Luke 19:1-10 - Jesus came to seek and to save the lost

1.0 introduction

Well everyone, in case you have forgotten, it is tax return week!

Personally, I hate tax return week. It is such a laborious exercise isn't it?
Where you have to account for money earned, and money spent, and if you are like me, you are never quite sure if you are doing it properly. It is tiring!

I hate it so much, I gladly pay for an accountant to do it for me.

And my suspicion is, I'm not alone in this dislike of all things tax. I think it is something of a national pastime in Australia, particularly in tax return week, to hate all things tax, but especially to hate the taxman. I'd go so far as to say it is also a national pastime, even a rite of passage, to diddle the books just a little at tax time. I don't mean an Alan Bond type diddle, but maybe just a little one, like that money you can claim of your business expenses without receipts.

I used to work with bloke who claimed $299 of his $300 every year, irrespective of his expenses. And I think he thought giving them back the $1 dollar difference made him a good civic servant.

I'm sure the people who do do this with their tax, only do so, because they are extremely confident they are unlikely to ever be audited. But unfortunately, I suspect that this is also how most Australians treat their relationship with God. As one where it doesn't really matter, because I will never get audited.

But certainly Jesus message from Luke's gospel last week was that everyone will have to give an account before God of their life, and it will come on them so suddenly, they will need to have their things in order before it happens, because there will be no time to go to the shredder once the audit starts. It was a sobering message last week.

But today we are looking at Luke's gospel and how Jesus interacts with the tax collector, and it seems that just like Australia today, in the ancient world people hated the taxman.

And it seems the heart of Jesus message is for us, when it comes to giving an account before God of your life, (just like when you are doing your tax really) is that you better get an expert to do it for you.

When it comes to doing my tax I need an accountant.
But when it comes to giving an account to God for my life and the wrong things I've done, what the Bible calls Sin, I also need an expert. I need a saviour to represent me. And Jesus is such a saviour!

But first in this story we get to meet the hated taxman, and his name is Zacchaeus.

2.0 Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus (verse 1-4)

Luke 19:1    Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through.
2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus;
he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy.
3 He wanted to see who Jesus was,
but being a short man he could not,
because of the crowd.
4 So he ran ahead
and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him,
since Jesus was coming that way.

It seems Zacchaeus is a resourceful fellow, and he makes great efforts to actually see Jesus. He predicts the path that Jesus is going to go down, and he doesn't let the others exclude him from seeing him. He doesn't let his short stature get in the way, nor does he let the crowds antipathy towards him, stop him either. It seems he is determined to see Jesus, and maybe it's because deep down he knows that Jesus is important.

Zacchaeus doesn't let others exclude him from seeing Jesus, but this isn’t unique in the Gospel stories either. Many people went to great lengths to meet and see Jesus. There was a quadriplegic man whose friends literally removed a roof, so they could lower their friend down to meet Jesus. There was a woman who suffered terribly from bleeding, who struggled through a crowd just to touch the hem of Jesus robe. There were blind men who called out to Jesus even when they were told by a crowd to stop.

And these examples of people seeking Jesus, go on and on and on throughout the Gospels, from people who suffered from leprosy, to little children, everyone wanted to meet Jesus. Especially those who knew that they had great needs, they went to Jesus because they knew Jesus could do something for them that no one else could.

Zacchaeus wants “to see” Jesus, twice in the story it tells us that. Now it could just be because he was curios, but it seems likely it is something more profound. And given the context of the story you have to say the latter is the more likely.

Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus

3.0 But today, Jesus wants to see Zacchaeus (V5)

Luke 19:5    When Jesus reached the spot,
he looked up and said to him,
“Zacchaeus, come down immediately.
I must stay at your house today.”

Now just exactly How shocked you reckon Zacchaeus was at this point?
Personally I think it is lucky that he didn't FALL out of the tree!

Prior to that, I'm sure it was thinking to himself, I have my nice cosy posy, out of the way of all the people, and I’ll just be able to casually observe Jesus passing by, like being in the members stand at the SCG. I will be able to take my time and see for myself what all the fuss is about.

And then, of all the crowd, Jesus stops, and looks directly at Zacchaeus, in one of those harrowing and exposing public moments, that we all dread and have recurring nightmares about.

Like when the teacher makes eye contact with you, and picks your name out to answer the question in front of the whole class. Like one of those moments when the blue flashing lights in the revision mirror is for you!

Did you think Zacchaeus was expecting Jesus to address him today?
I don't think there's any way on this earth he thought that was going to happen.

Do you think Zacchaeus was ready when the moment came, when the opportunity came, that Jesus offered him that day?
I’d have to say he grabbed the opportunity with both hands don’t you think?

This whole interaction between Zacchaeus and Jesus, is a delightful turning of the tables isn't it?
A scene where the Hunter becomes the hunted as it were.
And so today Jesus wants to see Zacchaeus

4.0 Zacchaeus is a terrible choice! (V7)

Luke 19:7    All the people saw this and began to mutter,
“He has gone to be the guest of a ‘sinner.’”

And so the crowd grumbled against Jesus, because Zacchaeus is a terrible choice. Amongst all the crowd there, could there in fact be a worse choice than Zacchaeus?

After all, he is a tax collector, a sinner, a rich man, and a lost son of Abraham. One of God's people, Israel, who have turned their back on the living God's way. Is there a worse choice in that crowd that day, Than Zacchaeus?

He is a chief tax collector. Now as much as we may cast our minds straight to some sort of ATO employee, that really doesn't explain the imagery all that adequately. To get the real sense of who a tax collector was in the first century.

We would be better off picturing ourselves in Belfast Ireland, seeing a Roman Catholic person, whose job is to extort money from his own people to pay for the occupying British troops. (This gives us a much better sense of who these tax collectors were). These people are basically traitors and grubby little ones with their hands in the till at that.

And so this crowd of people, this crowd of Jewish people it would seem, grumble against Jesus. But that is nothing new either, because if you know your old Testament, you know that the Jewish people, the nation of Israel, have always grumbled against God, they have always grumbled against God's prophets, they have always grumbled that God doesn't know what he's doing to his own people.

And so, Zacchaeus really is an unexpected choice, and yet quite in keeping with Jesus other company throughout the Gospel story as it is told by the apostle Luke. Two weeks ago when we looked the story of the lost sheep, people were complaining about Jesus hanging out with tax collectors and sinners then as well.

To everyone watching, Zacchaeus is a terrible choice!

5.0 Zacchaeus is the perfect choice! (V5-8)

Luke 19:5    When Jesus reached the spot,
he looked up and said to him,
“Zacchaeus, come down immediately.
I must stay at your house today.”
6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
Luke 19:7    All the people saw this and began to mutter,
“He has gone to be the guest of a ‘sinner.’”
Luke 19:8    But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord,
“Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor,
and if I have cheated anybody out of anything,
I will pay back four times the amount.”

As we have seen in Luke's gospel over the last four weeks, and in many ways culminating in today's passage, we know that Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. Jesus came to help the helpless, he didn't come to placate the self-confident, he came to help the helpless, he came to seek and to save the lost.

Now It seems to me in our society today, people sometimes accuse Christianity of being false, because they think Christians are hypocrites.
They think Christians are people who do something, and then try and pretend that they don't.

Well whatever people may rightly or wrongly say of Christians at times, the same people cannot say, that God is a hypocrite, they cannot say the son of God, Jesus is a hypocrite, because Zacchaeus in today's story points out in exemplary fashion, that God is not a hypocrite.

Zacchaeus is described as being a tax collector, a sinner, a rich man, and a lost son of Abraham (belonging to the people of Israel, where God had promised he would be their God and they would be his people).

In real way is so much of Jesus teaching over the last few weeks in Luke's gospel, has been leading up to this man Zacchaeus. When we looked at Luke 15, we heard the story of a shepherd who left 99 sheep, to go after the one lost sheep and to save it completely.

As you may remember the shepherd picked up the sheep and put him on his shoulders, and carries him into his own house to celebrate that this sheep was lost, and has now been found, it has been saved. Zacchaeus is such a sheep -- lost a son of Abraham who has been found.

God is not a hypocrite, he does not say one thing and do another. God is the God that loves to seek and save the lost, and Zacchaeus is proof perfect of that.

But not only that, in another story in Luke’s gospel, Jesus tells the story about how hard it is for a rich man enter the kingdom of heaven. In fact Jesus says you cannot serve two masters, you cannot serve both God and money. God is not impressed by what man is impressed by, but man is easily impressed by things that obscure his view of God. Jesus told them it was easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter heaven. And so the disciples asked, “how then can anyone be saved?”.

And what was Jesus answer to this question, “with man this is not possible but for God this is possible”.
Zacchaeus we are specifically told in Luke 19, is a rich man. And He is the concrete expression of God's truthfulness and faithfulness of what he tells us in his word the Bible. Even rich men can be saved by the power of God. because Zacchaeus is such a man!

God certainly is not a hypocrite, God really does delight in seeking and saving the lost.
And while this one sheep has up until this point been lost to God,
How does Zacchaeus respond to Jesus offer?

It is swift and emphatic isn't it?
He comes straight down the tree, and he acknowledges that he has done wrong, and he needs to change, and he rejoices. He publicly demonstrates that he is changed because of Jesus.

He knows he has done wrong and he stops doing wrong, and now does what is right, because of Jesus. And the Bible calls this change of behaviour, this change of direction, - repentance. Repentance means to change direction by 180°. You were heading away from God, and now you turn to God, you turn to Jesus and you follow him.

This one lost sheep Zacchaeus knew he needed forgiveness, but you know what, we all need forgiveness. None of us lives in perfect relationship with God all the time. All of us at various times in our life, in various ways, shapes and forms, have denied God as God of our lives and we have lived our life our own way, ignoring him as our God, and the Bible call to this pattern of behaviour - Sin.

And our experience of life bears out this truth. We all know we have made decisions off our own bat, that were wrong. We have made decisions that were hurtful against others, even hurtful against ourselves, and especially hurtful against God, the one who made us, to serve love and honour him completely.

And the Bible tells us this truth plainly in a book of the Bible from the old Testament Called Isaiah, in Isaiah 53:6 it says this.
Is. 53:6    We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity [sin] of us all.

When it comes to our relationship with God, we all need forgiveness just like Zacchaeus did. That is why Zacchaeus was the perfect choice from that crowd, he is the concrete demonstration for us of the truth that Jesus has told us, that God desires to seek and to save the lost. God desires to seek and to save lost sheep like Zacchaeus, but desires to seek and to save lost sheep like you and me.

6.0 Jesus came today to seek the lost and to give salvation (V9 -10)

Luke 19:9    Jesus said to him,
“Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too,
is a son of Abraham.
10 For the Son of Man came
to seek and to save what was lost.”

Now it's all well and good, for Jesus to say he came to seek and to save the lost, he came to offer salvation, but the big question is;
how can Jesus offer salvation?

When it comes to salvation Jesus in the one true expert, and that is why he can offer salvation.
Luke 18:31    Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them,
“We are going up to Jerusalem,
and everything that is written by the prophets
about the Son of Man will be fulfilled.
32 He will be handed over to the Gentiles.
They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him
and kill him.
33 On the third day he will rise again.”

Jesus came into the world to seek and save the lost, to offer salvation to all who would accept his gift. Jesus paid the price of our salvation, by his death upon a cross. This innocent man, God's son, who always lived in perfect relationship with God his father, who always did what was right in this world, died this pitiful, thief's death upon that wooden Roman cross, and he did it in my place for my sin, he did it in Zacchaeus place, for Zacchaeus Sin. And he did it in your place, for your sin, if you will accept his gracious gift of forgiveness.
The Bible calls this act of trusting in Jesus death alone to pay the penalty of my sin towards God, it calls this act of trust -- Faith.

Jesus calls sinners like you and me, to repent, to turn from our way of sin and ignoring God, to turn to Jesus and follow him. To repent, and to have faith, to trust alone in Jesus death. The Bible says that if we're willing to repent and have faith in Jesus, he will be trustworthy and give us the gift of salvation. Jesus is the expert in Salvation and that is what he can give you salvation, just like he gave it to me, just like he gave it to Zacchaeus.

And just to prove he is the expert in all things salvation, God raised him from the dead on the third day. As surely as Jesus has been raised from the dead, we can receive the gift of salvation, because Jesus came to seek and save the lost like you and me, and like Zacchaeus.

Now just as an aside, I guess you could ask the question, did Zacchaeus buy his salvation?

Well no, this isn't an episode of secret millionaire, about a generous person giving away their hard earned cash. Quite the opposite. This episode, is about a thief acknowledging the truth about themselves, and the truth about their behaviour before God. It is about them stopping their behaviour and turning from it, because God has forgiven them.

The Bible tells us clearly, that salvation is God's gift, his free gift to the most unexpected people. No one can earn salvation, as though God owes it to them. Not by their money, not by their being good, because they will never be perfect. And not by their religious piety because once again it is always with mixed motives, & it will never be perfect. We will never do anything so well as to have God in our debt.

Another part of the Bible puts it this way
Eph 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

Grace means God's gift, Faith means to trust God, to trust Jesus alone. And faith always exhibits itself in obedience to God. And obedience always involves repentance, in turning from wrong and doing what is right. The thief no longer steals, the adulterer no longer sleeps with another man's wife, the proud before God are now Humble.

And Once again we can see that there is something even more special about Zacchaeus as he embodies Jesus teaching of what God is like towards us.
Because Jesus also told another story about Pharisees (the great Jewish religious leader) and a tax collector. Jesus told how the Pharisees stood up to pray in the synagogue and thank God that he was not like other sinners, especially like the tax collector over there. But the tax collector prayed, God have mercy on me a sinner. And Jesus tells us that it was the tax collector who humbled himself and asked for forgiveness, who was put right with God, not the proud Pharisees who thought he had something to offer God, like God would now owe him something.

God isn't a hypocrite, he is a generous God who delights to seek and to save the lost, and there is something special about Zacchaeus as he embodies this truth. He embodies Jesus teaching of what God is like. He is the lost sheep, the rich man, the tax collector, the man who went home saved because he humbled himself before God an accepted God's salvation.

7.0 Conclusion -- is Jesus your cause for grumbling or rejoicing today? (V6-7)

As we've looked at aspects of Jesus life in Lukes GOSPEL over the last few weeks, you can't help but notice there's a lot going on in his life. He packed more into three years of public ministry that most of us will do in a lifetime, he was quite a man on a mission. In fact you could probably say, he was the original man on a mission, a mission to seek and to save the lost. But you'll also notice he didn't hang around too much either, he spoke to people clearly and then he gave them an opportunity to respond, and then he moved on to seek more lost. He really was a man on a time schedule. Which meant the people were also on a time schedule if they wanted a chance to respond to what he had to say.

In that crowd that day, there were two groups of people who responded to Jesus. Some grumbled because they were proud, and thought they had no need of his salvation. But others rejoiced because they humbled themselves knowing full well that they really did need his salvation.

In this crowd this day, there are two groups of people responding to Jesus words to them today. The question is, which one are you? Do you grumble about Jesus? Or will you be humble about Jesus, knowing that he alone is the expert in Salvation, that he alone can offer you true forgiveness and restored relationship with God.

Jesus is speaking to you today from the pages of his word, how will you respond?

In another book of the Bible we have been looking at recently, Jesus says this
20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

Let me finish with Jesus Words to Zacchaeus:
Luke 19:9    Jesus said to him,
“Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too,
is a son of Abraham.
10 For the Son of Man came
to seek and to save what was lost.”

Luke 17:20-37 -- Jesus is the unexpected.. King, Judge and saviour.

Luke 17:20-37 -- Jesus is the unexpected.. King, Judge and saviour.
But the most unexpected part is his timing!

1.0 introduction
The great populist philosopher Homer J. Simpson once confidently declared that, “BEER is the cause of --- and solution to --- all the world's problems!".

And that is an insightful critique I think, into the nature of our society and its relationship to alcohol today. Just ask, Frank Farina, Brendan Fevola, Brett Stewart, Jason Taylor, you get the picture -- it is possible, alcohol is not entirely our friend.

But another great populist philosopher, Christopher E. Hitchens, one of the "new atheists", (which I have to admit I happen to find it a little cheekily ironic for mind, being known as a famous atheist, with the name Christopher). Hitchens would probably agree with Homer’s proposal, but only by changing the subject from beer, to religion. And even then he'd say Homer only got it half right.
Because Hitchens boldly declares, that religion can only cause problems. In fact he goes further than that to say, “that religion is the cause of all the worlds problems”.

And it seems to me that this populist philosophy, has really struck a chord in our society today, because many of us suspect that there really is a problem for us in this world when it comes to religion.

And it is true, that the problem of religion is an important question of life, because there really is a problem in life when it comes to religion us, and the Bible would agree with that statement (it wouldn't always agree with the implications from it that someone like Hitchens draws, but it would agree at some levels with the sentiment.).

But more, (actually so much more than the atheists), the Bible not only asks this question about religion, it also offers a real answer to the question. The Bible says that there really is a solution to the problem of religion!

Now, if the world thinks that religion is along the lines of being, a belief in God, that is developed into a thought system (or worldview), that expresses itself in a defined set of life practices. Well the Bible goes much further than that, but puts it in pretty stark and more pointed terms, that the focus of religion (even the question of religion) is embodied not primarily in a belief system, but it is embodied in a person. And that person is the son of God, Jesus Christ.

And when it comes to the person of Jesus, this passage of the Bible from Luke we are looking at today, tells us three things about Jesus:
1. Jesus is God's King
2. Jesus is God's Judge
3. Jesus is God's saviour

This passage today, reminds us of the reality that for the whole world, (for all humanity throughout time and space), the question of religion is tied up into one of two options.


That for everybody who has been given life, Jesus is either:
-- their real problem -- because he is God's appointed Judge
-- their real solution -- as God's appointed saviour -- their saviour

The passage today asks the question, "what is to Jesus you?".
-- a problem?
-- or a solution?

Because the passage from Luke today also reminds us, that there is a very small window of opportunity, to decide to make a change and have your problem solved by Jesus.

2.0 Jesus is the unexpected king (verse 20-21)
Luke 17:20   
Once, having been asked by the Pharisees
when the kingdom of God would come,
Jesus replied,
“The kingdom of God
does not come with your careful observation,
21 nor will people say,
‘Here it is,’ or
‘There it is,’
because the kingdom of God is within you.”

Now Jesus lived (unsurprisingly, when you think about it from moment!), in the first century AD, in Palestine. And at that time the Jewish people had their own religious (and at some level governmental) leaders. And these people were called Pharisees, & they are the ones who have come to ask Jesus a question. And they are asking him a question about the kingdom of God, and for, two main reasons really.

Firstly, at this time, the Jewish peoples land was occupied by the Roman Empire, and the two groups didn't play together well, but as you'd expect, Rome didn't lose very often. And the Jewish people wanted this problem fixed, they wanted these Gentile, (these unclean heathen), removed. And the most logical way for that to happen seemed to be military action.

Secondly at this time, the Jewish people were expecting at King to rise up from amongst them, the one that had been promised by God himself in the old Testament of the Bible, the one who would be called the Messiah.


So the Jewish leaders, the Pharisees, put ideas one and two together, and were expecting God's Messiah, God's King, to come and deliver them from their oppressors in a great military victory, just like so many great Jewish leaders in their past, like Moses and Joshua and David.

But as we go back to the action in the story, we see these Jewish leaders asked Jesus a question about the Kingdom of God, which is, "when?". “when will it happen?”.

And Jesus’ answer to them is quite unexpected, because he doesn't really answer the question at all, certainly not with a ‘when’, but with a ‘what’! Not ‘when’ will the kingdom come, but first ‘what is the kingdom’! Jesus is telling us all, that the first thing you need to know about the kingdom of God, isn't a ‘when’ and it isn't exactly a ‘what’ either to be truthful, it is a ‘who’.

In V21 Jesus says, "the kingdom of God is within you", what this means, is not that, it is in their hearts something, but rather it is in their midst, in the middle of the group of them, they are looking at right now.
These guys are trying to act like religious experts on the Kingdom of God, and they don't even know that most basic thing about it, ‘who’ the king is.

Jesus is the unexpected king, he is God's King, God's King come to Earth, God's King come to his own people, and his own people didn't even recognize him.

Jesus is the unexpected king, because he didn't come just to fix a political empire, and overthrow the Romans, he came to do so much more than that. Because the political problem was only a symptom of the bigger problem, the bigger problem we all know something about, the bigger problem of a broken creation, where nothing quite works like it should. Jesus didn't just come to fix a political problem, he came to put everything right, the whole of his creation. He came to fix that by firstly putting things right between God and Mankind.

Jesus is the unexpected king, Gods King who speaks with authority and acts with power in God's world, but not like the people expected.

3.0 Jesus is the unexpected judge (verse 26-37)

What's the hardest thing about comedy? -- timing!

Timing is an essential part of life, an essential part of good decisions. In fact sometimes timing is what makes the difference between a good decision and a bad decision. Timing alone can make the difference between opportunity or disaster. Just ask anyone from one of the big banks that were taken down in the global financial crisis. Knowing the right thing to do, is only half the battle. Doing it at the right time is what makes all the difference. It's what makes the most of opportunity, and at the same time averts disaster. And in this passage of Luke, Jesus highlights for us the importance of timing. Jesus Message is the message of warning.
Luke 17:26    “Just as it was in the days of Noah,
so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man.
27 People were eating, drinking,
marrying and being given in marriage
up to the day Noah entered the ark.
Then the flood came and destroyed them all.
Luke 17:28    “It was the same in the days of Lot.
People were eating and drinking,
buying and selling,
planting and building.
29 But the day Lot left Sodom,
fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.
Luke 17:30    “It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed.
31 On that day no one who is on the roof of his house,
with his goods inside,
should go down to get them.
Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything.
32 Remember Lot’s wife!
33 Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it,
and whoever loses his life will preserve it.
34 I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed;
one will be taken and the other left.
35 Two women will be grinding grain together;
one will be taken and the other left.’”
Luke 17:37    “Where, Lord?” they asked.
  He replied,
“Where there is a dead body,
there the vultures will gather.”

It's quite a grim picture isn't it? particularly the vultures bit. But it tells us very clearly, that Jesus is God's appointed Judge, and the time of his judging will be very unexpected. Some might even say inconvenient, especially to those who actively ignore his warning, or even to those who were too distracted to respond in time.

As I said earlier, Jesus is a problem for people, because Jesus is God appointed King, Jesus is God's appointed Judge. And he will judge completely, utterly, and fairly. In fact when Jesus enacts God's judgement, it kind of makes the Roman occupation, that the Jews were currently experiencing, look like cakewalk!
Jesus makes it clear, that this is a real warning, of real and serious judgement of God. And he underlines this point, By illustrating the way God has judged people in the past, through using examples from the old Testament, in the time of Noah, and in the time of Lot. Jesus makes an appeal all the way back to the beginning of recorded history, to say that God has always been serious about sin, & on the flip side, mankind has always been stubborn about hearing the warning.

And in this Jesus seems to perceive the hearts of people hearing him speak, because he knows that people will mock the idea, people won't listen to the warning, people say, "when exactly is this going to happen?". All I see is everything going on in life like normal. But then people have always mocked God’s prophets, and doubted That their message is truthful, that is what mankind has always done -- doubted God, by doubting his Word to them, just like Eve in the garden of Eden. “Did God really Say????”

And instead people go about eating and drinking buying and selling, living life, and enjoying the fruits of their labour, not realising the reality that all the good things they enjoy, come from the hand of the God they are so determined to ignore. People are so intent on living their life to the full, they don't realise in their very actions, their opportunity of real life, eternal life, is slipping through their fingers.

Jesus is God's appointed judge, & it is a problem for all people. But it is important to say clearly this isn’t a problem of his making, he is being entirely fair, just, and good in bringing all wrong in God's world, to account. As God's Judge he gives to all people, exactly and fairly, what each of their deeds deserve. And that is a massive problem for each of us isn't it?

But the problem isn't Jesus, fault, it isn't his making or doing. The problem is Mankind’s problem. We made the rod for our own backs, and now to mix metaphors, our chickens are coming home to roost.

If we're being dead set honest, all of us know that we have done things that are wrong in this life. Things wrong against others, even things wrong against ourselves, and certainly things wrong against God. God our creator, who gets to see the whole show, every little detail of our lives, and our thoughts, even the bits we don't show anyone else, knows us and our lives better than we know ourselves.

Everyone one of us over two years of age, knows within themselves, that they have done things that are wrong, but these things we have done wrong are only a symptom of the bigger problem, the problem that we have denied God, as God of our lives, in various ways shapes and forms, at various times and we have chosen to try and live our lives our own way, and the Bible calls this pattern of behaviour Sin.

Two-year-olds on the other hand, have no shame, and will deny it until they are blue in the face. But denying it doesn't make it any less true.

Jesus is God's King, and because of that Jesus is God's Judge. And Jesus will be absolute, complete, and universal in his just judgement of all humanity, but thankfully for us, as we learnt from Luke’s gospel last week, Jesus is far more keen to forgive than to judge. In fact he says in Luke's gospel, the reason he came to Earth, "was to seek and to save the lost". To save the hopeless, those standing guilty, in condemnation before God.

Jesus here is sending us a real warning, that God will judge, and we need to be ready. And the question you should have right now is, "how can I be ready?". Well the good news is Jesus tells us the answer to that too.

4.0 Jesus is the unexpected saviour (verse 22-25)
Luke 17:22   
Then he said to his disciples,
“The time is coming
when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man,
but you will not see it.
23 Men will tell you,
‘There he is!’ or
‘Here he is!’
Do not go running off after them.
24 For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning,
which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other.
25 But first he must suffer many things
and be rejected by this generation.

Jesus is God's King, the unexpected king, because no one guessed his kingdom would look like that.
Jesus is God's Judge, the unexpected judge, because he will surprise everyone in the time of their judgement.
and even more amazingly, if that wasn’t enough,
Jesus is God's saviour, the unexpected saviour, because no one expected him to save his people like he did.

People were expecting God's kingdom, to bring their salvation or deliverance with the sword, or at least a legion of Angels. But Jesus is the unexpected Saviour.

In V25 Jesus tells us, "but first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.". What Jesus is telling us here, is that he knows how he will save his people, and it will involve his suffering on behalf of his people. No one can ever accuse Jesus, of being a distant and aloof, or nitpicking God, who just looks to judge his people for their wrong, in fact nothing could be further from the truth.
God desires to seek and to save the lost, and he is far more keen to save and forgive, than he is to judge. And to show it, rather than standing far-off awaiting the time to judge, Jesus entered into the world, and suffered terribly to seek the release of his people. This innocent man, this good man, God's son, would enter into this world and die a terrible, brutal, shameful and lonely death upon a wooden Roman Cross.

Luke 9:22 And Jesus said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”

Jesus suffered death, and the wrath of God, in our place on that cross, so that we would not have to. Jesus died our death in our place for our sin, so we could be forgiven by God. The judge was judged in our place to bring us forgiveness, that is what our God is like. The question is how will you respond his generosity?

Down in verse 33 it says, "whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.". Jesus is warning us in no uncertain terms, that we are awaiting our judgement, and it will be absolute. This is a serious problem. This is the problem of life, this is the problem of religion, this is the problem of Jesus.

But this same Jesus, is actually the solution to our problem, the solution to our problem of our sin and judgement. And the solution to our problem of religion, the solution to our problem of life. The response Jesus calls forward from us, is to stop trying to live our lives and our own way, of pretending that God doesn't exist, or God doesn't care about our lives and what we do with them. Instead Jesus is calling us to turn from this way of living, and turn to him. The Bible calls this action repentance, to change direction by 180°.

And if we do change direction from going our own way, and instead go to Jesus, Jesus offers us a real gift of forgiveness. Jesus bought our forgiveness in his own blood on the cross, and now he offers it to us as a gift.
Jesus Gift is something we accept with thanks, it is what we trust in to make things right between us and God. We trust in Jesus death, where the judge was judged in our place, that he really did pay the penalty we deserved before God, and because of that we can be forgiven. We trust in Jesus to be who he promises he is - our saviour, and the Bible calls this action - Faith - to trust in Him.

If we respond to Jesus gracious offer of forgiveness, by repenting -- turning from living our own way, by Faith -- trusting in Jesus death alone to put things right with God, there is one last thing Jesus calls us to, those of us who would call Jesus our solution, our Saviour, rather than our problem and our judge. Jesus calls us to follow him, to stop living life our own way, to lay down those desires for things that will not last, to take up his call to follow him and live for his kingdom, for the things that last for eternity. The Bible calls this being Jesus Disciple.

A wiser man than me once said (and I do realise that doesn't narrow the field whole lot) he once said "he is a fool who does not give up what he cannot keep, to gain that which he cannot lose!".
Jesus offers a real, true, generous and loving solution at the heart of life, Will you take up his offer? And if you will, don't wait too soon, because none of us knows the day when he will return.

Some of you here today, may be thinking to yourself, "I'm not too sure about all this Jesus stuff", well that's okay, why don't you come and have a talk to me afterwards, and we'll see what we can do to help.
But let me point this out, you can be absolutely sure about this, we all have a finite amount of time on this earth, and we don't know what length that is. At some point you've got a make a decision about what is at the heart of life, at some point you need to get off the fence, and make a conscious decision. And I can honestly say, I do not believe you will find a better, or truer offer, than what Jesus offers you right here now.

So what are you going to do about it?

Jesus is God's King, Jesus is God's Judge, and Jesus is God's saviour. The question is;
What is he for you,
is he your real problem?
Or is he your real solution?
Is he your judge?
Or is he your saviour?

Luke 15:1-7 ‘God is good: he rejoices in seeking and saving the lost’

1.0 introduction
Now I don’t mind admitting there is much that I do not know,
things about life, things about the world, and even things about myself.

Having said that, there is a couple of things, that even a simpleton like myself can figure out, and say with certainty. And those couple of things are;
firstly I am alive. And secondly, I will die.
These are just the scientific and historical recordable facts. Indisputable really to anyone who doesn't want to buy into tedious philosophic word games.

But it seems to me there is something else that is certain about life as well, about the more positive bit between our birth and our death. The more positive reality, that we all exist in a network of relationships with other people. Our lives intersect and interact with so many others.

Have you ever stopped to consider how many new people you would have actually met during your entire lifetime?
It would be a big figure wouldn't?

In a positive sense, think of all the friendships, the relationships, and the love these people have brought into our live's, into our very person's.

But on the flip side there is a negative sense to this isn't there, a darker side. Because did you ever stop to think what everyone of those relationships did to you? That when we entered into each of these relationships, it resulted in you having any number of new places on someone else’s pecking orders.

You know what I mean those pecking orders by which we evaluate other people that you meet and they evaluate you.

you know like, where do you live?
Plumpton, well Glenbrook trumps that!



What job do you do?
A doctor! That is interesting tell me more.
OR An Anglican minister! That is interesting, excuse me think I see someone else I know over there, on the other side of the room.

What car do you drive?
A family car -- oh okay!
OR A four-wheel-drive -- really!
OR A people mover van -- oh I am sorry.

People even (and when I say people - I mean women at this point) even manage to have a pecking order over childbirth. And Not just about how many children you have, but how you went about having them as well.

Did you have an epidural?
Did you go to the birthing centre?
Or did you wander off into the national park on your own like a Kalahari bush woman?

All of this is part of the pecking order's by which we crazily evaluate each other. The funny thing about pecking orders is that they are man-made, and because of this they are mostly arbitrary, and even worse than that they are almost without exception --- unloving --
They are used to justify excluding those whom we deem not good enough for us.

And it tells you something about the pride that is deep in the human heart, that we feel we have just cause to judge our fellow human being, another person made in the image of God, (which is wrong, no matter how faded the image may be at the moment we meet them).

Thankfully, God is not like us in this, he cares for all his creation, all people made in his own image, that is the good news of a God who cares.

The challenge for us of a God who cares is that he will also hold us to account for the things we have done wrong, and he will judge justly.
But this good God, the God who cares is far more keen to seek and to save than he is to judge. So it is a good thing he is not so self-interested like us.
But in God's pecking order, there isn't a spectrum of positions, there isn't a bell curve like a university exam, it is only a binary proposition, there is only two types of people in this world, when it comes to relating to the God of creation. Those who are lost, and those who have been saved. And the difference between those two people depends on one thing, it depends on how you respond to God's Shepherd, the shepherd who has come to seek and to save the lost.

2.0 Jesus draws a crowd with two types of people, the (in crowd) and (the rest). (V1-2)

Luke 15:1    Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear him. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

So we see two groups of people who have gathered to listen to Jesus and to be in his company. And it is one of those weird moments, where you meet some of your friend's friends, and you are surprised, because you never imagined your friend would have friends like this!
And the first group of people who meet with Jesus in verse one, are “the others”, "the out crowd" if you like. And among this larger crowd is a first group of “the tax collectors”. Now as much as we may cast our minds straight to some sort of ATO employee, that really doesn't explain the imagery all that adequately. To get the real sense of who a tax collector was in the first century. We would be better off picturing ourselves in Belfast Ireland, seeing a Roman Catholic person, whose job is to extort money from his own people to pay for the occupying British troops. (This gives us a much better sense of who these tax collectors were). These people are basically traitors and grubby little ones with their hands in the till at that.

Also in this first group of people, of the "out crowd", is a group called "the sinners".
And to get a sense of how outcast and despised these people would have been by the "in crowd", imagine a woman who lives in Afghanistan, under American occupation, but as one of the local residents is supposed to live under Shari law. But this woman rejects the Burqa, and doesn't even where Hi-jab, but instead is dressed like Paris Hilton, and tangibly expresses her sexual permissiveness in the face of her whole conservative Religious culture. These sinners are also in their own ways, traitors. As they turn their back on their own culture and its norms. These norms that are a particular expression of their national identity, but more than that they are an expression of the God they worship.

The "out crowd" are quite obviously not God's people.

And the second group we meet hanging around Jesus are quite keen to point that out. In verse two we meet the “in crowd". We meet the Pharisees and the teachers of the Jewish law. They are the religious leaders in Israel who claim to speak for God, and enforce his will on his people.

This whole scene is quite a shocking scene, it is as outrageous, as to imagine the Queen of England coming to Australia to visit, only she doesn't visit the Prime Minister, she doesn't visit the Governor General, she doesn't visit the Christian Democratic party, or even family first party, she doesn't visit the Archbishop. But instead of her first action on her official visit being to visit the key heads of state who would rightly be expecting her to visit them, instead they have to track her down based on other people sightings posted on twitter, and they come to find her sitting comfortably having a schooner in the public bar of a Redfern Pub, amongst a cast of shady and disreputable characters, that causes the whole thing to look like a scene from underbelly.

It is a shocking scene, when we see the company that Jesus keeps.

And the religious leaders rightly ask a question, "how is this Jesus really the Messiah? How is this Jesus God's king sent to save his people?". "I mean he actively makes friends with this kind riffraff, these unclean people, are his mates. Aren't these are the exact sort of people that a king should do away with, not give the keys to the palace to?"
Can this Jesus really be from God?

3.0 Jesus tells a parable (V3-6)

Now Jesus (as you'd expect), is a pretty astute fella, so he picks up on the grumbling of Israel's religious leaders who seemed so troubled by his actions. (And if you know a bit about the Bible, in particular the old Testament, you'll know that is Israel's religious leaders grumbling about God's actions, particularly through his prophets, was nothing new at all, and it definitely wasn't a good thing!).

And so Jesus hearing this grumbling, decides to tell this parable. (A story that has a central message, which usually has a thinly veiled rebuke at the centre of it. If the listener is prepared to take the time to think about this story and hear what it has to say.)

Luke 15:3    Then Jesus told them this parable: 4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’

And so Jesus answers the question of the Pharisees in this story, but he does it on his own terms, by telling a story about Sheep and a shepherd. It's kind of quirky really, but it has the desired effect of conveying Jesus answer truly, but only to those who will take the time to hear.
The main character in Jesus story is the shepherd, but first off we meet one of his sheep. And the sheep is the one of his hundred sheep who is lost. Now It could be lost because of its carelessness, (maybe it wandered away from the flock), or it could be lost because of its own willfulness, either way, it doesn't make much difference in the end, the sheep is very much lost, and as a result, very much in danger away from the safety of the flock, and even more importantly from the safety and care, of the shepherd.

And so as the story continues, we wonder what will the shepherd do with this lost sheep. [And you can't help thinking that the sheep ought to consider itself lucky that the shepherd wasn't Australian, because I don't know a single Australian who if they got 99%, wouldn't have been quite content with that day's work, to at that point duck off down to the pub on the way home, and buy a ticket in the meat tray to make up the difference.]

But like I said earlier, it is a good thing that God is not self-interested like us, it is a good thing that God cares. The shepherd in the story, Gods Shepherd, values every single one of his sheep. And he leaves the 99, to chase after the one lost sheep. Now there are three things we can tell about the shepherd from his actions in the story.

Firstly he seeks. He seeks out this precious lost sheep.
Secondly he saves. he saves this precious lost sheep.
Thirdly he rejoices. He rejoices with all his closest friends over this precious found sheep.

So the shepherd seeks this one precious sheep. He is totally focused and intentional in saving this one who is lost. You could even say that at some level he risks the 99 for the sake of saving this one lost sheep. The Shepherd seeks the lost sheep.

And once he finds the lost sheep he saves the lost sheep, because the sheep is precious to him. And in what manner did he save the sheep, well it is completely isn’t it? He doesn't just get within earshot and say to the sheep, “follow me if you want to live”. He doesn't even just get close to it and guide it with his shepherd's crook. He goes over to the sheep he picks it up he puts it on his shoulders, and then he carries it home. The Shepherd saves his sheep completely. The sheep does nothing towards its salvation, other than trust the shepherd to fill his role.

And when the shepherd has rescued the sheep, he doesn't chide the sheep for its wayward behaviour, he doesn't even put it back in the paddock with the other 99. Did you notice what he did? He took the sheep into his own house and had a celebration with his friends because his precious sheep has been found and saved.

It's a pretty simple story, with a pretty simple message. But it is a profound message, because it tells us what God is like, it tells us what God is like towards us. God is good; he rejoices in seeking and saving the lost.

4.0 Jesus explains the parable (V7)

So what is Jesus point from this story?
Or have a look with me v7 -- Read v7
7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

The simple message of this story is, God’s Shepherd, Jesus, has come into the world to seek lost sheep and save them. And not just save them, but save them completely, and bring them into their eternal home, Gods heaven.
In Luke chapter 19 verse 10 Jesus says this in a much more direct fashion;
"for the son of man came to seek and to save what was lost.".

Now in the story, it's fairly obvious who are the lost sheep at one level, it's the sinners and the tax collectors, the refuse of this particular society. But in an ironic twist, there is a thinly veiled rebuke in this parable for the Jewish religious leaders. Now the Jewish religious leaders were a quirky bunch in the first century in Palestine, but the one thing you could say for sure is that they read their Bibles. And in particular they most likely would have known this verse from the book called Isaiah;

Is. 53:6    We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity [sin] of us all.

The apostle Paul he came just after Jesus, & he quoted the old Testament when he said in the book of Romans in the new Testament, in chapter 3:10-12
10 As it is written:
  “There is no one righteous, not even one;
11 there is no one who understands,
no one who seeks God.
Rom. 3:12    All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.”
The Pharisees should have known that they too were lost Sheep. That we all are lost sheep in our relationship with God, who need to be saved.
The Bible teaches us, that none of us has lived every moment of our lives, rightly honouring God, as God. We are never wholehearted in our worship of God, in fact we all have denied his rule in our lives in various ways, shapes and forms, at various times, and the Bible calls this pattern of behaviour sin.

And deep down, our experience tells us the same thing, that we do do things we know are wrong, wrong in our own eyes, wrong against other people, but is specially wrong in the sight of a holy and just God. All of us who are over two years of age will admit that to be true, those of us who are two will deny until we are blue in the face.
Which of course doesn’t change the truth!

Sin is a real problem, in our world, in all of our relationships, but especially in our relationship with God. And so what does God do, does he banish us, or ostracize us, as some sort relational outcast, as we would do to someone who sinned against us? Well we know the answer to that from the story don't we!

God sent his shepherd to seek and save the lost. To seek and save the lost, like you and me. God save his sheep by his grace, his generous gift of forgiveness.

In another one of the Gospel stories, written by the apostle John, we read of Jesus words in John chapter 10,

John 10:11    “I am the good shepherd.
The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep

The good Shepherd came into the world, the son of God became a man in this world, to seek the lost. The good Shepherd came into the world to save the lost, and to save them completely. To take them home to be with him, and his father in their heavenly home, to celebrate with them because the good Shepherd has saved his lost and precious sheep.

And how can and did this good shepherd save his sheep? Well not only did he come into the world, this son of God, to seek the sheep, but he came into the world to save the sheep. And he saved the sheep, this son of God, by dying a brutal, bloody, lonely and naked, shameful death upon a wooden Roman cross for his sheep. Jesus the perfect son of God, died a death in our place, for our sin, on that cross, so that our sin would be dealt with, so that we could be reconciled to God.

The good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep, so he can graciously give them the gift of forgiveness.

And you know what?


5.0 Jesus still draws a crowd with two types of people!

As Jesus comes to speak to us today from the pages of Luke's gospel, the reality is, there is still two types of people in this crowd today. The saved and the lost. And within those of you who are lost, there will also be two types of people, those who are lost and know it, and those of you who are lost towards God and don't know it, because you are viewing the world through your own pecking order, and thinking things are ok with you and God, because you can see a bunch of people in society, who behave worse than you do. But their excessive bad behaviour towards God - doesn’t excuse yours!

The reality is that In this story Jesus, the son of God, tells us that our relationship with God is a binary proposition, of either being lost or found, and there is only one way to go from being lost before God, to being found, and it depends on how you relate to the shepherd.

God could have left us to wander in our lostness, but instead he paid an incredibly high price by sending his son into the world to die, so we could be saved. That he could give us the gracious gift of forgiveness.

If you are being honest with yourself, and you know that you are one of the lost, can I encourage you to trust; that Jesus is the good Shepherd and because of his death on the cross he is able to save you completely. To save anyone who turns from trying to fix the problem of their lostness themselves, but instead puts their trust in him to save them. Those who turn from their old way of life and put their faith in Jesus. Those who receive his gracious gift of forgiveness.

People aren't Christians because they are good people, people are Christians because like that sheep they are carried on Jesus back to the celebration in his family home. Christians are people who admit they are stuck in their lostness and then, ask Jesus, and trust Jesus to save them completely. Will you ask and trust Jesus to save you completely today?

If that is you, why don't you come and speak to me after the service, so you can know a little bit more about what that means. What it means to accept Jesus offer of forgiveness and what it means to now follow Jesus in your life.

The Shepherd, the good Shepherd, God's Shepherd came to seek his precious lost, to save his precious lost completely, and rejoice with the whole heavenly host, because God is a God who cares for the lost.

John Newton the slave trader, who was converted to call Christ his saviour and Lord, was able to pen these famous words.

"Amazing Grace how sweet the sound, that saved a rich like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see ".

‘God is good: he rejoices in seeking and saving the lost’ - And so Should we!