By:
William John Hocking, Editor
THE threats of the Jewish Sanhedrin did not, in the slightest degree, have the effect of overawing the apostles into the submissive silence that those august sages vainly hoped would ensue. On the contrary, the immediately succeeding events in Jerusalem indicated with perfect plainness that more than ever the power-clad message of the servants of Christ was swaying the people of that city as some storm-swept forest is swayed.
The bold and telling words of the preachers of the gospel as they spread the news of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus; the unquestionable confirmation of their verbal testimony by a gracious and holy deportment, showing that they themselves lived in the power of what they urged on others; the unwonted spectacle of possessors of houses and lands deliberately divesting themselves of their goods in order to relieve their poor brethren; the crowds of sick folk that were publicly healed in the streets of Jerusalem before the gaze of every passer-by; all these things cried aloud that the gospel instead of being retarded by the intimidations of the council was spreading more rapidly than before. And this news reached the ears of those who sat in Moses’ seat.
Annas and his party could endure no more. They were filled with wrath—with the spirit of him who when he shall be cast out of the heavens will come down to the earth with great fury knowing that his time is short (Rev. 12). They apprehended the apostles, as they had done before in the case of Peter and John, placing them in gaol for the night.
But of what avail are the combined forces of man, whether religious or political, mental or physical, when pitted against the “determinate counsel” of God? These servants of Christ knew in Whom they were trusting. Every man felt “The LORD is on my side; I will not fear; what can man do unto me?” Unresistingly they submitted to be led to prison. Had they been “of this world” they might have fought for their liberty. But the eyes of their faith were open, and they saw that God and His invisible agencies were marshalled on their behalf. Whether anything or nothing was about to be done by Him for their deliverance, they knew the battle was His, and the glory would be His too.
But the prison doors that were closed upon the apostles by the instructions of the high priest’s party were opened by an angel of the Lord, and when the men were led out they were commanded to go back to their work.
On the previous occasion, Peter and John were not so delivered, though the circumstances were so similar. God’s ways are full of variety, but are always those best suited to display His own glory in the fullness of His resources to meet the need of His own.
It is to be remembered that the bitterest opponents of the apostles were the Sadducees (Acts 4:1, 21And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them, 2Being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. (Acts 4:1‑2); verse 17). This is readily accounted for by the fact that the preachers gave such prominence to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. They as a party had gained for themselves a certain distinction in the age in which they lived by denying that there is any resurrection (Matthew 22: 23). And when they found that at their very doors there was being circulated most unimpeachable evidence that the Lord Jesus was risen from the dead, they were roused. For nothing perhaps rouses men to a higher pitch of fury than to see their pet religious theory threatened. At any rate the Sadducees are seen to be the particular antagonists of the apostles, as the Pharisees were of their Master.
Another article of Sadducean belief, or, to speak more correctly, of their disbelief, was the existence of angels and spirits (Acts 23:88For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess both. (Acts 23:8)). They were prepared to believe in anything that could be seen or heard or felt; but as for spiritual beings they classed them as only the phantasms of a disordered intellect. On this account we cannot believe it to be a mere accident that when these unbelievers in angels shut up the apostles in prison, the Lord sent an angel to lead His servants out. And without doubt the most erudite of these skeptical rabbis was somewhat nonplussed on the following morning at the news that in spite of locked doors and vigilant guards Peter and the rest were at their old posts in the temple courts, preaching the “words of this life.” How did this square with the Sadducean theory? How could the fact be accounted for without allowing for supernatural agency—for the power of God working on behalf of the apostles?
The high priest and his party appear to have had their misgivings. We read that when they heard these things “they doubted whereunto they would grow.” But like Pharaoh of old, it was only immediately upon the manifestation of the power of God that they suffered themselves to be momentarily impressed. Then they went on again in their mad course of fighting against God—a course of ruin, as it must ever be.