Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - With the Powerful

Episode Date: December 30, 2022

If you want to get the gist of who Jesus is, you have to look at a whole number of encounters Jesus had with individuals. The gospels are filled with encounters Jesus has with all sorts of people: with the powerful person, with the powerless person, with a man, with a woman, with a Jew, and with a Gentile.    In Luke 19, we get to a guy named Zacchaeus, and we’re told two things about him: that he’s a chief tax collector and he’s wealthy.    This teaches us two different and important things: 1) anyone can approach Jesus, but 2) money is always an issue when coming to Jesus. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 19, 1997. Series: The Real Jesus, Part 2: His Life. Scripture: Luke 19:1-10. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

If Jesus is who He says He is in the Bible, why is life full of so many bad things? Today on Gospel and Life, Tim Keller continues to look at the gospels to discover who the real Jesus is and how we can know Him. Here's today's message. The passage that we're going to look at is printed in your bulletin. It's Luke chapter 19 verses 1 through 10. Let me read it to you. Luke 19 1 to 10. Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man, he could not because of the crowd.

So he ran ahead and climbed a sickamore, a fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, Zakyas, come down immediately, I must stay at your house today. So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter. He has gone to be the guest of a sinner. But Zakyas stood up and said to the Lord, look, Lord, here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor.

And if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount. And Jesus said to him, today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a son of Abraham. For the son of man came to seek and to save what was lost. This is God's Word. You know, I should never read this to text slowly. My wife says, you read it too quickly, so I read it slowly. The trouble is when I read it slowly, it's very frustrated because every phrase I see things we should be talking about. So I try to go by quickly, so it doesn't frustrate me as much. It's a very rich passage.

This year, really, moving from the fall all the way to next spring, this coming spring, and let it come, is we're looking at the life of Jesus, and we're looking at the events of his life. And in the very beginning, last fall, you know, and round Christmas, we looked at the beginning of his life, looked at his birth and his baptism and his temptation and the first of his miracles and his enunciation. And when we get into the spring, we'll be getting to the events at the end of his life, like the entry into Jerusalem and the passion and the garden and the crucifixion and the resurrection and so on.

Here in the middle, if you want to get the gist of who Jesus is, you have to look at a whole number of encounters that Jesus had with individuals. The gospels are filled with encounters with all sorts of people. And when he's with a powerful person, when he's with a powerless person, when he's with a man, when he's with a woman, when he's with a Jew, and he's with a Gentile,

you learn so much about him. And really, what we're gonna be doing for a few weeks is looking at these one-on-one encounters, these conversations Jesus has with individuals. Now, today we get to a guy named Zacchaeus and there's two things told us about him. And because there's two things told us, we, in a sense, have two basic themes. Not, of course, they relate, but there's two basic themes.

Two things were told about him right away. There was a man named Zacchaeus and he was two things were told about him right away. There was a man named Zacchaeus, and he was two things. He was a chief tax collector, and he was wealthy. Now, it tells us two different things, and they're two important things. And let me put it to you this way, and now we'll unpack it. This teaches us. This passage teaches us that anyone can approach Jesus.

Anyone can come to Jesus. Anyone at all. But money is always an issue. Anyone can come to Jesus, but money is an issue when coming to Jesus. That's what it's saying. Look, first of all, anyone can come. Now, we're told that this man is the chief tax collector. This is another one of these places where the translators, the people who translate the Bible for us into English, as we read it, from the Greek, they, every so often, they have to do a little bit of interpretation.

Because there's a word here that they, there's a single word that's actually translated here, which it's not that easy to translate. They're not totally sure what it is. They made their best guess. And the word literally says, that Zacchaeus was the arch tax collector. That's what it says literally. He was the arch tax collector. What's that mean? Well, first of all, I don't want to insult your intelligence. Many of you know something about this. If you've studied the Bible, tax

collectors were not regarded the same way we regard tax collectors now. Not that I think I read an article not long ago that a lot of people that work for IRS just tell their friends that they work for the government. You know that IRS isn't a very popular thing at all. But we're talking about tax collectors and the relationships with the society in those days, we're talking about something utterly different. Way beyond anything you can imagine. Because the tax collectors were the employees, you might say, of the oppressive conquering imperial Roman government, which had conquered their colonies and they subjugated them, and therefore they levy taxes, and the taxes were by no means just taxes. They were inordinate, they were enormous.

And the men who took the job of elevating those taxes were the tax collectors. The tax collectors were universally hated. They were seen rightly so as oppressors, as exploiters, as apostates. They skimmed off enormous amounts of the exorbitant tax for themselves, so they were all very rich. And if you want to have some idea about how people looked at tax collectors, and I won't spend more on this point, you can just look there at verse 7. It says, what in verse 7? It says, all the people saw this, and they muttered. See, look, what in the world is this man doing talking to such as Zacchaeus? Why is he even talking to him?

All of them. And other way you could put it is the moral majority hated the tax collector. The mainstream, the majority of people absolutely despise them. And yet here we have at the end of Jesus' life. If you notice, this is in Luke 19. If you actually stand back and read the narrative and see in context in just a few verses, we're into Jesus entering into Jerusalem at Phon Palm Sunday. In other words, Jesus is like 10 days from the end of his life, maybe.

Jesus is, the end of Jesus' life is rushing up to meet him. And yet, he goes through a crowd and He singles out the tax collector. And He says, I'm going to stay with you. He's got this whole crowd, a very moral people who all look down their nose terribly at the tax collector and Jesus says, I want to spend time with you. Now, what is the teaching here? What is the point of this? Let me give you some background as to how I started to see this more clearly. There is a pattern in the book of Luke, and I don't think I would have seen it.

There's a pattern in the Gospels, but it's more in the book of Luke. He brings it home more clearly, more powerfully. And I don't think I would have seen it if I didn't have to do a series like this. You see, if you're doing a series on a book like James or Psalms, you just, you know, from week to week, the minister sits down and you just study the next passage and then you teach it. When you're doing something like the life of Jesus, what I've had to do is I've had to look through all kinds of these accounts of Jesus encounters with people to choose a few.

I just have to choose just a couple really out of many. And I began to realize something absolutely astounding. You begin to see the pattern when you realize, for example, the tax collectors are mentioned six times by Luke, six times, and every single time positively. Now one of the reasons why I know a lot of you aren't going, wow, is because you don't, you know, you may not be immersed enough in realizing just how much tax collectors were hated. And the liberals hated it and the conservatives hated it. Everybody hated them. The Romans despised them, you see?

Because they would stoop so low as to take this job. And the Jews were despised. Everybody despised them six times. Six times they're mentioned. Every time positively. Everybody despises them. They despise themselves. But Jesus did not.

Just kind of interesting. For example, in Luke chapter 312, it said, we're told the tax collectors were lining up to get baptized by John, and they were starting to say, what one's we do. And of course, Luke 5, 27, Matthew, one of the apostles is a tax collector, and Jesus calls him and makes him an apostle. But listen, Matthew, I probably Luke 7, 29,

when they heard him, all the people in the tax collectors accepted God's way as right, but the Pharisees and the Bible experts rejected it. What does Luke sing here? You know who the Pharisees and the Bible experts are? People like me. See, people like me. But the ones that heard him gladly, the common people and the tax collectors.

And then you have verse 5, chapter 15, verse 1. Luke says, now the tax collectors and the sinners were drawing near to here Jesus. And then we have maybe the most famous one outside of this one in the book of Luke. In Luke chapter 18 verse 10, Jesus tells the parable and he says, two men went up to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and one was a tax collector. Many of you know how it goes. The Pharisees prayer was an exercise in self-congratulation. and the tax collector would not even look to the sky, wouldn't even look up and said, God be merciful to me as sinner. And Jesus says, I say unto you, what's the tax collector that went home justified?

And now here we have the key. What's going on? The pattern. Only in Luke do you have all this tax collector stuff, because he's really concerned to bring out this teaching. Only in Luke do you have the parable of the because he's really concerned to bring out this teaching. Only in Luke do you have the parable of the Good Samaritan, the Samaritans, all the respectable people hated the Samaritans. But a good Samaritan is a hero of the parable. Only in the book of Luke do you have the parable of the prodigal son.

I remember when I was teaching at Westminster, one of my Asian students once actually said to me, you know what, he says, I've been raised in a culture more like that culture that Jesus was raised in, a culture in which the family was everything. And the family's authority was everything, and to read a story, he said to me, about a young man repudiating the father's authority

and then taking a big part of the family's wealth and going off and squandering it and coming back empty handed, and having the father welcome him full throttle. And Kiss's neck, he says, it gets to me. I got to me too. What is Luke getting at? What is the pattern? Here's what the pattern is. Jesus is attracted to outlaws and outlaws are attracted to him. And the people who most dislike religion most like the gospel. And the people who most like religion most dislike the gospel.

That almost all of the stories of Jesus Christ that are brought to, especially by Luke, but by all of the Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and John are always, almost all of them, are outlaw stories. And when Evergie's is sitting down, outside of Nicodemus, whenever Jesus is talking to the moral majority, the respectable people, the main people, the main body of people, the people in the center, not on the margins of society, not in the margins of religiosity, whenever Jesus is talking to the respectable middle class, except in that one case of Nicodemus, and even there, you don't even have to think about, they were almost always

unpleasant conversations. But it's with the prodigals. What do we mean by outlaws? Well, there's the socially unrespectable. Who are those people? Social-unrespectable people like the poor, people like the tax collectors, people like the foreigners. They weren't respectable socially, then you had the morally unrespectable.

People like the prostitutes and the pimps, people like so many of the women that Jesus would deal with who were a lower class and therefore they had a checkered past, people who were actually unrespectable, physically the lepers. Jesus dealt with lepers all the time. What's going on here? Why does Luke keep bringing it out? That when again and again and again, the nice people are offended and the nasty people are attracted.

And not only that, Jesus goes after. Jesus loves to spend time with the outlaws. Over and over and over again. Does that do any of you remember? I know I've got so much on my mind. I probably ought to stop and get on here. Do any of you remember for example in Matthew chapter 11 way back in the dark ages? I think it was like last September when we were going over it and there's a place where Jesus says, well one to you Bethesda

well one to you Corazine. It'll be better for Sodom and Gomorrah on the judgment day than for you. Any of you remember that? It was so stunning. Is Jesus is saying, Sodom and Gomorrah were places of great rebellion and of great immorality. And Bethesda and Corzine were little communities, fairly small towns, that everybody came out, lots of nice people, and they all came out to hear Jesus and droves when he was there. Jesus is essentially saying, well, one to you, little white-pick at fence towns where the churches are filled, it'll be worse for you on judgment day than the red-like districts

in the megastities of the world. That's what it's saying. Why? You know, every so often, we've come on this theme, every so often I've brought it out to you. But it just began to strike me. When I started to say why is this the key of story here? Why does Luke bring this out?

When I began to study this, I began to say, this is astounding. People who most like religion most hate the gospel, people that most hate religion like the gospel. Jesus Christ is attracted to all laws they to him and the people who hate, the people who feel superior to the socially and margin

and morally marginal are the ones that are continually being repelled by Jesus. What's going on? And here's the simple reason why. Unless you know you're a moral failure, you will want religion not the gospel. Here's what's the difference between religion and the gospel? All the difference in the world.

In religion, I am searching for God. The gospel is, God has come to seek and say that which is lost. Have you ever noticed, whenever a life magazine or PBS or whenever anybody puts together any kind of presentation on the religions of the world. You know what they always call it somehow one of the other are long search for God. That's because the world when they think of religion thinks of religion. And this is religion. I am searching for God. I am seeking Him. I'm looking for Him. Where is He? What's wrong with Him? The fact that I don't have certainty and happiness spiritually today is His fault.

I've been trying. I'm following the rules He owes me. That's religion. But the gospel is, I'm lost. I'm a moral failure. I'm not even looking for God. But God has come to me. You notice something?

Zakias does not say, Lord, I'd like to invite you into my life. Rather, Jesus Christ says, Zakias, open up here I come. In other words, the gospel is, I've come to look for you, says Jesus. You weren't even after me. You're a moral failure. I have come to bring you salvation. You weren't even after me. You're a moral failure. I have come to bring you salvation. You don't seek after me. Now you see, it's as simple as this.

80% to 90% of all Americans, if asked this question, are you more loving and more unselfish than most people? Are you more loving and unselfish than most people? 80% to 90% say yes. Yes, some of you are adding it up. That's exactly what the Bible says. Here's how you can tell whether you're part of the moral majority, do you feel like you're better than most people?

Do you feel you're more unselfish than most people? Do you more decent? You're more honest, you're better than most people. You see, you look down at somebody, there's somebody that you consider marginal. Now it depends, it depends on your politics. If you are very politically minded, you certainly disdain a certain group of people that thinks really this is the, these people have here are the problem with our society. Now it depends, if you're more liberal, you're very upset with the right, the right. If you're conservative, you're extremely upset with the left. If you're moral, you're extremely upset with the

immoral. And everybody is doing something to feel superior to most other people. If that's so, you are the people that Jesus is continually offending and who Jesus does not seek out, actually. See, the reason that Jesus goes after the prodigals, the reason he goes after the tax collectors, the reason he loves the lepers, the reason he spends time with these people is because he's loving any smart. He's loving because he goes to the people who've been rejected so much and he's smart because he knows that the people who are going to like the gospel, the people who don't

like religion, and have been rejected by the moral majority. And the only people in the moral majority who do become Christians are people who come to realize that they are no different. There's a sense in which I can put it this way. Let me put it a couple of ways to strike you with it. It's not just that anyone can come, but only anyone's can come. It's not just that the unrespectable, even the unrespectable, can find Jesus, it's in a certain sense only the unrespectable can find Jesus, only the ones who know that they're in the same condition.

You're not a Christian if you are part of the nice people of the world, unless you look and say, my pride and my self-righteousness. And my using of religion and morality and niceness and achievement and self-discipline as a way of being my own's Lord and Savior is no worse at all. In fact, in some ways, I mean, it's no better. In fact, in some ways, it's not only no better, but in some ways it's more worse and more devious than the unrespectable people of the world using self-indulgence and lawlessness to be their own

Savior and Lord, there's no difference between us. Until that's happened, until you say, I'm lost, until you say, I've absolutely no claim on God. You see, until you realize that you are one of the extremities, until you realize that you're in anyone, you can't come at all. It is amazing. And here's the interesting, let me apply this before we get to that second point,

which we have to do before we close up. Anyone can come, not only can anyone come, but only those who know that they are absolutely no better than the anyone's can come. So it's not just a tax-leckers can come, but the people who know that they are absolutely no better than them. It's not. So it's not just a tax-legged, it's a can come, but the people who know that they are absolutely no better than them. It's not just the oppressors, it's not just the exploit,

it's not just the pimps and the processes, but the people do, don't feel one-wit superior to them. And you say, how could that be? I have tried hard, I've kept my nose clean. How in the world can you say, I don't feel a superior to them? Well, if you feel superior to them, you still don't understand what sin is and you still don't understand the gospel. The gospel is, I can free you, says Jesus, from trying to be

your own Lord and Savior. Some people do it through respectability, some through His self-indulgent, but the problem is, Europe is slave to that. I can free you from that. I have come to see, can say that which is lost. As we near the end of another year of ministry, we want to pause and thank everyone who is graciously and generously supported this ministry in 2022. We are so grateful for your support. We also thank God for all the ways He is working through gospel and life and through you to bring gospel renewal to people all over the world. And it is our privilege to serve you through this ministry. As we come to the end of this year, we ask you to prayerfully consider making a year-end gift to help gospel in life finish the year strong

and start 2023 ready to share the beauty of the gospel with more people. To make a year-end gift today, go to gospelonlife.com slash give. That website again is gospelandlife.com slash give because the gospel truly changes everything. Now here's Dr. Keller with the remainder of today's message. Here a couple of words. For those of you who are, I would say, not outlaws. Those of you who are not outlaws, look at yourself. But here's the first thing I would like to say to you. If you are new to New York, some of you are. I know we have a little new to New York thing out there. Let me give you my own version of the new to New York booth.

If you're new to New York, if you're from out there, if you're from the place where there's an awful lot of very moral, respectable people, and you come to New York, if you're from out there, if you're from the place where there's an awful lot of very moral, respectable people, and you come to New York, just going around, you're gonna see people like you've never seen before, you're gonna see people over the top, like you've never seen before,

you're gonna see people out of control, like you've never seen before, you're gonna see people broken, like you've never seen before, you're gonna see the most unrespectful people, people absolutely unfit for polite company. You're never gonna see so many of themful people, people absolutely unfit for polite company. You're never going to see so many of them as you're going to see in New York.

Here's what I want you to ask yourself, how do I react to that? Maybe you can't live in this city. Maybe you don't live in this city. Not everybody's called a living in this city, but a person who is a sinner saved by grace will love cities. Even if you can't live here, you'll love cities. Jesus walks amongst people like that. If you read the gospels, if you stand back and really see it, Jesus goes to people like that.

That's where he is. Jesus would have to love cities more than anywhere else because when you look and see the people he gravitates to, who he pulls out of the crowd, here's a big crowd. And he pulls this one out. I want to stay with your house. He would have to be gravitating toward cities of this world. I'm not saying everybody because there's all sorts of reasons why people can't live in cities,

but you better not despise cities. You better not despise cities because of the people who are there. Because that shows, my goodness, that shows that you're completely out of step with Jesus. Completely. Are you too busy to do what Jesus did? Are you too busy to reach out to people who are spiritually lost? If you're too busy, you've parted company with Jesus.

Jesus presses busier than you. He had 10 days to save the world. What's your problem? He's got 10 days to go. He's about to die. He's about to save the world. He's got time days to go. He's about to die. He's about to save the world. He's got time for this man. Why? It's his job. He says, I came to see him save the lost. If you're too proper, if you're too condescending, if you just don't

want to have anything to do with people like that, you've part a company with Jesus. The son of man came to do what? To seek and save a lost. To seek and save that which was lost. And here's one other thing. What if you are an outlaw? All right. What if you're like Zakias? What if you're an outlaw?

What if you're somebody that people, the moral majority, has despised? I've got this advice for you. First of all, have hope. Do you not realize what the gospel actually says? Not only does Jesus Christ want to live with you, not only does he want to be in your life, not only does he actually enjoy coming into a life like yours. But he only goes into lives of people who know

that they are no better than you. Let's be a good cheer. Well, you somebody says, how do I get him into my life? How do I relate to him? Take a look, take careful look. There's a couple of interesting phrases. First of all, we see that what's the key it does is it says he wanted to see who Jesus

was. If you meditate that on that, you'll realize that's not the same as saying he wanted just to get to look. He just wanted to see what Jesus looked like. He didn't just want to see what Jesus looked like. He didn't just want to see what Jesus looked like. He wanted to see who he was. Now, you know why this is so critical? If you read carefully, you will see the whole gospel

in here, like it almost always is. When Jesus says, I'm coming to your house, up there in verse 6, verse 7, then later on he says salvation has come to your house. You know what that means? Jesus is salvation. See Christ is Christianity in a way that Buddha is not Buddhism and Muhammad is not Islam, because they would never say they were salvation. In fact, Jesus has the audacity to say to Zacchaeus, not just the salvation will come to your house

or salvation is coming to your house, but salvation has come to your house. Past tense, perfect tense, why? Because I'm here. And therefore, becoming a Christian, getting salvation, Christian salvation is not a matter of falling rules or pushing buttons, you have to know who Jesus is. Because salvation is coming to rest

in what he has done for you. Salvation means to say, Lord God, I come to you not because of what I am because of what he is, not because of what I have done but because of what he has done, not because of my works but his works, not because of my life but his life, not because of my payment because of his payment.

That's what Christianity is and therefore, essentially what does it mean to get fine salvation? You've got to see who he is. You've got to get in a position where you see who he is. And how do you do that? Zakias could climb a tree. You have got to read the Bible. And you know what?

Did you know things Zakias looks stupid? You don't think Zakias thought, I'm a rich and powerful man that everybody despises in in the world am I going to do get up in a tree. I should not even let people see that I'm here. Some of them are going to spit on me, they're going to throw urine on me or things like that. Let alone get up in a tree, that just accentuates the fact that I'm a midget. Getting up in a tree leaves me a vulnerable to ridicule. It accentuates, it draws attention to the fact that I'm here. Why did he do that?

He was clearly spiritually needy. And I'll tell you this, if you're going to get to know who Jesus is, you're going to have to put yourself in a position similar. You're going to have to read your Bible. You're going to have to talk to other Christians. You're going to have to go to a Bible study. You're going to have to do something that's going to make you look vulnerable. Well, the heck you are.

You're going to make you look spiritually needy while you are. It's going to be, it's going to take some effort. That's what Zikias did. And he did it. But he did it to get a look at Jesus. And here's something else that Zikias is. When Jesus Christ speaks to him, he gets tremendous flack.

And I'll tell you, this is very much like Peter and Jesus in the boat. Do you remember the place where Jesus comes walking to Peter in the middle of a storm? And Peter gets out of the boat to come to Jesus and he takes his eyes off Jesus and looks at the waves and he sinks. If you are an outlaw and you come to Christ, if you're part of the immoral minority and

you come to Christ, you won't be received by either the moral majority or the immoral minority very well anymore, you won't be a member of either. And if you're a member of the moral majority and you become a Christian, again you won't be a member of either. You'll change your attitude, you'll get out of the ghetto, you'll get rid of this smugness and you will be rejected too. Christians are neither members of the immoral minority

or the moral majority anymore and therefore there's gonna be human waves. If you come to Jesus and you sit, look it, he gets down, he welcomes him gladly and all the people saw this and they began to mutter. Somebody's gonna mutter against you. No matter who you are, if you become a Christian out of the moral majority,

people out of that majority are going to look at you and say, what's the matter with you as a Christian? Because you're gonna do things, they're gonna consider it non-respectable. You're gonna fraternize with people, they think you're unrespectable. But if you remember, the immoral minority, they're gonna give you trouble too too because they're going to say

now you think you're better than us. But the moral majority is not going to, they're not going to trust you either. Don't you see there's going to be waves and what does that he has to do? He does what Peter didn't do. He puts his eye on Jesus, he keeps it there. He says, Lord, see that? He just says, Lord, he ignores them. He doesn't say anything. He says, Lord, he ignores them. He doesn't say anything.

He says, Lord, here and now, if you're an outlaw, get in a position where you can see Jesus and find out who he is. Recognize it's gonna inconvenience you. Recognize that just gonna be human waves. But just remember this, Jesus says, you're the kind of person in whose life I want to make my home. I want to move in.

I want to bring my furniture. I want to decorate it. Oh, you've never seen an interior soul decorator like Jesus. And he says, Zacchaeus, I'm coming to you. Now, there's one more thing, but it's a very important thing. Why does Jesus Christ say in verse 9, salvation has come. If you look carefully, you'll see all the stages in a conversion experience. In verses 2 to 5, you see clearly Zacchaeus being willing to get out there. Stick his neck

out, showing a spiritual need, a real concern. In verse 6, Jesus finally shows the Chias the gospel, and that is he says, come down, I'm coming to your house. Zacchaeus suddenly gets the difference between religion and gospel. Zacchaeus did not invite Jesus, Jesus invited Zacchaeus. Jesus did not say, here's a whole bunch of things you have to do, and maybe I'll show up, but he says, I'm coming to you.

He understands the gospel. How do we know that? He gets down and welcomes them gladly. The joy is there. And then finally, Jesus says, you are saved. Salvation has come to this house. You are a true son of Abraham. No matter what the rest of the country

says that you're not really a son of Abraham, you are a son of Abraham. You are a spiritual descendant of Abraham. You are saved. How could he know that? I'll tell you how he knows it, because Zikias' attitude toward his money is totally changed. Between verse nine and verse six, his verse,

you say, gee, thanks for showing me this, verse eight. In verse six, Jesus says, I'm coming into your house. He shows the grace of the gospel. Zacchaeus welcomes him. And in verse 9, Jesus says, I now know you're saved. Salvation has got, how do we know that? Because Zacchaeus is attitude toward his money is utterly changed. Now how do you know his attitude toward his money has changed?

Because his actions toward his money has changed. Summary. Do you realize the other thing that you'll find when you read the gospels is the gospels are always talking about money. They don't talk about sex that much. They talk about money. And again and again and again you will see Jesus saying, if you come to me it means walking away from your money. Maybe I'll give it back to you. Maybe I'll give it half-back. Maybe I'll give you 90% back.

No more than that, by the way. Jesus never gives anybody more than 90% back. Because you see, the Bible says anybody who's come to grips with how Jesus Christ gave you 100%. He was rich beyond our reckoning, and he was rich beyond our reckoning and he became poor beyond our reckoning. He was rich beyond our reckoning and he gave up everything, became human, became a servant, was cast out from the Father, he became poor beyond reckoning.

The Bible says, when you know that, that radically changes your relationship to your money. Why? Well, first of all, what it means is our money is a kind of spiritual righteousness for most of us. And the more money we have, the greater that danger is. One of the ways in which we can convince ourselves that we're better than other people is we've made out. It's almost impossible for a heart that's so desperately trying to prove itself, trying to be its own salvation, trying to prove to yourself in the world that I'm better than most people. Every heart wants to do that.

If you don't see that in yourself, you don't know yourself yet. If you have a little money, if you have more money, if you have a lot of money, the more money you have, the greater the danger is to say, the reason I have money is because I'm smarter, I'm savvier, I'm a better person. When you become a Christian, that spiritual, umbilical cord that money is utterly cut and you begin to realize, this is just money now. It's not my identity, it's not my comfort, it's not my consolation, it's not the way in which I deal with my troubles.

You know those jokes, those very sick jokes about people say, when I get depressed I go buy a new outfit. That's a joke, we all laugh at that. That's a joke. We all laugh at that. That's adoration. That's a way of consoling yourself against the troubles of the world. That's worship. That's religious. And the way you know that you have finally cut the taproot to your money is that you

say, I'll give away lots of money. It all depends on what the opportunities are. Some of you are rich enough to give away 50% like Zacchaeus did and still have a, be able to meet your debts and pay your rent and so on. Some people are rich enough to give away most of it. Some people, in all cases, Jesus says, I want you to at least give away 10%. Why?

Because I want you to know, continually know, something of what I did. I want you to lower your lifestyle in sacrifice for others. And then I'll know that you know your sinter saved by grace. Your attitude toward your money is one of the most important and inevitable ways that you know that you're no longer religious, but you just, you know, the gospel.

And the way you know your attitudes changed is your actions changed. You know, every so often you hear somebody says, well, my attitudes changed. Of course, you're spending the same amount of money on themselves, they're giving the same amount of money away, but my attitudes changed. That's a little bit like saying, yes, of course,

I beat my wife, but my attitudes changed toward her. I've still beat her, but I really have a different regard for her. I mean, that's not even funny, is it? I mean, you know, almost got to be, to be ready to laugh then we think about it. It's not funny. How can your attitude change without your actions changed toward anything? Your attitude hasn't changed then.

Zagia says, money has no more, is no more my righteousness, it has no more grab on me. And his attitude towards the poor and his attitude toward people he wrong. So utterly changed, Jesus says, now I know. Because now I know I'm your savior because I'm your Lord. Sikhiyah says, look Lord. Religion says, if I follow the rules God owes me, the gospel says God has sent his son to follow the rules for me and now you owe him everything. How are you going to know the difference between whether you're religious or whether you really have the gospel?

If you know Jesus is a Savior, you will get up and you will say, look Lord, Lord, I will do anything for you. I will obey you unconditionally. Command me. I'm under new management. And that's what it means to be a Christian. You see, Jesus loves outlaws. There's good news and there's tough news. There's strong meat and there's sweet meat. Oh, friends, the sweet meat overwhelms the strong meat. Don't say, oh my gosh, this means I've got to start

to become radically generous over a come a Christian. How dare you look at that? How dare you think of that? You're like a little child as CS Lewis says, playing in a mud puddle, never having seen the ocean. And somebody says, let's go to the beach and you say, oh no, how dare I leave my little mud puddle? You have no concept.

You can't out give God. You couldn't possibly out give God. The Son of Man came to seek and save that which is lost. Let's pray. Our Father, we see that anyone can come, but actually only anyone can come. But we also see that on the one hand, salvation is so free that it becomes so costly. And Lord, it's amazing when, when I watch the chias giving up so much, he's filled with joy. Is being a Christian costly?

Is being a Christian incredibly expensive? Yes, that's why the chias was so happy. Lord, help us to understand these things. For those of us who cannot understand them, I pray that you would impel them and encourage them to look, to make the effort, to stick their neck out, to see who Jesus is. And for those of us who are not living in accord with what we just talked about, I pray that you would help us right now, as we meditate during the music and these last couple of minutes in the service,

I pray that you would help us get a look at Jesus so that we might be like Him, that we might also love the outlaw and see how much He loved us as outlaws. And we pray all this in Jesus name, amen. Thanks for listening to today's teaching from Dr. Keller on the real Jesus. We pray that it challenged you and encouraged you. To find more gospel-centered resources like today's teaching from Dr. Keller on the real Jesus. We pray that it challenged you and encouraged

you. To find more Gospel-centered resources like today's teaching, we invite you to sign up for email updates at gospelunlife.com. This month's sermons were recorded in 1996. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel-unlife podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. were preached from 1989 to 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.