Central Truth

The apostles' insistence on obeying God implicitly condemned the religious rulers as God's enemies, although these rulers refused to admit any wrongdoing concerning their execution of Jesus.

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Reflections

The jealousy that once incited Israel's rulers against Jesus (Mark 15:10) now turned against His apostles. Having earlier accused Jesus’ miracles of being demonic (Matthew 12:24), they now ignored God’s power in the apostles, who were the stars. Apostolic healing and drawing crowds testified to the life they offered. By exalting Jesus’ name they made the rulers look bad. Those priestly unbelievers continually tried to suppress God’s self-revelation through His servants.

The resurrected Jesus instructed the apostles to preach repentance and forgiveness of sins in His name to all nations, beginning with Jerusalem (Luke 24:46-47). They were to be His witnesses in Jerusalem once the Holy Spirit came on them (Acts 1:8). They were to teach all that He had taught them (Matthew 28:19-20). So now they were announcing forgiveness through the risen Savior and incurring ever more trouble because of it. Eventually Christian leaders would be killed, even from among the apostles.

Whenever God decides to do miracles on behalf of His people, He signals the intensity of earthly events. Although angelic deliverance of the apostles from jail seems almost comical (did the angel put the guards to sleep or into a trance?), gospel proclamation might have suffered greatly by their defeat. People needed to know about eternal life through Christ. Faith had carried the apostles here and would need to carry them much further. The angel’s liberation of them was another unmistakable sign of divine approval on their ministry, further emboldening them to confront the Sanhedrin unafraid. 

When the Sanhedrin, Israel's leaders, emphasized that they had commanded the apostles not to teach in Jesus’ name, they were contradicting Jesus. Since they had also murdered Jesus, they did not represent God’s true authority. God’s resurrection of Jesus as a Prince and Savior at His right hand underscored the Sanhedrin’s wrongness. The apostles’ statement about obeying God rather than men exposed the Sanhedrin's corrupt authority. As the apostles claimed to be witnesses of what God had done, alongside the Spirit whom God gives to those who obey Him, they implicitly accused the rulers of disobeying God and lacking the Spirit. 

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Discussion Questions

1. Whether or not you are trying to suppress God's Word for your life is a good test of where you stand with Him. Are you suppressing His Word for your life or are you accepting it?

2. Whether you are promoting or hindering God's work is another test of where you stand with Him. Are you silent about what the church is doing, do you speak poorly of it, or do you promote it by your involvement with it?

3. The apostles' example suggests that if you faithfully serve the Lord amidst problems, He may give a token of His approval of your ministry. Can you think of ways that God has manifested His smile on what you are doing?

4. The apostles refused to be intimidated by worldly authority arrayed against them. Do you have a sufficiently clear-sighted appreciation of what God is doing that you could detect if temporal authorities were moving against God's will?

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