Is Jesus' Real Name Yeshua?

this uh concept is known sometimes as the sacred name movement and sometimes they use Yeshua sometimes they use yosua sometimes they also um attack the English name Jehovah and say that's a false name so yes there are many variations and it does have some appeal to us because we are the people of the name we are very emphatic on the importance of calling the name of Jesus baptizing in the name of Jesus so at first glance oh if that's not the right name then everything I'm thinking could be skewed and then if you bring out well the English name Jesus didn't exist because the English language didn't exist at the time of Christ so um that is a big question but let me give you so the short short answer is it if we use the name of Jesus in our own language no matter what language it is God accepts it not as a magical formula the power of the name of Jesus is based on who he is and faith in him so that's where our Focus needs to be and that's why this question gets you off track because it goes it emphasis a pronunciation rather than than Faith so what makes the name of Jesus effective it's not merely the invocation so whether it's Yeshua yosua Jehovah Yahweh Jesus the first thing to ask is who are you talking about and so you must have faith in the historic person Jesus Christ of Nazareth and so that's why when we baptize or when we pray or when we uh reference him we'll often say Lord Jesus or Jesus Christ or Lord Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth why these other titles because there are many people even in the Bible and throughout history who actually bore the name of Jesus uh the name means Jehovah savior or Yahweh is salvation so people can be called that as a way of proclaiming that God is salvation as a a honoring God but in the case of Jesus Christ of Nazareth what's unique about him he is the only person person who literally fulfills the meaning of that name who personifies that name he actually is the one true God of the Old Testament coming in the flesh to be our personal savior so with him the meaning is different from everybody else because it identifies who he is so when we use those titles we're saying in contrast to the thousands of other people who bore the name of Jesus as a way of honoring God this is the one who is God manifest In the Flesh as our savior the Lord Jesus Christ so the first point is you have to know your faith has to be in that historic person who is God manifest of the Flesh and not just the name second you must have faith in him you see this very clearly in Acts three uh when the lame man was healed Peter in John if you read it they said by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk well he was healed crowds gathered uh it was amazing and and people were saying well you know it's amazing you must be extra holy men and Peter says don't look at us as if we have extraordinary Holiness or we have extraordinary power acts 3:16 it says his name through faith in his name has made this man whole so the emphasis on you have to know the name because that's the person that you're believing in but it has to be faith in his name in Acts 19 there were some Jewish exorcists and they heard how Paul had cast out demons so they encountered a demon possessed person and they said we adjure you by the Jesus that Paul preaches well they had the right name but they didn't have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ so the demon possessed men leaped on them beat them up stripped them and left them running for their lives so the point is even if you have the right name but you don't have the relationship with the person and you don't have faith in the person that name is of no avail so the name is not a magic formula so already this should tell us wait a minute if you're focusing on the pronunciation you're missing the whole point it's the person of Jesus Christ he's the one who died was buried rose again to to purchase our salvation and you must have faith in that historical person what he did and you must have an active present Reliance a relationship of faith in him that's going to be the key so then the question becomes well if all that is true true do you still have to have the right pronunciation well I'll give you two reasons why the answer is no first of all biblically so yes we can say that uh the the Aramaic or Hebrew name of Jesus was Yeshua now with Yahweh Nobody Knows the original pronunciation because ancient Hebrew was only written with consonants and the ancient Jews sto pronouncing the name out of an exaggerated fear of violating the Ten Commandments taking God's name in vain so they're all kind of debates over the exact pronunciation but most Scholars they would certainly say Jehovah is an English version uh but they would say Yahweh is probably the more accurate and so Yeshua would be Yahweh savior taking the Old Testament name for the one true God Yahweh and adding the Hebrew word for Savior and putting them together so Yeshua or something like that but and so in Hebrew so if I was a native Hebrew speaking person I'm preaching in Hebrew baptizing a Jewish person whose language is Hebrew yes I would say Yeshua uh hamashia Jesus Christ okay that would be correct but it's very interesting in the New Testament the apostles and their Associates wrote the New Testament and they wrote it in Greek well if the sacred name was essential to preserve an original Hebrew they should have tried to transliterate the Hebrew pronunciation into the Greek language they didn't do that they use the Greek translation of Hebrew which is eus so it's different because Greek did not have a y sound it's IE very similar but not the same so they really couldn't a native Greek speaker Couldn't Write Yeshua so they had to say e and then notice the way the Greek is constructed they end with the consonant so they didn't end with Yeshua they ended with Yus so in the Greek new testament which is original we find the apostles and their Associates like Luke are not trying to transliterate in the name of Yeshua they're just using the common Greek translation of that Hebrew name and using like like it was used in the ancient Greek translation the Old Testament Joshua it's the same name Yeshua they were using yesus and so when it says baptize in the name of Jesus Christ it's yesus is the actual name so the New Testament the Apostle so on the authority of the Apostles my answer is whatever language you speak you can translate the name of Jesus into that language and with that pronunciation and God will honor you that that's Apostolic that's it's actually following what the apostles did my second line of reasoning is this let's let's see what happens in real life I preached all over the world I've used the English name Jesus I've used the Korean name which I speak Korean um yesu I I know a little bit of uh I've studied a little bit of French and so I know Jesu is French um I know a little bit of smattering of um Spanish Jesus um then of course Greek I read new testament Greek to some extent yesus so I have personally in ministering and praying with people I've actually prayed with a Spanish-speaking person um Ino or I prayed with French speaking person I prayed with Korean speaking people and I've used that Lang that name in those different languages and guess what I've seen people be healed I've seen demons cast out I've seen people receive the Holy Ghost to begin speaking in tongues when I invoke that name in English or in Korean or in Spanish or in French so God has by my own witness he has honored his name as it's invoked in those different languages so we know objectively that God does honor that name now I describe it in much greater detail I have a little book called in the name of Jesus and I have a chapter that deals directly with that um so I think it's abundantly clear if you're going to be Apostolic then you would say God will honor the use of his name in whatever your native language is if you speak it in faith knowing and the actual person that you're talking about and depending on his death bar Resurrection uh for your salvation then God will honor the invocation of his name so the good news is you know because if it really was you have to find the original pronunciation well number one how do you know that's the original original and since it derives from Yahweh how do you know Yeshua would have been the way ancient Hebrews would have pronounced it you only you know is what modern Hebrews Hebrew speaking people would pronounce it what if you have a lisp you know what if you can't pronounce it right like the Old Testament shth and cth you know there are some languages that certain and and the S is one of them um that you can't uh and and Korean is one you cannot have an initial S sound it has to be sh so if by your own uh language ability or your own uh ability to speak with enunciate clearly if it was all dependent on the exact pronunciation you're in trouble because you don't don't know what the original pronunciation would be your own language may cause you to mispronounce what you think is right you're still mispronouncing or your own personal idiosyncrasy your mouth and your lisp and your accent could cause you you know what if you have a British accent and you tend to pronounce it a different way how do you know that was the equivalent of the ancient Hebrews you can probably know it's not so if it's really dependent on pronunciation how technical do you want to be maybe nobody's safe but if you say wait a minute it's faith in the person I'm not saying the name is irrelevant because that's how we express the faith that's how we invoke the person but I've given you the evidence from the New Testament itself as well as experiened across the world today that when you it doesn't matter what language you use if you make a good faith effort to call on the name of Jesus in your own native language you you're following the example of the New Testament and you have the confidence that God will hear and answer your prayers