While Peter and John were speaking to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came to them, much annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming that in Jesus there is the resurrection of the dead. So they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those who heard the word believed; and they numbered about five thousand. The next day their rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem, with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. When they had made the prisoners stand in their midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, if we are questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are asked how this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead. This Jesus is ‘the stone that was rejected by you, the builders; it has become the cornerstone.’ There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:1-12, NRSV)
Peter and John were arrested for teaching the people that Jesus is the resurrection of the dead.
They were saying that Jesus was the messiah and proclaiming the coming ruler that was proclaimed had come and were going to cause a revolution in Roman society.
But we don’t get the implications like the Sadducees did, and they didn’t even believe in the resurrection!
You see it is not a future thing. The resurrection spoken if here in Acts is not something that will happen, even though that is how we hear it and read it. This resurrection here has happened because Jesus is the messiah! Peter and John were saying the resurrection of the dead has come through Jesus. There is no death since Jesus has come.
Do we believe that? Even though we physically die there is no death, for life eternal has come and we are living it in Jesus.
aSacredRebel 