YHVH the Divine Covenantal Name - A Scholarly Paper

                                                                            Introduction

The shepherd tended to his father-in-law’s sheep as they roamed the wilderness. As the flock came near a mountain, the shepherd’s eyes fell on a bush engulfed in flames yet not being consumed by the fire’s incinerating effects. Intrigued by the fire, the shepherd said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned. (Ex. 3:3 [ESV])” That turning from his life as a shepherd changed the trajectory of the shepherd’s life. Soon, he would know why the bush raged in fire, yet it did not burn. The angel of the LORD was within the bush, and the voice of God called out from the fiery bush. A messenger, a leader, a prophet would the shepherd become, for God would send him to his people to proclaim freedom and blessing. But what God had called? By what name was this deity to be known? This is the question the shepherd would ask, “If I come to the people of Israel … and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them? (v.13)” To this God replied, “’eh-yeh ’ǎ-šer ’eh-yeh” “I am who I am. (v.14)” 

For the first time in the Scriptures, the God of heaven and earth gave his chosen name, which he intended his people to know him by, a name that would become the basis for the covenant relationship of the Israelite people. The name which Jesus would invoke to lay his own claim of divinity. YHWH, the divine name of God. God reveals his covenantal name so that his people knowingly carry it to honor him worldwide. In the following paper, I will briefly explore the origins of the covenantal name of God in the Ancient Near East, how the Israelites treated the name in the Old Testament, Jesus’ and the New Testament’s treatment of the name, and finally, the implications of the covenantal name for Christians today. 

Overview

The following paper focuses on four areas in conjunction with the covenantal name spelled YHWH below, which is the most common rendering. The first of these is YHWH in the Ancient Near East. In this section, I will examine the most ancient connection point with the covenantal name in ancient Egypt. I will move forward in time, covering other possibilities for using the name outside and inside its Semitic use. I will also briefly review the name’s origins, focusing on Northern and Southern origin. Finally, in this first section, I will show how the biblical story fits the evidence.

In section two, I will explore the agreed-upon first use of the YHWH name in Exodus three. In looking through the interaction between YHWH and Moses, I will show the meaning of the name for the people of Israel and how it reveals, in part, the nature of God. From there, I will briefly detail its use throughout the Pentateuch and the rest of the Old Testament. A brief mention will be made to examine Exodus 20:7 and its implications for the Jewish community. This section will then end with a focus on the name in Israelite worship.

YHWH And Jesus is in section three, which will focus on how Jesus connects himself to the covenantal name. A brief look at the seven “I am” passages will be mentioned, focusing on those “I am” statements that illicit a reaction from the Jewish audience, found in the Gospel of John chapters eight and ten. A connection will be made via the Greek translation of the Old Testament to the statements, thereby showing how Jesus was purposeful in his affirmation that he is the YHWH of the covenant. This section will then conclude with a look at Matthew 28:19 and the name Jesus teaches his disciples by which to baptize—exploring how the covenantal name is Triune.

The final section transitions to the Church and explains how the name motif was carried out through the New Testament writings. There will be a focus on Peter and the first uses of the name of Jesus in Acts two through 4. Following this, time will be spent with Paul and his uses of Jesus’ name in his writings, with much attention given to the statement in Philippians 2:10. The section ends with wrestling with the question of whether it is legitimate for the Church to use the terminology of being name bearers of God, as Israel is. The paper concludes with a brief overview and a call to Christians to follow in line with past believers who honored God by bearing his name.

YHWH In The Ancient Near East

Since the covenantal name, YHWH, seems to be the most connected to the period of Israel’s dealings with Egypt, this connection must be examined. By using three historical anchor points: the foundation of Solomon’s temple, the temple’s destruction, and Babylonian clay tablets, Gavin Cox places the Exodus around 1445/6 B.C.  Irving L Jensen and Paul N. Benware agree with this dating, while Provan, Long, and Longman agree that the date is one of three highly plausible dates. Taking this date, and due to Pharaoh’s declaration in Exodus 5:2, “Who is the Lord … I do not know the Lord …,” it would make sense that the name of YHWH would not be found any earlier that the time of the Exodus. In Michela Schiff Giorgini’s 1957–1963 excavations of the temple of Amenhotep’s second courtyard, the phrase “land of the nomads of Yahweh” has been uncovered. This temple dates to Egypt’s eighteenth dynasty and Pharaoh Amenhotep III between 1387-1348 B.C. This would be in keeping with Egypt’s later encounters with the nation of Israel as they bore the name of YHWH, in the time of Joshua and the judges as Israel transitioned from nomadic to solidifying into a bordered nation.

In the same period of Egypt’s eighteenth dynasty, a Book of the Dead papyrus was found to contain a non-Egyptian name. To translate this name, Cox uses the transliteration of both Egyptian and Hebrew to arrive at the English rendering of “[The] Lord [is] my shepherd Yah.” Cox concludes that the name’s bearer could be an elite Jew sometime before or during the Exodus. The use of Yah in Israelite names before God’s self-identification in Exodus three is in keeping with the biblical text. Joseph’s (Gen. 30:24), or Yehoseph, meaning “Yah (YHWH) has added.” Another example of a theophoric name can be found in Exodus 6:20 with Moses’ mother, Jochebed, or Yahkabed, meaning “Yah (YHWH) gives weight or is impressive.”

Widening the focus of the use of YHWH in the Ancient Near East, Josef Tropper mentions the name in neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid writings from the eighth and seventh centuries B.C.. In cuneiform texts from this period, Tropper sees two variations of the name, ia-aḫ u-ú and ia-a-ma, as they are used in theophoric names. Aramaic inscriptions of Akkadian texts form the yh or ywh of the names, similar to their use in the above examples of Yehoseph and Yahkabed. 

In keeping with the region of the neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid empires, Markus Witte and Jürgen van Oorschot open their book addressing the debate within academia of the origin of the name YHWH as being either in the northern region of Mesopotamia or southern towards the area of the Sinai Peninsula. Advocating a north origin, Manfred Krebernik uses examples such as the Ancient Near Eastern god El interacting with Baal and the mountain Ṣapā/ūnu, which occurs in the eighth and seventh century B.C. Here Krebernik draws associations with YHWH when he writes, “The Ugaritic name of the mountain has a Hebrew equivalent ṣāpōn with the general meaning ‘North,’ which in Ps 48:3 it is still recognizable as the name of a mountain associated with Yhwh.” Due to this overlap and others he sees, Krebernik makes his case for the name YHWH and the worship that followed to be based in the north. This is not necessarily incorrect. As one looks at the history of the world through the Genesis account, Noah’s ark is said to have “… came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. (Gen. 8:4)” The location of which Anne Habermehl puts within the kingdom of Urartu in modern-day Turkey. It would logically follow that the first mentions of YHWH would also be in the area. 

However, Jörg Jeremias says, “… Israelite groups adopted the worship of Yhwh (in whatever form) from the Midianites or Kenites.” This connected YHWH with the Israelites around the time of the Exodus in the region of Egypt and points to earlier attestations than Krebernik. To bolster his argument, Jeremias brings up the expression in Exodus 33:30, “El (is) the God of Isra – El.” Kerbernick builds off the idea that El was the Hebrews’ deity before they adopted the Midianites’ YHWH through Moses’ marriage. Yet this theory would be inconsistent with Moses’ mother’s name containing “Yah.” Since the account of Moses’ interaction with YWHW is to be taken as truthful, God connects his identity before Moses with being the “… God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. (Ex. 3:6)”

Due to the failings of both arguments to provide a smoking gun to the origins of YHWH in the Ancient Near East, Oorschot and Witte conclude, “The present volume cannot deliver a clear and indisputable answer to the question of the historical beginning and origin of the worship of Yhwh.” Barring such a definitive origin, the biblical account would seem to give us a cohesive understanding. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was known by many names, one of which was Yah or “He who creates life.” This name was incorporated into the names of the nomadic Semitic people. Those Semitic people found in the lineage of Jacob or Israel eventually were brought into Egypt, continuing for over four hundred years the tradition of incorporating Yah into their names. Moses then encountered this God at Mt. Horeb, where Yah gave his covenantal name as YHWH. This coalescing of the debate with the biblical story leads us from YHWH in the Ancient Near East to YHWH entering into covenant with the nation of Israel, as found in the Exodus account.

YHWH, From The Exodus Through the Old Testament

Wout Jac van Bekkum sets the point of Exodus 3 as “… the main sources for the biblical attitude to the name of God …” It is within the meeting of YHWH and Moses that sets the basis for all interactions with YHWH throughout the rest of the Old Testament into the New. There are several points of interest in this first encounter between the YHWH and the future leader of Israel. The first is the setting. Moses is out attending his father-in-law’s flock. While shepherding, he comes upon a bush that burns but is not consumed by the fire. The biblical account states, “And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. (Ex. 3:2)” Moses first step in his encounter is through God’s angel, or messenger. This encounter happens if not directly on Horeb, then in its vicinity, a mountain already recognized as “… the mountain of God. (v.1)”

Yet, as Elaine Phillips notices, the angel says nothing to Moses. Instead, it is God himself who speaks to Moses, calling him by name. This is the second point of interest. In verse five, God’s revelation of who he is indicates something more in Moses’ response. van Bekkum states, “In traditional Jewish exegesis … [God] revealed himself in the voice of Moses’ father.” The purpose of this was due to Moses’ inexperience with prophecy and the divine. Jewish exegesis puts forth that God spoke in the voice of Moses’ father so that Moses would be neither frightened nor lead him to take prophecy lightly. When Moses responds affirmatively, God informs Moses that he has come to a holy place and must remove his sandals. Following this, God reveals that he is the God of Moses’ father, showing who he truly is. Moses’ response is to hide his face in fear.

The third point of interest is God’s first revealing of his identity. God not only calls himself “… the God of your father … (v.6)” but also “… the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” It is strange then that Moses would ask in verse thirteen, “If I come to the people of Israel, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” It appears that in Moses’ mind, the revelation of the God he is speaking with and the description given would not be enough to convince the people of Israel that Moses was indeed sent. A specific name must be given for the Israelites to believe. Whether this is the case or whether this is Moses’ second attempt to discount his calling (verse twelve being the first) matters not because God does give him a name, “’ eh-yeh’ ǎ-šer’ eh-yeh.” van Bekkum writes, “Numerous commentators and exegetes have observed that we are given here an explanation of the tetragrammaton … Whatever reservations one may have regarding the etymological correctness of this derivation, one cannot negate the fact that a connection with h-w-h/h-y-h gives meaning to the divine name …” This divine name reveals  God’s past, present, and future being. The God that is before Moses is the God who is the Yah that has been at work, is at work, and will be at work. The Greek Septuagint renders this name as ego eimi ho on (“I am THE BEING”). As English translations render it, “… I am who I am … (v.14.),” a blanket statement which carries with it the idea that “… the Lord is the eternal self-existent and sustaining source of all that is, entirely sufficient for all past, present and future trials and triumphs … The root of this verb is the basis for the divine name Yahweh …” In speaking of this, R.R. Reno states, “God is announcing that he is the source and summit of all that is. He is the High God, the Transcendent, the One who is and cannot not be.”

From this moment onward, the Israelites would know the self-revealing name of their God, YHWH. Tradition holds that Moses wrote the Pentateuch. Knowing that God reveals his covenantal name to Moses at the burning bush, when writing Genesis, Moses inserts the covenantal name roughly one hundred and eighty-nine times to make it a point that the covenantal God of Israel is from the beginning of all creation. Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy contain one thousand four hundred and twenty-seven uses of YHWH, with the rest of the Old Testament containing the rest of the seven thousand seven hundred and ninety uses of the covenantal name.

It is the covenantal name of YHWH that in Exodus twenty, the LORD would make the third command, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. (Ex 20:7)” Due to this, E. C. B. MacLaurin notes that “… pious Hebrews and Jews did not pronounce, substituting for it the common Semitic word meaning ‘lord.’” Though MacLaurin sees several weaknesses with this history of why the name was replaced, he agrees that it is “… held everywhere and for a very long time…” The reason for this almost universal avoidance of the Tetragrammaton is due to Jewish Oral Law’s restriction of it. To avoid breaking the third command, it has become customary in Jewish communities to substitute YHWH for other names while speaking, such as Adonai and The Name, and while writing, such as G_d. Since the name has not been spoken since roughly the third century B.C., and Jewish translators omitted vowels as part of the respectful treatment of the name, any hope of correctly sounding out the name is done through the use of Adonai’s vowels and the estimation of the Yh and Wh sounds.

The LORD’s name, given to Moses, ushered in the covenant with Israel and also shaped the nation’s worship. YHWH would become a focus of the cultic worship of Israel; this can be seen throughout the Old Testament because he deserves to be praised. Psalm 113:2 declares, “Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore!” Again, the Psalmist writes, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of the Lord. (118:26)” The teacher in Proverbs states, “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe. (18:10)” Daniel declares, “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. (2:20)” Israel took the name of the Lord as not simply a way to refer to their God, but rather as the center point of their worship. YHWH, the central point of all aspects of life, especially in the realm of salvation, prepares the way for the Messiah Jesus to come and claim the covenantal name for himself. 

YHWH And Jesus

As in the centrality of God’s name in the worship of Israel, so is the name of God in Jesus’ mission. Jesus calls out, “Father, glorify your name,” to which the Father replies, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again. (Jn 12:28)” This glorification was done through the works of Jesus. In his high priestly prayer, Jesus states, “… Holy Father, keep them in your name … (Jn 17:11),” referring to his disciples being protected and strengthened. Because the Gospel of John focuses more than the other gospels on the significance of Jesus’ name language, Joshua J. F. Coutts remarks, “Occurring as it does in such a wide range of expressions, it is likely that the name was a fundamental category for John …”

Though much can be said about Jesus’ purposeful use of the divine name throughout John, no connection is more pointed than his seven I am statements and their corresponding twelve verses. This paper focuses on the implications of YHWH in these statements. As was stated above, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, the Septuagint, and specifically how YHWH is translated therein, is ego eimi ho on. Jesus connects with the covenantal name of God by utilizing ego eimi in all but one of the twelve verses where he states, “I am.” The seven statements are: “I am the bread of life (6:35, 48, 51),” “I am the light of the world (8:12; 9:5),” “I am the door/gate (10:7, 9),” “I am the good shepherd (10:11, 14),” I am the resurrection and the life (11:25),” “I am the way, the truth, and the life (14:6),” “I am the true vine (15:1).” Robert H. Gundry writes of these statements that “These suggest the claim to be the ‘I AM-YAHWEH’ of the Old Testament.” David A. deSilva not only connects Jesus’ “I am” statements directing to God’s self-revealing of the covenantal name but also placing himself throughout Scripture. deSilva writes, “In most instances, Jesus is presented as ‘exegeting’ his own significance in light of the Old Testament images … the primary background is almost certainly provided by divine speech in the Jewish Scriptures, beginning with Exodus 3:14: ‘I am who I am.”

Jesus’ intentionality of connecting himself to the covenantal name and his Jewish understanding of this connection comes in two places: chapters eight and ten of John. In chapter eight, Jesus talks about how he does not seek his own glory, but “… there is One who seeks it… (8:49)” Jesus then states, “... if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death. (v. 52)” To this, the Jewish people scoff and challenge Jesus, bringing up how many prophets have died and questioning if Jesus believes himself greater than even Abraham, the father of the Jewish people. Here, Jesus makes an important statement, “… before Abraham was, I am. (v.58)” John records the immediate reaction of the Jewish audience when they “… picked up stones to throw at him … (v. 59)” The immediate action of grabbing stones to kill Jesus speaks to the intensity of the conversation. Jesus was not simply connecting himself to a long line of prophets from God but to the eternal God. This would not be the last time Jesus’ words connecting himself to God would end with the Jewish audience reaching for stones.

In chapter ten, there are two “I am” statements: door/gate and good shepherd. This leads Jesus into a teaching on his authority, and it is told, “There was again division among the Jews because of these words. (v.19)” This division would grow and come to a head at the Feast of Dedication, where Jesus would push the issue of his divine connection by stating, “I and the Father are one. (v.30)” John records that “The Jews picked up stones again to stone him, (v.31)” for the reason of “… blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God. (v.34)” Again, the Jewish audience understood that Jesus directly connected himself to the God of Israel, placing himself equally with YHWH. 

Turning from John’s Gospel, something needs to be said about Jesus’ transition from the covenantal name of YHWH to the trinitarian name of Matthew 28:19. Like the covenant of Israel based on the name God gave them, Jesus performs a similar covenantal right based on the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Here, Matthew Henry recognizes that there are not three names but one. Giving one unifying name on the mountain carries the same intention and force as when the one divine name was given to Moses on Horeb. When a person is baptized in the Triune name, they take on the New Covenant under the grace of Jesus. Here, Jesus again connects himself to the covenantal name, initiating his New Covenant with people of many nations grafted to his eternal purposes.

Undoubtedly, as far as Jesus was concerned, he and the covenantal name YHWH were one and the same. Jesus expanded that understanding of that name to include him and, by doing so, revealed his triune nature. Due to this, Jesus’ disciples would carry on the connection with his name as the name by which one must be saved and under which his Church would carry out his mission.

The Name Through the Church

In the first sermon of Jesus’ Church, given by Peter to the masses gathered on the day of Pentecost, the apostle said, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins … (Acts 2:28)” Following this, Peter and John are walking to the temple when they meet a crippled man. It is “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth …” that the man is told to “… rise up and walk! (Acts 3:6)” Not long after the first sermon, Peter and John stood before the ruling council of the Jews and proclaimed, “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)” Yon-Gyong Kwon rightly recognizes that “Peter did not have money, but he had something much better, namely, the name of Jesus Christ. This name healed this person not because it was magical but because it was (and still is) authoritative and powerful.” But it is Craig Keener who draws the connection to the invocation of the name of YHWH by the prophets, noting, “As God’s representatives, prophets sometimes commanded, speaking by the word of the Lord, and their words were fulfilled … Such commands, though addressed to the object in question, could also function as implicit prayers by reflecting dependence on God.” The covenantal name of YHWH now carried forward the Church under the name of Jesus as representing the new covenant by which all people may enter into salvation. Throughout the rest of the book of Acts, it will be under the name of Jesus that the Church will continue to spread.

Paul would continue using the name of Jesus by calling upon,, appealing to, assembling under, and being sanctified and justified under it. Paul gave thanks in the name of of Jesus, sought to do everything in and glorify the name of Jesus, and commanded others in the name of Jesus. Finally, John points to the name of Jesus when he wrote, “And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. (1 Jn. 3:23)"

The name was so intricate to the basis of all that was done in the Church that Paul would write, “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil. 2:9-11)” This statement closes out the hymn, which began in verse five and is one of the most poignant pieces of Scripture, which points to the equality of Jesus with the Father outside of Jesus’ own words. The connection of Jesus being the name to which all knees will bow leads Charles B. Cousar to write, “Since the Isaiah reference demands that the name that is above every name must be YHWH, so in Phil 2:10–11 the name every tongue confesses is not Jesus, but “Lord” (YHWH), the name of status and power.” The Church has borne the name of Jesus in keeping with Jesus’ connection to the divine name of Exodus 3, and by whose name all things were created.

At this junction, Carmen Joy Imes brings up an important question, “Making this leap from ancient Israel to us, today, we must ask, “Is it legitimate for Christians to read the Sinai narratives as our story and to read Israel’s vocation to bear Yahweh’s name as our vocation?” Imes emphatically believes this is true. This is due to Peter using Sinai covenant language when speaking about the Church. God intended that his covenant with Israel be borne by the name YHWH; it is now God’s intention that his Church, in the new covenant, bear this Gospel message by the name of Jesus. As Imes ends her article, “As Old Testament scholar Terence Fretheim said so poignantly in his commen­tary on Exodus, ‘At the deepest level, use of God’s name is a matter of mission.’ May we bear God’s name with honour.” Let the Church, those who call on the name of Jesus for salvation, continue to bear the name of God for all eternity.

Conclusion

God has always sought people with whom he would dwell. In pursuing this, he chose and set aside a people who would bear his name. Through a covenant with Israel, the name YHWH was given by which the nation would be known to serve. This name would become the focal point of all worship for the Israelites, and through sin and repentance, his name would continue to endure throughout Israel’s history. When the second person of the Trinity, the Word, became flesh, Jesus continually connected his name to the covenantal divine name. His disciples would then bear that name throughout the writings of the New Testament. Today, every person who calls upon the name of Jesus continues bearing his name before the nations. As the Israelites were called to do, Christians were also called to honor and keep their names holy. In doing this, the Church points to the second coming of her Lord and the day his name will be known and revered on all the earth.

                                                                                         Bibliography

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On Mission Week 3 - Missio Mathétés

 Last week I told you about my hopes for my high school baseball team that were quickly dashed by reality. Well when I went to college, those hopes didn’t get any better. In the spring of my high school year, I had already decided to go to Simpson College because I wanted a place where I could grow in my walk with God. I picked Simpson because it had everything I was looking for in a Christian college. That choice was solidified when I met the coach for the baseball team. He seemed to know what he was doing, the practice I attended was well organized, and the team seemed to be focused on becoming better. A far cry from my high school team. 

So it was decided, I started in the fall, and the first day on the field, I learned that the two coaches had quit at the end of the last season. Not only them, but several of the players were not returning for various reasons. On that first day, there was only eight of us and I learned quickly that baseball wasn’t a priority of the school. Simpson’s team at the time was little more than a club team. We were intercollegiate only as far as we put the effort into it. We had to pay for almost everything, from uniforms to trips. 

In the years I played for Simpson, only one of those years did we have more than twelve players consistently. One year we went on a week road trip with only eleven players; playing much bigger schools like Vanguard, Occidental, and Master’s College. That last one had two teams, of which we played the “B” squad. But because of our situation, I had to learn to play more than one position. I had to become a utility player. Now when I was younger I played other positions, and from time to time on my high school team I had to fill in other places. But I never knew those positions. In college I had to know every position inside and out. Which, I found enjoyable. Looking back over my entire time playing baseball, I realize that my favorite position to play was first base, a position I only played my final spring season. During my college career, I realized that as a player, your job is to develop with the needs of the team in mind, just has much as for your own purposes. I had more fun on that team than any other, because I learned to be everything the team needed. 

And it’s this idea of developing as an individual that brings us back to our sermon series, where we’re talking about being on mission with God. The reason we’re walking about mission, is because, we have a tendency as people in general to either not understand what the Mission of God is and our part in it, or we get so caught up in life that we neglect God’s mission. 

So, in our first week, we looked at God’s overarching mission. In that, we talked about how God’s mission is to restore his creation’s access to his presence, which is the place we find fulfillment. God’s mission has three milestones: First, it’s his perfect good creation, humanity’s rebellion in sin, and their entering into eternal death, which is eternal separation from him. From there, God’ work is to bring about Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection, which results in the forgiveness of sin, and opens our relationship with him that is to be experienced now and lasts into eternity. The final milestone is the culmination of all God’s work in Jesus’ return, which brings a new creation and an eternity to experience God’s goodness. This has been and is God’s mission in our fallen world.

In our second week, we talked about the Mission of the Church. As a body of beliers we are to bear witness to what Jesus has done. This witness includes both the proclamation of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, and is shown through Christian unity, where grace and love are given out. Now we talked about how there are things we have to divide on based on what the core of the Gospel is. Since Jesus states that he is the only way, that separates Jesus from other belief systems. However, we tend to divide more on secondary and third tier issues that are not at the core of the Gospel, and it’s at the core where we need to unite, and give grace to those areas that are disagreements. Finally, we are to also make disciples. That means every believer is a part of every other believer’s growth. We are to be encouragers, mentors, brothers, and sisters to each other as we each walk Jesus’ path.

With God’s mission and his mission for the Church clear in our minds, we turn to the final mission, which is the mission of the Mathétés (ma-thay-TAYS), the mission of the disciple. Like we said last week, there is a lot of overlap between the Church’s mission and the disciples’ mission, because the Church is made up of disciples. However, there are a few things that we must be doing as disciples on an individual level, which then strengthens the greater Church

To be consistent in our series, we’re only going to look at three facets of God’s mission for his disciple.

To start off with, in the first eleven verses of the opening of John’s Gospel, John gives us an introduction to Jesus and his mission. John writes, “1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

“6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. 9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.”

These verses tell us that the Word of God is an eternal person who is both unique in relation to God, and God himself. This Word brought all things into existence, and in verse 14 we learn that this Word takes on human flesh and becomes known to us as Jesus. In the Word taking on human flesh, John the Baptist, a different John from the writer, bears witness to Jesus’ work. The writer tells us that the Word brings true light, true illumination to what God has been doing. And this Word bringing light first comes to the Jewish people. The people that God had worked with for thousands of years as he brought his mission to fruition. But Jewish people rejected Jesus, they rejected their God. This is reality of the mission of God. And it’s here that we get verses, 12 and 13, “12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

The writer states that if you receive Jesus then you become a child of God. It’s not because you’re good enough, or that you willed it to happen, but because you responded to God and then God brought you into his family. This is the end goal of God’s mission. That he would have a people, children, who willingly embrace him, and in turn, he willingly embraces. 

This is the first aspect of our mission, to be children of God. It’s really easy to think that God’s mission for me is to do something. To evangelize people. To build ministries. To do something with my life that leaves a mark for the kingdom. But in reality, our primary mission is to be his children. It is why Jesus uses the terms Father and Son. God’s intention was to build a family. We are to be more than servants, more than workers, we are to be children of the Father. Princes and Princess of the King.

This is why Paul writes Romans 8:14-17, “14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” If we don’t have this realization, then everything becomes work for a master, rather than bringing joy to a parent. God is our Abba, our Papa, our Father, and we are his children, if we receive Jesus’ life, death and resurrection on our behalf. This is what it means to receive Jesus’ as Savior. It is to be received as a child of God.

The next aspect follows the first, and comes from Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:14-16, “14 You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

When we receive Jesus as Savior, we receive the Holy Spirit. When we receive the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ light is placed in us. When Jesus’ light is placed in us by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we are to shine the light to people around us. We are to not hold back the light, nor be ashamed of it. Light is meant to brighten darkness and bring attention to perils. Street lights are there to help us see our way down the sidewalk and roads. Lighthouses are there to warn ships of treacherous waters. Jesus’ light shinning out from us is to illuminate this dark world and to point back to God. 

Paul would writer this in Colossians 1:27, “To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” The hope of God through Jesus, which now indwells his children, is the hope of the world. God chose to use individuals to be lights who gather together as the Church to light dark places and reveal destructive paths, so that people may turn from sin and receive Jesus as Savior. This then fulfills God’s mission of bringing people back into his presence, that they may be children of God.

And how do we shine this light? We might think that it’s evangelism or sharing the Gospel with someone. In reality it’s seeking to live out God’s holy life, relying on the Holy Spirit to do so. It’s living Jesus’ command of loving God with with all heart, mind, soul, strength. It’s asking for greater transformative work in ourselves. It’s learning to trust ourselves fully to God, laying our will down before his own. It’s seeking the greater and sweeter things that God has for us. It’s living the abundant life of Jesus, by abiding in him for all our sustenance. It’s failing and turning back to God to be lifted up. Like a kid who fell of their bike and scraped out knee, we call out for our parent to come and fix our hurt. 

In other words, to be light, its to be in relationship with God and not hiding it. That relationship is to overflow to others, thus fulfilling the second great commandment of loving people as ourselves. By doing this, we are fulfilling the mission God has for us.

The final facet is the speaking aspect. We must never have it in our mind that we are to never speak of what God has done. But too often we think it has to be done as if we are an evangelist. We think, in order to fulfill God’s mission, we must be a street preacher like Ray Comfort, or lead huge rallies like Billy Graham. In reality, we are to fulfill Peter’s word in 1st Peter 3:15, “but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect …” We are to honor Jesus as holy, the way we do this is to be prepared to make a defense, or to give an answer to why we live in the hope of Jesus. Why do we live as a child of God? Why do we live shining Jesus’ light? We’re to be able to give an answer to someone who questions that. It’s why we provide the apologetics class on Wednesdays. It’s why we do apologetics series throughout the year. 

As a pastor, one of my jobs is to equip you to give answers. And as you grow, your understanding of what Jesus has done grows, and your answer to questions deepens. But at the core, our answer is a sharing of what God has done for us. It’s our witness to his greatness in our lives. It’s the reason why we personally have hope. There is an answer to every question that people propose. Some answers take more study to share, but our primary witness is to the transformative work that God has done in us as we put his words into practice and we rely on the Holy Spirit to strength and guide us. 

Knowledge is a good thing, but only when it’s put into action, which is wisdom. Knowledge by itself, divorced from action, simply puffs us up. Which ends with us thinking of ourselves greater, and in turn leads to a diminished witness to the Gospel. I would take a hundred believers that seek and struggle to live holy lives and do not know more than their own hope in Christ, than a thousand apologists who know a lot but do not live it. 

God’s primary mission for us as individuals is to live out the life he has saved us to live. We do that by putting into action his words. It’s loving the unlovable. Praying for those that hate us. It’s serving those who cannot repay. It’s standing firm on Jesus’ words that he is the only way. And it’s laying down our will, for that of our loving Father. It’s also sharing our hope with others. It’s being able to articulate why we trust in Jesus. When we do these things, we are fulfilling God’s mission for us as individuals. We are living out being his disciples. If every individual disciple took a greater concern for their own spiritual health, the mission of the Church would be fulfilled, and we would see the greater work of God happen all around us.

My challenge for you this week is to take an inventory of your walk with Jesus, preparing your hearts for the coming weeks when we talk about discipleship. Are you living as a child of the King? That means you are cultivating a relationship with God as Father, in a loving relationship of parent and child. Are you living that out among people, letting God’s work in you effect others? Until that relationship is cultivated, you will always be frustrated with not being able to share your faith. But when we hone in on our relationship with God, God will bring us into situations where we will be asked to give a reason for our hope. And because of our deeper life with our Father, we will be able to speak of the great things he has done. Take this week to bask in the love of God, for if you received him as Savior, he desires to dote upon you with all his love, mercy and grace. 

Let us be firm in our relationship with our heavenly Father, and through that, shine before others, that we may share the great hope that Christ has accomplished in us. Amen.

On Mission Week 2 - Missio Ekklésia

 As most of you know, I played a lot of baseball growing up. In my sophomore year, though I practiced, I never played on a team. The main reason is because the school I attended for that year, didn’t have any formal sports. In my junior year, I changed schools, and one of the reasons I chose to go to the school I did, was because not only did they have a team, but they had won their league the previous year. To top it off, they were only losing one player to graduation, and only one player was a entering his senior year. That meant that the core of the team was my age, and we would have two more years to win. I was excited to play at that school.

However, I quickly learned that wasn’t the case. See, the year the school won, there were a lot of factors that I didn’t know about. First, the league was trash. Some schools were in a building phase, others were too small to really field a good team. Those issues had been worked through, and in my junior year, the other teams had grown. Secondly, our coach wasn’t a baseball coach, he was a guy who liked baseball. Liking a sport and being able to coach a sport are two different things. There are a lot of Monday quarterbacks, but only a few who are out on the field. The talent on the team was never coach to development, they won their league on their own raw talent and drive to win. But as other teams grew, they were outpaced. Without a coach who could cultivate their talents, the team just floundered. It’s one of the reasons that when I went to college I was so poor at batting. In the two years I was with that team, I had batting practice maybe three times. The coach’s philosophy was that those at the top of the batting lineup should get the most practice. Being a pitcher, I was always put ninth, and so rarely got to practice my hitting. 

Thirdly, most of the guys on the team thought they were good enough. They believed they didn’t need to get better because they had won in the past. So when I got there, they didn’t feel like they needed to put the effort into the game to improve themselves.

Due to these three factors, our team took third both years I was there. The team wasn’t willing or able to prepare for the task they took the field to accomplish. Therefore we lost to those schools that took their playing seriously.

This idea of taking our task seriously is what leads us back into our sermon series, where we’re talking about the three missions every Christian should be engaging in. In our first week we looked at the foundation for these three missions, the Missio Dei, or God’s mission. In that we saw how God’s mission contains three milestones: His creation and the fall of humanity into sin, his work in bringing about Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, and then his bringing all those who trust in him as Savior into his presence, which starts now and goes into the new creation. And we saw how God’s mission is to restore his creation’s access to his presence, where we find fulfillment.

  From God’s mission, we get a little more narrow, as we talk about Jesus’ mission for his Church. This is the Missio Ekklésia, or the mission of Christ’s gathered people. Now, in the mission of the Church, and the mission of the individual disciple there’s overlap, because the disciple is a piece of the gathered Church. But there are three aspects that the Church in general has as it’s mission that is supposed to be done in the midst of the gathering. So let’s take a look at the three aspects of the Church’s mission.

The first aspect is that the Church is a testimony to the work of God in front of the world. Jesus’ final words in the book of Acts chapters 1, verses 7-8, are a response to his disciples’ question about the restoration of the kingdom. Jesus says this to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” In Jesus’ words, we learn that, as a Church, our job is not to concern ourselves with the time of Jesus’ return, instead we are to be witnesses to the work of Christ throughout the whole of the world. Too often we get bogged down in future predictions or signs of the return of Christ, and in doing so miss the need to be witnesses. Should we desire Christ’s return? Yes! Should we be prepared and know the signs of the return? Yes! But not at the expense of being his witnesses. Because, as a Church, we are to bare witness to our great and glorious God, who will return in his timing.

By conducting ourselves as witnesses, we are actually participating in the return of our King. In Jesus’ final sermon in the Gospel of Matthew, we get this statement by Jesus in chapter 24, verse 14, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” The testimony that is proclaimed about the Gospel to the ends of the earth is the catalyst to the return of Jesus. The Church’s witness is vital to this. No individual believer can accomplish the work of proclaiming the Gospel throughout the world. Many of our brothers and sisters have lived and died in the steady march of the Gospel to the ends of the earth. As we walk as the Church today, we are to make sure that we are doing our part in moving the Gospel to places that have not yet heard it. We must be joining together with whatever arm of the Church God has connected us with to bring about the testimony to all peoples. That’s why I don’t care if you’re Alliance, Baptist, Pentecostal, Methodist, Anglican, Reformed, Calvinist, Armenian, Free will. I care that those who hold to the core of the Gospel bear witness as a gathered people of God to proclaim the Good News of Jesus. The Church’s focus should be holding to the core teachings of Scripture, being a witness to the work of the Lord, until the day he returns.

This witness leads us into the second aspect of the Church’s mission which is that the Church has to be unified. In Jesus’ final public prayer before the cruxifixction, he stated this in John 17:20-23, “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”

Too often we get hung up on doctrines that have no bearing on salvation. Is Christ, the only way of salvation? Yes! Is he coming pre, mid, or post tribulation? Who knows! What we do know is he’s coming back. So why do we divide on things where grace should abound? I do not have to like certain musical style, certain worship service formats called liturgies, nor do I have to agree with every sub-point of theology, but what I do have to love are my brothers and sisters in Christ. I have to love them with all their quirks and deficiencies. And they have to love me with all my quirks and deficiencies too. It’s easy to divide, it doesn’t take a strong person to divide, division is weakness, unity on the core, setting aside those small infractions, of the Christian faith is hard, and it takes strong mature believers to do it. 

Paul would tell the Ephesian Church, “15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (4:15-16)” I would rather see love from the people of God, who by grace accept each other’s differences over non-salvific issues, and are being built up in Christ, than a congregation who knows a lot of Scripture, yet has no love for each other. The loving congregation will always see God’s blessing, while the other, as Paul states, will be a clanging gong (1 Cor. 13:1), clanging along wondering why God hasn’t moved in their midst. 

The final aspect is Jesus’ words, that we know as the Great Commission from Matthew 28:19-20, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” The Church as a whole are to make disciples of nations. On Wednesday nights I teach our apologetics class. As of right now there are three courses in that class. Course one is Basic Beliefs of Christianity, number two is World Religions. Right now we’re going through course three which is Counter Arguments. Several times throughout the years, when I have taught the Basic Beliefs course, people have come up and said, “I didn’t know about some of the doctrines we’re talking about.” Now I have put more challenging discussions within the course to help the class grow in seeing the bigger picture when it comes to the discussion between the theological sides, but there are basic things that I have been surprised to see many people do not know. 

This is an issue of discipleship. If we have been in the faith for a decade or longer, we should have a clear grasp on basic theology. We should be clear in what it means that God is Triune, and the difference between faith alone for salvation and living out good works after the point of justification. And know what those words I just said mean. We should be able to clearly share our testimony of what Christ has done for us. We should have a decent grasp over where to find core teachings within the Bible, on things such as worry, prayer, and love. And, we should be implementing those things in our lives. Last week we looked at Colossians 1:25-26 to see God’s mission, but Paul continues as to make another point as well. Starting in verse 25 of Colossians 1 we read, “of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, 26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. 27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. (v.25-29)”

We are to be discipled, trained up in the faith that we are saved to live out, and we are to train up others to be disciples as well. It’s the Church as a whole. There are no non-disciples within the Body of Christ. Everyone is a disciple, who calls on the name of Jesus for salvation, and everyone is to participate in both their own discipleship making process and the making of disciples. This is how the witness of the Church to the the Gospel is seen in the world, and how love and unity is built within the Church to show that Jesus is the Savior. 

The mission of the Church is the mission of individuals being built together by Jesus himself to grow into his people. We are to be a reflection of our Savior in purpose and love. When the world sees that reflection, they see a witness to the great work of God in the world. 

As individuals, we must see ourselves as a part of the Church. Paul states it like this in 1st Corinthians 12, “… But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. 27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. (v. 24b-27)” Individuals who make up the body, who are so interconnected with each other that they suffer as one, and are honored as one. This is why it’s important to meet together, to share with each other, to grow alongside each other. As disciples of Jesus, there is no lone ranger. We cannot hope to be where God wants us, unless we are also alongside other believers being built as Christ’s Church. 

So my challenge then for you this week is to take each of these three aspects of the Church’s mission: witness, unity, and discipleship, and ask, “How am I doing in my witness of what Christ has done? Have you loved Jesus’ Church the way he does? Are you being discipled, and are you discipling others? For each of us it may look a little different. If you’re a traveler, snowbird, winter visitor, RTR, or Rv’er, it’s going to look different than if you live in one place full time. If you’re traveling, I want to challenge you to experience a denomination that isn’t one you’ve experienced before. As long as they hold to the core of the Gospel, visit their congregation, you will meet different people who you will one day worship alongside of in heaven. Build that witness, build that love and unity. For your own discipleship, read through a basic theology book. Make sure you’re clear on the faith that you hold. One book that I might suggest is Charles C. Ryrie’s Basic Theology. It’s bite size, but goes over a large amount of theology every Christian should know. And then, disciple someone else. Discipleship always begins with prayer, then encouragement, and maybe mentorship. Being a disciple-maker is living your life with someone else. It’s not classroom, or sermon teaching, it’s living your faith out with a less mature believer. 

God is calling us to be an important part of his Church as he builds her up for his glorious return. Let us then participate fully in that building process that we might bring honor and glory to our great Architect. Amen.