Immerse: Messiah - Flipbook - Page 78
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IMMERSE
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MESSIAH
3:24–4:17
“Starting with Samuel, every prophet spoke about what is happening
today. You are the children of those prophets, and you are included in
the covenant God promised to your ancestors. For God said to Abraham,
‘Through your descendants all the families on earth will be blessed.’ When
God raised up his servant, Jesus, he sent him first to you people of Israel,
to bless you by turning each of you back from your sinful ways.”
While Peter and John were speaking to the people, they were confronted
by the priests, the captain of the Temple guard, and some of the Sadducees. These leaders were very disturbed that Peter and John were teaching
the people that through Jesus there is a resurrection of the dead. They arrested them and, since it was already evening, put them in jail until morning. But many of the people who heard their message believed it, so the
number of men who believed now totaled about 5,000.
The next day the council of all the rulers and elders and teachers of religious law met in Jerusalem. Annas the high priest was there, along with
Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and other relatives of the high priest. They
brought in the two disciples and demanded, “By what power, or in whose
name, have you done this?”
Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders
of our people, are we being questioned today because we’ve done a good
deed for a crippled man? Do you want to know how he was healed? Let me
clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed
by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the man you crucified
but whom God raised from the dead. For Jesus is the one referred to in the
Scriptures, where it says,
‘The stone that you builders rejected
has now become the cornerstone.’
There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under
heaven by which we must be saved.”
The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness
of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with
no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men
who had been with Jesus. But since they could see the man who had been
healed standing right there among them, there was nothing the council
could say. So they ordered Peter and John out of the council chamber and
conferred among themselves.
“What should we do with these men?” they asked each other. “We can’t
deny that they have performed a miraculous sign, and everybody in Jerusalem knows about it. But to keep them from spreading their propaganda
any further, we must warn them not to speak to anyone in Jesus’ name
