It is always important to consider the context of a Bible story to understand it correctly. That is certainly true of Acts 4:5-12, the story of Peter's bold speech before the Jewish religious leaders. By the power of Jesus Christ, Peter and John had healed a crippled man in the temple area in Jerusalem. This healing took place a few weeks after Jesus' death and resurrection. That's part of the front-side context of our story.

The front-side context also tells us that the Jewish leaders were deeply disturbed by the sermon Peter gave about the healing of the crippled man in Jesus' name. The high priest and his cohorts were perturbed at the influence Peter's sermon had on the crowd. So they had the two apostles arrested. Acts 4 opens with these words: "While Peter and John were speaking to t…