Sunday Acts 4:1-4

The religious leaders investigate.

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There was quite the commotion over the healing of the lame man. The people were amazed. Peter presented the gospel. The head priests came to investigate. They brought the temple police with them.

There were two main groups of religious scholars amongst the Jews – the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The Sadducees controlled the temple. The Sadducees disagreed with the Pharisees over the resurrection of the dead. The Pharisees believed that there would be a resurrection while the Sadducees did not. So Peter and John were double offenders in the eyes of the Sadducees. They were preaching about Jesus and talking about resurrection.

So to stop the preaching, they arrested Peter and John and held them in jail until the matter could be resolved the following day.

But many people believed what Peter was saying. They came to faith in Christ and became counted among the Christians.

Whenever God acts, some people will be opposed to what He is doing. The real opposition is Satan, but he prompts people to rise up in opposition. He can even use Christians by pushing our buttons to cause us to fight among ourselves over secondary issues.