Peter and John Before the Council

Still preaching. Peter and John were still speaking to the crowd at the temple when the leaders arrived (4:1). They had just helped a man who had never walked (Acts 3). Why they were upset. The leaders were “greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead” (4:2). The Sadducees taught that nobody rises from the dead. An empty tomb proved them wrong. Locked up overnight. “And they laid hands on them, and put them in custody until the next day” (4:3). Custody means being held as a prisoner. The word kept growing. “However, many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand” (4:4). A jail could not stop the gospel. The big question. The next day the rulers asked, “By what power or by what name have you done this?” (4:7). In those days a name stood for a person's authority, the one who stands behind what you do. Jesus told them so. Jesus had said, “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Tribulation means trouble. What we learn. Following Jesus can bring trouble, even for doing good. But nothing can stop God's good news, and Jesus is with us in every hard place.

Who came (4:1). The priests, “the captain of the temple,” and the Sadducees. The captain commanded the temple guard, made up of Levites, and was second only to the high priest in running the temple. The Sadducees. They were a wealthy priestly party who held to the five books of Moses and denied any resurrection (compare Acts 23:8). Peter was preaching “in Jesus the resurrection from the dead” (4:2). Jesus' own rising was proof that the dead will rise. Greatly disturbed (4:2). They were deeply troubled and annoyed. The message troubled them for another reason too: they had handed Jesus over to Pilate only weeks before. Five thousand (4:4). The number counts the men. With women and children the church was larger still. Arrest did not slow the word; it spread. The court (4:5-6). Rulers, elders and scribes made up the Sanhedrin (say: san-HEE-drin), Israel's highest council. Annas had been high priest years before and still held great power. Caiaphas, his son-in-law, was high priest that year. Both had questioned Jesus (John 18:13, 24). By what name? (4:7). They did not deny the miracle. They asked whose authority stood behind it. That question opened the door for Peter to name Jesus before the very men who condemned Him. Jesus foretold it. Jesus had told His disciples, “When they bring you to the synagogues and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how or what you should answer” (Luke 12:11). Peter was living what Jesus promised.

The Sadducees did not believe that people rise from the dead. But Peter said Jesus had risen. That showed the Sadducees were wrong. So they were upset and put Peter and John in jail. Peter and John were in trouble for doing good. They had helped a man walk! Jesus said His followers would have trouble in this world. He also said, “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” The leaders could lock up Peter and John. But they could not lock up God's word. The number of believing men grew to about five thousand. Nothing can stop God's good news about Jesus.

Peter and John said Jesus is alive. Some leaders put them in jail. But many more people believed in Jesus!

Filled with the Spirit. “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them” (4:8). Jesus had promised, “For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say” (Luke 12:12). A good deed on trial. Peter pointed out that they were being judged “for a good deed done to a helpless man” (4:9). The name. “By the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole” (4:10). Whole means completely healed. Bold and honest. Peter told the rulers to their faces that they had crucified Jesus. He also told them that God had raised Him. The rejected stone. Peter quoted Psalm 118:22. Jesus is the “stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone” (4:11). A cornerstone is the first and most important stone in a building. Everything else lines up with it. Only one name. “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (4:12). Not by being good. The leaders were very religious, but being religious could not save them. Only Jesus can. What we learn. The Holy Spirit helps God's people speak about Jesus. Jesus is the only way to be saved, and His name is the best news we can share.

Filled (4:8). Peter had been filled with the Spirit at Pentecost (2:4). Here he is filled again for a new task. The Spirit gives fresh power for each moment of witness, just as Jesus promised in Luke 12:11-12. “A good deed” (4:9). Peter gently shows how upside-down the trial was: two men were on trial for an act of kindness to a helpless man. “Made well” (4:9). The word comes from sozo (say: SOH-zoh), which means to save or to heal. Three verses later Peter uses the same root for salvation (4:12). The healed body was a picture of the deeper rescue only Jesus gives. “Whom you crucified” (4:10). Peter does not soften the truth, but his goal is their rescue, not their shame. In 3:19 he had already called the crowd to “repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.” The builders (4:11). In Psalm 118:22 “the builders” rejected a stone that God made the chief cornerstone. The council members were Israel's builders, the men responsible for God's house. Jesus had applied this psalm to Himself (Matthew 21:42), and now Peter applies it to the council. No other name (4:12). Salvation here means rescue from sin and death. The verse closes every other door twice: no salvation in any other, and no other name. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). Why only Jesus? “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). Only Jesus died for sin and rose again.

Jesus had promised help for times like this. He said the Holy Spirit would give His friends words to say. Now the Holy Spirit filled Peter. Peter was not afraid of the rulers. He told them the truth about Jesus. They had nailed Jesus to a cross. But God raised Him from death! Peter said Jesus is like a stone the builders threw away. But God made Him the most important stone of all. Then Peter said, “Jesus is the only One who can save people.” Nobody can save himself by being good. We all need Jesus.

The Holy Spirit helped Peter speak. Peter said Jesus made the man well. God raised Jesus from the dead. Only Jesus can save us.

Boldness. “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled” (4:13). Boldness means speaking up without fear. Uneducated? Uneducated here means they had never studied in the special schools for teachers of the law. They were fishermen from Galilee. The reason. “And they realized that they had been with Jesus” (4:13). Three years with Jesus had changed them. Peter's change. Not long before, Peter had been so afraid that he said three times he did not know Jesus. Jesus had prayed for him, “that your faith should not fail” (Luke 22:32). Now Peter stood boldly before the same leaders. Proof standing there. “And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it” (4:14). The threat. The rulers “commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus” (4:18). God comes first. Peter and John answered, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge” (4:19). They spoke with respect, but they would not stop. Praise. The people “all glorified God for what had been done” (4:21). What we learn. Spending time with Jesus makes ordinary people brave. When people tell us to stop following Jesus, we obey God first, and we stay kind and respectful.

Boldness (4:13). The Greek parresia (say: par-ray-SEE-ah) means open, fearless speech that says everything plainly. The same word comes back in the prayer of 4:29 and in God's answer in 4:31. Uneducated (4:13). The word is agrammatoi (say: ah-GRAM-mah-toy), unlettered: not trained in the schools of the law. The council expected wisdom only from men trained by its own teachers. With Jesus. The council recognized the same fearless way of speaking they had heard from Jesus, who also had not studied under their teachers (John 7:15). Restored. Weeks earlier, in the high priest's courtyard, Peter had denied Jesus. Jesus had prayed for him (Luke 22:32) and restored him by the Sea of Galilee (John 21:15-17). The Peter who stands here is a forgiven man, made bold by grace. Evidence (4:14-16). The healed man stood beside them. The council admitted that “a notable miracle has been done through them is evident to all who dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it” (4:16). They could not deny the sign, so they tried to stop the message. Two authorities (4:19). Peter does not insult the council. He asks them to judge whether God or they should be obeyed. Later he says it plainly: “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). This is not permission to disobey parents or leaders whenever we like. It applies when a human command forbids what God commands. Forty years (4:22). The man had been lame from birth for more than forty years (3:2; 4:22). Everyone in Jerusalem knew him, so no one could explain the healing away.

The rulers saw that Peter and John were brave. These men had never studied in the leaders' schools. They were fishermen! So where did their courage come from? The rulers knew the answer. Peter and John had been with Jesus. Not long before, Peter had been very afraid. He had said he did not even know Jesus. But Jesus forgave Peter and changed him. The rulers told them to stop talking about Jesus. But Peter and John chose to obey God first. We can be brave like them. We grow brave by staying close to Jesus.

Peter and John were brave. They had been with Jesus. They chose to obey God. They kept telling about Jesus.

Back to the church. “And being let go, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them” (4:23). God's people face hard things together. They prayed first. “They raised their voice to God with one accord” (4:24). One accord means with one heart and mind. Who God is. They began, “Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them” (4:24). The God who made everything is bigger than any council. God's Word. They prayed Psalm 2: “Why did the nations rage, And the people plot vain things?” (4:25). Vain means useless. God's plan. Herod, Pilate and many others came against Jesus, but only “to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done” (4:28). Even the cross was part of God's plan to save us. The request. “Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word” (4:29). They did not ask God to remove the danger. They asked for courage. The answer. “The place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness” (4:31). What we learn. When we are afraid, we can pray. God is in charge, and He gives His people courage to tell others about Jesus.

Sovereign Lord (4:24). The word for Lord here is Despota (say: DES-po-tah), Master, the One with total authority. The church faced rulers who had power over their bodies, and they spoke to the One who has power over everything. Creator first. They began with creation (compare Exodus 20:11 and Psalm 146:6). The God who made heaven, earth and sea cannot be outranked by any court. Psalm 2 (4:25-26). The church saw David's psalm come true in the trial of Jesus. “The kings of the earth took their stand” matched Herod, and “the rulers were gathered together” matched Pilate (4:27). “His Christ” means His Anointed One, the Messiah. Purpose behind the plot (4:28). Peter had preached the same truth at Pentecost: Jesus was “delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God” (2:23). Human evil was real and guilty, yet God used it to bring salvation. What they asked (4:29-30). Three requests: look on the threats, give boldness, and stretch out Your hand to heal. They asked God to keep doing through them what He had done through Jesus. Holy Servant (4:27, 30). Twice they call Jesus God's “holy Servant.” The title echoes Isaiah's Servant, who suffers for the sins of others: “But He was wounded for our transgressions” (Isaiah 53:5). Shaken (4:31). God answered with a shaken room and a fresh filling of the Spirit. The result was exactly what they had asked for: “they spoke the word of God with boldness.” The Spirit's power is given for witness, as Jesus promised: “you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me” (Acts 1:8).

Peter and John went back to their friends. The church did not panic. They prayed to God together. They remembered that God made the sky, the earth and the sea. God is bigger than any ruler. They remembered that bad men had come against Jesus. Even then, God's plan was still happening. Then they asked God for something brave. They did not ask Him to take away the trouble. They asked for courage to keep telling about Jesus. God answered right away! The room shook, and the Holy Spirit filled them all.

The believers prayed together. They asked God to make them brave. The room shook! God filled them with His Spirit.