Acts 4:1-12, 23-31 On Trial with Jesus
https://youtube.com/watch?v=2yO79x7i7Bg&si=a975hnf3Irw6-MIA
Introduction
Acts 4 represents the first real trial/test for the new Christian community. After the spectacular birth of the new covenant Church of faith in Acts 2, and its first recorded miracle in Acts 3, (the healing of the lame man at the Gate Beautiful), the Lord decided (cf. v. 28) on this testing. Acts 4 in fact begins a crescendo of persecution which will only cease (https://www.opendoors.org/en-US/persecution/countries/) when our all-conquering Lord returns in glory to eternally magnify his triumphant Bride (Phil 1:20; Rev 19). Zealous Christians love to quote Joseph’s words, “you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.” (Gen 50:20), but our lack of persevering prayer charges us before God and our own consciences (Acts 23:1; 1 Tim 1:5). Acts 4 reflects a power struggle for the hearts of the Jewish people, between ancient Israel defined by the Temple and its sacrifices and a new Israel centred around Jesus and his Spirit (https://armenianweekly.com/2025/09/11/violence-against-christians-is-on-the-rise-in-israel/). Israel, ancient or new, cannot cannot have 2 cornerstones (v.11)! The limitless new creation power of the resurrection of Jesus sets the foundation for the ongoing restoration of “all things” (3:21) uncontainable in any old wineskin. The Sanhedrin/Jewish ruling council (4:15) contending with Peter and John are the same group who so recently had Jesus crucified. In realistic language the Church was confronted by a powerful group of religious terrorists.
As on the Day of Pentecost Peter, is once again “filled with the Holy Spirit” (cf. 2:5) and so goes on bearing prophetic testimony to Jesus (Luke 1:15, 41,67; 4:1; Acts 2:5; 4:31; 6:3, 5; 7:55; 9:17; 11:24; 13:9 cf. Rev 19:10) resurrection of (4:10 etc.) as he and other inspired believers will do throughout Acts. The “boldness” of the early Church (2:29; 4:13; 29, 31, 28:31) reminds us of the book of Daniel where the Israel in exile (Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego) refused to compromise their testimony in the face of the murderous threats of a tyrant-king (cf. Dan 3:16-18). Lest we idolise biblical personalities this passage reminds us that the apostles were “uneducated common men”. They were not well trained by education nor “experts” their lack of intimidation s before the Jewish rulers forces them to recall and “they had been with Jesus”. I know a number of people in Perth who have been imprisoned for their faith Cf. James Goss, Diana Thomas; Quong Ly etc. and they are ordinary people of faith.
Prayer
Following the example of Jesus in prayer (Luke 22:42, Matthew 26:36-46), the apostolic Church did not pray for relief or an speedy end of suffering but for boldness and power to pursue the kingdom of God.
4:23-26 “On their release, Peter and John went back to their friends and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. 24 When they heard this, they raised their voices together (ὁμοθυμαδὸν) in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 25 You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:”
The people “raise their voices to God”. How many have been in a Korean prayer style meeting? (https://sola.network/article/how-why-pray-korean-style-prayer-tongsung-kido/). To hear a crowd praying all at one at once can be rather raucous and uncomfortable for tidy Westerners. I remember, following an unusual dream, meeting with a Lutheran pastor to chat and pray, which we did by the altar rail of the church, he thanked me for my prayers but was critical of their volume. Not to worry, I learned some important things from listening to this brother teach and was also able to later help him repent of some issues in his own personal life.
The text literally says Peter and John went to “their own” τοὺς ἰδίους which would normally signify their own household/family (cf. John 1:11) but here it means the family of faith (cf. Gal 6:10). This family/household which goes on to appeal to God’s sovereignty as the basis for answered prayer as God did for their ancestors (Ps 146; Neh 9:6; Isa 37:16). They pray together in complete unity, just as they did before the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 1:14 (ὁμοθυμαδὸν) to the “Sovereign Lord” and Creator of all, who is in other places identified as Jesus (2 Pet 2:1; Jude 1:4). In Acts 4:25 David is called the “father” of the Church in the same prophetic line which includes way Abraham, Isaac. Jacob and all the prophets as spiritual fathers, and today we might add as saints’ people like Athanasius, Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Wesley, Spurgeon, Catherine Booth, Corrie Ten Boon, Tim Keller and so on. They are “fathers” because we share together with them an inheritance in Christ in his destiny to rule all people and nations (Ps 2:8-9; Dan 7:13-14; Rev 19:15-16 etc.).
27 Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. 29 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”.
In concert with the Gentile nations Israel rose up against her own Messiah. Now the threats by the Jewish leaders are seen by the Church as equivalent to the threats against Jesus, so his prayers must now be imitated in the power of the Spirit (https://www.christiancentury.org/features/imitation-spirit). The perfect unity between the intercessions of the ascended Jesus and his persecuted Church comes out later in Acts when in response to the plea of Saul blinded on the road to Damascus, “Who are you, Lord?” the heavenly voice replies: “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,”” (Acts 9:5).
Though narrative Acts is as inspired and therefore as theological as Romans etc. (2 Tim 3:16-17; 2 Pet 1:20-21). Throughout Acts the English prefix “fore” as in “foreknowledge, foretold, spoke beforehand” (1:16; 2:23; 3:18) underlies a strong doctrine of providence (4:28; 7:52; 10:41; 13:24; 22:14; 26:16). That is, the final say in all matters of life and death belongs to the Lord Jesus. The Creator and Redeemer of the world, now fully revealed in a glorified human Jesus sustains and guides all things to their glorious End in him (Eph 1:10). This conviction, which is the basis of my ministry to so many, is essential to a robust biblical faith.
The text of verse 29 has “
And (“τα” (ta)) now, Lord,” an expression unique to Acts in the NT (Acts 5:38; 17:30; 20:32; 27:22) adding a dimension of expectation and immediacy. The apostolic prayers are full of faith because the death and resurrection of Jesus are the template for everything in creation. Given it was the plan of God to hand his beloved Son over to crucifixion and then raise him up again this gospel pattern is the spiritual DNA/foundation of all God’s acts from creation to the glorious completion of the current cosmos (Rev 1:8, 5:6; 13:8; 21:6, 22:13).
God’s sovereignty is not denied but affirmed amidst painful circumstances. “They (evil rulers) did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.” Human responsibility is a compatible with not contradictory to divine control over all things (Rom 8:28; Eph 1:11 etc.). Recently I was meeting with someone who is a relative stranger to me, and we found ourselves sharing about circumstances as young men in their twenties in which we were saved from certain drowning by the unexpected delivering power of the Lord. We left as brothers for life. Such holy unity reminds me of the powerful, though neglected, exhortation, “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” (James 5:16)
Great boldness follows an intimacy with God which frees us from fear of others. (JY history paranoias) A theologian and mystic (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumitru_St%C4%83niloae) says, Christian boldness is that of a childlike innocence of sin, with a maturity of conscience and joy from ongoing holiness of life, boldness becomes habitual through consciousness of God’s presence and constant conversing with him in much prayer. Is this the vision the Lord has given you for your life and are you submitting to it?
Nothing in the New Testament suggests that God’s hand to heal and do signs and wonders, so intensely prayed for in Acts 4, has been shortened (4:28; 11:21). When John collapses before a vision of Jesus in Revelation “he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. 18 I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.” (Rev 1:17-18) The ever-soothing hand of Jesus is never weak because it still bears glorified scars (even in heaven) (John 20:27; Gal 6:17).
4:31 “After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.”
The outpouring of the Spirit with attendant signs are the seal of God’s approval on the intent of the prayers of the foundational Church. As in Acts 2, in chapter 4, the whole Church, from oldest to youngest (the children are a part of the Church aren’t they?), were inundated by the power of the Spirit. This radical inclusion flows from the fact that all the people saw themselves as “servants” (v.29), a power-filled term (Gk. pais Παῖδα) used so commonly of Jesus in the early chapters of Acts (Acts 3:13, 3:26, 4:27, 4:30).
The shaking of their residence (Cf. Isa 6:4 temple shook) is not simply a sign of power but of the pleasure in heaven (cf. Luke 3 baptism of Jesus). The promise of Heb 12 comes to mind “At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27 This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.” (Heb 12:26-27) The more the early Christians were shaken by holy power from heaven the more they were unshakable by human threats.
Conclusion
We often miss out on seeing what is most obvious about the patterns of the New Testament. What is first exemplified in Jesus, a life of prayer and the ministry of the Word (the 4 Gospels especially Luke), is continued as a pattern in the book of Acts first by Peter (1:14; 2:17ff; 3:1; 4:23) and then by Paul (numerous references in Acts and in his letters). When we reach Acts 6 this is spelled out, ““It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables…. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word” (6:4). If conservative Evangelicals are devoted to the latter and many Charismatics to praise and worship where are the Church leaders today who converse with Jesus in prayer and the Word? The Lord challenged me years ago through a man who prayed from 4 am daily, so Wednesday 6.30 prayer is no great challenge! Some people have recently been following what God did in Asbury and South East universities in America, but when they stopped praying in these places they stopped seeing the hand of the Lord move in their midst.
Acts 4 is a Template for every Jesus movement fiercely resisted by evil powers. You may have heard it said, or said to others yourself, “God has a wonderful plan for your life.” This is not false but utterly trivial, I love this quotation, “’What role does God play in our lives? It is an inevitable but wrong question. We shall be freed from it only by captivation to the right question: what role do we play in God’s life? The story is not our story with a role for Christ. The story is Christ’s story with roles for us.” (Robert Jenson)
Jesus prophesied concerning those who would follow him faithfully, “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake.” (Matt 24:9 cf. 10:22; 2 Tim 3:12). Imprisoned for the Gospel Paul lays out an invincible blueprint, “I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance. I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.” (Phil 1:19-20)
God continues to shake a praying Church, such as the outpouring of the Spirit in Moravia in 1727 which initiated a prayer meeting that went for more than 100 years, the Azusa St revival in 1906 whose reverberations are still continuing…. Outpourings always come to small minority Christian groups confronted by a bigger and humanly more powerful group. Humble prayerful unity for to expanding mission to the glory of God the Father in Christ will always see empowerment by the Holy Spirit. This is not an infallible formula but a unfailing testimony to the life of Jesus!
The boldness in speaking of Jesus that follows the outpouring of the Spirit (cf. 9:27-28; 13:46; 19:8; 28:31) is a much more certain sign of the Holy Spirit power than speaking in tongues, expansive bible knowledge, religious excitement or any other evidence! It is certainly the case that any sustainable outpouring of the kingdom of God will involve intense opposition, corporate fervent united intercession and asking God to establish his kingdom through exalting the holy name of his servant Jesus.