Being
let go, they came to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. When they heard it, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, “O Lord, you are God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who by the mouth of your servant, David, said, ‘Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth take a stand, and the rulers take council together, against the Lord, and against his Christ.’ For truly, in this city against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever your hand and your council foreordained to happen. Now, Lord, look at their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy Servant Jesus.”
Acts 4:23-30
Acts 4 [21.] When they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them, because of the people; for everyone glorified God for that which was done. For the man on whom this miracle of healing was performed was more than forty years old.
Acts 4 [23.] Being let go, they came to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. When they heard it, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, “O Lord, you are God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who by the mouth of your servant, David, said,
‘Why do the nations rage,
and the peoples plot a vain thing?
The kings of the earth take a stand,
and the rulers take council together,
against the Lord, and against his Christ.’
Acts 4 [27.] “For truly, in this city against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever your hand and your council foreordained to happen. Now, Lord, look at their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy Servant Jesus.”
Acts 4 [31.] When they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were gathered together. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness. The multitude of those who believed were of one heart and soul. Not one of them claimed that anything of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. With great power, the apostles gave their testimony of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Great grace was on them all. For neither was there among them any who lacked, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles’ feet, and distribution was made to each, according as anyone had need. Joses, who by the apostles was also called Barnabas (which is, being interpreted, Son of Encouragement), a Levite, a man of Cyprus by race, having a field, sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
Meaning:
Released by the council with threats (Acts 4:21), Peter and John return to the believers, who respond to danger by praying “with one accord”, as the disciples had done from the beginning (Acts 1:14). This prayer, one of the longest recorded in Acts, is a model of how God’s people can pray when they face opposition.
- “O Lord, you are God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all that is in them”
The word translated “Lord” means a sovereign master. The believers begin not with the threats but with God’s greatness. Their words echo the commandment, “for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them” (Exodus 20:11). The council seemed powerful, but the Creator of all things is greater.
- “Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot a vain thing?”
They quote Psalm 2, a psalm about the king God had anointed: “The kings of the earth take a stand, and the rulers take counsel together, against Yahweh, and against his Anointed” (Psalm 2:2). Christ (Greek) and Messiah (Hebrew) both mean Anointed One, and the early Christians understood the psalm as pointing to Jesus, the Son of whom it says, “You are my son” (Psalm 2:7).
- “both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together”
The believers apply the psalm line by line. The kings and rulers are Herod and Pilate; the nations and peoples are the Gentiles and the people of Israel. At the trial of Jesus, “Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day, for before that they were enemies with each other” (Luke 23:12).
- “your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed”
Jesus is called God’s holy Servant, recalling the Servant in Isaiah: “Behold, my servant, whom I uphold; my chosen, in whom my soul delights— I have put my Spirit on him” (Isaiah 42:1). He was anointed with the Spirit (Luke 4:18).
- “to do whatever your hand and your council foreordained to happen”
Even the rejection of Jesus was within God’s purpose; at Pentecost Peter said Jesus was “delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23). The text holds together God’s sovereign plan and the real guilt of those who opposed Jesus. Christians explain how these fit together in different ways, but Acts affirms both.
- “grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness”
The believers do not ask God to remove the threats or to punish their enemies. They ask for boldness to keep speaking, and for God to “stretch out your hand to heal”, so that signs and wonders would confirm the message (compare Mark 16:20). God answered at once (Acts 4:31).
The Significance of Acts 4:23-30
- Start with who God is
Facing danger, the believers first remembered God’s power as Creator and his control over history. Prayer that begins with God’s greatness puts human threats in their true size.
- Ask for faithfulness, not only safety
Their main request was for courage to keep proclaiming God’s word. Believers today can pray the same way when they face pressure.
Cross-References:
Psalm 2:2: "The kings of the earth take a stand, and the rulers take counsel together," The psalm the believers quoted.
Luke 23:12: "Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day," The rulers gathered against Jesus.
Acts 2:23: "being delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God," God’s plan in the cross.
Conclusion: Hearing the council’s threats, the believers prayed together to the sovereign Creator. They saw in Psalm 2 how Herod, Pilate, the Gentiles and Israel had gathered against God’s anointed Servant Jesus, all within God’s purpose. Instead of safety, they asked for boldness to speak God’s word and for God to confirm it with healing, signs and wonders.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible