Peter's conflict with the religious leaders Acts 4:1-22
1 And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them, 2 being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. 3 And they laid hands on them, and put them in hold unto the next day: for it was now eventide. 4 Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.
5 And it came to pass on the morrow, that their rulers, and elders, and scribes, 6 and Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred 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 ye done this?
8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel, 9 if we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole; 10 be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. 11 This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. 12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. 13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.
14 And beholding the man which was 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 that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem; and we cannot deny it. 17 But that it spread no further among the people, let us straitly threaten them; that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. 18 And 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 unto them, whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. 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 nothing how they might punish them, because of the people: for all men glorified God for that which was done. 22 For the man was above forty years old, on whom this miracle of healing was shewed.
Now, you can’t really understand what’s happening in chapter four unless you’ve read chapter three and see that Peter and John had just healed the crippled man and then Peter preached a sermon that had somewhere around two thousand converts. And when something like this happens it’s bound to get the attention of those who saw themselves in charge of religious affairs and we see representatives from three different groups showing up to investigate. Now, let me go through them as they’re listed to inform those of us who are new and remind the rest of us, who these people were.
In terms of an outline here, we’ll see the religious leaders, then the question they asked and finally how Peter answered it.
So, first, there are the religious leaders
Verse one says’ ‘And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them.’
So, this wasn’t just a couple of temple employees but we have three different groups mentioned here and the first group were the priests.
So, as verse 1 says, ‘there are the priests, the captain of the temple and the Sadducees’ and these men had all gathered for one purpose and that was to stop Peter, John and any of their converts from disturbing the temple operations.
Second, the religious leaders asked Peter and John a question
And their question had nothing to do with the healing which had happened which was why everyone was gathered there in the first place. But listen, these men didn’t care who got healed or even how it happened but all they cared about was that Peter and John were teaching about Jesus and the resurrection from the dead and that undercut everything they stood for.
So verse 3 says, they laid hands on them and put them in hold until the next day. In other words, they put them out of sight and hopefully, they thought, they were out of mind as well. But, there were so many people saved that the group of believers had grown to around five thousand.
And then verse 5 says, ‘And it came to pass on the morrow, that their rulers, and elders, and scribes, 6 and Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred 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 ye done this?’
And I want you to notice the name of Caiaphas here because he played such an important part in the role of the crucifixion of Jesus. So, imagine how intimidating this questioning would have been because I’m sure Peter and John must have thought they were about to be the first Christian martyrs.
And the question they were asked had nothing to do with the miracle or if anyone could verify it because they completely ignored the one who was healed because as far as they were concerned it didn’t matter. It was just like the resurrection of Jesus where they gave bribes to the soldiers to keep them quiet and here they were saying to Peter and John was, ‘We know what we believe, so don’t disturb us with the facts!”
Karl Marx said, ‘Religion is the opiate of the people’ and in a strange way he was right because these religious leaders were so high on their religion they couldn’t see the facts even though they stood right in front of them.
I also want you to notice that there was no specific charge made against these men but this “trial” seemed to be more of a “fishing expedition” where they were trying to find some way they either broke the law or one of their traditions. Maybe, they were hoping to scare them into going home and being quiet.
So, when they asked, ‘By what power, or in what name, have you done this?” By what name, can also mean, by what incantation or by what spell did you do this healing? And their accusation implies they had healed this man by some mystic ability like black magic or some other form of occult practice and if Peter and John were somehow convicted of being involvement in witchcraft they could have been sentenced to death.
And by asking ‘what name’ also assumes they were part of some kind of rebellion considering they hadn’t been given any authority to act on behalf of the Sanhedrin.
So, the Sanhedrin were upset by two things, first, they were teaching the people and as far as they were concerned this was their area of expertise and no one had any right to do it without their permission. And the second was that Peter and John were preaching that Jesus had risen from the dead. After all, these men were the very ones had executed Jesus as a blasphemer and now Peter and John were claiming He is the resurrected Messiah.
And they’d see them not like someone with a new brand of theology but as someone who was attacking their authority. And what they were really saying was, “Peter and John, who gave you the authority to heal this crippled man? Don’t you realize that it’s us and not you who are the authorities in religious matters? We are the trained professionals. We have all the degrees and credentials. And what do you have? You need to go get a license and pay us an annual fee and then we’ll tell you what to say because we are the official authorities, and you should respect that.”
And then third, we see Peter’s response in verse 8-10,
‘Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel, 9 if we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole; 10 be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.’
Peter said, ‘If you’re wondering about the healing, which they weren’t; he said it came through the power of Jesus who you crucified and whom God raised from the dead.
Listen, the foundation of Peter’s preaching was the fact that he was filled with the Holy Spirit. And the filling of the Holy Spirit only happens when we’re walking in obedience to the word and the Spirit.
And here we see Peter going on the offensive because first; he began by indicting the Sanhedrin for putting both he and John on trial for the healing that was done to this cripple and he basically he accused them of false arrest because there was nothing wrong with do good for someone who everyone could see needed it.
And then second, he charges them with the crucifixion of Jesus whom he said God raised from the dead. He said, ‘This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.’ And the term ‘set at nought’ means they rejected Him’ or ‘treated Him with contempt.’ So, Peter was telling these men, “You considered Jesus Christ to be nothing but He was the cornerstone, the foundation stone that bears the weight of all our burdens, but you looked at him and said, ‘He’s a worthless blasphemer and a nobody.”
And then Peter made a statement that was controversial back then and it’s still controversial today because in verse 12, when he said, ‘Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” And we know, that no religion, no good work, no act of generosity and no donation to any cause is ever going to get God’s attention, but it’s is only the work of His Son Jesus that God responds to.
And then finally we see the reaction of the leadership
13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. 14 And beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.
They noted they were uneducated and ordinary men and yet they were aware that these men had been with Jesus.
So, as Peter stood before this group of powerful, educated and cultured men they were doing their best to intimidate him but as the Spirit of God came upon Peter he began to speak with great boldness and clarity.
So, they threatened them further but Peter told them they were wasting their breath because they’d rather obey God than man any day.
Conclusion
Let me just wrap up here by saying, we’ll always face accusations as Christians and we can all be the subject of destructive criticism, gossip, slander, foolish inferences and ignorant speculations. And anyone who's honest with himself will have to admit that the hurtful things people say because we’re believers or even insinuate can be mean, heartless and cruel.
So, how do we deal with these things? How do we prevent the mean and selfish things people say from becoming a root of bitterness?
The answer is simple: keep in mind that any of us are far worse than our enemies could ever imagine. I mean, they don't know the half of it. They may not be honest in what they’re saying but if they really knew what was in my heart their hair would stand on end and their mouths would be hanging open in shock and disbelief.
I could tell them things about my own heart that would make their petty criticisms seem pale in comparison. After all, what is wrong with me is so wrong, that it took the Son of God who was perfect to die for me and suffer God's wrath.
So, as bad as people might think we are, we’re probably even worse than that; but Jesus loved us so much that He went to the cross and died in our place and now He’s prepared a glorious home for us in heaven.
