JOIN THE JOURNEY JR.
Families Abiding in Jesus together
With shorter reading assignments and kid-specific focus areas, Join The Journey Jr. is designed to help parents disciple their kids and engage with Scripture in the best ways for their age.
This month's memory verse
All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
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But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.”
The Apostles Meet Opposition
17The high priest and his officials, who were Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. 18They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. 19But an angel of the Lord came at night, opened the gates of the jail, and brought them out. Then he told them, 20“Go to the Temple and give the people this message of life!”
21So at daybreak the apostles entered the Temple, as they were told, and immediately began teaching.
When the high priest and his officials arrived, they convened the high council*—the full assembly of the elders of Israel. Then they sent for the apostles to be brought from the jail for trial. 22But when the Temple guards went to the jail, the men were gone. So they returned to the council and reported, 23“The jail was securely locked, with the guards standing outside, but when we opened the gates, no one was there!”
24When the captain of the Temple guard and the leading priests heard this, they were perplexed, wondering where it would all end. 25Then someone arrived with startling news: “The men you put in jail are standing in the Temple, teaching the people!”
26The captain went with his Temple guards and arrested the apostles, but without violence, for they were afraid the people would stone them. 27Then they brought the apostles before the high council, where the high priest confronted them. 28“We gave you strict orders never again to teach in this man’s name!” he said. “Instead, you have filled all Jerusalem with your teaching about him, and you want to make us responsible for his death!”
29But Peter and the apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than any human authority. 30The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead after you killed him by hanging him on a cross.*31Then God put him in the place of honor at his right hand as Prince and Savior. He did this so the people of Israel would repent of their sins and be forgiven. 32We are witnesses of these things and so is the Holy Spirit, who is given by God to those who obey him.”
33When they heard this, the high council was furious and decided to kill them. 34But one member, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, who was an expert in religious law and respected by all the people, stood up and ordered that the men be sent outside the council chamber for a while. 35Then he said to his colleagues, “Men of Israel, take care what you are planning to do to these men! 36Some time ago there was that fellow Theudas, who pretended to be someone great. About 400 others joined him, but he was killed, and all his followers went their various ways. The whole movement came to nothing. 37After him, at the time of the census, there was Judas of Galilee. He got people to follow him, but he was killed, too, and all his followers were scattered.
38“So my advice is, leave these men alone. Let them go. If they are planning and doing these things merely on their own, it will soon be overthrown. 39But if it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You may even find yourselves fighting against God!”
40The others accepted his advice. They called in the apostles and had them flogged. Then they ordered them never again to speak in the name of Jesus, and they let them go.
41The apostles left the high council rejoicing that God had counted them worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus.* 42And every day, in the Temple and from house to house, they continued to teach and preach this message: “Jesus is the Messiah.”
Have you ever been afraid of speaking up in school because you weren’t sure what your classmates or teacher would think? Maybe you wanted to answer a question from the teacher. Or you wanted to share about Jesus to your friends. Or maybe you didn’t want to join in when others were doing something wrong.
In Acts 5, the apostles knew some people weren’t going to like it when they spoke up about Jesus. The religious leaders even told them to stop. But God tells us over and over in Scripture to continue sharing the good news that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and came back to life.
The apostles had a choice to make: Should they listen to people, or should they listen to God?
Acts 5:29 tells us that the apostles, and Peter specifically, told the religious leaders that they “must obey God and not man.”
They chose to obey God, even when they didn’t know how the others would respond to them. Would they make fun of them? Laugh at them? Or worse, throw them back in prison or hurt them? Despite the unknown ending, they trusted God would be with them no matter what. And he was and still is today.
We might not face the exact same situation the apostles did, but we may have moments where we wonder: What if they don’t like what I say?
When we follow Jesus, we choose to care more about what God thinks than what other people think. That doesn’t mean we can be rude. But it does mean we can be kind and trust God with the results, even if our friends don’t like that we aren’t acting like they want.
Some questions to ask yourself: