In last week’s lesson, Peter was preaching within the Temple complex. Today, we learn how the Jewish leadership responded, especially the Sadducees. To understand their reaction, we need to know a bit about the Sadducees.
The Sadducees
The Sadducees emerged as a religious and political-interest group in the 2nd century BC, around the time of the Maccabees. In Jesus’ day, they were the 2nd-largest religious group in Judea, the Pharisees being the largest. Their name is derived from the High Priest Zadok, who served under King Solomon (1 Kings 2:35) and whose descendants were granted exclusive rights to serve in Jerusalem (Ezekiel 40:46). Because the Sadducees were closely associated with the Temple (Acts 4:1; 5:17), their base of power was the Temple (the power base for the Pharisees were the many synagogues).
Unlike most 1st-century Jews, the Sadducees expressly denied: (1) an afterlife with rewards and punishments for the righteous and wicked, (2) the immortality of the soul, (3) the resurrection of the body, and (4) the existence of angels or spirits (Acts 23:6-8). They denied authority to any Scripture except the Pentateuch (the Torah), the first five books of the Bible (Genesis-Deuteronomy). They also did not long for a Messiah the way other Jewish groups did.
Read Acts 4:1-4
- What did the Sadducees do?
- Why? (note Greek word, diaponeomai = indignant, angry, exasperated)
- What did God the Holy Spirit do through Peter’s preaching?
We now see the Sanhedrin meeting to deal with Peter. The expression, “rulers and elders and scribes,” was one way to refer the Sanhedrin.
The Sanhedrin
The Sanhedrin was the “supreme court” of the Jews, which convened in Jerusalem (Mark 15:1; Acts 5:27, 23:1). Like the Sadducees, its origin also goes back to the 2nd-century BC during the time of the Maccabees. Its primary role was to enforce Jewish law and custom.
When fully assembled, the Sanhedrin consisted of 71 members: (1) the reigning “high priest,” who led the court, (2) the “elders” of Jerusalem’s leading families, (3) “chief priests” who had held the office of high priest, and (4) “scribes”, or professional lawyers who were experts in the Law of Moses.
Within the Sanhedrin, members also organized themselves along political and religious lines, for example, the Pharisees and Sadducees (Acts 23:6-10). Under Roman rule, the Sanhedrin retained considerable freedom to regulate the civil and religious affairs of Jewish life. Only the right to administer capital punishment was denied them (John 18:31).
Read Acts 4:5-12
- What does the Sanhedrin want to know from Peter?
- The Sanhedrin asked Peter by what authority he did what he did (teaching). Instead of focusing on what the Sanhedrin could deny, how does Peter answer their question?
- Besides answering their question, what else does Peter do?
Jesus told his disciples not to be afraid when they would be brought to trial for their faith: “When they bring you before synagogues, rulers and authorities, don’t worry about how to defend yourselves or what you should say. At that time, the Holy Spirit will teach you what to say” (Luke 12:11-12).
- How do we see fulfillment of Jesus’ promise to his disciples?
Peter quoted Psalm 118:22: “The stone the builders rejected [Greek: scorned] has become the cornerstone” [Greek: “head of the corner”]?
- How does Peter use Psalm 118:22 to fit his current circumstances? (vs. 11)
- What exclusive claim does Peter make about Jesus? (vs. 12) (Note Peter’s word usage in the Greek: The cripple was “saved” from his crippling condition. Now Peter says that “salvation” is found in no one else but Christ.)
Read Acts 4:13-22
- What were the Sanhedrin demanding of Peter and John when they commanded them “to speak no more to anyone in this name”? (vs. 17)
- Discuss what “in the name of Jesus” means.
- How did Peter and John respond to the Sanhedrin’s gag ruling?
The Response to Peter and John’s Release
Read Acts 4:23-30
Luke writes that they (those Christians gathered) lifted their voices together to God. This denotes praying together prayers they already knew for them to pray in such unison. Thus, although it was a prayer in spontaneous response for Peter and John being released, it was spontaneous in that they used the liturgical prayers they already had. Included in this prayer was also the praying of part of Psalm 2.
We also find this prayer shaped similarly to the prayer by Hezekiah in Isaiah 37:16-20 and 2 Kings 19:15-19.
Figure 1: Prayer in Acts 4
|
Prayer |
What does this mean? |
| Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, | Recognizes who God is in relation to them and states a characteristic of God, in this case, creator. |
| Who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, | Recognizes that God is more than a distant creator but has also revealed what He wants His people to know. |
| Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed– | They pray back to God a portion of His Scriptures that apply to their current situation, in this case Psalm 2. By saying back to God what He has said to them, they say what is sure and true. |
| For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. | The prayer then continues Christologically, that is, they find the fulfillment of Psalm 2 in Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ is the “Anointed” against whom the leadership has gathered itself together. |
| And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch your hand to heal [save], and signs and wonders are performed … | Then, the prayer asks God to act. |
| … through the name of your holy servant Jesus. | The prayer concludes to have all done based on who Jesus is, “his name.” This denotes that all that is to take place lines up with Jesus’ will for them in their lives. |
- The first Christians recognized the “threats” against them (vs. 29). Yet, what do they ask for concerning those threats?
- How can this shape how we are to view Christian persecution?
Read Acts 4:31
- Discuss: The Christians were already filled with the Holy Spirit. Yet this verse says, “They were filled with the Holy Spirit.”
- What resulted with them being filled with the Holy Spirit?
- Discuss who or what is meant by “the Word of God.”
God heard and answered their prayer in the way He chose (He is still working signs and wonders through the hands of the Apostles). In Old-Covenant times, God’s presence shook Mt Sinai when God gave Moses the Law (Exodus 19:18) and the Temple’s foundation in Isaiah’s vision (Isaiah 6:4). Such shaking was also expected before God’s definitive action in the end times (see Isaiah 29:6, Luke 21:11, and Revelation 16:17-18).
- What function then did the shaking of the room serve for those Christians?
- What did it say about the times they were living in?
Holding All Things in Common
Read Acts 4:32-36
- What were the first Christian doing, primarily with their property?
- Apart from the specifics of how the Christians shared what they had, what does such sharing indicate?
- To whom does Luke introduce us?
Despite the outpouring of Christian generosity for their brothers and sisters in Christ, we find the sinful nature is still alive and well.
Read Acts 5:1-11
- What did Ananias and Sapphira do?
- What was the sin they had committed?
- Who had filled their hearts? (vs. 3)
“Keep back for yourself,” Greek, nosphizo: In Titus 2:10, Paul used the same Greek verb referring to a slave stealing from his master. Through a lie, Ananias and Sapphira stole funds from their sale of property from the Church. The Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint, used the same verb for stealing gold vessels from the Temple (2 Maccabees 4:32) and for Achan’s thievery, who took and buried items that were dedicated to the Lord (Joshua 6:24, 7:1).
- Was the donation of the proceeds from property sales voluntary or mandatory? (vs. 4)
- In verse 3, Peter told Ananias, “Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit. Then in verse 4, Peter told Ananias, “You have not lied to men but to God.” What does this say about the Holy Spirit?
- Yet, Ananias did lie to men? What does this say about lying to the Church?
- What happened to both Ananias and Sapphira?
“Fell, breathed his/her last”: We should note Luke’s use of “fall” followed by “breathed his/her last” to describe Ananias’ and Sapphira’s deaths. Deliberate, willful sinning can cause one to fall from grace and extinguish spiritual life, the life of the Spirit/Wind/Breath (Greek: pneuma has all three meanings) within the Christian. Here, their physical death highlights the spiritual death, the loss of the Spirit, that had already taken place. Both Ananias and Sapphira physically had fallen and stopped breathing. Spiritually, they had fallen from faith and stopped having the Spirit, the Breath of God, within them.
- What was the reaction of the “whole church”?
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