From my Everyday Bible Study on Acts. By the way, there is a giveaway for this volume at this location (from 17 Sept to 17 Oct).
Acts 4:1-22
Acts 4:1 The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. 2 They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. 3 They seized Peter and John and, because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day. 4 But many who heard the message believed; so the number of men who believed grew to about five thousand.
4:5 The next day the rulers, the elders and the teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. 6 Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and others of the high priest’s family. 7 They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: “By what power or what name did you do this?”
4:8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! 9 If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, 10 then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. 11 Jesus is
“ ‘the stone you builders rejected,
which has become the cornerstone.’
4:12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”
4:13 When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. 14 But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say. 15 So they ordered them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin and then conferred together. 16 “What are we going to do with these men?” they asked. “Everyone living in Jerusalem knows they have performed a notable sign, and we cannot deny it. 17 But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn them to speak no longer to anyone in this name.”
4:18 Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. 19 But Peter and John replied, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! 20 As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
4:21 After further threats they let them go. They could not decide how to punish them, because all the people were praising God for what had happened. 22 For the man who was miraculously healed was over forty years old.
Peter healed a begging lame man in the temple courts. Some were utterly dumbfounded that Peter worked a wonder, so Peter explained the power as God’s power at work by faith in the name of Jesus, and he called his audience to repent and recognize that God’s promises were now at work. A few religious and political authorities monitoring that audience were disturbed by the crowd’s positive response to Peter so they locked both apostles up for the night. A more official group of Jerusalem’s authorities hail Peter before themselves the next day and explains to them the power of God at work in the name of Jesus. Since the response to this movement was bursting at the seams (now at 5000 according to Acts 4:4) the authorities demand the apostles to cease from their preaching. The apostles refuse to be silent and the authorities release them anyway.
The earliest missioners of the gospel about Jesus were filled not only with the Spirit but also with courage. Gospelers need the sort of courage especially needed when the pressure is on.
We sometimes encounter pressure
Take a good look at the labels for leaders applying pressure on Peter and John. In 4:1 we read about priests who ran the temple, a captain of the temple guard (police), and the Rome-friendly, politically-influential Sadducees who were mostly the elite priestly families of Jerusalem. That is, Jerusalem’s WASPs (if I may). Then in 4:5-6 we discover rulers, which is a general term for authorities, elders who are the preeminent synagogue sages of Jerusalem, and teachers of the law who are the canon lawyers or official legal interpreters of the law of Moses (cf. Luke 9:22). In that meeting are the top brass, including Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, John, Alexander and others of the high priest’s family. He calls the gathering the Sanhedrin (4:15).
Galilee had its own versions of local authorities, but there is only one authority above this group and it’s Rome. Rome had the back of this group because this group scratched the back of Rome. You think this is scary, just try Miss Dameyer at Lincoln School when you are called into her (the principal’s) office for mischief in third grade. I had gotten used to the drill by the time I had Mr. Petersen in fifth grade and Mr. Bratcher in sixth. But I can still break out into a sweat thinking about Miss Dameyer, the ol’ battle-axe.
The authorities were agitated (4:2) enough that they resorted to physical confinement. The higher-ups stood the apostles in their presence to interrogate them (4:7). They gave Peter an opportunity to explain himself. He was so good rhetorically they were “astonished” (4:13), they were silenced by the reality of the lame man’s healing, they demanded they leave their presence so they could deliberate, and they decided the best course of action was to command the apostles to stop their gospeling. The two apostles informed them that was not about to happen so they threatened them and released them, fearing that any physical punishment would create even more chaos with the crowds.
Power shapes these scenes and the authorities had the power to do some nasty stuff to the apostles. Surely the apostles knew that. They are not that many days beyond the torturous crucifixion of their Lord. The apostles do not, probably because they could not, appeal to rights or due process. They had none. All they had was the courage to gospel anyone close enough to hear.
We are challenged to meet pressure with courage
We should begin with 4:3 and repeat what Willie James Jennings says. These apostles are now officially “criminal-disciples” because their message and boldness disturb the peace of Jerusalem (Acts, 45-46). They are dissidents.
Some translations use the term “courage” in Acts 4:13. Saying the apostles were also “unschooled” in the verse adds for the authorities some recklessness to their courage. But courage can also be translated “boldness” (NRSV) or “confidence” (CEB; Dunn calls it “super confidence” in Acts, 51). Behind these translations is the Greek word parrēsia, a term routinely used for those around a political leader who spoke “frankly” to the leader to steer him away from pride and toward wise, humble decisions. One Greek writer in the ancient world (Plutarch) wrote a whole book on the need for kings to have frank counselors. So this term in this context suggests not only courage but also steely frankness.
Such courageous frankness comes to expression in Luke’s reduction of Peter’s explanation. First, he is courageous because he was “filled with the Holy Spirit” (4:8). I love what Peter does next. He wonders before the moral authorities, What could be wrong his act of goodness (translated “kindness” in the NIV)?, and Peter’s term evokes a term for public acts of mercy for the common good, that is public “benefactions” (Keener Acts, 194-195). With “benefactions” he’s got them now in his hand so he returns some pressure.
He says it’s all because of the “name of Jesus,” the one you crucified but the one God raised. Resurrection provoked the temple authorities in 4:2 and it was the center of the gospeling of the apostles. The power of the authorities is turned upside down by the power of the Resurrected One. The gospel again is the story about Jesus. He anchors his gospel in their scriptures (Psalm 118:22), a text that speaks of God reversing the judgments of humans. Next come words that are bold, frank, and central to all gospel preaching:
Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12).
The Reformation’s slogan of “Christ alone” grounds itself in a text like this. Solus Christus, or “Christ alone,” Mike Bird observes, points us to the “absolute and final go-between for God the Father and humanity” (Evangelical Theology, 418).
That courageous frankness, that confidence to speak such bold words to the top leaders in Jerusalem, had another resource. Yes, the authorities know Peter and John did not have their power and social status, that they had not been trained rhetorically, calling them “unschooled, ordinary men” (4:13), with “ordinary” suggesting something like our “layman.” But they also perceived “that these men had been with Jesus.” Which connects them both to Jesus’ healing powers and his own boldness before leaders in Jerusalem.
The authorities, making use of their powers, decide to silence them but courage appears yet one more time when the two apostles, like the three Hebrew children in Daniel 3 (Pinter, Acts, 115), speak frankly when they state their options. Are they to follow them or God? They give the authorities the power to decide for themselves, and they decide against God (Jennings, Acts, 48), but Peter and John have made their choice when they state “we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard” (4:20). That is, they are yet again witnesses (1:8, 22; 2:32; 3:15).
Off they go for their next adventure in the gospel mission, their courage now burnished and their mission learning curve steeper than a high-rise stairway, though a whole lot more adventurous.
Michael Bird, Evangelical Theology (2d ed.; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2020).
Questions from Becky Castle Miller:
1. Who are the leaders putting pressure on Peter and John? What do these leaders have in common with each other?
2. How do the leaders try to use power to silence the proclaimers of the gospel?
3. Where did the apostles get their courage from?
4. The term used for courage can also be translated “frankness.” To whom in your life do you need to be speaking with “steely frankness”?
5. Have you ever been silenced by those in power? What kind of courage do you need God to give you to face that situation?
Matthew 5:10-12
11 Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.