WHAT IS HIS NAME?
Christmas Eve 12-24-21
Exodus 3:13 (ESV) Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”
“This one question expresses the most vital question of all ages; WHAT IS HIS NAME?”
God came. He came to Moses and told him that He has heard the cry of His people. It is time to set them free and God chose Moses to be the one who would herald this good news to the Hebrew people who have been in captivity, working as slaves for their Egyptian taskmasters for more than 400 years, are going to freed. Can you just imagine the conversation going on in Moses’ mind as he stands before a burning bush that is not consumed…that speaks? “Okay God, let me get this straight. You want me to go back to Egypt, where I’m wanted for murdering an Egyptian. You want me to go to Pharaoh, who wants to kill me, and you want me to just march in there and tell him to let your people, his chief labor force, go. Not only that, but you want me to go to the Hebrew people, Your people, and tell them ‘God sent me to tell you that He’s going to free you from slavery.’ God, you know they were jealous of me because I was a Hebrew, raised in Pharaoh’s house; they don’t even like me! And You want me to tell them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you.” God, you know they’re going to ask me, WHAT IS HIS NAME?’”
It is significant that the people were not going to ask, “WHO IS THIS GOD?” They knew who God was and they knew God’s name, Yahweh. It had been known to the patriarchs; Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Here is why this question is so important for us to consider as we celebrate Christmas:
Asking “WHAT IS HIS NAME” meant they sought for the relevancy of the name to their circumstances. “Who?” sought after title, name, and identity, whereas “What?” inquired into the character, quality, or essence of a person. So I ask you, IS HIS NAME relevant to your life, to your circumstances today? (1)
This is why the matter and manner of the birth of Christ is so important. Many religions throughout history have tried to say WHO Jesus is. There’s only one right answer. Sadly, there are many wrong answers. For example, as Adrian Rogers writes in one of his great sermons:
• Jehovah’s Witnesses believe Jesus is not God. Before He lived on Earth, He was just Michael the archangel.
• Mormons believe Jesus was created by God the Father and Mary in Heaven and is the “elder brother” of all men.
• Hindus and Buddhists see Jesus as an enlightened teacher or guru.
Some wrong answers may sound good on the surface.
• In Islam, He’s called a prophet, a messenger of Allah.
• People caught up in New Age beliefs and eastern mysticism speak of Jesus as some mystic medium who might get us in touch with special wisdom and knowledge.
• Many have said, “Jesus was a great man.”
• Demon spirits have called themselves “Jesus” when they appeared before people who didn’t know the Bible.
Some want to view Jesus as only a great moral teacher, rejecting His claim to be God. But C.S. Lewis answers that error:
I am trying here to prevent anyone from saying the really foolish thing that people say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus Christ as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.”
That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things that Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would be either a lunatic, on the level of a man who says he’s a poached egg, or else he would be the devil of hell.
You must make your choice. Either this man was and is the Son of God or else a madman or something worse.
You can shut Him up for a fool. You can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon. Or, you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let none of us come away with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us.
So, Moses pressed God, “When they ask me, WHAT IS HIS NAME, what am I to tell them?”
Exodus 3:14–15 (ESV) 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.
Then when we come to the Gospel of John, Christ adopts this name of “I am” as his own. The Jews were questioning him as to his authority to speak as He did and perform the miracles He did. Jesus said to them in John 8:58, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”
What a declaration! In just a few verses earlier, in John 8:24 Jesus told the Jews, “You will die in your sins.” Why? for unless you believe that I AM you will die in your sins.”
The reason the Jews would die in their sins is the same reason He tells multitudes today they will die in their sins! UNLESS YOU BELIEVE THAT I AM!
Oh, let me ask you, WHAT IS HIS NAME? Not only to history, not only to the Hebrews, not only to the Church, but to you…Is He relevant to your circumstances…who you are and what you’re going through, your day-to-day decisions, your lifestyle? The most sacred, holy gift of all the ages has been purchased for us.
What difference does His Name make to you. When Jesus says, I AM it’s like a blank check, waiting to be filled in. He makes 7 emphatic “I AM” statements and they are true for us today. Jesus said, I AM…the Bread of Life; the Light of the world; the door; the good Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep; the resurrection and the life; the vine; and finally, by His own declaration of exclusivity! I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE. No one comes to the Father but by me.” I AM is the unfinished Name of God. The declaration, “I AM: is the prelude to all HE WILL BE: The Bible teaches us that He will be, “all that my people need”: “I am their strength…their wisdom…their righteousness…their peace…their life…their all in all…their salvation. And He is the ONE you need today!
He came for us! Not only to save us, but to comfort us. He is the God of all comfort. Many of you here today will experience an empty chair in your home, at your table, some for the first time. I want you to know, I AM is there. He is the God of all comfort who comforts us in ALL our affliction. He promises us that He will never leave us nor forsake us. And He promises to comfort you, to help you, to lift you up! He is God’s gift to us at Christmas.
Before we celebrate communion today, let me ask you, have you received God’s greatest gift? The forgivness of sins as you repent of your sins and believe the gospel – death, burial , resurrection fo Jesus. Think about this…
A Christmas gift requires two things:
1. It must be purchased. Acts 20:28 tells us salvation is a gift.…purchased with his own blood.
2. It must be received. John 1:12 (ESV)
12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,
“But not me, pastor…I am too….” You’re too what? If our hearts are full of our own wretched I ams we will have no ears to hear His glorious, soul-satisfying “I AM.” We say things like, “I am…so weak; …so foolish; or I am good for nothing; …so helpless.(2) Did you know that if you are in Christ, that your Father assumes and accepts responsibility for who He is in you and “all of his promises are yes in Christ Jesus!” Do not ignore the blank check of God’s magnificent “I AM,” which authorizes us to draw upon Him for an abundant supply for every need.
Have you received Christ? The greatest gift of the season is the great I AM! Let me ask you, do you know Him? Would you know Him today? I pray that you would.
1 MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2006). The MacArthur study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Ex 3:13). Thomas Nelson Publishers.
2 Hannah Whitall Smith, The God of All Comfort, (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 1956), 21.
