Acts 4 - Introduction

Preaching Leads To Prison Acts Four

The Apostles had healed a man at the Beautiful gate of the Temple. This provided a wonderful opportunity to preach Jesus and His resurrection. The priests and Sadducees were sad that "they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead." The result was that Peter and John were put in prison. "The inherent hatred of truth and righteousness on the part of the powers of darkness was quickly manifested in the bitter opposition encountered by the apostolic preachers of the gospel."

The growth of Christianity was well underway by this time. "Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand." (Acts 4:4) The Apostles were called to answer for their authority to preach and to heal. They were asked, "By what power, or by what name, have ye done this?" (Acts 4:7) Peter and John saw this as simply another opportunity to preach Jesus.

Their accusers could not deny that a notable miracle had been done on the lame man. Yet, they charged the Apostles "not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus." "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. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." Their time in prison ended with being threatened and dismissed.

Peter and John return to the other Apostles for a period of prayer and praise to God for His goodness. "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." (Acts 4:31) The result of this early persecution was that the believers were joined together in even stronger love. They cared for the poor by selling their property and goods and sharing with those that had need.