12/11 Sermon: Christmas at Family, Part 2

This past Sunday Aaron Read, an associate pastor at The Family Church in Gainesville, gave the morning message that is currently part of a series focusing on the nature of Jesus, as we approach Christmas.  Titled "Why He Came", the core Biblical passage was Luke 19:1-10, shown below in the New International Version courtesy of Bible Gateway:

19 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. ² A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. ³ He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. ⁴ So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.

⁵ When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” ⁶ So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
⁷ All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
⁸ But Zacchaeus 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.”
⁹ Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. ¹⁰ For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

As you can see, it is Zacchaeus the tax collector and his encounter with Jesus that Pastor Aaron used as the model for how Jesus approached his ministry: it is all about seeing, speaking to, and spending time with the lost, i.e. those who do not know him as their savior and lord.  And many who are lost do not know they are, as Aaron illustrated with a story of his young daughter once slipping away at a theme park to watch an intriguing ride...unaware that her mother was in a near-panic looking for her.  Now since becoming Christ-like is a worthy goal for the believer, this sermon takes the attitude of Jesus toward Zacchaeus as a model for how we should approach the lost.  First, Jesus saw Zacchaeus out of the crowd and knew he was lost.  Second, he spoke directly to him by name, imparting a sense of value to him.  And finally, he spent time with Zacchaeus...making a deliberate point of engaging and associating with him.  As Pastor Aaron also pointed out, an alternative way of spelling "love" is t-i-m-e...

It's true: I know from personal experience that those who pick me out of a group to interact with, who value my name, and who express enjoyment at spending time with me are definitely those whom I have come to value in return.  So although this message is naturally church-based and about Jesus, the principles involved here have a much more universal application in our respective lives...

You can watch this message for yourself by clicking on the following link to The Family Church video website: [link].