The Power of the Name

Our next section in Acts runs here through chapter 3, where we read about the healing of a lame beggar, all the way through 4:22, where Luke tells us that “the man on whom this sign of healing was performed was more than forty years old.” We will take this section in two parts, focusing today on chapter 3.

As this chapter gets underway, we note that we have here an entirely new scene following the events in chapter 2 that happened at Pentecost. We can’t know how much time has passed. But it seems that Luke is telling this story now, on the heels of what he has just told us about the early church community there at the end of chapter 2, in order to give us a more specific taste of the life of this early Christian community. Luke told us that they attended the temple together and ate together in their homes day by day, and that there was a real experience of the salvation that they had been given as believers in the lordship of Jesus of Nazareth. Things began to happen.

We saw last week that “many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles,” and in this chapter, we see one of those wonders and signs. Call it a miracle if you want, but the fantastic thing we are being told about here is pointing somewhere. It’s pointing to the reality of what God intends to do in these “last days” that began at Pentecost in chapter 2. And those who believe in what God has done to Jesus are called to participate in these wonderful things that God continues to do by faith in Jesus’s name.

Jesus’s name. That’s key to what Luke is telling us in this chapter and the next. There is real power in the name of Jesus. Here in chapter 3, we see a healing in Jesus’s name, the faith that comes through Jesus’s name, and the challenge presented by Jesus’s name.

Healing in Jesus’s Name

First, in verses 1-10, Luke describes the scene in which Peter and John, on their way into the temple for “the hour of prayer,” heal “a man lame from birth” after he asked them to give him a charitable gift of money.

Prayerful Worship

Peter and John go to the temple for prayer because, of course, they are Jews. They did not think that believing in Jesus meant they had left Judaism. They continued to practice the faith they had always practiced, though now through the new lens of Jesus of Nazareth as the long-awaited Messiah.

So they are heading to the temple “at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour.” It was a long-standing Jewish custom to observe three hours of prayer (Psa 55:17; Dan 6:10), and this one, at 3:00 p.m. was the final one of the day. This was not a legalistic practice, though some may have made it into that. This was not what you did in order to earn God’s love but because you believed God already loved you. It was the way of life for those God had chosen. And you prayed because you expected God to hear you and act.

Charitable Deeds

And along with prayer was the custom of almsgiving. So, there sat a man, a frequent attender at that spot, like the same panhandler you see on your way to work. This man really is in need; everyone knew it. 

Peter and John had no money, but they had something better! “Fix your gaze at us,” they said to this poor man, “because something is about to happen.” They gave to the man what they had, which was not less, but more than the money he had asked from them!

Remarkable Impact

I wonder how Peter knew he could do this. I think it must be because of the energizing power of the Holy Spirit that he was given and that he had experienced at Pentecost.

But I also wonder what the lame man was thinking, as he sat there day by day, begging the passing crowd to help him meet his needs. He must have assumed that this is the way it was always going to be for him. And like him, you and I often make our peace with the brokenness of the world, with the realities that sin has brought into the world. What happened to this lame man was quite a shock, a miracle we might call it, but God isn’t in the business of just doing strange things to impress us. The healing of this man is about God’s healing of the world, of his putting back together the things that have been broken for far too long.

So I wonder what you might be thinking. Perhaps you read a story like this and say, “Well, why doesn’t God do something like this for me? Why is it that I have been praying for so many years, begging God to help me, and nothing happens?” But just consider the fact that this man, who is at least 40 years old, and who was daily at the temple asking for charity, this man was widely known. Undoubtedly Jesus of Nazareth had himself passed by him on several occasions and had not healed him. Yes, here we see him healed, but he, too, had suffered many years without that healing.

By the time we get to chapter 4, everybody knows that “a remarkable thing has happened” to this man (Acts 4:16), and wonder and awe come upon everyone because of it. This is what Luke intends for us to see, that in the name of Jesus his people, his church, are supposed to do remarkable things, things that come as we are busy with regular, prayerful worship and then doing good deeds empowered by the Holy Spirit.

These remarkable things are signs of God’s new creation, breaking in on a dark and desperate world. Isaiah 35:6 looked forward to the day when “the lame man” would “leap like a deer” as a sign of “the blessings of the eschatological age.”[1]And since Luke has used that verb for leaping here in Acts 3:8, it is clear that this is how we are supposed to see this healing in Jesus’s name.

Faith through Jesus’s Name

Next, verses 11-16, the notable thing has got some attention. The people are utterly astounded, a crowd has gathered. And Peter uses this opportunity to explain the healing. There is an explanation for the miracle, and it is the faith that comes through Jesus’s name.

Miracle Men?

But before we get to that, it is important to see what the explanation for the healing of the lame man was not. Peter says, in verse 12, “Men of Israel, why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk?”

Peter denies that he has made the man walk by some power that he possessed. Not that he didn’t “have” a power—remember, he said to the lame man in verse 6 that he was going to give him not silver and gold but something else he had to give—it’s just that what he had to give was something that he himself had been given. What he had to give was a power that was widely available, not some particular giftedness in Peter that marked him as a celebrity. No reason to stare at him. No reason to pay attention to him. Peter doesn’t take the opportunity now to give the crowd a lesson on how to perform miracles of healing. Instead he preaches a sermon about Jesus.

It wasn’t Peter’s power that explained this miracle, and neither was it some advanced level of piety that Peter had reached. It wasn’t because Peter was particularly devout, because he hadn’t missed any of the thrice-daily prayer hours for several months now, that the man had been healed.

There’s an important point to be made here, because it has always been God’s intention to do his work through his people. That’s fundamental to what it means for human beings to be made in the image of God. It is fundamental to your humanity that you are a conduit for God to manifest his power. And, yes of course, it does matter that as conduits of God’s glory and power in the world we ought to be certain kinds of persons. Character development, spiritual formation—these things really do matter. We shouldn’t dismiss such things outright because we are worried about legalistic tendencies.

Still, it is a disastrous mistake to conflate God’s power at work through his people with some level of spiritual development in his people. If we begin to become more impressed with and in awe of human agents rather than God himself then we are in danger of turning the power of God into a superstition to be manipulated by human beings.

And that will not bring healing to anyone in our broken world.

Glorified Servant

So, with Peter now in verse 13, let’s be clear. The only power that can truly bring healing to any of us is God’s power. If you’re holding out hope that we human beings can fix our world without him, well, good luck with that. But, you see, you don’t have to wait. The power of God that can heal our world is here. It is available right now. Because the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has “glorified his servant Jesus.”

That phrase may not mean much to you, but it would have meant a lot to Peter’s Jewish audience gathered there at the temple. Because Peter is identifying Jesus with the servant of God that Isaiah spoke of, the one who Isaiah said would “act wisely,” and who would then “be exalted” (Isa 52:13). That servant, Peter says, is Jesus. That is the clear, bold Christian claim.

And to substantiate that claim, Peter reminds them of what had happened to Jesus. “You delivered [him] over and denied [him] in the presence of Pilate.” And “you denied the Holy and Righteous One,” desiring to have a murderer released to you instead. “You killed the Author of life”—how ironic, how tragic is that! But now, don’t you see, that is exactly what Isaiah had said about God’s servant whom he would glorify. The exaltation would only come after his humiliation and suffering. “It is God’s act of vindication after suffering that gives significance to the Servant.”[2]God has exalted him by raising him from the dead, but the power he has brought to the world is cross-shaped. It is the power of self-giving, self-sacrificial love. It looks like weakness. It looks like defeat. But God has put his seal on it. God has vindicated this Jesus and this power that can heal our world by raising him from the dead.

Faith in His Name

Now, then, don’t miss the end of verse 15 and what Peter says in verse 16. Because after speaking of Jesus’s resurrection, Peter says, “To this we are witnesses.” Witnesses. That’s what Jesus told the disciples they would be when they received the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Greek word is martyr, which in English has taken on a different emphasis. Not an entirely different one, unless we detach Christian witness from the public declaration we heard Peter say in Acts 2:32 and we hear him say here again. It is to this that we are witnesses, that God has exalted Jesus by raising him from the dead.

And that is the power that can heal our world. The only power, in fact. That’s what Christians believe and must proclaim.

And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all. (Acts 3:16)

What explains the healing? What is the power that can heal our world? The power is not faith itself, as if we are supposed to have faith in faith. No, the power is a person, and his name is Jesus. The one that God has exalted. Believe him.

And things will happen.

Challenged by Jesus’s Name

Or, don’t believe if you don’t want to. But to not believe in Jesus and the power of his name does not mean you don’t believe in anything. It just means you will go on looking for something else to save, some other power that can heal. So, the name of Jesus also presents us all with a challenge. The world is challenged by Jesus’s name.

No More Excuses

Peter pushes his point home, starting in verse 17. “And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers.” They had rejected the one God had sent to save them, a tragic error, a horrific sin. But they had no idea that this is what was happening. As Jesus himself said as he was dying on the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

But now they know because Peter has told them. In verse 18 he says that “what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled.” Fulfilled. By their ignorant act.

So now that God has revealed what it is that God has been doing all along, ignorance can no longer excuse them.[3]“Repent,” Peter says. “Turn back.” Change your mind about Jesus, accept the truth that he is Lord. Doing so will ensure “that your sins” will “be blotted out,” completely erased without leaving any remaining trace.[4]What sins? All of them.

Listen to Him

That message is still true today, and it is a message that still needs to be heard, yes, even among us who call ourselves Christians. Perhaps we have drifted away from our confidence in the power of his name and turned to some other source of power for our hope instead. Perhaps we have found ourselves dissatisfied with the power of his cross and an empty tomb, fueled by the humble display of self-giving love, and, wanting to see “real results,” have colluded with the dark powers that are happy to fly under “Christian” banners so long as they are fueled by anger, revenge, and various other displays of human might.

Brothers and sisters, we have no excuse. In verse 22, Peter cites from Moses’s words in Deuteronomy 18: “The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you.” Let’s ask ourselves: are we listening to Jesus? Are we doing what he says? Are we doing things his way?

If not, the challenge—the warning!—comes in verse 23, “every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.” If you call yourself a Christian, if you think of yourself as one who is numbered among God’s people, then you are under obligation to do things his way. And there can be no more excuses. We had better know what his way is.

Times of Refreshing

Because, after all, the whole point of being a Christian is to be made a participant in the advance of his kingdom which has already broken in on our broken world.

In verses 25-26, Peter speaks in terms of the Abrahamic covenant—see it there at the end of verse 25—“and in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” God has sent his servant Jesus “to bless you by turning every one of your from your wickedness,” Peter says in verse 26. But put it all together. God is putting his people right so that they can be part of his putting-the-world-right project, as he had said he would do when he made his covenant with Abraham.

That’s the time we live in right now, an interval of time created between the first and second coming of Jesus. Look carefully at verses 20-21 and see what it is all about. It is about “times of refreshing” that ought to “come from the presence of the Lord” through his people and into his world right now “until the time for restoring all the things” when Christ returns. Our task is to be faithful servants of Jesus, but to do so, we “must get used to living with a form of theological jet lag.” The world is still in darkness, but we must set our clocks to a different time zone and learn to “live as daytime people.”[5]

It means we have to live in the already. Where we see the brokenness and despair of a world still in darkness, we are called to represent the expectation, hope, and confidence—the power, the daylight—that we know has already broken in because of Jesus and his resurrection.

But it also means we have to deal with those same not yet realities. We don’t ignore the sadness and pain of the world that is still in darkness. We are also called to represent the lament and the love of the one who also goes by the name “Man of Sorrows.” It is precisely because our Savior suffered and died and then rose again that we can boldly say, “It will not be like this forever. All things are becoming new.”

All because of the power of Jesus’s name.

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[1] Ben Witherington, III, The Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1998), 176.

[2] C. K. Barrett, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, vol. 1, International Critical Commentary, ed. J. A. Emerton, C. E. B. Cranfield, and G. N. Stanton (London; New York: T&T Clark, 2004), 194.

[3] Darrell L. Bock, Acts, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, ed. Robert W. Yarbrough and Robert H. Stein (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007), 173.

[4]Bock, Acts, 175.

[5] N. T. Wright, Paul: A Biography (New York: HarperOne, 2018), 222.