Acts 4:23-37

Acts 4.13-22

'History repeats itself'. This is so true with respect to the rejection of truth and the persecution of God's people. Stephen the martyr reproved the Jewish leadership of his day for repeating the sins of the fathers. (Acts 7.51-53).

I. The command to silence

A. The evidence they had (4.13-16). We may say that they had overwhelming evidence against their own opinion and objective. They were going against the light of their own consciences.

B. Their threatening the apostles (4.17-18) This was a complete contradiction of what they knew and evidence of their deep hostility to the work of God.

II. The call of God

Sanity returns in the testimony of the apostles. (4.19).

A. The vertical is more important than the horizontal.

B. The call of God outweighs the commands of men.

C. Each must judge for himself or herself.

III. The constraint to testify

Every believer shares something of the Apostles' constraint to testify and must confess likewise (4.20).

A. The glory of God requires it.

B. The good of our contemporaries depends upon it.

C. Our gratitude to Christ demands it.