Wednesday 04 May 2011
- Bible Book:
- Acts
"But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors, brought them out, and said, 'Go, stand in the temple and tell the people the whole message about this life.' When they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and went on with their teaching." (vv. 19-21)
Background
We are now continuing to see the development of the earlyChurch, and Luke (the author of Acts as well as the Gospel thatbears his name) gives us the account 'warts and all'. At thebeginning of this chapter there is the incident of Ananias andSapphira (vv. 1-11) followed by a picture of the churchcontinuing to grow with a powerful healing ministry (
But the growth and development of the believers brought a responseof jealousy to the high priest and the Sadducean group in theSanhedrin. The biblical commentator Matthew Henry says, "In theseverses we have the malice of hell and the grace of heaven." In suchan inflammable province as Jerusalem it seemed to these authoritiesthe best and swiftest response was to imprison not only Peter andJohn but also the other Apostles.
Now we come to a section that I believe Luke enjoyed writing, asthe humour of the situation is brought out. The Apostles were setfree from their cells at night and they went and resumed theirpreaching in the temple. As they did this the council sat waitingfor the prisoners to be brought to them, only to be humiliated ondiscovering that they were doing what had been forbidden.
The activity "during the night" (v. 19) of being rescued by "anangel of the Lord" is speculated on by William Neil as being a'sympathetic warder' or a secret sympathiser among the guardroomstaff who came to be seen later as an 'angel in disguise'. I don'tknow whether Luke clearly intended his readers to believe that itwas a heavenly visitor who not only opened the doors of the jailand brought the apostles out (v. 19), but instructed them to standin the temple courts and publicly proclaim the full message of thisnew life (v. 20). In the end the captain of the temple guard andhis officers re-arrested the Apostles, but they were careful indoing so because of popular sympathies (v. 26).
To Ponder
It is important to remember that Christians insome parts of the world are imprisoned for their faith. Rememberthem in your prayers today.
Do you think this passage shows that God has asense of humour? Where else can you see God's humour?