Every Last Word

Guest (Male): Is having faith enough to be saved? Is there anything else we must do to have a saving relationship with Christ? Turn to the Gospel of Luke and listen in as we discuss our faith in Jesus.

Welcome to Every Last Word, a radio and internet program with Dr. Philip Ryken teaching the whole Bible to change your whole life. Today, we'll listen to the familiar story of Zacchaeus and see how his faith and repentance brought salvation not only to him but also his family.

Mark: Well Phil, certainly the word repentance is no longer common in the American vernacular. How do we repent of our sins?

Dr. Philip Graham Ryken: Mark, repentance means more than simply saying that we're sorry, although it does include that. Telling God that we're sorry for our sins and also telling others that we're sorry for the way that we've hurt them.

But if we are truly sorry and we have wronged someone, we will make things right. And Zacchaeus does that in this story in a marvelous way, giving back what once he had taken and not just giving it back but giving something extra.

Mark: But I've been a Christian for a while and I keep on sinning. What's wrong with me and what should I do about it?

Dr. Philip Graham Ryken: Mark, that's one of the basic struggles of the Christian life, isn't it? We wish that we could live the sinless life, but we won't be able to do that until we get to glory. That's why Martin Luther said that the whole Christian life is a life of repentance.

We need to go back as often as we sin and confess our sins and receive again the forgiveness that is ours in Christ through His work on the cross. And that's one of the ways that the power of sin gets broken in our lives is when we confess our sins as often as we commit them and experience again God's forgiving grace.

Mark: All right, thank you Phil. Let's turn in our Bibles now to Luke chapter 19 verses 1 through 10 and listen to Dr. Ryken.

Dr. Philip Graham Ryken: Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he. That's the way they say it in the old Sunday school song. The kids in my elementary school, using the language of that day, would have called the man a shrimp. Today in these politically correct times, I suppose they would simply say that he was vertically challenged. Dr. Luke, ever the keen medical observer, noted that he was small of stature. But however you say it, Zacchaeus was short.

But height is not the only basis for comparison. And here, I think there are some more important comparisons to be made. Let me invite you to turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 19. And let me remind you that between the end of chapter 18 and the beginning of chapter 19, once again Luke has placed two people side-by-side in his gospel in order to show them both in their full spiritual significance. How often Luke puts things in pairs in a way that reveals their true nature.

There are two men that Jesus met on the Jericho road, one at the end of chapter 18 and one at the beginning of chapter 19. And the comparisons and connections are striking. One man, you may remember, was blind. The other man had his sight. But they both wanted to see Jesus. One man was beggarly poor. The other man was filthy rich. But they both needed something that money can't buy. One man showed his faith. The other demonstrated his repentance, but they both had a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.

And I wonder if as much as anything, this is what Luke was wanting to show. That in the story at the end of chapter 18, you have a man distinguished by his faith; at the beginning of 19, a man distinguished by his repentance. And both of these things go together. It's impossible to repent without believing or to believe in Jesus without repenting. Repentance means turning away from sin, but when you turn away from sin, you are turning towards Jesus Christ and the grace that He has for sinners.

And when you put your faith in Jesus, what are you trusting Him to do if not to save you from your sin? And therefore, as the Westminster theologian John Murray wrote, "The faith that is unto salvation is a penitent faith, and the repentance that is unto life is a believing repentance." And I think that's what we have here in chapter 19: a believing repentance.

Now, this man who had this believing repentance was a wee little man named Zacchaeus. And I want to show you who he wanted to see and who wanted to see him, and what changes he wanted to bring. We read at the beginning of chapter 19 that he, that is Jesus, entered Jericho and was passing through. And there was a man named 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 of stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was about to pass that way. Now, let's just take a look for a moment at this man Zacchaeus. He may not have been tall in stature, but really his biggest problem was that he was short on godliness.

Most tax collectors were sinners in those days, but here was a man who was more of a sinner than most. Jericho was a wealthy city on a major trade route. In fact, it was one of three major collection points for taxes in Israel. And not surprisingly, this had made Zacchaeus fabulously wealthy. He was the chief tax collector, meaning, it is thought, that he himself really didn't need to go about collecting the taxes.

There were people under him who could do that. He mainly just had to skim the proceeds off on their way to Rome. It was a corrupt practice in those days, and Zacchaeus was a rich man, the kingpin of the Jericho tax cartel. Now, as a general rule, tax collectors were swindlers and cheats. And so for that reason, a man like Zacchaeus was regarded as a traitor to his own people.

As we read the story, we clearly see that the man was unpopular. Maybe that's why no one gave him enough room to see Jesus when he was trying to peer over their shoulders, but they were crowding him out. Certainly it explains why later in the story that they objected so strenuously when Jesus invited himself over to the man's house for dinner. The chief tax collector was public enemy number one.

How could a man like Jesus associate with him at all, let alone go over to his house and share dinner? In those days, people thought that someone who had dinner with a known criminal was implicated in his crimes. So perhaps you can understand their grumbling disapproval in verse seven: "He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner."

And of course, it was true. Zacchaeus was a sinner. But you see what the people didn't understand is that salvation is for sinners. It's for outcasts and outsiders. It is for swindlers and cheats and for sinners of all kinds. And in fact, by the end of the passage, it turns out that Zacchaeus was exactly the kind of man Jesus was looking for. It says at the end, "The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."

And so if the Savior had come to save sinners, then who better to save than a lowlife sinner like Zacchaeus, who was as lost as lost can be. And what hope this gives to us as we struggle with the reality of our own sins. Because if Jesus came seeking to save Zacchaeus, He's willing and able to save anyone. He's even willing to save us, even after everything that we have done to turn away from God.

The story of Zacchaeus shows us that there is no such thing as a hopeless case. That there is the hope of salvation for you in Jesus. And not just for you but for all of the other hopeless cases that you know, the people that you're praying for. You hardly know how they could come to Jesus, but you see Jesus has come to seek and to save the lost.

Now as desperate as he was, Zacchaeus was looking for Jesus. This is what he had wanted to see. The man was curious. He had heard people talking about Jesus, perhaps. Certainly he had heard the commotion as this man walked through the streets of Jericho. He wanted to know what was going on. And whatever his reason for doing it, he wanted to see Jesus.

So he did what I think really anyone should do who's curious about Jesus Christ: he got himself into a better position to get a better look. Now the way he had to do this was somewhat undignified. The Bible says that he ran on ahead. That wouldn't have been common for any kind of older man in those days, something a man like Zacchaeus rarely if ever would have done. But he did it here because he wanted to see Jesus.

And then he climbed up in the tree and that was even more undignified still. In fact, people are still singing little songs about it to this day. But it was worth it because he wanted to see Jesus. And when you want to see Jesus, it's worth whatever it takes to see Him. If you don't know Jesus or if you're beginning to learn who Jesus is, don't you want to know more?

Don't you want to get yourself into a position where you can see who Jesus is? Well, we don't have to climb a tree to do it. No, it's revealed for us right here in the Word of God. This is everything that we need to know about Jesus Christ. All we need to do is read and study and listen to the teaching and preaching of the Word of God. And this is how we will come to know Him.

If you're curious about Him, you're in the right place. You'll find Him through the preaching of the Word. Now Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus, but perhaps even more important to this passage as it turns out is that Jesus wanted to see him. You see, Luke tells us that when Jesus came to the place, He looked up, verse five, and said to him, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today."

And if you know the old song, you know how it goes: "And as the Savior passed that way, He looked up in the tree and He said, 'Zacchaeus, you come down, for I'm going to your house today. Yes, I'm going to your house today.'" Now that little song, based you'll see on the plain words of Scripture, teaches us a very important truth about salvation. It shows the sovereignty of God in salvation.

It shows the saving initiative of Jesus Christ. How true it is that He is coming to seek and not just to seek but also to save. There you have the ultimate divine appointment: Jesus stopping for Zacchaeus, looking to him, calling him by name as if He had known him from all eternity, which of course He had. You see, Jesus was on a divine mission. He had come to seek and to save.

To that end, He invited himself over to the home of Zacchaeus for dinner. Except it really wasn't so much an invitation; it was really more an imperative, wasn't it? Jesus was speaking with divine authority. He was commanding him to hurry down because He must visit his house today. And this is the way that Jesus saves lost sinners: He does it by walking right into your life, even uninvited.

J.C. Ryle said that if ever there was a soul sought and saved without having done anything to deserve it, that soul was the soul of Zacchaeus. Unasked, our Lord stops and speaks to him. Unasked, He offers himself to be a guest in the house of a sinner. Unasked, He sends into the heart the renewing grace of the Spirit and puts the man that very day among the children of God.

You see, Ryle was emphasizing the initiative, the sovereignty of God, that He takes offering himself in grace to sinners. The Puritan Matthew Henry explained it like this: "Jesus brings His own welcome. He opens the heart and inclines it to receive Him." And this is what Jesus was doing for Zacchaeus. He was stopping to save him. He was calling him to faith and repentance.

And with that call came the grace for Zacchaeus to respond. This is what Jesus does in salvation. God calls a sinner by the Holy Spirit and then the Holy Spirit does what needs to be done inside us so that we will be saved. He convinces us that we are sinners. He shows us who Jesus is. He changes our minds and our hearts so that we are ready to receive Jesus as Savior and Lord.

This is the call that goes out through the preaching of the Gospel. Jesus is stopping in the middle of your life's busy road and He is calling you to faith and repentance. Now, the story of Zacchaeus is mainly a story of repentance, I think. But let me just before I talk about the repentance and the changes that Jesus brought to this man's life, let me just point out very briefly it is also a story of faith.

I said at the beginning there are two stories here placed side-by-side in the Gospels. One is mainly a story of faith, the other is mainly a story of repentance. But let me just say that the story of Zacchaeus is a story of a believing repentance. And that faith is evident in the way that he received Jesus. I imagine that when Jesus stopped and looked up and called him by name and called him down, Zacchaeus practically fell out of the tree.

But the important thing is that when he got down to firm ground, he gave Jesus the welcome of faith. He embraced Him with a joyful trust. The Scripture says in verse six that he hurried and came down and received Him joyfully. This is what it means to come to faith in Jesus Christ: it's to receive Him, it's to trust Him, it's to embrace Him for eternal life and for everything else.

And here you are given a clear reminder that faith is a matter of personal trust. It's the welcome of the heart. It's not just a matter of propositional belief. Oh, this man may well have heard about Jesus before. I imagine that very likely the word had gotten around his circles that this man from Nazareth was a friend of tax collectors and other sinners. And Zacchaeus wanted to see that for himself.

He wanted to investigate the claims of Christ. He went up to the tree so he could see what was going on. But he didn't have to look long before he decided that he wanted to trust his entire life to Jesus Christ. He wanted to give Jesus the welcome of faith. And let me just say if you're thinking about Jesus Christ and what your own response to Him ought to be, don't delay indefinitely.

There's a place and a time for curiosity, for getting up in the tree and looking at Jesus, so to speak. But you see, there's also a time and a place for getting down from the tree and welcoming Jesus with open arms the way that Zacchaeus did. And we should do that as soon as it is clear to us that Jesus Christ really is the Son of God and the Savior of the world.

We should receive Him as soon as that is clear to us. And Zacchaeus did that. He believed in Jesus virtually as soon as Jesus called him. I think that's confirmed in verse eight in the way that he addresses Jesus: he calls Him Lord. It's more than a title of respect there. I think it's his first confession of faith. It's a sign that he's coming under the lordship of Jesus Christ.

But if you want the real proof of his faith, it lies in his repentance. Notice what Zacchaeus says in verse eight: "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." Now, that phrase "son of Abraham" shows that Jesus was welcoming Zacchaeus into the family of God.

And I think not just Zacchaeus, but in a way also his household. I won't talk about it at length, but here you have a notable example of the deep biblical principle of the covenant. That salvation is not just for individuals but offered in grace to families. Because you see, when grace comes to the head of a household, God is laying His claim on the entire household.

And this is the house that was brought into the family of Abraham. Salvation had come to this house. Now there's something else interesting to know about this expression "a son of Abraham" because in those days, the Pharisees particularly claimed that they were the true children of Abraham. We saw this back in Luke chapter three where they were claiming to be the ones that truly had the favor of God.

But here Jesus is saying that tax collectors are part of the family too. No one needs to stay on the outside. There's always more room in God's house. And even though Zacchaeus was a notorious sinner, he was restored to God's true Israel by faith in Jesus Christ. In his comments on this passage, David Gooding remarks that in that moment, Zacchaeus not only saw who Jesus was, he discovered his own long-lost identity.

He discovered that he was a man loved by God with an eternal love and longed for so much that God had sent His Son to find him and rescue him from his lostness by coming personally to his home and bringing the sense of acceptance with God into his very heart. Have you had that experience of the grace of God, the discovery of your own true identity?

That God loves you with an everlasting love, that He has sent Jesus personally into your home, into your life so that you would find acceptance with God? Well, that's what the love of Jesus does in the heart of a sinner. He accepts us so that we can come to accept Him. And with that acceptance comes a true sense of identity, the assurance that we really are the children of God, that God loves us in Jesus Christ.

There is no longer any need to run away from God or to hide from other people what we have done, to be anything other than what we truly are: sinners saved by grace. You see, when you have that acceptance through Jesus Christ, then you can be what God has designed you to be and know who you truly are. But let me go on to add to that, that even though it's true that we have full acceptance in God through the love of Christ, that doesn't mean we can just go on living the way that we have always lived.

Because when Jesus comes into your life, He has some changes that He wants to bring. And it's true that Jesus accepted Zacchaeus as he was, but He didn't leave Zacchaeus where he was. No, the love of Jesus called him to repentance. And let me point out here in the story of Zacchaeus two essential elements in what the Bible calls repentance that leads to life. And those two elements are confession and change.

First there must be confession: a full acknowledgment of sin. But if that repentance is genuine, then there must be a change in your life. And I think we see both aspects of repentance present in this particular case. First, consider confession. When Zacchaeus heard everyone muttering that he was a sinner, he realized that they were right. So he stood up in front of Jesus and everyone else to confess his sins against God.

It's evident from what he says in verse eight that there were sins of omission. In other words, there were things that he should have done that he hadn't done: he had not shared his riches with the poor. And there were sins of commission. That is to say, there were things that he had done that he shouldn't have done: he had cheated people out of their hard-earned income.

So Zacchaeus took his stand there to confess it all, all of his covetousness and selfishness and greed and theft and fraud. He made a full acknowledgment of his own sin. And true repentance always requires this kind of confession. It requires a frank admission of the things that we have failed to do and the things that we have done against the honor of God. We must confess our sins.

A very striking example of what that means comes from the life of a 19th-century Black minister named J.W.C. Pennington. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, Pennington had gone to live in the home of a Presbyterian elder in New York state. A family that showed him the love of Jesus began reading to him from the Scriptures, encouraging him in the Gospel. Now Pennington, as you may imagine, had been deeply scarred by his experience as a slave.

He had vowed that he would never forgive his captors. And yet the more that Pennington heard about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the more he realized he wasn't just sinned against, but he himself was also a sinner. And here's how he described his repentance: he said, "Day after day I found myself more deeply convinced of personal guilt before God."

He goes on to say, "I was still burning with a recollection of the wrongs men had done to me. I was still mourning for the injuries my brothers were still enduring. But I also became deeply convinced of the guilt of my own sins against God." And this is the confession that anyone who wants to be saved must make. We have to acknowledge the guilt of our own sin against God.

It may well be the case that we have been sinned against. We may even be able to say, some of us, that we are more sinned against than sinning. But the only sin we can confess is our own sin. And that's the sin that matters in our relationship with God, the sin that makes us guilty before Him. And we need to make a confession of that sin. Now there is something more involved in repentance than simply making that confession.

A second element of repentance is change: real spiritual change. Because if someone recognizes his sin and is sorry for it, and yet there's no lasting change in his life, you have to doubt whether true repentance has ever taken place. Repentance is not repentance unto life in the biblical sense of the word unless it includes turning away from sin. It's striking the biblical terms for repentance all refer in one way or another to a turning away from sin.

That's the very plain meaning of the Old Testament vocabulary for repentance: it means to turn around, it means to go back in the opposite direction. Because you see, when you turn away from your sins, you are turning towards God. That's what the turn involves. Similarly, the New Testament terms for repentance emphasize a spiritual change. Some emphasizing the change that takes place in your mind, in your heart; others emphasizing the outward change in your actions.

But all involve a change with respect to sin in the life of the person who is penitent. And we see that kind of change in Zacchaeus, particularly in the outward sense. It was obvious from what he was saying and doing that a transformation had taken place in his life. And that therefore by the grace of God, he had been saved from his sins. Now it's not entirely clear where his speech in verse eight was given.

Some have thought it must have taken place back at his house over dinner with Jesus. It seems to me more likely that he's repenting right on the spot. There's a sense of immediacy in what he says: "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold." Now let me say that this word "if" does not express uncertainty as if there was any doubt about what the man had done.

No, Zacchaeus is saying, "Look, if in this case or in that case I've sinned against this person or that person, in whatever case it is, I am ready to restore what I have taken." And the truth was he had often defrauded the poor. And then this word "behold" gives the impression that he'd decided to start doing something about it right away. You'll notice he does not say "I will give to the poor," but "I give to the poor."

You get the impression he's emptying his pockets right then and there. He's handing his money out to the needy. At that very instant, he began to divest himself of the wealth it had taken him years to accumulate. And from that time forward, he was resolved to turn away from his sin. Now, his example here is striking because it goes well beyond what the Law of God required.

He wanted to give away half of his possessions. Well, the Law of God at most required one-fifth of one's property to go to the poor, depending on how the Old Testament is interpreted. But in any case, Zacchaeus was going well beyond that: he's willing to go up to 50%. And the way you use your possessions is one of the best indicators of your spiritual condition.

Money has great spiritual power, and now Zacchaeus is demonstrating what really has the mastery of his heart: it's Jesus, and he's willing to part with his money. This is how God does His merciful work in the world, particularly on behalf of the poor. By the love of Jesus, He changes your heart and then your heart starts to change the world. This is the work that God was doing in the life of Zacchaeus.

And moreover, he was offering to pay back four times the amount he had stolen through his excess taxation. The law did not require fourfold restitution in this kind of case, but Zacchaeus was willing to go up to four times because he had discovered how blessed it is to give. He was accepted in Christ. He didn't have to hoard everything for himself. He was able and willing to give back what he had taken and at the same time to give generously to meet the needs of the poor.

I think here you have one of the best examples in all of the Scriptures of what the Bible calls "deeds in keeping with repentance." This is what repentance involves: it's not just saying that you're sorry, it's actually doing something about it, doing the deeds that are in keeping with your repentance. And here's a great example of that in the life of Zacchaeus. Notice he is obeying God in exactly the area of life where he had most often sinned.

As we look at that, we should ask ourselves, "What are the prevailing sins in our own lives? What changes does God want to bring?" Because true repentance means turning away from sin and towards godliness. It may be you need to do that in a similar area to Zacchaeus. Where you have been taking what doesn't belong to you, pay it back with extra. That's what it means to repent of that kind of sin.

If you've been taking things away from God, money perhaps or time in terms of your stewardship, then give to God what He truly deserves from your worship and praise and your life and your giving. But then don't just stop there. The principle here really applies to any area of life, any area of disobedience and repentance and new obedience. Where you have been lazy, slothful in your zeal, get back to work and work in the strength of the Lord.

Where you've been neglecting your family, reorganize your schedule, spend time doing the things that your wife or your husband or your children most need you to do. Where you have been giving in to sexual sin, protect your purity by making a commitment to chastity. Where you've been living selfishly, learn to serve. Where you've been tearing people down, build them up. Where you've been angry with people or bitter against God, offer forgiveness and praise.

These are the spiritual changes that God wants to bring to your life. You have to examine what are the most obvious areas of sin and what kind of obedience does God really require from me in that area of life. These are the changes that Jesus wants to bring. It may seem impossible for God to bring that change in some particular area of life. Sometimes we struggle for many years with some particular sin, don't seem to see much progress, and we may be discouraged.

We may doubt whether it's really possible for that kind of repentance to take root in our lives. If that's the case, we should look again at Zacchaeus and particularly how his story is situated in the Gospels. Because just in the previous chapter, there was a story of another wealthy man, a man who was unwilling to have these kinds of changes in his life, unwilling to give to the poor, unwilling to turn away from his selfishness and greed.

And on that occasion as the man walked away from Jesus, Jesus made the remark, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God." In other words, humanly speaking, it's impossible. And that's what we're sometimes tempted to say about some particular area of sin: it's impossible for this kind of change to come.

But of course, Jesus went on to say this: "What is impossible with men is possible with God." And is there a better proof of that than in the story of Zacchaeus? Here is the rare camel who really can make it through the eye of the needle. It's all by the grace of God; it's what God has done in his life. Only God could do something that impossible.

And God did it through the saving work of Jesus Christ. And that saving work, that grace, is now available to you in Jesus through His cross. I say the cross because of what is said at the end of this passage. Notice again what Jesus says in verse 10 and think of what a significant verse this is in the context of the whole Gospel of Luke: "The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."

Really you could organize the whole Gospel of Luke according to that verse. Jesus has been seeking the lost ever since He came, ever since John the Baptist announced His coming. Jesus has been doing His earthly ministry; He has been seeking the lost up to and including Zacchaeus. Very soon He would be saving the lost. This is what we will see more and more as we come to the end of the Gospel: Jesus Christ saving the lost by dying for their sins before rising again with the victory.

Do you have faith in Jesus to do this saving work? Are you trusting Him to do that saving work in your own life? Are you turning away from sin and back to God? Are you experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit to bring real spiritual change? Well, that power and grace come only through the cross, where Jesus died between two thieves for Zacchaeus and for all of the other thieving sinners who trust in Him for their salvation.

One of those sinners was saved through the work of Wycliffe Bible Translators in Brazil where a team of linguists had finished translating the Gospel of Luke into the Mamaindê language and were recording the soundtrack for the Jesus film. When they came in their recording to the section where Jesus called Zacchaeus, the only man available at the time to read the part for Zacchaeus was someone who really fit the part: a man who was known as a scoundrel, a man always looking for a way to profit at the expense of someone else.

Well, the man was willing to do the recording. He recorded the part of the story. He came to the part of the story where Zacchaeus says, "I stole," repenting of his sins. The man couldn't quite bring himself to say that. He said, "He stole." And then after the recording, it was pointed out to him that he really had not done the part properly, and he denied that he had made any kind of mistake. He refused to do any further recording.

That's the difficulty we all have, isn't it? It's hard for us to admit our sin. Oh, we can see it in someone else, but how hard it is to say, "I stole. I am the sinner who has offended God. I am the sinner in need of God's grace." They kept talking about this with the man. Eventually, they persuaded him and he relented; he agreed to record his part properly.

Then something very remarkable happened because when the recording was finished, it was shown before the village at the local school and every eye was glued to the screen as they saw the story of Jesus Christ from the Gospel of Luke laid out before them with the words of Scripture. Toward the end of that film as the film showed Jesus struggling with the heavy weight of the cross, showing the price that He paid for our sins, that man who had read the part of Zacchaeus could be seen in the middle of the village with tears streaming down his face.

His heart was touched, his life was transformed by the Savior he recognized had died for his very own sins. This is where you will find the grace and the power to repent in the biblical way of confession and change. It is by seeing the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross and by believing that it was for you as much as it was for anyone.

Our Father in heaven, we pray for the grace to see Jesus as Zacchaeus saw Him, as Savior, as Lord. We pray for that fuller work of transforming grace that still needs to be done in our lives. Lord, bringing the kind of repentance that You want to bring, the kind of repentance You only can bring by the power of Your Spirit. We pray that You would do this grace in us and also in others for whom we pray, Lord. Others still lost. But the Son of Man is seeking for them, He has come to save them. And we pray that by His Spirit, He will bring them to faith and repentance. In Jesus' name, amen.

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