Wednesday Night Bible Study - Acts 4

This is the third Wednesday night Bible Study I've led here at the Kampala congregation.  It took two nights just to get through Acts chapter 3 and tonight we started into Acts chapter 4.  We have about 4 regular attendees at the Bible Study, but we remain hopeful that as the Bible Study continues to meet the attendance will grow - consistency must first be demonstrated before people will begin coming.  As usual, Bible Study is advertised to start at 5:30 and we started a little after 6pm. 

Acts 4 - Peter and John Before the Sanhedrin

Acts records amazing echoes of Gospel events.  Here we see that Peter and John have been brought before the Sanhedrin - just as Jesus was.  This is the first of three conflicts that will lead to a crisis later in Acts.  The Sadducees are specifically mentioned and the offense of the Apostles includes proclaiming "the resurrection of the dead."  The Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection of the dead, so they have been perhaps doubly offended - first that these men are teaching in "their" temple and second that they're teaching what the Sadducees consider bad theology!  Notice, though, that when they seize Peter and John they put them into the temple jail until the next day because it was evening.  According to my study notes in my NIV Bible, "Any judgments involving life and death must be begun and concluded in daylight hours."  Now whether or not this issue of Peter and John was going to involve life and death judgments I'm not sure, but I do see here a reminder of just how badly the trials of Jesus were handled - in the dead of night, against even the Temple laws. 

We see again in Peter's speach the next morning to the Sanhedrin the pattern, 1) Jesus Christ whom you crucified 2) God raised from the dead and 3) Therefore repent.  The first two are present in this account before the Sanhedrin but the repentance is not directly called for - perhaps the stumbling block was in parts 1 and 2 and Peter knew the Sanhedrin would be unable to heed the call to repentance.

Our Bible Study class spent some time talking about the words "healed" (Acts 4:9) and "saved" (Acts 4:12).  These are both the same word in the Greek.  So we asked the question, how is being saved like being healed?  What a rich conversation!  Healed implies a foreign state - one in which you are sick, not fully yourself.  The same applies to salvation!  At the time of creation, in the Garden of Eden, we were fully healthy, walking with God in the cool of the evening, speaking with our creator face to face, in full relationship.  Since every one of us since has been born sinful (Psalm 51:5; 1 John 1:8), our sin now keeps us from the Holy presence of the Creator.  So what would healing be?  Healing would be nothing less than a full restoration to walking in the presence of God - a reconciliation of ourselves to God.  What does this describe except salvation?

Peter and John are noted by the Sanhedrin to be "unschooled, ordinary men."  Wow.  What possible excuse can I have for not sharing the message of salvation in Christ?  Can I say that I don't know enough?  That I'm not smart enough?  That I may be asked a question to which I don't know the answer?  Surely not.  I stand with a man who has been healed - me myself - in the flesh.  Peter and John are now living demonstrations of the promise Christ made to them, "I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict" (Luke 21:15). 

In another echo of the Gospel story, the Sanhedrin are unable to take action because the people know about what Peter and John have done and (presumably) support them (Acts 4:16; Acts 4:21).  And what they do ask of Peter and John, that they not speak or teach in the name of Jesus, Peter and John cannot do.  The answer they give should be the only answer we can give when we consider not telling the story of Christ Jesus, His work in our own lives, and His restoration and healing.  "We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard" (Acts 4:20) - an echo of the words of the prophet Jeremiah, "If I say, 'I will not mention him or speak any more in his name, his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones.  I am weary of holding it in, indeed, I cannot'" (Jeremiah 20:9).  -Shauen