INTRODUCTION
• The heart of worship is relationship.
• Knowing God makes it easy to worship Him.
• He reveals Himself to us when we worship Him and He did the same for Moses.
• Worship is deep relationship with God.
I. HE IS KNOWN BY HIS NAME
• The story of Mt. Horeb (Mt. Sinai) and the burning bush.
Exodus 3:13-14,13”Then Moses said to God, Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘the God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is his name?’ What shall I say to them? 14God said to Moses, ‘I am who I am’; and He said, ‘Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I am has sent me to you.’”
• This is one of the most famous stories in the book but most of us have no idea what it is about!
• Vs. 15 - I am is all about relationship and revelation.
• When God called Moses at the bush what did he say? In verse 3?
• “Moses Moses” he called him by name. When you meet someone what do you do or say?
• Hi I am ____. And they say, nice to meet you I am ____.
• That is what happened here. God called Moses by name then introduced for the first time his name. ”I am.”
• His memorial name, not great rendering. The name to remember me by.
• This name is the heart of God. His nature is bound up here. He is revealing Himself at a level never before experienced by people.
• I am in Hebrew is, “I will be” or to be or I am – hahva.
• Same word used in vs. 12. ”I will be with you.”
• This is called the tetra-grammaton…or 4 letters…tetra 4 and gramma letter
• Used over 5000x in Old Testament as God’s name.
• It is the name Yahweh. According to Jewish tradition it is regarded as 'not to be uttered' in order never to profane it in any way.
• In Judaism it is 'Adonai', meaning 'Lord'.
• Reveals the fullness of His nature. All of God's nature and attributes are embodied in His name.
• The main concept here has to do with the elusive term "being". Some things "are", while others "are not". If you want a fancy word, this is an ontological issue.
• I'd like you to think about a coin. It exists, right? Coins have two sides, heads and tails. They are opposite but equal, in that both exist.
Philosophers say that "heads" and "tails" have the same ontological status, which is a convenient way to say that they both exist in the same degree and the same manner.
• Now what other things can we think of that are opposites with equal ontological statuses? Let's try these:
* left and right
* north and south
* front and back
* male and female
* open and closed
* sweet and sour
• However, there are many pairs of opposites that do not share the same ontological status.
• Light and dark, for one. Darkness is simply the absence of light.
• Light is. Darkness is the absence of what is. And yhwh is light. Yhwh is. Light is. Darkness is not.
• Many people have difficulty grasping this.
• Imagine yourself in a pitch dark room. You turn on the switch and light floods the room. An actual energy appears. Photons (the stuff light is made of) come out of the bulb and illumine the room.
• Turn the switch again, and the photons disappear. It is not as though something different is now coming out of the bulb which we call "darks" that are "darkening" the room the way the photons were lighting it. It's just that the photons are gone!
• "I am that I am." God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all!
• Two more points about light and dark:
• First, there is an absolute limit to darkness: 0 photons present. Light, has no limitation. There is no theoretical limit to the number of photons that can be present in a given space. So, pitch dark is the zero point, and light grows to infinity. This is about quantity.
• Second is a statement of quality. While pitch dark has only one color and shape (nothing and none), light has an infinite realm of possibilities for different colors and shapes. God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.
• The meaning of "I am that I am", and all of Yhwh's nature and attributes are embodied in His name. Find the ontological opposites and Yhwh is revealed by the one that is.
• Some more.
o Yhwh is life. Life, whatever it is, is. Death is simply the absence of life.
o Yhwh is light (energy/matter). Energy is.
o Yhwh is truth. Truth is a statement of what is. Falsehood is a statement of what is not.
• Yhwh has been translated is "the self-existent one." What does this mean?
• Something is self-existent if it can exist all by itself, without any dependencies whatsoever. Everything we encounter in life is dependent on something else. Life needs air. Air needs molecules. Molecules need molecular cohesion. Molecular cohesion needs...and so on. Where does the chain of dependency end? What is the "ontological anchor" of the universe?
• Yhwh, the I am that I am, the Creator of the universe, depends only on Himself for existence. He is the source and origin of all that exists. In Him we live and move and have our being.
II. THE NAME THAT IS ABOVE ALL NAMES
• Since we are talking about relationships and names, let’s deal with the most important one of all.
• Moses changed a young man’s name for an eternal reason.
• Numbers 13:8 - One of the spies, changed his name in vs. 16 to Joshua or Y’sua = Yhwh saves.
• Hoshea = salvation, but Joshua = Yahweh is salvation.
• Joshua’s name in New Testament = the Greek form of Joshua is iesous
• Or as many of you see Jesus. Now Jesus was our Savior’s proper name but it was also a very common name in that day.
• Rarely used alone in New Testament. Christ Jesus or Jesus Christ, Christ means anointed or Messiah.
• Matthew 1:21 says, “You shall call his name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins.”
• Pat Robertson – “Jesus is the same as Joshua, a contraction of Jehoshuah (Numbers 13:16) signifying in Hebrew, Jehovah is salvation = our title “Saviour” Jehovah is a derivative of Yahweh.
III. SO WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN?
• The name of God includes His nature. Exodus 34:6 explains “Yhwh or “I am”.
• Jesus said in John 8:58, “Before Abraham I am.” present tense
• Yhwh saves is Jesus name. God’s Old Testament name and nature are restored and fully exposed in Jesus.
• Key is that the nature is revealed in the name.
• Philippians 2:9-11, “Name above every name every knee will bow.”
• Jesus’ name isn’t magic. Acts 19:13-16 - His name alone wouldn’t cast out demons.
• Matthew 18:20 2-3 - Gathered in His name.
• This is about His heart, His nature, His character.
• John 12:12, “Hosanna, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”
• Matthew 6:9, “Hallowed be Thy name.”
• God’s name is His nature. Full of lovingkindness and compassion
• David, Nehemiah, Joel, Jonah, all knew and quoted from Exodus 34:6 .
David in Psalms 103:8, “He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel. 8The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. 9He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. 10He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. 11For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him.”
Close
How do you know if it is from Him? Is it His nature? His name is His nature. I am.
