Acts 4: 1 - 31
Punished for doing good
4 Now 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. 4 However, many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand. 5 And it came to pass, on the next day, that their rulers, elders, and scribes, 6 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. 7 And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, “By what power or by what name have you done this?” 8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders of Israel: 9 If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, 10 let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that 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. 11 This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ 12 Nor is there salvation in 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 marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus. 14 And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it. 15 But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves, 16 saying, “What shall we do to these men? For, indeed, that a notable miracle has been done through them is evident to all who dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. 17 But so that it spreads no further among the people, let us severely threaten them, that from now on they speak to no man in this name.” 18 So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach 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 further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way of punishing them, because of the people, since they all glorified God for what had been done. 22 For the man was over forty years old on whom this miracle of healing had been performed. 23 And being let go, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. 24 So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said: “Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them, 25 who by the mouth of Your servant David have said: ‘Why did the nations rage, and the people plot vain things? 26 The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers were gathered together against the LORD and against His Christ.’ 27 “For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together 28 to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done. 29 Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, 30 by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.” 31 And when they had prayed, 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.
Have you ever received the wrong side of opinion for doing something good? If you are a child of God then I am pretty sure you have had some folks not think so highly of you. Here are a few well chosen proverbs from me that speak on this issue;
. As I have grown older I have learned that pleasing everyone is impossible, but getting them angry at me is a piece of cake.
.Some people who on purpose try to antagonize me are like clouds, when they disappear it is a beautiful day.
.I cannot understand why my teacher did not believe me when she asked me how come I didn’t hand in my homework. I said, ‘I lost it fighting the kid who said you were not the best teacher in our school.’
. Whenever I’m sad, you’re there. Whenever I’m having problems, you are always there. Whenever my life seems out of control, you are also there. Let’s face it – You are bad luck.
It is a recognized principle of Scripture that once God begins to bless His people opposition will arise in order to seek to prevent it. It was and is inevitable. Luke now therefore introduces the first stage in the opposition. Peter and John are arrested and brought before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish body politic. But Peter is undeterred and sees it as an opportunity for witness to the leading authorities of Israel. This is then followed by a further infusion of the Holy Spirit.
4 Now 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.
The thing that caused most offence to the Temple authorities themselves was Peter’s teaching on the resurrection of the dead. While the Pharisees believed in the resurrection of the dead, the Sadducees, including the chief priests, most decidedly did not. And it was they who had overall responsibility for the Temple. So when Peter began teaching about the resurrection of the dead, and proclaiming that God would intervene in world affairs, they took offence. It was recognized that the resurrection from the dead might be taught in the synagogues (by the Pharisees), but not, if they could help it, in the Temple by any wandering preacher.
In fact the Sadducees would not have liked the whole tenor of the Apostolic teaching for the Sadducees also denied the principle of divine action in the world and wanted to maintain the status quo. Furthermore they still had vividly in their minds the way in which this Jesus in Whose Name these men were acting had attacked the sources of their profits in the trading that took place in the Temple.
If there is no resurrection then you have to make the best of your life in this world because this is all that there is ever going to be. So, you think then it is up to you to grab ever thing you can get.
3 And they laid hands on them, and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening.
So Peter and John were arrested and locked up overnight so that they could be dealt with the next day. For Temple affairs like this were a matter for the Sanhedrin, and the Sanhedrin (the overall Jewish authoritative council) had by law to meet in daylight.
4 However, many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.
However, this action taken against Peter and John did not affect the impact of their message. It may have helped it and many who heard Peter’s words believed, so that the number of disciples now came to about five thousand.
5 And it came to pass, on the next day, that their rulers, elders, and scribes, 6 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 next day a meeting of the Sanhedrin, the highest Jewish authority and court, was called, made up of around seventy men taken from among the rulers (chief priests), the elders (important lay persons) and the Scribes (mainly but not entirely teachers of the Pharisees). They included a number of close relatives of the High Priests. Annas was High Priest according to Jewish Law, but he had been replaced as High Priest by Caiaphas under Roman law. Many of the people thus still considered Annas to be the true High Priest. Along with them were John, possibly the Jonathan who succeeded Caiaphas, and Alexander, of whom we know nothing. Both were no doubt close relatives of the High Priests. In fact Annas was probably still deliberately and defiantly called ‘Annas the High Priest’ by the people, and Luke may simply here be citing this popular designation. Luke is not suggesting that Caiaphas was not the High Priest as well. According to the Jews once a person was High Priest he was High Priest until death.
7 And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, “By what power or by what name have you done this?”
It had been one thing for the Sadducees not to like the apostolic message. It was another when it was to come before the Sanhedrin. For this was a formal court and had to be conducted along legal lines. Furthermore the court had to decide the lines along which it would proceed, and the accused were entitled to put up a defense. All that the court appear to have been told was that there had been a mysterious healing in the Temple and that it had been done in ‘the Name of Jesus’ (the question of the resurrection would not be brought up. Half the court believed in the resurrection from the dead).
They recognized that a miracle had undoubtedly been done. The man, well known for what he had been, was standing before them. What was therefore necessary was to learn the source of the miracle. The suspicion would be that evil forces and incantations had been at work, and those were illegal. They therefore asked the two disciples of Jesus by what power they had healed the man and in what name it was done.
8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders of Israel: 9 If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, 10 let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that 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.
The disciple Luke tells un in chapter 12 of his Gospel that our Lord Jesus had promised His Apostles that when they had to face courts the Holy Spirit would teach them what they should say, “Now when they bring you to the synagogues and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how or what you should answer, or what you should say. 12 For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”
Peter’s defense is bold and clear. Filled with the Holy Spirit’ he addresses the Sanhedrin with due courtesy. and then stresses that the deed that has been done is a ‘good’ deed. It has no connection with evil forces. And by it a man, lame from birth, has been healed. As to how it was done, it was done in the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom ‘they’ had crucified, but Whom God had raised from the dead. It will be noted that he is not seeking to be placatory but to try and bring home to these men what he considered that they had done in ignorance. He knew that he would probably never have another opportunity to speak to these men, and was possibly hopeful that some at least of them would listen.
Peter takes his opportunity (what a different man this is from the one who had cowered before a serving girl in the courtyard of the High Priest’s house - Luke 22.57). His charge is that the ones who were guilty that day were not he and John, but those who sat in judgment on them. They had caused Jesus to be crucified. But God had raised Him up. This should convince them quite clearly that they had been in the wrong. And he pointed out that further evidence that Jesus has been raised up can be found in this healed man who is standing there before them. It was ‘in Jesus’ that this man had been made whole. If Jesus were not alive it could not have happened. As this is a reply to the question as to the name by which the man had been healed this is probably shorthand for ‘in the name of Jesus’. He may, however, be indicating that the man had been healed because he had been brought into oneness with the risen Jesus by God’s mercy.
11 This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’
Then to support his case Peter indirectly cites Scripture. The citation is from Psalm 118.22. It is either Peter’s paraphrase or a quotation from an unknown source, probably the former. He stresses ‘set at nought’ rather than ‘rejected’. He has not forgotten the scenes that he witnessed and the ones he had heard about, when Jesus was truly ‘set at nought’. But that stone, rejected by the builders, was to be made the head of the corner, the capstone. It was the final, vital stone that mattered. This Psalm was one from which citations were made by the crowds when pilgrims entered Jerusalem (see Psalm 118.26). They thus indirectly connected it with the Future One Who would come to Jerusalem in triumph. The inference is plain. The rulers, the ‘builders’ of Israel, have rejected Him and set Him at nought, because He did not seem to fit, but God has stepped in and will make Him the cornerstone of the new Israel which holds the whole building together.
Some among those who were sat in the Sanhedrin may have grown uncomfortable at these words. They would remember how when they had challenged Jesus a month or so previously He had told the parable of the wicked tenants who had rented the vineyard and then refused to the owner its true fruits, killing first his servants and then his only son (Luke 20.9-16). Then Jesus had looked on them and had said, ‘The stone which the builders rejected, the same was made the head of the corner’ (Luke 20.17). Now here it was again, the charge that they had rejected God’s ‘stone’, and that somehow their rejection would lead to His exaltation.
12 Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
Then he applies the words to his hearers. There is no salvation in anyone else. Jesus Is God’s capstone, His cornerstone. There is no other name under heaven, given among men, by which we must be saved. Eternal life and eternal forgiveness is only available through Him. The question had been in what name the lame man had been healed. This reply states that it is only in that Name that any of mankind can be healed. His appeal to them is clear although cleverly worked in as part of his explanation.
‘Salvation’ would have a Messianic ring to his listeners, especially when connected with Psalm 118. In their view the Messiah was to be God’s means of salvation. He was to be Salvation. Thus Peter’s words are a further claim of Jesus’ Being the Messiah, linked with the salvation which will bring men into the everlasting kingdom. Furthermore the name Jesus means ‘Yahweh is salvation’. Salvation is thus closely paralleled with the name of Jesus in all its senses.
But ‘salvation’ can also mean ‘making whole’. So there is the implication that the Jesus Who had made this man whole could also make the world whole. Let them then consider that what had happened to this man should make them recognize just what Jesus could do.
Thus these words of Peter were not just a challenge, they were central to the whole question of the Name of Jesus. He was Salvation because He was the Messiah, He was Salvation because that was His name given to Him by God, and He was salvation because He brought salvation to all who needed healing, whether in body or soul.
13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.
We only have recorded the words of Peter, but it is clear from these words that John had also spoken (the boldness -- of John’). And the Sanhedrin was impressed. They were used to men cringing before them, not speaking out boldly. And they were not used to having Scripture quoted at them. The fact that these were ‘unlearned and ignorant men’, that is, not officially taught in official methods of Scriptural interpretation and not cognizant of the Law as officially taught, meant that they could only be officially admonished. However, once they learned that they had been with Jesus it put them on the spot. They had rejected Jesus as a heretic and a blasphemer. But these men were still proclaiming Him and even claiming the power of His Name. Now therefore it was apparent that they were Jesus men, and that they were representing themselves as carrying on His work.
14 And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.
They now found themselves in a quandary. On the one hand they saw the man who had been healed standing among them and recognized that nothing wrong had been done in his healing. Apart from the fact that the Name of Jesus had been brought into it they could see nothing against it. But on the other was that these men were reviving the interest in the Name and the teaching of Jesus. This they could not allow. The man had been executed as a criminal and accursed by being hung on a tree.
In truth they should have gone one step further and acknowledged that the healing of this man clearly vindicated the name of Jesus. But their minds were closed. That was something that they would not do, and in view of what they had done to Him it was not too surprising. It would have been a matter of admitting their own blood guiltiness.
15 But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves, 16 saying, “What shall we do to these men? For, indeed, that a notable miracle has been done through them is evident to all who dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. 17 But so that it spreads no further among the people, let us severely threaten them, that from now on they speak to no man in this name.”
So having heard the case they put the accused outside the room while they discussed what they would do. What happened there may well have been communicated to the Apostles by one of the members of the Sanhedrin such as Nicodemus or Joseph of Arimathea.
They then discussed what they should do with these men. They admitted that a notable miracle had occurred. It could hardly be denied. Everyone was talking about it. So their conclusion was that the miracle could be quietly forgotten and that they should simply give the men an official admonishment, commanding them no longer to do things in the name of Jesus under pain of punishment (usually by beating). What mattered after all was to prevent the teaching from spreading.
Here then is the pivotal point of the whole chapter, the attitude taken towards the Name of Jesus both by these men and by the Apostles. The Sanhedrin rejected it and forbade its use. The Apostles determined that they would use every means to proclaim it, because there was salvation in no other. The same choice faces us all today.
18 So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.
The final communication was now made of their decision. This would have been in the form of an official admonition before witnesses. The men were not to speak at all or teach in the name of Jesus. It was not a sentence on them. It was a clarification of the situation. It was possibly understandable as ‘unlearned’ men that they had not quite realized that Jesus was not someone whose teaching was approved of. But now let there be no more of it. They were receiving an official warning. If they preached in His Name they incurred His guilt.
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.”
Both Peter and John were moved to reply. They basically did so in the form of a question as to whether these learned men really thought that in the circumstances it was even conceivable that they should cease to teach in the name of Jesus. God had clearly given His seal of approval on their speaking by the healing of the lame man, and of many others of whom they were aware. Whom then should they obey - God or the Sanhedrin? Let the Sanhedrin be the judges.
Here the disciples were on solid ground. Regularly would witnesses in the court be admonished to ‘speak only those things which they had seen and heard’. And yet here were the court forbidding them to do so. They were forbidding them to declare the facts, to reveal the truth of what really happened. Could they really believe their ears? Were the court really then telling them not to be honest witnesses? It was unthinkable. Let them themselves judge the matter for themselves. Was it not their solemn duty to declare what they had seen and heard? To bear false witness would be to break the covenant.
21 So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way of punishing them, because of the people, since they all glorified God for what had been done.
But the supreme court of Israel did not want the facts. So the Sanhedrin then reiterated their injunction and let them go, warning them again of the consequences if they did not obey them and refrain from using and healing in the Name of Jesus.
22 For the man was over forty years old on whom this miracle of healing had been performed.
The people glorified God because the man who had been healed had been constantly lame for over forty years. This man was known throughout all Jerusalem.
23 And being let go, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. 24 So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said: “Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them, 25 who by the mouth of Your servant David have said: ‘Why did the nations rage, and the people plot vain things? 26 The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers were gathered together against the LORD and against His Christ.’ 27 “For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together 28 to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done. 29 Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, 30 by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.” 31 And when they had prayed, 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.
The response of the Christians to the threats was to pray to the Lord of all, of heaven, and earth, and sea and all that is in them. They first of all brought to mind Who it was that they served, He Who is Master and Creator of heaven and earth and sea and of all that is in them.
Then they recalled what the Holy Spirit had spoken through David in Psalm 2. The Christians recognized that this scripture was applying directly to what they have just experienced. The rulers raged, they imagined vain things, they set themselves in array, they mobilized. But it was all in vain, for it was against the Lord and against His Anointed, and therefore they could not win.
Now the same situation was being repeated. The kings and governors of the earth (Herod and Pilate) and the Gentiles and peoples (of Israel), had raised themselves up into opposition against God’s holy Servant Jesus. They had mobilized in order to rid the world of Him. But although they did not realize it they had done it at God’s behest. They were as puppets in His hands, responding to His pulling of the strings. They were only doing what God’s hand and council had foreordained. For His death had been necessary in order to propitiate for the sins of the whole world.
But now that was all over Jesus Christ had risen, and it was now their responsibility to preach His Name to all nations. Thus they committed to Him the threatening and prayed that they might be enabled to speak the word of God with all boldness.
Meanwhile they looked with anticipation and confidence to the fact that He would continue to stretch out His hand and heal, and that He would continue to perform signs and wonders through the Name of His Holy Servant Jesus.
Their prayer was to be abundantly answered. We learn as we continue to study the book of Acts of the amazing miracles that constantly occurred, reaching out far beyond Jerusalem, as those who were sick flocked to Jerusalem in order to find healing.
Then once they had finished praying the place where they were gathered was shaken, regularly seen as a sign of God’s presence. Here it was intended to be linked with the filling of the Holy Spirit, and with the certainty that God was with them and had heard their prayer.
And they were all ‘filled with the Holy Spirit’ so that they could go forth and proclaim the word of God with boldness. The mighty power of God was continually with them in the fulfilling of their ministry, and was here renewed.
