name Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and he was rich.

We run into Zacchaeus. We've known him since Sunday school classes. He is a tax collector, it says. He's more than just that. Architines is the Greek word for tax here means a commissioner of taxes. He's a tax czar. There's a pyramid scheme. And the guy at the very top of the line is the guy all the other tax collectors work for. As I've told you many times in the past, Rome extracted a certain amount of taxes from each province.

Now, whatever the tax collectors collected above that, you can keep so you can just imagine how much graft and everything went on. And notice, Luke even says this guy is extremely rich. And he is hated by every Jew. He's the worst kind of person. Jews would not speak to him. He was not allowed to go to the synagogue. He could never go to the temple.

He's a tax collector. He's considered one who has betrayed his own nation for the sake of Rome. He is unclean. In other words, if you touched him, you would have to be ceremonial clean because he's so unclean. They would view him as one of the most horrible men in Jericho. That's the scenario for Zacchaeus. Now, it's interesting. It then says that Zacchaeus was trying to see who Jesus was and was unable because the crowd of the crowd and his small in stature.

So you have two problems for Zacchaeus. You got a big crowd and he's a small statured man. Now, very few people in America can identify with us like you and I can. Right now, this is Mardi Gras. What's going on in Jericho is Mardi Gras, just massive amount of people, and they all want to see Jesus as a one man parade.

Everyone wants to see Jesus. You see, and if you're small in stature, OK, you'll notice that if you get so far deep into the crowd, you can't see anything even at a Mardi Gras parade. So it's like and small in stature means he was just short. I know we you know, the song Zacchaeus was a wee little man.

A wee little man was he as though he's about this tall, you know, but he wasn't like that. And by the way, do you think of all those people who got in line the night before they heard Jesus was coming through? They set up their little ladder, you know, stuff like that. Do you think they're going to get out of their way to let Zacchaeus get to the curb? No, they hate Zacchaeus. He just wants to see Jesus. I just want to see the guy. I've heard so much about him.

I want to see him. This is the sixth encounter Jesus has with a tax collector in Luke. Every time Jesus has an encounter with a tax collector, it turns out, well, it's always a good encounter. It always has a positive spin every time he encounters religious people like scribes and Pharisees.

It's terrible. But he encounters this tax collector. And so it goes on and it says Zacchaeus was trying to see who Jesus was unable because of the crowd. He was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and he climbed a sycamore tree. So he climbs this sycamore tree.

It's a it's not like a palm. The sycamore tree in Judah at the time would have been very round, very thick trunk, very low to the ground, almost like live oaks. The lower branches are very low to the ground. It wouldn't be hard for him to climb up in it. He just needed to get above the crowd. So he climbs on this tree. He just wants to simply look at Jesus as Jesus is passing through. Now, one of the great ironic things here, I think it's amazing, is that the word Zacchaeus.

It means pure, innocent or clean. And here he is, the chief tax collector, one of the most hated men in Jericho. And it says and it says, for he was about to pass that way.

And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and he saw. And I guess if you understand, Zacchaeus is pretty famous there. Everybody knows who he is. He's one of the richest men in Jericho. And he's rich on the backs of the people. He's a traitor to his people.

Here's this great rabbi, this miracle working rabbi who has raised people from the dead. And he stops and he wants to talk to them. So what do you think the crowd's thinking? Zacchaeus is going to get his right now. Zacchaeus is going to get it. This rabbi is going to challenge him right now for what a horrible human being he is and what he's done to the people.

Boy, were they surprised. That's not what Jesus did at all. He says, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down for today.

I must stay at your house. What? That way, that's not what we wanted him to say. What? What? Look, you can't even touch a man like Zacchaeus.

Now this rabbi wants to go and stay with him at his house. Notice something else. Jesus knows his name. He calls him Zacchaeus. Can you imagine how shocking that was to Zacchaeus? This rabbi you heard about looks up and says, Zacchaeus?

Me? He knows my name? He's just hoping to get a glimpse of the guy. Jesus knows his name. He knows yours too and mine. Remember in Nathaniel in John 1? He said to Nathaniel, I saw you under the bush. He's Jesus. He's the son of God. He knows his name. But he doesn't condemn Zacchaeus at all. In fact, he says, hurry, come down, today I'm going to stay at your house.

What is that? The words of grace. This is grace speaking. Why didn't you condemn him? Because I'm speaking in words of grace just like I've spoken to you. You see, what's going on here? Look at verse 10.

Here's the reason why. For the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. Last week I said grace stoops. This week I'll say grace seeks and grace saves. That's what grace does. He said, look, I'm here. You're lost.

I'm here to save you. That's grace. That's the way it worked.

Wow. And it says, and he hurried and he came down and he received him gladly. Could you imagine how happy Zacchaeus was? This great rabbi, one who raised people from the dead, blind people saw. He spoke like no one else ever did. And this man has invited himself to come to my house. It says gladly. Zacchaeus was a lot like the prodigal son whenever he went home and his father ran and kissed him.

It should be the way you felt whenever you trusted Jesus Christ and were born again into his family. He accepted you. By his grace. Strictly by his grace. Nothing else. Zacchaeus is wound up.

This is way beyond what he ever imagined would happen. Now, here comes the part where a lot of us get into the story. And when they saw it, they began to grumble. They began to grumble. It bothered them.

They don't like it. The word here is, this is a compound word, dia, but it's gargoyles, gargoyles. It's an onomatopoeia.

An onomatopoeia is where the sound of the word gives the meaning of the word gargoyles. I hate this. I don't like this. That's a horrible man.

Why'd you go stay at his house? See, doesn't he know how bad he is? Grace bothers a lot of people.

It may even bother you as we go on this morning. He says, they've grumbled. They said he has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner. To be a guest means to take your clothes off, it means to spend the night there. He's going to stay at Zacchaeus' house. How disgusting. I mean, Zacchaeus is a tax collector.

The only people that hung around with tax collectors are publicans and prostitutes. They're an outcast group. And this man, this rabbi is going to go and spend time at his house? That bothers me.

It shouldn't be that way. The question is, how do you respond to grace? What's what Zacchaeus does? Zacchaeus stopped and he said to the Lord, behold, Lord, half of my possessions I'll give to the poor. And if I defrauded anyone of anything, I'll give them back four times as much.

Wow. See, in Exodus 22 and verse 1, it says that if you rob someone with violence, you assault them to steal from them. You have to pay them back four times as much. Zacchaeus didn't say that. He said, but if I defrauded anybody, I'll pay them back four times as much, anyone.

And I'm going to take half of all my money and just give it to the poor. How do you respond to grace? Do you notice something about this? If we're looking at it from our point of view, how long was Zacchaeus saved? Minutes? What do we say? Hey, don't expect too much. I've only been saved about a year.

And they're still living in the world, but they're still struggling and they're still trying to figure this. It'll come later, but it takes time for this. Really? How come it didn't take him any time at all? His response is immediate. Once he understood grace, he responded immediately.

He didn't wait to grow up in it. He said, I'll respond right now. Wow. They grumbled. Turn with me now to Luke five. Passage we looked at before, but this is another tax collector.

I want you to see how we respond once again. Luke five verse 27. This is Matthew. It says, and Jesus went out and noticed the tax collector named Levi or Matthew sitting in his tax booth. And all he did is walked up to him and said, follow me.

He left everything behind. He got up and he began to follow Christ. And Levi gave a big reception for him in his house. And there was a great crowd of tax collectors and other people reclining at the table with him here. Levi's first thing he does, I'm throwing a party for all my friends.

The grace of God has touched me. I want all my friends to hear about it. I want everybody to come now. That's going to be basically tax gatherers, publicans and prostitutes.

That's who comes to the big party. Watch the response. And the Pharisees and the scribes began grumbling. Gagadzu, same word.

Gagadzu. I hate this. I don't like this at all. He said, why do you eat with tax collectors and sinners? One way is because that's the only kind of people you could eat with, isn't it? Every time you've eaten with somebody, you've eaten with sinners, haven't you?

Even if you eat by yourself, you're eating with a sinner. Everybody does. You see, but there's what bothers us. I don't like this. I don't like this at all. Why is he doing this? This is a despicable human being.

Now, up until now, I'm sure you're thinking, yeah, but see, that's the scribes and Pharisees. I'm not like that. I wouldn't be like that.

Don't count on that. We're all susceptible to this, and I'll show you why right now. Come with me to Matthew chapter 19 and verse 27, Matthew 19 and verse 27. These verses at the end of 19 will set the stage for a parable that Jesus is about to teach. Here's how we think. We think a lot like Peter did. Verse 27 of Matthew 19, then Peter said to Jesus, behold, we have left everything and followed you.

What then will there be for us? I mean, after all, we gave up everything for you. I was a fisherman. We had a business. I gave it up for you.

What do I get? That's the way we think. Remember, this is Peter thinking. This isn't a Pharisee. This is Peter.

Shouldn't I get something for this? Some of you have amazing testimonies. What I mean by that is this. You may say to me, you know, I don't even remember a time in my life when I didn't trust Christ. I've always trusted him. So that means I've always loved the Lord, and I've always kind of done the good things. You know, I never did really terrible things at all. I didn't run around with the worst crowd.

I never did any of that. What's in it for me? You see, what do I get for my sacrifice?

What do I get? Tell me. That's the way we think. So Jesus says this very kindly. He said, truly, truly, I say to you who have followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you shall receive, you shall sit upon 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel. You're an apostle. You're a disciple. You're going to sit on one of the 12 tribes when I come into my kingdom.

You think I wouldn't remember who you are? Then he says this. And everyone who has left houses, brothers, sisters, father or mother, or children or forms for my name's sake will receive many times as much and will inherit eternal life. Here's another way of saying it. Don't tell me what you've given up for me.

Don't do that. You haven't given up anything. That you don't get back over and over and over and over again. Don't talk about what you gave up. See, that's the way we think.

We just think along those kind of lines. Look what I've done for you. He says there's no place for that. You're getting eternal life.

Not only are you getting eternal life, but Paul says we're joint heirs with Christ. And what does he inherit? Everything. So what else do you want?

Why are you even asking? We're asking because we have a different view of life than he has. We have a different view of people than he has. Jesus says, let me set the record straight. I'm going to make a statement now, teach a parable, make the statement again.

Here's the statement. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first. That's grace.

Many who are first are going to be last, and many who are last are going to be first. That's grace. What do you think of that? And I think if you're honest, you'll say, I don't think I like it.

I don't think I like that. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called oneplace.com. That's oneplace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

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