Luke 19:1-10:Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through it. And--look you--there was a man called Zacchaeus by name, and he was commissioner of taxes, and he was rich. He was seeking to see who Jesus was, and he could not for the crowd, because he was short in height. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree, for he was to pass that way. When Jesus came to the place he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus! Hurry and come down! For this very day I must stay at your house." So he hurried and came down, and welcomed him gladly; and when they saw it they all murmured, "He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner." Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Look--half of my goods, Lord, I hereby give to the poor. If I have taken anything from any man by fraud I give it back to him four times over." Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.
Zacchaeus was a BAD man, tax collectors had the semi-legal right to steal. His conversion led to a change in his lifestyle. He did not just talk Christianity, he walked it.
Zacchaeus took steps to show all the community that he was a changed man. He decided to give half of his goods to the poor. The other half he did not intend to keep to himself but to use to make restitution to all he had cheated.
He went far beyond what was legally necessary. Only if robbery was a deliberate and violent act of destruction was a 400% restitution necessary (Exodus 22:1). If it had been ordinary robbery and the original goods were not restorable, double the value had to be repaid. (Exodus 22:4,7). If voluntary confession was made and voluntary restitution offered, the value of the original goods had to be paid, plus one-fifth (Leviticus 6:5; Numbers 5:7). Zacchaeus was determined to do far more than the law demanded. He showed by his actions that he was a changed man.
There is a terrible story about a church service in progress at which several women were giving their testimony. One woman kept grimly silent. She was asked to testify but refused. She was asked why and she answered, "Four of these women who have just given their testimony owe me money, and I and my family are half-starved because we cannot buy food."
A testimony is utterly worthless unless it is backed by deeds that guarantee its sincerity. It is not a mere change of words which Jesus Christ demands, but a change of life.
What "tree" did Jesus find you up? How did He get you down? What wrongs do you need to make right?
LIVE FOR EACH OTHER
Acts 2:42-47:They persevered in listening to the apostles’ teaching, in the fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers. Awe was in every soul; and many signs and wonders were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and they were in the habit of selling their goods and possessions and of distributing them amongst all as each had need. Daily they continued with one accord in the Temple, and breaking bread from house to house they received their food with joy and in sincerity of heart; and they kept praising God and everyone liked them. Daily the Lord added to them those who were being saved.
The early Church was a learning Church. They listened to what the apostles taught. It was a Church of fellowship. They had what could be called the quality of togetherness. It was a praying Church. The early Christians knew that they could not meet life in their own strength and that they did not need to. It was a reverent Church. It was a church where things happened -- signs and wonders were there. It was a sharing Church. Early Christians had an intense feeling of responsibility for each other. It was a worshipping Church. It was a happy Church. A gloomy Christian is a contradiction in terms. It was a Church full of people others could not help liking.
NO SIN ALLOWED
Romans 6:4-6, 11-14:We have therefore been buried with him through baptism until we died, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the father, so we, too, may live in newness of life. For, if we have become united to him in the likeness of his death, so also shall we be united to him in the likeness of his resurrection. For this we know, that our old self has been crucified with him, that our sinful body might be rendered inoperative, in order that we should no longer be slaves to sin...So you, too, must reckon yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin reign in your mortal body to make you obey the body’s desires. Do not go on yielding your members to sin as weapons of evil; but yield yourselves once and for all to God, as those who were dead and are now alive, and yield your members to God as weapons of righteousness. For sin will not lord it over you. You are not under law but under grace.
The Christian is committed to a different kind of life. You have died to one kind of life and been born to another. The way we live our daily life, Paul says, ought to make all the difference in the world.
The Christian is meant to go out and live a certain kind of life in the teeth of the world's attacks and problems. It is common in the church world to sit in service and feel a wave of feeling sweep over us. But if we stop there we stop halfway. Emotion must be translated into action.
Christianity can never be only an experience of the inner being; it must be a life in the marketplace. The Christian life is no longer a burden to be borne; it is a privilege to be lived up to. The inspiration of the Christian comes, not from the fear of what God will do to him, but from the inspiration of what God has done for him.