In the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 3)

Luke has just given us a general picture of what the first church looked like (Acts 2:42-47). They met in the Temple. They committed themselves to prayer. They were filled with awe. Many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. They had the favor of the people, and so on. Luke follows this general description with a specific example.

Peter and John head to the Temple to pray, meat and heal a lame man, and use the attention it draws to testify about Jesus. If you had to identify one theme of this whole chapter, it would be the “name of Jesus”.

The man was healed, chapter 3 emphatically declares, by the name of Jesus (vs. 6, and 16). This we saw in verse six, and this is the central theme of Peter’s sermon.

The theme of “the name of Jesus” is further promoted by the large number of titles for Jesus found in chapter 3. Jesus Christ of Nazareth (6), His Servant Jesus (13), the Holy and Righteous One (14), the Author of Life (15), His [God’s] Christ (18), a prophet like Moses (22), and [Abraham’s] Offspring (25).

I’m not going to tell you what each of these mean right now (though, that would be a fruitful exercise). I just bring this up to show the emphasis on the theme “the name of Jesus”. You may be aware that when the Bible speaks of a name, there is deeper significance than what we typically infer. For instance, if someone donated money to a school in your name, that would simply mean that it was done on your behalf. In biblical language, though, it would mean much more. It would mean the money was donated by your power and in your character. It was rooted in you and reflected you.

So with the healing being done in the name of Jesus (Yeshua), the whole thing reflects and finds its beginnings in Jesus. These two men look at the crippled man, this comes from Christ’s character. Peter’s faith that is so courageous as to declare the lame man well comes from Jesus. His compassion to reach out and grab this lame man by the hand comes from the name (character) of Jesus. Peter and John’s willingness to have their prayer time interrupted to do God’s work, comes from Jesus. The power to heal a man, who had been lame his whole life, so completely that he is able to walk and jump without even being taught certainly came from Jesus. But the power of Jesus is not released without the character of Jesus.

A church which exists in the name of Christ have the compassionate character of Christ to identify a need, the humility of Christ to reach out to that need, and the faith in Jesus’ power to handle it.