PETER AND JOHN ARRESTED
Peter preached a sermon in Acts 3, but John wasn’t silent. The text says, “As they were speaking to the people…”. Peter and John were both speaking for all to hear. For the religious elites, the leaders, and for all the people of Israel. This was an influential group. It was the group who called all the shots for the Jews. They had heard Peter and John proclaiming, and they were greatly annoyed.

Now, this is a simple analogy that happens so often around here for many of us. When you get greatly annoyed by a gnat or a mosquito, what do you do? You kill it. You can’t deal with it anymore. That nat or mosquito is nothing compared to what was going on in their day. But you get the point.

They weren’t just annoyed, they were annoyed to the point they had to stop Peter and John. This couldn’t happen anymore. Peter and John were encroaching on their territory, if you will. They were messing with their livelihood. They were messing up their religion. They were undercutting all the teaching of the law. They had to be stopped.

That’s why this group approached Peter and John. There’s one specific reference to the Sadducees (Acts 4:1). After it mentions the Sadducees, the text says they were preaching “in Jesus the resurrection of the dead” (Acts 4:2).

The Sadducees didn’t believe in a resurrection of the dead. They believed in the Pentateuch (Genesis to Deuteronomy) and nothing more, not even the rest of the Old Testament. And they didn’t believe within Genesis to Deuteronomy that it said anything about a resurrection of the dead.

So, there was a theological disagreement that mattered greatly to them. This is why they were greatly annoyed at Peter and John’s preaching and teaching.

But it was more than theological.

Listen to this quote, Poe Hill says, “The idea of a general resurrection was an apocalyptic concept with all sorts of messianic overtones. Messianic ideas among the Jews of that day meant revolt, overthrow of the foreign overlords and restoration of the Davidic Kingdom that would be on earth. There had been such movements before and the Romans had put them down.”

See, they weren’t just worried about theological influence, they were worried about political influence. If this rose up, the Romans would squash it. This is how Peter and John were encroaching on these religious leaders’ territory.

And their fears were being realized.

As these crowds grew and grew, they could see something coming, and they didn’t like it. They had to stop them.

Now you notice and it may throw you off because we don’t operate this way, but if you look at your Bible, it says that they arrested Peter and John and put them in jail (Acts 4:3). And you’re thinking, Religious leaders arresting Peter and John? That doesn’t make sense.” You’ve never seen a pastor arrest anybody at church. Neither have I.  

The captain of the Temple Guard, if you will, was the second ranking high priest. But he also had authority to arrest on matters of religion. He’s the one who arrested Peter and John and threw them in jail. He gave them an overnight stay, maybe hoping they would wake up and come to their senses and stop preaching this message. But in spite of their arrest, our text says, men who “heard the word believed, and the number of men came to be about 5000” (Acts 4:4).

SPIRITUAL VS. PHYISCAL RESTORATION
We often will read Acts and will get obsessed with the healings. But Luke (the author of Acts) doesn’t seem as obsessed as we are with healings. His emphasis in Acts 4:4 is the number of men who believed came to number about 5,000.

Luke is way more obsessed with spiritual restoration than physical restoration. In fact, physical restoration was a picture, and it served a bridge to the greater need: The preaching and teaching of the Gospel.

If you look back at Acts 3, Peter’s sermon contained little about physical healing. It was jam packed with how to be spiritually healed, how to be spiritually restored to a right relationship with God through repentance in faith in Jesus Christ.

AN UNSTOPPABLE MOVEMENT
With the big picture of Acts, we see in Acts 1 there were two believers and then 3,000 were added. And now in the first few verses of Chapter 5, the number of men who believed came to be about 5000.

When the word “men” is mentioned, this isn’t total. It’s meant to be taken literally as men, that means just men. That doesn’t include women and children. There might have been 40,000 believers. What Luke is painting in Acts is you can’t stop this movement. You can’t stop the Gospel of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is working through the apostles and building His church and advancing His kingdom in spite of any conflict that may arise between earthly folks.

PETER AND JOHN ON TRIAL
See what Peter’s emphasizing is the greatest miracle of all, which is salvation. He’s going to emphasize that even more in verse five, where they convene for trial overnight. Peter and John are before all these people. Luke wants us to make the connection from his gospel that the same people who put Jesus on trial are now putting Peter and John on trial. Specifically, You might remember Annas and Caiaphas. It’s all the high priestly family. It’s all these influential Jewish leaders who are there. They come to number about 71 people. None of us would take those odds. 71 versus two. It seemed quite unfair. And it was unfair, but for completely different reasons than any human would think.

What’s the first question they ask them? As the trial commences, they ask them, “By what power, by what name, did you do this?” (Acts 4:7)

They’re trying to get Peter and John on the record because Peter and John have been very clear about what name they’re preaching and teaching.

FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT
Look at verse eight, the key verse. “Then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit…”

Some of you’re thinking, “Didn’t we read when Peter got filled at Pentecost?”

Yes we did. But let’s think a little bit about soteriology, or our understanding of salvation, of the filling of the Holy Spirit.

If you’re thinking, “He already got filled, and he’s already a believer, and he’s sealed by the Holy Spirit,” you’re right.

Ephesians 1:13-14, “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee[a] of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it,[b] to the praise of his glory. ”

So if you’re thinking Peter’s already saved, you’re right. He’s already saved. But if you’re wondering, did he lose his salvation and get filled again, you’re incorrect.

This is more of what Paul talks about in Ephesians 5. Paul is writing to the church at Ephesus as believers. They’re already born again believers. They’re people who were sealed. That’s an idea of permanence. He’s the guarantee that’s permanence. That’s why we believed once saved, always saved is true,  if someone is truly saved.

But Ephesians 5 gives us a command. Paul used the analogy of drunkenness. He says, “do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery,” (Ephesians 5:18). But his point is not to condemn drunkenness even though he clearly condemns drunkenness multiple times in this letter. It’s to paint this picture of this illustration as alcohol controls a person when they are filled with it. He’s saying, be filled with the Holy Spirit. Be controlled by the Holy Spirit. He’s using a picture that we all understand. Some of you, have had to overcome an addiction to alcohol. Others of you understand because it’s prevalent in your family.

You know what alcoholism does? It destroys somebody’s life. They make decisions they wouldn’t normally make. They say things they wouldn’t normally say. Paul is using that negative illustration, and he’s flipping it into a positive illustration.

“I want you to say things you normally wouldn’t say. I want you to say what the Spirit would have you say. I want you to live in a way you normally wouldn’t live because I want you to be filled with the Holy Spirit.”