Context No. 4148 of 4322 · Acts

Acts 4:19-26: in context

19But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, judge for yourselves, 20for we can’t help telling the things which we saw and heard.” 21When they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them, because of the people; for everyone glorified God for that which was done. 22For the man on whom this miracle of healing was performed was more than forty years old. 23Being let go, they came to their own company and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. 24When they heard it, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord and said, “O Lord, you are God, who made the sky, the earth, the sea, and all that is in them; 25who by the mouth of your servant David, said, ‘Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot a vain thing? 26The kings of the earth take a stand, and the rulers plot together, against the Lord, and against his Christ.’

Hauled before the authorities and ordered to stop preaching about Jesus, Peter and John give a bold reply: whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge; for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard. Their witness could not be silenced by threats, because it flowed from a real encounter: they had seen and heard the risen Christ, and they could not keep it to themselves.

And when they returned to the church and reported the threats, the believers did not cower; they prayed, lifting their voices together to the sovereign God who made all things. Two things stand out. The irrepressible witness of those who have truly encountered Christ. Peter and John did not preach out of mere duty; they spoke because they had to. A real experience of Christ produces a witness that cannot be silenced. And the church's response to opposition: not fear, but prayer, turning to the God who reigns over the raging nations.

Does my faith flow from a real encounter with Christ that I cannot help but share, so that, like Peter and John, I cannot but speak of what I have seen and heard, and turn to God in prayer rather than fear when I meet opposition?

Sources

Acts 4:20: "For we can't help telling the things which we saw and heard."
Acts 4:19: "Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, judge for yourselves."
Acts 4:24: "They lifted up their voice to God with one accord and said, O Lord, you are God, who made the sky, the earth, the sea, and all that is in them."