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