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Read (and listen!) through the New Testament in 8 weeks with your small group or on your own.
Immerse: Messiah is the first of six volumes in Immerse: The Bible Reading Experience. Messiah takes the reader on a unique journey through every book of the New Testament. Each section of Messiah begins with one of the Gospels, and together they combine to provide a life-changing reading experience centered on Jesus. This fresh arrangement of the books highlights the depth of the New Testament’s fourfold witness to Jesus the Messiah. The Son of God, who fulfills all the longings and promises of the collected Scriptures, can be experienced in Messiah through the rich variety of lenses provided by the books of the new covenant.
The Immerse Bible Series is the proud winner of the prestigious Bible of the Year award from the ECPA Christian Book Awards. Immerse: The Reading Bible is specially crafted for a distraction-free listening and reading experience, helping you dive in and get immersed in Scripture. You’ll have a great experience using Immerse by yourself. But for an even richer experience, try reading with friends.
Immerse: The Bible Reading Experience is an invitation to a different kind of community interaction with the Bible. Less like a Bible study, more like a book club.
- 8 or 16-week Bible listening plans take you through a large section of the Bible like the New Testament or the Torah
- Meet once a week for a free-flowing discussion about the text
- Wrestle with questions and celebrate ‘aha!’ moments together
Nothing impacts spiritual growth more than spending time in Scripture. Immerse removes many of the barriers that make Bible reading difficult and invites communities to become transformed together through the power of God’s word.
Welcome to Immerse Messiah Reading for week one. Day one, Part of the saddleback church anchored life challenge which can also by found on the saddleback companion app or by purchasing the immerse messiah book from tyndale.
The anchored life challenge includes speakers such as Andy Wood, Rick Warren, and Stacie Wood.
Immerse Messiah 4
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Andy Wood: [00:00:00] Welcome to Immerse Messiah Reading for week one, day four. Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as He went, always pressing on toward Jerusalem.
Rick Warren: Someone asked Him, Lord, will only a
Andy Wood: few be saved? He replied, work hard to enter the
Rick Warren: narrow door to God's kingdom,
Andy Wood: for many will try to enter, but will fail.
Andy Wood: When the master of the house has locked the door, it will be too late. You will stand outside knocking and pleading, Lord, open the door for us. But he will reply, I don't know you or where you come from. Then he will say, But we ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets. And he will reply, I tell you, I don't
Rick Warren: know you or where you come from.
Rick Warren: Get away from me, all you who do evil. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for you will see Abraham,
Andy Wood: Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you will be [00:01:00] thrown out. And people will come from all over the world, from east and west, north and south, to take their places in the kingdom of God.
Rick Warren: And note this, some who seem least important now will be the greatest then, and some who are the greatest now will be least important then. At that time some Pharisees said
Andy Wood: to him, Get away from here if you want to live. Herod Antipas wants to kill you. Jesus replied, Go tell that fox that I will keep on
Rick Warren: casting out demons and healing people today and
Andy Wood: tomorrow.
Andy Wood: And the third day I will accomplish my purpose.
Rick Warren: Yes, today, tomorrow,
Andy Wood: and the next day I must proceed on my way. For it wouldn't do for a prophet of God to be killed except in Jerusalem. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and
Rick Warren: stones God's messengers.
Andy Wood: How often I have wanted to gather your children together
Rick Warren: as a hen protects her chicks beneath her [00:02:00] wings.
Rick Warren: But you wouldn't let me. And now, look, your house is abandoned, and you will never see me again until you say, Blessings on the one who comes
Andy Wood: in the name of the Lord. One Sabbath day, Jesus went to eat dinner in the home of the leader of the Pharisees. And the people were watching him closely. There was a man there whose arms and legs were swollen.
Andy Wood: Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in religious law, Is it permitted in the law to heal people on the Sabbath day or not? When they refused to answer, Jesus touched
Rick Warren: the sick man and healed him and sent him away.
Andy Wood: Then he turned to them and said, Which of you doesn't work on the Sabbath? If your son
Rick Warren: or your cow falls into
Andy Wood: a pit, don't you
Rick Warren: rush to get him out?
Andy Wood: Again, they could not answer. When Jesus noticed that all who had come to the dinner were trying to sit in their seats of honor near the head of the table, He gave them this advice. When you are invited to a [00:03:00] wedding feast, don't sit in the seat of honor.
Rick Warren: What if someone who is more distinguished
Andy Wood: than you has also been invited?
Andy Wood: The host will come and say, Give this person your
Rick Warren: seat. Then you will be embarrassed, and you will have to take whatever seat
Andy Wood: is left at the foot of the table. Instead, take the lowest place at the foot of the table. Then when your
Rick Warren: host sees you, he will come and say, Friend,
Andy Wood: we have a better place for you.
Andy Wood: Then you will be honored in front of all the other guests. For those who
Rick Warren: exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be
Andy Wood: exalted. Then he turned to his host. When you put on a luncheon or a banquet, he said, don't invite your friends, brothers,
Rick Warren: relatives, and rich neighbors, for they will
Andy Wood: invite you back, and that will be your only reward.
Andy Wood: Instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Then, at the resurrection of the righteous, God will reward you for [00:04:00] inviting
Rick Warren: those who could not repay you. Hearing this, a man sitting at the table with Jesus exclaimed, What a blessing it will be to attend a banquet in the kingdom of
Andy Wood: God.
Andy Wood: Jesus replied with this story. A man prepared a great feast and sent out many invitations. When the banquet was ready, he sent his servant to tell the guests, Come, the banquet is ready.
Rick Warren: But they all began making excuses. One said, I have
Andy Wood: just bought a field and must
Rick Warren: inspect it. Please excuse me.
Andy Wood: Another said, I have just bought five pairs of oxen and I want to try them out.
Andy Wood: Please excuse
Rick Warren: me. Another
Andy Wood: said, I just got married, so I can't come. The servant returned and told his master what they had said. His master was furious and said, Go quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and invite the poor, the crippled, the blind,
Rick Warren: and the lame. After the servant had
Andy Wood: done this, he reported, There is still room for more.
Rick Warren: So his [00:05:00] master said, Go
Andy Wood: out into the country lanes and behind the hedges and urge anyone you find to come,
Rick Warren: so that the house will be
Andy Wood: full. For none of those I first invited will get even the smallest
Rick Warren: taste of my
Andy Wood: banquet. A large crowd
Rick Warren: was following Jesus. He turned around and said to them, If you want to be my
Andy Wood: disciple, you must, by comparison, hate everyone else, your father and mother, wife and children,
Rick Warren: brothers and sisters, yes, even your own life.
Rick Warren: Otherwise,
Andy Wood: you cannot be my disciple. And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me,
Rick Warren: you cannot be my disciple.
Andy Wood: But don't begin until you count the cost,
Rick Warren: for who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish
Andy Wood: it? Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation
Rick Warren: before running out of money, and then
Andy Wood: everyone would laugh at you.
Andy Wood: They would say, there's the person who started that building and couldn't afford to finish it. Or what [00:06:00] king would go to war
Rick Warren: against another king without first sitting down with his counsellors to discuss whether his army of 10, 000 could defeat the 20, 000 soldiers marching against him. And if he can't, he will send a delegation to discuss terms
Andy Wood: of peace while the enemy is still far away.
Andy Wood: So you cannot become my disciple without giving up everything you own. Salt is good for seasoning. But if it loses its flavor, how do you make it salty again? Flavorless salt is good neither for the soil nor for the manure pile. It is thrown away. Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.
Rick Warren: Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach.
Rick Warren: This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious
Andy Wood: law complain that
Rick Warren: he was associating with such sinful people, even eating with them. So Jesus told them this story. If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, [00:07:00] what
Andy Wood: will he do? Won't he leave the ninety nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it?
Rick Warren: And when he has found it,
Andy Wood: he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, Rejoice
Rick Warren: with me, because I have found my lost sheep. In the same
Andy Wood: way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety nine others who are righteous and haven't strayed away.
Rick Warren: Or suppose a woman has ten silver
Andy Wood: coins and loses one. Won't she light
Rick Warren: a lamp and sweep the entire house and search
Andy Wood: carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she will call in her
Rick Warren: friends and neighbors and say, Rejoice with me,
Andy Wood: because I have found my lost coin. In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God's angels, when even one sinner repents.
Andy Wood: To [00:08:00] illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story. A man had two sons. The younger son told his father, I want my share of your estate now, before you die. So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his
Rick Warren: sons. A few days later, this younger
Andy Wood: son packed all his belongings
Rick Warren: and moved
Andy Wood: to a distant land.
Andy Wood: And there he wasted all his money in wild living. About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent
Rick Warren: him into his fields to feed the pigs. The young man became so hungry
Andy Wood: that even the
Rick Warren: pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him, but no one gave him anything.
Rick Warren: When he finally
Andy Wood: came to his senses, he said to himself, At home, even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger. I will go home to my father and say, Father, I have sinned against both
Rick Warren: [00:09:00] heaven and you, and I
Andy Wood: am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.
Andy Wood: So he returned home to his father, and while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming.
Rick Warren: Filled
Andy Wood: with love and compassion,
Rick Warren: he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. His son said to him,
Andy Wood: Father,
Rick Warren: I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no
Andy Wood: longer worthy of being called your son. But his father said to the servants, Quick, bring the finest robe in the house and
Rick Warren: put it on him.
Rick Warren: Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. And kill the calf we have been fattening.
Andy Wood: We must celebrate with a feast,
Rick Warren: for
Andy Wood: this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found. So the party began. Meanwhile the older son was in the fields
Rick Warren: working. When he returned home, he heard music and [00:10:00] dancing in the house, and he asked one of the servants
Andy Wood: what was going on.
Andy Wood: Your brother is back, he was told, and your father has killed the fattened calf.
Rick Warren: We are
Andy Wood: celebrating because of his safe return. The older brother was angry and wouldn't go
Rick Warren: in. His father came out and begged him, but he
Andy Wood: replied, All these years I've slaved for you and never once refused to do a
Rick Warren: single thing you told me to.
Rick Warren: And in all that time, you never gave me even
Andy Wood: one young goat for a feast with my friends. Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf. His father said to him, Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours.
Andy Wood: We had to celebrate this happy day, for your brother was dead and has come back to life. He was lost, but now he is found. [00:11:00] Jesus told this story to his disciples. There was a certain rich man who had a manager handling his affairs. One day a report came
Rick Warren: that the manager was wasting his employer's money, so the employer
Andy Wood: called him in and said, What's this I hear about you?
Andy Wood: Get your report in order, because you're going to be fired. The manager thought to himself, Now what? My boss has fired me. I don't have the strength to dig ditches and I'm too proud to beg. Ah, I know how to ensure that I'll have plenty of friends who will give me a home when I am fired. So he invited each person who owed money to his employer to come and discuss the situation.
Andy Wood: He asked the first one, How much
Rick Warren: do you owe him? The man replied, I owe him 800
Andy Wood: gallons of olive oil. So the manager told him, Take the bill and quickly change it to four hundred gallons. And how much do you owe my employer? He asked the next man. I owe
Rick Warren: him one thousand bushels of wheat,
Andy Wood: was the reply. Here, the manager said, [00:12:00] Take the bill and change it
Rick Warren: to eight hundred bushels.
Rick Warren: The rich man had to admire the dishonest rascal
Andy Wood: for being so shrewd. And it is true that the children of this world are more shrewd in dealing with the world around them than are the children of the light. Here's the lesson. Use your worldly resources to benefit others and
Rick Warren: make friends. Then when your possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home.
Rick Warren: If you are faithful in
Andy Wood: little things, you will be faithful in large ones.
Rick Warren: But if you are dishonest in little things,
Andy Wood: you won't be honest with greater responsibilities. And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven?
Rick Warren: And if you are not faithful with other people's
Andy Wood: things, why should you be trusted with things of your own?
Andy Wood: No one can serve two masters, for you will hate one and love the other. You will be devoted to one and despise the other. [00:13:00] You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money. The Pharisees, who dearly loved their money, heard all this and scoffed at him.
Rick Warren: Then he said to them, You like
Andy Wood: to appear righteous in public, but God knows your hearts.
Andy Wood: What this world honors is detestable in the sight of God. Until John the Baptist, the law of Moses and the messages of the prophets were your guides. But now the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone is eager to get in. But that doesn't mean that the law has lost its force. It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the smallest point of God's law to be overturned.
Andy Wood: For example, a man who divorces his wife and marries someone else commits adultery, and anyone who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery, Jesus said. There was a certain rich man who was splendidly clothed in purple and fine linen, and who lived each [00:14:00] day in luxury. At his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, who was covered with sores.
Andy Wood: As Lazarus lay there longing for scraps from the
Rick Warren: rich
Andy Wood: man's
Rick Warren: table,
Andy Wood: the dogs would come and lick his open sores. Finally, the poor man died
Rick Warren: and was
Andy Wood: carried by the angels to sit beside Abraham at the heavenly banquet. The rich man also died and was buried, and he went to the place of the dead. There, in torment, he saw Abraham in the far distance with Lazarus at his side.
Andy Wood: The rich man shouted, Father Abraham, have some pity. Send Lazarus over here to dip the tip of his finger in water
Rick Warren: and cool my tongue. I am in anguish in these flames. But Abraham said to him, Son, remember that during your
Andy Wood: lifetime
Rick Warren: you had everything you wanted and Lazarus had nothing. So now he is here being comforted and you
Andy Wood: are in anguish.
Andy Wood: And besides, there is a great chasm separating
Rick Warren: [00:15:00] us. No one can cross over to you from here, and no one
Andy Wood: can cross over to us from there. Then the rich man said, Please, father Abraham, at least send him to my father's home, for I have five brothers, and I want him to warn them so they don't end up in this place of torment.
Andy Wood: But Abraham said, Moses and the prophets have warned them. Your brothers can read what they wrote. The rich man replied, No, father Abraham. But if someone is sent to them from the dead,
Rick Warren: then they will repent of their
Andy Wood: sins and turn
Rick Warren: to God. But Abraham said, If they won't listen
Andy Wood: to Moses and the prophets, they won't be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.
Andy Wood: One day Jesus said to his disciples, There will always be temptations
Rick Warren: to
Andy Wood: sin, but what sorrow awaits the person who does the tempting.
Rick Warren: It would be better to be thrown into the sea with a millstone
Andy Wood: hung around your neck than to cause one of these little ones to [00:16:00] fall into sin. So watch yourselves. If another believer sins, rebuke that person.
Andy Wood: Then if there is repentance, forgive. Even if that person wrongs
Rick Warren: you seven times a day, and each time turns again and asks forgiveness, you
Andy Wood: must forgive. The apostle said to the Lord, Show us how to increase our faith. The Lord
Rick Warren: answered, If you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to the smallberry tree, May you be uprooted and be planted in the sea.
Rick Warren: And it would obey you when a servant comes in from
Andy Wood: plowing or taking care of sheep. Does his master say, come in and eat with me? No, he
Rick Warren: says, prepare my meal,
Andy Wood: put on your apron, and serve me while
Rick Warren: I eat. Then you can eat later. And does the
Andy Wood: master thank the servant for doing what he was told to do? Of course not.
Andy Wood: In the same way, when you obey me you should say, we are unworthy [00:17:00] servants who have simply done our duty. As Jesus continued on toward Jerusalem, He reached the border between Galilee and Samaria. As He entered a village there, ten men with leprosy stood at a distance, crying out, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.
Andy Wood: He looked at them and said, Go show yourselves to the priests. And as they went, they were cleansed of their leprosy. One of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back to Jesus, shouting, Praise God! He fell to the
Rick Warren: ground at Jesus feet, thanking him for what he had done. This man was a
Andy Wood: Samaritan. Jesus
Rick Warren: asked, Didn't I heal ten men?
Andy Wood: Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give glory to God except this foreigner? And Jesus said to the man,
Rick Warren: Stand up and go. Your
Andy Wood: faith has healed you. One day the Pharisees asked Jesus, When will the kingdom of God come? Jesus [00:18:00] replied, The kingdom of God can't be detected by visible signs. You won't be able to say, Here it is, or it's over there, for the kingdom of God is already among you.
Andy Wood: Then he said to his disciples, The
Rick Warren: time is coming when you will long to see the day when the Son of Man returns. But you won't see it. People will tell you, Look, there is the Son of Man, or here he is.
Andy Wood: But don't go out and follow them, for as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one end to
Rick Warren: the other, so it will be on the day when the Son of Man comes.
Rick Warren: But first,
Andy Wood: the Son of Man must suffer terribly. And be rejected by this generation,
Rick Warren: when the Son of Man returns. It will be like it was in Noah's day. In those days the people enjoyed banquets
Andy Wood: and parties and weddings. Right up to the time Noah entered his boat,
Rick Warren: and the flood came and destroyed them all.
Rick Warren: And the world will be
Andy Wood: as it was in [00:19:00] the days of Lot.
Rick Warren: People went about their daily business, eating and drinking,
Andy Wood: buying and selling, farming and building. Until the morning Lot left Sodom.
Rick Warren: Then fire and burning sulfur rained down from heaven and
Andy Wood: destroyed them all. Yes, it will be business as usual, right up to the day when the Son of Man is revealed.
Andy Wood: On that day, a person out on the deck of a roof must not go down into the house to pack. A person out in the field must not return home. Remember what happened to Lot's wife. If you cling to your life, you will lose it. And if you let your life go, you will save it. That night, two people will be asleep in one bed.
Andy Wood: One will be taken, the other left. Two women will be grinding flour together at the mill. One will be taken, the other left. Where will this happen, Lord? The disciples asked. Jesus replied, [00:20:00] Just as the gathering of vultures shows there is a carcass nearby, so these signs
Rick Warren: indicate that the end is near.
Andy Wood: One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up.
Andy Wood: There was a judge in a certain city, he said, who neither feared God nor cared about people. A widow of that city came to him repeatedly,
Rick Warren: saying, Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy. The judge
Andy Wood: ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, I don't fear God or care about people, but this woman is driving me
Rick Warren: crazy.
Rick Warren: I'm going to
Andy Wood: see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests. Then the Lord said, Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. Even he rendered a just
Rick Warren: decision in the end.
Andy Wood: So don't you think God will surely give justice to His chosen people,
Rick Warren: who cry out to Him day and night?
Rick Warren: Will He keep putting them
Andy Wood: off? [00:21:00] I tell you, He will grant justice
Rick Warren: to them quickly. But when the Son of Man returns, how many will He find
Andy Wood: on the earth who have faith? Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness, and scorned everyone else. Two men went to the temple to pray.
Andy Wood: One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer. I thank you, God, that I am not like other people, cheaters, sinners, adulterers. I'm certainly not like that tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my
Rick Warren: income.
Andy Wood: But the tax
Rick Warren: collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven
Andy Wood: as he prayed.
Andy Wood: Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, Oh, God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner. I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before [00:22:00] God, for those who exalt
Rick Warren: themselves will be humbled, and those who humble
Andy Wood: themselves will be exalted. One day some parents brought their little children to Jesus so he could touch and
Rick Warren: bless them.
Rick Warren: But when the disciples
Andy Wood: saw this, they scolded the parents
Rick Warren: for bothering him. Then Jesus
Andy Wood: called for the children and said to the disciples, Let the children come to me, don't stop them. For the kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn't receive the kingdom of God like a child, We'll never enter it.
Andy Wood: Once, a religious leader asked Jesus this question. Good teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life? Why do you call me good? Jesus asked him. Only God is truly
Rick Warren: good. But to answer your question, you know the commandments. You must not commit adultery, you must not murder, you must not steal, you must not [00:23:00] testify falsely,
Andy Wood: honor your father and mother.
Andy Wood: The man replied, I have obeyed all these commandments since I was young.
Rick Warren: When Jesus heard his answer, he said, There is still one thing you haven't done, sell all
Andy Wood: your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow
Rick Warren: me. But when the man heard this, he became very sad,
Andy Wood: for he was very rich.
Andy Wood: When Jesus saw this, He said, How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.
Rick Warren: In fact, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of
Andy Wood: God. Those who heard this said, Then who in the world can be saved? He replied, What is impossible for people is possible with God.
Andy Wood: Peter said, We've left our homes to follow you. Yes, Jesus replied, And I assure you that everyone who has given up house or [00:24:00] wife or brothers or parents or children For the sake of the kingdom of God,
Rick Warren: we'll be
Andy Wood: repaid many times over in this life, and we'll have eternal life in the world to come. Taking the twelve disciples aside, Jesus said, Listen, we're going up to Jerusalem, where all the predictions of the prophets concerning the Son of Man will come true.
Andy Wood: He will be handed over to the Romans, and he will be mocked, treated shamefully, and spit upon. They will
Rick Warren: flog him with a whip and kill him,
Andy Wood: but on the third day he will rise again. But they didn't understand any of this.
Rick Warren: The significance of his words was hidden from
Andy Wood: them, and they failed to grasp what he was talking about.
Andy Wood: As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind beggar was sitting beside the road.
Rick Warren: When he heard the noise of a crowd
Andy Wood: going past, he asked what was happening. They told him that Jesus the Nazarene was going by,
Rick Warren: so he began shouting, [00:25:00] Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Be quiet, the people in front yelled at him. But he only shouted louder,
Andy Wood: Son of David, have
Rick Warren: mercy on me.
Andy Wood: When Jesus heard him, he stopped and ordered that the man
Rick Warren: be brought to him. As the man came near, Jesus asked him, What do you want me to do
Andy Wood: for you? Lord, he said, I want to
Rick Warren: see. And Jesus said, All
Andy Wood: right, receive your
Rick Warren: sight. Your faith has healed you. Instantly the man could see, and he
Andy Wood: followed Jesus, praising God.
Andy Wood: And all who saw it praised God too. Jesus entered Jericho and made his way through the town.
Rick Warren: There was a man there named Zacchaeus. He was the chief tax collector
Andy Wood: in the region, and he had become very rich. He tried to get a look at Jesus, but he was too short to see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore fig tree beside the [00:26:00] road, for Jesus was going to pass that way.
Andy Wood: When Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name. 'Zacchaeus,
Rick Warren: he said, 'quick, come down. I
Andy Wood: must be a guest
Rick Warren: in your home today. Zacchaeus quickly climbed down
Andy Wood: and took Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy. But the people were displeased. 'He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner, they grumbled.
Andy Wood: Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood before the lord and said, I will give half my wealth to the poor lord, and if I have cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much. Jesus responded,
Rick Warren: Salvation has come to this home today, for this man
Andy Wood: has shown himself to be a true son of Abraham, for the Son of Man came to seek and save those who
Rick Warren: were lost.
Rick Warren: The crowd was listening to everything Jesus said, and because he was nearing Jerusalem, He told them a [00:27:00] story to correct the impression that the kingdom of God would begin
Andy Wood: right away. He said, A nobleman was called away to a distant empire to be crowned king
Rick Warren: and then return. Before he left, he called together
Andy Wood: ten of his servants and divided among them ten pounds of silver saying,
Rick Warren: Invest this for me while I am gone.
Rick Warren: But his people hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, We
Andy Wood: do not want him to be our king. After he was
Rick Warren: crowned king, he returned and called in the servants to whom he had given the money.
Andy Wood: He wanted to find out what their profits were. The first servant reported, Master, I invested your money and made ten times the original amount.
Andy Wood: Well done, the king exclaimed. You are a good servant. You have been
Rick Warren: faithful with the little
Andy Wood: I entrusted to you, so you will be governor of ten cities as your reward. The next servant reported, Master, I invested your money and made five times the original [00:28:00] amount. Well
Rick Warren: done, the king
Andy Wood: said. You will be governor over five cities.
Andy Wood: But the third servant brought back only the original amount of money and said, Master,
Rick Warren: I hid your money and kept it safe.
Andy Wood: I was afraid because you are a hard man to deal with, taking what isn't yours and harvesting crops you didn't plant. You wicked
Rick Warren: servant, the king roared. Your own words condemn you. If you knew that I'm a hard man who takes
Andy Wood: what isn't mine and harvests crops I didn't plant, why didn't you deposit my money in the bank?
Andy Wood: At least I could have gotten some interest on it. Then turn into the other standing nearby, the
Rick Warren: king ordered.
Andy Wood: Take the money from this servant
Rick Warren: and give it to the one who has ten pounds.
Andy Wood: But master, they said, he already has ten pounds.
Rick Warren: Yes, the king replied, and
Andy Wood: to those who use well what they are given.
Rick Warren: Even more will be given. But from those who do nothing,
Andy Wood: even what little they have will be taken [00:29:00] away. And as for these enemies of mine who didn't want me to be their
Rick Warren: king, bring them in and execute them right here in front of me.
Andy Wood: This concludes today's Immerse Reading Experience. Thank you for joining us.