Being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. Acts 4.2
As a young teenager, I was asked if I would see whether the trustees of our local schoolhouse would allow us to hold Gospel meetings there. The first trustee was my next door neighbour, and he responded to me coldly, saying he would agree only if the other two trustees did. The other two trustees reluctantly agreed, so we prepared to hold the Gospel meetings. I took an invitation to my neighbour, and found him even more cold than before. He angrily refused the invitation and made it clear that nobody from his house would be attending. His attitude left me shocked and deeply discouraged. At that time I did not know his attitude was normal.
The Jewish leaders in our text were truly upset at the preaching of the Gospel in the temple. No matter that a man had been miraculously healed, their turf had been invaded and they saw it as a challenge to their authority. Their response sadly is typical of religious leaders when faced with the message of the Gospel. Pretending to be believers in God, they reject God’s message and its messengers. These Jewish leaders were the forerunners of the myriads of opponents of the Gospel down through the centuries ever since. And most if not all of that ugly opposition has been in the name of religion.
The opposition to the Gospel can been deeply discouraging, as I learned as a youngster. That’s the devil’s plan. It did not work with the early disciples. Is it working today? -Jim MacIntosh
Here is the link to the video of this message: https://youtu.be/iGyvl1jfA2s