Acts 4:1-4 1But as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them, 2being greatly disturbed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead, 3and they laid hands on them and put them in jail until the next day, for it was already evening. 4But many of those who had heard the message believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.
Luke describes two opposite reactions to Peter’s sermon. Peter was not the exclusive speaker, as Luke notes that John was also speaking. They were a team, just as Jesus intended his disciples to be when he sent them out in pairs (Luke 10:1). As so often happened in Jesus’ ministry, throughout the Bible, and in experiences today, right in the middle of a great revival, opposition arose against Peter and John. Chapter 4 is the first time the followers of Jesus experienced any opposition since Jesus left.
Peter was nearing the conclusion of the sermon and calling people to repent and believe in Jesus, as he did in his message on the day of Pentecost, when a group confronted him and John. The Sadducees are named along with the priests and the guardian of the temple. This party of Jewish leaders had significant authority. They were known for their collaboration with the Romans in their effort to keep peace and avoid confrontation. They held significant influence in the Sanhedrin and made up the aristocratic class of Jews. The priests were the spiritual leaders in the temple. The apostles were co-opting their place as the teachers of Judaism. The captain of the guard was the peacekeeper and administrator of the temple, known in the Mishna as the sagan, who sometimes assisted the priests in ceremonies and was directly under the high priest. He had the highest authority in what happened in the temple, second in command to the high priest.
The Sadducees did not believe in resurrection, angels or demons, and only the Torah (Genesis-Deuteronomy) as Scripture. When word reached them that Peter and John were talking about the resurrection of Jesus, the Sadducees got their mob together to go deal with the heretics. They feared the teaching of the disciples because of the new ideas they taught. This new group of “heretics” threatened the status quo and could create problems with the Romans. The authority and influence of the Sadducees were being threatened. The daily flow of the temple was being disrupted. So, the Sadducees got the temple leaders together to deal with the situation, arrested them, and threw them in jail for the night. The note that it was already evening suggests that Peter and John had been teaching for several hours since they had first gone to the temple at three in the afternoon. The message Luke records in chapter 3 is only a summary of the key points that likely bothered the Sadducees and temple leaders.
The other response they got is mentioned in verse 4. The number of believers grew to over five thousand. Luke is not clear if that is the total number, including those from Pentecost, or the number of new believers on this occasion. The word men (andrōn) is often used in Acts and other places as an inclusive term for both men and women. Likely, it would be inclusive of all who were believers at that point. Even with the opposition from the Jewish leaders, Peter and John’s teaching was not a waste but produced a great harvest of souls.
Three major points of Acts now emerge: the power and effectiveness of the message about Jesus, the growing opposition to this message, but this opposition cannot stop it from going out and changing lives. Two keywords are mentioned in verse 4: heard and believed. It took courage for Peter and John to speak to so many, but they were filled with the Holy Spirit and knew what they were talking about because they had spent time with Jesus, had personal experience and could share their own testimony, and had studied Scripture and could draw upon it in support.
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