Formula to Navigate Cancel Culture - Acts 3-4

 Acts 4:18-20 (ESV)

So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”

In the world we live in in 2022 we are learning and being conditioned to be careful what we see.  The “cancel culture” is in full swing and anyone who makes a statement that is deemed my a small, but very verbal, minority as inappropriate and/or not politically correct, will be canceled.   Imagine such a time like this being exercised and practiced in the beginning days of the early church.   In the above passage we have Peter’s guiding principle about what to speak and when to speak in front of the powers that be.  His conclusion was that what they had seen and heard about Christ must and will be proclaimed.  His conclusion to a difficult situation in front of the “powers” was easy:  We cannot but speak what we havre seen and heard!   They had seen and heard Jesus resurrected from the dead.  How much more would you need to do what they had done.  The reason Peter was in this situation of having to explain to the religious leaders of the day (the power brokers) was that he acted on Jesus’ teaching and power.  At the beginning of chapter three of Acts, Peter and John were headed to teach those who had come to Christ already. On their way they are confronted by a homeless man who could not walk.  Peter takes this occasion to speak to the man and tell him to raise up and walk.  The man does and here is where we are.  The religious leaders did not like that Peter and John had headed this man in the “name of Jesus,” who they say was raised from the dead.  The religious leaders did not care about this man at all.  He had been sitting along side the road of a long time.  They had done nothing for him.   Peter and John did.  But, this is the point.   They not only healed his body they brought him into a relationship with Christ.   This was going to be their mission until death.   How would they complete this mission?  By speaking what they had seen and heard from Christ.  That is a good formula to navigate the world of cancel culture and wokism.