When you hear the name Steve Jobs, what comes to mind? How about Thomas Edison? What do you think about? Now, try this one! When you hear the name Adolph —— (you probably already know how to fill in that blank).
Names mean more to us than we sometimes realize. When you hear the name Geronimo, what do you think about? Jumping out of a perfectly good plane!? Well, O.K., you have the idea. A name gives a sense of belonging, culture, a place.
Are you descended from someone who came to America as a young child? They may have arrived around 1900. You share their home country. Their first sight was the woman standing tall in New York Harbor.
She’s holding her torch high. She’ll embrace all. Wearing your ancestoral name has great value. Wearing that good name gives pride, but poor behavior disgraces it. If you consider yourself a Christian, you may hear His good name mocked daily. You might even use His good name disgracefully. Every day you tell others something about how much you respect and love the name of Jesus Christ.
So, what’s in a name? If you are a Christian, you were adopted by God through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus. What good is there in wearing an identifying name if it isn’t worth defending? Preaching the gospel in Jerusalem, Peter boldly stood before men and proclaimed Jesus as Savior. However, not everyone appreciated his message. Please read Acts chapter 4 in your own Bible. What was said that day? What was done in the presence of all the people? Two reasons stand out in the text as to why the apostles spoke about Jesus.
First, the apostles declared: “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (vs. 12). What’s in a name? Everything! Only in the good name of Jesus “we must be saved.”
Second, Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard” (vs. 19- 20).
Even when told, “stop speaking in the name of Jesus,” the apostles emphatically stated, “we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
Would you stop? After all, what’s in a name?