He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it. Today I want to offer some reflections on one very small piece of scripture. I m not going to consider the larger passage it appears in, and in fact I am not even going to look at the entire verse. My interest is only in the latter half of Rev. 2:17. Doing this is almost always a bad idea. The danger, of course, is that when you take a single claim and divorce it from the context it was written in, you can often twist it to say anything you please. And then add to it the weighty authority of the very voice of God, you can get into all sorts of trouble. I am aware of this danger, and I hope and pray that we can avoid it this morning. At the same time, I must admit up front that I am going to engage in some speculation about the meaning of the passage I want to consider. There simply isn t enough said in the text to give us a full picture of what the author had in mind, much less the reason God included it in scripture. So I am not going to strive to solely expose what already lies waiting to be discovered in the text; rather, I am going to offer a particular interpretation of it. Whether this interpretation has anything to do with the author s original intent, I do not know. I wanted to warn you of this up front. However, while it is something to be cautious about, I do not think it is something to be embarrassed about. Scripture itself provides numerous examples of reading more into a piece of text than what is actually there. Indeed, in my view, doing this is exactly what the Holy Spirit demands of us (and enables us to do!) when we read scripture. Now that is an awfully contentious claim to toss out into a Baptist Church on a Sunday morning (and right after the holiday season no less!), but I don t want us to be distracted by it so I ll say no more. What I do ask is that you judge this
interpretation by its fruit. Ask of it these questions: Does it reveal something to you about the nature of God? Does it inspire affection in your breast, and a greater desire to know God and be known by Him? How does it affect your attitude to your Christian brothers and sisters, and also to those currently outside of the Church? Most importantly, perhaps, how well does it mesh with everything else you already know about your God? I can tell you that I wanted to speak on this subject today precisely because I have found much value in it. When I reflect on this passage, my own heart swells with longing for the great day it describes. I want to acknowledge that the interpretation of this passage I am about to offer is heavily inspired by the thought of George MacDonald, a Scottish preacher from the late 19 th century. In what follows I won t bother to distinguish between his thoughts and my own; I simply hope that my words will honor him. One last preliminary point: it is customary to begin a talk from the pulpit with a clever story or joke or something else to grab the attention. I haven t got any relevant clever stories, so I plan to just get straight down to work. That isn t very nice on the first Sunday after the holiday season, but there you have it. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it. As I said, it is really only the latter part of the verse the business about the stone and the new name, that I want to speak about today. To him that overcometh will I give a white stone,
and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it. Some things, the old King James Version just gets right. Like Psalm 23, this passage just sounds better to my ear in the old English. Note first who this claim is directed at. To him who overcometh Given the location of this claim in the Book of Revelation, it is clear that we are here speaking of the end time. This is an event that occurs not just when you overcome some struggle or other, but when ALL struggles have ceased, when all tears are done away with; when the times of trial and tribulation have ended and a new age begins. It is at the very heart of the Christian religion that this time WILL come; indeed, it is coming soon. (Of course, soon is said in many ways, and what counts as soon to God may take altogether more time than we would prefer. But we trust in His timing). When the forces of evil have finally been destroyed, both in the world outside us and within our very souls, and we are still standing at the end of it, at that time, our Father God will give us our new name. The author of the revelation tells us that the name is inscribed on a white stone, and we ought not miss the symbolism involved. Whether or not God actually places such a stone into our hands at some time in the future strikes me as inconsequential; what is important is what stone represents. White, symbolizing purity, again reinforcing the claim that this occurs once all corruption has been healed. And a stone, symbolizing permanence and stability; this new name that you receive will not be yours for a time and then gone. Rather, it is an enduring fact; something that shall never change. But these symbols are but vehicles for the real focus of the passage: the new name. To him who overcometh, the Lord God will give a new name Let us not miss the importance of a name. On the one hand, a name seems a trivial, arbitrary thing. I was named David by my parents, but it seems that any number of contingencies could
have altered their plans and I could have just as easily been named Joe, or Greg Jr. My name seems no more essential to me than the shirt that I happen to be wearing today. But what we need to keep in mind is that names were treated with much more importance in the ancient world. Consider: the third of the ten commandments forbids us from taking the name of the Lord in vain. Orthodox Jews takes this matter so seriously that they will not utter aloud nor inscribe God s name. In fact, to this day they have such reverence for the name of God that they prefer to write G-d instead of the word God. Throughout the scriptures we are told not just to call on the Lord, but to call on the name of the Lord. God is so majestic that even his name is worthy of reverence. Consider that throughout the Bible, when a significant enough change occurs, a character receives a new name. Abram becomes Abraham when he puts faith in God and becomes the father of many nations. When Christ first meets Simon he intently peers right into his soul, and declares that his name shall henceforth be Peter (the Rock). And, of course, Saul the great persecutor of the early Church becomes Paul when he gives up resisting Christ and decides to follow him. The consistent attitude of the Biblical writers is that a name is not a thing to be taken lightly. When it is God himself who gives you a new name, it is all the more important. God is your Father; he knows you like no other. When God gives you a name, the name is not an arbitrary or trivial thing. Rather, the name he gives you is your true name; it is a representation of your very essence. It is a revelation, from God, of what God truly thinks of you. In receiving this name, you will come to know yourself for the first time. The significance of this is highlighted by the fact that Know Thyself was a central maxim of the ancient Greek philosophers. Furthermore, when it is God your Maker who reveals yourself to you through this new name, He, in doing so, also reveals to you something of Himself. Just as an author or an artist shares or reveals
something of himself in his work, how much more does God reveal Himself in His works? God thought you up, and when He tells you what He really thinks of you, He shows you not only yourself, but something of Himself too. Now the real interesting part is that this new name, given to you by God, is one that no one knows except the one who receives it. This makes the whole thing an intensely private affair between you and your God. When you have overcome the trials of this world, God will reveal something to you that he reveals to no one else. The new name that He gives you shows you something of yourself, and something of Himself in the process; it is meant for you and you alone, and no one else can take your place. TAKEAWAYS This, then is how I interpret this half-verse in Revelation. When you overcome, God will give you a new name, revealing your very essence, His idea of you, to yourself. In doing so, God shares a part of Himself with you. This event is an intensely private affair between you and God; your new name is one that you alone can read. I think this is fascinating, and I want to share three reasons why. Consider what this means for your relationship to God, for your relationship to other Christians, and for your relationship to those not in the Church.
First, what it means is that God, even now, has a name for you. He knows who you are, who you truly are, and knows you better than you know yourself. Importantly, it is God who gives you your name. You do not get to choose it for yourself. In a culture in which we are encouraged to select our own identity, even to our very gender, this is a radical claim. God even now has a new name for you; there is a fact about what you most fundamentally are, and it is not up to you. Rather, your essence is bound up in God, and he will one day reveal it to you. This should be a message of great encouragement. God knows the real you, and one day he will share with you what he thinks of you. Still, for most of us some of the time, and perhaps for some of us most of the time, this prospect of learning from God who you really are can be more terrifying than it is hopeful. Some of you do not hold a very high opinion of yourself, and may not be terribly excited to hear what God thinks of you. I disappoint myself quite regularly; what if God is ultimately disappointed in me too? What if my true name, that He reveals to me at the end, is one that I wish I did not have? I must confess that some days, I am not sure that I want to know what God thinks of me. To those of you who are familiar with such dark thoughts, let me encourage hope. What you think of yourself is ultimately inconsequential. It is God who will give to you your name, and it is God who knows that name even now. Take heart that God has no use for useless things. If the Creator of the Universe should take the trouble to Name you, out of all the other things that exist, then he has some special affection for you. We do not name things that matter not to us, and I think we can take assurance that neither does God. God has a name for you precisely because you matter to him. Take heart in this: you have been Named by God, the Lord of all Creation. If this were not so if what you think of yourself really were all there is to say about your ultimate worth, then some of us really might have cause to despair. Be
encouraged, then, that God thinks highly enough of you to keep something that He will share only with you. Second, consider what the new name means for your relationship to your Christian brothers and sisters. The name God reveals to you once you have overcome is one for you and you alone. No one knows it save the one that receives it. Still, it is a name. Names, by their very nature, are intended to be shared. If you were on an island all by yourself, for instance, you would have no need of a name. A name is that by which others refer to us, and a true name is something that reveals something about us to others. So if God reveals to each of us a secret name, it follows that each of us will have something unique from God to share with others. Each of us, in other words, will be a sort of prophet to all the rest. In creating us each as individuals, and in naming us one by one, God has prepared us each to understand some special aspect of his own nature, and intends that we share that with each other. This gives us a very cool picture of the kingdom of heaven. Your eternity will be spent in harmonious community with others, revealing to one another the things you ve learned from God. Some folks complain that an eternity in heaven is bound to get boring eventually. What they fail to realize is that the majesty of our God knows no bounds; it will ever outstrip our ability to discover and appreciate it. God has revealed a sliver of himself to us now, and He will go on revealing more and more of Himself for all eternity; time without end. Banish from your minds the picture of sitting on a cloud strumming the same song on your harp over and over again. We are in for an eternity of discovery and excitement, always learning new things about God but never exhausting his infinite depths. One way, perhaps the primary way, that we will make these new discoveries is through community with our fellow creatures. God has for each of us a private revelation in the giving of a new name, and by
making that revelation in a name, He intends that we go on to share what we ve been given with others. Finally, consider what this means for your relationship to those not currently participating in the community of God. Christians display a range of attitudes towards those outside the church, from outright hostility, to resigned disappointment. In particular, it can be easy for us Christians sometime to consider those who reject our faith with the sentiment that it is too bad for them. Too bad for them indeed, if they miss out on the blessings of the coming Kingdom of God, but guess what? If what I ve suggested about the meaning of the new name is even approximate, then too bad for you as well! Why is this? Consider, if the giving of a new name involves a unique revelation of God to each person, then if any person fails to receive this new name, there is a revelation of God that is forever lost to us all. That friend of yours who went to Sunday School with you as a child but has since found no use for religion in his life, he is a still a creature named by God. If he should fail to overcome, and in the end fail to receive this white stone from God with his new name that only he is fit to receive, then that secret part of God which can be shared only with this man, is lost to us all. Tragedy of all tragedies, if even one should be lost to the coming kingdom of God. Not only is this bad for the lost, it is bad for us all, for we shall never know what that lost soul could have revealed to us about our God! Let us not treat the unchurched with indifference or complacency; the fullness of our flourishing in heaven depends upon their participation with us. Some of you will remember that last year I shared with you a message of welcome, reminding you of how precious a thing it is to be welcome in the house of God. At that time I made an even stronger point I told you that not only are you welcome here, but that your presence among us is required. We need you, each one
of you, in order to fully flourish as the community of God. This, then is what I had in mind. You are a Named creature of God, and in the giving of your name to you alone, God has for you a special revelation of his own Nature, which you alone are fit to receive, and to share with the rest of us. Should you be lost to the kingdom, we shall all suffer the loss of your participation. Let me encourage you then, to view those outside of the Church not as your enemies, but as your lost siblings. They are creatures of God who have the potential to teach you things about God that no one else is able to. And if they remain outside the community of God, those things will be lost to you forever. You have a name. You have a name that was given to you by your parents, and which we all know, but you ALSO have a secret name, hidden away in God. This name expresses your very essence; it says something about what God had in mind when he dreamt you up. Because of this, it also reveals something about the very nature of God. One day God will reveal this name to you, will tell you what he really thinks of you. This will be a private and intensely personal affair between you and your Maker, but you will then be able to share with the rest of us what you have learned about yourself and about God. May this glorious day come soon.