I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Acts 4-6.

    We have two accounts about the religious leaders who were Sadducees having Apostles arrested, the first time it is Peter and John, the second time it is all, or at least most, of them. On both occasions those arrested were held overnight. On both occasions Peter continues to show his tact by telling them that they were the ones who had crucified Jesus and that God raised Him from the dead. This was doubly offensive since those who was speaking to explicitly disbelieved in the resurrection of the dead. On both occasions the Jewish leaders ordered them to stop preaching in the name of Jesus. And on both occasions the Apostles responded by saying that they would obey God rather than man. On the second occasion the Jewish leaders wanted to kill the Apostles, but were talked out of it by one of their own, Gamaliel, who pointed out that if the Apostles were merely echoing the teachings of a man, they would soon lose heart. Gamaliel further pointed out that, on the other hand, if the Apostles were teaching things from God all attempts to silence them would fail. I believe that the message we should learn from Gamaliel is that the best way to defeat bad ideas is with better ideas, not with force or violence.

    More importantly than what Gamaliel said and the lesson we can draw from it is the response of the believers to the threats levied against them. When the believers heard of the harsh threats which the authorities had made they gathered and prayed. We can learn a lot from what they prayed for. They did not pray for protection, or for God to overthrow the government. No, they prayed that they would boldly proclaim God’s word and that the Holy Spirit would work great wonders through them. They were not afraid of what the authorities might do to them. They sought God’s aid to stand up for Him in the face of these threats.