The Name

 

 

Consider the place the Divine Name holds in the Holy of Holies:

 

“I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me” (John 17:6).

 

“Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me” (17:11).

 

“I was keeping them in You name which You have given Me” (17:12).

 

“I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them” (17:26).

 

Why does Jesus manifest the Name of the Father to us? So that the love of the Father will be within us, so that Jesus Christ Himself will live within us. One of the reasons it is important that we keep this in mind is that it guards against esoteric and gnostic ideas of the Divine Name. Too often professing Christians get caught up in signs and wonders and so-called special knowledge, these distract us from Jesus, His Cross, and deep relationship within the Trinity.

 

A friend once asked me what I thought about two “blood moons” happening within a short time of each other. It seems that a prophetic snake oil teacher was hyping blood moons. I told him that I wasn’t aware of the impending phenomenon. Actually, the only reasons I might care about blood moons are to admire God’s creation, to note how easily distracted from Jesus we can get, and to marvel how quickly so-called teachers can make a buck in the prophetic teaching industry. The same principle is true when it comes to people seeking hidden meanings in a divine name, our Father is interested in relationship, that is the whole point in Jesus declaring the Father’s Name to us – our dear heavenly Father is not going to give us some secret divine code by which we unlock deep secrets which are hidden from others. Our Father desires relationship, not people who think they are elite, not egotists; as we “see” Jesus we come to know the Divine Name, His Essence, His Name.

 

Now, for sure there are hidden treasures and wisdom, but we find them in Jesus. “In a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:2 – 3; see also 1 Corinthians Chapter 2). Life is really a matter of who we know (Jesus Christ), not what we know. If the “what we know” flows from knowing Jesus, it has life; if the “what we know” is learned apart from a relationship with Jesus, it is death. There is much lifeless Christianity, but thankfully, there is also much life in Christ.

 

I will also note that throughout the Bible God uses names to reveal Himself, His Essence, His Character. He uses names to reveal His Name. These names are not magical, they are not given to us so that we can use them in religious incantations; they are meant to draw us into relationship with Him, ever deeper into Him. As we meditate on His names, by His grace, we can see His beauty and glories and love Him ever deeper and fuller, beholding the wonder of His Nature and His incredible love for us.

 

All the names which God uses in the Bible reveal Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ reveals the Name within the names.

 

“For both He who sanctifies [Jesus] and those who are sanctified [us] are all from one Father, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, ‘I will proclaim You name to My brethren, in the midst of the congregation I will sing Your praise” (Hebrews 2:11- 12).

 

From the very beginning of His ministry, in word and deed, Jesus proclaimed the Name of the Father to His brothers and sisters.  Jesus’ teaching revealed the Father’s Name, Jesus’ care and compassion and mercy revealed the Father’s Name, Jesus’ healing and deliverance from demons revealed the Father’s Name, Jesus’ feeding the multitudes revealed the Father’s Name, Jesus’ touching the untouchable revealed the Father’s Name, Gethsemane and Golgotha revealed the Father’s Name, the Resurrection and Ascension revealed the Father’s Name.

 

Jesus continues to reveal the Father’s Name to us (John 17:26); let us not be distracted by lesser things that pose as the Gospel, as Biblical Christianity. Let us not be distracted by the things of this world.

 

Jesus came to proclaim the Father’s Name to us, His brothers and sisters. We didn’t know who we were, we didn’t know who our Father was, we didn’t know His Name, His Nature, nor the glory of our calling to Him in Jesus Christ, the Father’s only begotten Son and our elder brother (Hebrews 2:9 – 18; Romans 8:12 – 39).

 

But now we know and are coming to know. As Jesus reveals the Father’s Name to us, we in turn are to reveal the Father’s Name to others, as we abide in the Vine.

 

I’m going to close this with some thoughts I sent to a friend this morning on Hebrews 2:12:

 

As I have been pondering Heb 2:12...I have a picture of Jesus and the disciples beneath a canopy of stars...and Jesus singing. Also Zeph. 3:17...and elsewhere.

 

O yes...singing elsewhere...at the Temple, in synagogue...but one who sings, who really sings...sings as a way of life...yes?

 

I think so.

 

Did Jesus teach them new songs?

 

Did He teach them to sing Bible passages they never thought of singing?

 

Did those songs resonate with them until their last breath?

 

O to sing a song, just one song, with Jesus.

 

Shall we do so today?