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It’s been said that when someone comes to Christ and is saved their “want to” changes. The things that captivated us and drove us no longer have that much impact on our lives. We see this in a very popular and well-known biblical event in Luke chapter 19.

In the first ten verses, we read about a little guy named Zaccheus. I can hear you singing the song. We can’t help it, can we? Anyway, we know two things about Zacchaeus. He was small in stature and a wealthy chief tax collector.

It is said that Zacchaeus desired to see Jesus. We can imagine that Zaccheus had probably heard about the Lord, the miracles He had performed, and the depth of His teaching. Zaccheus at the very least wanted to catch a glimpse of this man who some say could be the Messiah. You know what happened. Zaccheus hurried and climbed up a Sycamore tree, why? For the Lord, he wanted to see. Here is where it gets really good. You see, as bad as Zaccheus wanted to see Jesus, it was Jesus who was looking for Zaccheus.  The Lord looks up and tells Zaccheus to come down and in verse 5 we see these words from the Lord, “for today I must stay at your house.” Did you catch what the Lord is throwing? He said He must stay at Zaccheus’ house. This is an imperative and it’s the same word we use for necessary.

The tables are turned on old Zaccheus. He thought he was looking for the Lord, and the whole time the Lord was looking forward to being with Him. We see a couple of different reactions to this self-invite. First, Zaccheus is glad and joyous. Second, we see spectators begin to grumble. You may ask the question? “Why are people upset that the Lord wants to hang with Zaccheus?” Well, Zaccheus is not just a tax collector, he is a chief tax collector. This means he has decided to work for the Roman government by collecting taxes from his own people. If that isn’t enough, Zaccheus has gotten very rich by doing so. The crowd has branded Zaccheus the title of sinner.

At that moment, something inside Zaccheus changed. It seems as if the conviction has set in because he turns to Jesus and says, “Behold Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.” At that moment, conviction turns to repentance. How do we know this? Because Jesus says these words in verses 9-10, “And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Something miraculous happened in the heart of Zaccheus. He went from wanting to be rich, to just wanting to be with Jesus. I don’t know of any more beautiful picture of salvation than that.