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Living Hope SDA Church

Christian Martin

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I invite you to respond to me how often he is good.

And so as we're in his presence, a good, good father has a good, good word to share with his children.

So let's bow our heads as we prepare our hearts for him to speak to us.

Father in heaven, here we are in the presence of a God who is so, so good.

You have always been faithful, even when we are faithless.

And as we are in your presence, we ask that you would speak to our hearts, speak a word, Lord, that will give us courage to face tomorrow and to trust in you.

Please open your Bibles with me to the Gospel of Luke.

If you didn't bring a Bible, there's 1 in front of you.

Or you may have your devices that will take you to the scriptures.

In Luke chapter 19, Luke chapter 19 verse 1.

It says, Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho.

We're going to pause right there from the very beginning because this morning Jesus, who is the same, the same yesterday, today, right now, right here, and forever.

Jesus has entered Haymarket and He's passing through Living Hope.

You didn't come here today out of mere coincidence.

No, God ordained that you would be here because he wants to have an encounter with you.

Jericho was the city located near the Jordan river approximately 5 miles from the Dead Sea.

And it was situated 846 feet below sea level.

You know, the word Jericho, or the name Jericho, means a place of fragrance, fragrance.

And it's referred to in the Scriptures as the City of Roses.

You can only imagine the beautiful place.

It was also known as the city of palm trees.

So as you can imagine, it was an oasis, a beautiful place for travelers to just find themselves relaxing and being refreshed.

As you may recall, Jericho is also the first city that Israelites encountered upon entering the Promised Land.

So Jericho has a place in biblical history.

Even children know that it was completely destroyed when the walls came tumbling down.

We've sang those songs since beginners division.

The city of Jericho was later rebuilt near its original location.

You know, I've been to the modern day site of ancient Jericho.

It's quite a striking place, as you still see the foundation of that old ancient city.

In time, Jericho became a very major city once again.

And in Jesus' day, it was a very important center for the payment of taxes.

It was a place where where the people knew that they were to go and pay their taxes.

Therefore it was a place known for its many tax collectors.

And among them we find the main character of today's Bible story.

In Luke chapter 19, we find an introduction to this man.

And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, for who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich.

Verse 3, and he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature.

The text records that Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus.

But there were 6 impediments that made it difficult for Zacchaeus to get close to Jesus.

First, Zacchaeus was 1 of the tax collectors for the Roman Empire.

That was already a strike 1 for most of the people living all around him.

They were considered traitors to the country for collaborating with the enemy.

And so The people of Jericho hated tax collectors.

And as he can only imagine, he was not very loved or liked by his own people, the Jews, because they collaborated with the enemy.

And so, Zacchaeus didn't have too many friends.

Second, he was the head of the publicans.

He was the director of the IRS, if you want to just really understand who he was, there in that Jericho territory.

Not everyone enters into this job as the chief.

He built his way up, so he was an ambitious man.

And over the years, he arrived to the highest position in his office.

And sometimes, those who are on the top find themselves in 1 of the loneliest places.

They're 1 of the loneliest people because they don't have too many friends.

And if there was a publican that they hated more than anyone else.

It was Zacchaeus because he was the chief of them all.

The third obstacle in this man's life is that he was rich.

Now, I'm going to be quick to say that there's nothing wrong with being rich.

The problem is how he got rich, how he achieved it.

You see, a publican could keep a portion of the money he collected and they had a reputation for doing that.

And on top of that, a publican overcharged, stealing money from the Roman Empire.

So, if they called for 10 denarii and the publican asked for 15, he would deposit 10, but keep the 5 in his pocket.

And they despised these rich tax collectors.

And ill-earned money did not make him happy.

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