Participants: Don Pate
Series Code: FC
Program Code: FC000022
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00:29 Hello and welcome.
00:30 And I am so privilege to be with you 00:33 as we spend some time in the word. 00:35 I'm Don Pate from Between The Lines 00:37 and I'm looking forward to spending 00:38 the next few minutes with you as we go back 00:42 into the Gospel era to seek to know Jesus better 00:46 and I don't think it's gonna hurt any of us. 00:48 In fact I've come to the place where I really-really believe 00:50 that no matter what the format is, 00:53 no matter where I am at 00:54 that if I can take people back to Jesus, 00:57 we're all going to be better forward. 00:59 And so I just thank you for the privilege 01:02 of being with you as we spend time in the word today. 01:05 Let's pray, Father, thank you so much 01:08 for the wonderful opportunity that we have to open the text 01:11 and know that the spirit of Christ 01:17 can come in a special way to bring the life 01:21 in the ministry of our Lord to life for us today. 01:25 We pray that this would be real in the next few minutes 01:28 as we join together in the word. 01:30 This is our prayer in Christ name, amen. 01:35 In don't know if perhaps in your life 01:38 maybe you have a Caller I.D. 01:40 you know, many people do Caller I.D 01:42 of course is that fixture, that box 01:45 that is tied to the telephone line. 01:47 So that unless there's some you know, 01:49 number block or something like this 01:51 so that you're able to before you pick up the phone, 01:53 you're able to know 01:54 who's on the other end of the line. 01:56 And if you're anything like me, we've Caller I.D. 02:00 and there are reasons for it 02:01 and sometime's it's a time efficiency thing. 02:04 Sometimes you can get yourself into situations 02:08 where you look at the box and you see that 02:12 a certain name comes up and you go, oh no, oh no, 02:14 I promised that person, I would get them 02:17 a certain piece of information or something like that, 02:19 I haven't done it yet and so I either, 02:21 you know, I can pick up the phone 02:22 and sit there and apologize profusely, 02:24 or I can just not pick up the phone you know. 02:27 And avoid the confrontation a little bit 02:30 and may be get the information 02:32 and call them back in 15 minutes or something, 02:34 you know, your pride is on the line 02:36 or there are other times and may be 02:37 you know as well as I do this, there are certain people 02:39 that there's no such thing as a short conversation. 02:42 That when they get involved in conversation, 02:45 you're gonna be there for a while 02:46 unless you're gonna be rude 02:47 and if you don't want to be rude, 02:49 how do you avoid the conversation 02:50 when you got an appointment in five minutes. 02:53 You know, you got to get out the door 02:54 and you got to get to your appointment 02:55 and you see that name on the box and you say, 02:59 I can't afford right at this moment 03:00 to pick up that phone, 03:01 because I don't have the time to invest right now 03:04 that is necessary for this person. 03:06 And there're various reasons for having Caller I.D. 03:09 And obviously Caller I.D, one other things 03:13 that it does for you is it keeps you 03:15 from walking into circumstances and get caught by surprise. 03:21 because if you see that name on the box 03:24 you're not gonna be surprised. 03:25 Has it ever crossed your mind friend. 03:28 has it ever crossed your mind 03:29 that Jesus had an innate Caller I.D. 03:35 That there was no circumstance 03:37 of His ministry that He walked into, 03:41 that He wasn't fully aware before He got there. 03:45 Of all the ramifications of the possibilities 03:48 of what's going to happen if I confront this person, 03:52 if I stand next to them, if I allow them to come to me, 03:54 if I cross their path. 03:56 Jesus knew the whole package 03:58 of what was happening around the circumstance. 04:01 Not just with that woman at the well and her background, 04:06 and the Samaritan issues within the mentality of Judaism 04:11 His disciples expectations, Jesus saw the whole picture 04:16 which to me is remarkable because there are times 04:19 when Jesus was walking into a hornet's nest. 04:22 It was almost like He was either asking for trouble, 04:27 or He was going specifically for the purpose of you know, 04:33 breaking things open, wide open 04:35 to allow His disciples to have to deal with it. 04:39 You know, sometimes there were issues 04:40 of bigotry and prejudice 04:41 and it was almost like Jesus looked at His disciples 04:44 as He would go walking into these situations 04:46 and say, come on friend, you got to deal with it. 04:49 I am not going to just, you know, 04:52 meander around your bigotry. 04:55 We gonna have to comfort it 04:57 and there were things like that. 04:59 And one of the stories in the Gospels 05:01 that is so good and yet sadly it seems to me, 05:04 it's one of those that we tend 05:06 to relegate off to the children. 05:08 There are some that are that way, 05:10 you know, maybe you never felt that way. 05:13 I used to think that there were certain stories 05:15 that God put in the Bible specifically because He knew 05:19 we needed to entertain children. 05:21 "Jonah and the whale", "Daniel in the Lion's Den", 05:25 I mean these are stories that just amaze the children, 05:29 but not really for adults, you know. 05:31 That's not really a big adult story. 05:34 And of course then Paul confronts me and he says, 05:39 you know everything is in the Bible for a reason, 05:42 for admonition, for teaching correction 05:45 he says in Corinthians, so I have to deal with that. 05:49 Paul confronts my bigotry. 05:51 I have to deal with the fact 05:52 that apparently "Jonah and the whale" 05:55 it's in here for me, for me to grow up, 06:00 for me to stretch, for it to stretch me. 06:05 "Daniel in the Lion's den", David killing the bear, 06:10 all of these things, Samson, they aren't just for children 06:15 and one of the stories that gets relegated, 06:18 I think often sort of categorized 06:19 off for children is found in only one Gospel account. 06:24 It's in the Gospel of Luke Chapter 19 and I certainly 06:27 would invite you to take your Bible and turn there. 06:29 Luke Chapter 19. 06:31 Now it doesn't surprise me that Luke 06:34 is the only Gospel writer who spends time with this. 06:38 The reason being, as you probably know, 06:41 Luke was a late edition 06:45 into the early package of Christianity, 06:49 into the early leadership of the movement, the faith. 06:54 Luke was not one of the original 12, 06:57 Luke was not one of the original 120. 07:01 He wasn't part of the old foundational 07:04 main stream of the Christian movement. 07:08 He was a later convert who came in 07:12 and he came in at a time 07:14 when there was an influx of the Gentile converge. 07:22 That the farther you went into the history of the church 07:26 as you remember from the Book of Acts, 07:27 originally it was predominantly a Jewish church. 07:34 You know, almost everyone who was an early follower 07:37 of Jesus came from Jewish heritage. 07:39 But then once they bridged out of Jerusalem to Judea 07:45 to Samaria and the other most parts of the earth 07:48 that there began to be people who were coming 07:52 into the house of faith out of the Gentile world. 07:56 And this became a very stretching problem 07:58 in the early church of course 07:59 and you actually come in Acts Chapter 6, 08:02 so the confrontations between the expectations 08:04 of the Gentile Christians and the Jewish Christians 08:07 and how they created the level or the order of the deacons 08:12 if you want to use that term. 08:14 They created a ministry of the deacon to help resolve 08:17 what once was originally a predominantly 08:21 Jewish house of faith that was becoming, 08:23 you know, fewer and fewer Jews in the house of faith 08:26 and started out as a small minority of Gentiles 08:30 and growing, growing, growing, growing. 08:32 It was in this transition phase between Judaism and Gentile, 08:36 that was tough time. 08:38 That was hard for the church to go through 08:42 that stretching and change from being 08:44 predominantly Jewish to Gentile. 08:46 While Luke is part of that package. 08:47 Luke is a late convert 08:49 who has some sensitivity for the Gentile mind. 08:56 He has probably a greater awareness for the problems 09:02 of the adult convert rather than somebody 09:05 who grew up in the house of faith. 09:07 And so it is that it doesn't surprise me 09:10 that Luke is the only one who deals with this story. 09:14 Because it's the story of someone 09:17 that easily is rejected. 09:19 It's a story that often we shove off 09:22 to the children because of a song. 09:25 Zacchaeus was a wee little man 09:27 And a wee little man was he 09:29 He climbed up in a sycamore tree 09:32 For the Lord he wanted to see 09:34 And as the Savior passed that way 09:36 He looked up in the tree 09:37 And He said, Zacchaeus, please come down 09:39 For I'm going to your house today 09:41 You probably have heard the children sing it. 09:44 We relegated often to the children 09:46 and it is a wonderful Gospel story 09:49 and it teaches me certain things about Jesus 09:51 that I hardly see in any other story. 09:55 Luke Chapter 19. 09:58 Now in order to understand the background of the story, 10:01 you have to understand that Jesus before Chapter 19. 10:05 As He comes walking into Jericho" 10:09 that's how the chapter starts. 10:10 He comes walking into Jericho, caller ID. 10:13 Jesus knew what He was getting into. 10:16 He was fully aware of the circumstance, 10:20 the prejudice, the expectation, 10:23 the background, He knew all of this 10:26 before He came walking into Jericho that day. 10:28 And He consciousl made the choice to interject 10:33 Himself into that experience, into that man's life, 10:37 into that town and their bigotry. 10:41 Jesus decidedly knew what He was doing. 10:44 He walked right into the middle of hornet's nest. 10:46 He could have avoided it. 10:50 There were other ways to get to Jerusalem. 10:52 There are other ways to get up the Jordan River valley. 10:56 You know, you could've got into 10:57 the Galilee by going in a different direction. 10:59 Jesus never had to go through Jericho. 11:04 It seems Jesus went there fully knowing, 11:07 knowing what He was doing, 11:08 fully aware of His purpose that day 11:12 And so it was that Jesus came, 11:15 it says in verse 1 of Chapter 19, 11:18 Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. 11:21 "And, behold," verse 2, 11:23 "there was a man named Zacchius or Zacchaeus" 11:28 Now, we normally we say, Zacchaeus, 11:29 and so that's how I'll say it, 11:30 because it will probably bother you if I don't, 11:32 Zacchaeus, "Zacchaeus was chief among the publicans," 11:39 Now that's terribly important. 11:41 He was not just a, to use a common vernacular term, 11:45 he wasn't just a grunt level, you know, 11:48 taxman like Matthew, 11:49 just a street collecting taxman. 11:52 He was closer to the hierarchy 11:56 of the empire, he was a middle man. 11:58 He was somebody up the establishment 12:01 of the taxation system of the empire. 12:05 He wasn't just the little guy on the street. 12:08 He was chief among the publicans. 12:12 And the verse ends and this is very important. 12:15 The verse ends, "and he was rich." 12:18 Now I don't know how much you know 12:20 about the Roman Empire and Roman taxation. 12:24 I created a deeper look study guide 12:26 for Between the Lines on taxes, on taxation in the Bible. 12:30 Let me share with you some of the things 12:33 I researched out about the Roman Empire 12:35 and the taxation system of the Roman Empire. 12:38 This was the life of Zacchaeus. 12:42 First of all, the senate in Rome 12:44 would hold auctions every five years 12:50 for the rights of dividing up the empire, 12:54 so that people could be the chief tax collector 12:57 of Egypt or the chief tax collector of Judea, 13:00 or the chief tax collector of Syria. 13:02 And so if you were a moderately wealthy person, 13:05 you would get some senator to somewhat sponsor you 13:08 to be part of the auction process 13:10 and if you bid high enough, you can outbid everybody else 13:14 who wanted to be the one, the magistrate 13:16 who is responsible for the taxation 13:18 of this region or that region. 13:21 So the senators are lining their pockets 13:23 with the auction process. 13:26 Now all that did was if you were the highest bidder, 13:29 all I do was give you the right then to be the one 13:32 who would levy the tax in your district. 13:35 Okay, Then the senate would say, 13:41 okay, you're going to be the taxman for Egypt 13:43 for the next five years, 13:45 because you outbid everybody else, 13:46 we've already got your money, okay. 13:48 We're going to say that you have to bring in 13:51 this much tax over the next five years. 13:54 We expect so many, you know, thousand talents of tax 14:00 within the next five years, this much, 14:04 this much over the next five years, 14:06 that's how much it better get to Rome. 14:07 Now how much you tax and how much you raise, 14:10 that's your business we don't care. 14:12 But this certain amount that it get to Rome, 14:15 better get to us. 14:16 So they've already lined their pockets, 14:18 the senators have already lined their pockets 14:20 with the auction process and then 14:22 they get to establish the taxation. 14:24 Now of course, you know that if you go to a warehouse 14:29 or wholesaler, generally you can save money 14:32 and the reason is you cut out the middleman. 14:35 It's because, you think about my pen, 14:40 I have my pen, someone actually gave me this pen. 14:43 Okay, where did I get my pen, well, it was given to me, 14:47 how did they get it? They bought it, okay. 14:49 They bought it from a retailer, 14:51 the retailer got it from the wholesaler, 14:53 the wholesaler got it from the trucker 14:55 who brought it into town. 14:57 The trucker, of course, 14:58 got it from the warehouse where they stored it. 15:00 The warehouse where they store the pen, 15:02 they got it from the manufacturer. 15:04 The manufacturer had to get the raw materials, 15:06 they had to get this is out of wood, 15:08 they had to get the wood from somebody, 15:10 they had to get the metal from somebody, 15:11 they had to get the insides of the pen from somebody, 15:14 okay, they had to get that. 15:16 The whole process, when you go to a wholesaler, 15:20 what you're trying to do is cut out 15:23 some of the layers of people 15:25 who are needing to make profit with this pen. 15:30 This person, if I could get this pen directly 15:34 from the manufacturer, I wouldn't have to pay 15:37 the price of the man who sells it in the store. 15:40 Now he needs to make his profits 15:42 so he can feed his family and pay his car payment. 15:45 And the person who supplies it to him, the trucker, 15:48 the trucker, of course, he's got his medical bills 15:50 with his kids and he's got to make a little profit too. 15:53 The more people you have in the system of the product, 15:57 the more people have to get profit out of it. 16:00 Well in the Roman taxation system, 16:03 that's how it happened. 16:04 This man who would bid in the auction 16:07 to receive the benefit of being the tax collector 16:12 for Galilee, Samaria, Judea whatever, 16:16 he wasn't going to go door to door, 16:19 knocking on door saying, okay, you know, 16:20 pay me your taxes, of course not. 16:23 He would hire a term that you know 16:26 it's a little derogatory, he hired grunts. 16:29 He would get somebody beneath him to do the dirty work. 16:32 And he would say to each of them, 16:35 okay, now you got such and such a-- 16:37 you know, country or district or something region, 16:41 okay, within my territory of Egypt 16:43 you've got this region and you've got this region. 16:45 And I need this much tax from you each year 16:49 for the next five years. 16:50 And he had all calculated out, so he could cover 16:53 the necessary amount that he had to send to Rome. 16:56 Adding layer upon layer until finally 17:00 you ended up with the Matthew type, 17:03 the little street collector who also had to pay his bills. 17:06 He also had to feed his children. 17:08 He had his amount given to him, how much he had to bring in. 17:13 And each man along the line in hierarchy of taxation, 17:17 they all had to make profit and there was no limit. 17:22 There was no written tax code anywhere. 17:25 A taxman could tell you that your tax is worth this much 17:29 and you might say, okay, this much this year. 17:31 Next year he tell you this much and you had no recourse. 17:34 There was no appeal. 17:36 If he wanted profit, if he wanted to buy a yard, 17:40 if he wanted to get braces for his children's teeth, 17:42 you know, we do that today obviously 17:44 not in those days, whatever he wanted 17:46 to buy a new chariot, he might just tell you 17:49 your taxes were more so that 17:51 he could raise more money, the tax collector. 17:56 They would receive blocks of taxation. 17:59 They could open the mail, 18:01 they could open your mail, just open it, 18:03 just to decide whether or not you had more money 18:05 than they thought you had. 18:07 They could enter your house, 18:08 a tax collector, according to Roman law 18:10 can enter your house without even knocking. 18:12 He didn't need a search warrant or anything. 18:14 And so he can snoop and look under your bed 18:15 and look into the cabinets and say, you know, 18:17 this person has greater net worth than I thought he did. 18:21 According to the Mishnet, it says that the Rabbis 18:24 came to the place where this system was so corrupt, 18:26 the Rabbis believed that it was actually appropriate 18:31 to lie to a tax collector, 18:32 haven't expected you to lie to a tax collector, 18:36 that God would understand more than he expected it 18:39 because if you didn't lie to a tax collector 18:41 you were supporting the corrupt system 18:43 and therefore you were part of the sin. 18:45 It was very complex. 18:47 This man Zacchaeus was chief 18:49 among the publicans and he was rich. 18:51 Of course he was rich. 18:53 For years and years, he had been a major player 18:56 in a system that was guaranteed to be corrupt, 19:00 that was guaranteed to rip people off 19:04 and Zacchaeus had been part of it. 19:06 More than that of course you know, 19:08 it says that he was little of stature, 19:10 he was a wee little man, little stature. 19:13 You can think of all the issues of how that may have played 19:16 on his psyche as he was a kid grown up, 19:18 he was the runt, probably teased. 19:23 This man was not accepted in his society. 19:26 He represented an evil system and you remember of course, 19:31 in Deuteronomy, the Lord told the people 19:33 years before, "Don't give your loyalty to an alien ruler." 19:41 When they pay taxes to Rome, what were they doing? 19:44 They were crossing, what they believe God wanted them to do. 19:47 This whole system was doomed to create friction 19:51 and more than that, in Greece, you paid taxes to Rome. 19:58 In Egypt, you paid taxes to Rome. 20:00 In Judea, in Galilee, you paid taxes to Rome. 20:04 the problem was that wasn't the only place 20:07 that the Jewish people were being ripped off 20:09 in taxation, don't you remember? 20:13 Jesus Himself said that the temple of taxation process 20:17 was so corrupted, He called it a den of thieves. 20:21 These people, the Jewish people they were getting 20:24 crushed by the taxation of Rome with no recourse. 20:28 If a tax collector entered your house according 20:31 to the Mishnet, your house became virtually unclean, 20:36 and when you pay taxes to Rome, 20:37 you were supporting all of that. 20:38 Then you go off to Jerusalem to be involved in paying 20:41 your temple tax, you got ripped off down there too. 20:43 Little wonder a tax collector was held 20:47 in such disdain in the story. 20:50 He was chief among the publicans and he was rich. 20:54 Verse 3, "He was of little stature." 20:55 Notice verse 4, verse 4 says, 20:57 "He ran." Isn't that great? 21:00 This man didn't just sort of walk along and say, 21:03 you know, maybe I'll confront Jesus. 21:05 There was something that he had the conviction 21:08 of the Holy Spirit, about this man Jesus. 21:10 There was something about Jesus that caused 21:13 Zacchaeus to lose his sense of priority, 21:18 a short little man and he runs after Jesus. 21:22 And when he came, it says verse 4, 21:23 that he climbed the sycamore tree, 21:26 because he couldn't even get a good view of Jesus 21:28 because he was short. 21:30 You've got it, your need is got to be 21:33 a whole lot greater thing than your pride to do that. 21:36 This man's need was overwhelming him. 21:39 And his need obviously had nothing to do 21:41 with possessions because he was rich. 21:44 There was something inside that was wrong 21:47 that he couldn't get fixed, 21:50 but he sensed maybe Jesus has the answer. 21:55 And notice verse 5, this is so wonderful, 21:59 "When Jesus came to that place," 22:01 Jesus knew what He was doing. 22:03 He knew where He was going, 22:04 He knew what He was walking into, 22:06 He had Caller ID for every situation. 22:08 When Jesus came walking up to the base of the tree, 22:10 He looks up and what does he say, 22:13 Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; 22:18 for to day I must abide in thy house." 22:23 Now remember, remember what it says, 22:26 it said that if a tax collector came to your house, 22:31 your house became virtually unclean 22:34 and it rendered you unfit and unclean 22:37 and Jesus turns the tables on the story 22:40 by looking up in presence of all the people 22:43 in the community, they knew who this man was, 22:46 Jesus looks up and he says I'm going to your house. 22:50 Now you have to know you have to know, 22:52 that no decent citizen of Jericho 22:57 had ever set foot in Zacchaeus' house. 23:02 If Zacchaeus came to your house, 23:04 it created problems for you. 23:05 Why would you show up in his place? 23:08 Jesus said, I'm going to your house 23:11 and that so overwhelmed this man in his need 23:16 that he hustle down out of the tree, 23:18 he was absolutely just beside himself 23:24 at the fact that somebody would think enough of him 23:30 that they would come to his house 23:33 and what did it cause Zacchaeus to do, do you remember? 23:38 It says verse 6, "He made haste, 23:40 he came down, he received him joyfully." 23:42 Verse 7, "When they say they murmured" 23:44 well of course, they murmured. 23:46 What's wrong with this prophet from Nazareth? 23:49 What's wrong with this man? 23:50 Doesn't he have any sense, 23:51 I mean,he's gonna go to the home of a publican, 23:55 a man who is a half step away from Rome 23:58 and all the evil that Rome represents 24:00 and the corruption of the system. 24:02 What's wrong with this man? 24:04 They murmured, of course, they murmured 24:06 because it kind of cross their expectations, 24:09 so decidedly they murmured. 24:13 That Jesus was going to be the guest 24:15 and it says at the end of verse 7, 24:18 "Because that man was a sinner." 24:21 He was publicly a sinner. 24:24 He was officially part of a system 24:26 that was corrupt and everybody knew it. 24:29 And it is so wonderful because Zacchaeus stood 24:31 in front of Jesus, verse 8, this is so good. 24:34 he said to the Lord, "Behold Lord, 24:38 half of my goods I'm gonna give to the poor. 24:42 And if I have taken anything from anybody 24:46 by false accusation, I'm going to restore him fourfold." 24:52 Zacchaeus, who do you think you're kidding! 24:54 Come on, friend, think about it. 24:58 This man has been part of a corrupt system 25:02 for probably his whole adult life. 25:06 He's been in a system that just absolutely required him 25:11 to rip people off, to be unjust to them, 25:14 that's the only way he could survive. 25:17 He had to grease the pockets of people 25:18 above him on the way to Rome. 25:21 And the Bible said he became very rich doing it. 25:24 He was very good at this. 25:26 This man had cheated everybody in the region, surely. 25:31 There probably wasn't anybody standing in the crowd 25:33 that day that this man Zacchaeus had not 25:37 taken things by false accusation. 25:41 They felt that they could lie to him 25:43 that it was their sacred duty to lie to him, 25:45 because he was part of a system that was so wrong. 25:48 And as he stands there in the presence of everybody 25:51 who is there on that day, every member of the community 25:54 stands there and he says, I'm just gonna, 25:58 I'm just gonna give it away. 26:00 I'm just going to give it away and he makes a promise, 26:02 now think about it. 26:04 He makes a promise that to every degree of logic, 26:09 I fully believe this is a promise he could not keep. 26:15 How was he going to pay everybody back 26:17 who that he cheated four times over? 26:24 Where was he going to come up with the resource 26:26 that would allow him to do that? 26:28 His promise is preposterous. 26:31 It probably is a promise he can't keep 26:35 and yet he is so overwhelmed in the story. 26:37 This man is so overwhelmed in his gratitude to Jesus 26:40 who accepted him, who saw battle you in him 26:44 when nobody else would. 26:46 He is so overwhelmed by the sense of Jesus 26:51 accepting him that he just without thinking, 26:56 started making promises he probably couldn't keep 26:58 and what I really love is Jesus doesn't chew him out. 27:00 Jesus doesn't say, don't do that Zacchaeus, 27:02 come on, now, you know, come back to reality, 27:04 you're not really gonna be able to do that? 27:07 Jesus accepted the fact that 27:08 he was so childish in his outlandish promise. 27:12 Jesus probably found that incredibly rewarding 27:14 although I doubt, I sincerely doubt 27:16 Zacchaeus could have kept the promises he was making. 27:20 Isn't that great? 27:22 Do you my friend ever feel disfranchised 27:26 on the fringe, unaccepted, rejected. 27:29 Do you know that kind of life? 27:31 If so I would urge you to go back to Luke 19 27:34 often and read this, wee little Gospel story. 27:40 And recognize that Jesus, my friend, 27:42 He is never gonna walk away from you. 27:44 He is never going to turn His back on you and say, 27:46 you know, you're not quite good enough for me, 27:49 that's not what the Gospel is all about. 27:51 The Gospel is all about Messiah who reaches 27:54 to extend the arms of heaven and mercy. |
Revised 2014-12-17