Pastor Jeremy M. Thomas
Fredericksburg Bible Church
107 East Austin
Fredericksburg, Texas 78624
830-997-8834      jthomas@fbgbible.org
A0820 – May 18, 2008 – Acts 4:5-12 – The Interrogation By The Sanhedrin

Acts 4:5-12 Ἐγένετο δὲ ἐπὶ τὴν αὔριον συναχθῆναι αὐτῶν τοὺς ἄρχοντας καὶ τοὺς πρεσβυτέρους καὶ τοὺς γραμματεῖς ἐν Ἰερουσαλήμ, 6καὶ Ἅννας ὁ ἀρχιερεὺς καὶ Καϊάφας καὶ Ἰωάννης καὶ Ἀλέξανδρος καὶ ὅσοι ἦσαν ἐκ γένους ἀρχιερατικοῦ, 7καὶ στήσαντες αὐτοὺς ἐν τῷ μέσῳ ἐπυνθάνοντο· ἐν ποίᾳ δυνάμει ἢ ἐν ποίῳ ὀνόματι ἐποιήσατε τοῦτο ὑμεῖς; 8Τότε Πέτρος πλησθεὶς πνεύματος ἁγίου εἶπεν πρὸς αὐτούς· ἄρχοντες τοῦ λαοῦ καὶ πρεσβύτεροι, 9εἰ ἡμεῖς σήμερον ἀνακρινόμεθα ἐπὶ εὐεργεσίᾳ ἀνθρώπου ἀσθενοῦς ἐν τίνι οὗτος σέσωται, 10γνωστὸν ἔστω πᾶσιν ὑμῖν καὶ παντὶ τῷ λαῷ Ἰσραὴλ ὅτι ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ τοῦ Ναζωραίου ὃν ὑμεῖς ἐσταυρώσατε, ὃν ὁ θεὸς ἤγειρεν ἐκ νεκρῶν, ἐν τούτῳ οὗτος παρέστηκεν ἐνώπιον ὑμῶν ὑγιής. 11οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ λίθος, ὁ ἐξουθενηθεὶς ὑφʼ ὑμῶν τῶν οἰκοδόμων, ὁ γενόμενος εἰς κεφαλὴν γωνίας. 12καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν ἄλλῳ οὐδενὶ ἡ σωτηρία, οὐδὲ γὰρ ὄνομά ἐστιν ἕτερον ὑπὸ τὸν οὐρανὸν τὸ δεδομένον ἐν ἀνθρώποις ἐν ᾧ δεῖ σωθῆναι ἡμᾶς. (NA27)
Acts 4:5-12 On the next day their rulers and elders and experts in the law gathered together (ADepInf) in Jerusalem, 6with Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were (3PIAI) of the high-priestly family. 7And having made them stand in the midst, they asked, “By what power or by what name have you done (2PAAI) this?” 8Then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, 9if we are being questioned today for a benefit done to a weak man, by what means this man is healed (3SPerfPI), 10let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom you crucified (2PAAI) whom God raised (3SAAI) from the dead, by this means this man stands (3SPerfAI) before you healthy. 11This One is (3SPAI) the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but has become the chief cornerstone. 12And there is (3SPAI) salvation in no one else, for there is (3SPAI) no other name under heaven given among men by which we must (of necessity) be saved (PAInf).” (Author’s Translation)
Acts 4:5-12 On the next day, their rulers and elders and scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem; 6and Annas the high priest was there, and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of high-priestly descent. 7When they had placed them in the center, they began to inquire, “By what power, or in what name, have you done this?” 8Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of the people, 9if we are on trial today for a benefit done to a sick man, as to how this man has been made well, 10let 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. 11“He is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became the chief corner stone. 12“And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” (NASB95)

Alright, the Book of Acts records the Acts of the Holy Spirit through the apostles and others. The outline is in chapter 1:8, the witness, and it’s the witness not of their personal experience with Jesus but of the historical fact of Jesus’ resurrection. You’d think they had hundreds of stories to tell about what Jesus did here and how they talked about this and that with Jesus but what they keep coming out with is the witness of the resurrection, the witness of the resurrection, this is a historical fact, the tomb is empty. So the witness starts in the city where all this history took place, Jerusalem, and the witness goes out here in Acts 2-7, after the witness is rejected the witness moves out to Judea and Samaria, Luke records that in Acts 8-12 and finally it will go out via Paul and others to the remotest parts of the earth, that’s Acts 13 to 28. So there are three parts to this early history. This is the first and only church history for the first 30 years. So it’s a valuable textbook for analysis of the origin and formation of the church as things transition from the kingdom offer to the church. 

We’ve been studying Peter’s sermons, Peter, contrary to his lack of courage before the cross has now become a powerful, well-trained believer and in Acts 2 he takes the lead convicting the nation of their guilt of crucifying the Messiah. The result was the number of converts rose from 120 to 3,000. Then he heals the lame beggar in Acts 3 in the heart of the Temple Compound and that stimulates this evangelistic sermon and the number of converts rises from 3,000 to 5,000 and keep in mind that’s just the men. So we’re talking 10-15,000 converts when you add in the women and children. If the population was around 30,000 as scholars suggest then we’re talking almost half of Jerusalem. This is an obvious threat to the plan of Satan so that’s why you see the rise in persecution in chapter 4. Satan is going on the counterattack, trying to dismantle this movement, trying to shut it down and contain the situation. So that’s what we’re going to look at today in this investigation in chapter 4:5. The Sadducees are very disturbed by this preaching of resurrection in Jesus, this was a sore point with the Sadducees, they were always arguing with the Pharisees over this point of doctrine. But they had control over the Temple Compound and they were not going to tolerate this teaching, that’s the content of v 2, this set them off so they’ve interrupted Peter and John, and notice back in 3:1 the miracle occurred around the ninth hour, that was 3pm in the afternoon. So that’s when this whole event happened, everyone raced to the portico of Solomon and about 6pm they get arrested, that’s what we gather from 4:3, that when they were arrested it was already evening, that was 6pm for the Jews, they couldn’t carry on trials after 6pm, unless it was Jesus in which case they violated their own law and carried out illegal trials all night long. So Peter was preaching there for about 3 hours before this interruption occurred. He had an open window for three hours and then Satan got a handle on what was happening and shut it down immediately. Now we want to see how the investigation goes the next day. What kinds of tricks does Satan have up his sleeve?

Verse 5, On the next day, their rulers and elders and scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem; 6and Annas the high priest was there, and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of high-priestly descent. Now the reason that these people are gathering together is because of verse 2. Verse 2 tells you why they are gathered together, they are gathered together because the divine viewpoint doctrine of the resurrection of Christ has deeply challenged and offended them. These people cannot afford to let this doctrine influence 1/3-1/2 of the city’s population, they’ve got to do something about it. So we have this little gathering. Notice it’s made up of three groups, the rulers, the elders, and the scribes. The rulers were composed of 24 priests, they were the wealthy aristocracy of the city of Jerusalem, they were Sadducees, the people who denied the resurrection. The elders were a mixed group, heads of family tribes who were looked up to in the community, and the scribes were high power attorneys, experts in the law of Moses, primarily of the Pharisees. So you have a large group. Collectively that group is known as the Sanhedrin (sunedrion, or Council) and it was composed of 70 men plus the high priest in verse 6. At the time it was actually Caiaphas, Annas had been the high priest for a number of years and he retained that title but Caiaphas was the acting high priest. He was Annas’ son-in-law. Of course, we’ve seen these characters before. They presided over Jesus’ trial before the cross and lo and behold, now they preside over the trial of two of his bold followers after the cross. We don’t know anything about John and Alexander except that Alexander served as high priest later on. So this is the supreme court of Israel versus two Galilean fishermen. At first glance it appears they are outnumbered but there’s a real question here “Who is in the majority?” And what I want you to see is what happens. It starts out with Peter and John on trial before the Sanhedrin; when Peter gets done by verse 12 it turns out that instead of Peter and John being on trial before the Sanhedrin, the Sanhedrin are on trial before Peter and John. Peter turns the tables on the whole group. How does he do that?

To tie this together we have a good idea of where the Sanhedrin met. It was a chamber known as the Chamber of Hewn Stone. 

This is a map of the Old City, here’s the City of David down here, at the foot of the city you have the Pool of Siloam, up here you have the wealthy parts of the city, where many of these leaders lived such as Caiaphas, this was the poor region of the city. Here’s the Temple Mount or Temple Compound, in the northwest corner you had what was called the Antonia Fortress, this was built by the Romans for two reasons, for one it was the high ground and they wanted to secure that against attacks so the Romans’ built a fortress there, for two they could overlook the Temple activities from that position. Rome had to keep her oppressive finger on everybody and that’s eventually what got these people all upset and caused a major war down near 70AD. Here’s the Beautiful Gate where Peter healed the lame man, going into the court of the women, after the healing they went into the Temple to worship God and then they all went to the portico of Solomon, somewhere over here, this is where Peter gave a three hour sermon. They were arrested, taken to prison cells on the Temple Mount and bright and early morning they were taken to the Chamber of Hewn Stone. This was located right here, right directly in view of the Antonia. 

Verse 7, “When they had placed them in the center,” history tells us the Sanhedrin sat in a semicircle around those on trial. 
	
So Peter and John are placed right on center stage and then the trial begins, “they began to inquire, “By what power, or in what name, have you done this?” Now right here we want to learn a very important principle, a principle that Satan pulls off every time he persecutes the Church. Every time we make the issue clear he tries to distract the issue. And so what we’ve got here is operation distraction. You see, Satan is a god of darkness and you can bet your last dollar that whatever the confrontation is Satan definitely is not interested in clarifying any major issue. All Satan wants to do is to suppress the truth and if he can distract people’s attention away from the true issue and get you thinking of a false one, he’s won the day. 

Now verse 2 told you why this trial is happening; it has to do with the theological reason that the doctrine of resurrection has spread through the whole city of Jerusalem. That is the real reason for the trial. The Sadducees in all their open-mindedness do not want free discussion and therefore they are about to suppress it by force. That’s always the case, by the way, with your human viewpoint type liberalism. They do not want free discussions; the moment you bring anything supernatural in they hate you and they will oppose you at every point. And so here they are opposing them for that point, but when the first weed out question hits and they interrogate the apostles, notice what they don’t ask them; it’s not “what about this resurrection,” because if they did that would make it the issue of the trial which they don’t want so what do they raise the issue? “By what name have you done this?” Do you know why they’re doing that? Because there’s a provision back in the Old Testament, in Deuteronomy 13, let’s turn there. They are following a legal procedure from the Mosaic Law. Now here’s the procedure, verse 1 addresses the issue of signs and a sign had been done, they’d healed this lame man, now this needs to be investigated. What they’re hoping of course is that they can get Peter and John to make some idolatrous statement, v 2, so the issue is not “Has a genuine sign been done?” that’s not disputed, what they’re trying to get is some idolatrous statement out of their mouth, and they’ve got all the slick lawyers there to do it, so if they can drag that out then they can show people that they are guilty of the sin of blasphemy and execute them on the basis of Deut 13:1-5. So this first question in the interrogation on the surface appears justified but in reality its operation confusion to get people thinking of something other than the real issue at hand. They don’t really want the issue of resurrection to even come up.

So Peter has to answer the question but somehow get around to the main issue, so in verse 8, Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, now the filling of the Holy Spirit is mentioned in Eph 5:18 which is explained in Col 3:15-16. Now, typically when people think of the filling of the Spirit they’re thinking of some kind of mystical ooey-gooey feeling, an emotion. But if you compare these two passages, which are parallel, they’re discussing all the same things. In Ephesians 5:18 you have “be filled with the Spirit” and then it starts talking about speaking to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, then it talks about the husband/wife relationship, the parent/child relationship, employer/employee and so forth. In Colossians 3:15, the same apostle talks about the same thing, about singing Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, talks about husbands and wives, parents and children, etc…it’s the same context. But in Colossians 3 instead of using the phrase “be filled with the Holy Spirit,” another phrase is used, “let the word of Christ dwell richly within you.” That means let Bible doctrine dwell in you so that you are skillful in its use, able to use the word of God wisely. So there’s a parallel between the word of God and the Holy Spirit and Colossians is giving us the meaning of the filling of the Holy Spirit. Rather than use filling of the Holy Spirit I suggest using “let the word of Christ dwell richly within you” because when you say “filling of the Spirit” people always go to some kind of mystical control, some weird emotional thing, some experience, it’s not that at all. It’s letting the word of truth so permeate the depth of your being that it just shines out of you. That’s when you’re following the will of God for your life. I won’t steal all of John Rosheger’s thunder right now but if I’m not mistaken while I’m gone to Israel John’s going to tackle these problems with deciphering God’s will, what’s God’s will for my life and all the concoctions people have come up with that are just flat unbiblical. How do you know the will of God for your life? When you’re letting the word of Christ dwell richly within you you’re doing the will of God. Another way the Bible puts it is when you’re “walking in the light,” another synonym is “walking in fellowship,” another synonym is “abiding in Him.” These are all talking about the same thing. And with Peter being filled by the Spirit here that’s why I say it appears that although they stand against 71 powerful leaders they are in fact in the majority.

So when it says in v 8 that Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit it’s a synonym for the fact that he’s in the will of God when he answers their question. So let’s see how he answers the question. Verse 8, Rulers and elders of the people, 9if we are on trial today for a benefit done to a sick man, as to how this man has been made well, 10let 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. 11“He is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became the chief corner stone. 12“And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved. So Peter defies them; he tells them very clearly what the name is; so he answered the question but boy, the way he answered that question is going to tie them in knots. They are going to by the time he gets through be backing up. Peter is going to be charging them, they’re not going to be charging Peter.

In verse 9 he starts out by saying it was a good deed. He doesn’t even allow them the room to charge him with a crime, this is a good deed for crying out loud. He says, if we are on trial and it’s a first class “if,” “if and we are on trial today for a benefit done to a sick man… then let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel so Peter wants this to go public, he’s not hiding anything, then he gives them the name, the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, so he’s openly identified Jesus as the Messiah and as coming forth from Nazarene and then here’s the indictment again, all of Peter’s sermons include an indictment, he doesn’t flee the sin issue, he in fact brings it up and presses it, Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, you killed Him, God raised Him, you who claim to be the servants of God are at odds with God. And by this name this man stands here before you in good health. So, it’s a name they’ve heard before, it’s a name they thought they were done with back when they crucified Him but now it’s come up again.

And then in verse 11 he quotes Psalm 118. Turn to Psalm 118. Psalm 118:22, in the context it is talking about the triumph of the Messiah when He brings in the kingdom and establishes the nation of Israel. Now in Psalms 118:22, “The stone which the builders refused,” who are the builders? They are the people who wanted to build the kingdom on a kingdom of man basis, on a human viewpoint basis. And the very thing that they needed, the cornerstone, was the stone the builders discarded to build their social and political kingdom, is precisely the stone that God begins to build His social and political kingdom. What man rejects God uses. Men reject Christ, God uses Him. And so in verse 22 the stone is actually the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the builders are the human viewpoint builders of the kingdom of man trying to build a kingdom but on a human viewpoint basis. Notice it says, verse 23, “This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the LORD has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” That’s speaking of the day the millennial kingdom begins. Verse 25, O Lord, do save, we beseech you, O Lord, we beseech you, do send prosperity,” that’s the national call upon the Lord for salvation. Verse 26, “Blessed is He who calls upon the name of the Lord,” also quoted by Jesus in Matt 23:39, you will not see Me until you say Israel, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” So let’s turn back to Peter and see how he uses Ps 118. In v 11 Peter quotes Psalm 118, you looked at the stone but you rejected the stone and God made that stone the cornerstone. That’s the keystone, without it all your measurements are off, it has to be placed perfectly and they’ve rejected Him, God chose Him, He is the author of salvation, then in v 12 he concludes, And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved. Now, contextually you think he’s using that word “salvation” for physical health or wholeness, the healing of the lame man and that’s possible but I think it’s grander than that, I think he’s expanding here to include the eternal aspect. This makes it one of the most bigoted statements in the NT, right up there with John 14:6, this is a statement of Exclusivism. It excludes the name of Buddha, Confucius, Allah, Baha Ula, every other name except Jesus Christ is absolutely empty, can’t do a thing for you. Now that may offend you, how can that be, that’s just not fair of God. Why doesn’t God just make all paths lead to Him. Well the problem with that is who God is; His character defines the nature of salvation. He’s holy and therefore sin has to be dealt with, it can’t just be overlooked. And besides, it is fair, God gave all men revelation, all tribes, peoples, languages, had the Noahic Bible, Gen 1-9 but within 500 years men had so distorted the truth that salvation was on the brink of extinction so God called Abraham out to preserve that message and give the world a Savior, and that’s where the issue of Exclusivism really goes back to, “Why did God call Abraham out?” Why didn’t He work with all the nations? Well, we’ve answered that, man is so depraved that the truth is suppressed and eventually all but lost. We can find remnants of Gen 1-9 in every culture but you have to look because by now the collective consciousness of these peoples has done a pretty good job hiding it. But if you search hard enough you’ll find it. So, we really all ought to be thankful that God called Abraham out and provided a way of salvation through Jesus Christ. He didn’t have to do that; He could have just let the nations go there merry way into perdition. So this is a grace operation. 

Now look at this, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given, that’s a perfect tense. The name Jesus Christ has been given, perfect tense? The perfect tense means a past completed action with ongoing results. Now think of that for a moment. If there is no other name that has been given then what is Peter saying? Remember, he’s got to avoid the idolatrous charge of Deut 13:1-5, he can’t bring in a new name of salvation here other than the OT YHWH (Jon 2:9). If he does he’s violated Deut 13:2 and he’ll be executed. So what does he do with this perfect tense? He identifies Jesus with YHWH. When Peter says there is no other name he’s identifying Jesus’ name with God’s name and that’s why the Sanhedrin end up on trial and not Peter and John. He’s turned the tables and obviously this was pretty shocking to them. They were not prepared for such a skillful defense and they are left like many of Jesus’ opponents, dumbfounded without a word to answer. How could Peter do this? Only because he was filled by the Spirit, he couldn’t do this by himself, it required the word of God and here it was shining forth. So now who’s on trial? The men who asked the facetious question in verse 5? Or Peter who is now attacking them for being out of line, at odds with God. 

Next week we’ll discuss the civil authority issue and the Christian’s highest loyalty. What’s the place of civil government and can we violate civil law, and if so how does that square with Rom 13, the command to obey your civil authorities, can we lie to civil authorities in certain situations and how is that different from Fletcher’s Situation Ethics, etc…are these activities authorized by God’s word?