The Jewish Council “conferred among themselves” in all their collective wisdom, “What shall we do to these men?” (Acts 4:15-16). These were some of the wisest men in that age, especially regarding religious matters. They were conferring among themselves to determine what to do with and to the apostles who had been preaching and doing the works of the Lord. Here’s what the collective wisdom decided: “So that it spreads no further among the people, let us severely threaten them…” (4:17). Their brilliant solution to keep the message and work of the Lord from spreading was to threaten them. Let’s see how that worked out for them.
“Then the word of God spread” (Acts 6:7). Yep, that 
threatening really worked. “And the word of the Lord was being spread throughout all the region” (Acts 13:49). Yep, the threatening sure stopped the spread of the gospel, didn’t it?
We live in a day when Christians and Christianity are being threatened. Will the threatening stop the spread of the gospel? Only if the spreaders stop spreading!