Acts 4

Haystack bible commentary

"Stacks and stacks of commentary...."

==Acts 4:1-9:

And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them,
2 Being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead.
3 And they laid hands on them, and put them in hold unto the next day: for it was now eventide.
4 Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.
5 And it came to pass on the morrow, that their rulers, and elders, and scribes,
6 And Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem.
7 And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, By what power, or by what name, have ye done this?
8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel,
9 If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole;

Acts 4:10-12:
"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. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”"

The admonition from Peter is to not just believe, but to KNOW! Peter, with John in tow, spoke this boldly and with conviction to the religious elders and high priests. The leaders, knowing the truth of their convictions were speechless (vs 14: there was nothing they could say).... You know you've done well when you can make a religious person speechless:-)

==Acts 4:13-23:

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.
14 And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.
15 But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves,
16 saying, “What shall we do to these men? For, indeed, that a notable miracle has been done through them is evident to all who dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it.
17 But so that it spreads no further among the people, let us severely threaten them, that from now on they speak to no man in this name.”
18 So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.
19 But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge.
20 For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”
21 So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way of punishing them, because of the people, since they all glorified God for what had been done.
22 For the man was over forty years old on whom this miracle of healing had been performed.
23 And being let go, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them.

==Acts 4:24:

So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said: “Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them

This prayer affirmed God's absolute power and sovereignty over creation, setting the stage for their request for boldness to speak God's word in the face of continued threats.
Peter and John had just returned to the other believers after being threatened by the chief priests and elders to stop speaking about Jesus. The believers responded by raising their voices together in a powerful prayer, acknowledging God's supreme authority. The prayer begins by acknowledging God as the Creator of everything, emphasizing His ultimate power and control. This prayer also anticipates the subsequent verses, where the believers ask God to enable them to speak His word with great boldness, despite the threats they faced.

New International Version (NIV): "When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them

==Acts 4:25-28:

Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things?
26 The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.
27 For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
28 For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.

==Acts 4:29-31:

And now Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, By stretching forth thine hand to heal: and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus.”

"The Church has been largely silent while the world has gotten much more noisy. There was a time when the Church was more highly respected, but we seem to have largely lost the world’s respect through our lack of boldness, courage and our confidence.
In this chapter of Acts, we see the Apostles Peter and John, as they were making their way daily into the Temple area near the Gate Beautiful. This day, they felt such compassion for the man crippled since birth. The lame man they probably had seen there many times before. They were led by the Holy Spirit to see his condition as one that had become unacceptable to him and to them. Stopped there by the Holy Spirit, they sought to help him receive a real miracle as his feet and ankles were immediately strengthened and healed in the instant he reached up to receive their help to stand up. He received his miracle of healing with great joy, praising the Lord for his grand and merciful healing.
Preaching in the Name of Jesus, there is no other name greater, they also declared the lame man’s healing was through the Name of Jesus. Reminding the priests of the trial and crucifixion they had been a part of, they had chosen to make them (the priests) uncomfortable enough to cause their own arrests.
(The world still uses His Name to show their disrespect of Him and all His followers. They probably remembered how He’d been beaten and roughly treated. Jesus even told us that since we may also go through His same sufferings, we will also participate in His Glory later.) We don’t need to resist trouble with a gun. We don’t even need, at such a time, a prayer closet or anointing oil. In the face of a threat, He wants to help us go through it by remembering His promise to go through it with us. Asking in prayer, we can ask Him for more boldness and confidence to help us by doing this for us, giving us the access of boldness, with courage and confidence and having it flow strongly into us. Let Him rise up inside of us and then tell them what He says. We are to be bold people even if arrested. If we suffer for the Name of Jesus, we can still choose to love each other, and remember that suffering will get us doubly blessed as we encounter Him. We each can be as bold as lions. "
-Timothy Melton

Acts 4:32-37:
32 All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had.
33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all
34 that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales
35 and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.
36 And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus,
37 Having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet.

The Church is called to accomplish many things, but if it does not care for its own people, it is not operating as the Church of Jesus Christ. As Christ’s body, the Church and its members are required to care for one another. That is not to say that the Church should disregard needs outside of the body. The Church should extend Christ’s love to all people, but it ceases to function as a church if it does not care for its own.
--Rev. N. Earnest, Sri Lanka

After Peter and John had been threatened by the Sanhedrin, they went back to the church and reported what happened to them. Then they all joined in prayer and committed themselves anew to the Lord.
In this prayer, they quoted from Psalm 2, which refers to the conspiracy of all men against God. In Psalm 2, David reflected on the fact that the nations around Israel were in rebellion against God. "The nations rage, and the peoples plot," he said. The leaders of these nations fought among themselves, but were united in their opposition to God. These leaders "took their stand" against Him, and conspired together against His anointed one, the king. In David's day, he was the anointed one (in Hebrew, messiah). The conspiracy was against David because he stood for God.
Peter and the disciples applied Psalm 2 to their own situation. The conspiracy was against God's anointed servant, Jesus. Those who conspired were the nations and the peoples, in this case "the Gentiles and the people of Israel." The leaders who conspired were Herod and Pontius Pilate, who had been adversaries until they came to agree on putting Jesus to death (Luke 23:12).
Psalm 2 goes on to give God's response to the conspiracies of men. "He that sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord has them in derision" (Psalm 2:4). In the psalm, God laughs because He is in total control. In Acts 4, God laughs even more because of the irony of the situation. The conspirators who slew Jesus were doing exactly what God wanted them to do, what He had predestined them to do (Acts 4:28). The death of Jesus was God's victory over His enemies, because in Jesus' death, the power of sin was destroyed.
In Psalm 2:5–6, David said that God rebukes the conspirators in His anger and terrifies them in His wrath, proclaiming that He has installed His holy king over them all. This thought is picked up in Acts 4:29–31. The disciples prayed for great boldness in the face of persecution. They asked God to make visible, through miracles and signs, the fact that Jesus had ascended and become King of Kings. In response, God filled them with the Spirit and caused the building to shake. --The Great Conspiracy; Ligoniers; 2.5.92