My Adult Life Group is currently working through a long-form study of the book of Acts. With each chapter, I have included a verse selected for memorization.
This is the verse for chapter 4.
19 But Peter and John replied, “Whether it is right before God to obey you rather than God, you decide, 20 for it is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:19-20, NET)
Consider what is happening in chapter 4. Peter and John healed a man in the Temple court who was lame from birth. Peter preached the second recorded Christian sermon to the crowd that had gathered. This excited the Jewish leadership so much that Peter and John were arrested and brought before the Sanhedrin, the high Jewish court. When asked how they had done this, Peter was able to preach Jesus and His resurrection to the court. The group of religious leaders was placed in a quandary. They could not deny that a miracle had taken place. So they demanded Peter and John not preach or teach about Jesus. Peter was not having that. He insisted that it was obedience to God and the direct evidence of Jesus’s resurrection that motivated his speech. For Peter, it was impossible for him not to speak about his experience with Jesus.
What about us? Do we want to speak about the resurrection of Jesus? The evidence is certainly there. The assertion that God raised Jesus from the dead fits the evidence we have. We should pray for opportunities especially this Easter season to tell others about the resurrection of Jesus.
Take some time, think about this verse and commit it to the center of who you are.
Mark Riser - Apologist 