ZACCHAEUS (part I)

By Odon Bulamba (summary only - 1st June,02)

Luke 19:1-10.

Zacchaeus was a man greatly respected because he had studied a lot and was well educated. He had a goal. Many Christians today don’t have goals. Many people decide to become Christians and decide to become Jesus friend, but when there is a distraction they forget about their goal.

One day Jesus was walking through Jericho a city with a bad reputation. Although Jericho was dirty, Zacchaeus was clean. although Jericho was poor, Zacchaeus was rich. Try to imagine someone short, rich and has abilities while others don’t.

Zacchaeus heard that Jesus was coming and said because I have heard and learnt a lot about Jesus I want to see Him. Maybe Zacchaeus thought that because he was short but rich he could pay someone to sit on their shoulders to see Jesus, because his money could not make him any taller. This means that money will never enable us to see Jesus Christ and our riches will never enable us to see Jesus. As Christians today we want to be first, for example you can ask Steve if you can climb his shoulders so that you can see Jesus. Many servants of God rest on Christian’s shoulders. It means that in order to see Jesus Christ in their lives they climb other people’s shoulders and their eyes are on Christians but not themselves. For example if your brother drank beer yesterday you will look at his sin, and instead of confessing your sins you will just try to show him that you are above him.

Zacchaeus was rich but accepted to humiliate himself. The first thing we must do in our Christian lives is to see everybody equal as ourselves, whether they are our enemies or friends, we must regard everybody as equal and remember that God created man in His image.

Zacchaeus knew that he couldn’t see Jesus in his own house because there was no tree, so he had to leave his house and go somewhere to find one. It means that as Christians we must have an openness, if we want to see Jesus in our lives we must organise ourselves to meet Him. Where will Jesus go and where can I meet Him? Zacchaeus listened to people say that Jesus was coming and tried to find what street Jesus would walk on. In this world we have many directions, many streets and many religions, but we need to be directed to the street Jesus will take

Because Zacchaeus listened he knew where Jesus was going. The Bible says in Romans that faith comes by hearing the Word of God; it is not what we see but what we hear. Zacchaeus learnt and confirmed what street Jesus was heading and decided that he wanted to see Jesus. How many times do we decide in our lives? How many times do we think about something and remember it? Do we have faith to believe that what we are hearing today from the Word of God will benefit us for the future? Do you believe Jesus will walk through your life? Many Christians are saved but they don’t know it. Ask a Christian one-day if they are saved or not? They will probably say I don’t know, but if they say, “yes I am saved”. Ask them to explain what salvation is. They might say salvation is to change my life, learning to live with others and pleasing God. But if you ask them, how do you please God? They won’t give you an answer.

SUMMARY
- We must have goals and accomplish them
- Money will never enable us to see Jesus
- Our eyes must be on Christ and not on people
- We have to listen to the Word of God
- We must make a decision and keep it

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