Luke 19:1

Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. He sought to see Jesus, but he could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature. So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for Jesus was going to pass that way.

When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him. He said, "Zacchaeus, make haste, come down, for today I must stay at your house." Zacchaeus made haste, came down, and received Jesus joyfully. But when they saw it, they all complained, saying, "He has gone to be the guest with a man who is a sinner." What good news that is! You went to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.

And Lord, that means that You would not be ashamed to be our guest. You would not be ashamed to spend time with us. In fact, in the last book of the Bible, we read that You stand at the door and knock, and whoever opens, You would come in and dine with them. Lord, we are grateful that that is who You are and how You work.

I pray, God, that You would speak to us today as we consider Your pattern of life. As we consider the things that You did, would You cause us to think on these things and to be transformed by the renewing of our minds? So speak to us, we pray. We ask this in Jesus' name, and all those that agreed said, "Amen." You can be seated.

Well, if you weren't with us last week, I want to say happy new year. It's amazing how quickly time goes by. It seems like it just gets faster and faster all the time. As we are in a new year, we're starting the new year off with a new short series, and we're talking about the important topic of purpose. I believe that knowing and having a purpose is essential if we are to live this life in a meaningful way. I've believed for a long time, and I've shared it many times here at the church, that I'm not sure we can truly experience life as God intended that we would experience it.

God, our Creator, created us for a purpose, and He intends that we would live and experience life in the way that He wants us to experience it. However, I don't know that we can experience it the way that He desires without knowing the answers to a number of very important questions.

You probably realize that everyone you interact with in your neighborhood, at work, at school, or wherever you find yourself has a worldview. They have a framework by which they see the world—a philosophy, basically. Every philosophy, whatever it may be, needs to answer a series of very important questions if it is going to really hold up one's life. I believe there are about five of these questions. The first one is the issue of identity, followed by purpose, origin, destiny, and morality.

If we are going to experience life in a meaningful and abundant way, then it's important for us to answer the questions of who we are (identity), where we came from (origin), where we are going after this (destiny), what we are here for (purpose), and how we should live (morality). We need to find strong answers to these questions if we are going to gain transcendent meaning in this life.

I think these questions are so important that, from time to time, I will speak about them as we go through the Scriptures. Our pattern is generally to go book by book through the Bible, and the answers to identity, purpose, origin, destiny, and morality are found in the Scriptures. I want to highlight that as we progress. There are also times when we take a moment or a few weeks to look specifically at one of these topics.

A few years ago, at the beginning of 2015, I did a series in the book of Ephesians in the New Testament called "Identity." You can find it on our website, LifeInConnection.com. In that series, we discussed these same questions. Now, as we talk about purpose, we are returning to these questions to drill down into them. I believe we need to address them, especially as they relate to purpose, because we are living in a time when people seem confused about the issues of meaning and purpose in life.

This confusion is evidenced by some of the things we are observing in our culture, such as the increase in prescription drug use and the rise in suicide rates. I think these issues are not disconnected from the questions of purpose and meaning.

People are confused about purpose and meaning, and our culture is experiencing what some have identified as a collective existential crisis. Existentialism relates to why we exist. If you reach that point, some people in times past would refer to it as a midlife crisis. Perhaps we are undergoing a collective midlife crisis in our nation, where individuals start to reflect on all the things they have done, the time that has passed, and the time that lies ahead. They begin to wonder, "What is it all about?" Many feel they are not doing what they are supposed to be doing, leading to this kind of existential crisis.

In our culture, various voices suggest different causes for this crisis. Over the last 20 years, some have claimed that the catalyst for this existential crisis was September 11, 2001. Others argue that it began with the election of George W. Bush, or even his reelection. Some attribute it to the economic collapse of 2008 and 2009, while others point to the election of Barack Obama and his second election. There are those who believe that global warming and climate change are the root causes, with articles stating that world leaders have been informed this is the major crisis threatening to destroy everything, urging us to fix it quickly.

Additionally, some people argue that the election in 2016 marked the beginning of this existential crisis. There are countless factors that people identify as sources of this turmoil. However, I believe that deeper than all these issues are the fundamental questions of meaning and purpose. We interact with people daily who wrestle with these concerns.

Recently, I listened to someone, not a Christian, express this struggle. He said that life is very difficult, rife with suffering and contaminated by malevolence. He emphasized the need for a sustaining meaning to avoid bitterness in this world. You need a sustaining purpose, or you risk entering what some refer to as existential depression. It is not just those who engage with scripture or consider theological implications who have questions about meaning and purpose; even those without a framework for the existence of God grapple with the questions of life and purpose. People are asking, "Where do I turn for this sustaining purpose?"

There are all kinds of different opinions about where to turn for meaning. I've mentioned several times over the last few months one very outspoken individual that a lot of people are following today: an atheist by the name of Sam Harris. He is thoroughly convinced that the best way to attain meaning is through the use of meditation and perhaps even psychedelics.

What you're going to see in our culture right now is a push—it's already happening—to make legal all the psychedelic substances that some of you may remember from back in the 60s. They are trying to declassify those as Class One narcotics because they believe that is where we will find meaning. This is an interesting situation. People are starving for meaning, and we are told by the same individuals who are identifying this problem that we need to create our own purpose. We need to manufacture our own meaning, which is really difficult because many people don't seem to be doing that very well.

I am convinced that as we look at the Bible, there are answers related to the issue of purpose and meaning. This leads to my first point, which is really my proposition for this series: the purpose of Jesus helps us frame and understand our purpose more meaningfully. When we begin to grasp the purpose of Jesus, who is revealed in the Scriptures as God, we encounter the great declaration of the Christian faith: Jesus is God.

As God, Jesus speaks about His purpose for coming into the world, what we call the incarnation—God became a man. If that is God's purpose for Jesus coming into the world, then I believe it has implications for our own lives. In other words, understanding why Jesus came will help us frame and understand our purpose as we navigate a world that is broken, filled with suffering, and marked by malevolence.

It begins to answer the questions: Why do I live where I live? Why am I in the job that I am in? Why am I at the school that I'm at? Why am I a part of the neighborhood or the family that I am in? I believe that as we wrestle with these questions, we will find more meaningful answers as we begin to understand why Jesus came. This understanding will affect the way we answer those questions.

We are looking at some of the purpose statements of Jesus in the Gospels, particularly in Matthew.

Mark, Luke, and John mention about a dozen, actually 13 times, statements of Jesus where He says, "I have come for this purpose." I'm still looking for more as I go through the Gospels routinely. In this three-week series, we are not going to cover all 13, but we will consider three key statements. The first one we looked at last week is found in the theme verse of the Gospel of Mark, chapter 10, verse 45. Mark records Jesus saying, "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many."

Here, Jesus presents a single purpose, stating it both negatively and positively, which is a typical Jewish teaching method used by rabbis. He emphasizes that the Son of Man did not come to be served, but He did come to serve. This service is manifested through giving His own life, laying it down as a ransom, a payment for many. Thus, His purpose is revealed.

Point number two is that Jesus purposed to serve sacrificially. In identifying this purpose in Mark 10, we must ask the question: how does this help me understand and frame my own purpose in a more meaningful way? I believe it does because it helps us see that whatever situation or circumstance we find ourselves in—whether it’s the place we live, the place we work, the family we are part of, or the people we interact with regularly—those aspects of life should lead us to adopt Jesus' purpose and live in a self-sacrificial way.

However, there is a challenge in saying that Jesus lived with a self-sacrificial purpose and that we should adopt that purpose as well. It is certain that some will ask, "Why should I serve others sacrificially? Why should I not serve myself?" It is our natural tendency to be self-focused, what we call selfish. If you have had a two-year-old, you know this well. And if you haven't had any kids, you might think, "No, I'm not very selfish." But children are born not selfish; we are not naturally selfless. Go spend some time in the children's ministry, and you will see this firsthand.

You'll see it. When we're honest, we see it in ourselves as well. We tend to mask it in more socially acceptable ways, but at our core, by nature, we are very self-focused. Jesus comes and gives an example of self-sacrifice, calling us to that. That's exactly what He called His disciples and followers to in Mark 10. He said that in the world, you know how it is; it's very self-focused. But it shall not be so for you, My followers. You should adopt My purpose to live self-sacrificially.

Of course, we ask the question: why? Why should I do that? It is not our nature to do so. It is quite contrary to virtually every impulse we have innately to be self-sacrificial. We are oriented towards serving and gratifying all of our desires and wants. We live in a culture that says, yes, you should do that. That's basically what our culture promotes: have it your way. This message is constantly reinforced through advertising and the philosophical worldview presented to us in every form of media. It's all about you. This is the basic ethos of America in 2019, not just in the United States, but in most of the Western world.

Because there is a lot of power in the Western world through money, we are exporting this thought everywhere to the rest of the world. This is what it's all about: it's all about you. Generally speaking, people in our culture are working with whatever gifts, talents, abilities, or education they have. They are striving to gain ascendancy and reach the top in their respective fields or territories. If you look around at all the different industries and areas of work in our society, people are using their abilities, gifts, talents, and training to try to climb higher and higher, gaining ascendancy in whatever field they are in.

As a result, our culture solidifies into these silos that often resemble hierarchical structures, looking like a pyramid. They are very wide at the base and get thinner and thinner as you reach the top. Most of the time, there are differences of opinion about how people get to the top. Some people, like Nietzsche, argue that it all has to do with power and people dominating others.

Holding positions of dominance and power, people often reach the top in a meritocracy. Our culture resembles a meritocracy in that those who compete well or excel in certain areas tend to rise through competence. However, we have hierarchical structures in various fields, including medicine, the military, law enforcement, education, and many others. Each of us possesses different gifts, abilities, talents, and education, which place us in these roles. This dynamic even occurs within the church world, where individuals utilize their training and abilities to ascend.

Our culture tells us that reaching the top equates to power and greatness. There is a desire within the human heart for power and greatness, as illustrated in Mark chapter 10 with the disciples. Perhaps Nietzsche was right: the entirety of the human race is geared toward a will to power. Interestingly, regardless of where we find ourselves in this societal hierarchy, we tend to look at those above us with a degree of disdain, often fueled by jealousy or envy. We have a tendency to despise and dislike those who are higher than us.

Moreover, we often assume that those we envy in any hierarchy achieved their position through corrupt or immoral means. We think they must have done something wrong to get there. Isn't that how we often perceive it? Some of you may agree with this perspective.

This brings us to the story before us, which is quite intriguing. You may be familiar with Luke chapter 19, verses one through ten, the story of Zacchaeus. Many of us instantly recall the song: "Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he. He climbed up in a sycamore tree to see what he could see." If you don't know that song, you can sign up for children's ministry afterward to learn it.

In this story, we see a reflection of culture that is 2,000 years old, yet it is not much different from our culture today. There is a hierarchy evident in the narrative, represented by Zacchaeus.

Who's higher up, despised, and disliked, and assumed to have achieved his position through some sort of unethical, immoral, or corrupt means? Luke chapter 19, verse one states, "Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho."

As a quick side note, if you were here last week in Mark chapter 10, this actually follows immediately after in the timeline of the Gospels. The story we looked at in Mark's Gospel, chapter 10, involved Jesus's disciples discussing greatness. This conversation occurs almost immediately before the events in Luke. If you read through Mark chapter 10 and Luke chapter 18, you'll see that the stories align.

Jesus is on His way from Galilee, which is in the northern part of Israel, where most of His ministry took place. He is traveling down to Jerusalem for the very last time before His crucifixion. The last major outpost or stop before ascending into the mountains of Judea, where Jerusalem is located, was the city of Jericho. Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem to observe the Passover, accompanied by multitudes of others who are also traveling for the same purpose. He is entering and passing through Jericho; He is not going to stay there, just moving through.

Now, behold, there was a man, verse two, named Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector. And he was rich. You can almost feel the reaction: "Oh, yeah." Perhaps you know this name. In fact, if you own a home, you are likely familiar with the name Dan McAllister. You know it because you receive a letter from him once a year. Many people dislike that letter. It’s colorful, with yellows and blues, but it also has a big red number on it that you have to pay in November and April. Most people delay as long as possible, often until December 10th, which is the last day to pay.

So, you know Dan McAllister, even if you have never met him. You may not know what he looks like, but you know his name, and he is a tax collector. We generally do not care for tax collectors because we dislike paying taxes. This particular man, Zacchaeus, was especially disliked. In American terms, he was at the top of the hierarchy; he was rich and the chief tax collector, the boss. This is where many would aspire to be in America. However, in first-century Jewish culture, he would have been the most despised. In fact, tax collectors were often lumped together with sinners and harlots.

So that was like, "Hey, you're a tax collector. You're a sinner." They didn't like them because they viewed them as treacherous. You see, they paid taxes to the Roman Empire, which was occupying the area of Israel. Zacchaeus was a Jewish man who was a tax collector for the Romans. There are a lot of different intricacies to study about how the taxes would be collected. Rome had a certain amount, and the tax collector had the authority and the power to collect what he would, keeping the difference and just paying off Rome. So people assumed, "You're rich, you're a tax collector. You're not doing it right." That's the way they viewed it, and so they didn't like this guy.

Zacchaeus sought to see who Jesus was, but he could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature. Most researchers, historians, and archaeologists who have been studying the remains of people in that region of the world at that time say that the average man was five foot six. So, you would have been tall, Dad, in that time. Five foot six was the average height of a man in Israel, and Jesus was probably about that height as well. We have these pictures of Him with long, flowing hair, like Fabio, and being tall. No, that's not it at all. He was a Jewish man in the Middle East, about five foot six.

If Zacchaeus was a wee little man, then he was really short. He was probably like Sherry Bailey, our missionary who was here this morning; she's very short. I'm going to get in so much trouble saying this kind of thing. You guys are texting right now. No questions at all. It's just like, "You're a wicked person." That's right, I'm wicked. I repent in dust and ashes. So, maybe, I don't know, he was like four foot six. Zacchaeus was a small guy, and he had a problem. He couldn't see Jesus because of the multitude around him. He wanted to see Jesus, so he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for Jesus was going to pass that way.

He was small, but he was industrious. When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him. This was probably the first time in Zacchaeus's life that someone looked up and saw him. Jesus looked up and said, "Zacchaeus," calling him by name, "make haste and come down from there, for today I must stay at your house." So he made haste and came down, and he received Jesus joyfully. But when the multitudes saw it, they were indignant.

They all complained, saying he has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner. As I said, as a general rule, those who are lower down in the hierarchy of wealth, power, and privilege tend to see those who are higher up and to despise and dislike them because they are higher than us. We assume that they are immoral, corrupt, or wicked, believing they did something unethical to get there. This is not new; it is just the way that we are. Back 2,000 years ago, things were the same. They assumed that this man was immoral and bad. Tax collectors were despised; they were treacherous in the eyes of the people.

Point number three on your outline: Jesus saw those overlooked and looked down upon. He saw them because he purposed to do so. Think about that. He saw them because he was looking for them. Everyone else looked down upon Zacchaeus, not just because of his short stature, but because they did not like him. They despised and disliked him, holding a belittling opinion of this little man, Zacchaeus.

In verse eight, Zacchaeus stood and said, "Lord, look, I give half my goods to the poor. If I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore it fourfold." This is interesting because if you've ever heard the story of Zacchaeus taught in church, you probably heard the common interpretation that this is a sign of Zacchaeus's repentance. He is making a public statement of repentance by saying, "Lord, I give half my goods to the poor. From this day forward, I will give half my goods to the poor. If I have taken anything in a wicked and immoral way, I will restore it more than the law requires, fourfold."

That is the wrong interpretation. I know it is the wrong interpretation because the Greek in this passage is very clear and specific; Greek is a very technical language.

This was written originally in Greek, and the language used when he says, "Lord, I give half my goods to the poor," is in what's called the present active indicative. This indicates an action that has been continuous for a long time. To ensure I wasn't mistaken, I called my good friend, Justin Alford, this week, who is a Greek scholar. He confirmed that I was absolutely right; that's exactly what it means.

When he says, "And if I have taken anything by false accusation, I restore it fourfold," he is expressing that this is his life and the way he lives. When it says Zacchaeus stood, he is standing with a self-justifying pose. He seems to say, "Hey, listen here, all you people that don't like me, I give half my goods to the poor. You want to set your giving record against my giving record? I guarantee mine is better. You think I'm wicked just because I'm rich, just because I have this job, but I give half my goods to the poor. And if I've done anything unethical, I restore it more than the law requires."

We may not like Zacchaeus because he is a tax collector and he is rich, but according to his own words in that society, he was doing pretty well by his own accounting. He considered himself a good man. Yet Jesus says in verse nine, "Today salvation has come to this house because he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."

This gives us Jesus's second purpose statement, which is point number four on your outline: Jesus came seeking to save the lost and despised, and praise the Lord He did. Amen.

There are a number of things in these ten verses that we need to recognize and think about as we consider the purpose of Jesus in seeking to save that which is lost and despised. First, Zacchaeus was viewed by those lower than him in power and privilege.

He was viewed as being corrupt, immoral, and unrighteous. That's just our tendency; it's our nature to look at anybody who's a little bit higher than us and think they got there without doing it themselves. They must have inherited this power, this privilege, or done something corrupt to achieve it. We make ourselves feel better about our position by saying, "They may be higher than me on the privilege and power hierarchy, but I'm higher than them on the good and moral hierarchy." Don't we do that? We do. It makes us feel better about ourselves, which is not necessarily a good thing, but that's the way we live.

So, that's the power dynamic we're seeing here in this passage. By holding the view that this person did something immoral or corrupt to get there, we are instantly claiming that we are better than that person by our goodness and morality. We kind of set up the world in that way.

Then there’s Zacchaeus, who, based on his declaration, considered himself to be a pretty good guy because of his good works. He said, "I give half my goods to the poor, and if I've done anything wrong or unethical, I restore it fourfold, more than the law requires." He thought he was doing pretty well. We have a tendency to do that as well, thinking we are better than others because we do certain things.

In this passage, despite Zacchaeus's good works, Jesus said, "Today, salvation has come to this house." Not because of all the goods that he gave or the ethical life he lived, but because the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. There are a lot of lost people in this story. All those who looked down upon Zacchaeus because he was a wicked, rich tax collector were lost as well. Zacchaeus, in spite of his good works and good moral character, was lost.

But Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. For us, I've made the statement that when we understand the purpose of Jesus, when we grasp it, it helps us frame and understand our purpose in a more meaningful way.

We are living through the same kind of world that Zacchaeus and all these people were living through 2,000 years ago. Yes, we have iPhones; they didn't have those. We have vehicles; they had chariots. We have running water and good sanitation, while they may not have had many of those things. However, when you get right down to it, humanity has not changed that much in thousands of years. At our core, we are still the same. We still view hierarchies in the same way.

We can find ourselves in this story and realize that we have the tendency to look at those who are higher than us and to deconstruct their position in our own lives to make ourselves feel better. But we are still lost. Those who are higher up might feel vindicated because they give or do good things, but they are still lost.

It's interesting to note that guys like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, two of the richest men in the world, have pledged to give all of their money towards endeavors to relieve suffering and address hunger. These are amazing, good things, but none of those billions will make them right or less lost before God. They are still lost. The wonderful thing is that Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost.

So how does this help us frame and understand our purpose more meaningfully? There are despised, overlooked, lost people all around us all the time. At work, at school, in your neighborhood, and in places where you play—whether it's basketball, softball, or golf—there are people who are lost and overlooked in all of those places.

I have this conversation at least a couple of times a year with people who are wrestling with their place in life. They often feel like, "You don't understand. I'm just a fill-in-the-blank," whatever job they do. "I'm just a stay-at-home mom. I'm just a teacher. I'm just a cop. I'm just this or that."

They tell me about how they wish their job had more meaning. They wish they were serving Jesus because that would make their job more meaningful. Listen, I want you to back up for a moment and understand that God has placed you where you are on purpose to seek and to save that which is lost. I guarantee you that the place you don't feel is very meaningful can change when you understand the purpose of Jesus. He placed you there on purpose, and you need to live your life with that purpose in mind. As you start to live your life with that purpose, it will make that position, which has not seemed very meaningful, quite a bit more meaningful.

You may be wondering how to do that. This brings us to some of the other purpose statements of Jesus. In the Gospel of John, chapter 12, verse 46, Jesus said, "I have come to be a light to those who are in darkness." You don't have to raise your hand, but do you think the place where you work or go to school is a dark place? Do you think that maybe God placed you there for a purpose, to fulfill the same mission that Jesus came to accomplish? He came as a light to the world, to those who are in darkness.

In John's Gospel, chapter 18, verse 37, Jesus said, "I have come to bear witness of the truth." How many of you think there are people in your sphere of influence, in that office building or classroom, who are believing and espousing some lies? Probably a few. Jesus came to bear witness of the truth, and He has placed you in that dark place to be a light as one who bears witness of the truth.

In Mark's Gospel, chapter 1, verse 38, Jesus says, "We need to leave this town. I need to go to the other towns to preach the gospel because for this purpose, I have come." He came to preach the good news, the gospel, and He has placed you where you are to be a bringer of truth, one who brings light.

Point number five, which is on the screen, is the purpose to seek out those who are lost and despised. That's what Jesus would do, and that's what He has called you to do in the place where you are.

I've given my life and dedicated my life to trying to be a bearer of the truth, a preacher of the good news, and a light in a dark place. I love what God has given me the opportunity to do. But understand, I don't get to do that unless you are a light in a dark place, bringing people so that I can do that. I'm with church people all the time. God has put you throughout this county to be a light in a dark place, to bear witness to the truth, and to proclaim the good news.

Is it easy? No, it's hard. John the Baptist was killed for doing that. Jesus was killed for doing that. I don't think that's going to happen to you. You might think, "If I do this, they're going to kill me." Well, no, I don't think so. It's hard and challenging, but that's what God has called us to.

I'm going to embarrass her, but my wife works in the ICU at Scripps in Encinitas. She comes home pretty regularly sharing with me how she was able to share with this doctor or this group of people about her faith. She's being a light in a dark place. She's ministering to patients, to the people who are there with them, and to her coworkers. It's hard, and she often comes home saying, "I don't think I said it the right way." My thought is, "Yeah, but you said it." I don't care if you said it the right way; you spoke. You were a light. You were a bearer of truth.

She shares with me the things that her coworkers think or say, and I respond, "Yeah, that's darkness. That's a lie." You're bringing truth and light into that place because that's what Jesus would do. It makes that work more meaningful, whatever that work is.

I'm absolutely certain that when we begin to grasp and understand the purpose of Jesus and adopt that purpose as well, whatever place you are placed in by the purpose of God will be all the more meaningful. There is nothing more meaningful than bringing people who are far from God back into connection with God. That endeavor has eternal consequences.

A lot of the things we do on a regular basis don't feel very meaningful because they seem very temporary. Even saving for retirement is very temporary. If your entire life is geared towards having a nice big 401(k) for when you reach a certain age, it's not going to be very meaningful.

But if you're investing your life into eternity, the Bank of Eternal Securities will yield eternal dividends. That is where true and great meaning is found.

Would you stand with me as we close in prayer? Jesus, we see very clearly your purpose articulated by you. You came not to be served, but to serve and to give your life sacrificially as a ransom, a payment for others, for many. You came to seek and to save that which is lost. You came as a light into the dark place to bear witness to the truth and to preach the gospel.

God, I pray that in whatever place you've placed any of us here today, we would begin to see that we are actually placed there on purpose by you. For your purpose, that we would be a light to those who are in darkness—darkness because of corruption or ethical problems, or darkness because of trials, difficulty, and malevolence upon them. We are to be a light to those who are in darkness, and Lord, we have the truth and we get to bear witness to the truth.

God, give us the boldness to say it. Even if we feel fearful and anxious about saying it, God, give us the words. Lord, I pray that we would find true meaning in your purpose, living life on purpose. For we ask this in Jesus' name, and all those that agreed said.