Acts 5:33,34 - They were enraged

5:33

This enraged the Sanhedrin. The truth of God cuts to the heart, it convicts us of sin. Some will accept this and repent, and so receive forgiveness. Others will react against the conviction of the Holy Spirit, seeking to deflect it by reacting with anger, as here. This is something we see again and again today, so we should not be surprised at this response. As it says in 2 Cor 2:16, to some we are the stench of death, to another the fragrance of life. We will get both reactions.

5:34

In the gospels the Pharisees are in almost constant opposition to Jesus, and indeed are prime movers in persecuting Him. In Acts they are far less prominent, and when they do act, as here, they tend to be favourable, if anything. So why the transformation? Part of the reason, and one which Paul made play of later on, is that the Pharisees believed in the resurrection. The Sadducees, on the other hand, believed in very little. So perhaps the fact that the apostles were proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus made it difficult for the Pharisees to oppose them, and they may even have started to have doubts. Gamaliel was a highly respected Pharisee. Indeed, this is another difference between Acts and the Gospels. While the Pharisees were hostile to Jesus, the gospels are almost uniformly hostile towards the Pharisees. Gamaliel wanted to have a private word with the Sanhedrin.