In jail for Jesus

Good morning. I'm really excited to be able to venture through Acts of the Apostles, chapter 5, verses 17 through 32. This is just a very dynamic, very dramatic passage and also great truths revealed as well. And so I'm really excited about that. I do need to warn you that we will be running an experiment today. Some of the experiments will be a new format of the handout and some of the slides. And so I'm just letting you know we're running an experiment. Don't worry. The things I used to do when I was a kid, we're not going to do here today. Here's an example. Well, you wouldn't want it.

When I was in fifth grade, I suddenly discovered this thing called the wonders of modern science. Included in that was discovering how to make nitroglycerin. So I actually began making a quantity of it. And but then I thought, you know, I wonder about the amount that I'm making. And so I did some calculations and I figured out, well, this is enough to blow up six city blocks. And I decided, well, I'd better stop. Anyway, this isn't that kind of an experiment. I'm glad to tell you. OK. All right. So. We're stepping into this Acts chapter 5 passage, the middle of the passage, just to kind of quickly give us perspective here. Acts chapter 2 is the day of Pentecost in which the church was begun.

And then what we find in Dr. Luke is he gives a kind of a summary of what's going on between these main events. The next thing he says is that the people were listening to the apostles' teaching. There was fellowship and breaking of bread and prayer. And he continues to describe that.

As we step into Acts chapters 3 and 4, Peter and John heal a lame man there at the temple. They face the Sanhedrin and then go back to preaching and teaching. We then get accounts of Barnabas and Ananias and Sapphira as the in-between account. Here in Acts chapter 5, we see the apostles are described as performing signs and wonders.

They taught. and continued that. They also evangelized and all this got the attention of the high priest and all the Sadducees. We're going to find out that they're very pivotal in what's going on next and the whole Sanhedrin of the Jews. You can imagine for these Sadducees who believe there is no resurrection to have these apostles going around right under their noses and some of them had very substantial noses. Anyway, right under their noses And they're sitting there talking about the resurrection, right? And this was really disturbing and irking the Sadducees, as we're going to discover here.

Now, you may have seen something like this here where it shows this pendulum swing going on, you know, and that's kind of entertaining to watch for a while. But one of the reasons I bring it up is that there is a pendulum swing effect going on in these passages. One, we have the apostles on one hand and then carrying on their ministry, and then you have a reaction from the Sanhedrin. And so what happens as we go through these early chapters in Acts is you have the Apostles do one thing, and then the Sanhedrin reacts, and then the Apostles do another thing, and the Sanhedrin reacts to it. And so there's a pendulum swing effect, and we see that as we go through the book of Acts here. And this passage itself is a part of that so-called pendulum swing.

But there's another effect taking place. The actions of the Apostles have more and more impact as more people are being saved, as the actions of the Apostles are bringing about more signs and wonders and undeniable things like the healing of the lame man. who had hung around the temple for decades, and then here we have the Sanhedrin increasing their reaction.

They're turning up the heat. So the first time they call in just Peter and John, and they give them a warning. This time they call in not just Peter and John, but the other apostles, right, as we're about to see here, and they increase their reaction. We're going to see this doesn't get escalated as we'll soon see because of the insight and the wisdom from Gamaliel, but it's getting ready to get worse.

And so the Sanhedrin is intensifying their effort. So this pendulum swing is not just sort of stable as you see in this diagram, but in fact, it gets more and more intense. Just to keep ourselves oriented, here we have the main activity that's going on in this particular passage is taking place in and around the temple.

And just to kind of maintain an orientation, you have Solomon's portico, which you see on either side of the eastern gate. The eastern gate is where Jesus had gone through on his so-called triumphal entry. It's a long colonnade that the Jews had built there on that side, and that was a common gathering place for the disciples, more than once mentioned in the book of Acts in the early chapters. It had been the place where Jesus actually celebrated Hanukkah in the season right before he was crucified. He had been at Solomon's portico. So anyway, that was a place for the Christians to often hang out.

In addition to that here, we're going to see that the disciples are brought before the Sanhedrin again, and that that meeting place is right here in this building. and this is the inner temple and so it's on the south side on the center. Then we're going to see also that there's a jail and that jail is also nearby. There is actually a few different jails that might be nearby in the same inner temple building.

They actually had a jail cell in there. There's another possibility that they used the jail at the fortress Antonia. If so, that's the one that Courtney and Ingrid, Nancy and I visited just a couple years ago. If they were put in that one, we don't know which one exactly because it doesn't say. And there was also a jail over here just outside the temple area, but nearby. So any of those are possibilities. So it's not a question, did they get put into jail and was there one? We actually have a few different candidates.

This is what the portico would look like and this is from the time of Jesus, you know, going about in the temple area and also mentioned a couple of times in the book of Acts and very likely the place in between where there would be a lot of Christians gathered and the apostles with them in this area. So this is what this gathering would kind of look like, especially as you had numbers in the thousands who would become believers at one time. So it would be a fairly large structure, but a place that you could get some people gathered, but not everyone because so many were coming at one time. So this would be a kind of a closer picture of that gathering of where they would have the Sanhedrin. This is called the Chamber of Hewn Stone. This is the Sanhedrin or Council or Senate is the other name that's been used. This is their council meeting room in this place. This is what it looks like inside. And you also have this shown in the bottom of your handout.

And to give a sense, there would be the high priest at one end at the center. There would be other members, essentially 35 on each side, so a total of 70 other members who would be gathered there. It would be a mixture of Sadducees and Pharisees in terms of their persuasion and political thinking. There was also a student saffing or seating there in front of it, and that's where those who would be kind of up-and-coming members or strongly regarded by the Sanhedrin would be there in the student seating, could even have included this time the Apostle Paul there in that room. So you have here would be the accused, whether it was one or, in this case, it looks like all the apostles. And so they'd be gathered there in front of the high priest with others gathered around them in a somewhat semi-circular formation there. Alright, so here is Acts 5, 17 through 21. Now we haven't broken up A and B here in this one slide. And you'll find that on page two of your handout. And so 17 and 18 go like this. But the high priest rose up along with all his associates, that is the sect of the Sadducees, and they were filled with jealousy. They laid hands on the apostles and put them in a public jail.

Now, so the high priest would officially be Caiaphas, Although one of the terms you'll see in the Bible is high priests, sometimes plural. Officially there was only one at a time. It just so happens, however, that the high priest Annas, who had been high priest, was able to get his son-in-law Caiaphas in power there for about a decade, including this time. and also a number of his sons in that same role. And so when a person, just like we do now, a past president is sometimes referred to as president so-and-so, even though they're not currently in office, the same thing was true here. They would call them high priests even though they were in fact no longer officially in that role. All of them in this family and in that role of high priests were Sadducees, and we'll talk about what that means shortly.

The sect of the Sadducees, as it says elsewhere in Acts, don't believe in a resurrection, but that's not all they don't believe in. They don't essentially believe in miracles. They don't believe in angels. They don't believe in the inspiration of any books after the first five of the Old Testament.

It was the Pharisees who had the rest of the Old Testament books that they regarded as scripture. The Sadducees were influenced by Greek philosophy. That's in contrast to the Pharisees. And by the way, these guys didn't get along real well, but they just had to in these meanings. So the Sadducees were strongly influenced by Greek philosophy, which the Pharisees considered disgusting. So, anyway, it's another reason for them to disagree with one another, except about Jesus and the Apostles, right? So, and they were filled with jealousy. One of the things we're going to see in this passage, and we see, we've already seen it, we're going to see it again.

Dr. Luke likes to write with this filled with, and what does he mean by that? He means maxed out, topped out, full-on, full-out jealous, right, in this case. But he's going to use it filled with the Holy Spirit, filled with hatred. He uses it in other ways, but that's very commonly his way of expressing a very high level, a great degree of jealousy. And by the way, that word jealousy is from a word that means hot.

These guys were hot about it. They weren't just kind of mildly jealous, right? They were hot about it. It says they laid hands on the Apostles. Actually, not these guys directly. They had a temple guard. The temple guard captain, by the way, was also a Sadducee. So he was already in sync and in line in his thinking with what the leaders were thinking as well. And so he was also a Sadducee. And so if the leaders, the Sadducees who are on the Sanhedrin, said, you know, go get him. He said, sure will. He went right along with whatever they had. And they put them in a public jail.

And again, we got a few different options as to which one that might be. None of them were nice. By the way, the jails in those days, They weren't designed to really hold people long term, especially not a lot of them. It was really a holding cell until we made some judgment against you. That was kind of the general pattern. Holding somebody longer was an option for somebody that just kind of wanted to keep out of circulation. But it wasn't typically your sentence to this amount of time. And also in the public jail, if you're going to be there very long, you want to have friends on the outside, because the people on the inside are not your friends, right?

So it was a nasty place to be. The jails in those days typically did not have toilet facilities. They did not clean up after the people who were there before. And so they were very rank. As a matter of fact, it might be that you can't sleep because of the stench, right? Alright, so they're lousy places to be.

This is where the Apostles are held, at least by attempt, overnight. Verse 19 through 21 goes this way, 21 A and B, But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the gates of the prison, and taking them out, he said, Go, stand and speak to the people in the temple the whole message of this life. Upon hearing this, they entered into the temple about daybreak and began to teach." So one, this is a holding cell. Basically, it's going to hold you there until overnight. That's all it is. It's not a very nice place. You're lucky if you've got some hay on the floor, which is shown in the pictures, but not necessarily guaranteed.

So an angel comes during the night. and opens the gates of the prison. The Romans had locks and keys. They weren't configured like ours, but they did have a lock and key mechanism. And so the angel would have overridden or somehow used this lock and key mechanism there.

And so he took them all out. Now what's amazing here is he took them out past guards, as we're going to see later. How is it that the guards are there and the door is locked, and the angel says, hey come on, and walks them all right past these guards who are there. And even talks to them, right, audibly.

Now could that thing ever happen? Yes. Nancy and I knew some years ago a fellow by the name of Bill Osgood. This was back when Europe had an Iron Curtain, and it was Eastern Europe, and it was behind the Iron Curtain under the control of the Soviet Union.

And, of course, you couldn't bring Christian material in, right? So Bill Osgood there, being a Christian worker, trying to get Christian material in behind the Iron Curtain, He's got a whole bunch of pockets and things like that where he's got Christian literature and material inside his coat, right? And so anyway, he gets stopped and these guys who are, you know, guards at the border say, hey, what do you got there? And they pull out all of his stuff and all the Christian material and lay it out here.

And, you know, he's thinking, oh, I'm in deep trouble, right? I am in deep yogurt, right? So, as he's there and thinking, I'm in trouble, the guys are talking to him, and you know what he started doing? Taking all the literature while I was talking to him and put it right back in the pockets. Right in front of him, while he's talking to him, he put all literature right back, filled all of his pockets on the inside of his coat that he'd had full of all the literature. He didn't miss a piece. And talked to him, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh, and they let him go. And guess what he did? He just took the literature right in like he planned. So, the Lord can do that. The Lord can do it in our time, okay? So, that's how we can get twelve apostles.

They're supposed to be in prison, right? Right past the guards. And there's more than one, right? You're at the gates of the prison. These are while the guards are on duty. This is cool. This is really cool. And then he says, go. And this is imperative. It's not like in Matthew 28, you know, go and make disciples, etc. This one is an imperative. And as you've taken your stand, speak. Here's another imperative. Speak to the people. And by the way, we've said the term the people. The people, that means Jews, the people, the nation, right? It's Jews, the peoples, the nations, it's Gentiles. So speak to the Jews, right?

In the temple, and this is the temple courtyard, there's two words for temple. One is that inner temple, like you have on the front page there, that inner temple. This is for the temple courtyard. So go out into the temple courtyard, probably back to Solomon's portico.

Probably go right back to that same place and speak to the people the whole message of this life. And it's literally all the words of this life. Tell them everything! Including mentioning the name Jesus that you've been told not to use. Including telling them how they need to be saved. But you're going to be teaching them. Give them all the words of this life. Don't hold anything back. Tell it like it is. Tell it like it is.

So there they entered the temple courtyard about daybreak. Rough rule of thumb, that would have been six o'clock-ish. And began to teach. Interesting that at some points in time the Apostles specifically evangelized, and we would see as many as 5,000 here in the book of Acts, become believers in one day. They specifically evangelized. The instructions here, and we're going to see they actually did it, the instructions here are to teach.

To teach. Why would they do that? Why not just keep on evangelizing? It's because once you get a bunch of believers, they don't need to keep getting a gospel message. They need to be taught. They need to be fed. They need to grow. They need the whole message. All the words.

I can tell you the gospel to be saved in less than 15 seconds. Believe that Christ died for your sins, was buried, and rose again. Do you believe that? You're saved. That's it. But he said, here, teach them, give them all the words, because they need the whole counsel of God. They need the whole thing. So, what do they do? They go, yeah, we'll do that after we've had a few matzo balls and some coffee. No. They go straight out there, straight out there, and began to do exactly as the angel told them.

Here's Acts 5.21, and this is the last part of the verse, C.D.E.F., through verse 23. Now when the high priest and his associates came, they called the council together, even all the senate of the sons of Israel, and sent orders to the prison house for them to be brought. Imagine, okay, here's the mindset. These guys on the Sanhedrin, they thought, boy, we've got these guys that are in the prison. We're going to really give them what for, right? You can imagine them planning it in their head. They've got this thing all orchestrated. We are going to really fry these guys. Yeah, that's the plan.

This would be Caiaphas and the other Sadducees, including those who either had been high priest before or would be high priest in the years ahead. Caiaphas was high priest until about 36 AD. Then he was replaced by another relative of Annas, right? But anyway, so it would have been Caiaphas and the other Sadducees, and essentially a family tradition here.

And what do you see? Is this the council? I mentioned, I use the word Sanhedrin. In fact, another term for it was the council. Another term was the Senate of the Sons of Israel. So you'll have multiple terms that are equivalent there. It's redundant here that he uses both and the idea is so that you'll understand one. that, you know, the various terms. If you understand one term, he means this one as well. So it's very clear which group he's talking about. And the other thing is that this is not a subgroup. This is the whole group. They want to get everybody here because this, they see, is a very important decision that we're about to carry out. Sons of Israel is a term we're going to continue to see. in the book of Acts, chapter 7, chapter 9, chapter 10. Who are the sons of Israel? Sons of Israel are those who are descended from Israel, or Jacob, a descendant of Abraham.

So they sent orders to the prison house for them to be brought. So this would be the temple guardsmen who would have the job. And by the way, the temple guardsmen were not just, you know, hired guns. They were Levites or sometimes priests, often Sadducee persuasion. Certainly their captain would be Sadducee. So these are the temple guardsmen who are supposed to go get them. So you've got guardsmen who are guarding the jail and making sure nobody gets out. Boy, that didn't work very well, did it? And then you've got these guys who are supposed to go get the guys that are supposed to be in the jail.

Now, here is the last part. In verse 22 and 23, But the officers who came did not find them in the prison, and they turned and reported back, saying, We found the prison house locked quite securely, and the guards standing at the doors. But when we had opened up, we found no one inside. Uh-oh. Ruh-roh. This is very bad. The officers who came did not find them in the prison. Can you imagine what was going through their minds? Ever had something that you most certainly, well, wait a minute, the car was here. What happened to it?

Something like that where it's, boy, wow. What just happened? This is like a real surprise. Very surprising. Because not only you go there and we're going to see the door is locked. So we've got the lock on the place and we've got guards there. And these people just went right out. I mean, that's not supposed to ever happen, right? So you can imagine what's going through their minds. They just have, they're panicked, they're surprised, they're shocked, they have no explanation. This is difficult, right?

The prison house was, and notice the way they report back, the prison house was secure by every human possible means. Any human possible means was taken care of. The house locked quite securely. This prison house locked quite securely. And the guards, plural, standing at the doors.

But when we opened up, we found no one inside. Notice, one of them got loose. It wasn't a couple that were missing. No one inside. This is really, really, really bad. We have no explanation. It's not like, hey, you know, we know how it happened and it happened this way and they got out. Don't have the foggiest idea how this happened. This was a hundred percent removal of every single one. We have no explanation how any of it happened. We lost a bunch of guys. And the guards have nothing to say. What? I didn't know.

Something else that comes out in this passage, we've seen it partway already, in this passage he wrote about jail or prison six times. He used three different words, as Dr. Luke wrote here, and the different words mean to watch or to guard or to hold in a dungeon. So these guys were being watched, they were being guarded, they were being held in a dungeon. So all three terms he uses here, he uses all of these terms basically to write the idea that this underscored the miracle of the Apostles escape. The apostles escaped miraculously from a place where they were being watched, where there was a guard on duty, multiple guards as a matter of fact, and they were in a place that was a dungeon. You can't just climb out the window. You can't saw the bars off and get out. This is down in a hole. There's no way to escape without going past the guards. So, what happens? An angel comes, lets them out.

Acts 5, 24 and 26, And now when the captain of the temple guard and the chief priest heard these words, they went, and they were greatly perplexed about what would come of this. So here's the captain of the temple guard, also a Sadducee who doesn't believe in the resurrection and really loathes and despises these guys for talking about the resurrection all the time. The priests, so here's the chief priests, here's again where we mention plural use. There was actually officially only one chief priest. but the past ones were also referred to honorably, you know, as an honorable statement, as chief priests as well. So that's why the use of the word in plural.

They heard these words, they were greatly perplexed. The King James here has doubted, but actually greatly perplexed is a better way to put it. Just completely out of their minds puzzle, had no explanation for it. Not only that, it was very troubling because we've all come across surprises that are sort of pleasant surprises and things like that. This wasn't pleasant. This wasn't a good one for them. This was very troubling because they were hoping to really come down on these guys, right? So they had no idea how this was going to turn out. They were perplexed. You know, what's next? I don't know, right?

So then, verse 25, but when someone came and reported to them, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people. Notice, okay, teaching, not just evangelize, teaching. I can tell. And by the way, in the temple, who's supposed to be the teacher according to the law of Moses? The priests and the Levites were supposed to be the teachers of the people. So I have these other guys teaching. They're not priests and Levites. These other guys going around teaching. It's a bit problematic. Especially if they're teaching things we don't like.

So the men were the apostles. That's them. The ones you put in prison under guard with the implication being that you had them under watch, you had them guarded, you had them in a place where nobody could get out, right? Standing in the temple and teaching, that's literally have stood, they've taken their stand, so to speak.

And they were teaching versus evangelism, and again, the use of the term the people, who does that mean? Israel, Jews. So here these guys are taking their stand and teaching the people, not the Levites and not the priests, but these guys teaching the people, the people Israel, the Jews. So here's verse 26.

Then the captain went along with the officers and proceeded to bring them back without violence. in parentheses, for they were afraid of the people. What does the people mean? The Jews, right? That they might be stoned. So there's the captain of the temple guard, again a Sadducee, right?

This whole thing is very embarrassing, I'm sure. They quietly brought them back, and gently, rather than going in and seizing them and causing a big ruckus. Hey you guys, why don't you come along with us? a polite invitation rather than seizing them and jerking them about. And then they were afraid of the people that they might be stoned.

This was a legal and political issue in Israel. As a matter of fact, we're going to see it a number of times in the book of Acts, including in another chapter or two. It even showed up during the time of Christ. Remember, they would pick up stones? to throw at him? And by the way, one of the questions we'll not ask, how did they pick up stones in the middle of the temple courtyard to throw at Jesus?

What are stones doing there? Someone might think, well, hey man, this doesn't make sense. You know, you've got an open temple courtyard. What are you doing with stones there? Until 63 AD, it was a temple under construction, which means you had spare stones around, right? So, anyway, those are the stones, and there were stones also outside there as well. So that was an issue, but there's something else, and we'll be looking at it. To stone or not to stone? That is the question, right?

So the problem is that an official body, like the Sanhedrin, had a tougher time stoning someone because they were supposed to turn that over to Rome. This is what they did with Jesus, right? Turn it over to Rome to carry out capital punishment. But there were times when they thought they could get away with it and where you would have, as you see on the front of your handout, people at the Fortress Antonia, Romans, overlooking the courtyard. If you could get somebody who was out of view of those towers, And then you could pull off whatever you wanted as long as you stayed out of view of the Romans. So anyway, that's part of a complicated question. We'll deal with it more as we get going through the book of Acts. Here's Acts 5, 27 and 28. And when they had brought them, they stood them before the council.

The high priest questioned them saying, we gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name. Oh, catch that. this name. We don't want to actually mention Jesus. So this name, and yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring this man's blood upon us. Make us guilty for it. So when they had brought them, this was of course the temple guard under orders from the captain of the temple guard, and then the council would be the Sanhedrin or the Senate, would be some of the other terms that we would hear. And then it says, we gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name, Jesus. You have filled Jerusalem.

There's that word filled again, and this again is Dr. Luke's way particularly of expressing, you know, extreme or total or something of that sort. And then bring this man's blood upon it. This man, again, instead of mentioning Jesus' name, his name is Jesus, just in case you didn't know. Just in case you weren't aware, his name is Jesus. But they were afraid to say that. They didn't want to say that name.

So here's Acts 5, 29 and 32. But Peter and the apostles answered, we must obey God rather than men. and the God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you put to death by hanging him on a cross." So this would be Peter and the Apostles answering either through Peter as a spokesman, that would be one possibility, or the other is that Peter spoke and also other Apostles spoke. Both of those are possibilities here. Others, if Peter was the spokesman, then they would have agreed with Peter, may perhaps express that agreement.

And rather than men, that is, you are the highest level of authority among the Jews here in the nation of Israel as the Sanhedrin, the Council, the Senate, sometimes called the Supreme Court, right? You're the highest authority, but you're still men. Still men.

The God of our fathers raised up Jesus. Now notice, raised up, of course, that's enough to make a Sadducee cringe, or worse. Raised up, painful. And then, to raise up Jesus. Ah, you said that name! Ah! Trauma. Whom you put to death." Ah, remember? You intend to bring that guilt. Yeah, you put them to death. Sorry. Everything that they were afraid of saying and talking about, they just brought it right up. God of our fathers, that means Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, right? Raised up. Jesus. And you see their trauma. Whom you put to death. Oh no! By hanging them on a cross. Yeah Pontius Pilate put out the sentence, but you forced him to it. They were in fact responsible and the Apostles did not back down from that responsibility.

Let's look at verse 31 and 32. He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a prince and a savior to grant repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses of these things and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him. So one whom God has exalted in His right hand, this is God the Father. Exalted to his right hand is a message in Psalm 110 verse 1. That is the verse that is most quoted or referenced in the New Testament out of the entire Old Testament. That one, okay? God the Father exalted to his right hand, and it says, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand.

As a prince, that means as a leader, as you look at the way that word is used, as a leader, and as a savior. Savior in the sense of he died for our sins, was buried and rose again. Savior as in he will come again and save his people Israel. This is a change of mind, grant repentance. And remember, the biblical definition of repentance is to change one's mind so as to end in belief. To change one's mind so as to end in belief. And that's key.

So when you see that word, that's what it's aiming at, not the other misdefinitions that are frequently put out there. It isn't feeling really, really bad for your sins. It's not playing the blues, singing the song. It's not getting down and crying and weeping. That's not repentance.

It is a change of mind that ends in belief. That's biblical repentance. and forgiveness of sins. All sins are paid for. The forgiveness is applied for those who believe. Right? All sins are paid for. The forgiveness is applied for those who believe. Finally, and we are witnesses of these things.

What did Jesus say in Acts 1.8? And you shall be my witnesses. Now let's think about that. Witnesses where? Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. And really, at this point, they had done it best, the first two. Jerusalem and Judea. It was just starting to get into the rest of Judea. The rest of that, you shall be my witnesses, is really yet to take place, isn't it?

From 2.32, chapter 3, and we'll see again in chapter 10, chapter 13, you know, we are witnesses of these things get stated again and again. He says, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him. By the way, there are different words that translated obey in the Bible, and this one means to believe or trust one having authority. Now, sometimes Christians can kind of cringe at that word obey or the word obedience, and I think Scripture has some really good insights for us. We don't need to cringe at it, we simply need to understand what Scripture is saying.

Romans 1.5 and 16.26, so the beginning and the ending of Romans, there's a book about you're not under law, you're under grace, has the term obedience of faith.

And so we'll be wanting to talk about that here shortly. This is a key thing. This is not an exception to grace. So things to learn and look forward to from this passage. Obey and obedience and acts have a faith and grace context. One of the words translated obey means to listen and place oneself under. It is not simply a matter of just do it. Listen and place oneself under. That's two steps, not just One.

Next, God works all things together for good, including some jail time for these apostles. He works all things together for good. Whether God intervenes miraculously or not, this is key. Whether God intervenes miraculously or not, He still works all things together for good.

What's the good? The good is to be conformed to the image of His Son. That's very important for us to remember, because we go through all sorts of things in life, don't we? Things we don't even know are going to happen yet, are going to take place. But, He works things together for what good? Do we have to pretend that everything's good?

No. That's not the Christian's call. For the good that we're being conformed to the image of His Son, that's really good. That's forever good. Even if what happens here on planet Earth, we can look at it and say, that's not good. God manages all things to be summed up in Christ. God's got a purpose that He's carrying out throughout all of history.

And there's nothing that anybody is going to do. There's nothing that the Sanhedrin can decide. There's nothing that is ever going to happen that is going to thwart that, that he is managing everything towards the end, that everything is summed up in Christ. There is no result from an election that is going to change how this is fulfilled. It cannot be thwarted, no matter who gets elected or who doesn't. No matter what Congress votes, that will not be thwarted. And that's a good thing.

So next time we're going to see some hot mad Jewish leaders get calmed down. And that'll be good. For the time being, the man who was the rabbi for Saul, the Christian killer, I'll call him sometimes jokingly, oh boy, the serial killer of Christians, right? who later became Paul the Apostle. He's going to speak next and at least for now he's going to calm them down and keep them from carrying out their hot, mad wishes against these Apostles.

So, let's pray. Lord, we thank you as we look at these things. We thank you that we can see that through all these things, some good, some bad, as we would say it superficially, are all for a good eternal purpose. And we thank you for that. We thank you that as we look at even words like obedience, that these are not law words in the New Testament context, but they're in fact grace and faith words. And we thank you for that lesson here. And we just look forward to seeing how you work in the lives of these apostles, teaching us lessons on even into now. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.