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A few
years back I became the blessed recipient of this here Names of Jesus mug. It bolsters my faith; makes me feel very
secure, indeed, confident and powerful when I have it with me. Nothing can stand against me when I am
standing boldly with my Names of Jesus mug.
It's loaded with the Names of Jesus - Bread of Life, Alpha and Omega,
Immanuel, Messiah, Lamb of God, Saviour, Son of Man. With all these Jesus names this Names of
Jesus mug is full of names of Jesus power.
I’m going to testify, people. I
was sitting on the subway the other day and this guy was giving me the evil eye,
trying to curse me I know he was. I just
lifted my Names of Jesus mug to him and gave him a nod like I was going to say,
"Cheers" and be friendly, but instead I said, "Names of Jesus,
Buddy". Dude gets off at the next
stop. There’s power in the Names of
Jesus mug. Let me hear you say amen. The Names of Jesus mug, I think I'd better
stop before I go too far with this.
But still
let's just stop and think for a minute…a Names of Jesus mug? Seriously? What have we come to here in
Western Christianity that we can go to a gift shop and buy somebody a mug with
the names of Jesus on it? I’m going to
sidestep the whole thing about commercializing Jesus and post the
positives. The mug is obviously a memory
tool, a gift of assurance I might say, to remind us who Jesus is and what he
has done for not only us each but the whole of Creation. Jesus is the food of real life. He’s the one through whom all things were created
and the one in whom all things will find their end or completion. He is God with us, God become man; the gentle
one, the sacrificial Lamb who by his death has born our sin away. He is the mighty one born of the Jewish
people who has, does, and will deliver us from all things that oppress us even
death. This mug assures me of that Jesus
can do all these things.
This mug
is also meant to be an opportunity to proclaim Jesus. That’s good to know, but for me, my contact
with people is overwhelming with other Christians. That being the case, I can get away with
drinking from this mug publicly with little to no consequence. It’s not odd to see a minister in his or her
church office or at home drinking coffee from a Names of Jesus mug. People just say, “Sunday School picnic prize
nobody claimed, preacher got a free cup.” Or, “Oh my, what else do you give to a
minister?”
Now, what
if my work was out there in the real world where I was in contact with mostly
non-Christians? It is probable that drinking
coffee from this mug in my work place would have its difficulties. There would be the odd person who would
respect my courage and say so and also the odd Christian who would think I was
their guaranteed water cooler friend. There
would also be the one or two who would make me and my Names of Jesus mug bear
the butt of many jokes. It is likely I wouldn’t
be included in on the reindeer games because people would assume me to be
highly moralistic, judgemental, and easily offended. My supervisor would likely tell me my mug is
making others uncomfortable and encourage me to bring another because the
office isn’t the place for proselytizing.
Besides
coffee mugs, theirs another odd thing we do with the name of Jesus. We tack it on at the end of our prayers because
that makes them official? I know I feel
a considerable bit of weirdness if I don't end a public prayer saying "in
Jesus name we pray." There are
people who really believe our prayers won't get answered unless we superstitiously
tack onto them the seemingly magic words "in Jesus' name".
But
anyway, if we look at the New Testament the name of Jesus is way more than gift
shop cheese and a prayer closer. It
would not be an understatement to say that everything the church does is in and
by means of the name of Jesus. Jesus
sends the church into the world in his name which means with his authority and power. The church teaches, baptizes,
heals, and casts out demons in Jesus' name and…and it suffers for his name’s
sake.
Looking at
this morning’s passage from the Book of Acts, Peter wants the crowd to know that it was by the name of Jesus not by the
Apostle’s own power that this man born lame was healed. It was Jesus’ name – Jesus whom they, the
Jewish authorities and the Jerusalem crowds in conjunction with the Romans,
crucified, but whom their God, the God of their father’s Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob glorified and raised from the dead. Jesus’ name healed the man – Jesus’ authority
and power exercised by the disciples through faith, through prayer, at their
command.
I don’t know the number of times I have read this account
of Peter and John healing this man. It
gets my attention in a way that’s difficult for me to say. This thing of Peter and John suddenly
stopping on their way into the temple and staring intently at this lame beggar
as if they “knew” something was up. And then, after getting the man to stare
back at them, Peter says to him, "I have no silver and gold, but what I do
have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and
walk!" They take him by the hand
and start raising him up and his legs strengthen. Never before had this man been able to stand
and walk. Jesus restored him to perfect
health. He could now work. People would now see him as blessed by God rather
than cursed.
This sort of blatant display of the power of Jesus’
name just does not seem to be in our bag of tricks and I suspect it would shock
us into silence if it happened here. In
my experience healing doesn’t happen so miraculously. Its sounds like TV preacher stuff. This is just not my experience of the way healing
works.
Nevertheless, let’s not dismiss this outright. Jesus
is the Lord of the Kingdom of God and of all Creation and he has sent us into
the world in his name, which means for us to be his proxy and to exercise his
authority and power which he has given to us. To quantify the type of power we’re talking
about; since it is the name of Jesus the risen Son of God, the power we have
proxy of is the power by which God the Father raised Jesus from the dead
through the Holy Spirit. It is a
re-creative power, a renewing power, a delivering from oppressive powers power,
a healing power that brings glory and honour to Jesus, the Risen One.
The primary business of the church is testifying to
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, here is where it gets real. But let’s remind ourselves again that it is
not our own power or piety or efforts at work here. It is Jesus himself working through us as
indeed he is alive and in our midst, indeed in us and we in him by the unioning
work of the Holy Spirit who bonds us to Jesus.
Okay. So, I
realize I’ve thrown a lot of theology at you.
What is it to really be ministering in Jesus Name? Well, ministering in his name requires that
we be “in his name”. “In his name” is
also a place. Let me use the analogy of
coming in out of the cold into a heated room.
Gathering together in Christian fellowship, he is present with us and
there is something different about our fellowship that is different than other
kinds of fellowship and it is like coming out of the cold into a heated room. It feels different. There’s a song that goes, “There’s a sweet,
sweet Spirit in this place, and I know that it’s the Spirit of the Lord.” That’s being “in” Jesus’ Name.
Similarly, the more time we spend throughout the
day in prayer, in being aware of Jesus always being with us is also like being
in a heated room getting warm with a warmth that stays with you. “In his name” we experience our selves being
filled with him and things begin to happen in us. “In his name” we find ourselves being healed
of character defects and being filled with love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; the fruits of the
inward working of the Holy Spirit. The
greatest testimony to the resurrection of Jesus that we each can give is the
transformation he has brought about in us.
The super-fantastic nearly unbelievable things do happen in his name,
but more importantly the power of Jesus’ name is at work in each of us making
us to be more and more like him day by day.
Keep coming back to Christian fellowship and keep praying and you will find
yourself truly beginning to be towards others as Jesus is and ministering to
others in his name and it will happen that someone will rise up and start
praising God because of your ministering to them “in Jesus’ name”. Amen.
