An Imprisonment Thwarted
TRANSLATION
(12) The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people. All the believers used to gather in Solomon’s colonnade (in the temple). (13) No one else dared to join them although the people held them in high esteem. (14) More and more believers, both men and women, were added to the Lord. (15) As a result, people brought their sick into the streets, placing them on cots and mats, so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on them as he passed by. (16) And people came from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by unclean spirits, and all of them were healed.
(17) However, the high priest and his associates, namely, the Sadducees, were 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, saying, (20) “Go, stand in the temple courts, and tell the people all about this new life.” (21) After hearing this, they entered the temple courts at dawn and began to teach. When the high priest and his associates arrived, they called together the Sanhedrin, the assembly of Israel’s leaders, and sent to the prison for the apostles. (22) However, the officers did not find them in the prison. They returned and reported, (23) “We found the prison securely locked and the jailers keeping watch at the door. But when the prison was opened, we found no one inside.” (24) When the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests heard this, they wondered how this would turn out. (25) Then someone came and told them, “Look, the men you imprisoned are back in the temple teaching the people.” (26) Then the captain with the officers went and brought them. They didn’t use force, for they feared that the people would stone them.
OBSERVATIONS
Every attempt on the part of the Jewish leaders to prevent the spread of the Gospel ended in frustration. The events in this segment must have been particularly galling to the authorities. Several repetitions in the segment help us determine its thrust. “The people” is found six times (vss. 12, 13, 16, 20, 25, & 27), “apostles” twice (vss. 12 & 18), “the sick” twice (vss. 15 & 16), “high priest” and “associates” both twice (vss. 17 & 21) along with “chief priests” (vs. 24), “all/those who were with him” twice (vss. 17 & 21), “prison/imprisoned” six times (vss. 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, & 26), “temple” four times (vss. 20, 21, 24, & 25), “officers” twice (vss. 22 & 25), and “captain” twice (vss. 24 & 26).
OUTLINE
I. The church experienced rapid growth because of God’s working through the apostles. (12-16)
II. Israel’s leaders, driven by jealousy, arrested and imprisoned the apostles to no avail. (17-21)
III. When they found the prison empty the next morning and the apostles back in the temple teaching, the Jewish leaders were dumbfounded. (22-26)
IDEA STATEMENT
No matter what Israel’s religious leaders did to prevent the advance of the Gospel, it continued to spread like wildfire.
APPLICATION
In one of Paul’s retellings of his encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, he included a sentence that did not appear in the original account of that experience (Acts 9:3-6). To King Agrippa he related that Jesus, after asking him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” added this phrase: “It is hard for you to kick against the goads” (Acts 26:14). In this metaphor we can grasp how frustrated Israel’s leaders were when all their efforts to stop the spread of the Gospel ended in failure.
What does “kicking against the goads” signify? To understand this, we need to enter the world of ancient agriculture. The goad was a long pole or stick, sometimes tipped with a pointed piece of iron. In the hands of a farmer, the goad would prod, guide, and punish an animal, usually an ox, so it would go in the right direction when plowing a field or pulling a cart. When a stubborn ox attempted to kick back against an annoying goad, it would drive the pointed end deeper into its leg and inflict more pain. This image of “kicking against the goads” captured precisely what the religious leaders were doing as they resisted the spread of the Gospel. Every attempt they made to force the apostles to quit preaching only brought them more pain and served to increase the impact of what they were trying so desperately to silence. We can only imagine how frustrated the high priest and other religious leaders must have been when they learned that the apostles whom they had arrested and imprisoned the previous day were already back in the Temple teaching the next morning. How had they escaped? What was the council going to do now? What steps could they take to keep this movement from broadening its impact?