Sojourner #002: Bearing Witness

"So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”

(Acts 4:18–20, Peter and John before the Council)

Peter and John had found themselves in something of a situation, to say the very least. 

Arrested by the Captain of the Temple Guard at the behest of the Sadducees, the Apostles were sent before the Sanhedrin, where they would be questioned and charged. The reason given for their arrest: Teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead (4:2).

At this point in redemptive history, God was preparing to take His Gospel to the ends of the earth, beginning in Jerusalem, where Peter had begun ministering to the Jewish people, declaring the truth of Christ’s resurrection in the very city that cried for His execution.

Not long before the events of chapter four, the Apostles gathered at the Mount of Olives, asking the risen Christ at what point He would restore the Kingdom to Israel, still believing that He had come to establish a militaristic, political Kingdom from which the Jews could then overthrow their Roman oppressors (1:6). Addressing His disciples, the Lord told them that it was not for them to know the times that the Father has fixed by His own authority, rather that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them, that they would be His witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria, to the very end of the earth (1:7-8). 

By these words, the Lord reveals something of the nature of the ever-expanding Kingdom that is coming, of the global spread of the Gospel, and of the means by which this Gospel would be delivered to the ends of the earth. Sovereign over all things, the Father has fixed a time for all things, including the establishment of His Kingdom and the spread of the Gospel to the nations. 

Through the power of His Holy Spirit, the Apostles were enabled to be His witnesses, to testify about the truth of His Gospel. No longer dependent upon human strategy or cleverness, but upon the very power of God. Fulfilling the covenants He had made in the past to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Lord had delivered His people from sin and death, through His Son, and was sending His messengers to the front lines, to announce the establishment of His Kingdom reign upon the earth. 

After healing a lame beggar at the Temple Gate in Jesus’s name (3:6), Peter and John are cornered by the people in a covered walkway along the eastern wall of the temple area, known as Solomon’s Portico (3:11). Taking the opportunity to call the people to repentance and faith in Jesus as Messiah, they proceed to address the men of Israel (3:12).

Questioning them, Peter calls out their denial of the Holy and Righteous One and their killing of the Author of Life, whom the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their fathers had glorified, having raised Him from the dead (3:13-15). Speaking to the matter of the lame beggar’s healing, the Apostle maintained that it was by the faith that is through Jesus that the man had been healed (3:16). Calling them to repentance and faith in Christ, Peter appealed to the testimony of the prophets, preaching Christ from the Old Testament, reminding them of the covenant that God had made to Abraham (3:19-25), and declaring to them that God had sent His servant to turn them from their wickedness (3:25-26). Christ, the suffering Servant, would return as triumphant King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

This is the message that Peter and John were proclaiming to the Jewish people (3:11-26) when they were arrested by the Captain of the Temple Guard (4:1-3), and the same that many of those who had heard the word believed (4:4).

Understanding something of Jewish history, we know that the Sadducees, or צְדוּקִים (Righteous) in Hebrew, were a group of Jewish elites, connected to the Roman political establishment, who differed from the Pharisees in that they denied the resurrection altogether, as well as the existence of spirits or angels (23:8). 

Serving second in rank only to the High Priest, the Captain of the Temple Guard commanded twenty-four watches located at strategic points around the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, which was known as the בֵּית־הַמִּקְדָּשׁ (the House of the Temple) in Hebrew. 

At the time of their arrest, Caiaphas was serving as the official High Priest and head of the Sanhedrin, while his father-in-law Annas was also named as high priest, given that they likely retained this title for life. The Sanhedrin, or Jewish High Court, had a majority of Sadducees and a minority of Pharisees, represented by the rulers and elders and scribes and select members of the high-priestly family (4:6).

Put in custody for teaching and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead, Peter and John find themselves standing before the Jewish High Council the next morning (4:5). Questioned regarding the authority by which they had healed the lame beggar, Peter, by the power of the Holy Spirit, began to tell them of how it is by the authority of Christ that these things had come to be (4:8-10). The former fisherman proclaimed once more that salvation is found in none other than Christ alone, the cornerstone that the Jewish leaders had rejected (4:11-12).

Seeing their boldness, these esteemed men concluded that Peter and John were nothing more than common men who had been with Jesus (4:13). Astonished, they had nothing to say (4:14). Commanding them never again to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus (4:18), the Sanhedrin hoped to contain the spread of the Gospel (4:17). But God had something different in mind.

Peter and John answered by saying: Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard (4:19-20).

By the grace of God, they could not but speak of the truth of the Gospel. For no authority under heaven can stop what God has decreed shall come to pass. The Gospel would be preached to the ends of the earth. The Kingdom of God had come, and Christ would build His Church.

Every tribe. Every Nation. Every Tongue. Ransomed by His blood.

Today, we see that what God began in eternity past continues even here and now.

By the power of the Holy Spirit, the Gospel is continually being carried to the nations. At the forefront of this effort is His Church, the very people of God, who need not depend upon clever strategies or carnal means, but upon the power of God. 

Where Christ is preached, dead men are raised, blind are given sight, and captives are freed. 

The Kingdom of God expands by the day, as the name of the Lord is kept holy among the nations.

Our job? To bear witness, to tell of His wondrous works, to ascribe to Him glory and strength, to preach the Gospel of Christ in every place, to call the nations to repentance and faith, and to trust that the Lord will deliver His people to Himself from every tribe, nation, and tongue.

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Editor's Note:

Unless stated otherwise, all of the Scripture references contained within this online issue of Sojourner Magazine were taken from the ESV. Sojourner Magazine does not own the rights to the ESV, or any of the other cited material(s). Please give credit where credit is due.