I’M ALL IN!
Victory requires an “I’m all in” decision. If we want to be a part of Jesus’ victory, we must be “all in” as well. Easter is a perfect time for us to think about our relationship with the Lord Jesus and all that He has done for us.
Matthew 16:24-26 (NASB)
Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 For what good will it do a person if he gains the whole world, but forfeits his soul? Or what will a person give in exchange for his soul?
Jesus invested himself 100% into our salvation; He didn’t hold onto anything (Philippians 2), nor did he hold back anything. He gave it all! But we can’t truly value that sacrifice unless we acknowledge our need for Jesus and recognize the true weight of our sins. We need to come to the end of ourselves.
Luke 19:10 (NASB)
For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
In Luke 19, Jesus meets with Zaccheus, a chief tax collector and a very rich man. Zaccheus wanted to see Jesus but was unable to see Him over the crowd of people because he was a man of short stature. So, Zaccheus intentionally runs on ahead and climbs a Sycamore tree that is along the path Jesus is walking. Have any of us recently climbed a 65 ft tree, not to mention in a nice tunic and leather sandals? Nope, haha! Also notice that he lined up with Jesus’ path, not the other way around. He didn’t order a servant to climb the tree for him or wait for someone to give him a boost up the tree. He put aside his pride and climbed that tree. That was his moment to see Jesus and he was not going to miss it for anything in the world. He knew that he was a messed-up person who desperately needed Jesus to save him!
We are all messed up people, and only Jesus can redeem us. That is the gospel. That is why Jesus suffered, died and rose again back to life, to save mankind from its sins and restore its relationship back to the Father. Jesus wants to have a personal, one-on-one relationship with each and every one of us!
Something else that I see in this story is that when Jesus shows up at the Sycamore tree, He tells Zaccheus to hurry down because He must stay at Zaccheus’s house that day. Why did Jesus have to stay there? Because that was the mission His Father gave Him: To seek and to save that which was lost. And Zaccheus immediately obeys, ignoring all the people who were complaining about Jesus visiting Zaccheus, the “sinner”. Also check this out, Zaccheus doesn’t tell Jesus to wait so he can clean up his house and life before Jesus visits. Nope. Zaccheus gladly receives Jesus into his life with the hope of Jesus redeeming and cleaning out his life. We go to Jesus as we are and thru an honest and loving relationship with Him, He transforms our lives. He did it for Zaccheus and many others. Why not us?
The last thing that makes me realize that Zaccheus really was “all in” with Jesus, is the fact that Zaccheus right there in front of everyone takes steps to make amends for his past. He says to Jesus that he will give half of his possessions to the poor, and that if he has cheated anyone of anything, he will pay them back 4 times the amount. True repentance is followed by obedience to Jesus Christ! We must come to the end of ourselves to fully receive Jesus into our lives. Zaccheus wanted to honor Jesus in everything that he did; he wanted to make right any wrongs he had done. What steps of obedience is Jesus asking each of us to take to follow him? When we walk with Jesus we become a new creation; Our life is a new life!
Jesus responds to Zaccheus in Luke 19:9-10 (NASB):
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.”
Are we “all in”? Jesus has always been all in!
We are so grateful for all your prayer, support and love. Thank You!
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