I Pledge Allegiance - Acts 4:1-22

© March 30th, 2025 by Rev. Rick Goettsche SERIES: Acts

In the United States, most schoolchildren are required to recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag in school each day. A number of other meetings and gatherings begin with reciting this pledge. The idea is to reinforce patriotism and national pride among all citizens, reminding us of what binds us together.

In ancient Israel, most people in the nation felt pride and allegiance to their nation. Their nation was founded by God and was (at least in theory) based on following God’s commands. As such, the people had a deep devotion to both the religious and civil institutions of the society at that time. This is what makes the response of Peter and John so remarkable in our passage today. The religious leaders, the most powerful and respected leaders of the society, commanded them to stop speaking about Jesus. Peter and John were faced with a difficult decision. But it seems that they did not struggle with their decision at all. They knew where their true allegiance lay.

This morning we get to look at the aftermath of the healing of the man born lame and Peter’s subsequent sermon in the temple courts. This spectacle had attracted quite a crowd and had therefore raised the attention of the religious leaders, who didn’t like what was happening. We’ll look at their response to Peter and John as well as Peter and John’s response to their demands as we look at the beginning of Acts 4 this morning.

Confrontation

Luke sets the scene for us in the opening verses of chapter 4,

While Peter and John were speaking to the people, they were confronted by the priests, the captain of the Temple guard, and some of the Sadducees. 2 These leaders were very disturbed that Peter and John were teaching the people that through Jesus there is a resurrection of the dead. 3 They arrested them and, since it was already evening, put them in jail until morning. 4 But many of the people who heard their message believed it, so the number of men who believed now totaled about 5,000. 5 The next day the council of all the rulers and elders and teachers of religious law met in Jerusalem. 6 Annas the high priest was there, along with Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and other relatives of the high priest. 7 They brought in the two disciples and demanded, “By what power, or in whose name, have you done this?” (Acts 4:1-7, NLT)

The language here makes it sound like Peter and John were almost ambushed by a group of people made up of the priests, the captain of the Temple guard, and some of the Sadducees. It doesn’t sound like these people waited for a break in the action so they could ask Peter a respectful question, but rather that they broke into the gathering abruptly, intending to break up the crowd gathered around them. Their wanted to put a stop to what was happening.

So, who was this band of leaders? The priests probably referred to members of the high priest’s family, and not to the priests from local towns who came to serve their turn in the temple. These priests were well-respected, prominent leaders. The captain of the temple guard was the second most powerful Jewish man in Israel, behind the high priest. He was in charge of the temple guard, which was like a small army whose job was to protect and ensure order in the temple. This was the group dispatched to arrest Jesus. The final group mentioned here are the Sadducees.

The Sadducees were a religious sect that only recognized the first 5 books of the Bible as authoritative. They believed these books did not indicate anything about the possibility of the resurrection from the dead or life beyond the grave, so they had concluded that there was no resurrection or life beyond the grave. As such, Jesus was a significant problem for these men.

Kent Hughes gives us a bit clearer picture of what these people were like,

These men had gained special ascendancy during the intertestamental Maccabean period. During subsequent political regimes, they created a priestly nobility. They were the educated, wealthy elite. But they were also unprincipled collaborationists, political sycophants who would sell their mothers to stay in power. Though a minority, they controlled Jewish political and religious life. They were evil control freaks, and they did not want anyone rocking their boat. 1

The Sadducees were primarily concerned with one thing: power. They were not afraid to work with the Romans, and were willing to do whatever was necessary to protect their privileged status in Jerusalem. This group was at the heart of those who executed Jesus, and they did so because they saw Him as a threat. They may have been a minority party, but they wielded enormous power.

The issue for these men was not the large crowd or the disturbance in the temple, the issue was that they were concerned that Peter and John were teaching that through Jesus there was a resurrection of the dead. These were two subjects the Sadducees did not want being taught: they did not want anyone teaching there was a resurrection of the dead, and they certainly didn’t want them pointing anyone to Jesus, since He was the ultimate evidence of this fact!

Despite the efforts of this band of Jewish leaders, people were still turning to Jesus in droves. Luke gives us an update, telling us that by this point, the church numbered over 5,000 men! Presumably, when you counted women and children, the number was even greater still!

Unfortunately for Peter and John, the hour had gotten late. They had come to the temple for the 3:00 prayer service, so it was now too late in the day for the ruling council to be assembled, so they had Peter and John thrown into jail for the night. I suspect this had a little bit to do with the difficulty of assembling the council, but far more about these leaders flexing their muscles, showing Peter and John that they shouldn’t mess with them, because they had the power to make their lives miserable. Of course, their power was an illusion; it was a derived power. God was far more powerful than they were. This was something Peter and John understood…far better than the religious leaders.

The next morning, however, the council was able to be assembled. This group is typically known as the Sanhedrin, and was comprised of 70 members, well-respected religious leaders who were tasked with making difficult decisions about the direction of the Jewish people or about specific issues that were facing the community.

Luke also notes that Annas, the high priest was there, along with Caiaphas and many other relatives of the high priest’s family. You may remember that we were introduced to both Annas and Caiaphas in the crucifixion story in the gospels. One of the difficulties that sometimes is raised by people is that both men are referred to as the high priest. But history helps to explain this quirk.

Annas was the high priest, but had offended the Roman leaders, so they deposed him and put his son-in-law, Caiaphas in the position instead. But God had commanded that the high priest would serve for life. So, even though Annas was not officially the high priest, many still saw him as the spiritual high priest, and he was still afforded a great deal of respect and influence. Eventually, a significant chunk of Annas’ family ended up serving in this position. So the mention of these men there gives us a sense of the gravity and significance of these proceedings. The whole thing was intended to strike fear into both Peter and John.

They demanded that these men tell them by what authority they felt they had the right to do the things they had done that day. Rather than being overmatched by the situation, however, I suspect they both remembered the words Jesus had told them before,

11 “And when you are brought to trial in the synagogues and before rulers and authorities, don’t worry about how to defend yourself or what to say, 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what needs to be said.” (Luke 12:11-12, NLT)

The intent was to scare these two apostles into submission. But the religious leaders were about to find out, that wasn’t going to work on these men.

Peter’s Response

The religious leaders asked Peter to explain what gave them the right to do what they had done. Peter was not one to miss an opportunity, so he gladly (and boldly) began to tell them the same things he had been telling others!

8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of our people, 9 are we being questioned today because we’ve done a good deed for a crippled man? Do you want to know how he was healed? 10 Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead. 11 For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says, ‘The stone that you builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.’ 12 There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.” 13 The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus. 14 But since they could see the man who had been healed standing right there among them, there was nothing the council could say. 15 So they ordered Peter and John out of the council chamber and conferred among themselves. (Acts 4:8-15, NLT)

I love Peter’s boldness in this moment. He doesn’t back down from the religious leaders at all. He points out the absurdity of being put on trial for healing a crippled man. He understood the real issue, however, and so he went right after it. Peter said the reason the man was healed was because of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene.

As we have seen in Peter’s previous sermons, he didn’t stop there. He pointed his new audience to Jesus, but he also pointed them to their own sin and culpability. He said that they were the ones who had crucified Jesus (and in this case, every one of these men would have been directly involved in Jesus’ crucifixion). But Peter also pointed out that Jesus was raised from the dead by God! This would have incensed the Sadducees and was a sore subject with every member of the council. They knew people were saying Jesus had risen; they had even tried to prevent anyone being able to make that claim, but here they were, and they couldn’t disprove anything Peter was saying!

Peter then quoted from Psalm 118, which says, “The stone the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.” But Peter intentionally adds a word to this statement to drive home his point. He says, “The stone you builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” Peter’s point is clear—you have rejected the Messiah! He has been exalted despite your efforts to silence Him.

And, as we have seen in Peter’s sermon before, he ends by pointing this group to their need to be saved, telling them that it is only through Jesus that anyone can be saved. Peter speaks with a supernatural boldness that took the ruling council off-guard. This was not what they expected at all.

They all took note of the fact that Peter and John were not trained as rabbis; they were fishermen, blue-collar workers who were not trained in rhetoric or logic. But these men knew the scriptures and had spent the last 3 years with Jesus—the best education anyone could hope for. There was no reason for these men to speak with such power…except for Jesus.

The religious leaders wanted to silence them, but realized there wasn’t much they could say, because the man they had healed was standing there with them. I don’t think it’s an accident that Luke says the man was standing! The man (who we later learned had been crippled for 40 years) was not laying on his mat as he had been, he was standing in their midst! This made a tough case for these leaders. So they kicked out Peter and John so they could confer among themselves and formulate a plan.

Aftermath

After conferring, they called Peter and John back in to deliver their instructions.

16 “What should we do with these men?” they asked each other. “We can’t deny that they have performed a miraculous sign, and everybody in Jerusalem knows about it. 17 But to keep them from spreading their propaganda any further, we must warn them not to speak to anyone in Jesus’ name again.” 18 So they called the apostles back in and commanded them never again to speak or teach in the name of Jesus. 19 But Peter and John replied, “Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than him? 20 We cannot stop telling about everything we have seen and heard.” 21 The council then threatened them further, but they finally let them go because they didn’t know how to punish them without starting a riot. For everyone was praising God 22 for this miraculous sign—the healing of a man who had been lame for more than forty years. (Acts 4:16-22, NLT)

The council understood they really had no recourse here. They couldn’t disprove anything Peter and John were saying, but they were concerned that if they didn’t try to stop them, they would create such upheaval in the city that they would lose their power. This was unacceptable, so they needed to stop them.

The solution they settled on was to threaten the disciples and tell them never to speak or teach about Jesus again. It was simply an appeal to power. They were claiming they had the authority to forbid these men to preach…but they didn’t.

Peter and John knew this. For them, the decision was clear—should we obey God or men? If we can’t obey both of you, which one should we obey? Even the religious leaders couldn’t argue with that logic. So, they issued some more threats, and realizing that was really all they could do, they let them go.

Luke reminds us that everyone was praising God for the miraculous sign. You would think the religious leaders would have been excited to see the people praising God! But they weren’t, because all they saw was their own power slipping through their fingers. They were concerned about these uneducated ruffians, because they were building a significant following. And that was a threat that must be dealt with.

Conclusion

This passage has a lot to teach us. First, there are times when we must disobey earthly authorities to obey God. There are a lot of things earthly authorities do that we may not like or agree with. This passage is not a license for us to just rebel against laws or commands we dislike. Rather, what we see is that when we are put in a position where obeying God results in us breaking the law (whether that is the law of the land or our workplace, our school, or even the unwritten rules of society), we must choose to obey God rather than men. But when we do so, we must be prepared to face the consequences. We will discover that Peter and John were not afraid to face the wrath of these men. They feared the wrath of God far more, so the decision was easy—we must obey God rather than men. We should have the same perspective. When possible, we must obey God and men, but when we cannot do both, we must obey God, recognizing there may be consequences to that decision, but also recognizing the consequences of disobeying God are always greater.

Second, God can use ordinary people if we submit to Him. Sometimes people think they lack the credentials, knowledge, or vocabulary to testify boldly about Christ. We believe the lie that true power comes from these things. But notice, that Peter and John were far more powerful than the group arrayed before them. The equivalent today would be a room full of lawyers and seminary Ph.D.’s standing on one side, and two high school graduates standing on the other. What impressed the group was not that Peter and John were eloquent or exceedingly smart, but that they were bold and what they said was true. If what we are saying is true, it is the most powerful thing in the world! We do not need to be concerned that someone will disprove it, because it cannot be disproven! We must be willing to boldly speak the truth and let God do the rest. Like Peter and John, our weakness often highlights God’s working through us—because there is no other explanation for our power. Be willing to be bold in your witness, because God can use ordinary people who trust Him enough to do what He says.

Third, some people will never be convinced of the truth. The irony of this whole account was that the religious leaders recognized there was nothing they could say to counter the claims Peter and John were making. They could see the man who had been healed. They knew Jesus had been killed, but could not prove He had not risen from the grave. Their issue was not that they didn’t understand what was happening—it was that they understood exactly what was happening! They understood that if Jesus was real, then it would require them to submit to Him, and that was absolutely unacceptable. As such, they were willing to do whatever it took to prevent that from happening.

This is the same thing we see in much of the scientific and academic communities today, as well as in the political arena, let alone our culture. Everyone likes the idea of god as long as we can control him. We like the idea of a god who has the power to grant our wishes (like a genie), but not a god who will tell us what to do or challenge us to change. When people are confronted with the reality of who God is, many will harden their hearts, because they are unwilling to change. Our task is simply to hold out the truth and pray that God will penetrate their hard hearts. Those whose hearts remain hard are not your fault, it is their own.

This passage reminds us that the world persecuted Jesus, so we shouldn’t be surprised if they do the same to us. The world needs to hear the gospel but doesn’t always want to hear it. If we speak the truth, we will ruffle some feathers, and some may even lash out at us. But like Peter and John, we must ask where our ultimate allegiance lies. It is not an allegiance to a flag, a nation, an ideology, or even to other people—our ultimate allegiance lies with Jesus. So we should stand boldly with Him, no matter the cost.

© March 30th, 2025 by Rev. Rick Goettsche SERIES: Acts

1 Hughes, R. Kent. Acts: The Church Afire. Preaching the Word. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1996.