What’s in a Name? – Acts 3:15

by Pastor John Fredericksen

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Ph.D student, Ahtanasios Kokkinaakis, analyzed data from a video game, the League of Legends, played by around seventy million people worldwide. He concluded, “This data is like a window on the individual players’ personalities…[When a player used] anti-social expressions in their user name, they tended to adopt similar anti-social behavior in the game environment. Conversely, he found that positive in-game behavior, such as team building, or leadership, might [often] correlate both with positive usernames and positive personality traits in the real world.”

In early Acts, as it was in the Gospels, God used a miracle to draw unsaved Jews to Christ. When Peter was the instrument to heal a lame man, he said, “Ye men of Israel…ye denied the Holy One and the Just…And killed the Prince of Life” (Acts 3:12-15). The names used for God the Son are always important because they explain who Christ is and what He did for mankind. Peter described the Lord Jesus as holy and just, and therein qualified to be “an offering” for the sins of the world. He is “the Prince of Life” because a prince is a leader, or royal heir, who is worthy of subjection. The Apostle John explains, “In Him is life” (John 1:4), “And this is the record, that God hath given unto us eternal life, and this life is in [or through faith in] His Son” (I John 5:11). Elsewhere, the Lord Jesus Christ is called, “the captain [or the commander] of their salvation” (Hebrews 2:10). This is because “…there is none other name under heaven…whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Jews were also urged to continue “looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who…endured the cross…and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).

From all these titles for the Lord Jesus Christ, we learn that He, and He alone, can provide eternal life to those who will come to Him in faith. Trust in Christ alone for eternal life right now. If you have trusted in Him as your only hope for the forgiveness of your sin, apart from any human merit, please do two things. Rejoice with immense gratitude in the Holy and Just One, the Prince of Life, the Captain of your salvation, the Author and Finisher of your faith. Then, share the gospel with someone before the end of the day.


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Start each day with short, devotional articles taken from the book Daily Transformation by Pastor John Fredericksen. As Pastor Fredericksen writes in the introduction:

"We welcome you, as you journey with us..., to not only learn information, but to benefit from examples of faith and failure, and seek to apply God’s Word to every day life. Together, let’s transition from only studying theories of doctrine, to applying God’s truths in a practical way every day. May God use these studies to help you find daily transformation."