Acts 4:13-14

The Sanhedrin observed in Peter and John what they had seen in Jesus, namely, courage to speak boldly and authoritatively without formal training (cf. Matthew 7:28-29; Mark 1:22; Luke 20:19-26; John 7:15). They may also have remembered seeing them with Jesus (John 18:15-16), but that does not seem to be Luke’s point here.

"They spoke of the men as having been with Jesus, in a past tense. What was the truth? Christ was in the men, and speaking through the men; and the similarity which they detected was not that lingering from contact with a lost teacher, but that created by the presence of the living Christ." [Note: Morgan, p. 96.]

These powerful educated rulers looked on the former fishermen with contempt. What a change had taken place in the apostles since Peter had denied that he knew Jesus (Luke 22:56-60)! The rulers also observed facility in handling the Scriptures that was extraordinary in men who had not attended the priests’ schools. This examining board could not dispute the apostles’ claim that Jesus’ power had healed the former beggar. The obvious change in the man made that impossible. They had no other answer. Unwilling to accept the obvious, the Sanhedrin could offer no other explanation.

Several details in the stories of the apostles’ arrests recall Jesus’ teaching concerning the persecution that the disciples would experience (cf. Luke 12:12 and Acts 4:8; Luke 21:12 and Acts 4:3; Acts 5:18; Luke 21:13 and Acts 4:8-12; Acts 5:29-32; Luke 21:15 and Acts 4:13).