Today on Summit Life with JD Greer. Every other religion in the world would have said to Zacchaeus, Zacchaeus, if you want to find God, clean up your life, start being honest, give away your money, go and do those things, and then you'll find salvation. But Jesus reversed the order. Salvation invites itself to dinner at your house. It knocks at your door. All you got to do is open the door and receive it, and in response, you change. Thanks for joining us today for Summit Life with pastor, author, and apologist, JD Greer.
I'm your host, Molly Bitovitch. In today's teaching from the Gospel of Luke, Pastor JD leads us through what is likely a familiar story for many, the story of a tax collector named Zacchaeus whose life was forever changed by a glimpse of Jesus. This man who was despised by many was willing to do whatever it took to see the savior, and as a result, Jesus noticed him and offered him grace that changed not just his behavior, but his heart. Is your life characterized by generosity and a desire to live honorably before God and others? If it's not, maybe today is your first step towards a life that honors God with all that we have. So let's join Pastor JD in Luke chapter 19.
Luke chapter 19. They say never to meet your heroes, but I had the chance to meet one of mine when I was in middle school, the one and only Michael Jordan. It was at the Crosby Golf Tournament in 1986. I know some of you have heard this story, but we've got a lot of new people at our church, right?
So everybody needs to hear it. Michael Jordan was at the height of his career. I think he had been with the Chicago Bulls maybe three years at this point. I was in the eighth grade, and all I wanted in life was to be able to meet Michael Jordan. So I found out I was going to be at this golf tournament, so my best friend and I, who had no interest in golf whatsoever, bought tickets to this tournament and spent the whole day trying to figure out where he was.
The tournament organizers, I think wisely, did not publish where he was so that there wasn't a mob to keep Jordan away from people like me. So I never saw him the entire day. The entire day, no spotting of Michael Jordan. So at the very end of the day, I was waiting for my mom to come pick up me and my best friend, and we were outside one of the refreshment tents, and my friend was buying a Snickers bar or something. All of a sudden, I see coming down that road, I see this purple Porsche Carrera 944, and I was enough of a Michael Jordan fan boy to know that's his car.
So I turned to and yelled at my friend. I'm like, it's him. It's Michael Jordan. I guess 50, 60 people heard me, so this little group comes over, and Michael Jordan is coming down the path in this car, and he rolls that tinted window down. He's looking for somebody. It's not me, but he's looking for somebody. He comes right by where I'm standing, and the window is all the way down, and my friend sees his opportunity, and so he grabs me by the top and the bottom of my back of my shirt, and he shoves me into Michael Jordan's car.
This is not a joke. I'm waist deep up into his car. I am this close to Michael Jordan's face. I could have licked him, and one of my lifelong regrets is that I did not carpe diem right then, but I said, hello, Mr. Jordan, and he was sitting there with his arm on the window, and he looks over, and he says, get out of my car, and I said, yes, sir, Mr. Jordan, and I backed out of the car, and I turned around to the crowd, and I said, he talked to me. Michael Jordan and I had a conversation.
It was the pinnacle moment of my middle school career. Everything from that point on was downhill, but overall, overall, overall, that meeting did not have much ongoing effect on me. Today, you're gonna see a man, a man fight through the crowd just to get a glimpse of Jesus, and you're gonna see the effect that meeting Jesus has on him. We've been in a series called Whatever It Takes, where we have focused on what following Jesus means specifically in regard to our time, our treasure, and our talents. Today, today we're gonna round out our study by considering the effect that actually meeting Jesus has on generosity, not just generosity with your money, but just generosity of spirit in general. Luke chapter 19, if you got your Bibles, all four weeks of this series, in case you haven't noticed, have come from the Gospel of Luke, and so we're gonna round out this series.
We're gonna finish it up with Luke chapter 19 this week. This is one of the greatest little stories in the Bible. It's about a wee little man, a wee little man, and it's important to see that this story, where it takes place in the Gospel of Luke, is almost right after Jesus' encounter with the rich, young ruler.
In order to really understand what this story is doing, you gotta understand its connection to that story. In that story, a rich, young ruler had tragically walked away from Jesus sad because he could not let go of his possessions. As that rich, young ruler was walking away, Jesus turned to his disciples.
Do you remember this? He said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich person to enter into the kingdom of heaven. And when he said that, his disciples had looked back and responded. They said, well, I mean, then who then can be saved? And Jesus' answer was, what is impossible with men is possible with God. Zacchaeus' story is the answer to that dilemma, because in Zacchaeus' story, we're gonna have another rich, young ruler, but this one, even though he is far more compromised than the other one, this rich, young ruler does respond the right way and thereby enters into the kingdom of heaven. So you are about to see what it looks like for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, and you're gonna see how God saves the impossible. This is the answer to the dilemma Jesus raised in Luke 18.
Luke chapter 19, verse one. As Jesus entered Jericho, there was a man there named Zacchaeus. He was an arche talonis, literally chief of the tax collectors, and he was rich, and he was seeking to see who Jesus was. I have to wonder, personally, what was it that made Zacchaeus wanna see Jesus? Was it just curiosity? Was it a troubled conscience?
We just don't know. I have a suspicion what it was, which I will get to in a moment, but the bottom line is we don't know exactly what it was that drove him to seek Jesus out, but the next detail is awesome, but on account of the crowd, he could not see Jesus because he was vertically challenged. He was small of stature. Small of stature in Greek is literally we little man, all right?
All right, how many of you grew up with a song? Let's just go ahead and acknowledge it. Zacchaeus was a wee little man, Nana. There you go, and everybody who wasn't in church growing up was like, what in the world was that? But it's true, y'all.
It's true. That's where we get the song from. He was a wee little man. He was a wee little man, so he ran on up ahead, and he climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about, Jesus was about to pass that way.
Why? Why does he climb the tree? You say, well, duh, because he's short. He's a wee little man, and a wee little man was he, so he climbed up into the sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see. But y'all, here's the thing. When somebody's short, you don't mind if they stand in front of you. When my kids and I are in a crowd, I don't mind if they stand in front of me because they don't affect my line of sight, but this crowd won't let Zacchaeus in even though he's short, even though he won't affect their line of sight because they hate him, and that's because they hated all tax collectors.
You say, well, why? Well, I mean, I wouldn't say that tax collector is the most popular job today, but back then it was the worst thing that you could be. By the way, I read an article recently that explained that the term IRS agent has become so unpopular in our culture that in some parts of the country, IRS agents have adopted the new name compliance directors.
And I thought, oh yeah, that's a lot better. Some compliance director, somebody over there in marketing is just killing it, okay? So tax collector, compliance director might not be the most popular job today, but back then, back then to be a tax collector was the worst thing you could do because tax collectors were considered to be traders and thieves. You see, the Romans had come up with a pretty ingenious tax system. After they conquered a people, they wanted to tax the people so they could get rich off of them.
That's why they conquered the people. But they found that if they transplanted a Roman official there to collect the tax, he wouldn't really be able to do it because not only was he unpopular, he didn't understand the city well enough to know where all the real money was hidden. For example, imagine a tax agent from another country got sent here to America to collect taxes from waiters and restaurants. And so he demands to see at the end of every night, he demands to see each waiter's paycheck to take taxes out of that. But he doesn't understand that the real money that a waiter makes comes not from his hourly wage, it comes from his tips.
An insider would know that. The Romans wanted an insider who knew where the real money was hiding. And so they paid local Jews to do their dirty work for them. And they told them, hey, this is how much tax Rome wants.
Anything you get beyond that, you can keep for yourself. Here's the garrison of Roman soldiers to help you enforce that. So Jewish tax collectors extracted these huge amounts of money from their own people for Rome who was oppressing their people. And they got rich in the process.
And anybody who resisted them would get roughed up by the Roman soldiers. Tax collectors did this to their neighbors. They did this to their friends. They did this to their former elementary school teachers. They did this to their grandmothers.
Imagine that. When you chose to become a tax collector, you chose to get rich off of the suffering of your neighbors. Money was so important to you that you would sacrifice everything, your country, your integrity, your family, everything just to get it. Tax collectors were so despised that the Jewish Mishnah, which was basically an ancient commentary on Jewish laws, the Jewish Mishnah said that lying to a tax collector was okay. One source said that was because tax collectors were not really people.
They were like animals. And according to Jewish law, lying to animals is not a sin, which is a weird clarification if you ask me. The point is, this is Zacchaeuszgal. In most people's eyes, he is subhuman.
He's subhuman. In Jericho, by the way, where Zacchaeusz is the chief tax collector, that was the richest city in Israel. That was their New York City. This is not your run-of-the-mill rich guy.
This guy sits at the top office, in the top office, in the tallest skyscraper in their version of Manhattan. As far as they're concerned, this is the worst of the worst. So when they see him trying to press through the crowds, they're like, we're not moving for you, you wee little pig of a man. And so after trying unsuccessfully for several minutes to worm his way in between their knees, he's running short on options.
So he decides to branch out. We'll go ahead and warn you. My pun game is on point this morning.
So brace yourself. Y'all, what a sight. What a sight this must have been. I mean, think about it. As far as riches goes, Zacchaeusz was the Elon Musk or the Mark Zuckerberg of his day. He's used to being carried around in a chariot by servants. And here you got him climbing up into a tree, like he's a middle school fan boy trying to stick his head in a Porsche to get a quick glimpse of his hero.
I mean, imagine if one of those guys did that today. You look up in a crowd and you see a desperate Elon Musk hanging off of a limb, just trying to get a glimpse of Jesus. I would say there's something here that all of us can learn from Zacchaeusz, right?
This is not even the main point of the message, but let's just acknowledge it. Zacchaeusz is willing to do whatever it takes to see Jesus. You were listening to Summit Life with Pastor JD Greer. To learn more about this ministry, including how to partner with us financially, visit jdgreer.com. Did you know that Summit Life is featured on radio stations all over the country and even overseas? We love hearing from people all over the world.
We recently heard this from one of you. I love Summit Life and Pastor JD's teaching and humor. My love for the gospel is growing deeper and I am maturing as a Christian.
I am also sharing what I've learned in a newfound and clearer way. That's just one example of the impact of the gospel message that we try to steward here at Summit Life. If you too have been inspired and challenged by this program, if Summit Life has become a trusted source of spiritual encouragement for you, please consider helping someone else hear this teaching by giving a generous year-end gift to the ministry right now.
Call us at 866-335-5220 or visit jdgreer.com. Thanks for your faithfulness. This ministry exists because of the generosity of God's people, so thank you from the bottom of our heart.
Now let's return to our teaching. Once again, here's Pastor JD. And let me just point out to those of you who might be seeking Jesus this morning, Zacchaeus does not let Jesus's hypocritical, judgmental, self-righteous followers discourage him from getting that view.
I just feel like that might be a word for somebody in here right now. Maybe you're going to have to to climb a tree to get above Jesus's followers so that you can see him. It ought not be like that. And I apologize that sometimes it is like that, but maybe you felt crowded out by the way that some of Jesus's followers act about politics on social media. Or maybe you've experienced some followers of Jesus to be really clickish or standoffish.
Or maybe they've made racial or sexist jokes around you in a way that really turns you off. Maybe you were in business with a Christian and they really did you wrong. Maybe you've even suffered abuse at the hands of somebody who claimed to be a Christian. I don't know. But church, I don't want to be the kind of people who keeps the Zacchaeus from getting a good glimpse of Jesus. Point is, maybe that's you. You've been hurt by Jesus's followers and you've got to climb up above them to get a good look at him.
All I'll tell you is that it's worth it. Because watch what happens next in verse five. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and he said, Zacchaeus, you come down, for I'm going to your house today. Now this almost seems a little presumptuous on Jesus's part, right? Hey, strange little man I've never talked to before.
I'm inviting myself to dinner at your house tonight and I'll probably spend the night. Y'all, what is it that makes Jesus know how to pick somebody out of a crowd? It's the only person Jesus said that to this day.
What is it about him that knows how to pick somebody out of a crowd and say, you? I know God is at work in your life. We see it not only in this story.
All throughout the Gospels, Jesus has this ability to walk through a crowd and stop and see right into somebody's heart and say, I see you and I know what's going on inside of you. I suspect that might be happening to some of you right now. You never thought you'd be in here. In fact, you can't really believe you are here, but you are. And you're trying to hide out there somewhere in the crowd. Or maybe you chose to go to one of our campuses because you thought, well, I'll go where the teaching pastor is not even physically present because there's no way he can mess with me there.
I'm definitely safe here. But you're just trying to get a little look at Jesus and today you're going to sense Jesus call you out of that hiding spot and say, you, I see you and I'm looking for you. So he hurried down, Zacchaeus, hurried down and he stood and he came and he received him joyfully.
There is a scandalous order to this story that every Jewish listener would have picked up on immediately. You see in those days to eat with somebody, to go to someone's house and share a meal was a sign of intimate fellowship. That's true even in our American context. To share your dinner table with somebody is to share your life. I invite friends and people I know over to dinner. It's not normally strangers or enemies that I'm inviting to my table.
It's somebody that I have a relationship with. But it was especially true in that culture. To eat with somebody meant that you were accepting them, that you were committing yourself in a way to a loving relationship with them. Here's the scandalous order. Jesus chose to eat with Zacchaeus before Zacchaeus cleaned up his life. When Jesus came over for dinner, Zacchaeus was still a cheating, practicing tax collector. That's why verse seven says that they were all scandalized. And when the Jewish leaders saw it, they all grumbled. He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner. They would have thought that a holy person, a representative of God, a holy God, if he had anything to say to Zacchaeus, it would have been to command Zacchaeus to go clean up his life. And look at all the oppression and suffering you have caused. Look at all these people around you you've hurt.
You need to make it up to them. You go clean up your life, you make amends, and then later after Zacchaeus had made sufficient amends, maybe, only maybe, then Jesus might eat with him. But Jesus enters Zacchaeus' house first before Zacchaeus changes.
But you all see this scandalous order is the heart of the gospel. Salvation comes to our houses before we change. In fact, salvation is what brings the change. Every other religion in the world would have said to Zacchaeus, Zacchaeus, if you want to find God, clean up your life, start being honest, give away your money, go and do those things, and then you'll find salvation.
But Jesus reversed the order. Salvation invites itself to dinner at your house. It knocks at your door.
All you've got to do is open the door and receive it. And in response, you change. And boy, did Zacchaeus ever change. Verse eight, Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, behold, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor.
And if I have defrauded anybody of anything, I restore it fourfold. Did you all notice? I didn't skip any verses between verses seven and eight. There are no commands from Jesus.
There's no belittling, no shame, no how could you. Just the experience of grace changed Zacchaeus. And Zacchaeus stood up spontaneously, unprompted by anybody else, and he said, I'm going to repay anything I have ever stolen fourfold, and I'm going to give away half of all my goods to the poor on top of that. Now the Jewish law specified what you were required to repay somebody if you stole from them.
And Zacchaeus surely would have known these laws. Leviticus says basically it was the value of the object plus 20%. In other words, if you stole somebody's cow, you had to repay them the value of the cow and then add 20%. That's like what? A cow plus a tomahawk steak from Angus barn?
The value of the cow plus 20%. That's utterly appropriate, okay? All right, I told you, I warned you. But Zacchaeus repays four times the value. No one required him to do that. He does it voluntarily.
And the part about him giving away 50%, that is nowhere in the law. That's just gravy. That just springs forth spontaneously out of his heart. And the thing to notice, y'all, he does it all with glee.
Not drudgery, not how much do I have to do to make this right. He does it with glee. In fact, there's a little nuance in Greek that you might miss because it doesn't translate into English.
Verse eight, verse eight, he says, look, Lord, look, I'm giving away 50%. And the syntax in Greek is like a kid who was showing his mom and dad how he could ride his bike without holding onto the handlebars. Look at daddy, look at what I'm doing.
Look at me. You see, it's not just Zacchaeus' behavior that's changed. He has changed. What the Jewish law had been utterly unable to compel, the grace of the gospel produced in an instant. The law tells us what we ought to do, but the gospel changes our heart so that we want to do it.
The law is like the railroad tracks pointing us in the direction that we should go, but powerless to move the freight along the tracks. The gospel is the power that moves the load. The law commands us to act like God and in the process just reveals how utterly unwilling and unable we are to do that. The gospel transforms us so that we become like God, so that we obey his commandments from the heart.
Or to quote Martin Luther, the law says do, but it's never done. The gospel says only believe, rejoice, because it's already done. Verse nine, and Jesus said to him, today salvation has come to this house since he also is the son of Abraham. For the son of man came to seek and to save.
The law, Zacchaeus, is supposed to be an example of how all people find Jesus or better yet are found by him and what happens to them when they do. So in light of that I want us to consider two questions with our remaining time. Number one, what was it that brought the change in Zacchaeus? Number two, what was the sign of the change? What brought the change? What was the sign of the change? Number one, what brought about the change in Zacchaeus? Zacchaeus' awakening as I see it was basically twofold. First, he recognized the emptiness of money.
Let me all think about it. Something drove Zacchaeus to climb that tree. Something gave him the inner compulsion, I got to do something and I got to do something radical because things aren't working. There he was having achieved all that he'd ever hoped to achieve and still he felt empty, unsettled. Proverbs 11 25 says that the righteous eats to the satisfying of their souls but the stomach of the ungodly, no matter how much they eat, no matter how much they eat and devour, they always crave more. Zacchaeus had eaten his fill but he still craved more.
He was unhappy. What a powerful word from Pastor JD today. This is Summit Life. Well, Pastor JD, this time of year is really critical for ministries like Summit Life as we close the books on another year and I think for a lot of people that's kind of surprising because they don't really know what all is involved in funding a ministry like this. Yeah, you know radio is one of those things that unless you're directly involved it's easy to overlook how much time, effort and cost go into to bringing these programs to life from purchasing airtime to producing and distributing the content. There's just a lot happening behind the scenes to ensure these messages reach people week after week.
Sometimes I say it's like a duck, it looks so calm and serene there sitting on the water but what you don't see is how ferociously it's kicking its legs under the water. Same thing's happening here at Summit Life. You hear this message and you just hear it by turning your radio to it but there's so much that goes into creating that moment. When you give to Summit Life you're making sure the cost doesn't become a barrier for anybody who wants to learn and grow through Gospel Center teaching. That's our heart is to make this available for the people that need it most.
That's why I always say you're not giving to us as much as you're giving through us. Molly, the bottom line is I would love to say this to our Summit Life audience. We would love for you to join us in this mission and I would love to ask you personally just to go to jdware.com and either become a Gospel partner or to make an end of year gift so that we can do this and by the way if you are already one of our Gospel partners I want to say thank you and just ask just ask you to consider whether or not you might give an extra year-end gift so we can step into the new year with boldness and confidence going through these doors that God has opened for us and reach even more people with the life transforming message of Jesus.
You can learn more about all this at jdgrier.com. As we approach the end of the year your gift is needed now more than ever. We know God will provide and we would love for you to be a part of the team He uses to do that. We'll send you a copy of the 2025 Summit Life Planner with your generous year-end donation today of $45 or more when you make a new monthly commitment to become a Gospel partner. Call 866-335-5220.
That's 866-335-5220 or give online at jdgrier.com. I'm Molly Vidovitch. I hope you'll join us tomorrow as we continue our brand new teaching series called Whatever It Takes. Don't miss it Wednesday on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.
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