Daily Thoughts from Acts: The Spirit’s Defense (Acts 4:5-12)

On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem, with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, 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. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. 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.”  (Acts 4:5-12 ESV)

The Sanhedrin court is dominated by the priestly family, the Sadducee sectarians, with some Pharisees represented.  There was conflict between these factions but they had come to share power in this court.  The ESV Study Bible note remarks about the power players listed here:

Annas is designated as high priest. (Much like U.S. presidents, high priests seem to have retained their title for life.) He had served in that role earlier (a.d. 6–15) and was the controlling figure in the high-priestly circle, which may also explain why he is given the title here. His son-in-law Caiaphas was the official high priest at this time (serving a.d. 18–36), and Annas’s son John would serve in the role later (36–37).

This is the same group that condemned Jesus to death and now they want to know in whose name this miracle was done.  But why ask the question the way they do?  Why ask, “By what power did you do this?”  I think the first reason is they cannot deny that a miracle has been done.  But perhaps the second reason is they hope to give Peter and John an out by simply answering, “By God’s power.”  That would be the safe answer to give the Sanhedrin, an answer they could accept, but it would be a concession from the apostles.  Of course, Peter and John did not answer that way.  “Jesus” was their answer.

All of this procedure was because the Sanhedrin wanted to prevent Jesus’ followers from creating a rebellion.  They didn’t understand that Jesus’ followers did not want an uprising.  They weren’t politically motivated.  They just wanted to tell people about Jesus.  But the Sanhedrin understood that the implications of that for them wold be their loss of power.

Jesus told his disciples that they would appear before courts like this and he told them not to prepare their defense because the Holy Spirit would give them the words to say when needed (Luke 12:11,12).  Sure enough, Peter is filled with the Holy Spirit and begins to speak.  We will see this kind of filling numerous times in the lives of the apostles and others in Acts.  It is a temporary empowerment to communicate the gospel.  [For further study of the two kinds of Spirit filling go here]

Peter’s Spirit-inspired message is clear.  Jesus is the source of this healing and these rulers are responsible for Jesus’ crucifixion.  They have fulfilled the prophecy in Psalm 118 and Isaiah 28 that the leaders would reject God’s appointed leader, Messiah.  But God has raised him from the dead and now there is salvation in no other name.  That was not a popular message then, and it is not a popular message now.  But God wants to use us to give this kind of defense and the Holy Spirit may be depended on to give us utterance and boldness when we need it.

From Fox’s Book of Martyrs is the account of the martyrdom of Alice Driver whose defense against the court left the judges silent but also led to her burning at the stake:

Alice Driver, martyr, at her examination, put all the doctors to silence, so that they had not a word to say, but one looked upon another. Then she said, Have ye no more to say? God be honoured; you be not able to resist the Spirit of God in me, a poor woman. I was an honest poor man’s daughter, never brought up in the university as you have been. But I have driven the plough many a time before my father, I thank God; yet notwithstanding in the defence of God’s truth, and in the cause of my Master, Christ, by his grace I will set my foot against the foot of any of you all, in the maintenance and defence of the same. And if I had a thousand lives it should go for payment thereof. So the chancellor condemned her, and she returned to the prison as joyful as the bird of the day.