Zacchaeus and the Lessons For the Sinners, the Church

Luke 19:1-10New International Version (NIV)

Zacchaeus the Tax Collector

19 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. ² A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. ³ He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. ⁴ So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.

⁵ When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” ⁶ So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
⁷ All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
⁸ But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
⁹ Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. ¹⁰ For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Lessons from the story
1. Nothing should stop you from coming to Jesus Christ. Remember the woman with the issue of blood. Zacchaeus was short but there was a tree around to solve the problem.
2. There is always solution beside or around the problem if we could be less emotional.
3. The rich and the poor need Jesus Christ.
4. Preaching or teaching against is not always the best, let your message presents Jesus to sinners and watch them renouncing sin. Jesus did not preach against the sin of greed and wickedness when his host began to confess them and vowed to restore.
5. The fact that somebody is a sinner is not an excuse for the church to do away with him. If the story had happened nowadays, the media would have accused Jesus of receiving gratification from the tax collector.  
6. The church should not be interested in a crowd but in sincere worshipers. 
7. Jesus offers salvation whenever sinners come to Him. 
8. Some pharisees are still around today who are not interested in saving the sinners but in closing the gate against them.