Acts 4:5-12

They asked the question, but I don’t think they were ready for the answer. This had to be Annas and Caiaphas’ worst nightmare come true. No matter what they did, they could not get rid of Jesus, for His Spirit was now working through His apostles, performing signs and wonders they could not refute. As if what they did to Jesus (God) was not enough, they now dared to oppose God again?

I love how Peter highlights the absurdity of their incarceration: “Are we being questioned because we’ve done a good deed for a crippled man?”

It appears so!

And now Peter is going to remind them of what they don’t want to hear: this man was healed by the powerful name of Jesus—the man they crucified, whom God raised from the dead.

Then Peter doubles down and states:

“For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says, ‘The stone that you builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.’”
‭‭Acts of the Apostles‬ ‭4‬:‭11‬

I can picture them putting their hands over their ears to avoid hearing the truth again. The high priest and his associates were in such a precarious position—more precarious than they knew—for they were not willing to consider, and were in fact openly rejecting, the One whom God had sent. And in case they were not sure, Peter finishes this passage:

“There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”
Acts 4:12

There it was—the statement that would ring out for eternity in their ears: “There is salvation in no one else!”

To reject Jesus was to reject God.

What a change we have seen in Peter—what boldness they could not deny—so unlike the night before Jesus’ crucifixion.

What changed in Peter? That would be the Holy Spirit, Who was giving him power to be His witness, just as Jesus said.