09 Oct Name Tag (Discovering the Power in the Name of Jesus) Proverbs 18:10
Names are extremely important! For example, I recall a young single mother who had identical twins. Because she was young, single and impoverished she reluctantly gave her identical twins up for adoption. One of the twins was adopted by a lovely couple in Spain and was named “Juan”. The other twin was adopted by a kind couple in Egypt who named him “Ahmal.” About twenty years later, Juan found his birth mother’s address and sent her a touching note. Juan also included a picture of himself. The birth mother, now happily married, was so excited to finally see one of her identical twins. She went on and on to her husband, “What a handsome young man Juan has grown up to be!” She had only one regret, that she lamented to her husband, “It’s so great to finally see Juan. Now if only I could see Ahmal.” To which her husband replied, “It’s o.k. honey, if you’ve seen Juan, you’ve seen Ahmal!”
Seriously, there is huge significance in a name. The Bible tells us “A good name is rather to be chosen than riches” (see Prov. 22:1). What do you say we look at the name above every name…the name of Jesus!
Over the next number of months, we are going to break this teaching down into two major categories:
- The Name in Power…Authority.
- The Name in Prayer…Answers.
Let’s begin with The Name in Power…Authority, by looking at:
4 Nifty Nuances of the Name:
1. The significance of the name (Matt. 1:18-21).
“Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.”
Here the angel was adamant. He was to be called Jesus! This was no accident. There is tremendous significance in His name! The name Jesus came from the Hebrew “Yeshua”. Yeshua is simply a shortened version of “Yehoshua” (Yeshua is to Yehoshua like John is to Johnathan). Yehoshua is the Hebrew for “Joshua”. Therefore our Lord was named after Joshua of the Old Testament.
Now, Jesus could have been named after any of the Old Testament patriarchs. Why not Joseph, or Abraham or the great Moses? There is great significance in this name and Joshua was the pattern that our Jesus was to be named after. You know the story, Moses leads the children of Israelout of Egypt. Egypt is a type of the world system or sin. The children of Israel travel into the wilderness. Of course, they become thirsty and Moses is instructed to take his staff and hit the rock once. However, Moses hit the rock twice and as a result is not allowed to go into the promised land. I don’t know about you, but I always thought that was a bit harsh. Particularly in light of some of the complaining knot heads Moses had to lead!
In retrospect, I’ll bet you that Moses wished instead of telling Pharaoh, “Let my people go” would have said, “Let some of my people go! Or, maybe just let Joshua and Caleb go!” Seriously, in light of all the grumbling and complaining Moses had to put up with in the people he led, it just seemed a little unfair that Moses was not allowed to traverse into Canaan land simply because he hit the rock twice. How many know, however, that God is always just and there was good reason that Moses was disqualified.
The rock was a type of Christ. Hitting the rock was a type of Christ’s crucifixion. Jesus was obviously crucified only once. Anything more than what Jesus did on the cross and us simply believing in it, becomes a work of the flesh and legalism (see Galatians 3:1-5). You see, God is very specific in this matter as salvation is grace plus faith…plus nothing.
A couple of years ago, Anne and I and Johnathan were in our favorite vacation spot in South Carolina. As many of you know, Anne and I are both originally from Ohio and we are BIG Ohio State football fans (or at least I am). In this particular city in South Carolina, there are thousands of Ohio transplants. An Ohio State graduate opened up a little Italian restaurant down there absolutely filled with Ohio State football paraphernalia. Every Saturday during football season the restaurant is filled with about 100 or so Ohio State fans from all over the area. So I decided to go. The place was absolutely packed with only two remaining seats left open both inside and out. Two of my awesome faithful staff were with me (Ed Wilson and Keith Foust). A gentleman came over to our table to see if he could sit in this one remaining seat directly by us. After he sat down, to his delight, he discovered I was a pastor.
The night previously he had been out on a pier by the ocean seeking God. He was truly desiring how to know and enter into a relationship with Him! God had clearly set up a divine appointment that day! There are very few things that could distract me from a Buckeye game, but that was certainly one of them!
Over and over he continually inquired of what He must do to gain a relationship with the Lord and eternal life. He was hung up on cleaning himself up, becoming a better person and living a life of good works to earn his way to Jesus. I explained to him from many different angles that salvation is grace plus faith, plus nothing. He was very open and receptive. We bought him dinner, gave him our email and clearly told him how to be “saved”. About a week later, I received an email from him and he had invited Jesus in his heart and was marvelously saved!
That’s why Jesus had to be named after Joshua and not Moses. The Bible tells us, “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). If Jesus would have been named after Moses, it would have typified that the law (or works) was all we need for salvation. Jesus had to be named after Joshua as Joshua took the children of Israel into Canaan land by faith! The Bible tells us, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).
We enter into the abundant life by grace and faith…plus nothing! There is significance in the name!
Next week, we’ll continue our series on “Name Tag.”