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Commentaries
English
Acts
  
19But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge.20For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”21So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way of punishing them, because of the people, since they all glorified God for what had been done.22For the man was over forty years old on whom this miracle of healing had been performed.


The high court decided that the two apostles and the healed man should preach no more in the name of Jesus. The two witnesses, however, answered that if they were required to choose between the will of God and the decree of men they had no choice but to obey God. They had to oppose every form of hypocritical truth or pretense. This opposition came not from a revolutionary spirit, but from obedience to the Holy Spirit, who leads believers not to armed revolution, but to witness boldly for Jesus.
The two apostles jointly answered: “We cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.” Their hearts and lives were filled with experiences with Christ, who had been raised from the dead. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. So, dear brother, how do you speak throughout the course of the day? How often do you pronounce the name of Jesus? Does the Lord’s Spirit dwell in you? Or are the spirits of money, impurity, and indifference master over you? You are what you speak of. You are not what you keep silent about. Jesus’ holy witnesses cannot help glorifying their living Lord, for they have received the Holy Spirit, and He has made them witnesses to the person of Jesus. This is their office, their ministry, and their enablement. The power of God is included in the testimony to Jesus’ works and words. So speak, and do not keep silent. Pray, however, before you speak, lest you become a clanging cymbal or a beating drum.
The leaders of the people were unable to devise any way of punishing or exterminating Christ’s witnesses without exciting a tumult among the people and endangering their own authority. So they warned them, hoping to find in their threat a method that would thereafter give them the right and ability to strangle the movement of Christ. How wonderful, for all of Jerusalem was overflowing with God’s praise, being in astonishment over this miraculous healing. The inhabitants immediately realized from this miracle that the presence of the Most High had not yet left their city, but had bent down over the poor. The power of His salvation was working through the witnesses of His Christ.