A WALK THROUGH THE BOOK OF ACTS

                                                         PART IV - IX

"We, the religious leaders looked at each other.... We had just listened to the response of these two men, Peter and John, to our command.... Our command had been very clear.... They were no longer to speak about Jesus.... To our shock they declared that they would not obey our command.... They, furthermore, told us that them speaking about Jesus would be in obedience to God Himself....All we could do next was to try and silence them with further threats.... We knew we could not do anything else.... We would have very much liked to punish them further... But we knew we could not.... That would have turned the crowd against us.... For they were all praising God for the miraculous healing of the crippled beggar... Even we could not deny the healing of that man.... So our hands were tight.... We could not handle the situation with these two men in a way we really desired....Instead, we had to let them go.... A very unsatisfactory conclusion to this situation.... Perhaps we will have another opportunity in the future to silence them.... And to silence them for good."..... Please read the typed out attachment when you will learn that the religious leaders had to let Peter and John go.....

 

                   ATTACHMENT A WALK THROUGH THE BOOK OF ACTS

                                                     PART IV - IX

The religious leaders listened to Peter and John's reply to their command not to speak about Jesus ever again. They were very frustrated with these two men for it was clear from their response that they had no intention of doing what they had been commanded to do. On the contrary; these two men believed that by speaking about Jesus they would be obeying God Himself. All the religious leaders could do at that point was to try and threaten them. However, they could not take any further specific action as you can read in Acts 4:21-22

After further threats, they let them go. They could not decide how to punish them because all the people were praising God for what had happened. For the man who was miraculously healed was over forty years old.

The religious leaders had no choice but to let Peter and John go in light of the fact that all the people were praising God for the miraculous healing of the previously crippled beggar.