The Undisputed Title Holder: How Jesus Obtained His Name

Sermon outline

The name of Jesus is the weapon God gave the church, and it works when you understand what stands behind it: Jesus inherited that name, won it by conquest and had it conferred on Him, and He has commissioned you to use it.

1. Eternal life is the nature of God, and your language has to change

   The day a person receives Jesus, spiritual death is eradicated from his spirit and the life and nature of God are imparted: His ability, thoughts, wisdom and power. Nobody who spends time in the Word stays the same, and your words show where your spirit has grown to. Watch the tenses: 'hath' is past tense, so you are healed, blessed and delivered now. Put everything in the future and you cannot receive today.

   Illustration: A well-known chorus about entering His gates with thanksgiving pictures you living outside the gates, coming in for the service and going out again. He says you dwell in the city of God and carry His presence wherever you go.

   “If you put everything in the future, it means you cannot receive now.”

   • Colossians 1:13
   • 2 Corinthians 3:18
   • Matthew 12:34
   • Psalm 91:16
   • Romans 12:2

2. Translated out of the power of darkness into a kingdom of love

   Translated means transferred, exchanged, taken out of the devil's dominion, which is his authority and rulership of death, disease, poverty and evil. You were there once, no more. The kingdom of God's dear Son is a kingdom of love in which Jesus sets His seal of approval on you, and the transfer was made possible by His atoning blood. So stop saying the devil is after you: be bold and tell him to get out.

   Illustration: Jesus is seated at the Father's right hand, yet when Stephen was martyred Stephen saw Him standing. If He stood for one man who died for the gospel, there are times He gets up for you. He adds that a rose by any other name still smells sweet: people can call you what they like, God loves you.

   “You were born out of love. Not out of hatred. Not out of religion.”

   • Colossians 1:13
   • Ephesians 1:20
   • Ephesians 2:6
   • Acts 7:55-56
   • Proverbs 28:1

3. Born of God, a new creature, an heir of God

   Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, so you hail from God and are from above. He that has the Son has life, and that life reigns in you. You are a new creature, reconciled to God, and the Spirit Himself bears witness that you are a child of God: not someone who will one day become an heir, but an heir of God and joint heir with Christ now. God gives your prayer the same attention He gave Jesus.

   Illustration: A wealthy uncle or aunt dies and the attorney reads out that you are an heir. You do not walk into the bank to ask for a loan; you ask for the manager, and if he is too busy you take your business down the road.

   “The same attention God gave Jesus is the same attention he gives you.”

   • 1 John 5:1
   • 1 John 5:12
   • 2 Corinthians 5:17-19
   • Romans 8:16-17
   • Matthew 26:53

4. The need for the name: God did not leave you weaponless

   Satan is the god of this world and the prince of the power of the air. You are born again and no longer under his influence, but you are still in the world, and hostile forces all around try to frustrate you with temptations and trials. God has given you armour and a way out: the name of Jesus. He tells the younger people that Satan is trying to rob them for the Master's service through friends and bars, while the Father is preparing them, so they should stay in church, be taught and wait for God's time to release them.

   “You have not been called just to cruise into heaven.”

   • 2 Corinthians 4:4
   • John 17:14-16
   • Ephesians 2:2
   • 2 Timothy 2:21
   • 2 Timothy 3:17
   • 2 Timothy 2:15

5. It is by words: stop looking for a sign

   In your walk you grow from asking and praying to commanding and prophesying. Christians want to feel something before they believe, but it is by words. When a man of God says you are healed or promoted, receive it then, and do not talk yourself out of it afterwards because your mind is not renewed. Feelings are good, and you enjoy God's presence when you feel it, but He is with you when you feel nothing.

   Illustration: He calls Johannes forward with Brian standing behind him and says only, 'In the name of Jesus', and the man falls. 'Did I pray?' he asks. 'I spoke a word.' He also pictures believers who want God to come down with a blowtorch, an air conditioner or the slap of an angel's wing before they will believe.

   “If the church can only catch that. It's by words.”

6. Number one, how Jesus obtained the name: He inherited it

   Two things must be understood: how Jesus obtained the name, and the authority invested in it. First, He inherited it from eternal God, who appointed, ordained and set Him forth as heir of all things. It was the highest name in heaven. An heir inherits from someone; an heir apparent has a right that cannot be cancelled; an heir presumptive loses his right if someone with a stronger right is born. Jesus is an heir and an heir apparent, never an heir presumptive, because no one will ever be born in any of the three worlds who supersedes His name.

   Illustration: He calls a few more people forward, has Nathan stand behind them, and says only 'Jesus', to show that the name, spoken with understanding, carries power without a prayer being prayed.

   “You are not just mentioning a name. You are mentioning a name with an understanding what comes behind that name.”

   • Hebrews 1:2
   • Philippians 2:9-10

7. Secondly, Jesus inherited the name by conquest

   'Having spoiled principalities and powers' uses a Greek word that means to strip the clothes off another person. Jesus stripped Satan of all his power to destroy the human race and made a public spectacle of him, victorious and successful. Through death He destroyed, or as another translation puts it, paralysed, him who had the power of death. Luke 11:21-22, which he used to apply to the church, he now reads as Jesus' prophetic picture of that defeat: the stronger One overcame the strong man and divided the spoils with us, the joint heirs.

   Illustration: Catching a thief who is wearing your stolen clothes and stripping them off him. Jesus stood before heaven, earth and hell as the undisputed victor, the world heavyweight champion for ever, with no contender.

   “He was made the world heavyweight champion forever. He became the undisputed title holder.”

   • Colossians 2:15
   • Hebrews 2:14
   • Luke 11:21-22

8. The name was conferred on Him, and He commissions you with it

   God reserved the name in heaven, knowing His plan from Genesis 3:15, and conferred it on the One who merited it when Jesus died, said 'It is finished' and destroyed Satan's works. When Jesus told the disciples that all power in heaven and earth was given to Him, He was showing that nothing matches His authority, and saying that He had the right to commission the church with it: go and heal the sick, cast out devils and preach the gospel. All authority over Satan's dominion is invested in that name, so devils, witchcraft and sickness must go when you use it.

   Illustration: You do not have to go looking for muti and dig it up. Just say, 'In the name of Jesus, die', and the demon working in it is gone.

   “There has been an eternal investment made in the name of Jesus by God our Father.”

   • Matthew 28:18
   • Genesis 3:15
   • John 19:30

9. Kings don't do such things

   He explains why he does not preach against drinking, smoking, gambling and the Lotto: that is kiddie stuff. You have been made a king and a prince, and a prince does not leave his seat to wallow in the mud. When you need something you ask in the name of Jesus, and answers that once took long begin to come by lunchtime, then within minutes. You do not need drink to be joyful, because the joy of the Holy Ghost, the new wine, is inside you.

   Illustration: At a restaurant overlooking the beachfront in Ballito, he and three others at the table began to laugh in the Holy Ghost and could not stop (his wife, he says, will confirm it), while the men around them drinking big bottles of beer were not laughing at all.

   “Children of God ought to be living in the fire, not in the smoke.”

   • John 14:13-14

10. If you use the name and it doesn't work, try it again

    Start with small things: lay hands on your children, rebuke a cold in the name of Jesus, and when you feel the healing your faith jumps, so that next time you pray with more confidence. If you make a mistake in your faith walk, God is teaching you, not punishing you. Pray again, and keep trying until it works and you have got hold of it.

    Illustration: Brother Sipho said the other day that when his children get sick he now lays his own hands on them. 'That's the way,' he says.

    “If you use it once and it doesn't work, try it again.”