Acts 4:1–2

But while they were speaking, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came to lay hands on them. They were grieved that the apostles preached the resurrection, which their unbelief and their fixed system of doctrine did not accept. They put them in prison, for it was evening. The hope of Israel was set aside; the grace of God had spoken in vain, great and patient as it was. Many, however, believed their word: five thousand people already confessed the Lord Jesus.

There was also a "captain of the temple" (in Greek, strategos). See Luke 22:4, 52; Acts 4:1; Acts 5:24, 26. The word literally means "the leader of an army," and Acts 16:20 uses it of magistrates. But the captain of the temple had charge of the priests and Levites, not of soldiers.

Peter and John were teaching the people, a duty which belonged specially to the priests. They boldly proclaimed the Lord's resurrection from the dead. The Sadducees felt that one of their pet beliefs was touched.

A new group now came forward. While the Lord lived and worked, they had stayed more in the background. Back then the Pharisees were His active enemies. They championed a defective, false righteousness, and they opposed the Righteous One. Now the enemy had another and very different group among the Jews ready: the Sadducees. A truth that exposed their complete unbelief stirred them out of their usual calm... But the resurrection, shown in the person of Jesus, was intolerable. And no one is so intolerant as the people who boast that they tolerate every shade of opinion — when the truth confronts them.

Satan had the Sadducees as his tools against the doctrine of the resurrection, just as he had the Pharisees as fitting tools against a living Christ. We must expect Satan's well-organised opposition to the truth.

Their whole system of thought — their unbelief, to put it plainly — was in danger. At that time most of the leaders of Israel, though not the Pharisees, held that there was no resurrection... It was not only the resurrection. What made it worse was this: a resurrection that had brought the power of God into the world as it now is. A man was raised from the dead and gone into heaven right among them... Where had this mighty deed been done? Among them — in Jerusalem itself, in their own day. It was not done in a corner.

From now on the Sadducees pushed hardest. For them, the resurrection of the Saviour overthrew their creed of denial. How happy they might have been to have their dreadful denials pierced by this glorious light from heaven! But in fact, the more complete the proof of the truth of the gospel, the more they were stirred up against it. If the proof had been weaker, they would surely have acted more gently. But once argument becomes impossible, the will hiding underneath comes out into the open with even more stubborn energy.

The apostles went into custody that evening until the next day. But the word was not bound, and the true light was already shining. Many of those who heard believed. The number of men rose to about five thousand.

Peter and John were teaching the people, a duty which belonged specially to the priests. They boldly proclaimed the Lord's resurrection from the dead. The Sadducees felt that one of their treasured doctrines had been struck at.

This doctrine of the resurrection was recognised as the doctrine the apostles preached openly. It was not that the soul goes to heaven when a person dies. It was that the dead will live again. The Pharisees were the greatest enemies of the Lord while He was on earth. They were the falsely righteous ones, set against the truly Righteous One. In the same way, after His death, Satan raised up the Sadducees, who were enemies of the doctrine of the resurrection.

Their whole system of thought — their unbelief, to be exact — was in danger... They felt most deeply the proclamation of the truth that there was a man risen from the dead and gone to heaven. It overthrew their whole system... Where had this mighty deed been done? Among them — in Jerusalem itself, in their own day. It was not done in a corner. It was not done in some hidden place of the earth. It was not done where nobody had seen it and nobody had heard anything about it.

The expression is "in Jesus," and no doubt the resurrection of Jesus Himself was the great subject of the apostles' testimony. But the expression implies something more... They might have been grieved at their preaching "the resurrection of the dead." But they could hardly have laid hands on them for that. The Pharisees, a far larger group than themselves, held the same faith. What roused their fury and persecution was the exclusive resurrection — announced by Jesus, and now proclaimed through Him.

It was not only the report of the resurrection that these Sadducees feared... They also feared the setting of such an attractive and winning hope before the people. It was a hope full of grace and blessedness: that God would grant those who followed the banner of Christ here below to rise first. The resurrection of the Lord Himself was a kind of pledge and pattern of it.

The resurrection of Him whom man had just killed is the plain, conclusive and unanswerable proof of God's power according to His word. It is the most complete refutation of those who admit nothing beyond the natural course of things in this world. Nobody disputes the laws that govern that course. Nobody disputes the knowledge of those laws that men call science. But the resurrection proves One above those laws, which in no way control or limit His power.

Pre-conceived falsehood will blind a man with unreasoning prejudice. Peter and John were then imprisoned until the next day. However, their word had been most effective in the two hours or so they had been able to speak, and many believed.