Song (Click to listen): Jesus is the sweetest name I know, and he’s just the same as his glorious name. That is the reason why I love him so. Jesus is the sweetest name I know.

Jesus is the Lord who is good.

In Psalms 34 David teaches the young believer that his faith in the Lord is like food. His faith is his security. It gives him life. He says that more than food, praises, of all the things that the Lord has done for him, will continually be in his mouth (Psalms 34:1). The food that feeds David in Psalms 34 are the things that the Lord has done for him that cause him to rejoice. When he was suffering and called out to the Lord, Psalms 34:2 says, the Lord heard. When he sought the Lord, Psalms 34:4 says, he answered and delivered him from all of his fears. When he called on the Lord, Psalms 34:6 says, the Lord heard him and saved him out of all of his troubles. David advises those with little faith, in Psalms 34:8, to taste and see that the Lord is good, that all who put their faith in him are blessed, all who fear him lack no good thing (Psalms 34:9-10).

Jesus is the Lord of mercy.

Matthew 12 shares an account of the goodness of the Lord. Jesus and his disciples were hungry, but it was the Sabbath. The Sabbath law requires rest, that no one works and instead gives thanks to the Lord for all that he has done (Genesis 2:2). It happened that at that time Jesus and his disciples were going through a cornfield and his disciples began to pick some ears of corn and eat them (Matthew 12:1).

When the Pharisees saw this, they said to Jesus, ‘Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.’ Jesus answered, ‘Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread – which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests’ (Matthew 12:2-4).

‘Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. If you had known what these words mean “I desire mercy, not sacrifice,” you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath’ (Matthew 12:5-8).

Jesus was blatant throughout his ministry in declaring that he is the Son of God, the Lord of heaven and earth (Matthew 11:25-26). Jesus tells the Pharisees that this truth is something that they do not know. Something that the Pharisees refused to believe and did not understand. Jesus tells the teachers of the law, you’re wrong in condemning my disciples because they are innocent, because my life has made them innocent.

The Pharisees were keepers of the law, people familiar with its traditions and its prophets but stubborn in their acceptance of Jesus as the one prophesied about to fulfill the law. They refused to believe that Jesus was who he said he is, the salvation and deliverance promised to the children of God. They refused to believe that God’s Kingdom would come to earth through Jesus and that the whole earth would be blessed through him (Isaiah 9:6-7; Isaiah 11:1-9, Isaiah 42:1-9).

But believers who follow Jesus will always be blessed. People who put their faith in Jesus will find themselves receiving mercy where traditional doctrine says they should not. Believers will have favor and access to the blessings of God’s promise where the law says they should not, just as Jesus’ disciples did.

Jesus knew what the law said, that there is a day where you will be condemned before God if you do not rest in the Lord. But Jesus says to the Pharisees that his new covenant of the law removes condemnation from those who believe in him (Romans 8) and gives them a new rest. Jesus says, ‘Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your soul. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light’ (Matthew 11:28-30).

The rest and mercy that Jesus is speaking about appears to conflict with tradition, yet it is not. Jesus’ sacrifice provides a new path to acceptance before God and relief from the burden of the law. Those who humble themselves before this law of life through Christ Jesus when they hear it and understand it will find joy in its truth (Psalms 34:2) because this law is a law of mercy and grace and not condemnation. A law that overcomes spiritual death through God’s promise, through Jesus, of eternal life.

Jesus is the Lord of a new covenant.

“Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called ‘the uncircumcised’ by those who call themselves ‘the circumcision’—remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from the citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations” (Ephesians 2:11-15).

Jesus is the Lord who brings the body of Christ together.

“His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.

He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.

In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit” (Ephesians 2:15-22).

Jesus prays for all believers: “My prayer is not for my disciples alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one – I in them and you in me – so that they may be brought to compete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them” (John 17:20-26).

Song (Click to listen): For the Lord (for the Lord), He is good (he is good), and his mercy endureth forever. For the Lord (for the Lord), He is good (he is good), and his mercy endureth forever. For the Lord (for the Lord), He is good (he is good), and his mercy endureth forever. For the Lord (for the Lord), He is good (he is good) and his mercy forever endures.