So, if such a “notable sign” had been performed through Peter and John, and if the priests and the Sadducees could not deny it (4:16), why did they insist on arresting them (4:3)? Why couldn’t they just join all the people who were praising God for healing a man who had been lame for more than forty years (4:21)?

Well, in the first place, admitting that Jesus Christ of Nazareth was responsible for the miracle would have been more than a little embarrassing. After all, the priests had led the charge to have Jesus crucified just a few months previously (4:10). So, if Jesus really had risen from the dead, and if He really had been responsible for healing this lame man, the priests would have lost whatever respect the people might have had for them.

Worse yet, if Peter and John were right, then Jesus wasn’t just a source of physical healing – He was also the only source of salvation. And if there really was “no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (4:12), then why would anyone bother to come to the Temple to offer sacrifices anymore? If salvation came through Christ alone, and if all the people started following Jesus, wouldn’t they stop looking to the priests and the Old Testament ceremonies to make them righteous in God’s sight?

No, it’s no wonder that the priests tried to shut Peter and John up, to keep them from talking about Jesus’ power and glory (4:17). For Jesus’ claim to be the only way to God continues to be controversial, not only among the devotees of false religions, but also among those so-called Christians who preach the necessity of following any kind of ritual or legalistic practice. For if we try to build any sort of theology or ethics on anything besides Christ the cornerstone (4:11), we are just as doomed to failure as those ancient priests, whose Temple was destroyed forty years after they crucified Jesus.

So let us join Peter and John in speaking of what they saw and heard (4:20), in spite of whatever opposition may come our way. For the good news is that God saves sinners by His grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. So may He receive all the glory.

Acts 4:1-22 (ESV)

And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them,
2 greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.
3 And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening.
4 But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.
5 On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem,
6 with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family.
7 And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?”
8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders,
9 if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed,
10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead– by him this man is standing before you well.
11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.
12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.
14 But seeing the man who was healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition.
15 But when they had commanded them to leave the council, they conferred with one another,
16 saying, “What shall we do with these men? For that a notable sign has been performed through them is evident to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it.
17 But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.”
18 So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.
19 But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge,
20 for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”
21 And when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them, because of the people, for all were praising God for what had happened.
22 For the man on whom this sign of healing was performed was more than forty years old.