The Names of God #12 - New Testament Names

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This sermon, I hope, will be the most inspiring than anything I’ve done in absolutely a long time. What we’re going to do is shift into the New Testament and cover the names of God. This becomes very important for us to understand. This is absolutely critical that we really grasp what the Bible and Jesus is telling us. It is very important in our relationship with God.

What we’re going to find is that the New Covenant puts us in a wonderful and fantastic position concerning God. What we’re going to see is that, as Jesus revealed these things, this is the very basis of our relationship that we have with God. Hence, it ought to be the very basis of the relationship of the Church and the Church members, not only to God, but also to each other. One of the reasons that we have not understood this in the way that God wants us to understand it, is because we, in the past, as a Church and people, have been guilty of what God says that Israel was guilty of in the Old Testament. The reason that God could not deal with them in the way that God wanted to, was that they limited God. I want you to think about that when we begin understanding that God has opened to us so many great and wonderful things in the New Testament.

First of all, before we can understand it, we need to understand just a couple of things in the difference concerning the Old Testament and New Testament. They’re very important. Sometimes it gets a little confusing because people do not understand the difference between the two. Granted, there are some things that overlap, and there are some things that are nearly the same in the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. The actual basis of our agreement with God is the same. Remember how at Pentecost that God came and said, ‘I will establish My covenant with you, if you will obey My voice!’

We have the same thing in the New Testament where Jesus said, ‘If you love Me, keep My commandments.’ True as a Pharisee would be, most everyone says, ‘Which ones, Lord?’ We want to be on the safe side of God and that thinking is wrong! When you truly understand the Father, you are automatically on the safe side of God, and you don’t have to worry about being on the safe side of God.

We saw that with the names of God that we had as revealed to us in the Old Testament, they revealed to us several things concerning God; several things concerning the way that God was. He revealed Himself, as it were, with a little here and a little there. What was one of the things that was told to Isaiah? God said, ‘I send you to a rebellious people, that in seeing, they see not and in hearing, they hear not.’ So, He spoke a little here and a little there.

The Names of God in Holy Scripture by Andrew Jukes:

pg 173—The names of God which we have considered so far, all belong to the Old Covenant, under which what may be known of God, was taught here a little and there a little, to suit the state in which men were; not knowing God, as He has since revealed Himself in Christ and by His Spirit.

That is a key thing. What was it with the Old Testament that we cover on Pentecost with the nation of Israel? The reason He gave the Law! The Law was given on Pentecost so that the other nations would say, ‘What nation is there that is so great that understands that has God so near to them?’ In the Old Covenant God was near to them. He did not deal directly; He dealt through the temple and the temple worship. Once you understand that, as compared to the New Testament worship, you’ll understand the difference between the Old and the New Covenant. You will automatically understand which laws we should keep.

The perfect name is declared to us by Jesus Christ our Lord even...

As we’ll read a little bit later.

...the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Spirit, in which is united and summed up all that was taught of old in the names revealed in the patriarchs and prophets under the Old Covenant.

Jukes gives a quote from Augustine—so called ‘saint’ by the Catholics—but it’s a reasonably good quote. I think it is true and valid:

The New Testament lies hidden in the Old, while the Old is opened in the New.

That’s a very profound statement and it is true, regardless of who said it.

The name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit only opens in it’s fullness, what was taught in part and under a veil, the names of: Elohim, Yahweh, El Shaddai, Adonai, El Olam, El Elyon and Yahweh Sabaoth. Those were taught as through a veil.

Let’s go to the New Testament and understand, first of all, the most significant thing that was recorded concerning the Old Covenant and the temple worship.

Jesus was the One Who was Yahweh and He was the One Who instituted the temple worship. What happened with that temple worship? Because the people of Israel sinned, God said that He would no longer deal directly with the people, but only with Moses; then after Moses, with the high priests, once a year. Everything else between that was done with angels mediating between the people and God so that they could be perfected in the flesh at the temple. To show how absolutely more profound the New Testament was going to be, God did a miraculous event at the very instant that Jesus died:

• Who was Yahweh
• Who commanded the temple
• Who inspired how it ought to be built

Matthew 27:50: “And after crying out again with a loud voice, Jesus yielded up His spirit.... [‘pneuma’ in the Greek] ...Then suddenly the veil of the temple was ripped in two from top to bottom...” (vs 50-51). That is the most profound statement that could be written concerning the difference between the Old Covenant and the New.

This veil was not some sort of sheer nylon as we would think of as a veil. If you’ve read the book The Tabernacle you will realize that it was hand embroidered, tightly woven, knit together and linen. If there’s any one thing that is hard to do, that is to rip anything that has been crocheted or embroidered together. The veil had to be at least two inches thick. This was a miraculous occurrence!

Comparison between Old and New Covenant:

This helps us to answer the question as to what the difference is between the covenants. I’ll just briefly read each comparison; there are 14.

1. Old Covenant: a physical covenant based on physical promises

New Covenant is a spiritual covenant based on spiritual promises

2. Old Covenant: the people didn’t have the Holy Spirit, they obeyed in the letter of the law

New Covenant: we have the Holy Spirit and obey in the spirit of the law

3. Old Covenant: if obeyed, they could live physically in the community and worship at the earthy tabernacle and would still die a physical death

New Covenant: belief in Christ and obedience or obeying God; we can receive eternal life and have direct access to worship God in heaven, through Christ

The reason we can have this access is because we are under grace! That is the most profound thing concerning the New Testament!

4. Old Covenant: had works of law, offering sacrifices, vows, washings, oblations, etc.

New Covenant: we have good works, prayer, good deeds, fruits of the Holy Spirit

5. Old Covenant: physical circumcision

New Covenant: repentance and circumcision of the heart through baptism

6. Old Covenant: if laws were broken, physical death penalty was under the administration of death with physical atonement for certain sins, as through the offerings

New Covenant: if the law is broken spiritually, it is a spiritual death penalty, but can be forgiven at repentance; if not repented of then eternal death

7. Old Covenant: had physical ordinances of Divine service and earthly sanctuary

New Covenant: has an actual Divine service and a heavenly sanctuary

Quite a difference—isn’t it?

8. Old Covenant and earthly tabernacle, the blood of the animals was used for consecration

New Covenant: the heavenly tabernacle was dedicated with the blood of Christ

That’s why when God died, Yahweh died. Yahweh took upon Himself, in the form of Jesus Christ, the judgment for sin, and when He died the veil was rent in two. Now God was going to give us:

• a better way
• a greater way
• a more perfect way

not limited to

• a temple
• a tabernacle
• a city

9. Old Covenant: the sons of Aaron were high priests of the earthly tabernacle and the sons of Levi were the priests

New Covenant: Christ is the High Priest in heaven, forever, of the heavenly tabernacle

10. Old Covenant: they offered animal sacrifices for physical justification to the earthly tabernacle; the high priest went into the Holy of Holies once a year to offer an atonement for himself and for the people

New Covenant: Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice once for sin and justification to God in the heavenly tabernacle for all men

Key to understand:

11. Old Covenant: no man had direct access to God the Father

New Covenant: man has direct access to God the Father through Jesus Christ

This ought to help us tremendously to increase in faith, because when we know what it is God has done for us, this ought to inspire us and give us a great deal more confidence, faith and assurance. If there’s one thing that people like to have, people like to be connected. They tell you in business and in work that the way to succeed is to be connected with the right people. Christianity is exactly the same, but you are not connected to a person; you are connected to God! When you fully grasp that—it may even right now make the hair stand up on the back of your neck, it does me—then you’re beginning to grasp what God has done and is doing.

12. Old Covenant: It could not make persons perfect as pertaining to conscience and it could not forgive sin to the heavenly tabernacle, but could forgive sin to the physical tabernacle

New Covenant: forgives sin spiritually and purges the conscience through the operation of the Holy Spirit in the baptized person

13. Old Covenant: sacrifices and oblations to cease at the time of reformation

New Covenant: one supreme sacrifice to apply to all men who accept it, from the time of Adam to the end of humanity

Of course, in the time frame that God chose.

14. Old Covenant: to cease after the death of Christ

New Covenant: to be established after Christ’s death and resurrection

Of course, we know how that was done. There was a 40-year overlap while the Temple still stood, between the ending of the Old Covenant completely, and the establishment of the New Covenant in it’s fullest form.

There’s something in Heb. 5 that we need to impress upon our minds and to really understand. Too many times in the past we have limited God. Too many times in the past we have treated what God has done as a ‘religion,’ rather than as a child of God. Unfortunately, too many times this becomes the state of the Church:

Hebrews 5:10: “After He had been designated by God as High Priest according to the order of Melchisedec; concerning Whom we have much to say and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing” (vs 10-11). People have made their relationship with God a ‘religion’ instead of keeping it a relationship. People who have a ‘religion’ can do good works, but they don’t know God! A vast difference! It’s hard to be understood when they’re hard of hearing.

Verse 12: “For truly, by this time you ought to be teachers...”

• How many years have we been in the Church?
• Are we not really being able to learn from Christ?
• Who is the One Who can teach us the most?

Christ can, through His Holy Spirit, as we study the Word of God! There’s one key to it. Remember what Paul told Timothy, ‘Study to show yourself approved, rightly dividing the Word of God.’ Not that we go off in heresies, but that we ‘grow in grace and in knowledge.’

“...but instead you need to have someone teach you again what are the beginning principles of the oracles of God, and have become those in need of milk, and not of solid food. For everyone who is partaking of milk is unskilled in the Word of Righteousness because he is an infant. But solid food is for those who are fully grown, who through repeated practice have had their senses trained to discern between good and evil” (vs 12-14). We are to learn the good.

With that in mind, let’s see what the New Covenant has done for us. We are dealing at a high level. I don’t know of any group to whom I can preach like this, to where I can say that you know this, that and the other thing, and based on your knowledge, we’re going to do this or that.

Hebrews 10:19: “Therefore, brethren, having confidence... [What did the Apostle Paul say? ‘I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me!’] ...to enter into the true Holiest by the blood of Jesus.” How well connected are you? You’re right inside! Think of that! Do you visualize, or have in your mind, that when you pray it goes direct via the power of the Holy Spirit to God the Father? You see why, then, that the name of the Father is so very important! It encompasses everything that God is, only more!

Verse 20: “By a new and living way, which He consecrated for us through the veil (that is, His flesh).” When He died the veil was ripped in two. Now the veil is pulled aside and we have direct access to God the Father. We should get in our minds that He is the One Who upholds the whole universe. We should get in our minds that when we pray to God that’s Who we are talking to. That’s why we don’t have a ‘religion.’ We belong to God and there is a vast difference.

Verse 21: “And having a great High Priest over the house of God, let us approach God with a true heart, with full conviction of faith, our hearts having been purified from a wicked conscience, and our bodies having been washed with pure water. Let us hold fast without wavering to the hope that we profess, for He Who promised is faithful” (vs 21-23). That is something!

I know that when we were in one of the other Churches, it was too often asked, ‘How long have you prayed?’ You say, ‘Oh, how long should I pray? An hour a day, or half an hour a day! Nothing was said very much about the kind of prayer. Quite a different thing!

I might mention the name the ‘Father,’ in reference to God the Father, in Whose name and into which we have been baptized, is used 118 times in the book of John, more than any other book in the New Testament. Even though we’ve done the series on the full book of John—and it was very inspiring when we did it—going back to some of these things with the knowledge we have now it even opens up more to us; more understanding about God the Father and what He’s done. Notice this statement, we’ve covered it before and you know it; I’m not covering anything new. I want you to think of it in a more profound way. I want you to think of it in a personal way as to what this means to you in relationship to God the Father. This is the one about the woman at the well. The woman said:

John 4:20: “‘Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, but you say that the place where it is obligatory to worship is in Jerusalem.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you shall neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. You do not know what you worship....” (vs 20-22

{Note Matt. 7:21, ‘Not everyone that says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but He that is doing the will of My Father Who is in heaven.’}

“...We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth...” (vs 22-23). You’re worshiping the greatest, most powerful, most loving, fantastic Being in the universe—God the Father—in Spirit and in Truth.

...for the Father is indeed seeking those who worship Him in this manner.God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and in Truth’” (vs 23-24). That’s a tremendous statement!

I want to cover this one verse so that maybe we can begin to fathom the magnitude of this blessing and privilege that God has given us:

John 14:28: “You have heard Me say to you that I am going away, and that I will come to you again. If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced that I said, ‘I am going to the Father’... [Jesus understood it—didn’t He?] ...because My Father is greater than I.” Let those words sink in!

• you don’t have to be down at the mouth
• you do not have to be sorrowful and baleful
• you don’t have to have any doubt or fear

You have direct access to God the Father, Who is the greatest Being in the entire universe! That is the difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant! Quite a difference!

In the Old Covenant there were laws of worship through the temple, but there were also civil laws to govern the nation. In the New Testament, since it is not the ministration of death, the civil laws for the death penalty are not executed by the Church! God has left that in the hands of the temporal powers of whatever nation the person happens to live in. Just think of the immense difficulty there would be to enforce the letter of the law and the death penalty if you were living in this county. You have a little colony and you tell the government that you’re going to execute this person according to your laws. They would shut down any, what they would consider, religion. They would shut it down! God in His infinite wisdom knew that. That’s why none of the civil laws apply. All of the other laws apply spiritually:

• loving God
• loving your neighbor
• keeping the Holy Days
• eating the clean foods
• not eating the unclean foods
• the laws of health concerning how to take care of infections and things like that

All in general principle apply. The laws that relate to God and to our neighbor applies in the spiritual manner as magnified by Jesus in Matt. 5, 6, and 7.

This is after Jesus was being hassled by some of the Pharisees concerning John the Baptist and some of the miracles Christ was doing; Matthew 11:25: “At that time Jesus answered and said, ‘I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent, and have revealed them to babes.Yes, Father, for it was well pleasing in Your sight to do this.... [the whole key to the New Testament]: ...All things were delivered to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; neither does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son personally chooses to reveal Him’” (vs 25-27).

What a privilege it is to know God, the Father. Think on that for a minute! God has blessed you with being able to know the greatest Being in the universe! Not only that, to have instant access through His Holy Spirit, with Jesus Christ as the High Priest, at any time! That’s the New Covenant! Everything else in the Church needs to be subordinate to that! In fact, when you study the New Testament, it is subordinate to that.

It gets better. Matt. 28 is the name we are to use in the New Covenant! We have a new relationship. That new relationship is greater, though it contains all of the other attributes of God, as revealed in the seven names in the Old Testament. We’ll see that it is the name of the Father, the name of Jesus Christ, but no where does it say the name of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the power of God and not a person; which, unfortunately, Jukes did not understand, but having understood everything else, we won’t fault him for that.

After the disciples had gone through all they had gone through, seen all they had seen, seen and witnessed the resurrected Christ, you would think, surely, if you saw the resurrected Christ you would believe. You would think, surely if you saw the resurrected Christ you would be so on fire the rest of your life that nothing could turn you off.

Matthew 28:16: “Now the eleven disciples went into Galilee, to the mountain, which Jesus had appointed for them to meet Him. And when they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted” (vs 16-17). That’s something—isn’t it?

We’re really not reading a Scripture that you have not read before. Isn’t it amazing how it leaps off the page as it never did before? Isn’t that something? That proves that with knowledge, the Spirit of God and the grace of God, we grow in knowledge and we understand with more depth and more profound understanding. Some doubted. If they doubted with all that, think how easily we could be deficient ourselves. There will come a time in your life—I’ve experienced it and I’m sure you have experienced it—when you will wonder, because of your own particular situation: Why has God left me alone and in such terrible circumstances? That’s so that you can improve your relationship with Him! It’s a wonderful opportunity.

Verse 18: “And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.Therefore, go and make disciples in all nations, baptizing them... [if you have an Interlinear please look it up; it is]: ...into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit’” (vs 18-19). We’re baptized into the name of the Father because the seed of eternal life comes directly from Him! Think on that!

We’re going to see that God has dealt particularly in the lives of everyone that He has called. It should be the job of the ministry and the brethren to help each new one come to understand this magnificent relationship that they can have with God the Father, and that God has opened it for us. We don’t have to call God in a formal way—if I can use a term and not be denigrating—‘Mr. God.’ We call Him the most intimate and closest name possible, Father!

We have understood this somewhat in the past. I tell you, it has made such an impact on me in really going through and understanding it. I feel that God has opened some understanding for all of us now, that we can cherish, relish and build that relationship with God the Father. If we do, think how much better the relationship will be with each other. We don’t have to play ‘religion’ and ‘God’ to see how the brethren are doing. Doesn’t that make it more simple? Now do you understand the simplicity of Christ?

Verse 20: “‘Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even until the completion of the age.’ Amen.”

Let’s look a Scripture we have looked at before and we have gone over probably countless hundreds of times. I want you to understand this on a personal one-to-one relationship. The first time I ever heard this, it was in the context that no one can accept Jesus—which is true—in a kind of denigrating way: ‘You’re lucky to be in this Church, Bud, because God dealt with you!’ That’s not exactly what it is saying. Let’s look it for what it’s really doing.

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John 6:44: “No one can come to Me unless the Father, Who sent Me, draws him...” We’ve used this as an exclusionary statement before, which it is. What I want to emphasize is this: The reason that you are in the Church is because the Father, Himself, has drawn you! He has chosen you! I don’t know how the Father and Christ work it out, but They decide what They’re going to do. We can virtually figure out what They did in the case of Saul, who became the Apostle Paul. They said:

• we’re going to show everybody a thing or two
• we’re going to knock this guy off his jackass on the way to Damascus
• we’re going to make him blind
• we’re going to convert this guy

He’s going to teach because he has all this knowledge. ‘What We have to do first is send him off to Arabia for three and one-half years. Christ, You go down there and teach him so that he’s got everything straight’; after he’s sat on his ‘duff’ for a while to think it over, about five years. ‘We will send Barnabas down there to get him out of the city of Tarsus and let him start preaching.’ That applies to the Apostle Paul. How They decided to call us, I don’t know, but I’m very glad that They did.

The Father has drawn us to Christ! That is magnificent when you understand that; that the One Who is the greatest Being in the universe, reached down and began to work with your mind. If we had that more with the basis of the Church and organization, wouldn’t this stop a lot of stupidity that goes on in Churches and organizations? Sure would! Because you can tell ‘the Boss’ about it, as it were, if I can use it in that terminology without denigrating the name of the Father.

Verse 57: “As the living Father has sent Me, and I live by the Father; so also the one who eats Me shall live by Me.” We have covered that how many times? Every time we’ve had a Passover! But, brethren, this is an on-going thing. We’re going to live by Jesus Christ. Who did Jesus live by? He lived by the Father!

Verse 58: “This is the Bread, which came down from heaven; not as your fathers ate manna, and died. The one who eats this bread shall live forever.” We’re talking about high stakes. We’re talking about the fact that God has given us everything that every human being out there walking around—that God hasn’t called—really wants. They want to live forever. That’s what God has said that He will do for us. Furthermore, we need to understand something that is so basic, yet, so profound and so very encouraging.

John 16:23: “And in that day you shall ask Me nothing. Truly, truly I tell you, whatever you shall ask the Father in My name... [when you ask in His name, it is as if Jesus were asking it] ...He will give you. Until this day, you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full. These things I have spoken to you in allegories; but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in allegories, but I will plainly disclose to you the things of the Father. In that day, you shall ask in My name; and I do not tell you that I will beseech the Father for you, for the Father Himself loves you...” (vs 23-27). I want to state it clearly. God the Father—the greatest Being in the universe—

• Who has tens of thousands and millions of angels waiting on Him
• Who controls the vastness of the universe through Jesus Christ
• Who upholds every thing by the Word of His power

loves you!

I want you to think on that and when you pray to the Father, go to Him in the attitude that He loves you. In the whole history of eternity—however long that is, the beginning and the ending—as far as what we are as being significant, we’re nothing. Yet, the Father has loved you to deal in your own personal life! That is astounding! That is so inspiring and up-lifting!

This is what we need to understand and realize from the Word of God: If we can do as the Apostle Paul said in Heb. 6:

• if we can leave the basic fundamental principles of Christ and go on to perfection

And that we get above and beyond the point of: do this, don’t do that, do this, don’t do that.

• if we love God and we’re truly striving to do what is right

everything will begin to fall in place! Not automatically, because we have to work at it, but it will fall in place with God’s Spirit and understanding. Then we can concentrate on that relationship between me and God and you and God, on a Father and son relationship, the way that the New Covenant was designed to be.

Perhaps that helps us to understand why God is shaking up His Church a little bit. I do declare that I am sure that there are a lot of Churches of God that are not fostering that relationship in the way they ought to. That is the most important one and that’s the one that God wants; that God loves us, so how should we in turn love God?

• with all our heart
• with all our mind
• with all our soul
• with all our strength
• with all our being

Then we can love our neighbors as ourselves. Then, we can truly get along as brethren in the way that we out to with brotherly love. That is so simple, but it is so profound in living in such a world as it is, it is hard to do. That’s what God wants us to do.

“...because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God” (v 27). The Father Himself is loving you. The implication in the Greek is tenderly, as a Father does.

John 3:35: “The Father loves the Son...” What a tremendous love that that is that They must have with each other. That must be a fantastic thing! That’s said also in John 5:20, the Father is loving the Son.

The Names of God in Holy Scripture by Andrew Jukes:

pg. 180—What then, must be the relationship in God Who is perfect in love?

Especially between the Father and the Son.

What must He be, Who is the Father of whom all fatherhood in heaven and earth is named, and what must be His love to His beloved Son? What must be His will toward all who, in and by His Son, are made sons and have come from, or have been begotten by Him?

We can say that, yes, the Father loved Jesus. We can say that, yes, the Father loves us. But can we say, with conviction and understanding that, yes, the Father loves us as He loved Jesus? You think about it. That’s what grace means, that God looks upon us as He is looking upon Jesus Christ! How much more encouragement do you need? Think on that!

Lots of times we haven’t let the Spirit of God and the Word of God work in us to think on those things; that God loves us so much that He looks on us as He looks on Jesus Christ. Who do you suppose that God loves the most? We could say Jesus Christ, because of all that He has done. However, He says that God the Father loves us!

For I would call attention to this: It is a Will that is especially declared in all these acts, which I have referred to as characteristic of a father—whether it be the love which begets, or which guards the babes, or which righteously corrects evil, even in the sons, or Who answers the children’s cry, or Who lays up good things for them unasked, or which having loved them, loves them to the end—every act is the expression of a Will. The Father is the Will in the mystery of the...

Jukes says, ‘blessed trinity,’ here. I say, ‘the plan of God.’

...And as we look further into the name, we will see that it contains more than a Will, but an eternal Will is the foundation, a Will which loves and cannot but love, and which shows Itself in Him Who comes forth from the Father to tell us what the Father is, and to reveal Him to His creation.

That is a tremendous and wonderful thing!

The Father, Jesus Christ, the Son:

Let’s talk about the Son again in John 1. We’ll look at the Son and what the Son has done, because it’s the name of the Father and also things are done in the name of Jesus Christ, or the Son. Those are the names of the New Covenant! You don’t have access to God the Father

• through Elohim
• through Yahweh
• through El Shaddai
• through El Olam
• through El Elyon
• through Adonai
• through Yahweh Sabaoth

You have access to God the Father through Jesus Christ, His Son. To use any other name is limiting God!

John 1:14: “And the Word became flesh, and tabernacled among us (and we ourselves beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten with the Father), full of grace and Truth.” Of course, it tells us about the whole life of Christ.

Let’s understand some more about Jesus Christ, the only begotten, the only one. We’re begotten of the Father with His Spirit, but we were not conceived of God the Father by His Spirit. Jesus was the only begotten.

Let’s see what He has done with the Son. This ties in with Matt. 28:18 where it says that ‘all power in heaven and earth is given to Me.’

Hebrews 1:1: “God, Who spoke to the fathers at different times in the past and in many ways by the prophets, has spoken to us in these last days by His Son.” Not only did ‘God so love the world that He gave His only begotten Son,’ but He also sent Him to bring the direct message from God the Father. You talk about good news, there can’t be any better news than that, that you are going to have direct connection to God the Father. What greater news can you be told than you’re going to live forever? That is great news! That’s why it’s called the Gospel. Christ has already paved the way. That’s marvelous!

Verse 2: “Whom He has appointed heir of all things... [the universe] ...by Whom also He made the ages; Who, being the brightness of His glory... [God the Father] ...and the exact image of His person...” (vs 2-3). That’s another thing. We’re not dealing with just a glob of nothing out there, supposedly that is God. We’re dealing with a personal Being, God the Father!

“...and upholding all things by the word of His own power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (v 3). That must have been some time when Jesus was accepted of God the Father. Then after He came back down for the 40 days to teach the disciples and so forth. Then He ascended back up to heaven ten day before Pentecost. That must have been some reunion! We’re going to have a chance to have part of that, too.

Let’s talk about the name of Jesus Christ. Acts 2:38: “Repent and be baptized each one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you yourselves shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

They healed the man who was crippled at the gate Beautiful in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Peter said, ‘I say to you rise and walk.’

Let’s understand one of the other names of the New Covenant! This was after Peter and John were ‘hauled on the carpet’ for doing that good work, healing that man. Everyone wanted to know what was going on. You talk about having your feathers ruffled. If you viewed all these events from the point of view of the Pharisees, they’re slipping bad. All the power of the Holy Spirit and the people being healed, speaking in tongues, the preaching in the name of Jesus, Whom they killed and hated. They hauled Peter and John in and said, ‘What are you doing?’

Acts 4:7: “And after placing them in the midst, they inquired, ‘By what power or in what name did you do this?’Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, ‘Rulers of the people and elders of Israel, if we are examined this day as to a good work done to the infirm man, by what power he has been cured, be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarean, Whom you crucified...’” (vs 7-10). Peter was a fisherman. He was all fired up with the Holy Spirit of God and I don’t think he said this in nice, pedantic, word-processing terms. I think he was really letting them have it!

“...but Whom God has raised from the dead...” (v 10). I imagine he was excited about that, to tell them that even though you crucified Him, God raised Him from the dead. The One you say you’re supposed to represent?

“...by Him this man stands before you whole” (v 10). What could they say? There he stood! That must have been really exciting.

Verse 11: “This is the Stone that was set at naught by you, the builders... [Not the builders, but you builders.] ...which has become the Head of the corner.And there is no salvation in any other...” (vs 11-12). Now he’s really getting into it. Let’s understand it very clearly: There is no salvation outside of the Father and the Son, Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit!

If I read my Bible correctly, which I think I am, I believe this is telling me that even though the names of God in the Old Testament are inspiring and teach us a lot, that those are not the names we are to use. It does not say Elohim, or Yahweh, or El Shaddai, or any of those. It says, “...for neither is there another name under heaven which has been given among men, by which we must be saved” (v 12). That is the name of Jesus Christ.

Verse 27: “‘For of a truth... [they were all praying together] ...they did gather together against Your Holy Son Jesus Whom You did anoint, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel,to do whatever Your hand and Your counsel had predetermined to take place. And now, Lord, look upon their threatening, and grant that Your servants may speak Your Word with all boldness, by reaching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your Holy Son Jesus’” (vs 27-30).

John 14 is a powerful chapter. Jesus talks about His Father’s house and says He’s going back to the Father. Thomas said that we don’t know the way. How can we know the way?

John 14:6: “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life...’” That does away with broadminded religion. God discriminates! It will be His way or none. That’s pretty final. The glorious thing is what He’s going to do.

Then He says that He’s going to the Father, v 11: “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; but if not, believe Me because of the works themselves.” Then He says that they will do greater works because I go to the Father (v 12).

Verse 13: “And whatever you shall ask in My name, this will I do that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it” (vs 13-14). Those are powerful words, un-limiting words.

• how God deals with us in our relationship
• what God’s will is
• what is good and proper for us

Those are the limiting circumstances in it. That’s all there is.

Then He says, v 15: “If you love Me, keep the commandments—namely, My commandments.” Read all of John 14.

Verse 21: “The one who has My commandments and is keeping them, that is the one who loves Me; and the one who loves Me shall be loved by My Father...” The Father loves you! If there’s any one thing that we need to get across and understanding about the name of God in the New Testament, it is that, ‘The Father is the name and the Father loves you!’ That’s the key importance.

Verse 23: “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘If anyone loves Me, he will keep My Word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. The one who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word that you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s, Who sent Me” (vs 23-24). That in itself is another whole, entire, sermon; just that one verse. That is something. That is fantastic how God has done that!

The Names of God in Holy Scripture by Andrew Jukes:

pg 82—Oh, what a revelation of the Father it is which the Son has made to men. What a Word He has been and is and ever will be and what a Will in the Eternal Father that He has revealed to us. Surely the heavens and earth have told as much declaring His glory and showing His handiwork...

Etc. etc.

...Sunshine, and rain in fruitful season, filling men’s heart with food and gladness, have said with no uncertain voice that God loves all and cares for all, seeing that He is Giver even when they know Him not. But, the Son has shown us more, even that death and pain—which sin has brought—shall be overcome...

That is tremendous!

...in as many as receive Him. Because He, Himself—the Lord is all—has stooped to meet us, and He Himself, Jesus Christ, has even come under our curse; that He Himself has been made sin for us—though He knew no sin—that He might abolish death and be the Creator of a new creation, where sin and death shall be no more.

Jukes talks about the power of Jesus and what He can do: Healing, raising up, raising the dead, casting out the demons, etc.

pg 83—There is no evil He cannot meet: bodily or spiritual lameness, blindness, dumbness, deafness, dropsy, a spirit of infirmity which bows souls down through long weary years, even death—when the dead are not only dead in the house, but laying in the grave even stinking…

And we might say, yes, and even disintegrating, and yes, even though they may take the skulls and stack them up as trophies, God is able to raise that individual or those individuals! Tremendous! Tremendous!

…all yield to Him, Who is the Son, Who thus reveals the Father, and no less does He reveal Him in His terrible rebukes to those who trust in themselves that they are righteous and thank God that they are not as other men...

They had a ‘religion,’ but they didn’t know God. Now, we can know the Father. That is tremendous!

...who judge that they are god-ward—not by their love, but is their likeness to their lord, but by their privileges—they are now clothed with purple and fine raiment of the kingdom. Yet, while they have no pity for the lost—who are full of sores, even at their gates—and to whom the very dogs show more kindness.

He’s talking about those religious people who have a religion and don’t understand God the Father and they in their great pomposity.

Who has ever spoken like the Son to judge hypocrisy and wrong? Who has so stripped deceivers bare spite of all their outward righteousness? Oh, how blessed, yet, awful, the revelation of the Father through the Son! He that has seen Him has seen the Father!

That’s something! There are many other Scriptures we can add to that. We have to bring in the Holy Spirit, which is the Comforter.

John 15:26: “But when the Comforter has come, which I will send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of the Truth, which proceeds from the Father, that One shall bear witness of Me.” The Holy Spirit shall yet do one thing more.

Remember, John 15:26 and John 14:26, tie them together.

John 14:26: “But when the Comforter comes, even the Holy Spirit, which the Father will send in My name, that One shall teach you all things...” We have an opportunity, living in the timethat we live in, and I don’t think that we’ve ever really grasped it. We’re not going to get it because:

• we’re intelligent
• we’re smart
• we necessarily study a lot

But, we’re going to get it because of the power of God’s Holy Spirit. We have the opportunity, if we can handle it properly, to understand the things that the Holy Spirit will teach us, that we yet need to understand, and to have it understood.

We have an opportunity, living in this age to understand the things at the end of the age, which the prophets and the angels and the apostles wanted to know. To me, that is very exciting! To me, that is very inspiring!

The promise is here, that He will teach us, “...and shall bring to your remembrance everything that I have told you” (v 26). In our case, that when we read it, we understand it the way Jesus said it. Those are some powerful Scriptures and that’s what the New Testament, the New Covenant is all about! The Holy Spirit will teach us, will guide us. With that, there is something that God wants. There’s something that God is performing.

1-John 1:1: “That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our own eyes, that which we observed for ourselves and our own hands handled, concerning the Word of life.” You talk about talking with authority, the Apostle John is; he says, ‘I handled Christ in the flesh and after His resurrection I held His feet.’

Verse 2: “(And the life was manifested, and we have seen, and are bearing witness, and are reporting to you the eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested to us) that which we have seen and have heard we are reporting to you in order that you also may have fellowship with us; for the fellowship—indeed, our fellowship—is with the Father...” (vs 2-3). God wants fellowship! That’s why He called us:

• through prayer
• through study
• through our lives
• through our thoughts

The very way we live, brings that fellowship with God active and on-going! How can we have that fellowship unless we fully comprehend and understand that we have direct access to God the Father and that He loves us?

That’s where it is. That’s why the New Testament is so much greater. The Old Testament was deliberately deficient because it was not the time to reveal the Father because Jesus had not yet come!

In Rom. 8 we will see that we are given the very same privilege and blessing that Jesus Christ had. Whenever Jesus prayed, He said, ‘My Father.’ Remember that before He went out to be arrested He said, ‘Father, if it be possible....’ In the book of Mark, in recording that instance, it is recorded, ‘Abba, Father.’ Do you think that God is going to hear the prayers of Jesus Christ? Absolutely! Every one! He said, ‘Father, I thank you that you hear Me always,’ when He resurrected Lazarus—remember that?

He gives us the same privilege. Do you think that God, in loving us, will hear us? Absolutely! In having the privilege of going to the Father, do we limit Him by using Old Covenant names, or should we use the name of ‘the Father,’ to have the fullness of our relationship with God? I think it is self-evident that we should use the name of ‘the Father.

Romans 8:14: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.Now, you have not received a spirit of bondage again unto fear, but you have received the Spirit of sonship, whereby we call out, ‘Abba, Father’” (vs 14-15). ‘Abba’ is just a transliterated word from the Hebrew into the Greek, into the English, which means: daddy.

Verse 16: “The Spirit itself bears witness conjointly with our own spirit, testifying that we are the children of God.”

• those are the names that we use in the New Testament
• those are the names that are revealed by God and how our relationship should be with the Father

When we let it sink in, when we really pray about it, when we let the Spirit of God permeate our minds, that ought to be so inspiring, that the greatest and most fantastic Being in the entire universe has reached down in our lives and loves us. He has called us and has placed us in the same condition, in His presence, as His Holy Son Jesus Christ

• That’s why we call Him the Father!
• That’s why the things that are done, are done in the name of Jesus Christ!
• That is why the Holy Spirit is given, so we can have this communion and fellowship with God the Father and Jesus Christ!

Hence, then, how much better it will be with all of us once we really understand and grasp this.

All Scripture from The Holy Bible In Its Original Order, A Faithful Version by Fred R. Coulter.

Scriptural References:

1. Matthew 27:50-51
2. Hebrews 5:10-14
3. Hebrews 10:19-23
4. John 4:20-24
5. John 14:28
6. Matthew 11:25-27
7. Matthew 28:16-20
8. John 6:44, 57-58
9. John 16:23-27
10. John 3:35
11. John 1:14
12. Hebrews 1:1-3
13. Acts 2:38
14. Acts 4:7-12, 27-30
15. John 14:6, 11, 13-15, 21, 23-24
16. John 15:26
17. John 14:26
18. 1-John 1:1-3
19. Romans 8:14-16

Scriptures Referenced, not quoted:

• Matthew 7:21
• Hebrews 6
• John 5:20; 14:12
• Matthew 28:18

Also Referenced:

Book: The Names of God in Holy Scripture by Andrew Jukes

Sermon Series:

• The Gospel of John
• The Epistles of John

FRC:nfs

Transcribed 04-10-14

Proofed: bo—4-18-14

Corrected—bo: 6/7/15