1 As they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them, 2 being greatly disturbed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. 3 And they laid hands on them and put them in jail until the next day, for it was already evening. 4 But many of those who had heard the message believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand. Acts 4:1–4
On cue, the same cast of characters who convicted Jesus descended upon Peter and John, greatly annoyed that they were discussing the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. They laid hands on them and put them in jail, since evening was approaching, and by law, a trial could not be held at night. Why now, I ask, are they following the rules? But lest we worry about the squelching of the spread of the gospel, Luke sends a chyron across the screen reporting that the church (counting men only) had now swollen to 5,000 in number.
The rulers had been in containment mode from the beginning, first paying off the soldiers at the tomb to lie about what had happened (Matthew 28:12-15), and now trying to keep the lid on a rapidly expanding existential threat to their control. Their efforts would be frustrated, though, as they had a leaping and dancing “Exhibit A” in the now fully healthy “lame beggar,” and a spirit-filled Galilean fisher of men to contend with.
Here are some initial takeaways from Luke’s account in Acts 4:1-12.
- Satan, despite his dismal batting average, always seems to swing and miss at the same pitches.
- To propel the gospel further, preaching in the context of persecution is always more persuasive.
- The power of the resurrection will always win out in the end. Acts 4:10
- It is the Holy Spirit who strings our sentences together for maximum impact. This is the original “artificial intelligence.” Acts 4:8
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