Commentary - Acts 4:1-4

Bird's-eye view

In these opening verses of Acts 4, we see the first apostolic clash with the Jerusalem authorities, and it establishes a pattern that will repeat throughout the book. The gospel is preached, God's power is demonstrated, and the established order is threatened, resulting in immediate opposition. But the central lesson Luke wants us to see is that the gospel cannot be stopped. The authorities can arrest the preachers, but they cannot arrest the Word. This passage demonstrates the fundamental antithesis between the kingdom of God, which advances by the power of the resurrection, and the kingdoms of men, which seek to maintain control through intimidation and force. The agitation of the religious elite is a direct result of the apostles' core message: the resurrection from the dead has broken into history through the person of Jesus Christ, the very one these leaders had crucified. This truth is so potent that even as the preachers are being jailed, the number of believers swells dramatically. The gospel advances not just in spite of persecution, but in the very midst of it.

We have here a coalition of the establishment coming out to quell a disturbance. The priests represent the religious establishment, the captain of the temple guard represents the civil and police power of that establishment, and the Sadducees represent the theological liberals of the day. They are all united in their opposition to the apostles' teaching. What follows is a textbook case of the world's methods versus God's. The world lays hands on men and puts them in jail. God lays His hand on hearts and brings them to faith. The result is a stark contrast: the apostles are in custody, but the church grows by the thousands. This is the economics of the kingdom, where apparent defeat is the seed of a greater victory.

Outline

Context In Acts

This incident flows directly out of the events of Acts 3. Peter and John healed a man lame from birth at the Beautiful Gate of the temple. This miracle drew a massive crowd, to whom Peter preached a powerful sermon. In that sermon, he did not mince words. He charged the people of Jerusalem with killing the "Prince of life," but then immediately offered them forgiveness and "times of refreshing" if they would repent and turn to Christ (Acts 3:15, 19). The sermon was a direct, public challenge to the authority and righteousness of the Sanhedrin, who had orchestrated Jesus' crucifixion just a few weeks prior. The events of Acts 4 are the establishment's predictable response to this bold proclamation. Having just dealt with Jesus, they now find His followers, filled with His Spirit, performing the same kinds of miracles and preaching the same disruptive message right on their doorstep. This is the first official persecution of the church by the Jewish authorities and sets the stage for all the subsequent conflicts in Acts.

Key Issues

The Gospel's Inevitable Collision

Whenever the true gospel is preached, it creates a disturbance. It does not matter how winsomely it is presented; the message itself is inherently disruptive to the fallen order of things. The gospel announces that a new King, Jesus, has been enthroned at the right hand of God, and that all authority in heaven and on earth belongs to Him. This is a direct challenge to every other claimant to authority. In our passage, the authorities are not upset because Peter and John were rude or because they were breaking some minor regulation. They were "greatly agitated" because the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming a truth that fundamentally undermined their entire system of power and control.

The coalition that comes out against them is telling. You have the priests, the institutional men. You have the captain of the temple, the muscle. And you have the Sadducees, the theological sophisticates. This is the unholy trinity of worldly power: religious position, raw force, and intellectual pride. They were the establishment, and their job was to maintain the status quo. The message of a resurrected Messiah, whom they had executed as a criminal, was the ultimate threat to that status quo. The conflict was therefore inevitable. The gospel of the resurrection is not a tame message that can be incorporated into the existing structures of a fallen world. It is a declaration of war, and the world will always, in one way or another, fight back.

Verse by Verse Commentary

1 Now as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them,

The apostles are mid-sermon, right in the middle of their work, when the opposition arrives. This is how it often happens; the work of the gospel is interrupted by those who hate it. The group that confronts them is a formidable delegation of the Jerusalem power structure. The priests were the day-to-day functionaries of the temple, whose livelihoods depended on the religious system the apostles were challenging. The captain of the temple guard was the chief of the Levitical temple police, a high-ranking official responsible for order in the temple precincts. He was the law enforcement arm of the Sanhedrin. And then we have the Sadducees. They were the aristocratic, wealthy, and politically connected party within Judaism. Theologically, they were the liberals of their day. They accepted only the Pentateuch as authoritative and denied the existence of angels, spirits, and, most importantly for our story, the resurrection of the dead. Since the high priest was typically a Sadducee, this group represents the pinnacle of the Jewish establishment. They came upon the apostles suddenly and with hostile intent.

2 being greatly agitated because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.

Here Luke gives us the precise reason for their hostility. The word for "greatly agitated" carries the sense of being thoroughly annoyed, vexed, and pained. They were offended by two things. First, they were agitated that these uncredentialed Galilean fishermen were teaching the people. In their view, they were the designated teachers of Israel; Peter and John were usurping an authority that was not theirs. This is a classic institutionalist reaction. But the second reason was far more serious. They were proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. For the Sadducees, this was a direct assault on their core theology. They denied the resurrection entirely. But even for the others, the message was an outrage. The apostles were not just debating a future, general resurrection. They were declaring that the resurrection had already begun, and it had begun in the person of Jesus. This meant that Jesus, the man they had conspired to kill, had been vindicated by God in the most powerful way imaginable. It proved He was the Messiah and that they were found to be fighters against God. This was not a theological quibble; it was an indictment.

3 And they laid hands on them and put them in jail until the next day, for it was already evening.

When your arguments fail, you resort to force. The authorities had no answer to the healed man standing there, nor to the power of Peter's preaching, so they did what the state always does when it is threatened. They laid hands on them. This is the world's answer to the gospel: threats, intimidation, and incarceration. They put them in jail overnight because it was too late in the evening to convene the Sanhedrin for a trial. The intent was clear: to silence the message by locking up the messengers. This is a tactic that has been employed against the church for two thousand years, and it has never once succeeded in its ultimate goal. They can chain the man, but they cannot chain the Word of God.

4 But many of those who had heard the message believed, and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.

This "but" is one of the great turning points in Scripture. It sets God's sovereign power in direct contrast to the pathetic efforts of the religious authorities. While the priests and Sadducees are busy arresting two men, God is busy converting thousands. The word they tried to suppress had already taken root. Luke makes a point of noting the explosive growth of the church. On the day of Pentecost, three thousand were saved. Now, after this one sermon, the total number of men alone is about five thousand. This doesn't include women and children, so the total size of the Jerusalem church was likely well over ten thousand at this point. This is not incidental information. Luke is showing us the primary theme of the book of Acts: the gospel is triumphant. Persecution does not hinder the church; it often serves to accelerate its growth. The authorities thought they were stamping out a fire, but they were actually throwing gasoline on it.

Application

This short account is packed with application for the church today. First, we should expect opposition. If we are faithfully preaching the lordship of the resurrected Christ, it will inevitably agitate the powers that be, whether they are religious, political, or cultural. The gospel is an offensive message to a world that wants to be its own savior. If we are not experiencing any friction, it may be because we have sanded down the sharp edges of our message to make it more palatable.

Second, we see the nature of our true enemies. The Sadducees were the theological liberals, the sophisticated unbelievers who held positions of religious authority. This is a spirit we have to contend with constantly. The greatest threats to the church often come not from overt pagans, but from those within the institution who deny the supernatural power of the gospel, who deny the resurrection in either word or deed.

Third, we must learn where our confidence lies. The apostles' confidence was not in their own eloquence or in their political clout, for they had none. Their confidence was in the fact of the resurrection. Because Jesus is risen, His Word has absolute authority. This is why they could not be intimidated. They had seen the risen Lord, and the threats of mere men were nothing in comparison.

Finally, we must trust in the sovereignty of God to build His church. The authorities used their power to throw men in jail. God used His power to save souls. The world's methods are coercion and force; God's method is the proclamation of the gospel and the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. We must be faithful to proclaim the message, even when it leads to trouble, and trust that God will use that faithful proclamation to bring about a harvest that no human power can prevent.