Acts 4:1-31
Dear RTB’ers,
Acts 4, following the healing incident and Peter’s sermon. We have arrived at the passage that I had pointed to back on April 2:
Jesus speaking: “But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake. This will be your opportunity to bear witness. Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict.” (Luke 21:12-15) Some three weeks down the road we will begin reading the Book of Acts. In chapter 4 we will see Jesus’ words played out, as Peter and John are testifying before the Council: Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus. (Acts 4:13) They had been with Jesus. That was enough!
…to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. (v. 28) Every time I run into some “predestination” item I wonder about predestination and choice and free will. Had God ordered up these people and these events? My Study Bible said that God had allowed them to undertake their “freely chosen acts to accomplish His chosen purpose”. So they get around any predetermined leaders’ activities. The NIV gives a better understanding, I think, of what the text actually means: They did what Your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. So the “predestination” notion in verse 28 quoted above refers to the outcome, Jesus’ crucifixion, not to the means to that outcome. That is, God had preordained that His Son would die, but that men acting on their own free would bring it about.
Finally, a member of the Council speaking, “For the fact that a noteworthy miracle has taken place through them is apparent to all who live in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it.” (v. 16b) We hearken back to Luke 24 when the two disciples were walking on the road to Emmaus, …one of them, named Cleopas, answered Him, “Are You the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” (Luke 24:18) Today, in Acts 4 we see again that these events are widely known in Jerusalem, and clearly the people have responded, and the number of the men came to be about five thousand. (v. 4)
“… we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”
Blessings!
See also: November 22 (2023) / Acts 3-5