Acts 4:1-22

Read Acts 4:1-22

Recap:

We are starting after the crippled man was raised

Chapter 4 starts at the end of Peter’s message following him healing the cripple

4:1-4

The Groups involved

Sanhedrin: (made up of 3 groups)

Supreme Court and Senate of the nation (rulers of the nation)

Elders

Scribes (teachers of the law)

Sadducees

Primarily the the priests

Sadducees is the name of there religious affiliation

There job was to teach and interpret scripture

They believed in the following:

Disbelief in a bodily resurrection (Including Jesus) and denial of the existence of angels or spirits

Loyalty to the Roman government

Had a desire to maintain the status quo

An association with the wealthy class

adherence only to Pentateuch

Temple Police

Work for the Priests the Sadducees to keep peace in the temple

The temple police had the authority to arrest Peter and John for making a disturbance some accounts even refer to this a mob, However we see this “situation” being handled by the commander and the priests. This shows the level of concern the leadership had over what was transpiring

If this group of leaders sounds familiar that is because this is the very same council who had Jesus killed

This essentially is the Supreme Court of the Land that Peter and John were about to face off with

4:5-12

In the morning we see them having a hearing with the Highest Court of the land. Everyone agree’s this most likely was a preliminary hearing not a trial

The first question was really an opening for Peter to testify more about Jesus.

Peter Responds boldly with God’s words that was given to him by the Holy Spirit

(read 8-12)

Peter is not backing down here, remember who he is talking with

he then proceeds to call them out for what they did - crucifying Jesus

He then quotes Ps. 118:22 and in the process revels the true meaning of the verse

and then Peter goes on to declare the religious leaders that no one can be saved except by Jesus

4:13-22

the Sanhedrin’s elitist attitude really come out in vs. 13-14. The now knew for sure who they were talking with and where troubled that there Jesus problem did not and has not gone away.

They try to create a plan of how to get these to stop by the mounting evidence was too great

Notice in vs. 17 they could not bring them selfs to mention Jesus’s name. They are in full damage control mode trying to stop this movement.

vs. 19-20 Peter acknowledges there order but pushes back with God’t truth

vs. 21-22 they were threatened agin

Recap/Application

As this account wraps up we are seeing a potentially puzzling result, the decibels have no intention of following the orders of the government.

Why?

We see Peter and John holding the line

What is the line?

I think Holman said it best: “Christians with courage should be law-abiding citizens until that law exceeds the clearly written law of God, at which point a higher authority takes over.”

As christians we have a tremendous responsibility of decrement

We need to discern when we are to follow our government or when or government has stepped over the line and when we need to just follow God.

Any time we are confronted with an issue that we think the government is crossing the line we need to take extreme caution in our decision of our next moves using extreme decrement

Notice the disobedience we see here is NOT our of an emotional response or a knee jerk reaction

Notice also in this account these were God’s words they were speaking not of there own

Don’t miss how unique this action was as US citizens this is not new to us....

We are used to having the right and ability to control our government

In the event government crosses the line we have the right to over-through our government

They didn’t have any of these right or perspectives.

The best I can tell Roam’s government was a form of Monarchy this would not have been an environment that free speech and opinions would have been encouraged

They defied the highest court in the land and because they were obeying God they prevailed

and because they were following God’s will and the hole thing was orchestrated by God the best the court could do was they threatened them further and released them

The take away here is not to go looking for ways to defy the government but to looking and listing to how God is leading you in what he want you to do and be ready to do whatever God needs when He needs you to.

The men did not go to the temple looking for a fight but when was presented they did not back down when it was appropriate, that is what a courages and knowledgeable Christian does.

What knowledgeable christians don’t do is go around looking for fights to prove there point, the don’t use harsh word or phrases or insert them selfs in issues that don’t pertain to them. They keep busy doing what God has called them to do, that is it.

Let God’s work stand on it’s own and we need to stay out of the way.

It’s our job to be at the ready and be good citizens of where we live but we are in battle, this is not to be forgotten and it’s also our job to be equipped to properly deal with what ever comes our way, and to live with the consequences that comes from obeying God over anyone else.