Monday, April 11, 2005
Acts 4:8-10 Rulers of the people and elders of Israel: If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole.
JESUS' TRIAL -- REVISTED
To do something in the name of another is to do it by their authority and power. Dead men may leave a will but that is a directive given while they are alive. Dead men are not aware of the needs of the living -- nor do they respond to them. By healing in the name of Jesus, the actions of Peter and John gave the same testimony as Peter gave in the temple afterwards -- and here before the leaders of Israel -- Jesus lives. He has returned from the dead. He has healed this man who was crippled from birth.
During Jesus' trial before the Sanhedrin witnesses were brought by the Jewish leaders. Their testimony was intended to build a case against Jesus. But they couldn't -- because they couldn't find two witnesses who agreed in their testimony.
The Sanhedrin couldn't get the testimony of their false witnesses to agree because they would not listen to what Jesus was saying. He never said He would destroy the Temple in Jerusalem. He did say, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." As Jesus' disciples later realized, He was speaking of the temple of His body.
Just a few weeks later Peter revisits the false testimony brought at Jesus' trial -- does so in the very Temple where Jesus spoke His striking prophetic words -- and presents the truth of the matter:
He is risen as He said.
