Speak Life: Acts 5:17-32

Happy New Year! Can you believe it is already 2023? New Year has always been a time of new beginnings. We naturally assess the year that has just passed and do our best to craft a fresh start with new possibilities, new goals, and new perspectives.

As we make these new goals with a fresh outlook as a believer in Christ, hopefully, we are also reminded of how we are new creations with a new purpose and a new Life. And it is this Life that I want to talk to you about today.

After a few months' break to review our Core Values, we are now jumping back into the world of the first-century Church.

To help acclimate us back into the setting, I thought it would help to recap the recent events. A lot of things happened in a short period of time since the believers were empowered by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. We saw multiple accounts of the growing congregation sacrificing land and possessions to meet each other’s needs. We also watched a terrifying event take place in the congregation - a swift and fatal judgment on Ananias and Sapphira - a couple who lied to the Holy Spirit and sent a wave of righteous fear rippling through the early church.

We witnessed a lame man at the temple gates stand to his feet after being miraculously healed and leaped like a deer into the temple. Then, we saw Annas the High Priest pull together a meeting of the Sanhedrin, arrested Peter and John, and forced them to stand trial the following day for that healing (oddly enough).

This was the first semblance of persecution. Even though another human being and fellow Jew was made whole, the religious leaders didn’t like their authority challenged, especially when the person being championed was the man they just had executed on a Roman cross. But, despite their paltry efforts to stop the spread of the news that Jesus is the Messiah, the good news continued to spread to the point where Jews from the surrounding villages were coming out of the woodworks and filling the streets of Jerusalem to hear the message of the apostles and to be healed from their afflictions!

And this is where our text begins today, so, please turn in your Bibles to Acts 5:17-32.

Outline & Passage

Acts 5:17–32 ESV

17 But the high priest rose up, and all who were with him (that is, the party of the Sadducees), and filled with jealousy 18 they arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison. 19 But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said, 20 “Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life.” 21 And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach. Now when the high priest came, and those who were with him, they called together the council, all the senate of the people of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought. 22 But when the officers came, they did not find them in the prison, so they returned and reported, 23 “We found the prison securely locked and the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them we found no one inside.” 24 Now when the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these words, they were greatly perplexed about them, wondering what this would come to. 25 And someone came and told them, “Look! The men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people.” 26 Then the captain with the officers went and brought them, but not by force, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people. 27 And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest questioned them, 28 saying, “We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” 29 But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men. 30 The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. 31 God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. 32 And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”

In studying this passage, I noticed that it mostly gravitates around the angel’s commission in verse 20, which reads:

Acts 5:20 ESV

20 “Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life.”

So, our outline for today is going to center around two hinge-points and that one word: Life.

Outline

I - Opposition to Life (vv. 17-18)

II - Command to proclaim Life (vv. 19-26)

III - Foundation to speak Life (vv.27-32)

I - Opposition to Life

First, we see a direct opposition to this life.

Annas, the High Priest, is back at it. He has circled the wagons again around the apostles in an effort to squash the message of Jesus being the Messiah, but we get a better glimpse into his motives.

He, along with the Sadducees, is likely annoyed at the apostle’s success and popularity. We got a sense of that last time. But we are told plainly in this passage that they are jealous. The attention of the people is on the apostles, which means it’s not on them. Annas is acting like a toddler who has noticed that his sibling is getting all the attention, so he pushes them out of the way to get the spotlight. How often does that work out well in real life?

Filling. But, there is an important concept at work in this verse that we need to see. Annas wasn’t just jealous, he was filled with jealousy.

That word, filled, is the same word to describe how Peter and the others were filled with the Spirit at Pentecost and many times afterward.

So, we see these two conflicting types of filling, which highlights an important truth. You can only pour out what you are filled with.

If you fill up a pitcher of sweet tea and have guests over for lunch, they won’t be drinking lemonade. They can only be served what is available.

Our hearts and minds are the same way. We can’t dispense what we don’t already have. In the early church, they were about the business of devoted prayer and serving through the Spirit’s power, and therefore, amazing things happened! God was at work through His people because they were consistently being filled - like the sailboat on the water being moved along as the wind fills its sails - by the Spirit of God.

On the other hand, Annas was filled with a bitter root of jealousy, and because that’s what already existed inside of him, that’s what poured out. As the leader of the Jews as High Priest - a man who was supposed to lead people closer to God - he was actively doing the opposite! All because he was filled with the wrong thing.

How’s that for a personal takeaway! What are you filling yourself with?

Therefore, as an outpouring of the jealousy he held on the inside, he gathered his posse and had the apostles thrown into prison again. Even though he failed miserably the first time, he did the same old thing expecting a different result.

But, unlike the last time, the apostles didn’t stay in prison overnight, because an angel of the Lord came to bust them out.

II - Command to proclaim Life

This is also a delicious bit of irony, since the Sadduccees, being the liberal and theologically lite portion of the Sanhedrin, didn’t believe in angels. But, despite their inability to grasp basic biblical truths, the Angel (who indeed exists) flung open the prison doors and led them away from the prison by miraculous means. While it would be thrilling to talk about how he achieved this and brainstorm all the cool ways that they escaped: like maybe the guards were sprinkled with sleeping dust, or the apostles became invisible, or they were transported through walls... the miracle isn’t the focal point. What matters is the command that came next, and is our first hinge-point.

Hinge-point 1. The Angel of the Lord told the apostles to go back to the Temple and speak all the words of this ‘Life’.

This command is really interesting, for two reasons.

Why they were rescued. The angel did not deliver them from prison so they could escape and hide. He pulled them from prison so the fighters could get back into the ring. God didn’t choose runners. He chose fighters. And the fighters can have confidence in knowing their God can deliver them at any point if He wills. The Kingdom didn’t expand and grow through weak followers who shrank back and hid when the heat intensified. It grew through faithful followers who were willing to lose their life to see the message delivered. They were willing to speak life at all costs. Are you that type of follower?

What they were to proclaim. In some translations, like the ESV and the NASB, the word Life is capitalized, signifying that it is not just a noun, but is specifically a name or title. They were not supposed to simply advocate for life in general. Rather, they were to proclaim the person who is Life, and scripture is abundantly clear about who that is.

John 14:6 ESV

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Acts 3:15 ESV

15 and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.

There is no higher calling than to make known the Author of Life.

Those in darkness need to see it and we who are in the light need to see it more clearly.

As we’ve seen before, persecution is simply fuel for the fight for these guys, and the angel is giving it to them. So, once released from a brief timeout, the apostles seemed more than eager to keep throwing punches, because they didn’t waste a single bit of daylight. They immediately went back to the Temple, the place of their previous arrest, at the break of dawn to preach Christ as they were commanded.

Meanwhile, Annas is busy calling together, not just the Sadducees, but the entire Sanhedrin Council. And, while he is doing this, Luke is busy crafting a lovely bit of comedic relief.

Now that the Council has convened, they call for the prisoners, completely unaware they are currently at the Temple doing the exact thing the Council commanded them not to do.

And we see the officers of the Temple Guard coming to Annas vexed, because the prisoners are gone, even though the doors were still securely locked and the guards were still positioned beside them. At this point, I’m sure they were beginning to wonder which heads would roll because of this massive blunder.

But, before they could point any fingers, someone arrived on the scene, saying, “I found them! Look! They’re at the Temple, doing exactly what you told them not to do!”

And so, the officers went to the apostles again and took the men to the Sanhedrin, and the apostles came peacefully. They didn’t resist or fight back, and it’s quite possible that the officers asked nicely, because they didn’t want to start a riot among the people who held the apostles in high regard. In fact, we are told in verse 26 that the Captain of the Guard and the Officers were afraid of being stoned by the masses! Clearly, they were walking on a razor’s edge from the Temple to the Council chambers.

III - Foundation to speak Life

At this point, Annas is not happy. The apostles have disobeyed a direct order and have made him look foolish in front of the Temple Police by their disappearing act.

Another filling. What follows is another mention of filling, but instead of an individual being filled with something that directly controls their actions, it is a filling of Jerusalem with the apostle’s teaching.

By their dedication to being filled with the Spirit, the entire city was being filled up! The message of Life was being spread and completing phase one of the mission: to proclaim Christ in Jerusalem, Judea & Samaria, and then to the ends of the earth, despite Anna’s best efforts to stop it through his own tainted ‘filling’.

The Victim Card. Then, he says something very interesting. He is claiming that through the message they are spreading, they are intent on bringing Jesus’ blood down on his head and the heads of the Sanhedrin. He is essentially playing the victim card, as if he had no hand in Jesus’ death, and crying foul that the apostles are implying that he did.

That is a very interesting thing to say because the gospel accounts record many times when the religious leaders conspired together to have Jesus killed. Even if Annas was not one of those individuals specifically, other members of the Sanhedrin certainly were, thereby making them instigators and guilty of murder. In John’s account, it was Annas and his son-in-law, Caiaphas who were the ones to send Jesus to Pilate, and it is entirely possible they were present at Pilate’s trial when the Jews cried “crucify him!” and accepted the guilt of his blood on themselves and their children. Not only was he complicit, but he was also directly involved! The very last thing he could do is claim innocence.

Hinge Point 2: Obey God rather than men. In response, Peter and the other apostles make a statement that serves as the second hinge point of this section.

During their first interrogation in chapter four, they made a similar statement, though it was in the form of a rhetorical question:

Acts 4:19–20 ESV

19 But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, 20 for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”

Here, they are much more direct:

Acts 5:29 ESV

29 But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.

Peter could not go against the direct order from the Angel. They were commanded to speak all the words of this Life, and that command came from the top.

And just like no soldier in the military would defy an order from a superior officer, so the apostles obeyed God’s directive. Anna’s authority was inferior to God’s authority. God is the ranking officer in this scenario. That one point is enough, but how much more so when the commands of the human religious leader are in direct opposition to the One he is supposed to represent?

No, Peter and the others again model godly defiance. When man’s orders are in direct conflict with God’s orders, there is only one choice despite the consequences.

Peter’s bite-sized sermon

Peter could have stopped there and been justified in standing his ground, but as we have already seen, he wasn’t about to stop there. He wasn’t going to miss another opportunity to speak life (especially to the ones who should be doing it in the first place).

This mini-sermon has three parts (all of which we are familiar with) followed by a closing thought.

1. Jesus’ death. Peter wouldn’t let Annas play the victim card simply because it wasn’t true. He was directly involved, as were the collective members of the Council, and Peter calls them out on it… again, saying, “Jesus… whom you killed by hanging on a tree. This was a direct reference to the Torah, which states that anyone who hangs on a tree is considered cursed:

Deuteronomy 21:22–23 ESV

22 “And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 23 his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.

It wasn’t Rome’s fault that Jesus was crucified, it was theirs, and Peter is showing them that he understood their intentions. He wasn’t about to let them live in that lie.

2. Jesus’ resurrection. “The God of our Fathers raised Jesus.” Peter also wanted the Council to know that Jesus didn’t stay dead. The Sadducees wouldn’t have believed this because they didn’t believe in a resurrection and the Pharisees certainly wouldn’t admit that they killed the wrong man.

That is why Peter makes an appeal to the God of our Fathers. By saying the word our, Peter gives common ground. While the Council members would deny Jesus all day long, they would never deny the one true God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. To deny Him would mean blasphemy and death. And it is this God, whom they all agree on, who raised Jesus from the dead. Again, this shows how the religious leaders were in conflict with the very One they claim to worship and serve. They should be the ones standing trial, not the apostles.

3. Jesus’ exaltation. Not only was Jesus raised from the dead, but the God of their Fathers also exalted Jesus to His right hand as Leader & Savior. Jesus is the true and rightful leader of Israel, not Annas or the Sanhedrin. Jesus. And He was the only perfect sacrifice that could remove their sin and grant repentance. Only Jesus could serve as their Savior and Redeemer.

And finally, Peter ended his little talk by confirming that the apostles were justified in saying these things because they were witnesses to all these events; them and Spirit that God gives to those who obey him, rather than man.

So, if we want to be bold, effective Kingdom builders like the early church, we will resolve ourselves to speak Life (meaning the good news of Jesus’ death, burial, resurrection, and current reign), no matter the cost.

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