All About the Name

Acts 4:23-24 & 29-31

When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said . . . “And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

N. T. Wright, Acts for Everyone (Part One)

[W]hen you come to speak or write about Jesus, about his cross, about his resurrection, about the new life which can break chains and set people free, there seem to be powers around the place which do their best to oppose what you are doing (71).

[T]he main triple thrust of the prayer is quite straightforward. Not “Lord, please cause them to die horribly” or “Please stop them being so unpleasant.” Not “Lord, let this persecution stop,” or even “Please convert the authorities so that your work can go forward.” Rather, quite simply, “Now, Lord, look on their threats; let us go on speaking boldly; and will you please continue to work powerfully.”

The church needs, again and again, that sense of God’s powerful presence, shaking us up, blowing away the cobwebs, filling us with the spirit, and giving us that same boldness (72-3).

Aaron Orendorff

The story in Acts 3-4, which begins with Peter healing a lame beggar just outside the Temple gates and ends with the church asking God to “look upon” (that is, to regard or to consider) the threats of their adversaries, is a story all about the “name” of Jesus. In 3:6, Peter tells the beggar, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” In 3:16, he tells the astounded crowd, “And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.” In 4:10, again Peter (in very similar words) tells the “rules and elders and scribes,” “Let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well.” In response to this claim, the council then commands Peter and John “not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus” (4:17-18). Lastly, in the verses now before us, the church concludes its prayer, “. . . while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

Why all this concern for the “name”?

Because the gospel isn’t really about healing for healing’s sake, it isn’t about wonders for wonders’ sake, signs for signs’ sake, boldness for boldness’ sake, nor even salvation for salvation’s sake. The gospel is ultimately about the name—that is, the person, work and reputation—of Jesus rebounding to the glory of God. It is staggering that the very people who were taught by Jesus to pray to God, “Hollowed be thy name,” have now devoted themselves to hollowing the name of Jesus.