Text: Judges 13:17-20
Title: "The Secret Name of Jesus Christ"
Thesis: Why our Lord is called Wonderful.

Intro:  How many of you are familiar with the O.T. name of Manoah?  He was the father of Samson, and he lived during the time period that Israel was attempting to complete their occupation of the promised land. 

His story opens with the children of Israel having been taken into captivity by the Philistines because they "did evil again in the sight of the Lord."  For forty years they are oppressed before the hand of God intervenes in the national life of Israel, and the personal life of Manoah and his wife.

It is at this juncture that the angel of the Lord first appears to Manoah's wife, a woman childless and barren, and promises her a son.  This son is to be a "Nazarite unto the Lord," "and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines."  Later, at the request of Manoah, the angel of the Lord reappears to repeat God's instructions concerning the rearing of this promised child.  Manoah, not recognizing this "man of God" as "the angel of the Lord," inquires as to His name.  Here the angel of the Lord asks a startling question in answer to Manoah's: "Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret?"

We will consider tonight, "the secret name of the Lord Jesus Christ."

Judges 13:17-20--"The Secret Name of Jesus Christ"--prayer

I. THE SECRET NAME QUESTIONED (v17)
A. The Concern Over His Name
1. "Who" is Thy Name? 

Note:  "The Hebrews seem to have attached great importance to names, for every name was significant in their language."  Not only was Manoah interested in the personal ("thy") identification of this stranger, but he wanted to know the authority represented by this angel of the Lord.  "Name" implies the authority and totality of the Person.  Mat. 28:19 is an example of this: "...baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."

B. The Confidence in His Word ("sayings")

C. The Consequence of His Work
   1. Do “Thee” honor

II. THE SECRET NAME REVEALED (v18)

Note:  Since a name is a means of identification, a descriptive phrase which identifies a person becomes a "name," or a means of identification for that person.  Jehovah Sabaoth, which means "Lord of Hosts" is an example.  What He is, "the Lord of Hosts," becomes a means of identifying Who He is.  Many even mistakenly believe that the name of our Lord does not appear in the O.T.  Need I say, that the names attributed to God are the same names that can be, and are, attributed to Jesus Christ.  To discover a name of God in the O.T. is to discover a name of Jesus Christ.  Even the name "Jesus" is found over 100 times in the O.T. under the word "salvation" (Yeshua), especially when personalized by "thy," "his," or "my".

A. His name is Secret (saddest/grandest)
(saddest)
1. To the lost
2. To the saved
Jn. 8:32 "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me."
To find "the secret name" of the angel of the Lord we must turn to Isa. 9:6. (turn)

(grandest)   
B. His Name is Secret = "wonderful, incomprehensible."  In the Bible the root of "wonderful" refers to things that are "unusual, beyond human capabilities, usually acts of God."  "It is expressive of the general character of God as mysterious and glorious, as of doing wonders, i.e. mighty deeds of manifestation and salvation" (Pulpit).  Job confessed that "he (Job) had uttered things too wonderful for me, which I knew not" (42:3).

In v19 we see a simple act of sacrifice by man turned into a supernatural sacrifice by God.  Man attempted an outward act of good works (v15), but the angel demanded an offering to the Lord (v16).  Man took a kid of the flock, but God demanded the Lamb of God.  Man took a handful of meal, but God demanded the Bread of Life.  Man took a rock of the earth, but God demanded the Chief Cornerstone.  And so we see the "the angel did wonderously; and Manoah and his wife looked on" as:

II. THE SECRET SACRIFICE REVEALED (v19)
A. A Burnt Offering  
1. It required a substitute ("kid")
I Pet. 3:18 "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:"
2. It required the shedding of blood
Heb. 9:22 "And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission."
3. It required a complete offering. It required His humanity and His deity; His geographical presence and His omnipresence; His finite person and His eternal Person, "To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself..." (2 Cor. 5:19).
4. It required acceptance
1 Jn. 2:2 "And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world."

B. A Meat (Meal) Offering (flour mingled with oil, Nu. 15:4)
1. It required a spotless life
2 Cor. 5:21 "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."
2. It required a suffering preparation
Jn. 19:1-3, 15 "Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him.  And the soldiers platted crown of thorns, and put it on his head...and they smote him with their hands. And they cried out, 'Away with him, away with him, crucify him."
|3. It required an entering in (priests fed on the remainder)
1 Cor. 11:26 "For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come."

C. A Place of Offering
1. On a rock that was turned into an altar (v20)
a. On the rock of Galgatha was the wood laid, and on the wood was the Sacrifice laid and secured.

Note:  Our Lord was not secured to the cross because He was an unwilling sacrifice, for He lay down His life for the sheep.  He was not secured to the cross that He might not escape, for He could have called 10 thousand angels, but He was secured that He might hang between heaven and earth while the curse of sin was applied by the brush of God's wrath.  My friends, He did that for you and He did that for me.

2. On the Rock
a. Our place of sacrifice is not to be on any rock, but on THE Rock, "and that Rock was Christ" (1 Cor. 10:4).  God can take a life as common as any rock, and turn it into an altar of service in Christ.

D. An Offering Unto the Lord

E. A Wonderful Offering
1. "True to His name He acted miraculously"
a. It came to pass (v20)
b. A consuming fire (of God on sin) (v20)
c. A sweet-smelling savor
d. A smitten Rock (humanity of Christ) confirmed as a burning altar (there is a place of sacrifice & offering)

III. THE SECRET ASCENSION REVEALED (v20)
A. The angel of the Lord ascended in the fire of the altar
1. What was meant to destroy, glorified
2. What was meant to be buried, ascended
3. What was meant to be rejected (rock), was accepted
4. What was meant to be a messenger, was the Message (the Word)
5. What was meant to be offered, was accepted
6. What was meant to be crucified, was worshiped
7. What was meant to be hidden, was revealed

IV. THE SECRET RELATIONSHIP REVEALED (v21)
A. Angel no longer appears (Jn. 20:29)

B. Manoah "knew" the angel of the Lord

V. THE SECRET PERSON REVEALED (v22)
A. Judgment confirmed
1. If men don’t see God!

B. Manoah "saw" God

Concl:  When you think of Jesus Christ, do you think of Him as wonderful?  Do you consider His Name and all it implies to be wonderful?  His work in you and for you?  His sacrificial life and death?  Are we full of wonder as consider Him?