Sources used for this series include commentary by John Piper, Tim Keller, Colin Smith sermons at unlockingthebible.org, Henri Nouwen’s The Return of the Prodigal Son and Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology.
If you’ve grown up in Sunday school then you know the story of a diminutive but wealthy man named Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector. You probably know the song about him as well…"Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he…” He climbed above the crowds perched in a sycamore tree just to get a glimpse of Jesus. The story unfolds with Jesus calling him down saying, “I must stay at your house.” People are shocked. The tax collector was a man of few friends. He’s the guy no one wants to spend time with and yet Jesus makes a dinner reservation for the two of them. With this, a relationship begins. The man is radically transformed by the grace of Jesus. That’s what grace does, it changes you. Jesus was not waiting for Zacchaeus to clean up his act, he simply met him where he was…in the tree. You see, we can search for Jesus all we want, but truth is we will never be searching for Him longer than He's been searching for us!
