Acts 3:1-10 - A Beautiful Name at the Beautiful Gate

A man spends decades being carried to the same spot, asking the same question with an open hand: “Can you spare a coin?” Then Peter stops, stares him in the eyes, and says something that still confronts us today: “I don’t have silver or gold, but what I do have, I give you… in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk.” That moment at the Beautiful Gate in Acts 3 is more than a miracle story. It’s a diagnostic for our prayer life, our expectations, and what we think God is like. We start with an ancient story Seneca tells about Alexander the Great offering a gift so large it feels inappropriate, and we connect it to a modern habit: we ask God for what seems “reasonable,” what we think we deserve, what we can imagine. We talk about “coin prayers” and why God often aims deeper than symptom relief, quick fixes, or getting us to Friday. The repeated emphasis on the “name of Jesus” becomes the heartbeat of the message: a name in Scripture means presence and authority, and God’s greatest gift is not advice but himself. Along the way, we explore how grace works when God commands what we cannot do and then supplies the power to obey, and why the healed man’s first steps lead him straight into worship. We also make space for the hard question of healing now versus healing later, holding on to the promise that everyone in Christ will be made whole on the last day. If you’ve felt stuck at the gate, invisible, managing pain, or afraid to ask for more, this is for you. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review with the “coin prayer” you want to rethink.