The New Testament was soaring. It was growing at a phenomenal rate. Miracles are taking place. Satan had tried to stop the Church on the inside. (Acts 5:1-11) Satan now tries to stop the Church on the outside. The religious leaders try to slow things down by putting the leaders in prison.

1 – They are set free by a miracle (vs. 17-26)

They are put in prison by the word of the High Priest. If you live for God you will be persecuted. See 2 Timothy 3:12 and Matthew 5:10-12. It is coming. They want to stop the church from growing. They are jealous. They wanted the crowds around them! The apostles are in prison but you would have thought they were in church. Prison bars cannot stop what God is doing in the world.

They are liberated by an angel. The Sadducees did not believe in angels, so God sends an angel to free them. How did God do it? What happened to the guards? We are not told how they escaped without the knowledge of the guards. The religious leaders and guards are amazed that they have escaped. (vs. 22-25). What kind of prison are you in today? God can bring you out.

God does not tell them to go home and hide. They are to go back and do what they were doing when they were arrested. They were to speak the words of life. Only the Christian message has the words of life as they come from the Prince of Life. They were preaching Jesus.

The religious leaders have their meeting in the morning and they ask for the prisoners. The locks and guards are still there but the prisoners are gone! Everything was normal. When they opened the cell door the prisoners were gone. Where were they? They were out preaching the Word of God to a crowd! The jail could not hold them.

The captain brings them before the council without using violence. They accuse the Apostles of disobeying their command to not teach “in this name”. They cannot even bear to say the name of Jesus. Such is their hatred. They were supposed to “sit down and shut up!” They had filled the city with their doctrine. This is what Jesus had told them to do! Wouldn’t it be good if we could be accused if that in our own city or town. It would be something you would want to be guilty of doing.

The church is not some social club. We meet together to preach the Word of God. We are to fill our area with the doctrine of Jesus – not Baptist, Methodist or Catholic.

They did not want to know how they got out of prison. They knew God was with them!

2 – They are set free by a mandate (vs. 29)

They were to obey God rather than man. They were bold. They served a higher power than the Sanhedrin! God had given them a mandate. They could put that in their pipe and smoke it! God should come first in our lives. We serve a higher power.

We are to make disciples. We are to allow the Holy Spirit to control our lives. We are to walk in the Spirit rather than the flesh. We are to never to look back. We are to walk and not give up. We are to ask God for our daily blessings. Our mandate is also to trust God, no matter what the circumstances. We are not to lean to our own understanding. We are to dare to be different. We are to be bold in the Lord. We are to be a witness.

3 – They were set free by a message (vs. 30-32)

The only person we have to preach about is Jesus. That is our message! Jesus is the only person we have to preach about, sing about and pray about. God has raised up Jesus who was crucified with help from the religious leaders. Jesus was not left on the cross or in the tomb. God exalted Jesus to the right hand of God. He is the Prince and Saviour!

We are part of God’s programme. (vs. 32) We are to be witnesses in the world. We are to take the message of life. People are dying and going to Hell. God has given us power through the Holy Spirit. We do not have to deal with things on our own. We can have power from the Holy Spirit. God gives power to those who obey Him.

Categories: Acts