WHAT IS IN A NAME? – PART TWO

Matthew 1:18

18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. 19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. 20 But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

What is in a name?

PRAYER

Father, we come again, as we search the scriptures. We pray for your light, for instruction…in Jesus’ Name. Amen!

Last week, we looked at God’s views of personal names. Personal names, we saw, should be meaningful – in fact prophetic. Today, we want to conclude the message with God’s view of corporate name.

We have corporate names for business; but that’s not what I have in mind. There is a name that God wants every one of us to bear. There is a name. In Acts of the Apostles Chapter 11, verses 25 band 26,

Acts 11:25-26

25 Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to seek Saul. 26 And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.

That’s the name that God wants everyone to bear. It is important because without this name, you will not be admitted into heaven.

Over two billion people in the world today bear this name: about 2.18 billion people. But do they live up to it? If you bear this name already the question is, do you live up to it? You know many Jews hate Christianity and hate Christ today. Why? Because some people who bear this name Christians slaughtered them mercilessly in the crusades. And that’s one reason I hate that name even though we use it: I mean that nomenclature. “We are holding crusades.” Some of us don’t know the history of the crusades. The word crusade is a word that implies bearing the cross. So in the name of Christ they killed them in large numbers. According to one influential servant of God who lived a while ago, his name is Reilly: John C. Reilly. Any one who must bear this corporate name must,

one,

Believe that Jesus is the Christ. 1 John 5:1,   Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.  If you have not believed that Jesus is the Christ you cannot bear this name. You’d say but I have, I was baptized when I was a baby. That’s not what we are talking about because you couldn’t have believed then. For as many as received Jesus Christ into their hearts, as many as believed in His Name, to them He has given the right: ‘the privilege’ to be called Children of God – only to them. For those who bear this name, they must hate sin and resist its presence in their hearts, in their way, ills and in their emotions. If you do not resist its presence in their heart, in their wills, and in their emotions. If you do not resist sin, if you do not hate sin, you can’t bear this name.  Whoever has been born of God does not sin: Present tense in the Greek – habitually sin. And it says it is impossible for him or her to habitually sin. Why? Because the seed of God is in him or her. And because of the presence of that seed you cannot be living in sin and enjoying it and claim to bear that name. it’s impossible. The two cannot mix.

We know in…1 John 5:18, we know that whoever is born of God does not sin; and he who has been born of God keeps him. And the wicked one does not touch him.

When the devil has taken you captive something is wrong.

There are two groups of sinners: those who want to sin and those who cannot help sinning. The last group is to be pitied more because they are taken captive. They can’t help it. These are the habitual sinners. I can’t help it, they will tell you. They are addicted to sin.

For any one to bear this name, such a one must not only hate sin, but will also love righteousness. If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of God. Righteousness is that character that resembles the character of Christ that people around you see. Holiness is that which God sees. Holiness is internal. And if there is that internal holiness it works itself out in righteousness. And that is what your neighbor sees. And if your neighbor does not see it he will tell you, she will tell you. You cannot bear this name.

People around us should see the change that Christ has made in our lives if we bear this name.

The testimony of John Newton addresses this. John Newton, for those who do not know him, is the man who wrote the hymn that is very popular,

Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. And he was a wretch indeed. He was a slave trader, an English Man. But the Lord arrested him. And he said after he started bearing this name Christian. He said, and I quote him: “I am not what I ought to be.” True. “I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world,” [He is talking about heaven]. “But still I am not what I once used to be.” I am not what I once used to be, “and by the grace of God I am what I am.”

When the Lord has touched you, saved you, delivered you, He would change you so drastically that if people look at you they would not guess what you used to be. The one who bears this name does not love the world.

15 Do not love the world [1 John2:15] or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life — is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

And I will say: Amen!

If you bear this name, by whose standard do you live? The standard of Christ or of the world? Remember, Christ does not have standards:  He has a standard – and that standard is His Word: the Word of God.

Many of us today who bear this name allow the world to dictate for us how to dress ourselves up. How can! You call it designer? Who is the designer? The man or the woman who does not know Christ? Even if you buy it you can alter it. It doesn’t cost much. Why should the world tell the person who bears the name of Christ how he or she should dress? I can’t understand it. How is it that you bear the name of Christ, and you have a party, and in the party Christ is not glorified but the world? You play their music; you dance their tunes and all their moves. Come on.

Finally, those who bear this name must love the brethren and others. And that is important because Jesus said; by this love men shall know that you are indeed my disciples. The world is not asking you about your theology, because they may not understand what you mean by that. But what will really arrest their attention is the love they will see.

Tertullian, one of the church fathers, talking about the Christians of those days said that, “The world around them used to say, ‘look how they love one another and how they are ready to die for each other’, but of the world, of the people of the world, they would say, “they themselves hate one another, they themselves are readier to kill each other.” But sadly that’s what we find in the church today. Kill with the tongue! Sad. Isn’t it?

Let me conclude with this:

The marks of a loving person who bears the name Christian. You are ready to say sorry when you offend people. You are ready to forgive. You do not tear people down in order to toss yourself up. You speak the truth in love. You do not call what is wrong right and what is right wrong. And even when you see something that somebody is doing wrong you do not talk about it with glee – you talk about it with tears.

What is in a name? What name do you bear? Do you live up to it?

Let us pray.

PRAYER

Father, we thank You for Your Word which we have heard. We are praying that as many as would bear this name Christian from Christ will live up to it in the power of the Holy Spirit…in Jesus Name we pray. Amen.