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THE KING’S BUSINESS
such adverse circumstances, because it was in the power o f the Holy Spirit. I f we preach Jesus plainly and pointedly and in the power o f the Holy Spirit, as these men did, no amount o f opposition, no, not even shutting us up in prison, will check the power o f our words. Tt is interesting to note the constant forward march o f the church in face o f all the bitter, determined, relentless opposition that it met in those early days. The whole secret o f it is found in the fact that it was a praying church (ch. 2 :42 ; 6 :4 ). “The people who do know their God shall be strong and do Yesterday we left Peter and John in prison; today we see them standing before the Jewish Sanhedrim, the great high court o f Jewish law, composed o f seventy-one leading men o f the nation. Caiaphas, the nominal high priest hy Roman appointment, Annas, the real high priest, according to the Jewish way o f looking at things, were both there, so was John, who is supposed to have been Rabban Jochanan ben Zaicai, who prophesied o f the destruction o f Jerusalem forty years before the event on the basis o f Zechariah’s prophesy, and who reorgan ized the Sanhedrim at Jabneh after the destruction of, Jerusalem. It was a very august assembly, composed for the most part o f Sadducees. Peter and John’s being brought before it, and their treatment by it, was an exact, literal fulfilment o f the prediction o f Jesus (Matt. 10:17). W e may well be thankful that Peter and John were brought before it, because this led to the glorious and instructive testimony o f Peter given further down in the chapter, a testimony that has been used to the salva tion o f many. Their attempt to hinder the preaching o f the Gospel really gave wings to the Gospel. Peter had seen this same body together once before, when Jesus was tried and condemned. On that occasion he was thoroughly frightened and cowed and played the poltroon, but now he is calm exploits" (Dan. 11:32). Wednesday, October 18 . A cts 4 : 5 - 7 .
o f their creed, even as it is not an article in the creed o f many professed Christians today. The apostles taught the resurrection not merely as a speculative doctrine, but as a truth that rested upon an established fact, a truth that was both illustrated and proven by the actual and undeniable resurrection o f Jesus from the dead. They said that Jesus had risen, that they knew that He had for the very sufficient reason that they had seen Him, eaten with Him, and handled Him after His resurrection; and that as it was beyond question that Jesus had risen, it was also beyond question that those who were in Him would rise also (1 Thess. 4:14; 2 Cor. 41:14). The ecclesiastics could not answer the apostles’ arguments, so they undertook to shut their-mouths by violence. This is a favorite method o f argument with those who know that they are in the wrong. Hatred to Jesus lay at the bottom o f their hatred to the disciples o f Jesus (John 15:18-21), and hatred to Jesus lies at the bottom o f all hatred o f His disciples. It was also to the minds o f these ecclesiasti cal dignitaries an unpardonable offense that men who had not been to their theological seminaries should presume to preach at all without first consulting them and getting their endorsement. The apostles, however, had the best warrant in the world for teaching as they did without human ordi nation or equipment (Acts 1 : 8 ). But it really was very disorderly from the stand point o f the mere ecclesiastic. In their arrest and imprisonment the apostles had the comforting thought that they were entering into deeper fellowship with Jesus their Lord (John 15:18; 18:12). It was all a fulfilment o f what Jesus Himself had foretold them would come to them (Matt. 10:16, 17). It was not, however, as severe persecution as would come later, God was tenderly fitting them for the fiercer fires before He permitted them to be tried by them. (cf. 1 Cor. 10:13, R. V .). The arrest o f the preachers did not in the least check the influence and spread o f the word, “many o f them that heard the word believed.” The preaching had such great power, even under
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