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Scripture Reading: Acts 5:17-42
In 5:17-42 we have the continuation of the persecution by the Jewish religionists. This section of Acts covers four matters: the Sanhedrin’s arrest of the apostles and the Lord’s rescue (vv. 17-28), the apostles’ testimony (vv. 29-32), the Sanhedrin’s prohibition and release (vv. 33-40), and the apostles’ rejoicing and faithfulness (vv. 41-42).
Acts 5:14 says, “Believers were all the more being added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and of women.” Because of this, “the high priest and all those with him (that is, the sect of the Sadducees) rose up and were filled with jealousy, and they laid their hands on the apostles and put them in public custody” (vv. 17-18). The expression “public custody” denotes the outer prison house, not the inner prison used for serious cases. During the night, an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the prison and led the apostles out (v. 19). Those guarding the doors did not know what had happened. The next morning the Sanhedrin and the council of the elders of the sons of Israel sent deputies to the prison to get the apostles. “But when the deputies arrived, they did not find them in the prison; and when they returned, they reported, saying. The prison house we found locked with all security, and the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened the doors, we found no one inside” (vv. 22-23). “The captain of the temple and the chief priests were utterly perplexed.” Then “someone came up and reported to them, Behold, the men whom you put in the prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people” (vv. 24-25). Although the religionists could not understand what had happened, the apostles had been rescued from prison and were in the temple teaching.
When the angel of the Lord rescued the apostles from prison, he said to them, “Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life” (v. 20). We need to pay attention to the word “this,” for it indicates a particular life. The Greek word rendered “words” here is rhema, denoting the present spoken word, not the constant written word. Therefore, the angel was saying to the apostles, “Go and speak the present words of this life.”
What life is indicated by “this life”? It is the divine life preached, ministered, and lived by Peter that overcame the Jewish leaders’ persecution, threatening, and imprisonment. This word indicates that Peter’s life and work made the divine life so real and present in his situation that even the angel saw it and pointed it out.
The apostles were not told to speak of the divine life in a doctrinal way. Today certain Christians may talk about life, but their talk is altogether doctrinal. We need to seek mercy and grace from the Lord so that whenever we speak concerning the divine life, we speak the words of the very life we live. This means that the divine life becomes our daily life. It is this life that we should minister to others.
Acts 5:26 says, “Then the captain with the deputies went away and brought them without violence, for they feared the people, lest they should be stoned.” The religious leaders did not know how to handle the situation. In particular, they did not know what to do with “this life.” Fearing the people, they did not do anything violent to the apostles. Instead, “having brought them, they stood them in the Sanhedrin. And the high priest questioned them, saying, We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, and look, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and intend to bring upon us this man’s blood” (vv. 27-28). Literally, the Greek words rendered “We strictly charged you” mean, “We charged you with a charge.” Those in the Sanhedrin charged the apostles not to speak anymore in the name of Jesus.
In verses 29 through 31 “Peter and the apostles answered and said, It is necessary to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you slew, hanging Him on a tree. This One God has exalted to His right hand as a Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.” Jesus’ incarnation made Him a man, His human living on earth qualified Him to be man’s Savior, His crucifixion accomplished full redemption for man, His resurrection vindicated His redemptive work, and His exaltation inaugurated Him to be the ruling Leader that He might be the Savior.
The Greek word rendered “Leader” is archegos, meaning author, origin, originator, chief leader, captain. In 3:15 the same Greek word is translated “Author.” God exalted the Man Jesus, rejected and killed by the Jewish leaders, as the highest Leader, the Prince, the Ruler of the kings to rule over the world (Rev. 1:5; 19:16), and the Savior to save God’s chosen people. “Leader” is related to His authority, and “Savior” to His salvation. He rules sovereignly over the earth with His authority so that the environment may be fit for God’s chosen people to receive His salvation (Acts 17:26-27; John 17:2).
Who rules the earth today? We may say that the earth is ruled by kings and presidents, but the Lord Jesus as the highest Ruler is above them. According to Revelation 1:5, He is the Ruler of the kings of the earth. Which title do you think is higher — ruler or king? Probably most people would say that a king is a higher title than a ruler. Nevertheless, the New Testament speaks of Christ as the Ruler of the kings, and Peter says that He is the Leader, the chief Ruler.
In a very real sense, Christ as the Ruler of the kings dethrones all the kings. Only He is the Ruler. Furthermore, according to Revelation 19:16, He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Christ is both the Ruler and the King. As the Ruler, He rules the entire earth. It may seem that kings and presidents rule the earth and that the Lord Jesus is not on the throne. Nevertheless, this One who seems not to be on the throne is the Ruler of all the enthroned ones. Today the entire world is under the Lord’s ruling. He is truly the Leader, the chief Ruler.
For what purpose is the Lord Jesus ruling the earth? As the Leader, the Ruler, He is ruling the earth for the purpose of our salvation. He is ruling so that we may be saved. Let us take as an illustration the case of Chinese immigrants to the United States. We have found that a great many of these immigrants are very open to the Lord. But if they had remained in China, it is not likely that they would be this open. The Lord Jesus exercises His authority to cause so many foreigners to come to this country. Then once they arrive, they become open to Him. This is an illustration of the Lord’s ruling the earth for the sake of saving people.
We believe that God has chosen us, and then at the right time the Lord Jesus, the Ruler of the kings of the earth, exercised His authority to produce a certain environment so that we had no choice except to believe in Him. In a sense, we have been “caught” by the Lord. A number of saints have testified that they have been caught by Him. We may not feel this way when we are in a season of refreshing. However, when the “sky” above us is not clear and we are in a “cloudy” situation spiritually speaking, we may begin to consider that the Lord has caught us, even trapped us. We may also believe that we are caught in the church life. There is no way for us to escape from the Lord’s “trap.” We have been caught by Christ and in Christ; furthermore, we have been caught in the church. In a sense, this is our situation. We have been caught by the Lord in His sovereignty.
Before we were saved, we were like mice running loose. But the Lord Jesus exercised His sovereign authority to set up a trap to catch us. The faster we ran, the easier it was for Him to catch us. In this matter He is sovereign; He is the Ruler of the kings, arranging the environment so that we were constrained to believe in Him. Without such an environment, we would not have believed in Him. Actually, believing in the Lord does not depend on us — it depends altogether on Him. He has been exalted to be the Leader over all the kings to arrange the environment so that His chosen people will believe in Him.
In 5:31 Peter says that God has exalted Christ to His right hand as a Leader and Savior. After the Lord catches us, He becomes our Savior. However, He does not save us from being caught; rather, He keeps us in a “trap” in order to save us from God’s condemnation, from the lake of fire, and from many evil things. His being the Leader is for authority, and His being the Savior is for salvation.
I do not know of anyone who has chosen to believe in Jesus on his own. We were all compelled to believe in Him. Many have testified, saying, “Concerning believing in the Lord Jesus, I did not have any choice. I simply had to believe in Him.” Actually, none of us was willing to believe in the Lord. We all were caught by Him and constrained to believe in Him. Praise the Lord that we believe in Him!
We have pointed out that we cannot run away from the Lord’s trap. We may use as an illustration the ark made by Noah. This ark is a type of Christ. Once we have entered into Christ as our ark, we cannot get out. We need this ark, for without it we would perish.
In one of the messages on the book of Genesis, I said that the local church is an ark for us today. Now we all are in this ark. Who put you into the ark of the church? Did you put yourself there? The Lord is the One who has put us into the church ark. He has been exalted by God to be the Leader, and as the Leader He has put us into the ark. At times we may want to get out of the ark of the church, but we cannot escape. Because of the Lord Jesus as the Leader, we are in the ark, and now we should live together in it.
According to Peter’s word in 5:31, the Lord is the Leader and the Savior “to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.” To give repentance and forgiveness of sins to God’s chosen people requires Christ to be exalted as a ruling Leader and Savior. His sovereign ruling causes and leads God’s chosen people to repent, and His salvation based upon His redemption affords them forgiveness of sins.
Repentance is for forgiveness of sins (Mark 1:4). On God’s side, forgiveness of sins is based upon His redemption (Eph. 1:7). On man’s side, forgiveness of sins is through repentance.
Repentance and forgiveness are major gifts, and only the Lord Jesus as the Leader and the Savior is qualified to give them. No one else is qualified to give repentance and forgiveness of sins to others. We need to realize that in this universe He is the only One qualified to give repentance and forgiveness of sins.
In a positive sense, we have been caught by the Lord Jesus. If we had not been caught, who among us would have repented? None of us would have repented if the Lord had not captured us. Actually, the Lord compelled us to repent. Otherwise, we would not have repented. Repentance is not of us; repentance is a gift given by the exalted Leader and Savior. Following repentance, we received the gift of forgiveness. Praise the Lord for the gifts of repentance and forgiveness! Praise Him that He is qualified to give repentance and forgiveness to God’s chosen people!
In 5:32 Peter goes on to say, “And we are witnesses of these things, and the Holy Spirit also, whom God has given to those who obey Him.” The Greek word translated “things” here is rhema. Both the apostles and the Holy Spirit were witnesses of these things. This indicates that the Holy Spirit was one with the apostles. In this verse Peter says that God gives the Holy Spirit to those who obey Him. Obedience is the way and the condition to receive and enjoy the Spirit of God.
Acts 5:33-40 describes the Sanhedrin’s prohibition and release of the apostles. Verse 33 says, “But when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and intended to do away with them.” Literally, the Greek words rendered “cut to the heart” mean “being sawed through.” This is a strong figure for being exasperated.
Verse 34 continues, “But a certain Pharisee in the Sanhedrin named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, honored by all the people, stood up and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while.” The Pharisees were the strictest religious sect of the Jews (Acts 26:5). This sect was formed about 200 B.C. They were proud of their superior sanctity of life, devotion to God, and knowledge of the Scriptures.
In verse 35 Gamaliel said to the Sanhedrin, “Men, Israelites, take heed to yourselves regarding what you are about to do to these men.” Then after referring to the cases of Theudas and Judas the Galilean, he continued, “Now I say to you, stay away from these men and leave them alone; for if this counsel or this work is of men, it will be overthrown; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them, lest perhaps you even be found fighters against God” (vv. 38-39). Here Gamaliel spoke a very good word.
Gamaliel was a pious, godly man. But was he in God’s economy? Did he know anything concerning God’s economy? Gamaliel was not in God’s economy, and he did not know anything about it. Throughout the centuries many godly ones have been like Gamaliel. Although they were pious and godly, they did not know anything about God’s economy. They had no understanding of God’s move. Like Gamaliel, who did not know what the Lord was doing through Peter and John, these pious ones did not know what the Lord was doing in their time.
In 5:35-39 we see that Gamaliel was quite wise and also neutral. Notice his use of the word “if” in verses 38 and 39. In verse 38 he said, “If this counsel or this work is of men, it will be overthrown.” Then in verse 39 he went on to say, “If it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them.” Instead of taking sides, Gamaliel left the entire situation to God. He knew that if this work was of men, it would be overthrown. But if it was of God and not of men, nothing could be done concerning it. As we have pointed out, although Gamaliel was godly and pious, and also wise and neutral, he did not know God’s economy, and he was not in it. Throughout the years many have been like Gamaliel. They were very godly and pious, but no matter how godly and pious they were, they did not know what God was doing on earth.
From the case of Gamaliel we see that it is not adequate simply to be godly and spiritual. We also need to know how God is moving today. Where is God moving, and in what way is He moving? Since God is always moving, we must find out in what way He is moving. Is He moving in the way of Roman Catholicism, or in the way of the denominations? Is He moving in the way of Pentecostalism, or in the way of the inner life? In what way is God moving now? We cannot believe that God is dormant. Since He is moving, we need to have the inner assurance, the inner satisfaction, that we know His move and are in it. We need assurance concerning God’s up-to-date move.
We should not be like those in the Sanhedrin, and neither should we be like Gamaliel. Instead, we should be today’s Peters and Johns. From the record in the divine revelation we can see that Peter and John were in God’s economy. They were moving with God, or, more accurately, God was moving with them. They had been motivated to move with God.
How about us today? I can testify that I have the assurance that the Lord’s move is in and with His recovery. Concerning this, we have the Holy Spirit as the inner witness. With Peter we can say, “We are witnesses of these things, and the Holy Spirit also.” We have the inner assurance and satisfaction that we are in the Lord’s up-to-date move. We are not Gamaliels — we are today’s Peters and Johns.
Those in the Sanhedrin were persuaded by Gamaliel. After calling the apostles, “they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and they released them” (v. 40). Therefore, “they went from the presence of the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to be dishonored on behalf of the Name” (v. 41). To be dishonored on behalf of the Name is to suffer shame for the Name. It is a real honor to be dishonored on behalf of the Name, the very name of the man-dishonored but God-honored Jesus. Hence, the sufferers rejoiced that they were counted worthy of this.
Acts 5:42 says, “And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and bringing the good news of Jesus as the Christ.” Here we see that the apostles preached the gospel in the temple and in the houses of the believers. We have the burden to follow this practice of preaching and teaching from house to house.
