The Son of Man Came to Seek and Save the Lost

Introduction: The Conversion of Zacchaeus

0:01 Let us turn again tonight for this final consideration of the teaching of God in this wonderful account of the conversion of this man named Zacchaeus. Luke chapter 19, verses 1 through 10. I shall read the word of God and then we shall look to God in prayer together.

0:28 Our Lord is on his way to Jerusalem with a clear understanding of what awaits him as is recorded in verses 31 and following of the previous chapter. And on his way to Jerusalem he entered and was passing through Jericho. And behold, a man named Zacchaeus. And he was a chief publican and he was rich.

0:49 And he sought to see Jesus, who he was, and could not for the crowd because he was little of stature. And he ran on before and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must abide at thy house. And he made haste and came down and received him joyfully.

1:19 And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, He has gone into lodge with a man that is a sinner. And Zacchaeus stood and said unto the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I gave. I give to the poor. And if I have wrongfully exacted aught of any man, I restore fourfold.

1:41 And Jesus said unto him, Today is salvation come to this house, forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost. Let us once again pause to seek God's help and presence in the ministry of the Word. Our Father, You have been the object of many, many prayers concerning these days.

2:14 Prayers that have come up into your presence weeks and months prior to this past weekend when we began this special series of meetings. We acknowledge you to be the God who has heard the many cries that have come into your presence. We thank you that you're the God whose ear is open to the cry of the righteous. We thank you you're the God who, has not only told us to ask but has promised that if we ask, we shall receive.

2:44 Not only have you commanded us to seek and to knock, but you have promised that those who seek find, and to those who knock it shall be opened. And we would be guilty of a terrible sin of ingratitude, did we not corporately thank you for all the answers to our prayers that we have been privileged to witness in these days together. And our Father, we not only corporately, praise you in this moment, but once again we entreat you, come, oh breath of heaven, come we pray, oh wind of God, and breathe upon us in the ministry of the word. Blessed author of the written word, come, make that word to live in our hearts and in our minds. We trust you, God, Holy Spirit, to be our teacher. Minister to us now, we pray. We plead in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Connection: Salvation Explained by the Son of Man's Mission

3:42 Amen. Having approached this portion of the word of God in the form of a real-life drama with its two basic settings, one on a well-beaten path on the road into Jericho, the other inside the home of a wealthy man within the city of Jericho, and having traced out how the Lord Jesus sought and saved this man Zacchaeus. And some of the ways in which God's dealings with Zacchaeus become the index of his dealings with all sinners whom he seeks and saves, our attention tonight is focused upon the concluding statement of this paragraph. Verse 10, which we have suggested night after night, is really the whole message of the entire narrative. Our Lord, having given this word of assurance to Zacchaeus, concludes by saying, For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost. And before looking at the text and its detailed teaching, pause just a moment with me, if you will please, to see the connection between these words of Jesus and everything that has preceded in this paragraph.

5:07 Zacchaeus has said, Behold, Lord, I am a changed man. I acknowledge you. I acknowledge you to be God. I acknowledge you to be my gracious and sovereign Savior.

5:19 I confess to you that I am a changed man. The Lord Jesus responds by saying, Yes, Zacchaeus, and I say to you that you are indeed a changed man. Salvation has come to this house. And salvation has come, Zacchaeus, because you are now a true son of Abraham.

5:42 You are a true believer, and, Zacchaeus, here's the connection, the reason why salvation has come to this house, the reason why you have become a true son of Abraham, the reason why you can say, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor, if I've wrongfully taken anything, I restore it, the reason why all of this has transpired, Zacchaeus, is because it is perfectly suited to the very goal of my mission as the Savior of sinners. I have made you a changed man. I have sought you and saved you and constituted you a true son of Abraham. So that as Zacchaeus reflects upon the events of the day and his head is, as it were, swimming with the wonder and the glory of it, the Lord Jesus traces all of these blessings back to their fountainhead, that fountainhead being his own glorious person and the outworking of his own blessed mission as the seeker and the Savior of sinners. And so as we come to the text tonight, we will completely misunderstand the entire teaching of the passage.

7:09 Unless we see that connection, verse 10 is the interpretation of everything that has preceded. It is the inspired explanation of all that has gone before. Having then seen something of the connection between verse 10 and all that precedes, let us consider the teaching of the text as it breaks down into two distinct heads. First of all, we have the uniqueness of His person affirmed for the Son of Man.

Head 1: The Uniqueness of His Person Affirmed: The Son of Man

7:44 Our Lord, in using this terminology, is making an affirmation about the uniqueness of His person. In what capacity has He worked upon Zacchaeus to bring about this change? In what capacity has He become the mighty Seeker and Savior of this lost man Zacchaeus? Well, it is in the capacity of this unique personage called the Son of Man.

8:12 So we have, first of all, the uniqueness of His person affirmed, and secondly, we have the purpose of His coming explained. The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost. First of all, then, let us direct our attention to this statement of our Lord in which He makes an affirmation concerning the uniqueness, the uniqueness of His person. Here our Lord does not say, I came, but He says, the Son of Man came.

8:45 Now, what does this phrase, the Son of Man, mean? It is a phrase, a term, found some 80 times in the Gospels. And all but once, this term, this description of the person of Christ is found upon the lips of our Lord Himself.

9:06 So it is a term by which our Lord delighted to describe Himself. It is a term which He delighted to use when thinking of His own person and position. What then does it mean? Well, there are wrong ideas floating around concerning the meaning of the phrase, and in the interest of establishing the right and proper meaning, I want to mention them but briefly.

9:34 The commonly held view is, that the term Son of God, the phrase Son of God, focuses on the deity of Christ, while the phrase Son of Man focuses on the humanity of Christ. And we are told then that the two descriptions are a summary of the person of Christ. He is true God, true man in one person. When he's called Son of God, that's an arrow pointing to his true deity. When he's called Son of Man, that's an arrow pointing to his true humanity. And this is the position held by many who love the Lord, who love his salvation, who love the scriptures. Then there are others of liberal persuasion who believe Jesus Christ to be something less than true God, who say, yes, you see, it's subsequent Christians who elevated Jesus to the level of deity. They ascribe deity to him, but he never.

10:34 He called himself God. He called himself the Son of Man. That is, he is the embodiment of true humanity. He is the perfect man. And they see in the term nothing but a very glorified description of one who, like us, is simply a creature, though albeit the best of such creatures. Now, in both instances, the problem is this. A biblical term has been interpreted, in an unbiblical way. Men have allowed themselves to think that the term meant something that their own prejudices led them to believe that it meant, rather than letting scripture be its own infallible interpreter. Now, does the Bible tell us what this term, Son of Man, means? Yes, it does.

The Old Testament Background of "Son of Man"

11:29 And as we indicated the other night, many New Testament terms can only be understood against their Old Testament background. And this term, Son of Man, in the Old Testament, sometimes refers to man himself. But there is a usage in the Old Testament which is the pivotal usage with reference to our Lord's constant usage of this term. And that passage is Daniel, chapter 7.

11:58 Will you turn, please, to the prophecy of Daniel? Daniel, chapter 7.

12:06 Though we may seem to be far from a road in Jericho and far from Zacchaeus, when we're way back in Daniel, we'll be back in Jericho before long. So hang on. Daniel, chapter 7. In verses 13 and 14, we read, And I saw in the night visions, And behold, there came with clouds of heaven One like unto a Son of Man, And He came even to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him.

12:42 And there was given unto him dominion and glory and a kingdom that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. Now get the significant ingredients of this vision. Daniel has a vision in which in the midst of clouds comes one with the form of a son of man.

13:14 In other words, there is true humanity. He is to be identified as man-like in his appearance. But Daniel sees things concerning this person that cannot be true of any mere man. He comes with clouds of glory.

13:33 And these clouds of glory in Old Testament thinking are constantly connected with manifestations of the divine presence. And then Daniel says there is given unto this one a kingdom, an everlasting kingdom, a universal kingdom that never shall be destroyed. Now then, as the Jews, believing this prophecy of Daniel to be the word of God, studied and thought upon this prophecy, they were convinced that this person whom Daniel saw was Jehovah himself manifested in this way. This was a manifestation of God.

Jesus' Use of "Son of Man" and Jewish Reaction

14:16 Therefore, turning to Mark chapter 14,

14:22 when Jesus identifies himself as the fulfillment of that vision, the Jews say he's committing blasphemy. He's worthy of death. Notice Mark chapter 14, verses 60 through 63. And the high priest stood up in the mist and asked Jesus, saying, Answerest thou nothing?

14:47 What is it that these witness against thee? But he held his peace and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him and saith unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said, I am.

15:02 And ye shall see. And ye shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power coming with the clouds of heaven. See how it parallels Daniel 7? And the high priest rent his clothes and saith, What further need have we of witnesses?

15:20 Ye have heard the blasphemy. When Jesus said, I as the Son of man and the fulfillment of Daniel's vision, he was not guilty of blasphemy in the eyes of the Jews, because he claimed to be a mere man, claimed to be possessor of true humanity. They knew that and understood it. It was his claim that he was that unique personage of Daniel's vision.

15:49 He was one who shared in the very essence of the divine being. And for that they put him to death.

15:58 Therefore this phrase, Son of man, does not refer simply to his humanity, while the term Son of God refers to his deity. No, the terms Son of God and Son of man both have reference to the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as the divine human Savior. Now, Son of God has primary reference to his co-equality, co-eternity. And for some of you a little more serious in theological concern, I'll use another term, his consubstantiality with the Father and the Spirit in the eternal Godhead. The term Son of God has primary reference to this co-eternity, co-equality, consubstantiality of the Son of God with the Father and the Spirit in the mysterious triune Godhead. Whereas the term Son of Man has primary reference to this divine being becoming enfleshed and taking up his dwelling in the midst of men. But both terms have their primary reference

17:21 to the uniqueness of Jesus of Nazareth as a divine being.

The "Son of Man" as the God-Man Savior

17:30 Hence the scripture says, The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, never ceasing, to be what he eternally was. The Word who was with God and the Word who was God, though he never ceased to be what he eternally was, he became in time that which he had never been, true man. And so the Lord Jesus says, Zacchaeus, what has happened to you could only have happened because there in the sycamore tree you had dealings with God. Dealings not with a mere man, not with the most elevated and perfect of men.

18:15 But Zacchaeus, you've had dealings with me, the Son of Man, the unique God-man enfleshed in a true humanity for the sake of doing what I'm on my way to do. I've come through Jericho seeking and saving you, Zacchaeus. I'm on my way to Jerusalem to render to the Father an adequate payment for your sins and for the sins of an innumerable company whom no man can number. Zacchaeus, you've cried, Behold, Lord, you've seen me as I am.

18:54 Zacchaeus, I, the Son of Man, have brought the transformation which has been wrought in your life. Now just a little question of interest that some of you may be asking. Why? Why did Jesus not use the term Messiah of Himself?

19:11 Why does He not use the term Son of God of Himself? Why does He use this term so often? Lenski, the Lutheran commentator, suggests that the Jews had so politicalized, they had so attached political significance to the term Messiah that the Lord Jesus took a term that they had not prostituted in order to convey the uniqueness of His person and His people. And His mission.

19:38 But if that is the right reason, or if it is not, one thing is clear. As we interpret the phrase Son of Man in the light of its usage in Holy Scripture, we come to the conclusion that our Lord was affirming to Zacchaeus that the transforming power which He had experienced as a lost sinner was nothing less than the transforming power of the unique God-man. The one who came to that tree on the road to Jericho by way of the eternal throne and a virgin's womb, the accomplishment of His task stands or falls on the worth, power, and dignity of the person who does the work. There may be in this building tonight some who have never understood why is it that our preacher and others, theologians, get all uptight about whether or not Jesus is truly God in the fullest sense of the word. Why do they get so upset with the liberals who are sweet and nice but deny the true deity of Christ? I'll tell you why we get upset.

20:52 We love your souls. And only a divine Savior can help you and help me. And if He is not God, there'll be none to seek and save the likes of us. And our concern is not academic.

21:07 Our concern is not merely to find somebody to fight with. Our concern is your souls. And the maintenance of the purity and integrity of the biblical doctrine of the person of Christ is a matter of life and death. Jesus said, if ye believe not that I am He, and He uses the divine title, He says you'll die in your sin.

21:34 I say to anyone here tonight, be he layman or preacher, if you do not bow with adoring wonder at the feet of Jesus of Nazareth and call Him Son of God, Son of Man, and mean by that that He is true God, you will die in your sins. And you'll meet Him as an angry God upon the throne of judgment. And you'll hear His words, depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire. And then He'll prove to you His deity.

Head 2: The Purpose of His Mission Explained: To Seek and Save the Lost

22:09 For when He, utters those words, all the authority of His own inherent Godhood will see to it that they are carried out. And you will descend into the pit of everlasting burnings when the sentence is uttered. Blessed be God for the Son of Man, the uniqueness of His person affirmed. Now secondly, notice the purpose of His mission explained.

22:36 For the Son of Man is come, to seek and to save that which is lost.

Defining "The Lost"

22:49 And under this purpose of His mission, we have two secondary divisions. There are two activities, seeking, saving, exercised to a specific class of people, the lost. Now let's start with the latter. We cannot appreciate the activity of seeking and saving until we appreciate those upon whom those activities, are exercised.

23:14 The people involved in the mission of the Son of God, who are they? He describes them as those who are lost. Now this word lost occurs frequently in Holy Scripture. It's the word in its basic meaning and substance that is found in that familiar, most familiar of all gospel texts, John 3.16.

23:42 That whosoever, believeth in Him, should not perish, should not be lost,

23:49 but have everlasting life. It's used in 1 Corinthians 1.18. The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness.

23:59 It's the word translated destroy in Matthew 10.28. Fear not them which destroy the body, but after this they can do no more, but fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. And so this word is a rich biblical word speaking of that state and condition into which sin has brought us and follow closely, in which sin always leaves us and from which sin has no power to deliver us.

24:30 Sin always takes us on a one-way journey.

24:35 Always.

24:37 Sin can destroy and has no power to recover. And our Lord has used this word often in His teachings with the disciples in this very gospel record that is before us in the 15th chapter. You'll remember He gave the three parables of the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the lost son. And that chapter, chapter 15, becomes, as it were, the dictionary to explain the meaning of what it means to be spiritually lost as Zacchaeus was lost prior to his being saved and sought and saved by the Son of Man.

25:21 Now, when a sheep is lost, what happens to it? I want you kids to think for a minute here. When a sheep is lost, what happens to it?

25:32 Well, above all else, when a sheep is lost, it is away from the place of safety and protection. It is exposed to danger and to death. And our Lord underscores that very concept in the story of the lost. It's away from the protection of the shepherd's rod, away from the protection of the shepherd's sheepdog, away from the protection of the sheltered fold, exposed to the wild beast who would consume it, exposed to any kind of climatic changes that might bring lightning and thunder and hail upon it.

26:17 For a sheep to be lost is to be in a state of exposure to danger and to death.

26:26 Lost also gathers around it the connotation of being useless with reference to the purpose for which it was made.

26:37 When something is lost, it is useless with reference to the purpose for which it has been made.

26:47 And then when something is lost with reference to a human being, there is estrangement from those with whom there ought to be fellowship and communion. Remember when the lost son went to a far country and returned, the father said, this our son was lost but now is found. It doesn't mean he didn't know his way home. But the father says, with reference to sitting at my side and chatting and sharing and communing, he was lost.

27:14 There was estrangement.

27:17 And so the son of man has a mission which terminates upon men and women who fit the category of Zacchaeus, they are lost men and women, lost boys and girls. What is their condition? They are because of sin exposed to danger and to death. Think of Zacchaeus.

The Lost State: Exposed to Wrath and Uselessness

27:39 Every day he went out to take his rounds or to make his rounds and to collect his taxes and he violated the law of God. He trampled underfoot the commandments thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not covet. When he was gone, guilty of greed and avarice and a grasping spirit, he broke the first commandment, thou shalt have no other gods before me. What was his place of danger?

28:07 The scripture says that sin is a provocation of God's holy and righteous anger. And do you know what every sinner does every single day he lives in violation of God's law? Paul uses a phrase in Romans chapter 2 that is a graphic phrase, a frightening phrase. He says in Romans chapter 2 and I read now from verse 5, but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up for thyself wrath in the day of wrath.

28:46 Paul is using a banking term. And he says every day a sinner lives in violation of God's laws, comes to the end of that day and does not seek mercy through the appointed way of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice, His perfect life and substitutionary death. He does not repent and believe. God says He goes to the bank of heaven and He puts some more capital in the bank.

29:16 He is treasuring up day after day. And what's He putting in the bank? He's putting in more and more stock of impending judgment. Every day the capital of deserved righteousness and punishment is treasuring itself up, increasing, growing, multiplying until the day when God says, sinner, I've had enough.

29:41 And He summons the death angel to go for it's appointed unto men once to die. And that boy, that girl, that man, that woman is cut off in his sins. And he comes to that awful day of judgment and God says, look, I'm going to take out your passbook and show you your savings.

30:02 And God says, there's the treasury of wrath that you've heaped up for yourself. I gave you years. I gave you days. I gave you months.

30:14 I gave you hours. I gave you minutes. I gave you opportunities. I gave you gospel preaching.

30:20 I gave you praying friends. This is what I gave you. And what did you give me in return? A hard and an impenitent heart.

30:29 And God says, reckoning day, the day has come. My friend, to be lost means that you have nobody to cancel that awful wrath that you're storing up in the presence of God. It's a frightening, frightening concept. But the scripture forces it upon us.

30:48 To be lost is to be exposed to the thunderclouds of the wrath of the Almighty that shall break upon the head of everyone who is not found by the Son of Man. And Zacchaeus was under the canopy of that wrath when he ran up in that tree. But blessed be God, before he came down, God emptied all the stock that he had there because it had been emptied upon his beloved son. And when Zacchaeus repented and believed the gospel, he was no longer in the state of danger and death.

31:28 To be lost means that we are useless with reference to the purpose of our life. For which we were made. You and I were made with a mind to think God's thoughts after him. Affections to run out to him.

31:41 Faculties to serve him and to glorify him. To be lost means that we are useless with reference to the purpose for which we were made.

31:52 And then to be lost is to be estranged from God. No communion with God. I think one of the saddest verses in all the Bible is Romans chapter 3 when it says, there is none, that seeketh after God. Made to know him.

32:08 Made to delight in him. There is none that seeketh after him. These are the objects of the mission of the Son of Man. Jesus Christ did not come to take good people and make them a little better.

32:20 Come to take people who just had a few things out of joint and reset them spiritually. The mission of the Son of Man terminates upon lost men and women. Polite lost, but lost. Cultured lost, but lost.

32:36 Educated lost, but lost.

The Activities of the Mission: Seeking

32:40 These are the ones for whom the Son of Man has come. Now with reference to such, what are the two activities of his mission? He describes them in these two simple words, seeking and saving. Look at the text.

32:57 For the Son of Man, this unique person, has come to do something for this class, this class of people, the lost. And what has he come to do? To seek them and to save them. Now what does it mean to seek something?

33:13 It means to track it down with relentless determination. That's how the word is used in Scripture. In Matthew 2 and verse 13, the very familiar Christmas story or story subsequent to the initial Christmas story. Now when they were departed, behold an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream saying, Arise, take the young child and his mother, flee into Egypt and be there till I tell thee for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.

33:45 And we know exactly how relentlessly he tried to track down this babe that was born to be king. He will seek the child. He will track him down until he is certain that he's destroyed him. It's the word used in Luke chapter 2 and every parent can understand its meaning here.

34:04 You've got a twelve-year-old son and suddenly you discover that he's lost in a crowded city at a specially crowded time. Maybe you've gone to New Orleans at Mardi Gras time. It seems like half the country and half the world is crowded into the narrow streets or are crowded into the narrow streets and what happens? The panic that comes and you begin to try to track down that lost son or daughter.

34:34 Now it says in Luke chapter 2 in verse 45 that when the parents of the Lord Jesus discovered he was not in the party it says that they sought for him verse 44 and when they found him not returned to Jerusalem seeking for him. Can you imagine something of the earnestness something of the intensity the concentration they were seeking him they were intent upon finding him. That's the word the Savior uses. The great the great activity of this unique person is to track down sinners with relentless determination until he gets them.

35:13 Look at that Samaritan woman woke up that morning thinking it was to be a day as all other days to go out at the time when the Jews would not be there to go out at the time when she could draw the water in the midst of the burning noonday sun and it says of our Lord that he must needs pass through Samaria the son of man relentlessly tracked her down and though she was so dull in her spiritual senses that Jesus was talking about spiritual water and she was thinking physical water he stuck with it until she said running back into the city forgetting her water pots come see a man that told me all things that ever I did is not this the Christ and there was Nathaniel sitting under a tree and the son of man sought him and then the classic example of what it means this mission of the son of man to seek a sinner Saul of Tarsus Acts chapter 9 says Saul breathing out threatenings and slaughters against the church if we could have gone to the early church in Judea and taken a poll and said who do you think is the most unlikely candidate for becoming a Christian in the next year write him down I know who would have won that poll hands down Saul of Tarsus perpetrator of this purge

The Activities of the Mission: Saving

36:42 and persecution against the church and he's on his way to Damascus just like some of those fire breathing dragons you see in a Chinese restaurant it says breathing out threatenings and slaughters against the church can't you picture him wild eyed he's got these letters from the high police stuffed within his robe I can see him driving his horse driving his horse driving his horse until its hide is foaming with the lather of its own sweat on his way to get the Christians and the son of man comes seeking that Saul of Tarsus and he gets his man he came to seek and to save that which was lost as the old Chinaman said when someone asked him how did you find the Lord he said me no find him he find me me me no find him that's the mission of this unique person to seek the Savior that's a word of divine initiative of divine and efficacious power and having sought them what does he do he came to save the same root word is the word salvation which we tried to expound and open up the other night today is salvation come to this house all of you all that God does in providing

38:10 and applying a solution to every problem which arises because of human sin that's salvation in all of its breadth and all of its glory taking away our guilt by the blessing of justification taking away our defilement by the blessing of sanctification taking away our ignorance by the blessing of illumination and one day taking away every last trace of sin by the blessing of glorification it's to bring us to a place of safety if to be lost is to be in a place of danger and exposed to death to be saved is to be brought into a place of safety hidden in the Savior's side by the Spirit sanctified oh what a place of safety there is in that one who is the rock of ages cleft for us if to be lost is to be in a state of uselessness with reference to that for which we were made to be saved is now to be made God's servant to be used in the totality of my redeemed humanity to bring glory to God to live for the purpose for which he made me to be a reflector of his image and his glory if to be lost is to be in a place of estrangement to be saved is to be brought into fellowship into fellowship with the triune God

39:39 hence Paul says to the Corinthians God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord what did he do for Zacchaeus he sought him and he saved him all of this transformation comes within the orbit of his gracious saving activity and as we indicated before reading the passage he was called to jerusalem to lay down his life for Zacchaeus look at the words of verse 31 of chapter 18 and he took onto him the twelve and said behold we go up to Jerusalem and all things that are written through the prophets shall be accomplished unto the son of man for he shall be delivered up unto the gentiles and shall be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon and they shall scourge and kill him And the third day he shall rise again for the Son of Man to save Zacchaeus. It meant nothing less than taking the place of Zacchaeus before the bar of God's eternal justice and rendering a full and perfect satisfaction to everything that God's justice and holiness demanded of guilty sinners.

41:06 My friends, listen as I repeat that again. As I repeat it, listen. To save Zacchaeus or any lost sinner, Jesus knew that he had to go to Jerusalem. Why?

41:22 To render to God everything that his holiness and justice demanded of guilty sinners. What did his holiness and his justice demand of guilty sinners? Death. The soul that sinned.

41:37 It shall die. The wages of sin is death. And what is the essence of death? Abandonment by God.

41:46 Abandonment by God. Therefore that death was felt by our Lord when he cried, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why hast thou abandoned me? He was made a curse for us.

42:06 He became the accursed one. He became the accursed one. Feeling in himself the pangs of soul as well as of body as he tasted death on behalf of his people. Nothing less than this could procure their salvation.

42:24 And so the mission of the Son of Man is not only to seek, track him down, but when he's got his man, to save him. To take away his guilt. To break his bondage. And one day bring him home to glory.

Doctrinal Implications and Practical Exhortations

42:39 Made into his own image. This I believe to be the meaning of these words. As I would summarize and seek to bend home, bend some nails over and clinch some points in a practical way. I would love to just take off now for a time and show you some of the doctrinal implications of this passage.

42:58 People say, oh, I like the Gospels. They're so simple. I get into that book of Romans and Ephesians and all that doctrine and man, that just goes beyond me. I just like the simple.

43:09 The Gospels. My friend, there's doctrine oozing out of every pore of this text. Jesus didn't say the Son of Man has come to help people seek and save themselves. He's not helping anybody get saved.

43:22 He does the seeking or the saving or you've never been saved. Salvation is of the Lord. This wasn't a matter of Zacchaeus meeting him halfway. It's a matter of Zacchaeus running 180 degrees direction the wrong way until the Son of God arrests him and turns him around.

Exhortation 1: Behold the Glory of Christ as the Son of Man

43:41 And makes him a new man. And if you're ever saved, it's because the Son of Man seeks and saves. We could trace out many other doctrinal implications, but I'm going to pass over that and I want to close by giving you two simple exhortations. Number one, behold the glory of Christ in his role as the Son of Man.

44:05 What would move the only one who ever knew the limitless glory of Christ? What would move the only one who ever knew the limitless glory of Christ? Boundless glories of the Father's face. The unrestricted freedom of essential, unbounded deity.

44:24 What would move him to come to the confines of a little teenager's womb, a woman named Mary? What would move him who had, as if I may say it reverently, who had as the womb of his existence, the expanse of the universe? Come to the confines, the dark confines of a virgin's womb. Unless he becomes Son of Man, the divine personage, becoming a true man, he cannot seek and save.

45:04 The seeking and the saving must go on where the sinners are lost. The shepherd can't seek and save the lost sheep while he's sitting home in the comforts of his fireplace and his warm, sheltered home. He's got to go to the place of danger. He's got to go to the place of danger.

45:20 Where the sheep is lost. Blessed be God for Jesus, who though he was rich, yet for our sakes became poor. Oh, behold the glory of the Son of Man, willing to come into the state of true humanity. Behold him as the Son of Man, living in abject poverty.

45:47 Son of Man hath nowhere to lay his head. He had an enthusiastic young son. He would be a disciple. Come up and say, I'll follow you wherever you go.

45:55 He says, look, son, see the little birds out there on the edge of the twig? Yes. When night time comes, they can fly to a little place where there's some twigs all woven together. And on the outside it says, this is Reddy Robbins' house.

46:12 The birds of the air have a nest they can call their own. See the little fox running through the fields? Look at him, son. See him?

46:20 When night time comes, there's a little hole somewhere in that field. It's got a little sign over it. Dwelling place of our fox. Now, son, I'm the Son of Man who has in myself the inherent glory of deity, the Son of Man of Daniel's vision, the future judge of the world who will come with power and glory.

46:46 But there's not a place on this earth that I've made that has my name tag on it. Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. Poverty. He's got to pay his taxes.

46:59 He doesn't reach into his pocket. He doesn't take out his checkbook. He says, Peter, I know that three days ago when Henry was down there by the bridge fishing, some coins fell out of his pocket and it fell into the mouth of a certain fish. Now, you go down there and you drop your line and the first fish that comes up, you'll find a coin in his mouth.

47:18 Take it and go pay the taxes. He didn't even have any change in his pockets. And the child here who wasn't wealthier than Jesus was after the fact. Why?

47:31 Oh, behold the glory of the Son of Man. He came to that poverty that he might seek us and save us where we were. Behold him. Behold him going into Gethsemane.

47:48 The Father placing before him that cup full of his righteous anger against sin. And so identified is he with the reality of that suffering that the language of Mark is particularly vivid. He throws himself repeatedly upon the ground as a man. A man rising under a staggering burden that crushes him down until he falls prostrate.

48:12 Gains his strength, staggers a few steps and falls again. And it says he sweat as it were great drops of blood. He said, oh, my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass nevertheless. Not my will but thine be done.

48:30 In the words of the hymn writer, we may say death and the curse were in our cup. Oh, Christ. Oh, Christ. Oh, Christ.

48:37 The cup that was full for thee, but thou hast drained the last dark drop. Tis empty now for me, that bitter cup loved right enough. Now, blessings draft for me. Oh, Christian, behold the glory of the Son of Man.

48:58 In his condescension. In his willingness to come where we were that he might seek us and save us. Does your heart not even now cry out, Oh, more love to thee, O Christ. More love to thee.

49:15 Hear thou the prayer I make on bended knee. This is my earnest plea. More love, O Christ, to thee. What's needed by this town, with all of its religion, with all of its churches, with all of its preaching, I'll tell you what's needed.

49:32 A baptism of such love for the Son of God that will spend and be spent for His glory. That they'll be not some clever people, not necessarily wealthy people, not necessarily influential people, but poor lost sinners who've been sought and saved by the Son of Man, whose hearts beat with such a pure devotion to Him that they say, To me to live is Christ. Christ in the home. Christ in the school.

50:04 Christ in the living room. Christ in the church. Christ in the marketplace.

Exhortation 2: Behold the Son of Man as Your Only Hope

50:12 To me to live is Christ. And then my final exhortation is to you who may still be lost. And as I've exhorted the Christians, behold the glory of the Son of Man as your Savior. My exhortation to you is, behold the only hope you have as a lost and needy sinner.

50:35 If He came and sought in salvation to save Zacchaeus, what an unlikely candidate. As we intimated the other night, in chapter 18, Jesus had just said, How hardly shall a rich man enter the kingdom. He was not a likely candidate. But when the Son of Man said, I'm going to seek Him and save Him, He got him.

50:56 Oh, my dear lost friend, boy, girl, man, or woman, behold the only hope you have as a lost sinner. It is not in yourself. It is not in your church. It's not in your...

51:08 It's not in your tradition. It's not in any profession or decision you make. It's in the Son of Man. He seeks.

51:16 He saves. Are you lost? Then your only hope is Jesus.

51:23 You say, but ah, is He willing to seek and save such as I? The Scripture's answer is clear. This is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptance. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

51:40 I close with the words of that great gospel hymn. It isn't found in many of our hymn books today, but oh, what a statement of the biblical gospel. Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched, weak and wounded, sick and sore. Jesus, ready, stands to save you, full of pity, joined with power.

52:01 He is able. He is able. He is willing. Doubt no more.

52:07 Let not conscience make you linger, nor of fitness fondly dream. All the fitness He requires is to feel your need of Him. This He gives you. This He gives you.

52:21 This He gives you. Tis the Spirit's rising beam.

52:27 Lo, the incarnate God ascended, pleads the merits of His blood. Venture on Him. Venture wholly. Let no other trust intrude.

52:37 None but Jesus. None but Jesus. None but Jesus can do helpless sinners good. And if there are any words which I hope God will take from the lips of this poor servant of His and cause them to ring in your ears and reverberate in the corridors of your heart so that when you think of this last night and these days the words will come back again and again.

53:04 None but Jesus can do helpless sinners good. Your hope is not. In your decision, your resolution, your determination, your affirmation, cast yourself upon the seeking Savior. For He is willing.

53:23 He is able. The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost.

Concluding Prayer and Meditation

53:34 Let us pray.

53:40 O Lord, we thank You for Him who is the Son of Man.

53:46 Even now, at Your right hand, mighty to save, still in great compassion and in irresistible power, seeking and saving lost sinners. And O Lord Jesus, may it please You, even tonight, to come, not from Your place at the right hand of the Father in physical presence, but by Your Spirit come and call some Zacchaeuses tonight. Call that boy, call that girl, call that man, call that woman. Call them, Lord, with a voice as personal and powerful, as persuasive as was Your voice to Zacchaeus. We thank You that until You come again in power to judge the world, we know that You are still the seeking and the saving Son of Man. Do Your mighty work, we pray. And then we ask for us who have been sought and saved by You.

54:52 Lord, we long for that kind of spontaneous outflow of love that we see in Zacchaeus, who was almost irresponsible and reckless in his desire to show the reality of his new life. O Lord, forgive us that we've become so proper. Forgive us that we've become so staid and stodgy and polite. Forgive us that we've become so staid and stodgy and polite.

55:16 O God, fill us with a holy zeal, with an abandonment that will use us to turn the world upside down. Gracious God, be pleased to take the preaching of Your Son, Jesus, and make it effectual to the deepening of our devotion and to the salvation of sinners. Hear us, O God, hear us in our prayer and answer us for Jesus' sake. Amen.

55:49 I'm going to ask that we quietly meditate for a few moments in the presence of our great God who knows us, in whose presence we have been met this night, reflecting upon what His word has said to us. And after we've prayerfully thought about God's word to us, then the pastor will lead us in the benediction. Let us pray.