Why
Jesus (what’s in a name)!
If you know His name life can
get better!
Psalm 9:10 (ESV)
10And those who know your name put
their trust in you, for you, O Lord,
have not forsaken those who seek you.
So what’s in a
name?? To God everything!
The
reason knowing the names of God will help us trust him with our daily affairs
and with our eternal destinies is that in Scripture a person’s name often
signifies his character or ability or mission—especially when the name is given
by God.
·
God changes Abram’s name to Abraham to show that he had made him
the father of many nations (Genesis 17:5).
·
And when the Son of God came into the world, his name was not
left to chance: “You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people
from their sins.” (Matthew
1:21)
SO why is “I AM”
so important!
What’s in a name?
·
The most common and the most important name for
God in the Old Testament is a name that in our English versions never even gets
translated. Whenever you see the word LORD in all capital letters, you know
that this name is behind it.
·
In Hebrew the name had four letters—YHWH—and may
have been pronounced something like Yahweh.
·
The Jews came to regard this word with such
reverence that they would never take it upon their lips, lest they
inadvertently take the name in vain.
·
So whenever they came to this name in their
reading, they pronounced the word “adonai” which means “my lord.”
·
The English versions have basically followed the
same pattern. They translate the proper name Yahweh with the word LORD in all
caps.
·
This is not a very satisfactory thing to do, because
the English word LORD does not communicate to our ears a proper name like John
or Nate.
·
But Yahweh is God’s proper name in Hebrew.
·
The importance of it can be seen in the sheer
frequency of its use. It occurs 6,828 times in the Old Testament.
·
That’s more than three times as often as the
simple word for “God” (Elohim—2,600; El—238).
·
What this shows is that God aims to be known not
as a generic deity, but as a specific Person with a name that carries
his unique character and mission.
(God) is the great
“ I AM”
It all starts at the burning bush! God establishes who he
is and we have to take a deeper look at who he is to understand who Jesus is
and why the “I AM” statements are so important!
Exodus 3:13–15 (ESV)
13Then 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?”
14God 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.’ ”
15God 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.
So here is where we ought to spend a lot of time
meditating.
·
What does it mean when you ask your God, Who are
you? and he answers, I AM WHO I AM?
·
I hope you can begin to make you feel this
morning how important these words are.
·
There aren’t any words more important than
these.
·
Any words that you think might be important are only
because these words are true.
·
The more you ponder them, the more awesome they
become.
·
I know I can’t do them justice. But perhaps the
Holy Spirit might take my stammering attempt and open some vista for you.
Here are seven
implication I think the divine name “I AM WHO I AM” Imply!
1. God Exists
·
First, God exists. Or as Francis Schaffer never tired of saying,
God is there.
·
At first this may seem so
obvious and so basic that we wouldn’t need to mention it.
·
But the reason we should mention it is that most people live as
if it were not true, or as if it were a truth that makes no difference in life.
So if we know God exists why do we
·
Pay him no regard.
·
Practically speaking you act as if you do not believe he exists.
·
You ignore him.
·
He has no place in the affections of your heart. His gifts, not
himself, are the center of your attention.
·
The vast majority of people who say they believe in God treat
him this way.
·
Its like the air you breath you know it exists but you never
think about it
·
You go on to things you think are important not thinking about
the air you breath, but with out air you cant live!
What will happen some day?
·
Put yourself forward a few years to the day when every human
being will give an account of himself before the living God.
·
God will say to millions of people, “Now it is my understanding
that you said often during your life that you believed in me. You affirmed my
existence. Is that right?” “Yes.”
·
“Then why is it that I
had such an insignificant place in your life since you say you believed in me?
Why didn’t you feel more appreciation for me and seek my wisdom more often and
spend time in fellowship with me and strive to know the way I wanted you to
make all your everyday decisions?
·
Why did you treat me as though I were like Air?”
What, I am ask you, what is the world going to answer? What are
thousands of so-called Christians going to answer, whose faith in God is
virtually the same as their faith in the air they breath?
·
How easy it is going to be for God to condemn the world at the
judgment!
·
If you allow yourself to think clearly for a moment about the
overwhelming implications of the statement, “God exists,” you will see that it
is going to be very easy for the Judge on that day.
·
Contained in the name Yahweh is the first and most important
truth about God: he exists. And for those who will stop pursuing their own
glory and their own private pleasure long enough to consider it, that makes all
the difference in the world.
2. No Reality
Exists Behind God
The second implication in the name I AM WHO I AM is that
God’s personality and power is solely because of himself and to no other.
·
Push back in your imagination to when there was
only God.
·
Then, if you can, push back behind God.
·
Where did he come from?
·
How did he get to be the way he is?
·
How did you come
to be?
·
If you asked me how I got to be the way I am, I
would answer that my father and mother gave me a set of genes and they reared
me a certain way and I have been surrounded by thousands of influences in my
environment—that’s how I got to be the way I am.
But when we ask God how he got to be who he is, he
answers, I AM WHO I AM.
·
In other words, nobody gave me a set of genes.
·
Nobody and no power brought me into existence or
shaped my personality.
·
I had no beginning.
·
There is no reality outside myself that did not
come from me.
·
And so there is no force or influence upon my character
and power except what comes from me and is controlled by me. I am utterly
absolute.
·
Behind me there is no reality.
Asking the question, Why is God the way he is? is like
asking me, When are you going to stop beating your wife? It is unanswerable
because it assumes a state of affairs that does not exist. I am not beating my
wife and so I cannot stop. And there is nothing behind or outside God that
could be an answer to the question, why he is the way he is. The utterly
self-determined character of an everlasting God is the endpoint of all our
questions. There comes a point when you stand face to face with absolute
reality and realize that he simply is who he is.
3. God Does Not Change
A third implication of the
name I AM WHO I AM is that God does not change.
In Malachi 3:6 God says, “I Yahweh do not
change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.”
·
Within the name Yahweh is the affirmation I AM WHO I AM. But if
who God is, is not determined by any forces outside himself, then he is not
subject to the changes we are.
·
People change their mind because of unforeseen circumstances or
weak resolution.
·
God foresees all circumstances and has no weaknesses. Nothing in
all creation takes him off guard and backs him into a corner where he might
have to act out of character or compromise his integrity.
He
is who he is, and therefore, as James says, “With him there is no variation or
shadow due to change” (James 1:17). He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. His
absolute name is the granite foundation of our confidence in his ongoing
faithfulness.
4. God Is an Inexhaustible Source of Energy
The fourth implication of the
name I AM WHO I AM is that God is an inexhaustible source of energy. Isaiah 40:28 says, “Yahweh is the
everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.
·
He does not faint or grow weary.”
·
If God is the everlasting absolute Reality, then he is the
Creator of the ends of the earth and of the universe.
·
Somehow all the energy in the universe must get started. And
since God is the first and absolute reality, it all starts in him.
·
He is an inexhaustible reservoir of power.
·
This must mean that he is energy. He is power.
·
His personality is radiant with infinite energy. He never needs
recharging.
·
He never needs a backup system.
·
There is nothing for him to plug into.
·
Everything in the universe plugs into him.
·
If he ever shut down, there would be absolute nothingness.
·
In him we live and move and have our being.
·
He cannot faint or grow weary. He is an unending river of life
and the source or our strength every morning—and will be for all eternity.
5. Objectivity Is Crucial
The fifth implication of the
name I AM WHO I AM is that objectivity is crucial.
·
What I mean is that it is very important that we believe in
objective truth that is more than our own subjective feelings or desires.
·
We may desire God to be a certain way. We may feel that he
simply can’t be the way some people say he is. But what we feel or what we
desire does not make God what he is.
·
When God says I AM WHO I AM, he summons us to humble
objectivity.
·
He puts an end to the notion that everybody’s view of God is as
good as everybody else’s.
·
God is who he is and nobody’s opinion of him makes any
difference. Therefore, our calling as his Children is to strive to know him for
who he is, not for who we would like him to be.
6. We Must Conform to God, Not He to Us
The sixth implication of the
name I AM WHO I AM is that we must conform to God, not he to us.
·
If children should learn their manners from their parents and
not the parents from the children;
·
if soldiers should learn their strategy from the general and not
the general from the soldiers;
·
Then surely it is plain that creatures should conform all their
lives to the will of their Creator!
·
The vast majority of God’s creatures go their own way with
little or no thought of conforming their lives to the daily will and character
of an absolute God.
·
We have to stop think of God the way we want him to be, and
follow who is say he is
·
But if God simply is who
he is and not who we make him out to be, then it is we who must conform to God
and not he to us.
