Last week, Jesus spoke of the glory of God.
·
We discussed the intrinsic glory of God and the
radiant glory of God.
·
We saw how to participate in the glory of God
and how to glorify God.
·
In our text today, Jesus speaks of the name of
God.
INTRO – OUR TEXT
John 17:6 (ESV) — 6
“I
have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the
world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
John 17:11–12 (ESV) — 11
And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to
you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may
be one, even as we are one. 12
While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have
given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except
the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
Jesus’ work and
petition concerning the Name of God:
(1) Jesus tells us that
He has done the work given to Him by the Father – “manifested you name” to the given (vs. 6).
·
Manifested
or revealed, the Greek word phaneroo,
means exactly what one would think.
·
The BDAG
sums it up as follows – “to cause to become known, disclose, show, make known”.
(2) In light of His
coming departure, Jesus then prays for the given – “keep them in your name” (vs. 11).
·
Jesus is
asking the Father to “guard” or “preserve” the given in the Father’s Name.
·
We see
this in verse 12, “I have guarded them”.
(3) And finally,
Jesus declares that part of His ministry to the given was the very same thing
He is asking the Father to do after His departure – “I kept them in your name” (vs. 12).
·
Jesus
kept all but one, of course.
·
Judas'
betrayal was a fulfillment of prophecy.
·
Acts 1:16–20 (ESV) — 16 “Brothers, the Scripture had to be
fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David
concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. 17 For he was numbered among us and was
allotted his share in this ministry.” 18
(Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling
headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. 19 And it became known to all the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their own language Akeldama,
that is, Field of Blood.) 20 “For
it is written in the Book of Psalms, “ ‘May his camp become desolate, and
let there be no one to dwell in it’; and “ ‘Let another take his office.’
So, with respect to God’s
Name, Jesus speaks of how:
·
He manifested
it to the given
·
He kept
the given in it
·
He asked
the Father to continue to keep the given in it
What are the names of
God?
·
Yahweh; I Am; El; Theos
·
And the “attributive names” (DBI).
o
Lord (Adonai); King; Almighty; Mighty One;
Redeemer; Rock; etc.
·
The Jews obviously already knew these names of
God.
·
And would have certainly known what they meant.
·
So what was
Jesus doing – what was He manifesting?
1) WHAT’S IN A NAME?
Name as Attributes:
Most commentators
argue that Jesus is using “name” as a reference to God’s attributes.
·
“What
Jesus reveals to them is God’s ‘name,’ which enshrines who God is in his
character, his essential nature; because his name is glorious, God wants it to
be made known” – Andreas Kostenberger.
·
“…Jesus
revealed God’s ‘name,’ i.e., his nature, his character” – Beasley-Murray.
·
“The
concept of God’s ‘name’ encompasses all that He is: His character, nature, and
attributes” – John MacArthur.
·
“‘The
name of God’ is a Semitic phrase for speaking about God’s attributes. To make
the name known is to reveal the God who possesses those attributes” – James Boice.
What are some of the attributes of God?
·
Communicable
– those that God shares with others
o Love, knowledge, mercy, justice, wisdom, etc.
·
Incommunicable
– those He doesn’t
o Eternal (uncreated), unchangeableness,
omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence, etc.
And how did Jesus manifest these?
·
“In
contemporary Jewish teaching, righteous deeds hallowed God’s name, and
wicked ones dishonored it” – IVPBBCNT.
·
So Jesus
extolled the Name of Yahweh via His words and actions – signs and wonders.
·
What are some specific examples of Jesus
doing this?
o Omnipotence – calmed the storm, water to
wine, etc.
o Eternity – “Before Abraham was, I am” (John
8:58).
o Omniscience – knew Nathan’s thoughts in John
Summary Part 1:
And so it is in
these ways that Jesus manifested, kept and asked God to keep the believers in the
Name of Yahweh.
·
(1) He
revealed the attributes of Yahweh.
·
(2) He did
this with the expectation that believers would aspire to do the same in their
lives – participate in the name.
·
“Indeed,
to ‘know’ God’s name means to be in harmonious relationship with God’s
character and purposes” – DBI.
·
So this
is what he was doing – to answer our previous question.
·
But
wait…there is more!
2) OLD TESTAMENT NAME THEOLOGY
There is something
else going on here that the OT can shed some light on.
·
When
Jews spoke of “the Name” (ha-shem) of God, it was not just a reference
to His attributes.
·
It was a
reference to (Michael Heiser):
o (1) Yahweh Himself
Ha-Shem as
Yahweh:
Let’s take a look at
some examples of this usage.
·
Chronicles 22:19 (ESV) — 19 Now set your mind and heart to seek the Lord your God. Arise and build the
sanctuary of the Lord God, so that
the ark of the covenant of the Lord
and the holy vessels of God may be brought into a house built for
the name of the Lord [Yahweh].”
o
The
presence of Yahweh will fill the sanctuary “as the Name” – Michael Heiser.
·
Isaiah 60:9 (ESV) — 9 For the coastlands shall hope for me, the
ships of Tarshish first, to bring your children from afar, their silver and
gold with them, for the name of the Lord
[Yahweh] your God, and for the Holy One of Israel, because he
has made you beautiful.
o
The “Holy One of Israel” and the “he has made you beautiful” both
refer “directly to ‘the Name of Yahweh’”
– Michael Heiser.
·
Isaiah 30:27 (NIV) — 27 See, the Name of the Lord [Yahweh] comes from afar,
with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke; his lips are full of wrath, and
his tongue is a consuming fire.
·
Psalm 20:1 (ESV) — 1 May the Lord
answer you in the day of trouble! May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!
So, yes, the Jews
clearly knew all the descriptive names we spoke of at the beginning.
·
However,
when the name of Yahweh is used, they also would have understood the speaker to
be referring to more than these.
·
They
would have understood a reference was being made to Yahweh Himself.
·
“The
name of the Lord was virtually synonymous with His presence: “For your wondrous works declare that your
name is near” (Ps. 75:1). To know the name of God is thus to know
God Himself” – NIBD.
Summary Part 2:
So we asked earlier, what was Jesus doing?
·
From our
discussion thus far we see that He was:
·
(1)
Claiming that, to the extent humans could comprehend them, the attributes of
God were made known through His work.
·
(2) This
was done that believers might aspire to do the same – participate
in the name.
·
(3) And
profoundly, when Jesus spoke of the Name, He was suggesting that, more than
just attributes, His ministry somehow manifested Yahweh Himself.
3) SIGNIFICANCE FOR JESUS
There is one more
thing going on with the OT Name theology that can shed even more light on what
Jesus was doing.
·
Jesus
was declaring that “the Name” also refers to:
o (1) A personal (Trinitarian) representation
of Yahweh.
·
That is,
Jesus is declaring Himself to be a person in ancient Israel’s “Godhead
thinking” – Michael Heiser.
·
He is
inserting Himself into the
O.T. Name theology.
·
In other
words, Jesus is claiming to be “The Name” – i.e., God.
Ha-Shem as a
Personal Representation of Yahweh:
·
Isaiah 52:6 (ESV) — 6 Therefore my people shall know my name.
Therefore in that day they shall know that it is I who speak; here I am.”
·
Exodus 23:20–22 (ESV) — 20 “Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you
on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. 21 Pay careful attention to him and obey
his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression,
for
my name is in him. 22 “But
if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy
to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.
o
Heiser argues
this is a reference to the Angel of Yahweh – a Theophany (an appearance of
God).
o
Other
examples of Theophanies are Genesis 16:7,
Genesis 17:1-4, Genesis 18:1-3, Genesis 32:24-30, Exodus 3:2-6, Joshua 5:13-15
and Daniel 3:22-25.
o
Most
believe these are appearances of the Co-Regent of the Divine Council, a.k.a.,
the Name of the Lord, a.k.a., Jesus.
o
More on
the Divine Council – READ HERE.
·
Joel 2:32 (ESV) — 32 And it shall come to pass that everyone
who calls
on the name of the Lord [Yahweh]
shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who
escape, as the Lord has said, and
among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord
calls.
o Paul quotes this in Romans 10:13 as a
reference to Jesus Christ.
·
John 12:28 (ESV) — 28 Father, glorify your name.” Then
a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”
o God’s name is glorified in Jesus and at His
crucifixion for many reasons.
o One reason is that Jesus is “the Name of
Yahweh”.
Jesus’ Insertion
and Identification with the Father:
Jesus’ inserting
Himself into the O.T. Name Theology and identifying Himself as God is one more
reason He (or John) can claim the following:
·
John 1:18 (ESV) — 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God,
who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
·
John 12:45 (ESV) — 45 And whoever sees me sees him who sent
me.
·
John 14:9 (ESV) — 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you
so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the
Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
BTW – In Exodus
33:18-20, “The Name is all [the only part] of God that Moses can experience” –
DBI.
·
And as we discussed last week, Jesus suppressed
His glory so that He could be experienced.
o
The incarnation was a veil.
·
Jesus as the Name is all of God that Israel
could experience.
·
Like Moses, they could handle Jesus and his
veiled glory because He was the Name of Yahweh.
So as Jesus radically laid claim to “I Am”, He also claimed
to be the Name of Yahweh.
·
“The
supreme manifestation of the name of God was the Lord Jesus Christ, God in
human flesh” – John MacArthur.
·
“Since the Name and Yahweh were interchangeable
in Israelite theology, trusting in ‘the Name of Yahweh’ meant trusting in
Yahweh. Likewise, trusting in the Name of Jesus is trusting in Yahweh’s Name” –
Michael Heiser.
NT’s Insertion
and Identity of Christ:
And the rest of “…the NT carries on the name theology
of the OT, applying it in subtle ways to Jesus, thereby making it a strategy
for NT writers to identify Jesus with Yahweh” – Michael Heiser.
·
Matthew 12:21 (ESV) — 21 and in his name the Gentiles
will hope.”
·
Acts 19:17 (ESV) — 17 And this became known to all the
residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the
name of the Lord Jesus was extolled.
·
2 Thessalonians 1:12 (ESV) — 12 so that the name of our Lord Jesus
may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and
the Lord Jesus Christ.
·
1 Corinthians 6:11 (ESV) — 11 And such were some of you. But you were
washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
o Paul even declares that we are “justified in the name”.
Summary Part 3:
We asked earlier, what is Jesus doing?
·
From our
discussion thus far we see that He was:
·
(1)
Claiming that, to the extent humans could comprehend them, the attributes of
God were made known through His work.
·
(2) This
was done that believers might aspire to do the same – participate
in the name.
·
(3) And
profoundly, when Jesus spoke of the Name, He was suggesting that, more than
just attributes, His ministry somehow manifested Yahweh Himself.
And now we know the 4th
thing Jesus was doing.
·
(4)
Identifying Himself with the Name of Yahweh – Jesus is God.
I think we can see why, along with the “glory of God”, why
the “name of God” was important for Jesus to pray for prior to His departure.
·
It directly impacts His identity and our
responsibility.
·
We aren’t just to manifest the character of
Yahweh, but more specifically, of Jesus.
o
We are to participate in the “Name of Yahweh” in
love and obedience.
·
And Jesus left us with a great example to follow
to do just this thing.
BTW - How is
manifesting name different from displaying glory?
·
“It
has sometimes been foolishly pressed that there is a distinction if not a rift
between a ‘name-theology’ and a ‘glory-theology’ in the OT, but these are two ways
of expressing the same thing: e.g.
when Moses sought to see Yahweh’s glory, he found that the glory had to be
verbalized by means of the name (Ex. 33:18–34:8). There is no sense in which
the Deuteronomist is replacing a crude notion of indwelling glory by a refined
notion of the indwelling name: it is rather that the ‘glory’ tends to express
the ‘sense’ of God’s real presence, including much that is rightly
unapproachable and ineffable; ‘name’ explains why this is so, verbalizes the
numinous, for nowhere does the God of the Bible deal in dumb sacraments but
always with intelligible declarations” – NBD.
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