Then Peter, filled with [the] Holy Spirit, said to them, Rulers of the people and elders [of Israel],
The rulers had asked Peter and John by what power they healed the lame man. Peter answers filled with the Holy Spirit, and that phrase explains everything that follows.
The position was new to the apostles, but not to their Lord.
The sight of that assembly might naturally have overawed the prisoners. And perhaps such a display was meant to intimidate them. But did it? Their position was new to them, but the Lord had foreseen it. He had warned them that they would stand before kings and rulers for His sake. He had also encouraged them by the promise of the Holy Spirit to teach them what they should say.
Scripture uses two expressions about the Spirit. They do not mean the same thing.
"Full of the Holy Spirit" tells us, it seems, of what habitually or generally marked the person. So Stephen and Barnabas are described this way (Acts 6:5; 11:24)... "Filled with the Spirit," on the other hand, describes vessels God takes up for His service, for a longer or a shorter time.
The same man is filled again in verse 31, and the Spirit fills others at later moments.
In the Acts of the Apostles we find that on special occasions one or another were filled with the Spirit (Acts 4:8 and 31; Acts 7:55; Acts 13:9 and 52). He took possession of them with special completeness, so that they could meet the emergency in the full power of God.
Peter had preached to crowds before. This audience was different, and it would show where his power came from.
Now he stands with John before the leaders and rulers, the men of light and learning. They were a cold and critical audience, bitterly hostile to the men and their message. This was a great test. It would prove beyond doubt whether Peter was serving by the power of the Holy Spirit, or in his own natural energy... This was the man who had trembled with fear and denied his Lord at the taunt of a servant girl. Before an audience like this, he would have had little to say if he stood there in his own natural ability and strength of purpose.
The Lord had told His followers not to rehearse a defence. He promised them words in the moment instead.
The Lord had said to His disciples, "When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you" (Matt. 10:19-20). That promise came true when the apostles were arrested and brought before the rulers of Israel... Those filled with the Holy Spirit can speak God's word with power, as seen in Acts 2. They can also meet their opponents without planning what they will say. They receive from the Lord, as shown here, "a mouth and wisdom" that none of their adversaries can withstand or contradict (Luke 21:14-15).
Peter's answer spares the rulers nothing. He deals with them one way and with the misled people another.
Peter, full of the Holy Spirit, announces it to all Israel with the utmost readiness and complete boldness. The healing was by Jesus, whom they had crucified, and whom God had raised from the dead. So the Spirit of God stated the question between God and the rulers of Israel in formal terms... He takes no care to avoid offending the adversaries and the rulers. With the people, ignorant and misled, he does everything to win them.
Peter's answer fits a pattern that began the day the Spirit came.
Notice this: the instant the Holy Spirit comes, everything these disciples do is in His power and under His control. They proclaim the good news, but it was "as the Spirit gave them utterance." In Acts 4:8... when opposition arose, it was met in the power of the Holy Spirit.
- Filled, not full. "Full of the Spirit" describes a settled character. "Filled with the Spirit" describes a vessel taken up for one service. That is Peter here.
- Filled for the emergency. The Spirit fills His servants for special occasions, so they can meet the moment in the full power of God.
- Filled to fulfil a promise. The Lord promised words in that hour. This is that hour, and Peter needs no prepared defence.
- Filled, so the test is passed. Natural eloquence could not move this hostile, learned council. Yet the man who once denied his Lord stands unshaken.
- Filled, so the issue is stated. By the Spirit, Peter states the question between God and Israel's rulers. He takes no care to avoid offending them.
if *we* this day are called upon to answer as to the good deed [done] to the infirm man, how *he* has been healed,
Peter and John spent a night in custody. The next day the rulers demanded to know what power had healed the lame man. Peter answers by restating the charge in his own words. The whole case, he says, is about a good deed done to a helpless man. That one sentence exposes both the court and the power behind the cure.
By calling the deed good, Peter puts the council in an impossible position. One writer names the absurdity of it:
But did you ever hear of such utter folly as putting a man in prison, and trying him for a good deed — healing a cripple?
The accused end up judging their judges:
When they were put on trial before the rulers, elders, scribes and all who belonged to the family of the high priest, Peter and John were filled with the Holy Spirit. Instead of standing as the accused, they were the judges of the men they stood before.
The rulers asked about power and name. Peter takes the question and answers it. His wording already carries the argument:
Filled with the Spirit of God, Peter speaks to them of "the good deed done to the crippled man," clearly implying that a good deed must have a good source. He declares this in plain terms, as a message for the leaders and for all the people of Israel: this was done by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom they crucified and whom God raised from the dead.
The word behind "healed" here is the everyday New Testament word for "save":
It is worth noticing that the word sozo, usually translated in the New Testament as "save," is used in its general sense of deliverance... of the crippled man at the temple gate, Acts 4:9; of the cripple at Lystra, Acts 14:9. In these instances the Greek word is translated "made whole," or "healed."
So one word covers both: a body made whole and a soul saved. What that name did for a man's legs pictures what it does for a soul.
Peter can point to "this man" because the man is standing there. He walked into the council with the apostles:
The next day, when Peter and John were arrested, this man goes boldly into the council. He stays silent, yet he becomes a witness to the power of the Name of Jesus, because he was the one who was healed.
A healed life argues for Christ without saying a word. The court could dispute Peter's theology; it could not dispute the man on his feet.
Peter is not improvising a legal defence. Writers connect this moment to a promise Jesus made to His followers about hostile courtrooms:
The Lord had said to His disciples, "When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you" (Matt. 10:19-20). This came true when the rulers of Israel arrested the apostles and brought them in... Those who are filled with the Holy Spirit can speak out God's word with power, as seen in Acts 2. They can also meet their opponents without preparing what they will say. They receive from the Lord, as shown here, "a mouth and wisdom" which none of their adversaries is "able to withstand or contradict" (Luke 21:14-15).
- Deed — Peter calls the case what it is: a kindness done to a helpless man. The council is prosecuting mercy.
- Source — a good deed must have a good source, and Peter names it: the Jesus they crucified and God raised.
- Word — "made whole" translates the ordinary word for "save," so a healed body and a saved soul share one word.
- Witness — the healed man stands in court, silent, and no argument can undo him.
- Words — the Spirit fills Peter, and Jesus' promise of words no opponent can answer comes true in Israel's highest court.
be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazaraean, whom *ye* have crucified, whom God has raised from among [the] dead, by *him* this [man] stands here before you sound [in body].
Peter and John stand under arrest. The same council that condemned Jesus now asks by what power a lifelong cripple can walk. Peter's answer names the one they killed, and points to the man standing in front of them as the evidence.
Peter had once denied his Master to a servant girl. One thing accounts for the difference now.
The secret of Peter's power here was that he was full of the Holy Spirit.
His own ability was not what carried him.
Faced with rulers like these, the man who had trembled with fear and denied his Lord at the taunt of a servant girl would have had little to say, if he stood there in his own natural ability and strength of purpose. But Peter neither trembles nor hesitates. He is the master in that assembly. He makes the truth known with the clearness of a trumpet. He exposes their folly and guilt. He states exactly the terrible question that lay between God and them, and he exalts the name of Jesus.
Peter does not drop the title men used to sneer at Him.
If this title is one of dishonour and disrepute among men, angels are not ashamed to use it. The angel at the tomb said to Mary Magdalene, "Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; He is not here" (Mark 16:6). The apostles used this same name in their preaching. They testified to Jesus of Nazareth as the crucified but risen and glorified Messiah and Lord (Acts 2:22; Acts 3:6; Acts 4:10; Acts 10:38). More striking still, the exalted One Himself took that name of reproach. Speaking from the glory to Saul of Tarsus, that determined Jew and proud Pharisee, He said: "I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting" (Acts 22:8).
One name did the healing, and that name carries two verdicts.
And what had done it? The power of the Name of that Jesus "whom you crucified" — that was their guilt — "whom God raised from the dead" — there was God's righteousness.
Peter's answer also leaves the rulers themselves looking powerless.
These rulers of the people, with all their learning, had let the lame beggar lie at the gate of the temple. They made no effort to help him. For all their pride and pretension, they were the powerless men. But Jesus of Nazareth was not powerless, for by His name the helpless cripple was made completely sound. These rulers had crucified Him. If they had had their way, mankind would have lost forever the power that was in His name. They were His enemies, the ones who said, "When will He die, and His name perish?" (Ps. 41:5). But God had raised Him from the dead, plainly showing what He thought of their great sin, what He thought of Christ, and His way of blessing for men.
Peter's last words point to a living body in the room.
But then there is another thing. There was the very man who had been made strong, and they could not get rid of this evidence. They had him before them, but he was there as the witness of the power of God. "Seeing the man who was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it." You see, it is not ignorance which is the terrible and damning thing in men's hearts. It is the will that wants to drive the testimony of God, the grace of God, and the power of God out of God's own world, if it could. That was their case. But God made them feel it.
Peter has now said the same thing three chapters in a row.
In Acts 2 we had Peter's testimony to the death and resurrection of Jesus as the only way of salvation for the remnant. In Acts 3 he brings the same testimony forward again, as the only way the blessings promised to the nation can reach them. In this fourth chapter, when they stand before the religious rulers, their testimony is the same. They present the miracle of the healed body of the man who had been lame as the witness to the grace of Him whom these builders in their folly had rejected.
- Filled — Peter's clarity was not natural nerve. He was full of the Holy Spirit, and so he mastered that courtroom.
- Guilt — "Whom you crucified" names their crime, and Peter says it to the rulers and to all Israel.
- Righteousness — "Whom God raised" is God's verdict. It reverses their plan and shows what He thinks of their sin and of His Son.
- Name — The healing came through a despised name. Even the risen Christ used it of Himself from the glory.
- Proof — The healed man was evidence they could not remove. Their problem was not missing facts but an unwilling heart.
*He* is the stone which has been set at nought by you the builders, which is become the corner stone.
Peter stands on trial before the council that condemned Jesus. Instead of defending himself, he quotes a line from Psalm 118 and tells them they are the builders in it.
The ESV says the builders "rejected" Him. Older translations read "set at nought." One writer traces that word through the Gospels:
He was "set at nought" by men (Mark 9:12); by Herod's men of war (Luke 23:11); and by the religious leaders in Acts 4:11. The verb here signifies "utterly worthless"; contemptible! So man, seeking his own glory, has no appreciation of One whose every motive, every word and every action had the glory of God in view.
Peter does not say "the builders." He says you builders. One writer explains what that job involves:
Religious teachers are builders, whether in Judaism or in Christendom. They construct what will either last or perish, as the Lord may judge later on (1 Cor. 3:9-17). God's foundation stone is Jesus; on Him alone can men safely build. But Israel's leaders had treated Him with contempt. God's answer to them was the exaltation of His Son. God has now made Him the Corner-stone of a new structure; so the office of Peter's opponents was gone, however fiercely they might contend for it.
Peter's charge rested on a scripture these men already knew:
The words of Peter in verses 10 to 12 certainly ought to have burned into the hearts and consciences of the council. No cunning lie could ever have given Peter such straightforward boldness. He preaches not himself, but Christ, the Stone despised by these very builders, but established by God as head of the corner. No doubt they knew this scripture (Psalm 118:22); and the application was so clear they could answer nothing to it.
One writer lays out the whole line the Stone follows:
There is first His relation to Israel. Then comes His rejection by the chiefs, and His exaltation despite it. Next is Jehovah's commendation of Him to the believer in the face of divine judgment. Last is His establishment of God's kingdom here below.
Rejection was not an oversight. It was a decision about what they wanted their structure to be.
The poor blind builders of the great world-system did not see the one stone they could not do without in Jesus. Or, if any light reached their minds, they saw this: if they accepted Him, they must stop their own building, admit their own ruin, and be born again. This they would not do. They could find no place in their building for Him, and so they cried, "Away with Him." There was room for Herod and Pilate, for Priests, Pharisees and people. There was room even for Barabbas, but none for Jesus in their building.
The title is not only an honour. It names a place in the building:
The rejected stone had become the corner stone. They had handed Him over and cast Him out. He received the prominent place of the corner stone. On Him, as the foundation stone, everything rests, and He unites the building.
The Stone Peter names is Christ in glory, and the same building goes on today:
And what was the stone? Christ, of course, but Christ in glory, as the Head Stone of the corner. Here Peter is in conflict with these poor, foolish builders, and there are plenty of them in our days, people who are building without Christ. The Lord had spoken of Himself as the Stone: "And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him" (Matt. 21:44). The corner stone that is about to fall is the exalted Christ. He is coming in glory later on, to destroy the godless Gentiles in the day of His wrath. Those who fell over the stone and were broken were the Jews, stumbling over Jesus in His humiliation.
Peter quotes Psalm 118 as already true of the exalted Christ. One writer notes the same psalm looks ahead to the day Israel sings it:
Here the nation of Israel welcome Him back. It fits that they welcome Him as the "head-stone of the corner," for that is what His earlier exaltation in heaven had made Him. (Acts 4:11) It is the language of Israel, ready at last for Jesus and His kingdom.
- Rejected. The word Peter uses means treated as worthless. Herod's soldiers showed that contempt, and so did the religious leaders.
- Reversed. God answered their contempt by exalting His Son and making Him the corner stone of a new structure. Their office as builders was gone.
- Refused. Their building had room for Herod, Pilate, even Barabbas. Accepting Jesus would have meant admitting their own ruin.
- Resting place. As corner stone He is the one on whom everything rests and who unites the whole building.
- Repeated. People still build without Christ. One day Israel will welcome as head-stone the very One they set aside.
And salvation is in none other, for neither is there another name under heaven which is given among men by which we must be saved.
Peter and John are on trial before the rulers who had condemned Jesus. They must explain what power made a lame beggar walk. Peter's answer moves from one healed man to the whole human race: salvation is found in one name, and nowhere else.
The tone here is not the same as before. One commentator explains what changed.
And you will notice that he does not soften it here. Now these guilty leaders stand in front of him. He does not say, "I know that you did it in ignorance." They were making it plain that there was a will behind what they did — a wicked will. So he allows no excuse, and it is always so with God. When He first meets people, He meets them as they are, with nothing but grace. But when they keep on rejecting Christ, there is no denying a rebellious will.
The picture behind this verse is a stone the builders threw away. The men judging Peter were putting up a building of their own, and it had no room for Jesus.
The blind builders of the great world-system could not see that Jesus was the one stone they had to have. And if any light did reach their minds, they saw the cost. To accept Him, they would have to stop their own building, admit their own ruin, and be born again. This they would not do. They could find no place for Him in their building. So they cried, "Away with Him." There was room for Herod and Pilate, for the priests, the Pharisees and the people. There was room even for Barabbas, but no room for Jesus.
God's reply to that rejection reached the men judging Peter.
God's foundation stone is Jesus; He is the only safe foundation to build on. But Israel's leaders had treated Him with contempt. God's answer to them was the exaltation of His Son. God has now made Him the cornerstone of a new building. Peter's opponents no longer held any office, however hard they argued for it.
The healing was a single, visible case. Peter turns it into a universal claim.
They had just seen the power of that Name in one case — the lame man healed. That same power saves people everywhere. The healing of his body was a sign of the healing of soul that the name of Jesus brings. The despised Jesus of Nazareth is the only door into salvation.
Commentators differ on how wide Peter meant these words to reach. One reads the immediate force of them as aimed at the nation Peter was addressing.
Above all, these words meant there was no other name for Israel. He alone was to be their Saviour and Restorer. As He had restored the lame man so that he leaped and rejoiced and praised God, so He alone could restore Israel. There is no other name.
The name belongs to a Man now in heaven, yet God has put it within reach of people on earth.
God has set Him at His own right hand in heaven. Yet He gives His name under heaven, among people on earth. What a blessing! It is the one name that saves us, if we are saved at all. We must be saved here and now, by grace and through faith. There is no other name — our own least of all; and no other way, for He is the way. Faith exalts the Saviour and the God who gave Him, and leaves no room for any good works of our own.
Peter says "we must be saved," not "you." His accusers are not outside the offer.
Peter closes with the statement that salvation is only in the One they had treated as worthless. There is no other name given to men by which a person can be saved, and that is the name of Him who had made this lame man whole. Salvation they all needed. They too — rulers, elders, chief priests — must be saved. But only in Him had God provided salvation, free and complete, for all who will have it by believing on Him.
People often wish the door were wider. The verse closes that wish.
Some people think God ought to have opened a dozen ways into His blessing, so they could pick the one that suited them best. They turn away from the blessing because they do not like the way to it. But there is no other way. God has bound up the blessing of sinners with the glory of His Son, and never will one of them be saved apart from Him... God has spoken, and His word is final.
One writer carries the same claim into our own day.
The faith of Christ, and the gospel which proclaims it, have today just this exclusive claim... It is this exclusive claim, inherent in the gospel, which provokes the opposition.
- Rejected. The builders found room for Barabbas but none for Jesus. They threw away the one stone their building had to have.
- Exalted. God answered their contempt. He raised Jesus and made Him the cornerstone of a new building, which left His judges with no office at all.
- Given. Though He is at God's right hand, His name is given under heaven among men, so salvation is by grace and faith, here and now.
- Offered. Peter says "we," and that includes the rulers in front of him. They needed saving too, and the salvation they had rejected was still open.
- Only. One healed body was the sign; one name is the door. God has tied every blessing for sinners to the glory of His Son. That exclusive claim is what the world still resists.
But seeing the boldness of Peter and John, and perceiving that they were unlettered and uninstructed men, they wondered; and they recognised them that they were with Jesus.
Peter and John stand before the same council that had condemned Jesus. The rulers see two things at once — bold speech and no credentials — and the verse records the only explanation they could find.
The words are the court's verdict, measured by their own standards of schooling. Older translations read "unlearned and ignorant." One writer explains what the label does and does not claim:
"Unlearned and ignorant" does not mean "without education." The point is that they had no special training for public work. In modern language, they were not university men. But these humble preachers had something far better. They knew God and His Son in their hearts, and the Holy Spirit lived in them.
The label was true on a human level. But the judges who handed it down — Caiaphas, Annas and the rest — lacked what mattered most:
It was not that they were unlearned in the Scriptures. It was Caiaphas and Annas and these others who were unlearned in the Scriptures. But judged by the mere human standard of education and letters, Peter and John were without doubt ignorant and unlearned men. And the fact that they were filled with the Holy Spirit, I repeat, did not set this aside at all. It did what was infinitely better. It showed the power and the grace of God, so to speak, made perfect in weakness.
Peter had not always spoken like this. Something had happened between his denial of Jesus and this hearing:
There was a total difference in them before and after Pentecost. They then preached Jesus crucified. Were they afraid? No. Peter charges those who had denied Him with being guilty of a damning sin. Yet Peter had done the same thing himself, and in a much worse way, because he had been His companion. How could he do this? His own conscience was now cleansed, for Christ had died in the meantime, and God had given the Holy Spirit... As we see all through the Acts, the boldness in which the apostles spoke and acted was not the boldness of the flesh, but that of the Spirit of God in them.
That courage was not improvised. Jesus had promised His disciples the words for such a moment:
This fulfilled the words the Lord had spoken to His disciples. He said, "Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict" (Luke 21:14-15). No wonder the elite of Israel's religious schools marvelled.
Their lack of polish did not hide the Spirit's power. It displayed it:
The Spirit's power shines most clearly in those who can boast of none of this world's advantages. Both high and low praise the learning of the schools. The high do so to make the most of what they have enjoyed. The low usually do so to excuse what they lack, and they overvalue what they do not have. But in the things of God nothing has power like faith in the God who is glorifying Christ. And when someone leans on learning as an object, it is no help at all. It easily becomes a real hindrance and a snare. But God's ways are not like ours. He was pleased to humble man, not only by Christ crucified, but by choosing the foolish things of the world to put the wise to shame.
The council's own words point to the school these men had attended:
The great secret of their boldness, and of their being able to speak with divine conviction, was their having been with Jesus. Their school of learning far surpassed every school that had trained the high priest, the scribes and the elders. In the company of the Son of God they had learned the secrets of God. They gained divine knowledge in which the great men of Israel, and of the world, were "uninstructed."
No one today has walked with Him as the disciples did — yet the principle still stands:
True, we have not been with Jesus in the literal way the disciples were, walking with Him from the beginning of His ministry. Still, it remains true in a moral sense: if we are to bear witness for Christ before others, we too must be with Christ in secret.
- Company — The enemies themselves named the cause: time spent with Jesus. Public boldness grows out of private company with Him.
- Emptiness — The label meant no training for public work, not stupidity. The Spirit did not erase that lack. He shone through it.
- Power — The gift of the Spirit, not personality, explains the change. One Peter denied Christ; the same Peter now accuses a court.
- Reach — God humbles man by choosing those with nothing to boast in. Learning leaned on as an object becomes a snare, not a help.
- Result — The trained, hostile judges could not answer these men or explain them. They could only marvel and see whose company they had kept.