26 Then the captain and some of the police went and took them, but not violently, for fear that they might be stoned by the people. 27 And they took them into the Sanhedrin, and the high priest said to them, 28 We gave you very clear orders not to give teaching in this name: and now Jerusalem is full of your teaching, and you are attempting to make us responsible for this man's death. 29 But Peter and the Apostles, answering, said, We have to do the orders of God, not of man. 30 The God of our fathers gave Jesus back to life, whom you had put to death, hanging him on a tree. 31 Him God has put on high at his right hand, as a Ruler and a Saviour, to give to Israel a change of heart and forgiveness of sins. 32 And we are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who keep his laws. 33 But when these words came to their ears, they were cut to the heart, and had a mind to put them to death.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Acts 5:26-33
Commentary on Acts 5:26-33
(Read Acts 5:26-33)
Many will do an evil thing with daring, yet cannot bear to hear of it afterward, or to have it charged upon them. We cannot expect to be redeemed and healed by Christ, unless we give up ourselves to be ruled by him. Faith takes the Saviour in all his offices, who came, not to save us in our sins, but to save us from our sins. Had Christ been exalted to give dominion to Israel, the chief priests would have welcomed him. But repentance and remission of sins are blessings they neither valued nor saw their need of; therefore they, by no means, admitted his doctrine. Wherever repentance is wrought, remission is granted without fail. None are freed from the guilt and punishment of sin, but those who are freed from the power and dominion of sin; who are turned from it, and turned against it. Christ gives repentance, by his Spirit working with the word, to awaken the conscience, to work sorrow for sin, and an effectual change in the heart and life. The giving of the Holy Ghost, is plain evidence that it is the will of God that Christ should be obeyed. And He will surely destroy those who will not have Him to reign over them.