What’s in a Name?
Pastor Joe Fuiten, August 21, 2005
Text: 1 Corinthians 1:10-18 page 811 in the pew
Bible.
10 I appeal to you,
brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no
divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.
11 My brothers, some from Chloe's household have informed me that there are
quarrels among you. 12 What I mean is this: One of you says, "I follow
Paul"; another, "I follow Apollos"; another, "I follow
Cephas"; still another, "I follow Christ." 13 Is Christ divided?
Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul?14 I am
thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so no
one can say that you were baptized into my name. 16 (Yes, I also baptized the
household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don't remember if I baptized anyone
else.) 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel-- not
with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but
to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
People don’t get along so well in
churches, at least until compared to everywhere else. Where two or three people are gathered
together, there will be some kind of conflict.
When it happens in church, it often really has little to do with church
and everything to do with human beings.
In Paul’s case here in
They all have their denominational
name that they think is important. In
verse 10 Paul trumps all that with his appeal for unity in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
I am intrigued by the use of the Lord’s name in this
case as well as in our time. In my
experience, those who don’t know God are quite comfortable talking about God
but they are less comfortable talking about Jesus. Those who know God are quite comfortable
talking about Jesus. For good reason are we comfortable talking about Jesus. Jesus
said that if you have seen him you had seen the Father. Jesus is the express image of the Father
according to Hebrews 1. Jesus said he
was the way to the Heavenly Father. No
one comes to the Father except through Jesus.
In this case, why does Paul appeal to “our Lord
Jesus Christ?” He could have meant that
Jesus wanted them to get along, so by appealing in his name, he was telling
that what Jesus wanted.
He may have been showing them the force of his
appeal, much like he did to their northern neighbors at Thessalonica where
he wrote, (II Thess 3:6) “In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we
command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does
not live according to the teaching you received from us.” Or like he did when
being harassed by a demon in Acts 16:18 “Finally
Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, "In the name of Jesus Christ I command you
to come out of her!" At that moment the spirit left her.” If
Paul had said “please” instead of “in the name of Jesus”, would the effect have
been the same?
In every case, there is tremendous power in the name
of Jesus. Some years ago I was invited
by a psychologist to participate in a session with a man whom the psychologist
felt was possessed by demons. It didn’t
take long until he was manifesting and acting strangely. I observed this for a while. For whatever reason I was inspired to begin
singing songs of worship to the Lord praising the name of Jesus. Within 10 minutes the man was released and
returned to his right mind. There is
tremendous power in the name of Jesus and no demon wants to be around that. It reminds them too much of their future.
That is the dramatic side dealing with the power and
authority of Jesus’ name. Matthew’s
Gospel, the account of the life of Jesus ends with a reference to his
authority. Jesus said in Matthew
28:18-20 “Then Jesus came to them and
said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey
everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very
end of the age."
So when Paul speaks in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, he is speaking with the authority invested in him by Jesus. It is the authority we have been given
through Christ.
Maybe the polar opposite of authority in Jesus’ name
is service in his name. On another
occasion Jesus was settling a conflict among his disciples. The story is in Luke 9:46-48 “An argument started among the disciples as
to which of them would be the greatest. 47 Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took
a little child and had him stand beside him. 48 Then he said to them,
"Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and
whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For he who is least among you
all-he is the greatest."
How do you welcome a little child in the Lord’s
name? You welcome them as though it were
the Lord himself.
We have had a wonderful summer with regard to
children and youth. We welcomed a number
of children this week into eternal life in Jesus’ name. In the day camps we had 11 who gave their
hearts to Jesus this week. Almost every week this summer we have had similar
results. In
This is not surprising. There have been people praying that the
altars would be filled with children seeking God. That is exactly what happened. People called upon the name of Jesus in
behalf of children and God responded.
The spiritual movement in our church over this summer has been led by
young families. They have little
children and their interests include little children. It has been an awakening marked by prayer and
work. People pray and they invite people
to church.
Heidi Whitehead told me that all eight children in
her neighborhood gave their lives to Jesus this week.
Welcome a child, a teenager, or a college student in
Jesus’ name and you have welcomed the Lord himself because it is done in his
name. In that case, we do it in behalf
of Jesus. We are acting as his
agents. At the same time, he is the
recipient of our actions. It is in Jesus
name.
If we can return to the problem Paul
was addressing in
In Paul’s opinion, the answer lies in the Holy
Spirit’s power in Jesus name whether we are talking about children or
adults. In Ephesians 5:18-22 Paul opens
his section on wives and husbands with this word: “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be
filled with the Spirit. 19 Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and
spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, 20 always
giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ. 21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22
Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. Etc…”
Pray in Jesus’ name. You have his authority. You are his agent. You not only speak for him but everything you
do is to him, either good or bad.
This is not some new message. Listen to this paragraph from Origen around
250 AD:
And the name of Jesus can still remove distractions from the minds of men, and expel demons, and also take away diseases; and produce a marvelous meekness of spirit and complete change of character, and a humanity, and goodness, and gentleness in those individuals who do not feign themselves to be Christians for the sake of subsistence of the supply of any mortal wants, but who have honestly accepted the doctrine concerning God and Christ and the judgment to come.[1]
October
26, 1997.
Where’s the
Power in the Name?
Text: 1 Corinthians 1:10-18 page 811 in the pew
Bible.
10 I appeal to you, brothers,
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among
you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. 11 My brothers,
some from Chloe's household have informed me that there are quarrels among you.
12 What I mean is this: One of you says, "I follow Paul"; another,
"I follow Apollos"; another, "I follow Cephas"; still
another, "I follow Christ." 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified
for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul?14 I am thankful that I did
not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so no one can say that you
were baptized into my name. 16 (Yes, I also baptized the household of
Stephanas; beyond that, I don't remember if I baptized anyone else.) 17 For
Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel-- not with words of
human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. 18 For the
message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who
are being saved it is the power of God.
I.
The problem of divisions among people, including the church.
People don’t get along well with
each other. This appears to be the
universal condition of humanity. When
there were only two teenagers in the world, Cain killed the other one, who was
his brother.
It sometimes happens in Churches
too. For the most part, there is far
more unity in the Church than there is anywhere else in society.
Some years ago, when we were living in Snohomish, my
wife Linda was breeding pot bellied pigs.
I’ll bet you don’t know too many people who breed pot bellied pigs. If you limited it only to those around
Snohomish, there were even fewer. But
those few formed a pot bellied pig association.
When Linda heard about the organization she decided to join it. She soon discovered that those few folks were
not getting along with each other. In
fact, it wasn’t long until that group split into two organizations. Then Snohomish had two pot bellied. I never knew what they called either of them,
but I suppose it was First pot bellied pig assembly and other one became
When there is some kind of division that grows up,
it doesn’t mean that the Gospel doesn’t work.
It means that it is being practiced by humans. Matthew Henry said, “This is no reproach to
our religion, but a very melancholy evidence of the corruption and depravity of
human nature.”
II. Paul’s basis of appealing to them to get
along
In
verse 10 he says, “I appeal to you,
brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no
divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.”
I got to wondering if his appeal in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ was just a formality, or did he mean something by the
expression. I recognize that his basis
of appeal is not the main thing, but I wonder what it meant to Paul.
1.
He could have meant that
Jesus wanted them to get along, so by appealing in his name, he was telling
that what Jesus wanted.
2.
He may have been showing
them the force of his appeal, much like he did to their northern
neighbors at Thessalonica where he wrote, (II Thess 3:6) “In the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is
idle and does not live according to the teaching you received from us.”
3.
Or like he did when being
harassed by a demon in Acts 16:18 “Finally
Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, "In the name of Jesus Christ I command you
to come out of her!" At that moment the spirit left her.”
4.
If Paul had said “please” instead of “in the name of
Jesus”, would the effect have been the same?
III. The Impact of Spiritual Force
1.
To get feuding people to get
along requires spiritual force. The
impact is not in the request, but in the spiritual force behind it.
2.
That spiritual force is not
the same as personal confidence or dynamic magnatism or any such thing. It is actually a working of the Holy Spirit.
Paul said, in 1 Corinthians
2:3-5
“I came to you in weakness
and fear, and with much trembling. My
message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a
demonstration of the Spirit's power, so
that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.
3. If the Holy Spirit can make fueding people
stop, I think we should have a closer look.
IV. In every area of life, it is about spiritual force not activity and
motion.
1.
In Paul’s opinion, the Holy
Spirit should have an impact on your family.
When I was preparing this message, I said to myself, if Paul believed
this, then he no doubt would have surrounded his instructions about family life
with an urging toward spiritual vitality as well. This is exactly what I found when I started
looking:
A.
In Ephesians 5:18-22, Paul opens his section on Wives and
Husbands with this word, “Do not get
drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
19 Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make
music in your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for
everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 21 Submit to one another out
of reverence for Christ. 22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. Etc…”
2.
The biggest problem we have
in our family is not the spouse or the kids, it’s me.
A.
If there is a conflict with
the wife, is there something in the spiritual dimension of life that could
solve it like Paul proposed to the Corinthians?
B.
What about with the
kids? Will conflicts be solved there
too?
3.
What is you are doing the
same things as your parents did for you, but you are not getting the same
results they got with you! Maybe what is
lacking is spiritual force.
4.
In sports as in life, the
differences are not in the motions but in that special something that is hard
to quantify, but it is clearly recognizable.
It is an extra amount of “zip” that separates the losers from the
winners.
V. How to recognize and acquire that spiritual force or power.
1.
Some don’t have it, because
they look at the wrong things. They
mistake spiritual motion for power.
We
see this in the story of Elijah on Mt Sinai in
I Kings 19:8-15
8 so he got up and ate and
drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until
he reached Horeb, the
9 There he went into a cave
and spent the night. And the word of the
LORD came to him: "What are you doing here, Elijah?"
10 He replied, "I have
been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your
covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the
sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too."
11 The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in
the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by." Then a
great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart
and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind.
After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the
earthquake.
12 After the earthquake came
a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.
13 When Elijah heard it, he
pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
Then a voice said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"
14 He replied, "I have
been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your
covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the
sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too."
15 The LORD said to him,
"Go back the way you came, and go to the
2.
Spiritual force comes from
penetrating the layers with God.
Think of God like an onion. There are layers. Think of God like the tabernacle. There are outer courts, inner courts, holy
places, holy of holies, mercy seats, and
between the cherebim before you reach God.
God is not like a psychic hot
line. You don’t just call up and get
whatever drivel they are selling that day.
There is a seeking and patient pursuit of wisdom, knowledge, and power
from God.
3.
Spiritual force comes from correctly interpreting the voice.
Acts
16:9-10
“During the night Paul had a
vision of a man of
[1] Alexander Roberts, and James Donaldson, eds., Origen, “Origen Against Celsus, Book 1”, Ante-Nicene Fathers, (Peabody, Massachusetts, Hendrickson Publishers, 1994), Vol.4, pg. 427