Acts 4:1-31: Speaking Truth to Power

The Rev. Keith Haney, Assistant to the President for Missions, Human Care, and Stewardship in the LCMS Iowa District West, joins the Rev. Dr. Phil Booe to study Acts 4:1-31.

Peter and John are arrested and are brought before the Sanhedrin. They had violated the religious authorities’ order which forbade anyone from teaching the resurrection of Jesus. Peter and John now must defend themselves while the other believers wait for them outside. What might have dissuaded weaker believers, Peter and John stand firm in their faith and use this opportunity to speak truth to power.

The Book of Acts takes us back to the earliest days of Christianity, unveiling the incredible acts of the apostles and the growth of the early church. Acts offers a firsthand account how the Apostles and Jesus’ disciples respond to his death and resurrection. It makes us witnesses to the beginning of fulfilling Jesus’s command to spread the Gospel from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. We encounter miracles and wonders, we see the church struggling to organize itself in the absence of Jesus, and we learn of the trials and tribulations the early Christians faced in a world that rejected them.