To Seek and Save the Lost (Luke 19:10)
This sermon was preached to Grace Church Guildford on 17 December 2023. The audio recording of the sermon can be found below along with the transcript.
I wonder what your favourite Christmas movie is, and whether you have sat down to watch it yet this year. There are certainly plenty for you to choose from: Elf. Home Alone. The Polar Express. A Christmas Carol. It’s a Wonderful Life. Those are just some of the films that will be filling our TV screens over the next few weeks. And yet, despite there being so many different movies, have you ever noticed that they all have the same message? Every Christmas movie asks you the same basic question: What is the meaning behind all the magic? What is most important about this time of year? What is the real reason for the season? The true spirit of Christmas?
Take the Grinch for an example. I’m not sure you have seen it. However, it is based on the children’s story by Dr Sues, about a town called Whoville where everyone loves Christmas. Everyone that is except for a creature called the Grinch. He lives on a mountainside outside of town and hates everything to do with Christmas. Every year he tries to disrupt the festivities, and the people in the town fear and hate him for it. However, the movie story goes on to share how, through a series of remarkable events, the Grinch ends up catching the Christmas spirit as well, realises that it is better to give than receive, to love than to hate, and to
That is what Christmas movies all try to get you to think about.
And here at Grace Church, in our services running up to the big day this year, we have been doing the same, been asking ourselves: what is Christmas really all about?
Given the focus of our service so far, I doubt you will be surprised to learn that, as Christians, we believe that Christmas is centred on the birth of Jesus. Beyond all the presents, behind all the decorations, is that baby who was born in Bethlehem, 2000 years ago.
And so, in our services, we’ve been asking: Why was that baby born? Why did Jesus come like that to earth? And we have been finding the answer to that question, not by watching Christmas movies, but by looking at the Bible, God’s Word. For during his life, Jesus regularly referred to the reason for Christmas. Again and again, Jesus himself explained why he was born in Bethlehem, why he came to earth.
This afternoon, we are going to look at the reason Jesus gives for Christmas in Luke 19:10. Why did Jesus come? Well, you can see the answer there on the screen. For in Luke 19:10, he said: ‘The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.’ Jesus’s statement in 19:10 tells us about two things: a man (the Son of Man) and a mission (he came to seek and to save the lost). And so those are the two things I want us to think about together: Who is this man? And what is his mission?
1. THE MAN
Or rather, the Son of Man. That is who Jesus speaks of there in 19:10. And it is a phrase, description, that Jesus often used to refer to himself. If you are here this afternoon, and you have never read through one of the biblical accounts of Jesus’ life, such as this book of Luke that we are considering together, I would really encourage you to do so. You can get a free copy of one of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke or John), from the literature stand in the foyer on your way out today. And if you go away and read it, you will find that again and again, Jesus talks about himself using this title, he calls himself ‘the Son of Man’. Now on the surface, that means exactly what it says. It means that Jesus is the son of a human, was born into the family of mankind. That’s what the term means elsewhere in the Bible. And so, at the most basic level, by calling himself a son of man, Jesus is declaring that he is one of us. That he is human.
Of course, we see that so clearly at Christmas, don’t we? At the centre of that scene in the stable is ‘a son of man’. This baby born in Bethlehem, was the child of Mary. He had ten little fingers and ten little toes, just like us! Jesus was born as a baby. He grew up as a child. He learnt lessons in school. Played games in the street. Took a job as a carpenter. Jesus fell asleep every night. Woke up every morning. As we read in Hebrews 2:17, he was like us. Jesus was fully human in every way. If you are new to Christianity, perhaps you haven’t been along to church much before, then you need to know that this is how the Christmas story is different from the Christmas movies. For when we speak about this person called Jesus, we aren’t talking about some magical mythical creature from a Christmas movie, like the Grinch. We aren’t even talking about some made-up man, like Ebenezer Scrooge from A Christmas Carol. No, when we talk about Jesus, we are talking about a real human in history. A real man in the first century. He was born in Bethlehem, grew up in Nazareth, travelled around Israel. And later died in Jerusalem. The first thing 19:10 teaches us about Christmas, is that Jesus was a son of man, he was human, like each of us.
And yet, did you notice that in 19:10, Jesus doesn’t just call himself ‘a son of man.’ Instead, he calls himself ‘the Son of Man.’ Jesus wasn’t just ‘a son of man’, he was ‘the Son of Man.’ To help us understand the difference, I want us to think about the difference between speaking of ‘a grinch’ and ‘the grinch’. At this time of year, to call someone a grinch, is to mean that they are failing to join in with festivities. Are more grumpy than they are jolly. However, if we speak of ‘the Grinch’, we are speaking not about a general characteristic we could all have, but a particular character that we all know, namely the Grinch himself from Dr Suess’ classic story. And the same is true for the term ‘son of man’. To speak of ‘a son of man’ is to speak of a human being in general, but to speak of ‘the Son of Man’ is to speak of a specific human, a character those listening to Jesus would have known all about.
They knew that in the Old Testament, in Daniel 7, we are told of a son of man not on earth, but in heaven. A son of man who would not only be human, but would also be divine. He would not just be man, he would also be God. That is who the Jews called ‘the Son of Man’. And that is who Jesus claimed to be. Yes, Jesus is just like us, for he is fully human, but he is also not like us, for he is fully divine. As the Son of Man, Jesus is both man and God. That’s why the angels announced that first Christmas that we will call him ‘Immanuel’, meaning ‘God with us.’ For at Christmas, we not only celebrate the coming of a man. We celebrate the coming of God himself.
2. THE MISSION
That is how our statement in 19:10 finishes: Jesus “came to seek and to save the lost.” What does that mean? Well, this statement actually comes at the end of a story. A story that perfectly illustrates what Jesus means. And so, I want us to take just a few moments now to listen to the story together, I will begin in Luke 19:1: [READ].
Keeping with our theme of Christmas movies. This man Zacchaeus is a lot like Ebenezer Scrooge from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. For we read there in 19:2 that he is wealthy. He could buy whatever he desired, live any way that he wanted. However, he is also a bit like another Christmas character: the Grinch, for Zacchaeus is cut off from society, hated and feared by others. For we read in 19:2 that he is a chief tax collector. This is a man who has amassed great wealth by working for the hated Romans, fleecing his fellow Israelites. That is why people mutter there in 19:7 about him being a sinner, for that is exactly what he is. Zacchaeus has stolen and cheated, tricked and threatened, his way to wealth. This is someone who definitely isn’t on the nice list. This is a man who has his name right at the top of the town of Jericho’s naughty list. And yet, in the story, we see that this is the kind of person that Jesus seeks out. Jesus approaches a lost man in the sycamore tree, Jesus goes to stay in the house of a sinner. Someone who has disobeyed and disserted God, strayed from God’s standards, broken his commands. That is who Jesus, the Son of Man, came to seek. And not just seek, for that is who this Son of Man came to save.
We see this salvation in a very visible and tangible way in the story, don’t we? For after he encounters Jesus, after he welcomes Jesus into his life, Zacchaeus is transformed. This once selfish, me-centered man suddenly becomes generous and kind, just and fair. For in 19:8, he declares he will give half his possessions to the poor and repay everyone he had previously wronged. Now yes, in fictional Christmas movies, there are characters like Scrooge and the Grinch who are saved, transformed by a Christmas miracle. However, here we have a real miracle, a true transformation of a man not in a fictional story, but in the first century, a real man who was sought and saved by Jesus.
What is Christmas all about then? What is the real reason for this season? Well, here in Luke 19, we see that it is about the Son of Man becoming the Saviour of Mankind. That Jesus, being both man and God, came to seek and to save the lost. Oh yes, when Santa comes to town, he goes to the houses of those on his nice list. But when Jesus comes to town, he goes to the houses of people on the naughty list. [...] Jesus looks for the lost. Jesus saves sinners. And that is the true meaning of Christmas, and that is the good news at the very heart of Christianity. And it is good news, good news not only for Zacchaeus in the first century, but for each of us here in the twenty-first century.
For as much as we might like to think that we have been good enough to make it onto God’s nice list, the Bible is very clear that all of us have sinned, strayed from God’s standards, left his perfect path. And so just like Zacchaeus, we are all lost. No matter how much money we have. No matter how picturesque a home we have. No matter how feelgood a family or friendship group we have. The Bible is clear that we are all guilty before a holy God, spiritually dead and empty, we are lost in life, and we need someone to come looking for us.
I wonder if you feel like that this Christmas? Oh yes, when the movie is on, when mince pies are opened, when your family come round, you are all smiles, full of Christmas cheer. Ho, ho, ho! However, you know that when the food is finished, your family have left and the distraction of Christmas is over, you will feel the same hopelessness, deadness, lostness in life that you felt before.
If that is you this afternoon, then you need to know that that can change this year. For the whole point of Christmas, is that the Son of Man came looking for the lost. That Jesus came to save sinners. That is why Jesus was born. And that is why Jesus died. For the Bible tells us that on the cross, he suffered for the sins of all who trust in him, the Son of Man paid the punishment we deserve so he could be the Saviour of mankind. And if you turn from sin and trust in him, stop plotting your own path and start following his, if like Zacchaeus you welcome Jesus into your life, he will change and transform you this Christmas. That is what Christmas is all about, that is why Jesus came. The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. Came to seek and save you if you will believe in him today.
