Jesus
Jesus
The name you give to your child may not determine his or her destiny, but the name that was given to our Lord was a part of his destiny. “Then the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS’” (Luke 1:30–31). “You shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21).
In our modern society, there are two names that very few people would give to their sons. One is “Judas” because that name is too terrible; the other is “Jesus” because that name is too wonderful.
We come now to that wonderful name which means the most to all of God’s people, the name “Jesus.”
How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
In a believer’s ear!
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds.
And drives away his fear.
Dear name! The Rock on which I build,
My Shield and Hiding-place,
My never-failing Treas’ry, filled
With boundless stores of grace.
(John Newton)
Sometimes the name “Jesus” is used in blasphemy. Sometimes it’s sung or spoken rather carelessly and casually. Yet “Jesus” is a very special name. Let me share four facts with you that help us to better understand the wonder of the name “Jesus.”
A Name Given from Heaven
The name “Jesus” was a name given from heaven, commanded by the angel before Mary had conceived the baby in her womb. Whenever a child is born, the parents have to answer the question: “What shall we call the baby?” I have some friends who waited five or six days before naming their last child, and the hospital was somewhat perturbed about this. With the Lord Jesus, there was no problem because the name was given from heaven.
First, the angel gave the name to the mother, Mary (Luke 1:31): “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS.” Mary believed God’s promise and yielded herself fully to the Spirit to accomplish the will of God. “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).
Then the name was given to Joseph, the foster father of Jesus. Joseph had considered putting Mary away because he thought she had sinned, but God said to him, “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. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:20–21).
Occasionally in Bible history, special babies were given their names directly by the Lord. Hagar’s son by Abraham was named “Ishmael” (Gen. 16:11), and Abraham and Sarah’s son “Isaac” was also named by God before the baby was born (Gen. 17:19). God commanded Zechariah and Elizabeth to call their son “John” (Luke 1:13), and we know him as “John the Baptist.”
But it’s only reasonable that the Son of God should be named by his Father in heaven because the Lord Jesus Christ came from heaven. He wasn’t begotten by Joseph; he was conceived in Mary’s womb by the Holy Spirit. He was sent from heaven!
Frequently in the Gospel of John, Jesus spoke about coming down from heaven and being sent by the Father. Every baby born into this world is a person who has never existed before. But when Jesus came into this world, he had existed from all eternity, so his birth had to be different. He came from heaven, sent by the Father; therefore, his name was given from heaven.
He came to do a work that only heaven could do: save people from their sins. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:16–17). Salvation is of the Lord because nobody can save himself.
His name was given from heaven because one day he is going to take his people to heaven. “I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:2–3). The name of Jesus was a name given from heaven.
A Name Great in History
The name of Jesus is a name great in history. “Jesus” is the Greek form of “Joshua,” or “Jehoshua,” which means “Jehovah is salvation.” This name belonged to two famous men in Jewish history.
Joshua the Conqueror
Joshua was the man who assisted Moses (Exod. 24:13; Num. 11:28) and then became Moses’ successor (Num. 27:18–20). Joshua led the people into the Promised Land where they claimed their inheritance and defeated their enemies. In Numbers 13:8 we have his name given as “Oshea,” or “Hoshea,” which means “salvation.” But Moses changed his name from “Hoshea” to “Jehoshua,” which means “Jehovah is salvation” (Num. 13:16).
Throughout history, the Jewish people have delighted in giving their sons the name “Joshua,” because it’s the name of a hero; it means “Jehovah is salvation.” Not only does the name look back to a great past, but it also reminds them of a great future, when Jehovah will redeem his people Israel and establish them in their kingdom.
But the name “Joshua” has even greater significance. According to Hebrews 4:8, Joshua points to our Lord Jesus Christ. To begin with, Joshua followed Moses, and Joshua, not Moses, led the people into their inheritance. Moses represents the Law, but Joshua represents the victory that comes by grace. “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). Moses wanted to enter the Promised Land, but God wouldn’t let him because it was ordained that Joshua lead the people into Canaan and conquer the enemy.
The Law can’t give you your inheritance. It isn’t possible by the keeping of the Law to enter into the inheritance that God has for you in this life, the “rest” that you can have through faith in Jesus Christ. Joshua, not Moses, led the people into their rest (Heb. 3:1–4:16). It is Jesus who gives us rest. He is our Joshua, for he has conquered all our enemies, including the last enemy, death (1 Cor. 15:26). When you know Jesus as your Savior, then you have entered into your “salvation inheritance” and you have “all spiritual blessings” through him (Eph. 1:3).
But every child of God has a special inheritance assigned by the Lord that involves using our gifts and resources to serve the Lord and his people and to win the lost. “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit” (1 Cor. 2:9–10). We often apply this passage to heaven, but I believe Paul was writing about our lives on earth here and now. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10).
When you read the Book of Joshua, you discover that God had the plans all worked out for his people. All Joshua had to do was get his orders from the Lord and obey them by faith, and the victory was won. On two occasions (Josh. 7–10), Joshua ran ahead of the Lord and failed to wait for orders, and that’s when he tasted shameful defeat. But as long as Joshua took his orders from the Lord and obeyed them, the people of Israel conquered the enemy and claimed their inheritance.
Jesus Christ is our Joshua, our Jehoshua—“Jehovah is salvation.” What the Lord told Joshua in Joshua 1 certainly applies to us today. We must feed on the Word of God, meditate on it, and obey it. “Not one thing has failed of all the good things which the LORD your God spoke concerning you,” Joshua reminded the people before he died. “All have come to pass for you, and not one word of them has failed” (Josh. 23:14). We can rest on God’s promises because he never fails.
Joshua the High Priest
The second famous person in the Old Testament who had this name was Joshua the high priest (Ezra 2:2; 3:2, 8; 5:2; Hag. 1:1; 2:2; Zech. 3; 6:9–15). Joshua was the high priest when the remnant of Jews left Babylon and returned to the land to rebuild the temple. Zerubbabel was the governor of the nation, and the prophets were Haggai and Zechariah.
The prophet Zechariah did something to Joshua the high priest that had never been done to any high priest in Jewish history: he put a crown on his head (Zech. 6:9–15)! Under the Mosaic law, priests were not to be kings and kings were not to be priests. King Uzziah tried to be a priest and God smote him with leprosy (2 Chron. 26:16–21).
But Joshua the high priest is a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ who is both king and priest. One of the basic themes of the Book of Hebrews is that Jesus isn’t a high priest like Aaron, but like Melchizedek, who was a king and a priest (Gen. 14:18–24; Heb. 5:10; 6:20; chaps. 7–9).
Melchizedek is mentioned in only two places in the Old Testament: Genesis 14:18–24 and Psalm 110:4. There is no record in the Bible of his ancestry or his death, and in this way is a picture of Jesus Christ, our heavenly King-Priest. The priests who descended from Aaron were never kings, and when they died they had to be replaced. But Christ’s priesthood doesn’t come from Aaron; it comes from Melchizedek. Therefore, he is both King and Priest and his priesthood will never end.
Joshua the general and Joshua the high priest were two great men in Jewish history. They remind us that the name “Jesus” is a name great in history.
A Name Glorious in Honor
Fact number three: “Jesus” is a name glorious in honor. It is interesting that even though the name “Jesus” (the Greek form of “Joshua”) was a common name among the Jews in the first century, it stopped being used after the second century. The people of Israel, scattered abroad after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., didn’t want to be identified with that name. Was it because Jesus Christ had been given that name and the Jews thought he had desecrated it? Jesus was known as “Jesus of Nazareth” to distinguish him from all the other men who were named “Jesus” (or “Joshua”) in that day.
Pilate wrote an inscription and put it on the cross: “THIS IS JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.” Imagine the Jewish people seeing the great name “Joshua” nailed to a cross! But our Lord took that name and lifted it to the highest heavens: “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:9–11).
Jesus is indeed a name glorious in honor. Do you know why? Because Jesus Christ meets our greatest need, which is salvation from sin and victory over sin. He alone can meet that need. To do this, he paid the greatest price: he died on the cross, arose, and went back to heaven where he now intercedes for us. He secured for us the greatest gifts, gifts that will last forever. Yes, the name of Jesus is a name given from heaven, a name great in history, a name glorious in honor.
A Name Gracious in Help
Fact number four: It is a name gracious in help. Wherever people heard the name “Jesus,” they knew what it meant: “Jehovah is salvation.” Jesus came “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).
In Mark 10:46–52, blind Bartimaeus was sitting by the roadside begging. He heard a crowd going by, and his ears told him there was something different about the crowd. He asked, “What’s happening? Who is going by?” The people replied, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” In other words, “salvation” was passing by! Encouraged by that name, Bartimaeus cried out and said, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Mark 10:47). The people tried to silence the beggar, but he persisted all the more: “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Our Lord stopped and called the man, and he went to Jesus who cured him and saved him. The name of Jesus is gracious in help for all who call upon him.
The thief on the cross saw the sign above the head of Jesus: “THIS IS JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.” (Matt. 27:37). That name “Jesus” gave him hope and the thief trusted Jesus and was given entrance into paradise.
The Lord Jesus is gracious in his help. Through the name of Jesus we can have salvation. Through the name of Jesus we pray. In the name of Jesus Christ we are able to conquer the evil one. Nobody else can do what Jesus can do, for “there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
The religious leaders in Jerusalem tried to get the apostles to stop preaching and teaching in the name of Jesus, but they failed (Acts 4:1–22). Peter and John had healed a lame man in the name of Jesus (Acts 3:6), and this led to the salvation of at least two thousand people (Acts 2:41; 4:4). This event angered the religious leaders who wanted the people to believe that Jesus was dead. So they threatened Peter and John and tried to silence them. But Peter told them, “We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20).
Great names come and go, but the name of Jesus remains. The devil still hates it, the world still opposes it, but God still blesses it and we can still claim it! “In the name of Jesus” is the key that unlocks the door of prayer and the treasury of God’s grace. It’s the weapon that defeats the enemy and the motivation that compels our sacrifice and service. It’s the name that causes our hearts to rejoice and our lips to sing his praise.
“That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. . .and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:10–11).
“Hallowed be Your name” (Matt. 6:9).