Synonyms: Levi, disciple, evangelist, tax collector, the 12, the twelve, apostle, sermon on the mount, jewish audience, beatitudes, lord's prayer, great commission, parables, olivet discourse, mount of olives, olivet, synoptic
Showing 126 to 150 of 715 results
Sermon
King Duncan
... to others. If you have wealth, share it. Here is John's second prescription for preparing for his coming: IF YOU ARE IN A POSITION OF TRUST, HONOR IT. Even tax collectors came to John the Baptist to be baptized. They also asked, "Teacher, what shall we do?" John replied, "Collect no more than is appointed you." You know about tax collectors in that day and time. They collected taxes on behalf of the Roman government. They were despised as collaborators. They were also infamous for their lack of ethics. They ...
Sermon
Roger G. Talbott
... fact that this procedure is sandwiched between a parable about searching for a lost sheep and another parable about forgiveness, but also because of the words of Jesus, "If the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector." Most of the people who were listening to Jesus the day he said that might have taken that to mean that you should have nothing to do with that person ever again, just as the Jews had nothing to do with Gentiles or the despised ...
128. Proper 26
2 Thessalonians 1:1-12, Habakkuk 2:2-20, Habakkuk 1:1-4, Luke 19:1-10
Sermon Aid
John R. Brokhoff
... came to Zacchaeus and his family. The whole incident was summed up by the explanation that Jesus came to seek and save lost sinners. THEOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS Gospel: Luke 19:1-10 1. Chief (v. 2). Zacchaeus was no ordinary sinner. He was a "chief." He was a tax collector of a certain area and had employees to collect taxes. Probably he received his cut for all the taxes they collected. As a result he was a wealthy man. To be a publican was to be a traitor to one's country, because he was taking money ...
129. Proper 26
Lk 19:1-10 · 2 Thes 1:5-12 · Ex 34:5-9 · Hag 2:1-9
Sermon Aid
John R. Brokhoff
... salvation came to Zacchaeus and his family. The whole incident was summed up by the explanation that Jesus came to seek and save lost sinners. THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION Gospel: Luke 19:1-10 1. Chief (v. 2). Zacchaeus was no ordinary sinner. He was a "chief." He was a tax collector of a certain area and had employees to collect taxes. Probably he received his cut for all the taxes they collected. As a result he was a wealthy man. To be a publican was to be a traitor to one's country, because he was taking money ...
130. Leading a Friend to Jesus
Luke 5:27-32, Luke 5:17-26
Sermon
Bill Bouknight
... . I have a problem that only you can fix." Here is the third life-lesson: AFTER CHRIST SAVES US, HE WANTS US TO BRING OUR FRIENDS TO HIM. Just like Levi did. "…Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them." (Luke 5:29) There is a tendency for new Christians to develop friendships within Sunday School classes and Bible study groups. That is fine. But we shouldn’t forget our old friends who are as lost as a goose. Levi didn’t ...
131. Zacchaeus
Luke 19:1-10
Sermon
Brett Blair
... of the flesh he had everything; in the world of the spirit he had nothing. The people, of course, looked upon him with complete contempt. He was a dog. He was cut off from communion with the community of God. There is symbolism in his title chief tax collector. It is another way of saying that he was chief among sinners. Therefore, he was prevented from seeing Jesus not only by the press of the crowd, but also due to social and religious ostracism. It is here that we find our lesson for this morning. This ...
132. Zacchaeus - Sermon Starter
Luke 19:1-10
Illustration
Brett Blair
... for us what the mission of Jesus was all about, and in turn what the mission of the church is all about. The event happened while Jesus was passing through Jericho, the city of palms. Writes Luke: "And there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector, and he was rich." In one sentence we are told the story of a human life. Here's the background. Nothing in first century Judea was quite so hated and despised as was the Roman tax. It not only reminded the Jews that they were a subjugated people ...
Understanding Series
James R. Edwards
... his hands of a dirty profession, his call might have been understandable. True, Jesus called him from tax collecting, but the call came while he was at his tax table, during business hours. The outcry was immediate: “Why does [Jesus] eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” Romans 4 is a similar probe of the impulse of grace, an impulse which Paul sees already at work in Abraham. Abraham’s justification lies in the justification of Gentile sinners “apart from the law.” Abraham is therefore a ...
Sermon
John B. Jamison
... , which sounded really good. But remember, I said that if we understood what John said, we might feel the same way the guys in robes felt. Well, that’s because of the other things he said. It was great to hear him say what he did about the robes and tax collectors, but then he kept going. He looked around at all of us and said that anyone who has two shirts, should give one of those shirts to someone who doesn’t have any shirt. There I was with my undershirt on, another shirt on top of it, and a jacket ...
Understanding Series
Robert H. Mounce
... or both names belonged to the same person from the beginning. When Jesus says to the tax gatherer, Follow me, Matthew immediately leaves his place of business and follows the Lord. 9:10–13 We next see Jesus as host to a number of tax collectors and “sinners.” These were common people who paid little or no attention to the strict requirements of ceremonial law. The NIV places the affair at Matthew’s house (as suggested in the Lucan parallel, 5:29), although the Greek text of Matthew simply says ...
136. Man Up A Tree
Luke 19:1-10
Illustration
Larry Powell
... the story into three parts: 1. The person. Jericho was the gate city for Judea’s trade with the East, which meant that it was also the checkpoint for customs on imports and exports. Zacchaeus, as "chief tax collector," was in charge of collections and overseer of all other tax collectors in his district. Consequently, he was not only entitled to whatever revenues he could manage for himself, but also a share of what had been taken in by the other collectors. Opportunities for self-enrichment abounded and ...
137. Luke 3:7-18
Luke 3:1-20
Sweet
Leonard Sweet
... those in need, is the bare minimum expected of those who would live in accordance with God justice and mercy. John the Baptist’s preaching draws a response from two groups who would have been considered particularly snake-like to the general public: tax collectors and Roman soldiers. The tax collectors or toll collectors were as popular in the first century as they are in the twenty-first. John’s counsel to those who do that dreary duty for the Roman authorities is not to find a new line work, but to do ...
Sermon
Marc Kolden
... that this means that it is okay to be sinners. That's not the way it happened in our gospel passage and that's not the way God works now either. Jesus came to Matthew the collaborator with the occupying government; Jesus ate with Matthew and his tax collector friends. Clearly, Jesus reached out to sinners; he had friends in low places. But he said to them, "Follow me. Come after me. Be my disciple." Jesus accepted them just the way they were, and (not "but") ... and he loved them too much to leave them that ...
Sermon
Brett Blair
... . And soldiers also came and asked: And what shall we do? And he said: Rob no more and do not make false accusations. In other words, whatever your role or task is in life, do it ethically to the best of your ability. If you are a tax collector, then be an honest tax collector. If you are a soldier, be a good soldier and not a cruel, corrupt one. In whatever role you are in, do what you can where you are. Christian service is not just a missionary in a foreign land. Indeed, sometimes it is easier to go to ...
Sermon
Brett Blair
... . And soldiers also came and asked: And what shall we do? And he said: Rob no more and do not make false accusations. In other words, whatever your role or task is in life, do it ethically to the best of your ability. If you are a tax collector, then be an honest tax collector. If you are a soldier, be a good soldier and not a cruel, corrupt one. In whatever role you are in, do what you can where you are. Christian service is not just a missionary in a foreign land. Indeed, sometimes it is easier to go to ...
Sermon
Dennis Kastens
... , but sinners." He came for the sick. The sick may be a nauseating lot, but he came for them. Do not act as if he missed his mission when he dealt with the sick. One day Jesus found a sick man, Matthew, practicing his sickness in his tax collector’s office, and said to him, "Follow me." And he followed him. The impertinence of God to call sick, sick, sick St. Matthew, the sinner - the professional one - to make him an apostle (just plain forgiveness would have suited us better) and ask him to write one ...
Sermon
J. Ellsworth Kalas
... to live out their new faith in their present occupations and circumstances. Sometimes religion has encouraged people to show their faith by isolating themselves from the world they are part of. As a matter of fact, some of us might have counseled the tax collectors and soldiers to resign their positions and find some other kind of work. Both occupations had so many questionable factors that such advice would have made rather good sense. I can hear someone saying, "Tax collecting and army life aren't where ...
Sermon
Billy D. Strayhorn
... . This passage contains a Challenge, a Call and a Cure. I. The Challenge A. The Challenge is simple. Accepting the Challenge is the hard part. The first thing any of us have to overcome is the same thing Homer Hickam had to overcome. For Matthew, the tax collector, the challenge was to improve his reputation, not lose it. For Jesus, it was the tarnishing of His reputation for the sake of Matthew and the rest of the world. B. Homer Hickam did lose his reputation but he gained a whole lot more. He convinced ...
Sermon
J. Howard Olds
... , even today. In Jesus’ day, they were assumed to be dishonest and hated for their complicity with the Gentile oppressors. The Talmud advised “If you see a tax collector falling in a pit, don’t help him out. Let him die; we will be better off without him.” Zacchaeus was a tax collector. He was rich; he was well fed, stylishly clothed, handsomely housed, and outwardly successful. Money may not be everything, but it gives us certain liberties, allows us distinguished lifestyles, brings with it ...
One Volume
Gary M. Burge
... despised in Jewish society because they used the tax system to line their own pockets. The Pharisees and the scribes, who emphasized segregation from anything that would make one unclean, are surprised when Jesus goes to a banquet attended by tax collectors and sinners (5:30). In this context “sinners” refers to others who are ritually unclean. By eating with these people, Jesus himself would contract uncleanness. He defends his association with sinners by enunciating the principle that the doctor comes ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... Jesus liked to hang out with sinners. I’d just like to say, thank the Lord for that—since you and I are among that crowd of sinners. Our story today centers around a man named Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector in Jericho. Last week, we talked about why tax collectors were so hated by the Jewish community. They worked for the oppressive Roman government, and they often collected excessively high taxes. They gave the Roman government its required amount, then kept the excess for themselves. As we learned ...
147. Sinner to Saint
Matthew 9:9-13
Sermon
John R. Brokhoff
... , and serving as bishop of Philadelphia for eight years prior to his death in 1860. After more than a century, Neumann will be made a saint. Our text is a one-verse biography of a man who came a long way from sinner to saint - Matthew. He was a tax collector, a publican who in that day was considered a super-sinner because he was a traitor to his country by collecting taxes from the Jews to support the Roman government. Jesus came to him where he was and made him an apostle. Now the world knows him as Saint ...
Sermon
James W. Moore
... The religious leaders of Jesus’ time had the mistaken notion that the person who was “down on his luck” was in that fix because he had sinned, and this was God’s judgment upon him for his wrongdoing. So these blind, lame, leprous people, these tax collectors and poor people, were looked upon by society as sinners, as wicked people… and they were shunned! But Jesus didn’t see them as sinners or wicked people. He saw them as beloved children of God, as persons of integrity and worth, as members of ...
Sermon Aid
William E. Keeney
... elsewhere in the Gospels. A feast figures as an expression elsewhere in the New Testament. John uses Jesus' participation in the wedding at Cana as a frontice piece for his gospel (John 2:1-11). Jesus was known and criticized for his feasting with sinners and tax collectors. Matthew 25:1-24 has the parable of the wise and unwise virgins who are included or excluded from the wedding due to their foresight or lack of preparation for it. A wedding feast is also one of the figures used in Revelation 14:7-9 ...
Sermon
Larry Goodpaster
... If the Pharisees had bothered to pay attention to what was happening on that one day in the life and ministry of Jesus they would not have had to spend a great deal of time doing their homework. A paralytic is healed, both physically and spiritually. A tax collector, whose way of living spoke of graft and greed, is welcomed and offered a pew with the disciples. And sinners, souls and spirits tarnished by what society has done to them or said about them, find a forgiving word at the table of the Christ. Can ...
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