Zacchaeus | Luke 19:1-10 | Online Sunday School Bible Lesson for Families
Today’s online Sunday School Bible lesson comes from Luke 19:1-10. It is about a man named Zacchaeus who had two problems. You may have heard the song that says Zacchaeus was a wee little man. That means he was short. Being short was one of his problems, but that wasn’t his biggest problem.
Read Luke 19:1-10 together as a family and maybe act out some parts of it.
Zacchaeus was a tax collector. In Bible times, people didn’t like tax collectors. They were known to steal from people. Tax collectors collected taxes from Roman citizens, but they would often take a little extra for themselves.
This passage says that Zacchaeus was trying to see Jesus, but he couldn’t see Him because he was short. That was his first problem. Zacchaeus’s second problem was that he was a sinful man. That is a problem we all have. The Bible says we were all born into sin and we can’t do anything about it on our own.
What is sin? Sin is anything we think, say, or do that displeases God or breaks God’s laws. Being sinful means that we have rejected God and the world He created. We have all sinned.
Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus so bad that he climbed a tree to see Jesus as He passed by. Zacchaeus was an important person in his day, but he didn’t care what people thought of him when he climbed into the tree.
When Jesus came to the tree, He told Zacchaeus to come down and He would stay at his house. The people around grumbled about Jesus going to Zacchaeus’s house. They thought Jesus shouldn’t spend time with a sinner. They didn’t understand that they were sinners too. Jesus came to save sinners. Who are sinners? All of us are sinners.
The Bible teaches that God hates sin and everyone has sinned. That’s terrible! The good news, the Gospel, is that Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins.
We can’t be good enough or do enough; we can’t save ourselves. The only thing we can do is admit to God that we have sinned and trust what Jesus did for us on the cross. If you trust what Jesus has done, the Bible says that your sins will be forgiven.
John 1:12 says, “But as many as received Him, to them gave He the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on His name.”
Acts 16:31 says, “...believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” The word believe means to trust. God asks us to put all of our trust into what Jesus Christ did on the cross.
I grew up in church and I thought being saved was about doing good things, obeying all the rules, and not doing bad things, like saying bad words. The Bible teaches that salvation doesn’t come from the things we do or don’t do. Salvation is about what’s already been done: Jesus Christ dying on the cross for us.
1 Corinthians 15:3-4 says, “...Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures…”
You have a choice. You can trust Jesus Christ as your savior or you can reject Him. There is no middle ground. You either trust Him or reject Him. No matter how old you are, you can trust what Christ did for you.
Have you placed your faith in Jesus Christ? Some people use the ABC’s to help them receive Christ as their personal savior: Admit that you have sinned, Believe that Jesus Christ died for your sins, and Choose to trust Christ as your savior. The moment you place your faith in Jesus or believe that He died for your sins (you trust what Jesus did on the cross for you) the Bible says that your sins are forgiven. Prayers won’t save you but trusting Christ will.
I don’t know your heart, but God does. This promise is for you: John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
If you would like to know more about teaching a Bible lesson at home, let us know on the form at https://proclaimministries.com/about.
“Helping you connect faith and life.”