Trinity Baptist Church

Living by Faith in a World Full of Fear

Liberation from Loneliness

Luke 19:1-8

 

Today we are going to look at one of the most well known stories in the Bible. It is found in Luke 19 and it is the story of Zacchaeus.  Most of us know the details of how, because of his short size, he climbed a sycamore tree so he could see over the crowed to get a glimpse of Jesus. 

 

Typically, we teach and preach on Zaccheus to share a salvation message.  And that is certainly appropriate.  In fact, that is probably the primary message we find there.  But nestled in around the main message are some supplementary truths.  And today, I want to pull out one of those companion thoughts and share a message with you about a great fear in life. 

 

We have been learning about living by faith in a world full of fear. There are a lot of things that cause fear in our lives, but one that is often overlooked or underestimated is the fear of loneliness. So today I want to share with you about how you can experience "Liberation From Loneliness".  In Luke 19:1, we are introduced to a lonely soul whose name is Zacchaeus. 

 

Luke 19:1-4

 

Had you been in the audience at the Grand Old Opry in Nashville on June 11, 1949 you would have heard introduced a singer to the Opry, making his debut performance there that night. 

 

It was that night that a man named Hank Williams took the stage.  He received a record breaking eight encores as he sang many of his songs that are now famous, and probably will be famous as long as country music is around. 

 

One of those songs speaks to the condition that many of us have felt from time to time in our life.  He wrote, "I Am So Lonesome I Could Cry."  Have you ever been so lonesome you could cry?  He said, Did you hear that lonesome whippoorwill, he sounds too blue to fly.  The midnight train is whining low, I am so lonesome I could cry.

       

Several years later, in 1975 a song would be introduced and recorded by its composer Eric Carmen and later recorded by stars such as Celine Deion and Frank Sinatra.  It was entitled, "All By Myself." 

 

It says, living alone I think of all the friends I have known.  When I dial the telephone, nobody is home.  All by myself, don't want to be, all by myself anymore.” 

 

Twenty-two percent of Americans ate dinner alone last night.  A Gallup poll says that 3 out of 20 Americans describe themselves as lonely.  Thomas Wolf, the philosopher, said, loneliness is the central and inevitable fact of human existence.

 

Even Jesus knew what it was to be alone.  He was alone in the Garden of Gethsemane, the night in which He was betrayed.  He had gone further into the Garden and there He prayed, the Bible says, alone.  He was alone as He spent that night in the prison, in the house of Ciaphas, the high priest. 

He was alone as He stood before Pilate and falsely tried.  He was all alone, no one to speak in His defense.  Jesus was alone when He went to the cross and died for our sins upon that cross.  And shed His blood that you and I might be forgiven.  There are many times when Jesus Christ was alone.  He knows what it is to be alone. 

 

And even though it is of unnoticed and unmentioned, I think we find in Zacchaeus

 

I.  A Lonely Soul

 

We see in verse 7 he is openly identified as a sinner.  He is not a child of God, why would Jesus care about him?

 

Zacchaeus wakes up every day realizing he is a hated man.  He lives a life of isolation and separation.  He is unloved and alone and lonely. 

 

That describes a lot of people in this old world.  They are alone and lonely.  It may be because of circumstances or conflict or perhaps a disagreement or a death. Sometimes we are lonely simply because of choice. 

 

For some their life is one conflict after the other. They wind up friendless and isolated simply because they choose to be disagreeable.  Then they wonder why no one ever wants to be around them. In their opinion everyone else is cliquish and unfriendly when they are the ones who have withdrawn and refused to be involved. 

 

And for whatever reason, we wind up lonely. 

 

One of the reasons Zacchaues was lonely was because of his occupation.

 

He was chief of the publicans.  The publicans were tax collectors.  They were Jews who made a contract with the Roman captors to receive taxes from their own people.  So they were looked at as traitors.  And they were very hated by their own countrymen because people felt they had committed treason by siding with Rome or by being willing to be hired by Rome to collect the taxes. 

 

So Zacchaeus is lonely and hated because of his occupation.  He is well-known for his dishonesty.  Most of the tax collectors charged more tax than they should, and then they pocketed the difference.  They received a salary from Rome, they charged more tax than they should, and they padded their own pockets.  People opposed him.  They hated him because of his dishonesty.

 

So because of his occupation, Zacchaeus was very, very lonely. 

 

I think also because of his opulence.  The Bible says he was rich.  He had lots of money, he had lots of silver, and he had lots of gold.  But money can buy everything, and in spite of his wealth Zacchaeus was alone.  Many wealthy people cannot have close friends, simply because of their wealth.  People want to take advantage of them.  People want to constantly ask them for something.  Ask them for a hand out or to help them.  And Zacchaeus was very alone.

 

 

 

But he was alone, more to the point for today, because of this occasion.  Jesus was coming to Jericho.  And Zacchaeus wanted to get in on what was happening, but he was short.  And he could not see very well. 

 

Everybody wanted to see Jesus.  Everybody had heard about Jesus.  Everybody wanted to see what Jesus looked like, they wanted to hear Jesus.  Many of them wanted to touch Jesus.  They wanted to be healed by Jesus.  They were hollering, they were screaming.  There was great noise.  There was just a great tumult made and here was Zacchaeus, standing in the back all alone. 

 

But no one cared whether he saw Jesus or not.  No one cared whether he got to talk to Jesus or not.  But he found a sycamore tree.  He went ahead of the crowd and he climbed up in that sycamore tree for Jesus was to pass that way. 

 

Did you ever notice how Satan will put every barrier in your path to keep you from Jesus?  He will do everything he can to keep you from fully experiencing the real Christ.  He will use everything he can to distract you from Jesus.  He will get you to try every other method to cure loneliness except Jesus. 

 

Some try to cure loneliness through alcohol, through drugs, some try to cure loneliness by trying to do busy things and busy work, but there is nothing that can cure loneliness except the Lord Jesus Christ because loneliness is a condition on the inside of the heart. 

 

 

Somebody said that a city is a place where tens of thousands of people can be together alone. 

 

And it was that way for Zacchaeus. But it is not really good to be alone.  In fact in the Bible, the Bible says that when God made Adam He said it is not good that Adam should be alone. 

 

So many people who say they are loners are some of the loneliest people in the world.  They say they want to be alone, but they, more than anybody else need the encouragement and the fellowship and especially, the relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.  So here is a lonely soul.  Maybe you know what it is to be alone because of these reasons.

 

If so, I want you to have the same opportunity today that Zaccheus had way back then, because what Zaccheus got to see was

 

II.  A Loving Savior

 

Luke 5:5-8

 

I would suggest that when Jesus came to the place, He didn't come there by accident.  God doesn't do things by accident.  God has a plan.  Jesus knew Zacchaeus would be there in that tree.  Jesus knew that Zacchaeus was lonely.  Jesus came to Jericho on purpose.  He could have gone to another town, but He came there.

 

Now he has made Jesus Lord of his life.  Now he has experienced a relationship with Christ, He is no longer Jesus of Nazareth, now He is Lord.  And the evidence of that is seen by the change in his life. 

 

We know this man had an encounter with Jesus, amen?

 

How did it happen?  How was he liberated from loneliness and how can we be liberated from loneliness? 

 

First of all

 

God has offered us in His Son Jesus Christ, unconditional love.  What does that mean?  It means you don't have to change anything to make God love you.  God loves you period!  He already loves you.  God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to die on the cross of Calvary.  You must know in the time of your loneliness that God loves you and He offers you unconditional love and acceptance just like you are, just where you are. 

 

And many people are lonely because they can't believe this.  They don't believe that anybody can accept them.  The world has rejected them.  Family and friends have kicked them around.  They have been isolated and separated.  Maybe there has been a death in their family and they have been separated from loved ones and now they are left alone.  Their mate has gone to heaven, they are living alone.

 

Maybe they have been separated by divorce which we are told is about the same stress as death and they are alone.  Their children have gone another direction and they are alone.  All the kids have gone to college and now they’re alone, but God offers unconditional love and forgiveness.

 

I want you to notice, Jesus knew him.  He looked up and He called him by name.  He didn't say, you there in that tree, He said, Zacchaeus.  He called him by name.  And He knows you.  He knows your name.  You are not a number.  One of the reasons people are alone in our culture is because it is such a depersonalized society.  You don't talk to someone on a phone, you talk to a machine.  You are a number, you are not a name. 

 

It is a mobile society.  We are told that people in their twenties will move many, many times before they reach thirty years of age.  People are mobilized.  They are moving from one part of the country to another.  They don't make lasting relationships.  They are alone. 

 

But God offers unconditional love.  Jesus knew him, and Jesus called him. 

 

He said come, come down, and come to Me.  And that is what He says to us.  He says bring your loneliness to me, bring your heartache to Me, and bring your concern to Me.  I know you; I know what you are going through.  He calls you. 

 

And then Jesus forgave him. 

 

They said he is a sinner.  Yes he was a sinner.  All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.  I am a sinner.  The Bible says all hath been concluded by God under sin by one man's sin into the world and death by sin.  But listen, there is good news.  The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

 

 

And this morning if you open your heart to Jesus and accept His offer of unconditional love and forgiveness by repenting of your sin and receiving Him in your heart, you will have somebody who will never leave you.  He said I will never forsake you.  A Christian can never totally be alone.  We may feel alone, but Jesus is in our heart wherever we are.  He is with us wherever we go.  Our body is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit.

 

So first of all, Jesus offered him unconditional love and forgiveness.

 

Then the second thing he did to overcome his loneliness, he released and forgave those who had hurt him. 

 

How do I know that?  Because he wanted to give back to people that he had stolen from them.  And one of the reasons people are alone is because of the principle of forgiveness.  Something that isolates us so many times is because of anger and unforgiving spirit and bitterness.  And if we will not release people from the way they have hurt us, as long as we hold that to their account, we are always going to experience a degree of loneliness. 

 

It doesn't hurt them it hurts us because we are giving them control over our life.  That parent who hurt you years ago, that step mom, step dad who wronged you, maybe who abused you years ago, whatever, that friend, that husband, that wife who betrayed you and you still hold it to their account, that church member that said something or did something. 

 

 

You say I don't want to forget, I will never forget what they have done.  I will never forgive them for what they have done to me.

 

Then two things in regard to that: 

 

1.  You will never be like Christ.  You cannot have an unforgiving spirit and be like Him.  The most Christ-like you will ever be is when you find it in your heart to forgive those who have hurt you.

 

And secondly,

 

2.  You can never be forgiven yourself.  Jesus said forgive and it will be forgiven you.  And He made a condition about forgiveness.  And the Scripture teaches this is a principle. One of the reasons people are lonely is that unforgiven sin, bitterness and anger isolates us from other people. 

 

So we have to release those who have wronged us and say Lord they did this but I release them from it.  As far as I am concerned I give it to you.  They have hurt me but God I am not holding this to their account.  Vengeance is yours, you will repay.  And you release them from what they have done.

 

So Zaccheus was released from his loneliness because Christ offered him unconditional love and forgiveness, he offered those who had hurt him release and forgiveness, and

 

3. He repented and made restitution to those he had wronged.

 

He had wronged many people.  He had robbed people.  Charged them too many taxes. 

He said, you know what, I am going to pay back fourfold every person I have hurt. 

 

Now listen very closely:  if you have hurt someone and you have not made it right, it will isolate you and it will bring to you loneliness and a feeling of rejection until you go to that person and make it right.  He said I am going to make things right.  I am going to pay those people back with 400% interest.  I have been wrong and I have wronged my brothers.  

 

By the way, as we discovered last week, it is through that kind of love that people know we are Christians.  They know we are Christians when we have that spirit.  When we have the spirit of owning up to what we have done and asking others to forgive us for what we have done against them. 

 

And that releases us, that liberates us and it brings joy into your life.  And Zacchaeus did exactly that.  I will pay them back fourfold and I am going to give half of my money to the poor.  Now I know he was saved, amen!  He was going to give half of his money, not 10% but half of it.  And he began to minister to others.

 

One of the things we need to do when we are lonely is we need to go across the street and find somebody else who is lonely and minister to them and help them.  And we find when we do that it helps us.  It ministers to us, that we get a blessing more than they get a blessing. 

 

 

 

 

When we get busy in the service of God, when we give ourselves to a cause greater than our selves, the greatest cause in this world, the cause of Christ, and get busy serving Him it is a cure for loneliness.  And that is what Zacchaeus did.

 

So what do we see so far?  We have a lonely soul coming in contact with a L9oving Savior and what is the result?

 

III.  A Liberating Salvation

 

verses 9-10

 

The very first thing that happened to Zaccheus was he Experienced God’s Presence.

 

When he received Jesus, he experienced God's presence, and salvation came to his house.  Now if Billy Graham happened by today and said I would like to go home and eat lunch with you, most of us would be humbled and honored. 

 

But somebody wants to dwell with you much greater than any human who has ever lived and that is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.  And in the midst of loneliness you experience His presence and it overcomes.

 

He also got to Enjoy God's purpose.  He is a son of Abraham.  He is a child of God.  He is not classified any more as a sinner, it doesn't mean he is perfect, it doesn't mean he will never sin, it doesn't mean he will never make another mistake but the Bible says he has crossed from death to life because he received God's forgiveness and salvation.

 

And last of all, he was liberated to Employ God's Power.

 

.  How many people do you think believed on Jesus because of Zacchaeus when he gave half of his money to the poor?  If we had the richest man in Ardmore today make an announcement, I am giving half of my money to the poor, what kind of attraction, what kind of attention would that attract?

 

That is what Zacchaeus did.  And he said I am doing it because of Jesus Christ.  I am doing it because Jesus is the one and only Savior of this world and He has changed my life.  And I want people to know about Jesus.  Because what He did for me, He can do for them.  The power of God has come into my life.

 

Jackie Robinson was the first African American to play in the major leagues.  And he experienced a lot of persecution.  People at that time were not open minded before the Civil Rights Movement.  Jackie Robinson often was booed and jeered by fans, even in Ebbetts Field, the place where he played, his home team.  He was booed many times. 

 

In one particular game he struck out and then as they took the field, he committed an infield error.  And the people were booing and they were using the "n" word.  Jackie Robinson stood there alone at second base with his head down.  And then one of the most popular players of that time, Pee Wee Reese, his teammate came over and put his arm around Jackie Robinson and he stood there with Jackie Robinson as the crowd began to boo. 

 

 

And when the saw Pee Wee Reese with his arm around Jackie Robinson, the boos stopped.  Because Pee Wee Reese that they loved so much was saying by standing with Jackie Robinson, if you are going to boo him you have to boo me.

 

There are a lot of people who will boo you in this life.  There are a lot of people who boo you for your mistakes.  There are a lot of people who boo you for your actions.  There are a lot of people who boo you for your inadequacies.  And the greatest booer of all is Satan; he boos you all the time. 

 

But I have good news for you today.  There is somebody who has come to your side and He has His arm around you and He says if you are going to boo him, if you are going to boo her, you have to boo Me.  And His name is Jesus Christ the Son of God.  And today He puts His arm around you.  And He will never leave you and never forsake you.  That is His promise today.

 

If you want to accept God's unconditional grace, His forgiveness of sin, all you have to do is be willing to admit that you are a sinner, believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose again from the dead.  Be willing to turn from your sin and ask Jesus to come into your heart.  And He will come in today and then you can never totally be alone. 

 

The Bible says Zaccheus made haste.  He didn't wait for somebody else.  He shimmed down that tree so fast because Jesus was waiting for him and he didn't want to keep Jesus waiting.  Friend don't keep Jesus waiting.  If He has spoken to you today then the moment you stand up, you make your way forward and make that decision for Him.