Following the miraculous and spectacular healing of a well-known person in the Book of Acts (albeit from a lifetime of begging at the gate of the iconic Jerusalem temple), the Jewish rulers and authorities sought to shut down the first church. They were unsettled and felt threatened by the power and authority in the name of Jesus, by which the apostles evidently healed a man lame from birth and proclaimed to people the resurrection from the dead.

The power in the name of Jesus to heal and restore the sick, to transform and empower uneducated, common men into bold witnesses and to secure eternal salvation for the entire human race scared them stiff. So much power concentrated in one name.

God “bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Phi 2:10 – 11.

So the beleaguered authorities came up with a plan that would save them face and put a halt to the propagation of that name – impose a blanket ban on the speaking and teaching in the name of Jesus. These rulers and authorities understood that power and authority were invested in a name so they targeted their pushback against the name of Jesus.

Acts 4:17 – 18 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. So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.

But Peter and John were not going to take this lying down – Acts 4:19-20
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, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”

“You cannot stop us from speaking of what we have seen and heard when we have been tasked with this very responsibility – to be witnesses of what we’ve seen and heard!”

Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

It was their life calling and mission so they were not willing to step back from proclaiming or give up on the name of Jesus. For them departing this mandate was not an option. They could not stop but were determined to continue holding up and proclaiming the name of Jesus for “there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Even today and throughout all generations, this surely ought to be the church’s stand and response.

The Church of Jesus Christ exists to witness to God and His saving power for all mankind in the name of Jesus.

As the authorities could not do anything more to the apostles, they released them but with further threats – Acts 4:21
And when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them, because of the people, for all were praising God for what had happened.

And what do Peter and John do upon their release? Immediately after their release they went to their friends and prayed together for more and greater boldness to proclaim the name of Jesus – Acts 4:29-30
“And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

This was their heart cry. They knew that this was not possible any other way or by any other means but by the supernatural enabling of God’s Spirit. So they made sure they purposefully leaned into that in prayer and Acts 4:31 tells us how they reaped the reward –

And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

We too need to lean into God’s provision for boldness by intentionally seeking after The Spirit’s power for continued and bold proclamation of the saving name of Jesus Christ to our communities in our generation.

Clearly, there was something that these followers of Jesus saw and heard, and the implication is that for us too there must be something that we have witnessed ourselves to speak out on – our very own experience of the resurrected Jesus in our lives. That is what is going to transform and catapult our witness – our personal and communal stories of transformation. Hence the importance of transformed lives by the risen Christ in producing impact for Christ.