The Church of Eleven22 - Father, Forgive Them: Tetelestai - Wk 1

Episode Date: February 18, 2024

Liar, lunatic, or Lord. Those are the only options to consider when it comes to determining who Jesus was and is. "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost " - Luke 19:10 - The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To find out more about how God is moving at Eleven22, go to coe22.com

Just another light weekend here at 1122, right? Hey, if you got your Bibles, grab them. We're going to be in Luke 23 and Luke 19. Luke 23 and Luke 19. We're in a brand new teaching series between now and resurrection weekend called It is Finished. And we are choosing to participate in historically what is known as Lent.

Lent is not prescribed in the Bible necessarily. Throughout church history, some church fathers thought it would be a good idea to prepare ourselves to be ready to celebrate. the resurrected Christ on what we call Easter weekend. And so we are calling this series Tettlestai. It's a Greek word that means it is finished. And we're also partnering with my friend Charles Martin,

you guys know all about Charles, because he wrote this devotional called It Is Finished. And what we are doing is from this day to that day, it's a 40-day journey, is that we are preparing ourselves to get ready. And these words mean a lot to me, this word, to tell us to I. It means it is a lot.

is finished. In fact, it means so much to me, it's really life-changing to me, is that I tattooed it right there. And like, one of my favorite things to do is get a tattoo and not tell you people about it and then let you guess is what they mean, and to get all those emails that I get. So, this word right here, I got it in Jerusalem too, so you know it's like super spiritual. I got that one in Jerusalem too one day I'll tell you about that one, okay? And let me tell you why, because Jesus, the last thing he says, he pushes up on his nail-pierced feet, and he says these words, to telestai. It is finished. Completely completed, paid in full, that's what it means.

And I believe that, theologically. With everything I'm made of, I've staked my whole life on it. And then something happens, man. I wake up every morning and I forget. You ever do that? You ever think it just counts for somebody else and not you? Or it counts for most people, or maybe most of what you've done, but not all of you've done.

And when I'm standing right here holding on to this pulpit, trying to teach this Bible, then what will begin to happen is the enemy begins to get in here and be like, who do you think you are? And I can stare down at that forearm and say, I can tell you exactly who I am. I am paid for bought by the blood of the lamb, and it's by the blood of the lamb

that I stand here and share the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that is it. So that's what we're doing. We're gonna study the seven sayings of Jesus on the cross, the last things he said, and it can't be random that it was seven things, seven is the number of completion in the Bible, so Jesus said completely everything that he needed to say,

to tell us die. For you Bible nerds, check this. out. The Titellisa is written in the perfect tense which signals a past completed action with abiding results. The work of salvation has been completed once and for all, and there is nothing that can alter the state of affairs it has established. Luke 23, the Bible says this. Verse 26, and as they led him away, Jesus is on his way to be crucified. As they let him away, they seized Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country and laid on him the cross to carry it behind Jesus.

Imagine being this guy. He's just showing up to Jerusalem like he has done every year of his life because it is the day of, it is the Passover season, it is the day of atonement, he's going to make sacrifice like he is supposed to do. Other gospel writers tell us that his children are with him, that his kids are there, and unbeknownst to him, he shows up, and the Roman garrison grab him and say, you carry this man's cross, and he takes the cross beam of Jesus and carries Jesus' cross towards Galgotha.

There's two thoughts that hit me pretty hard. I wonder what his kids thought. I wonder what his kids thought. Dad, the greatest thing that could ever be said of you is if your children would look at you and say, my dad carried the cross. Okay, how much money you make, or how successful you are, how many people do you know your or what your golf score is, good gracious. But that our children would look at us and say,

my dad carried the cross. This is what Lent is, by the way. Lent is that we would follow in the footsteps of Jesus, that we would carry the cross all the way to the point of the crucifixion and the resurrection. In Charles' book, I hope you're doing this. It's a 40-day devotional. On day two, he says this.

It's on page 15. He says, the offer of this cross is unlimited forgiveness. salvation, deliverance, redemption, justification, sanctification, righteousness, holiness, perfection, intimacy with the Father, co-hears with Jesus. It's a shameless existence of mud pies, hide and seek, dancing barefoot and belly laughter

with the God of the universe. It's immeasurable, priceless, beyond comprehension. If we truly understood it, our fuzzy little heads would explode. And yet despite the ridiculous nature of the offer, the offer stands. But so does the question, and Jesus is not asking for his benefit. He knows the answer and the remedy.

Before we can receive the unmerited grace of God, Jesus meets us with the same question God asked Adam and Eve in the garden, and when he asks, he is bringing attention to both our location and condition. Where are you? It's a question of kingdoms. That's the question. Where are you? So the reason that we are preparing our hearts,

by fasting and praying in this season is because we live in this kingdom of darkness. Even if you have been reconciled with Christ, we live in this world, and the world has a tendency to get on us. And it's a good idea several times throughout the year to fast, to look at your flesh and say no so that you can look at Jesus and say yes. And so on Wednesdays, from sunup to sundown,

if you're medically able, we're going to fast from food, all right? So that just means only drink water and coffee. You can have coffee. If anybody tells you you can't drink coffee, that's a cult. Get your things and leave. It's just beans and water, man. No problem. Okay, I checked. And then our campuses are open in the morning and at lunchtime so we could gather together and pray so that we could

follow in the footsteps of Jesus. So that's what's happening here. And they led him away, and they see Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the cross to carry it behind Jesus, verse 27. and there followed him a great multitude of people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him. But turning to them, Jesus said, daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me,

but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, blessed are the barren and the wounds that never bore and the breasts that never nursed, then they will begin to say, to the mountains fall on us and to the hills cover us. For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it's driving.

You're like, what is he talking about? He's talking about the end times. He's talking about judgment. He's talking about when Christ returns to judge the quick and the dead. And here's what he is saying. Hey, don't cry for me because I'm going to the cross, because this has been the preordained, predestined, plan from God the Father to reconcile all things unto himself.

Here's who you should cry for. You should cry for the people that don't understand or don't believe that when I went to the cross, it was for the forgiveness of your sin. And even though Jesus is in obvious distress, the Bible says that he willfully and willingly goes to the cross, that Jesus can see through the pain, through the cross, through the empty tomb, to the prize that is awaiting on the other side.

And that's why he goes. Hebrew 12 says it this way, therefore says we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses. Let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. And check this out. Here's what Jesus sees when he's talking to these women, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfect of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. So what is the joy set before him?

well the only thing that Jesus has post-resurrection that he did not have pre-cross and resurrection is you and me now we're not the point he's the point and god's glory is the point but jesus thought you would be the joy that he was willing to shed his blood so that he could purchase you under the glory of god and so that's why he goes to the cross verse 32 two others who were criminals were led away to be put to death with him. That's what we're going to talk about next week, his conversation with these two criminals. Verse 33, and when they came to the place

that is called the skull, I've been there. As soon as we can get back to Israel, I'll take you there. It's called Galgotha. It's literally a mountain that looks like a skull face is in the side of it. This is the place where Jesus was crucified, and the first time I ever went there, it was a very weird experience.

Because today, it's not like a historic monument, it's a bus station. And I was like, what? What did they do where Jesus got crucified? And it bummed me out. I mean, it seriously bunded me out. And I'm sitting in this little place kind of overlooking where it is,

and you just see people coming and going and it's loud, and there's all kind of folks, and it's kind of crazy and nasty. And I thought, you know what, actually, this is probably a lot more like what it was in the first century than what we have in our mind. If you've ever seen, like, a painting

of Jesus on the cross, That's probably not what it looked like. You see like on the hill far away, right? And there's three crosses somewhere in North Georgia. That's what it looks like. That's not how they would crucify people. They would crucify people on the ground, like ground level, right outside of the busiest place they could find

so that people could come eyeball to eyeball with them, and two things could happen. They could cuss them, they could spit on them, they could jeer at them, and they would realize what might happen. to them if they ever get out of line. And so they go to the place of the skull, and the Bible just simply says,

and there they crucified him. I used to wonder, why is there so little ink in the New Testament about the crucifixion? Well, one, everybody in the first century knew exactly what he was talking about, and then also, it is described detail by detail. It was just written about 700 years before it happened.

We'll talk about that in a few weeks. And the criminals, one on his right and one on his left, and Jesus said, so Jesus is going to say seven things on the cross. And just in case you're not super familiar with what crucifixion was, they would drive nails or spikes between the hands and the feet of whoever was put on the cross. And the way that people died is sometimes they would bleed out or sometimes they would just go into shock. But most people died by what's called asphyxiation, that you would drown on your own fluids inside your lungs.

And so every single time you wanted to say something, you would have to pull with your hands and push up on your nail pierce feet, take a breath in order to speak. And seven times Jesus pushes up. And the first thing he says is this, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Now why is this the first thing he says?

I think that Jesus wants us to make sure there is no doubt about what he is doing, that he came to save, that Jesus is a Savior, that the reason that Jesus is dying on the cross is for the forgiveness of sin, that he's not just dying to show us an example or show us the ultimate sacrifice. This is what my liberal seminary professors would say. Well, he was just showing us the ultimate form of sacrifice. That doesn't make any sense. How does you dying randomly say anything about how much you love me? That doesn't make any sense. Like if you were just sitting on the dock looking at the water and I was like, you know how much I love you and just drown myself? You'd be like, well, that was dumb.

You should have sent me a Valentine card. What are you doing? But if I was drowning and you gave your life in rescuing me, now that's a demonstration of love. He wants us to know that the reason that he is going to the cross is for the forgiveness of our sin. He's not simply dying for us. He's dying instead of us. He's dying in our place. We actually see a picture of this in the sin.

before the one we're on now. Pontchus Pilate is standing before the people. He's kind of the governor. He doesn't actually want to be the one to murder Jesus. Because he's not sure, he thinks he's innocent. And his wife is like, hey, don't do this. And so he says, I'll tell you what, crowd. What shall I do with this man named Jesus?

But I'm going to give you one out. And he goes and he finds the worst guy in the prison that he can find. The guy's name's Barabbas. It means the son of the father is what his name is. So that should be a little clue that this is going to be something. And he brings them both before the crowd and says, I have a custom that I let one man go free every year, but you guys get to vote. Would you like option A, which is Jesus, the carpenter's son,

who walks on water and calms the seas and feeds people with fishes and loaves people with fishes and loaves people and teaches cool stories about prodigals coming home? or would you like this terrorist who might rape and kill your family and children? And the crowd screams, give us Barabbas. And Barabbas goes free and Jesus goes to the cross. Now newsflash, we are Barabbas. Father, forgive them. For they know not what they do.

Here's the question. Who's them? Who is them? them is us. You realize you're them? And the moment you don't think you and I are them, you're in trouble. Hey, real quick, if you have been in church for at least 10 years, would you raise your hand high? You're like a 10 plus.

Okay, all right. Ready? You're screwed. You're so screwed, man. You're so, oh, my gosh. And the fact that it bothers you a little bit that I just said screwed is the evidence of the screwedum that you're getting into. It's the craziest thing. The more you do this thing, and this matters a lot, right, to get together and make much of him and do all the things.

The problem is, is that it'll get on you in a bad way, and you can begin to think that when Jesus says, forgive them, is talking about some them out there that really need to save it, but not us, because we actually bring merit to the equation. Oh, help you. You realize that you cannot simultaneously look down your nose at any other people and lift your your eyes up to the cross of Jesus Christ. You just can't do it. That Jesus loved and died them, and we are them. That was his primary purpose.

Sometimes people will say, well, Jesus never claimed to be God. Have you read the Bible? Matthew 20, 28, here's what Jesus says, even as the son of man came, not to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. You know what a ransom is? It's to pay a price for somebody that is captive to Septim III, free.

John 12, 27, now is Jesus talking, now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father saved me from this hour, but for this purpose I have come to this hour. This hour was for him to die. Not to preach, not to do a miracle, but to die. John 316, for God so love the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. even at his birth, Matthew 121, and she will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus.

Why Jesus? For he will save his people from their sin. This is not a mystery why he came. It wasn't just a teacher. It wasn't just a prophet. It wasn't just a miracle worker. He's the Savior. Romans 3 says it this way.

Verse 25, that God put forward Jesus as a propitiation by his blood. and propitiation means a payment that? It's like music to my ears. A payment that satisfies. The perfect law and justice of God was paid for in full. The payment was satisfied by the blood of Jesus. God put forward Jesus as a propitiation by his blood

to be received by faith. This was the show, number one, God's righteousness. And number two, because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. And number three, it was to show his righteousness. at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. In other words, because of God's justice,

all sin must be paid for. Because of God's mercy, payment was delayed. This is really good news for you and me. This is why we have a church service today. If God required payment to be made on your first sin, there'd be nobody here. It would just be a greasy spot and you'd be in hell. That's how they work.

I'd be there with you, okay? But because of God's grace, he made you. made the payment. This is what the gospel is. Theologians call this penal substitutionary atonement. Like a legal penalty. That's what that first word means. That we have all sin and because of the justice of God, all sin must be paid for. And sometimes I've heard people say, well, why don't God just forgive? People sit against me and I forgive. Because he's a holy and perfect God and you're a wretched, crooked egomaniac. That's why. For God to just overlook sin, would make him unjust, and God will not act outside of his own character, and God is just.

And high treason against an eternal king requires an eternal punishment, and so all sin must be paid for. Penal substitutionary. You know what substitutionary mean? It means it takes one's place. A substitute. Like, when you were in school and your teacher's not there, who shows up? a substitute. And the way you treated her is the reason Jesus had to die on the cross, sinners. So he is a substitute.

He didn't merely die for you. He died instead of you. It's penal substitutionary atonement. That word just means payment. One of the ways to remember this word is by the payment of Jesus at the cross, it's an at-onement between us and God.

That he reconciles us back to God. That's why he came. That's why he came. The reason he came is because he's a Savior. He came to die on the cross, be resurrected from the grave, to save sinners. So when he says, Father, forgive them,

for they know not what they do, he's talking about sinners, which is all of us. And if we forget that, the moment we begin to think that applies to somebody else but not us, then we'll be in trouble. You see, Jesus says for all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.

The last thing he instructs his church, he's like, listen, I need you to take this message. Therefore, go and make disciples, invite every single tribe-tong nation, ethnicity around the world. I don't care who they are or what they've done into this saving knowledge of me. And that's what the church is for, that our job is to be sent by him with the message of salvation. a country club for saints. It's supposed to be an outpost planted in enemy territory, smuggling prisoners of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light by the power of the gospel.

And if you ever think that we're not them, Father forgive them, then we're in trouble. Now, my illustration is just more Bible verses. Luke chapter 19, go there. Jesus is going to illustrate who them is. It says, in the enter Jericho, what we find out in Luke, 18, as he's on his way to Jericho, there's a blind man that hears somebody's coming.

He hears the crowd coming with him. And the blind man's like, who is that? They're like, Jesus of Nazareth. And the blind man has heard rumors about this man that he calls himself the son of God, the son of man, that he's a miracle worker. And just in case the rumors are true, blind Bartimaeus begins to cry out. Jesus! And everybody's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hush, hush.

He's like, you can hush. This is my one shot. Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus is like, who's bringing that? screaming jugger over here to me and he goes to him and then heals the man that's exactly what happens here and then right on the heels of this he goes into jericho he entered jericho and was passing through please know this jesus never has casual meetings he only has divine appointments it's not an accident that he's going to bump into blind barthamas and zakias

and it's not an accident that you're here right now or listening right now i mean i know you just think you're trying to get a date or whatever you're trying to do. And if there's anything in you right now that's just leaning in listening at all, if you're thinking, well, this isn't nearly as boring as I thought it would be. I'm telling you, man, the king of the universe is tapping you on your shoulder. And you might even be going, well, I don't really believe this. That's adorable. We'll see in about 30 more minutes, what you believe, okay? That's how he got me. I didn't mean to. He just came and got me. All right, he entered Jericho and was passing through, and behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus.

His name means righteous, by the way. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. Let me tell you a couple things about this. When it says chief tax collector, this guy was the worst. If you grew up around Sunday school or whatever, you already know who this guy is, all right? He's a wee little man, but that's kind of weird. And so when it says chief tax collector,

it just doesn't mean that people didn't like him. Like if you work for the IRS, if I were you, I wouldn't tell anybody, okay? But you're not like this guy, okay? What you're doing, I mean, he was doing evil. What you're doing is we need a better system but I don't have time to talk about all that. So here's what he would do, okay?

Not only was he greedy and extorting people to keep a little more for himself, it's infinitely worse than that. That the Israelites lived in Roman occupied territory. Rome had taken over Israel and they would allow them. the locals to bid and buy a franchise to collect taxes. And Rome stretched from England to China.

And if anybody got out of line, if you're gonna run a territory that big and there's a little skirmish somewhere, you can't just send some Apache helicopters to like put them in their place. And so what they would do is they would allow local people to buy the opportunity to exact taxes, and then they would tyrannize the local,

people see crucifixion. And so now what Zekees has done is Zekees has paid to be able to go to his brothers and sisters and with the power of the Roman government behind him demand taxes from them and then give it to the government that is tyrannizing his own brothers and sisters. I'm telling you, everybody he got taxes from, they knew somebody. They had a neighbor, they had an aunt, they had an uncle, they had somebody that had probably been tortured and crucified. So he had invited to parties, you get it. I mean, it'd be like, imagine setting up a little collection stand to Al-Qaeda in New York City

on September 12th. How you think that'd go? It's like this, that he's funding the enemy, and he was rich. Now, there's nothing wrong with being rich, except Jesus says it's hard for rich people to get to heaven. And what's weird is none of you think I'm talking to you. You know what you need to be saved?

need. You know why it's hard for rich people to get to heaven? Because they don't think they need anything. Now, there's nothing in and of itself unrighteous about being rich, okay? There's righteous rich and unrighteous rich, and there's righteous rich, and there's righteous poor and unrighteous poor. Like, there are people in the Bible that were righteously rich, like King David. He was loaded. King Solomon. Then there's unrighteous rich, like Zacchaeus. He's making his money off of the backs of others. Not good. Then there's righteous poor, like see all the disciples. but there's nothing righteous about being poor in and of itself.

Paul tells Timothy, especially to you men, he's like, boys, if you don't get them go to work and take care of the people in your family, you are worse than an unbeliever. The Bible doesn't say nice things about unrighteous poor. He's like, boy, you're supposed to get up and go to work, not lay on your couch and vote for people that will just support you. That's not how this thing's supposed to work.

You better take care of yours. So, this guy's a chief tax collector He's funding terrorism against his own people, and every time he shows off his opulence, everybody in town knows it's at the expense of people they love. This ain't good. And, by the way, his name means righteous. He is not living up to his name.

Verse three, and he was seeking to see who Jesus was. Why? Because deep in the heart of every man and every woman, we have eternity in our hearts. He's got everything this world has to offer, and he's going, that's not enough. I think every single one of us and every single person you know and love and the people you don't like that much all have this thing in our hearts asking the question, is this it? And the answer is no, this is not it.

You were created for so much more. And he has this desire. And he was seeking to see Jesus, who Jesus was. But on account of the crowd, he could not because he was small and stature or a wee little man. You know the song. I'm not singing it. Verse four, so he ran on ahead and he climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him. for he was about to pass that way.

And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and he said, Zacchaeus. You see, what was going on here is that Zechiazzius was getting in the Sycamore tree so that he could see Jesus, but in reality what was happening as God was orchestrating this event so that Jesus could see him. And he calls his name, Zechias. Here's what I want you to hear.

The Lord sees you. The Lord sees you. The Lord sees you. And maybe you've been beaten up and broken, or maybe you thought you were too far gone. There is no too far gone for the Lord. And not only does he see you, he will call your name. And Zakeas thinks he's busted.

He's not busted. He's going to be the guest of honor. I want to ask you this. Has he ever called your name? Have you ever heard the Lord call your name? And I don't mean in some kind of spooky way that's not what I'm talking about. If you're new, you're like, oh, I knew this is going to get weird. No, that's what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about when he called my name unto himself. I didn't hear it audibly. I heard it infinitely louder than what I can hear with these little ears. I heard it way deep down in my soul. I heard him call my name. And so he calls out to his name. Zacchaeus, hurry and come down for I must stay at your house today. Now, here's the thing.

I want to spend a little bit of time talking about the response to the crowd. Here's the guy that nobody liked. here's a guy that when Jesus said, Father, forgive them, all the religious people taught, he was talking about somebody else and not them. And Jesus sees this man that everyone despises that's outside of the fold. And he says, Zakias, hurry down, because I must eat at your house today. And the crowd goes, wait a minute, Jesus, you're not supposed to hang out with people like that. Do you know what got Jesus in more trouble than anything else? It was who he hung out with.

He got in trouble because he kept hanging out with the wrong group of people. I just need you to know, this thing that you're a part of is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. That's what we're here for. That anybody that wants to see Jesus,

we want to be the kind of place to help people see Jesus, and maybe even more importantly, help them understand that they are seen by him, and we would love to set up some dinners where you would hear Jesus call out your name. And I'm telling you, man, And the church has historically not been very good at this.

I'm a little angsty this weekend, a little aggravated, and I'll explain why, okay? Last Sunday during the Super Bowl, a commercial came on called the He Gets Us commercial. Let's talk about that. That'll be fun, okay? So buckle up for this one. Now, if you don't know what the He Gets Us commercial is, and it's because, I don't know, you live under a rock or you're so spiritual, you don't have a TV and watch the Super Bowl. That's neat.

You're probably not here, quite honestly. So they showed its commercial. The He gets us organization. We actually have just been meeting with their leadership, and here's what they're trying to do, okay? What they are trying to do is they put all these commercials about Jesus all over the place. And they ask the question,

how did the greatest love story of all time become associated with things like hate and bigotry and things like that? And so they blanket the world with these commercials, and all they're trying to do is get people that had a negative understanding of who Jesus is to just move. the needle a little bit and be like, huh, well, I didn't know what he was like that.

And then you go to their website, and if you click a button in a few short steps, they will connect those people that are interested or asking questions with trained gospel-centered church people that can share the good news of the gospel with those people. Okay, that's the strategy. And on Super Bowl Sunday, they share this commercial. And the commercial goes something like this. I'll try to be as fair as I can be, okay? is that it's a picture of person after person after person

washing the feet of some other people. And the feet washers would be historically what you would think of when you would think about church people. Some of them actually had little like priest collars and things like this. And the feet that were being washed would historically be people who had been significantly hurt by the church.

Like the gay community and the LGBT community at about every minority you could think of. And it just shows this picture after picture after picture. And then it says Jesus didn't teach hate. Jesus watched his feet. He gets this. And do you know what the response from the conservative online church world was?

Hate! You're not doing it right. Those people don't deserve that. It's unbelievable. Unbelievable. In John chapter 13, Jesus, knowing all authority in heaven and earth had been given unto him,

he shows his disciples the full extent of his love. He gets up from the table and dresses himself as a servant. Then he begins to wash his disciples' feet, including Judas, an unrepentant sinner. And then he says, I have set for you an example that you will be blessed if you do likewise. This isn't about actually washing feet. Please don't try to touch some stranger's feet

in the name of it. Gee, that's weird. That's not what it is. It's just a symbol. It means get over yourself, lower yourself, and serve some other people, especially people that don't look like you and act like you and believe like you. Now, are there problems with the commercial? For sure.

It didn't share the gospel. It didn't talk about faith and repentance as a requirement in order to know Jesus. That wasn't the point. But I refuse to be a part of, we will never be the kind of people that are just standing there with our rocks waiting for some other organization. to do it not the way we would want to do it, and then just be condemners. That's not how we roll, man.

Look, if you don't like the He gets a strategy, fine. Come up with your strategy. What were you doing on the day of the Super Bowl? Were you leading people to Jesus? I was sitting in a bar in Nashville drinking a beer with my wife trying to pray for Brock Purdy. I don't know what you were doing. Listen, man, Dio Moody.

He was an evangelist back in the day, like mid to late 1800s, and he would do these crusades. You're not supposed to call them that anymore. I don't ever remember what you're supposed to call them now, but just get over that too, I don't care. And so D.L. Moody was an evangelist back in the day, just to put this into context, okay? And at one of his evangelistic meetings,

there was a pro baseball player named Billy Sunday that got saved at his thing. And then he became an evangelist who traveled the world and preached. And at one of Billy Sunday's events, there was a little boy from North Carolina named Billy Graham that got saved at Billy Sunday's thing. So this is kind of the link, it's kind of a big deal.

And D. O. Moody was getting to, getting criticized. You read some people with the gospel, religious people get mad, trust me. Hashtag Jimmy Cratscorn and I don't care, okay? See my emails. And here's what, Deon Moody, here's how he replied to his critics. It is clear you don't like my way of doing evangelism.

You raise some good points. Frankly, I sometimes do not like my way of doing evangelism, but I like my way of doing it better than your way of not doing it. Amen? That's it, man. That's it. And so, here's it.

the criticism. Look at it. Verse 6. So Zaks, he hurried down and so Zakias hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And you're like, but wait, did he repent? Not yet. Jesus, did you get a full gospel explanation before you let him get out of the tree? Nope. Does Jesus have a plan for Zakias? He sure does. Now what's interesting is the way this is written in Greek, it can be read both ways. it's not confusing, it's meant to see that this is a two-way street, that Zakias came down from the tree, and Zakias received Jesus joyfully. It's called salvation.

But you could also receive it this way. When Zakias came down from the tree, Jesus received Jakeas joyfully. Jesus didn't stand back and be like, you better clean it up before you come in here. And if you're wondering, like, if you're new, and you're like, why does it get so angsty about this? I've given my whole freaking life to this.

That's it, man. No matter who you are, where you're from, what you've done, and especially if somebody in my position told you don't belong, we want to receive you joyfully in the name of Jesus Christ. And the reason is because I royally screwed this up about 30 years ago. If you're irregular, you've heard this a hundred times, and you're not listening fast enough, so I can't tell you the whole story.

If you want to listen to the full thing, you can go back and listen to a sermon in 2023 in a series called Anything As Possible Week 3, or if you want to read all about it, if the tomb is empty, the first book I wrote, chapter 7 tells all about it. But very shortly, I was on staff at a church, and I also worked at a gym,

and I came to know this group of girls that worked out there, and they were all strippers. And through a series of conversations, one of them said, I'll go to church with you. In her name was Sunshine. It wasn't a real name, and I take her to church with me. And it wasn't this kind of church. There was a dress code, and she wasn't in dress code.

And at the end of the service, the powers that be of that church pulled me aside, and so why are you bringing people like that here? And they literally said, this place exists to keep our children and family safe from people like that. And instead of standing up on the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, who died for me because I am then a coward in fear because I was afraid of losing my job or what would happen to me in my ministry trajectory and I said nothing.

And in brokenness and shame, I made a promise, God, if you ever put me in charge of one of these things that it will be a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ and I don't care who you are, what you've done, you would be received joyfully. and when they saw it, they grumbled. Please don't be they.

In the moment that they starts rising up in you because it rises up in all of us, especially church people, please by the power of the gospel squish that thing immediately. And when they saw it, they all grumbled. He has gone to be a guest of a man who is a sinner. You know why I think that he gets this commercial

ticked off so many Christians? It's because they got politically offended. and it exposed who their real God is. When you see sinners, what do you think? Do you grumble? Do you feel angry, offended, prideful like you're better than them? How could they? Do you know what Jesus's emotional response was?

Compassion. Now, he will come back to judge. So there is a judge. You don't have to try to take his spot, man. Here's what Jesus felt when he saw lost people. Matthew 936, and when he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless,

like sheep without a shepherd. You see, so many times the church villainizes a group of people that are shepherdsless, and they've been harassed and beaten up, and we're supposed to be the ones representing Jesus Christ and lowering ourselves and loving them with the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now, don't hear me say anything I'm not saying. Oh, my goodness, you serve and you open your mouth and share the full good news of the gospel of Jesus. And so they're eating dinner. Jesus is at Zacchaeus's house. And Zekees stood. Why does he stand? Because he's a wee little man, you know,

he can't see over the tables. He's got like, hey God, you know, make sure he's up there. And Zekees stood and he 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. The law said, you had to give back one-fifth or 20 percent. He's like, I'm going four times. And look at Jesus' response. And Jesus said to him, today salvation has come to this house since he also is a son of Abraham. Zakias' activity did not precede his identity. It was a result of his identity being changed.

When Jesus says since he's the son of Abraham, here's what this means, okay? This doesn't mean, oh yeah, you got an automatic end because of who your grandparents are. That's not what it means. Romans chapter 9, Romans chapter 10, Paul makes it very, very clear to be a son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of our faith, and God said, I'm going to bless you through a seed, not seeds, not like a whole bunch, but a seed. That seed is Jesus. And God counted Abraham's faith as righteousness, so whoever believes in Jesus, puts their faith in Jesus.

When you died on the cross somehow, that counted for me, then we get credited with that same kind of righteousness. This is what is happening in the life of Zacchaeus. But I want you to notice the order of events. Repentance came as a result of Jesus accepting him, not a prerequisite. Jesus did not primarily come to eat with Zekees, or even be nice to him, or even to look at the crowd

and be like, quit picking on the fact that he's a wee little man. No, no, no, no. All of that was a means to an end, and that end is that Jesus came to save him. And Jesus came to save you and me. Why would you say that? Because the next thing Jesus does is give his purpose statement. Verse 10, for the son of man came to seek and save the lost. How do we know that?

Because the first thing out of his mouth on the cross. Anybody want to know why I'm on this cross? He says, this is why. My Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Pay very close attention to this. Jesus did not come to start a religion or merely show people a better way to live. That's not why he came.

He didn't come that we could start little social clubs that help people clean up their lives and be better citizens. That's not why he came. He didn't come for a specific group of people, but he came for all people because all people are sinners in need of a savior. He didn't come merely to shape your public policy

or to join your pet social issues. It's not why he came. He didn't even come to make sure everybody had enough to eat or have their rights fought for. Though he stood up for the poor and marginalized, that's not primarily why he came. He did not come to merely preach sermons or put the Pharisees in their place or even to do miracles. Those all pointed to the reason why he came. The reason that Jesus came is he came to do the work of the Father, to step off of his throne, to humble himself, to dress himself in humanity,

to be born of a virgin, grow up and live the human experience, to live the perfect life in obedience to the scriptures, to fulfill every promise and prophecy in the scripture, to die in our place as a penal substitutionary atonement, to put to death, death, and on the third day, come walking out of the grave. And if the tomb is empty, anything is possible, including you and I, sinners being reconciled

to an almighty and holy God. That's why he came. And one day he's going to come back. And when he does, all who have believed on him will be taken home to be with him. You see, Jesus, came to be a savior, to die in our place as a savior. This is why he says, Father, forgive them.

Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. And so, one of my favorite quotes of any book anywhere at any time is C.S. Lewis in mere Christianity. After he paints the picture of who Jesus is, unique among all other religious figures, he closes the first section of this book this way. C.S. Lewis says, I am trying here to prevent anyone from saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Jesus.

I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claims to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic on a level with a man who says he's a poached egg or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice.

Either this man was and is the son of God or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as demonic, or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us, and he did not intend to. So let me ask you this, who do you say that he is? Who do you say that he is? Jesus said that he came to seek and to save the loss, and some of you walked in this place or are watching online, and you are lost. and you've tried it your way and you realize it ain't working.

Even if materially it's all working perfectly in your life, deep down in here, you realize, man, I am lost. There's something missing and it's me. Jesus sees you. Yeah, he sees you trying to get a look at him. And if right now you'll tune your ears into eternity, maybe you hear him calling your name. And he's not calling your name.

to punish you. He's calling your name because he wants to invite himself into your life. Zechias, I must come and eat at your house today. In the first century, man, to eat with somebody, it meant a relationship. When you get to the very end of the book, the book of Revelation, chapter 3, verse 20, there's this invitation of Jesus that goes like this. Behold, I stand at the door and knock and anyone, anyone who hears me and opens the door, I will come in and have a relationship with you and you with Jesus. That's the invitation. So what does it take? Do you have to get your life right first? No, man. Jesus came and did that on your behalf. Now over time, when you experiencing the, when you experience the life-changing grace of Jesus, just trust me on this.

He changes everything over time. Everything. But it just starts with you receiving the invitation of him. that he would call your name because he wants to come into a relationship with you in this very moment. And so I want to give you that opportunity to say yes to Jesus. Would you bow your head? Would you close your eyes? And if today for the very first time, you are ready to receive the grace of Jesus Christ, the invitation to repent of your sins, to trust him as Savior, if somehow today for the very first time you believe that when he died on the cross,

somehow that counted for you, you hear his invitation and today you were ready to call on the name of the Lord to be saved would you lift your hand as high as you can and say god father here i am please save me as high as you can our good and gracious heavenly father god i love you and i praise you and i thank you i thank you for the people that are putting their hands up it's not the hand and the air that saves god we know this is christ's life death and resurrection that make it possible for us to hear the invitation and to walk boldly into your throne room god i thank you then in this very very much moment. Sins are being washed away. Your righteousness has been counted to us that our name has changed.

We're adopted into your family and we get to sit at the table with the king of kings forever and ever and ever and ever. And God, I pray for all the believers that are a part of this movement. God, would you consistently help us understand that we are they, that we need your forgiveness every single day? and God, would you give us your eyes to see people so that we don't look down on them, we look to you, that we are filled with compassion, and that you might use us in whatever way you want to help them know you the good shepherd.

God, we pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen. Church, would you please stand to your feet? We are going to respond to the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We're going to sing. We're going to lift up our voices and we're basically going to sing the gospel. I need you to think about it like a prayer at all of our locations and online all over the place.

You're joining with tens and tens of thousands of people and it's like we're all praying the same thing to the same God at the same time. And it unites us. And we're going to bring our ties and our offerings. Man, we take all of that offering unto the Lord and we leverage it so there could be more Zacchaeuses that can have. dinner with Jesus because that's what he's all about. And we're going to pray. Some of us need to come and repent for how prideful we've gotten because we think we bring merit to the equation. Some of us need to come and just once again receive an experience of the forgiveness of Jesus in our life. But he invites us to come and pray. So let's sing, let's bring, let's pray. Let's respond.