to see all of you in the precious name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If you haven't met before, my name is Lord in Jai Khmer. I am part of the Northbrook Bible Chapel family. I would like to thank God for this opportunity and also I would like to thank Northbrook Bible family for providing me this opportunity to share the word of God this morning.
I hope you will all experience the power and might of our heavenly Father as we are going to listen His words together. The title of my message is the seeking savior. This morning our dear brother David Hanson explained the meaning of savior. It's the precious name.
That's what brother is said. It's very true. Savior is a precious name. God is the seeker.
Romans 3 11 says that is none who seeks after God. It means that no human being naturally searches for the true and living God on his own. Since the fall of Adam, sin entered into this world and it makes impossible for anyone to seek God on our own. But God is very gracious to us.
He makes a divine intervention by calling us and drawing us to himself. Whenever the scripture says or scripture speaks man seeking God, it is in the context of relationship in progress, not man deciding on his own to restore his relationship to God. If you grew up in a Christian environment, you might have heard the story of Zacchaeus many, many times. You might have heard the story of Zacchaeus in Sunday school, maybe in church or chapel or in magical meetings or Bible study.
You might have heard that story many, many times. This is one of the familiar story in the New Testament. Those who are unfamiliar with the story. This is a new information for you.
But it's a wonderful story about a sinner who met as seeking saviour. Luke chapter 19 verses 1 to 10. Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector and he was rich and he sought to see who Jesus was but could not because of the crowd for he was of short stature.
So he ran ahead and climbed up into a Sycamote tree to see him for he was going to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him and said to him, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down for today. I must stay at your house. Verse 6.
So he made haste and came down and received him joyfully. But when they saw it, they all complained saying he has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner. Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, look Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor. And if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.
And Jesus said to him today salvation has come to this house because he also is son of Abraham. For the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. Amen. Lost verse it says, the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.
This is the most important truth ever revealed in the Bible. God is a seeker and a saver those who are lost. Let us pray. For we thank you for sending your son to seek and to save the lost in this world.
When you seek us, we don't always answer your call. Forgive us Lord. Thank you for seeking us. I pray that you will open our eyes and hearts to what you want us to learn today.
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. When I read, when I read, look chapter 19, God showed me three important things to me that I would like to share this morning with all of you.
When I read that chapter, first thing I saw, Zacchaeus, he was a courageous man. Then later in my reading I found that Zacchaeus, he was a cheerful man. And finally I saw him as a changed man. So he was a courageous man, he was a cheerful man and he was a changed man.
Verse 1 and 2 it says, then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector and he was rich. I would like to show some background information about this story and let us see God's help together to understand the true meaning of this story. I would like to explain a few things about this map so that you will get a better understanding.
So on the east you can see the trans-Jourdan on the top. You can see here, the capital of Syria is Damascus and that the southern side you will see Egypt. It is in Cairo and you can see that this is the West Bank area. This Jericho is located between the Ramallah and Jerusalem.
Jericho is probably the oldest city in the ancient world. Jericho is located about 15 to 20 miles north east of Jerusalem near the Jourdan river. Unfortunately, we are seeing some disturbing images and some sad stories from this part of the world. Let us continue praying for the people and the leaders, for peace and for the safety.
Geographically, Jericho is located above sea level and Jericho is located below sea level and Jerusalem is located above sea level. It is a steep time to go from Jericho to Jerusalem. Jericho is the lowest city on the earth. The Bible describes Jericho as a city of palm trees.
Jericho is an important historical cultural and political center located north west of the Dead Sea. You can see the Dead Sea over here. Here in this chapter, we see the final week of Jesus on the earth beginning here in the city of Jericho and moving towards to Jerusalem. Twenty-nine chapters in the Bible talks about only the final week of Jesus Christ on this earth.
On his way to Jerusalem, Jesus healed the blind man, Bhatimaeus. What he said to Jesus, Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me. Jesus asked him, What do you want me to do for you? Lord, he said, I want to see.
Jesus said, your faith has killed you. Then he met Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus wasn't blind physically, but he was blind spiritually like us. One man expresses his faith in trust.
The other man expresses his faith in a repentance act. These stories are like a stereoscopic path of lenses. Who is this person Zacchaeus? Zacchaeus, he was a chief tax collector in Jericho.
Just to give you an idea, during that time, there were three tax-centered locations in the land of Israel. One on the northern side, one on the central side and one on the southern side. In the northern side, the tax center that is copper now, in the central one that is the coast near to Caesarea and the southern one that's being Jericho, Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector in Jericho. So Zacchaeus was appointed by the Roman government or the Roman Empire.
It is such a powerful position. He was not just a tax collector, but he was a chief tax collector. But those days, the tax collectors were regarded as a scum of the earth. The tax collectors in the Bible times were known to have a bad reputation because they usually added some extra money to the tax bill for themselves.
They were usually corrupt. 2000 years ago, they were named among the thieves, outcast, devil, criminal, gangster, tax collector, all same group. But do you know the meaning of Zacchaeus? It means pure, innocent or righteous.
Unfortunately, Zacchaeus did not leave up to his name. Canada is one of the highest tax countries in the world. We pay taxes here in Canada. Often we hear people complaining about that tax system.
There are different kinds of taxes, including income tax. What else? Sales tax, property tax, corporate tax. The current one is carbon tax, right?
And we may even see more tax coming up in the future. In the recent survey on carbon tax, I read an article that says two-thirds of the Canadians said it is a poor time. It is not a good time to increase the carbon tax. And many people think that the tax on gas is ineffective at climate change.
So it's clear that people don't like additional tax burden. Canada tax system uses marginal tax rates, which means you pay more tax as your income increases. In the ancient Roman Empire, there were four primary kinds of taxation. Those days, they were suffered a lot to pay taxes to the government because it was in organized well.
They have to pay a cattle tax. In addition to that, they have to pay a land tax. Then they have to pay a customs tax. Above all, they have to pay tax on the profits of any profession, whether you are male or female, rich or poor, black, white, Jew, Roman, barbarian.
If you belong to Rome, you have to pay the taxes. Let me tell you how it works. You know, the tax collectors or tax gatherers, chief tax collectors are all same. So the way it works is these tax gatherers bid at the Roman Senate open auctions for the right to collect taxes for a certain city or under a certain Roman rule.
So the tax collectors make sure that the revenue must exceed the bid so that they can pay the government the bid and take the remaining money with them. Such a system was a open exploitation and tax collectors had a reputation for being very dishonest. Let me explain to you. It means that the government says that, look, I need X amount of money in a certain time.
You go and collect whatever you want to collect, you do it. I don't have any problem. But I need that X amount of money. So these tax collectors, they go and collect whatever they want and they will charge more money and they will take additional money and that will go into their pockets.
So now the question is, is the chief tax collector or the commission of tax collector a bad profession? Yes or no? No, it is not a bad profession. It's a noble profession.
When Jesus was asked about paying Roman tax, he simply stated that those under Roman rule should render unto Caesar what he sees is. That's what we see in the book of Mark. It is bad only if you collect extra money showing dishonesty, cheating, those are bad things. He has sat here, cheated people in Jericho and become so rich and that is why he was despised and he was considered as a social outcast.
Christ also chose a tax collector to be one of his opposites. Do you know who he sees? Matthew, very good. Matthew won't a franchisee in Capernaum.
Matthew left all and followed Jesus. If you read Matthew chapter 9 verse 10 and 11, it says, when Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and sinners came and gate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, why did your teacher eat with the tax collectors and sinners? Jesus does that because he loves outcast and sinners.
Jesus said, I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners like you and me. Timothy chapter 1 verse 15, it says, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners among whom I am foremost. He came to save sinners. I read Luke chapter, the previous chapter, Luke 18.
I saw the story of the rich end ruler. I'm sure he most of you know that story. He asked Jesus, what shall I do to inherit the eternal life? Jesus said, you have to follow my commandment.
And he said, I'm following it since I was varying of my age. Jesus said to him, you still lack one thing, sell everything you have and give it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me. When he heard this, he become very sad because he was very wealthy.
Jesus said, how hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God, for it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of an idol than a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Then his disciples asked, who then can be saved? The things which are impossible with men are possible with God. Here we are seeing an amazing contrast between two rich people.
Young ruler, he boasted about his righteousness. Zacchaeus confessed his sins. How he confessed his sins? Let's see.
First we can see him as a courageous man. Verse 3, and he sought to see who Jesus was but could not because of the crowd for he was of short stature. I don't know what Zacchaeus thought about Jesus before he met him. When I grew up in the 80s and 90s, the first time when I saw the Passion of Christ movie in Tamil, in my mother tongue, I thought that Jesus Christ probably belongs to my hometown.
Then later on when I went to Kornman school, I had an opportunity to see the Passion of Christ in English. Then I thought probably he was an English man. Then later on, I went to university northern part of India. Then again I saw that movie in Hindi.
Then I realized that it was just dubbing and it was just dubbed with different languages. I don't know what Zacchaeus thought about Jesus. I remember a story. There were two great friends.
Both of them, they were Christians, very good friends, childhood friends. It was a long weekend like this. So they decided to go for a fishing. So they arranged the robot and then they went for fishing.
Well doing fishing, they had some good conversation. One was a black guy and another was a white guy. So the black guy said, Jesus Christ is black. The white guy said Jesus Christ is white.
Unfortunately the discussion turned to be an argument. Again the black guy said, no, Jesus Christ is black and the white guy said Jesus Christ is white. So both of them they said we can be able to prove it. So their argument, now it's a heated argument and then it turned to be a little bit of physical now.
So it's not a great place to make an argument in the middle of the lake, right? So unfortunately they started pushing each other. They fell into the river, fell into the lake and they drowned and they died. Both of them died.
And then both, they went to heaven. As usual, St. Peters were there at the Holy Gates and welcomed them. Then these guys they said, it was a long weekend and we went for fishing and we had some argument.
I said Jesus Christ is black and he said Jesus Christ was white and that kind of conversation. Then we fought each other, we fell into the lake and that's how we reached here. Then they said, at least we would like to know right now whether Jesus Christ is black or white. Then Peter said, why don't you ask this question directly to the Jesus Christ?
By the time Jesus Christ was around the corner and he said, Hola. Vena's dear, sir, mono. Be in Venido. Hello, good morning brother.
Welcome. Is he Latino? Is Spanish a heavenly language? Yes, of course.
All languages are heavenly languages. The truth is our God is the creator of the universe. He can speak all languages. Any dialects, we should not waste our time making some unnecessary arguments.
He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We may have different visualizations, different opinions, different thoughts. What is important is we need to trust the Word of God. John 3, 18 says, whoever believes in him is not contempt but whoever does not believe in condemnation already because they have not believed in the name of the gods, one and only son.
We need to understand the purpose of Christ coming to this world. When he came, he came to this world to save the sinners. He died for us on the cross to give us an eternal life. It is very interesting to see here he was of a short stature.
He was a huge crowd. Many of them wanted to see Jesus because by that time, Jesus was so popular and many people wanted to see Jesus. You all know what crowd means. In 2011, Queen Elsabat II made a historic trip to Ireland and many people wanted to see her.
It was a first official visit to Ireland by the British monarch in 100 years. Some people could not be able to see her because the crowd, including me, I tried to see her, I felt disappointed and returned home. It is very difficult to move through the crowds. Not only that, he was a chief tax collector.
When someone had a bad reputation within the community, the public appearance is very difficult. It is very risky because nobody likes that. Imagine this situation. Anything could have happened to him when he made an effort to reach to Jesus.
Probably somebody from the crowd might have thought that at least let me give one punch. Last year, this fella took a lot of money from me. Someone might have thought at least let me give a kick from the back. Nobody's how he will know because it is a huge crowd.
Anything could have happened, but he was so courageous. He has a tremendous curiosity to Jesus. What we can learn from this verse, many of us wants to reach Jesus or many of us, we want to get closer to God. We want to invite him to our heart.
We want to follow him, but we face so many obstacles to come to Jesus. It may be a logical obstacle or it may be a cultural obstacle or it may be a spiritual obstacle or it may be an emotional obstacle. What we do in such such circumstances, most of the time we give up, but I encourage you to focus on God. Believe in him.
Trust him him when you face uncertainties in your life. Deuteronomy 31.6 says, be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them. For the Lord, your God goes with you.
He will never leave you nor forsake you. Verse 4, so he ran ahead and climbed up into a Sycamote tree to seek him, for he was going to pass that wave. He had a great curiosity to see Jesus. He wanted to know more about Jesus.
So he ran like a boy trying into a Sycamote tree to see Jesus. It is not an easy thing for a short man to climb up a tree. Not only that he was a rich person and he worked for the Roman government as a chief tax collector, but he gave up all his honor, power, status, dignity and everything to see Jesus. If you really wanted to see Jesus, we should break the obstacles in front of us.
Not only that to see Christ, we should give up our bad relationships. This I have to sin. Give up the world. Second Corinthians chapter 5 verse 20 says, as Christians we are the citizens of heaven and ambassadors of the kingdom of God.
We need to give up the work of flesh, adultery, uncleaners, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, tensions, selfish ambitions, envy. That's a big list. And we should give up our old nature. When you receive Christ, you become a new creation.
Galatians 2, 20 says, therefore, as a Christian, your life is no longer about you, but your life is about Christ and glorifying Christ. Verse 5, and when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him and said to him, suck yes, make haste and come down. Today I must stay at your house. Here's something interesting.
Today I must stay at your house. Jesus, if you listen carefully, you understand Jesus inviting himself to sack yourself. If we invite ourselves to someone's house, it's a kind of a root, isn't it? We expect everything should be properly planned before we invite someone to our house.
If I happen to be in sackiest place, I might have told him, Lord, thank you so much for your willingness to come to my home. I have some assignments to do for next couple of days. And also, I haven't done the shopping for a couple of days, so I have to get some stuff. Can you please make it next week, early next week, so that we can have some wonderful fellowship together, or then we can chat and all those things I might have told him.
I don't know about you. What will be your response? Probably the same response like me. When I look at this as a worldly context, when Jesus said, I must stay at your house, it is quite normal in the Middle Eastern culture, or in Asian culture, or even in African culture.
Normally people don't think bad when someone says I'm going to stay with you, but in Western culture it's slightly different. Western culture, people like to do things in a more organized way. It is a cultural thing, that's it. Couple of months before one of my friend invited our family to come for a dinner.
Due to my busy schedule, I forgot. I couldn't remember the date, what date he said to come to their home. Normally, usually the weekends. So I thought probably it was on Friday.
I told my family let's go, or friend invited for a dinner. So we all went for a dinner, and they opened the house, and they had some strange look. So we didn't understand. I thought probably something not good in their home.
Everything will be okay in a few minutes. So I said, how are you brother? And he said, I'm good. How are you?
And still, I couldn't see any smiling face or anything. So I said, brother, do you remember you invite me to come to your house today? And he said, no, I invite you to come tomorrow. By the time our children, they were playing and they started playing and his wife came and come on in and let's chat together.
Then we sat together and they cooked wonderful delicious food and three, four of us we really enjoyed. And the official invitation was the next day and we went to that and for that as well. So we really didn't felt anything bad. And I'm sure my friend also didn't felt anything bad.
So it's more or it's a cultural thing. So on the other hand, I see this is a divine appointment. That's very important to understand. This is a divine necessity.
When you have divine appointment with God, everything changes. Divine appointment stands out as a tipping point afterward. Things will never be the same. It is a complete transformation.
Total transformation. God may have a divine appointment for you as well if you are having the willingness to see him. If you're willing to see the, if you're willing to let the Holy Spirit to lead us, great things are possible in our life. Jesus said, hooray and come down for today I must stay at your house.
He said that openly and publicly, sakias might not expect this call. He might have seen surprised to know how he know his name. Bible says sakias came down with joy. He was absolutely thrilled that Jesus was coming to his house.
He received Jesus with joy. Christ called sakias by name. Jesus called Lazarus by name. Isaiah 43 verse 1 says, fear not, I have redeemed you.
I have called you by name. You are mine. He knows you better than you know yourself. He cares for you.
He cares about your personal personally. He knows your name and my name as well. John 10, he's a close battle to John chapter 10, verse 20. 27, it says the sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
Revelation chapter 3 verse 26, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will give, I will come into him and dine with him and he with me. Jesus does that here with sakias. Secondly, we see him as a cheerful man.
Verse 6, so he made haste and came down and received him joyfully. When Jesus Christ calls to us, we must make haste to answer his calls and when he comes to us, we must receive him joyfully. Sakias came down and received him gladly. Are we receiving Jesus Christ in our life joyfully or unwillingly?
Are we reading our Bible joyfully? Are we praying joyfully? Are we worshiping joyfully? Are we working with him joyfully?
Are we praising him joyfully? Or just doing it as a practice of our polity? People cease our face, but God sees our heart. It is not that important.
How much time we are giving to God? It is extremely important. How much time we are giving to God joyfully? Sakias received him joyfully.
Finally, we can see him as a changed man. Verse 7, it says, but when they saw it, they all complained saying, he has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner. Verse 8, it says, then sakias stood and said to the Lord, look Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold. This is an amazing statement from sakias.
Sakias admits that he has stolen money from the people by falsely accusing them of withholding the taxes from the government, from the Roman government. And now he pledges to give back to them four times what he stole from them. If you look at Leviticus and numbers in Old Testament, it says Mosai Claw only required adding 20% to the amount due when restitution was necessary. Why did Sakias give four times when he took money from the people?
Sakias was an intelligent man. He was a learned man. He was a chief tax collector. He knows accounting very well.
If you go to the bank and borrow some money, after some time if you want to pay back, you always pay additional money. You have to pay with interest. The same thing here, Sakias understood that very well. So he said, I will restore fourfold.
And he said, I give half of my goods to the poor. Why? I assume that probably he might have collected money from different people. Over the years, people might have moved from that location.
Some of the people even might have died in that city. So how he is going to repay that amount? So he might have decided that I'm going to sell half of the property and going to give it to the poor. So that would be a good word for him.
So he has given half of the goods to the poor. When Sakias heard the crowd complaining about Jesus immediately realized he had to ripen and make restitution. What a great transformation we can see. Here in the story of Sakias, we see he's willingly give up everything for Christ.
He even went above and beyond what the law required. This is an awesome example of repentance. He's versed by the sign of true repentance. True repentance means a change of heart and mind and not just a change of behavior.
It has to come from the inside of our heart. How do you repent? Repent means change your mind. We can't do it by ourselves.
But with the help of God, we can do it. Repent does not simply say, I'm sorry. It makes amends for wrongdoing. Sakias changed his way as a result of his relationship with Jesus.
When we claim ourselves as a believer or a Christian, people should see the difference in our life. We should be careful in our words, in our conduct, in our law, in spirit and in purity. Verse 13, and Jesus said to him, today's salvation has come to this house because he also is the son of Abraham. Today's salvation has come to this house.
One of the greatest gift of God is salvation. The most valuable gift, the concept of salvation of being saved is the central faith. It's a central to the Christian faith. We all need salvation in our life.
Otherwise we are all spiritually blind. Don't forget salvation is individual. The religious leaders, people in Jericho, referred sakias as a sinner. Jesus called him as son of Abraham.
Jesus is named, Jesus changed his name from sinner to son of Abraham. Galatians 3 7 says, therefore know that only those who are of faith are of son of Abraham. Adam's one sin brings condemnation for everyone. But Christ, one act of righteousness brings the right relationship with God and new life for everyone.
Verse 10, it says, for the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. Luke chapter 15, there are three famous parables we see, the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son. What can we learn from these parables and the story of sakias? It shows the heart of God towards the lost sinner and the joy in heaven when a sinner repents.
The story of sakias ends with a famous statement for the son of man has come to seek and save that which was lost. The fall of man was caused by Adam's sins. Are we willing to come down from the tree, the tree of our life? Are we ready to receive him joyfully?
Are we ready to repent of our sins? Are we ready to believe in Jesus Christ? No matter how insignificant we feel. No matter what other people say about us.
No matter what we have done in our life, it is a time for us to surrender our life to him. All of us dis out judgment, condemnation and eternal death but sakias reminds us of the loving and merciful grace of God. He came to seek, he came to seek us out and to save us from judgment. What does sakias story teach us?
Through this story we see the power of Christ. We see the power of Christ love to transform the heart of sinners. We can see the death of Christ love. No human being in this world can generate such kind of love.
You may remember a familiar story. Once the young man who built a sailboat, he took so much time to build that boat. After he completed it, he put it in the water. The little boat sailed perfectly but after some time there was a severe storm and wind blown very heavily and he took the boat away from him.
He searched everywhere but he could not able to find that boat. One day when he was walking downtown and he saw that beautiful boat in the showroom, it was locked in a perfect glass. When he found that he was so happy, he rushed to the shopkeeper and said, look, this is my boat. I need it.
And the shopkeeper laughed at him and said, no, it is mine. And the shopkeeper said, if you want to take that boat, you have to pay a huge price. Then I can give that boat to you. That man went back, collected everything what he requested for and he paid everything what he asked for and took the boat in his hand.
He was walking home and said to the little boat, you are mine to ice. You are mine because I made you and you are mine because I bought you back. Not only God created us but also he redeemed us. That is why we are twice God's children.
The reality is we all have been lost. Since suppresses from God, Romans 3, 23 says, all of us have sinned and false shot of the glory of God. The son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. 2000 years ago, God sent his only son, Jesus Christ to this world, to rescue us from the sin.
He died for us and the cross for our sin because we could never pay the massive debt we would to the Father. Without the cross, there won't be any reconciliation. While they were nailing Jesus to the cross, he prayed over and over. Father, forgive them.
They do not know what they are doing. He died and rose again on the third day. It was impossible for that to keep its hold on him. In Christ, we have the promise of eternal resurrection.
This morning our beloved brother shared a very good point. When he wanted to go to see some matches, his father paid everything for him. All he needs to do just to follow the Father. We are called to follow Jesus Christ.
Isaac Wartsing, 1707, what a very meaningful song in preparation for a communion service. When I surveyed the wondrous cross, on which the prince of glory died, my richest gain, I count but lost and put contempt on all my pride. The last two lines of the song struck my heart, loud that transcends our highest powers, demands our heart, our life, our all, amen. We need to survey the cross.
We must see and understand and appreciate the value in our life. My dear brothers and sisters, Ephesians 5 verse 16 reminds us, redeeming the time because the days are evil. Shall we pray? Thank you, Jesus, that you came to seek and save the lost.
Thank you, that you died on the cross so that we can be forgiven. Thank you, that you know as by name, thank you for the great love and kindness. Thank you for the gift of your word which brings hope, healing and salvation in our life. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.