Acts 4
McGeeCHAPTER 4THEME: First persecution of the church; power of the Holy SpiritThis chapter shows the result of Peter’s second sermon. Five thousand people were saved. Then the apostles were arrested and put into prison. This was at the instigation of the Sadducees, and the reason for it was the preaching of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Acts 4:1
FIRST PERSECUTION OF THE CHURCHI want to call your attention to something that is quite startling and interesting to see. Who was it that led in the persecution of the Lord Jesus and finally had Him arrested and put to death? It was the religious rulers, the Pharisees. They were the enemies of Christ as He walked here on earth. Apparently quite a few of the Pharisees were saved. We know that Nicodemus was. Joseph of Arimathea may have been a Pharisee. We know that Saul of Tarsus was one. Apparently there were many others of the Pharisees who were brought to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. After they had gotten rid of Him, their enmity and their spite were over. Now the Sadducees, who do not believe in resurrection, become the great enemies when the church comes into existence because the apostles are preaching the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Let me give you an illustration of this. I have never engaged in any movement or reformation to try to straighten up any of the places where I preached. I never felt that was my job. I was a pastor in downtown Los Angeles for many years. In that town we had movie stars who had their day, but then the stardom disappeared and they became burned-out cinders. Often they would go into some kind of reformation work after their star had gone out.
Maybe that was some type of reaction, I don’t know. Such a woman called and asked me to serve on a committee that was trying to clean up downtown Los Angeles. I agreed it needed cleaning up, but I told her that I could not serve on the committee. She was amazed. “Aren’t you a minister?” she asked. “Aren’t you interested in cleaning up Los Angeles?” I answered, “I will not serve on your committee because I don’t think you are going about it in the right way.” Then I told her what the late Dr. Bob Shuler had told me years ago. He said, “We are called to fish in the fish pond, not to clean up the fish pond.” This old world is a place to fish.
Jesus said He would make us fishers of men, and the world is the place to fish. We are not called upon to clean up the fish pond. We need to catch the fish and get the fish cleaned up. I have found that the biggest enemies of the preaching of the gospel are not the liquor folk. The gangsters have never bothered me. Do you know where I had my trouble as a preacher? It was with the so-called religious leaders, the liberals, those who claimed to be born again. They actually became enemies of the preaching of the gospel. It was amazing to me to find out how many of them wanted to destroy my radio ministry. They were our worst antagonists. It was not the gangsters, not the unsaved folk, but these religious leaders. They are the Sadducees of today. They are the ones who deny the supernatural. They deny the Word of God either by their lips or by their lives. That is important to see. The Sadducees of that day and the “Sadducees” of our day try to make trouble for anyone who preaches the Resurrection. You can preach Jesus, friend. You can make Him a nice, sweet individual, a sort of Casper Milquetoast, and you will not be in trouble. But you are in trouble if you preach Him as the mighty Savior who came down to this earth, denounced sin, died on the Cross for the sins of men, and then rose again in mighty power. That is the hated message. When the apostles preached it, the Sadducees arrested them and brought them in to the Sanhedrin.
Acts 4:3
All this was happening at Solomon’s porch following the sermon which Peter had delivered. If there were five thousand men who believed, how many women and children do you suppose might have believed? This was a whole multitude that turned to Christ. I have always been reluctant to criticize Simon Peter. You can’t help but love the man. He was mightily used of God. This is not an evangelistic meeting where figures are turned in rather carelessly. These are genuine converts. There is nothing like this on record from that day to the present day, and I don’t believe it will be exceeded as long as the church is in the world.
Acts 4:5
We have met this crowd before. These are the sneaky fellows, Annas and Caiaphas, in the background. These are the two men who condemned Jesus to die.
Acts 4:7
Peter and John are brought before the Sanhedrin. The lame man had been healed, and Peter had preached his second sermon. The Sanhedrin demands to know by what power and by what name they do these things.
Acts 4:8
Notice that Peter is filled with the Holy Spirit. He wasn’t baptized by the Holy Spirit at this timethat had already been accomplished. However he was filled with the Holy Spirit. You and I also need the filling of the Holy Spirit. That is something we should seek after; it is something we should devoutly want. Don’t tarry and wait for the baptism of the Spirit. They had to tarry and wait until the Day of Pentecost when they were all baptized into one body, but today if you will turn to Jesus Christ, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit and placed into the body of believers at the very moment you are regenerated.
Acts 4:9
Peter does a good job of speaking to these men. Up to this time, every time Peter opened his mouth, he put his foot in it. But this time, I tell you, he has his “…feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace” (Eph_6:15). He is filled with the Holy Spirit, and he is saying the right thing: “Are we on trial for the good deed we did for the sick man?” That is a searching question!
Acts 4:11
Peter goes on to point out two things about the Lord Jesus. The first is that He was crucified and raised from the dead. The other is that Jesus Christ is the stone. Jesus had said, “…Upon this rock I will build my church …” (Mat_16:18). What is the rock? The rock is Christ. Now Peter says, “This is the stone.” What is the stone? Is it the church, or is it Simon Peter? No, it is the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth. He has become the Head of the corner. This has been accomplished by the Resurrection. Notice that the Resurrection is central to the preaching of the gospel.
Acts 4:12
Go back to the birth of Jesus and the instruction of the angel: “…thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins” (Mat_1:21). He is the Savior. That was His name at the beginning. When you accept the name, you accept all that it implies in the person who is involved. Peter makes it clear, and I want to emphasize that when you come to Him, my friend, you come to Him for salvation. There is no other name under heaven that can save you. The law can’t save you. Religion can’t save you. A ceremony can’t save you. One alone, the name of Jesus, can save you. Jesus is the name of that Person who came down to this earth to save His people from their sins. When any person comes to Him in faith, that person is saved. There is no other place to turn for salvation. Isn’t it interesting that in the long history of this world and all the religions of the world and all the dogmatism that these religions have, not one of them can offer a sure salvation? An uncle of mine was a preacher in a certain church which believes in baptismal regeneration; that is, you must be baptized to be saved. I asked him this question, “Look, if I get baptized as you say, will that guarantee my salvation?” “No,” he said, “it couldn’t quite do that.” My friend, may I say something to you today? There is none other name under heaven whereby you can be saved. If you come to Him, if you trust Christ, then you are saved. That guarantees your salvation. That was a great message of Simon Peter’s, and this is a fine note to conclude that message to the Sanhedrin.
Acts 4:13
“Unlearned and ignorant"that is, these men hadn’t been to a theological seminary. But the Sanhedrin noted that they had been with Jesus. How wonderful to have a life that somehow or other calls attention to Jesus!
Acts 4:14
Were they moved by Peter’s speech? No, they were not moved at all.
Acts 4:16
Not even the Sadducees of that day could deny that a miracle had been performed. It takes a liberal, living in the twentieth century and removed by several thousand miles, to deny miracles. If you had been there then, you would have had difficulty denying the miracle. The liberals of that day had to say, “We cannot deny a miracle has taken place.” People today say that if they could only see a miracle, they would believe. That is not true. This crowd wouldn’t believe, and you have the same human nature as these people had. The problem is not a problem of the mind. It is a problem of the will and of the heart. It is the heart that is desperately wicked. Unbelief is not from a lack of facts; it is the condition of the human heart. Now they are plotting.
Acts 4:17
Peter and John have an answer for them.
Acts 4:19
You would think that the men of the Sanhedrin would have been softened by this. They were not. They were hard as nails. Their hearts were hard.
Acts 4:23
THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRITPeter and John have been released and have returned to the church, and they give their report. Here we have recorded a great meeting of the early church. I do not believe the spiritual condition of the church has ever again been on such a high level. We find the key to this in their prayer. It is more than a prayer; it is a song of praise. “Lord, Thou art God. Lord, You are the Creator.” Friend, I am afraid the church is not sure of that today. The Lord is God. Are you sure that the Lord Jesus is God? Are you? That is most important. The church is not sure today. The church is fumbling; it has lost its power. The church is always talking of methods, always trying this gimmick and that gimmick to attract people. The church in suburbia and the church in downtown are little more than religious clubs. The church is not a powerhouse anymore. The early church was sure that Jesus is God. They refer to the second psalm:
Acts 4:25
The beginning of the fulfillment of Psalm 2 was when they crucified Jesus Christ. The hatred of Jesus and of God has been snowballing down through the centuries for nineteen hundred years. It is gathering size and momentum. It will finally break into a mighty crescendo upon this earth in the final rebellion of man against God.
Acts 4:27
I am moved by this. This was a great prayer and praise service. They all were in one accord. Probably they did not all pray at one time, but they were certainly saying “amen” with the one who led in prayer. Notice that they did not pray for the persecution to cease. They prayed for the courage to endure it! They asked for power and for boldness to speak. That early church was something different, friend, from the church of our day.
Acts 4:30
Note the power of the early church.
Acts 4:31
It was the condition of the church which made this possible.
Acts 4:32
This did not last very long. Carnality came into the church very soon.
Acts 4:33
That is the heart of gospel preaching.
Acts 4:34
This kind of living could be carried out for a short while because of the spiritual condition of the church. It is nonsense to say that we should put this into effect today. If we tried it, we would have utter chaos. Why? Because there must first be the same high spiritual level, and we don’t have that today. Let us be honest and face up to it. We need to come into a closer relationship to the person of Jesus Christ. We have been introduced to Barnabas. We will hear more of him later.