Biblical Verses (NIV)
- Luke 19:8 – “But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, ‘Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.’ “
- 1 Timothy 6:18 – “Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.”
Exposition
Zacchaeus’ encounter with Jesus did not produce a resignation letter from the tax business. It produced a transformed approach to wealth. Half of his possessions to the poor, fourfold restitution to those he had defrauded — not because the law required it, but because genuine encounter with Jesus reconfigured his relationship with money.
This is the BAM vision for transformed wealth: not poverty as piety, but wealth held with open hands, deployed for justice, and witnessed to in the community . 1 Timothy 6:18 gives business leaders a specific and rich calling: be rich in good deeds. Not in parallel to your wealth — through it.
Wealth that witnesses is not about the size of your donation. It is about whether your accumulated resources are directionally oriented toward the poor, the marginalised, and the advancement of God’s kingdom. Zacchaeus did not wait to be asked. Encounter with Jesus made generosity the instinctive response.
The question is whether our encounters with Jesus are producing the same instinct.
Moment of Reckoning
A wealth manager who came to faith in his forties restructured his practice to include a pro bono tier for lower-income clients who needed financial guidance but could not afford it. His existing clients — mostly high-net-worth individuals — consistently cited this as the primary reason they stayed with him. Wealth that witnessed had become his competitive differentiation.
Key Takeaways
• Genuine encounter with Jesus reconfigures the relationship with wealth — it does not remove it.
• Wealth can be a witness: deployed with open hands toward the poor and marginalised.
• Being ‘rich in good deeds’ is a calling for those with material resources.
Discussion Questions
• Has your encounter with Jesus changed your relationship with money and wealth?
• Is your wealth directionally oriented toward the poor, the marginalised, and God’s kingdom?
• What would ‘wealth that witnesses’ look like in your specific context?