24
Acts
Introduction:
God
has not promised that if one will get saved he will not have any more
trouble in this life. Neither has God promised that if a saved
person will
dedicate himself to God and seek to live
right that he will have no more
troubles in this life. But He has promised to be with His people and
to help
them in their times of trouble.
In
our previous texts we saw that it was doing the will of God in the
healing of the lame man that got the
Apostles Peter and John into trouble with
the Sanhedrin Council. They had been arrested and ordered not to
teach or even
speak in the name of Jesus any more.
In
our text today we will see all twelve of the apostles get into trouble
and they were not in trouble because of
any wrong doing on their part. Rather
it was because they were doing the work
which God had assigned to them to do.
All twelve of the apostles were used of
God in the healing of many sick and
afflicted people who were brought to them
by the people of
they healed, the more the people
brought. Their fame began to spread to
other
cities and villages and great crowds of
people came to them from the cities and
villages around
This
was a great thing. It did a great amount
of good to the people and
it brought a great amount of honor and
praise to God. But it did get the
apostles in trouble ---again.
I.
An angry enemy
V.
17, Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him,
(which is the sect of the Sadducees,) and
were filled with indignation.”
Although what the apostles were doing was
a good thing, it did not please
everybody.
In fact, it made some people very angry.
It seems that the
Sadducees were the ones whose anger had
been stirred the most. What angered the
Sadducees the most was that the apostles
were telling everybody that Jesus is
the Christ and that Jesus had arisen from
the dead. They were bitterly opposed
to the idea that anybody had risen from
the dead. They did not believe that
anybody ever had risen from the dead or
that anybody would ever arise from the
dead.
They most certainly did not believe that Jesus had arisen from the
dead.
To believe that Jesus had arisen from the
dead would indicate that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of the Living God and they
most certainly did not believe that.
They refused to believe that Jesus is the
Son of God.
It
angered the Sadducees that the healing of the sick and the afflicted at
the hands of the apostles was persuading
many people that Jesus had arisen from
the dead, that Jesus is the Christ whom
the prophets of old had promised and
that Jesus is the very Son of God the
Savior of men. This the Sadducees just
absolutely refused to believe. No amount of evidence would persuade
them. No
matter how many people were miraculously
healed, they refused to take this as
evidence that what these apostles were
saying about Jesus was true.
You
will note that when the Sadducees came to arrest the apostles they
brought with them the high priest. The high priest had not been involved in the
arrest of
Peter and John back in chapter 4.
He had been involved in their
trial, but not in their arrest. However, now the Sadducees brought with them
the high priest.
The
presence of the high priest provided a measure of safety for them.
The only reason they had not already put a
stop to the miraculous healing and
teaching in the name of Jesus is that they
were afraid of the great masses of
people with whom the apostles were very
popular at this time. They were afraid
that they would be mobbed and torn limb
from limb. But they were confident that
the people would not do violence to the
high priest nor to them as long as they
had the high priest with them.
II.
Arrested & then set free
V.
18, “And laid their hands on the apostles, and put them in the common
prison.”
The apostles had been laying their hands on the sick and afflicted
and the sick and afflicted were
healed. But now the Sadducees lay hands
on the
apostles and they are arrested. They are arrested because of the good that
they
had been doing.
V.
19, “But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and
brought them forth, and said.” You will note that the angel of the Lord did
not
interfere when the apostles were
arrested. He did not prevent them from
being
arrested.
Nor did he interfere when they were thrown into the prison and the
doors were locked behind them. He did not interfere as long as the daylight
hours lasted. He waited until the darkness of night was
upon them and then he
came and opened the doors of the prison
and let the apostles out.
Now
why? Why did he not just prevent them
from being arrested? Why did
he allow them to be arrested? Surely he could have, but he didn’t. Then why
did he not at least come during the
daylight hours and overcome the jailers and
open the doors and set the apostles free
in the day time? Surely he could have,
but he didn’t. Why?
It seems that the reason he did not come until the
darkness of night was that God did not
want their absence to be discovered until
morning.
God had a special work for them to do tomorrow morning and He wanted
it to be a surprise to the high priest and
the members of the Sanhedrin Council.
After
the apostles were released from the prison the angel of the Lord
spoke to them and informed them what the
Lord wanted them to do the following
morning.
V. 20, “Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words
of this life.” They were instructed to go into the temple
the next morning and
to explain to the people about
Christianity. Can you imagine such a
thing?
They would surely be arrested again. Why would the angel bother to come and get
them out of jail just to give them an
order that would get them thrown right
back in jail? I can almost imagine one of
those apostles turning to another and
saying, “Did I hear him right? Did he say that we are to go to the temple
and
preach tomorrow morning? Surely I must have heard him wrong!” But they all
heard the same thing and so it was. They were told to go right back to the
temple and to preach to the people.
I
want to call special attention to three words which the angel used in
this command. First, he said, “Go.” They were to go to the temple. This word,
go, is
the very same word which Jesus had used when He instructed His church to
carry the gospel message to the
unsaved. He said that they were to
go. They
were to go into all Jerusalem. They were to go into all Judea. They were to go
into all Samaria. They were to go into the uttermost parts of
the world. That
is the same instructions which the Lord
has given to each New Testament church
through the words of the Great
Commission.
Secondly,
he said, “Stand.” They were to stand in the temple so that they
could be seen and heard. This, also, is a word that is used in other
Scriptures
to instruct Christians in their work for
the Lord. They are to take a stand for
the truths of God which are taught in the
word of God. They are to stand in the
face of all opposition to truth. They are to stand even in the face of danger
to themselves. They are to stand and having done all to
stand.
Thirdly,
they are told to “Speak.” They were to
speak to the general
public which would come into the
temple. They were not told to speak to
the
members of the Sanhedrin Council, because
those people had closed their minds
and would not be receptive to their
message. But they were told to speak to
the
public because many of them would be
receptive to their word.
They
were even told what to speak. They were
to explain to the people
what the Christian way is all about. They were to tell about the Christ and His
desire to save the souls of lost
sinners. They were to tell that Jesus is
the
Christ --- that Jesus is the Savior of
men. They were to tell the people that
the way to be saved is by repenting of
their sin and trusting in Jesus Christ to
save their soul.
Unless
the people be told, they will not repent.
Unless they repent
they will not trust Jesus for salvation
and unless they trust Jesus as Savior
they will not be saved. Rom. 10:13-14, “For whosoever shall call upon the name
of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they
have
not believed? and how shall they believe
in him of whom they have not heard? and
how shall they hear without a
preacher?”
III.
Preaching in the temple again and a surprised Council
V.
21, “And when they heard [that], they entered into the temple early in
the morning, and taught...” Once the apostles understood what the Lord
wanted
them to do, there was no hesitancy on
their part. All twelve of them went to
the temple bright and early the next
morning. I think it is safe to say that
none of them had much sleep. The angel had come and released them from
prison
during the night. If they got to bed at all, it was well into
the night, but
they were up and ready to go to the temple
bright and early.
The
apostles were in the temple teaching before the Sanhedrin Council met
and before anyone on the Council knew that
they were out of prison. They were
there teaching to the people about
Christianity and about salvation.
(V.21),
“...But the high priest came, and they that were with him, and
called the council together, and all the
senate of the children of Israel, and
sent to the prison to have them
brought.” When the members of the
Sanhedrin
came together the first order of business
was to send to the prison for the
apostles.
They were all in for a surprise.
V.
22-23, “But when the officers came, and found them not in the prison,
they returned, and told, Saying, The
prison truly found we shut with all safety,
and the keepers standing without before
the doors: but when we had opened, we
found no man within.” Don’t you know that those officers hated to
return to the
Sanhedrin Council and give their
report? What could they say? All they could
do was to tell what they had seen. They related how that when they came to
prison they found the guards outside the
door. There was no indication that the
prisoners were gone. But when they opened the doors to look
inside, the
prisoners were gone. Not one of the apostles was to be found. I’m sure they
must have questioned the guards who were
at the doors and learned that they had
seen nobody going in or out. These officers had no explanation of how they
had
escaped out of the jail.
However,
the high priest and other officials of the Sanhedrin Council did
not need an explanation how the apostles
had gotten out of the prison. V.
24, “Now when the high priest and the
captain of the temple and the chief
priests heard these things, they doubted
of them whereunto this would grow.”
They just chalked it up to another
miracle. They did not wonder how they
had
gotten out. What they wondered was: How in the world were they would ever be
able to stop these Christians? Where would it all end? What I wonder is: Why
in the world did they not recognize the
hand of God at work among the apostles
and realize that by working against the
apostles they were working against God?
You would think that they would know by
now that Jesus is the Son of God and
that they were fighting a loosing battle
by opposing the apostles. How blind
can people be?
Before
the members of the Sanhedrin could get over the shock of finding
the prisoners gone, there came another
shock. V. 25, “Then came one and told
them, saying, Behold, the men whom ye put
in prison are standing in the temple,
and teaching the people.”
To
the leaders of the Sanhedrin it must have been an exasperating
experience. But to the apostles, it must have been an
exciting experience. I
feel surely they were having a good
time. They were getting to witness to a
great crowd of people who were very
enthusiastic about hearing their word,
people were coming under conviction of the
Holy Spirit and souls were being
saved.
What more could they ask?
IV.
Arrested again
V.
26, “Then went the captain with the officers, and brought them without
violence: for they feared the people, lest
they should have been stoned.” The
Sanhedrin Council sent after them again to
place them under arrest again. But
this time the high priest did not go with
the officers. He may have been afraid
to go.
The officers who went were most certainly afraid to go. They were
afraid that the great masses of people who
were listening to the apostles would
stone them.
I
note that Luke said that they arrested them without violence. This was
a rare thing. Those officers always liked to make a show of
power when they
made an arrest. But they did not do so this time. Instead they approached the
apostles and asked them kindly if they
would to come along with them to the
Council meeting. I think that by this time the apostles
themselves were not
afraid even in the least. By this time they knew that God was with them
and
nothing would happen to them except what
God was willing to allow to happen to
them.
These were men were a lot braver now than they had been at any time of
the past.
Now
listen to me. That same God watches over
us in all of our trouble.
Nothing that happens to us catches God by
surprise. That same God who was
with those apostles to help them in their
trouble is with us in our trouble.
The
angels of God have been sent to help us.
We never see the angels
which minister to us and help us, but we
can be sure that they are present.
God
is able to help us in the worst of circumstances. Nothing is too hard
for God to handle. Those prison guards, those jail doors, those
viscous
Council members were not too much for God
to handle. God can help us in any
situation.
God can help us in the storms of life.
God can help us in times of
accidents.
God can help us in our times of bereavement at the loss of a loved
one.
God has not promised us that these trials of life would never come upon
us, but God has promised to be with us and
to help us.
As
we get deeper and deeper into the end-time events and closer and closer
to the time when the Anti-Christ will
bring such severe persecution on the
people of God, it is a great consolation
to know that God will be with His
people in that day to help them.
Conclusion:
Let
the unsaved learn to trust the Lord Jesus Christ with the greatest
problem of all. Let him trust Jesus to take care of his
eternal destiny. Let
him trust Jesus to keep him out of the
fires of hell and to take him to heaven.
Let
us who are saved trust the Lord to help us in all of our problems in
this life.
Let us also learn to work for Him and to witness for Him in every
situation.