PowerPoint

Jack Graham: Jesus calls your name and calls you to himself, 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 are, and he's calling your name today.

Guest (Male): On today's PowerPoint, Dr. Graham brings a message about how Jesus is calling you to come and follow him. Now here's Dr. Graham with his message, He Knows My Name.

Jack Graham: Luke chapter 19. Today, a well-known story about a man named 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, "Zacchaeus, you come down! For I'm going to your house today."

We could just clap along the way and sing that song. 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. 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 three 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 crowds elbowing the little guy in the face. "Get back, Zacchaeus. Not here, Zacchaeus. Not on my space, Zacchaeus." He can't see over the crowd.

So what did he do? Verse four: he ran ahead 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, 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—can't you just see his little hairy legs running, running ahead of the crowd? And he shimmies up this sycamore tree, gets out on a limb, and is looking for Jesus, just to see him pass by.

Verse five: and when Jesus came to the 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 seven: 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 am I, 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 them what you have done for me?" And Jesus went to the party and he was accused of hanging out with bad people, tax collectors and winebibbers 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 nine, "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.

It 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.

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. And this man who was so successful in his own eyes and 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 and save the lost.

Guest (Male): You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message, "He Knows My Name." July 4th, 2026, will be a day of great celebration for the 250th birthday of our great country. However, there has never been a more important time in our 250 years as a nation where we need God to move in power and heal our land. That's why I'm inviting you to join Dr. Graham in a prayer challenge for our nation. To join, simply text the word "CRY" to 59789. Again, text "CRY" to 59789.

Remember that your support of PowerPoint Ministries helps people encounter Jesus through clear biblical teaching. Through the support of friends like you, lives are being strengthened, faith is being renewed, and seekers are discovering the hope only found in Christ. Your partnership is so vital that when you give this month, we'll send you Dr. Graham's book, "Life According to Jesus," as our thanks. It's a powerful journey through the Gospel of John that shares wisdom from the life of Christ to help you respond to real-world struggles. To give your gift, text "APRIL" to 59789. Again, text "APRIL" to 59789. Now, let's get back to today's message, "He Knows My Name."

Jack Graham: 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 "lost" is really talking about. Lost is the idea of not fulfilling a purpose. It's 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 at my 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 use 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, it 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. And 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. But Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. That's our mission.

So what do we see in this story? That 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 had 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."

And 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. 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 in the Brooklyn Dodgers organization. He liked young baseball players. I was one, had a few chances to speak around as a kid, giving my testimony. So I was invited because I'd given my life. I'd 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 chapter 15 and verse 15: "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's 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 not as 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 was changed just like that. Jesus said it in verse nine: "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. It 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, since 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's now got a huge heart. A big heart for God, for giving. He's no longer greedy, keeping 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. We 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. And 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.

Guest (Male): You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message, "He Knows My Name." Let me remind you that your support helps bring the life-changing truth of Jesus Christ to people across the world through PowerPoint Ministries. And this month, we'd love to send you a powerful resource as our way of saying thank you for your gift. It's Dr. Jack Graham's book, "Life According to Jesus." In this transformative journey through the Gospel of John, you'll discover not just what Jesus might do, but what he actually did when facing life's hardest questions. And we'll be excited to send you this resource because your generosity helps place this kind of biblical teaching into the hands of seekers and believers alike, equipping them to live according to Jesus's example every day. To give your gift, just text "APRIL" to 59789. Again, that's "APRIL" to 59789.

July 4th, 2026, will be a day of great celebration for the 250th birthday of our great country. However, there has never been a more important time in our 250 years as a nation where we need God to move in power and heal our land. That's why I'm inviting you to join Dr. Graham in a prayer challenge for our nation. To join, simply text the word "CRY" to 59789. Again, text "CRY" to 59789.

Jack Graham: Pastor, what is your PowerPoint for today? God's grace is greater than all of our sin. God's love expands beyond any sin that you have committed against him, and his love on the cross when he died for you makes it possible for you, no matter where you've been, what you've done, how much you've sinned or how little you've sinned, to know and love and experience his grace and salvation.

The good news is that Jesus Christ came to save sinners, and we're all sinners. And he promises to work in every life who trust in him and turns to him in repentance and faith. So don't, whatever you do, don't limit God's love and don't fail to receive God's promises because you have feelings of regret or remorse or guilt. Get by your guilt and get into grace. For by grace are we saved, and that means gift. It's the gift of God. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, lest anyone should boast.

So God has a wonderful plan and purpose for your life. And your past doesn't define you because in Christ you have a new identity. Realize he sees you right where you are right now. He values and loves you so much that he gave his life for you. He chose to receive you, so now respond to that great love and receive Christ into your life. And if you're already a Christ follower, if you're already a believer, then give him your best by asking his Spirit to fill you every day and to live for his glory, to honor him.

Guest (Male): And that is today's PowerPoint. Remember, when you give a gift to PowerPoint, we'll send you Dr. Graham's book, "Life According to Jesus." Just text "APRIL" to 59789. And join us again next time as Dr. Graham brings a message about the choice you have to serve God or to serve your own desires. That's next time on PowerPoint with Jack Graham. PowerPoint with Jack Graham is sponsored by PowerPoint Ministries.