Commentary - Acts 4:5-12

Bird's-eye view

In this passage, we are thrown right into the middle of a great confrontation. This is not a theological debate in a quiet study. This is a showdown. On one side, you have the entire religious and political establishment of Jerusalem, the very men who had recently orchestrated the judicial murder of Jesus Christ. On the other, you have a couple of fishermen, Peter and John, who were recently hiding in a locked room. The difference maker, the variable that has turned everything on its head, is the Holy Spirit. Peter, filled with the Spirit, is no longer the man who wilted before a servant girl's question. He is a lion.

The authorities demand to know the source of the apostles' power. They want to know the "name" behind the healing of the lame man. This is a legal inquiry, a demand for credentials. Peter's response is not a defense in the way we might think of it. It is a blistering counter-prosecution. He turns their courtroom into a pulpit and puts them on trial. He preaches the exclusive and absolute saving power of the name of Jesus Christ, the very one they rejected and killed. The core of the passage is this great reversal: the rejected stone has become the cornerstone, and the men who thought they were judges are shown to be the ones in desperate need of salvation, a salvation available only through the one they condemned.

Outline

Commentary

5 Now it happened that on the next day, their rulers and elders and scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem;

The day after Peter and John were tossed in jail for the high crime of healing a man, the powers that be assemble. Notice the cast of characters: rulers, elders, and scribes. This is the Sanhedrin, the full weight of the Jewish ruling council. These are not just some low-level bureaucrats. This is the brain trust of the opposition. They had successfully conspired to kill the Lord of Glory, and now His followers are causing a ruckus on their turf. They are meeting in Jerusalem, the epicenter of God's redemptive history and, consequently, the epicenter of man's rebellion against that redemption. This is a formal, official gathering. They mean business.

6 and Annas the high priest was there, and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of high-priestly descent.

Luke wants us to know exactly who was there, so he names names. Annas is the patriarch of this corrupt priestly clan. Though technically deposed by the Romans, he still pulled the strings. Caiaphas, his son-in-law, was the official high priest who presided over the sham trial of Jesus. John and Alexander were likely other powerful members of the same family. Luke's point is that this is the same group, the very same cabal, that condemned Jesus. They are unrepentant and doubling down. They are of "high-priestly descent," which had come to mean they were a corrupt aristocracy, more concerned with their power, position, and collaboration with Rome than with the worship of Yahweh. They are the epitome of compromised, institutionalized religion.

7 And when they had placed them in their midst, they began to inquire, “By what power, or in what name, have you done this?”

They place Peter and John "in their midst." This is a scene of formal interrogation, designed for maximum intimidation. Imagine this circle of powerful, robed men, glaring down at two fishermen. And their question is telling. They don't deny the miracle. The evidence was walking, leaping, and praising God all over the temple courts the day before (Acts 3:8). They can't deny the "what," so they attack the "how." "By what power, or in what name?" This is the same question they put to Jesus (Matt. 21:23). It is a question of authority and jurisdiction. In their minds, they are the sole proprietors of religious authority in Jerusalem. Any spiritual power exercised outside their control is, by definition, illegitimate and threatening. They are asking for the apostles' license, their credentials, their authorization. They are asking for the source of their power, and they are about to get an answer they were not prepared for.

8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of the people,

Here is the turning point. Peter is not operating in his own strength. Luke makes it explicit: he was "filled with the Holy Spirit." This is the fulfillment of the promise Jesus made, that when they were brought before rulers, they would be given the words to say (Luke 12:11-12). This is not the Peter of the courtyard, warming his hands by the enemy's fire and denying his Lord. This is Pentecostal Peter. The Spirit has emboldened him, filled his mouth with divine truth, and turned him into a sharp instrument in the hand of God. He begins respectfully enough, "Rulers and elders of the people", but this is the calm before the storm. He acknowledges their office, but he is about to deny their ultimate authority.

9 if we are being examined today for a good deed done to a sick man, as to how this man has been saved from his sickness,

Peter begins by masterfully reframing their entire proceeding. He employs a sharp, sanctified sarcasm. "If it is for a good deed that we are on trial..." He exposes the utter absurdity of their position. They have arrested men for an act of mercy. A man crippled from birth now walks, and this is the crime they are investigating. He highlights the moral bankruptcy of his accusers. They are putting kindness in the dock. Furthermore, he uses the word "saved" (sozo), which can mean both physical healing and spiritual salvation. He is already beginning to pivot from the healing of one man's legs to the salvation of men's souls.

10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by this name this man stands here before you in good health.

Peter does not hesitate to answer their question. He gives them the name. "Let it be known." This is not a whispered confession; it is a public proclamation. He wants everyone to hear it. And the name is specific: Jesus Christ the Nazarene. The one from the backwater town, the one they despised. And then he brings the hammer down. He directly accuses them: "whom you crucified." He lays the guilt for the death of the Messiah squarely at their feet. They are not impartial judges; they are the murderers of the man in whose name the miracle was done. But their verdict was not the final one. In the great reversal of all history, Peter declares, "whom God raised from the dead." God overturned their wicked judgment. God vindicated His Son. And the proof is standing right there in the room, "by this name this man stands here before you in good health." The healed man is exhibit A in the case for the resurrection.

11 He is the STONE WHICH WAS REJECTED by you, THE BUILDERS, but WHICH BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER stone.

Peter, still filled with the Spirit, now preaches to them from their own Scriptures. He quotes from Psalm 118:22. This is devastating. He identifies them, the rulers, the elders, the scribes, as "the builders." They were the ones entrusted with building up the house of Israel. It was their job, their calling. And what did they do? They examined the most important stone of all, the cornerstone, and they rejected it. They threw it on the scrap heap. They are incompetent builders who discarded the one piece that holds everything together. But their rejection did not thwart God's plan. In fact, it was the means by which God accomplished His plan. The stone they rejected, God has made the "chief corner stone." He is the foundation, the head, the beginning and the end of God's new temple, the Church. This is a direct, prophetic rebuke of their spiritual blindness and failure.

12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”

Peter now moves from the particular miracle to the universal implication. The name of Jesus doesn't just heal lame legs; it is the only name that can save a soul from sin and death. This is one of the most direct and uncompromising statements of the exclusivity of the gospel in all of Scripture. "Salvation in no one else." Not in the temple sacrifices they oversaw, not in the law they taught, not in their religious position, not in any other philosophy or religion. "There is no other name under heaven." This is a global, all-encompassing claim. God has given one name. It's not one option among many. And notice the necessity: "by which we must be saved." Salvation is not an option for those who feel they need it; it is a necessity for all men, because all are sinners under the judgment of a holy God. Peter has turned their inquiry about his authority into a declaration of Christ's absolute authority and a summons for them to repent and find salvation in the very one they killed.

Application

The confrontation in this passage is not just ancient history. The same conflict continues today. The world, and often the compromised religious establishment, still asks the true church, "By what authority do you do these things?" They want to know why we speak on matters of morality, why we proclaim an exclusive Christ, why we won't bend the knee to the cultural idols of the age. Our answer must be the same as Peter's. We do not stand on our own authority, our own cleverness, or our own goodness. We stand in the name of Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen Lord.

We must also see that boldness is a gift of the Holy Spirit. Peter's transformation should give us great encouragement. The Spirit of God can take ordinary, fearful men and make them courageous witnesses. We should not trust in ourselves, but we should pray to be filled with the Spirit, so that when we are called to give an account, we can do so with clarity and conviction, pointing not to ourselves, but to the only name that saves.

Finally, we must be as unashamedly exclusive as Peter was. The spirit of our age is pluralism, the idea that all roads lead to God. That is a lie from the pit. Peter's words are a rock of offense to the modern mind: "there is no other name." We must not soften this. We must not apologize for it. We must proclaim it with love, yes, but also with the unshakeable conviction that it is the only truth that can set men free. To preach any other way is to be a false witness and a traitor to the King whose name we bear.