type: Sermon Manuscript\
related_to: "[[Zacheaus - May 24, 2026]]"
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Manuscript - Zacheaus - May 24, 2026
Take your Bibles with you and turn to the book of Luke, chapter 19. We're going to be talking today about the story of Zacchaeus.
Every little kid loves this Bible story. My children, especially the youngest ones, loved to sing: "Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he." I don't even think they know what “wee little man” means but they love this song.
Maybe you grew up singing this song or remember it from Sunday School. Maybe you remember a flannel graph in a little church basement and some dear old lady taking some comically small man and moving him up a little tree so that he can see Jesus. It's so cute, isn't it, this story?
But it's actually far more than that. It's not cute. It's important. The story is given a prominent spot in Luke's gospel. It's the last story in the book of Luke before the events of the Crucifixion week start. It's the culmination of all of these little conversion stories that we've been reading and talking about over the last couple months. And it's the story that brings us to probably the most important key statement in the book of Luke, which we read in verse 10: "The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."
Zacchaeus is not just a cute story meant to make children giggle. It is a story about the most unlikely convert to Christ and it's meant to teach us much about the nature of salvation and the heart of Jesus.
Let's go ahead and read the first ten verses of this chapter together.
[1] And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho.
[2] And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich.
[3] And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature.
[4] And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way.
[5] And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house.
[6] And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully.
[7] And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner.
[8] And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord: Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.
[9] And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham.
[10] For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
Luke 19:1-10 (KJV)
There's a radio program I used to listen to quite a bit when I was a kid. It's still going on. It's called Unshackled. It's made by the Pacific Garden Mission up in Chicago. All it does is tell, in dramatic old-school 1930s radio fashion, the story of people's conversions to Christ.
I love hearing about people coming to Christ. And I love hearing most about unlikely people coming to Christ.
One of the most famous, infamous really, women that lived in the last century was Madeline Murray O'Hare, an outspoken atheist who hated Christ and Christianity and is responsible for prayer being taken out of public schools. I learned this week that her adult son, who was involved in her atheist organization, came to Christ and spent the majority of his life as a Christian pastor and a leader promoting religious liberty.
The son of one of the founders of Hamas, who grew up hating the West and Zionism and all of that, became an outspoken Christian. You can read his story in the book "Son of Hamas."
Lee Strobel, who was an investigative journalist and legal editor for the Chicago Tribune, who was a lifelong avowed atheist, set about to disprove Christianity and eventually came to Christ and became an author and pastor.
Rosaria Butterfield, who was a professor of queer studies at Syracuse University, who hated Christianity and was writing a book about how evangelical Christians were what was wrong with the world, ended up coming to Christ, renouncing her lifestyle, marrying a pastor, adopting a bunch of kids, and is now an outspoken advocate for Christianity.
David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam, serial killer, was witnessed to in prison. He started calling himself the Son of Hope not the Son of Sam. He has spent decades ministering to other prison inmates, leading a prison congregation, refusing parole hearings because he accepts that what he did deserves a life-long punishment.
When Jesus said that he came to seek and to save that which was lost, he said it in the context of one of these remarkable unlikely conversions. Zacchaeus was about the most unlikely conversion to Christ that you can imagine.
If you're thinking of Zacchaeus as some cute, cuddly little man, you are thinking about him wrong. Zacchaeus wasn't just a tax collector. He was a chief tax collector. There were three inland cities where taxes were collected:
- Jerusalem was one of them
- Capernaum was one of them
- and Jericho was one of them
Zacchaeus seems to be the head publican for an entire region.
The way that publicans made their money was by adding as much as they possibly could to the already high taxes that Romans were exacting on the Jewish people. The Roman government actually encouraged this. They wanted these tax collectors to jack up the taxes and pocket it themselves. In order to make this happen these tax collectors would hire a band of ruffians, muscle, to squeeze every last cent out of the people who were already humiliated, impoverished, and conquered by the Roman government.
A Chief Tax Collector was not just a tax man. A Chief Tax Collector was a traitor and a scoundrel, more like the leader of the local mob than like an IRS agent.
One of the commentaries I read said that you could imagine Zacchaeus cast in a movie as Danny DeVito or maybe Joe Pesci. He's tiny, right? He's not a tall guy, but he more than makes up for it with this hard edge and big attitude. Zacchaeus was a tiny man but he was also a terror.
And it is this man, this tiny, traitorous, terrorizer of his people, who at the end of this story is hosting Jesus in his home and who Jesus uses as the prompt to say, "The Son of Man has come to seek and save that which was lost."
So what's Zacchaeus supposed to teach us? Zacchaeus teaches us that Jesus pursues even the most despicable sinners. Once sinners receive Christ, he transforms them, fills them with joy, and enjoys full fellowship with them.
So let's look at this story again and I want to share three thoughts about Jesus seeking sinners today.
- We’ll talk about the Savior that seeks sinners.
- We'll talk about the sinners the Savior seeks.
- Finally we'll talk about what the Savior does when sinners receive Him.
Let’s pray and we’ll jump into the message.
Pray
The first thing I want to talk about today is
1. The Savior who is after sinners.
Verse 10 tells us:
[10] For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
Jesus is seeking after sinners. Jesus is after the lost. He’s not seeking them to destroy them. He’s not a lawman, hunting down criminals. He is on a rescue mission. He’s come to seek and to save that which was lost.
When you read this story, you tend to think about Zacchaeus as the one who is seeking Jesus. After all, it was Zacchaeus who ran ahead of the crowd and Zacchaeus who climbed up a sycamore tree. But Jesus wanted us to know that it wasn’t Zacchaeus who was seeking Jesus, but Jesus who was seeking Zacchaeus.
Jesus is on a mission to find and save sinners and if you have come to Christ, if you are a Christian, it isn’t because you were seeking Christ - none of us naturally do that - but because Christ was seeking you.
Turn with me to Ephesians 2. This passage explains this idea and makes it clear for us.
[1] And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
[2] Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
[3] Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
If you are a Christian today, it isn’t because you sought Jesus. According to this passage, you were dead in your sins. You were the walking dead, walking around like everyone else in the world, directed by the devil who controls the world.
Notice how verse 4 starts
[4] But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
This passage couldn’t be more clear. You were dead. “But God.” Look at verse 5.
[5] Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
Ephesians 2:1-5 (KJV)
You were dead, but God loved you. God quickened you.
Remember grammar class? Remember subject verb and predicate? Who is the subject acting with all the verbs in this passage? Is it you? No. God is the one who quickened (which means made alive).
Verses 8-10 make this even more clear:
[8] For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
[9] Not of works, lest any man should boast.
[10] For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2:8-10 (KJV)
That passage was written by Paul - probably an even more unlikely convert than Zacchaeus. Paul was breathing out threatenings and slaughter against Christians. He was on his way from Jerusalem to Damascus to arrest Christians and bring them back to Jerusalem to be tried and persecuted - when Jesus - the Jesus who is after sinners - appeared to him on the road to Damascus and changed his life.
I do not understand why Jesus would want to seek sinners - but Jesus is after sinners. Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost.
So let’s look at Zacchaeus again and think about
2. The kind of sinners the Savior is after
Zacchaeus was a scoundrel, a traitor to his country, a person who had become rich by extorting people, by stealing from people weaker than himself.
It's interesting that Zacchaeus' name means "righteous one" and he was anything but righteous. He was a sinner. When Jews thought of as the worst of the worst, they probably had Zacchaeus up at the top of the list.
Imagine working hard and losing your home, losing your farm. Being unable to give a proper gift to your children at their wedding. Being unable to get proper clothing for your family because some wicked little man decided that he wanted to enrich himself at your expense and there's nothing you can do about it. That was Zacchaeus.
And yet it was Zacchaeus that Jesus was after in this story. Jesus called Zacchaeus by name. Jesus let Zacchaeus know that he had plans to be at his house that evening.
Listen, Jesus seeks sinners. Even wicked sinners, sinners beyond the pale, like Zacchaeus. Even desperate sinners, sinners with absolutely nothing to offer, like Bartimaeus. Jesus is seeking the lost.
If you're a sinner today, you can take comfort in knowing that Jesus seeks sinners. His mission was to come and seek and save that which was lost and He sought them all the way to the cross, where on the cross He hung and said, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." On the cross He said, "It is finished." He took the punishment for your sins.
Maybe you think you're beyond the pale. Maybe you think you're beyond saving. Maybe the world looks at you with disgust. They shake their heads, they wag their noses because of the wicked things that you've done. Jesus is after you. You with all your mess. You with all your sin.
And he's not after you to subjugate you. He's not after you to conquer you. He's not after you to punish you. He's after you to save you.
[10] For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
The point of this passage is that if Jesus can save a man like Zacchaeus and restore a man like Zacchaeus. Then Jesus can do that with anybody.
Now, it’s not like Zacchaeus had no agency in this story. Jesus called Zacchaeus by name. He looked up in the tree and (as the song says) he said, "Zacchaeus, you come down for I'm going to your house today."
This reminds me of the verse in Revelation 3, where the Jesus says:
[20] Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
Revelation 3:20 (KJV)
Jesus was inviting himself over to Zacchaeus’ house. He was inviting himself into Zacchaeus' life. And Zacchaeus had to accept the invitation. Zacchaeus did.
Listen sinner. Jesus is standing outside the door of your heart, inviting himself in. He’s been seeking you. He wants to eat with you. He wants to fellowship with you. You are the type of sinner that Jesus is seeking.
Will you open the door and let him in?
So we've talked about the Savior that seeks sinners and we've talked about the kind of sinners the Savior seeks. Let's look at a third point this morning and talk about
3. What the Savior does to sinners who receive Him.
In other words if Jesus is seeking after sinners, what does he do when he finds them?
Well, our text tells us that Jesus came to seek AND TO SAVE that which was lost.
When Jesus came into Zacchaeus’ life, he said “This day is salvation come to this house.”
I want you to notice three things that are true about Zacchaeus’ salvation that will also be true of everyone that accepts Jesus invitation into their life.
A. When Jesus comes into your life, He transforms you.
Can't you see the transformation that happens in Zacchaeus in this story? He goes from being a man whose entire life is about getting money from people to being someone who willingly is giving up half of his money, half of his most precious possession in this life, the thing he's lived for, giving it away and then with the other half restoring fourfold to everyone he can what he's taken from them.
That's a transformation. Listen, understand this: Jesus is after sinners but Jesus doesn't want them to stay sinners. Jesus wants to transform them and he will. Jesus can turn around and change hardened sinners and he can do it immediately.
In one day Zacchaeus went from being a wicked, greedy man to being a generous man. God changed his heart.
We talked about Paul earlier. When he met Jesus, he went from being someone who wanted to destroy the church to being someone who gave his whole life to build it up.
I got little girls in my house, which means I have watched the Frozen movie so many times. There's a line in one of the songs that I think about often. The trolls sing to Anna in the song “Fixer Upper” - "We're not saying that you'll change him because people don't really change."
Maybe people don't really change of their own volition but Jesus changes people. And Jesus can do it in an instant if you accept him into your life. Jesus can clean up your heart. Jesus can give you peace.
I love what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10
[9] Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
[10] Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
1 Corinthians 6:9-10 (KJV)
That’s not good news - right? Because all of us are idolaters, all of us are covetous.
That’s why I love verse 11:
[11] And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
1 Corinthians 6:11 (KJV)
Such were some of you. Jesus can change you. When you receive Jesus into your life He will transform you.
In an instant, Jesus can give you a new heart. He can give you new desires. It doesn’t mean that you will not have to fight against your flesh anymore. It doesn’t mean your habits will go away immediately. But you will be transformed from the inside out when you let Jesus in.
He transforms you. Second thing we can see from Zacchaeus’ salvation that happens when sinners receive Jesus into their lives is
B. When Jesus comes into your life, He gives you joy.
The passage tells us that Zacchaeus received Jesus with joy. I think Zacchaeus’ knew what was going to happen to him if He received Jesus. I think he probably knew Levi the publican - publicans had to be a pretty tight-knit community you know - and he knew the change that Levi made and I think that is why he wanted to see Jesus.
But listen, when Jesus came into his life, it was a joyous occasion.
Listen, salvation is free. It is God’s free gift. But it’s kind of a lie to think that it won’t cost you anything.
Imagine if I were giving you an elephant. Free gift. No strings attached. But accepting that elephant into your life is going to force some changes isn’t it? It’s probably going to make a wreck of your house. It’s probably going to strain some relationships.
Listen, salvation is a free gift that often costs you everything to accept - but do you know what? It’s worth it. I’ve met people who have accepted Christ in foreign countries and been disowned by their families. Of course there is sadness there. But I’ve never met anyone - no matter what they gave - who truly received Christ who wasn’t rejoicing in it.
Psalm 16:11 says
[11] Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
Psalm 16:11 (KJV)
When we receive Jesus, we are transformed and we get joy.
One more thing we get when Jesus comes into our lives.
C. When Jesus comes into your life, He gives you fellowship.
In middle eastern culture, when you go into someone’s home and eat with them, you are showing them acceptance. You are saying in effect “this is my friend, and I am ok with them.”
This is why it was such a huge scandal that Jesus ate with publicans and sinners—it was probably an even bigger scandal that he stayed at Zacchaeus’ house. The religious leaders in Luke 15 grumbled, “This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.” Zacchaeus wasn’t just a sinner; he was the worst of the worst, the local mob boss. Yet Jesus didn’t just eat with him—He invited Himself in and called him a son of Abraham.
But it also shows us what happens when we receive Jesus. We receive His fellowship. We receive His acceptance. We become a part of His family. We become “accepted in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:6). The outcast becomes the guest of honor. The traitor to his people becomes a brother in the household of God.
That’s the wonder of the gospel. Jesus doesn’t just forgive you and leave you on the outside looking in. He brings you all the way in—to His table, to His family, to full fellowship with Him.
Again, as Revelation 3:20 says:
[20] Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
Revelation 3:20 (KJV)
Conclusion
Zacchaeus teaches us that Jesus pursues even the most despicable sinners. Once those sinners receive Him, He transforms them, fills them with joy, and enjoys full fellowship with them.
If you’re here today and you’ve never received Christ, listen: Jesus is seeking you. He’s not after you to condemn you—He’s after you to save you. The same Jesus who called Zacchaeus by name is calling you. Will you come down from whatever tree you’re hiding in and let Him in?
For those of us who already know Him, the question is simple: Are we still amazed that He sought us? Are we living like people who have been transformed, who walk in joy, and who enjoy full fellowship with the Savior who loved us when we were unlovable?
Let’s pray.
