Thursday 17 September: Acts chapter 4: 19-23:

Thursday 17 September:  Acts chapter 4: 19-23:

V19:  Peter and John now answer boldly, with Holy Spirit given wisdom. Let these rulers judge for themselves, should the apostles listen to them rather than to God? Here surely is an abiding principle – though as Christians we should submit to the proper authorities God has ordained ( Romans 13 :1-2 ) this is not to be so if they seek to compel us to disobey God or do what is contrary to His Word. Then – whatever it may cost – we should put God and His Word first.

V20:  And Peter and John declare they are under a gospel compulsion – they must speak the truth they know in and from Jesus, witnessing to the reality they have experienced. Do we know something of this compulsion of the gospel in our own witness, as Paul did in 1 Corinthians 9:16?

V21-22:  Again, the council feel they can do nothing except threaten the apostles again, and then let them go. They fear in this instance the reaction of the people, when so many are praising God for the miraculous healing of a man who has never walked before in his more than 40 years of life. Surely God’s restraining hand is also on them, for the time will soon come when they will take, and endorse, more direct action against the church in a vain attempt to curb the spread of the gospel. Yet God is sovereign in all things, and the very man most instrumental in that would-be persecution ( Acts 9 :1-2 ) would become the great missionary apostle, Paul.

V23:  So, Peter and John go back to the other believers to tell them what has happened, and what the council have said.