Acts 4:14 And beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it. I. THE MOUTHS OF THE RULERS WERE CLOSED. They could say nothing against the miracle — 1. As a fact. There was the man; that he was lame, that he now walked they all knew. There are equally incontrovertible facts to-day. Men are sober who were once drunkards, honest who were once thieves, and the enemy cannot deny it. 2. As blessed fact. Not a man amongst them but would have confessed that lameness was a misfortune, and the cure of it a blessing. Similarly when sceptics see lives, homes, circumstances transformed by the power of the gospel, they can say nothing against the blessedness of the transformation. II. THE MOUTHS OF THE RULERS SHOULD HAVE BEEN OPENED. If they could say nothing against the fact they ought to have said something for it. 1. They should have accounted for it. If they rejected the apostles' hypothesis of the cure they should have framed one more satisfactory. And so now. The blessed facts of moral healing have to be accounted for, and sceptics are bound logically to account for them. The process requires painstaking and honest research, and candour when the conclusion is reached. But no one has ever reached but one conclusion which will satisfy all the conditions of the case — the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 2. They should have been grateful for it and encouraged its repetition. However much it may have gone athwart their convictions, at least the sum of human misery was by so much reduced and the sum of human happiness augmented — why, then, net more? The Marquis of Queensberry candidly confessed his disbelief in Christianity, but he could not ignore the blessedness of its results, and so in logical consistency with the knowledge which should have upset his illogical unbelief contributed to General Booth's scheme. III. THE MOUTH OF THE RULERS WAS OPENED. 1. In secret confession of the truth of the fact (ver. 16). And there is much of this nowadays Not all of it is like that before us hypocritical. Many sceptics are privately convinced of the unsoundness of their position, and many heathen are secretly convinced of the truth of Christianity. Let us hope that both may come into the public light. But these rulers, like others to-day, "love darkness rather than light," etc. 2. In open prohibition of its repetition (ver. 18). What a result! Here were men objecting to other men being made healthy and happy. Why? Because it was done in an objectionable way. Let us not be surprised, for there are doctors who forbid the use of any remedies that are not in their pharmacopoeia, although the use of those remedies has been proved to be beneficial, and there are also Christians who forbid a certain style of preaching and preachers although they convert souls. 3. Ineffectually. The mouth of the rulers was opened to close those of the apostles, instead of which mouths which were open all along opened wider. (1) In emphatic and persistent testimony (vers. 19, 20). (2) In powerful and prevailing prayer (ver. 24, etc.). (J. W. Burn.) Parallel Verses KJV: And beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.WEB: Seeing the man who was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it. |
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