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16 THE PRESBYTERIA
Sunday School
THE TRIAL OF PETER AND JOHN
Acts 4:5-20.
January 31, 1?03.
GOLDEN TEXT.?"They were all filled with the Holy Ghost,
and they spake the word of God with boldness."?Acts 4:31.
SHORTER CATECHISM.
Q. 40 What did God at first reveal to man for the rule of
.his obedience?
A. The rule which God at first revealed to man for his
obedience was the moral law.
DAILY HOME READINGS.
M.?Acts 4:1-12.
T?Acts 4:13-31.
W? Luke 21:5-15.
Th.?Dan. 3:8-18. .
P.?1 Cor. 3:1-11.
S.?Matt. 21:33-44.
S?2 Tim. 1:1-12.
TOPICAL OUTLINE.
The Outburst of Persecution?
Peter and John arrested, vs. 1-4.
Tried before the Sanhedrim, vs. 4-14.
Threatened, but not silenced, vs. 15-20.
LESSON COMMENTS.
In chapter 3 the lame man was healed. The wonder created
astonishment, and the apostles were explaining the occurrence.
They ascribed all the glory of it to Christ. While they were
thus magnifying Jesus and proclaiming his resurrection, suddenly
there came upon them the priests and rulers and the
captain or the temple. Peter and John under arrest go to prison
and the long war 3V the new dispensation is begun. God
could make the flowers grow in the shade; he could make the
fruit mellow In the darkness, but It pleases God to rear flowers
and fruit in the sunlight. Exposed to summer heat and fierce
winds flowers and fruit develop. It is so in the kingdom of
grace.
"Must I be carried to the skies
On flowery beds of ease?
No I must fight if I would win."
Looking at it after the manner of men, now that it is all
over, the Jews did the very worst thing for their cause. Had
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have touched these two apostles. The arrest of Peter and John
and their public trial was equivalent to setting them on a stand
whence they proclaimed the gospel with great power. The truth
Is, Sata always defeats himself. In countless instances persecution
only advances a cause. Just as the rough winds cause
young trees to take deeper root and make them tough and
strong, so persecution strengthens God's people and becomes
a blessing instead of a curse.
Leaving out the effect on Peter and John, we see that the
arrest gave them an audience which they could not otherwise
have had. The Sanhedrim was composed of the wealthiest and
noblest of all Jews. They were the representatives of the pride
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deep solemnity. It was a court which for dignity and learning
and religion, as the Jews understood It, had no superior anywhere.
Peter and John stood in* the midst. The Sanhedrim
sat In a semi-circle. It was evidently the plan of the council
to put these men to death for violating the requirements of the
law as found in Deut. 13, and so they put the question, "By
what name have you done this?" Any timidity on the part of
Peter and John would have been their ruin. Jesus had prom
,N OF THE SOUTH. January 20, 1909.
lsed the Holy Spirit to his people when they should stand before
kings and princes, and that promise is now fulfilled.
Under the fullness of the Holy Ghost Peter at once proclaims
the fundamental doctrine of Christianity, the resurrection of
Jesus Christ. In an instant the parties in this famous trial
were reversed. Peter and John, instead of sitting meekly under
the accusation of the council, became the accusers of the whole
body and the seventy men who sat dressed in the garb of
judges now took the rank of accused men.
The boldness of Peter and John fills us with astonishment.
They were ignorant of fine language, of rabbinical traditions,
of the cunning tactics of lawyers and to the eye of man the
contest between them and the council was altogether unequal.
Any one would say that the time had come for these men to
ti usacu. mil uoa, wno gave Elijah nerve to stand before
Ahab, inspired these men with the same heavenly courage.
They had convictions and they charged the rulers with crucifying
their own Messiah. The main leaders of the body were
Sadducees. Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John and Alexander
were all Sadducees. They did not believe in the resurrection
of the dead, nor in any angel or spirit or the immortality
of the soul. When Peter and John therefore proclaimed
the resurrection of Jesus Christ it was a center shot. When
Jesus contended with the Jews his main opposers were the
Pharisees, because Jesus constantly rebuked formality. When
the apostles began their work, their opposers were chiefly Sadducees,
because the chief point in apostolic preaching was the
resurrection of Jesus. We can readily see therefore that the
issue in the trial of Peter and John was fundamental, the oppor
smon diametrical.
The first charge of Peter, viz., that the Jews had crucified
Jesus, the Sadducees knew was true. The resurrection of
Jesus Peter proved by the lame man. Here was a miracle that
no human power could accomplish. If Jesus were dead he could
not have given life and energy to the lame man: a dead Christ
can not be the author of life. Here was the man before them.
Into his withered limbs, life and healing had come. Such could
not have come from the mouldering body of a dead Chri t.
Therefore Jesus is alive, and if he is alive he must have risen
from the dead, for he was crucified, dead and buried.
The men of the council were doubtless familiar with the
legend of the stone which the builders rejected,-but which
afterwards became the head of the corner. David and Isaiah
had both spoken of this stone. It was hewed out from the distant
quarries by a master hand. The builders at first found nn
use for it, but by and by it became the chief eorner stone.
Locked in its grip the adjoining walls stood firm and on it the
whole building rested. None other stone could take its place.
Whoever deliberately or blindly rushed against it would surely
be broken. On whomsoever that stone should fall it would
grind him to powder. To the men of the council Peter says,
"Jesus of Nazareth is that stone. God sent him to the world
to be the one foundation of the church. He is competent to
hold in unity all the stones of the building. This Jesus you
have rejected, but there is none other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved." Long years afterward
voce A x-eier, 2:7-8) feter writing to the dispersed Jews takes
up the figure of this rejected stone and again applies it to
Jesus: "Unto you which believe he is precious, but unto them
which be disobedient he becomes a stone of stumbling and a
rock of offence."
This later utterance of Peter, spoken under the weight of
years, when he was mature and mellow, carries us back at once
to the critical hour in.his young manhood, when before his an
gry countrymen ne spoke of Jesus as the rejected stone. Peter's
whole ministry was unified by the gospel of Jesus as the
living stone. To you which believe he is precious. To you
that believe not, he will be a burdensome stone, a gin and
a snare, upon whom many shall stumble and fall and be broken