(Synoptics: Luke 19:1-10)We have here the record of the conversion of Zacchaeus. He was a man who bore a Jewish name, and his name comes from Hebrew into Greek, and means, of all things, ‘transparent and pure’.
So we can say confidently that if you go into a church self-sufficient, full of self-confidence, pleased with yourself, proud of your personality, pleased with your life and your attainments without any deep, gnawing soul need, you won't understand this message. You probably won't even be able to listen to this message right through. It will make no difference to you. It won't take root in your mind or your heart. You will get nothing from it at all. You will be just like the great crowd in Jericho that day. All these people are desperately in need of God, but they didn't know it and they wouldn't face it. But two, one on the way in, one on the way out were awakened to their need. Sometimes it was different. Sometimes the Lord Jesus Christ would go somewhere and there would be a great company of people who were anxious, whose hearts had been prepared, who realized the uselessness and the hopelessness of life without God.