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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Acts 5:17 - 5:21
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The Imprisonment, Deliverance, and Defense of the Apostles.
Arrest and deliverance:
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,
v. 18. and laid their hands on the apostles, and put them in the common prison.
v. 19. But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison-doors, and brought them forth, and said,
v. 20. Go, stand and speak in the Temple to the people all the words of this life.
v. 21. And when they heard that, they entered into the Temple early in the morning and taught.
One storm had been safely weathered, chap. 4, but a second one was coming on which would prove a little severer than the previous one. The constant growth of the congregation and the enthusiastic praise which was given to the apostles on all sides was too much for the rulers of the Jews, especially for the Sadducees with their denial of the resurrection. To them it was an abomination that the entire preaching of the Gospel was based upon the miraculous rising of Jesus from the dead. And so their party, with the high priest at its head, who most likely also belonged to this school or party, made another formal descent upon the portico of Solomon. They were not merely filled with indignation because the disciples dared to continue their preaching in the name of Jesus, but they were literally filled with angry jealousy on account of the fact that the apostles were gaining in popular favor, that the people were giving them great awe and relevance. So these leaders laid angry, forcible hands upon the apostles and placed them into the public prison with the idea of publicly defaming and degrading them. But their triumph was of short duration. For during that very night an angel of the Lord, probably one of the highest order, like Gabriel, not only opened the doors of the Temple, but also led them forth and gave them the command to go to the Temple, to stand before the people, and to speak all the words of this life, to preach the Gospel of eternal salvation. Far from being discouraged by the treatment accorded them, the apostles were to proclaim the message entrusted to them not only boldly, but also in the most public spot in all Jerusalem. He who Himself is the Resurrection and the Life wanted the Word of this life to extend its influence not only in Jerusalem, but throughout Judea and to the end of the world. So about the time of daybreak, just as soon as the Temple-doors were opened for the bringing of the morning sacrifice, the apostles went to the Temple and resumed their teaching. The more the Word of God extends its power, the more the wrath of the world and of the prince of this world is enkindled. Many a disciple of Christ has been thrown into prison on account of the name which he believed in and confessed. But the Lord was with them and helped them according to His promise. And never in the history of the Church have the true confessors permitted themselves to be deterred, either by persecution or by imprisonment, from preaching the Word which God entrusted to them.