No Other Name: Finding Courage in the Face of Opposition
Edited directly from the sermon transcript of Matthew Miller’s message at Highland Hills Church of Christ on February 22, 2026. Adapted for length and readability while preserving his voice and message.
Fire does not diminish by being divided. It keeps growing. As a blaze spreads through a forest, even people far away notice the smoke on the horizon. Eventually someone responds and tries to put it out. In a forest fire, we are thankful for those people. But Acts gives us another kind of fire: the fire of the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit has come upon the apostles. Thousands hear the message of Jesus, believe, and begin following him. People are healed, and the gospel spreads. In Acts 4, others see the smoke on the horizon and try to stop it.
When Jesus truly changes lives, it draws attention and forces a decision. Here we see the first picture of faithfulness costing something. The growing church now encounters opposition.
Peter and John are speaking to the people when the priests, temple captain, and Sadducees come upon them. They are disturbed by the apostles’ proclamation of resurrection in Jesus and place them in custody. Yet many who hear the word believe.
The next day, the rulers and elders bring the apostles before them and ask by what power or name they have healed the man. Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, answers plainly: the man stands whole by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom they crucified and whom God raised from the dead.
Peter calls Jesus the rejected stone that has become the cornerstone. There is salvation in no other name.
The council sees Peter and John’s boldness. They regard them as untrained men, yet recognize that they have been with Jesus. The healed man stands beside them, and they cannot deny what has happened. So they command the apostles to stop speaking and teaching in Jesus’s name.
Peter and John reply that the council must judge whether it is right to listen to them rather than God. As for the apostles, they cannot stop speaking of what they have seen and heard. After further threats, they are released.
Luke is pulling back the curtain on the earliest church. We have seen remarkable signs, people hearing the apostles in their own languages at Pentecost, and thousands coming to Jesus. Now we see organized resistance, though the authorities themselves are unsure how to respond.
They had hoped this movement would disappear. Instead, Jesus’s followers are proclaiming him with courage and conviction. The question concerns authority. What happens to the temple leaders’ control when people follow Jesus as Messiah?
Peter and John have done nothing wrong. They are participating in God’s work, proclaiming Jesus and bringing healing. Yet their witness creates a collision of kingdoms: Who holds ultimate authority?
The Sadducees do not believe in resurrection, so there is a theological conflict too. But the healed man presents them with a reality they cannot explain away. Their response is an attempt to preserve power by silencing Jesus’s name.
Jesus had already prepared his followers for resistance. Think of his first sermon recorded in Luke 4. He reads from Isaiah, speaks of its fulfillment, and people try to throw him over a cliff. Please don’t throw me over a cliff at the end of this message. But that kind of truth reaches the heart and demands a response.
Jesus also spoke of blessing when people persecuted his followers for his sake. That is not something we usually put in our gratitude column. Yet he was preparing them for what would come. Opposition cannot finally restrain what God has ordained.
Look at Peter’s transformation. The last time we saw him being questioned about Jesus, he denied knowing him. He pulled back in fear. Jesus later restored him and called him to care for his sheep.
Now Peter faces another opportunity, with higher stakes. He stands before the kind of council that condemned Jesus. He knows what they are capable of doing. These may be the same authorities, but this is a different Peter.
The key is in verse 8: Peter is filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus had promised the Spirit’s help, counsel, and leading. Peter speaks from that place, and the name he speaks is Jesus.
He knows saying that name could cost his life. Yet he identifies Jesus directly, including the truth that they crucified him. The Spirit gives courage as we stand faithfully in the face of opposition.
Verse 13 is one of the most powerful moments in Acts. The rulers marvel at Peter and John and realize that they have been with Jesus. They are trying to silence these men, but they recognize something distinct about them.
We also face pressure to be silent about Jesus. It may be more subtle than this. Our courage is tested. When people encounter us, can they recognize that we have been with him? That is what our lives should show.
The apostles’ response is straightforward. They know what they have experienced and who Jesus is. They will keep speaking. The authorities threaten them again, but when they leave, they continue telling people about Jesus.
Faithfulness requires a decision. Opposition can come through our own doubts or the conflict between the flesh and the Spirit. It can come through people close to us, our workplace, our friendships, or the messages of the world. It can be subtle and deceptive. It works to silence us.
When we say yes to Jesus, we decide to be faithful, and that is the decision from which we live. God is at work here through the opposition itself. In the face of fear, the apostles proclaim by their lives that Jesus reigns and is their Lord.
These pressures give us opportunities to practice the Spirit-filled life. Following Jesus does not mean going out to provoke conflict or waving a Bible in someone’s face hoping for trouble. It means continuing faithfully when resistance comes.
This passage asks who holds ultimate authority in our lives. Fear of rejection, awkwardness, relational strain, or professional consequences can seem to claim authority over us. Those pressures are real. But who is truly sovereign?
Obedience is tested when it becomes costly. Thomas à Kempis, in The Imitation of Christ, writes about how readily people seek Jesus’s comfort and kingdom, and how much harder it is to bear his cross. Many follow while life is easy. Pure love continues praising him through trial as well as consolation.
I value that challenge because it is true, and I struggle when I recognize my own failures before it. Peter and John demonstrate that kind of love. They cannot know what the council will do. Saying yes to Jesus may mean losing the rest of their earthly lives, yet they continue.
What next step can we take? This week, choose obedience to Christ over fear of others. It is simple to say and not always easy to do.
Will we follow Jesus only when it is safe, comfortable, and convenient? Or will we keep saying yes when opposition comes?
Jesus gave his life so that we could have abundant life, now and eternally. He invites us to place our lives in his care and under his rule, loved by the one who will never let us go.
