Peter and John before the religious leaders
4
📚✭And as they were speaking to the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees✭ came up to them. 2 📚✭They were upset that they taught the people and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. 3 📚✭And they seized them and put them in custody to the next day; for it was now evening. 4 📚However, many of those who heard the word believed, and the number of the men was about five thousand. 5 📚And it happened on the next day that their rulers, elders and scribes, 6 📚and Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and all the relatives of the high priest, gathered together in Jerusalem. 7 📚✭And when they had placed Peter and John among them, they asked, “By what power, or by what name, have you done this?”
8 📚✭Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “You rulers of the people, and elders of Israel, 9 📚✭if we this day are being examined about the good deed done to a helpless man, and how he was healed, 10 📚✭be it known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified and whom God raised from the dead, by him this man stands here before you whole.
11 📚“This is the stone which was rejected
by you builders,
which has become the cornerstone.
12 📚✭And there is no salvation through any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved”.
13 📚✭Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and understood that they had been with Jesus. 14 📚And seeing the man who was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it. 15 📚But when they had commanded them to go out of the council meeting, they conferred among themselves, 16 📚✭saying, “What shall we do to these men? For that indeed a notable miracle has been done by them is evident to everyone living in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. 17 📚But so that it spreads no further among the people, let us strictly warn them not to speak from now on to anyone in this name✭”.
18 📚✭And they called them and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. 19 📚✭But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. 20 📚✭For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard”.
21 📚✭So when they had threatened them some more, they let them go, finding no way to punish them, because of the people. For everyone glorified God for what was done. 22 📚For the man on whom this miracle of healing was performed was over forty years old.
The disciples pray and are answered
23 📚And being let go, they went to their own group✭, and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. 24 📚✭And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord and said, “Lord, you are God who has made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all that is in them, 25 📚✭who through the mouth of your servant David has said,
Why did the nations rage,
and the people plot vain things?
26 📚The kings of the earth stood up,
and the rulers were gathered together
against the Lord, and against his Christ.
27 📚“For truly against your holy son Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, gathered together, 28 📚✭to do whatever your hand and your purpose determined beforehand should be done. 29 📚✭And now, Lord, see their threatenings, and grant to your servants that with all boldness they may speak your word, 30 📚✭by stretching forth your hand to heal, and giving power that miraculous signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy son Jesus”.
31 📚✭And when they had prayed, the place where they had met together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.
The unity of the early Church
32 📚✭And the large number of those who believed were all of one heart and one soul. None of them said that any of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. 33 📚✭And with great power the apostles gave testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all. 34 📚Nor was there any among them who was in need, for all who had lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds from the things that were sold, 35 📚and laid them at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each one as he had need.