What does Acts 4:12 teach us in The One Name That Saves?

In this expository sermon on Acts 4:12, Dr. Toby Holt of New Geneva Theological Seminary teaches that salvation is found in no one but Jesus Christ, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Preaching from Peter's defense before the Jewish Sanhedrin, he expounds the exclusivity of Christ: Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified and risen Messiah and rejected chief cornerstone, is the singular means of salvation, a claim the world rejected then and rejects now. The sermon presses hearers to trust in the one name by which they must be saved.

Questions this sermon answers:

1. What is the main issue in this passage? In this expository sermon on Acts 4:12, Dr.

2. How does this text point us to Christ? It shows the need for God's grace and the hope fulfilled in the gospel.

3. How should Christians respond? With faith, repentance, and renewed trust in the Lord's Word.

"Rulers of the people and elders of Israel: If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you all, 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 stands here before you whole." - Acts 4:8-10 (NKJV)

Dr. Toby Holt is President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio. Find more verse-by-verse Bible teaching at newgeneva.org; support this ministry at newgeneva.org/give.

In Acts 4, Peter and the disciples went to the temple to preach the gospel, and as a

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result, over 5,000 individuals were saved.

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However, not everyone was happy about this outcome.

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In today's text, Peter will have to defend his teaching in front of the Jewish Sanhedrin,

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and at that time, he'll tell his critics that Jesus Christ is the only name under heaven

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by which we must be saved.

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Let me reiterate the historical context of today's text as we begin.

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The book of Acts, which chronicles the Acts of the Apostles, starts with Christ's ascension.

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Christ has been raised from the dead. He has been witnessed by many.

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In Acts chapter 1, he ascends up into the heavens where he sits at the right hand of God the Father.

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In Acts chapter 2, you have Pentecost. You have the Holy Spirit coming down.

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Remember, Jesus said that I must go, but I'm going to send my helper.

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That after I go, he'll be with you.

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Well, in Pentecost, that's what we see.

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The Holy Spirit was poured out upon the early church.

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They began to speak in local tongues that allowed them to disperse the gospel out into the world of that time.

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Now, in Acts chapter 3, we see that the disciples, the apostles,

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the very guys who were so afraid that they were cowering in the upper room not that long before,

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they're now empowered.

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They're now bold.

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They're now courageous.

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And they're going into places and teaching and preaching faithfully aloud.

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If you remember, Peter denied Jesus three times.

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Well, he's not going to deny him here.

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after the resurrection, after the ascension, the guys realized that everything that Jesus said was

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true, that he is who he said he was, and he sits at the right hand of God the Father, and we're

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going to go out in this fallen, darkened world, and we're going to tell people. We're going to tell

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people about the singular means, the only means by which we must be saved, which is what Peter's

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going to articulate in today's text. So in Acts chapter 3, they're going, they go to the time of

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prayer, they go to the temple, as was the custom, and they ended up at a place called Solomon's

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portico. And it was there they healed a lame man. And after healing the lame man, they began to

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preach and talk and explain the nature of their faith. But as they did so, the leaders heard about

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it. And the leaders had a vested interest in preventing them from speaking. They had a vested

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interest in keeping these men from proclaiming a risen Christ. Why? Well, because they were the

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very men who killed them. The very individuals, including Annas and Caiaphas and others, the very

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individuals who had blood on their hands, so to speak, they've heard the tales of this resurrection,

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and now they've got people telling them that the guy that they killed, the guy they crucified,

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that he's not only raised, he's not only resurrected, but this is God in the flesh. He sits

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at the right hand of the Father, and it's by his name above all other names on planet earth that

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our salvation is predicated. They saw this as a threat, and so they respond accordingly in today's

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text. So that's the context for what we're seeing, for a showdown, so to speak, between faithful

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apostles who are no longer scared and hiding and cowering in the upper room, but are now

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out boldly preaching the gospel. It's the context for the opposition that they're going to face,

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opposition that we're going to see once again as I reread verses 1 through 4. So let me reread

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verses 1 through 4. Let's see what happens there, and we'll work our way through the balance. Verse

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one. Now, as they spoke to the people, this is in Solomon's portico. This is on temple ground,

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so to speak. As they spoke to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the

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Sadducees, which were a very political sect, came upon them being greatly disturbed. I think ESV

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says greatly annoyed, but greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the

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resurrection from the dead. The Sadducees really hated that because they didn't believe in the

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supernatural stuff. They were disturbing that the apostles preached Jesus and the resurrection from

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the dead. Verse 3, and so they laid hands on them and they put them in custody until the next day

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for it was already evening. However, many of those who heard the word believed and the number of the

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men came to be about 5,000. Have you ever heard of the phrase or the term the status quo? The status

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quo. What does that mean? Without doing etymology lesson, the status quo just means the way things

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are. If you like the status quo, that's a way of saying, I like things the way they are. If you

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like the status quo, that's a way of saying, the circumstances around my life, around the world at

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large, I'm fine with. It may not be great. It may not be perfect. But by and large, I'm cool with

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it. I prefer this status quo over and against other change. Now, who likes the status quo the

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most? Well, it's usually those who have the greatest benefit of power and prestige at any

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given time. Those in the greatest power and prestige, those sitting in the seats of authority,

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tend to be the ones who like the status quo more than anyone else. Well, this is especially true

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of the leadership in Jerusalem at this time. See, this was a very tenuous age for a lot of reasons.

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And one of the principal reasons, though, was this, that if you were in Jewish leadership at

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this time. If you were just a Jew in Jerusalem at this time, Jerusalem was not really yours,

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but it was underfoot of who? Who was ruling at that time? Rome. Right. So let's say you're in

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political leadership there in the area. You not only have to worry about what your own people

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are doing, and you hear the zealots are doing this, and you're trying to keep down this rebellion

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and this insurrection, and it's like Tetris trying to catch all the bricks, but it's also Rome.

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And if you mess up anything specifically, let alone if you let a rebellion just start on or

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some big thing to go on. It could affect your political prestige because you can be taken out.

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Rome can affect such a change that you're no longer in the position that you were in.

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With that said, the Jewish leadership at this point, they really preferred the status quo for

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a whole lot of reasons. Peter and the apostles, when they came into Solomon's portico and the

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leaders heard what they were saying, they recognized that it was a threat to the status

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quo. It was a threat to the way things are. It was a threat to them personally. And so they made

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haste. It's like they heard rumors, you know, they're sitting there drinking their Sadducee tea

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or whatever they do. They're sitting around the Sadducee campfire, and all of a sudden they hear,

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hey guys, you know those disciples, the apostles, the guys who were with Jesus? You know those guys?

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Well, they're in, believe it or not, they're in Solomon's portico of all the places. You know what

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they're doing? They're still preaching about this Jesus guy. Well, right there, if you were one of

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the people who consented to Christ's death, if you're a guy like Annas and Caiaphas, one of the

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people who literally had blood on your hands, if you're one of these people, you're like, what?

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Well, we're going to deal with this.

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And they roll up their priestly robes, and they just high-tail out on over there.

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They get there, and they find that, sure enough, look what these guys are doing.

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And so they lay hands on them, but it's already night.

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They've been talking for some period of time.

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It's already night, and so they put them in jail.

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And then they bring them back thereafter to stand before them.

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And we'll get to that in verses 5 through 8.

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With that said, one of the cruel ironies of this text is that some of the people

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that were most aggressive against Christ and the apostles and the early church,

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some of the people who were most aggressive and vindictive and angry and bitter and the like

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against early church were the priests. The very office that you would think, you would think,

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the priests who had been the one office in Israel at that time that would have been most attuned

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to what scripture said and who Jesus would be and what he would do. You would think that the

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priests would have been the ones who, you know, they've been slaughtering animals for years,

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that they would look forward to the lamb, the perfect lamb of God coming down, that they look

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forward as Isaiah 53 says to this one, this Messiah who would come and save and rescue them

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and do all these different things, you would think that the priests of all people, men learned in the

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book that they would have been on team Jesus. Instead, not only were they not on team Jesus,

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but they were at the head of the pack of people looking not only for his death, but for the death

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of all his disciples. This is cool. It shows how topsy-turvy everything was in that age. And a

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little bit, Peter's going to accuse him. He's going to say, you goofs, you goofballs, look what you've

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done. You were supposed to look forward to this great construction, this great construction that

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would come, this beautiful spiritual construction that would come. Well, the chief cornerstone did,

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and who rejected him? You, the builders, the ones who should have known better. So with that said,

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in verses one through four, we see that they made haste, they went and dealt with this issue.

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However, it was already too late to an extent because 5,000 individuals, 5,000 men here,

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which suggests that there was far more if you include women and children, but at least 5,000

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men came to faith through the simple proclamation of fishermen. Remember this, that there's nothing

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to say that you have to have a great theological pedigrees in order to share the gospel of Jesus

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Christ effectively. In fact, some of the most effective presentations of the gospel have been

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done through people outside of a pulpit context. Fishermen went into Solomon's portico. God used

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it. God used it. Filled them with the Holy Spirit. They preached and taught faithfully. 5,000 were

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saved. This tells us the gospel really is the power of God and the salvation. We can think it's

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gadgets and tools and programs and all the things that we try to do. Man alive, we can clutter up

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the church with all sorts of different initiatives, but the gospel is the basis. The gospel is the

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rock. The gospel is the foundation. All they did was preach and teach. Fishermen preached and taught

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in a context that you would have thought would have been hostile to them, but the people were

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listening. God used, His Holy Spirit used these individuals to stir something in the hearts, and

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then he changed the hearts of those who responded and they responded in faith as we see in verses

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one through four all right let's look at verses five through seven and it came to pass on the

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next day that their rulers elders and scribes that's a lot of them as well as annas the high

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priest and caiaphas john and alexander you'll note alexander is not a jewish name it actually

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is a greek name and as many as were of the high priestly family they were gathered together

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Jerusalem. And when they had set them in their midst, they asked, by what power or name are you

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doing this? By what power, by what name have you done this? Have you ever heard of a kangaroo court?

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Sadly, I looked it up. It has nothing to do with kangaroos. I hope there'd be some origin story

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of kangaroos. There's not. But a kangaroo court is, in effect, a court that doesn't act legitimately.

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It may be a court in terms of the personnel occupying the offices and the positions and the judge and the like.

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It may be a court in terms of how it looks like on the outside, but it's a biased court.

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It's a biased court that is rigged through outcomes that are not necessarily fair, not necessarily right.

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Well, here in verses 5 through 7, we have a kangaroo court.

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Now, they went by another name. It was called the Sanhedrin.

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This is the equivalent of having all the powers that be.

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If you could take our White House and our Supreme Courts and our chiefs of staff and all those people and assemble them together such as it is, you could do such a thing.

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And then gather fishermen before them.

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If you ever had a situation where you wanted to squeeze somebody through your power and your authority and their inadequacy, it's to take fishermen and the like, tradesmen and the like, and have them stand before the Sanhedrin.

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You would think that they'd be too just scared to talk, right?

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Well, not so much as we're going to see in this text.

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With that said, the focus of their questioning

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boiled down to one thing, authority.

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You notice that?

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They could have asked a lot of stuff.

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They could have asked, all right, guys, tell me the truth.

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Did Jesus really, I mean, we know he died.

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Did he really raise?

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You saw him? You saw him?

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What did he say?

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I mean, think of all the things you'd ask if you were there.

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Wouldn't you want to know more about their experiences with Jesus?

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No, no, no, no.

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They were focused on one thing and one thing only,

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and that is authority.

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They were standing there as the ruling authority, as the authority,

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and in their minds as the God-given authority, right?

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The God-given authority.

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We are Israel.

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We are the authority.

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So you tell me, you tell me by what authority, if we are the authority,

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by what authority did you do this?

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By what authority did you go into our temple and Solomon's portico of all the places,

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you heretics, and preach and teach this?

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Tell me.

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By whose name?

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Whose authority?

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Who told you to do this?

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By what authority are you appealing to as a reason for why you have done what you have done?

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Well, they're about to get an answer.

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If they want to know what authority has entrusted the apostles to speak as they spoke,

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they're going to find out, and Peter's not going to hold anything back.

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Let's look at verses 8 through 13.

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This is the balance of our text, and I'll kind of pick it,

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and we'll work our way through with the remaining of our time.

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Verses 8 through 13.

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Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit,

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then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them,

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Rulers of the people, elders of Israel,

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if this day we are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man

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by what means he has been made well,

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let it be known to all, to all the people of Israel,

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that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified,

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whom God raised from the dead, by him this man stands before you whole.

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You see, it's not simply that they had preached and taught there in Solomon's portico,

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but they also had healed a lame man who would end up being a great testament that they were of God

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because no one could explain how this guy was healed.

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So he answers and he says, rulers, elders, people of Israel, you leaders, powers that be,

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titans of industry, you want the response by what name or by what authority we have done this?

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If we're going to be judged, at least in part, for a good deed done to a helpless man,

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If you think that's a crime that's worth us coming before you and doing all this,

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if we're to be judged for a good deed for a helpless man,

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by what means he's been made well,

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then let it be known to you all and to all the people of Israel,

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which is fascinating.

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He's talking to people in front of him,

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but he's really talking to the whole nation at this point.

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And this is the Holy Spirit talking to the whole nation

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because we already heard that he has been filled by the Spirit.

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Let it be known that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,

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whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead,

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by him this man stands before you.

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whole. Let's stop there for a moment. They asked for a name. Give us a name. What authority has

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compelled you and treated you, allowed you to do what you're doing? Give us a name. Peter says,

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all right, I got your name. Now listen to the name he gave. Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Now stop

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for a minute. We hear that through English ears 2,000 some odd years later. And we grew up to

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believe that Jesus was his first name and Christ was his last name, right? But we hear Jesus Christ

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together, and we don't make the distinction. But they would have. They absolutely would have. You

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go in and you say, by Jesus Christ of Nazareth, that that's the name. That taught them a whole

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lot right there. Number one, what did Christ mean in that context? It meant Savior, Anointed One,

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Messiah. They were saying, when they said Jesus Christ, they were saying Jesus, the Anointed One,

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the Messiah, the one we've been waiting for for generations, the great seed that was promised

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to Adam by his name, by Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one. By his name,

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we have done this. By his name. So they're appealing to a source that transcended these guys.

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They're appealing to a source that transcended everything on the globe. By his name, we've been

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commissioned and sent by jesus the christ jesus the divine one jesus god incarnate by his name

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we have done this and then they threw in something extra as if that wasn't enough which it would

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have been believe me in that context you invoke the messiah the gasps would have come out but

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then they threw in something else say jesus christ of nazareth now sometimes you talk about one

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another with regards to where we're from you know if you know two bob smiths and one bob smiths from

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Philly and one's from Atlanta, so maybe you have to make the distinction. Bob Smith from Atlanta,

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right? That's not what he's doing. He's not just making a distinction so that they want to

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understand the locale where this guy came from, but rather two things. It was a fulfillment of

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Old Testament allusions and prophecy, number one. And number two, Nazareth was one of the most hated

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places, not only then, but now for the Israelite people. It's the Arab capital of North Israel

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right now. With that said, Nazareth was a place so bad, so terrible, so awful that you remember

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what happened when Nathaniel hears that Jesus is coming and it's Jesus of Nazareth. What does he

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say? He says, does anything good, can anything good even come from Nazareth? This was considered

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a dump. However, God had regularly told the people to watch out. I'm going to raise up one

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from a place you don't expect to be born in a situation you would never desire. You'll do

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things that you wouldn't anticipate. So he identifies them by Jesus, the Messiah from

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Nazareth, from this place, and then he doesn't just stop there, but then he says, whom you crucified.

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We've done all this in the name of Jesus, the Messiah from Nazareth, the guy that you killed,

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the guy you hung on a tree, that you hung on a cross, whom you crucified. In other words,

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it's a way of saying, you know, his blood is on your hand. We're doing it in the name of he who

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you killed. And then he doesn't stop there, but he says, and the same one whom God raised from the

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dead. So you killed him, but he didn't stay dead. You consigned him to the grave, and he didn't stay

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there, but God raised him from the dead. And it's by him that this man stands before you whole.

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It's by his power, by his namesake. You're coming at us, know this, you're coming at him, just as

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you did before, and to expand on their, I guess, their animosity towards Jesus, what does he say

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next? He says this in verse 11. He says, this is the stone. This is another allusion to Old Testament

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shadows and types. This is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, the priesthood,

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and the like, which has become the chief cornerstone. Now, you would think that he would

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have taken a deep breath. He's just accused them of murder. He's done all sorts of stuff just in

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the words so far. The amount of things he said that would have caused them to just lose it is

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virtually every syllable he's spoken, but he doesn't stop there. This is what he adds. He says,

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nor, nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among

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men by which we must be saved. Now, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, it says in

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verse 13, had perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men. Remember, they knew that these

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guys were just yokels, so to speak. They marveled, not only at what they had said, but the way he

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said it. Remember, it's filled the Holy Spirit. They'd asked by what name, by what authority. The

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Holy Spirit spoke through them. The Holy Spirit spoke through the men, and at some level, hearing

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the words of God spoken to you by these men standing before you caused them to marvel and

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they wonder, who are these guys? Who are these guys? And then they realized that they had been

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with Jesus. All right, so verses 5 through 7, the Sanhedrin wanted to know what authority had

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compelled Peter's speech. In verse 8, the source of that authority is made clear. Peter was filled

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with the Holy Spirit. That's the source of authority. Then he'd go on to identify that

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they're also speaking in the name of Jesus Christ, whom these men had killed. So Peter identifies the

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name. He says, we're doing what we're doing as miracles on behalf of our Lord and Savior Jesus

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Christ. Then he reminded the Sanhedrin that this was the same Jesus that they killed, that they

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crucified, but he hadn't stayed dead. Thirdly, he quotes Psalm 118. He calls Jesus the cornerstone

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that had been rejected by these Jewish builders before him. And finally, he says, there's no other

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name given among heaven by which we must be saved. Whatever response, you imagine that like the

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Sanhedrin had maybe talked beforehand, but what were they going to say? You know, they called the

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guys in, but they're like, all right, guys, how's this going to go? And one of them said, I know,

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we're going to talk about the name, the authority, and the like. Whatever their game plan was,

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whatever the Sanhedrin's thoughts were on how this would unfold, it did not include at all

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the things that Peter had said. Peter had told the Sanhedrin that they were complicit in the

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greatest crime of all time. Peter told the Sanhedrin that they were complicit in the most

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cataclysmic sinful atrocity that's ever been done the murder of god incarnate that the long-awaited

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messiah had finally come the cornerstone for this great spiritual construction that god was building

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he showed up and when he showed up they didn't recognize him even though they were supposedly

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men of the book being priests and the such they didn't recognize him and so they killed him and

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peter says this is the most awful mistake you could have conceivably made the most awful sin

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you could have conceivably done is what you have done. And ironically, the very guy that they killed

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was now, Peter says, the singular means by which they could ever hope to be saved.

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The very one that they killed was the only door by which they might proceed into heaven.

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Now, remember, they grew up with a works-based theology. I don't know how they got that from

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the Old Testament, but they did. They grew up with a works-based theology that said that you

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simply have to be better than the Shmoes, the rest of the people in Israel. You've got to be

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better than the lepers and the tax collectors and all those cheats and liars, and that somehow

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you're holy by virtue of wearing your tall pointy hat and doing holy looking things. And that was

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the means by which you were going to be accepted into God's great kingdom, that you were going to

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earn your place. In fact, they thought they'd already earned it. They thought they already

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had it locked down, so to speak. And what Peter says is no, no. There's no other name, no other

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virtue, no other list of works, no checklist, no box you can fill in, nothing you can do or have

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done that is a substitute for the one name by which you must be saved, which is the one guy

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you killed. Again, as far as things resonating with the audience, every syllable that came out

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of their mouths, this is not a lengthy speech he gives, but every syllable had to cut them

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to the heart. Now with the balance of our time, just a few minutes here this morning, I want to

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focus on, I guess, the most important part of this text for you and I. There's a lot of wonderful

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a historical context here. There's a lot of fascinating things when you understand who the

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Sanhedrin was and what they were doing and Annas and Caiaphas and the like, which, by the way,

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there was two high priests in this day. That's not the biblical model. The only reason they had two

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high priests in this day is for political expediency with Rome, but they're only ever supposed to have

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one if you're confused with looking at this text. With that said, there's all sorts of fascinating

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palace intrigue about what's going on and why it's happening and so forth, but the principal

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takeaway from this text 2,000 years later in Gulfport, Mississippi, is this. There is still,

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still only one name given among men under heaven by which we must be saved. It has not changed,

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and that name is Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Jesus Christ. Jesus the Messiah. This is a singular

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means by which we may be saved. Now, in our day, just like in Christ's day, it's no more popular

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now than it was then. The people would reject this truth in Jerusalem. They would also reject it

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in other places, Athens, Orinth as they went up, and to Turkey as they went up, and to Asia Minor

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as they took the gospel really anywhere. There was people who would reject the gospel everywhere.

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I mean, if they rejected it in their hometown, if they rejected him even there in Jerusalem,

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you think the place that should have been the bastion of early Christianity, the truth is that

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he would be rejected. The name would be rejected no matter where the disciples went. With that said,

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it's the singular means, singular name, singular path unto heaven. We see this time and time again

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throughout scripture, and it's true in our own age as well. John 14, Jesus says, I'm the way,

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the truth, and life. No one comes to the Father except through me. What does our world think of

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that? John 14, Jesus says, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the door, I am the life. No one comes

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to the Father but through me. What does the world think? The world says, nah. The world says, but,

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But what about this religious system, this belief system,

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that place where they've never even heard about Jesus?

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What about then, right?

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What about then?

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Well, no matter what questions you come up with,

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no matter what arguments you make,

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none of that stands over and against the text

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by which Jesus says, I'm it.

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I am it.

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Now, that's a claim, an exclusive claim

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that the world, which has come increasingly inclusive of everything, hates.

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But again, they hated it back then.

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It's not changed.

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1 Timothy 2 says there's one God,

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one mediator between God and man, the man Christ, Jesus. In our day, it's not going to get any

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simpler. In our day, it's not any simpler. It is much like they were at that time. People will

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look for every other means, every other door. At the very least, what they want to be able to say

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is this, that all roads lead to heaven. Why would anyone say that? Well, because that doesn't

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offend. If you validate everyone's beliefs, if you say you have your truth, I've got my truth,

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right? And, you know, all truth is equally valid in the eyes of God, right? Especially when it

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comes to religious matters. All roads lead to heaven. Well, I know why you would want to say

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that, because that's what the world wants to hear. But that's much like what Judas did in the Garden

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of Gethsemane. It's betraying Jesus with a kiss. It's giving him just lip service enough to say

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he's one means, one road, one path, but also, also saying that other roads that deny him are equally

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valid. Again, I understand why people might want to believe it, but you cannot believe that and

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simultaneously believe in the God of this book. This book, time and time again, says that singular

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means for our salvation through the person and work of Jesus Christ. And so the question for you

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this day is, have you trusted in Him? Have you trusted in the one name, the one name under heaven

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given among men by which you must be saved? Have you trusted in the one name? This morning when we

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come to the Lord's table, we're going to briefly examine what the gospel is. I would entreat you to

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listen to this presentation, to listen to who Jesus is, what he has done, and then ask yourself

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whether you trust him. Let's pray.