The One Name That Saves

Questions This Sermon Answers:

1. Is Jesus the only way to be saved?

Scripture answers without hedging. Filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter told Israel’s ruling council: "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12, NKJV). This is not one apostle’s opinion but the apostolic confession itself, echoing Jesus’ own words: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6, NKJV). The exclusivity of Christ is not arrogance — it is testimony to what God has done in raising Jesus from the dead.

2. What does "no other name under heaven" mean in Acts 4:12?

In Scripture a name carries the person, authority, and work of its bearer. Peter has just identified Jesus as "the ’stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone’" (Acts 4:11, NKJV; Psalm 118:22). To say there is no other name is to say salvation is located in Christ alone — His person, His cross, His resurrection — with no supplement and no substitute. The Reformers summarized this as solus Christus, and Acts 4:12 is among its clearest biblical foundations.

3. Who was the Sanhedrin and why did Peter stand before them?

The Sanhedrin was Israel’s ruling council — "rulers, elders, and scribes, as well as Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander" (Acts 4:5–6, NKJV) — the same court that had condemned Jesus only weeks earlier. Peter and John were arrested after God healed a lame man at the temple gate and they preached "in Jesus the resurrection from the dead" (Acts 4:2, NKJV). The question put to them — "By what power or by what name have you done this?" (Acts 4:7, NKJV) — set up Peter’s answer.

4. What does Acts 4 say about other religions?

By implication, everything. If salvation exists in no other name, then sincerity, devotion, and religious effort outside of Christ cannot save. This is not a license for contempt — Paul reasoned gently with pagans in Athens — but it is a boundary Scripture itself draws: God "now commands all men everywhere to repent" (Acts 17:30, NKJV). The good news inside the hard edge is that the one name is freely offered to all who call on Him.

5. Why does claiming Jesus is the only way create opposition?

Because exclusivity offends every age that prefers many paths. The council "commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus" (Acts 4:18, NKJV). Peter and John answered, "Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard" (Acts 4:19–20, NKJV). The claim that salvation is in Christ alone has always drawn fire — and has always been worth it.

6. What happened to Peter and John after they preached this?

They were threatened and released, and the church turned immediately to prayer — not for safety, but for boldness: "grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word" (Acts 4:29, NKJV). God answered visibly: "the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness" (Acts 4:31, NKJV). It remains the pattern for the church under pressure.

What does "the stone which the builders rejected" mean in Acts 4:11?

Peter quotes Psalm 118:22 — "The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone" — and applies it to Christ. The "builders" are Israel's leaders, the very Sanhedrin before him, who rejected and crucified Jesus. Yet God vindicated Him in the resurrection, making the rejected stone the foundation of His church. Calvin observes that what men discard, God exalts: the Christ condemned by the council is now the only ground of salvation. The image binds Acts 4:11 to the gospel's great reversal — rejection by men, exaltation by God.

What gave Peter and John such boldness before the Sanhedrin?

Luke records that the council "saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men... and they realized that they had been with Jesus" (Acts 4:13, NKJV). Their courage was not natural temperament or schooling but the fruit of communion with the risen Christ and the filling of the Holy Spirit (Acts 4:8). The Westminster Confession roots such assurance and freedom in the Spirit's work (WCF 18). The same source of boldness is offered to every believer called to speak an unwelcome truth.

How does Acts 4:12 support the Reformation doctrine of "Christ alone" (solus Christus)?

Acts 4:12 is among Scripture's clearest statements of solus Christus: "there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (NKJV). Salvation rests in Christ's person and finished work alone — no supplement and no rival mediator. The Westminster Confession affirms that the Lord Jesus is the only Mediator between God and man (WCF 8.1). Peter does not present Jesus as the best option among many, but as the only name given. Every faithful gospel presentation stands or falls on this exclusivity.

Does Acts 4:12 mean those who never hear of Jesus are lost?

Acts 4:12 teaches that salvation comes through Christ alone, and Romans 10:14–17 ties ordinary saving faith to hearing the gospel preached — which is why Reformed theology takes the Great Commission with such seriousness. The Westminster Confession affirms that God may save elect persons incapable of the outward call of the Word, such as infants dying in infancy (WCF 10.3), but gives no ground to hope for salvation apart from Christ in those who reject or never receive Him. The exclusivity of the name is precisely why the church must preach.