17But the high priest rose up, along with all his associates (that is the sect of the Sadducees), and they were filled with jealousy. 18They laid hands on the apostles and put them in a public jail. 19But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the gates of the prison, and taking them out he said, 20“Go, stand and speak to the people in the temple the whole message of this Life.” 21Upon hearing this, they entered into the temple about daybreak and began to teach . . .
The Christian movement was picking up momentum, and the religious leaders did not like it one bit! On the Day of Pentecost three thousand were saved (Acts 2:41), and it continued to grow (Acts 2:47). After the miraculous healing of the lame man, the second recorded sermon of Peter, and then the attempted suppression by the religious leaders, the number of believers grew to five thousand (Acts 4:4). Now, after the judgment of Ananias and Sapphira and the resulting fear of the Lord, followed by an outpouring of apostolic miracles, Luke stops counting and records, “And all the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women, were constantly added to their number” (Acts 5:14).
Just as leaders today become jealous when someone else gains a greater following, such was the case with the high priest and his cronies, the Sadducees—the religious-political group noted for its rejection of belief in a resurrection. Clearly, they took theological issue with the preaching that Christ had arisen, but they were also motivated by the perceived threat to their influence. The high priest resorted to physical force and jailed the apostles.
But God was behind this movement, so He sent angelic help. Luke’s research points to God using angels a number of times to provide protection or guidance in the expansion of the church (for Peter both here and in Acts 12, the Roman centurion Cornelius in Acts 10, and Paul in Acts 27:23). Nothing was going to stop the movement of preaching the gospel!
Rather than coddling the apostles, God commands them to go right back out into the firing line, so to speak. They were to continue publicly in the temple, not holding back but preaching “the whole message of this Life,” which we understand to be the life of the risen Christ. And that is what they did, not hesitantly but boldly.
The gospel could not have grown so rapidly and broadly had the apostles not led the way in boldness, despite threats to their lives. They knew whom they served, and they were faithful to the truth. God continued to confirm them with supernatural help and miraculous powers. For them, their mission to spread the Word was all-encompassing.
Lord, I confess the trinkets of this world have clouded Your mission in my eyes.
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