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A Philly Story: Sermon · Beyond the Sermon

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  You're listening to Beyond the Sermon, the podcast the First
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  Methodist Church in Collingswood, NJ.
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  On this podcast, the goal is not just to share our sermons, but
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  to go beyond the sermon and talk about what we're learning and
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  what God is doing in us and in our community.
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  This fall, we're living in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke,
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  and John and learning how to live from our model, Jesus.
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  This sermon is part of our series The Gospels.
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  You can find out more information about our church at
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  fumccollingswood.org. Thanks for listening.
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  Good morning everyone. This morning's reading comes
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  from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 19.
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  Starting in personal Jesus entered Jericho and made his way
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  through the town. There was a man named Zacchaeus
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  who was the chief tax collector in the region, and he had become
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  very rich. He tried to get a look at Jesus,
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  but he was too short to see over the crowd, so he ran ahead and
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  climbed a Sycamore fig tree beside the road, for Jesus was
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  going to pass that way. When Jesus came by, he looked up
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  at Zacchaeus and called him by name.
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  Zacchaeus. He said quick, come down, I must
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  be a guest in your home today. Zacchaeus quickly climbed down
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  and took Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy, but
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  the people were displeased. He has gone to be the guest of a
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  notorious center, they grumbled. Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood
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  before the Lord and said, I will give half my wealth to the poor
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  Lord. If I cheated people on their
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  taxes, I will give them back four times as much.
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  Jesus responded. Salvation has come to his this
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  home today. For this man has shown himself
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  to be a true son of Abraham. For the son of man came to seek
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  and save those who are lost. This is the word of God for the
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  people of God. And before we start singing
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  about a Wee little Man, I would like to share a blessing that is
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  rare in these past few months. But I got some time to sit down
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  and relax with my wife at home and so we started scrolling
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  through Netflix to find something to watch and new
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  documentary about the mob was on.
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  I don't know if anyone had seen this.
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  It's Philadelphia verse the Mob. And I of course had to watch
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  because it's right across the bridge there and even more
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  personal to Collingswood because the owner of Kitchen Conciliere,
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  I'll get it eventually. Who owns one of the restaurants
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  in town that was allegedly involved with the mob and
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  doesn't like to share stories with customers?
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  Was on there sharing about all of the people that he grew up
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  with and we're friends with. And he was my favorite person.
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  Not just because his restaurant is a couple blocks from church,
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  but he was really able to see past the actions of certain
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  individuals and view them as a person nonetheless.
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  I have two of my favorite quotes of his.
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  He says. I remember one time I saw him
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  knock a kid out. We were in 7th grade.
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  I mean he was brutal. Good guy, Family Guy, nice guy.
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  In regards to another alleged mob boss, we all went to school
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  together, he used to rob the lunch money and stuff like that.
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  Joey was wild, good guy, just crazy, right?
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  And so mobs and other gangs are known for causing their own
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  community pain for personal gain, and we see that with
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  Zacchaeus himself. And before I get started, I
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  would love to open us in a word of prayer.
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  Lord, would you speak, Would you put me aside?
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  Would your word be afresh in our hearts this morning?
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  Would we share the same heart as you for the lost, that they
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  would be saved in Jesus name, Amen.
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  As I was reading through the scripture readings for this
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  week, if you've been following along, I got to the very end and
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  I started to see this IKEA story in a new light.
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  And I would argue that if you have the imagination, it is a
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  very Philadelphia story. I imagine Jesus not on the road,
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  but at the top of the Art Museum steps right below the newly
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  reinstated Rocky statue. And that's where he decides to
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  teach and speak right in front of the Benjamin Franklin
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  Parkway. You know, he starts teaching and
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  people start getting news that Jesus is in town.
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  And So what do we do right as a church?
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  We send out an emergency e-mail, we put it on Facebook, We get in
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  the church van, we all start jumping in the pack hoe and
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  flying over to see Jesus speak. And so as the steps start to
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  fill up and of course, I, I would hope there's a nice pastor
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  section, right? Pastors get front row to see
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  Jesus speak and I don't think he would be in mummer's attire,
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  though Eric may argue with me on that.
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  Jesus was dressed as the common man right when he was arrested.
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  That's why Judas had to go and kiss him on the cheek so that
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  they could tell which one was Jesus right dressed like the
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  ordinary man. So I like to imagine matching
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  sweatpants and sweatshirt like Rocky casually being with the
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  people, right? Preaching, sharing the good news
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  that everyone desires. They come from far and wide to
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  hear him speak. And if you haven't heard of
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  recent Jesus didn't just attract the righteous, right?
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  He attracted everyone. There's times where it says
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  specifically that the sinners were drawn toward Jesus and his
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  teachings. And when I think of more modern
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  day centers, I think crimes, right?
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  They harm people. And if you're unfamiliar, within
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  about 3-4 miles as the crow flies, we are close to the
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  world's largest open air drug market.
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  It resides in the neighborhood of Kensington, Philadelphia.
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  And just last week, if not two weeks ago, the FBI did a large
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  raid in Kensington, getting one of the largest suppliers of
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  drugs to the area and getting 33 people are now put on charges
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  with 32 of them have either been captured or they were already in
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  prison, which means there is one still at large.
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  And so I imagine in our story at the Art Museum steps that this
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  individual could be maybe not the tallest and the individual
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  just like Zacchaeus and needed to climb a light post.
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  You can imagine it greased, not greased.
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  It doesn't really affect the point here is that maybe he's
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  unable to see Jesus or people started to recognize him and for
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  his own safety he needed to get apart from the crowd.
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  And so amongst all of this, we have Jesus point out to him.
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  Come down. Oh, there we go.
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  Little early, but I'll take it. If you didn't have a great
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  imagination, this can be your aid with Jesus at the top with
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  the crowds below, skyline in the distance and Jesus says come
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  down or Jesus comes down. He says I must be a guest in
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  your home today. Jesus is on his way to
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  Kensington. Everyone else in the crowd that
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  came from all over must have started talking, right?
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  Pastor Scott and I are obviously in the front row there and you
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  guys right behind us and out of all of us faithful or attempting
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  to be faithful believers attending most of our days, he
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  overlooks us and sees the one at the top of the light post and
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  wants to go be with him, right? We may all be thinking just like
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  those around Zacchaeus, why would he go with that notorious
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  Sinner? And Jesus goes and he says the
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  guy who is currently on the run says that he's going to turn
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  himself in, give half of his wealth to the poor and he's
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  going to pay for everyone's rehab that bought drugs from
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  him. And I'm sure something in our
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  guts says that this is the unbelievable part, right?
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  With that, images aid, it may be a little easier to imagine the
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  speech, to imagine the crowds and what that would look like,
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  and even a greased light post in Philadelphia.
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  But for someone like that to repent and turn from their ways
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  just isn't possible. Wouldn't it be nice if it worked
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  like that? Do you not believe in a God that
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  changes hearts? Did he not change yours?
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  Or maybe you can believe that he can change this criminal's heart
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  in this fictitious telling of the Philly story.
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  But then I would ask, who is your Zacchaeus in your life who
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  seems too far gone and impossible to win over with the
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  gospel? Couple examples come to mind.
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  Especially recently we had one of our youth who is in a musical
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  after a practice was invited to go to Starbucks with a friend
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  afterwards and maybe acquaintance and she said oh I'm
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  going to youth group instead and the girl flipped her off for
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  wanting to go to youth group instead of going to Starbucks.
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  Probably not the first person that you think is going to come
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  to Jesus right after. I might be a little more
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  hesitant, or someone at work that speaks poorly of the
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  church, or on social media speaks poorly of Christians or
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  Jesus or his teachings may be the last person that you think
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  of to reach out to, to share the good news.
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  And so I wanted to give us 3 practical steps in which we can
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  be like Jesus who came to seek and save those who are lost.
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  First off, we need to have hope, right?
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  A lot of times our youth and young adults come to me about
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  people that they have lost hope for because of the poor actions
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  of the individual. And I always try to encourage,
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  try to encourage that. I've seen God do greater with
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  worse, right? As we look in the Scripture, we
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  have Zacchaeus who was essentially robbing his
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  community, Matthew, one of the apostles doing the same, Paul
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  who explicitly tried to get Christians arrested and beaten
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  and put to death. And yet look at how much we
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  admire what God was able to do with their lives.
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  We also see here in Romans chapter 15 verse 13 that Paul
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  prays for the Gentiles that God, the source of hope, will fill
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  you completely with joy and peace because you trust in Him.
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  Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power
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  of the Holy Spirit, right? God, our source of hope.
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  And it's because of our trust in Him, not trust in the person.
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  We do not hope in what they are capable of doing, but we have
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  hope in what God is capable of doing in and through them.
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  As #1 do not lose hope. Secondly, we need to go to them,
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  right? Church isn't the only way to
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  evangelize. It is important.
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  Invite people. I believe we have an incredible
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  body and after our sermon series on what it means to be the body
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  of Christ, that I would hope that this would be an exemplary
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  place for them to encounter those walking with Jesus and to
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  encounter him themselves. But it is not.
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  The only way that we evangelize is by sending an invite to
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  church, right? It could have easily been done
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  at the Art Museum steps. Come back next week and we'll
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  find a more comfortable light post for you, right?
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  It is not just the invitation to the big gathering, but
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  intentionally going out to the lost.
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  And so we need to go out to the lost.
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  Third, you may be thinking to yourself, well, the kid that
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  just flipped me off because I'm going to youth group is probably
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  not going to let me in their home so I can share Jesus with
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  them, right? And we cannot force ourselves
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  into people's homes. I hope that is clear.
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  We are not forcing ourselves into people's homes and yet we
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  are looking for opportunities to be in people's homes.
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  And if the doors aren't open, we can always pray.
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  The power of prayer cannot be lost on us and it is not
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  uncommon for it to get lost on us, even those in Scripture
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  while praying for God that prayer actually works.
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  I want to give the example from Acts chapter 12 when Peter is in
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  prison, and it says that while Peter was in prison, the church
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  prayed very earnestly for him and Peter didn't believe.
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  After God miraculously freed Peter from prison, and he did it
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  in such a way that Peter couldn't believe it.
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  And if you're curious how he did it, go to Acts 12 later this
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  week to find out. We see in verse 11, Peter
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  finally came to his senses. It's really true.
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  He said the Lord has sent his Angel and save me from Herod and
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  from what the Jewish leaders had planned to do to me.
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  When he realized this, he went to the home of Mary, the mother
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  of John Mark, where many were gathered for prayer.
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  All right, they're praying for him because he's still in
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  prison. He knocked at the door in the
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  gate and a servant girl named Rhoda came to open it.
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  When she recognized Peter's voice, she was so overjoyed that
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  instead of opening the door, she ran back inside and told
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  everyone, Peter is standing at the door.
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  You're out of your mind, they said.
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  When she insisted, they decided it must be his Angel.
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  Meanwhile, Peter knocking continued knocking.
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  When they finally opened the door and saw him, they were
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  amazed. While praying for Peter to be
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  released, the logical conclusion was that he must have died and
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  it was his Angel, right? And yet, that's where we can
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  find ourselves so regularly when we pray for others, especially
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  those that we've prayed for for so long.
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  Like, yes, Lord, I'm still going to contend for them in the
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  faith, but if they actually come to believe in You, there's got
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  to be something else going on, right?
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  And it's something that we need to overcome, just as they did
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  here in Acts chapter 12. As he's standing there and
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  they're looking at him, I, I'm baffled.
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  And yet I'm not surprised in the least at the same time, because
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  of how well I know myself. And that phrase I love in the
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  new Living Translation when they say you're out of your mind,
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  right? You're out of your mind that our
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  prayers worked. That's essentially what they're
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  saying. And so we need to contend in
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  prayer, look for opportunities when we can go towards them and
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  not lose hope. The message this morning is
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  simple, but it is not easy. Let us pray.
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  Lord, I thank you so much for how you meet us, how you meet
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  those in Scripture, and how you share these stories that we can
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  learn from. How your son lived, how your son
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  taught, how your son loved. Lord, how you act because you
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  want to see the lost saved. Would you give us that same
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  heart? Would You give us the hope and
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  what You can do in the hearts of others?
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  We ask that you would give us the boldness and the direction
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  to go even when it's inconvenient, even when it's not
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  in our calendar, even when it's going to a place that we never
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  thought that we would be. We ask that you would give us an
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  earnest heart of prayer that we would ceaselessly go before You,
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  put our trust in You for those that are on Your heart and
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  should be on ours as well. We thank you and praise You this
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  morning as we prepare to partake and Your body offered up not
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  only for us and those in the front of the crowd, but also
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  those in the back that are shaped in Jesus name, Amen.