Acts 4:16-24

¹⁶They said, “It’s hard for us to punish those 2 men. Everyone in Jerusalem knows they did that powerful thing, they made that crippled man better. We can’t say that it isn’t true.

¹⁷But we have to stop people talking about it. So we will tell those 2 men not to talk to anyone about Jesus again, and if they do we will make trouble for those 2 men.”

¹⁸So those leaders called Peter and John back to the meeting. They told them, “Don’t you talk to any other people about Jesus. Don’t you teach anyone about him.”

¹⁹But Peter and John said to those leaders, “Do you think that God wants us to listen to you? Or do you think he wants us to listen to him, and do the things he says? What do you reckon? We know he wants us to do whatever he says,

²⁰and we can’t stop now. We have to talk about the things that we have seen and heard.”

²¹The leaders couldn’t think of any way to punish Peter and John. They knew that all the people were saying that God made that man better, so God is really great and really good. That man was more than 40 years old. So those bosses again told Peter and John, “Don’t you talk about Jesus any more or we’ll give you big trouble.” Then they let them go free.

²³Peter and John left that meeting and went back to the other people that believed in Jesus. They told them everything that the big bosses of the Jewish ceremonies and the older leaders said.

²⁴They listened to Peter and John and then they all prayed to God together. They said to him, “God, you are the boss of everything. You made the sky, and the earth, and the sea, and everything in them.