Commentary on Acts 5:17-25

By Bob Myhan

¹⁷ Then the high priest rose up, and all those who were with him (which is the sect of the Sadducees), and they were filled with indignation, ¹⁸ and laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison.

In order to appreciate—on an intellectual level at least—the indignation felt by the Jewish council, one need only remember that, for the previous three-and-a-half years, they had suffered embarrassment time and time again because of the public teaching of one Jesus of Nazareth. They finally had the opportunity to arrest Jesus at night—thanks to the turncoat, Judas—had a mock trial in which Jesus was condemned unlawfully on perjured testimony and had bullied Pilate into convicting Jesus on trumped-up criminal charges, insuring His crucifixion. Remembering His prediction that He would rise from the dead the third day, they posted guards at His tomb. But, in spite of the guards, the tomb had been discovered empty on the morning of the third day. They then bribed the guards to testify that Jesus’ disciples had stolen His body while they were asleep.

But a scant forty-nine days after the resurrection, Peter and the other apostles began to preach that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah who had been killed but had come to life again; they even performed miracles to supplement their personal testimony.

We do not know how long after Pentecost this event takes place but it is probably several weeks afterward. But the apostolic preaching included the culpability of the Jewish leaders in the death of Messiah. (Acts 2:22-23; 3:13-18)

It was for this reason that “the priests and captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them...arrested them and put them in custody until the next day.” (Acts 4:1,3) But the preaching of the gospel on that occasion had resulted in more than 5,000 men being converted, not to mention the women. (Acts 4:4) Therefore, it would be a conservative estimate to say that there were at least 10,000 Christians by this time. And these were people who had once supported the Jewish religion as it was then being practiced. In short, the council was losing its hold on the people. Thinking they could bully Peter and John as they had bullied Pilate, they severely threatened them then let them go. They had mistakenly thought that was that.

This time, however, it was not just Peter and John but all the apostles who are arrested. The council at this time largely consisted of Sadducees. The Greek word for “indignation” can also be translated “zeal.” But their zeal was not a zeal to please God but a zeal to rid themselves, once again, of some whom they considered troublemakers. It was the zeal of one Saul of Tarsus who zealously persecuted the church (Phil. 3:6; Acts 8:3). The “common prison” is probably the public prison. All sorts of criminals would have been there awaiting trial.

¹⁹ But at night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said, ²⁰ "Go, stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life."

Apparently, the apostles did not spend one night in the common prison. The Lord send an angel to open the doors and lead them out. He charged them with resuming their mission.

²¹ And when they heard that, they entered the temple early in the morning and taught. But the high priest and those with him came and called the council together, with all the elders of the children of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought. ²² But when the officers came and did not find them in the prison, they returned and reported, ²³ saying, "Indeed we found the prison shut securely, and the guards standing outside before the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside!" ²⁴ Now when the high priest, the captain of the temple, and the chief priests heard these things, they wondered what the outcome would be. 

Whether the officers had been asleep or the apostles simply left the prison by stealth, we do not know but either or both could have been true. At any rate, when they were sent for they were not there, though the officers were at their station. It is not surprising that “the high priest, the captain of the temple, and the chief priests...wondered what the outcome (of these events) would be.”

²⁵ So one came and told them, saying, "Look, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people!"

The apostles were doing the very thing the council had ordered them not to do. But then, they were told by the angel of the Lord to “go stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life,” being a life of service to God. What do you do when the governmental authorities tell you one thing and Divine authority tells you the opposite? You obey Divine authority, of course.

(To be continued)

Benevolence and Relief (Part 8)

By Bob Myhan

We have been showing that the epistle to the Galatians was written with regard to the false teaching that was adversely affecting the membership of those churches but had little to do with the collective activity of those churches.

Paul writes,

³  Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. ⁴  But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, ⁵  to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. ⁶  And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!" ⁷  Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. ⁸  But then, indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods. ⁹  But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage? ¹⁰  You observe days and months and seasons and years. ¹¹  I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain. ¹²  Brethren, I urge you to become like me, for I became like you. You have not injured me at all. (4:3-12)

The plural, “we,” in verse three is a reference to himself and other Jews. He is continuing the figure introduced in chapter three that the Jews had been under a guardian (ESV) until the coming of “the seed” (that is, Christ).

The Gentiles were never under this guardian, but were being told that they had to be in order to be right with God. Instead of the Law of Moses, they had been under the moral expectations of God for all men (see Rom. 1:18-32), They had violated these moral expectations, just as the Jews had violated the covenant God had made with them. Both Jew and Gentile are now under the New Covenant, or Testament, which had been dedicated by the blood of Christ. It was never God’s purpose or intention to bring the Gentiles under the Law but to bring all to Him through His Son. But the Galatians had been bewitched into thinking they had to submit to physical circumcision, Sabbath keeping and other aspects of the Old Covenant (3:1). Because they (the Gentiles of the churches of Galatia) were sons, God had “sent forth the Spirit of His Son into (their) hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father.’”

In verse seven Paul uses the singular to emphasize that each of them was “no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.” This is essentially the same as his telling the Colossians, “...and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.” (Col. 2:10) Thus, there was no need for the Gentile to become a proselyte; being a Christian was sufficient. But now, the Gentile Christians in Galatia were turning “again to the weak and beggarly elements” of a lesser covenant. It was as if they had a compulsive “desire again to be in bondage,” though they were free in Christ. (v. 9) Here they were observing “days and months and seasons and years,” which were but “a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things.” (Heb. 8:5; 10:1) They needed to become like Paul, just as he had become like them, by  being grateful for the fact that they were not bound to keep the law. He continues,

¹³  You know that because of physical infirmity I preached the gospel to you at the first. ¹⁴  And my trial which was in my flesh you did not despise or reject, but you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. ¹⁵  What then was the blessing you enjoyed? For I bear you witness that, if possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me. ¹⁶  Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth? (4:13-16)

Whether this “physical infirmity” had to do with Paul’s being stoned and left for dead outside the city of Lystra or some other physical infirmity is not clear. But he and they had developed a close personal relationship during his time in Galatia. And now they were allowing these false teachers—Judaizers—to characterize him as a false teacher who was making an illegitimate claim to being an apostle. Now they were treating him as an enemy though he was merely telling them the truth.

Concerning the false teachers in Galatia, Paul says,

¹⁷  They zealously court you, but for no good; yes, they want to exclude you, that you may be zealous for them. (4:17)

By “court you” he means “curry your favor.” They were “suitors” with improper intentions. They would threaten withdrawal that the Gentiles might desire to be accepted.

The reader may be asking, “But what has all this to do with the benevolent responsibility of the local churches in Galatia?” The point is it has not one thing to do with the benevolent obligation of the local churches in Galatia. It has to do with the relationship of individual Christians to Christ and to one another.

(To be continued)