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God was at work in a new way! Many of those who were alive during those days had been born during the latter part of the four hundred years of silence between the last prophet of the Old Testament – Malachi – and the arrival of John the Baptist. During those years the people had not heard a fresh word from God. Then God Himself showed up on the scene in the form of Jesus and the religious leaders rejected Him and crucified Him. When they should have been hungry to hear afresh from God, they had become quite content with their traditions and their own religious practices. They had settled into a very comfortable rut and were dedicated to maintaining their status quo. They thought their problems were over when they crucified Jesus. They thought they would be returning to “the good old days” of tradition and no longer having their leadership challenged.

But now, two years later, these followers of the very Jesus whom they had crucified were still on the scene performing miracles that even went beyond what Jesus had done. They boldly proclaimed that Jesus had risen from the dead. They preached a truth that was alive about a Living Savior that didn’t square with the religious leaders’ dead traditions. The apostles were disregarding the warnings from the religious leaders to stop teaching about Jesus. They were refuting the doctrine of the Sadducees by openly teaching that Christ had risen from the dead. And the people were being drawn to the apostles by their teaching and through the miracles they performed.