Mon Mar 17 15:28:22 PST 2003
So James and I are playing ‘Trading Spaces’ at Bible study this week, so I get to do the study part on Acts 4:13-22.
Background: Peter and James were going to the temple to pray, but they met a lame man at the gate and Peter healed him in Jesus name. Many people were amazed by this, and so Peter and James started preaching Jesus to the people. Priests and Sadducees saw this and arrested Peter and James and the next day brought them out and asked them ‘in what name have you done this’. Peter is filled by the Holy Spirit and starts preaching again, and has just finished up in verse 12, which is where we pick up the story…
Read Acts 4:13-22
13-14:
Peter and James were seen as:
- Confident 2. Uneducated (not religiously trained) – Mark 1:16-19, Luke 5:1-11, John 1:40 3. Had been with Jesus 4. Had clearly performed an undeniable miracle – the ex-lame man was there,
System Message: WARNING/2 (<string>, line 14)
Enumerated list ends without a blank line; unexpected unindent.
and everybody knew him, and had walked by him for nearly 40 years.
Peter and James were just ordinary people until they got connected with Jesus and had a personal relationship with him. Now, the top dogs of the day are starting to realize that these guys have religious knowledge, demonstrated spiritual power and leadership. And this is potentially a threat to their position as the spiritual leaders.
15-18:
The debate and response of the religious leaders:
They get to just their group to confer (see also Matthew 21:25)
- They acknowledge that a miracle has occured 2. But they don’t ask what it means for them personally, or even
System Message: WARNING/2 (<string>, line 25)
Enumerated list ends without a blank line; unexpected unindent.
‘professionally’ 3. They aren’t interested in giving God credit or even Peter and James
credit for being the instruments of God for the miracle. Why? Because
they were more interested in their position than in seeing God glorified. 4. So they plan to try and keep Peter and John from preaching since they
can’t deny the miracle.
Things haven’t changed a bit since Jesus was walking the earth. Look at John 11:45-54. They treat his disciples the same way. There will be people who will treat Christians today in the same way.
19-20:
Obey God or Men:
They pose it as a question to limit their ability to answer directly. As the religious leadership, the Sanhedrin can’t say that Peter and John should obey men instead of God. This passage is important in that Peter makes it clear that authority, civil or spiritual comes from God, and that he and James will follow God’s authority as given to them, instead of the authority of the civil/spiritual leaders of the Sanhedrin.
This is not an abandonment of civil government. Jesus taught his deciples to pay taxes (‘render unto Ceaser what is Ceaser’s’) and Paul writes in length in Romans 13:1-7 about the importance of obeying the local government.
21:
The religious officials threaten Peter and John again, but then release them because they can’t charge them with anything — Galations 5:22-23. And also the people were watching the proceedings, so the Sanhedren can’t punish them for no good reason without appearing to be unjust, and thus degrading their public opinion.
Here’s the sad point. Once again, the religious leaders of the day have missed seeing the glory of God, but many people around them saw the miracle and were praising God for it. How often do we overlook miracles or other ‘simple’ acts of God instead of praising him for his works and his majesty.
22:
Even more information that Doctor Luke provides about the lame man, possibly to further clairify that this miracle was a truly supernatural event, since it could not be attributed to a boy growing out of his weakness, and it might also be to better identify the person in question to Theophilus, who might have even walked by the lame man at one point.