Acts 04(01–31)

Introduction

We left Peter and John in the temple in Jerusalem, where they’d just healed a lame man in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And afterwards, when a crowd had gathered, Peter explained that they, the Jews, had handed the Lord Jesus over to Pilate to be killed, but God raised him from the dead. And it is Jesus’s name and the faith that comes through him that has given complete healing to the lame man. And he went on to command the people to repent: to turn from their sin and unbelief and to turn to God for mercy. And if they repent, their sins will be wiped out and times of refreshing will come from the Lord, when he sends his Spirit on them to refresh their tired and weary souls and to give them new life in Christ. And Peter also explained that one day God will send the Christ again to restore everything. He’ll come to restore the heavens and the earth to what they were always meant to be; and he’ll come to restore his people to what we were always meant to be; and we will live with him in body and soul in a renewed and restored world where there will be no more sorrow or sadness or disease or death. No one will be lame, but everyone will stand and leap and praise God for ever and for ever.

Verses 1 to 4

That’s where we left Peter and John. What happened next? Luke tells us in verse 1 of chapter 4 that the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John, while they were still speaking to the people. And Luke tells us that these people were greatly disturbed. Instead of being greatly pleased that a lame man had been healed, they were greatly disturbed because Peter and John were teaching the people about Jesus Christ and about the resurrection from the dead.

While we don’t know much about the Sadducees and what they believed, one thing we do know about them is that they didn’t believe in the resurrection or in the afterlife. And so, they didn’t want the apostles speaking about such things to the people in the temple. They therefore seized Peter and John and put them in jail in order to examine them the next day and to decide what to do with them.

But Luke then tells us in verse 4 that many who heard the message believed. The priests and the captain of the guard and the Sadducees did not believe. But many of the people who heard the message believed. And that means that the Lord Jesus Christ, from his throne in heaven, sent his Spirit to use the reading and preaching of his word that day to convince and convert many hundreds of people to the Christian faith.

Luke tells us that the number of men grew to about five thousand. It’s not clear whether he means that the total number of believers in Jerusalem was now about five thousand or whether five thousand people were converted that day. Neither is it clear whether the five thousand included men only or men and women. But whatever the total figure, lots and lots of people were converted that day after hearing Peter and John speak to them about the Lord Jesus who has been raised from the dead.

Today’s passage is partly about the opposition of the Jewish authorities to the good news about Jesus Christ. Not so very long ago, they arrested the Lord Jesus and they handed him over to Pilate to be crucified. Now the same group of people are arresting his apostles and they want the apostles to stop preaching about Christ. But their opposition will not prevent the church from growing, because Christ the Lord, who rules in heaven as king over all, is determined to build his church on the earth and nothing and no-one will stop him.

Verses 5 to 12

Luke tells us in verse 5 that the rulers and elders and teachers of the law met in Jerusalem the next day. So, these people make up the Sanhedrin, which was the Jewish court which tried and sentenced the Lord Jesus. And we’re familiar with the names Annas and Caiaphas from the gospels. Luke also refers to John and Alexander, but we don’t know anything about them. And he says that others from the high priest’s family were there. The point is that all the bigwigs were there. These were the Jewish ruling authorities. These were the ones who not long ago had sentenced the Lord Jesus to death. And Peter and John were brought before them to be questioned. They wanted to know by what power or by what name did they heal the lame man. Who gave you the right to do such a thing?

And as we read how Peter and John answered them, what perhaps strikes us as remarkable is that there’s no suggestion whatsoever that Peter and John were intimidated by the Jewish authorities. They were not overawed in any sense. But it’s not because Peter and John were naturally confident. We meet people like that, who have a natural confidence so that they’re not intimidated by anyone. But Luke makes it clear to us in verse 8 that their ability to stand up to the Jewish authorities came from the Holy Spirit. In the gospels, the Lord Jesus told his apostles not to worry about what they should say or how to say it whenever they’re arrested, because at that time they will be given what to say by the Holy Spirit. And sure enough, when Peter began to speak on this occasion, he was filled with the Holy Spirit who enabled them to answer their opponents.

And Peter begins by referring to the healing as an act of kindness to a cripple. Do you see that in verse 9? It’s as if he’s saying: Is this why we’re under trial? For performing an act of kindness to a cripple? You should be praising us, not questioning us!

And since the rulers wanted to know by what power or by what name they had done this thing, Peter made clear to them that they did it by the name of — or by the authority of — Jesus Christ of Nazareth. So, they healed the man by the authority of Jesus of Nazareth, who is the Christ, God’s Spirit-Anointed and Conquering King, sent to deliver us from our sin and misery in this world.

You crucified him, Peter says. But God raised him from the dead. The Sadducees may not believe in the resurrection, but the fact is that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. And Peter was able to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, because he and the other apostles had seen it with their own eyes.

And then Peter turns to the Old Testament Scriptures to show how God revealed long ago that this would happen to his Son. He quotes from Psalm 118 where it says that the stone the builders rejected has become the capstone. In the psalm, the psalmist was referring to God’s people and the great reversal which they experienced because of God’s kindness to them. The psalmist likens the people to a stone which the builders rejected at first. But then the stone is picked out of the rubbish heap and it becomes the capstone of the building: the stone that is placed above every other stone at the top of the building. And in a similar way, God’s people were once rejected, despised by their enemies. But God then exalted them over their enemies. That’s what the psalm is about. But Peter now sees how it applies to the Lord Jesus, who was rejected by the Jewish authorities. And do you see how Peter adds the word ‘you’ in the first line of the quotation? He says: you builders rejected him. He means: you are the builders who rejected him. But God raised him from the dead and exalted him to the highest place, far above you builders and far above all his enemies and from above every other power in this age or the next.

And Peter ends his answer to their question by proclaiming to them the good news of salvation. He declares to them that salvation from God’s wrath is found in no-one else than in the Lord Jesus Christ, because there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. So, Peter is saying to the ruling authorities that if you want to be saved from God’s wrath for having rejected the Saviour and for having killed him without cause, then you must look to the Lord Jesus Christ and trust in his name, because there is no other Saviour apart from him. He alone is the Saviour, the one and only mediator between God and sinners. Trust in him. Put your faith in him. Go to him. Turn to him. Rely on him, because he’s the only one who can save you from the wrath of God, which you deserve for what you have done wrong.

And this is the good news which we all must hear and believe: salvation from God’s wrath, which we all deserve for a lifetime of unbelief and disobedience, is found in no one else but in Jesus Christ the Saviour. He alone is the Saviour of the world and whoever trusts in his name receives forgiveness and peace with God; and the sure and certain hope of the resurrection; and everlasting life in the presence of God. What we deserve for a lifetime of sin is to be sent out of God’s presence and to suffer God’s wrath and curse eternally. But whoever believes in Christ the Saviour is pardoned and accepted by God and we’re brought into God’s family and we can know him as Father.

Verses 13 to 22

And the members of the Sanhedrin were cut to the heart and they confessed their sins and trusted in Christ for forgiveness and were added to the church. Is that what happened next? Sadly no, that’s not what happened next.

We’ve seen before from the book of Romans how by nature or by birth we’re sinfully inclined to suppress or repress the truth about God. In psychology, they say that when someone has a thought or a desire which they cannot acknowledge because it might cause them anxiety, they — without knowing it — bury that thought or desire deep down inside. They repress it unknowingly. And so, they practise a kind of self-deception, when they keep this thought or desire from themselves. I was reading a book (Bahnsen, The Apologetic Implications of Self-Deception) about this very thing, and the author gave the example of a mother who can’t bear to acknowledge the truth about her son that he’s a dishonest thief. When teachers in his school report that he’s stolen things from this classmates, she claims that the teachers have it in for her son and are framing him. When money goes missing from her own purse, she comes up with some implausible excuse for why the money is missing. She can’t bear the thought that her son is a thief and so she unknowingly deceives herself and represses the truth about him.

That’s what people do all the time. And Paul says in Romans that people do it all the time when it comes to the truth about God. Because we’re sinners by nature or by birth, we’re sinfully inclined to deny the truth about God. When we’re confronted with evidence for God’s existence, we’ll lean on any reason we can find for not accepting it. We can’t bear the thought that God is real and that he holds us accountable for what we have done wrong. We can’t bear the thought that we’re only guilty sinners in his sight. We can’t bear the thought that we’re not the good people we really think we are. We can’t bear the thought; and so we repress it. We bury it.

And that’s what we see here in the reaction of the ruling authorities. The evidence is clear to them: they have the witness of the Old Testament Scriptures to the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead; they have the eye-witness testimony of the apostles, who have seen the Saviour alive from the dead; and they have the lame man, who was healed by the Risen Saviour, standing right in front of them. God is revealing to them the truth about Jesus Christ: that he was raised from the dead; and he was exalted to heaven; that he healed this lame man; and he offers salvation to all who believe in his name. But instead of accepting the truth, the ruling authorities were sinfully inclined to reject it.

And so, we read in verse 16 how they discussed among themselves what they should do with Peter and John. They admit that everyone living in Jerusalem knows that Peter and John have done an outstanding miracle. They cannot deny that. They cannot deny that an outstanding miracle has taken place. But they’re not willing to acknowledge what the miracle means: that the Lord Jesus whom they crucified has been raised and is now ruling in heaven as king over all and that he has healed this man. They won’t acknowledge that. And instead they want to stop Peter and John from spreading this message any further among the people. And so, they decide that what they must do is to warn Peter and John to speak no longer to anyone in this name.

And so, according to verse 18, they called the apostles back in and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. And that’s when Peter and John replied and asked them to judge for themselves whether it’s right in God’s sight to obey the ruling authorities rather than God. God has commanded Peter and John through the person of his Son to go into all the world and to teach everyone about him. They have been commissioned by Christ as his apostles. He has appointed them to be his witnesses. So, who should they obey? Should they obey the ruling authorities? Or should they obey God? Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it? They should obey God. And so, they cannot help speaking about what they have seen and heard. They cannot help it and they will not stop it. They will continue to preach about Christ.

And what could the authorities do apart from make some further threats? They can’t punish the apostles, because all the people are praising God for what God has done through them.

Application

The religious authorities had all the evidence they needed in order to believe. They had the testimony of the Old Testament Scriptures about Christ who is the rejected stone who has become the capstone. They have the eye-witness testimony of Peter and John that the Christ who died is alive. They have the evidence of an outstanding miracle performed in the name and by the power of the Risen Lord Jesus. They have all the evidence they need. But instead of accepting it, they reject it. They repress it. They can’t bear to accept that they were wrong about Jesus Christ and that he really is the only Saviour of the world and that they too need to be saved.

And you are I would be just like them, if it were not for God’s kindness to us in Christ Jesus. We would be just like them, refusing to acknowledge what is obviously true: refusing to accept that Christ who died is alive; and that he’s the only Saviour of the world. We would be just like them, refusing to accept that we need to be saved because we’re sinners who deserve the wrath and curse of God for all that we have done wrong. We would be just like them, if it were not for God’s kindness to us in Christ Jesus and if he did not give us his Spirit to open our eyes to see the glory of Christ in the gospel; and to take away our unbelieving heart; and to give us a new, believing heart so that we’re able to acknowledge and believe these things. If it were not for God’s kindness to us in sending his Spirit into our lives, none of us would believe and we’d be sitting at home right now, or doing something else, instead of being here to worship God, which is what we were made to do; and to hear the most important and life-changing message that any of us will hear this week, because it’s the good news about Jesus Christ and it’s true and whether we believe it or whether we don’t believe it will determine where we spend eternity.

And since it takes the Holy Spirit to enable sinners to overcome their sinful inclination to repress the truth and to deceive themselves about Christ, then we who believe should pray and pray and pray again for God to send his Spirit into the lives of our loved ones and neighbours and colleagues who don’t believe and to enable them to believe and to come joyfully and freely to Jesus Christ, who is the only Saviour of the world and the only name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.

Verses 23 to 31

When faced with the threats of the ruling authorities, Peter and John went back to their fellow believers and reported to them all that the ruling authorities said to them about not speaking about Christ again.

And when the believers heard what had happened, they too turned to God in prayer. They turned to him, because he is the Sovereign Lord, who made the heavens and the earth and all that is in them; and he rules over the heavens and the earth and all that is in them. And therefore he rules over the ruling authorities in Jerusalem.

And they turned to him because he’s able to use the wicked deeds of men for his own good purpose. In their prayer, they quote from Psalm 2 to make clear that what happened to the Lord Jesus had all been planned by God beforehand. And so, before any of this took place in time, God decided that kings like Herod and rulers like Pilate and unbelieving Gentiles and unbelieving Jews would rage against and plot against and would take their stand against God’s Anointed King, Jesus Christ. God decided before it took place that this is what would happen to his Son, because there was no other way for us to be saved from God’s wrath except by means of the death of Christ the Saviour. And therefore God used the evil things they did to his Son for his own good purpose. And since that’s the case, then God is able to overcome the opposition of the ruling authorities and he’s able to use the evil things they do to the apostles for his own good purpose.

And they turned to him because he is the one who is able to help them to speak the word of God about Christ with boldness. And that’s what we want for our preachers today, isn’t it? And so, we should pray for it. The apostolic era, with all its miraculous signs and wonders is over. But still we should pray to the Lord to raise up and to send out preachers into all the world to declare the word of God about Christ with boldness. They need boldness to overcome opposition and threats. And so, will you pray for that? Will you pray for God to raise up and to send out preachers who will preach the word of God about Christ with boldness? And will you pray for God to send his Spirit to make the reading and preaching of the word of God about Christ effective, so that people who are sinfully inclined to repress the truth about God and Christ will accept it and believe it and trust in Christ for salvation.

And look: God answered their prayer. The place where they were meeting was shaken and they were filled with the Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. God answered their prayer. And may God answer our prayers so that the word of God about Christ will be proclaimed boldly and powerfully throughout the world and people everywhere will believe and will join together to give thanks to God for Christ who is the only Saviour of the world.