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NAMES OF GOD SERIES
JESUS CHRIST FULFILLING THE NAMES OF GOD
Let us phrase once
again the eight fold revelations of the names of Jehovah. We have Jehovah Jireh, and that is the Lord who sees and provides. Jireh actually mean to see. But we know that when He
sees, then He provides. That is a revelation given to Abraham. To Moses was
revealed three of the names of God. First, there was Jehovah Rapha and that is the Lord who heals us. And then he
was given Jehovah Nissi and that is God our
banner. And the third revelation given was Jehovah Mekadesh
and that is the Lord our holiness. One revelation was given to Gideon and that
was Jehovah Shalom: He is the Lord our peace. Then one revelation was
given to David and that is Jehovah Ra'ah and
that is the Lord our shepherd. And then one revelation was given to Jeremiah
and that is Jehovah Tsidkenu, the Lord our
righteousness. And the final revelation was given to Ezekiel, Jehovah Shammah, the Lord is present.
We
will look at the fulfilment of all the names of Jehovah in one person called
the Lord Jesus Christ. First of all we want to look at Isaiah 53 a prophecy
regarding the Lord Jesus Christ coming down to die for the sins and the
sickness and afflictions of mankind. It is a beautiful chapter and revelation
of the suffering Messiah.
Isaiah 53:1ff Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been
revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; and when
we see Him there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and
rejected by men. A Man of sorrow and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it
were, our faces from Him; He was despised and we did not esteem Him.
Surely He has
borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
But He was wounded for our transgression, He was bruised for our iniquity; The
word sorrows is also sickness in the Hebrew. And there we have
Jehovah Rapha. The Lord who
heals, fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
The chastisement
of our peace was upon Him and by His stripes we are healed. There
we have Jehovah Shalom, the Lord our peace.
All we like sheep
have gone astray. We have turned, every one, to his own
way. And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. There
we have the Lord as Jehovah Ra'ah our shepherd.
He was oppressed
and He was afflicted. Yet He opened not His mouth. He was led as a lamb to the
slaughter and as a sheep before its shearers is silent. So He opened not His
mouth. We have Jesus the Shepherd taking our place as the
lamb and the sheep. Jehovah Ra'ah is Jesus Christ.
He was taken from
prison and from judgement and who will declare His generation? For He was cut
off from the land of the living; For the transgression
of my people He was stricken. And they made His grave with the wicked but with
the rich at His death, because He has done no violence nor was any deceit in
His mouth. We began to see Jehovah Jireh
coming forth. But that is not all that is still some more.
Yet it please the Lord to bruise Him. He has put Him to grief. When
You made His soul an offering for sin, He shall see
His seed, He shall prolong his days. Now you see that
he shall prolong his day implying that he will live forever and forever. He
will ever live. He will always be with us. He is the one who is, who was and
who is to come. He is the one who is ever present. Because He is ever existed,
we have Jehovah Shammah, the Lord is there.
And the pleasure
of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. Again you see
Jehovah Jireh mentioned.
He shall see the
labour of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My
righteous Servant shall justify many. My righteous
servant indicates the Lord our righteous judge, Jehovah Tsidkenu.
Therefore I will
divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the
strong, because He poured His soul onto death. He is a captain of
our host. And He goes forth and plunders and divides the spoils for us. He is
Jehovah Nissi.
And he was
numbered with the transgressors and he bore the sins of many. And made intercession for the transgressors. As the
intercessor, He is our High Priest; He is the one set apart for us, Jehovah Mekadesh, our intercessor, our High Priest.
We
have all the names of Jehovah fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. So we are
going to look at some scriptures to show forth how all the Jehovah's names of
God are fulfilled in one person called Jesus Christ. We will look at the names
of Jesus.
Lets start by taking Isaiah 53 to be our key guide in seeing
its fulfilment. There is Jehovah Rapha, the Lord who
heals us. In verses 4 and 5 Surely He has
borne our grief and carried our sorrows yet we esteemed Him smitten of God and
wounded for our transgression, bruised for our iniquity. In Matthew 8:17 we
see its fulfilment in the Lord Jesus Christ: that it might be fulfilled,
which Isaiah the prophet saying spoke; He himself took our infirmities and bore
our sicknesses. Jesus did that for us. Why did He do it? It is because His
name is Jesus. The name Jesus means God our Saviour, our healer. The
word salvation comes from the word sozo which
means to be saved from our sins and our sicknesses. In Matthew 1: 21 and she
will bring forth a son and you shall call His name Jesus.
The
name Jesus is only one of the names of the second person of the Godhead.
But it seems that the name Jesus Christ is more widely used than any other
names of Jesus by both Christians and the word of God. With Jesus carrying so
many names, which is His original name? Before we consider all the eight names
of Jehovah fulfilled in Jesus, the name Jesus is actually one of the eight
redemptive names of the second person of the Godhead. The reason why the name Jesus
Christ is used so much is because the preaching of redemption from sin is
what we need. And why do we go out and pray for healing in Jesus name? Because that Name means healing. The name Jesus means God is
my Saviour. God is my salvation. Healing is contained in that name. It is not
only that God is able to heal or has the power to heal. His name itself is
healing. And there are people arguing whether healing is in the bible or not.
Healing is the name of God Himself. It is one of His Names.
Originally
the name of the second person of the Godhead is the Word. The name Jesus
was not His original name at all. Jesus pre-existed before the world was made.
What was Jesus called before the gospel of Matthew was written? The Word. The Greek calls it the Logos. In John 1:1 Logos
means idea, word, wisdom. It carries all three
meanings. He was called the Wisdom. In the book of Proverbs He was called the
Wisdom. All these point to Jesus Christ. So before the worlds were made there
was God the Father, God the Word, and God the Holy Spirit. And when Jesus came
down to this planet earth, He actually came forth to bring eight of the names
that God has revealed in the names of Jehovah. So when He came down the angel
said about this manifestation of God in human flesh, "You shall call his
name Jesus." He took on one of the first Jehovah names in the New
Testament, Jesus. One day that person called the Word of God, the second person
of the Godhead, will use His original name, the Word. We find it in the book of
Revelation chapter 19:11 And I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse
and He who sat on him is called Faithful and True. And in righteousness He
judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire and on His head were
many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was
clothed with a robe dipped in blood and His name is called the Word of God.
That is Jesus' original name. He is the Logos, the Word of God. It is only when
He revealed Himself as God clothed in human flesh that He took on the name, Jesus
that we have come to know.
And
Christ has been added because He fulfilled the messianic promises. The word
Messiah points to Jesus being anointed. Christ from the Greek word Christos
means anointed. And so we have the anointed Jesus. So we call him Jesus Christ.
Paul always calls him Christ Jesus. And why is it related? The name Jesus
Christ is related to salvation from sin, salvation from sickness. For in Luke
4:18-19 he says the anointing of the Lord has come upon Him. The Spirit of the
Lord is upon Him to preach the gospel to the poor, to proclaim the acceptable
year of the Lord. It includes healing, deliverance, and every aspect of the
gospel is found in that one name Jesus Christ of Nazareth. And every time a
healing is performed, we have to call on that name Jesus. For there is healing
in Jesus Christ.
Let
us continue to look at the other revelations of the names of God in Jesus, the
second person of the Godhead. Following the flow of Isaiah
53: 5, He was bruised for our iniquity; the chastisement of our peace was
upon Him. Now Jesus has always been one who is able to impart peace.
And in Isaiah 9:6 His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Prince of Peace. It is one of the titles that Jesus
Christ holds. But His actual name shall be called the Prince of Peace. In John
14: 27 Jesus says Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, not as the
world gives, do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled neither let it be
afraid. Although He does not call Himself the Prince of Peace, we find Him
as a giver of peace. Jesus is our Prince of Peace, and our salvation.
And
in Isaiah 53: 6 All we like sheep have gone
astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on Him
the iniquity of us all. In John 10 we want to show that all the names are
fulfilled in that one person. In John 10:10 the thief comes only to steal,
to kill and to destroy; I have come that they may have life and that they might
have it more abundantly. Verse 11, I am the good shepherd. The good
shepherd gives His life for his sheep. Jesus is known as the Good Shepherd,
another one of His titles. The reason that we look at Him is because His entire
life was a revelation of God’s name and who God is to us.
The
next one is found in Isaiah 53:9,10 And they made
His grave with the wicked. But with the rich in His death, because He had done
no violence, nor was any deceit found in His mouth. And the pleasure of
the Lord shall prosper in His hands. The name of Jesus is associated with
prosperity. Look over at Revelation 19:16. Although it is related as you can
see Jehovah Jireh and Jehovah Nissi
will be related. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written;
King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Because he is a King of Kings He can make
you a king. When we talk about Jesus being king, we always think of Him being
king of all the kings and leaders on the planet earth. But part of being king
of kings is He is king over us. Kings doesn’t refer to earthly rulers. It
refers to us being kings and princes with Him. In Revelation 1 we are told that
we have been made kings and princes with the Lord Jesus Christ. So He is king
over us kings. He provides for us by making you rule and reign in Him. He is
King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Lets me show one more verse
in Phil. 4. We could go into some studies even taking one of those
names. But we are doing the names of God so we are focusing on that. And just to show you how King of Kings and Lord of Lords is related
to Him in providing for us. In Phil. 4:19 And
my God shall supply all you needs according to His riches in glory by Christ
Jesus. So we know that Jesus is our Jehovah Jireh; He
supplies all our needs. The book Philippians focuses on Jehovah Jireh. Yet in Phil. 2 he talks about Jesus being a king.
Phil.2: 9 there God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which
is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those
in heaven and of those on earth and of those under the earth. The name of
Jesus that is related to Jehovah Jireh is the King of
Kings and the Lord of Lords our provider.
Isaiah
53:10 He shall see his seed, He shall prolong His days. Now the word he
shall see seed in the Hebrew implies that he will always be with his seed.
There is an emphasis also on being as well as seeing. And that is Jehovah Shammah the Lord is with us. Matthew 1:23 behold a
virgin shall be with child and bear a son and they shall call his name
Emmanuel, God with us; that is Jehovah Shammah.
Now
if you study the titles and the names of Jesus, you will have more than eight.
But if you look at it very carefully, you will see that all the titles and
names of Jesus can be classified into eight divisions of the eight Jehovah
names of God. Let's see another one of His titles. Like Rev 1 He says I am
the Alpha and the Omega. He is the beginning and the end. He is Jehovah Shammah. The Lord who is, who was and who
is to come. The unchanging God and that title again can be classified
under Jehovah Shammah together with Emmanuel God with
us, yesterday, today and forever. So all the titles and the
names of Jesus can be classified into eight divisions.
We
look also in Isaiah 53:11 by His knowledge My
righteous Servant. In 2 Tim. 4:8 we have another name of Jesus. It says finally
there is laid out for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord the
righteous judge will give to me on that day and not to me only but also to all
who have loved His appearing. Another of His title is the Righteous Judge,
and that is Jehovah Tsidkenu. Jesus is our
righteousness because He is the righteous judge. That word the Righteous
Judge refers to Jesus and not to God the Father. We can prove it from Acts
17: 31 when Paul says that God has appointed a day on which He will judge
the world in righteousness by the Man He has ordained. He has given assurance
of this to all by raising Him from the dead. God has reserved all judgement
to Jesus, the Man called Jesus whom He has raised from the dead. Jesus is our
righteous judge.
Then
in Isaiah 53: 12 therefore I will divide him a portion with the great and He
shall divide the spoil with the strong because He poured out His soul onto
death. He shall divide the spoil with the strong. He is the one who
overcome in death and became the captain of hosts. That is described in Hebrews
2:10 Speaking about the life of Jesus Christ, For it was fitting for Him,
for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to
glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings, for
both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for
which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren. Here we see that Jesus is Jehovah Mekadesh, He who sanctifies.
Lets look also at Hebrew 12:2 Looking onto Jesus the
author and finisher of our faith. Now the title of Jesus here is the author
and the finisher of our faith. And that describes Jesus Christ as our captain.
Although the Greek word author in Hebrews 12: 2 and the word captain
in Hebrews 2: 10 are different, they give two different senses of how He is the
author and the finisher of our faith in Him. On one side in Hebrew 2 is one who
is the cause and source. And in the other in Hebrews 12: 2 it is the one who is
the beginning of all things. And so we have here the other name of Jesus that
expresses Jehovah Nissi; He is our banner. How does these names of God as expressed in Jesus in the New
Testament apply to us? By Jesus being the author and the finisher of our faith,
we understand that in order for Him to be the Captain of the hosts, He must be
the author of our faith. He cannot be Jehovah Nissi
to you unless you understand that He is the author of your faith. He put the
faith in our life to overcome the world. It is faith that overcomes the world.
Then
we have in Isaiah 53:12 He bore the sin of many and made intercession for
the transgressors. Jesus our High Priest after the order of
Melchizedek. In Hebrews 9 and Hebrews 10 we are told that He is our
High Priest. That is one of His titles, His office, His work and His name.
Jesus is our High Priest. And He makes intercession for us.
Tapping into the power of the names
Jehovah Rapha
We look at some
principles on how to tap on all these eight fold names of Jehovah found in
Jesus. What are the principles that are involved? Each name requires a
different principle all together. So let's go in an orderly form. Lets go in the first one in God our Saviour, God our healer,
that is Jehovah Rapha. And we find it in the name
Jesus Christ. And the application of Jehovah Rapha is
in the name of Jesus Christ. Calling on that name, commanding
in the name, laying hands in that name, invoking the name of Jesus. The
key is to call with our mouth. Believing in your heart.
Confess with your mouth the name of Jesus Christ. So the method of tapping into
the name and power of Jehovah Rapha is in applying
the name of Jesus Christ.
Jehovah Shalom
There
is a special application in Jehovah Shalom, which is the prince of peace. We
have to examine carefully the application of the prince of peace. Look
carefully at the gospel of John 14 where peace is mentioned. Verses 26-27, But
the Helper the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My
name will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I
said to you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Notice the
connection, the things, which I say to you. When you link it up to Phil. 4: 7 the
peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, you will find that the
following verse Phil. 4: 8 ..whatever things
are true, whtever things are noble, whatever things
are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if
there is anything praiseworthy - meditate on these things. So how do we tap
on Jesus Christ being Jehovah Shalom, the Prince of Peace to us? We find it by
meditating on the word of God. The spoken words that come forth from His life brings peace. The teachings of our Lord lead us to peace. If
you want to tap on the Prince of Peace, Jehovah Shalom, get the teaching of
Jesus. They will bring peace of mind to you. A lot of people struggle for
peace. Many businessmen struggle to have a peaceful night of sleep. What is the
key? Get the teachings of Jesus. Maybe get all the sayings and the teachings of
Jesus on the tape. And play them over and over again. And strangely the peace
starts coming. The words that Jesus speaks to you are spirit and they are life.
Jesus says they contain peace.
Jehovah Ra'ah
After Jehovah Rapha, comes Jehovah Shalom; after Jehovah Shalom, comes
Jehovah Ra'ah, Jesus the Good Shepherd. There is only
one key for each one. When you discover that key you discover the fullness of
the Jehovah in the New Testament application. In the gospel of John there is
only one main key. He gives us the main key in John 10: 27 My sheep hear my voice. And I know them and they follow
Jehovah Jireh
Following the
order in Isaiah, after Jehovah Ra'ah comes Jehovah Jireh. We want to
show that Jehovah Jireh is fulfilled in Jesus as the
Coming King of Kings and the Lord of Lord. Let us look at the Book of
Revelation where Jesus is described as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Revelation
19:11-16 Now I saw heaven opened, and
behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes
were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name
written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood,
and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in
fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. Now out of His mouth
goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself
will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fury
and wrath of the Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name
written: King of Kings and Lord of
Lords.
Within these five
or six verses all the names of God are contained either in one of His
attributes or in one of His clothing. But in these six verses all the names are
mentioned in different form. But they all directed towards the fact that He is
the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is bringing His kingship into the world.
And look at the context. It is the Second Coming of the Lord. And you cross
reference to 2 Thessalonians, which speaks about the Second Coming of the Lord.
2 Thessalonians 1:
8-10 In flaming fire taking vengeance on
those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the
presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes, in that
Day to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who
believe, because our testimony among you was believed.
Now you notice
something more: it talks about the glory of the Lord and the presence of the
Lord. And now look at Phil. 4:19 and my God shall supply all your needs
according to His riches in glory. In this verse, my God shall supply all
your needs indicates Jehovah Jireh. But notice
how He will supply our needs - according to His riches in glory.
And that is the key to the name of Jehovah Jireh: the
glory of Jesus Christ. In His coming He is going to be clothed in His glory.
And all that takes place as all the names of His are upon Him. It is His glory
that will fill the earth. And all riches and all wealth are for one purpose: it
is to glorify the Lord. When Satan came to tempt Jesus in Matthew 4 he tried to
show Jesus all the glory of the world. So we say that the true riches and glory
is the presence, the grace, and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. When you
have the grace and glory of Jesus, you will have a rich supply to your needs.
Jehovah Shammah
Following the flow
in Isaiah 53 after Jehovah Jireh comes
Jehovah Shammah. Let us look at a few verses which
indicate the name Jehovah Shammah, the Lord is
present.
Matthew 1:23, and
they shall call His name Emmanuel which is translated God with us.
Matthew 18:18-20 where
two or three are gathered in My name there I will be
in the midst of them.
Matthew 28:20 teaching
them to observe all things that I have commanded you and lo, I am with you
always even to the end of the age.
Rev. 1:8 I am
the Alpha and the Omega the beginning and the end says the Lord, who is, who
was, and who is to come, the almighty.
As we look at all
these scriptures, we look for a key to tie them together. There is only one. A
lot of them look like the other keys, like the the
glory and presence of God, that is related to Jehovah Jireh.
But there is one special one for the name Jehovah Shammah.
And you will find it in Matthew 18 when Jehovah is Shammah
to us. When the Lord is there. Verse
20 for when two or three are gathered together.
Now there are
three or four principles there. One is in verse 19 the prayer of agreement.
Then in verse 20 we see the numbers there, the numerical 2 and 3. Then we see
the gathering together and we see the name there. It is not just the name,
because the name is used all the time. It is not just the agreement. But do you
notice the whole emphasis is on the togetherness? When two or three are
gathered together, there is a manifestation of His presence. In John 17 Jesus
prayed that we might be one. There is a reason for Him wanting us to be one.
For only when there is a gathering of one accord can Jehovah Shammah manifest. You will find it
in Acts 2 that the apostles were in one accord. And they have Jehovah Shammah.
Look at Acts 5
when everyone in the church was one. When Ananias and Sapphira
were removed, and every one feared the Lord, every one was united in their
belief. Jehovah Shammah manifested Himself in His
awesome glory and presence. But there was a key to bring it about. It is called
"koinonia" of believers, the one accord,
and the fellowship of Jesus Christ. When you get into oneness with believer or
believers, there is a powerful potential to bring about the manifestation of
Jehovah Shammah. He is saying, "Look here, I am
not going to manifest Myself as Jehovah Shammah until you get united." It is like something
that is only possible as a group. Jehovah Shammah is
not for the lone ranger. In the book of Ezekiel, God’s presence as Jehovah Shammah came on a temple built by the nation of
Jehovah Tsidkenu
After Jehovah Shama comes Jehovah Tsidkenu. Lets look at 2 Tim.4 where our Lord is described as being a
righteous judge. We look for a certain special theme that flows that indicate
keys into the revelation of the names of Jehovah found in Jesus.
2 Tim. 4:8 Finally there is laid out for me the crown of
righteous which the Lord the righteous judge will give to me and not to me only
but also to all who love His appearing.
The Lord Jesus as
the righteous judge is the fulfilment of the name Jehovah Tsidkenu.
How do I in the New Testament move into Jehovah Tsidkenu?
You will find one of those words there is the key. It is a very unlikely word.
We don’t associate it together, but it is together. It is called the love of
Jesus Christ. You cannot be righteous until you love Him. It is a very
simple truth. Try to be righteous without loving Him. That is impossible. In
the Old Testament, they could not do it because they do not have the revelation
of God’s love. No matter how they tried, they could not please God. All have
sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But in the New Testament God says
I want to show you how much I love you. And He sent Jesus Christ to die on the
cross for us. And He showed us how much He loved us. And the song says,
"How can you refuse Him now? How can you turn aside from His bleeding
redemption for you? How can you refuse Him now, how can you refuse Him now? How
can you turn away from His side?"
Brethren I am
talking about keys. Keys are instruments to open to the revelations to the
eight Jehovah names. The key to Jehovah Tsidkenu in
Jesus Christ is the love of Jesus. Hebrews 1 proves to us that He loves
righteousness and He hates unrighteousness. That is because He loves God. If
you have first love for Jesus, how can you sin? It is impossible. So God is
marvellous. He knew through commandment, through discipline, through
punishment, through sever warning, through rebuke, through reprimand,
He cannot get His people to obey Him. But when He shows His love in Jesus
Christ, we will love Him. He says that in the epistle of John we love Him
because He first loved us. And the key to Jehovah Tsidkenu
is found there. Those who love Him, those who love His appearing, you will find Jehovah Tsidkenu –
righteousness as a gift to you. Then you can work out the righteousness in your
life. The problem of sin is more a problem of love in the New Testament. It is
solved with love - when you love Him, you want to be like Him. We don’t have
that in the Old Testament because there was no image and no example and no
personification of what it means to love. But we have that in the New Testament
- in the life, passion, death, resurrection, ascension and glorification of the
Lord Jesus Christ.
Jehovah Nissi
After Jehovah Tsidkenu comes Jehovah Nissi.
Jehovah Nissi has been described in Hebrews 2 and
Hebrews 12. And there is only one key that links both of them.
Hebrews 2:10 For
it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in
bringing many sons to glory, to make the
captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
Hebrews 2:14 Inasmuch
then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise
shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power
of death, that is, the devil.
Hebrews 12:2 looking onto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross,
despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
John
8:36 If the Son therefore shall makes you free, you shall be free indeed.
Col. 2:14-15 Having wiped out the handwriting of requirements
that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the
way, having nailed it to the cross; Having disarmed
principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over
them in it.
Gal. 3:13 Christ
has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us: for it
is written, Cursed is every one that hangs on a tree.
Gal. 5:1 Stand
fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and do not be
entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
The key to Jehovah
Nissi is the resurrection power of the Lord Jesus
Christ as He overcame Satan, sin, death, and is seated at the right hand of
God. The resurrection power of the Lord Jesus Christ is something special by
itself. Now in the resurrection power of the Lord Jesus Christ is tied to the
giving of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit cannot be given until Jesus was
resurrected and ascended. It is also tied in the sense to the power of the Holy
Spirit. Since all the keys are tied to Jesus we put it as the resurrection
power of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the key to Jehovah Nissi.
The key to the victorious Christian life is the filling of the Spirit. The
filling of the Spirit is tied up the resurrection life of Jesus in us now.
Jehovah Mekadesh
Finally
we have Jehovah Mekadesh, the Lord our High Priest.
And there is only one key – prayer. Moving into the ministry of Jesus is
through the ministry of prayer. We call it the prayer ministry of Jesus Christ.
Or the spirit of prayer that comes from our Lord Jesus Christ. That is Hebrews
9 when you have looked at all that He has done. In the end it comes down to
this fact that we are able to tap on the principle of prayer. So all these eight different names have eight different principles
and keys involved to move into the heights that God wants us to move into.
However when Jesus Christ was manifesting all the different eight fold names of
God, He brought one more revelation to us.
Abba Father
All
the names of Jehovah are revealed to set us free and to put us to where Adam
was before the fall. Where God wants us to be is seen in these eight
revelations of the names of Jehovah. However Jesus Christ brought one more
revelation of God, which saw only a glimpse in the Old Testament. And that is
the revelation of God as Abba Father. All these eight revelations of God did
not bring us to the depths, the heights that God wants us to come to. There is
still one more coming from the very bosom of the only Son of God.
John 1:14 And
the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory. The glory as
of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth.
This is the
wonderful thing about Jesus. If you have all these eight names they will bring
you to the redemption of man. But Jesus doesn’t want to bring you to the
redemption of man. He says there is something that I have that no other person
has. All the eight names of Jehovah have been revealed to different people in
the Old Testament. When Jesus revealed them, in a sense it is not something
really exceptional although there were more revelations of the eight names of
Jehovah.
But Jesus has one
special revelation that no other human on the planet earth before Him has ever
have a grasp of. And He says that all the names of God are down there for the
redemption of man. But there is one that belongs to Him. In His special office
and position as the second person of the Godhead, God and Jesus has a special
relationship. Remember that vocabulary is limited when you describe all these
things.
God
the Father, God the Word and God the Spirit have a special relationship where
the Word whom today we know as Jesus Christ was in the very bosom of the
Father. And He says I want to bring Him to you. John's gospel is special
because John the apostle saw something that Jesus had that no other gospel
writers saw. That makes the gospel of John very special. In
John 2:16 He said to those who sold doves, "take these things away and
do not make my Father’s house a house of merchandise." He
called God His Father. And in the gospel of John Jesus keep saying that God is
His Father. This is my Father’s house. I hear the Father. I obey the Father.
He is my Father. No other person has such a relationship as Jesus had with
the first person of the Godhead.
Here are some
other examples in the gospel of John in chapter 5 and 6 remember there are more
verses than we can go through to show His depth of relationship with the
Father. He says in verse 17 My Father has been working until now and I have
been working. Verse 18 Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill
him. Because he not only broke the Sabbath but also said that God was his
Father. They could not take it. And that is why in verse 19 Jesus says, most
assuredly I say to you the Son can do nothing of himself but what he sees the
Father do. For whatever he does the Son also does in like manner. For the
Father loves the Son and shows Him all things that He Himself does. And He will
show Him greater works than these that you may marvel. There is a position
of God’s love and affection that Jesus had.
You
see Jesus could just come down as the Word and bring us all to the eight fold
names and bring us into heaven and we rejoice. The Lord didn’t just bring us to
heaven. The Lord didn’t just save us from our sins. The Lord didn’t just
cleanse us and heal us. We don’t just have a ticket to heaven. We have a place
on the throne of God. Can you see it? He didn’t just bring us heaven. It was
costly enough to bring us heaven. It cost Him His life to bring heaven to us.
Thank God for a mansion in heaven. Thank God for the riches of eternity. But He
didn’t just give us heaven. He says I want to not only bring you to heaven, I want you to share My throne. We are seated with
Him in heavenly places. We are seated together in Christ in heaven. You are not
just going to be in heaven.
Even now many
Christians have reached that point when they know Jehovah Nissi,
Jehovah Rapha, Jehovah Jireh,
and all the other names of Jehovah. But there is a place in Jesus Christ that
is at the right hand of God in the bosom of the Father, where you could reach
into the fullness of God and say Abba Father, my God. You will be blessed when
you know the revelation of God's names in your heart, but the fullness of that blessings comes only when you know the revelation that
only Jesus Christ could bring: Abba Father.
When Jesus Christ
was raised from the dead, there are some words that He said that we need to
take note of. In the whole of John's gospel, Jesus often called God His Father.
But after His resurrection in John 20, what did He say? In verse 17 when
Mary Magdalene came to look for Jesus at the tomb, she did not recognise Jesus
at first whom she thought was a gardener. But later when she recognised Him,
Jesus said to her, "Do not cling to Me, for I
have not yet ascended to my Father. But go to my brethren and say to them that
I am ascending, (notice His words here,) to my Father and your Father, to my
God and your God. There was something special that Jesus could only
bring to us as a result of the heavy price of His death and resurrection: the
revelation that God is our Father. He died and rose again so that we could
call God, "Father."
And we cannot take it lightly in our prayer when we say "Our Father in
heaven." Don’t take it lightly for it costs Jesus His life, His blood and
everything of His glory, just so you and I can say that simple word in the
English language "Father" to Almighty God. Abraham could not say
that. Moses could not say it. Gideon could not say it. Even David could not say
it. Even Jeremiah who loves God cannot say it nor could Ezekiel say it. Even
though God has this multitude of names, powers and office, although He is El Elohim, El Elyon, El Shaddai and Yahweh, Jehovah, yet the greatest revelation of
God was not in all these great Hebrew, or Greek names. It was in that simple
name that the little child could call papa, Abba. And the word Abba
is an Aramaic name for papa. We have seen the beautiful names of God
like El Shaddai, El Elyon
which are such majestic names. But there is none as great as the one Jesus
taught us to pray when He says Heavenly Father. He says pray in this way. He
says Heavenly Father. And I want you to know that the very first prayer you
learn as a Christian when you say Father God, you have sidestepped all the
prophets, all the saints in the Old Testament and gone into the bosom of the
Father. May we never forget, may we never take lightly
that never in the history of man, never in any religion of the world has any
human been given the privilege of calling Almighty God of the heaven and earth,
papa, Father God.
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