And laid their hands on the apostles, and put them in the common prison.
The high priest with the Sadducees, joined by Pharisees, priests, rulers and elders, laid violent hands on Peter and John with the other apostles and shut them in the common public prison. It was a second arrest to stop a work already forbidden, because after receiving the Spirit they preached Jesus crucified, risen and ascended with miracles and healings, converts multiplied, and they kept teaching in his name when commanded not to. The rulers acted in indignation, anger and alarm because the witness to the risen Christ threatened their authority, exposed their guilt in his death, and struck at the Sadducees' denial of the resurrection and the Pharisees' ceremonies and sacrifices. Human bonds did not hold them, for an angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, ministered to them, brought them forth and sent them back to stand in the temple and speak all the words of this life. The deliverance showed God's authority greater than human authority, assured them of his guarding care, and sent them out with a command from heaven opposite the rulers' command, so they obeyed God rather than men and refused to be silenced despite further examination and suffering.
Setting and Cause of Imprisonment
This laying on of hands belongs to the Jerusalem ministry recorded in Acts 3-5, when the apostles bore a clear and bold witness to Jesus empowered by the Holy Spirit. There they spoke openly of His work and mission, His death and crucifixion, His resurrection and ascension, and their preaching was accompanied by miracles and healings.
The hands were those of the high priest and those with him, the Sadducees joined with the Pharisees, priests, rulers and elders united against the apostles. With violent hands they seized Peter and John with the other apostles and put them in the common or public prison.
It was a second arrest to suppress their teaching in the name of Jesus. After Christ's departure the disciples had assembled together and prayed earnestly for the Holy Spirit, had received the Spirit, had preached the gospel with power, had healed the sick in Jesus' name, had gained a growing number of converts living in unity, and after the divine judgment on Ananias and Sapphira they were held for trial before the Sanhedrin gathered to try them.
The rulers acted to stop a work they had already ordered stopped, for the apostles kept preaching after being commanded not to teach in the name of Jesus. They did so because Christ was being extolled above them, His preaching and healings were drawing people to believe in Him, and converts were multiplying.
They acted in indignation, anger and alarm, for Spirit-enabled healings confirmed the crucified Jesus as Messiah, threatened their authority, put their doctrines in danger of disrepute, and proved them guilty of the death of Jesus. They hoped the excitement would subside.
The arrest was also doctrinal self-defense. Proclaiming Christ risen challenged the Sadducees' denial of the resurrection of the dead and threatened their sect with extinction if that doctrine were rejected. The Pharisees feared Jewish ceremonies would be undermined and sacrificial offerings made of no effect.
The act exposed the leaders as rejecting evidence and turning from light. It showed the leaders of the Jewish nation as having failed God's purpose for His chosen people, as unfaithful depositaries of truth whom God passed by to choose others for His work. They acted in blindness under what they called righteous indignation, unwilling to admit they had not rightly understood the Word or had misinterpreted or misapplied the Scriptures, like men who had lost reason while despising fishermen whose ideas contradicted their doctrines. Their triumph was Satan's triumph that made evil angels exult.
Deliverance and Its Lessons
Though humble men without earthly resources or weapons, the apostles went forward with God's word and through Christ's strength triumphed over opposition as they proclaimed Christ's cross. Human hands could put them in the common or public prison, but imprisonment did not hold them or end their witness. Despite the prejudice and hostility of the rulers, an angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, entered the prison house, ministered to them, brought them forth, and sent them back to stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life.
The deliverance showed God's authority greater than the human authority that attempted to hinder His work. It did not mean God had abandoned them, but assured them of His care and presence, for angels constantly guard and watch over His people, coming in and going out in their behalf. Released by a voice from heaven directly opposite the voice from the authorities, they were commanded to keep preaching. They obeyed by declaring they ought to obey God rather than men, and when authorities tried to stop their mouths they refused to be silenced, remembering Jesus' promises and declaring they had a message to bear.
Their miraculous release did not spare them further examination and suffering for preaching Jesus. Yet threatenings did not make them cowards, intimidate them, or discourage them, and they returned to teaching despite the threat, so that when men came to the prison to find them they were not there. Their imprisonment did not intimidate the disciples or end their witness even as converts multiplied around them. Peter and John's confinement for their faith and escape from it was remembered when Herod later imprisoned Peter, leading him to take double precautions.
Herod shut Peter in a cell of massive rock with bolted and barred doors, bound him with chains, made soldiers answerable for the prisoner, and set sixteen men to guard in watches of four. This cut off all possibility of human aid so that God's triumph in deliverance would be more complete, and Herod's lifting his hand against Omnipotence would end in humiliation and defeat. The earlier escape did not keep opponents from imprisoning them again, showing imprisonment and human guards cannot prevent God from delivering His servant. The imprisonment belongs to the same case in Acts 5 where God punished wrongdoing, teaching that God will just as surely punish all who hinder the truth from triumphing, who deal deceptively and not straightforwardly in the Lord's work, who act oppressively and unjustly and use lawyers to take advantage, who exact every exorbitant price and practice every connivance of fraud, and who divert His means into a wrong channel.
Fathers and mothers are to teach their children and households about this deliverance. They are to tell how the angels appeared and how the Lord wrought in behalf of those in prison for truth's sake in taking them out of the enemy's hands, and to give God credit for His guarding care.
The high priest with the Sadducees, joined by Pharisees, priests, rulers and elders, laid violent hands on Peter and John with the other apostles and shut them in the common public prison. It was a second arrest to stop a work already forbidden, because after receiving the Spirit they preached Jesus crucified, risen and ascended with miracles and healings, converts multiplied, and they kept teaching in his name when commanded not to. The rulers acted in indignation, anger and alarm because the witness to the risen Christ threatened their authority, exposed their guilt in his death, and struck at the Sadducees' denial of the resurrection and the Pharisees' ceremonies and sacrifices. Human bonds did not hold them, for an angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, ministered to them, brought them forth and sent them back to stand in the temple and speak all the words of this life. The deliverance showed God's authority greater than human authority, assured them of his guarding care, and sent them out with a command from heaven opposite the rulers' command, so they obeyed God rather than men and refused to be silenced despite further examination and suffering.
Setting and Cause of Imprisonment
This laying on of hands belongs to the Jerusalem ministry recorded in Acts 3-5, when the apostles bore a clear and bold witness to Jesus empowered by the Holy Spirit. There they spoke openly of His work and mission, His death and crucifixion, His resurrection and ascension, and their preaching was accompanied by miracles and healings.
The hands were those of the high priest and those with him, the Sadducees joined with the Pharisees, priests, rulers and elders united against the apostles. With violent hands they seized Peter and John with the other apostles and put them in the common or public prison.
It was a second arrest to suppress their teaching in the name of Jesus. After Christ's departure the disciples had assembled together and prayed earnestly for the Holy Spirit, had received the Spirit, had preached the gospel with power, had healed the sick in Jesus' name, had gained a growing number of converts living in unity, and after the divine judgment on Ananias and Sapphira they were held for trial before the Sanhedrin gathered to try them.
The rulers acted to stop a work they had already ordered stopped, for the apostles kept preaching after being commanded not to teach in the name of Jesus. They did so because Christ was being extolled above them, His preaching and healings were drawing people to believe in Him, and converts were multiplying.
They acted in indignation, anger and alarm, for Spirit-enabled healings confirmed the crucified Jesus as Messiah, threatened their authority, put their doctrines in danger of disrepute, and proved them guilty of the death of Jesus. They hoped the excitement would subside.
The arrest was also doctrinal self-defense. Proclaiming Christ risen challenged the Sadducees' denial of the resurrection of the dead and threatened their sect with extinction if that doctrine were rejected. The Pharisees feared Jewish ceremonies would be undermined and sacrificial offerings made of no effect.
The act exposed the leaders as rejecting evidence and turning from light. It showed the leaders of the Jewish nation as having failed God's purpose for His chosen people, as unfaithful depositaries of truth whom God passed by to choose others for His work. They acted in blindness under what they called righteous indignation, unwilling to admit they had not rightly understood the Word or had misinterpreted or misapplied the Scriptures, like men who had lost reason while despising fishermen whose ideas contradicted their doctrines. Their triumph was Satan's triumph that made evil angels exult.
Deliverance and Its Lessons
Though humble men without earthly resources or weapons, the apostles went forward with God's word and through Christ's strength triumphed over opposition as they proclaimed Christ's cross. Human hands could put them in the common or public prison, but imprisonment did not hold them or end their witness. Despite the prejudice and hostility of the rulers, an angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, entered the prison house, ministered to them, brought them forth, and sent them back to stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life.
The deliverance showed God's authority greater than the human authority that attempted to hinder His work. It did not mean God had abandoned them, but assured them of His care and presence, for angels constantly guard and watch over His people, coming in and going out in their behalf. Released by a voice from heaven directly opposite the voice from the authorities, they were commanded to keep preaching. They obeyed by declaring they ought to obey God rather than men, and when authorities tried to stop their mouths they refused to be silenced, remembering Jesus' promises and declaring they had a message to bear.
Their miraculous release did not spare them further examination and suffering for preaching Jesus. Yet threatenings did not make them cowards, intimidate them, or discourage them, and they returned to teaching despite the threat, so that when men came to the prison to find them they were not there. Their imprisonment did not intimidate the disciples or end their witness even as converts multiplied around them. Peter and John's confinement for their faith and escape from it was remembered when Herod later imprisoned Peter, leading him to take double precautions.
Herod shut Peter in a cell of massive rock with bolted and barred doors, bound him with chains, made soldiers answerable for the prisoner, and set sixteen men to guard in watches of four. This cut off all possibility of human aid so that God's triumph in deliverance would be more complete, and Herod's lifting his hand against Omnipotence would end in humiliation and defeat. The earlier escape did not keep opponents from imprisoning them again, showing imprisonment and human guards cannot prevent God from delivering His servant. The imprisonment belongs to the same case in Acts 5 where God punished wrongdoing, teaching that God will just as surely punish all who hinder the truth from triumphing, who deal deceptively and not straightforwardly in the Lord's work, who act oppressively and unjustly and use lawyers to take advantage, who exact every exorbitant price and practice every connivance of fraud, and who divert His means into a wrong channel.
Fathers and mothers are to teach their children and households about this deliverance. They are to tell how the angels appeared and how the Lord wrought in behalf of those in prison for truth's sake in taking them out of the enemy's hands, and to give God credit for His guarding care.