The Power of the Name

Hey everyone, this is Josh from Encounter Church

Henley and thanks so much for tuning into our

podcast. Our prayer is that through this podcast,

you can have an encounter with Jesus that will

change your life. And now, get ready for an inspiring

message from our preaching team. Our Bible reading

today is from Acts 3. Peter and John went to

the temple one afternoon to take part in the

three o 'clock prayer service. As they approached

the temple, a man lame from birth was being carried

in. Each day he was put beside the temple gate,

the one called the beautiful gate, so he could

beg from the people going into the temple. When

he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked

them for some money. Peter and John looked at

him intently, and Peter said, look at us. The

lame man looked at them eagerly, expecting some

money. But Peter said, I don't have any silver

or gold for you, but I'll give you what I have.

In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get

up and walk. Then Peter took the lame man by

the right hand and helped him up. And as he did,

the man's feet and ankles were instantly healed

and strengthened. He jumped up, stood on his

feet and began to walk. Then, walking, leaving,

and praising God, He went into the temple with

them. All the people saw Him work, walking, and

heard Him praising God. When they realized He

was the lame beggar they had seen so often at

the beautiful gate, they were absolutely astounded.

They all rushed out in amazement to Solomon's

colonnade, where the men was holding tightly

to Peter and John. This is the word of the Lord.

Thank you, Charlie. Welcome to Church Today.

If you don't know me, my name is Tim. It's my

privilege to bring the word to you today. Earlier

in the year, Ash and the kids and I, we went

on a little family holiday to Vietnam to see

Ash's family. They work in the Australian Embassy

in Vietnam. And Dan, Ash's dad, while we were

there, told us a story of being pulled over by

the police. The police one of the three most

corrupt institutions in Vietnam. Can anyone guess

what the other two are? Teachers and doctors.

They're three professions we rely pretty heavily

on to not be corrupt in Australia. And police

pull people over all the time, not really to

enforce the road rules because arguably they

don't exist. but to extort bribes because that's

how they earn a living. And Dan was pulled over

for speeding. He was legitimately on his little

motorbike, speeding. And the police officer repeatedly

tried to extort him for money, but because he

works in the embassy and he has a diplomatic

card, he just kind of held it up in the face

of the officer and said, you can't find me. I

don't owe you any money. go take it up with the

Australian Embassy. And the police officer, of

course, did not take it up with the Australian

Embassy and eventually left, even though Dan

was in the wrong and definitely speeding. So

what I learned from this is that diplomatic immunity

is exactly like the Princess Diaries after all.

You can thank growing up with Steph for that

reference. Diplomatic immunity. exist to protect

representatives of one country from the animosity

they may face from the public of the country

that they're in. And it works because if you

have a diplomat in your country and you treat

them poorly, your diplomat in their country will

probably be treated poorly in return. And as

a diplomat, you can't really be prosecuted under

the laws of another nation unless your nation

just thinks that you've been very bad and they

want to waive your immunity. What we see here

is an outworking of authority. As a diplomat,

you speak and you act on behalf of another country.

You actually speak and act in the authority of

your country. And you speak and act under the

authority of your country. And Dan, using his

diplomatic card, said to a lowly police officer

in Vietnam, you don't actually have authority

to fine me or... Whatever for breaking the road

rules in Vietnam. You should take it up with

Australia Now we might not be diplomats who can

get out of a speeding fine, but all of us have

a measure of authority Might be very small or

it might actually be quite large authority is

simply the power to control You might have some

authority at work. You can make big decisions

and big changes and you decide what the staff

the report you do. You might have authority at

school. You can decide what subjects you want

to take. Maybe as you get older, but do you have

a measure of control over what you do at lunchtime?

You might have some measure of authority over

what you eat. You have the power to control how

many tubs of ice cream you eat per week. You

might have authority at home, how the living

room looks, how many extracurricular sports your

kid's gonna do, whether or not to get a dog if

your family wants to get a dog. See, we all have

some measure of authority and we have somewhat

of a good sense of where that begins and where

that ends. But I don't think we feel that so

much in our faith. We're not so sure what authority

we have and where it ends and where it begins

and what it even looks like and This is so broad

that we could probably do a whole series on authority

as followers of Jesus on our authority But because

we have more authority and power to control and

therefore more responsibility for how we live

out of faith and maybe we think we do But our

passage today it speaks about just one element

of authority What power is there in the name

of Jesus? And why do Christians pray for marriages

and meals and mothers in it? See, our text today

is directly after Pentecost. Pentecost is in

Acts 2, the Spirit's poured out on the whole

church. And the gift and the power that Jesus

promised is given to the people of God. And immediately

we are seeing and shown in this passage an example

of the authority and power of Jesus at work.

Peter and John are going up to the temple for

the 3pm prayer service, which I guess means that

3pm service is the most biblical of service times.

Jesus also died at 3pm. I don't know what to

say like it's in the Bible, just read it. 3pm,

most holiest prayer service time. That's right.

And a man who's being lame from birth is being

taken up to the prayer service. Now, because

he's of his disability, he's actually not able

to go inside and participate in the service.

But by being close to the door, he can hear and

maybe see what's going on. This man is actually

excluded from community and worship. And he sees

Peter and John going into the service and he

sees an opportunity for some cash. See if you're

lame you could not work so you couldn't earn

money so you actually relied on the charity of

others to live you had to beg for money and so

he asked Peter and John for money and he must

have asked with his head bowed down or you know

either in some kind of out of shame or some kind

of like really begging because Peter looks at

him and asks him to look at them. It's a bit

of a there's a bit of a Kath and Kim look at

me you know. thing going on here. This man looks

at him and he's expecting money, but Peter and

John don't give him money. See, money is just

a band -aid to this lame man. Money is survival.

Money is food for another day. Money is his most

immediate need. But Peter doesn't give him his

most immediate need. In fact, he says, I don't

actually have, I don't have cash on me. I don't

have any silver and gold. But what I do have

I give to you." What does Peter have? Peter has

what he most deeply needs. He says, in the name

of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, we'll get up and

walk. See, he gives him a miracle. He picks him

up by the hand and gives him the capacity to

walk, which is the capacity to work, which is

the capacity to walk into the 3pm prayer service,

the greatest and holiest of all services. And

he's jumping and praising Jesus. He's dancing.

He's probably got a flag. He's probably waving

a flag around. This is how excited he is. Isn't

impressive for someone who's never stood on his

two feet in his life until five minutes ago.

And everyone is astounded and they're astounded

because they know who this guy is. This is the

guy who's always asking for them for money at

the temple gate that everyone calls beautiful.

And here he is. He's completely healed. The man

asked for what will help his immediate needs

and Peter gives him what he most deeply, deeply,

deeply needs. What's going on here? How can Peter

give something an actual miracle in the name

of Jesus? How does this work? There must be something

in the name of Jesus, or more specifically, there

must be something in a name that we just don't

understand in our culture today. We don't really

do anything in the name of someone else. Well,

maybe we do. So if Katie on a Sunday morning

wants to go get milk for our coffees at church,

so don't just walk into the shop and declare

at the top of her lungs, I would like milk in

the name of Tim. Instead, she says, hey Tim,

can I please borrow your card? And then she goes

down to the shop and pays for milk. Not in her

name, but in my name, because it's my card. By

giving her my card, I am trusting her so much.

I'm giving her the authority to spend as I would

spend. She's acting on my behalf. And paying

with someone else's credit card is the closest

thing in our culture I can think of. to what

it's like to do something in someone else's name.

And anything else is probably just identity theft.

We miss so much of the nuance of what's in a

name. In Hebrew culture, the culture of Jesus,

a name was more than just authority. So your

name was actually synonymous with a person. You

were indistinguishable from your name. Name equals

person. Person equals name. There's no difference.

You and your name are the same thing. And this

is how Yahweh operates the God in the Old Testament

over and over again. If you notice, if you're

paying attention, God's putting His name places.

For example, in Deuteronomy 12 .5, He says to

the people, But you shall seek the place where

the Lord your God chooses out of all your tribes

to put his name for his dwelling place. And there

you shall go." And he's talking about the tabernacle

and then the temple, where he's putting his name,

which is his presence. It's where he is. It's

where his power is. A name is a person. And perhaps

this becomes more clear for us in this example.

What we know about through, you know, historical

archaeological studies, of the pagan magic that

was being performed by the nations around Israel,

Israel people in the Near East. It is all to

do with finding, speaking and invoking the names

of those evil spirits. Because invoking their

names invokes their presence and therefore evokes

their power. This is how the ancient Middle Eastern

worldview understands names and we don't understand

them in the same way. And so we can miss things

about what the Bible is trying to teach us. We

kind of treat names as like an accessory to the

real us at times. We are who we are and we happen

to have a name, but it's kind of an accessory.

Just as a wild example, you know, just plucking

it from the clouds. People named Oliver can just

decide that everyone should call them Tex because

they lived in Texas for five minutes. We love

you. We love you pastor Tex or whatever your

name is In our culture and name doesn't mean

as much as it meant in Hebrew worldview How can

Peter heal in the name of Jesus? It's because

he understands that the name of Jesus is synonymous.

It's the same thing as Jesus himself His presence

and his power And so he does it in the authority

of Jesus. If you will, he's paying for this with

Jesus' credit card. Don't forget that Jesus taught

Peter and the other disciples how to do this

when they walked with him. He hasn't just discovered

past Pentecost that the name of Jesus has power.

He's been apprenticed and equipped. The disciples

in Luke 10, they're sent out and then they return

to Jesus and they return reporting, Lord, even

the demons submit to us in your name. You see

here in this interaction with this man, Peter

understands that he can apply the authority of

Jesus. He understands that he has Jesus' authority

and he can give it to this man to heal him. And

because Peter understands this, he understands

that he is essentially an ambassador of Jesus,

using diplomatic powers. You see, remember, as

a diplomat, you speak and act on behalf of another

country. You speak and act in the authority of

another country, and you speak and act under

the authority of your country. Peter is speaking

and acting on behalf of Jesus, in his authority

and under his authority. And Peter uses the power

of Jesus on behalf of Jesus to heal this man,

just as Jesus healed multitudes of people who

were suffering from any sickness, injury or disease

when he walked the earth. See friends, Peter

was a special character in a number of different

ways, but he's not so special in that there's

anything different about him than there is about

you and me. He was just an ordinary, uneducated,

bumbling, risk -taking, heart in your sleeve

trades person. He just gave his, but he gave

his whole heart, his whole allegiance to Jesus.

And that gives us a lot of hope because the prerequisite

is actually just faith. Simply faith, not impressiveness

or education or personality type. The same spirit

that was poured out in the church in Pentecost

is the same spirit that is poured out on us today

by faith. 2 Corinthians 5 19 to 20 says this

and I want you to really pay attention God was

reconciling the world to himself in Christ not

counting people's sins against them and he has

committed to us the message of reconciliation

we are therefore Christ's ambassadors as though

God was making his appeal through us. Through

us, we implore you on Christ's behalf. This is

our appeal. We implore you on Christ's behalf.

Be reconciled to God. Friends, we are ambassadors

of Jesus Christ. And the same spirit that's in

Peter that can tell this man to walk in the name

of Jesus, it's in us. ambassadors that speak

and act on behalf of their country they operate

in and under the authority of their country and

Dan wheezed his way out of a fine in the name

of an authority of Australia but Peter speaks

he invokes the name of Jesus and he acts by pulling

the man off the ground in the authority of Jesus

and so do we friends we we can and do speak on

behalf of Jesus if we are his followers. We can

and do act on behalf of Jesus if we are his followers.

But that might make you think, you know, sure,

but not me, right? Like maybe you, Tim, because

you standing up here, but not me. But if you

are a Christian, if you're a follower of Jesus,

then yeah, yeah, you. Yeah, you. Well, how? Well,

because you call yourself by His name. See Christian,

the word Christian in the original language of

the New Testament, which is Greek, means one

who belongs to or adheres to Christ. When we're

a Christian, we call ourselves by His name. We

are His people. We belong to Him. And we live

in a culture that is more and more forgetting

its history and its origins. We assume things

like human rights or inequality are the water

that we've always swum in, something we're always

working towards and always will. But we forget

and misunderstand our own history. These things

are actually not self -evident and if you read

history you'll see that. And then we only have

these things because of the cultural heritage

that has been given to us by Christianity. Christianity

was a dominant culture in a lot of the Western

world and now it is not and that's actually okay.

It's fading into a minority. And we used to think

about it like it was a post -Christian culture.

A culture that was Christian but is now moved

past that but that's actually incorrect now because

that assumes that we're in this phase where we've

moved past it but there's still critical cultural

understanding of what Jesus is, who Jesus was,

what he was about, what Christianity, the claims

and historical evidence for Christianity, but

more and more people have no frame of reference,

no cultural understanding about who Jesus is,

who he was, what he claimed and the evidence

that there is for him. Now all this to say this,

if someone knows you're a Christian, you may

very well be the only reference point a person

has. to about who Jesus is. You by what you say

and how you act you teach people about who Jesus

is. To people in your life you speak and act

on behalf of Jesus and I mean none of this becomes

more true or clear than when you're a parent.

See because kids rarely listen to anything you

actually say but they sure watch you and watch

what you do. And nothing helps a child or young

person embrace faith more than seeing a parent

or another significant adult honestly grapple

with their own faith, confess, seek the love

and presence of Jesus in the midst of their own

failure, their own heartbreak, their own loss

and fear. Nothing helps a young person understand

the gospel more than to see an adult apply the

gospel imperfectly to their own lives. Their

grace comes through faith, not their perfection.

All your kids or your future kids, if you're

blessed with them, will know about Jesus, is

how you demonstrate your imperfect grace -filled

life to them. You speak and act on behalf of

Jesus all the time. And now this can feel overwhelming,

because I know how imperfect my life with Jesus

is. I know by my words and my actions that I

have misrepresented Jesus and although this is

somewhat unavoidable I'd be lying if I didn't

say that it leaves me utterly heartbroken that

some people maybe have even dismissed Jesus because

I have been such a poor ambassador. We don't

and we won't probably get this right but I want

to say to you friends that there is enough grace

for our imperfect and sinful ambassadorship and

here's why see a name isn't just power remember

it's not just authority it's presence too when

we speak and act in the name of Jesus we're not

like human ambassadors in that we are speaking

on behalf of a country that is far far away when

we call on the name of Jesus when we speak his

name he's actually there with us Peter's able

to heal this man as he pulls him up because it's

not just Peter. It's the presence of Jesus that

pulls that man up to. In Jesus' name, he is with

us. And so when we pray in the name of Jesus,

we're invoking the presence of Jesus. When we

say grace at dinner and we ask blessing over

the food that we're about to eat, do we realize

that we are inviting the Jesus who made a couple

of loaves and fish feed 5 ,000? Do we realize

that we're inviting Jesus to sit at the table

with us, to bless it now as He blessed it then?

Let me pray for someone to be healed in Jesus'

name. Do we realize that we are asking the power

and presence of Jesus to reach out and touch

their body and heal them, to heal them now as

He healed them then? When we sing, what a beautiful

name, what a wonderful name, what a powerful

name Jesus has, do we realize that when we do

that, we're not just saying that Jesus is a great

choice of name, but that it's beautiful and wonderful

and powerful because Jesus is beautiful and wonderful

and powerful. When we declare, as it does in

Philippians 2, verse 10 to 11, that the name

Philippians 2:10–11

of Jesus Every knee will bow in heaven and on

earth and under the earth and every tongue will

declare that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory

of God the Father Do we realize it's not just

because Jesus has a very very impressive name

but because every knee and every tongue that

stands in the presence of the living Jesus cannot

help but bow the knee and Declare with their

mouth that Jesus is Lord Where Jesus name is

there he is And so wherever we pray, whenever

we sing, whenever we declare the name of Jesus,

we invoke the power, presence and authority of

Jesus himself. Friends, don't be deceived. You

can't divide the spiritual and the physical world.

Your words are sacred. Your words have power.

Everything is spiritual. Can you see how praying

in the name of Jesus can actually change the

world? Even something as basic and something

we do by rote probably, such as saying grace

in the name of Jesus, that can change the world

because it's in His name. We invite His presence

and there He is with us in all His glory and

power and authority. Why would Jesus give this

to us? Isn't this a lot of power and trust to

very flawed, imperfect ambassadors? And yeah,

it is. It's kind of like putting a credit card

in the hands of a six year old. They barely know

how it works. They don't know where the money

comes from, but they have so many things that

they absolutely must and do need to have. But

God does know what he's doing. The power of God

is in the people of God. God's chosen to use

little old me and little old you as his ambassadors.

for the reconciliation of all things. You remember

that second Corinthians passage? We are ambassadors

for reconciliation. We're to spend our lives

declaring in deeds and in words that the world

needs to be reconciled to God, that God has reconciled

the world in Christ and needs to be reconciled.

And that's a cry of our lives to the world. Be

reconciled to God through Jesus. God's given

us his authority, this power under Jesus, to

see his kingdom come in Henley as it is in heaven.

Friends, we get to partner with God in speaking

and acting in the name of Jesus. To see our world,

our friends, our family, those we love so much,

reconciled to God through Jesus. Isn't this amazing?

Like if you really get your head around this,

this is mind -blowing. We get to participate

in the application of the power and authority

of Jesus to this world. When you realize that,

you'll never pray in Jesus' name by sheer habit

again. You'll never pray by sheer habit. You

will pray with conviction, you will pray with

authority, and you will pray with purpose. So

maybe we know a little bit of why. But how can

Jesus give us this authority? Well, He can give

it because He wanted on the cross. You see, like

the man, we were excluded from communion, from

community with God. Our sin estranged us from

God. Like the man, we had no hope for a better

life. All we could hope for was something to

help us survive the day, eat, drink and be merry.

But Jesus gave us not what we most immediately

needed, but what we most deeply needed. Jesus

died with our sin once and for all, and by doing

so, God and Jesus made a way for us to be reconciled

to Him again. So He can give authority because

He has won it in His death and resurrection.

And he tells us that because he says that to

his disciples before he ascends to heaven at

the end of Matthew's gospel. He says, I have

been given all authority in heaven and on earth.

It's mine. I have it. No one else has it. I have

all of it. Therefore go. Therefore go. Make disciples.

Multiply yourself to all the nations. Baptize

them in the name. in the name of the Father and

the Son and the Holy Spirit and teach them to

obey all the commands I've given you and be sure

of this I am always with you until the even to

the very end of the age my friends we we've been

given all authority because we have Jesus Jesus

has all authority so speak Act. Pray. And do

it boldly. In the name of Jesus. Go. Make disciples.

You have been given authority. You've been given

permission to do so. You have the power. You

have Jesus' power. And you don't just have the

power. You have the presence of Jesus with you.

Always. Always. No matter where you are. On this

earth, you will always have the presence of Jesus.

Even if you are in the middle of the desert and

you are completely alone, you have Jesus with

you always. Even to the end of the age, even

to the end of your age, even to the last breath

you breathe, you will have Jesus with you. There

is power in the name of Jesus. There is power

in the name of Jesus because Jesus is His name.

Thanks so much for tuning in to this week's message.

If you felt challenged or need prayer, we'd love

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Or if you're interested in how you can support

this ministry, please go to our website encounteradelaide

.com .au. Thanks again for listening. God bless

you.