Brother Goble Sunday Morning 7/21/13

Brother Goble Sunday Morning 7/21/13

Luk 19:1  And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho.

Luk 19:2  And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich.

Luk 19:3  And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature.

Luk 19:4  And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycomore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way.

Luk 19:5  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.

Luk 19:6  And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully.

Luk 19:7  And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner.

Luk 19:8  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.

Luk 19:9  And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham.

Luk 19:10  For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.

Zacchaeus is a favorite of mine.  Sometimes we feel like Zacchaeus inadequate and short in stature.  In the end of the day the Spirit of God will help you approach unto God and that is what we want. 

Think of Zacchaeus as he faced the crowd.  What does it mean to be separated out of the crowd and find your place in life?  Get out of the crowd, and climb the tree so that God sees us.  I know that God sees everyone so perhaps my word is wrong but let the Spirit of God put the word that needs to be there.

The tree is above the crowd.  The crowd is the place where it is difficult to see God.  Zacchaeus found himself in that crowd and knew that Jesus would pass by that day and was so anxious to see God.  I think of honest people that were once so anxious to see God and yet find themselves still in that crowd.

That was the way it was for each of us.  We thought, “One day I want to get above this crowd.”  It is the miracle and grace of God that helps them get out of the crowd and get up into the tree.  You cannot get out on your own.  God has to draw you.

Neither my wife nor I were brought up in a home that knew God.  We just had a mustard seed of faith.  God helped us and God will help you to get out of the crowd and into the tree.

He couldn’t press himself through the crowd.  God made a way that there was a sycamore tree right there for him.  There may have been handholds just in the right spot where he could climb with his short arms. 

God has a moment that He helps us to where He helps us get up.  Maybe you are a person that prefers solitude and doesn’t want to stand out or be different.  Some are like that.  The crowd offers a place of security so that you don’t have to be different.  But there is also great danger in the crowd.  Where that crowd is headed is not where you want to be headed.

There has to be a moment where we are willing to step out of the crowd.  There must come a time when we are willing to take the spiritual dark glasses and disguise off.  We must be willing to give up all the heartaches and emotional things that we are hanging onto and be willing to step out from the crowd.

When we get out of the crowd, we get to the place where we see Jesus.  Can God see you?  Jesus was preaching to this crowd.  Zacchaeus needed to get to a place where God could see him.  Jesus couldn’t reach Zacheous while he was in the back of the crowd. 

We are not critical of people even though we are accused of this misrepresentation.  It is not true.  There is no difference from any in this room and any out there.  The only difference is that we have been cleaned up and we were willing to get out of the crowd.

Can God see you where you are?  You say, “God can see us wherever we are, I can participate in all these things and go to church on Sunday.”  I’m so glad that God got me out of all of that.  That is not a condemnation on the one that would say this; it is just my testimony for myself. 

I had to get out of the crowd.  I’m sure that Jesus knew that Zacchaeus was in the crowd but he wanted to see Jesus and know that Jesus could see him.  There was a lot that was blocking his view in the crowd.  It was important for him to be able to see Jesus.

There is crowd mentality.  God saves us from this group thing to where we have a personal relationship with Him.  ‘As we walk in the light as He is in the light we have fellowship one with another.’  It is a personal experience.  When one falls into a crowd, the crowd thinks of itself and has a spirit that is its own.

In Spain about thirty years ago there was a coup attempted on the government.  The Nation was waiting for the king to come on TV and say which way they were going to go.  Are we going to stay a democracy or become a dictatorship? 

The king came on in his full military uniform and said, “We are not going back; we are going to stay a democracy.”  The next morning this friend of mine and I were standing in the square outside and the crowd was like that of Zacchaeus.  We climbed up on this bus station. 

There were military that were trying to protect against the surge of the crowd.  There would be one in front that would agitate the crowd and they would press forward pushing the military back.  Then the Military would press forward again.  The ones in the back had no idea what was going on. 

This went on for a half an hour.  The horsemen would move forward and then the guys in the front would move them back.  Finally everyone got tired and went home

The crowd has a mentality.  They often don’t know what is going on like the ones in the back of the crowd in Spain. 

The world is this way.  It is faceless and mindless.  Satan is the one that is moving it. He is telling them what direction to go.  People say, “I have my own mind; I’m thinking the way that I want to think.”  We were all just the same, faces in the crowd moved by popular culture. 

My disdain is not for the folks that are in that but for the mentality, the idea, and the animosity, enmity, that the world has for God.  The world hates God.  You look at that and it causes almost a righteous anger that the popular culture has such hatred for God.  

What is upsetting is that seven million people can vote for something and the Supreme Court wouldn’t even hear it.  This is the attitude of the crowd and the popular culture that we live in today.  One day God put a sycamore tree so close that we could climb up.

The trajectory of the church today is so dark and so downward.  God cannot use the religious crowd that has the same spirit as the popular culture that we are talking about.  It has a foul odor in his nostril. 

Zacchaeus didn’t have the attitude, “I’m so proud, I’m self-righteous, and I want to get above these people.”   No it was, “I have stolen from all these people and I will do anything to get out of the crowd, get up in the tree, I just want to get out of the crowd.”

The crowd is insane and has no boundaries.  The only reason that we know right from wrong is because someone was willing to get out of the crowd.  There is a spirit in the religious and secular crowd that actually hates God. 

People look at how you are dressed and how you behave yourself and they hate you.  You have done nothing.  All you want to do is work, support yourself, and do what is right. 

Zacchaeus was a tax farmer.  They would bid out the tax collection and allow independent contractors to collect taxes.  He would pay upfront the money to the empire and then as time went on he would get his return in the taxes that he collected from the people.  He was the chief in this.  He was head above the publicans.

They could collect more than they needed to get in return for their money; the government paid no attention.  He found himself in a place where money was his God.  He was in a place where he didn’t know God and felt for sure that God didn’t know him.

Joh 10:14  I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.

God knows who we are and we can know who God is.  We must step out of the crowd in order for us to understand that God knows who we are.  Step out of the crowd and the spirit that the crowd has.

Luk 4:24  And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.

Luk 4:25  But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land;

Luk 4:26  But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.

Luk 4:27  And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.

Luk 4:28  And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,

Luk 4:29  And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.

Luk 4:30  But he passing through the midst of them went his way,

Jesus found himself in the middle of the crowd that could not see Him.  The crowd could not see God.  The nominal religious world cannot see God.  They have blinders on; if Jesus would show up in the midst and say something that they could not accept they would throw him headlong down the hillside.  “You are far too judgmental, tight, and narrow on some of these things.”  

The Spirit of God will not leave you feeling cut and wounded.  Instead it causes you to say, “Thank you for saving me from the crowd.  Thank you for the good scrubbing that I got some of it off.”  I’ve never felt cut and bruised by a good gospel message.  There have been some, “Thank you for warning me and for helping me to see what I couldn’t see before.” 

This crowd couldn’t see Christ.  He gave them a good gospel message and they wanted to kill him.  That is why I say that they hate God.  The natural state of man is to hate God.  We cannot grow into this understanding.  We must have a crisis experience to where we realize that deep down inside we are stained and bitter. 

We cannot see this if we stay in the crowd.  We must be willing to be different and step out of the crowd.  The more we go on this way the better it becomes.  We may face trials but it is easier.  We are addicted to grace.  As you become addicted to something you crave it more as you go along.

In sin we were addicted to it.  We were bound and did things that we said that we would never do.  What God did for us is that He broke the addiction for sin.  We no longer crave that but we crave God.  This is our addiction. 

We had to be willing to get out of the crowd.  When I faced this choice, I realized that I was going to be different after God saved me, “I’m going to lose some friends; I’m going to lose some ways.”  The partying and the things that I did in secret had to go. 

“Should I climb the tree?  There are too many people in front.”  We must get to the place where we no longer pay attention to the people in front.  “Is there another way to see God so that I can still stay in the crowd?”  Paul put this into words, “O retched man that I am…” (Romans 7:24) Some want to get up out of the crowd but don’t want to leave the crowd.

We must leave some things behind in order to get up into that tree.  I know this.  I was a 23 years old when I got saved.  Some of you were saved younger and, praise God, you didn’t have to go through what I went through.  I participated in the world; I participated fully in the world. 

I was not brainwashed as some accuse us; I made the decision of a free will.  I don’t have to listen to the crowd that would say, “Oh if you could only come out into the crowd and see how pleasant it is.  It is not like the crowd when you left.”  No it is worse than the crowd I left.  I live in a place where the crowd is crazy.  It is crazy!

You become addicted to the grace where you say, “I want more of it.”  There is the crowd and there is Christ.  We cannot have our feet in both worlds.  Participating in Christ and in the world at the same time would make you crazy.

Faces in the crowd: What a blessing to get your face out of the crowd!

Zacchaeus had stolen property from people but the thing that he had stolen that God wanted the most was his soul.  God says that all souls are his.  “You have lived in such a way as a thief not only with the taxes that you have stolen but with your own soul.  You have stolen it away from me.”  He is the owner of it; it is His property but we pretend that it belongs to us.

He created that soul.  He is the owner of it.  In order for us to give it to Him we must get out of the crowd.  Jesus received him joyfully because he had gotten out of the crowd.  He saw the multitude assemble and wondered when He would see Zacchaeus in the tree.  “I was waiting for you to get out of the crowd so that I could do business with you.  I could not do business with you while you were in the crowd.”

Zacchaeus said, “I don’t care what I stole, I will give it back three and four times.  It doesn’t even matter to me.”  Jesus replied, “This day is salvation come to this house.”  That was a good revival.  They had a revival there because someone was there that was willing to step out of the crowd.

There were things for him to consider, “What was he going to do with the other publicans, he was chief among them?  What was going to be his livelihood and how would he support himself.” 

He counted the cost before he went into the tree.  “I’ll lose my job, maybe my wife, and I may not get along any more with my cousin, but I’m sick of the crowd.  Whatever my future is I’m going to let Him take care of it.  I’m hitching to His wagon.  Whatever He leads I’ll go.  I’m not going to go my own way anymore.”

It takes courage to leave some crowds.  God is the author of courage.  He will deliver.  Courage is not just in battle.  Courage is when ordinary people do extraordinary things like being willing to step out of the crowd and live separate even when they know that they will face opposition from the crowd.

Living with doubts and fears takes courage.  I think of the man whose son was afflicted and went to Jesus, “Can you heal my son.”  Jesus said, “I can; can you believe?”  He said, “Yes, help my unbelief.”  Jesus didn’t condemn him for his doubts.  God accepts that.  What God asks is, “Be willing to have your face so that I can see your face.”

1Co 13:12  For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

Now I see through a glass darkly:  Now I kind of see Him.  Then I will see Him as He as always seen me. 

Sometimes we feel this.  I kind of see Him.  It is not clear what I should do.  There are earthquakes.  God knows this.  I have courage. 

“I will give you great grace.”  Great grace can overcome great shaking.  When the church of God goes through shaking, great grace comes and saves it.  That is a hallmark of the church.  It is the hallmark of a people that are willing to get out of the crowd. 

When you came to the church and looked around, you see people that have all been willing to step out of the crowd.  I remember when I first came to the church and saw a man with tears streaming down his face; I didn’t know what to think then.  Now I look back and see a man that had stepped out of the crowd and climbed the sycamore tree.  I just thought, “I want what he has.”

Others see us and see something different and don’t know what they see.  They wonder. 

That is God’s stamp of approval.  We have been marked when we got up out of the crowd and saw God’s face.

We are thankful for the analogy that this account of Zacchaeus gives us.  Be willing to stay in the tree and don’t go back to the crowd.