![]() ![]() ![]() So, you’re about to lead a small group, maybe for the first time, and you’re sure your pastor made a mistake in asking you to lead this group. Is there anything better than 4k resolution? If there is, I don’t know. When we study the genre, we get to see God’s Word in the fullness of his color-it comes alive. The Bible gives us varying shades of color in different sections. That’s something I came to appreciate while working through the book of Genesis. It has a view toward chapter 50, getting the scene set for a savior who is going to come. Genesis could tell us about dinosaurs, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and all that kind of stuff but it doesn’t. I learned about the genre sensitivity of the study-that is, wrapping our minds around what the point of Genesis is-is really the best way to see God’s activity so we can teach and preach it. It doesn’t have to be decoded like apocalyptic literature. Genesis is a genre of history that doesn’t really fit the Psalter, Judges, or the prophets. RightNow Media: What is one thing you want viewers to walk away with after watching this series?Ĭharlie: Preparing for Genesis is very different than preparing to teach other books. So, it honestly gave me a lot of confidence that God is working these things in me and that I will continue as long as I’m here. And I think that was the big thing that stood out, that Jesus doesn’t show up looking for this kind of person, like “let me find the man of peace” or “let me find the meek.” But, rather, he’s saying, “my people that I’m going to work in, that the Holy Spirit’s going to-this is the kind of person they’re going to become.” So, it’s not eight different people, right, but eight characteristics of the same person. So, the thing that was in plain sight that really ministered to me as I prepared was that the Beatitudes aren’t a list of things that I need to work on, but rather the kind of person that Jesus is turning me into. I don’t know that I’ve ever explicitly taught through them but certainly understood them to be Jesus unpacking what the kingdom of God would look like. I mean, I’ve been a Christian for thirty years. However, over the huffs, Zacchaeus’s voice rose up, “Here and now I’m a different person.” Whether or not he realized at that moment that the crowd was standing there has been a topic of conjecture ever since.Matt: Going into the series, I was familiar with the Beatitudes. The crowd must have groaned, knowing the dismal reputation of the tax collector’s social insensitivity. I must stay at your house today” ( Luke 19:5). ![]() The only thing sillier than watching Zacchaeus climb up the tree was to see him come barreling out of it when the teacher called him by name: “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. He hadn’t climbed a tree since all his friends were still his height, and if all of Jericho hadn’t been down the road heralding the teacher, the crowd would have relished watching Zacchaeus fumble his way up the branches. Picking up the fine linen hem of his garment, the short-legged tax collector hightailed it to a certain bend where the road took a dogleg left to get around a large sycamore tree near the center of town. Zacchaeus knew the parade route well, as he’d been a key figure in many of Jericho’s past spectacles. If only Zacchaeus could see how this teacher did it. This small-town teacher’s people skills and crowd-gathering ability could come in handy for an unpopular political figure. Despite his compromised stature, Zacchaeus had always loved a crowd-crowds meant influence and power, not to mention a concentration of taxable pocketbooks. The crowds had started at the city gate where Jericho’s main drag began its meandering path through the city. But when the day arrived, if Zacchaeus had come to be seen, the irony was only too apparent when it was he who had trouble seeing. This teacher was, after all, growing extremely popular, and maybe it would do the collection agency’s reputation some good to see its chief officer rubbing shoulders with a hero of the working class. To everyone’s surprise the little man, dressed to the nines, showed up anyway. So when rumor started that a well-known teacher from the backwater of Galilee who had a penchant for waxing eloquent about money matters was making his way to Jericho, you can bet the person everyone least expected to see in the welcoming party was Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus sat atop the whole dirty, tax-collecting heap, and from their years of overpaying collectors, the savvy residents of Jericho knew their money could buy better wine. It’s not as though he couldn’t afford anything better. He threw the worst parties and was always the first one drunk on his horribly cheap wine. ( Luke 19:3)Įveryone in town knew him, but nobody liked him. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. ![]()
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