Here is a powerful story of a man who made a great name for himself and left a name that
is long remembered. I quote another’s account: “World War II produced many heroes. One
such man was Butch O'Hare. He was a fighter pilot assigned to an aircraft carrier in the
South Pacific. One day his entire squadron was sent on a mission. After he was airborne, he looked at his fuel gauge and realized that someone had forgotten to top off his fuel tank. He
would not have enough fuel to complete his mission and get back to his ship. His flight
leader told him to return to the carrier. Reluctantly he dropped out of formation and
headed back to the fleet.
As he was returning to the mother ship, he saw something that turned his
blood cold. A squadron of Japanese Zeroes were speeding their way toward the
American fleet. The American fighters were gone on a sortie and the fleet
was all but defenseless. He couldn't reach his squadron and bring them back
in time to save the fleet. Nor, could he warn the fleet of the approaching
danger.
There was only one thing to do. He must somehow divert them from the fleet.
Laying aside all thoughts of personal safety, he dove into the formation of
Japanese planes. Wing-mounted 50 calibers blazed as he charged in, attacking
one surprised enemy plane and then another.
Butch weaved in and out of the now broken formation and fired at as many
planes as possible until finally all his ammunition was spent. Undaunted he
continued the assault. He dove at the Zeroes trying to at least clip off a
wing or tail, in hopes of damaging as many enemy planes as possible and
rendering them unfit to fly. He was desperate to do anything he could to keep
them from reaching the American ships. Finally, the exasperated Japanese
squadron took off in another direction. Deeply relieved Butch O'Hare and his
tattered fighter limped back to the carrier.
Upon arrival he reported in and related the event surrounding his return. The
film from the camera mounted on his plane told the tale. It showed the extent
of Butch's daring attempt to protect his fleet. He was recognized as a hero
and given one of the nation's highest military honors. And today O'Hare Airport in Chicago
is named in tribute to the courage of this great man.”
Jesus is the greatest hero in history for the believer, for He was able to win a victory
over the greatest enemies of man, and He gained a name that is above every name. Jesus
is the greatest person in the universe, and he is the greatest in every category of the roles
that he plays in life. There is nothing we can do to make him any greater than he is, but
we can magnify his name. Psalm 34:3 says, "O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt
his name together." We cannot make him greater than he is, but we can make him
greater in our minds than he is now. We can give him a greater place in our thinking
until he is the greatest, and above all others. We can magnify him until he is the primary
focus of our life, and the greatest influence in our life. We can lift him up until he is truly
Lord of all in our lives. We can magnify him until there is nothing and no one larger in
our lives and in our love, and this is to fulfill the first commandment of God, which is to
love him with all our being. It is the purpose of the book of Hebrews to help us do this,
for it gives us a clear revelation of how Jesus is the greatest in every category in which he
competes with others for our love and loyalty. God gave his very best when he gave his
Son Jesus. Isaac Watts wrote,
Join all the glorious names
Of wisdom, love, and power,
That ever mortals knew,
That angels ever bore:
All are too mean to speak His worth,
To poor to set my Savior forth.
The Psalmist knew God was a big wonderful God but he is saying, "O magnify [in your
thinking] the Lord with me, and let us exalt [lift up to the place where it rightfully
belongs] his name together." The same thing is given in Psalm 35:27: "Let them shout
for joy, and be glad, that favor my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the
Lord be magnified." That is, let Him get bigger and bigger in our minds until He is the
greatest reality in our lives. We cannot make God bigger than He is, but we can make
Him the biggest and greatest influence in our lives. He belongs as the number one power
in our lives, and it is by magnifying His name that we get Him to that place where He
belongs.
The first names that we learn as a child are mama and dada, and they are the most
important and influential names in our lives for years to come. As we grow older we
begin to learn many names of family and friends. Then in school we learn the names of
teachers and of famous people in history. More and more the names of contemporary
famous people become a part of our awareness. We go on all our lives learning more and
more names of authors and others who influence our thinking and choices. Name
recognition becomes a major aspect of our intellectual growth. We discover that the only
way we know what is going on in the world is to learn the names of those people who are
making the news and playing the biggest roles in the events that are making history. We
also learn that knowing people by their name can make a big difference in the success we
have in many fields of endeavor. Success if often dependent upon who you know by name.
The point is, names of people play a vital role in our lives from the beginning to the end.
The names you most honor and exalt in your value system determine the kind of person
you are.
If you love the names of movie stars, and they become the names you most often think
of and admire, and if you dream about their lives and put their pictures on your wall, you
are magnifying their name. They have become a primary factor in your value system,
and this will influence in a very strong way the kind of person you will be. This same
thing will happen if the names you most admire are famous wrestlers, racecar drivers,
sports heroes, writers, politicians, or any number of other possibilities. The names you
exalt will be the major influence in your life, and you will become like those whose names
you magnify. Whatever name is greatest in your life is the greatest influence on your life.
That is why Christian growth has not reached its highest level until the name of Jesus is
the greatest name in your thinking. We need to magnify the name of Jesus until there is
no greater name, for only when this is true, is it true that Jesus is Lord in our lives. As
long as any other name is greater in our lives, we are not totally submitted to His
lordship, and we border on being idle worshippers.
Jesus made two comparisons in Matt. 12:41-42 that sound like pride, but are really
just revealing the fact of who He is. He said, “The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment
with this generation, and shall condemn it; because they repented at the preaching of
Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.” Then He said, “The queen of the south
shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it for she came
from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a
greater than Solomon is here.” The most successful prophet and the wisest king are not
to be compared to Jesus, for He is greater than all of the greats of the past, and when you
are greater than all, you are the greatest. That is the theme of Hebrews and the whole
New Testament.
Paul makes this clear to the Philippians when he writes to them about how Jesus gave
up equality with God and humbled himself to become a man and become obedient all the
way to the cross. Then he writes in Phil. 2:9-11, “Therefore God exalted him to the
highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” God has given Him the
greatest name for all eternity, but it is our responsibility to give Him the greatest name in
our lives for all time. We will have no choice in eternity, for every knee will bow before
His lordship, but in time we have a choice, and the purpose of the book of Hebrews is to
persuade us to make it our choice to magnify the name of Jesus as the greatest name in
our lives.
Every nation has its heroes whose names are learned and exalted in their schools so
that children grow up admiring them for the role they have played in their history. We
have great names like Washington and Lincoln, and we come to love and admire these
men for what they did that so influenced the history of our land that we are blessed
because of them. We have been saved from tyranny and slavery because of these great
men. We could go on and on with the names of others who have saved our freedoms, and
who have saved us from ignorance of all kinds. We have been saved from diseases of all
kinds because of great names in medicine. We have been saved from drudgery by the
many famous inventors that have made our lives so much easier. We are among the
richest people in history because of the great names in our history that have enriched us
and saved us from innumerable negatives. But none are greater than the One who saved
us from our sins. Matt. 1:21 says, “And she shall bring forth a son, and you shall call his
name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.” He alone could save us from
that which would lead to the loss of all that is good and best in the future, and that is why
His name is the greatest of all names, and needs to be exalted to the highest place in our
thinking and in our lives. Jesus is the greatest possible name that we can have in the
hierarchy of values in our lives. Charles Wesley wrote,
Surrounded by a host of foes,
Stormed by a host of foes within,
Nor swift to flee, nor strong t’oppose,
Single, against hell, earth, and sin,
Single, yet undismayed, I am;
I dare believe in Jesus’ Name.
What though a thousand hosts engage,
A thousand worlds, my soul to shake?
I have a shield shall quell their rage,
And drive the alien armies back;
Portrayed it bears a bleeding Lamb
I dare believe in Jesus’ Name.
Me to retrieve from Satan’s hands,
Me from this evil world to free,
To purge my sins, and loose my bands,
And save from all iniquity,
My Lord and God from heav’n He came;
I dare believe in Jesus’ Name.
Salvation in His Name there is,
Salvation from sin, death, and hell,
Salvation into glorious bliss,
How great salvation, who can tell!
But all He hath for mine I claim;
I dare believe in Jesus’ Name.
Not all values are equal. There are many things that are true, but they are not all
equally valuable. It is true that Thomas was an Apostle, but he was not the most valuable
of the Apostles, for he was not used of God like Peter, John and Paul to write so much of
what was God’s Word to be read for the rest of history. There names are greater in
Christian history because of what they wrote. They were to the New Testament what
Moses was to the Old Testament. They were the great authors God used to communicate
what He wanted to say to man. But they were all servants, and the Son is always greater
than the servants, and that is the point of Hebrews. Jesus is the Son of God, and the Son
is superior to all of the servants of God, and the angels have been great servants of God
all through history. The New Testament does not put the angels down, for they play a
major role in the life of Jesus and the Church. They will play a major role in the way
history ends, and they will join the church of the redeemed in eternal praise of the
Redeemer Lamb upon the throne. They are the most numerous and loyal of servants, but
as great as they are they do not compare with the name above every name, the Lord
Jesus.
The name of Jesus is above the name of any and all angels. Because this truth was
neglected there have been cults all through history that have idolized angels. They have
exalted angels to the place of the highest value in their lives and their whole life revolves
around the seeking to know them and depend upon them for guidance and protection.
Angel worship has been common in the ancient world and has been revived again in the
modern world. It is not that they are not fascinating beings that we need to study about
and be aware of, for they are among the greatest messengers of God in the Bible. Bible
students need to know plenty about angels, for they are major players, but when they
become more important to us than Jesus, and when we become more involved with them
than Jesus, then we have let the good become the enemy of the best. This is what is
constantly happening in our value system if we are not magnifying the name of Jesus.
Very good and valid truths and beings can rise to the level of first place in our thinking
and value system if we are not constantly exalting Jesus to the top level as the greatest
name in the hierarchy of names that we honor and magnify. The danger is not that bad
things will be given the priority, but that good things, and good values, and good beings
will be given priority. The good always becomes an enemy of the best when it is exalted
above the name of Jesus in our value system.
The danger of idolatry is never far away from the believer, for it is so easy to begin to
let some good thing or person rise to the level of first place in our lives. The cults thrive
on this tendency. They come with what is a neglected truth, and it is so reasonable and
possibly even biblical, and we get excited about it and go off on a tangent promoting this
truth to the point that we neglect exalting Jesus as the greatest truth that we have to
promote. This happens to believers all the time, and we cannot blame the cults for all of
it. Evangelical believers can get so hung up on some newly discovered system of theology
dealing with the end times, or some other aspect of theology, such as the debate between
Calvinism and Arminianism, that they exalt this issue above Jesus. They no longer care
that others love Jesus and claim Him as Savior and Lord. Now all that matters is whether
or not they think the same about their pet view of theology. Jesus is no longer the highest
name in their value system. It is now Calvin or Wesley, or Dispensationalism,
or Premillennialism, or Amillennialism, of any number of other isms. All the isms will one
day become wasims, but Jesus will always be the greatest name for all eternity. If His is
not the name that is the highest value that guides your thinking and actions, then you are
an idolater, even as a Christian, and you will live on a sub-Christian level in some area of
your life, and be a hindrance to others seeing the glory of Jesus in you.
I know of what I write, for when I was younger I was one of those who got so excited
about some aspect of theology that it became more important in its effect on how I
related to other believers than did the fact that they loved Jesus. Jesus was not the
primary value that determined my love for others. If they held to a theology that differed
from mine, I felt they were inferior and foolish, and not worthy of my respect and love. I
was an idolater and had no idea I was, for I felt I was being more loyal to God and My
Lord by being uncooperative with those who thought differently from me. It often takes a
lot of reading widely and a lot of exposure to other people with other view points before
one realizes that the only thing that can create unity among believes is their common love
for Jesus. He, and He alone, is the power that holds the universe together, and He alone
can hold people together in the oneness that He seeks in His body the church. I still do
not agree with everyone in viewpoints on many issues, but I feel I have grown in maturity
by being able to love and call brothers in Christ all who name the name of Jesus as Lord
of their lives. This is part of what magnifying and exalting the name of Jesus means. It
means letting His name be the primary value by which we determine fellowship, and not
the names of authors of a variety of theological viewpoints. I may be wrong in some of my
views, but I can never be wrong in loving all who love the name of Jesus.
Someone said, “Jesus is not valued at all until He is valued above all.” This is too
strong a statement, for Jesus may still be among the highest values, even when He is not
the highest, but when this is the case, He is not Lord of your life. This was the problem
the author of Hebrews was dealing with. The Jewish Christians he wrote to were
seriously thinking of returning to Judaism and exalting the angels again to the highest
level. They were in danger of idolatry, and this book was written to prevent that. We may
not be in this particular danger, and the angels actually play less a role in our thinking
than they should. But all of us face the danger of putting some other value above the
name of Jesus. It could be the name of our family, the name of our company, the name of
our church, the name of our denomination, the name of our school, or the name of our
nation. Any one of these things could become a idol in our lives and have more influence
on our thinking and actions than that of the name of Jesus. When this is the case we are
idolaters, and are in the same need of the teaching of Hebrews as were its first readers.
Nobody is all the Christian they can be until the name of Jesus is the name they magnify
and exalt to the highest place.
Mike Bradaric has put together a list of the ways this name is so significant.
1. It is the name that every tongue will confess
2. It is the name to which every knee will bow
3. It is the name, the only name, given under heaven by which men and women can be saved.
4. It is the only name through which your sins can be forgiven
5. It is a name that is above every title that can be given, not only in the present age but
also in the one to come.
6. It is the only name that is majestic in all the earth
7. It is the only name that stretches to the ends of the earth
8. It is the only name that endures forever
9. It is a name that is a strong tower
10. That is a holy name
11. That is a righteous name
12. That is a mighty name
13. That is an eternal name
14. Whose glory cannot be shared with any other
15. It is a name by which we will be known
16. It is a name by which he will know us
17. It is a name that will be written upon our foreheads forever
18. It is a name foolish not to know
19. It is a name foolish not to name
20. It is a name foolish not to call upon
21. It is a name we can lean upon
22. It is a name you can believe on
There is no angel who has a name like Jesus, for no angel is the Son of God, and no angel
is the Savior of the world. They are created; He is Creator. They are servants; He is the Son.
They had a beginning; He is eternal. They work for God; He is the God for whom they work.
We do not know of any higher beings in this universe that are above angels except God
Himself, and Jesus is one of the Persons in the Triune God. The point is, you cannot go
higher than Jesus, for His is the greatest name in the universe. It is greater even than the
name God, for He is God who became one of us, and so is closer to us than any other name
by which we name the name of God. He is God as we know God best. He is superior to all
other beings, and, therefore, has a name that is superior, and which is to be magnified above
all others. I try to say it in poetry-
His name the greatest name ever,
In all heaven and the earth.
A greater there will be never,
None can ever give it birth.
God Himself gave this name Jesus
To this one His only Son.
Only His name from sin frees us;
He alone salvation won.
There is no need for another
To come and release from sin.
Jesus is our final brother;
He every battle did win.
No angel can ever match Him;
None would even care to try.
He took the full cup to the brim
When for us He came to die.
Even angels bow to His name,
For they know Him as their Lord.
Heaven has never been the same
Since they sing now in accord.
Our Lord Jesus is the greatest;
No name can with His compare.
His name has eternal greatness;
There’s none greater to declare.
It is saying something very powerful to say that Jesus is superior to the angels, and that
they are subject to Him, and that they ever bow and worship Him. We need to keep in mind
that they were the key supernatural beings all through the Old Testament, and that even the
pre-incarnate Christ appeared in the Old Testament as the Angel of the Lord. It is
important to know why the angels were so important to the Jews, and even those Jews who
became Christians, in order to understand why the book of Hebrews make so much of Jesus
being greater. Let me quote an old writer who says so much in a brief paragraph.
"Being made so much better than the angels." To appreciate the force of this we must,
briefly, consider the excellency of the "angels." Angels are the highest of all God’s creatures:
heaven is their native home (Matt. 24:36). They "excel in strength" (Ps. 103:20). They are
God’s "ministers" (Psalm 104:4). Like a king’s gentlemen-in-waiting, they are said to
"minister unto the Ancient of days" (Daniel 7:10). They are "holy" (Matthew 25:31). Their
countenances are like "lightning," and their raiment is as white as snow (Matt. 28:3). They
surround God’s throne (Rev. 5:11). They carry on every development of nature. "God does
not move and rule the world merely by laws and principles, by unconscious and inanimate
powers, but by living beings full of light and love. His angels are like flames of fire; they have
charge over the winds, and the earth, and the trees, and the sea. Through the angels He
carries on the government of the world" (Saphir).
To have a name greater than these beings is to be great beyond comparison, as we have
said. When you are greater than the greatest, then you are truly the greatest conceivable,
and that is who Jesus is. He is the greatest beyond which none can be conceived to be
greater. It is not in the mind of man or God to conceive of one greater in importance than
Jesus. That is why His is the greatest name. In another message we will deal with the specific
name that the first chapter of Hebrews is focusing on, and that is the name “Son”. We will
look at this in a whole new message called THE GREATEST SON.
