Acts 4:1-22 (NET)
While
Peter and John were speaking to the people, the priests and the commander of
the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them, angry
because they were teaching the people and announcing in Jesus the resurrection
of the dead. So they seized them and put them in jail
until the next day (for it was already evening). But many
of those who had listened to the message believed, and the number of the men
came to about five thousand.
On
the next day, their rulers, elders, and experts in the law came together in
Jerusalem. Annas the high priest was there, and Caiaphas,
John, Alexander, and others who were members of the high priest’s family. After making Peter and John stand in their midst, they began
to inquire, “By what power or by what name did you do this?”
Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, replied, “Rulers of the people and
elders, if we are being examined today for a good deed
done to a sick man – by what means this man was healed –
let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name
of Jesus Christ the Nazarene whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead,
this man stands before you healthy. This Jesus is the
stone that was rejected by you, the builders, that has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no
other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved.”
When
they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and discovered that they were
uneducated and ordinary men, they were amazed and recognized these men had been
with Jesus. And because they saw the man who had been
healed standing with them, they had nothing to say against this. But when they had ordered them to go outside the council,
they began to confer with one another, saying, “What
should we do with these men? For it is plain to all who live in Jerusalem that
a notable miraculous sign has come about through them, and we cannot deny it. But to keep this matter from spreading any further among
the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.” And they called them in and ordered them not to speak or
teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John
replied, “Whether it is right before God to obey you rather than God, you
decide, for it is impossible for us not to speak about
what we have seen and heard.” After threatening them
further, they released them, for they could not find how to punish them on
account of the people, because they were all praising God for what had
happened. For the man, on whom this miraculous sign of healing
had been performed, was over forty years old.
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