Acts 5:32-40

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.