What does First B Jackson teach about acts 4?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on Acts 4 centers on what happens when the people with authority tell you to stop. The healing of a lame man at the Beautiful Gate set everything in motion: Peter and John were arrested, brought before the Sanhedrin, and pressed to account for what they had done. The council they faced was made up of Sadducees, the priestly and lay aristocracy who held power under Rome, rejected resurrection entirely, and believed any messianic hope had already passed. That context matters, because it means Peter was not standing before sympathetic listeners when he told them plainly that the man was healed by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the one they crucified and whom God raised from the dead. He then quoted Psalm 118 back at them, calling Jesus the stone the builders rejected that had become the cornerstone, and declared that there is salvation in no one else and no other name under heaven by which people must be saved.
The council could not deny the miracle because the healed man was standing right there in the chamber. They sent Peter and John out with a warning to stop speaking in that name. What the apostles did next is where the teaching presses hardest. They went straight back to the other believers, reported the threats, and the whole group prayed together. Reaching back into Psalm 2 and Psalm 146, prayers they already knew by heart, they addressed God as sovereign Lord, the Greek word being despotes, the one who holds all authority. That absolute power in a sinful person corrupts, but the same absolute authority in a God who is love, mercy, and goodness is a different thing entirely, and that is the God they were talking to.
What the believers did not pray for is as telling as what they did. They did not ask for safety, for their enemies to be removed, or for political circumstances to change. They asked for boldness to keep preaching, and they asked God to stretch out His hand in healing through the name of Jesus. After that prayer the meeting place shook, they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they preached the word with boldness. Pastor Mark and Pastor Carl both return to the same simple cycle in these chapters: something happens, someone recognizes it lines up with scripture, they preach Jesus, and they ask the sovereign God to do His will. The role of the congregation is to be open and willing.
Taught from Acts 3:1 - 4:31 · Psalm 118:22 · Psalm 2:1-2 · Acts 4:12 · Psalm 146
The passage taught · Acts 1
1 The first book I wrote, Theophilus, concerned all that Jesus began both to do and to teach,
2 until the day in which he was received up, after he had given commandment through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.
3 To these he also showed himself alive after he suffered, by many proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking about God’s Kingdom.
4 Being assembled together with them, he commanded them, “Don’t depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which you heard from me.
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- November 24, 2024 By What Power Have You Done This Peter and John before the Sanhedrin: how two ordinary fishermen answered threats with bold prayer, and why the gospel cannot be contained by any human authority.
- November 24, 2024 There Is Salvation in No One Else Peter and John face the Sanhedrin after healing a lame man, boldly declaring salvation through Jesus alone while the early church prays for courage to keep preaching.
- June 23, 2013 Continuing in Acts, Morning Praise (9) Peter and John pray for boldness after facing threats, and God answers. A sermon from Acts 4:23-31 on trusting God's sovereignty and preaching with courage.
- June 23, 2013 Continuing Acts, Traditions (2) Peter and John face arrest for preaching resurrection, yet the early church responds not with fear but with bold prayer to a sovereign God who rules over all things.