Faithful Witness Under Pressure

June 29, 2026|Faithful Witness Under Pressure|Acts 3-4

JD Cutler

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Good morning church family. Let me invite you to open your Bibles to Acts chapter 3 as we continue our series Sent:Learning disciple-making from Acts. So far, we have looked at disciple-making from acts under the headings ‘spirit-empowered witness’ and ‘formed in covenant community’. My prayer is that they have helped us understand the power behind discipleship as well as the path. Today I want us to look at one of the inevitable realities of being a disciple-making church.

Opposition.

Jesus told us that the world was going to hate us, that we were going to be persecuted. The more faithfully we identify with Christ and proclaim His unadulterated gospel, the more we should expect opposition from a world that rejects Him. If we are a body of disciple-making believers who are making disciple-making believers we will encounter opposition, pressure, and possible persecution.

Right now, where we live, persecution is not as likely as it is for our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world, but there is and I believe there will continue to be, increasing pressure to bow to the world’s standards and definitions as they increasingly oppose a biblical worldview and ethical standard.

That pressure takes on a number of forms. It could be societal pressure, political pressure, religious pressure, or peer pressure from inside our own church.

In Acts chapter 3 and 4 we find the early church experiencing the initial opposition that would grow into the great persecution described in chapter 8. Immediately after we hear that wonderful summary of the early church’s disciple making progress at the end of chapter 2 we see that opposition begins.

In these chapters we see what begins as a miraculous healing of a man, lame from birth, brings them into direct opposition with the religious leaders of the day, the same ones who denied Christ and had him put to death.

It is remarkable that this opposition doesn't begin because Peter harmed someone. It begins because Peter healed someone and then proclaimed the name of Jesus as the only explanation. The world often appreciates our good works, until those good works point people to Christ as the only Savior.

Our prayer is as we examine their response to this initial pressure and yet maintain their faithful witness, is that we may learn from their example as we seek to be a faithful disciple-making body.

Rather than examining every detail of these two chapters, we're going to follow Luke's narrative by focusing on four characteristics of faithful witness under pressure.

If you aren’t familiar with this portion of Acts, let me set the scene by summarizing Acts 3:1-10. Peter and John are heading to the temple at the hour of prayer at 3pm. They encounter a crippled man who has been laid at the gate in order to try and support himself by asking visitors to the temple to give him a monetary gift. Peter and John see him, get his attention, and then say, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”. At which point he is raised up, fully healed, and he enters the temple with them, walking, leaping, and praising God. As you can imagine this draws a considerable crowd because these people know this man, they have passed him at this same gate for years, possibly even decades.

Having drawn a crowd of amazed and astonished people in the temple, Peter addresses the crowd.

Peter refuses to let the crowd marvel at the miracle without understanding the Savior behind it.

Peter understood that the miracle was never the message.

The miracle authenticated the message.

The message was and is always Christ.

This brings us to our first characteristic of faithful witness under pressure.

I. Faithful Witness Proclaims an Uncompromising Gospel

As Peter stands there with John, with this miraculously healed man clinging to him and the crowd looking at him, he begins a proclamation of the gospel.

He begins with pointing away from himself. Verse 3:12 “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk?

To God’s work through Christ. verse 13 “The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus”

To their guilt in participating in Christ’s crucifixion. verse 14 But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 15 and you killed the Author of life, To Christ’s resurrection. whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.

To Christ’s continued power. Verse 16 And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.

Peter pulls no punches for this crowd of Jewish onlookers.

Jesus was the Righteous One, the Author of Life, the servant of God, whom they delivered over, denied, and put to death but that God raised from the dead.

The gospel confronts us with our guilt before it comforts us with God's grace.

We must be uncompromising on the scriptural truth that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

That there is salvation in no other name.

That apart from Christ no man or woman will receive everlasting life.

That’s why we must not compromise the gospel and begin with statements like, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Or everyone has a Jesus shaped hole in their heart.

Why didn’t Peter say, don’t be amazed, you can experience this same miraculous power in your lives?

Why didn’t Peter take this opportunity to invite them to bring their sick and crippled for healing?

Because the gospel is not about physical healing but spiritual rebirth.

Yes, God does miraculously heal, yes in the early church God used the apostles in extraordinary ways, but it was never about that.

With his opening message, Peter establishes the foundation of every faithful uncompromised gospel proclamation.

You are guilty of rejecting God and following your own way. You have denied the Holy and Righteous One and your sin is why Christ was crucified.

Notice, Peter's goal isn't merely to convince them they are sinners.

His goal is to convince them that Jesus is exactly who God said He is and why that matters.

Listen, we don’t begin there because we enjoy confronting people, we don’t begin there out of a sense of our own righteousness, we begin there because the rest of the gospel doesn’t make sense without this foundational understanding.

Peter is fearless in exposing their guilt, but he is equally eager to proclaim God's mercy. Peter continues.

Let’s pick up in verses 19.

Acts 3:19–21 ESV

19 Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, 20 that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, 21 whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.

Repent and turn back.

To repent is to change one's mind for better, to amend our thoughts with abhorrence of one's past sins. To turn back is to return to the worship of God.

The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers.

Think about that. For these Jewish men and women listening to this message, who had come to the temple to worship, Peter is saying, you may be going through the motions, but you are not worshipping God because you have not received his Messiah.

Peter wants them to understand that rejecting Christ is not merely rejecting another teacher, it is rejecting the fulfillment of everything God had promised throughout Israel's history.

Peter’s last line is the most telling. Verse 26 God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.”

Saving faith is inseparable from repentance. It is the beginning of a completely changed life.

Any gospel that leaves out personal responsibility and culpability before a righteous God is a compromised gospel.

Any gospel that leaves out repentance and turning away from sin is a compromised gospel.

Any gospel that leaves out evidence of life change as indication of salvation is a compromised gospel.

If we are going to be faithful witnesses, it begins with proclaiming and uncompromised gospel. The second characteristic is…

II. Faithful Witness Chooses Courage Over Comfort

Let’s pick up in chapter 4, verse 1.

Acts 4:1–4 ESV

1 And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, 2greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. 3 And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. 4 But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.

Can we just imagine for a moment, the roller coaster of emotions that Peter and John must be going through? In the name of Jesus, they heal a man who is over forty years old, presumable crippled for most if not all of his life, he has gotten to do what he has not been allowed to do before and actually come into the temple on his own two feet. They proclaim Jesus in an uncompromising way and must have seen that some in the crowd were intently listening, and then right as they seem to be in the best possible place to advance the kingdom of God, they are arrested and placed in custody.

Just a little first century background. The Jewish religious group known as the Sadducees only accepted the first five books of Moses and therefore rejected resurrection of the body and an afterlife. We know that we don’t have all of what Peter says, because they are annoyed, that is worked up and offended, because they were proclaiming and teaching the resurrection from the dead in Jesus. They wanted the people to know that the hope that is found in Jesus is not just for this world, but is everlasting.

This brings them into direct opposition with a large number of the religious leaders, and the fact that they are proclaiming it in Jesus’ name, adds fuel to the fire of opposition.

While it is not our main point today, don’t miss Luke’s commentary in verse 4. Many of those who had heard the word believed. If this is Luke continuing to count the advancement of the church, then the 120 have become 3000 or so and now the believers number over 5,000 men, not including the women and any believing children. Even when we face opposition, God uses the faithful proclamation of His gospel to bring men and women into a saving knowledge of Christ.

In our narrative we have both those who are offended by the message and those who are convicted by it. It is the same way today.

But what happens, when we are challenged and threatened concerning our message?

After spending a night in prison, the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling religious council, along with the High priest and all of the high-priestly family gather to question Peter and John. Their initial question is this, verse 7 “By what power or by what name did you do this?”

For a Jew there was no higher court or prestigious position. Here stands a fishermen. It would be like one of us good ole East Texas boys being brought before congress with the president of the United States there. If there was ever a moment to soften the message, if there was ever a temptation to go along to get along. This would be it. What does Peter say?

Acts 4:8–12 ESV

8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, 9 if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, 10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. 11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Same message, same gospel.

His listener’s guilt, the vindication of who Jesus was by the resurrection, and the centrality of Jesus for salvation.

The Sanhedrin are stunned.

Luke tells us that the man who was healed was with them and the council knew that they couldn’t refute what Peter had said, so they sent the men out to confer among themselves.

As a side note, one of the most beautiful statements is in verse 13. Acts 4:13 “13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.”

It wasn’t lost on them that the last time they saw this kind of boldness and passion was in the person of Jesus Christ. This may have been the moment that the Sanhedrin realized that rather than silencing Jesus by putting him to death, they had only spurred on the kingdom he was establishing.

So they bring them back in and charge them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.

This is a court issued order to stop sharing the gospel.

The Sanhedrin isn’t concerned with debating theology, they are applying pressure. Stop speaking. That is still the pressure today.

Stop speaking or have your reputation harmed… stop speaking or have your career ended… stop speaking or be canceled… stop speaking or you won’t be invited to family get together’s anymore.

Maybe soon, it may be stop speaking or risk being charged with a hate crime.

We’re closer than you might think.

How can we have courage in the face of this pressure?

We must remember not to fear man but God. Peter and John say, “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.”

Christ had commanded them to be witnesses and they wouldn’t stop simply because it had gotten uncomfortable.

What about you?

What level of threat to your comfort would it take to keep you silent?

As we see from Peter and John a faithful witness chooses courage over comfort.

This brings us to our next characteristic.

III. Faithful Witness Depends Upon God in Prayer

When they were ultimately released, they returned to the church and reported what happened.

We might be tempted to think that the church would be fearful. I am sure that these threats were given for that very purpose. But Luke tells us the church had a different response.

They didn’t hold a meeting to discuss the pros and cons of listening to the Sanhedrin. They didn’t start strategizing on how to overcome this challenge. They prayed.

With one voice they lifted their collective voice to God. Let’s look at their prayer a little more closely.

Acts 4:23–30 ESV

23 When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. 24 And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, 25 who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, “ ‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? 26 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’— 27 for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. 29 And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, 30 while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

Notice how they begin.

Sovereign Lord- the idea is here is master. The translators of the ESV chose sovereign Lord to represent this idea of God being in complete control, the master of everything.

It is easy to see in most translations that part of their prayer in verses 25 and 26 are from scripture, but don’t miss that their very description of God comes from his own word. ‘who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them’

This is a quote from Psalm 146, where we find.

English Standard Version Psalm 146

5  Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God, 6  who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them,

This Psalm contrasts trusting in man and trusting in God.

From there they use God’s word to describe their current situation using Psalm 2.

They see fulfilment of the foolishness described in Psalm 2 of setting oneself against the Lord’s anointed, apply it to the Sanhedrin’s rejection of Christ, which included them aligning themselves with the gentiles to have him executed.

All of this prefaces their petition.

In a similar situation we might be tempted to ask God to remove the threat, to deal with those who threaten us, but notice what the early church prays.

Give us boldness to continue to speak your word in relation to their pressure and threats. Continue to heal and miraculously work through the name of Jesus.

The early church understood that they could never face the pressure coming from the Sanhedrin apart from the power of God. In the same way we will never be able to face the pressure coming from those who oppose Christ apart from the power of God, and prayer is the vehicle by which we access that power.

That’s one of the reasons we articulated our value as pursuing Christ’s power through prayer and the word. Two of the foundations we see the early church standing on in the midst of opposition.

We see God immediately answer their prayer, shaking the place they were gathered in, filling them with the Holy Spirit, and then Luke tells us the outcome of this, they continued speaking the word of God with boldness.

The early church through dependence on God refused to be silenced, choosing courage over comfort. This brings us to our last characteristic.

IV. Faithful Witness Trusts God to Advance His Church

I think we naturally think of opposition or pressure as a hinderance to the advancement of the gospel and the kingdom of God. We think if we just had more freedom to proclaim Christ in schools, if we could just get the ten commandments back in the court houses, if we could just get prayer back in the public arena.

The reality is that to be faithful witnesses we don’t need less pressure, we just need to be faithful, trusting that God will continue to use the proclamation of his word to advance his church.

Just listen to Luke’s description of the church in the midst of this pressure.

Acts 4:32–37 ESV

32 Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. 33 And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. 34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold 35 and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. 36 Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, 37 sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

The church became even more unified around Christ.

The church became even more loving toward one another.

The church became even more concerned with caring for one another’s needs.

It is not the absence of pressure that allows the church to grow, it is often the pressure that causes the church to flourish.

Throughout history, the church’s brightest moments have been in the midst of some of the worst persecution.

Acts repeatedly shows when persecution gets bad enough it scatters believers. But the scattered believers don’t stop proclaiming the gospel, they spread it.

The opposition never stops the mission, it accelerates it.

The early church was so unbothered by the pressure that many of them literally sold their possessions in order to take care of their brothers and sisters. That’s trust.

This record of Luke, especially of naming Barnabas as selling a field and bringing the money to the apostles, actually sets the stage for next week when we look at the importance of purity in being a disciple-making church. But for now, I just want us to see the radical trust the church had that God was in sovereign and in control.

Four characteristics of a faithful witness. Of individuals and of a church.

They proclaim an uncompromised gospel, they choose courage over comfort, they depend on God in prayer, and they trust God to advance his church.

These are not innovative methods.

They are ordinary acts of faithfulness performed by people whose lives have been transformed by an extraordinary Savior.

A group of believers who have been radically transformed by Christ, and who are serious about the mission of the church.

If we are going to continue to become the disciple-making people I believe God is forming us into, we need to understand that it will bring pressure.

We see this pressure coming from the Sanhedrin in our narrative, but they actually represent three distinct areas of opposition pretty well.

We will experience pressure culturally. The Jews did not want anymore disturbance from this uprising of Christians so they pressured them to stop disrupting society.

We will experience pressure politically. This was the ruling class of the Jews and they realized that Christians threatened their system of power so they pressured them to stop proclaiming Jesus’ name.

We will experience pressure religiously. This court was supposed to be the religious center of Jewish life and yet teaching about Jesus and his resurrection made them uncomfortable, so they pressured them to stop teaching in his name.

Our pressure may look different, but it will come from the same arenas of life. Culturally, politically, and religiously.

Some of us will feel that pressure at work.

Some at school.

Some around the family dinner table.

Some even among people who claim Christ.

The question is not whether we will experience this kind of pressure, it is whether we will be faithful witnesses when we do. May God grant us the boldness and courage to continue to speak His word with all boldness.

Let us pray.