In this sermon from the launch of Haberfield Life, Pastor Tim looks at the story of Zacchaeus from Luke’s Gospel and the new beginnings and fresh start the God is always offering.
Haberfield Launch Sermon
Welcome it is great to be here at the launch of Haberfield Life Church
- My name is Tim and I am the Senior Pastor here at Haberfield and our other campus in Manly.
- I am married to Victoria and have two kids, Hope and Luca.
- If this is your first time at Haberfield or the first time in a long time… it is great to have you here…
First times at anything can be a bit intimidating…
- I remember when I was dating my wife (to be) that I took her to her first Tigers game… and indeed first rugby game.
- And she was very shy… just taking it all in…
- Then as my wife we then went to our second game and she cheered a bit more… I thought this is good…
- But then I remember the 3rd game we ever went to… it was here at Leichardt Oval… and in the Benji Marshall days… and we were sitting behind the posts…
- And there was this lull in play and she just jumped to her feet and yelled “I love you Benji Marshall”…
- And I just remember being shocked… what had I created here? Haha…
- Anyhow, if this is your first time…. Hopefully we will see no such behaviour by your 3rd time you come…
Hey, this is a great church… and while we are launching this new season as Haberfield Life Church today…
- Clearly we didn’t build this building in the last few weeks…
- No, this has been a great church with an incredible presence in this community for many decades.
- With thousands of people who have been a part of it over the last 100 years!
- But it had a tough season through Covid and we were approached at Manly Life Church to come and partner for a new season and new possibilities
- And so… here we are today!
- And I have got to say… you want to get involved with what is happening, and what is going to happen here at Haberfield Life.
And let me give you 3 quick reasons
Firstly, this is going to be a great church…
- Full of vibrant worship and Spirit filled ministry. This is a place to meet God…
- That’s the point of the church… a place to know and encounter and be changed by God…
- So we are going to teach the life giving Word of God and try and glorify Jesus in all that we do.
- And it will be a place of action… one where care is extended within and beyond the walls of the church
- And it will be a place to make friends. Not just a friendly church but a church full of friends…
- And I hope you join us at the end of the service for the BBQ and some fun downstairs…
Secondly, there are just phenomenal people involved.
- And by that I mean both the existing people who have called this church home for many years…
- And then some of the new guys involved who have just joined like Lani and Dan who are the campus Pastors… they just don’t get better than this.
- Lani is one of the most exceptional leaders I have come across in all my years in ministry. And just a huge amount of fun and compassion and love of Jesus in her
- And so well supported by her husband Dan and Josh in worship and Purity in kids…
And then finally, well we need you! We need you to play your part!
- This is a church where you don’t have to be coming along for 3 years before you can help out.
- What’s the old joke about the church… it like a football match… 22,000 people desperately needing exercise watching 22 people desperately in need of a rest!
- Well we want Haberfield Life Church to be a place where you can get involved and make this community come alive!
- We have a saying back in Manly… there is room at the table!
- So pull up a chair and make this community your home!
Well just as this church is having a fresh beginning!
I thought it might be good to speak from the Gospels about a story of fresh beginnings.
- And that is the story of Jesus seeking and saving the lost.
- Particularly Zacchaeus the tax collector.
- And it is the story of God doing a new thing!
That was always the promise of the bible… Remember Isaiah 43:18-19?
- Verse 18 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 19 See, I am doing a new thing! … I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”
- Isn’t that a hope filled, cool promise of God…
- God is in the business of doing new things… and giving us fresh starts…
- Of finding a new way to live when we are in the wilderness
- Of giving us steams of living water when we feel we inhabit a wasteland!
I love new things, new chapters in life… fresh beginnings, new starts…
- I remember not being able to drive and then the freedom of having a driver’s license. I got in the car… and thought where should I go? I think I ended up at Maccas…
- I remember moving overseas for the first time… which ended up being 6 years… and all the new possibilities and adventures…
- I remember having hair… now I’ve got this new upgraded aerodynamic look
- I remember going from being single to being married… it was a total change in my life…
- But most importantly I remember really coming to know Jesus Christ and the infinite and eternal difference that has made!
- If we feel stuck in one season, there is nothing like the hope of Jesus Christ to take us from being in the wilderness to a fresh start….
I don’t know if you have ever felt in your own life in the past or even today that you are in the wilderness…
- The wilderness of course can be a place of great beauty… but that’s not the connotation going on here…
- This is more to do with being isolated and at the whims of the elements and nature…
- Victoria and I like watching the TV show Alone… do you know the one? On SBS…
- It’s about who can last the longest before they starve, are eaten by a bear, or tap out because of loneliness…
- Victoria and I joke that I would last 6 hours… I’d just miss her and the kids too much…
Well God says he is doing a new thing, making a way in the wilderness…
- Maybe the modern wilderness is just lives that feel lost or meaningless…
- You spend more time at work than with the people you love
- You spend more time on screens than enjoying where you live
- Maybe its unrealized dreams of making a difference with your work
- Or maybe its just carrying the regrets of a life where you haven’t lived up to your own values
- Modern life can feel quite disorientating…
But what we often find in the bible is that it is in times of wilderness that God often gets our attention…
- Well that is what God did in sending his Son Jesus into the world, full of grace and truth!
- It is the ultimate amen to God’s promise of doing a new thing!
- And yes it is cosmic and about an alternative kingdom and way of being reconciled to God…
- But it is also about Jesus’ encounters with people in the wilderness and doing a new thing.
- Giving them… giving you and I a fresh start!
We read in Luke 19:1-10
Then Jesus entered and walked through Jericho. There was a man there, his name Zacchaeus, the head tax man and quite rich. He wanted desperately to see Jesus, but the crowd was in his way—he was a short man and couldn’t see over the crowd. So he ran on ahead and climbed up in a sycamore tree so he could see Jesus when he came by.
5-7 When Jesus got to the tree, he looked up and said, “Zacchaeus, hurry down. Today is my day to be a guest in your home.” Zacchaeus scrambled out of the tree, hardly believing his good luck, delighted to take Jesus home with him. Everyone who saw the incident was indignant and grumped, “What business does he have getting cozy with this crook?”
8 Zacchaeus just stood there, a little stunned. He stammered apologetically, “Master, I give away half my income to the poor—and if I’m caught cheating, I pay four times the damages.”
9-10 Jesus said, “Today is salvation day in this home! Here he is: Zacchaeus, son of Abraham! For the Son of Man came to find and restore the lost.”
Now you may know the story of Zacchaeus…
- This is God fulfilling his promise to do a new thing…
- We are told that there is a curious little man who wants to see Jesus…
- But the Problem is he is a man considered to be a traitor within his community
So we have this incredible encounter:
- Although forces are conspiring against him, Jesus is gaining huge crowds, is healing the sick, casting out evil
- Zacchaeus is quite a different character… rich and powerful but despised…
- Indeed nobody in Jericho would have liked this man…
- Horrified to think that 2000 years later he would be the only resident in the town to be remembered by name by millions of people around the world.
Mori Poll: Asked people who do you believe tells the truth?
- Doctors 87%, Clergy and Pastors 78% (so does that 22% of you don’t believe a word of what I am saying?)
- At the bottom end of the survey… Business Leaders 28%… Politicians 20%
- Well this is kind of Zacchaeus. Although part of the occupied Jewish nation by the Roman Empire…
- He had thrown his lot in with the occupiers… all in order to get wealthy.
And tax collectors were notorious for cheating the general public to fatten their pockets.
- A tax collector would become responsible for collecting a certain amount of tax and passing it up the chain to the government.
- Whatever he collected over the amount required was his to keep.
- So for Zacchaeus I guess the allure of money was more important than relationships and his people, his community…
- For this reason he is branded a crook and was despised
When I think about what it is that causes our lives to go off track into the wilderness, the word that comes to mind is compromises…
- I wonder if that resonates with you… we cut corners, or go against our own values or standards…
- The Book of Hebrews talks about sin entangling our lives… another great picture…
- We make poor decisions and find ourselves caught up in a web of problems… hurting other people and diminishing our own lives.
I remember in primary school accidently throwing a hoop up a tree… and it got stuck up in the branches…
- Now, did I get a teacher? Or just stop there? No…
- I went and got another hoop to try and dislodge the first hoop… but you’ll never believe what happened to the 2nd hoop… it also got stuck in the branches…
- Now this may surprise you… but by the end of lunch, with many friends coming to help out… nearly every hoop in the school gym store room was where?
- All up in the tree…
- And just to close that story… I believe my friends and I all had to go to Rebel Sports or whatever the equivalent in the 80’s was and buy the school new hoops…
But it’s not a bad metaphor for the mess we get ourselves into in life…
- And maybe whatever ails us started as an innocent mistake…
- But rather than correct course or do the right thing we have a way of compounding our mistakes into addictions, habits and what becomes our character…
And that is Zacchaeus… that’s why he needed to be found by God and restored….
- He needed a fresh start, a new thing from God! Things had compounded…
- He had traded his true inheritance as a child of God for worldly gain and power
- One of the most punchy verses in the bible is where Jesus says “what good is it to gain the whole world and yet forfeit your soul?”
- He had literally gained the whole world financially but lost his soul.
- He may have begun thinking he would have everything but ended up with nothing of true value…
Maybe you sense this in your own life?
Work hours out of control – family life has taken a turn for the worse…
- Shady ethics in your career… asked to do things you would not want publicly revealed.
- Entered into a series of bad relationships
- An addiction in your life has stolen your freedom
- You prefer to spend time with your mates than your husband or wife or family
- You know that you have no peace with God…
See, so many of the reasons we are in the wilderness in life is because we make these bad swaps…
- Preferring what is easy, what we desire… over what is right or good…
- Well get ready because here comes Jesus… he is coming for Zacchaeus… he is coming for you!
“Zacchaeus come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.”
- Argh: Can you imagine? Jesus wants to eat with him… sharing his perfect life with this broken one…
- All these upright people in Jericho and Jesus wants to eat with this guy?
- And so they grumble… “He has gone to be a guest of a sinner”
You know I can be a world class judger… writing people off… I think we all do this…
- But while we are often all too quick to cast judgment on a person and move on
- Your creator, the living God… here in the person of Jesus Christ sees something very different.
- Jesus saw straight through the layers of graft and greed, of callous contempt for his fellow citizens.
- What he sees is a child of God, confused, broken and in need of restoration….
- And he is going to love him back into God’s family by being a guest at this compromised man’s home!
Of course people don’t get it. How could he? They ask.
Surely if God is making himself known, he is going to hang out with the super holy and upright… give them all merit badges for being so righteous…
- Well Jesus himself answers this: referring to himself he says; “the Son of Man came to find and restore the lost.”
- In another translation… to seek and save the lost!
- Jesus is God doing a new thing in your life… loving you, winning you, seeing you, in order that you may become part of his family!
That’s why God moved into the neighborhood…
- That is why as Christians we want to share this incredible good news about God’s love
- That is why at Haberfield Life Church we are going to be all about making this Jesus known!
- That is why I believe a fresh start, a new beginning is always possible no matter how far you have strayed!
- As we meet God in Jesus Christ, we find a loving creator who wants to restore us
- Back into relationship with him, back into good relationship with each other…
The next thing we hear from Zacchaeus is him calling Jesus Lord…
- “Look Lord” he says…
- This is hugely significant and the beginning of his salvation and restored life
- The word that Zacchaeus uses comes from the Greek word Kuros which means supremacy.
- Back in that day, only the Roman Emperor was Lord… it was on every coin…
- But the key to Zacchaeus’ restoration (and yours) is transferring the Lordship of your life.
- From wherever your allegiance lies… from idols, power, money, status…
- From yourself to Jesus, to the one who sees you up in that tree… and calls you by name!
For Zacchaeus, his fresh start and salvation involved him starting life again…
- It was giving away twice what was considered a generous amount and abundantly paying back those he had wronged.
- I think sometimes we like the idea of a fresh start without any cost… without any change… but that is not conversion…
- But by the time he has finished paying back and giving away his possessions he is going to find himself in seriously reduced circumstances
- But he doesn’t care – he has found something much more valuable!
Well, I wonder if there is a bit of Zacchaeus in all of us?
Compromised lives…
- I guess we could all continue going through life making bad choices, swapping our true identity as children of a loving God for worldly riches or power…
- But given the chance to follow Jesus, I wonder how allowing him to shape and restore you might change your life?
- I bet Zacchaeus was glad that God’s nature was Isaiah 43:18 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past”
- God is forgiving… his nature is to give fresh starts…
- As I think about the things my heart is prone to… I’d be very lost without Jesus!
- But the greatest decision I ever made was to follow him… and get in on the promise of Isaiah 43…
- “See, I am doing a new thing!”
In a moment I want to give people an opportunity to invite Jesus to be your Lord…
- You know Romans 10:9 says if you confess with your mouth “Jesus is Lord” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead… you will be saved!
- That is the gift of salvation that came to Zacchaeus and can come to you!
Well, this is a great new day in the life of this church
- Fantastic people, in a great community and there is room at the table for you to join…
- That’s our invitation to you today…
- For this church, a new beginning, a fresh start…
- And we’d love to meet you and have you join us for a BBQ after the service.
But it is also a personal invitation from God to all of us today too…
- Jesus see us in the wilderness… up the tree, maybe compromised, maybe feeling lost
- And he calls us by name and offers to come into our lives that we might have a new beginning, a fresh start.
- But we need to respond… and it starts with a yes…
- With a confession that Jesus is Lord.
- Let’s pray!