Zacchaeus the Businessman.

William Branham.

Read the full account in...
  Who is Jesus.

Luke 19:1-5,
... Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. ... behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich. And he sought to see Jesus who--who he was;... Let me read that again, because I want to emphasize this. And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and he could not because of the press, or because he was little of stature. And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste,... come down; for to day I must abide at thy house.

May the Lord add His blessings to the reading of This, His Word.

This man, little character, our scene opens at--at Jericho. Now, Jericho was the lowest city in--in the--Palestine, and it's in the valley. And--and Jerusalem is up on the--the mountain, up on the hill. And if you noticed, Jesus, when He came to the earth, He was given among men the lowest name that could be given. His come... He was... Beelzebub, that was the worst name they could ever called Him; that's a devil, a fortuneteller, evil spirit. They called His work an evil spirit. The unprepared church to meet Him, they give Him a horrible name: Beelzebub. And He came, the most humblest birth that could ever be born: of a peasant mother, not even a place to lay down to--to give birth to this baby. And His swaddling cloth, we're told, was off of the yoke of an ox, that they wrapped Him in, in the manger, in a stinking stable, over the wastage in the stable. And the stable's not even a correct stable; a little cave in the side of the hill.

And He dealt with the lowest, most poorest of people. And He was rejected by the highest of societies. He was rejected by His Own, the church that ought to have known Him, but they didn't. They wasn't trained in the Word to know Him. And we find again that He went to the lowest city that was in Palestine: Jericho. I forget how many feet below sea level it is, way low. He stooped Himself so low until the smallest man of the city had to climb up in a tree to look down on Him. But that's what the world thought of Him. They give Him the most crucial, hardest death that any man could die; He died as a malefactor. The most disgraceful that He could die, stripped His clothes off of Him; and 'course, you see on the statues, and so forth, they got a cloth around Him. "But He despised the shame." They stripped His clothes completely from Him, nailed Him to a cross in shame. The lowest, hardest death that could be given, they give it to Him. And that's what the world thought of Him.

But God thought of Him till He give Him a Name above every name that's named in heavens or in earth, exalted Him so high till, His throne so high, He has to look down to see heaven. That's what God thought of Him. I'm sure that's our thoughts this morning too. It's above every name, above every name that could be named. Even the whole family in heaven and earth is named "Jesus." And by this Name every--every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess to It.

Zacchaeus was just a--a businessman in the city of Jericho. And he was no doubt a--a fine man in his way. He--he was, let's say, I believe, being a fine man as he was, he must've belonged to some church, one of the denominations of that day. Let's say he was a Pharisee. And he, really, he didn't go with the views of his wife. Let's say his wife's name was Rebekah. And he didn't go with her views, because she had believed on Jesus. She believed Him to be just what He was, the Messiah, because she had seen Him do the sign of the Messiah. Her, being a Hebrew, Hebrews watch after signs and prophets, because that was to be their messenger. That's the reason that they should have never failed to have knowed Him, because He was coming the Son of man.

Read the rest of this dealings here with Zacchaeus. "For the Son of man come to seek and save that which was lost." He's the Son of Abraham. When, they accused Him of going with sinners... So we see they should have understood that, but they didn't. They had their theology of--of living good and being fine people, and so forth, but they didn't understand what really their Messiah was to be. Do you know that could be again? That could so easily happen, that we would misunderstand it in some way. Now, there's only one way to be sure; that's find out what He was, then the Scripture says, "He is the same." Find out how He will manifest Himself at the end time. It's written. See, He never does anything unless He reveals it first. He said so in the Scripture, "He does nothing, except He reveals to His servants the prophets." And He has revealed It. And This is His prophet. This is a Book of prophecy, It's the complete revelation of Jesus Christ, all the way through. Nothing to be added to or taken from It. And we ought to search It and see what day we're living in, 'cause we might be caught in the same trap.

So we find that during this time, that this Zacchaeus, our little character this morning, this businessman of--of Jericho, we--he might've belonged to the Kiwanis, if there was such a thing, or something to symbolize it. He--he might've been a member of some of the great orders there there was in Jericho. No doubt, an outstanding man for his--his time, and he belonged to the church. But the bad thing we find, that he had taken sides with the modern opinion, the popular opinion of Jesus. And Jesus is the Word; and the Word manifested is Jesus. See? And so the--he had taken the--the side of the popular opinion that He was not a prophet, that He was only a--a--a... I don't want to say this word, as we'd call it today, "four-flusher," just something that was putting on.
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So our drama starts from here. Must've been an awful night on the little fellow. It was a restless night, and he couldn't sleep. He was--he was rolling around over his pillow all night long. Many of us know what those kind of nights are. You see, Rebekah knew. She was connected with the disciples and so forth. She knew Jesus was to enter the city the next morning. And she was so interested in her--in her husband, that she wanted him to be brought face to face with Jesus. And a man ever stands face to face with Him, it does something to you. He's not like other men. He's different. And she wanted him to be sure that she seen Him, seen His work, and knew that He was that Messiah. Although the priests and them had said, "There's nothing to it. It's just a bogus. It's--it's a hoax." But she believed it, so she was praying. Now, Rebekah, if you want to get your businessman, Zacchaeus, really before Jesus, you just start praying; he'll get restless.

So the time had drawed close at hand, so the next morning Jesus was to pass that way. So all night he twisted in the bed, and he was miserable. And she, laying there, praying. And no doubt in the night, when they'd wake up, she'd say, "Thank You, Lord, I know You're working on Him." Now when you go to see your Zacchaeus can't rest, just say, "Thank You, Lord, You're working on him right now." When you see him get so crabby, he don't want you to go to church anymore (See?) "Stay away from that bunch. Don't go down there no more. There's nothing to it." Just be patient. God's working. You see? That's the way He does it. See? He just gets so restless he can't stand it.

So we find, the next morning real early our little character slips out of bed and goes over and grooms himself in his very best clothes, you know, his finest robe he had, and grooms his beard, and combs his hair. And Rebekah looks out from under the cover and she sees him. She knows right then something's up. So he slips to the window, and looks over and see if she is a look, awake. No, she wasn't awake, according to what he thought. He raises up the curtain and looks out, and it was breaking day, so he gets hisself all ready.

You see, when you go to praying for somebody, something goes to taking place. There's where we fail, friends, not praying. Prayer is the keynote. "Ask and you shall receive. You have not because you ask not; you ask not because you believe not. Ask abundance, that your joys may be full. Ask and believe that you receive what you asked for." Then hold onto it. Don't leave it. If it's a promise in the Bible, and it's been revealed to you that God's going to give it to you, hold to it. That's just the way she had--she had. It was revealed to her that her Zacchaeus was going to be saved, so she just held right onto it.

So as he starts out the door, she said, "Zacchaeus, why are you doing up so early this morning?" "Oh," he said, "dear, I thought I would, uh, uh..." You know, you can make all kind of excuses, Zacchaeus. "I--I thought I would walk out and get a bresh of--a breath of fresh air. You know, kind of..." Would you brush up for something like that, you understand? And she knowed something. So here he walks out, looking back at the house, you know, as he walks out the drive, looking back. Her peeping through the lattice, you know, looking to see what it was doing, she knowed right then. She got down, said, "Thank You, Lord. I believe it's all over now. We got him moving." So if you got your Zacchaeus down to the meeting this morning, he's moving. He--he may be setting here, so he's moving. We got him moving that far anyhow.
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So he started out, looking back, see if anybody was watching him, you know. He said, "Now, you know what I'm going to do?" Let's change our thoughts to his now. "My wife's been all mixed up in this so-called prophet of Galilee, when, my--my priest and pastor tells me there's no such a thing as that in these days. All these miracles and things is just some kind of a hoax. There is nothing to it. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going right down and give Him a piece of my mind. 'Cause and that'll make me outstanding man in this city (You see?), when I can call Him down, to His face. I'll do that." So out he goes.

Read the full account in...
  Who is Jesus.

He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

John 1:10-12