Joseph Prince - Expose Yourself To Jesus And Receive Your Miracle
Tonight we're gonna see the story about this son of Abraham and going into this passage, we believe that God the Holy Spirit will open our eyes to know the truths that God has for us from this wonderful story. Why is this man called the son of Abraham? All right, we learned last week about the lady who was bound for 18 years. Jesus says once she's a daughter of Abraham, "Ought not this woman being a daughter of Abraham be loosed from this disease, from this bondage of 18 years".
So, the moment she became, she didn't have to be doing, just by being. You know, many places they emphasize on doing. Just by being a daughter of Abraham, heaven is obligated to perform miracles. God will move on your behalf, amen? Tonight we're gonna study on the son of Abraham, his name is Zaccheus. The name is given in the Bible. But before that, let's look at Galatians 3 and who are the real sons and daughters of Abraham. The Apostle Paul by the Holy Spirit says, "Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham". Those who are what? Are sons of Abraham, amen?
Don't forget, the moment you become a son or daughter of Abraham, God — and I say this reverently — God is obliged to give you your miracle. In fact, he is wonderfully obliged to give you your miracle. He loves it, okay? So, we need to study this a little bit more. So, the Bible says, "Those who are of faith". Now, what is this of faith? "And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith". So, the subject matter in the context is justification by faith. Can you see that? Righteousness by faith, all right? In fact the verse before verse 7 says, "Abraham believed God, it was accounted to him for righteousness".
So, the context here is not healing by faith, baptism in the Holy Spirit by faith. The context here is righteousness by faith. The Bible says, "God preached the Gospel to Abraham beforehand about this justification by faith saying, 'In you all the nations shall be blessed'. So then those who are of faith", of this faith, "are blessed with believing Abraham". Not doing Abraham, not working Abraham, believing Abraham, amen? So, praise the Lord. We see in the gospels only two Jesus said was the daughter of Abraham and the son of Abraham.
Today we go to the story of Zaccheus, his name in Hebrew is Zacchai. Zacchai means pure one, the pure one, the just one. However, this man is not exactly what you will deem pure in the natural, because he was a thief, and he did his robbery through becoming a tax collector. We know because later on when he repented he says, "All those I've cheated". So he made a living as a tax collector and the Bible says he was rich.
Let's follow the story. Luke 19, verse 1, "Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector", not only a tax collector, he's a chief, you know? And he was rich. Nothing wrong with being rich, all right, but this guy got rich because of cheating, stealing, okay? "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 Jesus for he was going to pass that way". Verse 5, "And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him", amazing. I mean of all the crowd there, Jesus looked up and saw him and said to him, "Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house".
Every single word is beautiful. We're gonna break this statement down, okay? Shall we? This one statement he says, "Zaccheus, make haste, come down, today I must stay at your house". Zaccheus, it is personal. Salvation, it is personal. He calls you by name. When God wants to save you, he calls you by name. He knows you by name, you know? God doesn't see a crowd. God sees individuals. He knows your name. Is a personal, Zaccheus. Make haste, it is pressing. It is urgent, make haste. You know, this is the only place in the gospels where our Lord tells someone to hurry up. When it comes to salvation, it's the only time he says, "Hurry to be saved. Don't wait one minute longer in darkness. Don't remain one minute longer under the power of Satan. Don't remain one minute longer unsaved", amen?
The Bible says today is the day of salvation. Now is the accepted time, amen? So Zaccheus, it's personal. Make haste, it's urgent, it's pressing. Come down, it is humbling. Salvation is humbling, amen? Some people, you know, they get saved or they want to get saved but they dare not come to the front. Never mind, coming to the front does not save you, but how many understand that you have to leave everything to put your trust in Jesus because your riches cannot save you? Your good family name cannot save you.
You know, the ark of Noah, Noah's ark, only one entrance, only one door. So, whether it's the tortoise that comes or a giraffe, okay, a giraffe after also must bow down to enter the ark. How many understand, amen? We all enter into salvation through the same door, Jesus Christ. So, it is humbling, "Come down, for today I must". I must. Now, you underline this word must. I'm telling you when I was studying this, the Lord confirmed to me that just like he used the word "ought not this woman", the word there is dei in Greek, D-E-I, divine necessity. The same word, "Ought not this woman being a daughter of Abraham be loosed from this bond"? The same word ought is used here. "I must stay at your house".
Now, why, why is there a divine necessity for the Lord to say, "Today I must stay at your house"? Why? Because, Jesus says, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham". All right, so that brings us to the question, how did he become a son of Abraham? By the way, verse 10 is beautiful, "For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost". All right, now say this, "He has come seek and to save". So, at the end of the Zaccheus story, right after he says he's the son of Abraham, he says, "Because the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost".
Now keep that in mind. Now I'm gonna find the secret as to why Zaccheus, how he became a son of Abraham, all right? So, you go back to the verse 1. When you read verse 1, "Jesus entered, passed through Jericho that behold, there was a man named Zaccheus", nothing special, all right? "And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature". Doesn't seem to indicate anything, right? Now, here is where the Greek helps you because when you read verse 3, it tells you, "And he sought to see who Jesus was", right?
When you read it superficially it sounds like then and there he sought to see who Jesus was but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature. So even for me, when I read that last time, I used to think that at that moment, he was looking like most people, "I want to see Jesus". Some people wanted to see Jesus out of curiosity, all right? You always have them, amen? Some are half cynical, even critical. Some are angry at him, amen, because they feel like, you know, he broke the Sabbath like some Pharisees.
So, there are a lot of reasons why people are pressing in to see Jesus. Mothers are lifting up their children for him to bless. But how come this guy, this man, he's different? So, I always thought that he also wanted to see Jesus, who he was but could not because of the crowd. Now, although that is a superficial reading, but if you look carefully at the Greek tense of verse 3, "And he sought", the word sought there in the Greek tense is the imperfect tense. Whenever you find the imperfect tense of sought, seek, huh, that means he has been seeking. Imperfect tense means a continual action in the past. That means in times past, he's been wanting to see Jesus. He has a heart to see Jesus. In other words, it's not just a curiosity seeker wanting to see Jesus. He's been wanting to see Jesus most likely because the Holy Spirit has been dealing with him.
How many of you want to see Jesus, amen, new aspects of him? Do you know that this desire to see him is something that God values a lot, so much so that people ask, "How do I see Jesus, Pastor Prince, today? How do I see? Do I picture him"? Someone asked me this recently. "Do I picture him? How do I see Jesus? Do I picture him"? Well, Jesus taught us how to see him best. After he rose from the dead on the Emmaus Road, amen, he was walking with them, think about it, he was walking with them in his resurrected form, and yet the Bible says he withheld their eyes from seeing who he was because he was about to teach them the Bible.
He wanted them to see in the Scriptures things concerning himself. He would rather they see him in the Scriptures than to see him in person, because if he allowed them to see him in person and realize who he was, all right, we will all say, "Well, good for them. They were during that week of Resurrection. There's no hope for us". But because he made them see him in the Bible, there is equal ground for all of us. Today we can have the same blessed, warm heart that Jesus came to give all of us. Praise the Lord, all right? Now, that's how we see Jesus.
Now, the word sought is the word seek, past tense of seek. Seek in the Greek is zeteo, Z-E-T-E-O. Zeteo, zeteo. Now, this is very interesting why I call your attention to the Greek word is because zeteo is used also by Jesus right at the end in verse 10. "He sought to see who Jesus was". Verse 10 says, "The son of man has come to zeteo". He was looking for Jesus, Jesus was looking for him long before he looked for Jesus. Now, by the way, this word zeteo is used in Hebrews 11:6, which says, "But without faith, it is impossible to please God".
How many want God to reward you? Listen, Hebrews 11:6, "Without faith it's impossible to please God, for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them who diligently seek him". The word diligently seek is one word in the Greek, ekzeteo. Now, zeteo means what? Seek. Ek is E-K, E-K, ek means out of, or you can say seek out, to really seek out, seek diligently, amen? So, zeteo is used again, amen, for seeking diligently. Can I have a good amen? So, now God would be a rewarder of those who zeteo him, really seek to see him in the Bible, seek to him on Sunday, seek to see him in the events of your life even, amen. God loves it.
And you know something? That looking at Jesus is actually equivalent or the same as believing in him because when he says, "Even as Moses", in John 3, he says, "Even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up so that whoever believes in him". Now, he changed the word, instead of looking, "Whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life".
Do you know when the people of Israel murmured against God, they actually said, "Ah, every day we are taking this light bread". They called the manna from heaven light bread. Never, never, never come to a place say, "Oh, every Sunday must take the bread". It is for your healing. But they complained against the bread. You know what happened straightaway? Snakes came. The snakes were there, but the snakes cannot come as long they were eating and appreciating the bread. But the moment they depreciate the bread, the snakes came, bit them, and they cried out to Moses. Moses cried out to God, and God told Moses to make a bronze serpent, put it on a pole, right? And this is what the Bible says, Numbers 21, "Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived".
Now, I want to show you something very interesting. Do you know the Old Testament is in Hebrew? Here it says, "When he looked". The word looked here in the Hebrew is not the natural word for look. The word here is a stronger word. It's the word hibeet, hibeet. I'm gonna show you the word right now, H-I-B-E-E-T. Hibeet in Hebrew and hibeet in Hebrew means look expectantly or attentively towards, look expectantly or attentively towards. It's not just look, it is to look expectantly, to look attentively. If you see your disease, your cancer, your growth, your pain, your disease on the body of Jesus, and you keep on looking at it attentively, all right, it cannot remain in your body at the same time. If Jesus has borne it, and he has borne it, it cannot remain in your body. Praise the Lord.
Now, why, why was he a son of Abraham? How he became a son of Abraham? A desire to see Jesus. Now I'm gonna show you something, this one you need your Bible, okay? You need your Bible. Are you ready? You ready? All right, now I told you just now there's divine order in your Bible, right? Do you know in Luke 18... now what chapter is this? Luke, Luke 19, right? Luke 18 is before 19. How many know that 18 is before 19, how many know that? All right, praise the Lord. Okay, good. Eighteen, nineteen.
Now, look at 18, 18 we have the rich young ruler story. Y'all know the story, right? He came to Jesus boasting, "Lord, what must I do to inherit eternal life"? Knowing full well that, you know, he believed he's confident in the law, he has kept the law. So, Jesus said to him, "You know the commandments. Thou shall not bear false witness. Thou shall not lie. Thou shall not kill". And you know what he says? "All these have I kept from my youth up". So, Jesus loved him. Jesus looked at him and Jesus says, "One thing you lack".
So, every time you boast in the law, amen, the law will always point to you and say, "One thing you lack". You cannot find your standing with God through the law, because when you make the law your boast, Jesus will always say, "One thing you lack", amen. This guy was near perfection, you know? It's only one thing not bad, you know, only one thing, and this joker walked away. Jesus says you'll be perfect, just one thing only, amen? And that one thing is that God is not first place, money is. Jesus didn't say, "Believe in me" because he was boasting.
So, Jesus gave him the law to show what the law could do. He could hardly give one shekel, not even one shekel. He walked away without even giving one cent, we will say in our Singaporean vernacular, right? But the next chapter, Jesus did not give any law. Jesus says, "Zaccheus, come down. Tonight I must stay at your house", right? What is that? Grace. I mean he's known as a sinner in the city, chief tax collector, everyone despised him, and Jesus says, "Come down, I must stay at your house", of all the people. No wonder he received Jesus joyfully, the Bible says, right? Just grace given.
And what's the result? What's the result? What did he say in verse 8? "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 four times over'". When you preach grace, people end up fulfilling the law. You know, this guy says, "I'll restore fourfold". You know something, Zaccheus, he actually kept this law without realizing it. Exodus 22, whether he realized it or not, I do not know but one thing, Jesus's grace touched him. Exodus 22, verse 1, "If a man steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters it or sells it, he shall restore five oxen for an ox, four sheep for a sheep". Can you see that?
So, whether he realized this law or not, all right, he end up keeping the law. Yo, receiving grace causes you to end up without realizing you are fulfilling the law. But the way I see it, his heart is so full, he feel like giving, amen. He say, "The Bible is exciting". Now, let me close with the final truth because of time. When Jesus looked at Zaccheus, the Bible says he climbed, another thing about the Bible is this, there are no insignificant details. Numbers are there for a reason. Names are there for a reason, okay?
Look at Zaccheus's story. "And he sought to see who Jesus was, and could not. So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree". Now, the Holy Spirit mentioned to you what the tree was. Didn't say a mango tree, didn't say a durian tree, it said a sycamore tree. A sycamore is a fig tree. It's another name for a fig tree. It has very strong roots and thick trunk, and usually the branches go real low and that's why he could climb it, probably a slanting one, and he looks down at Jesus. But the Bible especially mentioned the kind of tree he climbed, sycamore.
Why is it a fig tree? Why did he climb a fig tree? Okay, I'll wrap all this up in a way that the Holy Spirit showed me, and I believe it's gonna bless you. Okay, watch this in Genesis, okay, watch in Genesis. When Adam and Eve sinned against God, you know what happened when they sinned against God? The glory vanished. Actually they were not naked-naked. They had like a golden clothing. It was radiant. The Bible says when man sinned, in Jerusalem Bible it says, "All have sinned and forfeited the glory". The glory disappeared and they saw their nakedness, all right? And verse 7, Genesis 3, "Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked;" and they sewed what? "Fig leaves together and made themselves coverings".
That's why I say before salad dressing. They sewed what? Fig leaves together. Now, usually when something happens, right, you grab the first tree that is there, so could it have been that the tree of knowledge of good and evil is a speculation? All right, could it have been it was a fig tree, all right? In any case, fig tree was nearby for them to realize they were naked, and they grabbed the first tree they could find and took the leaves and they covered their nakedness, okay? Got it? "And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day".
So, Zaccheus went up the fig tree. Jesus was walking towards Zaccheus the tree, all right, compare and contrast, huh? One of the first ways to learn grace is to compare and contrast with the Old Testament. Okay, watch this now, all right, "They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God", where, where? "Among the trees of the garden". They were hiding among the trees.
What did Zaccheus do? He exposed himself. Yay, in front of Jesus. Jesus looked, I mean he was there. He exposed himself, right, okay? Then the Lord said to Adam and Eve, "Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, 'Where are you? Where are you'"? Jesus looked up and saw Zaccheus straightaway and he says, "Zaccheus". He knew his name. You know what Zaccheus means? The pure one.
All right, I'm gonna give you the revelation right now because of time. Look up here, church. You know, today when you expose yourself to Jesus, because of what he has done for you at the cross, when you expose yourself to Jesus, he will call you, "My pure one". Today, every morning, if you want the touch of God the whole day on your life, every morning, or before you sleep depending on what time you want to spend some time with God, have a personal contact with Jesus. And regardless you think that the whole day you didn't conduct yourself like a Christian, you felt like, you know, you didn't behave as you should, doesn't matter.
Expose yourself to your righteousness, to your healing, his name is Jesus. There's no way to contact Jesus, even in prayer or in the Word. When you talk to him, "Lord, open up this passage to me, or Lord, speak to me, Lord. I need some encouraging words, Lord, speak to me, Lord". And you open the Bible, there's no way you contact the King of kings and his health, his courage, is not breathed into you. There's no way. Everyone that came to Jesus who was sick were healed. Not everyone in Israel was healed during the time of Jesus. Not everyone in Jerusalem was healed. Not everyone in Galilee was healed. Not everyone in Capernaum was healed but the Bible says clearly, everyone that came to him, they were healed.
Those who exposed themself to him, they were healed, amen? Because you're exposing yourself to the face of infinite grace that Zaccheus saw that looked up and he saw those eyes that heaven pierced through to look at this earth, those wondrous eyes looked at Zaccheus and said, "Come down, Zaccheus, I must stay at your house". Those eyes sees more than what you see in yourself because he created you when you were in your mother's womb. He redeemed you by his blood at the cross. He loves you, and when you expose yourself to him, you will come into the fullness of the image that God destined for you to have and you will reign in life, amen!