Bridgeway Community Church Dr. David Anderson
Series: The Name I Need December 12, 2021
The Name I Need: His MIGHTY Name
INTRODUCTION
Question: What does “in the name of Jesus” mean? Why does it matter?
Acts 3:1-10 (NIV84)
One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer —at three in the afternoon. 2 Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. 3 When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. 4 Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” 5 So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them. 6 Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” 7 Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. 8 He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. 9 When all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
“Praise God for those who recognize you for who you used to be, but because you came in contact with the powerful name of Jesus, they can now see you are different.”
POINT OF REFLECTION #1 – THE CONFIDENCE OF PETER
Question: What was it in Peter’s life that made him think that saying such a thing to this man was okay to say?
“Peter must have believed that this man would be healed, otherwise, to say such a thing to a man who had been crippled for 40 years would be just cruel.”
“While it would be easy for me to focus on this man who was miraculous healed, I want to focus on the man who was a conduit through which the healing came – Peter.”
Question: Where did this level of confidence come from?
Question: Would you be able to do this? Would you have the confidence to say to someone whose been crippled for years, in the name of Jesus, walk?
Question: What must’ve happened in Peter’s life to make him confident enough to give this command so boldly?
Peter experienced:
- the miracle of fish flooding his nets John 21 Jesus healing the blind
- John 9
- feed the hungry
- John 6
- make lame walk
- John 5
- cast out demons
- Matthew 8
- raise Lazarus from the dead
- John 11
- walked on water
- Matthew 14
- denied Jesus 3 times and was restored
- John 21
- witnesses Jesus ascension
- Acts 1
- preaches at Pentecost
- Acts 2
“Something must’ve changed in Peter’s life, right?. Some kind of transformation must’ve taken place where he was able to speak so authoritatively in the name of Jesus and actually believe that what was commanded in His name would come to pass.”
Matthew 16:16 KJV
And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.Acts 2:1-4, 14 NIV
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them…14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say.
Maybe it was a combination & culmination of all of these previously mentioned events. The one thing we know, Peter has changed!
SELF REFLECTION
Question: Am I at a level and a dimension where my spiritual transformation and maturity take me to a place where I have the faith to believe that the name of Jesus is just as powerful to heal today as it was in Acts chapter 3?
Question: Is it possible that beyond the level of salvation, and even beyond the level of ongoing sanctification and transformation, that there is a level of “transportation” (not physically, but spiritually) where I am transported to a spiritual dimension of faith and authority where I believe that speaking in the name of Jesus has the power and authority to make lame men walk?
That walking in the name of Jesus has the power to make demons shudder That living in the name of Jesus has the power to reverse cancer!
“…you actually have a level of confidence at a dimension that few Westernized Christians I see ever really walk in.”
I’m not talking about you, friends I’m talking about me….Your brother in the Lord who is on his own spiritual journey.
I can’t be on this journey for you, and you can’t be on it for me.
The 30-hour revival on October 30, 2021 has made me consider my own ways; my own dimensions of faith & power; my own satisfaction with where I am and where I am going!
“God showed me at that revival that I was living a life of survival – keeping things from dying. But he was calling me to a level of revival – focusing on living in Him and new life.”
God is taking us from surviving, to reviving, to thriving – thriving in new dimensions.
It is not about my sins. It is not about yours. We will always struggle with sins and praise God that Jesus paid for all of them. This is about something more. It is not about my sins. It’s about my satisfaction level.
Question: Am I satisfied with the level of faith and my current dimension of safe, sanitized, westernized Christianity that puts my religious & theological doctrine in a well-order academic and cultural box?
I am not satisfied simply with transformation, which I desperately need. But that is not enough! I want “transportation”! I want to go to a level where my faith is transported to a dimension of belief where I truly walk by faith and not by sight!
“Christianity can’t just be about managing sin levels and holding onto safe theology. It has to be about more than belief in Jesus, it must be about believing in faith in the name of the very Jesus that I say I follow.”
“Peter and John didn’t have silver or gold, but they had the NAME of Jesus! They had something that you and I can have too. The Authority in Jesus’ name!”
“Philanthropy may change peoples’ lives to a degree that they can sustain, but it won’t transport them, it won’t transform them, but when you come in the name of Jesus, it goes beyond philanthropy into generosity and it begins to change people at a conditional level. We all have access to this authority.”
Matthew 28:19-20 NIV
Then Jesus came to them [the disciples] and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
“We may not the same bank accounts or the same privileges or the same backgrounds or the same heritage or the same culture or the same education or the same family origins. We may not have the same abilities or disabilities or advantages, but we all have access to Jesus!”
“We may not have the same, but we can all have the name!! We may not be the same, but we can all have the name!! The name!!”
Question: I am asking myself – Do I have the confidence to believe that God will speak through me without me couching what I say in disclaimers and half-hearted declarations and doubt-filled prayers? Prayers where I conveniently tack on the name of Jesus at the end of a prayer without truly believing in the power of that name that I just prayed in?
“I have written in my Bible and it’s been there for over 30 years – Jesus ain’t all you need, until Jesus is all you got.”
“But when Jesus is all you got, you start giving people what you got…maybe we have too many other options before we…got nothing left but Jesus…Maybe we’re learning from the apostle that there is something that is beyond all the other things.”
Question: Is our religious faith just about Christian words and phrases and hopes, and dreams that are nicely packaged in cultural religiosity, but devoid of true faith and the demonstration of power of the Holy Spirit?
Acts 3:12 NIV84
When Peter saw this, he said to them: “Men of Israel, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?
In other words, Peter knew that this healing was not about him or about his own power. Peter knew this miracle had nothing to do with his own godliness! It’s not about my sins or Peter’s sins. We are not dismissing the need for righteousness. I am not dismissing my sins, I am just dismantling their power to hold me back from accomplishing what God has called me to do & be.
“Some of you are stuck in places that your Christianity is about sin management. And what God is saying to you today is you need to dismantle the power of that that’s holding you back from accomplishing what you know God is calling you to do. Trust him even with your sins!”
This miracle was about the mighty name of Jesus and Peter and John knew it. And now everyone was about to know it! Peter and John are making the name of Jesus famous!
Peter mentions Jesus’ name 9 times in this discourse over two days & two chapters (chapters 3 & 4).
Acts 3:16 NIV84
[Peter speaking] “By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see.”Acts 4:7-10 NIV84
“They [the rulers, elders and teachers of the law in Jerusalem] had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them; ‘By what power or what name did you do this?’ 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 cripple and are 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, who you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.”
WOWSA!! Peter doesn’t stop. What confidence!
Acts 4:12 NIV84
[ Peter speaking] “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
Peter’s mic drop moment.
I think I found the answer to my question about the confidence Peter & John had. Verse 13 gives me the answer.
Acts 4:13 NIV84
When they [rulers of Jerusalem] saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
“Not only was it a sign of the apostleship of those who were with Jesus in the 1st century, but it’s something that has been give to all of us that we can actually be with Jesus.”
John 14:12 NIV84
I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.1 John 2:6 NIV84
Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
Question: Is it too simple that just being with Jesus gives you the power to walk and live like Jesus?
“ ‘You can walk and live like Jesus in your own personal life, but you can never do any of the things that he did.’ I don’t know if there is anywhere is Scripture that actually says that!…Or does it actually say the opposite but our cultural Christianity talks us out of it?”
“When you have been with Jesus, I mean when you have truly been with Jesus, there is a boldness and a confidence, and a transfer that takes place to give you the courage to stand in his name.”
- You don’t need a degree!
- You don’t need to come from a minister’s family or be a preacher’s kid!
- You don’t need to be from the right side of the tracks
- You don’t have to be a man, you can be a woman
- You don’t have to be Jewish, you can be a gentile
- You don’t have to be Western acculturated, they were Middle Eastern
- You don’t have to be grown and established, children came to him
- You don’t have to be sophisticated, Peter and John were blue collar fishermen
You just have to know JESUS!
You have to be with JESUS!
Acts 4:14-22 NIV84
But since they [the rulers of Jerusalem] could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say. 15 So they ordered them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin and then conferred together. 16 “What are we going to do with these men?” they asked. “Everybody living in Jerusalem knows they have done an outstanding miracle, and we cannot deny it. 17 But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn these men to speak no longer to anyone in this name.”18 Then they [ rulers of Jerusalem] called them [Peter & John] in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.
19 But Peter and John replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. 20 For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” 21 After further threats they let them go. They could not decide how to punish them, because all the people were praising God for what had happened. 22 For the man who was miraculously healed was over forty years old.
40 years is known as a generation in bible times!
PROPHETIC DECLARATIONS
Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you in the name of Jesus. So it is in the name of Jesus, that I declare the following:
- Some of you who have been crippled in the last generation will be healed and liberated in the next generation.
- Some of you who have lived confined, bound, and dependent for a generation like this cripple, but you are now coming out of that state of paralysis and are being miraculously healed. You will walk on your own!
- For those of you who have been injured in the culture from discrimination due to race or gender are being released from the pain. Your bodies, minds, and spirits are being healed from injuries that have come from injustices! You are healed!
- For those who have been injured and paralyzed by the pain that comes from another’s hand in your marriage, in your household, or on your job — you will get up and walk into your new destiny and you will soar on wings of eagles. You will run and not grow weary, you will walk and not be faint. You are renewed!
- I declare that you will be free from the crippling sins of past transgressions and that you will no longer be bound by a mindset of fear. The sins that easily beset you will not beset you easily any longer. You will dismantle their ability to hold you back from your entrance into your next spiritual dimension. Your sin will no longer have power over you, but you will have power over it in Jesus’ name!
PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS:
1. Bow now before the name of Jesus
Philippians 2:9-11 NIV
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the NAME that is above every NAME, 10 that at the NAME of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.1 John 5:12-13
He who has the son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 I write these things to you who believe in the NAME of the Son of God so that you might know that you have life.
“Friends, the name of Jesus is the only power and authority that can free you from whatever is crippling in your life.”
“…there is no other name that can take you from a dimension of sanctification to a dimension where you’re transported into actually stronger faith believing that the name of Jesus will indeed perform everything you’ve called it to do…Jesus’ name is not a genie’s potion in order to get magic done.”
“I’ve got to ask myself the question, do I have the confidence and the faith to walk in that name, to walk by faith and not by sight.”