The Gospel Cannot Be Locked Down

The Gospel Cannot be Locked Down

Acts 5:17-25

In last week’s text, we saw the great signs and wonders which were performed by the Holy Spirit through the Apostles in Jesus’ name. Huge numbers of those who were healed or had demons cast out must have been overjoyed just like the crowds who were healed by Jesus. In this, the Apostles were continuing the ministry that Jesus began to do and teach. (Acts 1:1) But not everyone was glad. Just as the Pharisees were indignant over Jesus’ healing, here the sect of the Sadducees which controlled the Temple grounds were indignant that these works were being done on their turf. They were especially annoyed that they had commanded Peter and John not to preach, teach, or do anything in the name of Jesus. And here they were, The apostles were not going to be intimidated out of preaching and performing signs and wonders, even in the Temple. These were the same Apostles who locked themselves down out of fear of the Jews on Easter Sunday morning. Now they would not let the ministry of the Gospel be locked down by men.

So the authorities laid hands on the Apostles and put them in lock down in the prison while they devised their strategy of what to do with them. The Sadducees were mad enough to have them killed, but there would be no illegal night trial to dispose of them. They thought the matter could wait until morning when the Sanhedrin could be assembled. What could go wrong? All the apostles had been safely locked down in the common prison. As long as they were there, the Gospel was effectively silenced.

It makes me wonder that the Sadducees should have been so smug, considering all the mighty signs and wonders which the apostles were publicly performing. They thought that the Temple was safe from these preachers of the Gospel. But God had other plans. God will not allow the message to be quarantined in a jail cell. The angel of the Lord came in the middle of the night and freed them without unlocking the door. We wonder how Jesus bodily entered through locked doors to where the disciples were locked down for fear of the Jews. Now it seems that the Apostles escaped the room by passing out of the cell. The angel commanded the freed men to return to the Temple and preach the Gospel, the words of life. This they did, and in the morning they continued to teach the people.

The Jewish leaders were totally unaware of the release of the Apostles. they were equally unaware that they were already back at Solomon’s Porch at the Temple. This shows how little they cared about the oversight of the place. Many of the priests ran through the motions of performing the morning and evening sacrifices so they could get to the theater or the gym ( a place where they exercised naked as Gymnasium comes from the Greek word for “naked.”). The Sadducees were more interested in Pagan culture than adherence to Judaism. But they had to do something about the Apostles, so they convened a council and ordered the prisoners to be brought. What a shock must have ensued when they opened the locked door which was the only way in and out of the cell. The Apostles were gone. the servants rushed back to tell the High Priest and the council. When it was made known that they had escaped even though the guards were posted and the doors locked, they were greatly perplexed about the implications. Luke uses the Greek optative case translated “what this might be.” It is an intensive case which shows that they profoundly were disturbed over this. Yet they could not admit that this was the work of Yahweh. the natural thing to conclude is that the guards colluded with the prisoners to release them. However, the punishment of neglecting one’s guard-ship subjected the guards to the punishment that would have been meted out to the Apostles would fall on them instead, They could even be executed. The soldiers who guarded the tomb of Jesus where His dead body was assumed to be safely locked down had to be saved by money from the priests before Pilate and told to say that the disciples stole the body at night (Matthew 28:11-15). The body of Jesus could not be locked down in the grave! And the Jewish leaders were just as blind to reality here. Unbelief brings derangement syndrome. Paul refers to this idea of being handed over to a deranged mind three times in the first chapter of Romans. One can also see that in Acts 12:19 that Herod had the guards executed who had watched over Peter had escaped. The Philippian jailor who saw that open prison doors after the earthquake knew the implications and took a sword to kill himself, He was saved by Paul telling him that no one had escaped (Acts 16-27-28).