The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - What's in a Name

Episode Date: May 14, 2018

There is something powerful about a name. Parents take great care in choosing a name for their children and as children grow, they become their name. The same is true for every name of God. They are not mere human inventions. Each name is a revelatory instrument given at a specific time, for a specific purpose, to reveal a specific aspect of his nature. In today’s episode, take a look at how God revealed himself throughout salvation history and what it means to you.

You're listening to The Jeff Kaven Show. Episode 63, What's in a Name? Hey, I'm Jeff Kavins. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general. It's the Jeff Kaven Show. Welcome to the show. Bob, Sue, Mary, Donna, Claire, Jim, Martha, Scott, lots of different names. What's in a name? That's what we're going to talk about today on the Jeff Kaven show. And specifically, we're going to start talking about God's name. And we're going to take a look at how God revealed himself in salvation history, what it means to you, and what is

the name above all names. What is the key name? And I think you know where we're going to be going with that. It is Jesus. And we're going to look at what is in a name. Hope you're having a a really good, good day. I just got back from Ireland and, uh, uh, fact, I've been back a couple weeks now, just getting ready to go to Israel. Father Mike Schmitz and I are leading a pilgrimage to Israel. And we've got a really good group of people that are going to be accompanying us. And so I would ask for your prayers as we are getting ready to fly out to the Holy Land. And of course, that's an interesting place right now. People are always asking, do you feel safe? Yes, I do. I actually do feel very safe.

I feel safer walking around in Jerusalem at 11 o'clock at night than I do Chicago, New York, Newark, Newark, Miami, you name it, Minneapolis. We always feel safe, and it's been such a blessing. I hope you can come with us sometime. You can get information about our pilgrimages at the Jeff Kaven's show at ascensionpress.com. That's the email, the Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. And, of course, my website, jeffcavens.com, has all the information about upcoming. pilgrimages. I do appreciate you. Go into iTunes and ranking the show. It has been helping a lot. I really do appreciate that. And I appreciate your comments. You know, a lot of shows on iTunes, they don't necessarily get comments from people. And I read them. I appreciate them. And very, very grateful. So please continue to do that. The show can also be picked up on Google and Amazon, lots of different sources. And hey, I made a mistake on the previous show. I said I was going to be going to Singapore.

It's Manila. I'm sorry. Next year, we've got an Australia tour, five cities. And on the way home, we're going to be stopping in Manila, not Singapore. But we got some big response from you in Singapore. We might try to do that sometime, too. So don't give up. You know, I'd love to come over and meet you.

It would be a real privilege to do that. Okay, so we're going to look at the name. of God. And as you know, I love studying the Bible, and I know that you do too, and the Bible is a real source of strength and guidance and correction in your life. And the name of God is very important in salvation history. We're expecting our third grandchild coming up very shortly. We believe it's going to be a little girl, and there's all kinds of discussion about what are you going to name? What are you going to name the little girl? That is, what is my daughter got to name the little girl? And a lot of names are thrown out, and everybody wants to know, what does that mean, you know,

or what does this name mean? And like, for example, my name Jeff means God's peace most of the time. No, it really means God's peace. And it's kind of funny, you know, as we named our girls, that they kind of become that name in so many ways. I do think there's something powerful about a name. And no doubt if you have children, you put some thoughts. into that name, your parents probably put some good thought into naming you. And that's an important thing. You've got to live with it the rest of your life after all. Well, you know, at many points in

Israel's history, starting in the Old Testament, they found themselves surrounded by polytheistic people. That is, a people that worshipped many, many gods. And each one of the gods had had a name. You have L and Ball and Astra and many other pagan gods. So consequently, there was no clear or really fixed conception of what deity was like. And God was represented as, for example, in Egypt, an animal, a bird, a fantastic hybrid form in some cultures. But what we see in the Bible is we see that God initiates this, shall we call it, getting acquainted process with Israel by coming into the human drama below the clouds and revealing himself, his nature, his quality, his ethical value, his standards for living. And he did

it by giving a name to himself. Now, I'm not talking about just one name. When we look through salvation history, we actually see that God was represented by many names that described his nature, who he really was. And the great contribution that Abraham made in a polytheistic world, he came from Er of the Chaldeans, modern-day Iraq, one of his great contributions was monotheism. That is, that there isn't many gods. There's only one. The great phrase, you know, in Judaism, coming from Deuteronomy 6-4, Shmaa Israel, Adunai, Elohainu, Adunai, Echad. here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And so that is one of the great contributions, by the way, of Abraham, monotheism. There is only one God. And so the name given,

throughout the names, I should say given throughout salvation history, are not mere human inventions. You know, it's not just a name thrown out, but it's really a revelatory instrument, if you will. It's given at a specific time in salvation history, a particular name of God, given at a specific time for a specific purpose and revealing an aspect, a specific aspect of his nature. And I'll give you some of these examples as we go through this. But if we want to understand who God is, we're going to have to see him as he deals with his people. And this is one of the beautiful things about salvation history and the great adventure. Bible study in particular is that we really do go through salvation history, and we look at how

God deals with his people, and he gives them a glimpse of who he is by giving an aspect of himself in a name. If you know what I'm talking about, if we want to know him, we will have to deal he will have to deal with us personally. We're going to get to know him personally. And let me give you example for example here. In the Bible, just the name God as Elohim is mentioned 2,555 times. The term Lord, which we would know as Yahweh, 5,500 times. And that's the name that is the unpronounceable name in Israel's history and the name that is considered the highest in reverence. And so Some would say Jehovah, we would pronounce that as Yahweh, Yude, He, Vavhe, if you know Hebrew, if you don't, you're fine. God is described as Almighty, the Almighty One, El Shaddai, the Most High God, El Yon.

And even in Psalm 91, in Psalm 91, if you want to look it up, I'll put it in the show notes, verses one and two. and mentions all four of those names in a row. He is the Most High. He is Almighty. He is Lord. He is God. All in one particular verse. Let me just grab that for you here real quick. And I want to read that to you because it's really, it's really beautiful. It says, He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, who abides in the shadow of the Almighty, will say to the Lord, my refuge, my fortress, my God in whom I trust, for he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. So you get a glimpse there of God revealing himself, particularly in those first two verses. There's some other examples that we have in the Bible, and I want to go through this with you because the culmination of God naming himself

in salvation history really finds its zenith its point in Jesus. Look at this now, this progressive revelation throughout the Bible, all the way from Genesis. I'm going to go all the way through Ezekiel very quickly and show you just how God reveals himself in salvation history. Okay? In Genesis chapter 22 to Abraham when he was going to sacrifice his son and God stopped him. He revealed himself there in Genesis 22 and verse 14 as Yahweh Yere. Maybe you've heard it as Jehovah Jira. But it means God is my provider. And so over 4,000 years ago now, God gives us a glimpse of who he is. He is your provider. Now, as I go through this, I want you to think for a moment you know, about all the times in your life when you have needed God's provision in your life.

I want you to know that today, God will provide for you. He did for Abraham, and he does for you today. 3560 some years ago, in Exodus chapter 15 in verse 26, Israel was suddenly realizing that God is the healer. He is the healer. Jehovah Rafa. He is the one who heals us. As you move on in Exodus chapter 17 verses 8 and 15, and I'll put this in the show notes for you, all of these. He reveals himself with Moses on the mount, fighting the enemy. When his hands are raised, he's successful. When his hands go down, they're defeated. And God, 3,500 years ago, reveals in the text his name, Jehovah or Yahweh Nisi, my banner. I'll put it in the show notes.

So he is my banner. He is the one that fights for me. You can move on in salvation history, and you will find in judges, chapter 6 and verse 24, that God reveals himself as Yahweh Shalom. Yahweh Shalom. You can hear that little siren in the background, perhaps. Ambulance is going by.

Somebody needs peace right now. now. We pray for them. Yahweh shalom, God is my peace. Isn't that a beautiful thought? God is my peace. He's revealing something to Israel, piecemeal here, a little bit about himself. And so if you're in the book of judges, you know, as you look back on God's words and deeds that he's a provider, he's a healer, he is my banner, and he is my peace. Well, in Psalm 23, King David wrote Psalm 23, And it was revealed in that Psalm that Yahweh Ra'a is my shepherd. 2,700 years ago. He's revealing himself as a shepherd.

In fact, in the New Testament, we see that he is the good shepherd. He's the good shepherd. I love it. In Jeremiah 23 and in verse 6, God reveals himself as Yahweh Sidkenu. He is my righteousness. He's our righteousness. That's 2,600 years ago. He is our righteousness.

And when we come to the New Testament, of course, we know that our righteousness is in Christ, and we know that he is the shepherd. And then when we come to Ezekiel chapter 48 and verse 35, the Lord reveals himself a little around 2,580 years ago, something like that. Don't hold me to exact. This is circa about. But the point is, in Ezekiel, 48 and verse 35, God reveals himself as Yahweh Shama. The Lord is present.

The Lord is here. The Lord is where? There. Where? There. Over there? There. He's here.

He is present. And so when we look now at Jesus, and we're going to look at this a little bit, a little bit more in depth after the break, we're going to see that he is all of this, that God is revealed himself in the Old Testament with many names. And what we're focusing on here is he is your provider, he is your healer, he is your banner, he is your peace, he is your shepherd, he is your righteousness, and he's present. And as you look at Jesus, you can see that right now at this point in history, in your life, he is your provider. I don't know what you're going through right now exactly, but I do know this. He's a provider.

and he's a healer, and he's your banner. He'll fight for you. He's your peace. He's your shalom. He's your shepherd. He's your righteousness. And he is present today. Isn't that beautiful? Now, this name, Yahweh, comes from God revealing himself in Exodus chapter 3. In verse 13, Moses said to God, if I come to the people of Israel and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me, what is his name? What shall I say to them? And God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, say this to the people of Israel, I am, has sent me to you. That is Yahweh.

That is the unpronounceable, the unpronounceable name. Now, I'm going to take a break. When I come back, I want to talk about how Jesus fulfills this and the beauty of his name and how we are called to go out and to live in his name and to live keeping. in mind all that he has provided for us. You're listening right now to the Jeff Kaven Show. The Great Adventure Catholic Bible Study Program is the most popular and acclaimed Catholic Bible study out there, and it has helped hundreds of thousands of people find new meaning in their lives. If you want to encounter the power of God's Word and better understand how your life fits into the story of salvation history, consider participating in a great adventure Bible study.

To preview the first session of any TGA Bible study for free, create an online account at Ascensionpress.com. Welcome back to the Jeff Kaven Show talking about what's in a name today, and does a name have meaning, and what is God's name? And so before the break, we were talking about how God revealed himself piecemeal, a little bit at a time throughout salvation history. you know, salvation history culminates in Christ. It finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ. And even as you look at all of the construct names, that is Yahweh Nisi, Yahweh Tidkenu, Yahweh Shalom, God is. As you look at those

construct names in the Old Testament, they find their fulfillment and total expression in Jesus. In fact, in the great high priestly prayer, in John chapter 17, Jesus talks to the Father and says, you know what, I revealed your name to them. Now, in antiquity, when you would go into a country and there would be all kinds of kings and temples and gods worshipped, you had to, and this is important, you had to know the name of that God in order to have access to that God. and typically it was the priests. And so not everybody had access to the God of that city because they didn't know the name or the secret name of that God.

Well, Jesus said in John 17, says, when Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come, glorify thy son, that the son may glorify thee, since thou hast given him power over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom thou, hast given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ

whom thou hast sent. I glorified thee on earth, having accomplished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, Father, glorify thou me in thy own presence, with the glory with which I had with thee before the world was made. And then he says in verse six, I have manifested thy name, to the men whom thou gavest me out of the world. Isn't that beautiful? He says, I have made known thy name. And that name is so incredibly important. In fact, we know about the name of Jesus because of the annunciation, Luke 131. We learned that God will take on flesh, but he will also take on a new name. Jesus. And you might remember that. Remember, his name was announced. His name shall be what? Yeshua. And what does Yeshua mean? What does Jesus mean? Well, Yahweh saves. That's what it means.

God saves. So when we talk about Jesus and the name of Jesus, which by the way was common in the first century, When we talk about that name, we're talking about Yahweh saves. God saves. Now, what makes Jesus different than any other Joshua is who he is, second person of the Trinity. And so the name Jesus connected to the second person of the Trinity gives us a name above all names. That is really amazing. And it says in Matthew 121, she will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, Yeshua, because he will save his people from their sins. You know, it's almost kind of like a clever tongue twister in a way, that his name will be Yeshua, God saves, because he will Yoshia his people from their sins. He will save people from their sins. And so we now have the full

expression of God throughout all of salvation history, all wrapped up in one name, Jesus. Jesus. In fact, Acts chapter 4 in verse 12 says that no other name under heaven is given by which we must be saved, except for Jesus. Jesus. And of course, Yeshua, Jesus means God's salvation. And listen to what Simeon said in the temple in Luke chapter 2 in verse. verse 30. You remember this? When he was aware of Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, the child, he said, for my eyes have seen your salvation. So Jesus, the name Jesus, God saves, was recognized by Simeon. He says, my eyes have seen the salvation of the Lord. That's beautiful. And John the Baptist, when he was preaching in Luke chapter 3 in verse 6 he said repent and then all flesh shall see the

salvation of God which is Jesus that's Jesus another little kind of a play on this name remember the story in Luke 19 with Zechias he was kind of a small guy Zekees was a wee little guy weed little guy was he anyway he was up in the tree in Jericho and remember Jesus Jesus said come on down here and then invited himself to Zacchaeus' house. And you remember what he said? I remember what the name Jesus means. It means God saves. It's the salvation of God.

Jesus said to Zacchaeus in Luke 19, he says, Zakias, salvation has come to your house. And so that he's speaking of himself, and he's talking about his name. So the beautiful thing here is that we as Christians now, have been given, we have been given access to the name above all names, the name of Jesus. And we can pronounce the unpronounceable name, and he is giving us his name. In prayer, what do we do?

We call on his name, Jesus. And perhaps you're familiar with the great Jesus prayer when we are in a tough situation or we don't know how to pray. Some of the church fathers even taught us that we can just repeatedly say Jesus, even with the breath that we take, the rhythm of life, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. And if you want to be historically accurate, Yeshua, Yeshua.

I have in my office a ceramic plaque that has in Hebrew written Yeshua. It's in Hebrew. It was found in an archaeological dig. The archaeologist who gave it to me said it's basically the way Jesus would have signed his master card. But he didn't need one since he was the master. But it's beautiful. It says Yeshua. And it sits in my office and it constantly reminds me of the name of Jesus. The fact that we have access now to God, Our Father is an amazing thing. It's an amazing thing. Jesus, Yeshua, Yahweh saves.

I love it. I absolutely love that. And so what we see in conclusion here is that Jesus is all the names of the Old Testament and more. And this name contains everything. and there is no greater name in the world. And so when you cry out this week, maybe you're going through a tough time right now. Maybe later this week,

something may come up that you're thinking yourself, I just cried out to God. Well, you did. You cried out to God. But as you cried out to God, you were, let's break it down, you were crying out to the provider, the healer, the one who will fight for you, the one who brings peace, your shepherd, your righteousness, the one who is present, the one who's the

creator, the omniscient, omnipresent God is with you and with the utterance of the name Jesus. You are there with him. You are present with him. And if two or three gather in his name, he's there. He is there. And so I want to encourage him. you this week, that if you're feeling alone or you're feeling like, you know, you don't know what to do in your situation, think about how God over history purposely revealed himself to Israel. He purposely revealed himself to Israel. And in Jesus, he is revealing his fullness to you. If you've, if you've seen Jesus, as Jesus said, if you see me, you see me, you see the Father. And everything about the Father is seen in Jesus. And we have his name.

That means we have access now to the Holy of Holies in His presence. The dividing wall has been taken away. The curtain has been ripped dividing the Holy and the Holy of Holies. You have access to God this week. So whatever you're going through, call out to Jesus today. Call out. Hey, I want to, before I close in prayer, I want to remind you to continue on strong in prayer. I was reminded of this earlier in the week that, you know, a lot of times we just keep prayer to silent thinking. You know what I mean? We think that, okay, I'm going to pray. I'm going to talk to God.

So we close our eyes, we close our mouth, and we just think. And can God hear you? He certainly can. Absolutely. But I have found a secret. I have found a secret that if I pray out loud, there's several benefits to it. And saying the name of Jesus out loud, there are several benefits. One is, I am more aware than ever that I'm in a relationship with God when I speak out loud.

That's important. Number two, I find that once I start talking, more of my heart opens up and God gets a place to those secret places of the heart as I begin this whole. holy conversation with God, right? And number three, when I talk out loud to God in prayer, whether it's in a car, one mow in the lawn, or I'm sitting on the back porch or taking a walk, is that distractions seem to go away because my energy is focused on the words that I'm expressing to God. And so I want to encourage you this week to take that name of Jesus, speak it out loud, walk in its power, walk in confidence that he is with you. That name should never be taken in vain. We should never use it in a way that is light. We should never curse or swear. And we don't need to

swear even by saying, I swear to God that our yes be yes and our no, no, and everything be done to honor his name. I want to close in prayer. And again, thank you for going to iTunes and ranking the show, leaving me some comments. If there's a topic that you want me to kind of touch on, let me know by emailing me at the Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. The Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. Pray for me.

Pray for Father Mike Schmitz. We're on our way to Israel, and I'm going to give you a show from Israel. Father Mike and I are going to come to you from Galilee and from Jerusalem and let you know how we're doing. In the name of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Lord, I lift up my friends to you today. And I ask you, Lord, to be with them in a powerful way. And whatever they're going through, may they reach out and grab the hem of your

garment and utter your name. Because in your name, devil's flee. In your name, people are healed. In your name, you are present in our difficulties. lift up my friend to you right now. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Amen, the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Have a great week.