But the high priest rose up and all who were with him, that is the party of the Sadducees, and filled with jealousy, they arrested the apostles and they put them in a public prison. But during the night, an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said, go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all of the words of this life. And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach. And when the high priest came and those who were with him, they called together the council and all of the Senate of Israel, and they sent to the prison to have them brought. And when the officers came, they did not find them in the prison, so they returned and reported, we found the prison securely locked. And the guards were standing at the doors. But when we opened, there was no one found inside. And when the captain of the temple and the chief priest heard these words, they were greatly perplexed. And they were wondering what this would come to. And someone came and told them, look, the men that you put in prison are standing in the temple, and they're teaching the people. Then the captain with the officers went and brought them, but not by force, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people. And when they had brought them, they set them before the council and the high priest to question them, 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. But Peter and the apostles answered, we must obey God rather than them. The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as a leader and savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we were witnesses to these things. And so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him. Let's pray. Heavenly Fathers, we come to Your Word. I pray that You would be honored and praised. I pray that You would be glorified in it. I pray that You would use this Word to build us up in our faith. And if there are those here who do not know You, Father, I pray that You would use this Word to call them to faith. Father, in all things, I pray that we would magnify you, not just in our ideas, but in the actions that we take, the attitudes that we have, and the things that we hold dear. I pray that you are witnessed to in this place and by those who are here. And I pray that this word witnesses to us as well. We pray these things in Jesus's name. Amen. Do you remember last week, for those of you who were here last week, how we defined the term or the phrase signs and wonders? Remember back we were talking about that. We gave the definition this way. Signs and wonders are supernatural acts of God. that are done to demonstrate that God is the God of creation, that He is the only God that is worthy of being worshipped. And that those through whom He was working, or through whom He was speaking at the time, were His apostles and prophets, and thus representatives of the one true God of all creation. Signs and wonders being done. We talked about them in the context last week of miracles of healing that were being done largely through the apostles, or all through the apostles, and largely through Peter, as he would walk from place to place, he would bring everybody out, and even his shadow would fall upon the people and they would be healed. Again, a testimony that Peter was an apostle of the one true God of heaven. Here in our text, we see another sign and wonder, and we're not thinking in the context of signs and wonders. We may miss the sign and wonder that is being done, because this time it's not the miracle of a healing. This time it's a miracle of a deliverance that is taking place. God is delivering his people out of their bondage, out of this jail cell that they have been placed in. In this case, through an angel that he sends to release them, but also keep the guards oblivious to what is taking place. Maybe sounds a little bit like Jesus' own resurrection, where the Roman guards were standing guard at the tomb and had no idea how the tomb was opened and emptied. So this is a sign of wonder again that is being done. This is the second arrest that we've seen already in the Book of Acts. The first one, it was just Peter and John. Now all the apostles get to participate. And so the 12 now, if you will, are arrested and they're thrown in prison together. And I'm sure the others were going, yay, This is, you know, I woke up this morning, this is the first thing that I woke up wanting to happen in my life. But nevertheless, it's something that took place. What was God teaching them? Well, in a very simple way, God was teaching them not to fear prison. Not to fear what man can do. You know, not to worry about You know, this is the last place most of us would ever want to be, but not to worry about that for the name and the testimony of Christ. It's also teaching them in a very real sense that the Christian witness, when it is lived out faithfully, when it is spoken and preached and proclaimed in the community around us, in the world, that typically the response is going to be oppression. The response is going to be persecution on some level. Kind of a good rubric for us. Ask yourself, are you ever persecuted for anything? And if we're not, then maybe we need to reevaluate perhaps how we are witnessing and how we are testimony, because that's kind of portrayed to us, especially as we go through the book of Acts, as kind of the norm for the Christian life. It's again, it's good rule of thumb, if you will, if you just want to self-evaluate and say, do people ever beat me up? Maybe not physically, but verbally or in principle for some of the things that I stand for. are some of the things that I will advocate. God's teaching them that the Christian life to which he has called them. is not going to be an easy one. And prison is part of or part and parcel of what it is that they have entered into. But again, not to fear the powers of men, because God is sovereign even over those things. He is greater in power than any of the powers of Earth, whether it's the powers of men, the powers of government, or the powers of demons and false idols. Our God is God and greater than all of those things, and He will not forget His own. Lo, I will be with you even to the end of the age. Now, this is really kind of an important idea. And I was wrestling through this passage to try and how I'm gonna tackle this. The passage that I kept going back to really sets a contrast. And I was looking back at Isaiah chapter 42. And it's remarkable the contrast between what Isaiah is writing about and what we're seeing lived out here in the book of Acts with these apostles now being placed in prison once again. Now, if you knew a little bit about Isaiah and the structure, beginning in Isaiah right about 40, we see a transition where Isaiah really begins to focus on the Messiah that is going to come, the suffering servant. that God is going to send for His people, of course, that is anticipating the coming of Christ. So, Isaiah 42 is part of that whole section in Isaiah, which is dealing with this Messiah that is going to come. And if you look at Isaiah 42, the first nine verses, you see God speaking of this Chosen One. And he's gonna come to do two things. He's gonna bring justice to the nations, and he is also going to redeem his people from their oppressors. I mean, even that in its context is important for us to highlight and be reminded of, because we like to talk about the redemption, but sometimes it's uncomfortable when we talk about the justice that goes along with it. But the two always go together when the Bible presents one, it presents the other. With judgment comes justice, and with judgment and justice come deliverance, and with deliverance comes judgment and justice. That's 42 verses 1 through 9, that the Messiah is going to bring these things. Verses 10 through 17, you see an entry into song. It begins with the language, sing to the Lord a new song, and proceeds to glorify God for the sending of the Messiah. Again, all of this to glorify the coming Christ. But then we get to verses 18 through 25, the last third of this chapter. Because Israel is not going to respond to the Messiah that comes. This is a prophecy, again, of the denial of Israel's and Jerusalem's denial of the Messiah that God sends them. And God gives them a warning in this passage. A warning that will remind them of what is to come when they deny the Christ that he has sent. The warning speaks about the people being looted, being trapped in holes and trapped in prisons and being left for dead, forgotten, being burned up and everything burned up around them, destroyed in the might of battle. If you know a little bit about history, you know that in the year 70 AD, the Romans came and they destroyed Jerusalem. burning into the ground, just absolutely razing the city. This is a description, prophetically 700 years and change, but this is a description of what that destruction looked like in God's judgment on the people for rejecting the Messiah. I think it's interesting to see those connections there. But notice what it says in verse 22 of Isaiah 42. It says, they will be hidden in prisons and they have been plundered with no one to rescue them or restore them. See, for denying the Messiah, part of the punishment is that they will be locked up in holes and in prisons and in other kinds of dark and dismal places. being delivered. But wait a minute. Now we have the contrast in the apostles. They're being locked up in the prisons. They're being locked up in the dark and dismal places, but they're not without hope because they are being delivered. The contrast between those, the punishment for those who reject Christ and the promise that is given to those who accept and embrace Christ as their Lord and Savior. Let me say, and this is just kind of a personal side note, I don't know how many of you have ever done any kind of a prison ministry time where you've gone in to speak with men or women respectively who are incarcerated for crimes that they have done. Back when I lived in Florida, I was friends with the chaplain of the Okaloosa County Jail. And so he oftentimes wrangled me into substituting for him on Bible studies and things along those lines. By the way, his name was John Lennon, which I always thought was kind of a curious kind of thing. So I know John Lennon personally, just a different one that you're thinking of. But when I'd fill in for John, I will say, that probably the most eerie feeling that I have ever felt in my life is going into that, escorted by police officers, yes, but going into there and hearing those doors shut and be bolted behind me, knowing that I can't get out unless somebody lets me out. That is an awful, awful feeling. Some of you know that I have a friend who is in prison now, and I visit him periodically. And I will say, in complete honesty, when I leave that prison, you know, having visited with my friend, there is no better feeling in the world than getting outside of those gates and those fences. It's an awful, despair-filling, discouraging experience to be behind those kinds of bars and fences. I understand they have a purpose. I understand they have a place. I get that up here. I get the fact that I'm just going in to visit and do some ministry. I get that up here. But here, and in the depth of my gut, there is an awful sinking feeling. And the prisons back in the days of the apostles weren't any better. In fact, I'd argue that they are far worse. This is called a public prison or a general or a common prison, sometimes our Bibles will translate this passage, which is basically just a holding tank. There's a big open room that was locked in and bolted. We put you there until the governors who are gonna judge you, the people who are gonna judge you are ready for you, but you're stuck in place. It's an awful, awful place to be. And it's a place that can bring hopelessness into anyone's life if you're placed there and stuck there against your will. Part of the promise that we are being given is if we are placed there because of the testimony we have in Jesus Christ, it does not need to be a place of hopelessness. But don't just stop there, because there's another principle, because all of us will end up in jail for the faith that we have. But we will all face times where we will be tempted to fall into hopelessness and to fall into discouragement. might be a medical prognosis, it might be the death of a loved one, it might be the loss of a job, it might be a discouraging failure, it might just be poverty, sickness, or other kinds of things that oppress us in our lives. But we need to remember in Christ, we need not fall into that state of hopelessness. And when we face persecution, whether it's imprisonment or otherwise, don't lose hope. Don't lose hope. And folks, that's a message that we all need to hear because it is easy for us to get discouraged and to lose hope in the face of all sorts of things that come into our lives. Don't lose hope. Be reminded of the contrast between those who accept Christ as their Lord and Savior and those who reject Christ and who are left in those dark and hopeless places with no hope to come apart from the gospel. And so they're brought to the trial eventually, and we'll get to that in a minute. But if you want to kind of wrap up this whole passage in one theme, it's fear God and not man. And obey God, even when that obedience will cause you to be disobedient to mankind, or to the authorities of man that are established around us. And let me apply this again in another way. Because again, we may not face persecution as a result of imprisonment or imprisonment as a result of the persecution that we face. It happens in a lot of places in this world. But there are other kinds of persecution that take place in this world. Sometimes we're discarded. Sometimes we're put to the side and disrespected. Sometimes people refuse to listen to us and will dismiss us offhandedly. Sometimes we'll lose jobs. for standing on the gospel. Sometimes we will lose opportunities in positions of authority because of the stand that we take for the gospel of Jesus Christ. There's lots of ways. And one of the things that we are hearing in politics all around us, and this deals not so much with the individual effect, But the corporate effect of taking a stand and doing what God obeys us doing is that if you listen to many of the candidates for the President of the United States, one of the things that they are saying is that they want to remove tax-exempt status from churches unless the churches acknowledge homosexual marriages. Obviously, that's not something that we are willing or will ever do. And lawmakers have been trying that for a long time, and they've never been successful, but that doesn't mean that one day that reality may not manifest itself. Now the government, I would argue, has no right to tax a church because a church functions kind of like an embassy from heaven. So to tax a church is as nonsensical would be to do to try and place taxes on the German embassy. It just doesn't make logical sense. But that's a theological argument that I don't think anybody outside of the theological circle is interested in making. But what happens then? What happens when the church says, or when the government says to the church, you need to start paying taxes on the tithes that people give and the offerings that are made, the interest perhaps that is earned from monies that are invested or things along those lines. What happens when the government starts to do that? I've used this illustration before with you, and it's not unique to me because I heard it from somebody else, but what would happen to attendance in church if every Sunday morning there was a representative of the government standing outside taking names. And you knew that if that person took your name down, that your state taxes or your community taxes or your federal taxes automatically would double across the board. Would you be in church? There are plenty of other ways that persecution can come into our lives. And as Christians, we need to be ready and prepared to accept and embrace those things. Because we are not in friendly territory, we are in enemy territory as believers. That's the broad context of our passage. That's the big idea, if you will, of the passage. In particular, the context of this passage is the Sadducees. They're getting jealous. The high priest is getting jealous. Now, if you know a little bit about the Sadducees, the Sadducees were always opposing the Pharisees, and there was this debate in Jesus' time, it was all going on. But the Sadducees were kind of these political priests. They were Levites, so they were of a priestly class, but they also held political offices. That was something that wasn't supposed to be done. in ancient Israel. Ancient Israel, there were three offices, the prophet, the priest, and the king. And you weren't supposed to cross lines between them. These guys were crossing lines. And so the party of the Sadducees arose, or you could say maybe better, the sect of the Sadducees arose. And they drew their power from the temple and the taxes that were enforced upon the people going into the temple. And these apostles were saying something different. These apostles were saying, worship in spirit and truth. It doesn't matter whether you're worshiping in the temple. It doesn't matter whether you're going there. The apostles were saying, you don't need to sacrifice anymore. That's the main reason the temple existed, was to be a center of sacrifice. They're saying, you don't need that anymore. Their power was being usurped, at least in their minds. And thus they were jealous. They were jealous of these apostles. And they sought to do what the wicked always do. Well, we're not gonna have a debate with them because we know we'll lose. So we're just going to use our power to force the other guys to be silent. And so they have them arrested and thrown into the public prison because they're messing with the status quo. throw them in the public prison with all of the other riffraff, and then we'll get to them eventually, is essentially what they command to be done, and thus the apostles are arrested, and they're placed into the prison. And so, that night, the angel is sent, and the angel opens the doors, lets everybody out, and the guards who are there are oblivious to everything that takes place. Closes up the door and locks it again. I love that part. It's locked, okay? There's been no pickpocketing in this gate, but this is something that, again, is a sign and a wonder, something that is supernatural that has taken place here. And the angel says to these guys, okay, now that you're out, Our temptation would be to say, to fill in the gaps, go running, get out of Dodge, go to Nazareth, regroup, and then come back in force. That's not what he says. Instead, what he says is, I want you back in the temple first thing in the morning. As soon as the sun comes up, you be there and start, we'll go back to what you were doing. Preach to the people, teach the people about the Christ. And so they do. And what I love is the way it's worded here. There's a little glimpse of what's to come. It says, speak to all of the people the words of this life. Now, if we're just reading it through quickly, we might be tempted to gloss over that and say, okay, it's just talking about the lifestyle of the believer. This is much more important language than that. If you remember back in John six, Jesus had been teaching about his body being the manna from heaven and how if we're going to find life, that life has to be found in Jesus's death. Okay, so even there, he's prophesying what's gonna have to happen to him. And those people who are following him, many of them are going, I'm really offended and uncomfortable with this language, so I'm not gonna stick around, and they start going in different directions. Jesus kind of nails the nail on the head and says, well, let me clarify this for you, that no one comes to me unless the Father permits it, unless it's granted by the Father. Okay, the complete inability of man to make the right decision on his own. Salvation is God's sovereign work. Sounds awful, all we teach when we talk about election, but it's God's sovereign work there. And those people who are pulling away, and Jesus is explaining why people pull away. And Jesus turns and says to the 12, are you gonna go also? He's not asking a question because he don't know. We've all been told in the text of John that Jesus knew from the beginning who had faith and who would follow him and who didn't. And he's kind of separating the sheep from the goats, if you will, even there. 12 make a wonderful response through Peter. They say, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, that's John 6, 68. You see that idea? Who has the words of this life? Jesus. Peter wants to learn those words. What are the apostles now as they're let free from prison to teach to the people the words of life? The words that they learned from Jesus. Jesus had them, the apostles are giving them, the apostles are teaching them to others. And folks, that's important because we are the ones who now have the words of life. And it's our job to continue the practice. You've heard me say this over and over again, and I think we just need to hear this over and over again. As Christians, it is our job to go and tell. We don't have the liberty just to go and be quiet about our faith and say this is a personal faith, this is a faith that I just keep to myself. We don't have that as our liberty. It's not our right to do. Our responsibility, lest we sin, our responsibility is to tell others about the life that can be found in Jesus Christ. That's what the apostles are sent back to do. That is what those who would follow the apostles would continue doing. And that is what we are to continue doing as well. And if we're not doing that, we are sinning. Paul, the apostle, would write in Philippians 2.16, And he's talking to the church, and he's taught, Philippians is just a wonderful little book, and the church is one of those churches where the church gets a lot right. So many of Paul's letters, he's dealing with things that the church has gotten wrong. Read 1 Corinthians and Galatians, for example, but here the church has gotten stuff right. And he talks to them, really, about what he measures his success as as an apostle. And what's the measure of the success? As he says, that they are holding to the words of life. They're holding to the faith of Jesus Christ. They're living out their faith as best as they are able to do so as sanctified Christians. And he says, that is what testifies that my labors have not been in vain. So are you holding to the words of life? Have my labors been in vain? Because if you're not, they are. But if you are, they're not. And so the apostles teach in the temple once again. And of course, the head of the temple goes to get them from the prison, finds that they're not there. They're a little bit perplexed at this. Big surprise, been there, done that already before with Jesus and His resurrection. And they go back and they're going, hmm, what's gonna come about this? And somebody comes and tells you, oh, by the way, those guys you're looking for, they're back in the temple and they're preaching. And so the guards are sent once again to fetch them. We're told that they are brought without force, which is important, I think, in the sense that what we see afterwards will be with force. But for now, it's not yet with force. And they're brought and they're charged, verse 28, with two charges. The first is, look, we already told you not to preach in this guy's name and you're doing it. You've broken our ruling. And so you're guilty. Second thing is you're basically, they're saying you're making us look bad because you're blaming Jesus's death on us. How oftentimes we fall into that trap. I'm not the one who did it. I didn't actually hammer the nail in his hands. My hands are clean. Somebody else did it, even though we were kind of part of the whole process. Our sin was part of the whole process. Those are what the things that they are being charged for. And Peter's response in verse 29 is that we must obey God rather than men. This does not mean that we don't have a responsibility to obey the government around us. That's Romans 13. We have a responsibility to do that. This is the one exception. If the government commands us to do something that would be a sin, that's when we break the government's laws and we obey the laws of God. Apart from that, we are called to be submissive to our governments. Now, the last three verses I probably should just take at some point on their own, because they are absolutely dense with wonderful, wonderful insight. But for our context today, I just want to make a few brief observations as we close this morning. First of all, once again, we find the apostles making it very clear in terms of the guilts, that the guilty is on the Sadducees' hands because they have denied the Messiah. So whether they hammer the nails or not, they are part and parcel of the death of Jesus. And so they are guilty as well. Secondly, it is the God of our fathers, he says, who lifted him up. Basically saying the God of all creation, the God of Genesis on, the God of the nation of Israel, He's the one that lifted Jesus up. So if you're denying Jesus, you're denying God as well. Third, death upon a tree and language is cursed. That's a reference back to Deuteronomy 21 verses 22 and 23. It's one of these strange little commands in the middle of this chapter that goes, boom, all of a sudden dying on a tree. It's a cursed thing and never given an explanation why. You need the New Testament to have the explanation why. You need to know that this is God's prophecy all the way back in Deuteronomy as to how Jesus would die. So it has to be an accursed death. And by the way, that's also referenced and explained in Philippians 2.8. And if you want to open up your Heidelberg Catechism, that's question 39 in your Heidelberg Catechisms. Fourthly, not only did God raise Him, but He exalted Him at His right side. That's Heidelberg Catechism, question 46. Seventhly, He is also called Leader and Savior. I've talked about this word. This is a Greek word, archaigos. This word is used four times in the New Testament, all the times it's used about Christ. And every time it talks about Christ and His divinity, Probably the best, most literal translation would be trailblazer. Somebody who is an archaic god is somebody who goes first, leads the way, and leaves a path for others to find. Kind of a pioneer, if you will, in a very American sense. Here, he's also doing two things. He's giving repentance to Israel, that is true Israel, and boy, we could spend some time unpacking that. and forgiveness of sins, which can only come through Christ. Eight, the apostles and the Holy Spirit say that they are witness to this, these events. Why the Holy Spirit is mentioned too? Because it is impossible to believe without the work of the Holy Spirit in us. And indeed, it's impossible to have any assurance without His work as well, for the Holy Spirit is the one who testifies to our spirit that we are children of God, this Romans 8, 16. And ninth, How do you know who has the Holy Spirit? The answer we're given is those who obey Christ. In other words, if you want to discern whether somebody or yourself is a believer or not, ask them the simple question. Are you obeying the commands that Christ has given you? Or are you not obeying them? 1 John chapter 3 goes into that same idea and expounds upon that a little bit further. But I'll leave you this morning with simply the question, are you a believer in Jesus Christ by your obedience? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we praise you and we thank you for your grace and your goodness and your mercies to us, for they abound and are certainly things that we do not deserve. Father, I pray that as we seek to live out our lives, that we would take these words of yours seriously, and that we would weigh ourselves carefully so that we might honor you in every way possible. We praise you, Father, and pray all this in Jesus' name.