Acts 4:2

Being grieved. Or, “being annoyed,” “being worked up.” This verb is used to describe Paul’s feeling when the young woman came crying after him in Philippi (ch. 16:18). The Jewish leaders were annoyed not only because the disciples taught the doctrine of the resurrection, so opposed to the thinking of the chief priests, who were Sadducees, but also because they taught when they were not trained or authorized to do so, even as Jesus had done (John 7:14, 15). It has been no infrequent thing for men in ecclesiastical authority to take exception to the ministry of those who have not been commissioned by themselves. Men with some power in their hands may easily fancy that only they can instruct others how to perform publicly.

That they taught. One of the objections the authorities brought against the apostles was doubtless that they were “unlearned and ignorant men” (v. 13), and so not fit to teach the people.

Preached through Jesus the resurrection. Rather, “proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection.” The apostles preached the doctrine of the resurrection “in Jesus,” that is, in terms of His resurrection, which served as proof of the general resurrection of the dead, a doctrine the Sadducees rejected. See ch. 23:8. Paul later emphasized that Christ’s resurrection was a pledge that all the righteous would rise from the dead (1 Cor. 15:16–23; Phil. 3:10, 11).