Do You Know The Name
Scripture: Philippians 2:9-11, Colossians 2:15, Revelation 2:17, 14-16, 1 John 5:1-5
This message concludes my series focusing on fathers for the month of June. As I shared with you in previous messages, although I am speaking to men this message also applies to the women. The title of my message this morning is “Do You Know The Name?”
Years ago when I was in school you always had people who “messed” with you. Sometimes that would bait you into a fight while other times they would just talk about you. They would talk about how you were dressed, where you lived or how you looked. Many times they would resort to name calling and I admit I participated in this activity on many occasions. When we resorted to calling names, there was a response that everyone knew and could quote without even thinking about it. I will tell you the first two words and I promise many of you will finish the sentence for me. Here are the first two words of the response when someone calls you a name: “Sticks and….” You finished it, didn’t you? The saying is this: “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me!” When we made this statement it was a lie because we all know that words do hurt us – especially when someone calls us a name that attacks our looks, character, or lifestyle. The lie, that the only things that hurt you are physical, is a lie that Satan has gotten the world, and in the Body of Christ to believe. However, if that belief was true then Proverbs 18:21 would be a lie. It says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” The Word of God says that words can kill, so yes, name calling and personal attacks can hurt.
Now I want you to listen closely to what I am about to tell you about this lie that the devil has so smoothly sown into the Church. While this specific lie about words having no power directly impacts if and how we confess God’s Word over our lives – it goes much deeper than that. If we believe that words lack power, Satan understands that with this belief the Church loses its power and authority over his kingdom. Why? Because the Church will not know, understand and/or unleash the power and authority we have in the name of Jesus. Now, do you know that Name? We’re going to talk about that name a little bit this morning. Also we’re also going to talk about our new name; you know the one we will receive as sons and daughters of God. It’s that name that we receive because we have overcome the things of this world.
But let’s begin by how most Christians identify themselves. We generally identify ourselves either by our church’s denomination or by the ministry position we hold in our individual churches. For example, in terms of denominations, we are Baptist, or Methodist, or Presbyterian, or Pentecostal, or Full Gospel. Some Christians view themselves as Non-Denominational or “Spiritual.” And for those of us who are in ministry, we often address ourselves as “Pastor so and so,” “Elder so and so,” “Bishop so and so,” “Evangelist so and so,” or “Apostle so and so.” I believe you get the picture I’m trying to paint. These are titles and affiliations that our denominations give us, or that we give to ourselves. We see them as a way of saying to people, “This is who I am in the Christian community.” And for many in leadership positions, these titles give them status and influence. New Light, a person’s title may give him or her status or influence in the Church community, but it gives them no status or influence when Satan unleashes his attacks against the Church and the world. One of the things that hurts me the most is seeing the Church drift away from knowing and truly understanding the truth about who Jesus is and who we are because of what He did for us on the cross.
But let me take this out of the Church and speak in general terms to my brothers. There are many men whose identity is the job they hold. Even after they retire, when people ask who they are they identify as being retired from such and such company. Then there are those who have letters behind their names designating how many degrees or certificates they have earned. Again, this is to identify someone’s credentials as their name does not mean anything unless they come from a famous family. If they are a “normal” person from a normal family then their name alone means nothing. However, when you add letters behind their name people immediately size them up based on those additional letters. Those letters represents a name. Rodney Johnson, M.D. – medical doctor. Rodney Johnson, MBA – Masters of Business Administration. Does that mean I am a master of business administration? No, it means I completed the degree program. However, those letters will open doors for me that would be closed to me without them. My point is this, there are two names that we should be most interested in and the ones I have listed are not them.
Let’s begin this morning in Philippians 2. We’re going to jump in the middle of this chapter because it contains the verses I want us to focus on. In verses 6 through 8, we learn that Jesus gave up His deity and came to earth to live like a man, like a human being. And, as a man, He humbled Himself to God and God’s plan for His life, which was to die on the cross for the sins of every human being. And because Jesus did this verses 9 through 11 say: “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth. And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11)
Now let’s track what we just read. First, and most important, God highly exalted Jesus and gave Him the name that is above every name in heaven and earth. He didn’t just give Jesus a name that is above every name. He gave Him THE name that’s above every name! He didn’t just exalt Him and give Him a name. He HIGHLY exalted Him and gave Him THE name! In God’s entire creation, which includes heaven and earth, no one has the power and authority of THE name! Now listen to me New Light: Jesus wasn’t just given THE name above every name. He acquired THE name that’s above every name for one simple reason: He obeyed His Father all the time. Not some of the time; not most of the time; ALL of the time!!!
Second, and very important for us to know and remember, every person, Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, atheist, etc., every angel, every devil – everything – will eventually bow to the Name of Jesus. Everything! They are going to bow with either love or they are going to bow with trembling fear knowing, without a doubt, that they are subject to Him and the eternal choice they made is set. There are no second chances after death. So as I have said before, EVERYONE becomes a believer when they die even though some will still end up in the Lake of Fire. But before they enter the lake of fire, they will bow to THE name! Right now, we’re not seeing much of that happening in our country or in the world. But make no mistake about it New Light: when every man, woman and child stand before Jesus on the Day of Judgment, they are going to bow their knees to His power and authority. And for some it will be for eternal life in heaven while for others, eternal torment in the lake of fire.
Third, every tongue is going to confess that the name – Jesus Christ is Lord – either here on earth or on the Day of Judgment. Again, every believer in Jesus and those who are not believers; every angel and Satan and all of his kingdom will confess that Jesus is Lord! On their day of judgment they are going to know; are going to bow; and are going to confess with their mouths that “Jesus Christ is Lord.” Now I want you to imagine that day. Imagine first seeing Satan standing before his angels and confessing that truly Jesus is Lord and he, Satan, is not. Then all of his kingdom, the fallen angels who rebelled with him, will line up and confess that Jesus is Lord while they remember the life they lived in heaven before they believed Satan’s lie which caused them to join him in rebelling against God. All of them will confess and then be cast into the lake of fire. Then it gets really interesting. They open the Book of Life and start reading out names. Now this is just my imagination at this point. The angel reads out a name and the person steps forward, confesses that Jesus is Lord and then enters their reward. This continues until the last name is read. While names are being read there will be souls in line waiting, hoping, wishing and even praying that their name will be called. Even though they denied Christ while they lived on earth, they stand in that line hoping their name will be called. But at last, the last name is called and they are left standing with the crowd of those whose name was not written in the book. As they are escorted to the lake of fire, they have one last and final confession – they confess that Jesus is Lord!
Now I want you to see what THE name accomplished for us. Turn to Colossians 2 and we’re going to read verses 13 through 15. “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.” (Colossians 2:13-15) What Paul is talking about is the demands required by the law for the people who were not saved. Jesus cancelled the demands of the law in our lives! Now I want you to pay close attention to verse 15. I love the imagery of this verse. Whenever a king defeated another king, he would take the defeated king and all his possessions and have them walk behind him in chains in a parade with their heads bowed as he rode on his horse in front of them. The victorious king would first do this in front of the defeated king’s kingdom and then in front of his own kingdom. That is what THE name did for us. Jesus defeated Satan and his demonic kingdom and put them on display for the Church to see. Since Jesus has already defeated Satan, it is now our responsibility to enforce his defeat. We are supposed to be the army occupying his realm so that he cannot send his army into ours. New Light, it is the name – Jesus – that gives us power and authority to exercise dominion over the things that Satan wants to do to in our lives. Praise God! Men – do you know THE name?
Let’s briefly look at what happens when the name is used in faith. We are not going to read the entire passages, but enough so you can see what happens. In Acts 3, Peter and John have gone to the temple to pray. There’s a man at the gate, who was born lame and couldn’t walk, asking for donations. When he asked Peter and John for donations, Peter said “I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene – walk!” (Acts 3:6) You know the story. The man got up and began to run and leap and praise God. But I don’t want you to miss this point: Peter gave the man what he had – what he possessed. Do you see this New Light? Peter knew what the name could do in the life of the man who couldn’t walk. He had no doubts and this is the place where each of us needs to be. Remember the story where Paul and Silas were in Philippi and a woman with a spirit of divination, a devil spirit, used to trick people into believing she could foretell their futures. She followed Paul and Barnabas around for several days unto Paul had had enough. Look at verse 18 of Acts 16: “She continued doing this for many days. But Paul was greatly annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, ‘I command you in THE NAME (I capitalized it to bring it out) of Jesus to come out of her!’ And it came out at that very moment.” New Light, the name gave us this power and authority!
Remember earlier I told you that Jesus acquired the name that’s above every name because He was always obedient. He did everything His Father asked Him to do. When we are obedient to Jesus as He was obedient to the Father, and live a life of humility and repentance, we will on that Day of Judgment receive a new name. Picture this with me – again this is my imagination of how it could happen. You are standing in line waiting for your name to be called from the Book of Life. You hear yours and you step forward. When you walked the earth your name was Rev. Dr. James Johnson, PhD, MD, MBA. You had some other letters behind your name but they do not seem important now as you wait for your new name. You see, you watched as everyone else whose name was in the Book of Life approached the throne of God and received a white stone with something written on it. You did not know what was written on everyone else’s stone but you were excited to find out what was written on yours. As you approach the throne of God, Jesus gives you your white stone and whispers what is on it. What the stone contains is your new name. Your old name disappears from your memory banks. All of those letters that you had before and after your name disappear from your memory banks at that very moment you receive your new name. No other name that you have ever had is as loving, humbling, enlightening, welcoming and more meaningful than the name Jesus has just given you because you were an overcomer. Can you see it?
Revelations 2:17 says, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.” Now what will qualify us for this new name? Do we receive it simply because we’re born again? Beginning in verse 12, Jesus tells the church at Pergamos that they have done some good things. In the midst of persecution, they have not denied Him and He praised them for it. But Jesus had a few things against them that they needed to straighten out. Let’s pick the record up with verse 14. “But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality. So you also have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitians. Therefore repent, or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of My mouth.” (Revelation 2:14-16) I want to draw your attention to why Jesus had a problem with this Church. What upset Jesus was that the church was allowing people to come in and teach things that He never taught. He tells the church, and He’s saying the same thing to the Church today, if you don’t repent for allowing men and women to preach wrong doctrine in My Church, I am going to fight against you – the Church and those who are preaching wrong doctrine – with doctrine and truth that carry My power and My anointing. In the New Testament, the word sword is often used to represent God’s Word and its unyielding truth. That’s what Jesus meant when He said He’d make war against them with the sword of His mouth. I do not know about you, but I don’t want Jesus fighting against me! And when this happen New Light, the preachers of wrong doctrine and the believers of wrong doctrine will find themselves in the lake of fire for all eternity. And that’s why Jesus begins verse 17 with “He who has an ear, let him hear…” So who is it that will receive a new name? It will be the people who overcome the wrong teaching with the truth that the name has given to the Church in the Bible. It will be those whom Galatians 6:9 encourages “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.” And the context of this verse is not losing heart that the truth of the Bible will produce in our lives. We just have to hold on to our faith and be patient. For me, that’s very comforting.
New Light, how can we be overcomers? How can we know that, in the face of all the teachings that we hear that go against what Jesus taught, we can overcome it? We’re going to end in First John 5 and we’re going to read the first five verses. “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith. Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? Let’s read verse five this way: “Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that THE NAME – Jesus – is the Son of God?”
New Light, when we believe THE name, not just believe in the name, but believe THE name – put our faith in THE name – the Bible says we will overcome the world. And wrong doctrine, New Light, wrong doctrine and false teaching is from the world. I want you to see the connection here. When we believe THE name with everything within us, we become overcomers because of our faith in the name. Revelations 2:17 says that those who overcome wrong teaching and wrong doctrine will receive a new name written on a white stone. New Light, I want a new name in heaven and pray that you desire a new name in heaven too. And we will receive it when we overcome wrong doctrine with the truth of God’s Word. Praise God!
Men, as I close out the month of June I want to encourage you. Oftentimes our identity is tied to our jobs, our education, or some title that has been bestowed upon us. We take the title identification and we become what we are called – what we are known for. Not only that, we transition that same identification to our children. We teach them to be known by something – to achieve something that they can hang “their hats” on. Men I want us to reconsider what’s most important. Is it the name we have here on earth and all the letters associated with it or is it the name we will receive from Jesus because we overcame? When we give our children names, we spend time thinking about what the name means and how important that name will be for that child’s future. A name means something. The most important name that we will ever receive is the name Jesus will give us that is written on that white stone. How we get that name is totally dependent on how we respond to THE name – Jesus Christ. Men, I pray that you will join me in setting your children up to receive not only THE name, but also to receive THEIR new name before the throne of God. You talk about a day to be proud, I will be shouting and praising God as I watch my family members approach the throne to receive their white stone with their new names. They will have to teach me how to pronounce their new name and I will be excited to learn it. What about you?
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
(If you are ever in the Kansas City, KS area, please come and worship with us at New Light Christian Fellowship, 15 N. 14th Street, Kansas City, KS 66102. Our service Sunday worship starts at 9 a.m. and Thursday night Bible study at 7 p.m. Also, for use of our social media, you can find us at newlightchristianfellowship on FB. To get our live stream services, please make sure you “like” and turn on notifications for our page so you can be notified when we are live streaming. We also have a church website and New Light Christian Fellowship YouTube channel for more of our content. We are developing more social media streams so please stand by and we will notify you once those channels are up and running. We look forward to you worshipping with us. May God bless and keep you.)
