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Peter and John
before the Council

Acts 4:5-12

Good News Translation (GNT)

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  5  The next day the Jewish leaders, the elders,
   and the teachers of the Law gathered in
   Jerusalem.
  6  They met with the High Priest Annas and with
   Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and the others
   who belonged to the High Priest's family.
  7  They made the apostles stand before them
   and asked them, "How did you do this?
   What power do you have or whose name
   did you use?"
  8  Peter, full of the Holy Spirit, answered them,
   "Leaders of the people and elders:
  9  if we are being questioned today about the
   good deed done to the lame man and how he
   was healed,
10  then you should all know, and all the people
   of Israel should know, that this man stands
   here before you completely well through the
   power of the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth
   - whom you crucified and whom God raised
   from death.
11  Jesus is the one of whom the scripture says,
   'The stone that you the builders despised
   turned out to be the most important of all.'
12  Salvation is to be found through him alone;
   in all the world there is no one else
   whom God has given who can save us."

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Commentary taken from
'The Applied New Testament Commentary'
(Kingsway)

Peter and John before the Sanhedrin

    Acts Chapter 4:5-12

Annas was the former high priest; his son-in-law Caiaphas was the present high priest.

Together with other Jewish elders and teachers of the law, these men had made the decision to condemn Jesus to death.

The Sadducees were a sect of the Jews who did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. They had thought that after Jesus' death this new religion would quickly die out.

What a mistake they made! Now this new religion had begun to spread out of control!

The Jewish rulers, elders, and teachers were worried about the healing of the crippled man. Everybody in Jerusalem was talking about it.

So they asked Peter and John, "By what power or what name did you do this?" Then Peter, the humble, uneducated fisherman from Galilee, stood up before all these chief men of the Jewish nation.

Jesus had said to His disciples: "when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you".

Peter answered their question with great boldness, saying "know this, you and everyone else in Israel: It is by the name of Jesus of Nazareth that this man stands before you completely healed.

This is the Jesus whom you crucified, but whom God three days later raised from the dead. It is through the power of the risen Christ that this man has been healed".

Peter quotes from Psalm 118:22. The stone which has become the capstone is Jesus, whom the builders (the Jewish leaders) rejected.

Not only are men's bodies healed of physical sickness, by the name of Jesus, even more important, their souls are saved from spiritual sickness - that is, sin.

If the Jewish leaders persist in rejecting Jesus, says Peter, they will find out that they have rejected the only way to heaven for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."

Salvation is found in no one else.

Why do Christians preach Jesus? This verse gives the answer. Only through faith in him can a man or woman be saved. And Christians are commanded to share this news with others.

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