Dr. Ed Young - What's In A Name

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How many of you like to get on the water? You like the water, whatever, raise your hand. Aw yeah. How many of you would just as soon, you never got on a boat and got in the water again? Would you lift your hand? Yeah, yeah. About 60% like it and the other 40% say you can have it. We do a lot of things in the water. A lot of us fish. Now, you can't say a fisherman. You have to say a fisher person, and because men and women both fish today. I saw a bass boat. I mean, these new bass boats, have you seen one lately? I'm telling ya, it's like one of those yachts, a miniature yacht. I mean it's just, I mean they got these big motors, they got deep wells for bait and fish, and they got these fish finders, radar that goes down and all kinds of things. The fish don't have a chance. I mean, there they are, they're at 6 feet, and they're biting the day, this color of lore with the sun and the moon and the stars.

And man, fishing is so scientific today. Those who are big-time bass fishermen like that, I've calculated that whatever you catch, you're paying about a thousand dollars a pound, just about a thousand dollars a pound. But you know, a lot of people like to fish. We love to go in the water. Others just love to... there are a lot of water skiers. We go out and I see these kids water ski and man, they no skis, barefooted, on their back. I mean, it's amazing. Others go out, and of you like to snorkel or scuba? And they go out in the water, it's part of the boat. They got these jet skis that...zzz. Man, and others just like to swim and some like to just get in the boat, and sit back, and just relax, and have a picnic and drink something. It's relaxing, you know, with wind at your back and the sun in your face.

People like the water. It's amazing when you read in the Bible, how many times Jesus talked from a boat. Just read it. So many times he got into a boat. He would walk out, he'd get into a boat. And the reason he would do that, was that people could see him and hear him, and the crowds were pressing in. And this is our Scripture there in Mark. Jesus got into a boat on the Sea of Galilee and he began to teach. And you read he had a long, tough day. We forget Jesus was human as well as totally divine, right? Had a long, tough day, wonderful stories, wonderful parables. The parable of the soil, how the Word of God goes out: Some people hearing briefly and some people in awe. And all the stories, he dealt with the scribes and the Pharisees. He performed a miracle: a man with the withered hand. It was healed. He performed a miracle: someone who was paralyzed. That person was healed.

And so he had a long, hard, tiring day, teaching from a boat. He must have had good agility, I'll tell you, just to stand in a boat all day and teach, and teach and perform these miracles. And finally, as the sun was going down, he told the apostles to get in the boat and push out. He said, "Let's go across the sea. Let's go on the other side. It'd be a relaxing experience for him". Now, this was not a sailboat with a big sail up there saying Messiah 1. You know, it was a paddle boat, and those on board were fishermen. They had spent their lives, most of them fishing there, living right on the Sea of Galilee, and they pushed out.

And the Bible tells us that Jesus went to sleep in the stern of the boat. Stern for the Aggies, is in the back of the boat. I mean, we don't want to go to fast, but that's where they would put a VIP. They would put him in the stern. They had a pillow there, a cushion. And it says, he went to sleep on the cushion. So Jesus just exhausted, sat back in the boat there, put his head on the pillow, and went fast asleep. Isn't it wonderful you have a day and you're just full of all kinds of things and you're empty? I say, I tell Joe Bresnan, I've run out of bullets. You know that phrase. I'm just, I'm exhausted. I've got nothing left. And that was Jesus, and he was lying there in the boat, in the stern, and he went fast asleep, and then suddenly a storm erupted on the Sea of Galilee. I've been on and across the Sea of Galilee over 20 times in a boat. And I can tell you I asked those people who fish there, and those who run those boats almost every time, "What about these storms on Galilee. Is that a real thing"? He said, "Look, we have them all the time".

And by the way, there are six different accounts of sudden, violent storms. And the word there for storm is connected to our word seismic, and they just erupt. You say, "Well, why do they happen so suddenly"? The Sea of Galilee is a heart-shaped body of water. In some places, it's a hundred and fifty feet deep, and it's 700 feet below sea level, and then rising above it in the distance is Mount Hermon, which is over 9,000 feet. And therefore, you have these little bays, these little channels, and because the cold air from the melting snow, that's melting in the Sea of Galilee, it's warmed up there and storms can just erupt, and the waves are unbelievable. It's like being caught in a hurricane or a typhoon. And they happen without warning, they happen dramatically, they happen suddenly.

And many people have lost their life on this sea, because there's no warning and there are many bodies. There are many boats at the bottom of the Sea of Galilee. And this storm erupted, now, let me tell you something, if you're ever on a boat and you're in a storm, and the captain is scared, you got a problem. And these fishermen were frightened, the waves were overwhelming the boat, they say that they were soon to go down, and they panicked and they looked at Jesus and he is cutting the z's, had the pillow under his head. Man, here is this violent storm erupting around, wind and waves, they're going down and Jesus is just sacked out. And the apostles go to him and they wake him up, but before that, as they wake him up, they ask him this question. They say, "Do you care that we're dying, we're perishing? Do you care? You're there asleep, we're about to go down to be drowned, end of life. Do you care"?

Ladies and gentlemen, how many times have you and I asked the Almighty, even Jesus, "Do you care that my marriage is in trouble? Jesus, do you care that I didn't score high enough on my SAT test and I'm not going to get in school? Jesus, do you care about this overwhelming problem I've got with my health and I've prayed and I've done all, and I'm just so... Jesus do you care"? We ask that question too. Because I can tell you something, you've either, you have been a storm, you're in a storm or you will be in a storm. And we ask, "O Jesus, do you care"? So, they woke him up. They said, "Do you care? Do you really care"? And Jesus must have stood up and yawned and said, "Be still". The miracle was not that the storm stopped. All storms end. All storms stop.

The miracle was it stopped on his command. And then we have the first question, "Do you care"? Then we have Jesus stopping, stilling, hushing the storm literally, and then we have Jesus asking a question that has two parts to it. And he asked a question. He said, "Are you afraid"? It's like, "I was onboard. I told us to go on the other side". "Are you afraid"? he asked those apostles. Then he asked, "Do you still have no faith"? Now, what's Jesus saying? He's saying, "Look guys, you've been with me, you've seen me heal the leper. You've seen me take people who seemed to be demonically or were demonically invaded, and the demons were cast out. You've seen the blind could see, the deaf can walk. You've seen me answer the tough questions, you've heard my teaching, you've seen me, and I bought someone back to life. You've been here and do you still not have faith after you've seen all of this, you've touched all of this"?

Wonder if I'd been on that boat or you'd been on that boat, I wonder if we'd have the same attitude when we thought we're going down, "Do you care"? Then Jesus would say, "Hey, do you still have no faith, in all this"? What had happened here. Now follow me carefully. What had happened here? You see, these apostles had seen Jesus, all kind of supernatural miracles in an earthly dimension, right, with people in an earthly dimension. The healings were powerful and dramatic and real. His words and his teaching. All of this was powerful, but now it moved into totally another dimension. Do you still not have faith? What was this other dimension? Now, he could speak to the waves, he could speak to the wind and all of nature obeyed him. That's another, that's ratcheting up way beyond what they'd understand. Did you see that? You see that?

And then they asked the big question. This is the big question. They asked, "Who is this man? Man, we get he's a miracle worker, we get he's a wonderful teacher, we get all of this, but now, the wind and the storms obey him. Who is this man"? In other words they're asking, "What is his name"? Let me answer that. It's found in Genesis 1:1, we're gonna have to read it. Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth", and the word for God there is Elohim. Would you say that with me? Elohim. One more time. C plus. Say it again, "Elohim". That's the first name in the Bible used for God and it means the God of creation.

Now, we've got a problem with that name. It is God in plural. It is a plural name. Now, that's weird. If you know anything about the Hebrew religion, they were monotheistic. Their big thing was one God. Everywhere you turned in that day, like today, there are a multiplicity of gods. They had gods for everything. They had gods that came from the sun, gods that rose up from the sea. They had a god of this, a god of that, all these gods and now the Jew says, "There is one God", but the first time in the book, they use the name of God, the God of creation. It is in the plural. It is Elohim. Why is that? It is because in creation, God the Father was there. He spoke into being the created order, read it in Genesis. God the Holy Spirit was there, the word is ruach, that is spirit. God, the Holy Spirit were there and hovered over the dark, the abyss.

See the firmament and brought things into being. The Holy Spirit was there. And by the way, the fancy word for this is God created life and the world, ex nihilo, that means out of nothing. There was nothing and God spoke, and the Holy Spirit hovered over man and breathed the breath of life, the spirit of life as we're made in the image of God, and this is creation out of nothing, ex nihilo. Someone told me that I made these cookies from scratch, and I didn't argue with her. I said, "Oh, it's great". I wanted to say, "No, you didn't. No, no. You had ingredients".

Let me tell you. Scientists can do everything, but they can't create anything out of nothing. Zero, nada, nothing. That's what God in creation. Elohim. But you've God three, it's in the plural: God the Father, God the Holy Spirit. Where is God the Son? He was there in the creation too. I want you to see it. Paul tells us about it in Colossians chapter number 1. Look at Colossians if you would. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians. Colossians chapter 1, verse 15. Listen, this is, Jesus was there. It says, "He, Jesus, is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through and for him. He, Jesus, is before all things, and in him all things hold together".

Did you think Jesus Christ came at the existence at Christmas? Did you think that? No, no, no, no, no, no. He was there in pre-time at pre-history, from the beginning. And every profession of faith, the Apostles' Creed the Nicene Creed, the Westminster creed, they always begin with the fact of Elohim, the creation: Father, Son, Holy Spirit, present in pre-history from the beginning. So this is Elohim. That's his name. What is your name? Elohim, God of creation. It's important that we know this name. It's important that we understand this name. Everything here designed by God. What was Adam's first assignment? Name the animals. Have you noticed how the animals fit their names? Think about ox. Doesn't ox kind of sound, look like an ox? Think about snakes. Snake. You know, it just sounds like a hissing snake.

See how carefully, prayerfully, Adam named the animals. We are to be custodians over this universe. We're to be ecologists, we are to be involved in this world, in the credo. We're to be stewards of this planet, because it is the God of creation who spoke and brought it into being with all three of the Trinity present there, from the very beginning, the breath of life. And by the way, when suffering comes along... what about suffering? The oldest book in the Bible is the book of Job. You may not have known that. Job, the oldest book in the Bible. Remember Job got sick, he got real sick, he'd got desperately sick. He lost his family, lost his total possessions. He was dying. They threw him away in the garbage dump. Miserable, pain, boils.

We don't know all that was wrong with him. And he was arguing with God. His three friend came and gave him silly advice, thought they knew the answer to suffering, which was, "Job, you've done some bad stuff nobody knows about. That's the reason you're going through all this hell on earth experience. That's the reason the devil's on you. That's the reason God's got a hold of you". Remember that? And we talk about the patience of Job. Read the Book of Job. He was patient about 2 and a half chapters. That's it. Man, all the rest of the 20, 30, 40 chapters, he was the most impatient dude you'd ever read about until finally Job... it's why I say, "Job, curse God and die".

See he had taken his name in vain. Job said, "I'm not going to do that". But he got right on the edge of that, oh he did, and he demanded a day in court with God. We'll settle this issue as to why these horrendous, horrific things are happening to me. I want some answers, God. And he gets all over God in his anger and says, "Give me an explanation for this sickness". In other words, he said, "God, do you really care"? What was God's answer? You can't read it now but look at it, verse 38 through verse 41 of Job, remember Job saying, "I want answers," and look at what God gave him an answer. God said, "Where were you, Job, when I put those stars up there in the heaven? Where were you, Job"? He said, "By the way, Job, where were you when I hung the sun up there? And what about the moon? And Job, where were you when I made the hippopotamus and I made the rhino. Where were you when I put all these trees and these rocks? Where were you, Job"?

And he goes to all those chapters, chapter 38, 39, 40, 41. God is saying, "Where were you, Job, when I was the God of creation". What was he saying? "I'm running this thing, Job"? And Job realized he was trying to box with God and Job discovered, and all of us need to discover, your arms are too short to box God. They're too short. And when he went through the longest monologue in the Bible of God speaking. When he got through, Job says, "I repent in dust and ashes. I humble myself before you". You see, Job's pride was in his moral life. He was humbled and broken. He repented and God restored him and blessed him in a way he'd never been blessed before. Who is this man? He is the God of wonders. That's who he is.

Some of you may remember the name Rick Husband, the commander of the Columbia, the spaceship that tragically was destroyed with all six lives onboard. Rick Husband was a wonderful, wonderful Christian man, and he had a dynamic home, a man of prayer, a man of the Scripture. And Rick Husband, on the third day he was in space, had asked that they wake him up in the morning with the song, and the song he asked was for "God of Wonders". And they played it, and he talked to his wife that day and said, "As I look out into the space from outer space, 2-3,000 miles up", he said, "Anybody who can doubt God when I see the magnificence of his creation," as "God of Wonders" was playing. I want you to hear it because it speaks of Elohim.