Acts 4:18-28

18 And they called them [back] [and] commanded [them] not to speak or to teach at all in the name of Jesus.

19 But Peter and John answered [and] said to them, "Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than God, you decide!

20 For we are not able to refrain from speaking about [the things] that we have seen and heard."

21 So [after] threatening [them] further, they released them, finding no way to punish them on account of the people, because they were all praising God for what had happened.

22 For the man on whom this sign of healing had been performed was more [than] forty years [old].

The Believers Pray for Continued Bold Witness

23 And [when they] were released, they went to their own [people] and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them.

24 And [when they] heard [it], they lifted [their] voices with one mind to God and said, "Master, you [are] the one who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all the things in them,

25 the one who said by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of our father David, your servant, 'Why do the nations rage, and the peoples conspire in vain?

26 The kings of the earth stood opposed, and the rulers assembled together at the same [place], against the Lord and against his Christ.'

27 For in truth both Herod and Pontius Pilate, together with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, assembled together in this city against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed,

28 to do all that your hand and plan had predestined to take place.