Atos 4

Atos 4

Cole - The boldness of Peter and John reminded the council of the boldness of Jesus Christ, who also was not trained in their schools. What a wonderful compliment, for people to recognize that we are like Jesus because we have been with Him!...if we’re going to be like Jesus, we will be bold witnesses who confront religious hypocrisy and false doctrine. We won’t be mean or rude. We will have the fruit of the Spirit, including kindness and gentleness. But we will have spent enough time with Jesus to learn from Him the importance of speaking out when God’s truth is being compromised. We will fear God more than we fear social customs or what others think of us. (ED: See what happens when we fear men! Pr 29:25). Horton - Jesus had spoken with authority; and now His disciples, trained by Him, spoke with that same authority. Jesus had done miracles as signs; now His disciples were doing the same. Their use of the name of Jesus was not just repeating a formula. (Acts: A Logion Press Commentary) Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Courageous Christianity – Because the Christian faith is supernatural, we do not need to be clever to understand it or put it into practice. This is the remarkable thing. You may call it the paradox of the Christian message. Here we have the profoundest truth in the world about everything to do with men and women, life, living, death, the cosmos, and God. Yet this truth is never arrived at as the result of intellectual effort. . . So being a Christian does not depend upon us, but entirely upon God and His power and what He has done in the person of His only begotten, dearly beloved Son. You see God at work in these disciples. Look at the way they could stand and reason before this great council and confute them. And began to recognize them as having been with Jesus - Peter was in the courtyard of the high priest Caiaphas, and it was there that he denied His lord three times (Mt 26:57,58,71,73). Peter's miracle was similar to many miracles Jesus performed. Peter's bold declaration sounded like what they had heard from his Master.