Read Acts chapter 3 and 4, and then come back.

So, from Acts 4:17, here we go with our text for today: 17 “But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.” 18 So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.  19 But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, 20 for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”

What I really want to emphasize in this is how Peter and John answered this demand for silence...not that they said no, but the thing on which their claim rested…from verse 20, “...for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”.  You see that?  Their faith rests NOT on belief, not on spirituality, not on something that can be argued and debated philosophically (at least not as a starting point)...their faith is based on something that happened.

The word Gospel is a word that literally means “good news”...and news is something that passed from one person to another, not something that is figured out through meditation and silence and prayer.  You can’t sit under a tree pontificating about the meaning of life and arrive at the conclusion that God saved the world by sending His own son to be a sacrifice for our own sins...that either happened or it didn’t.

For me, this passage reminds me of 2 things.

First, we must tell people about Jesus in order for people to be saved.  The message of Jesus won’t spread itself....it requires our assistance.  We are part of the mission.  We have to be intentional about how we are living our lives in pursuit of this mission.  If you are a talker, an influencer, a speaker, then how are you leveraging your inclinations to spread the message?  If you are a person who is more reserved, then your gift may be creating environments where people feel safe and welcomed, and in which you can put in influencer and let them do their work.  How are you, how am I leveraging what I have, in some way, to spread this message?

And two, I heard this from a great pastor and communicator Andy Stanley years ago and it has stuck with me - when we focus on what we know, our faith soars, but when we focus on what we don’t know, it tends to languish.  Peter and John show us the key to holding strong to our faith here - focusing on what we know...the resurrection.  I have heard a lot about how science it up-ending the Christian thesis of creation, or about how maybe this artifact that’s been found in some corner of the world might debunk the idea that this person from the Bible was where he was said to be, or that it is impossible to explain the parting of the Red Sea, etc.  That’s all fine and good - but if you want to debate me, come at me with credible evidence related to the resurrection.  If that happened the way the Bible says it did, the rest is commentary on that, and we can play with those details on that basis.  If it didn’t, the rest doesn’t matter anyways.  I have talked to a lot of people about faith and spirituality (I am one of those that likes to pry that door open with people) and I am yet to have a skeptic want to debate the resurrection...they always focus on the most fantastic random detail they can find from the Bible, with the idea that if they can tear down one detail here or there, then all of the Bible must not be true.