Acts 4:1-22--Peter and John Before the Council

Acts 4:1-22
English Standard Version

Peter and John Before the Council
4 And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, 2 greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. 3 And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. 4 But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.

5 On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem, 6 with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. 7 And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” 8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, 9 if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, 10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. 11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

​13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus. 14 But seeing the man who was healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition. 15 But when they had commanded them to leave the council, they conferred with one another, 16 saying, “What shall we do with these men? For that a notable sign has been performed through them is evident to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. 17 But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.” 18 So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. 19 But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, 20 for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.” 21 And when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them, because of the people, for all were praising God for what had happened. 22 For the man on whom this sign of healing was performed was more than forty years old.

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We're still at the Temple during the same period after Peter and John healed the lame man.  They are preaching to the crowds there and many of the crowd are repenting and believing, but as they are speaking, the priest, Temple guard and Sadducees came upon them to arrest them.  because they were annoyed that the apostles were using the Temple as a place to preach the gospel, especially to preach of Jesus' resurrection.  They hoped that arresting them and putting them in jail for the evening would cause them to rethink what they were doing, but this only caused those who heard the message to believe it all the more, and there were about 5,000 more men that believed on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation that day.

The next day, the whole Council decided to put these men on trial with the high priest presiding (exactly like what we saw with Jesus' trial).  Notice though they are following the Law more closely as they are holding the trial during the daytime instead of doing it in the dead of night like they did with Jesus (for that was against the Law).  They are there to investigate this miracle as they want to know by what power and by what name they were doing these things (was it by the power of God or the power of the devil?  Were they doing this in a way where the LORD was getting the glory or were they taking glory for themselves or causing others to worship other false gods?).  The intent of the Council here is actually good and biblical, but their conclusion they will come to is flawed because they refuse to believe that Jesus is the Son of God and coequal with God and just as worthy of worship as the Father is.

Peter is once again filled with the Holy Spirit and therefore filled with boldness.  He realizes why they are being examined, and says clearly and plainly to all the rulers and elders of the Sanhedrin that it is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the one whom they crucified and whom God raised from the dead--this is the power and name by which this man was healed.  Then Peter through the Holy Spirit cites an Old Testament prophecy from Psalm 118, verse 22.

Psalm 118:22
English Standard Version
22 The stone that the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone.

​And then Peter ends with a conclusion that they simply can't bring themselves to agree with, "And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”  This is a good memory verse for everyone who doesn't know it yet.  Men must be saved, and the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is the only name under heaven which can provide that salvation we so desperately require.

​The Council gets concerned when they see Peter full of Holy Spirit boldness, speaking with such conviction and knowing and interpreting the Scriptures (probably better than they can), and without any formal training in what we'd call seminary and then they also recognized Peter and John as two of the disciples who had been with Jesus and would have been eyewitnesses to everything.  They realize they are going to have little effect on them, so instead they turn to the man who has just been healed (up to this point we have not been told that he too is standing on trial right next to them).  When they saw the man and the miracle that had clearly been done and that it was a true sign that would validate that they were from God and they were not false prophets, for this is how they were told to examine for false teachers and false prophets in the Old Testament, they had nothing to say--there was nothing they could say, because it was clear that God had already rendered His own verdict by validating their message with this miracle.

There was only one card that the Sanhedrin had left to play that they thought would be a trump card.  They still had the power to order something under the authority of the Council and breaking the order of the council was equivalent to breaking the Law and could lead to excommunication both for the one violating their command and possibly even their entire family (we saw this with the man that Jesus healed who was born blind in John 9.  So, they order Peter and John to no longer speak in this name (the name of Jesus, for they cannot even bring themselves to say His name).

Peter John once again, filled with the Holy Spirit answers back in another passage that I would highly recommend that everyone memorize.  “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, 20 for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”  Wow, the Sanhedrin thought they held the trump card, but the Holy Spirit just superseded their authority that they thought they had by saying "You will have to answer to God for this decision that you are making."  Peter and John also realized that they would have to answer to God, and since God gave them a direct commandment in the form of The Great Commission, they must obey God and not men.  They must speak the things that they had seen and heard.

It says that the Council further threatened them (I would assume with excommunication and excluding them from entrance to the Temple), but these were empty threats at this time because the people were on the side of the apostles.  Luke closes this passage with an interesting detail about the man who was healed.  He was no young man.  He was over forty years old (quite old for that time) but this means that everyone in the community was aware of who he was and that he really was the lame beggar who sat outside the Beautiful Gate.  All of the members of the Council recognized him too.  This was problematic because there was no conspiracy to fake a miracle or that this might have been some temporary condition that healed itself.  No, this man had been born lame and was lame all of his life, and there was no chance even that there was a conspiracy to put on a show for so long because this man was born before Jesus was even born.  They have a real problem on their hands that they know that the people believe this sign and they can think of no way for the Council to win in this situation, so they release the men under threat of further punishment (not specified) if they refuse to obey their orders.