Defending Your Faith Series

DEFENDING YOUR FAITH

Acts 4:5-19

If you live for Christ there will come a time when you will be required to defend you faith in Him. Therefore it is important that you are ready, willing, and able to defend your faith. Peter said in - 1 Peter 3:13-15 “who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you are blessed. "And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled."15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;

When the Apostle Peter wrote these words, he was writing from personal experience. There were many times throughout his life when he was required to defend his faith. One such occasion is recorded in our selected text. God had used Peter to proclaim the Gospel to a crowd that was gathered at Solomon’s Colonnade. As a result of his faithful preaching, some 2,000 men came to faith in Jesus Christ. Though this was an exciting time for the early church, Peter’s preaching served as the spark that ignited the first persecution of the Christian church.

Acts 4:1 “as they spoke to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them, 2 being greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. 3 And they laid hands on them, and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening.

When the members of the Sanhedrin convened the following morning, Peter and John were summoned to appear before them. What follows is a lesson for us concerning how we should defend our faith in Christ Jesus. I would like to walk through this passage and consider the thought “Defending Your Faith”.

Before we consider how the Apostles defended their faith, we must first examine what they were up against. Notice - v5 And it came to pass, on the next day, that their rulers, elders, and scribes, v6 as well as Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the family of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem.

The Sanhedrin was comprised of certain “rulers, elders, and scribes”. There were 70 elders on the council and the high priest was the presiding officer. The majority of those on the court were Sadducees and then there was a minority made up of Pharisees. This religious council convened for the sole purpose of putting an end to the ministry and influence of the Apostles.

It is important to note that this was the very same religious body that had condemned Jesus to death. On the morning of the crucifixion, it was the Sanhedrin that questioned Jesus and eventually delivered Him into the hands of the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate. Those Jewish religious leaders and the Roman government leaders saw to it that Jesus was put to death.

After Jesus was arrested, tried and crucified (and even for a time after His resurrection), His Disciples hid in fear of the Jews. They knew that their lives were in danger because of their relationship with Jesus. By this time, Jesus has commissioned them to be His witnesses and He has ascended to Heaven. The Apostles have received the gift of the Holy Spirit and were empowered to carry out the task that had been assigned to them.

Now, these once fearful followers of Jesus are called to stand before the very rulers that they had been hiding from. But now things are different; they are no longer hiding behind closed doors, they have been boldly preaching Christ at the Temple of God, and now God has opened the door for them to share the Gospel in front of the Sanhedrin. Amazingly, these men did not compromise their message, They boldly stood and made their defense and proclaimed the life changing Gospel of Jesus Christ.

- Verse 6 names some of the men who were present on this occasion:

v6 Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the family of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem.

By this time Annas was no longer the High-Priest; That honor now belonged to his son-in-law Caiaphas. However, it seems that Annas retained the title of High-Priest and still possessed great influence among the Jewish people. We do not know much about John & Alexander, but some believe that John may refer to Johnathan (Annas’ son) who succeeded Caiaphas as High Priest somewhere around AD 36 or 37. Verse 6 also states that “all the members of the high-priestly family” were also among this assembly. Annas and Caiaphas were certainly not pleased to hear that the Disciples were preaching that the one they had crucified was alive and well and working miracle es among the people. They knew that they must do whatever was necessary to put an end to the ministry of the Apostles. Therefore, they summoned Peter and John and began to question them.