Sunday School May 2, 2026
Speak Boldly about Christ
Acts 4: 1-3, 8-12, 19-20
1. And as they spake unto the people] The movements of the Apostles had by this time become an object of concern to the authorities in Jerusalem. See their complaint (5:28). There is no note of time at the beginning of chap. 3 to indicate what period had elapsed since Pentecost before the lame man was healed. But news soon spread in the city as we can learn from the events related in the previous chapter.
2. being grieved] Better, being troubled. The word signifies thoroughly pained. It is used (16:18) of St Paul’s feeling when the “damsel possessed with a spirit of divination” cried after him at Philippi.
and put them in hold] i.e. in prison. The word means ward, safe keeping. And it is worth noticing on the use of it, that the Jews only employed imprisonment for this precautionary purpose. It was not a mode of punishment with them, and where we find mention of it so used in the Scripture records, the authorities who inflicted it were not Jewish.
unto the next day: for it was now eventide] The Jews were not allowed to give judgment in the night, and their day ceased with the twelfth hour. It was already about the ninth hour when Peter and John were going up to the Temple (3:1),
8. Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost] The Spirit of God upon him had changed him “into another man.” Cf.
9. if we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man] Both the nouns are without the article. Read “a good deed done to an impotent man.” Of = concerning, as we still use it in “to speak of.” St Peter’s words imply that perhaps there would be some other charge brought against them, for teachers of a new doctrine who had in a brief space gained five thousand followers must have attracted much notice in Jerusalem. Nor is it long before we hear (6:13) blasphemy “against the Temple and the law” laid to the charge of Stephen, whose preaching (for this accusation precedes Stephen’s defence) must have been of the same character as that of Peter and John.
22 The stone which the builders refused
Is become the head stone of the corner.
11. This (i.e. Jesus) is the stone which was set at nought of you [the] builders] There is the definite article in the original. The council are fitly called the builders, for on them depended the whole religious and civil government of the people. St Peter, with his mind now enlightened to apply the Scriptures, uses the words of the Psalmist (118:22) as spoken prophetically of Christ. Christ had already (
which is become the head of the corner] Christ, now exalted into heaven, is no longer the despised, but has become the most important, stone in the new building of the Christian society, cp
12. Neither is there salvation in any other] Rather, And our salvation is not in any other. The article with the noun (ἡ σωτηρία) seems thus better expressed. St Peter thus intimates that the cure of the lame man is only a sign of the power of salvation for the soul which was in Jesus. The people were to draw from the effect produced by “Arise and walk,” the conclusion that the same power could as surely give the greater blessing, “thy sins be forgiven thee
19. Peter and John] Both alike express their determination to publish the news of Christ’s life and resurrection. The reason why both names are here mentioned may be that each was separately appealed to for a promise to desist. For an instance of like firmness in a good cause cp
20. the things which we have seen and heard] Better, which we saw and heard. For their testimony related to the whole life of Jesus.
