Title: God of the Lost
God of the Lost
“Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I will give half of what I have to the poor; and if I have extorted anyone, I will pay back fourfold. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:8-10).
I. Text Commentary
When Jesus saw Zacchaeus climbing up the mulberry tree and said, “Zacchaeus, come down,” how happy was Zacchaeus’ heart? Moreover, when Jesus said, 'I must stay at your house' today, Jesus' visit to that town must have seemed as if to visit Zacchaeus' house. Upon receiving this call from the Lord, Zacchaeus hurried down from the sycamore tree and stood before Jesus. And we had a short conversation with Jesus. There are several clues in this that show what it is to be a person who has truly met Christ and has been transformed. In other words, this incident where Zacchaeus met Jesus shows a person who has changed his life beyond a simple religious experience.
II. Zacchaeus changed his life
A. Changes to wealth
Although there is no record of Zacchaeus crying and repenting in the text, there are definitely clues that show that the man met Jesus Christ and was changed by his fruit. In Zacchaeus who came down from the tree and stood before Jesus, we first encounter his changed attitude toward wealth. As soon as Zacchaeus came down, he told the Lord. “I will give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have extorted anyone, I will pay back fourfold,” he promised Jesus. Even though Jesus never asked for these things as a condition of saving Zacchaeus, when he heard the voice of Jesus calling sinners and believed in Jesus Christ in his heart, he changed his attitude toward wealth like this. .
When you believe in Jesus and are converted, the direction of your life does not change gradually, but all at once. It may take a long period of sanctification to maintain the changed direction of life, but it happens in an instant for a person who loved the world to love the Lord. When a person as a sinner encounters the Lord who calls him and is changed, his attitude is first expressed in the change of attitude toward material things. Because he is a man who has come to love the Lord, freed from the things he had been constantly clinging to during his days in this world.
Think of Zacchaeus. While he was living his empty days without knowing the Lord, material things would have been his only consolation, and as a publican, it would have been the last hold that allowed him to live while maintaining basic human face. Moreover, he was rich. But when he met the Lord, he changed. Anything we love more than the Lord at the moment we meet Jesus Christ and enter into His love are obstacles that prevent the Kingdom of God from being established in us. So John Wesley, the legendary preacher of the 18th century, said, shouted out to thousands of people who were moved by his sermons. “I cannot believe in your conversion unless their wallets repent.”
The eyes of Jesus Christ, who came to him once and pierced him, made Zacchaeus burn with that love. And he vowed to live forever under the eyes of the Lord's love. And I gave up on the love of material things, the glimmer of hope that had held up the empty days of my life. And he could be a new person.
B. Changes in people
The second is a change in people. There is some incomprehensible behavior. If Jesus had been kind to him, I would have to give him all my money for him. It shows that people who meet God will change their attitudes toward people as well. Because love is itself a movement of mind and soul that constantly flows into a relationship.
If you are far from grace, you will be focused on yourself, and even when you pray, you will only pray with self-centeredness. However, the spirit of prayer is a heart of absolute dependence on the Lord and low self-esteem, whereas self-love tends to follow one's independence, so we can't pray more and more. Then, if you listen to the Word, receive deep grace and repent, God's love will spring up again in your heart, and more and more people will pray. They even start to weep over the souls dying on a continent they have never been to, which has nothing to do with them. This is the depth and breadth of love in a believer. The reason Jesus Christ came to this world in the form of a human being is so that people can make a beautiful connection in this kind of Caritas love, sacrifice each other, become a channel through which the love they have received from God flows through them, so that they can live with satisfaction. To do this, God sent His only Son down into this world in a human body.
C. Changes to Jesus
Third, I had a changed attitude toward Jesus. He is now a new man and has a changed attitude towards people as well as material things. But who are you confessing to today's amazing change of your life? The first thing he confessed to Jesus was before he even said that he would share his wealth for the poor and that he would pay back fourfold to those who extorted him. For Zacchaeus, who was changed by meeting the gospel and knowing God's love, Jesus became the center of his life.
III. Coming for the Lost
A. Declaring the Salvation of Zacchaeus
This event shows us what Jesus came into this world for. That is what the Lord Himself said, “He came for the lost.” Zacchaeus was truly a lost man. He said that salvation had come to the house of Zacchaeus in front of all the publicans, whom the Jews regard as dogs. He also declared, “This man is also a descendant of Abraham.” At that time, since the revelation of the gospel through Christ was not yet full, people did not understand the meaning of the word even though they were called members of Christ and believers of Christ. However, the idea of Abraham's descendants had already been passed down from the Old Testament. Zacchaeus himself could never have thought of himself as a descendant of Abraham. Hearing these words, this Zacchaeus' heart must have been bursting with joy.
B. The coming of Jesus into the world is that all who have turned away from the love of the Lord are lost. All those who live with a vision of self-fulfillment, not a dream given by the Lord, are lost sheep. The Lord has always come to this world to save those who are lost.
IV. conclusion
Every mistake we Christians make is to try to be happy outside of Christ. All our fault is to think that there is greater happiness and joy outside of Jesus than in Him. It exerts a powerful seductive power over us as if it were a fact that the bright light of God's Word would shine only once, and that the image of the cross of Christ Jesus would be engraved in our hearts once and all would disappear. . So it is not enough for us to return to the Lord once. It is not enough to hear the voice of the Lord calling sinners once. Therefore, we must confess the fact that there is no other way than to be bound by the chains of the Lord's grace because we are people who cannot but be sinners without the Lord, who have been forgiven but cannot return to their sins. This is the reason why the saints who have received grace should humble themselves before the Lord. 2011-03-06