STUDY THEME: THAT’S ENCOURAGING! 7-04-04
“ENCOURAGED BY ENDURING LOVE.” LAM. 3: 19-24; LUKE 19: 1-10
LAMENTATIONS 3: 19-20, 21-24; LUKE 19; 1-4, 5-7; 19: 8-10.
PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO LAMENTATIONS 3.
When our pastor looks into the faces of the people gathered to worship, he realizes that all kinds of needs are represented. Very likely some of the people are just barely hanging on. In some situations, a word of encouragement can mean the difference between giving up and going on. As I’ve grown older, I’ve become increasingly convinced that many people need some word of hope and encouragement. This is also true of those who come to Sunday School.
Fortunately the Word of God is filled with examples and themes that offer just what all of us need. This study theme for July focuses on four encouraging truths in the Bible: 1) No one is excluded from God’s love. 2) Believers can have assurance of their salvation. 3) Each person can do something useful for God, and 4) People can live with hope and joy even when the worst comes. These are all truths that cause us to say, “That’s Encouraging.”
The first of the four lessons in July, “Encouraged by Enduring Love,” is based on the assurance of God’s faithfulness in Lamentations 3: 19-24 and on the story of Christ’s loving acceptance of Zacchaeus in Luke 19: 1-10.
The theme of today’s lesson is that we can be encouraged in knowing that God loves us, regardless of who we are or what we have done.
The life question this lesson addresses is, Why should I believe God loves me? The three outline points of this lesson answers this question: 1) God’s love never ceases, 2) God loves when others don’t, and 3) God’s love changes lives.
The Biblical Truth is that God’s love endures eternally and includes everyone.
The Life Impact is to help you live in confident assurance of God’s love.
In the Book of Lamentations, the author, in Ch. 3 lamented the fall of Jerusalem; however, he praised the faithful love of God for His sinful people. In Luke 19 Zacchaeus was disliked because he was a rich tax collector, but Jesus showed God’s love for him. As a result, Zacchaeus was changed.
PLEASE READ LAMENTATIONS 3: 19-20.
Many people love to sing the hymn ‘Great is Thy Faithfulness.’ Some are surprised to discover the location of the words that form the title and theme of the hymn. Lamentations is not one of the more familiar books of the Bible. And it is, after all, a book filled with laments—expressions of deep sorrow and grief. Many books contain some laments, but this book is the ultimate Book of Lamentations. However, a more positive note is sounded in the middle of the book, a reminder of God’s love, which affects the tone of the last half of the book.
The book itself does not name the author. But since ancient times Jeremiah has been considered to be the writer. He had spent his life warning Judah that God was sending judgment on the impenitent people. Other prophets condemned the prophet as a pessimist and a traitor. Jeremiah predicted that Jerusalem would fall to the Babylonians, and he descried the terrible destruction that would follow. In 587-86 B.C. his prophesy came true; however, even Jeremiah was not prepared for the desolation left by the conquerors.
Lamentations 3 has the prophet speaking as a representative of the city. He graphically described God acting like an enemy of Jerusalem.
In the years 587-86 B.C. the city of Jerusalem fell to the might of the Babylonian Empire.
The Bible states that the Babylonians defeated, sacked and burned Jerusalem because the Lord was judging the sins of His people. King Zedekiah was loyal to Babylon for 10 years, but when he rebelled, Nebuchadnezzar returned to completely destroy the principle cities of Judah, including Jerusalem. When Jerusalem was besieged, burned and leveled they made King Zedekiah watch as they killed his sons, then they put out Zedekiah’s eyes and took him to Babylon.
1 Kings 25:9 says they burned Jerusalem to the ground, including the temple, and “all the houses of Jerusalem.” Ps. 48:1 says nothing was left of the “city of the Lord.”
Lamentations 3: 1-18 is one of the most anguish-filled passages in the entire Bible. These verses were carefully composed as the first part of an alphabetical poem (acrostic), in which the first line of each successive stanza begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It’s as if the writer were saying, “I am in grief from A to Z: anguished and agonized, bruised and broken, crying and crushed, distressed and distraught, empty and exiled, fearful and forlorn.” This is why Jeremiah is called the weeping prophet.
Verses 19-21 each begin with zayin. Vs. 19 reviews and summarizes the writer’s experiences already mentioned in vs. 1-18. His sorrow reflected the despair of everyone in the kingdom of Judah. He was full of affliction, as were thousands of others. He had experienced homelessness, being removed from his familiar environment.
Words such as affliction and misery show the deep anguish and words such as wormwood and gall show the bitterness of their experience. Wormwood is a plant with a very bitter taste. Gall literally refers to the liver, but it is used figuratively as something bitter. The word humbled has the idea of being “downcast.”
The prophet and survivors were in despair when they saw the ruins of the fallen city. They were as down as people can become. The past reminded them of their sins. The present revealed only misery and woes. The future seemed bleak.
Life is that way sometime. We may become distraught because of circumstances beyond our control, and all too often we are weighed down as a result of evil choices we have made. All of this means, however, that for us to recognize that we have been through (or are in the midst of) loss and grief or discouragement is not necessarily bad. Sometimes we are not ready to be encouraged until we admit that we are discouraged!
In the back of the inspired poet’s mind there was a reason to have hope ready to burst forth. It had been there all along lying dormant. Not it was time for him to remember (literally, “to make to return to the heart”). The reason for hope would be presented in vs. 22-24.
PLEASE READ LAMENTATIONS 3: 21-24.
In vs. 21 what did Jeremiah bring to mind that caused him to have hope? First, he probably began to think of God’s faithfulness to His promises. Even in desolating His people, God had been faithful to His promise to remove them from the land should they persist in sin. (Lev. 26: 14-39). Faithful to His promise, God also would restore His people to Himself and to the land when they turned to Him with all their hearts. He had promised in 2 Chronicles 7: 14, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins, and will heal their land.”
Jeremiah had been focusing on remembering the ruin of the city and all that led up to it. Then he recalled something that replaced despair with hope. Jeremiah remembered the Lord’s promise to return His people after 70 years, and that renewed his grasp on the reality of God’s love. In this respect the Book of Lamentations moved from judgment to hope.
Before the city fell, Jeremiah preached the certainty of judgment. When the end drew near, he preached hope for the future.
Hope in the declaration I have hope involved waiting in faith for the promised restoration. For those who put their faith in the Lord, restoration to God would be immediate. Indeed, God never left Jeremiah. However, restoration to the land for the nation would come only after the prophesied 70 years of Babylonian captivity. Ultimate removal of the desolation of Jerusalem and the salvation of all Israel would not take place until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled (see Luke 21:24; Rom. 11:25-27).
Second, in Lamentations 3: 22 Jeremiah found hope in remembering God’s enduring love. The Lord’s faithful love does not cease. God loves everybody and wishes salvation for all. However, His faithful love, expressed in His salvation, is for those who, like Jeremiah, put their trust in Him. We experience God’s faithful love when we repent and believe the gospel. Faithful love translates the Hebrew word, which refers to the steadfast love that binds God to His people and should characterize His peoples’ commitment to Him and to one another.
God’s daily and unending compassion provided a third reason for Jeremiah to hope. The word “mercies” comes from a root meaning “soft and gentle.” It is related to the womb and points to the love seen in a mother’s care for her child. Jeremiah saw evidence of God’s compassionate mercy even in judgment. In His mercy, God had spared a remnant through which He would yet fulfill His covenant promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
God’s compassions are new every morning to provide the daily needs of His people. Like the manna in the wilderness, God’s love is new each day. Also like the manna, a person cannot hoard a supply for many days. It must be gathered new every morning. We cannot rely on the momentum of past experiences of God’s loving presence. We are grateful for these and we build on them; however, the nature of a personal relationship calls for renewal. What better way to begin the morning than by renewing our experience with our loving God?
Overcome with the demonstration of God’s care, Jeremiah looked into the face of God and exclaimed in vs. 23, great is Your faithfulness. All generations of God’s people join in testifying of God’s faithfulness. You can depend on God to supply all your needs.
In vs. 24, the Lord is my portion was the fourth reason Jeremiah found hope in the Lord. Although stripped of earthly treasure, Jeremiah still had the Lord. The inheritance Jeremiah referred to was an assigned lot. God chose His people to be His own and gave Himself to His people as their compassionate Father. Hope in the declaration I will hope in Him again reflects Jeremiah’s willingness to wait on the Lord for redemption. With faith now fully restored, Jeremiah testified in vv.25-26 of God’s goodness to those who hope in Him, seek Him, and wait for His salvation.
I love the hymn “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.” The hymn assures me of God’s love and care. The Lord had been faithful to meet all the needs of my life. God is good to me every day. I praise His name.
How do you know God loves and cares for you? We have learned from Jeremiah’s experience four encouraging truths for you as a believer in Christ. First, in faithful love God will fulfill all His promises to you. Second, God’s love for you never ceases and will not let you go. Third, through His daily and unending compassions, God will provide all your needs. Fourth, God is your inheritance.
Jeremiah had lost his home and possessions. He had nothing except the Lord. Yet with the Lord, he had everything. Thus he declared; The Lord is my portion. Because of Jeremiah’s confidence in the unfailing love of God, he was certain that his ultimate future lay secure in the Lord’s hands. His ringing assurance stands as a challenge for people today to turn to the one true God for hope. Those who place their hope in Him can be confident that He will welcome them into His eternal presence. The reverse of this is implicit as well: those who have not placed their hope in God can have no expectation that He will be their inheritance when life in this world has ended.
Truly, God’s love never ceases. It crosses barriers and reaches out to all people, even to people others don’t love. Zacchaeus was such a person. He had enemies, not friends, until he met Jesus!
PLEASE TURN NOW TO LUKE 19.
The rest of today’s lesson focus on Jesus’ well known encounter with Zacchaeus, which is found only in Luke’s Gospel. Jesus had been teaching and healing for about three years by this time. In fact, He was on His way to Jerusalem where He would accomplish the purpose for which God had sent Him into the world—to die to save sinners. Although the word love does not appear in these verses it is the foundation without which the story does not make sense. God’s love through Jesus reached out to an undeserving sinner.
PLEASE READ LUKE 19: 1-4.
Jesus had crossed the Jordan River a few miles from the prominent and ancient Jewish town of Jericho. He was passing through there to continue on His westward journey to Jerusalem. Great crowds---mainly people from Galilee on their way to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover--- were traveling with the Lord. Nobody, least of all the chief tax collector of the city, expected the love of God to be so wonderfully expressed on that spring day.
In the Roman system, the privilege of collecting taxes in an area was sold to the highest bidder. In turn, the tax collector had to collect enough taxes to make a profit on his investment. He had the authority of the Roman government behind him in collecting taxes. Such a system was subject to abuse and corruption. Tax collectors were unpopular among the Jewish people. At some point Zacchaeus had chosen to become a tax collector. His name means “righteous one.” Perhaps his parents had given him this name in the hope that he would become a good man. At any rate, Zacchaeus chose a way that led to wealth. He had succeeded in amassing a fortune and had become the head of the tax collectors in the area.
It is generally recognized that the Roman system of taxation enabled tax collectors to overcharge the people. The system encouraged cheating. Besides that, Jews who cooperated with the despised Romans were considered traitors against their own people. Jesus was known, however, for reaching out to such people. He welcomes these kinds of people, for many of them recognized that they were spiritually needy. In fact, Jesus had included a tax collector, Matthew, among His twelve closest followers.
Zacchaeus had what most people think will bring the good life. He had money. He had lots of money. Yet in spite of his wealth, he knew something was missing in his life. At that time Jesus was famous throughout the land. Thus when Zacchaeus heard that Jesus was passing through town, he sought to see Jesus who he was. We are not told how he had heard about Jesus or what he knew about Him. He knew enough that he wanted to see Jesus. He went to great lengths to catch a glimpse of Jesus. Because Zacchaeus was a short man, he was unable to see over the crowd that pressed along the way Jesus was coming; So Zacchaeus ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree.
That must have been a sight to see. The picture is of this short man running in back of the crowd that lined the street. He could not find a peephole. The people were probably intentionally blocking his view. Then the man ran ahead of the crowd and climbed up a tree with low-hanging branches. Those who saw the city’s chief tax collector must have relished the sight. Zacchaeus must have known that everything he was doing exposed him to ridicule, but this did not deter him. This shows the depth of his need. When Zacchaeus climbed up he probably thought he would remain hidden among the branches. He was in for an abrupt but wonderful interruption of life, as he had known it.
Nowhere else in the Gospels is there a reference to a chief tax collector. Zacchaeus evidently supervised a number of other tax collectors who had to give him a percentage of their tax revenue. Thus, it was no surprise that he was rich. Nobody knows why he was trying to see who Jesus was. Perhaps he had heard about Jesus enjoying a meal in another tax collector’s home, as recorded in Matt. 9: 10. This was something the other religious leaders would never have dreamed of doing.
My guess is that Zacchaeus had learned about Jesus from one of his tax collector associates. Maybe he had heard about Jesus’ stories concerning lost things that were found, sinners who were saved. In Luke 15 Jesus told the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son, and Zacchaeus may have heard Him at that time.
PLEASE READ LUKE 19: 5-7.
Every eye was upon Jesus when he stopped and looked up. Those who were near the tree knew Zacchaeus was in that tree. They probably wondered why Jesus stopped at that tree. They must have been surprised when they heard Jesus talking to the little man in the tree. No one was more surprised than Zacchaeus himself. Jesus called him by name. As far as we know, Jesus had never met Jericho’s chief tax collector, but He called him by name. This alone was impressive—to realize that the lord knew Zacchaeus’s name. Even more impressive was what Jesus said. Make haste, and come down; for today I must abide at thy house. Jesus was often a guest in someone’s home, but this is the only record of Jesus inviting Himself. Jesus did not invite Himself merely to have a place to rest. The word must reflect a moral and spiritual necessity. Jesus wanted to go to the home of the despised tax collector and He wanted to go right then.
Zacchaeus spent no time debating how to respond. He made haste, and came down and welcomed Jesus joyfully. Jesus had shown His love and the love of the Father by calling Zacchaeus by name and by asking to go into his home. Such concern and acceptance were in total contrast to how others in Jericho treated the chief tax collector.
When the crowd saw what happened, they all murmured. The very sound of the word is that of humming bees. They kept buzzing angrily among themselves that Jesus would grace the home of this ‘sinner’.
Typically, the attitude was that God did not and would not love such sinners. Therefore, such people were to be shunned. That Jesus had gone to lodge in Zacchaeus’s house was scandalous beyond belief. At least in the crowd’s opinion. After all, wouldn’t it make Jesus ritually unclean to eat with such a sinner?
What the people didn’t realize----and what we sometimes forget even today---was that just the reverse had happened. Instead of Zacchaeus making Jesus unclean, Jesus made Zacchaeus clean. Another amazing example of this reversal of expectations had occurred earlier when Jesus healed a man with leprosy by touching him. Instead of the touch defiling Jesus, He made the diseased man whole.
That He was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner was an accusation often made against Jesus by the Pharisees, who defined just about every non-Pharisee as “a sinner.” The criticism in Jericho came from all who witnessed Jesus talking with Zacchaeus and entering his house. They all considered the tax collector to be a sinner. Jesus knew that Zacchaeus was a sinner, but He had come as the great physician to heal sin-sick people. He was the Good Shepherd who had come to seek and save the lost sheep. Jesus would have agreed that Zacchaeus was a sinner, but He disagreed with the crowd about how to help sinners. Jesus’ strategy was to befriend sinners and call them to receive the loving forgiveness of God.
Zacchaeus is an example of a person whom no one loved. In fact, he seems to have been despised by the people of Jericho. He is portrayed as being alone. No mention is made of family or friends. No one seems to have cared for him but Jesus and the Father, whose love His Son revealed. Millions of people in our world feel alone and unloved. The message of these verses is that God loves all people, including those whom no one else loves.
Jesus! What a friend for sinners! Jesus! Lover of my soul:
Friends may fail me, foes assail me, He, my Savior, makes me whole.
PLEASE READ LUKE 19: 8-10.
The Bible doesn’t tell us what went on when Jesus was in Zacchaeus’s house. Other famous interviews of Jesus give us some idea of how Jesus may have dealt with him. Also vv. 9-10 may provide a clue. Jesus may have shown Zacchaeus how and why he was lost----separated from God and others. Jesus also later spoke of how He had come to seek and save lost people.
Vs. 8 contains two important commitments made by Zacchaeus It is not clear where he spoke these words. Was he alone with Jesus in the house, or had they gone outside where the critical crowd could hear? The word stood shows that Zacchaeus was making a formal statement, which implies they were outside.
On the other hand, the text says he said these words unto the Lord, not to the crowd. Thus, whether inside or outside, the promise was made to Jesus. However, even if the crowd did not hear the promise, they soon learned of it by what the tax collector did.
The setting for Jesus’ words of vs. 9-10 also is not spelled out in the text. Personally I have always pictured both of them making their statements after emerging from their conference inside. What Jesus said sounds like an answer to the criticism of the crowd in vs. 7. Yet the words of Jesus are introduced with Jesus said unto him. Off-setting this, however, is the fact that Jesus used he, not “you”, when speaking of Zacchaeus. The statement was made to Zacchaeus, but it was directed to the people because of their reaction in Luke 19:7.
Jesus probably spoke to Zacchaeus but loudly enough for the crowd to hear. Whether inside or outside, Jesus spoke these words of acceptance and assurance to and about Jericho’s chief tax collector.
Of course, the setting is not as important as the content of what each said. The first part of Zachaeus’s commitment was, Half of my possessions I give to the poor. Give is present tense, but it was not something that Zacchaeus was already doing. It was something he was committing himself to do. “Look, I’ll give half of my possessions to the poor.”
The second half of Zacchaeus’s commitment was his promise to make restitution. “If I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.” The sin he had committed was that he had cheated more money from some people than they should have paid. The O.T. Law called for only 20% increase in cases of restitution, such as accidents. However when a sheep was stolen, the guilty person was to make fourfold-restitution. For example, in 1 Sam. 12:6 when David heard Nathan’s story of the rich man who took the poor man’s one lamb, David said, “He shall restore the lamb fourfold.” Thus Zacchaeus was confessing that he had stolen from some people by extortion or fraud.
Since Zacchaeus was giving away half his possessions to the poor, he had only one-half left from which to make fourfold-restitution. If he had extorted a lot of money, Zacchaeus would have to use up all or most of the leftover making restoration. Jesus had asked the rich young ruler to give everything away: In actual practice Zacchaeus may have ended up doing what the rich young ruler refused to do. Although we do not know how often Zacchaeus had committed extortion, he clearly had done it sometimes.
Jesus responses in vs.9-10 show how pleased He was with the change in Zacchaeus. Actually the words must also have encouraged the man who had just made a life-changing commitment. The tax collector would probably not receive any encouragement from the people of Jericho, but the words of Jesus brought assurance that he had made the right decisions.
When I read about the change in Zacchaeus, I think of Ebenezer Scrooge, the miser in the story by Charles Dickens. If anyone had told either Scrooge or Zacchaeus that he would soon find joy by giving away his wealth, he would not have believed it.
Zacchaeus became a living example of what Jesus had taught I Luke 12:33: “Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Make money-bags for yourselves that won’t grow old, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven.” The story of Zacchaeus indicates that when people embrace the love of God, expressing that love is the most natural thing in the world. Because Zacchaeus was following the Lord, he now had a different life-style.
With the words this day is salvation come to this house, forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham, Jesus emphasized that Zacchaeus was as much an heir of God’s promises to Abraham a any one. By showing God’s love for him, Jesus had brought salvation to his house. This after all was Jesus’ mission: to seek and to save that which was lost. Zacchaeus had been lost. Jesus had sought him and found him.
Zacchaues’s response testified to the reality of his salvation. What changed his life? The love of God incarnate in Jesus called him to a new and different way of life. All the criticism of the “good people” of Jericho would only have driven a man like Zacchaeus deeper into sin, but the love in the eyes of the Savior set him on a new path. He saw in the eyes of Jesus not the greedy sinner he had been but the generous person he could become.
Zacchaeus salvation included a covenant relationship with God in which God would never forsake him but would do all things necessary to make Zacchaeus like Christ. Zacchaeus’s family would now put their faith in Him. Likely house in vs. 9 included not only Zacchaeus’s family, but also, his entire property. Zacchaeus would use all he had for the Lord.
In vs. 10, Jesus gave a clear statement of His mission. It was rooted in God’s steadfast and righteous love, would require His sacrificial death, and would bring salvation to all who believe in Him. True to His mission, Jesus sought and saved believing Zacchaeus. Like Zacchaeus God’s love experience in Christ changed your life. You are now on mission for Him. Let’s go share His love with others.
NEXT SUNDAY WE ARE “ENCOURAGED BY SURE SALVATION,” FROM 1 JOHN 3 AND 5. A.V. DAUGHERTY altav@swbell.net http://www.theweeks.org/av/ web page.