ALL HAIL THE POWER OF JESUS’ NAME!
Phip. 2:5-11
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: KITTEN CHURCH MEMBERS
1. A mother looked out a window and saw Johnny playing church with their three kittens.
2. He had them lined up and was preaching to them. The mother turned around to do some work.
3. A while later she heard meowing and scratching on the door. She went to the window and saw Johnny was BAPTIZING the kittens.
4. She opened the window and said, "Johnny, stop that! You’ll drown those kittens.”
5. Johnny looked at her and said with much conviction in his voice: "They shoulda had thought about that before they joined MY church." [Jeff Strite]
B. NAMES ARE IMPORTANT
1. IDENTITY.
a. You’re standing in a crowded, noisy room—and someone calls your name. Instantly your ears perk up because that combination of sounds means something special to you.
b. Family members travel long distances to memorials like the Vietnam Memorial where they search where they search for their loved one’s name.
c. When they find it they run their fingers over it or make a tracing of that name on paper. Our names are precious!
2. HUMOR.
a. I’m reminded of the story of the little girl who went to Vacation Bible School. The teacher gave everyone yarn name-tags to wear around their necks.
b. After the recreation time, one little girl, whose name tag had slipped behind her, came running up to her teacher and excitedly proclaimed, “Teacher, Teacher, I lost my price tag!”
3. SELF-FULFILLING.
a. One psychologist studied the names of 15,000 juvenile delinquents and he discovered that those with odd or embarrassing names were in trouble four times as much as kids who had more traditional—accepted names.
b. A Vietnamese man named his son Mai Phat Sau Nghin Ruoi, which means "Fined Six Thousand Five Hundred", which is how much it cost him for ignoring the country's two-child policy. Malaysia has even had to ban some names: Ah Gong, which means Unsound Mind; Sum Seng, which means Gangster; and Chow Tow, which means Smelly Head.
4. SPIRITUALLY. In Scripture many names have spiritual significance.
a. “Moses” means “drawn out.”
b. “Esau” means “hairy” or “red.”
c. “Jacob” means “heel grabber.”
d. “Peter” means “rock.”
5. All the more significant is the NAME OF JESUS. “The angel said, ‘You are to give Him the name JESUS, because He will save His people from their sins’” Mt. 1:21.
D. TEXT & THESIS
5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
1. This message is entitled, “All Hail the Power of Jesus Name!”
2. We’re examining the name of Jesus—the name that is above all names! Let’s look at the 5 “E’s” about the Name of Jesus:
I. IT’S AN EASY NAME
A. NOT COMPLICATED
1. I love the name of Jesus because it’s not hard to pronounce or spell. It’s easy to say and remember. It’s only got two syllables—just five letters—spelled just like it sounds. It’s an EASY name.
2. In the Bible there are a lot of names not as easy: Tiglath Pelezer, Adonibezek, Mephibosheth, Zerubbabel, Zaphenath-Paneah. Aren’t you glad God didn’t call His Son one of those?
3. Can you imagine any worship choruses and hymns extolling Tiglath Pelezer Adonibezek?
B. SO SIMPLE THAT…
1. But the name Jesus is simple enough for even a small child to learn. So simple, if you need to be saved, all you need cry is “Jesus save me!”
2. If someone is drowning or sees a car coming across the center line right toward them…or the World Trade Center towers are collapsing around them…or a soldier is dying on the field of battle, they need only breathe a prayer, “Jesus! Save me!”
3. As Acts 2:21 says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
II. IT’S AN ENDURING NAME
A. OBSCURE, YET OMNIPRESENT
1. Even though our Lord was born in obscurity over 2,000 years ago and died like a criminal at the age of 33.
2. Even though He only ministered three years in a 3rd world country, yet His name is still the most well-known name in history!
3. Jesus’ face and name have been on the cover of LIFE and TIME and NEWSWEEK…and NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC more than any other person.
B. VAIN ATTEMPTS TO ERASE IT
1. Roman Caesars have tried to destroy His name; Communism & atheism & pseudo-science have tried to stamp it out.
2. Tyrants and foreign religions have tried to eradicate it from the face of the earth, spilling the blood of martyrs, yet the name of Jesus still stands!
3. Napoleon once said, “I search in vain in history to find the similar to Jesus Christ, or anything which can approach the gospel…nations pass away, thrones crumble, but the Church [of Jesus] remains.”
4. As Paul told the Philippians, when that final day of history dawns, “Every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord!”
III. IT’S AN ESTEEMED NAME
A. ILLUS: ONLY NAME RECOGNIZED IN HEAVEN
1. During the Civil War, a man’s son deserted his post in battle and was to be shot by a firing squad. So the father went to Washington DC seeking the President’s pardon.
2. But he couldn't get past the front gate to the White House; the guards denied him access. So he sat on the bench outside crying, fearing his son's death.
3. Hundreds of people passed him, but no one noticed. A small boy saw him crying and asked him why. He told the boy about his son. Touched, the boy said, "Follow me."
4. He walked up to the front gate, looked up at the soldiers guarding it and said, "It's okay. He's with me." The gate opened.
5. The boy marched right up to the front door of the White House, opened it and walked in. He went straight to where the President was meeting with his cabinet.
6. The little boy nudged his way through to the President and spoke a minute into his ear.
7. The man was brought and told his story. Lincoln took out his pen, signed a Presidential Pardon and handed it to the man.
8. The man's SON had been pardoned! Tears ran down his face; "Why did you do this for me?" Lincoln replied, "I did it because MY SON took an interest in your situation!” (David A. Sargent)
9. Similarly, it’s Jesus’ name that gives us power to boldly approach the throne! The Name of Jesus is a key to heaven!
10. “Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name” Jn. 16:23.
B. IT’S THE ONLY NAME RECOG. BY HELL
1. HELL RESPECTS THE NAME OF JESUS. The name of Jesus still makes demons tremble!
2. Luke 10:17 records, “The seventy-two returned with joy and said, "Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name!" They were shocked by the power of the Name of Jesus.
3. The demons probably would have laughed if Peter, James, or John commanded in their own names. But they became cowards whenever Jesus’ name was mentioned.
4. Demons told 7 Jewish imposters, "Jesus I know and Paul I’ve heard about, but who are you?" and then gave them a lesson in true authority(a beating)! Acts 19:13-16.
IV. IT’S AN EXCLUSIVE NAME
A. THE ONLY NAME THAT CAN SAVE YOU
1. Acts 4:12 says, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is NO OTHER NAME under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
2. Jesus is the only way to God—because Jesus is the ONLY SON of God—the ONLY SINLESS man Who ever lived—and therefore the ONLY ONE WHO COULD DIE for our sins.
3. All in the world are sinners—in desperate need of a Savior. Romans 3:11-12; 23 says, “There’s no one who’s righteous, not even one; all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The wages of sin is death….”
4. The ONLY WAY we can be saved is through the amazing unfathomable GRACE of God seen on the cross.
B. THERE ARE MANY GREAT ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
1. Guttenberg developed the printing press;
2. Louis Pasteur, Vaccination;
3. Daimler & Henry Ford, The Car;
4. The Wright Bros., The airplane;
5. Alexander Graham Bell, The telephone;
6. Albert Einstein & Isaac Newton, advance in Physics;
7. But there’s only One who can cleanse and transform the human heart – Jesus!
V. IT’S AN EMPOWERING NAME
A. PRACTICAL IMPACT
Christians have been empowered by Jesus’ name to help alter the world’s poverty, ignorance, and injustice.
1. In His name believers started “Help” programs like the Red Cross, The Salvation Army,
2. Christians promoted medicine. The hospital was a Christian institution.
3. The greatest universities were founded by Christians for Christian purposes: Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and others.
4. Most of the world’s languages were first set to writing by Christian missionaries in order for people to read the Bible for themselves.
5. Christians worked to end slavery and guarantee women’s rights: William Wilberforce, Charles Finney and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. dedicated their lives to equal rights regardless of gender or skin color.
B. SPIRITUAL POWER OF THE NAME
1. We’re SAVED through that Name; “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” Jn. 14:6. FORGIVENESS in Him alone.
2. Jesus is PRESENT among us when we gather in His Name, Mt. 18:20.
3. We’re to PREACH in His Name to all nations, Lk. 24:47.
4. HEALINGS are performed by the Name of Jesus; “And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my Name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well" Mk. 16:17-18.
5. Every kind of sickness yielded to that Name; blindness, deafness, leprosy, fevers, paralysis, epilepsy, even death itself yielded to the Name of Jesus!
6. Peter said, “By faith in the name of Jesus, this (lame) man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see” Acts 3:16.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. E. P. Scott was a missionary to India and he desired to reach a savage tribe in the Indian subcontinent.
2. Ignoring the pleadings of his friends, he set off into the dangerous territory. Several days later, he met a large party of warriors who surrounded him, their spears pointed at his heart.
3. Expecting to die at any moment, Scott breathed a prayer, closed his eyes, and began singing with holy boldness, “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name…”
4. After singing the first verse, the second, the third, and then beginning the fourth, Rev. Scott realized he was still standing, and that all around him was a peaceful quiet.
5. Opening his eyes he saw every spear lowered. There stood those mighty warriors, with tears in their eyes, touched by the mighty spirit that animated him!
6. Scott spent the next two years evangelizing that people group, telling them all about Jesus Who came to save them. 7. Jesus is indeed an empowering name!
B. THE CALL
1. This morning, if you call on Jesus’ name it change your life. An unknown poet put it this way,
2. a. “To the soul that is steeped in sin, that no man’s art can cure; I know a name, a name, a name, that’ll make your soul all pure!”
b. “If you’ve a life that’s lost to God, bound down by things to earth; I know a name, a name, a name, that can bring that soul new birth!”
3. The Bible says, “All who call on the Name of the Lord – Jesus – shall be saved.” Won’t you do that?
4. If you want to acknowledge the Lord today, raise your hand and we’re going to pray.
5. SING HYMN, “ALL HAIL THE POWER OF JESUS’ NAME,” (Oliver Holden tune)
[Based on messages by Mark Adams/ David Jeremiah]
