Acts 4:8-12 There is No Other Name April 22, 2012
Sometimes when my children are sick, I hit them on the forehead and say, “Be healed.” I don’t hit them hard, but I’ve seen it happen on TV where the preacher does this and heals people. I’ve never been able to grant my children relief from their colds, or heal a sprained ankle. All this has ever done is irritate them even more.
Peter and John were walking into the temple when a man, who had been crippled from birth, was being carried into it too, where he could beg for money. Peter said, “Look at us! Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, walk.” Immediately, the man started to walk. Then he went into the temple for the first time, by himself, and he was jumping and praising God for the miracle.
The man held onto Peter and John as they walked through the temple, and the worshippers were wondering how this could have happened. There is only one Person with the power to perform this miracle. This miracle was done in the name of Jesus Christ, and by Jesus Christ. No other name could have done this. But there’s more! No other name can bring salvation. There is No Other Name.
A number of things had happened since Jesus resurrection. Jesus had already ascended into heaven. The miracle of Pentecost had taken place where over 3000 people were brought to faith and baptized on that one day. The disciples were continuing to preach and more and more people were being brought to faith and the number of believers reached 5,000.
It seems that the disciples pick up where Jesus left off. Jesus preached and healed. Peter and John do the same. And the people marveled at their power. Peter deflected the credit. “Why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus.”
Peter didn’t want any credit because he didn’t deserve any credit. It was by the power and strength of the risen Lord Jesus that gave Peter the strength and the ability to do what he did. On their own, Peter and John didn’t even have any money to toss to the crippled beggar. Peter and John pointed to Jesus. There is no other name capable of a miracle like this.
Now that Jesus had ascended into heaven, there were others performing miracles in his name. One day Jesus cured a woman who had been crippled for 18 years. (Luke 13) On another day, some men brought to Jesus a paralytic. When they couldn’t get him to Jesus because of the large crowd, they cut a hole in the roof and lowered him dowdn. Jesus told him to “take up your mat and and go home.”
Only the name of Jesus has the power to perform these miracles. At Pentecost, Peter preached, “Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.” He healed people with leprosy. He allowed his disciples to catch a miraculous number of fish and miraculous circumstances. He made two coins appear in a fish’s mouth when he and Peter needed money for the temple tax. No other name can do these things. And now Jesus’ disciples were doing them. Better: He was doing the miracles through them.
How could Jesus do these miracles? He said to his disciples, “Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.” The miracles proved Jesus to be the Messiah, the Savior, the Son of God. And then he said, “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing.” And so his disciples were the tool that the Lord Jesus used to perform this miracle, and others. No other name can do these things.
After the miracle Peter and John were hauled before the Sanhedrin to account for this miracle, this act of kindness. They asked them, “By what power or what name did you do this?”
So Peter told them all. “If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a crippled and asked how he was healed, then know this: It is by the name of Jesus of Nazareth…that this man stands before you healed.”
But Peter did stop here. He pointed his finger at them and said, “You handed him over to be killed and you disowned him before Pilate, though he decided to let him go. You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. You killed the author of life.” He was blunt.
How would you like it if there was a biography of your life written and published in a book or made into a movie and shown on a big screen? But instead of you picking out the highlights or achievements in your life, what would be shown would be your lowlights: your sins things you would be ashamed of, all the ways and times you have
disowned your Lord. The book and movie would have every word of anger, harshness, gossip, slander, criticism, vulgarity that ever came from your lips; every moment of jealousy or selfishness; every lie you told; every act of disobedience; every grudge; every immoral thought.
How many pages could you read of your book? How minutes could you bare to watch before becoming disgusted with yourself? Now, how does our holy God think our actions? It make him angry, nauseas. He has every right to destroy every single human being and throw us into the darkness of hell where there is never ending weeping and
gnashing of teeth.
We deserve that just as much as the Jews who killed Jesus. Yet, there is hope. “Now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Christ would suffer.” They did what they did to Jesus because of their blind ignorance., which doesn’t excuse them. But even though they had done a horrible thing by disowning and crucifying Jesus, God used their sinful actions to save the world through the perfect life and innocent death of Jesus. God used their evil to pay for their evil. God turned the horrible thing they did into the most wonderful thing for them and for everyone in the world. Even though they had done this most awful thing of having Jesus executed, their
gracious God still loved them and wanted them to be in heaven with him.
A wonderful book has been written about Jesus of Nazareth. The Bible tells us that Jesus never had any lowpoints: no immoral thoughts, no grudges, no jealousy, no vulgarity, no lies. He taught: “Love your enemies.” “Pray for your enemies.” “Repay evil with good.” “Walk the extra mile.” This Jesus was “handed over to them by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; you with the help of wicked men, put him to death.”
There would be no other name coming to save. There would never be another perfect person, never another Son of God who would offer his life as a sacrifice. Never would another person rise again from death on his own, as Jesus did. “God raise him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.” No other name was untarnished. No other name submitted perfectly to the Father’s will. No other name is God and Man. There is no other name for salvation.
Peter reminded them, “the stone the builders rejected has become the capstone.” This stone, Jesus, rejected by worldly powers: the Jewish leaders, Herod and Pilate, has become the most important stone and building block in the world. Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of our faith. The name that drove people to bitter hatred is the name that we love: Jesus of Nazareth. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
Man cannot save himself. One only one name under heaven can save: Jesus of Nazareth. Man’s manmade gods cannot save. Take all the gods under heaven and toss them into the dump, not one of them can perform any miracles. Not one of them can save. Only one name under heaven can saved. Salvation from sin is found in no one else: only one name. Forgiveness is found in no one else: Jesus of Nazareth. There is no other name except the name of Jesus, who has the power to do this recorded miracle. There is no other name who can save. Only Jesus. What a name. Amen.