Acts 4

About 5,000 men came to faith from Peter's speech (Acts 4:4). I would maintain that not just the healing caused them to believe. That brought the crowd to listen. No, it was the fact of Jesus' resurrection being confirmed and explained by one of his followers. That was the sign, the big sign, Jesus predicted when he said, "Destroy this temple and I will raise it up in three days." Jesus was referring to his body.

All of those in the crowd had heard of the resurrection. All of them knew someone who knew someone who saw Jesus alive. Roman executions were very public and fairly frequent. They all knew people did not survive Roman executions. The Romans were very efficient. Jesus resurrection was the sign everyone knew about. Peter explained what it meant. And he explained what they could do about it (3:19). Peter was eloquent but that is not why they responded.

Peter was equally bold in front of the temple leaders (4:8). Peter proclaims Jesus is the only name in which salvation comes (4:12). Wow. That is the gospel in a nutshell. Peter did not need a lot of theologians to explain it to him. He was truly filled with the perfect wisdom of the Holy Spirit (4:8).

The Jesus leaders felt it was not expedient to anything to Peter and John right then. Perhaps there was even division among them. Some of them may have been secret believers. But there must never have been sufficient numbers to carry the day. Later the Sanhedrin would be successful in stamping out the new movement in Jerusalem. They would kick all believers in Jesus as Messiah out of the temple.