“And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich. And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature. And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house. And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner. And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, this day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:1-10
This is one of the most familiar stories in the New Testament. There are flannel graphs and songs about Zacchaeus, and most Sunday school students have heard about him.
Zacchaeus was a wee little man,
And a wee little man was he.
He climbed up in the sycamore tree,
For the Lord he wanted to see.
And as the Saviour came his way
He looked up in the tree,
And He said, "Zacchaeus, you come down,
For I'm going to your house today!
For I'm going to your house today!"
I. JESUS ALWAYS DOES THE FINDING
When I was a boy we used to use the phrase “Finders, keepers; losers, weepers.” In the story we've just read, who found whom? Did Zacchaeus find Christ, or did Christ find Zacchaeus?
Jesus Found Zacchaeus
“And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house.”-Luke 19:5.
Zacchaeus “sought to see Jesus,” so we might think that he was seeking Jesus; but the truth is, it was Jesus who found Zacchaeus. He knew that Zacchaeus would be in that tree. He knew Zacchaeus by name, though He had never met him before. He knew Zacchaeus had a need, and He came to the exact spot where he would be, just to find him.
“When Jesus came to the place, he looked up." I'm sure Jesus passed many trees along the way, and there were probably other people in some of the other trees trying to see Jesus.
People are always in trees trying to get a better view of a parade. At football and baseball games, people climb up poles or into trees to try to see the games. Jesus had no doubt seen other people in trees; but when He came to this place, He looked up and said, “Zacchaeus,” because it was Zacchaeus whom He wanted to find that day.
He came looking for him, and He said, “Make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house.” Jesus came with the purpose of abiding at Zacchaeus' house today! So Jesus came and found Zacchaeus.
Jesus Found the Woman at the Well
"And he must needs go through Samaria."-John 4:4.
Why did He need to go through Samaria? Why was that so important? Because He had to find somebody there. He went to find this woman at the well.
He already knew her life story when He met her. She "left her water pot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did." He knew who she was, He knew where she was, and He came to find her.
Jesus Found Philip
"The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, Follow me."-John 1:43.
Jesus was always doing the finding. We say, “I was lost until I found Jesus,” but that's not true because Jesus found us. “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost!”
Jesus Found Saul
Saul was not looking for Jesus, the Messiah who came, but Jesus was looking for him. On the road to Damascus (Acts 9) as Saul was going about his business, persecuting the church, Jesus stopped him in his tracks. Jesus found him and saved him.
"But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. "For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. "For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it: And profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.”-Gal. 1:11-15.
Where did Jesus find him? He found him persecuting the very church of which he would become a member!
Jesus Found Matthew
"And as Jesus passed forth from, thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him.”-Matt. 9:9.
Matthew was not looking for Jesus. He was a tax collector – part of a group who were despised and narrowly looked upon by the religious elite of that day. They would call them publicans and sinners.
Matthew was sitting at the receipt of custom, doing his everyday business. But Jesus came by and said, “Follow me.”
The publicans were in charge of collecting the taxes for Rome. There was no set order or methodology for this, so they often extorted funds from the people by charging more than was actually due on their taxes. By robbing the people of God, the publicans made themselves rich; therefore, they were despised by the people.
Such a man was Zacchaeus. In Luke, chapter 19, he is called a chief of the publicans. Other publicans worked under him. But Jesus found him and saved him.
Jesus Found David
"I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear and shall trust in the LORD. " - Ps. 40:1-3.
David says, “I was in the quagmire. I was in the miry clay. I was sinking in the sands of sin, and Jesus came and found me. He put a new song in my heart. Jesus gave me a new life.”
Jesus Seeks Every Sinner
Jesus came seeking David. Jesus came seeking Zacchaeus. Jesus came seeking Matthew. Jesus came seeking Saul. And, my friend, Jesus still comes seeking. He seeks the publican. He seeks the sinner. He seeks to save that which was lost.
Listen, my friends, it was the Lord Jesus Christ who came seeking after your soul, and it was the Lord Jesus who found you.
“And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19). We do not seek for Him. We hide from Him. We sinners lost and on our way to Hell, are not looking for the Light, not looking for Jesus.
The Bible says that we love darkness rather than light, and that’s why we do what we do in the darkness. He came to seek us and to find us and to save us out of the darkness.
Romans 3:11 says, “There is none that seeketh after God.” Rather, it is Christ who came to this world seeking the lost. Why? “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way” (Isa. 53:6).
He came to seek the sinner. “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).
He came to seek the unrighteous. “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3.10).
He came to seek the unclean. “But we are all as an unclean thing” (Isa. 64:6).
We need to understand what we are without Jesus Christ. We are sinners, lost and on our way to Hell, without hope and without remedy. My friend, He came looking for you. He came looking for me. He came to seek us, to find us, and He came to save us.
Where Did Jesus Find You?
Where did He find you? What did He find you doing? What condition were you in when He found you?
I’ll tell you where He found me. He found me in the miry pit of sin and shame. He found me in the sin and shame of alcohol. He found me in the miry pit of drugs and pornography and rock n’ roll music. He found me lost and on my way to Hell.
I was sinking in selfishness and wallowing in the filth of this world, and Jesus came down with His glorious light into the darkness of my life. He sought me and He found me!
My friend, I wasn’t looking for Jesus. I was looking for everything else but Jesus! But one day He stepped into my life, and I saw the glorious light of the Gospel. He reached down and put His hand into the mock, mire, slime and stench of my sinful life and grabbed hold of me. He wasn’t afraid to get Himself dirty by touching me. He lifted me up out of there and set me on the Rock. He washed me and cleansed me in His own precious blood. He put a new song in my heart. He gave me new life.
I remember where I was, what I was, what I was doing when Jesus found me. He came into my darkness and gave me light. He shone into my reprobate mind and sin-sick heart. He found me! Praise God! He found me and He saved me, a sinner!
I will never allow myself to forget where He found me, how He found me and the condition I was in when He found me. My friends, by the grace of God, I will never allow myself to take for granted the salvation that God purchased for me on Calvary's cross with the blood of His own Son. By the grace of God I will never allow myself to become comfortable and to become presumptuous, self-satisfied and forgetful of what God did for me. I stand before you today saved and cleansed and on my way to Heaven!
Oh my friends, He finds. Praise God that He finds sinners! He looks everywhere, high and low, until He finds us, and then He saves us by His wonderful grace. Praise God, He makes us new creatures in Christ!
I know that some of you were found very early. Do not despise that fact. Do not look lightly upon the fact that He came and was merciful, gracious and kind and found you early in life. But even if He saved you early in life, you were still as much of a rotten sinner in your youth as I was in later years.
Within the bosom of every person born of woman, save Jesus Christ, beats a heart that is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. A child in the arms of a mother is a sinner. It takes as much of Christ's blood, as much of His grace, as much of the mercy of God to save someone when he's five or six years old as it does when he is fifty or, sixty!
It took as much of Jesus' sacrifice and suffering on the cross of Calvary to save you, though you had not gone the way I had gone, as it did to save me.
Never mistake it, my dear friends. If you never walked the road of the wickedness and sin of this world, you should praise God every day that you didn't. Praise God that He came to you early and saved you early.
Oh, my dear friends rejoice that you've been spared from a life of heartache and shame. Rejoice that you have more of life to be lived for Christ, more to be full of His glory, more to allow God to squeeze out of you all the honor and glory that He can.
II. WE ARE TO BE FINDERS
Jesus found Philip. The next thing we discern is that Philip found Nathaniel. The Lord Jesus is the finder, but when He finds us He sends us forth as finders. He allows us to find someone else for Him, but never mistake it: He is the One doing the finding, for we would find no one for Him if He had not first found us. Yes, Jesus is the Finder.
III. JESUS IS THE KEEPER
When Jesus finds, He keeps. The one Christ saves can never undo His coming all the way from Heaven; His enduring the contradiction of sinners; His suffering upon the cross in agony, shame and humiliation; and His death, burial and resurrection.
My dear friend, when Jesus finds you, He keeps you. It's His power that saves; it's His power that keeps. It's His blood that saves; it's His blood that keeps. It's not all null and void because you get out of His will and sin against God. My friend, you cannot undo what Jesus did. God would not sacrifice His Son and allow Him to endure what He did if all it took to make it go away was your disobedience.
Can we be lost forever after having been saved and washed in the blood? Oh, no! It never happens. That which He Himself only could accomplish, He Himself only can secure.
The blood and the life of the God-Man were given upon Calvary's cross. He was no mere human being. His blood was no mere human blood: it was the blood of God that was shed for our salvation. There is power in that blood!
If we could understand the power of Christ's blood, of His life that was given, of His resurrection, we would never wonder if we could lose our salvation. We would not have questions about eternal security.
Our salvation is not based upon us, and it is not continued by us. We “are kept by the power of God” (I Pet. 1:5).