YHWH

Manuscript Template

Title:  YHWH

Focus Statement:  

Function Statement:  

Tweetable Phrase:  

Main Text:  Exodus 3

Supporting Text:  Luke 24:27, John 8:51-59

Redemptive Closure (point to Jesus):  Mark 7:31-37, Matthew 8:1-4

Benediction:  Psalm 145:18, Psalm 34:18

WELCOME

Good morning!!! My name is Ryan Hanson, and I have the honor of serving here at The Light KC as the lead pastor. I’m so glad you’re here with us.

‌Welcome to those joining us online. We hope you're doing well and hope to see you in person in the coming weeks.

And a special welcome to those joining us for the first time. We’re so glad you chose to be here.

ME/INTRO - Tension

This week we are continuing our series “God is...” were we are looking at the various names that God chooses to be known by to get a better understanding about who God is, what is God’s character, and as image bearers of God himself, learn about who we were created to be and what we were created for.

But… to start I think we have to acknowledge that all names are not created equal.

We know this.

How many people have a nick name?

Throughout my life, I have had a few.

Hanson Brothers - My brother and I both played hockey, a few years even on the same team. We were often (jokingly) compared to the 3 brothers in the 1977 movie SLAPSHOT who played together on a minor league team and loved getting in fights. Needless to say at 10 years old my brother and I weren’t getting in many fights, but it was a fun nick name.

[Picture: Hanson Brothers]

MMM BOP - Unfortunately for me that nick name didn’t last long because shortly after we started playing hockey a band by the name of the HANSON’s came out. It was three long haired brothers who sang a terrible song called MMM BOP. Needless to say the hockey fighter nick name went out the window and the boy band nick name took hold. I was called MMM BOP for quite a while to my dismay.

[Picture: Hanson’s]

Ocean Spray / Crave the Wave - In 8th Grade I hit a new low of nick names. You see my hair was not like the Hanson brothers, it was wavey with a side part (just how it grew). Luckily for me I don’t have any pictures of myself before 8th grade, but imagine a much more awkward looking version of his hairdo.

[Picture: Side Part]

But, at the same time as my hair got especially wavy, a commercial for the fruit juice OCEAN SPRAY came out with the tag line “CRAVE THE WAVE”, and immediately I became Ocean Spray.

[Picture: Ocean Spray]

A nick name that quickly motivated me to copy the hairdo of the most popular movie actor of the time - Russel Crow in Gladiator. So to this day, I shave my hair to 3/8 of an inch, comb it forward and if it gets longer than the thickness of my fingers, I shave it down again (actually Andrea does it so I don’t miss spots) to avoid any semblance of waviness

[Picture: Gladiator]

Rhino - It took time to shake all the awkward nick names that I had. Eventually, I started playing on a hockey team without my brother, I decided it was loads of fun to check people as hard as humanly possible. I’m sure this is what I looked like.

[Picture: Hockey Check]

I even started a game within the team that every year the first person to break their shoulder pad by hitting someone won. I played for almost 10 years, and was the only one to win the game and was only able to break 1 plastic shoulder pad. Needless to say it was sharp, cut my arm pretty good, and when I took my pads off after the game my arm was covered in blood. It was at that moment I earned my nickname...RHINO

[Picture: RHINO]

Nick names are something most, if not all, of us have. Most times their fun. Sometimes their mean spirited.

But Nick Names do tell us about someone.

Usually there is a story behind them that help us to get to know someone better.

WE - Tension

Do you have a nickname?

Do you like it?

Have you had nicknames in your past you actively tried to get rid of?

What has your nicknames said about you, your personality, your character?

The problem with nick names is that there are many instances when you can’t use them. We all know someone who is well past the age when it seems appropriate to known only by a nick name.

If you show up to get a...

driver’s license

getting a loan

applying for a job

...

And only go by your nickname, people typically won’t take you seriously.

Today as we continue our series “God is...” on the names of God, I want to look at a story in the bible where the informal (or nick names) or God no longer give the Israelites what they need.

Up until the time of Moses, God was known by many nick names

El - God

The High

The Strong

The Existent

When Moses spoke to God at the burning bush, Moses knew the Israelites needed something more...and asked for God’s formal / proper name.

Today we’re going to look at the story of Moses’ interaction with God at the burning bush, and see what God has to teach us from His formal name: YHWH.

As we begin, please turn with me to [Exodus 3: Sanctuary Bible Page # 46]

We’ll have the scripture on the screen, but if you have a Bible with you, or Bible app on your phone, I’d encourage you to turn to the passage and follow along. There is nothing that replaces having God’s word in your hand.

AND... if you don’t have a Bible, we have Bibles under the seats. If you don’t have a bible and would like one, please come see me after the service and I’ll get you one you can keep.

Let's dive in.

GOD - Text

Please turn with me to Exodus 3:1-5.

For some background as to where we meet Moses in this story. Moses was miraculously saved from the Pharaoh’s order to throw the Hebrew babies in the Nile by his mother who hid him as long as she could, put him in a basket when she could no longer hide him, and sent him down the river in a basket praying God would save him. The daughter of the Pharaoh found him and raised him as a prince of Egypt. He was educated by the best teachers and lived as a prince for 40 years.

After 40 years, he went to see how his people, the Hebrews were doing. He saw one being mistreated by an Egyptian. Trying to save the Hebrew he killed the Egyptian. Not accepted by the Hebrews, and now on the run from the Egyptians, Moses fled to Midian where he got married and tended the flocks of his father-in-law.

For 40 years, Moses was a shepherd, the job of a child.

This is where we find Moses in Exodus 3, no longer a prince of Egypt, humbled, watching his father-in-law’s sheep, doing the job of a child at 80 years old.

Exodus 3:1–5 NIV

1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.” 4 When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” 5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

I want to stop for a second. Keep in mind Moses had been living in Midian for 40 years. He knew the area. The walked this ground over and over for those 40 years. Nothing changed about the ground at this moment.

The ground had always been holy. Moses just didn’t realize it.

Which makes me think...

Where do we go as part of our daily routines, that is HOLY GROUND, that we miss because we’re too busy to stop and look around?

How many GOD ordained moments do we let pass by because we don’t stop and listen to the voice of God telling us that we should take a second look at the bushes in our lives that are on fire but not burning up?

How many times do we fail to listen to Jesus’ warning from the Parable of the Sower that the “worries of this life can choke out” our ability to hear the words God wants to say to us?

Maybe the best thing we can do is slow down, look around, and listen to the still small voice of God to guide us to the next thing we should be doing.

Exodus 3:6-12

In the next handful of verses, God tells Moses that sees the misery of the Hebrews, has heard their cries, have come down to rescue them, and intends to bring them up out from the oppression of the Egyptians. And he wants to use Moses to do it.

Moses pushes back, telling God he is not qualified and asking God to find someone else.

Honestly I can’t blame Moses. Starting life as a prince of Egypt, trying to play his part in delivering the Hebrews, and failing, spending 40 years as a shepherd, being humbled day in and day out, I can understand how Moses, at age 80, would have given up on playing a role in his people’s deliverance.

But after God addressed all of Moses’ concerns and doubts, Moses has one final question.

Exodus 3:13–15 NIV

13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ “This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation.

It is here, that God gives Moses His proper name: “I AM”

In Hebrew this is written “YHWH”

This name for God is called the TETRAGRAMMATON

It is written without vowels and nobody really knows how it is to be pronounced

It is most likely pronounced Yahweh

According to scholars, YHWH is probably better translated as “I shall be as I shall act,” emphasizing that Israel would come to understand Yahweh’s meaning through their lived experiences with God.

YHWH = a description and guarantee of God’s unchanging faithfulness to His people

YHWH can best be defined as “The God who is near”

Since the 3rd Century BC, the Israelite people wouldn’t even say this name because it was too holy

In the 10 commandments the Israelites were commanded to show the proper name of God respect.

Exodus 20:7 NIV

7 “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord (YHWH) your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

In Leviticus 24:16 the Israelites were commanded not to blaspheme the name of the LORD, with the consequence of death.

Leviticus 24:16 NIV

16 anyone who blasphemes the name of the Lord (YHWH) is to be put to death. The entire assembly must stone them. Whether foreigner or native-born, when they blaspheme the Name they are to be put to death.

Instead of saying it, the Israelites would substitute the word Adonai (God) for the name YHWH.

YHWH -> Adonai

by the 6th Century AD, Jewish scholars substituted the vowels from Adonai into YHWH to made (YeHoWah), which is where we get the name from God Jehovah.

So in an effort to give God’s proper name the respect it deserves...

YHWH->Adonai->YeHoWah->Jehovah

So any time you see the name Jehovah in the bible it is the same as the formal name of God YHWH.

We see this over and over throughout scripture typically pared with a character description of God.

Jehovah Jireh (God my Provider)

Jehovah Rapha (God the Healer)

Jehovah Nissi (God is my Banner)

Jehovah Shalom (God of Peace)

and many others

If we look at the progression of the usage of God’s name in the Genesis we see the evolution of how God chose to reveal His character to His people

Genesis 1 - Elohim 32x - All-powerful Creator

Genesis 2-3 - YHWH-Elohim 19x - Creator who is starting to build a relationship with His creation

Genesis 4-50 - YHWH 6804x - the ever present, always existing, covenant making God, who is in relationship with His creation

God (YHWH) is a God who is near to you and wants a relationship with you

In fact...

The Hebrew letters used in the name YHWH are actually breath sounds

YHWH = Yodh He Waw He

Genesis 2:7 NIV

7 Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

When God created man, He gave life to humanity by breathing His very name into them

In Hebrew and Greek the word for Breath and Spirit are the same

Breath = Spirit = Rua (Hebrew) = Nooma (Greek)

And that Spirit of God was not just for Adam, when we put our faith in Jesus that same Spirit is given to us.

Romans 8:9–11 NIV

9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.

We become born again, a new creation, and that Spirit of God, the very breath of God SANCTIFIES us, cleansing us, purifying us, creating in us a Christ-like character.

1 Peter 1:2 NIV

2 who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

The truth is...

We serve a God (YHWH) that wants a relationship with you, that is unchanging in His faithfulness to the covenants He’s made with you, and that is as close to you as your next breath.

YOU - Takeaway

Where have you been told you have to prove yourself to belong, when God says you already belong to His family and He’ll never leave you?

When have you feel alone, when in reality God was right there with you the whole time?

What in your life have you been hiding, that God is calling you to bring into the light and hand over to him?

God is already as near to you as your next breath, what next step is God calling you to take toward Him?

WE / JESUS - Redemptive Close - Call to Action

I want to end by going back to Exodus 3:1-3, because there is one more aspect to the name YHWH.

Exodus 3:1–3 NIV

1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”

This phrase “Angel of the LORD” is actually malʾāk YHWH, which can be more accurately translated, “The Angel that is YHWH”

This is what they call a Theophany (when God makes himself known to creation), or in this case a Christophany (when Christ makes himself known in the Old Testament.

And, it may not feel clear from the verse in Exodus 3, but Christ makes it very clear in the Gospels that He is the YHWH God, the “I AM” God of the burning bush.

Jesus after the resurrection, while walking on the road back to Emmaus with 2 disciples described Himself in Luke 24:27...

Luke 24:27 NIV

27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he [Jesus] explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

In John, Jesus is quite clear about the claims He makes about himself.

John 8:51–59 NIV

51 Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death.” 52 At this they exclaimed, “Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that whoever obeys your word will never taste death. 53 Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?” 54 Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. 55 Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and obey his word. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.” 57 “You are not yet fifty years old,” they said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!” 58 “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” 59 At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.

Jesus directly claims to be the

YHWH “I AM” God. That is why they tried to stone him. They knew exactly what he was saying.

Jesus is the self-existent,

ever present,

covenant making God.

The God who delivered the promise to Abraham.

The God that freed the Israelites from slavery.

The God of the burning bush.

With that claim in mind, Exodus 3:7-8 takes on a whole different meaning

Exodus 3:7–8 NIV

7 The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.

The story of the burning bush is a Gospel story.

It’s the story of

a YHWH God

a God that is close to each and every one of us

a God that sees our affliction

a God that hears our cries

a God that knows our suffering

a God that came down from Heaven to deliver us from our sins on the cross

a God that has come to bring us up, out of our mess, and into a good land (ultimately up to Heaven to spend eternity with Him)

Jesus demonstrated this throughout the Gospels.

In Mark 7:31-37, Jesus met a man who couldn’t hear or talk. He put his fingers in the man’s ears and spit on his finger and touched the man’s tongue restoring his hearing and speech.

In Matthew 8:1-4, Jesus met a man with Leprosy, a contagious skin disease, which forced people who had it into isolation and to die alone. Jesus didn’t just heal him, Jesus healed him with a touch. Maybe the first time he’d been touched in years.

Jesus boldly violated the notion that God is unreachable and untouchable.

There is nothing that can keep Jesus from you.

Nothing in your past.

Nothing in your present.

Nothing in your future.

*** No matter how dirty, broken, sinful you feel, Jesus has seen your pain, heard your cry, knows your suffering, wants to come down to you, and bring you out of the pain that you’re in

If you feel lonely, are hurting, or don’t know what you’re supposed to do next...

Know that God [YHWH] is NEAR. God wants to reveal himself to you, just as he did to Moses through the burning bush.

All you have to do is

slow down

pause

engage with God’s through His word he Bible

and listen to Holy Spirit

guiding you

convicting you

and transform you little by little into the person you were created to be to reflect Christ’s Character to the world.

PRAYER 

Will you join me in prayer...

SONG 

As we enter into our final song, I want to open the steps up front as an altar to anyone who needs God this week. The steps are open for you to pray to the God who is with you, who loves you, you wants to give you His peace.

‌

You may feel a hand on your shoulder as I or one of the elders join you in prayer.

BENEDICTION 

Psalm 34:18 NIV

18 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

This week...

Let’s slow down and look for the bushes in our lives that are on fire but not burning up telling us to stop, take off our shoes, acknowledge the ground that we’re standing on is Holy, and listen to the still small voice of God guiding and directing us to our next best step.

Let’s breathe deep, speaking the very name of God (Yodh He Waw He) everywhere we go, resting in the reality that God is near and wants a relationship with us

And let’s praise Jesus for being the “I AM” YHWH God that sees us, hears our cries, knows our suffering, has came down from Heaven to deliver us from our sins through His sacrifice on the cross, and wants to bring us up out of our mess and into an eternity with Him in Heaven

Quick reminder...

Digging Deeper Bible Study - Wednesday at 6 PM - Programming for all ages

If you’re new, please fill out the card in the seat back and stop by our info desk, or see me. We’d love to say “hi” and get you know you a bit better.

If you’d like to get more information about taking your next step of faith, fill out the card in the seat back and give it to me or turn it in to the info desk.

Town Hall - January 25th

I hope you have a great week.

Go in peace.

You are dismissed.

DISCIPLESHIP QUESTIONS (download into APP)

How can you apply the understanding that God’s names reflect His character into your personal relationship with Him?

How does understanding the name 'YHWH' change the way you relate to God in your daily life?

Reflect on a time when you felt God was far away; how does the concept of YHWH being near challenge that perception?

What does the name 'YHWH' mean to you? How can it influence your identity?

In what ways can you be more aware of 'holy ground' in your everyday experiences?

How can you recognize moments in your daily life that might be 'holy ground'?

As you go through challenges, how can remembering that God is 'near' help you navigate difficult situations?

What steps can you take to listen more closely to the 'still small voice' of God in your life?

Think about the times you have doubted your role or purpose. How does Moses’ interaction with God inspire you?

Share a personal story where you felt God was calling you to take a step of faith. How did it relate to His presence in your life?