Luke 19:5

And they teach that He pointed out the three kinds of men as follows: the material, when He said to him that asked Him, "Shall I follow Thee?"

The Lord said to him, Make haste and come down, that is, "Thou hast ascended by penitence to a place too high for thee, come down by humility, lest thy exaltation cause thee to slip. I must abide in the house of a humble man."

And when he had come etc. After he expressed the eagerness of Zacchaeus to see Christ, here secondly he expresses the hospitality toward receiving Christ. In describing this, three things are introduced, namely the condescension on the part of Christ, the devotion on the part …

Likewise, Luke 19: Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay in your house: Gloss: "Uninvited, He invites Himself"; but to invite another to receive one as a guest is nothing other than to beg and to ask: therefore etc.

And when He came to that place, looking up, Jesus saw him. Traversing Jericho, the Savior came to the place where Zacchaeus, having run ahead, had climbed a sycamore tree, because, having sent His heralds of the word through the world, in whom He Himself …

And he says to him: "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house." And he hurried and came down, and received him joyfully. The Lord sometimes stayed in the house of the chief of the Pharisees, that is, he taught …

The Lord snatches the strongest vessels from the devil and destroys his cities. For see how He not only made tax collectors His disciples, but also captures the chief among the tax collectors, Zacchaeus, unto salvation. And that a tax collector is a lowly creature, …

The Lord as He journeyed came to the place where Zacchæus had climbed the sycamore, for having sent His preachers throughout the world in whom He Himself spoke and went, He comes to the Gentile people, who were already raised up on high through faith in His Passion, and whom when He looked up He saw, for He chose them through grace. Now our Lord once abode in the house of the chief of the Pharisees, but when He did works such as none but God could do, they railed at Him. Wherefore hating their deeds He departed, saying, Your house shall be left unto you desolate; (Matt. 23:38.) but now He must needs stay at the house of the weak Zacchæus, that is, by the grace of the new law brightly shining, He must take rest in the hearts of the lowly nations. But that Zacchæus is bid to come down from the sycamore tree, and prepare an abode for Christ, this is what the Apostle says, Yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more. (2 Cor. 5:16.) And again elsewhere, For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. (2 Cor. 13:4.) It is plain that the Jews always hated the salvation of the Gentiles; but salvation, which formerly filled the houses of the Jews, has this day shone upon the Gentiles, forasmuch as this people also by believing on God is a son of Abraham.

Zaccheus, make haste, and come down. It is a remarkable instance of favor, that the Lord anticipates Zaccheus, and does not wait for his invitation, but of his own accord asks lodging at his house.

And when Jesus came to the place,.... Where the tree stood, in which Zacchaeus was.

I THINK this is the only instance in which our Lord invited Himself to anybody's house. He often went when He was invited, but this time, if I may use the expression, He did the inviting Himself! Usually we must seek the Lord if we want to find Him. To the eye, at any rate, the apparent work of Grace goes on in this way—a man begins to cry for mercy, as the blind man who heard that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by, cried to Him, "You Son of David, have mercy on me."

These verses describe the conversion of a soul. Like the stories of Nicodemus, and the Samaritan woman — the story of Zacchaeus should be frequently studied by Christians. The Lord Jesus never changes. What He did for the man before us — He is able and willing to do for any one of ourselves. We learn, firstly, from these verses — that no one is too bad to be saved, or beyond the power of Christ's grace. We are told of a wealthy tax-collector becoming a disciple of Christ. A more unlikely event, we cannot well imagine!

These verses describe the conversion of a soul. Like the stories of Nicodemus, and the Samaritan woman — the story of Zacchaeus should be frequently studied by Christians. The Lord Jesus never changes. What He did for the man before us — He is able and willing to do for any one of ourselves. We learn, firstly, from these verses — that no one is too bad to be saved, or beyond the power of Christ's grace. We are told of a wealthy tax-collector becoming a disciple of Christ. A more unlikely event, we cannot well imagine! We see the "camel passing through the eye of a needle," and the "rich man entering the kingdom of God." We behold a plain proof that "all things are possible with God." We see a covetous tax-collector, transformed into a charitable Christian! The door of hope which the Gospel reveals to sinners, is very wide open! Let us leave it as open as we find it Let us not attempt in narrow-minded ignorance, to shut it. We should never be afraid to maintain that Christ is "able to save to the uttermost" — and that the vilest of sinners may be freely forgiven, if they will only come to Him. We should offer the Gospel boldly to the worst and wickedest, and say, "There is hope. Only repent and believe. Though your sins are like scarlet — I will make them as white as snow! Though they are red like crimson — I will make them as white as wool! (Isaiah 1:18.) Such doctrine may seem to be foolishness and a license to sin, to worldly people. But such doctrine is the Gospel of Him who saved Zacchaeus at Jericho! Hospitals discharge many severe cases as incurable. But there are no incurable cases under the Gospel! Any sinner may be healed — if he will only come to Christ. We learn, secondly, from these verses — how little and insignificant are the things on which a soul's salvation often turns.

Notwithstanding our firm belief that you are in the main well instructed in the doctrines of the everlasting gospel, we are continually reminded in our conversation with young converts, how absolutely necessary it is to repeat our former lessons, and repeatedly assert and prove over and over again those doctrines which lie at the basis of our holy religion.

Notwithstanding our firm belief that you are in the main well instructed in the doctrines of the everlasting gospel, we are continually reminded in our conversation with young converts, how absolutely necessary it is to repeat our former lessons, and repeatedly assert and prove over and over again those doctrines which lie at the basis of our holy religion. Our friends, therefore, who have many years ago been taught the great doctrine of effectual calling, will believe that whilst I preach very simply this morning, the sermon is intended for those who are young in the fear of the Lord, that they may better understand this great starting point of God in the heart, the effectual calling of men by the Holy Spirit. I shall use the case of Zaccheus as a great illustration of the doctrine of effectual calling. You will remember the story. Zaccheus had a curiosity to see the wonderful man Jesus Christ, who was turning the world upside down, and causing an immense excitement in the minds of men. We sometimes find fault with curiosity, and say it is sinful to come to the house of God from that motive; I am not quite sure that we should hazard such an assertion. The motive is not sinful, though certainly it is not virtuous; yet it has often been proved that curiosity is one of the best allies of grace. Zaccheus, moved by this motive, desired to see Christ; but there were two obstacles in the way: first, there was such a crowd of people that he could not get near the Saviour; and again, he was so exceedingly short in stature that there was no hope of his reaching over people’s heads to catch a glimpse of him. What did he do? He did as the boys were doing—for the boys of old times were no doubt just like the boys of the present age, and were perched up in the boughs of the tree to look at Jesus as he passed along.

I THINK this is the only instance in which our Lord invited Himself to anybody's house. He often went when He was invited, but this time, if I may use the expression, He did the inviting Himself! Usually we must seek the Lord if we want to find Him. To the eye, at any rate, the apparent work of Grace goes on in this way—a man begins to cry for mercy, as the blind man who heard that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by, cried to Him, "You Son of David, have mercy on me." But God is so rich in Grace that He does not restrict Himself to this usual method! Generally, He is found of them that seek Him, but, sometimes, He is found of them that seek Him not. Yes, if I tell the whole Truth of God—if you go down to the bedrock of actual fact—it is always God who seeks sinners. He always calls them a people who are not a people and the first movement between God and the sinner is never on the sinner's part, but on God's part. Still, apparently, men begin to pray to God and begin to seek the Lord—and this is the usual order in which salvation comes to them. The prodigal said, "I will arise and go to my father," and he arose and came to his father." The blind man cried, "Jesus, you Son of David, have mercy on me." Our text, however, describes a case which shows the freeness of Divine Mercy, for, although Zacchaeus did not invite Christ to his house, Christ invited Himself. Though there was no asking Him to be a guest, much less any pressing entreaty on the part of Zacchaeus, Christ pressed Himself upon him and said to him, "Make haste, and come down; for today I must stay at your house." I reckon that there are some here who are on an errand something like that of Zacchaeus. They want, perhaps, to see the preacher—which is not nearly as good a thing as wanting to see the preacher's Master.

Make haste, and come down - With this invitation, our blessed Lord conveyed heavenly influence to his heart; hence he was disposed to pay the most implicit and cheerful obedience to the call, and thus he received not the grace of God in vain.