The Name Of Jesus

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