Acts 4:5-12

The next day the rulers, elders and teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and the other men of the high priest's family. They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: "By what power or what name did you do this?"

 

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. He is

 

“ `the stone you builders rejected,

    which has become the capstone. '

 

“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

 

When Peter was confronted and asked by what power or name (authority) he and John had healed the lame man, he was prepared. He was prepared because Jesus had given him the Holy Spirit just as he has given us the Holy Spirit, to tell people about our King Jesus.

 

First, Peter defined the question. The question was about an act of kindness (understatement, but accurate) done to a cripple, and the question is how this man was healed. But there’s something important to know about that word healed. It is the same word as saved. This man was healed; he was saved from his deformities and restored to health. So Peter says, “You ask how this man was healed? You ask how he was saved from what destroyed him?”

 

If that is the question, then the answer is simple: By the name of Jesus this man stands before you healed. Believe it or not, there were probably quite a number of men named Jesus in the apostles’ days, so Peter specified which Jesus he was referring to: The Jesus whom you crucified. The Jesus whom God raised from the dead. The Jesus you have rebelled against and made yourselves enemies of. The Jesus with all the power of God sustaining Him. By this Jesus’ name – by His authority, by His power – the lame man stands healthy before you leaders.

 

Peter continues, citing the Scriptures. The Scriptures had predicted these things. Peter identifies the religious leaders before him as the builders who rejected the stone mentioned in Scripture, Jesus Christ. And Peter attaches the truth that God raised Jesus from the dead to the prophecy that this rejected stone would become the capstone. It had always been God’s plan to make Jesus the Christ, and God had always known that the religious leaders would oppose Jesus and crucify Him. So Peter reminded these men of God’s words – the words of the God they claimed to obey and serve – to show them how they had been rebels.

 

Peter concludes with these words: Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved

 

In other words, not only was this lame man healed by Jesus, but there is no other person who could have healed him. The word Peter used for healed was the word for saved. And Jesus’ salvation begins now. The lame man’s restored body was not only a picture of salvation; it was a part of it (albeit temporary). Jesus had saved him from his infirmity.

 

Do you understand how fully Jesus intends to save you? Yes, he wants you to stop sinning, and He saves us from our sins. But we are living in a world of sickness, decay and death. Even this lame man, whom Jesus healed, has since died. The salvation Jesus gave him from his infirmities was only a weak reflection of the full salvation Jesus intends for us all. Jesus saves us not just from our sins, restoring us in our relationship with the Father; Jesus saves us from the curse, from decay, from frustration in our work, from injustices, from sickness, from death! Now and then he gives us a glimpse of this full salvation by healing a man, as he did through Peter and John. But those miracles are temporary. We may ask for them, but Jesus has not told us that His full salvation comes now, so we can still rejoice and be at rest when Jesus does NOT heal in this life. Jesus has told us that His full salvation comes when He returns! That is our hope! And there is no such hope in any other person besides Jesus.

 

Why? Why do I have nowhere else to look? Because there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Look to Mohammad. Does he guarantee salvation? No. Can he? No. Look to any other religion, and see if there is any person pointed to who saves people the way that Jesus does, just for trusting in Him. God has only revealed one name on earth whereby men must be saved – only one name that guarantees salvation without my help and without yours. Not Jesus and Matt saved Matt. Jesus saved Matt. Jesus saves everyone. The only Savior is Jesus.

 

So when this man was healed, there was no question in Peter’s and John’s minds about the source of the salvation. Peter and John couldn’t restore a lame man’s walk. Only Jesus could. And He did. He offers His salvation even to His enemies if they will only trust in Him – an even better salvation than what we see in this lame man’s healing because it is a complete healing, restoration and salvation for every part of our lives: physical, relational, spiritual, emotional, cognitive, everything. And Jesus saves not just for this life, but forever.

 

Father, thank You for choosing to reveal even one name by which we are saved. We certainly cannot save ourselves, and if you had not revealed Jesus, we would be as good as dead. Help me when I read the stories about Jesus healing people and restoring their lives to see myself in the place of the cripples, the sick people and the dead. Help me to realize that every healing, every story of restoration, is a picture to me of the full salvation that Jesus has offered to me forever. May I not complain about my temporary pains and aches, my short-term sicknesses, my aging, my frustrations at work, my broken equipment – because one day I will be saved from all of this, given a body that can never perish or hurt, work that is always worthwhile, friends who are true forever, joy that never ends! May I place my hope fully in the grace that is to be given me when Jesus Christ is revealed, gladly suffering temporarily as I look forward to eternal bliss!