Acts 4 · Story · Courage
The Boldness of Peter and John
Before the high priest's council in Jerusalem, Peter and John refused an order to stop teaching in the name of Jesus.
On the night of Jesus' arrest, Peter had sworn that he did not know the man (Matthew 26:72).
When they saw the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they marveled and took note that these men had been with Jesus.
- Where
- Jerusalem
- Who
- Peter, John the Apostle, Annas, Caiaphas
- When
- An evening and the next day (Acts 4:3 and Acts 4:5)
Summary
After Peter and John healed a lame man at the temple, the priests, the temple guard and the Sadducees arrested them for preaching the resurrection in Jesus. The next day the high priest's council asked by what power or name they had acted. Peter answered that the man was healed by the name of Jesus, whom the council had crucified. When the council ordered silence, the apostles went back to the believers, who prayed together.
- The court held Annas, Caiaphas and other members of the high priest's family (Acts 4:6).
- The council could not deny the healing, because the healed man stood beside the apostles (Acts 4:14).
- The believers prayed for boldness, and the place where they met was shaken.
- The Greek word for boldness, parrhesia, stands three times in the chapter.
Arrested at Evening
Three groups came against the apostles in the temple at evening.
The Boldness of Peter and John tells Acts 4:1 to 31, the first time the apostles were put on trial for their preaching. It belongs to the value of courage, because the chapter shows courage under a ban from the highest court of the apostles' own people.
The question the story answers is where the boldness of the apostles came from and what it looked like. This study follows the arrest, the trial, the reply and the prayer, and traces one Greek word through the chapter.
While Peter and John were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them, greatly disturbed that they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.The charge concerns the resurrection, so the apostles' courage is tested on the heart of their message.
Many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about five thousand (Acts 4:4).
Two Days in Jerusalem
Luke tells the story over an evening and the following day.
Eleven steps lead from an arrest at evening to a shaken meeting place.
- Evening: the arrestthey put them in custody until the next dayActs 4:3
- The next day: the court assemblesthe rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in JerusalemActs 4:5
- The court's questionBy what power or what name did you do this?Acts 4:7
- Peter's answerThen Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to themActs 4:8
- The council sees their boldnessthey take note of the apostles' time with JesusActs 4:13
- The council confersthe council asks itself what to doActs 4:16
- The bansilence ordered in the name of JesusActs 4:18
- The replythe judgment left to the courtActs 4:19
- The releaseAfter further threats they let them go.Acts 4:21
- The report and the prayerthey lifted up their voices to God with one accordActs 4:24
- The answer to the prayerthe place of prayer shakenActs 4:31
A timeline of eleven steps in Acts 4:3 to 31, each with Luke's words and its verse.
The ban, The reply, The release, The report and the prayer, The answer to the prayer
The Question and the Answer
Peter answered the court's question with the name of Jesus.
then let this be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. This Jesus is ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ Salvation exists in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”Peter turns a question about a healing into a charge against the court and an offer of salvation.
The doctrine of the Name and Peter's use of Psalm 118 are read on their own pages.
The rulers, elders and scribes who heard him are described on the page about the council.
What the Council Saw
The council met in private to decide what to do with the two men.
“What shall we do with these men?” they asked. “It is clear to everyone living in Jerusalem that a remarkable miracle has occurred through them, and we cannot deny it. But to keep this message from spreading any further among the people, we must warn them not to speak to anyone in this name.” Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.The council's own words admit the miracle, so the ban is a choice to resist it.
The change in Peter since his denial of Jesus is followed on his own page.
“We Cannot Stop Speaking”
The reply of Peter and John puts God's command first.
But Peter and John replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you rather than God. For we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”The two men leave the judgment to the court and state what they themselves will do, the centre of the story.
When the apostles were arrested again, Peter put the same answer in one sentence: “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). Christians who later refused a ruler's order stood on the same ground, as Luther did before the emperor at Worms in 1521.
The same apostle set the limit of the principle when he told believers, “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution” (1 Peter 2:13). The refusal stands only where a ruler forbids what God commands.
The Prayer for Boldness
Back among their own people, the believers prayed for courage to keep speaking.
The believers began their prayer with God as the maker of heaven and earth, and read the plot against Jesus in Psalm 2 as the very thing God's hand had planned (Acts 4:24 to 28).
And now, Lord, consider their threats, and enable Your servants to speak Your word with complete boldness, as You stretch out Your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of Your holy servant Jesus.”The church asks for no safety and no judgment on its enemies, only for boldness and for God's hand to keep healing.
After they had prayed, their meeting place was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.The answer comes at once, and the boldness asked for in the prayer is the boldness they speak with.
The fellowship that followed the prayer is told in the pages on Christ's prayer for unity and on Barnabas.
Voices on Acts 4
Two comments from John Chrysostom's sermons on Acts speak to the end of this chapter.
died 407 · John Chrysostom
On the apostles' return to their friends, Chrysostom, in his Homilies on Acts, praised their mildness after the trial.
Read the page on John Chrysostom
“See the unostentatious conduct of the Apostles, and their largeness of mind. They did not go about boasting, and say, ‘How we served the priests!’ nor were they ambitious of honor: but, we read, ‘they came unto their own company.’ Observe how they do not cast themselves upon temptations, but when the temptations present themselves, with courage endure them. Had it been some other of the disciples, perhaps, emboldened by the countenance of the multitude, he might have insulted, might have vented ever so many harsh expressions. But not so these true philosophers; they do all with mildness and with gentleness.”
John Chrysostom · Homily on Acts 11 · on Acts 4:23Patristic
died 407 · John Chrysostom
On Acts 4:29, he noted the largeness of mind of men who prayed with no word of curse.
“Observe their largeness of mind. These are not words of imprecation. In saying, ‘their threatenings,’ they do not mean this or that thing specifically threatened, but only in general, the fact of their threatening, perhaps, as being formidable. In fact, the writer is concise in his narrative. And observe, they do not say, ‘Crush them, cast them down;’ but what? ‘And grant unto Thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak Thy word.’ Let us also learn thus to pray. And yet how full of wrath one would be, when fallen among men intent upon killing him, and making threats to that effect? how full of animosity? But not so these saints.”
John Chrysostom · Homily on Acts 11 · on Acts 4:29Patristic
One Word, Three Times
Luke uses one Greek noun for the boldness at each turn of the story.
The Greek noun parrhesia, open and fearless speech, is the word for boldness at the council's sight of the apostles, in the church's prayer and in the answer to it. The Berean text renders it “boldness” twice and “boldly” once.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- STEP Bible, Translators Amalgamated Greek New Testament, the tagged Greek text (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0.
- Preserved Smith, The Life and Letters of Martin Luther (1911)
- John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles.
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