(Suggested Reading: Chapter 4:1-31)
When the Lord Jesus was on earth His chief opposition came from the Pharisees; when He returned to glory and became the Head of the Church the chief opposition came from the Sadducees. The Pharisees are ritualists, jealous of the Scriptures, the Temple, the traditions of the fathers; the Sadducees are rationalists and deny the resurrection of the dead. This basic split originates in the natural mind departing from God in opposite directions. It is not therefore, simply something that happened in the past and confined to the Jews. It has left its mark on the Church from the Day of Pentecost to the present.
In the early centuries of Christianity the ritualists held sway. After the Reformation the rationalists took over—the “higher critics” “liberals” or “modernists” —the class of people who deny the inspiration of Scripture. The wind up of this is the “Post Christian world” in which we are living. This is only a phrase for describing the days just before the rapture and God’s judgments on the world. Consequently, these observations will soon become historical. Even so, what is left of the public profession of Christianity is largely rationalist in character.1
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And so that evening the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, seize the Apostles and put them in custody until the morning. They must have taken the former lame man away at the same time, judging from verses 10 and 14. After all, his crime was that he was healed! On the morrow they set them all—the Apostles and the lame man—in the midst of a great assembly—Annas the High Priest, Caiaphas, John, Alexander and the high priestly family. The flower of Israel was represented in this body, and no doubt they thought they would overawe the Apostles, who were, in their eyes, merely “unlettered and uninstructed men” —v. 13. Their opening question was “by what power, or by what Name, have you done this?” They were to receive a full answer.
They had questioned the power by which the lame man had been healed. Peter answers the question. He is filled with the Holy Spirit, whose power was in question. This was the power the Lord Jesus used in His life when He went about doing good, for God was with Him. This power had been used for good, not for evil. What man would question the power which could cure a man born lame.
And if they wished to know by what name the man stood before them whole, it was the Name of Jesus of Nazareth—again the title on the cross—for Peter would press home their guilt. God had raised Him from the dead. Then Peter says, “This is the stone which was set at nought by you builders which is become the corner stone.” In this statement Peter introduces a thought he unfolds later in his epistles the thought of the Church as a building under construction—an holy temple unto the Lord. This view of the Church as a building is special to Peter, as the body is to Paul and the bride to John. He had heard the Lord’s words “on this rock I will build My Church.” Peter’s conclusion, then, is “neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
Taking Counsel
To Peter’s words there is no answer. They see the man who was healed. He was well known in Jerusalem for he was carried and laid down daily at the beautiful gate of the Temple. Here he is, standing erect before the Sanhedrin—a beggar no more but a son with God’s Son. The accused are told to leave the council chamber so the Sanhedrin can deliberate in secrecy. They have a problem. Many of them are Sadducees. How can they deny the sign which has come to pass through the Apostles’ means. Their decision, given in abbreviated form, is to threaten them. They command them not to speak at all, nor teach, in the Name of Jesus, so that Christianity should spread no further among the people. It is not the people they are concerned with—it is the possible loss of their official positions, which are being challenged. Peter and John remonstrate “whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” This is an unqualified rejection of their demands. The Sanhedrin threaten them again, but fearing public opinion release them. Under the circumstances perhaps a stand-off is the best they can hope for, because the people glorify God for what was done.
Settling an Important Principle
When they are free they come “to their own company” and tell them what happened in the Sanhedrin. They want their stand to be known and approved by the Church. As Apostles they remember the Lord’s words— “render therefore to Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and to God the things which are God’s” —Mat. 22:21. The powers that be are ordained by God but cannot abrogate to themselves the power to set aside the commission the Lord gave to the Apostles to preach the gospel. With this the Assembly is in unanimous agreement. The decision is an important one, for neither prohibition to preach the gospel nor persecution for disobeying secular authorities in this regard has deterred the faithful in the Church since this time. God Himself confirms the decision for “the place was shaken where they were assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the Word of God with boldness” —4:31.
Our Fiery Trial
There is a tendency for believers to expect justice in the affairs of this life and to be puzzled when they do not receive it. But this is a world of injustice which does not recognize or act on Christian principles. Peter’s ministry guards us from expecting anything from this world but persecution. What he writes is from his own experience— “beloved think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you, but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings, that, when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy” —1 Pet. 4:12, 1312Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: 13But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. (1 Peter 4:12‑13).