Good News vs. Propaganda

SCRIPTURE:
Acts 4:12, 17 NLT - There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved." ... But to keep them from spreading their propaganda any further, we must warn them not to speak to anyone in Jesus' name again."

OBSERVATION:
Acts chapter 4 continues the account of the man who was formerly lame and healed. Later in this chapter, we learn that he had been lame for more than forty years (v. 22). We aren’t told whether this was from birth—though it could have been—or whether a later event caused his condition. Either way, he was completely healed in an instant. His life changed forever.

After hearing about this miracle, we are told that the religious leaders disapproved. It seemed eerily familiar—something had to be done.

Acts 4:1-3 NLT - While Peter and John were speaking to the people, they were confronted by the priests, the captain of the Temple guard, and some of the Sadducees. These leaders were very disturbed that Peter and John were teaching the people that through Jesus there is a resurrection of the dead. They arrested them and, since it was already evening, put them in jail until morning.

In the religious leaders’ minds, this was “propaganda.” Where was the proof? They weren’t interested in the proof literally standing before them—the man they had passed by for forty years—but in the proof of Jesus’ resurrection. In their minds, unless they saw Jesus, it was propaganda. In reality, it wasn’t propaganda at all—it was Good News.

Peter, filled with the Spirit, began to speak. The religious leaders soon realized something was different about these two men—especially Peter. The Spirit-filled Peter was drastically different from the man Peter had been. Though they recognized that he and John were “uneducated,” meaning not formally trained in the Scriptures, they also recognized that they had been with Jesus.

What they perceived as untrained was actually the key to their success—and it should be ours, too:

1. Uneducated – They had not been burdened by the “religious traditions” of their day. They knew only the way of Jesus, for He had “educated” them in the ways of the Kingdom of God.
2. They had been with Jesus – When we spend time with Him, people notice. We become like Him, and others will say, “They have been with Him.”

Peter then delivered one of the shortest yet greatest sermons to these “religious” leaders—something they should have known well:

Acts 4:12 NLT - There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved."

APPLICATION:
When does propaganda become Good News?

It happens when that which is seen as “information—especially of a biased or misleading nature—used to promote a particular cause, doctrine, or point of view,” becomes truth.

The religious leaders used the same word to describe the Good News, yet they refused to accept the truth, the testimony, or the transformation of the man standing before them.
Jesus even said to John the Baptist during his moment of doubt:

Luke 7:22 NLT - …"Go back to John and tell him what you have seen and heard--the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor.

May we continue to do what the religious leaders accused Peter, John, and the Disciples of “propaganda” becomes an undeniable truth?

Acts 4:13 NLT - …They could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus.

Let your life be a testimony to God. Be a trophy of His grace so that all who know and see you will recognize the change.

Acts 4:12 NLT - There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved."

PRAYER:
Jesus, thank You for saving me—one who was lost but now found, one who was lame but now made whole, one who was dead but now alive. May my testimony be a trophy of Your grace! May my life be seen not as “propaganda” but as Good News.