REVEREND Ben Haslam led the service at Crediton Methodist Church on May 25.

Ben became a Christian as a teenager, purely by reading the Bible. He was given a Bible at school which languished in a drawer for years.

He found it and felt compelled to start reading it. He did not know why – but now he knows it was the Spirit’s prompting.

As he read the words of Jesus, it was like no other book. In this Bible Ben did not just find words on a page, it was as if the words were alive and addressing him and as if a voice was speaking to him.

They were living not dead words. Ben felt he was being addressed by name.

In Acts the apostles preached “there is no other name by which we must be saved”.

Salvation is about recognising that we are addressed by Jesus by name. That he has done everything necessary for us to become what God wants us to become and then it is just for us to respond.

It is not about getting religion – it is about us saying yes. The apostles did not preach there is any other religion or belief system by which we are saved. There is no other name but - Jesus Christ.

In the reading from Acts the early church had squabbles and disagreements and we encounter one of the theological challenges of the early church.

Lots of Jewish people had put their faith in Jesus, but as the Gospel spread, the word was being preached to people without a Jewish background, who were pagans or non-religious and who, in large numbers, were putting their faith in Jesus - and we think that is wonderful – but for some people this caused a problem because they had not been circumcised and never followed Jewish law.

The big theological question was do people need to follow these laws as well as put their faith in Jesus? Surely Jesus cannot be enough? Surely we have to do something?

By the Spirit’s work amongst these people the answer comes loud and clear that putting our faith in Jesus is enough for us to be saved.

There is nothing that we can contribute or do - just putting our faith in Jesus is enough.

So, these people, referred to as the “Circumcised Group”, start off insisting that people have to obey the Jewish law as well as believing in Jesus.

What convinces them that Jesus is enough?

It seems to be evidence of what the Holy Spirit was doing amongst people from a non-Jewish background.

It is prompted by Peter’s famous vision where he saw a sheet coming down from Heaven.

In this sheet there were all sorts of animals that Jews were not allowed to eat.

God says “eat all these wonderful things” but Peter says “these are unclean”.

God says to him “do not call unclean what I have pronounced to be clean” and that is the start – everything that the law was meant to do has been achieved through the life, work, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The work of the Holy Spirit doing extraordinary things in the lives of people from gentile backgrounds.

Disagreements in the church arise about anything and when people disagree each person has their own views but nothing changes. They might agree to disagree.

Groups of people coming up with different views does not get anywhere but the work of the Holy Spirit can cause remarkable transformations to occur; can open our eyes to see what God is doing; can bring us together and can open our eyes to what really matters.

It is the work of the Holy Spirit that convinces these people that God is doing things amongst the gentiles and that believing in the name of Jesus is enough for salvation.

Scripture says “there is no other name by which we must be saved”.

Christianity is a relationship with the living God made possible by Jesus Christ.

In John we see Jesus, God incarnate inhabiting a human body showing us a very clear picture of what God is like.

He washes the disciples’ feet and takes on the attribute of a servant. He tells them to “go and do likewise and love one another”. Love and truth go together. Jesus is the true revelation of what God is like because Jesus is God. Salvation lies in believing in the name.

Names matter. We get embarrassed when we forget someone’s name.

The name of Jesus, and only the name of Jesus is the one way we can be saved. It is not a question of which belief system works best for us. The question is what is true?

We can all have our own ideas of God and we can have different views of God and truth but our faith is not one cobbled together.

Our faith is a revealed faith and it points us towards someone who walked amongst us not just as a travelling preacher and teacher, not just somebody who came up with a way of life, a belief system that we think useful, but somebody with a power because He was God – God in the midst of us.

God came into the midst in Jesus Christ as a beacon of light and truth. The coming of Jesus into the world is the one and only occasion when God has come into the world that we inhabit.

It is the only time when someone has died for the sins of the world.

It is the only time when someone has risen from the dead and, having risen, invites all who want to follow Him to share in His risen life.

This is a message pointing towards the truth which is completely unique in human history.

It is our job, our calling and our privilege to pray for the world and especially for those who have never yet called on the name of Jesus Christ. Pray that the Holy Spirit will work in people’s lives as He worked leading Ben to want to read the Bible and to take the word seriously.

Pray that the Holy Spirit will work in people’s lives in that way leading them to light, goodness and joy.

Let us celebrate what Jesus has done for us and let us pray that more and more people come to know what we have discovered - that in Jesus Christ there is no other name by which we must be saved.

Bronwyn Nott