TOO HIGH FOR JESUS…COME DOWN!

TOO HIGH FOR JESUS…COME DOWN!
Sermon delivered November 1, 2009
By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman
At Allen Chapel A.M.E. Church
Rev. Clinton Stancil, Pastor


Advice comes in many forms. Some good, some not so good.
Some advice is solicited. Other advice is unsolicited.

Some advice we readily recognize, and appreciate. But, other advice we misinterpret and therefore reject, thinking we know better.

Sometimes, we are prepared to receive advice for the good it contains. At other times, we can’t receive it till years later.

Today, Church, we going to talk about advice. Heavenly advice.

We’ve all given advice, sometimes to a fault. Help me Holy Ghost! And we’ve all received advice, whether we asked for it or not.

In my day job, as a lawyer, people pay me to give advice. Praise God. Whether they follow it or not is up to them. As the old saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink!

The Holy Spirit, the Comforter, advises us continually, in a “still, small voice.” 1 Kings 19:12. It gives us advice 24/7, 365.

But many times, we choose not to hear; or, if we hear, we choose not to heed what we hear.

In our message today, we examine advice which our Savior Jesus Christ gives and how recipients treat that divine dispensation.

Today, Church, we examine the subject:
TOO HIGH FOR JESUS…COME DOWN!

Let us pray.

In Luke 19, we find the following:
1AND [Jesus] entered Jericho and was passing through it.
2And there was a man called Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector, and [he was] rich.
3And he was trying to see Jesus, which One He was, but he could not on account of the crowd, because he was small in stature.
4So he ran on ahead and climbed up in a sycamore tree in order to see Him, for He was about to pass that way.
5And when Jesus reached the place, He looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.
6So he hurried and came down, and he received and welcomed Him joyfully.
7And when the people saw it, they all [a]muttered among themselves and indignantly complained, He has gone in to be the guest of and lodge with a man who is devoted to sin and preeminently a sinner.
8So then Zacchaeus stood up and solemnly declared to the Lord, See, Lord, the half of my goods I [now] give [by way of restoration] to the poor, and if I have cheated anyone out of anything, I [now] restore four times as much.(A)
9And Jesus said to him, Today is [[b]Messianic and spiritual] salvation come to [all the members of] this household, since Zacchaeus too is a [real spiritual] son of Abraham;
10For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.

In this account, we have a little short despised tax collector, named Zacchaeus, who desired to see Jesus. But the crowd was too big, for him to get close enough to see. So, he ran ahead, along “the way” he perceived Jesus would come, and climbed up a sycamore tree so he could see Jesus. When Jesus looked up into that tree, and saw Zacchaeus, Jesus said: “come down, Zacchaeus.” You too high. He said come down. I need to stay at your house.

Sometimes, church we too can get too high. Too full of ourselves, to self-important to come down. But, only when we come down, only when we humble ourselves, can we be of any value to our Savior, or mankind.

Zacchaeus came down, hurried down. Joyfully. This was too much to hope for. We went from climbing a tree just to be able to see Jesus, to having Jesus see him, and then call him by name. Then, to be able to host Jesus at his house: What a blessing!

Now, Zacchaeus was a rich man. As this example shows, there is nothing necessarily bad about rich people. Jesus looks beyond the artificiality of riches and sees the man behind the riches. Even the rich are capable of redemption through Christ Jesus, who is no respecter of persons.

On top of his riches, however, Zacchaeus was also a tax collector for the Roman overlords—a publican. These folks were hated and despised by the Jews. So Christ’s staying with Zacchaeus caused more than a few murmurs.

But, Zacchaeus told Jesus that he was a super-duper tither. He gave one-half of his goods to the poor, and if he had defrauded any man, he’d restored it four fold.
Jesus said today is salvation come to the household of Zacchaeus. Jesus said he came to seek and save the lost.

This hated and despised man was redeemed by Jesus.

When the bride groom comes, will you be ready church?
Will your house be in order? Will your lamp be found full of oil and will your wick be trimmed.

Will you open your door, when the bridge groom comes?
Will you be able to receive Jesus?

Will you be able to receive Jesus, Church?

Or will you be TOO HIGH FOR JESUS TO COME DOWN!
My Lord and My God!

Let me give you one other illustration from God’s word. Turn back one chapter to Luke 18:18-30, if you will. There, it is written:

18And a certain ruler asked Him, Good Teacher [You who are [m]essentially and perfectly [n]morally good], what shall I do to inherit eternal life [to partake of eternal salvation in the Messiah's kingdom]?
19Jesus said to him, Why do you call Me [[o]essentially and perfectly [p]morally] good? No one is [[q]essentially and perfectly [r]morally] good--except God only.
20You know the commandments: Do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not witness falsely, honor your father and your mother.(A)
21And he replied, All these I have kept from my youth.
22And when Jesus heard it, He said to him, One thing you still lack. Sell everything that you have and [s]divide [the money] among the poor, and you will have [rich] treasure in heaven; and come back [and] follow Me [become My disciple, join My party, and accompany Me].
23But when he heard this, he became distressed and very sorrowful, for he was rich--exceedingly so.
24Jesus, observing him, said, How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!
25For it is easier for a camel to enter through a needle's eye than [for] a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.
26And those who heard it said, Then who can be saved?
27But He said, What is impossible with men is possible with God.(B)
28And Peter said, See, we have left our own [things--home, family, and business] and have followed You.
29And He said to them, I say to you truly, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God
30Who will not receive in return many times more in this world and, in the coming age, eternal life.

This account of the rich young ruler is a well known passage of scripture.
In it, we have another man who sought Jesus. Having lived an exemplary life, by obeying the commandments, he still wanted to know, what he must do to gain eternal life. Jesus told him to obey the commandments. The young man said, I’ve always done that. No murders, no adultery, no stealing, no lying. And he’d honored his father and his mother, and on top of that had treated his neighbors as he treated himself. A good man.

But Jesus hit him with a haymaker. Jesus said sell all that you have and give it to the poor. You will have treasure in heaven. Then, come and follow me.

The word says the young man went away sorrowfully.

Jesus then commented upon how difficult it was for rich men to enter the kingdom of heaven, comparable to a camel going through the eye of a needle. What that means is that people hold onto earthly things, rather than open their hearts to spiritual things. These are they who trust in riches, in things of this world, rather than the spirit.

Naturally, Peter, being Peter, interjected. Who then can be saved? We’ve left everything to follow you!

Jesus of course had a ready answer. There’s no question Jesus cannot answer, Church. Jesus pointed out that those who follow him shall receive on this earth many times more than they give up, and, as a bonus get eternal life. Eternal life is the lagniappe! That’s a Louisiana word meaning “bonus.”

So, you see church there is a present reward for those who follow Jesus. Who are not too high to come down, like the rich young ruler—who only heard half the story!

If he’d a stuck around. If he hadn’t been too high for Jesus, caught up in his own self-righteousness, he would have heard Jesus say, that whatever he gave up for the Kingdom of God, he’d have gotten back, many fold on this earth, AND, AND—THE BIG, also obtain eternal life.

Praise God for Jesus. Amen.

The rich young ruler was
TOO HIGH FOR JESUS TO COME DOWN!

In his case, he didn’t have to come out of a tree, he had to relinquish worldly possessions and trust Jesus if he wanted to obtain eternal life.

TOO HIGH FOR JESUS…COME DOWN!

“If religion was a thing that money could buy, the rich would live and the poor would die. I’m counting up the costs every day of my life.”

Thank You and God Bless you!