The Powerful Name of Jesus
Introduction: Acts 3 is linked to Acts 2 not only in their proximity to one another. They are also linked inseparably in regard to content. The gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church, as witnessed so powerfully in the second chapter, is intended, in turn, to offer Spirit-filled people as a gift to the world, a world full of lame, paralyzed, hurting people. The evidence of the Spirit’s filling will never be confined to the believer’s personal life, nor even to the corporate life of the church; rather it will always impact the world. The wind of the Holy Spirit is to pick us up and carry us to people in need. The fire of the Holy Spirit is to kindle warmth and affection for others. The power of Pentecost is for personal caring about people.
But the tragedy is that many who profess to be delighted by Pentecost are not ready for the demands of the Pentecostal age. They want to linger in chapter 2, enjoying the Holy Spirit and other Spirit-filled people. The result is a subculture with its own jargon and religious games. The qualifying questions are often, “Are you filled with the Spirit?” Or, “Have you received the baptism?” Instead, the questions should be: “Has the Spirit’s indwelling power impelled you to reach out to people in need?” Or, “Have the gifts of the Spirit equipped you for ministry?”
The authentic test of Pentecost is what happened in Acts 3. The power of the Holy Spirit was used to meet the physical and spiritual needs of a lame man, and, through him, the spiritual needs of some 5,000 families! Let’s read Acts 3:1-26:
Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer. 2 And a man who had been unable to walk from birth was being carried, whom they used to set down every day at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, in order for him to beg for charitable gifts from those entering the temple grounds. 3 When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple grounds, he began asking to receive a charitable gift. 4 But Peter, along with John, looked at him intently and said, “Look at us!” 5 And he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. 6 But Peter said, “I do not have silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, walk!” 7 And grasping him by the right hand, he raised him up; and immediately his feet and his ankles were strengthened. 8 And leaping up, he stood and began to walk; and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. 9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God; 10 and they recognized him as being the very one who used to sit at the Beautiful Gate of the temple to beg for charitable gifts, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
11 While he was clinging to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them at the portico named Solomon’s, completely astonished. 12 But when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, “Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this, or why are you staring at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made him walk? 13 The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus, the one whom you handed over and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him. 14 But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 15 but put to death the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses. 16 And on the basis of faith in His name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know; and the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all.
17 “And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers also did. 18 But the things which God previously announced by the mouths of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has fulfilled in this way. 19 Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; 20 and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, 21 whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things, about which God spoke by the mouths of His holy prophets from ancient times. 22 Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your countrymen; to Him you shall listen regarding everything He says to you. 23 And it shall be that every soul that does not listen to that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.’ 24 And likewise, all the prophets who have spoken from Samuel and his successors onward, have also announced these days. 25 It is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God ordained with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ 26 God raised up His Servant for you first, and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways.”
A miracle of healing: the lame man and his cure (1-11)
We find Peter and John going up to the temple at three o’clock in the afternoon, the time of the evening sacrifice. We are not told specifically, but I would assume this event happened shortly after the events of chapter 2, possibly the next day, certainly within the week. Once again, we see that the apostles had not abandoned temple worship, but rather still considered themselves devout Jews. The only difference between them and the rest of the nation is that they had found the Messiah, whom the nation had been looking for but failed to recognize.
Arriving at the same time was a forty-year-old man who had been lame since birth. He had friends who daily carried him to one of the temple gates so he could beg alms from the worshippers. This guy may have been feeble in body, but he was not feeble in mind. He knew that his prospects were best where the traffic was the greatest.
He also knew that the giving of alms was a particularly meritorious act in Jewish religion; therefore, it would be appropriate for a beggar to place himself where pious people might be expected to pass on their way to worship. So he would sit by the gate called “Beautiful,” probably the eastern gate of the temple complex, leading from the Court of the Gentiles into the Women’s Court. It was nicknamed the Beautiful Gate because it was 75′ high and made of intricately carved bronze. Josephus wrote that it “far exceeded in value those gates that were plated with silver and set in gold.”
Apparently this man saw in Peter and John some reason to be hopeful, because he made a point to solicit them. Peter and John stopped and said to the man, “Look at us!” The man’s attention was definitely arrested, and he undoubtedly thought he was about to receive something from them. After all, most people passed by a beggar, ignoring him completely, especially one who had been sitting in the same place for years or even decades. He came to be viewed as a fixture, like a bush or a fencepost. When anyone paid attention to him it usually meant a donation.
Let’s not pass too quickly over the fact that Peter and John stopped when the lame man confronted them. Sometimes we are so busy doing the Lord’s work that we don’t have time for people. Of course, that’s not really possible, is it, for the Lord’s work is people. I wonder if any of us passed a stranded motorist in our hurry to get to church this morning. I didn’t today, but I have. I have passed up the needy in a hurry to preach to God’s people that they shouldn’t pass up the needy.
The lame man expected a donation from the two men who stopped, but it wasn’t to be this time. Peter said to the man, “I do not possess silver and gold.” The order of the Greek words is slightly different, putting emphasis on the monetary: “Silver and gold I have none ….” Peter’s reply would initially disappoint the hopes that had been raised, but it was swiftly followed by an offer of something better. Immediately he adds, “But what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene—walk.” I feel absolutely certain that’s the last thing the crippled man expected to hear. He might have expected a lecture, a practical joke, a piece of clothing, maybe even a lottery ticket. But he did not expect this.
Peter, not willing to stretch the man’s faith too far, reached out his hand and helped raise him up. And immediately his feet and his ankles were strengthened. He jumped up, he began to walk, and then he began to leap. Remember that this man had been lame from birth, but he didn’t even have to learn to walk, which is almost as miraculous as the healing itself.
This miracle is like so many biblical miracles and unlike so many alleged miracles today. First, the person healed was undeniably disabled. Everyone knew this man to be a forty-year cripple. It is far more common for the modern faith healer to “heal” someone with undiagnosable backpain or chronic headaches or chest pain—problems that are very real, but also very hard to verify. I heard of one faith healer who was stumped when an inquirer asked, “Do you do teeth?” Well, God does teeth, and more. He majors on impossible cases. A person who has been dead four days and is already partially decomposed is chosen for resurrection. Someone who has been blind for 38 years is given his sight. A naked masochistic maniac who is public menace #1 is delivered of a demon. No ambiguity is possible. God’s power and God’s power alone can heal such people.
Furthermore, when God heals, He heals completely and permanently. The lame man received “perfect health,” according to verse 16. There was no relapse the next week or as soon as his faith wore off. Relapses are very common with psychosomatic illnesses, which are the kind faith healers major on, but they aren’t a problem when God does the healing.
Notice, too, that no money changed hands. Peter and John neither gave money nor, more importantly, received any from the one healed. This, too, differs considerably from the approach of most faith healers today.
By the way, how Peter responded to this man should in no sense be taken as a prohibition of giving material help to the poor and needy, nor should it suggest that the church should offer spiritual salvation rather than physical or material help—it is, after all, physical healing which is given here! There is, however, a lesson here for us about the church’s priorities.
The following story is told about St. Thomas Aquinas, the great Catholic theologian. He once called upon Pope Innocent II when the latter was counting a large sum of money. “You see, Thomas,” said the Pope, “the Church must no longer say, ‘Silver and gold have I none’.” “True, holy father,” said Thomas, “and neither can she now say, ‘Arise and walk’.” The moral of this story should be pondered by any Christian organization that enjoys a fair degree of temporal prosperity!
Following the miracle, we find the formerly lame man walking and praising God. I can almost hear him shout, “I can walk! Look at me! I can jump and run and break dance!” All the people heard him, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. Following the hour of prayer, this man stayed with Peter and John, and as they left the temple proper, a great crowd followed them into Solomon’s portico, buzzing about the amazing event they had witnessed. I’m sure some of them recognized this healing as a token of the advent of the messianic age, for the prophet Isaiah had predicted, “Then shall the lame man leap as a hart (a deer).” (Isa. 35:6)
Peter was too keen an evangelist to let such a valuable opportunity slip by. So he opens his mouth and begins to preach to the crowd of thousands. He preaches a message of hope. The theme: the reason for the Cure of the Lame is the Power of the Name.
A message of hope: the Name and its power (12-26)
Peter begins by dealing with a possible misunderstanding of the situation and then explains how the power of Jesus had healed the man. He also seizes the opportunity to press home the point that it was Jesus, the very One they had killed, who had been glorified by God and was now still active through His Church. Peter starts with a question.
Question. “Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this, or why do you gaze at us, as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk?” Of all people, the Jews, the chosen people of God, should not have been astounded at this miracle. There were several significant periods of miracles in their history, notably the time of Moses and the days of Elijah and Elisha. In addition, Jesus had performed many miracles among them, and what they had just witnessed was certainly in continuity with those events.
In regard to the second part of Peter’s question, apparently he picked up something in the attitude of the crowd that made him think they were giving credit to him and to John for the miracle, and perhaps even deifying them. He will have nothing to do with that kind of honor, unlike, I might add, many alleged faith healers in our day. But if it wasn’t Peter and John who performed this miracle, who was it? Peter explains starting in v. 13.
Explanation. He starts with God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of their Fathers. If they want to know what happened at the temple that day, they must consider God, for in that miracle He had glorified His servant Jesus. And, according to verse 16, “on the basis of faith in His name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know; and the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all.”
Think for a moment about what it means to say that this lame person was healed “in the name of Jesus.” I do not believe that there is any magical efficacy in the sound of the name, “Jesus.” What Peter was saying is that he was healed by the authority of Jesus and all that He stood for. But it was not simply the name of Jesus that healed him, but faith in the name. We aren’t told whose faith, but I would assume it was both the faith of Peter and John and, to at least a small extent, the faith of the lame man. Had he resisted the use of Jesus’ name by Peter he would not have been healed.
Now let’s back up for a moment to verses 13-15, for there we find Peter using the opportunity of this miracle to press home not only the true source of the miracle, but also to once again draw the stark contrast between God’s attitude toward Jesus and their attitude, as he also did in his first sermon in chapter 2. God glorified Jesus but they delivered Him up and disowned Him. In fact, they asked that a murderer’s life might be spared while putting the very Author of life to death—an amazing paradox! They put Him to death, but God raised Him to life! What boldness and courage Peter had in preaching such a message! Then he concludes his message with an invitation.
Invitation. The appeal begins with the concession that the people of Jerusalem acted in ignorance when they put Jesus to death. They did not know that He was their Messiah. Even their rulers did not believe it, although plenty of evidence had been provided for them. We may think that Peter’s words were surprisingly lenient to people like Caiaphas and the other members of the priestly families, who were so determined to put Jesus to death. But however that may be, here is a proclamation of divine generosity, offering a free pardon to all who took part in the death of Christ.
But the pardon must be preceded by repentance. “Repent therefore and return, that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.” The unspoken thought is that if the Jews now fail to admit their sin, committed in ignorance, it will become a willful sin for which there is no atonement.
John Newton, the slave-trader turned preacher who wrote “Amazing Grace,” wrote another hymn, less known, but just as powerful in its message:
Alas! I knew not what I did,
But now my tears are vain;
Where shall my trembling soul be hid?
For I my Lord have slain.
A second look He gave, which said:
“I freely all forgive;
This blood is for thy ransom shed;
I die, that thou mayest live.”
Thus, while His death my sin displays
In all its blackest hue;
Such is the mystery of grace,
It seals my pardon too.
With pleasing grief and mournful joy
My spirit now is filled,
That I should such a life destroy,
Yet live through Him I killed.
In this sermon, just as in his first one, Peter puts the emphasis upon repentance. They must change their former attitude to Jesus and bring it into line with God’s attitude. God had clearly shown His verdict by raising Him from the dead. They must show theirs by receiving Him as their Savior.
One of the things about which they must change their minds is indicated in verse 18; it’s their very concept of the Messiah. You see, the Jews of Jesus’ day believed that a personal Messiah would come and would reign over them. But their great stumbling block toward Jesus was that He didn’t prove to be very kingly. In fact, quite unlike a king, He voluntarily submitted to suffering, even the suffering of death. To them that proved He was not Messiah. But here in verse 18 Peter reminds them that God had announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets that His Messiah would suffer. They were aware of those passages but didn’t know what to do with them; some handled them by postulating that there would be two Messiahs. No, says, Peter, there’s only one, and the sufferings of Messiah have been fulfilled in Jesus.
Please note that Peter promises that a three-fold positive result awaits their repentance. First, their sins will be wiped away. In other words, personal salvation will be theirs. Secondly, times of refreshing will come from the presence of the Lord. That, I believe, is a reference to the joys of the sanctified life; as a believer matures and becomes more like Christ, his life becomes more delightful, not less. But that, too, is not possible apart from repentance.
The third result is “that He (God) may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you.” It appears that there is a sense in which the very return of Christ to this earth awaits the repentance of Israel, for the remaining verses in the chapter focus specifically upon the Jews and their relationship to God’s Messiah.
Peter’s point is not easy to decipher, but I like what F. F. Bruce has to say:
“The whole house of Israel, now as on the day of Pentecost, received a call to reverse the verdict of Passover Eve and to accord Jesus united acknowledgement as Messiah. Had Israel as a whole done this during these Pentecostal days, how different the course of world history and world evangelization would have been! How much more swiftly (we may imagine) would the consummation of Christ’s kingdom have come! But it is pointless to pursue the ‘might-have-beens’ of history. Israel as a whole declined the renewed offer of grace and refused to recognize Jesus as Messiah.” [i]
I believe the Scriptures teach that one day the Jewish people as a whole will do what they refused to do in apostolic days, i.e., accept Jesus as their Messiah.
Two further points in Peter’s invitation need mention. First, there is the threat of destruction given in verse 23. Moses had promised that a prophet par excellence would come. Jesus was that prophet. If they didn’t heed Him, they would be utterly destroyed. But that wasn’t God’s desire, for in verse 26 the alternative is clearly spelled out: “For you first, God raised up His Servant, and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways.” As Jews they were given the first opportunity. God was not willing that any of them should perish, but rather that all would come to repentance. But they must turn from their wicked ways.
Conclusion: Two lessons emerge clearly from this chapter. The first is that the Church must not ignore the physical needs of people. We do not have the power that Peter had to approach a cripple and order him to walk. (I am not saying that God never heals so dramatically today; I am saying that, to my knowledge, there is no one in the church today with that kind of authority and power resident in them). But there are many needs we can meet. The Church must not selfishly consider its sole task the preaching of the Gospel. As needs can be met, they must be.
However, the Church must not ignore the opportunities for witnessing that come from meeting the physical needs of people. This is the mistake that so many liberal Protestant churches have made. They raise money for the hungry, they fight apartheid, they open their churches as sanctuaries to Latin American refugees, but they do not share the Good News of the Gospel; they can’t, because they don’t believe the Good News of the Gospel.
In contrast, last Sunday night we saw in the Crisis Pregnancy Center a beautiful example of Spirit-filled Christians at work in society. While the liberal churches are reaching out to women with unwanted pregnancies by supporting their right to abortion, (contrary to everything the Bible teaches, I must say), the Crisis Pregnancy Center is providing every conceivable kind of help for these women to keep their babies, all the while communicating the love of Christ and the seeking opportunities to lead them to personal faith.
You know, the world is so much like this crippled man. People do not know what to ask for; they ask largely for material help alone. But what is needed far more is what Peter and John gave—not silver and gold, but the name of Jesus, the power of a new life, the impartation of a new strength. The Spirit-filled church must do both—meet the physical needs of people and call them to repentance and faith toward God. Peter did, and the result was 5,000 families receiving the Savior, in addition to the 3,000 on the Day of Pentecost. May God help us to appropriate the power of the Holy Spirit in such a way that our world, too, will be impacted in an unmistakable way!
Tags:
Healing
Repentance
[i] F. F. Bruce, The Book of Acts, 92.