Bible Study on Luke 4, verses 32 to 37, one heart and one soul

 

Acts 4:32 ¶  And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common. 33  And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all. 34  Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, 35  And laid them down at the apostles’ feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need. 36  And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus, 37  Having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

 

Unity of vision and purpose, of heart and soul were characteristics of the early church. This is what God wants for His people. One with God, one with Christ, one with each other in faith. This is not about being of the same political party, racial group, or country of birth but about unity with God and with one’s fellow believers in belief that Christ is that bridge between man and God that other religions do not offer, that He is the only way across that chasm of sin that separates man from God, that He is God Himself, our Creator and our Saviour.

 

John 17:11 ¶  And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are…21  That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. 22  And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: 23  I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

 

Acts 1:14  These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.

 

Acts 2:1 ¶  And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.

 

1Corinthians 1:10 ¶  Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

 

As these believers joined together in Jerusalem they formed a sort of commune where they surrendered their property in a kind of Christian communism, not Marx’s label whose tenets he stole from the Bible with even the wording of his idea of utopia the same. Let me revisit some earlier comments.

 

The early Christian church in Jerusalem was predominantly Jewish and lived communally sharing all things in common. The standard in this community was that people received things from the collective based on their need. Karl Marx would later appropriate this language as part of a slogan of Communism in the 1870s. We know, as God does, that a human’s sin nature would not permit such a utopia to stand for long. We must also consider that Christ had said that these people were to be witnesses for him throughout the world. So, while this church, this called-out assembly, was being formed and nurtured and strengthened it was only a matter of time before it would have to be ruptured and its members driven apart. We know from history that this would be complete at the Fall of Jerusalem in AD 70 because Christians supposedly fled the disaster of the Romans taking the city after the disaster of various factions of Jews murdering each other in it.

But, let’s remember their zeal and devotion to God. Later counterfeits would try to emulate this situation in monastic communities but they were a false profession of what God demanded, that we live in the world while not being of the world. Your communes and compounds containing a cult patterning themselves on the early church are not of God but of man’s own imaginings, fantasies, and all too often desire for control of others.

The preaching of Christ’s Resurrection was powerfully made and God’s grace was upon all of the believers. Here, Joses Barnabas, the son of consolation, is introduced. He will play an important part in Paul’s ministry and go off on his own. He is an important figure in the early church. There is even a phony Gospel of Barnabas and the non-canonical Letter or Epistle of Barnabas.

 

Bible Study on Isaiah 4, verses 1 to 6, part 2, prophecies of the reign of Christ

 

For verses 3 & 4, which say, 3  And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem: 4  When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.

 

We see a future promise of purification that I believe matches up well with prophecies of Christ’s millennial reign and these other prophecies in the Old Testament.

 

Consider these verses;

 

Zechariah 14:20  In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD; and the pots in the LORD’S house shall be like the bowls before the altar. 21  Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the LORD of hosts: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the LORD of hosts.

 

Isaiah 35:8  And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.

 

Isaiah 60:21  Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.

 

Joel 3:17  So shall ye know that I am the LORD your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more.

 

Verses 5 and 6; 5  And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence. 6  And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm

and from rain.

 

Christian commentators have pushed verse 5 forward to suggest that it can apply to every church that is truly Christ’s. He will establish His church by His glory.

 

Ephesians 2:21  In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: 22  In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

 

The people of God who are truly His will be sure dwellings for the Holy Ghost, the very mind of God through His very words.

 

1Corinthians 6:19  What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

 

1Corinthians 3:16 ¶  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

 

These commentators, like John Gill, will say that the invisible church is called Zion.

 

Hebrews 12:22  But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, 23  To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24  And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

 

So, particular churches are called assemblies.

 

Ecclesiastes 12:11  The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd.

 

James 2:2  For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment;

 

Imagine the reference here to the glory manifested by God in the Exodus to the power present from God within the true churches of God. A church that is truly faithful to God, our Creator, is most certainly a refuge in the storms that we face as Christians.

 

Remember this is a reference to future events, a future that the Israelites would not have understood unless it were couched in terms with which they were familiar. When the times get really bad toward the end, before the church is translated, or raptured in common parlance, we will draw even closer together as the church.

 

Hebrews 10:24  And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: 25  Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

 

Isaiah 4 promises blessings for those who are faithful to Christ. This chapter of Isaiah also outlines Christ’s millennial reign.

 

Compare Isaiah, chapter 4, to Numbers.

 

Isaiah 4:4  When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.

 

Numbers 11:1 ¶  And when the people complained, it displeased the LORD: and the LORD heard it; and his anger was kindled; and the fire of the LORD burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp.

 

Isaiah 4:5  And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence.

 

Numbers 9:16  So it was alway: the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night.

Bible Study on Acts 4, verses 23 to 31, they spake the word of God with boldness

 

Acts 4:23 ¶  And being let go, they went to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them. 24  And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is: 25  Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? 26  The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. 27  For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, 28  For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. 29  And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, 30  By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus. 31  And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.

 

Verse 24 is a wonderful acknowledgement about God creating all things confirmed in other places than Genesis, chapter one. God’s creation of the universe is not only confirmed by Moses, writing Genesis under the inspiration of God, but also Isaiah.

Isaiah 42:5  Thus saith God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein:

Isaiah 45:18  For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.

King David;

Psalm 33:6  By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.

And the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

Mark 13:19  For in those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be.

Verses 25 and 26 quote the great Psalm that most of us understand prophetically to be about the millennial reign of Christ although like Peter’s use of the prophecy in Joel talked about in Acts 2 all prophetic statements may have a past, present, and future fulfillment. Peter uses it here to underscore how futile man’s rules against proclaiming Christ are to be. Those who do not believe in a physical, millennial reign of Christ on earth will say that this Psalm was fulfilled here and that’s that although to say that denies the implications of its message from verse 7 onward.

 

Psalm 2:1 ¶  Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? 2  The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his

anointed, saying, 3  Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. 4  He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. 5  Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. 6  Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.

 

7 ¶  I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. 8  Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and

the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. 9  Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.

 

10 ¶  Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. 11  Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. 12  Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish

from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

 

There are many prophecies in the Bible that have more than one application, an immediate and a future, as we have seen. Verses in Psalm 2 show that its ultimate fulfillment will come at the end of the millennial reign of Christ, as we will see more clearly in Revelation. The prophecy quoted here in Acts will be used again in chapter 13.

 

With verse 31 I want to restate something said earlier. Commands were given to the Apostles whom Jesus showed Himself to for forty days after His resurrection. The disciples were ordered to assemble together at Jerusalem and to wait for the Holy Ghost to be given to them. Jesus had already given the Holy Ghost to the core Apostles

 

John 20:22  And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:

 

The presence of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost, in the believer, it seems can be renewed.

 

Titus 3:5  Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; 6  Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; 7  That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

 

The question I have to ask is if while we are sealed and secure with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit does God renew it in us as we are sanctified for Him in life? Could that be what the following mean more fully?

 

Ephesians 5:18  And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;

 

We are saved once and indwelt with the Spirit as Paul relates the absurdity of being saved and lost again and again in Hebrews 6:1-6. In the following passage Paul shows that if you could lose your salvation you could not get saved again. It appears he is trying to get Christians to move beyond salvation to our sanctification.

 

Hebrews 6:1 ¶  Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, 2  Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. 3  And this will we do, if God permit. 4  For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5  And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,

6  If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

 

So, the question would be, are we praying to be filled with the Holy Spirit, to be renewed in the power and mind of God over sin and self? Or are we satisfied and complacent about this unspeakable gift?

Bible Study on Exodus 12, verses 29 to 36, the LORD smote all the firstborn

 

Exodus 12:29 ¶  And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle. 30  And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead. 31  And he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise up, and get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel; and go, serve the LORD, as ye have said. 32  Also take your flocks and your herds, as ye have said, and be gone; and bless me also. 33  And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste; for they said, We be all dead men. 34  And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneadingtroughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders. 35  And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: 36  And the LORD gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians.

So, now God kills the firstborn from the highest to the lowest to the cattle. There was no one higher than Pharaoh or lower than a prisoner in his dungeons. Even the cattle were affected that the state and the populace depended on so for food. Cattle includes several different animals that mankind was dependent on.

Genesis 47:17  And they brought their cattle unto Joseph: and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for horses, and for the flocks, and for the cattle of the herds, and for the asses: and he fed them with bread for all their cattle for that year.

Exodus 9:3  Behold, the hand of the LORD is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain.

Exodus 34:19  All that openeth the matrix is mine; and every firstling among thy cattle, whether ox or sheep, that is male.

Why this seemingly symbolic death among the firstborn of the cattle? What was the significance of this? First remember God’s possession.

Psalm 50:10  For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.

Exodus 13:2  Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast: it is mine.

No one owns property and no one owns an animal. All property and all life belongs to God, who created it. Under Capitalism everything belongs to an individual; presumably the hardest working, most ambitious, the most clever, or the strongest and well-born. Under Socialism everything belongs to the people through the government which then consists of  ambitious, clever, strong, and ruthless individuals. Both are blasphemous lies. All things belong to God and He will give all things to His people in time.

1Corinthians 3:21 ¶  Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; 22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; 23  And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.

Man is a steward of God’s possession and the Christian must remember that. We have dominion under authority of God. Dominion is power over something as defined in Ephesians 1:21 and Jude, verse 25.

Exodus 19:5  Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:

Psalm 50:12  If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.

The firstborn of man and beast was to be set apart or sanctified for God’s purpose. This plague foretold what God would require of the Hebrews.

In typology man is born like a wild ass’s colt and can only be redeemed with a lamb, who is Christ.

Job 11:12  For vain man would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass’s colt.

Exodus 13:13  And every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb; and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break his neck: and all the firstborn of man among thy children shalt thou redeem.

1Peter 1:18  Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19  But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 20  Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, 21  Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.

Every household in Egypt suffered under this judgment. If you believe in the world of spirit, that is, if you believe in the Bible, there is a seamless flow from this physical world of flesh and blood into the world of spirit where an entirely different type of life, which we hardly can begin to understand, exists. As the physical universe represents less than 5% of what must be, as even atheistic scientists believe, the world of spirit is far greater than anything we can imagine. So, little babies and innocent beasts did not simply cease to exist or began suffering in some kind of manufactured place like Limbo but take their place in that world.

The Pharaoh is now ready to drive the Hebrews from the land. This is a terrible tragedy. The firstborn among men was to inherit and all of the heritage of a man passed through his all-important firstborn. The firstborn among beast was to be set apart for God and we will see this in Exodus 13:2. Keep in mind that all beasts belong to God but the firstborn among the Egyptian and later the Hebrew beasts were His for a special purpose.

            The Hebrews are ready to leave Egypt and the Egyptians weigh them down with abundant necessities for the trip and much treasure. Good riddance, I can imagine they thought. Just go away lest we all die.

Bible Study on Acts 4, verses 15 to 22, What shall we do to these men?

 

Acts 4:15 ¶  But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves, 16  Saying, What shall we do to these men? for that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem; and we cannot deny it. 17  But that it spread no further among the people, let us straitly threaten them, that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. 18  And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. 19  But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. 20  For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. 21  So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding nothing how they might punish them, because of the people: for all men glorified God for that which was done. 22  For the man was above forty years old, on whom this miracle of healing was shewed.

 

Peter and John are now sent to wait outside. This is a cause of grave concern because it is impossible to deny that this healing has happened. News of it is spreading. If these men can do the work that Jesus did, healing the sick and the lame, who can say but what His claims were true and maybe their claims are, as well. This news has got to be squelched right away.

 

Peter and John now declare, not only to them but to us, the grounds on which we may disobey any civil law. There is no law that has any authority over the Holy Spirit that works inside of us. No law can contain that Spirit.

 

Galatians 5:22  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23  Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

 

We are called to be witnesses for Christ and to make disciples.

 

Matthew 28:19  Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20  Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

 

The leadership, probably caught between the amazement of the people for this miracle and the danger to their position if this aroused a disturbance that would come to the attention of their Roman masters, can only threaten them and then let them go. They were always torn between trying to squelch what was being preached or trying to ignore it for fear of public unrest.

 

Mark 12:12  And they sought to lay hold on him, but feared the people: for they knew that he had spoken the parable against them: and they left him, and went their way.

 

John 11:46  But some of them went their ways to the Pharisees, and told them what things Jesus had done. 47  Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this man doeth many miracles. 48  If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.

Bible Study on Exodus 12, verses 21 to 28, the sacrifice of the Lord's passover

 

Exodus 12:21 ¶  Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the passover. 22  And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning. 23  For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you. 24  And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever. 25  And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the LORD will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service. 26  And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? 27  That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the LORD’S passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped. 28  And the children of Israel went away, and did as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they.

Moses summarizes the instructions to the elders and gives them a curious warning that has doctrinal implications for us. If they follow the instructions the LORD will pass over their door and will not suffer, which means permit, the destroyer to come into their homes.

Who or what is the destroyer? It is not capitalized as a proper name. There is some agent, an angel or spirit who destroys. But, who can that be?

Is this the angel of the LORD, the presence (Isaiah 63:9) of Jehovah God who devastated the Assyrian army?

2Kings 19:35  And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.

Or performed the slaughter at Jerusalem when David counted the people?

IChronicles 21:14  So the LORD sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men. 15  And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD stood by the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.

We will see in the next passage that the LORD, Jehovah, did smite the firstborn. We know from other passages that He often uses a spiritual agency or individual to accomplish His purpose yet He Himself is said to be the cause of it, hence the reference to the destroyer.

Judges 9:23  Then God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech:

1Samuel 16:14  But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.

The complexity of reality, from our finite minds’ position, is that these kinds of things, God’s agency and exerting power on our physical universe, are happening so many times a second that it is impossible for us to fathom it. Here, though, is a very special event, a monumental moment in human history where God’s power, as God’s power, is being displayed to the world and to posterity after hundreds of years of the spiritual decay of mankind from the Fall of Adam. There was Creation of the physical universe, the fall of man introducing death into life, the Flood that reduced mankind to a few people, there was Babel that divided mankind into different languages and dispersed them around the earth, and there is the Exodus from Egypt where the world’s greatest superpower of the time was brought to its knees. In these actions and judgments, we see a big picture of God’s power and sovereignty.

Verse 28 shows us that this was one of the few times that the children of Israel did as they were told.

Bible Study on Acts 4, verses 5 to 14, Neither is there salvation in any other

 

Acts 4:5 ¶  And it came to pass on the morrow, that their rulers, and elders, and scribes, 6  And Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem. 7  And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, By what power, or by what name, have ye done this? 8  Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel, 9  If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole; 10  Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. 11  This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. 12  Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. 13  Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. 14  And beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.

 

Notice the use, in verse 7, of the word power for authority.

 

Luke 4:36  And they were all amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this! for with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out.

 

Here are leaders in the temple and the high priest and members of his family, also priests, with Annas and Caiaphas having been the high priests in their turn at the beginning of John the Baptist’s ministry a few years earlier.

 

Luke 3:2  Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.

 

They may have taken turns in that position. One source I read said that the Romans appointed the High Priest during their occupation before the rebellions that resulted in the temple being destroyed.

 

John 18:13  And led him away to Annas first; for he was father in law to Caiaphas, which was the high priest that same year.

 

Priests served in family groups or clans.

 

2Chronicles 35:4  And prepare yourselves by the houses of your fathers, after your courses, according to the writing of David king of Israel, and according to the writing of Solomon his son. 5  And stand in the holy place according to the divisions of the families of the fathers of your brethren the people, and after the division of the families of the Levites.

 

Luke 1:5 ¶  There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth…8  And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest’s office before God in the order of his course,

 

Peter has preached yet another sermon, this time to the rulers. He has witnessed to proselytes from the many countries in which Jews had been scattered, to the people visiting the temple, and now to the rulers. No one has any excuse. Peter’s boldness can be attributed to the Holy Ghost and if you look at the sermons he stays right on track.

 

He accuses them of crucifying Christ who defied their authority by rising from the dead. What a statement!  

 

Verse 11 refers back to Psalm 118:22 which both Jesus and Peter quote as well.

 

Verse 12 is a meaningful statement not unlike John 14:6.

 

John 14:6  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

 

Here is one fulfillment of a promise Christ made.

 

Luke 12:11  And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say: 12  For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.

 

The leadership understands that these common, uneducated men had been with Jesus and they were impressed with their boldness to talk about Him. The healed man was evidence in their favor as well that left the leadership of the Jews nothing to say.