The Name

I want to ask you today, what is in a name? Names generally aren’t as important to us today as they were in the past or with other cultures, but still some of us might know what our names mean. I took the time to look up a couple names to see what they meant:

Delmar: It means “of the pond”.

Myranda: It means “Admirable or Wonderful”

Grace is pretty self-explanitory

Nick: Short for Nicholaus means “Victory of the People”

Nelly and Ellen: While different names to us today, its probably that they came from the same name

And my own, Gregory: It means, “Watchful or Alert”. Many early church saints took the name Gregory, and beginning with Pope Gregory the Great, 15 different popes have used the name Gregory.

In the ancient world Names often had alot of meaning. Read through the Old and New Testaments and almost every name means something. But for many people names didn’t just mean something they also had power. If names had power, then that power culminated in one name: The Name of Jesus. We are going to see just how much power the Name of Jesus has as we jump into .

It was a heart-wrenching story - but that’s the man I always think of when I read think of being able to walk up to that man and saying, just like Peter did, “I don’t have any money! But what I do have I give to you, in the Name of Jesus, get up and walk!” We are continuing through the Book of Acts and after Butch showed us what the birth of the church looked like the last two weeks, Chapter 3 is where the Great Commission begins. Remember, Jesus said His disciples would take the Gospel to the ends of the Earth, starting in Judea - and this is exactly where Peter and John and the other apostles started.

We are continuing through the Book of Acts and after Butch showed us what the birth of the church looked like the last two weeks, Chapter 3 is where the Great Commission begins. Remember, Jesus said His disciples would take the Gospel to the ends of the Earth, starting in Judea - and this is exactly where Peter and John and the other apostles started.

To top it off this miracle is a big deal because its basically the first miracle performed with Jesus not physically there. It’s like when you’ve been learning to ride a bike and then your dad takes off the training wheels. It’s kind of scary and I wonder if even Peter and John were hoping the healing would actually work and not try to pull this guy to his feet just to have him fall down again. They’ve seen this power before - John even talks about how the disciples complained about seeing non-disciples using Jesus’ name to cast out demons - and they too had probably done this numerous times when Jesus sent them out, but now Jesus isn’t physically with them anymore....

But what they do have is His Holy Spirit, which arguably gives them more power than they had when Jesus was physically with them, and the Spirit also gives us more power too. As Peter and John approach this lame man they are going to show everyone just how powerful the Name of Jesus is. As we unpack this story I want us to ask ourselves, “Is the Name of Jesus as powerful in our lives today as it was to the disciples then?”

I. The Name of Jesus Changes Lives

*Read 3:1-11*

Can I tell you a story? This story always reminds me of a personal encounter I had with a man who could not walk. It was the summer after I had graduated high school. I had gotten the opportunity to travel to Europe for about a week and a half for my “Senior trip”. While we were there it was very common to see people begging on the streets for whatever loose change that you had and they were often very good actors playing on your emotions, especially young high school kids. But our tour guide was not fooled and commanded us to not give them any money whatsoever. And so, as we continued to pass these people every day we just tried to ignore them. One day however, we passed by a man who was sitting on the ground as best he could. His legs were horribly mangled and it was clear that he couldn’t walk. He didn’t say anything and as strong as we had become at ignoring the beggars this one really caught our sympathy. We decided to ask our tour guide why we shouldn’t give this man money - after all its hard to fake broken legs like that. Suddenly our tour guide - a very vocal atheist the whole trip - became quite soft hearted and said, “Oh absolutely, give your money to people like him.” We were all very shocked and we asked him why. Then he told us what had happened to this man, and the many others like him. See, his parents had been beggars too, and they knew that the best way to get sympathy from tourists was to have them see a hurt and injured child. So they broke man’s legs as a child and forced him to beg for money. They of course never let them hear properly which is why he looked as he did. To make matters worse, while this might have worked for while - years and maybe even decades - eventually his parents died, leaving this man alone and forced to beg for the rest of his life since he would never be able to walk.

Peter and John as we have just seen have met a man in a similar situation and they find themselves healing him. This was a big deal! The time of the Messiah was here and this was the result! Luke uses a very strange word here for “jumped”. It’s the same word used in where Isaiah is prophesying about the days of the Messiah. READ ISAIAH. The lame man and everyone gathered at the Temple was seeing for themselves that the Name of Jesus Changes Lives. Therefore if we are to ask ourselves, “Does the Name of Jesus have the same power in our lives as it did 2000 years ago?” We must ask ourselves, “Is the name of Jesus changing the lives around us?” I don’t just mean the people we know and see regularly, but also the people we just run into. Remember Peter and John didn’t know this man, they just happened to walk past him and the Name of Jesus changed His life. So when people encounter you, are they being changed? It’s fitting that this week we would highlight the life of a woman who embodied this power. Fran often said, “I would that you would know my Christ.” and I don’t think anyone could argue that whether they knew her or not the Spirit and Name of Jesus impacted their lives when they met her.

II. The Name of Jesus Changes our Testimony

Which leads us to my second point: the name of Jesus changes our testimony. The healing of this lame man led to two different chances for Peter and John to share the Gospel. The first was to the crowds who gathered (VS 11-26). You all know what its like when something different happens in public - people to start stare, then get up real close to see for themselves. I love how Peter asks, “Why are you so surprised? Do you really think it was us who did it? No!” READ 16. When lives are changed, people are going to notice! Are you going to take advantage of it? We can bring people to church all we want and they can listen to sermons for days, but if we really want to catch their attention we have to show them life change. Maybe that’s your own life or someone else’s life. But when lives are changed, people will notice and they will come to check it out. I promise you, the words you say them in those moments can be far more powerful than what they will hear in a Sunday sermon.

You don’t have to be a preacher to tell people about Jesus! You know how I know? Look at the second audience Peter and John get to witness to. They suddenly get an opportunity to reach the Jewish version of Congress. The pharisees and sadducees aren’t too happy to see these men speaking in the Name of Jesus, but they can’t deny the miracle and they don’t really know how to punish them! But you know what shocks them more than anything? READ 4:13. They were unschooled ordinary men. They weren’t preachers, they didn’t know the Bible front to back like the pharisees did, but they knew enough. They knew Jesus. And they had the Holy Spirit who gave them all the power they needed and all the words to speak and it allowed them to speak with Courage. See where it says Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit? You are filled with the same Spirit! So speak to people with courage and don’t be afraid about what you do or do not know!

III. The Name of Jesus Empowers Us

This leads us to our last point: The Name of Jesus Empowers Us. Are you speaking the Truth of Jesus with courage? Peter and John were told not to speak about Jesus anymore. When they returned to the other Christians notice what happened. The believers all gathered around and prayed. Listen to what they said: READ VERSES 24-30. Do you pray like that? Do WE pray like that? Notice they didn’t ask God to make their lives easier, they asked him give them boldness to keep doing all they were doing in the Name of Jesus! Are we asking for boldness?

Let’s get real practical here Hornet! Times are tough right now. And tough decisions are going to have to be made. But I want us to look around this community and see who we are impacting. The people we are impacting most as a church is the kids. It doesn’t happen very often that the youth group of a church grows bigger than the church itself. But that’s exactly what we have here at Hornet. I’ve said it before, those kids are our mission field! So when we pray for Hornet just as the believer’s prayed we shouldn’t be asking, “God please don’t shut the doors!” but what we should be saying is, “Father God no matter what happens, no matter what trials and troubles come our way, give us the boldness and resources to continue to breath life into this community and the lives of these kids.” I don’t know what your definition of miracle is, but if you watch close enough, miracles and wonders happen in the lives of these kids all the time as they come to safe place once a week and get to hear about the Name of Jesus!

Names are powerful, and Jesus’ name is the most powerful! Are you using it? Are you using it to change the world? Are you using it to change Southwest Missouri? Are you using it to change the Hornet community? Are you using it to change this church? I hope you are, but if you aren’t let me leave you with this blessing one more time: “READ VS 29”

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