Receiving the Kingdom

And taking the 12, he said to them, see, we're going up to Jerusalem and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles, will be mocked, shamefully treated, and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him. On the third day, he will rise. And they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.

" Jesus has just been teaching what it means to come to him. He's given this example of a widow who comes to a judge who's unjust, and making it clear how God is merciful, how God has a ear bent towards us. But the invitation, come persistently. And then come like the tax collector, have mercy upon me, God, I am a sinner. Come like a child, not with a resume in hand, but becoming dependent and trusting. Now he's telling the disciples something, the last here lesson, right before we're about to get into the trifle entry. He's telling them what's going to happen. And for us, we need to realize this very important relationship. It is written, it will be accomplished. It is written, will be accomplished. We heard one promise written, read earlier. Ezekiel 34. Go to Jeremiah 31. Go to Genesis 12. Go to Exodus 13, 14. Go back to Genesis 3. God has been making promises to save us from the problems we've created with our own sin and his good creation. It's important, it's written. This isn't some kind of fantasy, oh, it is written in the stars and therefore it will come. No, no, this, it's written in words. He's speaking of actual words given to us by God's spirit as he carried along men so that they're in our language. It's really written, it's right here. This isn't some kind of mystical fantasy, it's written. Why is it written? Because the most important promises we make should be written. I just signed a marriage license last week. Why? Because that's a significant promise that needs to be written. Anybody have a mortgage that's just kind of a handshake, nothing written? No. No one will give you that. It's important. It needs to be binding. It needs to be clear. It needs to be understood. God is good in that he's given it to us in writing. Here, we're a people of the book. We're a book religion. We worship the one God who is Father, Son, Holy Spirit. He invites us into a relationship, he reconciles us, but we can never get away from the idea that this, some false belief that we're anything beyond this book and what we believe, what we do. This is what God has given to us in such kindness so that we know. God has promised salvation. It is written it must be accomplished. He's going to tell them what's ahead. If we were to go back, we could see all the promises are all focused on one Messiah with many foreshadows. There were foreshadows of a priest, there were foreshadows of a prophet, there were foreshadows of a king, all wrapped up into one Messiah, one Savior. And if we were to want to pull together all these strings, it's written, it's planned, it's purposed, it's promised, it will be accomplished. We actually could fast forward just for a moment and see Christ, his last words on the cross. It's finished. All the things that he came to accomplish in this first mission, they're finished, they're accomplished, they're completed. Let's step back and just reflect upon the God we know from his word. He's faithful. If he said it, he's going to do it. He is trustworthy and righteous. He's also powerful. Anybody ever make a promise and fully committed to keeping that promise but just was not able? He's able to keep every promise. He's able to do what he wills to do. We make promises and we fail. He never fails. He is able to do all that he's committed. He is a faithful God. Last week, if we were to turn back to the rich ruler, Jesus teaches it's easier for a camel to go through the needle of the eye. We never found the needle, but anyway. People said, who could be saved? They captured how impossible it is for us to actually handle our own sin, to get rid of our own sin, to wash our own sin, to save ourselves. It's impossible. Friends, Today we're gonna flip this around and see, because God has promised it, it's impossible for salvation not to come. It is impossible for us to save ourselves, and because God promised salvation, it's now impossible for it not to happen. He didn't have to save us, but once he made his promise, once he committed himself to saving us, it is impossible for it not to happen. Now, we can go here to Jerusalem. See, we are all going to Jerusalem. They're on their way. Later, you can look back to Luke 9.51. There's a significant turning point in the Gospel of Luke. He turned his face to Jerusalem. He's still delaying that he's going to get there because of all the teaching and miracles he's going to have to provide for the people, and especially the disciples. but it's always been focused on Jerusalem. And now he's making clear we are going to go up to Jerusalem, the city of David, the capital city of God's nation, the city of peace. The disciples are gonna still be confused because they still think Jesus somehow is the warrior king who's going to bring a peace like they've already seen Rome do. They're enjoying right now at this time the Pax Romana. People can mostly travel without fear of danger. The Pax Romana was incredible with the fierce power of Rome and the threat that if you in any way upset Rome, such justice, harsh and destructive would be brought down upon you. They wanted Jesus to bring that kind of peace. Well, notice he's already giving them clarity. He's not going to overcome the Gentiles, that is Rome. He's going to be delivered over to them. Look at verse 32. He's going to be handed over to those Roman governments, to those other people who are occupying Israel. He's going to be handed over to them to be tried, to be judged, to be mocked. Notice there the five mistreatments. He's mocked, he'll be shamefully treated, he'll be spit upon, be flogged, that is, taking a whip and destroying his back, and killed. And then there's some of the things that happen. Well, these things were written. Last week, if you were with us, we read Isaiah 53. Some call Isaiah the fifth gospel. It's so clear as he explains how the Messiah, the suffering servant, will come to suffer for us. You could also go to Psalm 22, a Psalm Jesus quotes numerous times on the cross. His own crucifixion psalm, it seems. God made promises. He has to restore with power. He has to restore peace. but promises that the servant, the Messiah, the Savior, he would come to suffer. Now, the disciples, this is where they're always getting confused. They think there's only one coming and it's gonna be a great coming with a mighty sword. They're confused about the two comings. Christ came first to suffer. He will come again. We've looked at numerous stories where he's been teaching this. This first coming, He does come to conquer an enemy. Actually, enemies. He conquers death by dying for us. He conquers the power of sin on the cross. We just heard Colossians summarize that. He conquers Satan, as we just sung about a little while ago. There's one other enemy, which is actually the greatest enemy we need to consider, that He really overcame for us on the cross. That is God. We don't often think of God as an enemy, but we need to be very clear here. When we rebelled against God, we declared ourselves enemies of his. God in his justice gives us wrath. There's enmity now between us and God without Christ. He came, God sent his own son in love for his enemies. God sent his own son while we were enemies. God sent his son to die for us while we were still sinners. to die in our place, to invite us back to himself. They want oppression ended. God wants their sinful rebellion ended. He provides the peace we need. Jesus is going to tell them what's ahead. He must suffer. He must be our substitute. He has to die in our place. And this is one of the grand themes of our scripture. There will be a substitute for sinners provided by God. We see this at the very beginning. Where did the skins come from that covered the sin of Adam and Eve that God provided? An innocent animal died. We fast forward. When Abraham takes Isaac up to the mountain, according to God's declaration, he's about to sacrifice. And then God says, stop. and provides a substitute, a ram. God provides the substitute. They're the way out of Egypt. The Passover lame is provided. And then the sacrifices year after year after year. The Messiah would come to be this once for all sacrifice being handed over to the Gentile courts. We need to think about this because it's important. We see two things happening there on the cross. Jesus is telling them how he will be mistreated, right? He knows this is what's happening. He has signed up for this. This has been his purpose all along. There's two things we learn from this. One, the people who mistreat him, who flog him, beat him, mock him, spit upon him, the people reveal their hearts by the way they treat God. And they reveal our hearts by the way they treat God. That action from creature to the creator, it reveals the destruction of sin. It reveals how dangerous and rebellious our sin is. So the first thing we see is, well, you can look ahead, Luke 22. The incredible details of how creatures are treating not only their God, but the God who came to save them. We see wickedness on full display. The second thing we see is that God reveals his commitment to save and love people. He knows this is what's going to take place. He's committed to this kind of mistreatment because it's the only way for us to be saved. Our sin is clearly seen on the cross. His love is also clearly seen. Now we need to get to this one difficult or complicated passage. Verse 34,

but they understood none of these things.

That's kind of par for the course. If you're new with us, if you've been walking through Luke, if you've been reading the Gospels, the disciples really do not seem to get anything until the Holy Spirit comes down upon them at Pentecost, or they've seen Jesus risen. And Jesus said this was gonna happen. They still don't understand. Now, the difficulty, or the thing we need to wrestle with is this saying was hidden from them. Okay, they didn't understand, but it's hidden from them. Okay, well they understand because it's hidden, but who's hiding it? This is where it gets a little fun. The God who is speaking is also the God who is hiding it. Except this is good. The God who is speaking right then and there, he is the God who is also hiding it. Now, this isn't God not being able to communicate well. God is the most competent communicator, and we praise God for that. But what's going on? Well, we can see throughout Scripture, one, God's revelation is often too high for us. His ways are higher than our ways. We have a limited capacity as creatures to understand all of what our great creator is saying or is thinking or knowing. His ways are higher. The second one is our sin keeps us from really understanding. But I think something else is going on here. There's a sense in which God is letting his truth be known in the same way he made promises in hundreds of years past. As Jesus just said, it has been written by the prophets. There's been things that were said. Those who wrote them down did not fully understand what was going to happen or how to be accomplished. Here he's telling them what's going to happen. He's not toying with them. He's not giving some kind of unnecessary mystery. Here, he's preparing them so that whenever the things happen, they understand this was always planned. When Jesus dies and then he rises again, the Holy Spirit will give them understanding. On one level, we can pause here and just praise God. We don't live in this time right here. We live in a time where we can see how Christ fulfilled all of the Old Testament prophecies by his death, by his resurrection, and even more so, we live in a time where his Holy Spirit has come, his spirit of truth that he said would lead us into his own truth. The purpose of what he's saying is to make it so clear. Remember Luke, his purpose here is to make it known with certainty he is the Savior, he is the one. So let's think of some application. We're people of the book. We should be reading this. We should be devouring. We should be meditating upon it. And you're going to come across some difficult sayings. You're going to come across at some time while you're reading scripture with some confusion. You're going to have a difficult time understanding some things in scripture. How do we know that? Peter even says, Paul says hard things. Praise God. When you come across a passage of scripture that seems to be difficult, confusing, hard, first, do not assume the problem is with God, his word, or his communication. When we come across something that we don't understand, our hubris will all of a sudden think, well, what's wrong with his word? No, no, there's nothing wrong with what God has said. Second, Assume the problems with you. There's something you're missing. There's something that's been revealed. There's possibly some sin that's actually keeping you from seeing the glory and the beauty of God's grace in the passage. It could just be you're not understanding something. It could be actual sin keeping you from fully grasping it. You see, we too often doubt God when we don't understand, when we should have full faith in the God who communicates and doubt in ourselves. The third is pray for God to give wisdom, insight. The God who has spoken, the God who has sent his word to become flesh, the God who has sent his Holy Spirit to dwell in your hearts, to illuminate your mind so that you can understand his word. He wants to be known. He's made it possible to be known. We need to be careful not to question him. We should be questioning ourselves. The beauty of what Jesus has said, it's been written, it will be accomplished. Now we see two very specific ways in which salvation is provided and received. First, salvation received by faith. Let's look at verses 35 to 43. Salvation received by faith.

As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant. They told him, Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. And he cried out, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried all the more, son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him. When he came near, he asked him, what do you want me to do for you? He said, Lord, let me recover my sight. And Jesus said to him, recover your sight, your faith has made you well. And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.

This is a story, we know this man's name from Mark, it's Blind Bartimaeus, it seems to be the same story right before the triumphal entry. Notice Jesus is passing along, he's on the outside of the city. And we don't know the backstory of this blind man, but it's pretty amazing that whatever he has already heard and whatever he already knows, as soon as he hears that the commotion is Jesus of Nazareth, notice he just begins to cry out. Verse 38. Jesus son of David Hey, he heard it was Jesus of Nazareth. He's already shown. He has some kind of theological insight and an understanding God made a promise to Abraham that a son of his would be the Savior and then to Judah and then to David second Samuel 7 is where you can see that ultimately the son of David will reign forever and This is an incredible confession of knowing who Jesus is beyond just a man born in Nazareth. But then the request, Jesus, have mercy on me. Have mercy on me. Give me this blessing, this favor, this kindness, this undeserved kindness. And the crowds, those were probably in front of him on the road. Those were in front, they rebuked him. Be quiet, blind man. You're a beggar. You're making a scene. We're here to enjoy Jesus walking by. They tell him to be silent. Stop interrupting our event. Notice how he responds. He cried out all the more. Son of David, have mercy on me. A man who is desperate, a man who is used to begging, a man who had been considered cursed by all those around him, he's not treated well, he insists. He cries out all the more, why? He seems to be convinced this is the one man who can actually give him what he needs. He's convinced whatever he understands of Jesus and whatever he understands of the promises to the son of David, he understands this is the instrument, this is the source of mercy. Nothing can keep him quiet. Kind of interesting, who does it remind us of? Remember earlier that Jesus told a parable of a persistent widow who wouldn't stop. Also, he told a parable of a tax collector who requested what?

God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

What we see here, I believe, is this blind man being a model of what it means to come to faith. He's crying out all the more and notice the crowd is rejecting him. The crowd is annoying him. The crowd is saying, stop, be silent. And what does Jesus do? Jesus himself stops. He commands that he be brought to him. And he asked, what do you want me to do for you? The man asked for a simple, clear need. Recover my sight. Give him my sight. Notice, Jesus responds, recover your sight. Your faith has made you well. The word well there is sozo. It's one of the most basic words we have for the doctrine of salvation. It has a range of meaning. It can mean you've been made physically well. It refers to a healing. Here, that is clearly what's in view. It could also mean you've been saved from your sin. I believe that's also clearly what's in view. This man has been made complete again. He's been made holy. His body has received the healing he needs, and he has been saved from his sins. Immediately, he recovered his sight, and then he follows Jesus, and he glorifies God. What's significant with this man is that he simply sees Jesus. He comes to him like the child. One of the passages we just turned from in Luke last week, two weeks ago. You must come like a child. You must come dependent. You must come fully trusting. Here, this man is trusting Jesus and he blesses him with sight. He follows Jesus and he glorifies God. This story is a man who's lifted up out of problems. He's lifted up out of a curse. He's lifted up out of blindness. He's lifted up out of a problem. The man has nothing, and he knows the only thing he can do is cry out to Jesus, and Jesus hears him, he stops, and he pulls him out. The importance of what he does is, for us, he cries out, have mercy on me. If you're not a believer this morning, this is a motto for you. Have mercy. Jesus hears every prayer. Jesus never rejects someone who comes to him, asking for what he has promised to provide. Friend, if you're not a believer, our sin, our rebellion against God is more difficult and more of a problem than even blindness. Our sin is something we can't wash away. Our sin is what we'll stand before God with and be judged. The only way we can be washed, the only way we can be made whole again is because Christ came to die for our sin. He came to die to forgive us. He came to die and rise again to make us whole again. The invitation this morning, cry out, Jesus, have mercy on me. Jesus, have mercy on me. If you're in a trial, if you're a believer and you actually find yourself in a difficult place like this man would, oh, cry out for mercy. And James even makes it even more clear, cry out for wisdom on how to know how to rejoice in that trial and trust God in that trial. If you are a believer, have you stopped asking for mercy? If you're a believer, have you stopped sinning? and need to continue to ask for mercy. Notice the crowd's response. It's obvious. A blind man now sees. The man they all knew, they walked past, they gave some cherry to. A known man who was blind now sees. When all the people saw it, I think there is supposed to be a pun there. When all the people saw it, they gave praise to God. This is a right response. We see Christ in his powerful rule. He's able to save. We see the right response of faith by the man, and then the crowds, when they see this, they praise God. This is clearly the work of God. Now we turn to our third story, salvation received with repentance. We see a different kind of character that Jesus interacts with. He's now entered into Jericho. Jericho is a significant city. There's a lot of influence, a lot of wealth. And as he's passing through Jericho, on his way to Jerusalem, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. Here we see salvation received with repentance. Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector and was rich. Verse three,

and he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd, he could not because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way.

All right, so many of us have heard of Zacchaeus as a wee little man. All right, let's just go ahead and get that out of your head and move on. That's a part of the story because of where he ends up in the tree, but the most important thing we know about Zaki is not that he's small in stature. He's a tax collector and he's rich. He's actually a chief tax collector. We've seen a tax collector a few times to help you remember or to understand if you haven't been with us. A tax collector was somebody who was Jewish who worked for the Roman government to get their taxes. They had a great amount of power. They had a great amount of influence. They had the Roman government on their side so that they could make sure that Rome got their taxes. And most of them were typically despised by their neighbors because they're working for the oppressor. And then most of them are oftentimes, they're understood to be cheats. They would take more and Rome was okay with that. than the Roman government expected from them. He's a chief tax collector. That means he took a little bit off the top of all the other tax collectors. Notice this also, he's rich. What did Jesus just say about the rich? It's difficult for them to enter the kingdom of heaven. He was rich. He's good at his job. He's probably shaking down the citizens here in Jericho. That might be actually why they He has to climb into a tree that they're probably not gonna let him get in front of them. He's not treated well in the city as much as they can. Why would they give up their spot for him? Luke here continues to bring up wealth. We see here he is a rich man, but there's something he wants to see Jesus. His stature isn't the most important thing. His sinfulness, and now he has a curiosity. We don't know what that means yet. But notice, he's curious, he puts himself in a tree, and then verse five,

when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.

Hospitality is a central part of this culture. And to be invited over to someone's house would be a great privilege. It would say something about who you are and being invited into their house as a guest. But here Jesus is saying, I want to be with you. I'm a foreigner traveling through this land. I'm not in my final destination. I am a sojourner. I want to stay with you today. It's a significant privilege and honor for Zacchaeus to have this self-invitation. Jesus is connecting himself to Zacchaeus. Notice how he responds, he hurries down and he received him joyfully. A man who had all the power, he works for the Roman government, a man who had great wealth, he's in a very lucrative field with great job security, a man who has all the things that the world has promised, he has now been invited by Jesus to eat with him, to host him. What an invitation and he receives it rightly. But notice what the neighbors do. When they saw it, assuming they're the crowd, the people who know he is, his neighbors, they all grumble. What a contrast. Zacchaeus, joyful, the crowds grumble. You can kind of appreciate this, right? That guy who always takes more from us than he's supposed to, That rich guy who betrayed us as a people, who works for the Roman government? That guy who's been robbing us? Him? Notice how clear they are.

He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.

They're actually judging Jesus. Their despising of Zacchaeus has now turned them to despise Jesus and make a judgment. Who is this guy who's gonna go spend that kind of time? Who's gonna go and invest in this sinner? Jesus insists he will go to the sinner's house. In the same way he insisted, no, I hear the man crying for mercy, I'm gonna stop. He's gonna come to me, I'm going to heal him. In the same way, over against this crowd, note this sinner is who I'm going to go spend my evening with. His mission is a surprise to all. Now notice verse eight.

Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.

I think what we see here is repentance. A faith that responds to the invitation. He comes down, he receives Jesus joyfully. He wants to receive him into his home joyfully. But here we see a change of heart. Oh, last week, the rich ruler. What more do I need to do, Jesus? One thing.

Sell all that you have and give to the poor.

Notice Jesus does not give Zacchaeus any such instruction. Now what we see here is a confession of sin, a repentance that just comes from a changed heart. Zacchaeus is not instructed as to what to do. He knows his sin. Remember the rich ruler, his love of money kept him from doing what God said. So he left sad. Here's a joyful man who's happy to give away half of what he has and repay fourfold because he's not unaware of his sin. And he's very aware of Jesus. He leaves behind his sin. The blind man is lifted up and leaves behind his blindness to follow Jesus. Zacchaeus for this moment is brought He confesses his sin, he repents of his sin, and he follows Jesus. What an invitation. There's something important about what Zacchaeus does here that we need to really appreciate. There's no such thing as cheap grace, and therefore, there's no such thing as cheap discipleship. Cheap grace is what I read about earlier. A God without wrath who saves a people without sin, through Christ with a cross. No, no, Jesus already made it very clear, the grace is costly. He's going to suffer greatly. And how are we to, if we're gonna deny that false gospel, that counterfeit gospel, and make it clear, no, Jesus suffered for our sin. And then believe the other half of the lie. Somehow, discipleship is cheap. Zacchaeus is helpful for us, he's instructive for us. He knows it's costly, he's gonna have to give up his love for money. He's gonna have to pay back the way he's defrauded. He is invited to Jesus, he gives up his sin, he wants to be with Jesus. This morning we see a clear right response of the gospel. Verse nine, final word of Jesus here in verses nine and 10.

Today, salvation has come to this house since he also is the son of Abraham.

The people have judged Jesus for going into Zacchaeus' house because Zacchaeus is a sinner, but notice how Jesus is just giving a different affirmation. No, Zacchaeus is the son of Abraham. Now, Abraham was the The man who received the promise of God that salvation would come through him in Genesis 12. And oftentimes Israel would think, well, now that I'm just, you know, I'm biologically, I've been born into these families, I now am a child of promise. Well, that's not actually true. The promise was that the Savior would come through that line, Zacchaeus. He had been a cheat, a thief, a sinner. The crowds had judged him and now Jesus is making it clear he is not identified as a sinner, he's identified as a child of Abraham. I believe the way we see this redefined and defined rightly by Jesus and Paul is this means he's a child of faith. What makes a child of Abraham unique is not that they're born in the right family, that they believe in the right God, believe the right gospel. It has nothing to do with the family you're born in. Yeah, there are privileges. Children, there's privileges being born into a Christian family, and it's that you hear the word of God. But you have to believe. Being born into a Christian family gives you no benefit other than that you are present and hearing the word of God regularly. You must still believe. Here we see two different stories of salvation. The buying man picked up, the tax collector brought low, The one and same Savior. Friends, Jesus did not come to help you have merely a better life. He came to do that, but something more. He did not come to help you feel better. He came to do that, but something much more. Notice verse 10. Jesus' own mission statement.

The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.

If you are not lost, you cannot be found. If you are not a sinner, you cannot be saved. Real issue is, everybody's a sinner. Do we acknowledge it? Do we confess it? Do we come to Him who alone can save us? He is the promised Savior from all the prophets. He came to die in our place. He provides the one and only forgiveness. He restores us. He has done all that is required and all that he requires of us is that we believe. God's mission in Christ is to save sinners. So who can be saved? Every kind of sinner. How can they be saved? Only by faith in Jesus. Our last observation, he came to seek. We can make a big deal of Zacchaeus getting up in a tree. Let me be clear, Jesus is gonna find him one way or the other. Jesus' purpose to save a people, yeah, he's looking for us. He's seeking those who he knows. He's seeking those he will call. The invitation for us, no matter what, is to believe and respond to that invitation. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you, Lord, for your kindness. You've not left us in our darkness, but you've shown your light. You've not left us in our lies. You've given us your truth. You've not left us in our sin. You've given us your Son to be our Savior. Lord, we thank you for how clearly it has been written what you would do in Jesus Christ. What we thank you for clearly is written as to what he has come to do and what he taught, how he lived, how he performed miracles, how he suffered greatly on our behalf, how he rose again, and how now he has ascended. And we come to you, Father, in his name. Lord, help us to look to see how great of a Savior you've provided, you've promised and you've provided. Lord, help us to trust in you, to cry out for mercy. Help us, Lord, to trust in you, to receive you joyfully. Help us, Lord, to know what it means to repent, to turn to you, and to live for you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let us turn to our song of response. On page 10, please stand and sing Complete In Thee.