Peter and John Before The Sanhedrin - Acts 4:1-12 - Comments by Mike Kines

Peter and John heal a lame man and preach the gospel, attracting a crowd. This angers the religious leaders who arrest them. Peter boldly proclaims the gospel again and emphasizes that salvation is only through Jesus Christ. This fulfills Jesus' prophecy about disciples being persecuted and giving testimony. Peter highlights the cornerstone truth that there is no other way to be saved except through Jesus. The passage emphasizes the importance of the resurrection and the power of the Holy Spirit. We're in Acts chapter 4 today. We're going to be looking at Acts chapter 4, verses 1 through 12. And this passage of scripture is about Peter and John standing before the Sanhedrin. Now the Sanhedrin was a religious council of the Jews in that day, in that time. And we'll see what happens here with Peter and John with these religious leaders. Summary of what has happened already. Peter and John went up to the temple at prayer time, and they saw a lame man. And when they saw this lame man, they had compassion on him. They said to the lame man, silver and gold we do not have, but such as we have, we give unto you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And then immediately by the power of God, the man was made whole. And as a result of this, there were a lot of people that were there and a crowd gathered to witness this miracle that happened. And immediately Peter began to preach to this crowd the gospel. As a result of them preaching, a lot of people were getting saved, but it also got the attention of the religious leaders that were in the temple. And also the security in the temple was alerted as a result of this. So what happens? So let's consider some points here. These religious leaders did not believe in the resurrection. These were the Sadducees. The Sadducees was a sect of the Jewish religious leaders in that day. They did not believe in the resurrection. If you recall when they were persecuting Jesus, this was a question that the Sadducees asked Jesus about the resurrection. And it was a question that they, that was a not, it was a not sincere question. It was not a genuine question because the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection. They did not believe in angels. This also comes up again later on during the ministry of the apostle Paul, when he was called before the Pharisees and the Sadducees in a similar way, he actually was smart enough to recognize the difference between the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And he was able to divide the Pharisees and Sadducees by saying that he was on trial because of his belief in the resurrection of the dead. So here we see once again, this, this issue of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is central to everything that's happening here. So these religious leaders did not believe in the resurrection. And so they were especially grieved by this message that Peter and John were preaching. And so they arrested Peter and John and put them in jail until the next day. And the scripture actually gives us here the reason why they put him in jail and didn't go ahead and just convene the court and trial these men right away. It was because it was in the evening and they did not want to hold court at nighttime. But if you recall during when Jesus was arrested, it was, it was during the night and they had court for Jesus at nighttime, which was against their own rules. So they had certain rules that they followed about their court procedures and they did not do this at nighttime. And so you see here, Peter and John were put in jail because it was the evening until they could be held over to the next day so they could have court during the daylight hours. Another thing you want to notice here is that we are beginning to see here the prophecy of Jesus concerning his disciples being persecuted and then giving a testimony. This was being fulfilled. And of course, this is a pattern that you see throughout at the book of Acts where the apostles were persecuted or the disciples or the early Christians were persecuted. They were arrested and they were giving testimony in front of the religious leaders and all so in front of secular leaders. And we see this more and more, even specifically in the ministry and the life of the apostle Paul. When being judged here, Peter boldly proclaims the gospel of the resurrection of Jesus Christ again to these religious leaders. And this is again, another fulfillment of something that Jesus said. He says that when you are arrested, give no thought to what you would say, because you're the spirit of your father within you is going to speak at that time. And you see here, the scripture says that Peter was filled with the Holy Ghost and boldly proclaimed the gospel of the resurrection of Jesus Christ once again. He goes on here to proclaim one of the cornerstone bedrock truths of Christianity in verse 12. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among me and whereby we must be saved. Now, this is a scripture that if you underline your Bible, you want to take a pen or pencil or highlighter and underline this scripture in your Bible and commit this scripture to memory, because this is absolutely one of the cornerstones of Christianity. Neither is there salvation in any other. And Jesus Christ himself said in John chapter 14, he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. There is no other way to the father except through the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the only way to God. He is the only way to be saved. He is the only way to escape from hell. He is the only way to escape from the wrath of God. He is the only way to receive forgiveness of our sins. He is the only way that you and I can go to heaven one day. He is the way. He is the truth. He is the life. And Peter proclaims that gospel right here in verse 12, that neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among me and whereby we must be saved. Christ died for our sins. He was buried. He rose again on the third day and everyone who calls upon the name of Jesus shall be saved. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you. Amen.