The Sanhedrin, the high Jewish council, questioned Peter and John about how they healed a man. Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, boldly proclaimed that it was through the power of Jesus Christ. Though uneducated, Peter and John amazed the council with their confidence from being with Jesus. The council could not deny the miracle occurred but wanted to stop the apostles' teaching. When commanded to stop preaching, Peter and John refused, saying they must obey God rather than men. The council threatened them further but let them go as the people praised God for what happened.

1. The Acts of the Apostles
Acts 4:5-22

2. • 5 On the next day, their rulers and elders and
scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem; 6
and Annas the high priest was there, and Caiaphas
and John and Alexander, and all who were of high-
priestly descent. 7 When they had placed them in
the center, they began to inquire, "By what power,
or in what name, have you done this?"

3. • “Again, background is helpful. Annas was the
infamous power behind the ecclesiastical throne in
Jerusalem. He had been high priest from A.D. 6–
14. Five of his sons, and now Caiaphas, his son-in-
law, had followed him in the powerful office.
Before the Roman occupation, a high priest had
held office for life, but by this time an
appointment was made each year by the Roman
governor.

4. • It went to the highest bidder and one who was
willing to be a collusive collaborator with Rome.
Annas had used his immense wealth to assure the
continuance of his nepotistic dynasty. The plot
thickens as we discover how he amassed his
fortune. The “Bazaars of Annas,” as they were
called, in the Court of the Gentiles of the temple,
sold sacrificial animals at extortionist prices.

5. • Only these animals were accepted by the
inspectors who were appointed by Annas or the
members of his family in office. Tragic exploitation
resulted and Annas’s fortune grew. The common
people hated the high-priestly family. It would not
have taken much to ignite an insurrection. Jesus’
growing popularity had to be checked, of course.
His preaching and miracles, culminating in the
raising of Lazarus from the dead, had instigated
the plot of Annas and Caiaphas against Him.

6. • But it was the cleansing of the temple of the
profitable money-changing and bazaars that sealed
His death. Uncalculable time and energy had been
expended by the high priest to assure the
Crucifixion. Imagine the fiendish delight of the
arch manipulators on the Sabbath day after
Calvary! Jesus was sealed in His tomb forever.
News of the Resurrection had reached them,
which they squelched with rumors that someone
had stolen the body of Jesus. They were finished
with Him forever… or so they thought.” Lloyd
Ogilvie

7. • “Homer Kent, Jr., points out that the Mosaic Law
specified that whenever someone performed a
miracle and used it as the basis for teaching, he
was to be examined, and if the teaching were used
to lead men away from the God of their fathers,
the nation was responsible to stone him (Deut.
13:1–5). On the other hand, if his message was
doctrinally sound, the miracle-worker was to be
accepted as coming with a message from God.”
John MacArthur

8. • 8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to
them, "Rulers and elders of the people, 9 if we
are on trial today for a benefit done to a sick man,
as to how this man has been made well, 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.

9. • Luke 12:11-12 "When they bring you before the
synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do
not worry about how or what you are to speak in
your defense, or what you are to say; 12 for the
Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what
you ought to say."

10. • Luke 12:11-12 "When they bring you before the
synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do
not worry about how or what you are to speak in
your defense, or what you are to say; 12 for the
Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what
you ought to say."
• “We will be “filled with the Holy Spirit” when we
dare to do what could never be accomplished on
our strength and insight.” Lloyd Ogilvie

11. • “At that time, the word “name” meant the nature,
personality, authority, and power of a person… To
speak or act in the name of another was to invoke
his presence and power.” Ogilvie

12. • Mark 12:9-12 "What will the owner of the
vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vine-
growers, and will give the vineyard to others. 10
"Have you not even read this Scripture: 'THE
STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS
BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER stone; 11 THIS CAME
ABOUT FROM THE LORD, AND IT IS MARVELOUS IN
OUR EYES'?" 12 And they were seeking to seize
Him, and yet they feared the people, for they
understood that He spoke the parable against
them. And so they left Him and went away.

13. • Ephesians 2:19-22 So then you are no longer
strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens
with the saints, and are of God's household, 20
having been built on the foundation of the
apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being
the corner stone, 21 in whom the whole building,
being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple
in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built
together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.

14. • 1 Peter 2:5 you also as living stones are built up a
spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up
spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus
Christ.

15. • 1 Peter 2:5 you also as living stones are built up a
spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up
spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus
Christ.
• John 14:6 Jesus *said to him, "I am the way, and
the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father
but through Me.

16. • Matthew 7:13-14 "Enter through the narrow gate;
for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads
to destruction, and there are many who enter
through it. 14 "For the gate is small and the way is
narrow that leads to life, and there are few who
find it.

17. • 13 Now as they observed the confidence of Peter
and John and understood that they were
uneducated and untrained men, they were
amazed, and began to recognize them as having
been with Jesus.

18. • 13 Now as they observed the confidence of Peter
and John and understood that they were
uneducated and untrained men, they were
amazed, and began to recognize them as having
been with Jesus.
• Matthew 7:28-29 When Jesus had finished these
words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching;
29 for He was teaching them as one having
authority, and not as their scribes.

19. • John 7:15 The Jews then were astonished, saying,
"How has this man become learned, having never
been educated?"

20. • 14 And seeing the man who had been healed
standing with them, they had nothing to say in
reply. 15 But when they had ordered them to
leave the Council, they began to confer with one
another, 16 saying, "What shall we do with these
men? For the fact that a noteworthy miracle has
taken place through them is apparent to all who
live in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it.

21. • 17 "But so that it will not spread any further
among the people, let us warn them to speak no
longer to any man in this name." 18 And when
they had summoned them, they commanded them
not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.

22. • 17 "But so that it will not spread any further
among the people, let us warn them to speak no
longer to any man in this name." 18 And when
they had summoned them, they commanded them
not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.
•

23. • 17 "But so that it will not spread any further
among the people, let us warn them to speak no
longer to any man in this name." 18 And when
they had summoned them, they commanded them
not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.
• John 3:19 "This is the judgment, that the Light has
come into the world, and men loved the darkness
rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.
•

24. • “Ironically, the early believers had to be
commanded to be quiet, while many modern ones
have to be commanded to speak. This was an
important crossroads in the history of the church.
Had the apostles acquiesced to the Sanhedrin’s
demand, all subsequent church history would have
been radically different. Everything hinged on their
willingness to obey God at all costs—even their
lives.” MacArthur

25. • 19 But Peter and John answered and said to them,
"Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed
to you rather than to God, you be the judge; 20
for we cannot stop speaking about what we have
seen and heard."

26. • 19 But Peter and John answered and said to them,
"Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed
to you rather than to God, you be the judge; 20
for we cannot stop speaking about what we have
seen and heard."
• 1 Peter 2:13-14 Submit yourselves for the Lord's
sake to every human institution, whether to a king
as the one in authority, 14 or to governors as sent
by him for the punishment of evildoers and the
praise of those who do right.

27. • 1 Corinthians 9:16 For if I preach the gospel, I have
nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for
woe is me if I do not preach the gospel.

28. • “It is particularly striking that neither on this nor
on any subsequent occasion (so far as our
information goes) did the Sanhedrin take any
serious action to disprove the apostles’ central
affirmation—the resurrection of Jesus. Had it
seemed possible to refute them on this point, how
readily would the Sanhedrin have seized the
opportunity! Had they succeeded, how quickly and
completely the new movement would have
collapsed!” FF Bruce.

29. • 21 When they had threatened them further, they
let them go (finding no basis on which to punish
them) on account of the people, because they
were all glorifying God for what had happened; 22
for the man was more than forty years old on
whom this miracle of healing had been performed.

30. • 1 Peter 3:13-17 Who is there to harm you if you
prove zealous for what is good? 14 But even if
you should suffer for the sake of righteousness,
you are blessed. AND DO NOT FEAR THEIR
INTIMIDATION, AND DO NOT BE TROUBLED, 15
but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always
being ready to make a defense to everyone who
asks you to give an account for the hope that is in
you, yet with gentleness and reverence;

31. • 16 and keep a good conscience so that in the thing
in which you are slandered, those who revile your
good behavior in Christ will be put to shame. 17
For it is better, if God should will it so, that you
suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing
what is wrong.

32. • “This,” says a twentieth-century Jewish historian
“was the first mistake which the Jewish leaders
made with regard to the new sect. And this
mistake was fatal. There was probably no need to
arrest the Nazarenes, thus calling attention to
them and making them ‘martyrs’. But once
arrested, they should not have been freed so
quickly.

33. • The arrest and release increased the number of
believers; for these events showed on the one
hand that the new sect was a power which the
authorities feared enough to persecute, and on the
other hand they proved that there was no danger
in being a disciple of Jesus (he, of course, being the
one who had saved them from the hand of their
persecutors)!” FF Bruce