Acts 4:1 And as they [Peter and John] were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, 2 greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. 3 And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. 4 But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand. 5 On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem, 6 with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. 7 And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” 8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, 9 if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, 10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well.
My Thoughts:
The Sadducees were the party of high priests and wealthier elements of the population who served at the pleasure of, and collaborated with, the Roman authorities. Two of the familiar names in this passage are high priests involved in Jesus’s execution, Annas and the son-in-law of Caiaphas. Both are Sadducees and Sadducees did not believe in resurrection from the dead. Peter and John aren’t in trouble for declaring Jesus resurrected but for declaring the man healed. Power is the reason these ruling authorities are “greatly annoyed.” They’re annoyed by the evidence of a healed man they can’t refute and resurrection is the elephant in that trial room they can’t discuss. They can’t argue about resurrection unless they admit the reality of it. There are about five thousand who’ve heard Peter’s words and believed them. Many of them had seen with their own eyes a demonstration of power the Sadducees have no answer for: A “good deed done to a crippled man, by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead.”
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