²¹ . . . Now when the high priest and his associates came, they called the Council together, even all the Senate of the sons of Israel, and sent orders to the prison house for them to be brought. ²²But the officers who came did not find them in the prison; and they returned and reported back, ²³saying, “We found the prison house locked quite securely and the guards standing at the doors; but when we had opened up, we found no one inside.” ²⁴Now when the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests heard these words, they were greatly perplexed about them as to what would come of this. ²⁵But someone came and reported to them, “The men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people!” ²⁶Then the captain went along with the officers and proceeded to bring them back without violence (for they were afraid of the people, that they might be stoned).

We can only surmise how Luke came upon the details in this part of the story. Of course, the Holy Spirit was inspiring him as he wrote, but the Spirit must also have guided his meticulous research for this book (see Luke 1:1–4, Acts 1:2). It does not seem to be on the Jewish leaders’ minds to keep private their conversation with the officers sent to fetch the apostles out of jail. “Leaks to the press” would have been as commonplace then as they are today.

Luke preserves a notable amount of detail in this account. The description of the miracle itself, where God had an angel open the jailhouse doors, is remarkably brief compared to the details of the Sanhedrin’s response and interaction with the apostles. The issue in Luke’s mind is the escalation of the apostolic message to the highest religious-political authorities in Israel, the Sanhedrin (translated here as “the Council”), which Luke also calls “the Senate.” For the Sanhedrin too, the issue was not the miracle but the message—and the apostles’ defiance. The high priest now commandeers the “big guns” to terminate the message and the movement, but intimidating its leaders is proving not so easy.

The scene at the jail totally confounded the authorities. All was as it should have been, secured and locked, but no Peter and John! Before any conclusions could be drawn, a report came that the two were back in the temple teaching the same message as before! So the Jewish authorities did the only thing they knew to do: haul Peter and John back to threaten them again. But they did not use force, because as Luke points out, the officers now perceived the movement was large enough that it could physically resist. Clearly the movement was proving impossible to stop, for God was on the move, with the apostles leading the way.

Lord, I pray for Christians worldwide who are being opposed for the faith.