At daybreak they entered the temple
courts, as they had been told, and began to teach the people.
When the high
priest and his associates arrived, they called together the
Sanhedrin—the full assembly of the elders of Israel—and sent to
the jail for the apostles. But on arriving at the jail, the officers
did not find them there. So they went back and
reported, "We found the jail securely locked, with the guards
standing at the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one
inside."
On hearing
this report, the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests
were puzzled, wondering what would come of this.
Then someone came and said, "Look! The men you put in
jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people." At
that, the captain went with his officers and brought the apostles.
They did not use force, because they feared that the people would
stone them.
Having brought the apostles, they made them appear before the
Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. "We gave you
strict orders not to teach in this name," he said. "Yet
you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to
make us guilty of this man's blood." Peter and the other
apostles replied: "We must obey God rather than men!
The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead—whom you
had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him to his own
right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and
forgiveness of sins to Israel.
We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit,
whom God has given to those who obey him."