Today we continue on our three part sermon series on Acts 3:11-26.

Faith In Him And Through Him

Let us turn back to Peter’s words in Acts 3:16:

16By 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.

Peter said that it was by faith in the ‘name of Jesus’ that the beggar was healed. Let’s take a minute to unpack this as there is a lot of misgiving about the role of faith in the Christian walk.

First off, what did Peter mean by the phrase, “faith in the name of Jesus”? Is there something magical about the letters J-E-S-U-S? NO!  It was not about five letters in the English language – besides the book of Acts was written in Greek not English! It was about the person of Jesus – the living God.

Here’s another way of looking at this.

When I was in college I worked as a security officer patrolling the campus, giving out tickets, unlocking doors, etc. One evening I was locking up a computer lab when a student refused to leave. He said he was working on a project and had permission to be in the lab – however, his name was not on my list and he did not have written proof. I explained this to him – but he still refused to leave.

Things were quickly getting heated…I remember standing there thinking about how in the world was I going to force him to leave if things got physical….then he ask, ‘by whose authority are you kicking me out?”

“By the name of Frank, the Director of Security. You are not allowed in his room.”

I had a choice: I could let him stay or I could believe the word of my boss that the list I had was correct and that he wasn’t supposed to be in there. In other words, I had to have faith in my boss. I had to believe that Frank had given me the authority to decide who stayed and who did not.

This is what Peter was saying. He was saying that it was through the name or the authority of Jesus that he told the beggar to stand up.

18Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28)

All authority in heaven and on earth. That pretty much covers it. There is nothing left – Jesus holds the keys to hades and death (Rev 1:18) and He has given them to us

19 And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16:19)

18 “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. (Matthew 18: 18)

Jesus has all authority and He has given it to us. We just need to walk in it. We need to believe that God wants to heal us. We must believe that God wants to change lives. We must believe that God is active today.

Let me tell you something, Jesus came to destroy the works of the evil one (1 John 3:8). Period. He did not come so that His children – His brother and sisters, His followers – would stay bound up in chains of darkness.

He came to DESTORY the works of the evil one. That means that He came to destroy sickness, disease, cancer, greed, hate, unrighteousness, pride, human suffering, sin and death.

4 Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:4-6)

We must stop tip toeing around thinking that He is not in control. The strong man has been bound (Mt 12, Mk 3, Lk 11). Satan has been defeated – is being defeated and will be defeated.

Yes. I’m not dumb. I know that there are times when folks don’t get healed – when bad things happen to good people. Guess what? We are in a war. We are fighting a battle every minute of every day. If we are going to make it, we need to have faith in the name of Jesus. We need to believe that He is who He says He is. That He will do what He says He will do.

If He says that we – as His followers – will heal the sick, cast out demons, cleanse the leaper, raise the dead – then let us start acting like it. Let us start living like it.

Which brings us to our last point: Being willing be be used by God.

Continued tomorrow….