This morning I want to focus your attention on evangelism, the activity of
Christians announcing the message of good news of the gospel of Christ to save
mankind from sin – Isaiah
52:7.
Before Jesus ascend to heaven, He gave us a great job to perform, we call it
the great commission, teaching the world how the power of God can save man from
his sins through the sacrifice of Christ -
Matthew 28:19-20.
BEFORE ZACCHAEUS WAS SAVED, JESUS INTERACTED WITH HIM (19:5)
Christians must understand, that association, interaction, and communication
with sinner’s is necessary to bring them the message of the good news of Jesus
Christ. In Matthew 9:9-13,
Jesus tells his opponents his purpose for eating with publicans & sinner’s was
to call sinners to repentance.
We sometimes have to overcome the fear of having close proximity or
interactions with the undesirables of our society such as drug users,
prostitutes, murderers, or sexual predators – II Timothy 1:7.
In Luke 19:7, when the
Jews, saw Jesus went to be a guest with a man that was a sinner, they murmured,
made compliant. But they didn’t understand that Jesus was not associating with
him to be likened to the character of the sinful practice of many publicans of
the day, but He was trying to save Zacchaeus and his house -
Luke 19:10.
Furthermore, the Bible teach us we are not to be united with unbelievers and
their sins - II Corinthians
6:14-18; Ephesians 5:11.
ZACCHAEUS IS PENITENT & MADE RESTITUTION FOR HIS SINS (19:8-10)
It’s implied in our scriptural text, while Jesus was a guest in Zacchaeus
house that he taught him he must repent of his sins to obtain salvation, which
is consistent with the preaching ministry of Jesus –
Matthew 4:17;
Mark 1:14-15.
Repentance is being sorrowful of your sins which brings about a change of
action in regard to sin – II
Corinthians 7:9-10. In Luke 19:8, Zacchaeus expresses his penitent heart over his sins by giving
half his goods to the poor, and restoring anyone he wronged in his profession
fourfold – Luke 13:3.
Therefore, you and I must focus our goals in our lives at finding ways and
avenues that will effectively communicate in the spirit of love the saving
gospel message of Jesus Christ –
Proverbs 11:30.
