Acts 5:14-40

¹⁴and some of them kept listening, and then a lot of men and women started believing in Jesus, and then they joined up with the Christians.

¹⁵A lot of people saw the close followers of Jesus do powerful things, so they brought sick people and put them on beds and mats on the roads. They thought, “Even if Peter doesn’t touch them maybe his shadow will touch them as he walks past them, and that will make them better.”

¹⁶Big mobs of people that lived in small towns near Jerusalem brought their sick people into the city, and they brought people that had bad spirits in them too. And the close followers of Jesus made all of them better.

¹⁷There were some Jewish people called Sadducees. The big boss of the Jewish ceremonies was a Sadducee. He and all the other Sadducees were really jealous of the close followers of Jesus.

¹⁸So those Sadducees sent some soldiers to grab the close followers of Jesus and lock them up in the jail.

¹⁹But that night God sent an angel messenger to them, and he opened the jail doors and took the close followers of Jesus out.

²⁰That angel said to them, “Go and stand in God’s ceremony house and tell all the people there everything about this new life that Jesus gives.”

²¹So those men listened to that angel and they went to God’s ceremony house very early in the morning, and they started teaching the people there. At the same time the big boss of the Jewish ceremonies and his friends called all the Jewish council men together for a meeting. (They had these meetings to work out if something was right or wrong.) Then they sent the soldiers to the jail to get the close followers of Jesus.

²²But those soldiers got there and they couldn’t find those men in the jail. So they went back to the meeting and they said,

²³“We got to the jail, and the guards were standing there near the locked doors. We opened the doors and went inside but we couldn’t find anyone there.”

²⁴The boss of the soldiers that guarded God’s ceremony house heard the soldiers say that, and so did the bosses of the Jewish ceremonies, and they didn’t understand. They thought, “How did they get out? What will happen next?”

²⁵Then somebody came and said to them, “Listen. Those men that you put in the jail are in the yard of God’s ceremony house. They are standing there teaching the people.”

²⁶So the boss of those soldiers went there with his men and they got the close followers of Jesus. But they were not rough on them and they didn’t force them to come. They just asked them to come quietly. The soldiers didn’t want to hurt them. They were frightened, because they thought the people there might get angry and throw stones to try to kill them.

²⁷The soldiers brought the close followers of Jesus to the Jewish council men to talk to them. Then the big boss of the Jewish ceremonies growled at them and said,

²⁸“We told you not to teach about Jesus. But you didn’t listen to us. You told everyone in Jerusalem about him. You want people to think that we killed him. You are blaming us.”

²⁹Peter stood there with the other close followers of Jesus, and he said, “We’ve got to listen to God and do whatever he says, and not listen to people.

³⁰You got men to kill Jesus by nailing him to a cross. But God made him alive again. We Jewish people respect God, and so did our grand-fathers from a long time ago. That same God made Jesus alive again

³¹and gave him the best place in heaven, right next to God himself, on his right side. And God made Jesus our leader, the one that can save us. And God did this so that all the Israel people can turn back to him and stop doing bad things, and then he will not punish them.

³²We saw everything that Jesus did, so we tell everyone all about it. And God gave his Holy Spirit to the people that follow Jesus, and that Holy Spirit does powerful things, to show everyone that what we say is true.”

³³The Jewish council men heard Peter talking like that and they were really angry. They wanted to kill those close followers of Jesus.

³⁴But one of the Jewish council men stood up in the meeting. He was called Gamaliel. He was a Jewish law man, one of the mob called Pharisees. All the people knew he was a good man and they respected him. Gamaliel told the soldiers, “Take these followers of Jesus outside for a while.”

³⁵Then he said to the council men, “Listen, you Israel mob. We have to think carefully now. You want to kill those men, but listen to this.

³⁶A while ago there was a man called Theudas. He got up to fight the Roman government. He told everyone that he was great, and about 400 men listened to him and followed him to fight the Romans. But he died in that fight, and his followers all ran away. So in the end nothing happened.

³⁷After that another man came along. He was called Judas. He came from Galilee country. (The Romans were counting all the people in Judah country at that time.) Judas led a mob of men to fight the Romans, but the Romans killed him too, and chased all his followers away.

³⁸So I’m telling you now, don’t kill those followers of Jesus. Let them go. You see, if normal men told them to do these things and tell people about Jesus, nothing will happen.

³⁹But if God told them to do these things, you can’t stop them. If you try to stop them, you might find yourselves fighting against God.” The Jewish council men listened to Gamaliel and agreed with him.

⁴⁰They called the close followers of Jesus back to the meeting and they told the soldiers to hit those men with whips. Then the council men told them, “Don’t you ever teach people about Jesus again.” Then the council men let them go.