Main Idea: Being a member of a church means belonging to a community of those who are included in God’s Kingdom.

Introduction: Our family doesn’t have many objects that you would consider heirlooms, things that are of such value they would be passed on to other generations. However, two diamond rings that belonged to my mother’s aunt fall into the heirloom category. My mother felt that it was important to her to pass them on to my daughters when they each turned sixteen. So when they each became sixteen they each received a diamond ring that they could get mounted as they desired.

Almost three years ago shortly after our daughter Jennifer received her ring she attended a youth party at the home of Paul and Melinda McNeill. During one activity she thought it would be good to place her ring along with someone else’s watch in a hat to prevent them from being lost. Another youth not knowing, because it was dark, that there were objects in the hat, tossed the hat as a joke. You guessed it—the ring was lost. While a frantic search was made, the ring wasn’t found. None of us slept well that night because something very valuable to our family was lost.

The next morning before church the McNeill family searched intently. The plan was to go back after lunch with a metal detector and see if the ring could be found. Several of us walked over the area with little hope of ever seeing the ring again. In the middle of that frustration, Hallie McNeill started shouting, "I found it! I found it!" And she had! There in the gravel, where it didn’t belong, was the ring. Jennifer took it home, put it up and inwardly we all breathed a sigh of relief because what was lost had been found and was back where it belonged.

Whatever definition you may have about what a church is, the New Testament presents to us the idea that the church is comprised of people who know what it is to be like that diamond ring—lost then found and put back where they belong. Today is the Sunday we as Christians call Palm Sunday. It is the day that we remember our Lord’s entry into Jerusalem on the Sunday before his death on Friday. We hear the story and are amazed by the response of the crowds who would shout blessings upon him as king on Sunday but by Friday they would call out "Crucify Him, Crucify Him!" We see these events as they are portrayed in the Gospels and imagine that they are random incidents that just somehow happened without any thought or design. Yet they present to us a beautiful illustration of what it means for us personally to be included in the Kingdom of God

In your Sunday School lesson this morning Paul said in Ephesians 2:19, "So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God's holy people. You are members of God's family." Paul uses two technical terms that commonly describe someone who is inferior to contrast with the word citizens. The first describes people who are short-term transients. The other was the resident immigrant who had settled in the country of their choice. They had no intrinsic rights, however. This was all of our position in relation to the kingdom of God before the coming of Christ. But now they and we enjoy all the privileges of God's new people. He makes the distinction that at one time people who are now members of God’s kingdom were at one time not members of God’s kingdom. He indicates they at one time didn’t belong but now they do belong. What happened to them in order for them to become a member of God’s kingdom? The answer is that they were saved and began serving Christ as their King.

I understand that the terminology of what it means to be included in God’s kingdom has become so outdated that it may have lost its meaning for us. Yet, honestly, it has never lost its meaning for God, for in Luke 19:10 Jesus says that the whole purpose for his coming was to see that people were brought under the rule of God. He said, "For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost" (Luke 19:10). Regardless of how out of touch this word may seem to us it is the way God expresses to us that there is something we need to be saved from, for and by. We are saved from an eternity separated from him in hell, saved for the joy of serving Him as our King now in this life and for an eternity in heaven and saved by the death of his Son for us on the cross.

In the text from Luke’s gospel that we look at today there are examples of what it means to belong to God’s kingdom. As Jesus is making his journey toward Jerusalem he will specifically explain to his disciples his purpose and God’s plan for salvation. Luke 18:31-34 is the seventh of just such an explanation that Jesus gave. It is as if he can’t say it enough that the reason for his moving toward Jerusalem was to fulfill God’s plan of salvation and purpose for himself. Clearly Jesus says that each step fits into God’s plan—his being arrested, his mocking and mistreatment, his suffering, his death but also his triumphant resurrection.

It is clear that when it comes to you and me being included in God’s kingdom it has always been part of God’s plan. Ephesians 1:4 says, "Long ago, even before God made the world, God loved us…." (Ephesians 1:19 NLT). So clearly was God’s plan developed that there was never a moment that he did not intend to send his Son into our world to save us. Jesus himself said that you could look back into the writings of the Old Testament prophets and see how this was his plan. For example, you can take the book of Zechariah to the event of Jesus’ death and you can see how exactly each step was determined by God centuries before the events occurred. Zechariah 9:9 tells in detail the events of Jesus entry into Jerusalem and Zechariah 11:12-13 describes the exact amount that Judas received for betraying the Lord. Jesus didn’t do this as if it were merely a task on his list. No, all of this was done to demonstrate that lost people being brought into his kingdom are God’s highest priority.

That was hard for the disciples to understand. Luke records how totally incomprehensible this was to them. They couldn’t see the connection between their concept of a Messiah and the predictions of Jesus’ death. They couldn’t see that the way to peace spiritually passed through the way of pain or that the way of salvation passed through suffering. We have a hard time with this also. We keep imagining that surely there must be some other way to have a relationship with God other than through Jesus and what he did on the cross. We may imagine that my church membership, my good actions to help someone or my seeking to be a good person will be adequate. (I.e. My mother was a Christian so…It doesn’t matter what you believe just be sincere…I’ll just give up all my bad habits…) Surely there is some other method to a lasting relationship with God than this messy, revolting, pathetic figure of Jesus on the cross. The disciples couldn’t see it and sometimes we have a hard time also!

Jesus was the master at finding a way to illustrate spiritual truth in real life. So while he is making his way to Jerusalem he passes from the northeast to the southeast, going through Jericho (Luke 19:1-10). Jericho was a crossroads community between the west and east and was known for its trade particularly in wood products. In that town was a man named Zacchaeus who was the chief tax collector of the area. As chief tax collector it meant he was the guy at the top of the pyramid with other tax collectors working under him. A tax collector was particularly despised by the Jews because they would normally be a Jew who had sold their soul to the Romans. The way taxes were collected was that a set tax would be determined and the collector could set his own profit margin. For Zacchaeus to be the "chief" would make him uniquely hated and also very wealthy.

When Zacchaeus first heard about Jesus we do not know. Yet when he became aware that Jesus was coming through his town he made it his priority to get to see him. He had a problem in that his height was a restriction—he could see because they were taller. In order to get just a glimpse, he finds a sycamore tree, because it had a wide trunk and short branches, and climbs up into it. This is at the same time surprising and yet it shouldn’t surprise us. Anyone shameless enough to rob his own countrymen could care less what people thought about his being up a tree!

As Jesus passed by he called Zacchaeus by name and told him to come down that it was necessary for him to go to his house that very day. Do you remember what we said about our being saved being a priority with God? Well, here is the example. Jesus knew Zacchaeus by name and said it was his absolute intention to be in Zacchaeus’ house that day! You see, Zacchaeus wasn’t saved because Jesus was just looking for a place to put his feet up. No, he was saved because that was God’s plan. None of us is saved accidentally or as an after thought. Your time to be saved is something God has been waiting for for all eternity and is part of his plan! In Zacchaeus’ case, as well as ours, all eternity focused on one moment in time.

Somewhere in all this excitement Zacchaeus made a choice to receive Jesus into his home and ultimately into his life. In these moments when Zacchaeus’ eternity waited for redirection he made a choice to allow what he knew about Jesus intellectually to change him spiritually. Everything else in this story was the result of this decision. So in a moment Zacchaeus gets down out of the tree and welcomed Jesus into his house "with great excitement and joy." At first all Zacchaeus wanted was to see Jesus but now he is letting him have total access to his life!

When irreligious people take steps to relate positively to Jesus religious people get nervous. Immediately when Zacchaeus and Jesus met face to face the crowd starts to buzz. They start grumbling because from their frame of reference a person like Jesus doesn’t belong with a person like Zacchaeus. I’m sure that all the way to Zacchaeus’ house he hears their comments. I think I just see Jesus grinning from ear to ear. He gets to demonstrate once again his purpose by seeing to it that Zacchaeus is saved. By the time they get to the doorway of the house Zacchaeus has had enough. The criticism was casting doubt on Jesus’ credibility and Zacchaeus’ sincerity. So he does something unusual—he stopped! What would he say?

You can almost feel the tension between Zacchaeus and the crowd. Something very important, though, happened—Zacchaeus demonstrated just how much change Jesus had already made in his life. He turns back to the crowd and tells them that they could already count that here and now he was giving half of everything to the poor and that everyone that had been cheated would get for times the amount that he cheated them. This showed to Jesus really what he already knew and also to the crowds that if his relationship with God was restored then he wanted to repair his relationships with them.

What Jesus says next he says for Zacchaeus, the disciples, the crowds and for us. He says in essence, "This is a saved man! What has happened here demonstrates my whole purpose, for I have come like someone looking earnestly and exhaustively to rescue completely people who are lost to a relationship with my Father. I have come to save what is lost."

That, my friends, is who makes up the church. We are people who know the joy of being included in God’s Kingdom. We know what it is to be saved to serve Christ as our King. Each Sunday, or any other time when we gather, we do so because we once were those who were lost but because of Jesus we are included in God’s kingdom. The question you may have this morning is how can you become a person who knows personally what it is to be included in that kingdom.

First, you need to understand that you are God’s highest priority if you are lost to a personal relationship to him. In fact, what Jesus demonstrates in his actions and by his words is heaven is making an all-out search for you. Whether it calling for Zacchaeus to come down so he could go to his house or entering the city of Jerusalem as king. You are someone for whom Jesus came to die. That’s why there’s nothing you can do by yourself to save yourself. Ephes. 2:8-9 says, "God saved you by his special favor when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it." Why? The reason is because all that’s needed is already done.

Second, you need to let Jesus become personal to you. You see, it is one thing to know that Jesus is looking for persons who are lost; it is another to realize that you are that person. You see saved people are people who individually have accepted the fact that Jesus loved them enough to die for them. John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life." They simply trust that God in Jesus Christ has done it all by his death on the cross on Friday and resurrection on Sunday. What I need to do is to trust or believe that what he’s done is enough—personally.

Thirdly, we need to give Jesus full access to your life. That means that I invite him into my life and that there’s no room, closet, area or place that is shut to him. Just as he entered the home of Zacchaeus and the city of Jerusalem so he wants full access to your life personally. John 1:12, "But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God." When we believe and accept him, that’s when we get more than we bargained for. For you see he wants not to be invited in as a guest in your house. He wants the keys and the deed to the house. He has not come to rest he has come to rule! That will mean some stuff will have to go because his presence and the presence of sin cannot coexist. Remember, we said that the way to peace is the way of pain and the way of salvation is the way of suffering. This hurts but it hurts good.

Finally, we demonstrate his access to our life openly. How do we do that? Well, you let him rearrange your habits, lifestyle and priorities. There may be some commitments you need to make or some relationships that need repairing. One of the things that Jesus commands is that those who follow him are to be baptized as a way of saying, "I’m a follower of Jesus openly and without shame." He said, "Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:19-20).

You will also want to commit yourself to a group of other people who know what it is to belong to God’s kingdom so that you can continue to know more and more about what it means.

It all starts with you. Do you know today the joy of being included in God’s kingdom? He’s come here today with you in mind, looking for those who are lost. Will you welcome him now with great excitement and joy? Or will you once again turn away like the people of Jerusalem? Jesus wept over the rejection of those people. There is no need for him to weep over your rejection of him. You can take these steps by praying a simple prayer of commitment to God: "Today, Jesus, I know that you loved me enough to die for me. I admit that I have sinned and ask you to forgive me. I give you full access to my life right now. I welcome you into my heart and acknowledge you as my King. Today I commit myself to follow you and serve you forever. Amen."

Sunday, April 8, 2001

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org