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.
4:2 The Sadducees did not believe there was such a thing as a resurrection from the dead (Acts 23:8).⚜
3 📚And they seized them and put them in custody to the next day; for it was now evening.
4:3 This speaks of the kind of nation Israel was then – men were jailed and faced death for delivering the best news the world ever had (Acts 5:17-18; 12:1-4). It is still happening today in some nations of the world.⚜
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?”
4:7 They doubtless knew the answer to their question, but were looking for ways to accuse them.⚜
8 📚Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “You rulers of the people, and elders of Israel,
4:8 Peter took this question as an opportunity to preach Christ. Compare Matt 10:16-20.⚜
9 📚if we this day are being examined about the good deed done to a helpless man, and how he was healed,
4:9 See how he points out their character to them – they were the sort who would accuse people for showing kindness to cripples!⚜
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.
4:10 See Acts 3:6, 12. These leaders had hoped they were rid of Jesus once and for all (Matt 27:65-66; 27:22-23, 62-64).⚜
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”.
4:12 The apostles taught this to others because Jesus had taught it to them. See John 14:6; 10:7-8; 3:16-19, 36. Salvation is one of the great words of the New Testament. It includes the forgiveness of sins (Luke 24:47), the new birth (John 1:12-13; 3:3-8), liberation from the bondage of sin (John 8:32-36), being counted righteous by God (Rom 1:16; 3:21-28; 4:7-8), and eternal life (John 3:16) in the presence of God forever (John 14:3).⚜
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.
4:13 Their courage was a result of the knowledge of Christ’s resurrection and the filling of the Holy Spirit. Nothing else is a sufficient explanation. Just after Christ’s death they were far from courageous (John 20:19). Once Peter could not face up to a servant girl (Matt 26:69-70). Now he can face with great boldness the wrath of Israel’s wicked leaders and death itself (v 29; Acts 5:29-33, 41, 42). This is what Christ can do and does do with ordinary people. And these leaders recognized the source of their teaching and boldness – the Lord 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.
4:16 See the hardness of heart of these men. They knew the miracle had taken place, but refused to believe in Christ who had performed it through the disciples. Compare John 15:24.⚜
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.
4:18 How futile this command to Spirit-filled disciples! Can the wind be stopped by holding up a hand?⚜
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.
4:19 See Acts 5:29. Christians should obey their rulers in all things except when their commands are contrary to God’s Word (Rom 13:1-2). In such case they must obey God and take the consequences.⚜
20 📚For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard”.
4:20 A Spirit-filled disciple of the Lord Jesus can no more refrain from speaking for Him than breathing. Compare 2 Cor 5:14; Jer 20:9.⚜
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.
4:21-22 The same event caused some to make threats, others to praise God.⚜
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,
4:24 Their prayer was to the Creator of the universe (Gen 1; John 1:1-3; Heb 1:1-2), the only God there is.⚜
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.
4:25-26 Observe their conviction that it was God’s Spirit who spoke through David. They had this teaching from the Lord Jesus (Matt 15:3, 6; 22:43; John 10:35; Luke 24:45). The quotation is from Ps 2:1-2. See notes there.⚜
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.
4:28 See Acts 2:23. “Determined beforehand” in Greek is the same word translated “predestinated” in Rom 8:29-30 and Eph 1:5, 11, and “ordained” in 1 Cor 2:7 – the only other times in Greek the word is found in the New Testament.⚜
29 📚And now, Lord, see their threatenings, and grant to your servants that with all boldness they may speak your word,
4:29 Verse 13.⚜
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”.
4:30 Though it meant much trouble for them, they prayed that God would continue to do through them what He had been doing. All this is strong evidence that they knew Jesus had risen from the dead, and that they themselves had nothing to do with the removal of His body from the tomb (Matt 27:64; 28:6).⚜
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.
4:31 See Acts 2:2-4. They were filled again. The filling of God’s Spirit is not a once for all thing that cannot be repeated.⚜
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.
4:32-35 See Acts 2:44-45. They did this, notice, because they were “of one heart and one soul”. They had the same thoughts and purposes about Christ and His work and loved fellow believers as themselves.⚜
36 📚And Joses, whom the apostles named Barnabas (that is, being translated, Son of Encouragement), a Levite from the country of Cyprus,
37 📚had land and sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.