e197 Jesus Saves You By Your Name. (human for human)

This is Faith to Witness 99, motivating us to hear God and share the Shepherd. 

Season 3 Episode 197 Jesus Saves You By Your Name. (human for human)

Here’s the gist, human. The world tells us we are one of many. The world tells us we are one of too many. A face in a crowd. A follower on a dashboard. A buyer of the best-selling item. An ancestral spec on the canvas of centuries played out. 

But when it comes right down to who we really are, life is personal. 

Today is undeniably personal. We live from moment to moment through our senses, our intellectual acuity, our emotional energy, gliding on the breadth and depth of our spiritual wing span. Does that even need to be said? Yes. It does. Because this is the foundation on which we have a relationship with Jesus. 

John 10:3: “The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.”

Humanity was not saved by a divine army of heavenly chariots carrying kingdom warriors. Humanity was not saved by a divine power dictating from Heaven’s throne. No, a divine being became flesh. A divine being, the Word, became the Son of Man, one human who walked this earth in perfect harmony with his Heavenly Father. 

He hung on the cross human for human. 

Join us. E197

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God Does Not Love the Masses, He Loves You

How does God love us? How can God love so many of us, so well? Does he do it with one fell swoop?

I’m Kathryn Bise, your host.

Influential American evangelical pastor and author, A. W. Tozer, addresses this question in his book, And He Dwelt Among Us, a compilation of teachings from the Gospel of John.

Tozer brings the personal nature of our relationship with Jesus into focus. 

He says, “If you read the Gospels and follow the life and ministry of Jesus, you will note that He always called individuals to follow Him. The masses followed Him for the “loaves and fishes” that He provided. But Jesus called individuals to come and follow Him. These individuals mattered to Him. Not as a collective mass, but as individuals created in the image of God, His Father. The woman taken in adultery, the mother with her crippled baby, Nicodemus who came to Him by night, and the list goes on and on.

During His ministry, Jesus dealt in individuals, not in statistics. The Christian message reflects that. God does not love masses, He loves people; He loves them individually.”

Tozer reminds me of the power of simplicity. This is so easy to accept and move on. But my heart pauses because it makes me want to sit with how Jesus did this. To sit in the space of taking it personal to consider what his Word tells us about his conversations, his approach to the people on his ministry path. What runs common in all his conversations, from the woman at the well to the blind man to the man with demons. 

Do Not Live the Lie – That God Does Not Care About You

But before we take a closer look, Tozer goes on to prompt a commanding premise in his book:  do not live the lie. He says, “Men and women everywhere live under the shadow of this lie, that God does not care about them.”

I personally think this is about the process of submission, how we fight it, how we pull back from the spiritual connection to God. The enemy manifests this lie—that God does not care about you—in so many ways. 

• God is too big, too busy, and too distant, to care about the individual. All he cares about is that we worship him. He doesn’t reach into our lives to shape our path, our purpose, our sanctification. 

• God does not think an individual’s earthly troubles are significant. Every person should be satisfied with a blanket salvation or worse, that only certain people are chosen to be in his Kingdom.

• God is too spiritually unattainable for us to have a personal relationship with him. 

• God is not intimate, personable, or a good listener because we have nothing to offer.

And here’s a mantra that scares me, frustrates me, humbles me in the face of people I am around all the time: 

• God is not really a choice. He may or may not exist. If he does, he just is. We can take him or leave him. There is no moral prerogative, no divine evidence to do either. Sure, maybe he created the world. But he is irrelevant to how we live our daily earthly life. 

The truth convicts me of this: God is a choice. Because he first chose us. He initiated the relationship with each of us. And John 3:16 lays out the personal nature of his choice. The breadth, the length, the depth and scope of his choice in one word:  Whosoever. 

While “whosoever” beckons every last person on this earth over all of time, the promise of eternal life to anyone who believes in his Son is what?

It’s personal. 

God’s promise comes to us through the Son of Man, who was also the Son of God. The sacrifice needed for sanctification of each of us is through one man, one perfect man. 

He is the way, the truth, and the life. (John 14:6) So when we say “do not live the lie, that God does not care about you” it is because we have a Savior, a Lord who showed us how he cares. How his Heavenly Father cares for us. He did so by giving his life.

Jesus Came to Save One Soul at a Time

Tozer’s insights motivated me to find a simple list that outlined Jesus’s encounters. What I use today came from a quick online search and result from AI findings. If you want to dig deeper, I encourage it. This could be a terrific Bible study with friends. It only takes a spark, an insight outlined, to provide a road map to discovering deeper truth about the love Jesus has for each of us.

This list orders the personal encounters with Jesus in six basic groups. Take a moment with me to review it, and consider the one-on-one conversations between Jesus and the people in his ministry. Return to it to think about the one-on-one relationship gauntlet he lay down for each of them. And I need to add one disclaimer: this list represents an amazing man and Savior. I will not do it justice by such a quick citing, but let it inspire you to ponder. I lay down worship and praise, to say, I am grateful that Jesus knows my name. 

1. The Inner Circle & Disciples

• Simon (Peter): Called by Jesus, frequently addressed, and given his nickname (Cephas/Peter).
• Andrew: Peter’s brother and one of the first disciples called.
• Philip: Directly told by Jesus to “follow me”.
• Nathanael (Bartholomew): Spoke with Jesus under a fig tree.
• James and John: The “Sons of Zebedee,” with whom Jesus had multiple individual interactions.
• Matthew (Levi): Personally called by Jesus from the tax booth.
• Thomas: Addressed directly, famously after the resurrection.
• Judas Iscariot: Spoke directly to him on multiple occasions, including at the Last Supper and the betrayal. 

2. Religious Leaders & Seekers

• Nicodemus: A Pharisee who visited Jesus at night to discuss being “born again”.
• A rich young ruler: Asked Jesus how to inherit eternal life.
• The scribe/lawyer: Spoke with Jesus about the greatest commandment.
• Simon the Pharisee: Jesus spoke to him regarding the woman who anointed his feet.
• Jairus: A synagogue ruler whose daughter Jesus healed. 

3. People He Healed or Delivered

• A leper: Cleansed and touched by Jesus.
• The paralytic man: Told “your sins are forgiven” before being healed.
• A blind man in Bethsaida: Jesus spat on his eyes and asked him what he saw.
• Blind Bartimaeus: Jesus called him over and restored his sight.
• The man born blind: Spoke with Jesus after receiving his sight.
• The man with dropsy: Jesus asked the Pharisees a question about him before healing him.
• A man possessed by an impure spirit: Jesus confronted and cast out the demon.
• The crippled woman: Jesus laid his hands on her and healed her.
• A deaf and mute man: Jesus spoke directly to him using the Aramaic word “Ephphatha.” (EF-uh-thuh) (be opened)
• Malchus: A high priest’s servant whose ear Jesus healed. 

4. Outcasts, Foreigners, & Women

• The Samaritan Woman at the Well: Had a lengthy, historic conversation with Jesus.
• The Syrophoenician Woman: Spoke to Jesus requesting the healing of her daughter.
• The woman caught in adultery: Jesus told her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and from now on sin no more.”
• Mary Magdalene: Jesus spoke to her individually at his empty tomb.
• Mary of Bethany: Spoke with Jesus on multiple occasions (e.g., when he commended her for sitting at his feet).
• Martha: Spoke with Jesus regarding her brother, Lazarus, and her serving.
• The widow at the treasury: Jesus spoke to his disciples about her but directly acknowledged her actions. 

5. Family & Acquaintances—Mary (His mother): Addressed at the wedding in Cana and at the cross; Lazarus: Jesus spoke to him to call him out of the tomb; Peter’s mother-in-law: Jesus healed her by speaking and touching her hand. 

6. Officials & Opponents—Pontius Pilate: Spoke extensively with Jesus during his trial; Herod Antipas: Jesus was brought before him but gave him no answers; The Roman Centurion: Jesus commended the centurion’s faith in a one-sided conversation about his servant.

It’s overwhelming to see Jesus in this light, isn’t it? He brings two fishes and five loaves to every person he speaks with, heals, reprimands, questions, and answers. Jesus came to save every human, one soul at a time.

Unbelief Will Unravel Your Life

Tozer goes on to address the mindset of someone who lives with unbelief. He points out that God cannot help someone who does not believe he or she is worthy of God’s love. I personally think this is where the unravelling of one’s life starts. Trying to take on worthiness when it is impossible to do. It’s not about our worthiness. It’s about Jesus being worthy as our Savior. So instead of trying to be accountable for worthiness—a mortal quest that will always fail—accept that God sent his Son to make us worthy of his love. 

So beautiful.

But I have to push the pendulum to the other side of Tozer’s premise too. Some believe that they are worthy of living life without God. They can handle it. 

Unbelief walks hand in hand with pride. Why do I say this? Because unbelief requires us to circle back to choice. God is a choice. When we choose to live our lives without God, the place in our hearts that is created for eternity (Ecclesiastes 3:11) is then filled with unbelief. 

With unbelief comes denial of the cross, denial that Jesus is calling your name. Denial that you cannot do it on your own. Because you think you can. 

The apostle Paul lived this life of denial. He persecuted the believers. But when he grabbed hold of Ecclesiastes 3:11 he claimed Jesus for himself. 

He knew the personal nature of it all.

Galatians 2:20

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

All of this is to say what? What does this prompt us to act upon? Well, it prompts us to seek God as the human he created us to be. Because he is already seeking us. 

To answer when we hear him calling us by name.

John 10:3: “The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.” 

To seek him intimately for every hair on our head. Give him the smallest details.

Luke 12:7: “Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” 

To accept every day that God has already ordained.

Psalm 139:13, 16: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb… Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” 

God’s Word made flesh, Jesus’s personal encounters, and all the ways humans live with believing a lie, and succumbing to unbelief should give us something: motivation to take action in our own lives and the lives of others. Take the Gospel to heart. Take the Gospel to others.

God cares about the individual. There are no masses. No group tours. No tour buses to heaven. God has anointed his eternal place in our hearts through his Son.

Jesus hung on the cross human for human. He saved you by your name for his purpose.

God’s faith to your witness. Go find the one.