Craig Groeschel - The Most Powerful Name in History
The Bible tells us that there is one name above every name, and that is the name of Jesus. At the name of Jesus demons flee. The name of Jesus saves. The name of Jesus heals. The name of Jesus holds all authority on Heaven and in Earth. So it shouldn’t surprise you that the name of Jesus is under attack, right? Because the devil knows he can’t erase the power of the name of Jesus. So the devil tries to strip the name of His honor, and takes the name that should be lifted high and tries to drag it culturally through the mud. And that might be one of the reasons why perhaps the name of Jesus is like the only name that’s used as a curse word, if you could imagine.
And so why is the name of Jesus under attack? Because the enemy knows if he can get you to throw around the name of Jesus carelessly, then you won’t call on the name of Jesus when you really need to. So who is Jesus? What did Jesus do for us? Well, according to God’s word, Philippians Chapter 2, Jesus «Made Himself nothing». The very Son of God, God in the flesh, «made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant,» God, «being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man,» He is God, but He came as a man, «He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross,» the Bible says. «Therefore, God exalted Jesus to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of…» Jesus. «That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in Heaven and on Earth and under the Earth, and every tongue acknowledge,» every tongue confess, «that Jesus Christ is Lord».
Make no mistake about it. One day, every single knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of all. Yeah. And at that moment, no one will take the name of Jesus lightly. So Father, today, we honor your son Jesus. God, we honor you for becoming flesh. We thank you that Jesus did for us what we could not do for ourselves, that you raised Him from the dead so we could know you. Now, God, empower us by your spirit to live the truth that Jesus is Lord of all, Lord of our lives, Lord of the heavens, Lord of the Earth. God empower us to live for your glory through the lordship of Jesus. And all God’s people said, amen. Amen. We are in a message series called «The Creed,» and what we’re doing is we’re looking at the foundational truths of the Christian faith, and we’re studying The Apostles' Creed.
Now, if you missed last week, let me give you a little history on The Apostles' Creed. The Apostles' Creed was written in the second century, and early on it was actually used in baptisms. Whenever a new believer would come to faith in Christ, they would go to what was called a catechumen. It was kind of like a extended class, and they would learn, and then publicly declare The Apostles' Creed. So before their baptism, they would stand up and before all the church and all their friends and loved ones and declare publicly. It’s like a line in the sand. «I’m not what I was. I now belong to Jesus». And they would say, «I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth and in Jesus Christ».
And this is what they would say before there were baptized to declare the foundational truth that changed their lives. And over time, The Apostles' Creed became more than just a baptismal statement, but it became a confession unifying believers across different nations, and languages, and generations all the way to today. So if you can imagine, The Apostles' Creed has stood the test of time, endured persecution in the body of Christ through doctrinal debates and cultural changes. It reminds us that Christianity isn’t built on shifting opinions, but on the eternal truth of the one true God of the Bible. So if you’re ready to declare it again today at all of our churches, if you’re able to stand, would you mind just standing to your feet and together along with people throughout the generations, we’re going to declare what we believe. Would you say it with me?
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day, He rose again. He ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of the Father, and will come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy universal church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.
And all God’s people said, amen, amen. Turn to the person next to you and tell you did good. You did good. Turn to your second choice, and say you didn’t do bad either. You didn’t do bad either. You can go ahead and have a seat. It’s powerful to declare together as the body of Christ. And so as we’re looking at The Creed, what I wanna do is I wanna ask you the question, we’re talking about Jesus today, who do you say Jesus is? Like, what do you call Jesus? You can ask a lot of people today who is Jesus? Some people say, «Well, He was a historical figure». We know that. «He was a very wise and powerful teacher». «He taught great things». «He was loving». «He was a role model». Some people say, «No, Jesus is actually the Son of God or the Lord of all».
And so I’m gonna ask you, who do you say Jesus is? And, like, what do you call Him? And why does it matter what you call Him? It matters because what you call someone reveals how well you know them, right? What you call someone reveals how well you know them. For example, I mean, you might call me different things. Many of you call me nice things. Some people don’t. Hopefully, if you stick around here, you’ll at least be neutral to positive, you know, whatever. And so, you know, like what do you call me? Some people say, «Hey, you know, you’re Pastor Craig». And that might mean like you’ve followed me on social media, or you read a book, or you go to Life Church, or you’ve got an annoying friend that won’t stop inviting you to Life Church. And so, «Hey, you’re pastor Craig».
If we’re friends, we’re on a different level. And so more informal, more casual, you might just say, «Hey, Craig,» because, you know, that’s what you call me. If you went to college with me, you might call me gross. And if you went to college with me and call me gross, we might’ve gotten drunk together, but that was before I was a Christian. And so you might’ve called me gross. If you’re one of my kids, you don’t call me Pastor Craig, and you don’t call me Craig, and you don’t call me gross. What do my kids call me? Dad, daddy, right? My grandkids, they know me in a different way. They call me Pops, which, it could be worse. There’s a lot of other things that are much worse than that.
Now, Amy knows me in a different way than anybody. And so she’s got about 17 different things that she calls me. And I’m not gonna tell you any of them because 16 of them are very meaningful. And one is for those times when she’s correcting me. And then she actually calls me Pastor Craig during those times. «Pastor Craig, Pastor Craig,» right? And so what you call someone reveals how well you know them. What do you call Jesus? What you call Jesus reflects how well you actually know Jesus. We said the first part of The Creed last week. Let’s say all of this section again. Say it with me. Say, «I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth». Now, who is Jesus? «I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord». «I believe in Jesus Christ,» God’s only Son, our Lord. «I believe in Jesus Christ,» the Son of God, God’s only Son, our Lord.
Now, I wanna tell you right now that Jesus Christ, our Lord, that is perhaps the most important and most controversial statement made in the history of the world. Most important. Jesus Christ is Lord. If that’s true, it matters more than you can imagine. And it’s controversial to say He is Lord, above all in this world in Heaven on Earth. Jesus Christ is Lord. I’ll show you this phrase in the Greek. This word in the Greek is Jesus Christos Krios. And it means Jesus Christ is Lord. Type that in the comment section, if you will online. Say it aloud with me, Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus Christ is Lord. Now, to be really, really clear, because some people don’t know this, Jesus Christ, Christ is not Jesus' last name. Just wanna clarify, right? Jesus is his name. Christ is a title. It comes from the Greek Christos, and it means the anointed one. Jesus, the anointed one is what it means.
Now, it’s been said, and you know this is true, that if you wanna keep the peace, if you go to a meal after church, and you don’t want to get in a fight with people, there are two things you don’t talk about. What do you not talk about? You don’t talk about religion, and you don’t talk about politics, although some of you do, and you do it quite a bit. And I see you on social media, and, of course, you’re right. Because you are, right? But to declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, this was both religious, and it was very, very political. If you lived in second century, third century in the Roman Empire and you said, Jesus is Lord, you weren’t just making a faith statement, you were actually making a very controversial political statement. And the reason is because Caesar was known as a God, and Caesar was called Lord. And so if you called Jesus Lord, that was considered a direct attack against Caesar, and it was considered treason, and could cost you your life.
So to declare, and it’s still true in many parts of the world today, to declare the Lordship of Christ, this is not just about worship, but it’s about allegiance of your heart. And for someone to say this in the second century, they were saying that there’s no emperor, no ruler, no government, no earthly system that has ultimate authority over our lives. Only Jesus does. And it is true today in many parts of the world, that if you declare you’re following Jesus, you belong to Jesus, you are devoted to Jesus, in many parts of the world, you’re gonna lose your job. People lose their freedom.
To this day, people even lose their lives for declaring the Lordship of Jesus. But in the early days, they’d go to their baptism, and they’d stand up, knowing they could be tortured for this, and they would say, «I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth, And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, died, and was crucified, buried…» And they’ll go through this whole thing. And they declared it and kept declaring the Lordship of Christ because they knew the truth. That Rome’s power was temporary and Christ’s reign is eternal. Jesus Christ is Lord. The most important and perhaps the most controversial statement literally in the history of the world.
Now, a little side note, just for fun. Who do you think was the first to recognize Jesus as the Son of God in the Bible? Who do you think was the first one in the Bible to look on and say, «Oh, that man’s, that is the Son of God»? Lemme tell you who it wasn’t. It wasn’t Peter. That would be a good guess. It wasn’t James. It wasn’t John. Who was the first to recognize Jesus was the Son of God in the Bible. The answer is the demons were the first to recognize Jesus as the Son of God. In Mark 3:11, scripture says this. «Whenever the impure spirits saw Jesus,» when the demon saw Him, «they fell down before Him and cried out, 'You are the Son of God.'»
If you could imagine the supernatural realm recognized the lordship of Jesus before the natural realm did. And the demons, the powers of darkness recognized that is the Son of God. So calling Jesus Lord back then was controversial. Calling Him Lord today is controversial, and it’s becoming more controversial by the moment. And calling Jesus God’s only Son, that was considered defiant and even heretical. And the reason is the Romans believed in demi-gods. A demi-god was a half God, half human. But as followers of Jesus, we don’t believe He’s, like, part God and part man. We believe He is fully God and fully man all at the same time. Jesus is God in the flesh. God literally stripped Himself of the glory of Heaven to come to Earth in the person of the Son, Jesus Christ.
And so if you wanna know what God is like, you look at Jesus. And what did Jesus do? He loves the broken. He loved those who were hurting. He didn’t come to condemn, but He came to seek and save the lost. Jesus is not part God, part man. He is fully God and fully man. Who do you say He is? What do you call Him? Because what you call Him reflects how well you know Him. Now, there are those of you that do not know Him. Let me just say this as pastorally as I can. There are those of you who’ve been in church a lot of your life and you do not know Him. There are those of you that have a very real head knowledge and can answer questions about Him, but you do not know Him, and God wants you to know Him.
And what I wanna do is I wanna show you 12 verbs from The Apostles' Creed that will help you know Him if you don’t know Him. These are the verbs in The Apostles' Creed. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. Some versions say descended to hell. What does that mean? Oh, you’re gonna have to come back on Easter to find out what that means. He descended to the dead. He rose again. He ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand, and will come again to judge the living and the dead. Conceived, born, suffered, crucified, died, buried, descended, rose, ascended, seated, come, and judged. Those 12 verbs explain completely the whole gospel of who Jesus is and why He came.
And those 12 verbs show us his full humanity and his full divinity, that He was all God and all man, all at the same time. Humanity. He was conceived. He was born like a baby’s born. He suffered like you. Whatever pain you experienced, He experienced. He knows that pain. He was crucified. His physical body died. He was buried. This also shows us the divinity. How was he conceived? Not like you. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. Why does that matter? He didn’t inherit the sin nature of an earthly man, but had the divine nature of the Heavenly Father. Therefore, He could live without sin and be the lamb of God, the perfect one who gave his life. Conceived, born, suffered, died, buried, descended, but not like a normal person. God raised Him from the dead. He’s now ascended in heaven, is seated at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty.
And one day the trumpet of God will sound and the dead in Christ will rise, and those who are left alive and remaining will be caught up with Him in the air, and He will come again to judge the living and the dead. And when He does, those who know Him will worship Him, and those who don’t will regret it for all eternity. Who is Jesus to you? Who do you say yes? I mean this really matters. Is it like, hey, I go to Life Church, you know, if we can, and you know kind of we’re trying to be a good person? No, no, no, no. This is everything. Who do you say he is? Like, if he’s Lord, if he’s Lord that demands our lives. If he’s not, do your thing. If he’s Lord, it demands it all.
So you say, like, who is Jesus to me? And what I wanna tell you… I want to contrast this. I wanna show you who He was to me growing up, and I wanna tell you who He is to me now. Who was he? As a kid, we went to church, and I had a head knowledge, but I didn’t know Him. Crazy. I don’t know why I remember this, but in our garage we had the traditional picture of Jesus, the blonde-haired, blue-eyed, Jesus. You know, the American Jesus. We had that in our garage. The one that when you walk by Him, His eyes follow you. It’s creepy. Like, you walk by and Jesus is always looking at you.
So I would go and get in my parents' Buick la Sabra, get in the car, and drive off, and Jesus was watching. I don’t know why I remember that, but that’s who Jesus was. He was in my garage watching me. Then, around Christmas time, the nativity scenes about the baby Jesus, for some reason I would see those, and I just felt drawn to the story of Jesus. Then, when I was on a car date, one time, I might have been making out with some girl, and I thought to myself, «Jesus is probably watching me right now». That’s creepy. I know it. But that’s what I thought. That’s who Jesus was to me, the guy on the wall, the baby in the manger, and the guy that didn’t want me parking with my girlfriend. Then, I went to college and like many of you, I kind of hit bottom, and I started to look up.
And so I started to wonder, is this Jesus I kind of knew about? Is He anybody special? And I started reading about Him in the gospels. And I read about Him in Matthew. And I read about Him in Mark. And I read about Him in Luke. And there was this unbelievable love that He had for broken people like me, not this judgment, or this hatred, or these impossible standards, but this invitational love. And then it was when I got to Ephesians Chapter 2 that I read that you could be saved not by your good works, because I always knew no matter how hard I tried, I’d always mess it up. I tried not to cuss. I’d cuss twice as much the next day. I tried not to look at girls, and I would… And I tried to be a good person and I wouldn’t be. I couldn’t do it on my own.
And I recognized that I’m not supposed to do it on my own, that it’s by my faith in his perfect work. And when I tell you he’d changed my life, the Bible calls that you become a new creation. I’m telling you like the people who called me gross, after that, like, «The dude’s different, changed, new. The old is gone. It’s gone, forgiven, transformed». Jesus didn’t just forgive my sin. He saved my life. He freed me from addictions that had held me hostage. He stopped me from living a lie. He didn’t just gimme a second chance. He gave me a new identity. He changed who I was from the inside out. So he’s more than my savior. He’s my comforter when I’m hurting. He’s my healer when when I’m broken. He is my peace when I’m overwhelmed.
And so I don’t just follow Jesus because I’m an American, and because I grew up in church, and because I don’t believe in Buddha or Muhammad. No, no, I follow Jesus because I know what I was without Him. I know who I am with Him, and I refuse to go back. He is the Lord who transformed me and made me into the person I could never become on my own. So who is he? Who does the word, the living word… In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God, and the word became flesh in the person of Jesus, full of grace and truth.
Who does the word say Jesus is? He is the light of the world. He is the living water. Once you drink of Him, you’ll never thirst again. He is the bread of life that satisfies your soul and nourishes you to become who God created you to be. He is the good shepherd. He is the prince of peace. He is the lion of the tribe of Judah. And He is the lamb of God who is slain. Jesus is the one who touched lepers, befriended prostitutes, and ate with sinners. He fed the hungry. He opened blind eyes. He healed the sick. Jesus raised the dead. And if you know Him, He carried your sin, He took your shame, He conquered the grave, and He defeated death. I ask you, please, if you are under my care as a little shepherd under the Lord’s shepherd, you cannot sit here without me asking you who is He to you? Not just in words, but in how you live.
How you live reflects what you really believe. And Jesus asked us this piercing question, and He could ask you this today. Jesus asked this question. «'Why do you call me „Lord, Lord," and not do what I say? '» «'Why do you call me „Lord, Lord…"'» Can you imagine with love and heartbreak Him asking, why do you call me Lord, Lord, and still gossip all the time? Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and still watch shows that take my name in vain? Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and you’re harsh with your spouse and distant from your kids? Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not honor me with the things that I’ve trusted to you? You don’t give. Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and you’re not sharing the truth of the Lord who saves?
«'Why do you call me „Lord, Lord," and not do what I say? '» And Jesus said this in Matthew 7:21. And this is haunting. He said this. «'Not everyone who calls out to me, „Lord, Lord"!..'» Not everyone who goes to church and says, I’m a Christian, I’m American, God bless the US… «'Not everyone who calls out to me „Lord, Lord"! will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter.'» On Judgment Day one day he’ll come again to judge the living and the dead. «'On judgment Day, many will say to me, „Lord, Lord! We prophesied in your name and we cast out demons in your name…"'»
We perform many miracles in your name. You know we did good things for people in your name. We gave to the Red cross in your name. We help the lady cross the road in your name. We did these good things. And Jesus will say, «But I never knew you. But I never knew you». And so I would just like ask you as your pastor who loves you, who knew, me, knew about Him years ago, but didn’t know Him, do you know Jesus? Do you know Jesus as your Lord? And if you believe it, just kind of quietly where you are, would you just say it with me? «I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth». Who is Jesus? «I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord».
Let me tell you, if you really believe He is the Son of God, if you really believe He is the Lord of your life, it’ll show in the way that you live. Let me just say it again. I want you to hear this lovingly. If you really believe he’s the Son of God, if you really believe he’s the Lord of all, it will show in how you live. When you say Jesus is Lord, you’re not making a casual statement. You’re declaring your ultimate allegiance to the king of all kings and the lord of all lords. Because Jesus is the name above every name. Therefore, it should not surprise you that the spiritual enemy is attacking the name of Jesus because the enemy knows if he can belittle that name, then you may not call on the name because he knows what that name represents.
At the name of Jesus demons tremble. At the name of Jesus, darkness flees. At the name of Jesus, chains break. At the name of Jesus, those who are broken are healed. At the name of Jesus, sinners are saved. And one day, promise you, one day at the name of Jesus, every single knee, including yours, will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. So you can do it a little late or you can do it now. And if you do it now, and if you believe it, then it will impact how you live. And so and so as lovingly as I can, because this is so serious, with every bit of pastoral love that I have, I just wanna ask you this. Is Jesus your Lord, not just in words, but in how you live. Because if he’s Lord, it will change your life.
So Father, do a work in our church. God, convict us of our sinfulness. God, convict up us our complacency and draw us with your loving kindness into the fullness of a relationship with your Son, our Lord who came not to condemn, but to save and to set us free.
Today, as you pray at all of our different churches, those of you online, I want to talk directly to those of you that know that you know that you know that you know that you know that you know Him, you know that you know Him, and you wanna know Him better and represent Him bolder. If that’s you today, and you know that you know that you know that you know that you know that you know Jesus, and you want to know Him better, and represent Him bolder, would you lift your hands up right now all over the room?
God, thank you for those who’ve been made a new, that they are new in Christ that the old is gone, and that they become new. And God, just as your body, as your bride, as your church, God, we want to seek you, to seek you through your word God, to know you, to be conformed to the image of Jesus, that no one would ever be surprised. Oh, well you’re a Christian. No, that they would know and God, that they would see who you are by the way we love one another. God, for those of you that truly know you, God, help them to know you more intimately through fellowship with other believers in life groups and through serving, using our gifts in the church, and as the church, in the world, and through your word, and through worship, God, help us to know you. And if we know you, we’ll obey you. If we love you, we’ll obey you. And God, help us be even bolder, even bolder, even bolder, even bolder, even bolder because you are the light of the world.
As you keep praying today, we’re gonna do it different. Let’s go bold with it. Everybody a look up here, all of our churches, go ahead and look up if you will. I was gonna say, heads down. Let’s just be bold with this. There are those of you that have been around, you’ve been here a long time, you’ve been in the church, some of you like way far from God, like everybody knows you’re not following God. If something’s happening to you and you’re being drawn to Him right now, what’s that? That’s the Holy Spirit. You’re not here by accident. That’s the Holy Spirit drawing you. So what do you do? What we do is we step away from ourselves. We step away from our sin and say, «I can never be good enough».
And we surrender our lives to the lordship of Jesus. And when you do, when you call out to Him, He’s enough. He forgives you. He makes you new. Like all the filth, the guilt, all the shame is gone. He forgives you, and He makes you brand new. There are those of you… This is a big deal. Everybody thinks, Hey, you’ve been calling Him Lord, but you don’t know Him. So what I want you to do is I wanna give you the chance, just, like, boldly… Let’s just go bold, right? If we’re gonna follow Him, let’s just follow Him because He actually said this. Jesus said, «If you confess me before my Father in Heaven, I’ll confess to you before people. But if you don’t, if you’re embarrass me, I won’t confess you publicly».
So today, at all of our churches, nobody thinking about it. No emotionalism. Just like if you know that you maybe don’t know Him and you want to know Him, you want your life to reflect Him, we’re stepping away from our sin, we’re surrendering our life to Jesus, we’re doing it in front of everybody because we’re not joking around. We declare, Hey, a baptism. We stand up. «I believe in God the Father, Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord. Today, by faith, I don’t just know about Him. I want to know Him. Jesus Christ, I give you my life. Be my Lord».
That’s your prayer today in front of God and everybody. Lift up your hands higher right now. Lift them up and say yes, God bless you. Praise God for you, and both of you right here. Others today say yes. Praise God for you. Others say yes, but right up there, right back over here. God bless. Oh, come on, somebody right back over here. Church, give God some praise today. Others of you say, yes, I want to know Jesus. Be the Lord of my life. Online, type in the comment section, I’m surrendering my life to Jesus. Type it in boldly so everybody will know «I’m surrendering my life to Jesus». And let’s just pray. And in a moment, hey, heaven’s already going crazy. So we might as well do the same thing. Just pray aloud. Pray:
Heavenly Father, I give you my life. I publicly declare it. You are the Lord of all. You are the Lord of my life, my savior. Because I know you, I will live for you. I will obey your word. Empower me to be a light in this world. Fill me with your spirit so I can always do your will on Earth as it is in heaven. Thank you for new life. I give you all of mine in Jesus' name.