Offended By the Name of Jesus....

I always think it’s bizarre when people are offended by mentioning the name of Jesus. If they don’t believe in Him, why are they so offended? If they don’t believe He is the only way to God, why the adamant response? If someone were to come to me and say in the name of “HockieJobie” you must be saved, it wouldn’t offend me. I don’t even know who that is. I’d kindly respond with respectfully questioning who this was and how they came to that conclusion. My reaction wouldn’t be violent or vulgar. This just goes to show that the truth only offends people when they oppose what they subconsciously know to be true. The violent, angry response is the oppressiveness being released from all those years of stuffing it deep down inside. Do you need a release? Do you need to confront the truth and be honest with yourself? God won’t be offended with your honest response to truth. It may hurt, but it’s the only path you can take to be redeemed. God is all about redemption. It’s the theme of His book.

5 The next day the council of all the rulers and elders and teachers of religious law met in Jerusalem. 6 Annas the high priest was there, along with Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and other relatives of the high priest. 7 They brought in the two disciples and demanded, “By what power, or in whose name, have you done this?”8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of our people, 9 are we being questioned today because we’ve done a good deed for a crippled man? Do you want to know how he was healed? 10 Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead. 11 For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says, ‘The stone that you builders rejectedhas now become the cornerstone.’ 12 There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”13 The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus. 14 But since they could see the man who had been healed standing right there among them, there was nothing the council could say. 15 So they ordered Peter and John out of the council chamber and conferred among themselves.16 “What should we do with these men?” they asked each other. “We can’t deny that they have performed a miraculous sign, and everybody in Jerusalem knows about it. 17 But to keep them from spreading their propaganda any further, we must warn them not to speak to anyone in Jesus’ name again.” 18 So they called the apostles back in and commanded them never again to speak or teach in the name of Jesus.19 But Peter and John replied, “Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than Him? 20 We cannot stop telling about everything we have seen and heard.”21 The council then threatened them further, but they finally let them go because they didn’t know how to punish them without starting a riot. For everyone was praising God 22 for this miraculous sign–the healing of a man who had been lame for more than forty years. Acts 4:5-22