No Other Name | Acts 4

INTRODUCTION

In a world filled with countless names, titles, and belief systems, there remains one name that stands apart—the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. In Acts 4, we witness a moment of bold proclamation and divine power, as the apostle Peter declares that it is only through Jesus that salvation is found. Standing before the highest Jewish authorities, Peter affirms a truth that shook the foundations of religious tradition and still echoes across the ages:

Acts 4:10-12

¹⁰then 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. ¹¹Jesus is

“‘the stone you builders rejected,

which has become the cornerstone.’

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

CONTEXT

Acts 1: Jesus promised the Holy Spirit and ascended to the Father.

Acts 2: Jesus poured out the Holy Spirit. Peter preaches and 3000 receive Christ.

Acts 3: Peter & John go to the temple. A man lame from birth was begging for money.  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.” He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God.

Acts 4: Persecution Begins. Acts 4 is about the Apostles bold witness in the face of opposition.

1. The Assertion. Acts 4:1–2

Acts 4:1

The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people.

The Assertion. The proclamation of the gospel. The Sanhedrin and the chief priest thought that the death of Jesus Christ would mark the end of His message, here it has only intensified. The disciples speak the gospel.

Acts 4:2

They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.

2: The Arrest; Acts 4:3

Acts 4:3

They seized Peter and John and, because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day

Here’s the irony: even though the authorities arrested them, the gospel was not stopped.

Acts 4:5

But many who heard the message believed; so the number of men who believed grew to about five thousand.

3 The Accusation and Bold Response (Acts 4:5–22)

Acts 4:5-7

⁵The next day the rulers, the elders and the teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. ⁶Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and others of the high priest’s family. ⁷They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: “By what power or what name did you do this?”

Then they begin to describe Jesus.

Acts 4:10-11

¹⁰It 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.

¹¹Jesus is

“‘the stone you builders rejected,

which has become the cornerstone.’

¹²Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”(We will come back to this in a little while.)

Acts 4:13

When they 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.

The Lord, through the power of the Spirit, can use uneducated, common people to do His work. God can use the educated as well as the uneducated, common people to do His work.

Acts 4:18-22

¹⁸Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. ¹⁹But Peter and John replied, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! ²⁰As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

²¹After 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. ²²For the man who was miraculously healed was over forty years old.

They were not shaken. They were bold, because they knew God would be with them.

The Assertion, the arrest, the accusations.

4. The Church’s Prayer; Acts 4:23–30

Acts 4:23

²³On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people (They have some people who could be called their own. Who are they,? Other believers. That’s their immediate response”) and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them.

The Prayer of the Church (vv. 24b–30)

Acts 4:24

²⁴When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. ²⁵You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:

“‘Why do the nations rage

and the peoples plot in vain?

²⁶The kings of the earth rise up

and the rulers band together

against the Lord

and against his anointed one.

They quote Psalm 2, basically pointing to both the Gentiles and the Jews being frustrated by the power and boldness of Jesus Christ and what God has called us to do.

Acts 4:27-29

²⁷Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. ²⁸They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. ²⁹Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. ³⁰Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

You stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus. Miracles are performed through us.

5. God’s Response; Acts 4:31

Acts 4:31

After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

What happened when Jesus Christ was crucified? The whole earth shook. I think He is telling them, “The same God of heaven that shook the earth then is shaking the earth now. I am with you. You can go forward in boldness and continue to speak My word.”

Transition: Now come to the main passage in this section:

Acts 4:7

⁷They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: “By what power or what name did you do this?”

Acts 4:10-12

¹⁰then 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. ¹¹Jesus is

“‘the stone you builders rejected,

which has become the cornerstone.’

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

NAME OF JESUS CHRIST OF NAZARETH

When the Jewish authorities say by what power or name do you do this? They want to know by what deity, what divine being, what spiritual authority are you doing these things under?

When Peter answers him – by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. V12

Name here is a way of presenting God incarnate, Jesus Christ.

Name theology in the OT:

In some passages in the OT instead of referring to God as YAHWEH or Elohim (God), God will be referred to as HaShem (the name). This is a way around speaking directly the actual name of God and using God’s name as a substitute, The Name.

In some passages of the OT, God is personified as a man.

Isaiah 30:27

See, the Name of the Lord comes from afar,

with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke;

his lips are full of wrath,

and his tongue is a consuming fire.

The name of the Lord is like a person or entity.

Exodus 23:20-21

²⁰“See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. ²¹Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him.

The name is the very essence of God. This angel, this human figure which was YAHWEH, God embodied.

Name Theology in the Gospels:

When Jesus prayers in the Garden of Gethsemane, the High Priestly prayer:

John 17:6

^NIV “I have revealed you (your name) to those whom you gave me out of the world.

^KJVI have manifested thy name unto the men….

Jesus said, :I am the embodiment of You (Father).”

Peter links the Name to the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus; 10b.

Therefore, Peter is saying that God has come in human as this man, Jesus.

JESUS WAS REJECTED BY BOTH THE JEWS AND GENTILES:

Acts 4:11

Jesus is

“‘the stone you builders rejected,

which has become the cornerstone.’

Cornerstone – Peter quotes Ps. 118:22 (117:22 in the Greek OT, it says the stone that the builders rejected has become the head of the corner). The cornerstone is not like the cornerstone we keep now as the one we pray and keep. But cornerstone in their understanding is the weightbearing stone. This cornerstone was rejected. Rejected in Psalm 118 rejected or treat with contempt. That is what they did to Jesus.

Isaiah 53:3

He was despised and rejected by mankind,

a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.

Like one from whom people hide their faces

he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

Peter is saying that scripture/prophets foresaw, foretold what had come to pass. That the Messiah was rejected.

“‘the stone you builders rejected,

which has become the cornerstone.’

Both the Jews and the Gentiles rejected Jesus.

Acts 4:25 (quotation from Ps. 2:1-2)

²⁵You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:

“‘Why do the nations (Gentiles) rage

and the peoples (Israel) plot in vain?

²⁶The kings of the earth (Gentiles) rise up

and the rulers (rulers of Israel) band together

against the Lord

and against his anointed one.

Acts 4:27-29

²⁷Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. ²⁸They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.

Peter mentions this in his epistle as well:

1 Peter 2:7-8

⁷Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,

“The stone the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone,”

⁸and,

“A stone that causes people to stumble

and a rock that makes them fall.”

They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.

For believers Jesus is the chosen precious stone laid by God himself in whom they can safely put their trust, unbelievers are like the builders who rejected the stone for their purpose only to find that someone else have stepped in and given the stone the honoured position. Consequently, the stone has become the stumbling block for the ones who rejected.

So Peter believes and preaches in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Who is the embodiment of God. Who was rejected by both the Jews and Gentiles but God raised him up on the third day and he is still alive.

SALVATION IS FOUND IN THE NAME OF JESUS ALONE

Now Peter says an absolute truth:

Acts 4:12

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

Salvation is found only in Jesus.

How can you be sure that Salvation is only found in Jesus?

How can Peter dismiss in one sentence all the speculation of the philosophers, the amazing insights, inspiriting thoughts of many thinkers and civilizations who spoke about God?

Peter had grown up as a faithful follower of Judaism. The age in which Peter was preaching was characteristic of religious pluralism time. The world still moves with the mindset of religious pluralism that all religions are equally valid to the ultimate reality or God. This worldview was also characteristic of the time and age in which Peter was preaching. It was called by scholars as an age of anxiety. It all began like our own age of relativism and radical scepticism (View that it’s impossible to know anything with certainty, as every belief is subject to doubt and absolute justification is unattainable.)

Pluralism began with an information and connection highway, around 4 lakh km, straight as an arrow as far the eye could see that crisscrossed the entire Roman Empire. It connected Europe, East, India, and Africa. Both land and sea routes developed under the Roman government. Free from terrorism, bandits, pirates and free travel and trade was increased. It was called the peace of Rome. Pax Romana.

But one of the consequences of this unified empire was that the massive intermixing of people who until then had lived in isolation from each other. With that came the free exchange of ideas including the sudden awareness that this people had one religion and that another, all of them making clearly contradicting claims of truth. All regions came be regarded as equally true. So truth became relative.

Pilate asked Jesus:

John 18: 37-38

³⁷“You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. (Here Jesus asserting his pre-existence.) Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” ³⁸“What is truth?” retorted Pilate.

Jesus is making a global claim. He is the truth.

1. Salvation is something God initiated, not created by Peter.

Jesus saying to his disciples including peter.”

John 15:16 You did not choose me,` but I chose you and appointed you…..

This is something God did, not peter accomplished.

When Peter was still fishing, in Mathew 4:

Matthew 4:18-19

18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” 20 At once they left their nets and followed him.

This is what Isaiah said: Isaiah 65:1

“I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me;

I was found by those who did not seek me.

To a nation that did not call on my name,

I said, ‘Here am I, here am I.’

Later when Peter was asked:

Matthew 16:15-17

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” 17Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.

2. Peter is a Loyal Messenger of Jesus’ teaching.

What peter is doing is being loyal to what Jesus has taught with unmistakable clarity and infallible authority.

Jesus was the one who first said:

John 14:6

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Peter in all humility is yielding to the teaching of Jesus, His authority and claim that He is the only way.

3. This Message is Irrepressible.

Acts 4:20

As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.

This is is true, we cannot just keep it to ourselves. We are like that paralytic, 40 years crippled since birth, that is the whole point in our text. The apostle Peter speaks to him.

“Christianity is one beggar telling another where to find bread.” – Sri Lankan, Pastor D. T. Niles,

It will be pride to not share this message with others who have not heard it. That is what striving Peter. It is like the lepers in Samaria back in the days of Elisha the prophet, 2 Kings 7. The king of Aram had put the city under siege. Samaria had been reduced to such far level of starvation that they have been reduced to cannibalism. The lepers go out to the camp of the Armenians. The night before God had miraculously defeated the enemy, they ran and left all their provision, there just for their taking. The man with leprosy reached the edge of the camp and when they entered one of the tents there was all the food.

2 Kings 7:9

Then they said to each other, “What we’re doing is not right. This is a day of good news (gospeling) and we are keeping it to ourselves. If we wait until daylight, punishment will overtake us. Let’s go at once and report this to the royal palace.”

Salvation is only found in Jesus Christ. This is unique of Christian faith. Salvation is found only in Jesus. God is one in three persons, revealed to us in Jesus and present with us by the Holy Spirit. The essence of the Trinitarian aspect of God is love. Saint Augustine says “God is love and it is for this reason God exists as a Trinity.” The Father and the Son in their interrelationship are defined by love. And it is this love that the Father sent His Son into the world to die for the world and through it bring salvation to people. It is this love that his sent the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit for those who believe in Jesus.

Even as he loves us by indwelling us and it is through the Holy Spirit that indwelling love is expressed and manifested. The Spirit who is in fact the one whose first fruit is love, who produces love, the gift of himself and indwelling presence himself giving love. This is how God loves us.

The essence of the triune God is love. The work of Jesus is the expression of the love of God, but we also find the salvation that is the outward manifestation of love. We have the Holy Spirit as the continuing aspect of God’s love for us to make us like His Son Jesus christ.

Acts 4:12

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

There are no claims of salvation, other than the Lord Jesus.

The Bible tells of a God who comes into our world; the word made flesh dwelling among us, God taking upon himself our human condition and living a life of perfect obedience to secure out righteousness so that we might be clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

No more is God looking at your past record of failure, but instead he looks at Christ’s perfect record of righteousness and Jesus in turn as he gives us his righteousness, takes on himself our sin so that he pays with his death on the cross, the ultimate penalty for our sin. This is why it is so important that he be God so that through his one death there is merit to cover the sin of the world so that every sinner, no matter who you are, no matter how degraded and needy your condition, your sin is paid for in full as well.

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

May God give us that holy boldness and love for brothers and sisters, neighbours and friends that we might not keep the Goodnews to ourselves, that we might love them enough to share it with them.

TAKEAWAYS

1. Preach Christ

We see this with the saints, we see this with Peter and John. They don’t cower back. They go for it with boldness, and they preach Christ in persecution. Preach. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

2. Be Bold if Persecution Comes (Persevere).

If persecution comes continue to preach Christ, don’t preach Christ in some quiet way. Be bold. He is the God of heaven.

Rejoice with friends when God saves you through persecution.

3. Pray & Praise Through Trials.

We see this the saints are simply praying. They’re praying in persecution.

4. Expect God to Show up in Persecution.

Let’s proclaim:

Acts 4:10-12

¹⁰then 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. ¹¹Jesus is

“‘the stone you builders rejected,

which has become the cornerstone.’

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

Let’s Pray: Acts 4

²⁴“Sovereign Lord, you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. ²⁹ Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. ³⁰Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”