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Luke 19
Jesus and Zacchaeus
Jesus entered Jericho and made his way through the town.
Jesus is on his way into Jerusalem, passed through Galilee Samaria we read in luke 17 and Jericho
He was the coming king
But this king comes to a sinner’s house
What were the expectation of king, the messiah, this was to be the start of the procession into Jerusalem, many disciples thought that this was Jesus’ hour. Perhaps, as some thought that Judas was expecting the king to take the throne and over through the Roman Empire.
Many Jews did not believe that Jesus was the messiah as they were looking for a king like David, David we know extending the borders of Israel and re took land that they had lost to the philistines’, although it never belonged to the Palestinians ever, it belonged to the Canaanites, which means merchant and the seller of purple, another day for that story though.
From the beginning God's plan was to reclaim his world.
The Jewish people of the Bible had made God known to many of the nations of the world as people from those nations travelled through Israel. The Assyrian dispersion and the Babylonian exile spread God fearing Jewish people around the known world. Many of them returned to Jerusalem for the yearly feasts which God had commanded.
God had prepared carefully and well for the next stage in his great plan of salvation.
His people must now live so that the world may know in the entire world not just in one small place. If the arena had changed the mission had not.
The people of God would reveal him to people in places like Rome, Athens, and the cities of Roman provinces like Syria and Macedonia. The most pagan of all provinces, Asia, would become a stronghold for the followers of God and the Messiah Jesus. They would serve him while the nations of the world watched and listened.
The land God chose for His people was on the crossroads of the world. A major trade route, the Via Maris, (the way of the sea) ran through it. This ran from Damascus in Syria through to Memphis in Egypt.
Matt 4
12 Now when Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, He departed to Galilee. 13 And leaving Nazareth, He came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying:
15 “ The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles:
16 The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light,
And upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death
Light has dawned.”[f]

17 From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
When did Jesus begin to preach the kingdom? And what was the message of the kingdom, the king is coming prepare the way for the messiah.
John 17:23 (New King James Version)
23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
The way of the sea, Via Maris, God intended for the Israelites to take control of the cities along this route and thereby exert influence on the nations around them.
Often battles would be fought for key cities along this route the battle of Megiddo
Joshua killed the king and took it. It’s where Egypt fought Judah when Josiah was king, the king died during this battle
Ahaziah also fought there
Deborah mentioned this land and
World war one there was a battle here
This is also the site of the battle of Armageddon
The Promised Land was the arena within which God's people would serve Him faithfully as the world watched.
Through their righteous living, the Hebrews would reveal the one true God, Yahweh, to the world. (They failed to complete this mission, however, because of their unfaithfulness.)
Western Christianity tends to spiritualise the application of the Promised Land as it is presented in the Bible. Instead of hearing God's call to live publicly and passionately to influence the culture around them, modern Christians view the application of the Promised Land as a distant, heavenly city, a glorious "Canaan" toward which we are travelling as we ignore the world around us.
We are focused on the destination, not the journey.
I have heard it preached that we have left Egypt, the world, our life on earth is the wilderness and we live in a constant battle between the old nature and the new nature, deciding weather we obey God or not
When we however come to the realisation that our old nature (from Egypt) is dead and buried and we no longer have to live in this struggle but Giles do we not fight the good flight of faith, yes there is a battle but it’s in our thinking there has been a lot of confusion about spiritual warfare, shouting at the ceiling, the battle Paul said is the strongholds in our thinking in our minds, our old nature is finished with, there is temptations to think that it’s still there
Living by faith is not a vague, it is being faithful to God right now, in the place and time He has put us. This truth is emphasised by God's choice of Canaan, a crossroads of the ancient world, as the Promised Land for the Israelites. God wants His people in the game, not on the bench.
Christians can miss God's desire that his people live faithfully for him in specific places, influencing the cultures around them by their words and actions.
We are focused on the destination, not the journey. We have unconsciously separated our walk with God from our responsibility toward the world in which he has placed us.
People misunderstand and see that our earthly experience is simply preparation for an eternity in the new "promised land." Preoccupation with this idea, distorts the mission God has set for us. That mission is the same one He gave to the Israelites.
We are to live obediently within the world so that through us, it may know that our God is the one true God.
Biblical prospective of the world

Do we have a world view?

Or are we limited by our thinking

Jesus, who was an itinerant teacher people called him Rabbi, he chose disciples and showed them God's path in word and action.

When their training was complete he sent them to make disciples of their own.

Their destination was now much greater than the small province of Galilee. They were sent to the whole world.

The commission he gave them is one of the most well known passages in the New Testament:

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. Matthew 28:16-20

All authority Hebrew simikhah, Greek exousia

The people were amazed at Jesus as he spoke as one who had authority, Jesus however did not follow the pattern of the teachers of the law, he never studied under gamiel or whoever thoughts were the most relevant at that time,

Jesus seems to be a type of rabbi believed to have the authority to make new interpretations. Most of the teachers were Torah teachers (teachers of the law) who could only teach accepted interpretations. Also the teachers of the law did not have disciples only the ones with authority.

Those with authority (ordination) could make new interpretations and pass legal judgments. Crowds were amazed because Jesus taught with authority (Hebrew simikhah, Greek exousia) not as their Torah teachers.

By implication of Jesus’ answer he was telling them where he Got his authority, read this in Luke 20, he answers people with another question, which was a typical thing that a rabbi would do, Jesus got his authority from God we know, but he used John as a natural example that they may believe, but his did not accept the testimony from man, if man gives you the authority man can take it away, but if God gives you the mandate nobody can take it God open doors and closes them.

So when Jesus gave his authority to his disciples it was to transfer all he had to them.

This compelling command, which became the mission of the early believers was given on the mountain overlooking the Sea of Galilee, in the setting where the Rabbi/Disciple model was most widely known.

The word appears more than 250 times in the New Testament. Yet it sometimes appears that the Christian community of modern times struggles to hold on to the heart of Jesus words…"go and make disciples". Disciples are more than converts.

Discipleship is more than an interest in learning the fundamentals of faith. Making disciples is not a course in a church or Christian College. It appears that progress toward discipleship is more a goal for the few than a passion for all followers for Jesus.
The earliest followers of Jesus were disciples in the Eastern sense.

They followed Jesus imitating his life, his teaching, and his method of making disciples. And the Christian faith exploded onto the world scene as ordinary people living for Jesus make great impact on the cultures in which they lived.

The triumph of the Christian faith is nowhere more striking or unexpected than in the Roman Provinces of Asia Minor, Galatia and Cappodoccia. Known for immorality in lifestyle and in religious practice, these regions became Christian within 150 years of Jesus ministry in Israel. The early missionary, Paul, (Saul in Hebrew) spent a great deal of time here and wrote several letters to the followers of Jesus in these provinces. Peter wrote his letters to the believers here, and John wrote Revelation (and his letters) to the churches of this area.

The effectiveness of the early believers is amazing and raises a host of questions with great implications for our own world.

How did Jesus prepare his followers for such a mission? What empowered them? What kind of commitments did they have to make to their mission? What did they do that had such an impact on the people of Asia?

It is amazing that a few people from among the simple Galileans traveled to this sophisticated Hellenistic world, and by their words and the witness of their lives, introduced an almost total change in the beliefs and lifestyle of the cultured pagans.

Scholars have suggested there were 80,000 or more followers of Jesus by the year 100 and by the year 250 A.D. Christians may have been the majority in the provinces of Galatia and Asia Minor.

How was this possible? Ordinary, simple people changed the sophisticated cultured world? Only God's power can accomplish such a thing.

That power of God worked through disciples…not the curious, the somewhat committed, not the ignorant pew sitters, or the part time followers…but disciples.

Passionately and totally committed, not only to their beliefs but to being like their rabbi…disciples in the Jewish way.

For that is God's way.

What was it that caused this man Zach’s change in heart? He was one of the most influential Jews in the city of Jericho, a town of sinful people he would have been known to one of the most sinful; Jericho was not supposed to have been re built.

Jesus saw that he was lost and even thought many would have criticised him, especially as he was on the way to the feast, most rabbi’s would not have defiled themselves by eating with sinners, yet here he was and just by saying lets eat together, this man was given salvation, could it be that simple being willing to identify with people. Homework this week; find a sinner and invite yourself to their home.

Are we more concerned with our own holiness or are we concerned more about people who have no sense of God or the fact that they too can be holy?

The purpose of us being holy is call other into holiness, we are defiled by sinners Jesus stayed holy yet was willing to be associated with the lowest of sinners.

The Israelites got mixed up with their purpose as a nation to be holy, called out ones, be separate says the lord, nothing like us today

The word church is ekklesia made from two words to call and out, put together the called out ones, so to come to church means to come and be called out, as I have been sent out (ekklesia) in to the world I have sent you. I have been churched you will be churched also. Trouble is our buildings that we called church are full of people who are un ekklesia

John 5

A Man Healed at the Pool of Bethesda
1 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda,[a] having five porches

Notice first that this was feasting time, many people would be in Jerusalem, more than that this was the Sabbath the holiest day of the feast, no-one would be at work today, (like bank holidays as a kid) except we are not stuck in the traffic trying to get to the coast, sunny honey (hunstanton).

These folks pilgrimaged for many miles, weary tired, but kept going on and on, Jerusalem we know is at he top the hill, difficult for us in the fens to understand what that is like

For some they had walked for miles perhaps as far as approximately from here to Wales 3-4 days walk at 5 mph then once there climbed the hill to Jerusalem perhaps came to this pool for healing, perhaps stopping for a rest, perhaps like this multitude there is a need to rest our weary souls, perhaps not for the same reason, perhaps we have suffered with stress.

John here lets us into a bit of background and culture it was called the sheep gate here we Jesus enter an area perhaps was like a cattle market.

It was also close to The Antonia Fortress was a military barracks built by Herod the Great in Jerusalem on the site of an earlier Hasmonean stronghold, named after Herod's patron Mark Antony. The fortress was built at the eastern end of the great wall of the city (the second wall), on the northeastern side of the city, near the temple. It is thought that the area where the Antonia Fortress was located possibly later became the site of the Praetorium. It is thought to be the place where Jesus was taken to stand before Pilate.

Later to be destroyed in 70 A.D. by Titus' army during the siege of Jerusalem.

As this was the market place, remember how we spoke to Jesus being our redeemer, Jesus at work in the market, the work place, here he is visiting the market, where people would sell sheep, this was their livileyhood, but not today, no sheep there just people a great multitude

John says

Bethesda means House of mercy / grace

The pool itself was covered with platforms or covered porches, 5 in total reminding people of the five books of the law the torah, coming into Jerusalem from the north you would have passed this way a profound reminder to be cleansed before going into the city.

Everyone coming to this feast would have been studying would have known the torah, the law, for a good Jew knowing the five books was something they would chant repeatedly to learn of by heart, the promise that God would write his law in our minds and our hearts would have meant more to the Jew, this would elevate you to almost rabbi status, knowing the law was the first qualification.

We must know God’s Word and Jesus! And by the Holy Spirit the interpretation of it. We must be passionate in our devotion to that word and Jesus example.

As we are filled with his Spirit, we must be obsessed with being like him as far as is humanly possible.

We must strive for relationships with others so they will observe us and seek to imitate our love and devotion to God and our Jesus-like lifestyle
Paul would say to those in Corinth Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ; and as we were baptized into Christ we put on Christ). By God’s grace, we become like him and influence the most pagan of cultures.... our own!

Jesus a rabbi was often tested on his knowledge of the law when asked “what is the greatest commandment” he answered “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”

Duet 6 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one![b] 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

What is the essential thought pattern, what it is when you break it down the most essential part?

Jews would ask a rabbi this at anytime, we remember Jesus was talking to an audience that when he quoted duet these guys had this memorised.

Jesus however did not follow their pattern, he never studied under gamiel or whoever thoughts were the most relevant at that time, he spoke as one who had authority,

Jesus seems to be a type of rabbi believed to have the authority to make new interpretations. Most of the teachers were Torah teachers (teachers of the law) who could only teach accepted interpretations. Those with authority (ordination) could make new interpretations and pass legal judgments. Crowds were amazed because Jesus taught with authority (Hebrew simikhah, Greek exousia) not as their Torah teachers (Matt. 7:28.29).

He was rabbi yeshua, where we get our name Joshua meaning YAHWEH is salvation

The passage Jesus quoted according to the Talmud, the reading of the "Shema'" morning and evening fulfils the commandment "Thou shalt meditate therein day and night"

As soon as a child begins to speak his father is directed to teach him the verse "Moses commanded us a law, even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob" (and teach him to read the "Shema'". The reciting of the first verse of the "Shema'" is called the acceptance of the yoke of the kingship of God"

3 In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water.

There were multitudes, Jesus would have seen them all.

John then gives us explaination

4 For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had.[b] 5 Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years.

38 years ago

Nixon made the news with his nuclear weapons, the Vietnam War protest in the us, first flight of concord, second Apollo mission lands on the moon; Paul McCartney marries Linda, Sir Matt Busby retires

This was a very long time to be sick.

Thirty-eight years is a long time to wait for anything, but it must have seemed like an eternity to this man.

How long is thirty-eight years?

Long enough that most people would stop believing.

In our text, Jesus comes to Jerusalem to celebrate a Jewish feast when he spotted this man lying by the pool of Bethesda.

6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”

He laid there because people believed the water had healing power when it stirred. Was it an angel?

Some people would not believe that. They said it's just a wind that happens to hit a certain current, and blow it, and make it like that. If that's what they thought, that's what it was to them. But those who believed it was an Angel of God,

When Jesus saw him, he asked him a question, "Do you wish to get well?"

Is that a question that Jesus even needed to ask? Certainly the man wanted to be well, didn't he? He'd waited in the same place for thirty-eight years, why else would he be there?

Let me ask the question another way,

Do you wish to stop repeating the same mistakes and going through the same cycles in your relationships, or does it feel safer to blame others instead of dealing with your issues? Do you wish to get rid of your anger, or would you just as soon keep it?

7 The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man

The desperation in his cry I have no one, perhaps this man was more desperate than others, did he have to blame others for his condition?
Those who focus on blame when things go wrong believe that we all have responsibility and things go wrong because someone is lazy or incompetent.
They thus make attributions about the internal characteristics and motivations of others.
Their values typically say 'The wicked should be punished' and finger-pointing and blame is a part of this punishment. They take the moral high ground, sitting as prosecutor, judge and jury, and pronounce guilt and sentence.
They may also be driven by a sense of guilt or fear, and blame others in order to distract or deflect attention from themselves.
What was it about this man that caught Jesus eye.

, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”

What would our reaction be?

Truthfully mine may have been let me help you into the water, I will wait with you, I like to see the surf, see the angel, then we could rush together to see God’s answers. I will stand in faith with you!

8 Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” 9 And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked.

He does not say let me help you up, he says you rise up,

Some of us have been low for so many years we forget what it means to walk, what it means to take up the bed, how long have we been lying in our own self pity, long enough I am sure! You rise out of it,

Jesus is testing obedience seeing if there is faith, can we have the faith to believe to be lifted out of our own circumstances, can we stop waiting for others to rescue us,

What about other people are we going to do something to reach the lost, or is our prayer that God would save them, praying for the lost has become all the evangelistic work we do!!!!

Jesus is saying to us you feed them, you heal them you forgive them, you clothe them, he is empowering his disciples to do what he does and he still does it today

If the heart of Paul’s letters is Romans

Word of God is precious, we must treasure it

The very genius of Christianity is the ability of God to build himself into us through the word so that in our daily lives we live like the master.

Our message is simple gospel truth and this truth of who Christ is, both son of man and son of God, what he came to show us, the word that became flesh, and dwelt among us, Jesus came to show us what man can do when he has God as his ally.

Gospel means good news and it is not good news unless it’s available for all, in our pride we can say that his word does not work in my life, somehow this message of grace and forgiveness cannot apply to be because…

We preach amazing grace and the new life we have in Christ,

His new creation in us and how we apply that to every day of our lives,

Starting in Romans 3, my text is verses 21-25

1. Grace apart from works Rom 3.21
2. Grace accepted by faith Rom 3.22
3. Grace available to all who believe Rom 3.22-23
4. Grace attained by justification – Rom 3.24
5. Grace awarded freely Rom 3.24
6. Grace acquired through redemption Rom 3.24
7. Grace accomplished through propitiation Rom 3.25

Last week I took time to establish that this message applies to everyone, we all need a saviour for all have fallen short of God’s glory.

There is nobody who is right with God, no not one.

Quote if only there were only some evil people somewhere in a certain place committing evil deed; it would only be necessary or separate them from the rest of us and destroy them, but the diving line between evil and good goes straight thought the heart of every human being and who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart. Jesus came to seek and save the lost he did not say that they were hard to find, are we all not lost without a saviour,

We come to the realisation that we are totally contaminated with sin and that we are totally forgiven though the love and grace of out lord Jesus Christ

Paul makes in clear that in the beginning chapters that no one is righteous he makes it clear that there is a need for God help when it comes to being made right with him, there therefore can be no room for boasting

Though, if there are people who by their attitude and right behaviour make themselves righteous, and if we are somehow good enough by ourselves we could boast

There are those who think that behaving right can make them more righteous.

We read last week in Romans 3 verse 10

“No one is righteous—
not even one.

Like a lawyer Paul is laying the case for a fact that man in his natural state whether a law abiding Jew or a gentile that has no knowledge of God they are all the same.

In themselves they are not right with God, nor can they ever become right with God without a saviour.

Then onto the Christian, the one who believes, are we not just sinners saved (barely) by grace?

We cannot go through life feeling barley saved, the other man made religions have no assurance of salvation but we with confidence can approach the throne of grace, knowing that our sin has been dealt with that we have an advocate someone to speak on our behalf.

That is why we always teach on the new creation, seeing ourselves as God sees us right with God in Christ and free from condemnation.

1. Grace apart from works Rom 3.21

21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,

Ephesians 2:8-9 (New King James Version)

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.

Titus 3:5 (New King James Version)

5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,

Gal 2. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”

2. Grace accepted by faith Rom 3.22

22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ,

Galatians 5:5
For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.

Philippians 3:9
and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;

Hebrews 11:33
who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,

The key to anything is faith, Jesus would say only believe, and spoke of having faith as a mustard seed, and using the faith you have and placing your faith in me he said, you believe in God believe also in me, you have faith in God have faith in me.

Charles surgeon once said faith is believing Christ is who he said he was and that he will do what he promised he would do and living accordingly, that is why faith is accounted as right standing with God,

God’s grace meets human faith and peace is declared in the war between heaven and earth.

3. Grace available to all who believe
Rom 3.22-23

22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

The key word here is all, someone said to me once that they thought that God was god and he would move if he choose to his hand was some kind of random, but the truth is that God has to be fair to one, if he would do it for Christ he would do it for me.

Jesus said we would do greater works, because I go to my father.

John 6:40
And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

Acts 13:39
and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.

Romans 1:16
[ The Just Live by Faith ] For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

4. Grace attained by justification – Rom 3.24

24 being justified

Gal 2 .16,

16 knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.

Galatians 3:11
But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.”

Romans 5:1
[ Faith Triumphs in Trouble ] Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

5. Grace awarded freely Rom 3.24

Freely by His grace

Romans 5:15 For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.

6. Grace acquired through redemption Rom 3.24

Freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

1 Corinthians 1:30
But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—

Ephesians 1:7
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace

Colossians 1:14
in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

7. Grace accomplished through propitiation Rom 3.25

25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed

Hebrews 2:17
Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

1 John 2:2
And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

1 John 4:10
In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.