Empowered

No Other Name!

Life Lessons Devotional Series, Tuesday May 9, 2023

Scripture: Acts 4: ⁸ Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! ⁹ If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, ¹⁰ 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. ¹¹ Jesus is

“‘the stone you builders rejected,
    which has become the cornerstone.’

¹² Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

Life Lesson: The name of Jesus is the most invoked name in the history of humanity.  Derided by sinners and hallowed by believers, the name of Jesus is truly incomparable, synonymous with power, authority, and salvation!

– The above text tells us Peter spoke by the infilling of the Holy Spirit when standing before the rulers and elders. 

– Jesus had previously prophesied to His disciples regarding such a time as this saying, Luke 12: ¹¹ “When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, ¹² for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.”

– Just as Peter had been filled with the Holy Spirit in pronouncing miraculous healing on the man who had been born lame at the Gate Beautiful, so too Peter relied on the empowering of the Holy Spirit as he stood before the elders of Israel in defense of the ministry God had called him into.  Christian, we need the empowering of the Spirit to be effective witnesses!

– The words fashioned by man can have a semblance of authority but the message proclaimed through the empowering of the Spirit is transformational!  The lame man was healed in the name of Jesus!  Peter uttered the words but the power to transform the man was from God! 

– Likewise, the same Peter who had recently denied any knowledge of, or relationship with Jesus Christ in an effort to save his life, now stood before the same leaders who had used their authority to execute Christ, and boldly proclaimed not only his knowledge of the Christ but also his undying faith in the authority of Jesus Christ to save! 

– Like the lame man, Peter had also experienced the transforming power and authority of Jesus Christ in his own life!  “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”