Join us as we read the scriptures and a daily devotion written by Don Crisp. We pray these messages will bless us all at this time.
Wednesday 23 September: Acts chapter 5:17-24
Categories: Don’s Daily Devotions
Wednesday 23 September: Acts chapter 5:17-24:
V17: The phenomenal growth of the church now stirs up the Jewish authorities to increasingly bitter response. We note again the dominance of the Sadducees – including the High Priest – in this. All that is taught offends their “liberal” or rational attitude, yet note they are also jealous of the power they see at work, and its effect upon so many.
V18: So they have the Apostles arrested. All of them? It is not clearly said, but seems to be implied. Many of us will have heard John Benton preach recently about Satan’s strategies against the church, beginning with to ” decapitate the leadership.”
V19: God intervenes miraculously through His angel to set them free. How simply , almost matter-of-factly, this is recorded. It seems there was no upheaval, such as in Philippi’s prison in ch 16 – just a “quiet” work of God to deliver His servants.
V20-21: Set free, they are instructed to return at once to their public ministry, which they do, still in the temple, to all who come there.
V22-23: Unaware of what has happened ( so my comment on v19 ) the High Priest and his party convene the whole council, and send guards to bring the Apostles from the prison. To their perplexity, they find the prison empty.
V24: This news bewilders the council, they simply do not know what to make of it. Clearly, they have no expectation of seeing God at work directly in their time. Do we?