Why He Came

You know, it is at this time of year that there's great public awareness of the coming of Christ. Even the happy holiday, Mary Christmas greeting controversy serves to highlight the fact that Christmas really is supposed to be about Christ and his coming. And so people are aware of that. People hear about Jesus. People hear the name of Christ at this time of year. But too often at this time of year, the average person on the street when they hear about Christ coming and the birth of Jesus, they think of Christ only as a babe and a manger. Or they think of him maybe as the Christ child who came to inspire us to seek peace and goodwill for all. Is that really why Jesus came? That really why Christ came. Did he really come just to make us better people to be an inspiration for us to be more loving, more giving, more family oriented people? Is that really why Jesus came? Was that it? No. Luke chapter 19 and verse 10 says, For the Son of Man came to seek and save what was lost. I don't know of any clearer, more succinct statement in all of the Bible to explain why Jesus came. He came to seek and save what was lost. That's it. That's the essence of the Christmas story. That's the real reason why Jesus came. But there's more to the story than just that one verse. In Luke chapter 19 and I invite your attention to that passage this morning in Luke chapter 19, verse 10 really serves as a summary statement of a story that has occurred in the first nine verses. It's the story of a man named Zacchaeus. The story that we're familiar with from our earliest days of Sunday school. Zacchaeus even has a song, right? Complete with all the motions. Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he? He climbed up in a sicklemore tree for the Lord. He wanted to see you remember the song, right? He has his own song and the story is one that we're very familiar with. But that story serves to illustrate why Jesus came. He came to seek and save what was lost. Now as we look at the story, as we look at Zacchaeus and how he fleshes out, how he is the story behind that statement, I want us to capture the picture that's taking place. Because if you really capture the scene in Jericho when Zacchaeus is confronted by the Lord Jesus, it really makes the encounter much more dramatic. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, where the cross awaits him. It is the week before Jesus dies on the cross. And he's headed to Jerusalem, his last journey to Jerusalem. It hasn't been long that Jesus, just a few days and weeks ago, raised Lazarus from the dead. Now that caused a great deal of anger among the Pharisees and they're wanting to kill him right away, because of that, but it also created a groundswell of popular appeal to see Jesus, one who could raise someone from the dead. So there's that crowd involved in following Jesus right now. He's also at the last stopping point before you would get to Jerusalem to go to the feast of Passover. And there are hordes of people from all over Israel that are making their way up to Jerusalem, just like Jesus is. And the last outposts, the last town, before you make that last 17 mile walk up through the Judean wilderness to the city of Jerusalem is in Jericho. So there are swarms of people hanging out in Jericho before they go up to Jerusalem. So that swells the crowd even more. And then add to that the fact that as Jesus walks into Jericho, the end of chapter 18, he heals a blind man by the name of Bartimaeus. And the Bible says when the crowd heard that man, they came rushing to Jesus side. They wanted to see what was going on. And so as Jesus is walking into the town of Jericho, he is swarmed with huge crowds of people. They are pressing in on every side. They're lining the streets as he walks into town. But it is the encounter with one man, the encounter with Zacchaeus, that illustrates best why he came. This one man and the encounter Jesus has with him. That's why he came. So let's take a look at the story that illustrates verse 10, and actually verse 10 outlines the story for us as well. Verse 10 says, for the son of man came to seek and to save what was lost. That verse outlines our passage for us. Because the first four verses focus upon the last few words of the verse, what was lost. What we see in verses 1 through 4 is a sinner straining. Now what was lost in this story? Zacchaeus was lost. I want to make sure that we understand what is meant by the word lost. Because there are all kinds of cultural connotations to that word that have kind of skewed our thinking biblically. Some of you right now when you hear the word lost, you're thinking of people stranded on an island. Right? That's what some of you are thinking. Some of you when you think of lost, you're thinking of a person's search to find themselves. We use that word in that, I don't use it that way, but a lot of people use it that way today. People are lost in the sense that they just can't really discover themselves. They haven't found themselves yet. They're lost in life, wondering through life. That is not what the Bible means by the word lost. When the Bible uses the word lost, and it does use the word here, and in other places, it's talking about people who are straining away from God. People who are far from God. People who are lost spiritually. Who couldn't find their way to heaven. Who cannot get to heaven on their own. Those people are lost. Jesus, in Luke chapter 15, just a few chapters back, illustrates the biblical meaning of lost with a threefold story that he told. Remember the story of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost sun. Beautiful three-point illustration of what it means to be lost because the lost sheep is lost by nature. By nature, a sheep tends to stray away from what it's supposed to be doing. It just follows its nose, follows whatever interests its eye at the moment, and before long it has wandered away from the flock. That's the nature of a sheep. And so when Jesus told the story of the lost sheep, he's saying that by our very nature, we wander away from God. By our very nature, we're born with a sin nature that takes us away from God. So we're lost sheep. Even Isaiah has that same figure of speech in Isaiah chapter 53 and verse 6, when he says, we all, like sheep, have gone astray. I mean, we just wander away. Each of us has turned to our own way. And the Lord has laid on him, the Messiah, Christ, the iniquity of us all. But by nature, we're like sheep that have a tendency to wander away on our own, go our own way in life. We have a natural tendency to say, nobody's going to tell me how to live. I'm not going to listen to what God says in these words. I'm going to do life my way. I want to have it my way. That's our nature, like sheep, we're lost. But then Jesus told about a lost coin. The coin is lost because of the influence of things outside itself. You drop a coin. The coin has no power to say, well, I didn't want to do that. I'm going to go back up. The coin is at the mercy of the law of gravity. It will roll to the lowest point, spin around a little bit, and drop to the floor. Sometimes people's lostness is made worse because of the influences around them. Family influences, influences of friends or people that you choose to be with have led you further away from God. And so you are lost. You're following your own way because of maybe the influences of others. Lost sheep, lost coin, then Jesus said there was a lost son. The son is lost because of his own choice to rebel against the Father. To lead the Father's household, I will not do what the Father wants me to do. I will choose my own way. I'm going to live what I want to do. I'm going to live my own life. And he chose to rebel against his father. And we are lost too because we choose to go against the Father's will. We choose to rebel against the Father. By nature we wonder away from God, we're separated from Him. Sometimes there are influences in our lives that take us far from God and certainly we choose to rebel against God. That's what it means to be lost, biblically. Now take another look at Zacchaeus. Let's look at our passage and we'll see what it meant for Zacchaeus to be lost. Verse 1, Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus. That tells me that Zacchaeus was lost in spite of his parents' hopes. In spite of his parents' hopes, a little baby is born into a Jewish family. And as in most Jewish families, the parents would name that little baby with some name that would indicate their hopes and dreams for what that little boy or that little girl would be when he or she grew up. Our little boy will be Zaccar, the Hebrew word for justice. He will be just. He will live a righteous life. Zacchaeus will be his name. Our little boy, we hope and pray, will be a righteous, just man. And Zacchaeus was anything but that. Zacchaeus had chosen a way of life which would mark him out as one of the most unjust, unscrupulous, cheats and traders that could possibly imagine in that day. He was a tax collector. I know what some of you are thinking. Oh yeah, today too. No, no, not the same. A tax collector in the first century was typically a Jew chosen from that area that was chosen by the Roman government to collect taxes from his own countrymen for the Romans. And here's the way it worked. The Romans said to these tax collectors, here's the amount, your quota that you need to send to Rome. You collect whatever you want. You collect as much as you want, but you just make sure this much gets to Rome. Well that was a perfect setup for corruption and graft and greed. And most tax collectors did that. Most tax collectors were overbearing in what they collected from the people. They got their quota sent to Rome, but they pocketed the rest and became wealthy because of that. And so they were seen as the most unscrupulous cheats in the world in Jewish eyes. Zacchaeus was anything but just and righteous in his lifestyle. So he was lost in spite of his parents' hopes. That could be the case with you today. It could be that your parents had great hopes for you, great dreams for you, desires as they brought you to church as a little baby, put you in the nursery screaming and fussing kicking. Could be that that was their hope and dream for you to be a child of God to walk with him, to love him with all your heart as they took you to the youth meetings and as they took you to Sunday school. Maybe you've wondered far from that. Thank God you're here today. Maybe you've come today because it's the Sunday before Christmas or it's Sunday and you're here in church, but you know deep down in your heart you're far from what your parents had dreamed you would be spiritually. Most in spite of your parents' hopes. But Zacchaeus, secondly, was lost in spite of his position. Look again at verse two, he was lost in spite of his position. Man was there by the name of Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. Notice it does not say he was just a tax collector. He was a chief tax collector. In other words, he was at the top of the pyramid. He had other tax collectors working for him. He was like the head of the tax department in Jericho and he had other guys working for him. And so he skimmed off a cut from their commission. He was lining his pockets not only from his own taxes, but also from the taxes and the other tax collectors were getting. And he had made it to the top. He was wealthy. By the way, Jericho was a great place to be a tax collector. Jericho was at a major crossroads of highways. The main highway that led down from Jerusalem to the valley to Jordan Valley and then went through Jericho across the Jordan River and connected up with what was called the Kings Highway. The Kings Highway was the major trading route between Eastern countries and Egypt. And all the traders went down that road. Whoever passed off to go into Israel to sell would have to go through Jericho and every good that came into the country was taxed. What a great place to be a tax collector. What a great place to be the head of the pyramid of tax collectors. What a great place to go to the top of your profession and get wealthy. And that's exactly what Zachias had done. So Zachias had made it. He had made it in life. All of his goals, all of his dreams. He was at the top of the climb of the ladder to success. He had made it. But he was lost. And maybe like Zachias, you find that you have fought and climbed and scratched and clawed your way to the top of the ladder, but you found that it's against the wrong building. And there's no hope. There's no peace. There's no joy in your life and heart at all. Because although you at the top of your profession, you've done as well as you can do and you look around and you have all the symbols of a successful life as this world looks at it, you're empty inside. You're lost. That's Zachias. Zachias was lost in spite of his parents' hopes. He was lost in spite of his position. But thirdly, the Bible says he was lost in spite of his interest. Look at verse three. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man, he could not because of the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sick and more fig tree to see him since Jesus was coming that way. Now imagine the scene, if you will. Remember, Jesus is walking into the city, walking down probably the main city street. There are swarms of people around him. People lined the street on both sides. Several deep, to catch a glimpse of this one who had raised Lazarus from the dead, of this one who was causing such a great commotion among the Pharisees, of this one who had just healed a man on his way into town. And man, everybody knows Bartimaez. Wow, you can imagine the crowd of people that had gathered around Jesus. So Zachias, for whatever reason, has a curiosity to see this miracle worker, this Jesus, someone evidently has told him Jesus is coming this way. He has a curiosity to see, but he can't get through the crowd. He's short. He can't see over the crowd. And nobody's going to let him through, right? He's going to give him a street side seat to see this procession. I mean, after all, look at who he is. He may get a few elbows and dirty looks and curses under the breath, but he's not going to get anybody to step out of the way and let him to the front. So he can't see Jesus passing by. So he says, okay, I'll find a tree and it climbs the sycamore fig tree. Maybe well hidden by foliage where he won't hear so many snide remarks and he's able to see Jesus. But I think there may be a little bit more going on here than just idle curiosity and the hubbub of a crowd. I think Zachias may well have been what we would call today a seeker. Now before you get upset with me for using that word, let me explain. I understand what Romans 3.11 says. No man seeks after God. Understand that theologically. Understand that when Adam sinned, his nature was to hide from God, not seek God. And certainly the Bible teaches that nobody on their own initiative makes the first step toward God. Because of our sinful nature, we have a tendency to hide and run away from God rather than seek him. But, but sometimes the way God begins his work of drawing and convicting us is through an honest seeking heart that has questions about life. Maybe has reached the top, but is empty or has reached the bottom and is looking for help. And you've got all kinds of questions and you're wondering what is this church thing about? What is this religious thing about? Is there anything to Jesus that I'm going to go find out? And so you begin seeking. You begin asking some questions. In that sense the Bible does say there may be that kind of a drawing toward the Lord, that kind of a seeking. Who knows? Why is that he is wanted to see Jesus so much? Possibly he had heard that Jesus was called the friend of sinners and publicans or tax collectors. Maybe someone had told him about Jesus. And he wanted to see, could it be possible that he really does love someone like me? I mean, everybody here hates me. Could it be possible that there is a man who would actually be a friend of sinners and tax collectors? I want to see this guy. There's some interest there. There's a curiosity there. Even John Calvin and his commentary on Luke would say, curiosity and simplicity are a sort of preparation for faith. That may be the way God begins to work in the heart to draw a person when someone begins to ask questions as curious about spiritual things is seeking answers to the emptiness or spiritual questions they may have. Could it be that he knew Matthew? Matthew was a tax collector up north in Galilee, but Matthew was a tax collector and maybe they met at conventions in Jerusalem with a ratican. I don't know. Maybe they had coffee together or were supper. And Matthew knows Zacchaeus. I think that's entirely possible that the two would have connected somewhere. I mean, who you're going to hang out with if you're a tax collector? Other tax collectors, that's it, right? Your circle of friends is kind of limited. So maybe he knew Matthew. Maybe when Matthew got saved, according to Matthew 9, Matthew threw a party at his house had a banquet and invited who? Other tax collectors. Maybe Zacchaeus was there. I don't know. But possibly he was on the guest list because Matthew wanted his friends, his fellow tax collectors to introduce, be introduced to Jesus. Maybe Matthew had witnessed to Zacchaeus. I don't know. Those are all questions that we really can't answer for sure, but it makes me wonder why he was so interested in seeing Jesus. Could be you're here today just like Zacchaeus. You've got questions? There's something stirring in your heart. You're here maybe to find out what this is all about. You've got spiritual issues, questions. Maybe you're at the very top, but you're empty. Maybe you're at the very bottom, and you're seeking help. For whatever reason, you're here searching, asking questions, seeking. You've come to find out what this Jesus is all about. But you know what? I love the way the story turns in verse 5. We have a sinner's train, a man who is lost in spite of his parents' hopes and spite of his position and spite of his own interest. He's still lost. But what we find next is the second part of the verse, or the next part of the verse, the son of man is come to seek that which was lost. Because really it's not so much Zacchaeus seeking Jesus as it is Jesus seeking Zacchaeus. And we're going to see how that unfolds. That may be using his curiosity, Zacchaeus' curiosity to get him in the right place, but all this is orchestrated by Jesus. Notice the beautiful turn in the story in verse 5. When Jesus reached the spot, stop right there. Don't take that for granted. Don't slide over that. Because what that tells us is that this was a punctual search. It was right on time when Jesus reached the spot. Just imagine that. This is Jesus seeking Zacchaeus now. And there was a particular spot. There was a particular location. There was a particular time when Jesus would stop. There is a particular divine appointment that has been arranged in the heart and mind of God. In the heart and mind of Jesus, Jesus knows the exact spot. He knows exactly where to stop. He is punctual at just the right moment. He stops. And he looks up no doubt with a face of tenderness with eyes of loving recognition to this man who's been scorned and ridiculed by everybody in Jericho. The other's words that will electrify his heart because there was a spot. There was a moment where Jesus knew he was to meet Zacchaeus. Could this be your moment this morning? Could this be the spot right where you're sitting in that pew? God knew at this moment you would be right where you are. In fact, he put the desire in your heart to be here, the ability to get here. He knows exactly where you are and he's walking right to your pew. And this is the moment. This is the spot where Jesus is meeting you and looking up into your heart. So it was a punctual search. This could be your spot, your moment of divine encounter with Jesus Christ. Not only was it a punctual search, it was a providential search. In other words, a search that in God's providence and God's working out of the details, he initiates. Look at how verse 5 says it. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, notice who initiates the encounter. Notice who initiates the conversation. It's Jesus. It's not Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus is not up in the tree saying, hey, Lord, look up here. I am. No, no. Jesus stops. And Jesus looks and Jesus says, Jesus initiates the conversation. He initiates the move into Zacchaeus's life. You see, this meeting was planned by God's timetable. And Jesus invites Himself to Zacchaeus his home. It's Jesus who's taking the initiative here. It is God who is at work setting up this meeting who is apprehending Zacchaeus who gets his attention. Could that be you here this morning? Could it be that at this spot, at this moment, Jesus is speaking to your heart, you didn't come expecting that. You didn't come looking for that. What you know in your heart right now, Jesus is speaking to you. And He's initiating the conversation. He's apprehending you. He's seeking you. You see, God's in control of you being here this morning and to the very opportunity you have to hear why Jesus came to seek and to save you, you, not your neighbor, not the crowd along the street, not the person sitting next to you. You, the one up in the tree, the one sitting right there in the pew. It's you. But will you notice that leads me to this next part of the search in verse 5. This is a personal search. Jesus looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, he calls Him by name. Wow, how personal is that? Are they met before? We don't know. We don't know. Possible that Matthew's home maybe? We don't know. But even if they'd never met before, Jesus still knows who he is and Jesus knows who you are. And when Jesus goes to looking for you, when Jesus goes to calling, it's not, it's not, hey guys, anybody interested? No. It's Bob. What about you? Amanda, what about you? Bill, you, you. Alice, you. He will call you by name. It will be a very personal search. He will speak to your heart individually. And he will know that you are being tugged at. Your heart is being spoken to. God is very personally speaking to you. It was a personal search. Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus. It was as though there was no one else around. Although there's a huge crowd, a great throng of people. This is just between Jesus and Zacchaeus. And this morning, it's not about anybody else who's here. It's just between you and God. It's just between you and Jesus. It's where your heart is. It's where you are spiritually. Nobody else. Nobody else is here. But you and Jesus, it's a very personal search. Notice it is also a pressing search. A pressing search. Notice what Jesus says. Zacchaeus. Come down immediately. I must stay at your house today. I love those three words. Immediately must. Today. That makes this search very pressing. It's now or never, Zacchaeus. It's right now. Jesus did not say to Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus, whenever you feel ready, look me up. He didn't say that. He didn't say to Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus, would you like to come down from the tree? He didn't say to Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus, maybe sometime, we'll get together and talk. OK? No. He said Zacchaeus, come down immediately because I must be at your house today. This is a pressing search. And my friend, if you're here today, today, this day, this spot, this moment where Jesus is personally speaking to your heart, it's now. It's right now. It's not next week. It's not tomorrow. It's not whenever you feel like it. It's right now. The Bible teaches that now is the day of salvation. It'll be a whole now is the accepted time. How shall we escape the writer of Hebrews as if we neglect so great salvation? It's now, when Jesus is speaking to your heart that you must respond. You don't dare put that off. What if Zacchaeus has said, well, you know, Lord, I had a meeting this afternoon, things are kind of busy. Maybe next week. Next week, Jesus is hanging on the cross. He's not in Jericho. It's right now that you need to respond to the search of God in your heart as he speaks to your heart. Right now, it's pressing. But verse 7 also tells us this is a protested search. Verse 6, he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. But look at verse 7. The protest rises. All the people saw this and began to mutter. He's going to be the guest of a sinner. I can just hear the rumble through the crowd. People have probably wondered, you know, it's late in the day, wonder where Jesus will spend the night tonight. Maybe the leading Rabbi in town. Maybe a chief priest who dwells here in Jericho or a priest that goes up to Jerusalem from time to time that lives here and maybe one of the scribes that religious teachers, maybe Jesus will stay with them tonight. I wonder who will stay with tonight. And they hear him say Zacchaeus. Come down immediately. Right now, I must be at your house today. And the muttering starts going through the crowd. I can't believe this. Going to the home of a tax clerk. Zacchaeus. The muttering starts. The protest begins. You see, it was self-righteous, cold, rigid, Pharisees of the day who had marginalized Zacchaeus, who had pushed him out from them, thinking that he wasn't good enough. He was one of those scums of society. He doesn't belong with those good people, with those righteous people, those religious people. And no doubt Zacchaeus had developed a heart of bitterness, resentment, and tagging isn't what everything's spiritual because of religious people. The very people who are muttering that Jesus has gone to be with Zacchaeus. My friend, it's the Zacchaeus of this world that Jesus came for. And you know what? All of us are Zacchaeus. There's none of us that can say, you know, I'm really a pretty good person. I had good family. I grew up good. I did all the right things. I'm a good student in school. I've been kind to my neighbors. I've kept the law. Never been a jail. So what? The Bible says that all of us by nature are sinners. And some people sinned by stealing other people's property and committing crimes worthy of jail. Other people sinned by thinking they're better than everybody else. You know, it was the sin of pride that got Satan kicked out of heaven. God considers that pretty bad. So we're all sinners. We're all Zacchaeuses in need of forgiveness, in need of a savior. Whenever we get to the point that we think the Zacchaeuses are way down here somewhere, I don't have time for them. I don't have any heart for the Zacchaeuses of this world. We have forgotten that all of us are sinners. None of us come close to what's expected to get into heaven. We've all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And it is all of us Zacchaeuses that Jesus came to seek and to save. I hope, I hope, in my heart, and in our heart as a church, I hope we never get to the point where we look down on anybody. There's maybe really messed up their lives or ruined their lives with all kinds of stuff in their past. I hope we never become the kind of people who think that we're better because, you know, we're church people. It's the very kind of people that push Zacchaeus away from God. And that kind of a spirit will never attract anyone to God. It is the reach of a savior to the one who's a sinner, that look of love, that tender eye and speech that says, Zacchaeus, come down, I must be at your house today. The going home to eat dinner with someone who's an outcast from society, that, that is what wins people to Jesus. Not a self-righteous, proud, fair, saken religious attitude. God delivers from that. This was a protested search. The Son of Man came to seek, came to seek Zacchaeus. But the verse also says, the Son of Man came to seek and to save Zacchaeus. The lost, that which was lost. Notice how the text describes the salvation of Zacchaeus, the Son of Man saving this straining center. Would you look at the means of salvation in verse nine? We'll get back to verse eight in just a moment. But in verse nine, Jesus said to him, today, salvation has come to this house because this man too is the Son of Abraham. Let's go back and read verse eight. We need that too and here to really make the impact. Verse eight, but Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, this is evidently in the house as maybe they're eating. 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. Jesus said to him, today, salvation has come to this house because Zacchaeus is so kind, hard and generous and wants to give back, right? Not what he said. Because he's so good now. Look, he wants to give back. That's not what he said. He said, salvation has come to this house because this man too is the Son of Abraham. Say, okay, what's with that? What does that mean? Well, you know, it's possible to see a Son of Abraham as an ethnic racial descendant of Abraham, a Jew, but that's not what Jesus meant. In the context, Jesus is quite clearly talking about another kind of Son of Abraham. The kind that Paul has talked about in Romans chapter four, the kind of person who recognizes like Abraham did that they are lost in the need of a savior and come by faith to the only one who can save them. It's like Paul would say in Galatians chapter three, look at these verses. Paul tells us exactly what true Son of Abraham is. He says, so also Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Understand then that those who have faith are children of Abraham. I think that's the sense in which Jesus is using this expression. What he's saying is here is a man who is a true Son of Abraham, a spiritual descendant, not just a national descendant, spiritual descendant because he has faith. He has trusted the one who came into his household to forgive him of his sin, to give him a new life, to give him a place in the family of God. By faith, he has embraced the Savior. He's trusted the Savior and it is because of faith that he has saved. That's the only way you can be saved my friend. But when you do get saved, when you do trust the Lord Jesus as a savior, then there will be some evidences of salvation in your life, just like the words that he is. I mean after all in verse six, when Jesus called out to him, he got down, he obeyed and went with Jesus, welcomed him gladly. It says obedience, welcoming Jesus into your life is a sign and evidence that you are truly a child of God. But then there's another evidence in his life. We saw it in verse eight when he says, Lord, I give half my possessions to the poor. If I've cheated anybody, I'll pay four times the amount. Now that's evidence of a changed heart in Zacchaeus' life. You see, the law of Moses laid out very clearly what you should do if you had stolen from someone. If you had cheated someone, the law of Moses said, you restore what you've taken, then you bring a trespass offering. You can read about it in book of Leviticus. You bring a trespass offering and add to it a fifth, another fifth of the amount of the offering as a sign that you're giving over and above. You're making restoration. For instance, if you've stolen somebody's goat, you return the goat and then you take this trespass offering for the forgiveness of your sin, add a fifth to it, twenty percent of the amount. That is if you admit your sin and willingly take responsibility for it. If you were caught, had not admitted it, if you were caught in a trespass, you paid double the amount of what you stole. If you could not restore what you took, otherwise if you've already eaten the goat for dinner, you can't restore it, then you're to pay for fold. Zacchaeus offers the highest amount of payback, of restoration as an evidence of the fact that his heart really has changed. Here's a man who started the day as a corrupt, thieving tax collector. And at the end of the day, he is a child of God who now has a heart to restore what he's taken from people and to live up to his name of being just. You know, at the beginning of the day, you never know how that day will end. When the day begins, you never know how it will end. Zacchaeus, when he woke up that morning, I'm sure had no clue that by that evening, he would be sitting with the Lord Jesus in his home, a changed man with a new life and a new heart and a desire to live a new life. I'm sure he had no idea. And it could be that you were the same here today. It could well be that you've come to church today, never expecting that Jesus would show up beside you. And he would begin to look into your life and your heart and speak to you personally and call your name at this spot at this moment, speaking to you about your need of a savior, you need to trust him. And today, today, you could go home, a new person with a changed heart, a new life, a new home in heaven, an introduction to the family of God. This day could change your eternity forever. When the day begins, you never know how it might end. Let's pray together.