He Knows Your Name!

Here is the second half of yesterday's sermon:

1. In Revelation 3:5b Jesus says, "I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels."
This is a joyful and heartfelt proclamation to the Father and the myriads of angelic beings: He's mine! She belongs to me! They are worthy! "
These names are on his lips because they are first in his heart.
2. Revelation 3:5 says, "I will confess his name" (singular), so evidently Jesus will speak each of our names individually.
3. Following the resurrection of Jesus, Mary Magdalene stood outside the tomb weeping. Turning around, she saw Jesus but did not know if was him. Jesus said to her, "Woman why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" Thinking he was the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away."
Then Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned to Jesus and said to him in Aramaic, "Rabboni," which means Teacher ( John 20:14b-16).

This lady understood the difference between being called "Woman" and being called "Mary." This woman who at one time was indwelt and tormented by seven demons (Luke 8:2),filled with shame and reproach, hears the sweetest and most comforting word imaginable, her name: "Mary!"
But if wasn't the name so much as the man on whose lips it was willfully and happily found: Jesus!
"He knows my name! He remembers
me! I am not an embarrassment to him.  He's not ashamed of me!"

4. Envision standing in the blazing presence of the unfathomable God, an all consuming fire, the God of infinite and unending glory.
Small and weak as you are, Jesus takes hold of your hand and leads you before his Father and the gaze of myriads of angels. Then he proudly, happily, confidently and joyfully declares, "Father, Tara (fill in your own name) is mine! I am hers! She is clothed in white! I've paid her debt. I suffered the penalty. She is clean. She is pure. She is in me and I am in her. Tara is righteous!"
He knows my name!!