“We Cannot Stop Speaking”

“For we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.” — Acts 4:20

While Peter and John were still talking to the crowd in the temple, the priests and the captain of the temple guard came up to them. They were very angry that the apostles were teaching the people that Jesus had risen from the dead. So they arrested Peter and John and put them in prison overnight.

But it was too late to stop the message. Many people who heard it believed, and the number of men who believed in Jesus grew to about five thousand!

The next day, the rulers and elders and teachers of the law met together, including the high priest. These were the same men who had put Jesus on trial. They had Peter and John brought in.

“By what power, or what name, did you do this?” they asked.

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, answered them.

“If we are being questioned today about a kind deed to a man who couldn’t walk,” Peter said, “then let all of you know this: he was healed in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, but whom God raised from the dead. This Jesus is ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ Salvation is found in no one else. There is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”

The leaders were amazed at how bold Peter and John were. They could tell they were ordinary men, who hadn’t been to special schools. And they realised that these men had been with Jesus.

And there, standing with them, was the man who had been healed! What could they say?

So they sent Peter and John out of the room and talked together. “What are we going to do with these men?” they said. “Everyone in Jerusalem knows about this miracle. We can’t deny it. But to stop it spreading any further, we must warn them not to speak to anyone in this name again.”

They called Peter and John back in and commanded them never to speak or teach in the name of Jesus at all.

But Peter and John answered, “You decide whether it is right in God’s eyes to listen to you rather than to God. As for us, we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard!”

The leaders threatened them some more, and then let them go.

Peter and John went back to the other believers and told them everything. And they all prayed together. They didn’t pray, “Lord, keep us safe.” They prayed, “Lord, look at their threats, and help Your servants to speak Your word with great boldness.”

When they had prayed, the place where they were meeting shook! And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God boldly.

The promise kept: Peter called Jesus “the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone” (Acts 4:11), words from Psalm 118. The cornerstone is the most important stone in a building, the one that holds it all together.

Read it in your Bible: Acts 4:1–31

Dear God, please help me to be bold when I talk about Jesus, even when it’s hard. Thank you that I can pray to you for courage, like the first Christians did. Amen.