Jesus
Name Above All Names
Beautiful Savior
Glorious Lord
In Exodus, the Passover Lamb
In Leviticus, He's our High Priest
Numbers, The fire by night
Deuteronomy, He's Moses' voice
In Joshua, He is salvation's choice
Judges, law giver
In Ruth, the kinsmen-redeemer
First and second Samuel, our trusted prophet
In Kings and Chronicles, He's sovereign
Nehemiah, He's the rebuilder of broken walls and lives
In Esther, He's Mordecai's courage
In Job, the timeless redeemer
In Psalms, He is our morning song
Ecclesiastes, the time and season
In the Song of Solomon, He is the lover's dream
Jeremiah, the weeping prophet
In Lamentations, the cry for Israel
Ezekiel, He's the call from sin
In Daniel, the stranger in the fire
In Joel, He's the Spirits power
In Amos, the arms that carry us
In Obadiah, He's the Lord our Savior
In Jonah, He's the great missionary
In Nahum, He is our strength and our shield
In Habakkuk and Zephaniah, He's pleading for revival
In Haggai, He restores a lost heritage
In Zechariah, our fountain
In the book of Acts, He is fire from heaven
In Romans, He's the grace of God
In Corinthians, the power of love
In Galatians, He is freedom from the curse of sin
Philippians, the servants heart
In Colossians, He's the Godhead Trinity
Thessalonians, our coming King
In Timothy, Titus, Philemon He's our mediator and our faithful Pastor
In James, the one who heals the sick.
In First and Second Peter, he is our Shepherd
In John and in Jude, He is the lover coming for His bride
In the Revelation, He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords
The Son of man
The Lamb of God
The great I AM
Our God and our Savior
He is Jesus Christ the Lord
And when time is no more
He is, HE IS!
What more can I say beyond what these incredible singers have offered to us this morning?
Jesus is what the story is all about. Jesus is the central focus of the whole flow of time and history. Without Jesus there is nothing to put our faith into that matters. Following up our message last week on faith and moving into the subject of the name of Jesus today directs us into a very specific direction. Jesus is the only way for salvation. Jesus is the only way to make it into eternal life, spending all eternity with God. I contemplated trying to use all the name we could ascribe to Jesus in the course of today's message, but there just was no way to bring that about. We used to kid back in school about young preachers, like we were, trying to cover the whole bible from Genesis to Revelation in one message. There is just so much to share and so much to say and we want everyone to hear all of it at once and not miss a thing.
There are a few names or notions about Jesus that we should focus on especially if we are thinking about faith as a current topic of thought. How do you put your faith and trust in Jesus? What areas of life do you find yourself connecting with Jesus? Does your health bring you to your knees and crying out for help? Is it the state of our country and nation and world that makes you want to draw close to him? Is it your family? Do your kids and relatives help you to understand that God is a parent to us and we are his children? There is so much ground to cover here and only a short amount of time to think about it. So, what could we center ourselves on before we head back into our world? What could we take with us that would support us on our journey?
A few phrases and words from Aaron~Jeffrey's song could be helpful as we think about who God is through the person of Jesus Christ to us.
The Breath of Life - Do we get up each morning thinking about how God has created this day for us to enjoy? We have life and breath in our bodies because God deems it so. We have today to be His children and part of his family. He has given us other people to enjoy and interact with so we don't have to be alone. There might be time where we wish we were alone after dealing with the people in our world. There might be moments when we need to get away and be alone, with God, and fill our hearts and lungs and body with new breath and fresh spirit. God is here to refresh us and breath new life into us.
The Lamb and The Priest - When we refer to God as our ALL in ALL, do we truly get that he has taken all of this on his shoulders? We need a way to make up for our sin/sins. We need something to atone for the atrocity. Sin should not be in our lives and there seems to be nothing we can do about it. Jesus takes the sin of the world on his shoulders, on our behalf, and does that for us. In the same instance, we need a priest who can intercede for us. many of us understand the need for and the role that a priest and pastor plays in our religious experience. Jesus takes that role on at the same time he is also being the sacrifice for our sin. And, there is more he does on our behalf and for our well-being.
Our Great Physician - It's maybe the most poignant phrase to our current world situation and quite the most referred to in our everyday life. We read over and over again how people came to Jesus in need of healing. The lame, their legs and arms not working properly. The blind, unable to see the world around them. The leper, with skin conditions that the world has deemed unclean, making them enable to have human contact with others. But, the healing doesn't stop on just a surface level with what we can see or hear. We need healing in our souls from the harm that sin has done to us. We need the two edged sword from the world to cut us free from bondage we experience. There is a healing in that as well. And, if the healing we seek in this world cannot be found, there is an ultimate healing when we go to meet him. We leave this tragic existence behind and find peace in Glory with Him. Our Lord knows our bodies inside and out. He knows what we need.
If we spend a few moments in John chapter 3, we see many other words we could use to describe who Jesus is. Do we really understand the awkwardness of someone like Israel's teacher coming to this unknown man and calling him "Rabbi"? But, Nicodemus believed. He was putting his trust and faith in Jesus in that moment. Yes, he comes at night when no one else would see and hear. But, he comes. Later, his faith would be front and center when he is the one who comes for the body of Jesus to bury him, placing the Savior in the tomb. Do you have faith? Do you know where to put it and how to use it? Do you know who to give that faith to as you journey through this life?
The Beginning and the End. The Alpha and the Omega.
The One who above all and in all. Drawing us closer to God, making a way for us to approach.
Jesus. Name Above All Names.
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