In the book of Acts, when the use of Jesus’ name began, it had nothing to do with ending a prayer. In Acts 2:38, when Peter says to his fellow Jews, “in the name of Jesus Christ your sins may be forgiven,” it wasn’t said in a prayer, or to end a prayer; it was said to direct the Jews’ attention to Jesus being the source of forgiveness.
The second time “in Jesus’ name” is used is in Acts 3:6, when Peter says to a man crippled from birth, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Again, it wasn’t said in a prayer, or to end a prayer; it was said to direct the Jews’ attention to Jesus being the source of the man’s healing. As Peter said in verse 16, “It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has given this crippled man complete healing.”
The reason for using “in Jesus’ name,” therefore, was to highlight “the God of our fathers glorifying his servant Jesus” (13) and raising him from the dead (15), so that in Jesus – that name and that person – the Father had provided forgiveness and the power to restore broken lives. Which Peter rounds off very nicely in verse 26, that “When God raised up his servant (Jesus), he sent him first to you (Jews) to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.” In Jesus’ name came the promise of forgiveness and the chance for a new life.
The use of Jesus’ name, therefore, had nothing to do with ending a prayer; it was purely to draw attention to the powers God had given to Jesus as “Lord and Christ” (2:36), including the power to save from death, as Peter made clear in Acts 4:12, that “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name by which we must be saved.”
So where did the idea come from to end every prayer with “in Jesus’ name”? Well, didn’t Jesus say in John 16:26, “In that day you will ask in my name,” and in John 14:13, “I will do whatever you ask in my name”?
But the reality of what Jesus meant by that is explained in the book of Acts, that the Father would raise Jesus back to life from the dead, so that in Jesus – in his name and position as “Lord and Christ” – the Father’s purpose would continue. And that’s what Jesus’ disciples catch on to in Jesus’ name, that he is the one the Father now wants us turning to, because it’s in what Jesus is doing in and through his disciples that the Father’s work continues (15:8). So “Is it Jesus we pray to now?”….(next blog)
Buck To Basics 