Every so often, someone or something comes along, and people get so excited they wait in line for hours or maybe even camp overnight just to make sure they don't miss out.
Well, today on Truth for Life, Alastair Begg examines a story about a man who was similarly desperate. to see Jesus. And I invite you to turn back with me to Luke's Gospel and to chapter 19.
Now with our Bibles open, let's ask for God's help. Make the book lift to me, O Lord. Show me yourself within your word. Show me myself. and show me my Saviour, and make the book live.
to me. Amen. If your Bible is open there at the 19th chapter of Luke's Gospel and you allow your eye simply to scan the two pages which should be before you. Then, if you look carefully, you will realize that this is Luke's description. of the last personal encounter With Jesus.
before he enters Jerusalem. Following this, we have the parable of the ten minors to which we'll come, and then in verse 28, the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. This is the last occasion outside of the city when Jesus will have the opportunity to meet and greet those who are interested in seeing him. And what we have in these verses is, of course, one of the most striking stories of conversion. That is contained in all of Luke's Gospel.
Back in chapter 5, some of you may remember that there was a party which took place at the home of another tax collector. His name was Levi, he became part of Jesus. immediate group of disciples. And when Jesus had called Levi from his tax collector's booth, and Levi had left everything and got up to follow Jesus. He then had a big party at his house.
And on this occasion he invited all of his friends and as a result, of course, a great crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. I've sometimes wondered if, on that occasion and at that party, there was this little tax collector there. And he'd been present on that occasion when, as a result of their hanging together as a group because they needed to hold together, they weren't really very well liked by the population, he may have had opportunity to get uh an inkling of things.
However, I've only thought about it sparingly and not for very long because I think it seems unlikely because if he had already met with Jesus then it would be surprising that Luke would tell us that this little man was concerned to see who Jesus was.
So perhaps the word had just leaked out from this occasion. uh out through the tax collector fraternity, as it were. And uh this little man had found out that There had been this amazing party, and a bunch of people that weren't usually invited to the synagogue services. had shown up. And on that occasion, of course, and this is the reason that I turned to it, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law had complained to the disciples, saying, why does Jesus eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?
And Jesus, of course, had told them, it's not the healthy who need a doctor, but it's the sick. I didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.
Now, that explanation by Jesus is germane to the incident which is before us now in the 19th chapter. And indeed, Luke's summary statement of the ministry of Jesus here in verse 10 ties in very. Cohesively with the prior statement to which we're referring in the fifth chapter. The Son of Man, he says in verse 10, came to seek and to save What was lost? Why did Jesus show up at the party?
in the home of Levi. Because there were a lot of people there that needed to meet Jesus. Why did Jesus take time to stop under the sycamore tree? and meet this interesting little man. Because this interesting little man needed to meet Jesus.
Why would Christ, as it were, stop at the seats of individuals gathered here in this congregation this morning and knock, as it were, on the door of your heart? The answer is the exact same despite the passage of time. Because there are individuals here this morning who fit the category whom Jesus came to address. The Son of Man Came. Seeking Just save.
The lost people.
Now, some of us don't know that we are in that category, and so we need the Bible to speak to our hearts and show us that what we didn't understand has become apparent to us and that we are in need. of this seeking saviour. If you have any interest... In getting beyond simply hearing a man talk about the Bible, then in your heart and deep in your spirit, as you listen to my words, you should be saying, Lord Jesus Christ, speak to me as if there were not another person in this room. Speak to me through your word.
Call me, seek me, I need to meet you. And to the extent that that is the expression of your heart, then you will discover that Jesus comes seeking to save people. The likes of you. But here we are, it's Cleveland. It's a long way from Zacchaeus' life.
It's a long way from Jericho, and if you read this, Jesus entered Jericho, you probably don't have much of a concept at all. You may even think that he entered some kind of sleepy little village. And uh this man crawled himself out of his bed and showed up and there were a few people hanging around and Or you may have some other idea in your mind, but the chances are most of us have got no concept at all. Let me sketch in a little of the background for you as a result of my own investigation. You say, how do you know all these things?
Because I read books. Clearly not because I was present in Jericho on the occasion. And so you too can read books, and indeed you do read books, and some of you may have read the same books as me, in which case this will be no surprise to you. Jericho was a desirable place to live. People move there in the same way that people move from certain cities in America to others.
usually on the basis of location and climate. It was known as the City of the Pounds. One Roman historian described it as a little Paradise. It was full of beautiful fragrances. The sycamore trees, the cypress flowers, the balsam plantations, all of these were striking to anyone who visited Jericho.
Antony had given to his love Cleopatra the revenues of the balsam plantations when he was part of the jurisdiction that oversaw that region. If we had gone up to this city at the time that is described for us here and in the immediate time following it, we would have discovered that it was dominated in its skyline by four fortresses. and one of these was the royal palace. Archelaus had been responsible for building these magnificent gardens which were present. And the descriptions are of Feathery palm trees blowing in the breeze, of great stretches of rose gardens as far as you could see, the large sweet-scented balsam plantations out behind these royal gardens, and the perfume from the balsam being carried as a fragrance on the breeze.
So much so that Jericho actually means the perfumed place. And so as people entered it, they would have said, hmm, this place even smells good. And furthermore, the climate was very desirable. The historians tell us that even in the winter the residents could only bear the lightest clothing of linen on their backs.
So this was like Palm Springs. Or better than Palm Springs. It was at the same time on the caravan route from Damascus to Arabia. Consequently, it was not only a desirable place to live because of its climate and because of its beauty, but also because of its commercial prospects. And so, if you could live there or if you'd been born there, you enjoyed all of the benefits that accrued.
At the same time, it was a military center. The population was a variegated population. Families employed in the various responsibilities of the jurisdictions, of politics, and of the military. All of these gardens required gardeners. The soldiers were there because they needed to uh watch out for the city.
Publicans such as Zacchaeus were plenty because, with all of this trade and with all of this real estate, there were taxes galore. There were always travelers, there were always visitors. It had, if you like, a tourist trade. And when the tourists arrived, they met the priests and they looked over their shoulder and they said, he looks like a shady character. Do you think he's possibly a robber?
Because a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves who stripped him of his raiment and departed, leaving him half dead. And out on those limestone cave areas, it was just full of bandits and robbers. And of course they had to come into the town to do their business as well. You could have met religious zealots. You could have met all of these different people, families gathering and life.
going on. And in the middle of all of that, because of its location as the last station on the road to Jerusalem for all of the celebrations. it was customary at certain times in the year for processions to be going through Jericho. And this journey from Galilee or from Perea up to Jerusalem took people inevitably along this road. It was customary when a festive crowd came through the town that the people would all come out and greet them.
Now life has taken on all kinds of different pictures for many of us, but the simplicity of many of our lives when we were younger and perhaps lived in more rural settings was such that it wasn't unfamiliar for us to go out of our homes or into our gardens or into our yards simply because somebody or something was coming down the street. It's hard to imagine much that would get us out of the citadels in which we live today, shackled away as we are behind all of our electronic gadgetry, but it was such that when the crowd came through, the people came out to welcome them and to watch them. There would be men in the gathering. who simply wouldn't want to miss the occasion. They were routinely there.
Wondering? I wonder who will be in the crowd today? And when the word would come that a crowd was on its way, any peculiar notions would, of course, be passed quickly through the community.
So do you think that anybody was missing from this? A bystanders group? When the people said, you know, about six miles away at the moment at the fords of the Jordan, there is a company of people making their way towards Jerusalem, and Jesus of Nazareth is right in the heart of the group. Jesus of Nazareth, the buzz would have gone out.
Now, the prophet from Nazareth, the carpenter from Nazareth, the man who did the miracles, the one who's done the healings, he is in the group, he's in the group, he's on the way, he's on the way. And suddenly, the whole city is stirred as they anticipate not just any festal procession, but a unique one. Because right at the very core of it, Is this? Character Jesus of Nazareth.
So, men who presumably on other occasions would have let their wives go, oh no, no, I don't want to go trick-or-treating, you go out. I don't really have any interest in that at all. No, I don't want to go there. No, you go there. Let me know how it is, that kind of thing.
On this day, they go out. Because this is like no other procession that has come through. Saying to their friends, oh, I didn't expect to see you here. Oh, yes, said the fellow, I couldn't miss this one. I wanted to at least see him.
I want to see if he's tall. I want to see if he's short. I want to see him. I wanted to see this Jesus of Nazareth. Women.
holding up their babies above the crowd. In the hope that he would do for their children what he had been doing in other places, namely, take them and bless them and pronounce blessing upon them. People wondering. Saying to one another, do you think you'll stop? Do you think you'll just pass through?
I wonder, says somebody in the crowd, if he'll do a miracle here.
Somebody said, Do you think he's going to do one of those stories that he does? Do you think he'll stop? You think you'll just do one of those great stories? I want to really be the guest of somebody in Jericho. I wonder if he's going to go to one of the leaders' homes or perhaps to one of the religious figures.
What do you think is going to happen? Of all the possibilities. that buzzed through the minds of the assembled throng. Probably there was none less likely. than what actually took place.
And probably, of all the people in the crowd, there was nobody. who probably could have guaranteed to himself. Never, ever. having the chance to meet this Christ. Because after all, this little man to whom we're introduced was not exactly in the mainstream of Jericho's life.
He was on the periphery of it. He was on the outskirts of it. Look at what we're told about him. A man was there. by the name of Zacchaeus.
If you allow your eye to go back up to verse 35, you see this kind of symmetry, don't you? As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting there by the roadside.
So, from the story of one man who couldn't see to another man who couldn't see, but for different reasons. Zacchaeus, Zacchaeus. His name actually means the just or the pure. Which is an indication of the longings that his parents must have had for this little boy when they brought him in the custom of the time before the Lord and into the temple. And they must have said, Oh God, we want little Zach here.
To become the embodiment of his name. We want him to be just and we want him to be pure. And what an irony that he should grow up. called the pure one or the just one. When his whole life is about embezzlement and about bribery and about corruption and about lining his nest and about the fact that people said, I can't understand why anybody would want to hang around with Zacchaei.
With that guy, Zakai. I can't imagine it.
Now, what do we know?
Well, we know that he had a house. Probably a quite nice one. We know that he had a job. Definitely a despised one. We know that he had money.
That he was actually wealthy, verse 2. We know also that he was short in stature. Verse 3, and we also know that he had a desire because he wanted to see who Jesus was. He wanted to see who Jesus was. It's interesting, isn't it?
Some may be here this morning, and actually, the reason you've begun to come along to Parkside is because in various environments you're finding that the Bible is taught, and what you want to do is you want to find out who this Jesus was. And we're so glad that you're here.
Now, clearly, you're not going to meet him in physical terms the way that Zacchaeus was privileged to do, but you may meet him in the Bible as it unfolds for us. And as God, in this mystery and this wonder, takes the truth of the Bible and creates faith within the hearts. of the earnest seeker.
So Zacchaeus had to go to his bed the previous night. Whether it was the previous night or whether he woke and wakened in the morning, uh we don't know. It's all conjecture. But if it had been in the evening, he might have said to himself as he uh put his slippers underneath the bed, He said, you know, when I get up in the morning, I'm going to go out there. And I'm going to see this Jesus.
No matter what else happens tomorrow, I'm going to get a glimpse of this Jesus. I wonder why. Curiosity alone? Was it just that he was a kind of investigative little man? He was curious about things and he didn't want to let anything to pass him by.
And so curiosity was taking him out onto the street. Or was it, as I suggested earlier, the possibility of a connection in the fraternity of the tax collectors, maybe even with Levi himself, or certainly that the word had got out? Was it possibly as a result of his conscience? When he lay in his bed at night and he looked up at the ceiling and he thought about his life and he looked across his bedroom and he saw all that his ill-gotten gain had managed to provide for him as he pulled the beautiful silks over him, as he looked at his wardrobe, as he saw his shoes, as he saw the finest of things and it was like daggers into his heart as he realized, you know, your mom and dad, they called you Zacchaeus because they longed for you to be pure and to be righteous and you are impure and you are unrighteous. Was it his conscience?
Was he saying to himself, I can't keep on like this? The way some of you may have arrived at church this morning, oh, no one else around you knows. But that's what's been happening to you as you've been driving in your car. as your life has confronted you. And as you realize the gap that exists between where you are and where you need to be, you've said to yourself, I can't go on like this.
I can't keep on like this. Why is it? Perhaps because of the compassion That he had learned filled the eyes and the heart of this Jesus of Nazareth? Which of course would have been very appealing to him. It would have been so unlike the harsh leaders and the religious teachers of Israel.
who frankly just had nothing to do with him or his kind. There was no welcome for him at the local synagogue. There was nobody saying to him, you know, we have an evangelistic opportunity, we'd like you to come to. No, he was just snubbed and abused and marginalized.
So the news that this Jesus of Nazareth with the compassionate heart was coming may have been a draw in itself. Or was it the fact that Jesus had made so many his companions? That the crowd was growing.
Well, it wasn't huge, but it was significant. That every so often, as he went through the business of his days, he found that there were others saying, You know, I found a friend in Jesus, he's everything to me. People were saying, you know, I was in such and such a place and I met Christ. And he's saying to them, what do you mean you met Christ?
Well, they said, I don't just mean that I saw him. but that I actually was encountered by him. And he has become my friend, and he has become my Lord, and he has become my savior. And Sir Key is saying to himself, I don't understand that kind of thing. Everything that I've known of religion is out there and beyond me, and is dull, and is cold and is abstract.
This companionship. For companionship's a big draw to a lonely man, isn't it? Companionship's a big draw. to the girl who feels lost in the crowd.
Socias maybe found himself saying the day-to-day level of my living is really fairly meaningless. Underneath the superficial level of my life, I put my feet down and I hope for rock and all I find. is a shriveling Loneliness. Yeah. I'm going to go and I'm going to see Jesus.
Somewhere within this Zacchaeus, there was a deep Nameless. irresistible urge to meet Christ. when within your heart there is a deep, nameless urgency within you saying, I've got to find this Christ, I've got to know this Christ, then it is an indication of the fact that this Christ for whom you're seeking is actually as Zacchaeus was to discover. Seeking for you?
Now there were hindrances. This man has a hindrance in that he's small. Big crowd, we guy can't see, therefore, he's going to have to do something about it. This man determined That he would cast aside all restraint. All concerns about what his neighbors may say.
And he would go run ahead of the crowd because he knew that it was coming along that way, verse 4. There was only one way along, and he knew he was coming along that road.
So he said to himself, Well, what I'll do is I'll buzz up ahead of this crowd, then I'll climb up in a tree, the wide and welcoming branches of the sycamore that come uh low enough down that a wee guy could get a start on it. There's no point in climbing up in a tree where he needs a ladder to get to the first branch. This kind of tree made it possible for him at least to make a beginning. And so he climbed up into a sycamore tree. Ah, waiting.
For Jesus. to come along. You're listening to Alistair Begg on Truth for Life. Maybe you share Zacchaeus' eagerness to meet Jesus. We'll hear the rest of the story tomorrow.
For now I want to tell you about a book that provides clarity on a subject that can be confusing, no matter how long you've been a believer. The book is titled Distinct Communion. the Believer's Relations with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It's a book that draws from the teaching of Puritan writer John Owen to offer more insight into the Trinity. This book will help you better understand that praying to God is not something that should be generic.
Instead, we should pray uniquely to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, recognizing their separate roles in the Trinity. Distinct communion will teach you biblical foundations, will provide theological clarity, and give practical guidance for honoring God's triune nature. for an improved prayer life and devotional time. Ask for your copy of the book Distinct Communion when you donate to support Truth for Life. Go to truthforlife dot org slash donate or call us at eight eight eight five eight eight seven eight eight four.
And by the way, if you're looking ahead to 2026 thinking about next year's vacation, let me invite you to travel with Alistair on the Deeper Faith Norwegian Fjords Cruise. It's an eight-day adventure that sets sail out of the historic city of Amsterdam on September 5th, 2026. Find out more at DeeperFaithCruise.com Thanks for listening. Tomorrow we'll learn about a gift that's costly to accept. and costlier to reject.
The Bible teaching of Alastair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life. Where the Learning is for Living.
