God's Rescue Mission: The Story of Zacchaeus
Luke 19:1-10 ·May 31, 2026· Frank Matthews
Part of: Luke
Guest Preacher Frank Matthews shows how Jesus actively seeks out the lost, just as He did with Zacchaeus, and transforms them from the inside out.
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We're coming today to a Bible verse that may be well known to you by many. It may be well known to you in song, and I'm not going to sing it, and neither is the praise team. But if you'll turn with me to Luke 19, verses 1 through 10, we're going to read about Jesus and Zacchaeus. And you probably may have heard the story before, and it is a children's song. I recently talked to a friend of mine who said, yeah, I never liked that song because it talks about short people.
And I was always the short person in the class, and when they got to the wee little man verse, everybody looked at me, and it just left me with scars. But we're going to talk about Zacchaeus today, but we're also going to just talk about God's work and power and how he seeks out his people into a relationship with him. So as you turn to those verses, this is based in Jericho. You might have known that story, too, but Jericho was, if you remember, when the promised land was taken over, the Israelites came in and Jericho fell.
So this is the same Jericho that's going on. That's where this is going through. And Jesus and his disciples are walking through. Jericho was a city that was a trade city, commerce, lots of different things are going on. And you would find just a lot of activity going on. And Jesus is passing through Jericho on his way to the triumphal entry where he will go to the cross. And at this point, he's had three years of public ministry, and the crowds are following him because they're interested, right?
So you have some people think he's a prophet, some people are a priest, some people are just curious because he does miracles. Some people don't like him. Remember, there are a few people out there that are planning to assassinate him. And so there's a lot going on as he's passing through into these verses. Let's read God's word to you and to me this morning. This is Luke 19. Do we traditionally stand, Joel, or we don't? OK, then that's right. All right.
Luke 19. It says he entered, this is Jesus, he entered Jericho and was passing through. And there was a man named Zacchaeus, and he was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was. But on account of the crowd, he could not because he was a small stature. So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him. For as he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry, come down.
For I must stay at your house today. So he hurried and came down. He received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they grumbled. He has gone to be a guest of a man who is a sinner. And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, behold, Lord, half of my goods I will give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I'll restore it fourfold. And Jesus said to him, today salvation has come to this house. Since he also is a son of Abraham, for the son of man came to seek and save the lost.
Pray with me. Father, we do thank you for today. Lord, we thank you that your word is powerful. Your word is true. Your word is right and good, Lord. And you give it to us as a loving father who wishes to guide us to grow us in you and what you desire for us. Let's open our hearts and minds today as we hear your word and help us apply it to our lives as we seek to glorify you. In Jesus' name, amen. So I don't know how many of you are following the war in Iran, but I would think some of you for sure are.
But there was a situation in early April that you may or may not have heard about. And it was when an F-16, F-15 got shot down. Both of the pilot, the pilot and co-pilot lived and survived. But they were shot down and they landed in Iran. And so the pilot, so the report that Wikipedia gave me to the best of my knowledge, and I saw only what the military releases, but the pilot was rescued by the U.S. forces seven hours after the crash. The operation involved hundreds of U.S. forces and dozens of aircraft.
The U.S. combat and rescue personnel and the Revolutionary Guard Corps, sorry, and actually local tribesmen worked to find the pilot. The WSO, or the second one who was not the pilot but was the co-pilot since, was recovered by U.S. forces supported by 155 aircraft. A U.S. military described as one of the most challenging complex in the history of U.S. operation forces. And so when you think about it, the pilot was rescued after seven hours. But here's what happened to the co-pilot.
He was not known. The status, the U.S. actually put out that they had found out both of them to try to confuse the Iran troops so they wouldn't continue to seek him. And the co-pilot actually climbed up into the mountain 7,000 feet up to make sure he was not going to be found. And he had a beacon, an emergency beacon, that was only picked up out of him. He was stuck in a crevice of rocks to signal so that it would not be picked up by Iran. It was just a beacon that the U.S. could find.
So it also involved U.S. Air Force tactics, special Navy warfare operations, as they helped keep him safe at the same time. U.S. aircraft drones provided fire support. Two helicopters were also hit in the time of trying to gain him. But on April 5th, he was successfully rescued alive with minor injuries. And the U.S. in multiple reports stated that no American servicemen were killed during the operation. Amen and praise. But when you think about that, and this is what I want to go to with Zacchaeus, you have two guys who were lost.
And you have a massive effort with lots of details and lots of strategy that was planned out. And it didn't all go necessarily according to plan. But they were rescued. They were sought after, and they were rescued, and they were brought home. And out of that, I want to look today at the verses that we find in Zacchaeus. And we find this account. And I hope you get excited, honestly. One of the things I love to do in ministry is hear stories about how people have come to Christ.
That's one of the things I love the most about what I do. And that's everything from the covenant child, which is I'm a product of, and the long process of parents discipling their children and God bringing them to faith that way. And everything, too. I know people who have been drunk and walked past the, when we were in South America, walked past the services that were broadcast. If you blew out that back wall and there was a street right there, like you would be walking past, you would have heard it.
And that's when God got them. I know lots of different stories. But I get excited. And the same way I get excited about the rescue of the military, man, I get really excited about the rescue efforts that God puts into place and the details that it takes place that God's put into place. And so as we look at this and we think about this, have you ever asked the question or doubt, is God big enough to rescue either yourself or someone you know?
Who do you think that God might not, might doubt that God is big enough to rescue? And would he really seek that person? Who do we quit to judge? And so as we think about it and we look at this, these sets of verses. And Jesus is on his way to the trial for empty, to the cross. Where he's going to be punished and suffer and sacrifice for those who came to seek and save. I want us to look at the reality that God is big enough to save. And he is planned enough and organized enough and has a plan to seek and to save and to draw people to himself.
And so I want to look at three things this morning. One is that this is God's rescue mission. And then the three areas that we're going to look at this morning is one is Zacchaeus seeks to see Jesus. Two is Jesus seeks a relationship with Zacchaeus. And then three is Christ transforms Zacchaeus' life. So first, let's look at the first idea. Zacchaeus is seeking to see Jesus. This is verses one through four. And this is where we learn a little bit more about who Zacchaeus was.
We have to understand a little bit more about the context. It says Jesus is walking through Jericho and there was a man named Zacchaeus. And here's what we know about him. One is he's a chief tax collector. Anybody excited about paying taxes? No, right. Nobody's excited. Okay, so this would probably be the, you know, not naturally a job that is viewed as something people would like you for. And not only is he a tax collector, but he's a chief. So the idea is that he's probably over a whole office of people.
And the way the Roman system worked is Rome said that, hey, every individual has to pay $100 to Rome every year. But then he kind of left it up to the offices, the tax collector offices, to where they get the $100, but they could also charge him more. So they might give Rome $100 for this group, but they have actually made you pay $200 per person. And so they're sloughing off the top. And then so obviously they weren't like, right? So he's the chief.
He's the one who's way up. And just to add a little bit more to that, if you go down to the bottom in verse 10, it says, I'm sorry, in verse 9, it says, since he also was a son of Abraham. So he was Jewish. So you have Zacchaeus, who's working against his brothers in genealogy, so the Jews wouldn't have liked him either. So one is he's taking taxes and money from him, and two, he's one of us and he's working for them. He's working for the Romans, who occupied that they didn't want to be occupied.
So Zacchaeus has a status that's making him a lot of money. He's rich. But at the same time, status-wise, he would have been rejected by his people. So we know he's rich. Also, there can be thoughts about that. How he got rich is also a problem. And then in verse 3, it says he was short in stature. And so that plays into the context of how this is going to be carried out, because what does it say, Zacchaeus, once he said he was seeking to see who Jesus was.
Remember, at this point, Jesus is famous. The crowds are gathering. It says the crowds are gathering in Jericho. And he's known for miracles. He's known for teaching. He's known the disciples have been gone out. He's fed the 5,000. And people are following him. They're interested and curious. And so he wants to see who he was. But it doesn't say exactly like, oh, he's going to, it's like Jesus is passing by and he's in a crowd. So he's not really going to seek to the fact he's not going to get to shake his hand or get to know him.
But he wanted to see who Jesus was. So what does he do? And it's interesting here, Zacchaeus, what status, what position he takes. In verse 4, it says he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. Two things are interesting about that. You've got a rich guy who makes a lot of money and he wants to see somebody. So he doesn't go, you know, doesn't pay somebody to say, hey, save me that spot on the road.
But he actually does things that would be countercultural and would have been humiliating or humble. One is running as a rich guy in that status, that running a man wouldn't have done that. So that's humbling. He's trying to get ahead because he wants to do that. And then two, he actually climbs up into a tree. And I don't know what the undergarments were, but the visual, you know, so you've got this rich guy who's the chief tax collector who's running ahead and then climbs up into a tree like a child almost.
Interesting. And so we think about this is Jesus. This is who Zacchaeus was. And these are the actions. And we don't know for sure his true motivations that are here. What we do know is what the passage tells us. He wants to see who Jesus was and he comes from Jewish descent. And so it doesn't say he was sick and he needed a miracle. Where like we know the lady who touched Jesus's garments were. And it doesn't say he was really trying to press in to ask Jesus a question because surely there would have been people all around him.
But he's taking a viewpoint. Of up in the tree. And so as we think about that, he seek him out at least to see him. And he was determined and he takes a humble stance. But that's all we know. And those actions in and of themselves will not save him. He's curious. Let's be honest. But it's not going to bring him salvation. He gets to see who Jesus was. But when I think about that a little bit, it's interesting. And I don't know where everybody is in this room in their Jesus journey with Jesus.
But there is a reality that he seeks out to see him. And that's one of the things I would encourage you to do. What would you do? What do you do to seek out to see Jesus? I have a friend of mine who I get together with occasionally. And he has a hobby that he really likes to get autographs from previous famous actors and voiceovers. And there's a whole world. Did you know? There's all these worlds that I learned about. There's a whole world. It's called Celebrity Entertaining Autograph Cons.
And you can pay. And he pays. And he goes. And he wants to see those actors. He loves movies, too, by the way. He wants to see those actors. And not only does he want to see them, but he wants to get their autograph. So he pays to get in. And then if you have, I don't know. So this, oh, he told me he had the guy who played Anakin Skywalker in one of the Star Wars films was doing it. And then you pay another fee to get the autograph. And then you stand in line to pass over to go up and shake the guy's hand or the lady's hand.
And you get like, and there's a timer on it. And you only get like two to three minutes. And they'll sign the picture and you're done. But he seeks. He's looking. He's curious, right? He's interested. But when you start thinking about what does, what do we do to seek to seek Jesus anywhere we are in our spiritual journey? And here's a couple of verses that I would encourage us in. One is in 1 Chronicles 16, 11. It says, look to the Lord and his strength.
Seek his face always. And the second one we find in Matthew 33. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you. And so I just want you and me to, as we think about that, I first start with this. What is it you seek in our culture? What is it that you seek? Is it seeking money? What are the primary things, if we were to write them down and we were to look at your lifestyle? What are the things that you're closest to your heart that you really put your time and effort and energy into?
And none of them are necessarily bad. Could be money. Could be time. Could be career. Could be family. All those, none of those are terrible, right? All those are good. But at the same time, where does that category of seek first the kingdom of God or look to seek God's face fall into that category of your life? Where do you look to seek Jesus out? We prayed this morning. By the way, love being here on Graduation Sunday. Thumbs up. We pray for them to be able to seek Jesus and see Jesus where they go, right?
To find community. That's what that's important because we want them to be able to process life through the lens of Christ. And so I think we have to evaluate what we can learn from Zacchaeus is that he was seeking Jesus for whatever his motivations. He was seeking Jesus, not a seek that would bring him salvation, but he was looking for him, to see him, to see who Jesus was. And I'd ask you, where are you looking in your life to see who Jesus is and to grow in the knowledge and the grace of who he is in your life?
Because that's important. Anywhere we are in our spiritual journey, if you've been a believer for 50 years, amen, love it, that's wonderful, you still need to seek Jesus. And I do, too. If you're not here today and you don't know who Jesus is, I encourage you today, as we are here, that you seek Jesus and think about who is Jesus in my life? How does it apply? Where is he walking with me? How is he calling me out? Why would that be important? And so that's the first.
Jesus, Zacchaeus is seeking to see Jesus. And so then the second one comes along and Jesus seeks a relationship. Doesn't seek to see Zacchaeus. He would have seen him, right? He's up in the tree. But he seeks a relationship with Zacchaeus, verses 5 through 7. So here's the context again. Jesus is walking through Jericho, not by himself. Remember, he had a lot of disciples who were with him. This is verse 5. It says, when Jesus came, sorry, so Jesus is walking through Jericho.
He's walking through. The crowds are gathering. It's lined with people. Maybe they're trying to touch him. Maybe they're trying to ask him a question. It's a big crowd. It's a big city. There's lots of commerce going on. It's the end of his three-year ministry. And so there's just all these people. It's like a Christmas parade. And there goes, God, there's here a Christmas parade. Lying in the streets, right? And Zacchaeus is trying to jockey for the place for the best candy.
But it's like everybody's there. And Jesus is walking through. And so Jesus, it says he's passing through. He's not planning to stop. And then he comes in verse 5, and it says this. And so Jesus seeks a relationship with Zacchaeus. And I don't think, and you shouldn't either, that this is not part of God's plan. It wasn't a happenstance. Just, oh, there's Zacchaeus today. But no, Jesus knows. And so he comes and says, when Jesus came to the place, when he came to the place, he looks up, and he said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry, come down, for I must stay at your house.
And so just a couple of things I want to draw out of this. Once Jesus comes to the exact place where he is, he knows the details. He knows where Zacchaeus is. He stops. Remember, all the people are still around him. There's still the crowd. There's still the disciples. He stops, looks up, and says, hey, Zacchaeus. Interesting. Let's just pause there for a second.
Probably never met. He doesn't say, hey, what's your name? I do that a lot, by the way. I'll remember a lot of faces in here today, but names will probably drop. Okay. But he knows him personally. He knows him by name. And that's powerful because we also find that in other places in Scripture. It says in Isaiah 43, but thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed you and I have called you by name.
And you are mine. That's a powerful statement. He's not looking just to say hey to Zacchaeus, but he calls him by name. And we also find this with the disciples. When Jesus first called the disciples, he called them, Nathaniel, by name. And Nathaniel was like, you know my name. You don't know me, but you call me by name. You must be the son of God. Think about that for just a second. Jesus knows you if you're a son or daughter of his by name. And he knew that before you introduced it.
He had you. So Jesus seeks out a relationship. First, he calls them by name. We call people by name that we know, right? And then he gives them instructions. He calls them by name. He knows them personally. He wants the relationship. He says, hey, hurry up. He's not like, take your time. He's like, hurry up. Let's go. Get down here. For I must stay at your house today. And so he calls them by name because he knows them personally. He already knows that he is calling Zacchaeus as one of his own.
And then he says, hurry up. So there are really commandments, instructions there. And Zacchaeus is what? He's high up, right? He's a guy who's important. He says, hurry up and come down. And what does Zacchaeus do? Does he say, well, I'll think about it. No. Zacchaeus is like, yeah, let's go. Even with joy. And then it's interesting because Jesus invites himself over. Anybody ever guilty of that? What's eating for lunch today? I don't know. What are y'all eating for lunch today?
No, I'm just kidding. But he invites himself over. And, you know, he invites him to his house. And that wasn't a short stay in that time period. It's not like he's just dropping by and stepping in the foyer and saying hi. No, no. He's going for the Hispanic meal. My brother, yeah. He's coming over. You know, I had interns from Chile. And they were like, the American church is just weird. I'm like, what are you talking about? He's like, no, no. Y'all get together.
You do worship. Then everybody leaves. I'm like, well, what are you talking about? And he goes, no, in Chile, we get together. We do worship. Then we hang out for an hour and a half after worship. We drink some coffee and then we go play soccer together. We go to each other's houses. And so this was an all day event. Jesus came to build a relationship with him, not to not to just say, I'm dropping by to say hi, but he's going to take time to build a relationship, to sit down with him.
And we're going to see he's actually going to be the way that the pastor says he's reclining for a meal. And so Jesus knows him by name. He seeks out a relationship. That's a name. It's personal. He instructs him and commands him, hey, let's go. And Zacchaeus responds with joy. The one he came to see is now building relationship with him. It's real. It's personal. Some of you know each other very well and community is hugely important in church. And if you don't know each other very well, I'd encourage you to get to know each other well.
Because it's not just seeing each other on Sundays, but it's a community. It's a relationship. It's that's how we pray together. That's how we know each other. That's how we grow together. That's how we have joy to celebrate together. It's a relationship. And then again, it's also, and Jesus is so, this is so Jesus is in my wish, also against what the culture would have done. So what does the culture say? So Jesus is like, oh yeah, I'm all in. We're going.
But he's going to somebody the culture doesn't like. He's going to the rejected. He's going to the judged. He's going to the ones who's actually mean to the culture. So you can pick your person wherever it is that you know who might be like that. And this is who Jesus is going to see. And they grumble. And they judge. And Jesus said, this is what I'm going to do. And we see that throughout Jesus' whole ministry. He went to the sick. That would have put him in a place where he couldn't attend on Sundays.
He would have been to God's house. He went and talked to women. Also, not in the culture of the time. He went and talked to sinners. He fed the hungry. He dealt with the poor. That was Jesus' MO. He sought out a relationship for those who came to save. And so as we think about that, and you start thinking about this, man, what a great testimony Zacchaeus had. Dude, I mean, I get excited. Jesus came and called him out. I mean, can you imagine? Yeah, I was sitting in a tree.
And he knew my name. And he came down. No, I mean, yeah, we went and we started. I mean, I took him to my house. But when you start thinking about that, I work with several different groups. Um, everybody has a way that Jesus has sought you out when you come to a relationship. And that's good, powerful stuff. That's good stuff. And so I would encourage you. One of the ways that we're all equal is we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
But it's a gift of God who gives us eternal life, not by what we've done, but by the faith he gives us. Those are the stories that are powerful. And can you tell those stories? Do you share those stories? I would encourage you. And again, there's the general ones. So when you go, if you write out your testimony, and I would encourage you to do this. I do. I do this with the groups I work with. Write it out to where you can tell your story. But it's not your story.
It's Jesus's story, by the way. So Jesus was the one who stopped. Jesus is the one who knew his name. Jesus is the one who said, hey, come down. Oh, by the way, I'm coming to your house. Jesus is the one who said, hey, come down. Okay. But write that out. And then do the general one, which is how you, you know, people say, oh, your testimony is when did you come to Christ? And that may be the covenant child. And I'm over the span of years. And that may be, hey, Johnny stopped by my house and said, hey, do you know Jesus?
And you're going to do it. And yes. But then I'd like you to see if you expand it. You ever done the genealogy trees and it goes out way out like this? My gut is if you go to the details. The details. You can go to a lot more details of how God has instrumentally worked in your life to place the time when you came to understand your need for Jesus and accept him. So even if I go back in my own life, my own life, I come from Christian parents, Christian home, but I can go back generations to Christians that have influenced all the way up to where my point is.
And I can go through. So the reason I came to faith, one of the reasons God uses, I used to not want to be in church. My dad was an associate pastor and I didn't like Sunday school. So he would go do preach at other churches like I'm doing today. Hey, I want to go. But you know what? I didn't accept Jesus. And so every Sunday he would go. What could I not do? I couldn't take that. So there were discussions with my dad like, why can't I have a wine and the grape juice and the crackers?
Almost every time I went. You think that was by accident? No. That's how Jesus used the details of every little bit in my life to bring me through discussions, to bring me to a point where I understood where I needed Jesus. And so you get all these little details and pieces. Write out your testimony or how Jesus has sought you out. It's exciting. And then I'll challenge you one step further. Come up here and share it. Or go to your community group and share it.
Or go to a friend who's a non-believer and say, I just did this really crazy cool thing that my church told me to do. Can I just share this with you? What a great opportunity. And they're going to look at it and go, why? But what a great opportunity. It's your story with Christ. You can't go wrong. And so that's just a great way to think about this is Jesus sought out Zacchaeus for a relationship with him. And Jesus went to his home because he wanted to be present with Zacchaeus in his home for a lifetime.
He knew his name. He has brought him to himself. That's also said again in John 3 and 4. Sorry, John 10, 3 and 4. It says this and it says to him, to him, the gatekeeper opens, the sheep hear his voice, which is a really cool video. If you see a sheep and a shepherd and they only know his voice and he calls his own sheep by what their name. We are the sheep of Christ and he knows our name and it's not just our name, but he knows every integral piece of our life and he cares about us and he walks with us and he has a relationship with us.
And so when we think about that, that is what Jesus is seeking with Zacchaeus and that is salvation. He comes to save him. And we see that power, Christ transforming power. That's the first one. So we started with Zacchaeus seeks to see Jesus and then Jesus seeks that relationship with Zacchaeus. And then we see Christ transforming Zacchaeus' life in verses 8, 9 and 10. And it says this. It says in 8, and Zacchaeus stood. Interesting. So they went to his house and so the idea is here that he stood and when they, when they dined, you laid, you reclined sort of at a table.
And so an interesting response, and this is what Luke records, but he stood, it's like he has stood and said to the Lord, behold, the half of my goods I'll give to the poor. And then I've defrauded. If I've defrauded anyone, I will store them fourfold. Two things about that. Three probably, but I'll start with two. One is the Bible teaches us that God has a heart for the poor. And so here you see characteristics in Zacchaeus' life. Now that he's proclaiming that he didn't have before.
We knew this through corruption and through making money that now he's proclaiming that he has a heart for the poor. He's going to give away half that he has. I don't know what anybody's net worth is, and I don't want you to shout it out. Well, what if you just went home and said, hey, half of everything we have today, I'm going to give away to Chesterfield County Food Bank, or I don't know, you can pick the cherry or whatever it may be. That's powerful.
But that's what Jesus gives us. He doesn't give, he gives us grace. 100%. And so he's reflecting, Zacchaeus is reflecting, I'm going to give half of this way and we're poor without God's grace. And so he has a heart after God's own heart. He's at the table and he stands up, stands up to make a proclamation. This is what I'm going to do. And then he looks at this idea of reconciliation because we have this idea of corruption and he's cheated people for money.
He said, if there's anybody that I have defrauded, I'm going to restore it fourfold, which is not biblical in the sense of it is to restore what you've gone wrong, but there's no number that says fourfold. So if I took a hundred bucks from this family, this is the family, sorry, y'all, you can call over there, but now I'm going to give you 400 back. But isn't that how God treats us? God blesses us way beyond what we ever deserve. Our mercy, his grace is unending with his love.
He lavishes, the Bible says he lavishes us with his love. And so you get this, the idea here that Zacchaeus is the evidence that we find here is his heart has changed. So he's gone to be, Jesus, it was gone. Jesus went to the house of the center and Zacchaeus stands up and says to the Lord, behold, half of my goods, I'm going to give away the poor. And if I've done anything wrong, I'm going to build reconciliation and justice by repaying. Can you imagine if you were the person who was wrong, Zacchaeus knocks on your door?
Hey, I took a hundred bucks from you five years ago. Here's 400. What kind of statement does that make? How powerful? Here's the guy who cheated me out all the money. But now I'm going to pay you back. Wouldn't you want to know why? Boom. Where's that testimony you're talking about? Yeah, I was sitting in the tree. Jesus came by and said, hey, come down. And OK, so there's the witness. And it's really interesting. And there's a chance for reconciliation.
So all these characteristics are being built. But it's really interesting because we have another ruler, another person in Luke 18. Just turn him back. And you may have heard this story. Where there's a rich guy who comes, a rich young ruler who comes to Jesus and says, hey, I've kept all the law. I've passed everything. What do I need to do to get into heaven? And Jesus says, sell all your possessions. Why did he tell him that? Not because money or things are evil, because that was an idol to that guy.
And so where you see the heart change in Zacchaeus, you see the rich young ruler walk away sad. But he didn't get it. Didn't understand. Such a difference in how the two wealthy men respond. And that reality. And so if you look at verse nine and Jesus. So after he said those two statements and this is where it's confirmed, Jesus said to him, today, salvation has come to this house.
So everybody that is a household, everybody who's in that household is going to be impacted by the salvation of Zacchaeus because he is now going to have a testimony that proclaims Christ in that house. And so since he is also a son of Abraham, both genetically and now Abraham was a follower of God, he is a follower of God. The son of man has come to seek and save the lost. And what a blessing. What exciting. I'm like I'm saying, I get excited when you start thinking about this.
This is what the good news is. And this is why. So I get excited. Honestly, one of the cool things I think I get to do is come do this. And so last time I came, there weren't this many people here. So I don't know if it's just an odd day or y'all heard I was coming and he didn't get the news. He didn't show up today. But the last time I came, there were not this many people. But this happened with another church about Presbytery that's up north. And I went to them and they meet in a school, too.
And I've been through the whole process of their church plant. And so I've been at the 50 person stage and I've been at the 7,500 person stage. And now they're close to several hundred stage. God is building his kingdom in this church, in this area, through you guys. Because he calls us to partner in that and in other places in the city, in other places in our country. When people tell you the kingdom of God is not thriving, man, you've got to shake your head.
That's not true. And that's where I get excited. And so where do we play into that? Because God says we're called to be a part of that. Right? In Matthew 28, 18 through 20, right? We're supposed to sit in church, only go one hour a week. And didn't this go home? No. It says, hey, I'm going to be with you. Jesus is over everything. I want you to go make disciples. And the cool thing is God has you instrumentally placed wherever you are with a bunch of different people on purpose.
To use you and your testimony and how he sought you out. To then. Share and grow. And so there's the whole reality that God's kingdom, the man who came to seek and save the lost, we find in Zacchaeus has not stopped. It's grown. I heard a testimony from a missionary in Africa. And there's too many pastors that are growing so fast. They can't train the pastors fast enough for the people coming to the cross of faith. Amen to those young people. There is a generation coming up that is taking their faith so much more seriously.
On college campuses, we're seeing all kinds of stuff happen. Military has strong faith communities in them. So amen to God moving in our young people. But the kingdom of God is not stopped, thwarted, or not growing. And not only is God moving, but he calls us to be a part of it. So we hear the Matthew passage, the Great Commission, but you also hear it in Peter. And Peter says, hey, we weren't for people who didn't know God's mercy and grace, but now we're called to proclaim of his excellencies.
And the excellencies start with he has sought us out and brought us to faith and built a relationship by accepting him and has a relationship with us. And so I encourage you today to seek Christ, but know that he seeks you. He wants a relationship with you that is growing. And then also know that Jesus' mission, man, he's all about transforming people. And if we went through this room, a hundred different people, we would find so many different ways that God's at work.
It's unbelievable. And when those graduates come back next year or when you get done with patient training, come back and tell them what God's doing at your base. Come back and tell them. There's somebody taking a gap year. Tell them what they're doing at gap year. Testify to the good things that God is doing. And the people who are here, I encourage you. One of the questions, other questions we always ask in our groups that I lead is where have you seen God work this week?
And sometimes it's like, hey, I got a parking space on campus. It was full, but God provided. And that's great because God's at work. OK, but sometimes it's really big and you look at the big picture. And then you can always go back to God's me out and changed my heart and brought me to this place of salvation that I have a relationship with him because of what he's done. And that's not going to change. Romans 8 says nothing can separate us from the world of Christ.
And he, Philippians 2 says, he who began, Philippians 1 says, he who began to get working with us will be faithful to complete it. So in the same way that we find this testimony in the story of Zacchaeus and the transformation in his life, that is for us. And that is for you to take to your neighbor. And so next time I come, it'll be another year and a half before Joel, but I want to move those tables out and we're going to have people all the way back.
And I want to hear stories of God's goodness. But man, I'm thankful for you guys. What a blessing. What a blessing for new faces. What a blessing to send out your college folks. What a blessing to know that this place is about Jesus Christ building relationships, bringing people to faith, just like we find in Zacchaeus. And his kingdom being built is taking place here through you and this area.