September 2, 2025 –  The Priests’ Response — Acts #10
Acts 4:13-22

Recap:  John and Peter were on their way to the 3 pm Temple service, and healed a man who had been paralyzed from birth and begged at the gate.  He followed them into the Temple, and there was an uproar over his healing.  Peter and John explained (in a several-hour sermon) that Jesus healed him and was the Messiah.  The High Priest had them arrested and jailed overnight.  The next morning, they questioned Peter and John, who again told them that Jesus, whom they killed, was resurrected and is the Messiah, and he is responsible for the healing.  

Acts 4:13-22  Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus. But seeing the man who was healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition. But when they had commanded them to leave the council, they conferred with one another, saying, “What shall we do with these men? For that a notable sign has been performed through them is evident to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.” So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, “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.” And when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them, because of the people, for all were praising God for what had happened. For the man on whom this sign of healing was performed was more than forty years old.

Here are Peter and John standing before the elite, most respected people in the city of Jerusalem: the High Priest, the former High Priest, and the who’s who of priests in the land.  And they are just poor country fishermen. They were Galileans, so they spoke with that accent that these elite priests in Jerusalem thought was so unrefined. They didn’t go to the rabbinical schools.  They dressed simply.   And here they are defending their actions in the most prestigious court in the Temple.  Just for a moment, imagine yourself in your best dress overalls, defending yourself before the highest court in the land in your thick Southern accent.  Now you know the situation.

Peter and John should be intimidated.  But everyone there was struck by their boldness.  Surprisingly, they are holding their own and perhaps outdoing these experts of the law, the best-trained biblical scholars there are.  How is this possible? How can these simple fishermen have such a good command of scripture and speak so well?  The answer is back in verse 8 :

Acts 4:8  “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them…”

They speak through the power of the Holy Spirit.  The same power is available to us today.  

These experts are having the same problem with Peter and John as they had with Jesus, who embarrassed them on multiple occasions when they tried to trap him.  His knowledge of Scripture was way beyond what they would have expected, and they said about him:

 John 7:15  How is it that this man [Jesus] has learning, when he has never studied?

And like Jesus, the disciples supported their teaching with miracles. 

So these chief priests were stuck.  Peter and John had broken no law that they could be punished for, and even if they had, the public support was high for them after this healing.  They couldn’t deny the miracle, as the man was standing before them.  So they brought them back in and threatened them not to talk about Jesus anymore.  (Note that healing is okay, as long as they don’t mention Jesus.)

But there is something else going on here that you don’t need to miss.  And it is not so simple to see because the most important thing to note in this proceeding is something the chief priests don’t do.  What is missing from this discussion?  Peter has just made this statement to them:

Acts 4:19-20  …let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well.

They don’t once refute the apostles’ claim that Jesus was resurrected.  They never argue that point. If they could have, they would have shut down the apostles in a hurry. But they could not.  No one is denying the fact that Jesus rose from the dead.  Too many people had seen Jesus alive after the crucifixion.   It was like the healed man standing before them.  Jesus’ resurrection was a very inconvenient fact for them, but for us it is the hope of glory.  

So these officials are between a rock and a hard place.  They can’t deny that this man has had a miraculous healing.  They can’t deny that Jesus came back to life.  But they can’t allow this Jewish sect that claims Jesus is the Messiah to continue, because it is growing fast.  Now there are 5000 followers in the city.  And this is a city of only 30-40,000.  That is already 12-14% of the population.  Five thousand is a large group, especially if those 5000 are committed and vocal.

In 1950, over 90% of the US identified as Christian. But we all know that number has fallen dramatically.  In the US today, about 65% say they are Christian.  But in that same study, only 45% say that religion is very important to them.¹ So there are 20% of people in the US who claim to be Christian but say that it’s not really important.  Can you be a follower of Jesus and think that religion doesn’t matter?

I almost wish we didn’t use the word ‘Christian’.  I prefer “disciple (or follower) of Jesus.”  The word “Christian” is only in the Bible 3 times, whereas the word “disciple” is in the New Testament over 250 times (269). Here’s the problem: “Christian” doesn’t mean the same thing today as it did.  Now people identify as ‘Christian’, saying that if they have to choose a religion, that is the one they would choose.  “If I have to check a box on a census, I don’t want to check ‘none’ for religion, and it is not Buddhist or Hindu, so I’ll check Christian.” They don’t mean they are true followers of Jesus the Messiah. They don’t mean they are trying to live their lives like Jesus. But here is the hard statistic.  Based on responses to questions about daily prayer time, Bible reading, and worship attendance, studies from the Barna group estimate that only 4% of the population of the US are actually living their life in an attempt to follow Jesus.  So while 65 out of 100 Americans claim to be Christian, only 4 of those are attempting to live as Jesus commanded.  The church has an identity problem.

As John Mark Comer has said, in his book Practicing the Way, we have created a culture where you can be called a Christian but not be a disciple of Jesus.²   As if being a disciple of Jesus is some kind of optional bonus track you might choose to take as a Christian.  Comer says that he has Catholic friends who divide people into “Catholics” and “Practicing Catholics”, where the first is more of a cultural identification, like being a New Yorker or a Southerner.  And “Practicing Catholic” is more of a measure of genuine spiritual devotion.  I personally have heard the term “cafeteria Catholic,” meaning they pick and choose which aspects of the Catholic faith they want to keep and ignore the rest.

The Bible doesn’t speak this way.  If you are a disciple of Jesus, you are an apprentice.  A disciple is seeking every day to imitate Jesus, to live as Jesus would live if he were here today.  A disciple seeks every day not to do whatever they want or what they feel is best, but to do the will of the Father.  There are no part-time, occasional disciples of Jesus in the scriptures.  You cannot pick and choose which parts of following Jesus you want.  For example you can’t just say, “Well, I like the idea of heaven instead of hell, and I like the healing Jesus does, and the love others stuff is good, but that “putting others ahead of me” idea – that is a little much.  And trials and tribulation, the “suffering like Jesus”; I’m out on those.  But there are no cafeteria disciples.  You can’t pick and choose.  In fact, the whole idea of making Jesus your Lord is that you don’t choose anymore; you follow whatever He chooses for you.   With Jesus, it is all or none. 

And in the Bible, there is no category for people who want to identify as Christian without making a radical change in the way they live their lives.  In the scriptures, you are either a disciple or you are the crowd.  There is no middle ground.  That is a recurring theme throughout the Bible: that you must choose.  Just as we saw last week, Jesus is a stone in your path.  He will either be a cornerstone upon which you build your life, or he will be a stumbling block.  It is one or the other, and it has always been that way.  Joshua said it over 3000 years ago:

Joshua 24:14-15  Now fear Yehovah and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve Yehovah. But if serving Yehovah seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve Yehovah.

If you choose to serve Yehovah and be a disciple of Jesus, you have made a commitment to obey His commands.  And in Jesus’ last words before ascending to heaven, he commands us to be his witnesses to all the world.  He asks us to be a priesthood of believers, taking his gospel everywhere we go.

Let’s look at a little more information from that Barna poll:

They asked millennials who identified as Christians (millennials are those born between 1980 and 2000) a set of questions:  Ninety-six percent of millennial Christians said, “Part of my faith means being a witness about Jesus.” Ninety-four percent said, “The best thing that could ever happen to someone is for them to come to know Jesus.”  (So far, so good.). But a full 47 percent—nearly half—also said, “It is wrong to share one’s personal beliefs with someone of a different faith in hopes that they will one day share the same faith.”³ So we want everyone to know about Jesus, and we know that is our job, but half of these Christians (age 25-45) say we shouldn’t share our faith.  How does that make any sense?

We live in a society now where, especially with younger people, faith is seen as a private matter. If you ever mention it in public, be careful not to promote a specific faith, as you might offend someone.  It is acceptable for the president of the US to say “and may God bless America” at the end of a speech.  But it would not be acceptable for the president to specify which God he is asking to bless America, for then he might offend someone. It is becoming less acceptable for anyone to talk about their faith in public.  Is faith a private matter?  As Joshua noted, each individual must choose which god they will follow, so it is a private decision.  But the Bible is very clear that our faith is to be anything except private.

We all know that Jesus said the greatest commandment was: 

Matthew 22:37  And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

And most people know that Jesus was quoting from the book of Deuteronomy:

Deuteronomy 6:4-5  Hear, O Israel: Yehovah our God, Yehovah is one. You shall love Yehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

And we know that in Jesus’ day, this was the first verse of Scripture that a parent would teach his child.  When Jesus was a little boy, this was the first verse he memorized.  It is the first part of the Shema, the prayer Jesus and all the disciples would have prayed together 2-3 times a day, as did all other devout Jews.  It is no wonder Jesus chose it as the greatest commandment.  

But do you know what follows that first verse that Jesus quoted?  What is the next part of the prayer Jesus prayed every day?

Deuteronomy 6:4-7 Hear, O Israel: Yehovah our God, Yehovah is one. You shall love Yehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

“These words shall be on your heart.”  We are to know these words by heart, but we are not to keep them locked in there.  “Teach them diligently to your children”. Parents are commanded to teach their children God’s word.  Not just to send them off to school or Sunday School or youth group, but to personally teach their children.  The word of God should be discussed not just for an hour on Sunday, but at all times, whether you’re sitting at home, walking, traveling, lying down, or waking up. That is all day long.   Our speech during all our waking hours should be filled with God’s words.  How much of your daily conversations are about scripture?

But if you live your faith publicly and openly today, then you are likely to have someone say, “It’s not right to tell me what is right or wrong.  I can decide that for myself.  No one has the right to tell me what to believe.”  But as John Mark Comer said, “Everyone is preaching a ‘gospel.”⁴  The gospel is “good news”, something we want to share with others.  Everyone is spreading some good news that they think you should believe.   Whether it is the gospel of intermittent fasting, the benefit of Pilates, or their views on immigration, wars in the Middle East or Ukraine, your favorite football team, or whatever.   Everyone wants to spread their news, and it seems it is ok socially to talk about many of these in public, except the Gospel of Jesus.

Peter said this to those priests:

Acts 4:19-20  But Peter and John answered them, “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.

We have to speak what we have seen and heard because it is better to be obedient to God than to be obedient to you.  I would agree that everyone must decide what to believe and who to follow for themselves.  But if I truly believe that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life; if I believe that there is no one comes to God except through Jesus, then as Peter said, “…we have to tell others, just as God commanded us to.”

But in our culture, if you do this, you may be seen as intrusive.  I would like for you to see a different person’s perspective on this. It is the well-known magician Penn Jillette of Penn and Teller.  (They are now celebrating 50 years of shows in Las Vegas.)  Mr. Jillette has always been very vocal that he is an atheist. About 15 years ago, he shared this story on his podcast about someone who spoke to him after one of their shows.

If you believe there is a heaven and hell, and if you think Jesus is the only way, then he said, “How much do you have to hate someone,” not to bother to tell them.  Are you going to stand by and just let them get hit by a truck and not try to help them?  Jesus tasked us to take the gospel into all the world. Are we willing to even take it down the street we live on? Jillette said one good man living a good life would not convince him.  I wonder if there were many more living a bolder Christian life in front of him, then what impact would that have? 

If you asked Penn Jillette, he might tell you that it seems most Christians are ashamed of their gospel, which is why they don’t talk about it.   Jesus anticipated this, and here is what Jesus said about it:

Mark 8:34-38 “And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

Jesus is making a radical statement.  “Taking up the cross” may seem to be a metaphor in our day, but it certainly was not in Jesus’ day.  Jesus is not speaking figuratively here.  He is talking about each one of them dying a horrible death as the cost of following Him.  And by losing their lives, he says, they will save their souls on the last day.  And note who Jesus is talking to.  He was talking to the disciples, but before he said this, he called the crowd to him.  This call to die is a call to every follower, not just the 12.

If we choose to follow Jesus, we have chosen to be disciples, striving every day to live life as Jesus did, to be obedient to his direction, to dwell in his Word, and to share his gospel.  There is no other way to be a follower of Jesus.  It is all or none.  In the coming weeks, we will talk more about how we can be faithful witnesses in our skeptical world.  But it is not preaching on a street corner.  It is not bashing other people for their sins. It is about living life in a way that allows people to see a difference.  

People should be asking you, Why do you care so much about others? Why do you donate your time to help the poor or homeless? Why do you give up your hard-earned money to the church and to charities? Why are you always looking for ways to help other people? Why do you invite people into your home?  Why are you always so cheerful? Why do you read that Bible every day? Why are you handing out those little Jesus figures?   If people don’t see a difference in our lives, then we can not be a witness to them.  When they ask those questions, we have an opportunity to explain where that kind of living comes from.  We can answer that we are this way because of the grace Jesus has shown us, because Jesus loves us even when we don’t deserve it, because Jesus is our Lord, because He died for us, and because he asked me to do these things.  

As we noted, today, there are a lot of people who call themselves Christians, but they aren’t following Jesus.  There will come a day when we will no longer have this false category of Christians who do not choose to live their life for Jesus.  What will it take for that to happen?  It will take the same thing that is about to happen in the book of Acts.   Persecution is coming.

This story today in Acts 4 is the beginning of persecution.  These priests don’t like what Peter and John are doing, but they feel limited in what they can do about it.  But over the following four chapters of Acts, they will become more and more bold until at the end of chapter seven, they stone one of these followers to death for his witness.  We are just seeing the beginning of this rise of persecution that will end in scattering these 5000 followers.  When persecution comes, those who are members in name only will disappear, but those who are truly disciples will respond differently.  Next week, we will see how these early disciples responded to this initial hint of persecution.

1.  “How Religious are Americans?”  Gallup. March 28, 2024
2.  Comer, John Mark.  Practicing the Way.  Be With Jesus, Become Like Him, Do as He Did.  2024. page 32.
3.  “Almost Half of Practicing Christian Millennials Say Evangelism Is Wrong,” Barna, February 5, 2019,
4.  Comer, page 150.