On May 9, 1961 a man named Newton Norman Minow made the following statement in a speech regarding the programming on television:
“When television is good, nothing - not the theater, not the magazines or newspapers - nothing is better. But when television is bad, nothing is worse.
(Notice he didn’t mention worshiping the God of the Universe in Church)
“I invite each of you to sit down in front of your television set when your station goes on the air and stay there for a day without a book, without a magazine, without a newspaper, without a profit and loss sheet or a rating book to distract you.
(When your STATION goes on the air???)
(How many of us have ever sat in front of the TV with a profit and loss sheet)
(Do you remember when a station would sign on in the morning and sign off, usually at midnight after playing the national anthem and then you’d see this?)
“Keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that what you will observe is a vast wasteland.”
Why am I mentioning TV so much? This past Tuesday we were looking through the vast wasteland and came across a TV show call simply “Holy Spirit”
Out of curiosity I turned to the show and they were introducing the prospect of going to an area of India where both Hinduism and Buddhism originated.
They said that this area was filled with people from both religions who were extremely aggressive against Christianity and going there as Christians would most likely mean certain death.
It seemed like an interesting idea so we kept watching. There seemed to be three young men. They did not identify themselves as Christians but one of them sat down with his guitar and started singing a song that went something like:
“There is joy in the city, there is peace in the city, the Holy Spirit is here, the Holy Spirit is here …”
Those are not the actual words but the feeling is much like what he sang.
Some people gathered around to here him sing. No one was aggressive. No one harassed them. They even prayed with a couple of young men. They kept coaxing the two young men asking them if they could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit? What did it feel like? Etc.
No one ever mentioned the name of Jesus.
They prayed with two of the men. In the prayer they mentioned the Holy Spirit and they mentioned the Father but never Jesus or Christ or Messiah. And it made me wonder, what if they had proclaimed the name of Jesus? What if they had proclaimed that the only way to eternal life was through faith in Jesus the Son of God. How would the crowd have reacted to that great name?
You see, Jesus is a powerful name, Jesus is a convicting name, the evil one hates the name of Jesus but life is only found in the name of Jesus!
We only watched for five or ten minutes but it made me think about the precious name of Jesus. The name that is above all other names! The only name by which we must be saved!
Jesus is the most Holy Name on the earth.
Jesus is the most abused Name on the earth.
Since we only saw a portion of that TV show, we do not know if they ever arrived at proclaiming the name of Jesus, but, if they did not, why is that a problem?
Acts 4:11-12 ESV
“This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
There is no indication in the Bible that we can be saved by believing in the name of the Holy Spirit.
The Bible never refers to the Holy Spirit as our Redeemer or the sacrifice that takes away the sins of the world.
Now the Holy Spirit certainly does have a function in the work of salvation.
1) The Holy Spirit does a work in the hearts of all people everywhere. Jesus told the disciples that He would send the Spirit into the world to “convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:7-11). Everyone has a “God consciousness,” whether or not they admit it. The Spirit applies the truths of God to minds of men to convince them by fair and sufficient arguments that they are sinners. Responding to that conviction brings men to salvation.
2) The Holy Spirit takes up permanent residence in the hearts of believers
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV
“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
The Holy Spirit leads us to spiritual truth
John 16:13 ESV
“When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak, and He will declare to you the things that are to come.”
And, finally, what is the great truth that the Holy Spirit proclaims?
John 15:26 NLT
“But I will send you the Advocate - the Spirit of Truth. He will come to you from the Father and will testify all about Me.”
The Holy Spirit, by extending the grace of God to us and by revealing the truth of the Scriptures shouts, “Here is Jesus, He’s the Savior, He’s the One! Look to Jesus for Salvation. Look nowhere else!”
The name Jesus is mentioned 1,310 times in the New Testament!
The pronoun He referring to Jesus is in there thousands of more times!
When the Lord, by the Holy Spirit guided the church as to which books belonged in the New Testament of the Bible one of the main requirements was that it was about Jesus; Jesus had to be the central focus of the book.
Was it verifiably written by one of the apostles or someone who had known the apostles in order to ascertain the accuracy of what was written about Jesus?
Was it widely circulated among the churches and accepted by the churches established by the apostles? Jesus is THE focus of the Bible!
One day, many years ago when our children were still young, we were coming home from church in an ancient Oldsmobile 98 that Pastor Karenlee’s grandmother had given to us because we lived so far out in the sticks and we only had one car. (She was from Philadelphia)
Anyway, on the way home from church I saw the most amazing sight; I saw a tour bus towing another tour bus! I’m thinking man that bus is really tailgating!
After I had pondered that for a few seconds I looked ahead of what was happening in our lane of the road and there was a car setting stopped and waiting to turn left.
After some wild gyrations of steering and braking we missed the car … almost …
So, there was some minor damage to the cars but no one was killed or seriously injured. Thank you, Jesus!
I had broken the cardinal rule of driving! Keep your eyes on what is in front of you!
The same thing goes with being a Christian! Keep your eyes on Christ! That is one of the functions of the Holy Spirit and that is one of the functions of the Holy Bible!
Look at these attributes of Jesus; Jesus is:
Fully God and Fully Man
Jesus was born of a virgin
Jesus is the sinless sacrifice
Jesus crushed the head of satan
Jesus is our Redeemer
Jesus ascended to the Father
Jesus is the King of Glory
Jesus is our Mediator
Now take a look at what happens to Jesus. Jesus was born of Mary when she was still a virgin. We honor Mary just as we honor and respect the apostles and Luke and the half brothers of Jesus, James and Jude.
Now, remember, Mary the Mother of Jesus is only mentioned in the four Gospels and not after the first chapter of the Book of Acts. Even in the Gospels very little is said about her, very little!
Now, remember we are to keep our eyes on Jesus and not be distracted by other non-Biblical ideas.
Jesus was born of a virgin - Mary was born of a virgin
Jesus is the sinless sacrifice - Mary lived a sinless life
Jesus crushed the head of satan - Mary crushed the head of satan
Jesus is our Redeemer - Mary is a co-redemptrix
Jesus ascended to the Father - Mary ascended to Heaven
Jesus is the King of Glory - Mary is the Queen of Heaven
Jesus is our Mediator - Mary is a co-mediator
On one hand we have folks who are attempting to proclaim the Gospel in the name of the Holy Spirit. We love and reverence the Holy Spirit but what they are trying to do is misdirection because salvation is found only through the name of Jesus.
On the other hand we have a human usurping attributes that belong only to Jesus the Messiah. These claims are not only Biblically unfounded but they are also misdirection, distracting from the focus of Jesus.
Have you ever gone bowling? I like bowling although it has become quite expensive. One thing I don’t like about bowling is the guy in the next lane. There I am all set up, getting ready to deliver my next amazing delivery down the alley and the guy next to me starts his approach. This distracts me and I have to start all over. Of course this starting over never helps my score. And, the guy in the next lane is a good reason for my failure to reach a score of 100.
Now, while I seem to be pointing fingers at this one movie and those who have elevated Mary to near-god status. The churches of the Holiness Movement have been distracted as well.
Many of our churches have transitioned over the past several decades from Christ centered holiness churches to churches enamored with the church growth movement.
Why does the devil want to distract us from the name of Jesus?
There is power in the name of Jesus - in the New Testament the name of Jesus was called upon many times for healing.
The name of Jesus has the power to save.
Not to just save from sin and then to go on living like you always did.
The name of Jesus has the power to radically transform your life like nothing else ever has or will do.
The name of Jesus has the power to put to death the old sinful nature and sanctify you holy!
Just what does that mean?
John 14:6 NKJV
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’”
God has only one church growth strategy and it is the same as the Kingdom of God on earth strategy and this is it!
People who have been transformed by the saving and sanctifying power of Jesus reaching out (witnessing and praying for) those who are unsaved and need to know Jesus!
Have you been saved in the name of Jesus!
Jesus Messiah - Name above all names
Blessed Redeemer - Emmanuel
The Rescue for sinners
The Ransom from heaven
Jesus Messiah LORD of all
All our hope is in You - All our hope is in You
All the glory to You God - The Light of the world
Have you been set free from the power of sin by Jesus? You can be!
Has your old nature been crucified with Jesus? It can be!
Is Jesus the Lord and Master of your life?
Are you walking in the path of Jesus, following in His footsteps?
This is life! Find it! Live it! Jesus, Lord of all!
