I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.
– Acts 3:6
I love this story. This is so good. This beggar who is lame from birth, being carried every day to the temple at the hour of prayer. And I just picture all these people walking by him. From birth, he’s been unable to walk and every day, he’s just asking for help. Acts 3:2 says, “From people entering the temple.” And Peter and John go into the temple and they see him. Acts 3:4 is awesome. It says that Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, Look at us.”
Acts 3:6 Exemplifies the Power of the Name of Jesus
They were not content to turn a blind eye to this man in need. These men gazed intently at him. They opened their eyes and saw him, and they fixed their attention on him. And he on them. And this guy’s thinking that Peter and John are about to give him some resources, alms money. But Peter says, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have, I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.”
Can you imagine that? What boldness. Imagine going up to someone who’s been lame from birth and to say, “I want to invite you to get up and start walking.” How do you say that? What kind of faith leads you to say that? It’s faith in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. And I wish we had time. We could start tracing all throughout the rest of the Book of Acts and then looking back in the Gospels at what happens in the name of Jesus.
Just to summarize, demons flee in the name of Jesus, disease fleas in the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus, dead people come back to life. There is power in the name of Jesus. And I just want to ask you, even as I asked myself this question today, based on this text, do you believe that? Do you believe there is power in the name of Jesus to save people around you today from their sins, to transform their eternity?
Acts 3:6 Encourages to Place Our Hope in the Power if Jesus’ Name
Don’t go into this day lacking power in the name of Jesus, to bring salvation, to bring healing, to bring hope, to bring joy, to overcome sin and suffering and death. And obviously we know from the rest of the New Testament that just because we pronounce the name of Jesus doesn’t mean that people are healed of their diseases all the time or delivered from death all the time. Or well, we could list a whole number of things that we would love to see in the name of Jesus, but we can trust. It’s not because there is a lack of power in his name.
We can trust that there is wisdom in God’s providence and the way he works and the way he provides. And sometimes in a Second Corinthians kind of way, he provides healing. Sometimes he provides strength in our weakness. Or sometimes he doesn’t take away the thorn from the flesh. Sometimes a person doesn’t get up and walk, but the name of Jesus has power, one, to sustain, to strengthen, to save people from their sins. And two, ultimately to give victory over the inability to walk, ultimately to give victory over this or that disease, ultimately to give victory over death. For all who trust in Jesus, there is hope in the name of Jesus.
Oh God, we praise you for this passage. There’s so many different ways we could pray. Certainly God, in each of our lives, help us to live today with power in your name, with power, in your name, to heal, to save, to restore, to redeem, to do the impossible. And God, we pray that you’d help us to live with trust in your power and your wisdom and your love in all these things.
Praying for those with Physical Needs
God, we pray specifically for people who are unable to walk maybe from birth or maybe as a result of other circumstances in their life. We pray for people who are unable to see or hear, and we pray for people who have a variety of special needs. God, we praise you for your love for each one of us, including each one of them. We praise you for just how this man in Acts 3 was made wonderfully in your image, for how all people are made wonderfully in your image.
And we praise you that there’s coming a day when special needs will be no more, that there is hope and joy and power in the name of Jesus. One, to sustain and to save, and to restore and redeem now and ultimately power in the name of Jesus, to cause the lame to walk, and not just walk, but to leap, and the mute to shout for joy and the blind to see. And all those who have special needs in this world through faith in you, Jesus, the one who has overcome this world, we look forward to the day when in the name of Jesus, we enjoy all of eternity and resurrected, complete, redeemed whole bodies. All because of the power of your name. Jesus, we pray all of this in your name according to Acts 3:6. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
