This message is the first of a four-part series I am calling "Four Steps to Greatness." I believe within each one of us separately, and all of us corporately, there is the God-given potential for greatness.
Over three decades ago Newsweek magazine ran an article entitled "Advice to a (bored) Young Man." It is good counsel for all of us, man or woman, young or old:
Died, aged twenty; buried, age sixty; the sad epitaph of too many Americans. Mummification sets in on too many young men at an age when they should be ripping the world wide open. For example: Many people reading this page are doing so with the aid of bifocals. Inventor? B. Franklin, age 79.
The presses that printed this page were powered by electricity. One of the first harnessers? B. Franklin, age 40.
Some are reading this on the campus of one of the Ivy League universities. Founder? B. Franklin, age 45.
Others, in a library. Who founded the first library in America? B. Franklin, age 25.
Some got their copy through the U.S. Mail. Its father? B. Franklin, age 31.
Now, think fire. Who started the first fire department, invented the lightning rod, and designed the heating stove still in use today? B. Franklin, ages 31, 43, 36.
Wit, Conversationalist, Economist, Philosopher, Diplomat, Printer, Publisher, Linguist (spoke and wrote five languages). Advocate of paratroopers (from balloons) a century before the airplane was invented. All of this until age 84.
And he had exactly two years of formal schooling. It's a good bet that you already have more sheer knowledge that Franklin ever had when he was your age.
Perhaps you think there's no use trying to think of anything new, that everything's been done wrong. The simple agrarian America of Franklin's day didn't begin to need the answers we need today go do something about it.1
Benjamin Franklin is an illustration of the fact that there is potential for greatness in all of us, but greatness is not given, it is earned. Greatness is not a matter of luck, chance, or fate. There really are some steps anyone can take to be all they can be, and to be the best that they can be, which is really what greatness is all about.
I heard two men who were talking about success, and one man said, "Do you know the secret of success?" The other man said, "No, what is it?" He said, "I can't tell you." The other man said, "Why not?" He said, "Because it's a secret."
Well, there are some "secrets of success." I call them the fantastic four that will enable and ensure greatness for anyone who will try them, and these secrets apply both to an individual and an institution. They apply to each one of us individually, and they apply to all of us corporately.
First of all, you must want it—that is passion. Second, you must know it—that is mission. Third, you must see it—that is vision. Fourth, you must do it—that is sacrifice. Those are the four steps to greatness, but it all begins with passion.
You can know your mission, have your vision, and prepare your sacrifice, but if you don't want it; if there is no passion to make that vision a reality and to accomplish that mission, and to pay that sacrifice, greatness will never happen.
I'm reminded of the unknown poet who wrote these words:
I spent a fortune on a trampoline,
A stationary bike and a rowing machine,
Complete with gadgets to read my pulse,
And gadgets to prove my progress results,
And others to show the miles I've charted—
But they left off the gadget to get me started.
I will never forget the story of a woman who was working behind the cosmetics counter in a large department store, waiting on some customers when a hurried anxious lady rushed up to her and said, "Do you still have Elizabeth Taylor's Passion? With quick wit the saleslady looked at her and said, "If I did, do you think I'd be working here?"
We need passion if we are going to achieve greatness. Together and individually we need passion, we need desire, we need the drive that is directed toward the right goal and given for the right God. Luke 19 records a story of this kind of passion. In this story we are going to see the fire of passion that we ought to have burning in our hearts which even today is burning in the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I. The Passion to See
"Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho.
Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature.
So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was going to pass that way." (vv.1-4)
This story takes place in Jericho, a city seventeen miles northeast of Jerusalem. It was a border city set at an international crossroads. This was the place where the northern, southern, eastern, and western highway routes all came together. It had a custom station where taxes were collected. It was one of the richest cities in Palestine, in the most fertile area of Judea. So being a chief tax collector meant you had "struck the mother lode." Zacchaeus was a man who was raking money in hand-over-fist.
He was the chief thief of the IRS. He was hated and despised by Jew and Gentile alike. The only time Jesus ever invited himself into someone's home, it was the home of a tax collector. Now this was a class of people that are unpopular quite frankly in any age, but especially in the days of Jesus.
They collected taxes on a commission basis and were given to overcharging the people so they could line their pockets with excess profits. Most Jews viewed them as traitors, as well as thieves because they were not only stealing, but they were serving the hated Roman Empire. A tax collector was seen as being on the same level with a robber, a murderer, and a reprobate. Jewish courts considered a tax collector's evidence as invalid, and his money would not even be accepted as gifts to the poor because they assumed it was stolen and belonged to someone else.
Zacchaeus was like the man who applied to the "Lonely Hearts Club" and he got his application back in the mail with a note that said, "We're not that lonely." He was a social outcast, a cultural misfit who couldn't even get a date with a calendar. But something was happening in Jericho that day that gave him a renewed passion—Jesus was coming to town.
Now at that time Jesus' fame and name had spread all over Palestine. The man who could raise the dead, walk on water, still a storm, feed five thousand on a school boy's lunch, was coming to Jericho! The streets were jammed. All the front seats were gone. It was a complete sellout with standing room only.
The only seats left were the bleacher seats up in the trees. Compounding the problem, verse 3 tells us he was "of short stature." That means he was probably under five feet tall. But he did have a passion to see Jesus. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree. Now in the east it was considered undignified and even obscene for a man, especially one of his financial stature, to run in public anywhere, much less to climb a tree. But Zacchaeus didn't care. This midget had a passion to see the Master.
But I want you to see why he had this passion. I believe he had a passion for Jesus because he had heard of the passion of Jesus. You see, there is a very revealing statement that was being made about the Lord Jesus that Jesus Himself tells us about in Luke 7:34. "The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!'" Now nobody who was anybody was a friend of tax collectors and sinners, or at least if you were you didn't admit it, except Jesus. It was not his power that impressed Zacchaeus, it was his passion.
May I say something to our church. The more a sinner knows the saint loves him, the more open the sinner will be to loving the Savior. This man had a passion for Jesus because he had heard of the passion of Jesus. He had a passion to see. We need to do everything we can as a church and as individual Christians, to inflame any passion we ever see in anyone who even desires just to see Jesus.
II. The Passion to Save
Now what happened next astonished the crowd and probably almost caused Zacchaeus to fall out of the tree.
"And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him, and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.' So he made haste and came down and received Him joyfully." (vv.5-6)
I find it interesting that Jesus knew Zacchaeus' name and had never even met him. Even in that little fact, I see the passion of Jesus.
You see, it appears as if Zacchaeus was seeking Jesus, but Jesus actually first saw Zacchaeus. You are going to see in a moment that Zacchaeus was caught because he was sought. They came together that day for two totally different reasons. Zacchaeus had a passion to see Jesus, but Jesus had a passion to save Zacchaeus. The Lord Jesus has a way of checking people in who are only interested in checking Him out.
Many years ago there was a world famous infidel and atheist by the name of Robert Ingersoll. He was talking to a friend of his one time who was also an atheist, and they got on the subject of Jesus Christ. This man said to Robert Ingersoll, "Jesus is a very fascinating man, and I believe that someone could write a novel about him that would be a best seller."
Ingersoll thought about it for a moment and said, "I believe you are right, and I believe you are the man to write it. Why don't you write a novel about Jesus Christ and tear down this myth about his being the divine Son of God, and at the same time you could advance the case for atheism. Write a novel and show Jesus was just a man like anyone else."
Well this fellow took Ingersoll's advice and began to do research for his novel. But the more he studied the life of Jesus, the more he was impressed with the person of Jesus. This man finally came back to Ingersoll to tell him that after much investigation he was convinced that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and he had given Him his life.
But the man did go on to write that novel. His name was Lou Wallace, and the novel was Ben Hur.
You see, all Zacchaeus wanted was to catch a glimpse of Jesus, but instead he received the grace of Jesus. All of a sudden I believe two things happened to Zacchaeus that has to happen to everyone in order to be saved. First of all, he realized he was a great sinner. But then he realized Jesus was a great Savior and his heart was changed.
In fact, the change was so deep that it reached all the way down to his pocketbook. "Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, ‘Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.'" (v.8)
Now the Old Testament, according to Num. 5:7, if a thief voluntarily confessed he had stolen something, he only had to restore what he had stolen plus twenty percent above that. But Zacchaeus went well beyond that and said, "I'm going to repay with 300% interest," which is fifteen times more than the law required! Now there's only one way to explain that. He had a new passion.
Do you see in v.8 how Zacchaeus refers to Jesus? He calls him "Lord." You see, first he wanted to see Jesus the man, but now he wanted to serve Christ the Lord. His passion had totally changed. All of his life he wanted to get, but now he wanted to give. A personal relationship with Christ had resulted in a passionate response to Christ.
That's why the Lord Jesus said in v.9, "And Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham." Jesus did not come to eat supper; Jesus came to bring salvation. Jesus has a passion. If you are a sinner He has a passion to save you. If you are a saint He has a passion to strengthen you that you might be all He wants you to be so that through you others also might be saved.
III. The Passion to Seek.
Now let me warn you about having passion. If you have passion you will be criticized. Jesus was. Verse 7 says, "But when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, ‘He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner.'" Isn't it interesting that the Pharisees knew what Zacchaeus was, a sinner, but Jesus was the only one that had a passion to do something about it. What Jesus says in v.10 is a response to the criticism of v.7; "for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."
Jesus came to earth on a search and rescue mission. His passion can be summed up in five words "to seek and to save."
What motivated the Lord Jesus to leave heaven? To take on the form of human flesh? To endure ridicule from his own creation? To die the horrible agonizing shameful death of a common criminal? To experience a complete separation from his father? Well the answer is found in Luke 19, verse 10.
Now we know that Zacchaeus found Jesus because Jesus sought Zacchaeus. It was Jesus who left heaven to come to the earth where Zacchaeus existed. It was Jesus who came to the town where Zacchaeus worked. It was Jesus who came to the street where Zacchaeus walked. It was Jesus who came to the tree where Zacchaeus climbed. It was Jesus who came to the home where Zacchaeus lived.
Jesus came, Jesus lived, and Jesus died because He had a passion to seek and to save that which is lost. That was His passion then, that is His passion now. Mark 1:14-15 says that the first act of his public ministry was to preach the gospel of the kingdom. The last act of his public ministry was to seek and to save a dying thief on a cross next to his. I say again, His passion is to be our passion.
The same reason that Jesus came into this world is the same reason God brought you into His kingdom. The same reason that Jesus died for the church and bought the church with His own blood, and builds the church with His own Holy Spirit, is that the church might also "seek and save that which is lost." That passion is to motivate all that we do in this church, and if we ever lose that passion, we may as well shut the doors, turn out the lights, and go home.
When I think about passion I cannot help but think about the story of a quarterback years ago that was playing for Georgia Tech. This was back in the days when Bobby Dodd was the head coach. Tech was on the opponent's four yard line. They were ahead by a field goal; there was only a few seconds left on the clock and Coach Dodd decided to send in a second string quarterback who had never played, just so he could say he played in a football game. He ordered him simply to fall on the football so the clock would run out.
When this second string quarterback came to the line, he thought he saw an opening where a touchdown could be scored, and he changed the play. He went back to pass and he threw an interception to the fastest man on the other team. This man was roaring down the field being chased by the entire team, including this quarterback who happened to be one of the slowest players on the Tech team. Bobby Dodd watched in horror and shock as it appeared as if the game was certainly going to be lost.
All of a sudden, out of nowhere, just before this player reached the goal line to score the winning touchdown, he was caught from behind by this slow-footed quarterback. Bobby Dodd absolutely couldn't believe it.
When the reporters after the game were interviewing this quarterback, one of the reporters said, "That will go down as one of the greatest plays in history. You, one of the slowest players on Tech's team, chased down the fastest player on the other team!" They said, "How did you do it?" The young man simply replied, "That's easy. That player was running for a touchdown, I was running for my life."
We ought to have a greater passion than that because we are not running for the goal of an earthly touchdown; we are running for the reward of the Lord Jesus Christ who said we are to seek and to save that which was lost, and that is to be our passion.
1. "Advice to a (bored) Young Man," Newweek (February 13, 1967).