LESSON VII. MAY 14, 1876. CHRISTIAN COURAGE. ACTS 4:8-22. [A. D. 33.] PLACE. Jerusalem. TIME. Soon after Pentecost. Some think that the festival was not yet closed. 8 Then Peter filled1 with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye-rulers of the people, and elders of Israel, 9 If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole : 10 Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised froin the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. PARALLEL PASSAGES.-1Ch. 7:55. 2Ch. 3:6-16. CONNECTION. The auspicious opening bloom of the young church of Christ could not fail speedily to attract the attention of those who occupied the seat of Moses. But as they themselves were the murderers of the Son of God and would not humble themselves before him to receive themselves also the pardon of their sins, they fell of consequence into the new sin of seeking to quench the Spirit. In the power of the Spirit the apostles continued to preach, and their word wrought so powerfully that already about five thousand men believed. The conversion of so many was a source of vexation to the whole party of the priests, but above all to the Sadducees, whose views were directly impugned by the preaching of the resurrection. Olshausen. - Peter and John are imprisoned one evening, and the next day brought before the Sanhedrim, who ask, "By what power or by what name have ye done this?" The lesson begins with Peter's answer. 8. Filled with the Holy Ghost. This phrase refers always to a special miraculous gift of the Spirit. (See ch. 2:4.) The apostles had been promised such an inspiration whenever they should be thus arraigned before rulers for Christ's sake. (Luke 12:12; Mark 13: 11.) Ye rulers of the people. This is the ancient title of the high court of the Jews, and the apostle acknowledges their authority. Elders of Israel. These were anciently the heads of the tribes," the chiefs of the fathers of the children of Israel." This high court of the Jewish nation, called the Sanhedrim, consisted of seventy or seventy-two persons of rank, made up chiefly of the chief priests of the twenty-four courses, who served weekly in the temple; and of elders or presbyters, the most ancient class of officers among the Jews; and of scribes - the lawyers, writers, and teachers of the law. 9. If we, etc., as though it were scarcely credible. The term here rendered "examined" means called to account, as a defendant or witness. Of the good deed-upon or in respect to a good deed. It could not be denied that it was "a good deed," and as it was done to an impotent (weak, disabled) man, what fault could be found with them for this? Yet they pretended only to inquire, by virtue of their authority as the spiritual guardians of the people, by what means they had.done this. Jacobus. 10. Be it known, etc. Peter might have evaded the question. It was a noble opportunity also for repairing the evil which he had done by his guilty denial of his Lord. Although, therefore, this frank and open avowal was attended with danger, and although it was in the presence of the great and the mighty, yet he chose to state fully and clearly his conviction of the truth. Never was there an instance of greater boldness; and never could there be a more striking illustration of the fitness of the name which the Lord Jesus gave him, that of a rock. (John 1:42; Matt. 16:17, 18.) The timid, trembling, yielding, and vacillating Simon, he who just before was terrified by a servant girl and who on the lake was afraid of sinking, is now transformed into the manly, decided, and firm Cephas, fearless before the great council of the nation, and in an unwavering tone asserting the authority of him whom he had just before denied and whom they had just before put to death. It is not possible to account for 11 This is the stone1 which was set at naught of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. 12 Neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other3 PARALLEL PASSAGES. 1Ps. 118:22. Is. 28:16. Matt. 21: 42. 2Ch. 10:43. 1 Tim. 2:5, 6. 3Ps. 45:17. this change except on the supposition that this religion is true. Peter had no worldly motive to actuate him. Nothing but the conviction of the truth could have wrought this change, and transformed this timid disciple to a bold and uncompromising apostle. Of Nazareth. Lest there should be any mistake about his meaning, he specified that he referred to the despised Nazarene; to him who had just been put to death, as they supposed, covered with infamy. Christians little regard the epithets of opprobrium which may be affixed to themselves or to their religion. Whom ye crucified. There is emphasis in all the expressions that Peter uses. He had before charged the people with the crime of having put him to death. (Ch. 2:23; 3:14, 15.) But he now had the opportunity, contrary to all expectation, of urging the charge with still greater force on the rulers themselves, on the very council which had condemned him and delivered him to Pilate. It was a remarkable providence that an oppor. tunity was thus afforded of urging this charge in the presence of the Sanhedrim, and of proclaiming to them the necessity of repentance. Barnes. 11. This one, viz. Christ, who is the principal subject. The words, as Tholuck remarks, appear to have been used as a proverb, and hence are susceptible of various applications. The sense for this place may be thus given: the Jewish rulers, according to the proper idea of their office, were the builders of God's spiritual house; and as such should have been the first to acknowledge the Messiah, and exert themselves for the establishment and extension of his kingdom. That which they had not done God had now accomplished in spite of their neglect and opposition. He had raised up Jesus from the dead, and thus confirmed his claim to the Messiahship; he had shown him to be the true author of salvation to men, the corner-stone, the only sure foundation on which they can rest their hopes of eternal life. (Compare Matt. 21:42; Luke 20:17.) Head of the corner. It refers, probably, not to the copestone, but to that which lies at the foundation of the edifice, in the angle where two of the walls come together, and which gives to the edifice its strength and support. This is the stone referred to in Ps. 118:22. Hackett. 12. This is one of those passages that shine like the sun, shedding light on all parts of the Rible. Besser. The salvation here spoken of begins in this life. Christ first saves us from our sins, both tiɔm the guilt and the power of them. He gives us repentance and grace to love and serve and honor God. He makes us pure and humble and holy, every way meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, so that the whole of our salvation, from first to last, is begun, continued, and perfected only by him. Beveridge. - Observe (1) Christ is the only Saviour, for no other has been provided by God, — there is none other name which is given, -none in all the earth. (2) Unless we are willing to be saved on the foundation provided by God we must be lost forever. (3) How important to preach the gospel to every creature! Jacobus. -With my cane I then slowly drew a line on the sand of the cottage floor, and looking up, said, "Do you see that line?" He had watched my action, wondering what I was about, and answered, "Yes, sir."—"Well, then, mark me," said I; "on this, side of that line is death, lost, hell, darkness, damnation, misery, Satan. On the other side is life, saved, heaven, light, salvation, happiness, God. On which side are you?"—"On which side are you?" he slowly replied, "On the lost side."—"I am not sorry to hear you say so," I continued. "These are the first words of truth concerning yourself that I have heard you utter; and as you are on the lost side, there is only one other side on which you can be, and that is the saved. To believe in Jesus is to step across the line at once. No effort of yours, no good works, no good resolutions, no good prayers, can translate you from fitness for hell to fitness for heaven; God alone can do that, and he presents Christ to you as the way and the power that he has pro. vided. Trust in him, commit yourself to him, and you are at once wafted across from everlasting ruin to everlasting life; you are justified freely from all things; you are born again; you are made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light." Tract Soc. 13. Unlearned and ignorant. This was for three centuries the great objection brought against the professors of Christianity. But the fact of the early apostles being for the most part unlearned and ignorant men is a great confirmation of the Christian faith, proving that it was not of human but divine origin. Whitby.-Unlearned does not necessarily imply gross ignorance, or inability to read, but devoid of literature learning, and especially among the Jews, of sacred learning. Ignorant in its pri mary sense means private persons, laymen, without professional knowledge, in which sense Thucydides opposes it to the physician, and Plato to the poet and musician. Boldness. Not merely bravery and courage, but freedom and readiness of speech. Alexander (condensed).—I remark, in the first place, ness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned1 and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. 14 And beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing2 against it. 15 But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council they conferred among themselves, PARALLEL PASSAGES. -Matt. 11:25. 1 Cor. 1:27. 2Ch. 19: 36. that intimacy with Jesus produces a perceptible result on men. Contact with all strong characters is apt to leave its impress. Both for good and evil we are made plastic to influence of this social quality. Centuries ago it passed into a proverb that "he that walketh with wise men shall be wise; but the companions of fools shall be destroyed." There is a contagion about a powerful nature which propagates itself by mysterious ways. It used to be fabled in our British home that the king's touch cured scrofula. The touch of kingly men has wrought marvels. A glance of Napoleon's eye made many a French youth incapable forever of being anything but a soldier. Simple John Howard passing along the fevered alleys of the prison hospitals, cured more than the sick within the prison walls. He cured hundreds of burly Englishmen outside those walls of the worse disease of selfishness, and begot philanthropies which have never died. The biography of great men is full of tokens of this power, given or received. Now, of all individuals who have ever lived in this world, the one who has had most of this moulding power over the souls of men has been Jesus of Nazareth. He has had, of any being who has ever lived in our world, most of that peculiar quality of power which fascinates, inspires, and transforms other men. See how it wrought when he was on earth. That little company of Christ's associates, though small, contained elements the most divine. Peter, the impetuous; Thomas, the sceptical; John, the spiritual-minded; Philip, the slow and dull; Nicodemus, the cautious; James, the ascetic and severe, these surely represent wide extremes of human character; yet were they all attracted by Him, and over them all he exerted a transforming power. Diverse as they were, he stamped them as with the unmistakable token of himself. He bound them to him by ties which led most of them to martyrdom for his sake. He marked them for his own. They wore his mark in life and in bloody death. Everywhere you meet a class of men and women wearing a peculiar type of character, animated by a kindred sentiment, seeking a similar aim. Immeasurably different in other respects they are as one in this. They wear the marks of Christ. Over them all, however sundered, he has some way exercised a transforming sway. His character has moulded theirs. They are different every hour of their lives because of him. A personality other than their own has swayed, inspired, and taken possession of them, and that personality is his. Jesus of Nazareth has some way been with them, and they are what they are because of it. Yes, contact with Jesus does produce a perceptible result. It did while he lived. It has ever since. It does now. Consider the duration of that influence. It seems to be the destiny of all merely human influence to wane away with the process of time. It may indeed last long, but decay creeps over it. Men feel it less and less as years go by. But the influence of Jesus does not die. It is as fresh and operative to-day as it was a thousand or eighteen hundred years ago. It moves men as deeply and transforms them as com. pletely as then. It lives perennial in power. I remark as a last suggestion of the incident which has afforded us our topic to-day, the illustration it gives of the true nature of Christian unity, whether on earth or in heaven. It would have been difficult for the councillors of the Jewish Church, however long they might have sought, to have found two men of more unlike natural traits than Peter and John. And yet they recognized them as of one spirit. The eleven men of the apostolic company were most dissim. ilar men; yet who in all Jerusalem ever failed to see that they belonged together? The great men of church history, how diverse they have been! Yet who that intelligently reads the church's historic page can fail to see that they are members of one brotherhood, and that, however outwardly diverse, they are inwardly as one? Whoso beholds them will take "knowledge of them that they have been with Jesus." Beloved hearers, the way to wear that impress and to become qualified for that unity, is by intimacy with Jesus Christ. Being intimate with him will have a transforming power. The wondrous nobleness in him will ennoble that which is brought in contact with it, and the greatness of that transformation will testify that its worker is divine. G. L. Walker. 14. The literal version is, They had nothing to reply. How could they, with the man himself before their eyes, perhaps brought thither by themselves as a prisoner or a witness? Alexander. 15. Having commanded them to depart out of the council. The deliberations of the assembly were open to others, though the apostles were excluded, and hence it was easy for Luke to ascertain what was said and done during their absence. Some of the many priests who afterwards believed (see 6, 7) may have belonged to the council at this time, or, at all events, may have been present as spectators. It is not improbable that Saul of Tarsus was there, or even some of the Christian party who were not known in that character. 16 Saying, What1 shall we do to these men? for that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. 17 But that it spread no further among the people, let us straitly threaten them, that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. 18 And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all, nor teach in the name of Jesus. 19 But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken3 unto you more than unto God, judge ye. 20 For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. 21 So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding nothing how they might punish them, because of the people :6 for PARALLEL PASSAGES.- 1John 11: 47. 2Ch. 5:40. Ch, 5:29. Jer. 20:9. Ch. 22:15. 1 John 1: 1, 3. 6Ch. 5:26. Matt. 21: 26. 16. For that a notorious miracle-a deed undeniably of that character-has been done. They would have suppressed the evidence had it been possible. Hackett. 17. Their only object, therefore, was to prevent the apostles from making the use which they saw they would to convince the people that Jesus was the Messiah. The question therefore was, in what way they should prevent this; whether by putting them to death, by imprisoning them, or by scourging them, or whether by simply exerting their authority and forbidding them. From the former they were deterred, doubtless by fear of the multitude. And they therefore adopted the latter, and seemed to suppose that the mere exertion of their authority would be sufficient to deter them from this in future. Barnes. 18. They command them most strictly not to speak (familiarly) at all, nor teach, shutting off any and all discourse that should have this name of Jesus for the subject or object. Observe: That "only name" given for men's salvation these religious rulers would utterly suppress. These were the papists of that day. Jacobus. 19. It is the duty of men to obey a human government as far as its official claims exist. But it is our duty to obey God more than men. Gerok. They simply decline to obey and most carefully refrain from committing any act indicating opposition. Not a word, not a glance betrays a hostile purpose. Lechler. 20. The true Christian cannot do otherwise than speak for God. And the ministers of Christ, like Paul, feel "Wo is me if I preach not the gospel." (Amos 3:8.) Jacobus.— (1) Religion, from the commencement, has been favorable to liberty. There was no principle more sacred among the Jews than that they were to be independent of other nations. Even in captivity we are told that the Jewish slaves at Rome would observe the Sabbath, would keep the feasts of their nation, and never would conform to the customs of an idolatrous people. To the Romans this appeared to be mere obstinacy. But it was the genius of their religion. The right of liberty of thought was one which they would not surrender. (2) This same principle was evinced by the apostles and by the early Christians. With this doctrine fresh upon their hearts they went forth to other lands. They maintained it at the expense of their blood, and thousands fell as martyrs in the cause of liberty and of private judgment in religion. (3) The designs of tyranny and superstition have been to destroy this principle. This was the aim of the Sanhedrim. (4) The effect of the principle avowed by the apostles has been uniform. Luther began the Reformation by finding in a monastery a copy of the Bible. The effect on the liberties of Europe was immediately seen. Hume admitted that whatever liberty England possessed was to be traced to the Puritans. If it be asked here what the principle is, I answer, (1) That men have a right to their private judgment in matters of religion, subject only to God. The only restraint which, it is now settled, can be imposed on this, is, that no man has a right, under pretence of conscience, to injure or molest his fellow-men or to disturb the peace and harmony of society. (2) No magistrate, church council, or parent has a right to impose a creed on others, and to demand subscription to it by mere authority. (3) No magistrate, church, or parent has a right to control the free exercise of private judgment in this case. The power of a parent is to teach, advise, and entreat. The duty of a child is to listen with respect. (4) Every man is responsible to God for his opinions and his conduct. If we love liberty, if we hate tyranny and superstition, if we wish to extend the knowledge of the rights of man and break every arm of oppression, let us spread far and wide the Book of God, and place in every palace and every college on the globe a copy of the sacred Scriptures. Barnes. 21. Farther threatened them; i. e. in addition to the threats proposed in verse 17. Let all men glorified God for that which was done. 22 For the man was above forty years old, on whom this miracle of healing was shewed. them go. Released or discharged them; no doubt by a formal and judicial act, whereas the English version rather suggests the idea of informally allowing their escape. Alexander. 22. The miracle was so great and created so much sensation because it was the cure of a man more than forty years old, who had been a cripple from his birth. Besides, the man had been well known among the people during most of this time. It is plain that the Sanhedrim themselves recognized him as one whom they had seen daily at the temple during many years. Besides, it is fair to suppose that all possible means had been resorted to during so long a period, and therefore that it was the cure of a hopeless case. Jacobus. CIRCUMSTANCES. Peter and John just discharged from their trial by the Sanhedrim. 23 ¶ And being let go, they went1 to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them. 24 And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, PARALLEL PASSAGES. — thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is; 25 Who, by the mouth of thy servant David has said, Why did3 the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? - 1Ch. 2:44-46. 22 Kings 19:15. Ps. 2:1, 2. 23. Unto their own friends in the faith. Nothing in the context requires us to limit the term to the apostles. Chief priests (those of the first class) and the elders. This is another mode of designating the Sanhedrim. (See verse 5.) Hackett. A good pastor is greatly assisted when, by the goodness of God, he sees around him those whom he can regard as his own company and are united with him in oneness of spirit. Brandt. 24. One accord must denote as elsewhere (1:14; 2:46; 7:57, etc.) a concert of hearts, not of voices. If they all joined aloud in the prayer, the proof must not be drawn from this word or from their voice, which could be said though but one uttered the words while the others assented, but rather from the nature of the service. The prayer on this occasion was chiefly praise, and as the words quoted were so familiar to all, it is quite possible that they recited them together. Baumgarten's view may be near the truth: the whole company sung the second Psalm, and Peter then applied the contents to their situation in the terms recorded here. Hackett. And said. The apostles and members doubtless looked upon this threatening as a symptom of that deep-seated opposition which the rulers would make against the church. It was no incidental outbreak. Here was a significant and severe threat of what was to be expected unless they would utterly and at once abandon the cause of Christ. It was the kingdom of darkness arraying itself against the kingdom of light. It is a declaration of war on the part of the powers of this world against the church of Christ. How natural, then, that they should recur to the second Psalm, in which this very condition of the church is prophetically set forth. Lord, thou art God. This passage is taken from Psalm 146:6; compare Rev. 14:70. They first ascribe to God all power and glory in all his created dominions. Observe: (1) The safety of the church is not in human helpers but in a covenant God, nor is its peril so much from most fierce and powerful oppositions of men as from unbelief and prayerlessness of the members. (2) The absolute sovereignty of God is our ground of hope and comfort; that he can do as he please, unhindered by Satan and his helpers, and we know that his good will is "good will to men" in the gospel. Jacobus. 25. This passage is taken from Psalms 11:1, 2, and is an exact quotation from the Septuagint. This proves that the Psalm had reference to the Messiah. Thus it was manifestly understood by the Jews, |