Experience TRUTH - #10

Looking for that perfect Christmas gift for the family? Why not a chicken? Stick a bow on top, put the chicken under the tree, and who knows, you may even have a couple eggs to fry up for breakfast Christmas morning.

Give the gift that keeps on clucking. A chicken. Okay, maybe it's not the perfect gift for your family, but it is the perfect gift for a poor family in Asia. A chicken can break the cycle of poverty for a poor family. Yes, a chicken.

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Call 866-WINASIA or to see chickens and other animals to donate, go to CritterCampaign.org. Hello, this is Matt Slick from the Matt Slick Live Podcast, where I defend the Christian faith and lay out our foundations of the truth of God's Word. Your chosen Truth Network podcast is starting in just a few seconds.

Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. Robby, you hear that song, you think about all kinds of stuff as a little guy, you know, doing the hand motions and everything, huh? Okay, I knew it was coming. Okay, stop it with the short jokes, but you got two tall talk show hosts doing this thing. We've been getting tall joke jabs all our life, but he stood up and he said to the Lord, to the Lord, wow, Lord, look Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor. If I've taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold. Damn, buddy. So this is radical repentance.

This is game on. And it's interesting, that repentance is built in two things are in that repentance, if you notice. First is a magnanimous giving to people who can't help me and who can do nothing for me. So that's called grace. Okay, so there's a repentance that involves, in faith, that involves just an abundance of giving. When God gives grace to a man, woman, child, grace flows to that person.

Suddenly it flows through it. Suddenly that person is giving. Oh, I want to bring you to him.

I want to tell you. I want to give to you. He's giving to me.

I want to give to you, right? So there's a giving. But the second part of that repentance is a restitution. This goes into bitterness. This goes into forgiveness. This goes into the tough stuff. We don't want to talk to that relative who did us wrong, who hates us.

We don't want to deal with that. He says, if I've taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold. Wow. That's a lot more than the Hebrew law if you go back in Leviticus. We won't go into all that, but Levitical law required you restore more than what you took, but fourfold is way over the limit. So here he's saying, I'm going to go back to everyone I did wrong, and I'm going to not just say, hey, I'm sorry for taking your money. God's forgiven me. Will you forgive me? I'll forgive you.

No. He's saying, hey, here's your money. Here's your $10,000.

Oh, here's $40,000. That's God doing something to someone like that. That's radical, but that's what Jesus does. We could say radical.

We could say that's normal. When Christ changes a man, it hits him everywhere, including his pocketbook. He was very rich, but here now, all of a sudden, he's generous. Isn't that awesome, Robbie? No, it's beautiful. Absolutely. Read this final question here. We're out of time. What does it mean to seek and to save?

Who are the lost? Do you think it's synonyms for seek? Do you think chase after, pursue? Do you think this is what God did for you? How did God seek you? How did God save you?

Seeking and saving are two different things. God chases after you. He seeks you. One of the great Puritans said, God is the hound of heaven.

Isn't that cool how He pursues you? This unrelenting grace. Unbelievable grace. And then He saves you. He seeks and saves. Only one kind of person can be saved. Only one kind of person in the whole planet can be saved. Someone who's lost. If you don't realize you're lost, like that rich, young ruler, like the tax collector, like the older brother in the parable, the prodigal son, you cannot be saved. You will not be saved.

That is a tragedy. So many folks are lost, but they don't realize they're lost. So this is the final question right here. Not only do we ask, how did God seek to save you? But finally, Robbie, this great question at the very end.

Okay. Who are you seeking to bring to Jesus? So God seeks and saves us, just like this wee little man Zacchaeus. But the question is, who now am I going to seek and to save? Of course we can't save anyone.

You know, by the way, we always say that. Well, I can't save anyone. Well, who are you introducing to Jesus? Because He's the only one that can save anyone, right? And so, boy, that's why we're here.

And that's why God saves us, to bring us to Him, to restore us. And so the One who was named pure of heart, tell us how that full circle happened, Robbie. Now His name, suddenly, He's changed. Oh, He became who He was named originally.

Yeah, we can edit this so that it can say, oh, He became His true identity, that which He was named originally at birth. And so what's interesting and what's fascinating is it's taken us three experience truths to get this, because we're at this point in time where I've got to share with you the third stanza of the song. You know what? No one knows the third stanza, Zacchaeus, was wee little man.

Yeah, go ahead. In fact, no one I talk to, Robbie, knows this. You know what I'm saying?

No, I don't know it. I didn't know it until I read the lyrics. And here we go. Wait, there's a third stanza.

So here's the third stanza of this. This guy was a liar, a cheater, a traitor. This guy was a ripoff artist. He was very wealthy. He was in a despicable, like a mob boss, literally. I mean, he's the chief tax clerk to have you killed.

I'm Cory Leon, right here. Exactly, he didn't pay the man. And so he encounters Jesus, and the song goes that way. It says, Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he, climbed up in a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see. We're going to read these words and not sing them, Robbie, for the sake of our listeners.

We want to keep people listening to experience truth as long as possible. And as the Savior passed that way, he looked up in the tree and he said, you know this, right? Say it with me. Zacchaeus, you come down, for I'm coming to your house today. I'm coming to your house today. So those are the first two stanzas. Here's the last stanza.

Here it comes, ready? Zacchaeus was a wee little man, but a happy man was he. For he had seen the Lord that day, and a happy man was he, and a very happy man was he.

Isn't that cool? In his presence is fullness of joy. That's it. So he joyfully received Christ. He went from being miserable, all his money could buy him was a bunch of enemies, and a bunch of misery, and a bunch of problems. He went from that to being full of joy, to being a happy man, because Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ said it, by the way, but let's look at what Jesus said. He said, verse 9, Robbie, today, that's kind of cool.

That means, like right now, that's present tense, today. 2 Corinthians 6, verse 1 says, Now is the day of salvation. Behold, now is the day of salvation. So Jesus Christ himself says, by the way, was Zacchaeus saved or not? Well, let's ask Jesus. Was the thief on the cross saved or not? Well, let's ask Jesus.

He answers those questions very explicitly in the scriptures. Jesus said to him, today salvation has come to this house. So he says, salvation has happened today, because he also is a son of Abraham. Now Robbie, that last statement would have been the greatest blasphemy in the ears of any of the religious people in that hearing. To call this scallywag who had betrayed his family, betrayed his name, betrayed his own people, to call him a son of Abraham, the greatest patriarch in Israel's history, Abraham, would have been a great affront to the religious leaders. But, it was the truth. And he was a son of Abraham. And sadly, here's what's tragic.

You ready for this? None of those religious guys there, the rich young ruler, they weren't son of Abrahams. Yeah, they were born, they had Abraham's bloodline, but they were not. Son of his faith. Son of his faith, right? Abraham believed God, it was imputed to him righteousness. You also are the sons of Abraham, Galatians chapter 2, 3, and 4. Romans chapter 3, 4, 5. This man had that faith. And then Jesus says climatically, for the son of man has come to seek and save that which was lost. He said, this is why I've come for guys just like this. The littler ones are hard to find.

You've got to stop that. So, anyway, the challenge, unless you become like Zacchaeus. He did say, unless you become like a little child.

Now, don't even start on your short jokes. But Jesus beckoned the little children to come to him. But there was something, Zacchaeus, who was of a child's height and stature, his heart became of a child's heart. A child-like faith. And he believed God. And Jesus Christ said, today salvation has come to this man's house.

Because Jesus came to seek, which he did. See, it started when Zacchaeus thought he had a plan to see Jesus. I'm going to see him, it's going to be a quick hit and run, a drive-by. I'm going to have a drive-by Jesus paparazzi moment and I'm going to get out of here. Well, he's in that tree.

Jesus Christ has a whole other plan for him. And he sees him and says, I'm going to come to your house today. I'm going to be your house guest. Which, by the way, you don't normally invite yourself to people's house, number one. Number two, you don't invite yourself to a house of someone of ill repute. Where all the prostitutes and all the sinners and all the other tax collectors and scallywags and plunderers and bad people hung out. And number three, you're imposing yourself on their hospitality.

You're going to eat their food and imbibe and partake of their wine and their culture. So suddenly, Jesus says, I'm coming to your house. And suddenly we find out, what we all found out at some point, Robbie, when did you find out that you were part of God's plan in your own life? What a moment was that? Oh yeah, that was the big one. How could he do that for a car salesman?

I felt like a tax collector. The Christian car guy was a big tall man and a big tall man, was he? You didn't have to climb a tree to see him, right? No, but I did have to get on my knees. But isn't that interesting?

That is how the low game... Had to get down, you know? It's really fascinating. You know, when you go to Bethlehem to this day, I've heard this told and I wrote this Christmas book, First Words of Jesus.

So I'm pretty familiar with this. When you go to Bethlehem today and you go into the actual place where they think, the cave they think Jesus Christ was born, the door, like Zacchaeus may have even bumped his head, it's a little tiny entry. You have to bow down almost on your knees to get through this door, to get into the little manger, the little cave where they say Jesus was born.

Isn't that how we are? The only way to come to Christ is to bow down. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Unless you become like a little child, unless you humble yourself, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, he will exalt you. And this man humbled himself. He starts up in a tree, he ends up on his knees. You know, it's interesting, the last time we hear about a guy in a tree was Jesus saw Nathanael earlier on in the book of John.

He said, I saw you under the tree. Well, here Jesus sees Zacchaeus in a tree, and God used all that to choreograph this man's salvation. Has God said this statement over your life out there listening? Salvation has come to this house. Has He said that about you? Have you realized your need for the Savior?

This isn't rocket science. It's all about just receiving the Lord. Bring Him in. Bring Him into your house. Bring Him into those hard, painful... Do you think Zacchaeus had pain? Do you think he had father wounds, Robbie?

Yeah, I think he had shame, bondage, all that stuff. And the Lord entered. He saw the Lord that day, and the Lord saw him. And everything changed for the wee little man we know as Zacchaeus. And who knows how he contributed?

We know he restored, but who knows how God used his wealth as a great wealth to many people. Robbie, thanks for being on Experience Truth with Me, my friend. You're awesome.

Always a blast. Read the Word, study the Word, share the Word, Luke 19, 1-10 this week. Next week we'll move on to the next part of Luke. Some fascinating parables as we get closer to Christ's encounter with the cross and the resurrection later in the book of Luke. But we're in His final weeks on the earth, and we're so glad you're with us on Experience Truth.