Acts 4
Notes
Transcript
Handout
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.
One of the most notable examples of jail failing to silence the gospel is the story of Richard Wurmbrand, a Romanian pastor imprisoned for his faith under a communist regime. Despite brutal conditions, he used his time in prison to share the gospel with his captors and fellow inmates. His secret meetings to pray and sing hymns led many to Christ, proving that forced silence often amplifies the message.
Richard Wurmbrand grew up in a Jewish family in Bucharest, Romania. As a young man, he was known for his intelligence; he worked as a stockbroker and would eventually become fluent in nine different languages. In 1936, he married a Jewish woman by the name of Sabina Oster.
After they were exposed to the Gospel by a German carpenter in 1938, the newlywed Wurmbrands became devoted Christians. It was at the brink of World War II that Richard became an ordained Lutheran minister, thus beginning some of the most harrowing moments of his life as a follower of Jesus.
When the war broke out in Europe, the Wurmbrands were not passive about their faith. Instead, they welcomed every opportunity to evangelize to German forces, Russian soldiers, Jews, and anyone around them. No matter the potential consequences, the continuing war was not something the Wurmbrands would allow to scare them from sharing their faith: the couple preached in bomb shelters, rescued Jewish children, and smuggled Bibles to Russian troops.
The year 1945 marked not only the end of World War II but the start of Communist control in Romania. Despite the threat of imprisonment, the couple diligently served both oppressed Christians and Russian soldiers occupying their country. In that same year, the Wurmbrands attended the Congress of Cults, hosted by the Communist government in Romania. Broadcasted to all of Romania, Richard did not hide his faith in the presence of such an oppressive government: he proclaimed that the world should only be glorying God and Him alone. The Wurmbrands’ unashamed and outspoken faith was fully at odds with the Communist regime, and this tension eventually led to an onset of torture that would last years and years.
Source:
"Giving Hope to the Persecuted: The Story of Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand." Dallas Baptist University, 19 Dec. 2022, www.dbu.edu/advent/4/day-19.html.
Who was speaking to the people?
Peter and John.
Both Peter and John were speaking to the people, they were being preached to by both men.
Both men were explaining the significance of the miracle that the people had witnessed.
How did the Sadducees respond to Peter and John speaking to the people?
They put them into prison.
Why did the Sadducees arrest them, what about Peter and John’s message incited so much rage?
The Sadducees did not believe in a physical resurrection.
27 Then came to him certain of the Sadducees, which deny that there is any resurrection; and they asked him,
What was the response of the people who heard Peter and John?
Many people believed.
Throughout history, the church has flourished under persecution and distress. The reason is that Christ liberates us from the oppression of the world and when unbelievers see Christians living boldly in times of persecution it incites their curiosity and interest to the thought ‘what could drive a person to live such a way under such circumstances’.
How many believed?
5,000 men.
Many scholars will take this to only be the men and not include women who may have heard and believed.
This also demonstrates how crowded the temple complex would be during this time as Peter and John had moved from the Court of the Gentiles into the Court of Women.
The Judaean Sanhedrin consisted of elders from various sociopolitical Jewish classes, both priestly and nonpriestly. It was closely related to chief priests, Sadducees, and Pharisees, with Pharisees likely being a minority.[1]
More specifically, the Sanhedrin was composed of three key groups:
1. “Rulers” (archontes), which referred to the high priest and chief priests
2. “Elders” (presbyteroi), who were lay members typically representing aristocratic families and tending to ally with the Sadducees
3. “Scribes” (grammateus), a professional class of scholars responsible for interpreting, teaching, and preserving Jewish law, who were mostly allied with the Pharisees[2]
To elaborate further, the elders represented the upper echelon of lay society, and both the rulers and elders were largely, if not exclusively, Sadducean. The scholars (scribes) were experts in Old Testament law, with most belonging to the Pharisee party. Together, these three groups made up the Sanhedrin.[3]
Interestingly, scholars note that the precise makeup of these governing groups in first-century Palestine remains uncertain. In ancient Jewish society, there was no clear distinction between civil, criminal, and religious matters, and the same high council likely dealt with all of them.[1]
[1] Douglas Mangum and Vasile Babota, “Sanhedrin,” in The Lexham Bible Dictionary, ed. John D. Barry et al. (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).
[2] Clinton E. Arnold, Acts, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, vol. 2B, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), 30.
[3] Robert H. Gundry, Commentary on the New Testament: Verse-by-Verse Explanations with a Literal Translation (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2010), 476.
And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together—The class of the “chief priests” included the high priest for the time being, together with all who had previously filled this office; for though the then head of the Aaronic family was the only rightful high priest, the Romans removed them at pleasure, to make way for creatures of their own. In this class probably were included also the heads of the four and twenty courses of the priests. The “scribes” were at first merely transcribers of the law and synagogue readers; afterwards interpreters of the law, both civil and religious, and so both lawyers and divines. The first of these classes, a proportion of the second, and “the elders”—that is, as LIGHTFOOT thinks, “those elders of the laity that were not of the Levitical tribe”—constituted the supreme council of the nation, called the Sanhedrim, the members of which, at their full complement, numbered seventy-two. That this was the council which Herod now convened is most probable, from the solemnity of the occasion; for though the elders are not mentioned, we find a similar omission where all three were certainly meant (compare
Annas and Caiaphas … high priests—the former, though deposed, retained much of his influence, and, probably, as sagan or deputy, exercised much of the power of the high priesthood along with Caiaphas (
The Sanhedrin was made up of various religious leaders from various backgrounds such as Pharisee’s and Sadducee’s.
What is the question posed to Peter and John?
By what power and name did you perform this miracle?
What they are asking is ‘by what authority’. Remember this was the same question they asked Jesus.
Notice the boldness of Peter, we have spoken of his boldness and it contrasts John’s passiveness at times.
The stone the builders reject was already mentioned by Jesus Himself in Matthew 21:42.
42 Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?
This is the stone which was set at naught of you builders, &c.—This application of
Peter points them to the exclusivity of Jesus Christ.
When we are evangelizing people, we need to remember this verse by heart:
12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
When Dr. Harmon was preaching at the Living Christmas Tree on Friday, he said something that stuck with me and I believe extremely insightful and powerful in evangelism. He said: Many men have wanted to become god but only God wanted to become a man to save the world.
There is salvation in no other name except through Jesus Christ.
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.
The Greek word for ‘unlearned’ is ἀγράμματος (agrammatos) where we get the word ‘Grammar’ in English.
It means someone who is illiterate.
The Greek word used for ignorant is ἰδιώτης (idiotes) where we get the English word for Idiot.
It means someone without professional knowledge or lacking formal education.
How would you like someone to evaluate you and call you an illiterate idiot?
Despite lacking the formal education and literary skills to be labeled an educated person, what did stand out to the rulers?
They had been with Jesus.
If the world can say nothing good about us, let them say of us ‘they have been with Jesus’.
What other greater title could there be for God’s people than to be said ‘they have been with Jesus’. What greater testimony matters to a Christian than to hear that they have been with Jesus.
The rulers evaluated Peter and John and determined that they did not gain the knowledge of Jesus by conjuring up a story because they were not educated enough to do so. Rather that they knew it was the truth and realized they had first hand knowledge and interaction with Jesus.
What difficult situation did the rulers find themselves with the miracle?
They could not deny the miracle at all.
Pickup in verse 17
Since the rulers could not deny the miracle, what did they do to Peter and John?
Threaten them.
What did the rulers hope to accomplish by threatening Peter and John?
To stop the spread of information regarding the miracle.
The rulers wanted to stop that information from spreading any further than what it had already spread. They were afraid that if more people heard about the healing of the lame man, they would lose the power and control over the people.
What could Peter and John not cease to do?
To speak of the things which they had seen and heard of Jesus.
Notice they pretty much burn the rulers by throwing them to the fire with saying “whether if be right in the sight of God to harken unto more than unto God, judge ye”. — They told them to be the judge of whether it is better to obey God rather than man. This would have infuriated the rulers.
After threatening them more, what did the rulers do with Peter and John?
They let them go.
What situation do the sanhedrin find themselves in this time?
They could do nothing to punish them.
The rulers could not find any way to punish Peter and John and because they feared the people might rebel against them.
Who are the ones who really have the power and control here? Look closely at the end of verse 21.
The people.
The sanhedrin feared that the people would rebel at any moment and thus did more to read the room than to obey God. Because they loved power and what it afforded them in this temporal world.
Our world is not much different. There is a group of elite people who want to dominate and control the world. They do in fact have control but always fear that the people of the world would rebel against them and overthrow them. This is also the world in which the sanhedrin lived, caring more to hold power over the weak and to prosper off the poverty of another man.
How old was the man?
40 years old.
Remember what the great miracle was that took place? That a man who never learned to walk not only walked but leaped and ran. A man who did not have the natural learning skills to walk or bodily strength yet all that was imbued into him through the Holy Ghost in the name of Jesus he rose up and walked.
How did the other Christians respond to the message that Peter and John brought regarding the rulers threat?
They prayed.
Was it a prayer of discouragement, doubt, or fear?
No. It was a prayer for greater boldness.
I feel like today, we are quick to run and hide. Not to stand boldly in the face of opposition, myself included. We need to pray for God’s power and blessing on us that we may speak boldly concerning the spread of the word of God.
Who appointed Herod and Pilate?
God.
God in eternity past, predetermined that both Herod and Pilate would be in power when Jesus would come. It was already determined that Pilate would be the one to crucify Jesus.
The question that is often asked is how can man be fully free and God be fully sovereign?
It is a mystery, but one way to look at this mystery is to understand that being in Christ is being free.
Man is fully free within the confines of God’s sovereignty, which is why man can do what he wills and God’s ultimate will still continues to be accomplished.
What happened when they all were filled with the Holy Spirit?
The place was shaken.
It is a noticeable change or sign that occured.
Things become different when we are filled with the Holy Spirit.
God moves mightily when we pray for the power and work of the Holy Spirit to use us.
Did they pray to be delivered from the rulers threats and persecutions?
No. Instead they prayed that God would use them to be more bold.
If we are to be like the 1st century church in the 21st century, we must pray for boldness and God’s Spirit to work in us rather than to cower and hide.
What does it mean that they shared all things common?
This was an act of love for one another to share with those in need.
The church was experiencing persecution, specifically economic persecution, which included legal oppression and discrimination in employment[1]. Jerusalem was already in a challenging economic position, being off trade routes, with limited economic opportunities, and experiencing multiple severe famines during the 40s. The Christians likely had restricted access to government and temple revenues[1].
This unselfish, sharing lifestyle was so challenging to the surrounding society that it would inevitably lead to persecutions. In the community of believers, all relationships were being transformed[2]. The sharing was a result of the believers being “one in heart and mind,” where the Spirit had removed their possessiveness. When a need was announced, those with possessions would want to share[1].
The purpose of this generous sharing was not to establish a community of goods, but specifically to take care of the poor. The money gathered from selling goods was used exclusively to support those in need[3]. This practice began immediately after Pentecost, with believers sharing not just surplus income but even selling property to aid those in need. This fulfilled God’s promise in Deuteronomy 15:4 that faithful obedience would eliminate poverty among his people[2].
[1] Walter C. Kaiser Jr. et al., Hard Sayings of the Bible (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1996), 517–519.
[2] Max L. Stackhouse et al., On Moral Business: Classical and Contemporary Resources for Ethics in Economic Life (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1995). [See here, here.]
[3] Herman Bavinck, Essays on Religion, Science, and Society, ed. John Bolt, trans. Harry Boonstra and Gerrit Sheeres (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), 135.
Because of this generous giving to one another, was there any that lacked?
No. Those that had possessions sold them and gave that others might have their needs met.
This is one of the greatest acts of love. Those who had possessions lost their possessiveness over their possessions. Rather than selfishly hoard them, they gave them away.
Who was one of these men that sold their possessions and gave to the apostles that they might distribute the goods?
Barnabas.
What tribe and where was he from?
He was of the tribe of Levi and from the country of Cyprus.
Barnabas will become important later in our study through the book of Acts. I’m sure some of you can already do some foreshadowing here if you have a basic knowledge of the bible.
