The Name and The Book
By Frank J. Ewart
The Book
* There are probably few students of the Bible who have an adequate realization of the significant, reciprocal oneness of the Name and the Book.
* Perhaps if the title, “The Book”, had been adopted and placed on the cover of those sixty-six books, it would have inspired more reverence, and also be more in line with the mind of God, than “The Holy Bible.”
The Name
* “The Name,” as applied to that name Jesus bore, has its origin in The Book.
* When Peter and John were released from the council, with their backs lacerated and bleeding, they thanked God that they were counted worthy to suffer shame on behalf of “The Name.” (Acts 5: 41 R. V.)
* Jesus, praying to the Father, in John 17, says, “While I was with them I kept them true to Thy Name. The Name which Thou gayest me to bear.”
* (Wey. V.) “Wherefore God has highly exalted him, and given him The Name which is above every other name.” (Phil. 2: R. V.)
* Since the truth came on The Name of God, those who apprehended it have been called, “Jesus’ Name People,” and, sad to say, as from the first this is applied in the form of a stigmatism.
* James wrote, “They blaspheme that Holy Name by which ye are called.”
Moses and Paul
* Moses asked God the pertinent question, “Behold when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you;’ and they shall say to me, ‘What is his name?’ What shall I say unto them?” God answered, “I am that I am!”
* Yaweh or Yahoshua is the Hebrew name thus translated, and the best authorities admit that Jesus, in the Greek, is equivalent of Yahoshua in the Hebrew. (See Scofield note. Matt. 2:25}
* When Moses prayed, “Shew me Thy glory!” God answered, “I will make my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the Name of the Lord.” (Ex. 33: 18-19)
* So, according to Moses, who was God’s mouthpiece for that generation, God’s presence and power and glory were all in His Name.
* Paul could not be classified among any other people than a people that were “Called by the Name of the Lord.”
* Not only did he emphasize it, but he demonstrated the power in The Name as taking its place in the ministry, the place that Jesus said it was to take. (See Mark 16:17)
Jesus
* Matthew records the naming of Mary’s wonderful Man-Child thus, “And she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His Name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.” (Matt. 1: 21)
* It must have been a startling innovation among the educated and orthodox Jews of that day when they first heard that a Child had been named Jesus.
* They knew that the ineffable name, the terrible, awesome name was substantially the equivalent in the Hebrew, of Jesus in the Greek.
* His very name betrayed His pretensions.
* Yahoshua means the Lord our salvation.
o Jesus means substantially the same thing.
* “Because he shall save His people from their sins,” was the reason for His name; the pretension of that name, to the learned Jew was most startling.
* It involved every claim that Jesus ever made.
* He was their Messiah, and being that, He was, “The Lord of Glory.”
* He was their only King and He alone could bring them salvation.
* The promise in the typical Messianic Psalm 91, is, “I will set him on high, because he hath known My Name. With long life will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation (Yahoshua).”
* The pretension of this name was, that He who bore it was none other than, “Immanuel, God with us,” of Isaiah. 7: 14.
The Messianic aspects of “The Name”
* “And His Name shall the Gentiles trust.” (Matt. 12: 21)
* That Name would bridge all national disparities and quell all national rivalries, abolish international strife, by heralding in “That Day,” “When there shall be One Lord, and His Name ONE.” (Zech. 14: 9)
* Not only this but the oneness of the individual will be assured in His Name; for, “For where two or three are gathered together in My Name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matt. 18: 20)
* “And ye shall be hated of all men for My Name’s sake.”(Matt. 10:22)
* Jesus knew the place His Name would take in the great complex structure of modern life.
* Men would love it enough to die for it; others would hate it with such an inveterate hatred that they would murder men for preaching it, this Name before which sinners and saints fell in adoration, and devils fear and fly from its terrible significance.
* “For verily I say unto you, ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, blessed is he that cometh in The Name of the Lord.”
* This was the great significant Messianic sign.
* The Messiah had to come in The Name of the Lord.
The Formula
* Jesus’ claim was so pointed that the Jews never for a moment misunderstood it.
* “Go ye, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into The Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
* Before they went forth to obey this command, they were told to tarry until they were endued with the Spirit of Truth, who would lead them into all the truth.
“The Name” was Great even before the Death and Resurrection
* “John said unto Him, Master, we saw one casting out demons in Thy Name and we forbade him, because he followed not us. But Jesus said, forbid him not; for there is no man who shall do a mighty work in My Name, and be able quickly to speak evil of Me.”
* It is a startling fact, and worthy of profound consideration, that the Name of Jesus was great and wonderful even before He died and rose again.
A Warning
* “And ye shall be hated of all men for My Name’s sake; but he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.” (Mark 13: 13)
* This passage is a warning of the reproach inherently attached to His Name, which would blaze forth in fury in the end of time.
* We have already received a demonstration of that reproach. .
He That Believeth
* This last text is significant in the light of Mark 16: 16. “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be condemned.”
* And again: “And these signs shall follow them that believe: in My Name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”
* Paul preached it “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; that He was buried and that He rose again according to the Scriptures.”
* It is written, “that as many as gladly received it, were baptized.”
* At Ephesus they believed Paul’s message and, “When they heard this, they were baptized into the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
* At Cesaerea: “He commanded them to be baptized into The Name of the Lord.”
Miracle Signs
* Of the five miracle signs that would accompany the believers, four are the demonstration of the authority and power we have “IN HIS NAME.”
* The other miracle-sign, “Speaking in new tongues,” was a sign that accompanied the baptism of the Holy Ghost, at Pentecost and elsewhere throughout the Apostolic age and all these five signs were following the early disciples, as the supernatural credential that they were divinely ordained to work “IN HIS NAME.”
The Representative
* The true representative of Jesus on earth today, “Is a man to be wondered at.” (Zech. 2: 8)
* He is the Priest of The Most High God.
* He of the Melchisedec order.
* His credential is “The power of an endless life.”
The Faith
* It is not a system of theology; it is not composed of codes and rules and regulations.
* When it was delivered to the saints back there, it was immediately manifested in the practical exemplification of the life of Jesus, Who healed the sick, raised the dead, cast out devils, healed leprosy, smashed the power of evil habits in men and women’s lives and set all captives free.
* This is the demonstration of the Kingdom of God which works from within.
* It is not meat and drink, but righteousness, joy and peace in the Holy Ghost.
* When they attributed Jesus’ mighty ministry to an evil source, he immediately answered, “If I by Satan cast out Satan, then is his kingdom divided, but if I by the finger of God cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God is come near unto you.”
* This, then, is the manner of the Kingdom of God, in operation.
* It consists of binding up broken hearts, healing the sick, casting out demons and raising the dead.
* These signs are signs of the spiritual presence of the absent or withdrawn King in the flesh, of whom we are warned that: “Though we have known Him after the flesh, yet, now henceforth know we Him no more.” (II. Cor. 5: 16)
Seven References
* In the Gospel of Luke we have seven references to The Name,
* “And the seventy returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Thy Name.” (Luke 10:17)
* When Jesus sent the twelve out, previous to Pentecost, he gave them power and authority to heal the sick, cast out demons and raise the dead, and said, “Freely ye have received; freely give!”
* Jesus looking forward to the time when, Satan will be completely dethroned and destroyed, said, “I was beholding when Satan was cast like lightning from heaven. Take heed that ye be not led astray: for many shall come in My Name, saying, I am He! And the time is at hand. Go ye not after them.” (Luke 21: 8)
* Jesus knew that He would be fraudulently impersonated, and many would of necessity, come In His Name: hence the warning.
* “And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached In His Name, unto all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” (Luke 24:27)
* Thus we have the record of this great commission as given in the three synoptic gospels.
o The greatest point about them is that they are all based on The Name.
* It is called “The Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost” in Matthew.
* “My name” in Mark, and “His Name,” in Luke.
* Now in Luke 24: 45, it records: “Then opened he their understandings that they might understand the Scriptures.”
* These men knew what name was meant here.
* It is in supposable that they could be persuaded to use any other name in any part of their ministry, in the demonstration of the power and authority bequeathed them by the Master.
* They knew that from the beginning there was one great sovereign Name of God.
* It was of necessity the “Greatest name that is named.” (Eph. 1:25)
* “The only name given under Heaven among men, by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:52)
* “The name in which every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess to God.” (Phil. 2: 9: Rom. 14: 11)
