While they were speaking to the people, the priests, the commander of the Temple guards, and the Sadducees came to them. They were greatly disturbed that Peter and John were teaching the people and announcing that Jesus had been resurrected from the dead. So they arrested them and placed them in custody until the next day, since it was already evening. But many of those who heard their message believed, and the men grew to number about 5,000. The next day their rulers, elders, and scribes met in Jerusalem with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and the rest of the high priest’s family. They made Peter and John stand in front of them and began asking, “By what power or by what name did you do this?”
Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, told them, “Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being questioned today for a good deed done for someone who was sick or to learn how this man was healed, you and all the people of Israel must understand that this man stands healthy before you because of the name of Jesus from Nazareth, whom you crucified but God raised from the dead. He is ‘the stone that was rejected by you builders, which has become the cornerstone.’ There is no salvation by anyone else, for there is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved.”
Now when the Jewish leaders saw the boldness of Peter and John and found out that they were uneducated and ordinary men, they were amazed and realized that they had been with Jesus.
Acts 4:1-14
“filled with the Holy Spirit”—it’s not just speaking in tongues; it makes you show Jesus.
“Everyone who keeps on hearing these messages of mine and never puts them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and battered that house, and it collapsed, and its collapse was total.”
When Jesus had finished saying all these things, the crowds were utterly amazed at his teaching, because he was teaching them like a person who had authority, and not like their scribes.
Matt. 7:26-29
In the beginning, the Word existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. Through him all things were made, and apart from him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life brought light to humanity. And the light shines on in the darkness, and the darkness has never put it out.
John 1:1-5
The light that is in you is greater than any darkness anywhere.
And seeing the man who was healed standing with them, they could not say anything against them. So they ordered them to leave the Council and began to discuss the matter among themselves. They said, “What should we do with these men? For it’s obvious to everybody living in Jerusalem that an unmistakable sign has been done by them, and we cannot deny it. But to keep it from spreading any further among the people, let us warn them never again to speak to anyone in this name.”
So they called Peter and John back in and ordered them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, “You must decide whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than God, for we cannot stop talking about what we’ve seen and heard.”
So they threatened Peter and John even more and then let them go. They couldn’t find any way to punish them, because all the people were praising God for what had happened. For the man on whom this sign of healing had been performed was more than 40 years old. After they were released, Peter and John went to their fellow believers and told them everything the high priests and the elders had said. When they heard this, they all raised their voices to God and said, “Master, you made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them. You said by the Holy Spirit through the voice of our ancestor, your servant David, ‘Why do the gentiles rage, and the people devise useless plots? The kings of the earth take their stand, and rulers meet together against the Lord and against his Messiah.’ For in this city both Herod and Pontius Pilate actually met together with the gentiles and the people of Israel to oppose your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to carry out everything that your hand and will had predetermined to take place. Lord, pay attention to their threats now, and allow your servants to speak your word boldly as you stretch out your hand to heal and to perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
When they had prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken, and all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak messages from God boldly.
Acts 4:15-31
“filled with the Holy Spirit”—it’s not just speaking in tongues.
For this is what the LORD says: “Maintain justice, and do what is right, for soon my salvation will come, and soon my deliverance will be revealed. Blessed is the one who does this, and the person that holds it fast, who observes the Sabbath without profaning it, and restrains his hands from practicing any evil. Let no foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say: ‘The LORD will surely exclude me from his people.’ Furthermore, let no eunuch say, ‘Look! I am just a dry tree.’” For this is what the LORD says: “To the eunuchs who observe my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me, and who hold fast my covenant—to them I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off. “Also, the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, and to bless the LORD’s name, observing the Sabbath without profaning it, and who hold fast my covenant—these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices will rise up to be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for everyone.” This is what the Lord GOD says, the one who gathers the outcasts of Israel: “I’ll gather still others to them besides those already gathered.”
Isa. 56:1-8
Don’t underestimate what God can do/has done in you.
In the same way, you too must continually consider yourselves dead as far as sin is concerned, but living for God through the Messiah Jesus.
Rom. 6:11
Death is final. So sin doesn’t come back!
A person must examine himself and then eat the bread and drink from the cup, …
I Cor. 11:28
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