Today in God’s Word

November 16, Acts 4

Nothing caps a great sermon quite like the preacher being thrown into jail. The chief priests and Sadducees hated all that talk about Jesus and the resurrection. It was late in the day, so they did the only thing they could think of: they jailed the apostles—the first of many nights behind bars to come in the bold preachers’ careers.

The next day, the Sanhedrin gathered for a hearing. A common plot in courtroom drama is that the slick lawyer underestimates a witness, and asks a question that allows the witness to give testimony that destroys the lawyer’s case. That’s what happened in the apostles’ very first court appearance. Let me put it in baseball terms for you. On the mound for the Sanhedrin, Annas the high priest was facing Peter, at bat for the visiting Apostles. Annas’ first pitch was a hard fastball right down the middle: “By what power or by what name did you do this?” Peter swung at the pitch and drove it all the way into the cheap seats in deep center field. He realized in that moment what Jesus had promised about being given words to say when they were on trial. “You want to know about the good deed we did, healing a man who had been crippled more than 40 years? You want to know how we did it? By what name we did it? I’m so glad you asked! By the name of Jesus of Nazareth—you crucified him not long ago, but God raised him from the dead—by his name we did it! You men rejected him, but he is the only

Savior.”

And just like that, it was over. They couldn’t deny the miracle; the man formerly known as the lame man was standing there right beside them. The whole city knew about it. They could only threaten the apostles and release them. “We’re going to let this one slide. But you’d better not say anything else about Jesus.” Peter and John hammered that one, too: “You decide if it’s right for us to obey you instead of God. We can’t help it; we’ve got to tell what we’ve seen and heard.”

If you’d been arrested for preaching, what would you pray for when you got out? These men acknowledged that everything was happening just as God said it would. They did not pray for the opposition to go away. Instead, they prayed for boldness to keep preaching, asking God to certify their preaching with more miracles. What would you do, having been warned by powerful people to keep quiet? These men kept preaching the word with great boldness, defying the high priest’s gag order. Meanwhile, the new disciples were reflecting God’s love to others, sharing with people in need. Their unity was strong and visible. The original 3,000 had become 5,000. The snowball was already rolling down the mountain. Arresting and threatening the apostles couldn’t stop the number of disciples from swelling even more.

From The Abiding Companion: A Friendly Guide for Your Journey Through the New Testament,

Copyright © 2010 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Today in God's Word—November 2023

East Tallassee Church of Christ