Acts 5:17-42--The Apostles Arrested and Freed

Acts 5:17-42
English Standard Version

The Apostles Arrested and Freed
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.”

​33 When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them. 34 But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in honor by all the people, stood up and gave orders to put the men outside for a little while. 35 And he said to them, “Men of Israel, take care what you are about to do with these men. 36 For before these days Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him. He was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. 37 After him Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him. He too perished, and all who followed him were scattered. 38 So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; 39 but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!” So they took his advice, 40 and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41 Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. 42 And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus.

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We learn in this passage that the high priest was a member of the Sadducees and that he could easily rally support of the Sadducees.  The high priest was filled with jealousy and the high priest and the Sadcucees had the apostles arrested and thrown into prison ("jail" might be an more appropriate term as they were being held over for trial, but I think the impression to be given here is that the verdict was already decided ahead of time and they intended to find them guilty--they were not planning on letting them go free).  Why were they jealous and upset?  Most likely because the apostles have been teaching and preaching in the Temple and many have been repenting, believing and following them.  To the Sadducees it's all about their power and influence, and they were beginning to lose both because these apostles were becoming quite popular and people believed they were sent from God.  We saw much the same kind of jealousy inspire the actions of the high priest when he prophesied that Jesus must be put to death in John 11:49-50 (see verses 45-53 for broader context).

That evening an angel of the Lord (we do not know which one, and the identity of the angel is not important) to release them from prison and to give them a message to once again stand in the Temple and speak the words of Life.  So the very next day they were at it again, back in the Temple and preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.  The Sadducees planned on bringing them to trial in front of the Sanhedrin in the morning, but when the guards went to bring the prisoners for trial, they were not there!  They were then told by someone else, "Look! The men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people."  So, the temple guard went to the Temple and asked them to come (they were not taken by force), and the apostles went willingly to stand trial.  The passage notes that the authorities didn't want to take them by force in daylight in front of all the people as they were afraid that the people would stone them.  I'm pretty sure that the Christians would not do this, but this is probably projection on their part of what they would do in that situation and they feared that others would act in the same way that they would--they worshiped their leaders and would fight to the death to keep them from being arrested, yet we see that Jesus commanded His disciples not to fight for Him at His arrest because His kingdom was not of this world.

​The Sanhedrin is upset that Peter and John have defied their order to no longer teach or preach in the name of Jesus, but Peter and John told them that they did not intend to obey their unlawful order when they said, “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.” (Acts 4:19-20).  Now Peter makes an even bolder statement in Acts 5:29-32,

“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.”

Not only does Peter deny their authority to countermand God's commandment, but he turns around and preaches this same gospel to them that they just told him that they didn't want to hear about him speaking to anyone else.  Certainly they were not very receptive to hearing it, but there was a reason that God had Peter in front of the Sanhedrin preaching this gospel for the one who would be the teacher of Saul of Tarsus, who would later be known as the apostle Paul was there that day and was influenced by their words.  Saul might have been there too, since he was a Pharisee, and we know that there are those among the Pharisees like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea who were disciples of Jesus, though they seemed to be afraid to speak openly about their faith.

​Gamaliel who was seen as having much wisdom spoke to the whole Council after the defendants had been put outside saying that if this was simply false religion or some political faction that God would certainly take care of them as He had with all the other insurrectionists, terrorists and those guilty of treason in the past.  If however these men were actually of God, then the Council may risk being at war with God Himself, and that's not a position they wanted to be in, so they decided rightly to, for now, let God fight His own battles if He wanted to take care of these men who we call the apostles.

The Council tried once again to order the apostles not to preach or teach in the name of Jesus, but they should know they have already gotten an answer on that issue that was pretty clear.  Peter and John actually rejoiced that they were chosen to go through such trials and tribulations (probably because they knew this was very similar to what Jesus went through) and they kept their regular routine of going to the Temple ever day to teach and they also went from house to house teaching all who would listen to them there.  Again, this is a similar pattern to what we see with Jesus--He took every opportunity to preach and teach in the Temple when He was in Jerusalem, but He also went to the cities and towns and villages, and even out into the countryside to teach anyone who would listen to Him.  This chapter ends by telling us, "They did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus."  We are happy to see their example of continuing to obey God in the face of persecution here, and I believe this is one of the places in the book of Acts that is not only descriptive, but also prescriptive for how we are to handle ourselves when we are put in similar situations--we must entrust our souls to God.  We can do nothing to save ourselves and how we respond to persecution shows people if we really believe what we preach and therefore if it is really worth them believing it for themselves.  Why would they believe something that we would easily deny or give up on when push came to shove?