Acts

OBEDIENT DISOBEDIENCE

Act 4:19 – Act 4:31 .

The only chance for persecution to succeed is to smite hard and swiftly. If you cannot strike, do not threaten. Menacing words only give courage. The rulers betrayed their hesitation when the end of their solemn conclave was but to ‘straitly threaten’; and less heroic confessors than Peter and John would have disregarded the prohibition as mere wind. None the less the attitude of these two Galilean fishermen is noble and singular, when their previous cowardice is remembered. This first collision with civil authority gives, as has been already noticed, the main lines on which the relations of the Church to hostile powers have proceeded.

I. The heroic refusal of unlawful obedience.

We shall probably not do injustice to John if we suppose that Peter was spokesman. If so, the contrast of the tone of his answer with all previously recorded utterances of his is remarkable. Warm-hearted impulsiveness, often wrong-headed and sometimes illogical, had been their mark; but here we have calm, fixed determination, which, as is usually its manner, wastes no words, but in its very brevity impresses the hearers as being immovable. Whence did this man get the power to lay down once for all the foundation principles of the limits of civil obedience, and of the duty of Christian confession? His words take rank with the ever-memorable sayings of thinkers and heroes, from Socrates in his prison telling the Athenians that he loved them, but that he must ‘obey God rather than you,’ to Luther at Worms with his ‘It is neither safe nor right to do anything against conscience. Here I stand; I can do nothing else. God help me! Amen.’ Peter’s words are the first of a long series.

This first instance of persecution is made the occasion for the clear expression of the great principles which are to guide the Church. The answer falls into two parts, in the first of which the limits of obedience to civil authority are laid down in a perfectly general form to which even the Council are expected to assent, and in the second an irresistible compulsion to speak is boldly alleged as driving the two Apostles to a flat refusal to obey.

It was a daring stroke to appeal to the Council for an endorsement of the principle in Act 4:19 , but the appeal was unanswerable; for this tribunal had no other ostensible reason for existence than to enforce obedience to the law of God, and to Peter’s dilemma only one reply was possible. But it rested on a bold assumption, which was calculated to irritate the court; namely, that there was a blank contradiction between their commands and God’s, so that to obey the one was to disobey the other. When that parting of the ways is reached, there remains no doubt as to which road a religious man must take.

The limits of civil obedience are clearly drawn. It is a duty, because ‘the powers that be are ordained of God,’ and obedience to them is obedience to Him. But if they, transcending their sphere, claim obedience which can only be rendered by disobedience to Him who has appointed them, then they are no longer His ministers, and the duty of allegiance falls away. But there must be a plain conflict of commands, and we must take care lest we substitute whims and fancies of our own for the injunctions of God. Peter was not guided by his own conceptions of duty, but by the distinct precept of his Master, which had bid him speak. It is not true that it is the cause which makes the martyr, but it is true that many good men have made themselves martyrs needlessly. This principle is too sharp a weapon to be causelessly drawn and brandished. Only an unmistakable opposition of commandments warrants its use; and then, he has little right to be called Christ’s soldier who keeps the sword in the scabbard.

The articulate refusal in Act 4:20 bases itself on the ground of irrepressible necessity: ‘We cannot but speak.’ The immediate application was to the facts of Christ’s life, death, and glory. The Apostles could not help speaking of these, both because to do so was their commission, and because the knowledge of them and of their importance forbade silence. The truth implied is of wide reach. Whoever has a real, personal experience of Christ’s saving power, and has heard and seen Him, will be irresistibly impelled to impart what he has received. Speech is a relief to a full heart. The word, concealed in the prophet’s heart, burned there ‘like fire in his bones, and he was weary of forbearing.’ So it always is with deep conviction. If a man has never felt that he must speak of Christ, he is a very imperfect Christian. The glow of his own heart, the pity for men who know Him not, his Lord’s command, all concur to compel speech. The full river cannot be dammed up.

II. The lame and impotent conclusion of the perplexed Council.

How plain the path is when only duty is taken as a guide, and how vigorously and decisively a man marches along it! Peter had no hesitation, and his resolved answer comes crashing in a straight course, like a cannon-ball. The Council had a much more ambiguous oracle to consult in order to settle their course, and they hesitate accordingly, and at last do a something which is a nothing. They wanted to trim their sails to catch popular favour, and so they could not do anything thoroughly. To punish or acquit was the only alternative for just judges. But they were not just; and as Jesus had been crucified, not because Pilate thought Him guilty, but to please the people, so His Apostles were let off, not because they were innocent, but for the same reason. When popularity-hunters get on the judicial bench, society must be rotten, and nearing its dissolution. To ‘decree unrighteousness by a law’ is among the most hideous of crimes. Judges ‘willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike,’ are portents indicative of corruption. We may remark here how the physician’s pen takes note of the patient’s age, as making his cure more striking, and manifestly miraculous.

III. The Church’s answer to the first assault of the world’s power.

How beautifully natural that is, ‘Being let go, they went to their own,’ and how large a principle is expressed in the naive words! The great law of association according to spiritual affinity has much to do in determining relations here. It aggregates men, according to sorts; but its operation is thwarted by other conditions, so that companionship is often misery. But a time comes when it will work unhindered, and men will be united with their like, as the stones on some sea-beaches are laid in rows, according to their size, by the force of the sea. Judas ‘went to his own place,’ and, in another world, like will draw to like, and prevailing tendencies will be increased by association with those who share them.

The prayer of the Church was probably the inspired outpouring of one voice, and all the people said ‘Amen,’ and so made it theirs. Whose voice it was which thus put into words the common sentiment we should gladly have known, but need not speculate. The great fact is that the Church answered threats by prayer. It augurs healthy spiritual life when opposition and danger neither make cheeks blanch with fear nor flush with anger. No man there trembled nor thought of vengeance, or of repaying threats with threats. Every man there instinctively turned heavenwards, and flung himself, as it were, into God’s arms for protection. Prayer is the strongest weapon that a persecuted Church can use. Browning makes a tyrant say, recounting how he had tried to crush a man, that his intended victim

‘Stood erect, caught at God’s skirts, and prayed,

So I was afraid.’

The contents of the prayer are equally noteworthy. Instead of minutely studying it verse by verse, we may note some of its salient points. Observe its undaunted courage. That company never quivered or wavered. They had no thought of obeying the mandate of the Council. They were a little army of heroes. What had made them so? What but the conviction that they had a living Lord at God’s right hand, and a mighty Spirit in their spirits? The world has never seen a transformation like that. Unique effects demand unique causes for their explanation, and nothing but the historical truth of the facts recorded in the last pages of the Gospels and first of the Acts accounts for the demeanour of these men.

Their courage is strikingly marked by their petition. All they ask is ‘boldness’ to speak a word which shall not be theirs, but God’s. Fear would have prayed for protection; passion would have asked retribution on enemies. Christian courage and devotion only ask that they may not shrink from their duty, and that the word may be spoken, whatever becomes of the speakers. The world is powerless against men like that. Would the Church of to-day meet threats with like unanimity of desire for boldness in confession? If not, it must be because it has not the same firm hold of the Risen Lord which these first believers had. The truest courage is that which is conscious of its weakness, and yet has no thought of flight, but prays for its own increase.

We may observe, too, the body of belief expressed in the prayer. First it lays hold on the creative omnipotence of God, and thence passes to the recognition of His written revelation. The Church has begun to learn the inmost meaning of the Old Testament, and to find Christ there. David may not have written the second Psalm. Its attribution to him by the Church stands on a different level from Christ’s attribution of authorship, as, for instance, of the hundred and tenth Psalm. The prophecy of the Psalm is plainly Messianic, however it may have had a historical occasion in some forgotten revolt against some Davidic king; and, while the particular incidents to which the prayer alludes do not exhaust its far-reaching application, they are rightly regarded as partly fulfilling it. Herod is a ‘king of the earth,’ Pilate is a ‘ruler’; Roman soldiers are Gentiles; Jewish rulers are the representatives of ‘the people.’ Jesus is ‘God’s Anointed.’ The fact that such an unnatural and daring combination of rebels was predicted in the Psalm bears witness that even that crime at Calvary was foreordained to come to pass, and that God’s hand and counsel ruled. Therefore all other opposition, such as now threatened, will turn out to be swayed by that same Mighty Hand, to work out His counsel. Why, then, should the Church fear? If we can see God’s hand moving all things, terror is dead for us, and threats are like the whistling of idle wind.

Mark, too, the strong expression of the Church’s dependence on God. ‘Lord’ here is an unusual word, and means ‘Master,’ while the Church collectively is called ‘Thy servants,’ or properly, ‘slaves.’ It is a different word from that of ‘servant’ rather than ‘child’ applied to Jesus in Act 4:27 – Act 4:30 . God is the Master, we are His ‘slaves,’ bound to absolute obedience, unconditional submission, belonging to Him, not to ourselves, and therefore having claims on Him for such care as an owner gives to his slaves or his cattle. He will not let them be maltreated nor starved. He will defend them and feed them; but they must serve him by life, and death if need be. Unquestioning submission and unreserved dependence are our duties. Absolute ownership and unshared responsibility for our well-being belong to Him.

Further, the view of Christ’s relationship to God is the same as occurs in other of the early chapters of the Acts. The title of ‘Thy holy Servant Jesus’ dwells on Christ’s office, rather than on His nature. Here it puts Him in contrast with David, also called ‘Thy servant.’ The latter was imperfectly what Jesus was perfectly. His complete realisation of the prophetic picture of the Servant of the Lord in Isaiah is emphasised by the adjective ‘holy,’ implying complete devotion or separation to the service of God, and unsullied, unlimited moral purity. The uniqueness of His relation in this aspect is expressed by the definite article in the original. He is the Servant, in a sense and measure all His own. He is further the Anointed Messiah. This was the Church’s message to Israel and the stay of its own courage, that Jesus was the Christ, the Anointed and perfect Servant of the Lord, who was now in heaven, reigning there. All that this faith involved had not yet become clear to their consciousness, but the Spirit was guiding them step by step into all the truth; and what they saw and heard, not only in the historical facts of which they were the witnesses, but in the teaching of that Spirit, they could not but speak.

The answer came swift as the roll of thunder after lightning. They who ask for courage to do God’s will and speak Christ’s name have never long to wait for response. The place ‘was shaken,’ symbol of the effect of faithful witness-bearing, or manifestation of the power which was given in answer to their prayer. ‘They were all filled with the Holy Ghost,’ who now did not, as before, confer ability to speak with other tongues, but wrought no less worthily in heartening and fitting them to speak ‘in their own tongue, wherein they were born,’ in bold defiance of unlawful commands.

The statement of the answer repeats the petition verbatim: ‘With all boldness they spake the word.’ What we desire of spiritual gifts we get, and God moulds His replies so as to remind us of our petitions, and to show by the event that these have reached His ear and guided His giving hand.

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

So when, &c. = But having further threatened. Only here.

let . . . go = Greek. apoluo. App-174.

nothing, &c. = no further means of punishing.

because of Greek. dia. App-104. Act 4:2.

glorified. Greek. doxazo See note on Act 3:13.

was done = had taken place.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

21.] ., having threatened them in addition;-with threats superadded to the inhibition of Act 4:18.

, no means: not , see Joh 14:30. The difficulty with the Sanhedrim was, to find any means of punishing them which should not stir up the people; belongs to this clause, not to .

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Act 4:21. ) having further threatened them.-, all men) Often the people is sounder than those who rule.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

when: Act 4:17, Act 5:40

how: Act 5:26, Mat 21:46, Mat 26:5, Luk 19:47, Luk 19:48, Luk 20:6, Luk 20:19, Luk 22:2

for all: Act 3:6-9, Mat 9:33, Mat 15:31, Luk 5:26, Luk 13:17, Joh 12:18, Joh 12:19

Reciprocal: Exo 7:16 – Let my Mat 9:8 – and Mat 14:5 – when Mar 2:12 – glorified Luk 18:43 – followed Joh 9:3 – but Act 2:47 – having Act 3:10 – they knew Act 4:14 – they Act 4:29 – behold Act 5:13 – but Act 5:24 – they Act 16:35 – General Act 21:20 – they glorified 2Co 6:8 – honour 2Co 9:13 – they

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

1

Act 4:21. Because of the people. Public sentiment is a powerful influence, and when it is aroused in favor of a good cause, not many leaders are willing to defy it, especially if they are desirous of maintaining a popular standing. The Sanhedrin officials knew there was nothing in the deed of healing a lame man that could call for any punishment, and if they attempted such a thing the public would unite against it, because they had already expressed an attitude of glory to God for the good deed.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Act 4:21. Finding nothing how they might punish them, because of the people. The evident good-will of the people no doubt procured the dismissal of the apostles this time without punishment.

For all glorified God for that which was done. No penalty, such as scourging or imprisonment, would then have been tolerated by popular sentiment. But besides this public feeling working in favour of the disciples of Jesus, it is more than probable that in the Sanhedrim itself several members secretly favoured the new sect. Some have supposed that Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea were members of this council. That the powerful R. Gamaliel, one certainly of the most influential of the Sanhedrim leaders, was disposed to favour them we know from Act 5:34.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

VARIED EXPERIENCES

UNITY OF LOVE (Act 4:31-37)

The quickening in the last lesson was associated with another outpouring of the Holy Spirit but not another baptism, and some who had been filled before were refilled, with results following: (1) courage in preaching (Act 4:31); (2) unity of soul (Act 4:32); (3) power in testimony (Act 4:33); and (4) love in practical conduct (Act 4:34-37). This last result has sometimes been quoted as favoring Christian communism, but it is to be remembered that it was voluntary in origin, temporary in duration, and limited in its application. Where such communism is the result of the work of the Holy Spirit on regenerated hearts, and accompanied by such fruit as it here revealed, no one need have any apprehension in regard to it.

PRIDE AND HYPOCRISY (Act 5:1-11)

But there is mildew in every garden, and the opening of the next chapter shows its presence here. Notice in verse three the testimony to the personality and power of Satan, and the personality and Deity of the Holy Spirit. One cannot lie to an influence or a mere principle of good. Moreover, in verse five the Holy Spirit is identified as God. The penalty on Ananias and Sapphira does not necessarily involve eternal retribution, inasmuch as, notwithstanding their sin, they may have been in vital relationship to God through faith in Christ (1Jn 1:8). But it is an illustration of Gods chastening His people on earth, paralleled by the cases of Nadab and Abihu and Achan in the Old Testament (Leviticus 10; Joshua 7), and the Corinthians in the New Testament (1Co 11:30-32). (Compare here 1Jn 5:16.)

POWER AND PERSECUTION (Act 5:12-42)

Note in passing, the continued growth of the church (Act 5:14); the unusual nature of the signs wrought by Peter (Act 5:15); the continued enmity of the Sadducees because the apostles preached the resurrection (Act 5:17-18); the supernatural deliverance (Act 5:19-24); the defense before the Sanhedrin (Act 5:25-32); the unexpected advocate (Act 5:33-39); the penalty (Act 5:40); the effect on the apostles and the church (Act 5:41-42).

QUESTIONS

1. What were the results of the filling with the Holy Ghost?

2. What are the distinctions between the charity of the early church and the modern communism?

3. What sin in the heart led to the open hypocrisy of Ananias and Sapphira?

4. How is the Deity of the Holy Spirit proven in this lesson?

5. Is there a distinction between the Divine retribution of the unbelieving and the Divine chastening of the followers of Christ?

6. Give some Old and New Testament illustrations of the latter.

7. Give in your own words the story told above under the head of Power and Persecution.

Fuente: James Gray’s Concise Bible Commentary

Here observe, 1. That notwithstanding this rational plea, which the apostles used, the council added further threatenings and so dismissed them, because of the people, who looked upon the miracle with admiration, and glorified God for working it by the apostles’ hands.

Where note, That it was not the sense of sin, nor any apprehensions of God’s displeasure that influenced the council to set the apostles at liberty; but either the fear or favour of the people. Thus God made the people a restraint to the ruler’s rage.

Observe, 2. That the apostles thus dismissed, went immediately to their own company, (that-is, to the hundred and twenty mentioned, Act 1:15) and acquainted them both with their danger and deliverance, the better to prepare them for sufferings, and encourage them to hope for the like support under them.

Observe, 3. What use the church makes thereof: they hearing how their enemies lay in wait to persecute and destroy them, apply themselves to God by fervent prayer.

Thence learn, That it is the church’s duty when enemies combine together to do mischief, to give themselves much unto prayer. Thus did the church here, and the like, Act 12:1-12.

Observe, 4. The prayer itself, which they jointly put up at the throne of grace, with one heart and spirit.

And here note, 1. They began their prayer with invocation, and a reverent compellation, suitable to their present sufferings; adoring God’s omnipotency in creating and governing of the word. Lord ! thou art God, who hast made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all that is therein.

Whence learn, That the power and wisdom of God in creating and governing the world, doth afford singular support and comfort under the sense of present of future sufferings. He that made all things by his power, will over-rule all things by his providence for his own glory and his church’s good.

Note, 2. The apostles used scripture-language and expressions in their prayer: they allude to Psalms 2 and acknowledge that all that enraged malice of men and devils against the Messias, which was foretold long ago by the prophet David, was now come to pass: For both the Jewish council and the Roman governors had combined together against Christ, and in opposing him, had opposed the Father that sent him. Of a truth against thy holy child Jesus are they gathered together, to do what thy hand and thy counsel had determined before to be done.

Where we see, 1. That all the sufferings of Christ were fore-ordained and determined by God the Father; God from all eternity decreed that Christ should die a sacrifice for sin.

2. That this decree of God did not necessitate the Jews to sin; but they acted freely and voluntarily, according to the wicked determinations of their own wills. God foresaw and permitted it, but no ways influenced or compelled them to it. He over-ruled those evil instruments to fulfil his holy purposes, while they intended only to fulfil their own wicked counsels.

Observe lastly, They close their prayer with a fervent petition, that God would strengthen them, and glorify his Son.

1. That God would strengthen them against their fears; steel them with courage, and fortify them ith impregnable resolution; Grant that with all boldness we may speak thy word. Boldness to preach the gospel, when unjustly forbidden, is a special gift of God, and a great effect of God’s grace unto his servants.

2. They request that God would magnify, not them, but his Son by them, in giving them power to work miraculous cures in the name of Jesus, for confirming of the gospel, Grant that signs and wonders may be done by the name of the holy child Jesus.

Where note, That the gift of miracles, though promised by Christ, is yet prayed for by the apostles. God will have the performance of his promises to be the answer of our prayers.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Act 4:21-22. So when they had further threatened them Namely, in severer terms than before; they let them go Not thinking it proper, all circumstances considered, to proceed to any further extremities at that time; since they could find nothing in their conduct for which they could punish them with any show of reason; because of the people Whose resentment they feared. For all men glorified God for that which was done So much wiser were they than those who ruled over them. For the man Who had been a cripple from his birth; was above forty years old So that hardly any thing could have appeared to human judgment to be a more desperate case, than so inveterate and confirmed a lameness.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

21, 22. It was a sore trial to the haughty spirits of the Sanhedrim to brook such defiance; but a desire to conciliate the people, mingled, no doubt, with a secret fear of the consequences of putting to death men who had exercised such power, restrained their wrath. (21) “And when they had further threatened them, they let them go, not finding how they might punish them, because of the people; for all glorified God for what was done. (22) For the man on whom this miracle of healing was wrought was more than forty years of age.”

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

Verse 21

Because of the people. They feared creating a tumult among the people.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

4:21 {8} So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding nothing how they might punish them, because of the people: for all [men] glorified God for that which was done.

(8) The wicked are so far off from doing what they wish, that God uses them contrary to their desires to set forth his glory, which he gives them permission to do.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Even in the face of open defiance the Sanhedrin could do no more than threaten the apostles again. Peter and John had done nothing wrong. Furthermore they had become popular heroes by this healing. By punishing them the rulers would have antagonized the people.

"Yet a legal precedent had been set that would enable the council to take, if necessary, more drastic action in the future." [Note: Longenecker, p. 307.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)