Sermon Transcript
From Luke chapter 19.
He entered Jericho and was passing through, and behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich, and he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house. Today.
So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled, he has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner. And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold. And Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.
We’re coming in for a landing on our 6-week series. If you, if you haven’t been here for the last 5 weeks, not to worry. It’s not like you’re walking in at the end of the movie and you’ll have no idea, uh, what’s going on. I think each one of these weeks can stand on its own. But if you haven’t been here, um, you may want to go back in our, uh, queue and catch, uh, the previous episodes, um, because there— I think there is a cumulative benefit that probably can’t be gained if you’ve only been here one week.
In other words, I think the sum is greater than the parts. Over these 6 weeks, we’ve been identifying 6 conversations that our friends, neighbors, and colleagues are already having in which we can enter into to show that Jesus is a better story. We don’t want to do that in an arrogant way or in a, I get to prove you wrong, kind of way, but in a, isn’t Jesus more beautiful and more compelling than any other story in the world kind of way? So we’ve talked about Jesus’ approach to power, Jesus’ treatment of the vulnerable, the purpose that Jesus provides. We’ve talked about justice, how Jesus will completely redeem the world and fix everything.
Last week we talked about friendship. And each of those weeks taken individually sheds some light on the superiority of Christ, like his towering beauty. But if all these weeks are taken together, it really becomes hard to ignore. The cumulative force of his goodness is nearly overwhelming because you could dismiss maybe Jesus’ approach to one of these themes we have discussed. You might say, oh, Jesus is unique when it comes to power.
That is kind of interesting. I am glad we learned that from him, and then go on about your day. Without ever thinking about him again. But when you see him as superior in regard to all 6 of these themes simultaneously, he really begins to shine in a way that you can’t just go on about your day. You’ve got to take him seriously.
So if you’ve just walked in for the first time, in about 30 minutes from now you’re like, that was kind of interesting. I’d encourage you, go back and check out our previous weeks. They’re all on our website. All right, today we are looking at the theme of self-worth, and as we said in our life group curriculum video, this week is a little bit different than all the other weeks. All the other weeks we’ve identified conversations that are already happening and we can jump into.
The twist this week is that people don’t often talk about their need for self-worth. People typically don’t say that they feel empty or they feel like a failure or they feel like they haven’t measured up. They don’t talk about that a lot. To do so, that would require vulnerability, and as we said last week, vulnerability is difficult for lots of us. So there may not be very many conversations about self-worth that you can just hop into.
But here’s the deal, whether people talk about it or not, we all feel like we have a lack of self-worth from time to time. And all of us feel, and feel pretty strongly, a need to prove ourselves or to be right or to be good enough or to be accepted or to be praised or to be appreciated, to be remembered, We’re all looking for something to fill us or to validate us. And then at times we don’t have that thing and we’re a wreck. Or we have acquired that thing, it really is ours, but it didn’t deliver what we hoped it would. We aren’t as fulfilled as we thought that we would be if we had it.
So we find ourselves needing even more validation. It’s not just you that feels that way. It’s a common experience. We’ve all been there, but a lot of us don’t talk about it. So someone needs to crack the ice, and once someone does, other people are more likely to share their struggles too.
But even if other people don’t share their struggles, they will listen when you talk about yours. Your weakness really is your superpower. The more that you let people see your internal struggle for significance, satisfaction, security, the more that you talk about that, the more influence you will have. Similarly, the more you try to act like you have it all together, probably the less influence you’ll have, right? Your weakness is your superpower, all right?
So with that, let’s turn to our text. As we study this pretty famous account of Zacchaeus, we will find the emptiness of the world, the offer of Jesus, and the effect of that offer. So, the emptiness of the world, the offer of Jesus, and the effect of that offer. So, first, the emptiness of the world. It never satisfies.
We don’t know Zacchaeus’ full backstory, but we can piece much of it together because we know he was a tax collector. He was actually a chief tax collector, and he was Jewish, and he was rich. Which means at some point in his past he made the decision, and it was a decision, to alienate himself from his own people in order to side with the Roman government in exchange for the opportunity to gain enormous wealth. I know many of you know this, but for those of you who don’t, the Roman tax system worked by giving authority to local community members to collect collect taxes from their peers. So it’s like the Roman government would come to Bridges Community Church and they would maybe ask Steve— since he’s not here today, I’ll pick on him— if he wanted to be a tax collector for our community.
And Steve says, I guess, sure. So they give Steve a brigade of soldiers and tell him he is authorized to collect however much tax he wants to collect. From each one of us. He could take everything we own if he wanted to. There’s a minimum that he must send back to Rome, but everything else he gets to keep for himself, anything on top of that minimum.
It’s a pretty devious scheme by the Romans because they know, especially as their empire expands into new areas, they know that they don’t really know how much money each person has. Has in a given community. Like, people could hide the extent of their wealth from an outsider, right? Rome, Rome might not be able to figure out who’s got the money, but if Rome empowers an insider, the insider knows who has the money, who has generational wealth. So even if this person loses everything, who can help them get back on feet.
The insider knows. So Rome empowers an insider to collect tax from his own community, and if anyone resists, they can talk to the soldiers. So Zacchaeus is extorting money from people he grew up with, people his parents grew up with, people who probably held him when he was a baby, people who have trusted him in the past. He’s taking money from them with the full force of the Roman government. And apparently, business must be going pretty well because it says Zacchaeus is rich.
He’s taken more than what was required, much, much more. So, if this were Steve, it would be like he’s taken enough from all of us that he can have a house in Malibu. He can take his helicopter here every day for his commute. He can eat at French Laundry every night. He’s got it all.
Anything wealth can provide, he has it. He has made a calculation that money will satisfy. He’s doubled down on it. He’s bet that material wealth and comfort will be enough, but it’s not. Actually, nothing in this world will ever be enough to fill that void, to validate us, to make us feel whole.
Nothing will ever be enough. Enough. C.S. Lewis said it like this in Mere Christianity. He said, most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world.
There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise. The longings which arise in us when we first fall in love, or first think of some foreign country, or first take up some subject that excites us, are longings which no marriage, no travel, no learning can really satisfy. I am not now speaking of what would ordinarily be called unsuccessful marriages or holidays or learned careers. I am speaking of the best possible ones. There was something we grasp at in the first moment of longing which just fades away in reality.
I think everyone knows what I mean. End quote from Lewis. Zacchaeus knew what Lewis meant. He has everything wealth can provide and he’s still looking for more. Want proof?
We would expect someone with Zacchaeus’ financial means to sit in his luxury and summon whatever he wants wanted to his fingertips. But here we see him do something different. He goes out to look for something. And he kind of embarrassingly goes out to look for something. He climbs a tree to see Jesus.
So he’s likely making a fool out of himself in all his fancy robes and maybe rings. He climbs a tree. Can you imagine Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Oprah, climbing a tree to see someone. People like that don’t climb trees to see someone, right? Other people climb trees to see them, right?
But here is Zacchaeus. He knows he needs something that he doesn’t have. His wealth has not provided it and he is looking for it. That is the emptiness of the world. It never satisfies.
He has everything money can buy, but he’s willing to look like an idiot because he knows he still doesn’t have it.
Next, the offer of Jesus to be known and received. That’s what Jesus offers. Jesus looks up at Zacchaeus and says, Zacchaeus, I’m coming to your house today. So first question, how did Jesus know Zacchaeus’ name? Like, as far as we know, they’ve never met.
So how did Jesus know his name? You say, ah, well, Jesus knows everything. He’s God. Okay, you got me. That’s true.
That probably is how Jesus knew his name. But you notice everyone else knows who Zacchaeus is too? And their knowledge of Zacchaeus isn’t because he’s omniscient. You see this? Jesus tells Zacchaeus, I’m coming to your house today.
It says, all the people, they all grumbled. Everyone is mad, it says, because Jesus has gone to be a guest of a man who is a sinner. So everyone knows who Zacchaeus is, not just Jesus. How did they know who he was?
Likely because they had all been robbed by Zacchaeus. Probably even Jesus or his family or certainly Jesus’ extended family had been robbed. By Zacchaeus. They have all seen his wealth. They all know how he got it.
They all know his name. And therefore, they all reject him, as they should. But Jesus doesn’t. Jesus says, Zacchaeus, I see you to the bottom and I’m still coming for you. I’m coming to your house today.
Now, we in our modern culture probably can’t feel the significance of being a guest in somebody else’s home. Home, but in that culture it was a big deal. If you were someone else’s guest, it means to some extent you’re giving approval to them. It’s a level of relational intimacy. We might be able to relate in maybe a small way by thinking about what it means to— if someone comes to our wedding.
What does that mean? Someone comes to your wedding. It means like you matter to them to some extent Like, my brother got married in 2005, and his wife read, or his about-to-be wife read, who is now his wife, she read that if you sent a wedding invitation to the White House, like sent a wedding invitation, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, that you would get a reply. You would get a card back in the mail saying, you know, thanks for the invite, congrats, regrettably we can’t make it. But good luck.
It’s not like the President and First Lady were actually going to come to your wedding, but you get a card back. You can laminate it or they put it in their wedding album. It’s pretty cool, right?
But what if they did come to your wedding?
What would that mean, right? It’s expressing some amount of approval, right, or some amount of this couple is significant It’s saying the couple getting married are a big enough deal to me that I’m showing up, right? That’s kind of what it was like in the 1st century Jewish culture if you went to someone else’s house as a guest. Jesus was saying to Zacchaeus, Zacchaeus who is this mob boss essentially, Zacchaeus says, you are significant to me. I want you.
There is no barrier between us. I know everything about you. I know the scumbag that you are and I still want you. Your sin is not a barrier. I’m coming anyway.
That’s what Jesus says to Zacchaeus.
Do you hear Jesus saying that to you?
Or do you think that there’s something you need to hide from Jesus in order for him to come be a guest? At your house? Do you think there is some failure that would prevent Jesus from seeking you out, from pursuing you?
There isn’t. He sees you to the bottom. He knows your past. He knows your hurts. He knows your shame, and he’s still running to you, even when everyone else says you’re no good.
Even when you are no good, even when you’re Zacchaeus, Jesus wants you. Jesus receives you. Jesus welcomes you to himself. That’s what Jesus offers.
Next, the effect of that offer is complete change.
Jesus offers this to Zacchaeus and Zacchaeus just explodes with joy. Like, he’s found the thing that he’s been looking for. The thing that money couldn’t buy him, the thing he knew he needed but didn’t have. He’s got it now. Like, it came to him.
It invited itself over for dinner and now it’s his. He has Jesus. Jesus has him and it frees him. Zacchaeus, like so many of us, had been under a type of slavery. Money was his master, but it was cruel.
It kept promising to fulfill him, but it never did and it kept demanding more and more and more. He sacrificed his relationships in order to serve his cruel master of money, but he still never had enough. He had to rob from more people to try to fill this gap. He was a slave to money. He was lost.
But Jesus comes and finds him. Jesus gives him what he really needs, gives him his heart’s true desire. Jesus saves him. Jesus gives Zacchaeus himself. And now that Zacchaeus has everything he needs, it restructures everything about his life.
It restructures the way he looks at money. It restructures the way he looks at people. Now he uses money to bless and help and repair. He says, I’m giving to the poor. This is the thing that he used to cling to so tightly.
This is the thing he sacrificed so much in order to get, the thing he used to serve, the thing he used to call master. Now it has no hold on him at all. He gives it away freely.
And people are no longer objects to exploit, but instead people are recipients of encouragement and assistance. People had been a means to acquire more money, and now money is a means to bless and uplift people. He switched. He switched from selfish to selfless. And that’s what always happens when we meet Jesus.
Now, we don’t know how other people responded to the new Zacchaeus. We don’t know. Were they as joyful about his change as he was? Is this like an Ebenezer Scrooge situation at the end of A Christmas Carol? Everybody’s celebrating with him, singing some kind of on, or were they skeptical of him?
Maybe a line formed because Zacchaeus said, if I have defrauded anyone, I’ll pay it back fourfold, and everyone raises their hands. They’re like, yeah, you’ve defrauded all of us, so pay up. We don’t know how people responded, but the point is if Zacchaeus has had a true experience with Jesus, he wouldn’t need people to approve of him. He’s not giving away all this money in order to be accepted by others. In other words, he didn’t switch from one type of slavery to another.
He was enslaved to money. He’s not dropping that just to be enslaved of people’s opinions of him. If he were giving away all his money just so people would like him, I’m just gonna bet he still wouldn’t be satisfied because at least some people are still gonna continue to hold a grudge, right? Somebody will. And if he were hoping that everybody would now like him, he’s gonna be as empty as he was before.
He’ll never have everyone like him. He’ll be just as trapped but to a different, equally cruel master. That’s not salvation. That’s not freedom. That’s not what’s going on.
Jesus would not have said salvation has come here if that’s what had been in Zacchaeus’ heart. So Zacchaeus is giving his money away not in order to get something, but because he is so full he can just give freely. He has Jesus.
Do you want an indicator if you really have Jesus or not?
Check yourself. Are you clinging to something in order to fill you, validate you? Maybe it’s money or comfort like Zacchaeus. Maybe it is people’s approval. Maybe it is success, achievement, recognition, a need for control, a need to get your way.
Are you clinging to something in order to give you a sense of security or significance? Or can you give that thing away freely with joy? See Zacchaeus? He’s overjoyed to give away what he used to serve, what he used to sacrifice in order to get. Now he’s letting go of it.
It. He’s free. And that is what it’s like to be with Jesus, because in Jesus all of our needs are already met. So can you let go? Are you free?
Okay, that’s the effect of Jesus’ offer— complete change. Now, how to share that with others. Um, like we said, every other week has been entering into conversations that are already happening happening. This week is more like entering into what everyone is feeling but maybe not very many people are talking about. So you have to break the ice.
You have to talk about times you feel insecure or scared or worthless and then talk about how Christ is the answer. And we all feel those ways sometimes. If you think you don’t have insecurities, Let’s just see. I’ll give you a bunch of examples. When I was leading our college group here, I had several college students tell me actually who went to high school in this area.
If they had made a decision to go to a 2-year community college, 2-year junior college instead of going straight to a 4-year college, they almost wanted to hide their plans from their high school classmates because they felt shamed for not going to a 4-year college immediately. And really, I heard students say they felt shamed if they weren’t going to a prestigious 4-year college. Parents might feel insecure if their kids aren’t going to a prestigious 4-year school. Same phenomenon in the workplace around here, right? Like, which company do you work for?
Is it a super cool one or is it one that nobody’s ever heard of? Do you have a VP after your name? If you don’t have a fancy title, do you ever feel less than others, especially if you are hanging out with a bunch of people who do have a more impressive title than you? What if you are out of work and you are looking for a job and you send 20 resumes a week, but you haven’t had any hits? And that would be hard enough, right?
But then it dawns on you, apparently all these companies who are looking at my resume have declared over my life’s accomplishments, not good enough, which has now completely invalidated everything that I’ve done with my life because that’s what was on my resume and they still didn’t want me. And you feel worthless. What about where you live? Do you ever feel embarrassed that you don’t live in the fancy area of town? What if you’re hanging out with somebody else who does?
Does that make you feel less than? What about if you can’t afford a certain type of vacation that everybody else in your circle is taking? Is your high school reunion coming up and you don’t want to go because you don’t want other people to see how you turned out? Maybe you put on weight. Maybe you have no hair.
Maybe you have gray hair. Maybe you don’t have enough gray hair, like you’re 60 years old but nobody takes you seriously because you don’t have enough gray hair. Maybe you feel stuck at home with kids and your entire world is Cheeto fingers and sticky car seats, and then you look on social media and you get the impression everyone else else is traveling the world and you feel like you aren’t doing anything with your life? That’s a lie, of course, but you feel that way. You feel maybe behind.
How about this? Do you ever bend the truth to make yourself look better?
When do you feel like you need to leave out certain details in order to keep someone’s approval? Or how do you feel when you need to admit that you are wrong? You made a mistake. It’s totally your fault. Is that easy for you to say that, or do you feel like a failure?
Okay, last one. Do you have any secret recipes?
You know, like you don’t want anyone else to know how you make your cookies.
Why is that? Why don’t you want to tell anyone else your secret recipe? Now, hey, maybe it’s not related to insecurities at all. Maybe grandmama gave you that recipe on her deathbed and she was like, don’t you tell anyone else. And you’re like, yes ma’am.
That’s not about insecurities one bit. Or maybe you have a cookie business and it’s like Coca-Cola and you don’t want to give away the secret formula ’cause then you’d be out of business. We get that. All right, on the other hand, maybe you have a need for everyone to say that you make the best cookies. And anytime anyone compliments a cookie that isn’t yours, you feel a little twinge.
You think, if they tasted my cookie, they would say mine is better. You, you like need for them to think yours are the best in order for you to feel whole. And you don’t want to give anyone else the recipe because then you wouldn’t feel as special.
Okay, have I described everyone in this room in one way or another? We all have these insecurities. We all do. Not very many people talk about them, but we have them. You know what these insecurities mean?
The fullness of Christ’s imputed worth to us has not completely landed in our hearts. We are still looking for security or wholeness from something that really can’t give it to us. We are asking something other than Christ to give us what only Christ can give us. That’s idolatry. Looking to something other than Jesus to provide what only Jesus can provide.
Idolatry. Just like Zacchaeus, we’re banking on— like Zacchaeus was banking on money but was still empty, we occasionally bank on something that leaves us feeling less than. We have these insecurities, this shame, this embarrassment, this inferiority. But here’s the good news. Just like Zacchaeus, we have access to unlimited validation.
Christ gives us his.
He took everything that we should be embarrassed or ashamed of. He took it away. He took our sin. He took our idolatry. He was rejected in our place.
He was judged in our place. He was condemned. He became inferior so we never would be in His eyes. He gave us His infinite worth. We are co-heirs with Him, Romans 8.
There is a wholeness available in Him that makes us so complete that we lack nothing, James 1:4. But as far as I can tell, it takes a lifetime to fully grow into what Jesus has done for us. Rarely do we get totally up and running, like, in an instant. We have to work out our salvation. And in the meantime, talking about our insecurities is an excellent way to point to the sufficiency of Christ.
Again, your weaknesses are your superpower. Don’t hide them. Tell them to people. Say how you’re feeling. Just talk about it.
They will listen Listen, say how much it bothers you when someone compliments a cookie that isn’t yours. Say how worthless you feel because you can’t get an interview. Say how you feel less than because you stay at home or you don’t have VP after your name or your kids went off the rails. Don’t just say that something has gone wrong. Talk about how it makes you feel inferior, weak, Don’t pretend you are strong when you aren’t.
Say words like worthless, overlooked, less than, inferior, behind. You know how people will respond? You know what they’ll say if they’re your friend? Uh, they’ll try to make you feel better because they’re your friend. They’ll say, oh, come now, Oh, it’s not that bad.
You know, you still have your health, a spouse who loves you, a great degree, you know, beautiful kids. This will all work out. It’ll blow over sooner rather than later. They’ll try to cheer you up because they care about you, which is great. But you see what they’re doing?
They’re trying to provide you security with another thing that is not secure.
They are like, hey, just trust in this other thing that you also might lose.
So, you can call them out on that. You can say, those are all really great. Thank you for trying to cheer me up. I certainly do have much to be grateful for. You are a good friend.
Thanks. But right now, my hope is crushed because I put my hope in something that can be taken away. So, I don’t want to fix this problem by putting my hope in something else that can also be taken away. I want to put my hope in something that will never be in jeopardy. Just for my own sanity, this is what I need.
Like, I don’t want to be a wreck again. I need to put my hope in something that will actually last, that won’t bail on me.
And there’s only one thing like that as far as I know. It’s Christ. His approval of me doesn’t fluctuate with my performance because He accepted me even when I was a total mess. He wants me always. He died to be with me.
He canceled the debt between us. There’s zero rejection with Him. What I really need is to point my heart in His direction or it’ll just keep getting broken. If I’m going to stay stable in this world, I have to trust something that is actually going to stay stable. You can, you can say that when your friend tries to cheer you up by giving you something else that also won’t last.
Then you can ask your friend, neighbor, colleague, how do you handle it when you feel unstable? What do you do? I don’t know what your friend will say. Your friend might be like, well, I try to enjoy what I do have. I don’t— to be honest, I drink a lot.
I don’t know what they’re going to say. But you can respond. You can say, from my experience, that road just gets me burned again.
So, can I tell you about Christ who loves us completely? Gives us his worth, makes us so whole that we are impervious to the ups and downs in life. Can I tell you about him? Your friend might say yes, your friend might say no. Don’t know.
But you would never get to that point if you didn’t share your weakness. It’s your superpower. Don’t hide it. Use it. Let’s pray.
Father, thank you for seeing us to the bottom and still coming after us. Thank you for your amazing love. Thank you that you are totally sufficient to meet every hope of our heart, Lord. I pray that we would trust in you, that we would point our hearts to you, Lord, and when we fail, I pray that we would talk about it, Lord. Give us the courage to speak our weakness so we can speak to your sufficiency.
Lord, help us to point others to you as the answer, even though we are still sick ourselves. Lord, let us point everyone to the source, source of health, who is you. We pray all those things in Jesus’ name. Amen.
