Brethren, who finds themselves in victory? Who has felt the presence of god during our worship? Let us thank our Lord for His presence for He is here right now. Can I hear an amen, hallelujah? I do not know about anyone here but today I feel the fire of the Holy Spirit on me. Today I want us to examine a small character that before the presence of the calling from Jesus grew spiritually, and having realized his sins and repenting from them received salvation. Let’s now turn to the word of God, let’s open our bibles to:
Luke 19:1-10 - And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. 2 And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich. 3 And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature. 4 And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way. 5 And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house. 6 And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully. 7 And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner. 8 And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord: Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. 9 And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
The first thing that is very evident here is that there was a great change in the life of this man. But, in order to have a better understanding of the magnitude of this change, it is necessary to know him a little better. It is necessary to analyze his life and know his personality.
The first thing to note about this man is that he was the chief of the publicans, but what exactly does this mean. Well, a publican was the title that was given to the tax collectors. Then, here we have this man named Zacchaeus that was not only a simple tax collector, but was the chief of the tax collectors of this zone. But, what is reality is a tax collector? If we look at the modern day tax collectors, I am sure that we can all say that they are not bad or evil. Here in the United States the office of the Internal Revenue is the one in charge of collecting the taxes, and the employees of that agency guide themselves by the established laws and just enforce them.
But, in Zacchaeus’s time things were very different. In those times the tax collectors were not very popular, the reason being that the great majority of these men were corrupt and exploited the people. This piece of scripture took place during the Roman empire and this city or province was just one of the many that fell under it’s dominion. What was happening back them is that the majority of the Jewish people considered themselves under a military occupation and their way of thinking was paying taxes to Rome was an act of treason to God. Then we can begin to realize that this man called Zacchaeus was a man very hated by the people. He was hated because he served Rome and also because he was corrupt. Let me take a couple of minutes to describe the way these men operated.
The way or the method that the Roman empire used to collect the taxes is that they would employ people in the cities or provinces so that they would take care of this task. The law back then was that these people that the empire contracted would pay an amount of money in advance to the empire, and in return the empire would hive them the authority to collect the taxes in the different areas. But not only this, they also received the authority to make a profit on the taxes they collected. In other words, if it was determined that a person owed ten dollars, the tax collector could charge fifteen or twenty dollars without any type of violation of the Roman law.
Then, here we have Zacchaeus that was not just a tax collector, but was the chief tax collector. What he would do is employ other collectors to go out and squeeze the population. Since this system was so corrupt, any one person having this employment would become rich in a very short amount of time, and since Zacchaeus was the chief tax collector he was very rich. Well, I think that we have all gotten to know Zacchaeus a little better, correct? But there is also something here that we have to take special note of. I am talking about the physical description of this man. The Word tells us that he was little of stature. Why is this important to not? It is important because knowing the history of this man, knowing that he was hated by the people, I am quite sure that no one in the large crowd that gathered to see Christ would give him an opportunity to come to the front so that he would also be able to see Him. It is for this same reason that we see that Zacchaeus had to climb a tree in order to see Him. With this in mind let’s now continue analyzing what occurred here.
Then, here we have Jesus that was passing through this city, and when the people heard that He was passing by they all gathered to see Him, everyone wanted to see this man performed miracles. Zacchaeus was not too different from any one else, he was also curious to see this man that many recognized as the Messiah, but since he was short in stature, he knew that there was just no way that he would be able to look at Him because the crowd would simply not let him through. Here is where we see that something glorious happened, I tell you that it is glorious because out of all the people in the crowd, out of the entire multitude that surrounded Him, Jesus recognized Zacchaeus by name. This is very interesting, wouldn’t you say? Zacchaeus had never seen Jesus, he had only heard people talk about Him, therefore we can safely assume that Jesus had also never seen Zacchaeus. But Jesus recognized him by name. How is this possible? Brethren it is possible because Jesus is the omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient God who created Zacchaeus. Jesus knew him by name because Jesus had named him (Isaiah 43:1 y 45:3).
The lesson that we have to all learn from these verses is that we have to be able to conquer all opposition. In Zacchaeus’s case he did not allow the crowd to stop him, he did not allow his height to stop him. He did not allow anything to impede him from knowing the face of Christ. He ran ahead of the crowd, he conquered all opposition because in his heart he had the sincere desire to seek Him out, to know His countenance. This is very important for all of us because I tell you today that it is not enough to just know about Christ, we have to know Christ. Brethren the only way that we can get to know Him is sharing His word, studying His word, praying and seeking His countenance. Brethren, we need to seek His countenance, we have to have to seek to have a personal relationship with Him; we just can’t simply walk we have to run to Him, run to Him in search of his countenance. If we do not take the necessary time to know Him, if we do not take the necessary time to learn from Him, how will we ever know what He has in mind for us? How will we know the purpose that He has with our lives?
Brethren, when Christ arrives in our lives He open our hearts, He tears down the walls that used to surround us and we begin to know Him. But the rest is our responsibility, it is our responsibility to know him intimately. In Zacchaeus’s case we see that Christ invited himself to his house, we see that this corrupt man, this man that oppressed the people was changed in one instant. I ask you, is this different than what happened to us? I tell you right now NO. When we lived in the world we were full of corruption. We were completely filthy in all the aspects of the word when He arrived in our lives and called us by name. The word of God tells us:
John 10:3-4 - To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. 4 And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.
In other words, just like Zacchaeus, Christ has called us by name. He has selected us, he has taken us out of he filth where we dwelled, has cleansed us of all sins and had delivered unto us eternal life. We are His sheep and we have heard His voice, therefore we follow Him. But if we are not trying to know Him, if we are not conquering the oppositions, then it will be very easy for the enemy to confuse us. I tell you this because unless we take the time to hear His voice, unless we take the time to get to know Him and the will of the Father, then we simply won’t be able to distinguish that which is of God from that which is from our enemy. If we do not pay close attention, if we do not develop a personal relationship with Christ, it will be very easy for the enemy to interrupt God’s plans with our lives, and look closely because we are warned about this exact thing in:
2 Corinthians 11:14-15 - And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.
This warns us very clearly that if we are not careful, if we do not take the necessary time to know Him, then we will be deceived. Brethren and I want you to understand very clearly that there are no exceptions, when I say that we can be deceived, I want every one here to know that I am also referring to myself. Just because I am a pastor does not mean that the enemy will not attempt to deceive me, will not attempt to attack me, I would say that because I am a pastor that I get the worst attacks of them all, but I tell you now that he will never prevail. Our enemy will never prevail because I have developed a very close and personal relationship with Christ. I know His voice, and you know what? He knows my voice because I am always in constant prayer. Brethren I can’t say this enough; if we do not take the time to get to know Him, it will not be very difficult for the enemy for the interrupt God’s plans in out lives.
When we continue reading the scriptures we see that when Christ entered in the life of this man a great change took place. This man received the blessing of being face to face with our Lord and Savior because Christ saw that in his heart he had a genuine wish to know Him. Christ saw that this man fought against all opposition, that he defeated all opposition. The same applies to our lives today, we have to fight against all opposition, we have to combat the attacks of our enemy at all times. In Zacchaeus’s case he was fighting against a vast multitude that hated him, he could not see Christ, be he overcame. We often face situations not too different than the ones described here.
We are faced with situations on a daily basis that the first thing we should do is seek God, but most often we do not. We allow the impulses of the flesh to dominate us, we let the things if this world stop us, we stop seeking His countenance, we stop knowing Him intimately. I tell you today that we all have to seek His countenance. I tell you today that we all should be more like this man Zacchaeus, we should all be seeking the way to run and not walk to the presence of Christ. When we do this we will see the same result that Zacchaeus obtained in this instant. When we run to Christ, when we develop a personal relationship with Him, He dwells is us, He pours His Holy Spirit over us and we become new creatures. I tell you today that the greatest reason why the people of God suffer is because they have not take the time to develop an intimate relationship with our King and Savior. The majority of the people of God allows the oppositions and the attacks of our enemy to influence our knowing of Christ too often. People most often allow that the things of this world, the things that will not last, to deviate them from the plan that God has for us.
To Conclude. Brethren we can’t allow under any circumstance that anything will deviate us from Gods’s will. We can’t allow the oppositions to stop us from knowing Christ intimately. In Zacchaeus’s case we see that Christ recognized him, Christ scrutinized his heart and saw the desire that he had. When we finish reading these verses we see that because of the love of Christ a great change took place in the life of Zacchaeus. I tell you this because this man that was so hated by everyone in this city demonstrated a genuine repentance. Not only did he have a genuine repentance, not only did he get to know Christ intimately, but look carefully at the results that this had in his life. The Word of God tells us: "And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord: Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. 9 And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." From the moment that Christ entered his life there was a complete change, he felt the need to correct all the evil he had done. Therefore we can assume that because of Christ this man went from being a despised and hated person by all, to becoming one that all held dear. Brethren, all of us that desire to know the countenance of Christ will have to be just like Zacchaeus and conquer all oppositions, fight arduously against the enemy in order to prevent him from snatching away the blessings that God has in store for us.
Preached: September 3, 2000
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