What is the meaning of Acts 4:28?

They carried out

Luke’s context names “Herod and Pontius Pilate, together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel” (Acts 4:27).

• Real people, acting with real intent, arrested, tried, and crucified Jesus.

• Their guilt is never softened—Peter earlier said, “You handed Him over… and put Him to death” (Acts 2:23).

• Scripture repeatedly shows human deeds unfolding freely—Joseph’s brothers sold him, yet “God sent me before you” (Genesis 45:5).

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what Your hand

“Your right hand is exalted; Your right hand performs mighty deeds” (Psalm 118:16).

• God’s “hand” pictures direct power, not distant permission.

• Every swing of a whip, every hammer blow on the nails, occurred under that hand, just as plagues fell on Egypt “by a mighty hand” (Exodus 3:20).

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and will

“The LORD of Hosts has sworn: ‘As I have planned, so will it be’ ” (Isaiah 14:24).

• His will is purposeful, not reactive.

• Christ was “handed over by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge” (Acts 2:23).

• Believers rest in the same assurance: “He works out everything according to the counsel of His will” (Ephesians 1:11).

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had decided beforehand

God’s choice was settled “before the foundation of the world” (1 Peter 1:20).

• “Predestined” (Romans 8:29) means the course was fixed, not guessed.

• Yet this decree never erases responsibility; the paradox stands—men act freely, God rules sovereignly.

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would happen

What God determines always comes to pass: “I declare the end from the beginning… My purpose will stand” (Isaiah 46:10).

• The cross was not Plan B; Jesus said, “All this has come to pass so that the Scriptures of the prophets will be fulfilled” (Matthew 26:56).

• Because every promised event of redemption occurred, every promise still ahead—resurrection, judgment, new creation—will likewise happen (1 Corinthians 15:22–26).

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summary

Acts 4:28 teaches that the very people who opposed Jesus unknowingly fulfilled God’s unchangeable plan. Their wicked choices were theirs; the outcome was God’s. The verse magnifies His sovereign power, underscores mankind’s accountability, and assures believers that no enemy can overturn what God has already decided for our salvation and His glory.