He Knows My Name

Welcome to this edition of PowerPoint with Jack Graham.

A little later in the program, we'll tell you how you can get the best of 2021 message series. But first, here's Dr. Graham's message. He knows my name. Zacchaeus. I've been knowing this story for really all my life since I can remember because it's a Sunday school story for those who grew up in church or in Sunday school. It is the story about a little song, a little jingle we used to sing.

Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he. He climbed up in a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see. And as the Savior passed that way, he looked up in the tree and he said, For I'm going to your house today.

We could just clap along the way and sing that song. And it's a happy song and of course it's a fun story to be thinking about this little man who climbed up in a tree just to get a glimpse of Jesus who was passing by. The author, Luke, of the gospel gives us a great summary of what happened in the first 10 verses of Luke 19. He entered Jericho, that is Jesus, entered Jericho and was passing through.

And let me say, Jesus is passing through today. And behold there was a man named Zacchaeus. His parents named him Zacchaeus or Zach. It means pure one or righteous one. But he was anything but pure and righteous because the Scripture says he was a chief tax collector and it's noted that he was rich. Now tax collectors had a terrible reputation, close to what we would surmise to be a crack dealer in our time. Someone said that Zacchaeus was a half-pint kingpin of the Jericho tax machine. He was a kind of godfather, chief tax collector of the extortionists, the scam artists that the Jewish people knew as tax collectors because they were skimming and scamming off the top, off the backs of the people for the Romans. And so Zacchaeus was a despised individual and he had earned his reputation, no doubt. And so he was rich.

But verse 3 says he was seeking to see who Jesus was. Just a glimpse. But on account of the crowd, he could not.

Can you see it? The crowd's elbowing the little guy in the face. Get back Zacchaeus. Not here Zacchaeus.

Not on MySpace Zacchaeus. He can't see over the crowd. So what did he do? He ran ahead, verse 4, and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him for he was about to pass that way.

The moment was coming and Zacchaeus knew that it wouldn't last for long. He just had to see Jesus. Who He was and what He was about. The reputation of Jesus was well known by this time. Everyone, virtually everyone in Israel knew about Jesus.

The promised Messiah some said. And Jesus performed miracles and called disciples and spoke words like no one had ever heard and the common people heard Him gladly. So Zacchaeus along with the citizens of Jericho which was no small town. It was a resort type area known for its palm trees and its beautiful fragrances. Jericho actually means perfume.

And so it was a beautiful place with many citizens. Zacchaeus is the chief tax collector of this town so he probably had the biggest house in town. He's living in luxury and yet he's little, he's lonely, he's lost. And Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. So he pulls up his little robe, his little skirt and can't you just see his little hairy legs running, running, running ahead of the crowd. And he shinnies up this sycamore tree, stands out on a limb and is looking for Jesus just to see him pass by.

Verse 5, and when Jesus came to this place, He looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down for I must stay at your house today. So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. I wonder how long it had been since Zacchaeus had smiled like this. No stack of money had ever made him this happy.

He's smiling from ear to ear. Jesus had invited himself to his house so he received him joyfully. Verse 7, the religious snobs, of course, when they saw it, they all grumbled.

The crowd was saying, what? He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner. One of the reasons that Zacchaeus may have known of Jesus was because of Matthew, also a tax collector, who at the first of our Lord's ministry on earth heard the call of Christ and left his tax collecting job and followed Jesus. He said, here my Lord, you can have it all. And he began to follow Jesus, so much so that while Jesus was there in his hometown, he said, Jesus, I've got some tax collector friends. It's a bad crowd, but would you come over to my house and talk to my friends about how they can know you, how they can know God and do in you what you've done for me, to do in them what you've done for me? And Jesus went to the party and he was accused of being, hanging out with bad people, tax collectors and wine bibbers and drunkards and the like. Was it Matthew's testimony that somehow influenced this man Zacchaeus to pay attention, to want to see Jesus?

Well, it happened. Jesus, the friend of sinners, aren't you glad that Jesus is a friend of sinners? Because we all are in that group, for all have sinned and come short.

We're all little in the eyes of God. We have sinned and broken God's commandments. And so he wants to see Jesus. He runs to see Jesus, he climbs this tree, he comes down, he went up that tree lost, he came down that tree found. He went up that tree a great sinner, he came down that tree trusting in a great Savior. He went up, lost, he came down saved because Jesus said, today, look at it, today salvation, verse 9, today salvation has come to this house since He also is a son of Abraham. This is a Jewish man who is now receiving the Messiah Jesus in his life, now a true son of Abraham.

What a story. This sinner who is saved by the power and the presence of the Savior because the mercy in Jesus is greater than the sin in you and me. Zacchaeus, the wee little man, the wicked man whose life is forever changed like yours and mine when we follow Jesus. Doesn't matter how wealthy or successful you are, Jesus came for the down and out, He also came for the up and out. Whether you're down and out or up and out, every person is empty without God, without Christ in their lives. Every person like Zacchaeus is lonely and lost. Every person is guilty of sin and needs a Savior. We can try to cover our sin but only Jesus by His blood can cleanse our sin and the guilt is always going to be there until we meet God's grace in the person of Christ.

Jesus died on the cross and His blood covers our sin and gets us through and over our guilt and our regrets and we can know redemption, restoration in Christ. Every person is empty. Every person is lonely. That's why there's this kind of cosmic loneliness that exists in so many people. You can be at the mall, you can be in your own home, you can be at a party, you can be at church and yet there's this sense of being all alone and afraid and then there's that fear of death.

Every person, regardless of the bravado that some express, every person is afraid to die. There's a bondage the Bible says to death. Jesus defeated the power of death but until you meet Jesus, the resurrection, you live in this bondage that you're facing death and an eternity without God and is there an afterlife and where will I be in the afterlife? Is there a heaven? Is there a hell?

People are afraid to die, all people. Just like Nicodemus, need a savior. This man who was so successful in his own eyes, he had a lot of money and lived in luxury but he was lost. And the Scripture says in verse 10 of Luke 19 that Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. That is the mission statement of Jesus, Luke 19 10. The Son of Man, Son of God, Jesus came. Why did God leave heaven to come to this earth? To seek and to save the lost. He was on a mission of love. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. That's the mission of Jesus Christ and therefore it is the mission of His church. It's the mission of the Christian.

His mission, His passion is our mission, our passion to seek, to save the lost. You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and today's message, He Knows My Name. We hope you're enjoying today's message and we're excited to share that for a limited time your gift to PowerPoint will be doubled up to $150,000 thanks to a generous matching grant.

To say thanks for your gift today, we'll send you the most popular and encouraging messages from this past year together in one collection called The Best of 2021. So call now to have your gift doubled by the match and request the best of 2021 as our thanks. Call 1-800-795-4627. That's 1-800-795-4627. You can also text the word PowerPoint to 313131. Text PowerPoint to 313131. And don't forget to visit Jack Graham.org where you can shop our e-store, give a gift online or sign up for Dr. Graham's free daily email devotional.

Our website again is Jack Graham.org. Now let's get back to today's message, He Knows My Name. What does it mean to be lost? It's not to be misplaced. We lose things often and we lose it, we misplace it. But that's not what the word here loss is really talking about. Loss is the idea of not fulfilling a purpose. It is when something loses its meaning or its value or its purpose. Its purpose is lost. Its value is lost.

I have in dresser drawers and drawers that I study, I have all kinds of technological stuff, wires and plug-in stuff. I don't even know what it's there for anymore. I don't know what it plugs into. It has no purpose. Or maybe you have a pen that won't work. It won't work. It's lost.

It's not fulfilling its purpose. I've got in my dresser drawer, I've got single socks. One. Because I keep thinking that the other one's going to show up. But what used is a single sock. Where do they go, by the way?

I don't know. But a single sock, it has no purpose. Well, that's the idea. When a human life is lost, when a person is lost, that means you have no purpose. There's no fulfillment. There's no being what God intended for you to be and to do for Him. You're just lost. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. To be lost means you are therefore lost to God and you are lost really to people and you are lost forever apart from a relationship with Jesus Christ.

That's what hell is. It is eternal lostness and separation from God. Every person without Jesus Christ is lost.

That is the cry of the damned in hell. Lost. Lost. Forever lost. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost.

That's our mission. So what do we see in this story? God knows your name. Jesus knows your name. When Zacchaeus is up in that tree maybe kind of hiding behind a branch or a limb, he's out on a limb without him. And Jesus stops and looks up and locks eyes with Zacchaeus. He then calls his name, Zacchaeus.

I cannot help but believe that a beautiful smile creased the face of our blessed Lord, Zacchaeus. He called his name and in this, think about it, we see God's grace. Here was a man whose name meant pure, righteous, just. He was anything but until Jesus came along and called him by name.

He didn't say, hey you, or hey, bad guy in the tree, Zacchaeus. Righteous one. When Jesus calls your name and calls you to Himself, He calls you by what you can be, righteous in Him. We are not righteous in ourselves, but we are righteous in Him. He makes us what we aren't.

Our identity is now secure in Christ. Call me anything. Zacchaeus had been called a lot of names.

When he passed by it wasn't Mr. Zacchaeus, it was bleeping Zacchaeus going by. But now he's called in love to Christ. He calls his name. And he's calling your name today.

You're not a number. You're not a nameless face in the crowd. You're someone that Jesus knows. He knows your name. He knows your need. He loves you and He's calling your name today. Jesus calls our name and Jesus also welcomes us as friends.

As far as we know, this is the only time this happened exactly like this in the Bible when Jesus invited Himself over to someone else's house. He said, Zacchaeus, hurry down. Come right now because I must come to your house today. There's that word again, must. When it is said when He was chasing down the heart, the soul of that woman in Samaria, He must go through Samaria. There's this missionary must in the heart of God.

I must. And He says now to Zacchaeus, I must come to your house today. He welcomed him as a friend as He welcomes you as a friend. I preached my first sermon when I was 15 years of age. I was invited to Fort Worth, Texas to go across town to speak at the Southcliff Baptist Church. A man by the name of Frank Minton was the pastor. He pitched at the Brooklyn Dodgers organization.

He liked young baseball players. I was one. I had a few chances to speak around as a kid, giving my testimony. So I was invited because I had given my life. I said, Lord, here's my life.

You can have it all and I'm going to follow You. And I began preaching as a teenager and I was invited over. And what are you going to preach for your first sermon?

And I preached from John 15, chapter 15 and verse 5, or 15 rather. No longer do I call you servants, but I have called you my friends. It was always mind blowing to me as a kid to this day as well that God would call me His friend, that I could be a friend of God, that Jesus would welcome me.

That's why we're always saying Christianity is not a religion. It's a relationship. It is a friendship. It's fellowship with God. Jesus said, Zacchaeus, I'm coming to your house today. And oh by the way, I'm bringing my buddies.

There are 13 of us in all and we're coming for dinner. Jesus said, I stand at the door and knock and if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in. The book of Ephesians tells us that Christ is at home in our hearts. You know what home is? It's where you're comfortable.

It's where you're with family, with friends. Home is home. Heaven is described as not a distant star in the galaxies, but a home, the Father's house.

And home is where we are welcomed and accepted and Christ is invited into our homes. We are accepted in the beloved, says the Scripture. Accepted in the beloved.

This man Zacchaeus, like all of us, rejected, now accepted. I'm coming to your house. I'm going to abide with you.

I'm going to stay with you. We're going to hang out together for the rest of your life and then we're going home together in heaven. This story teaches us that great truth that Jesus knows your name and He welcomes you and invites Himself and welcomes you into your life.

One final thing, not only does He know your name and He welcomes you as a friend, but He changes your life. Zacchaeus changed just like that. Jesus said it in verse 9. Today, today salvation has come to this house and you know, my faith, I believe not only was Zacchaeus saved, his whole household came to Christ.

Who knows, they might have planted a church there in Jericho as followers of Jesus, but we know that Zacchaeus was saved by the presence of Jesus Christ now in his life. He says He received Him gladly, joyfully. The greatest day of your life is when you come to Jesus.

The best day of your life is the day you say, yes, Lord Jesus, come to my home, come to my life. And then He said, says He got up and He stood up. So He must have been on His knees in worship of the Lord. But He stands up having surrendered His life to the Lord. He stands up and He said, half of everything I own, I'm going to give it to the poor, to hurting people.

And those I've defrauded, if I have cheated, defrauded, stolen from anyone, I'm going to pay back fourfold. This little guy who had a little heart has now got a huge heart, a big heart for God, for giving. He's no longer greedy, giving His stuff. He's saying, Lord, here I am, You can have it all. It all belongs to You. When we're saved, we're surrendered to the Lordship of Christ, He is our Master. Everything we are, everything we have belongs to Him. You say, Lord, I surrender all.

All to Jesus, I surrender. That's salvation. He wasn't buying off or paying out His salvation. Salvation is by grace, but He is demonstrating the great work of grace and salvation in His life. He's saying, Lord, I want to now live my life for others, not just myself.

And that's where true happiness is found, loving God and loving people. So He changed His life. This little man is now living large because Christ has changed him, and He will change you. He's calling your name. He died on the cross for you.

If you're lost, lonely, you're the least, the last, He's calling your name. You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and today's message, He Knows My Name. As we prepare to step into our 28th year of ministry, generous partners like you are enabling PowerPoint to harness technology, to take the gospel into closed countries and hard to reach regions.

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