As
they spoke to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came to them, being upset because they taught the people and proclaimed in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. They laid hands on them, and put them in custody until the next day, for it was now evening. But many of those who heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.
Acts 4:1-4
Acts 3 [25.] You are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘In your offspring will all the families of the earth be blessed.’ God, having raised up his servant Jesus, sent him to you first to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your wickedness.”
Acts 4 [1.] As they spoke to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came to them, being upset because they taught the people and proclaimed in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. They laid hands on them, and put them in custody until the next day, for it was now evening. But many of those who heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.
Acts 4 [5.] In the morning, their rulers, elders, and scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem. Annas the high priest was there, with Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and as many as were relatives of the high priest. When they had stood them in the middle of them, they inquired, “By what power, or in what name, have you done this?”
Meaning:
Peter and John had gone up to the temple at the hour of prayer, and a man lame from birth had been healed at the Beautiful Gate in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth (Acts 3:2-6). A crowd gathered in Solomon’s porch, and Peter preached to them, declaring that they had “killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, to which we are witnesses” (Acts 3:15). These verses record the first official opposition to the apostles in Acts, and at the same time the remarkable growth of the believing community.
- “the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came to them”
Three groups arrive together. The priests were on duty in the temple. The captain of the temple was the officer in charge of the temple guard, second in authority to the high priest; the same officials had worked with Judas when he betrayed Jesus, for he “talked with the chief priests and captains about how he might deliver him to them” (Luke 22:4). The Sadducees were a priestly, aristocratic party who controlled the temple and much of the council. The apostles, who had fled when Jesus was arrested, were now teaching in the heart of their territory.
- “being upset because they taught the people and proclaimed in Jesus the resurrection from the dead”
Two things troubled the leaders. First, the apostles were teaching the people. They were Galilean fishermen without formal training, and they had no authority from the temple leaders to instruct crowds in the temple courts. Second, the content of their message struck directly at Sadducee belief. Luke describes the Sadducees as “those who deny that there is a resurrection” (Luke 20:27), and later in Acts he explains, “For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit” (Acts 23:8).
The apostles were not teaching resurrection only as a future hope. They proclaimed it “in Jesus”. His resurrection was the proof and the first fruits of the resurrection of the dead. If Jesus had truly risen, the Sadducees were wrong about their central doctrine, and the council had condemned an innocent man whom God himself had vindicated.
- “They laid hands on them, and put them in custody until the next day”
Jesus had warned his disciples that this would happen: “they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you up to synagogues and prisons” (Luke 21:12). The arrest came in the evening, too late in the day to assemble the council. So Peter and John spent the night in custody, waiting to appear before the council in the morning (Acts 4:5-7).
- “But many of those who heard the word believed”
Luke places this sentence between the arrest and the trial on purpose. The leaders could lock up the messengers, but they could not stop the message. Paul would later write from prison, “I suffer hardship to the point of chains as a criminal. But God’s word isn’t chained” (2 Timothy 2:9).
“The number of the men came to be about five thousand.” On the day of Pentecost “there were added that day about three thousand souls” (Acts 2:41), and since then “The Lord added to the assembly day by day those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47). The word used here can mean “men” in the sense of males, so some readers think the total, counting women and children, was larger; others take it as the total number of believers. Either way, the community in Jerusalem was growing rapidly, even under pressure.
The Significance of Acts 4:1-4
- Opposition and growth together
Acts often places persecution and growth side by side. Opposition did not mean that God’s work had failed. Often it was a sign that the message was being heard and was having an effect.
- The resurrection at the centre
The apostles were arrested for preaching that Jesus rose from the dead. The resurrection was not a side issue but the heart of their message, and it remains the foundation of Christian faith and hope today.
- The word cannot be bound
Believers may face pressure, ridicule or even prison for their faith. These verses encourage them that God’s word continues to do its work, and that faithful witness is never wasted.
Cross-References:
Luke 21:12: "they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you up to synagogues and prisons," Jesus foretold this arrest.
Acts 23:8: "For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit;" Why the resurrection message upset them.
Acts 2:41: "There were added that day about three thousand souls." The growth of the church at Pentecost.
2 Timothy 2:9: "But God’s word isn’t chained." The messengers can be bound, but not the message.
Conclusion: The temple leaders and the Sadducees arrested Peter and John because they were teaching the people and proclaiming the resurrection of the dead in Jesus, a message that challenged both their authority and their beliefs. The apostles spent the night in custody, just as Jesus had foretold. Yet the word they preached kept spreading, and the number of men who believed rose to about five thousand.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible