Jail, an Escape, Sharing about Jesus and Suffering

Our icebreaker question for our spiritual family gathering today caught some people off guard:

Share with us your name and who you would call with your one call if you were in jail?

As we continued in the book of Acts, being thrown in jail was a common theme for the the early church leaders.  By chapter 5, some of the apostles have had two overnight stays in prison!

The first time, the apostles were released with a tongue lashing telling them to stop talking about Jesus.  The apostles vowed to obey God, and not the religious officials.

In Acts chapter five, the officials have had enough of being accused of murder (Jesus) and hearing about the Messiah’s resurrection, so they imprison the apostles again.  Yet in the middle of the night, an angel secretly releases the apostles without anyone knowing:

But an angel of the Lord came at night, opened the gates of the jail, and brought them out. Then he told them,“Go to the Temple and give the people this message of life!” (Acts 5:19-20 NLT)

The apostles obey and begin teaching about Jesus in the Temple in the morning. The officials convene for court, send to the jail for their prisoners and they can’t find them! Finally the officials discover that the apostles are teaching in the Temple the same message that has cause such an uproar!

The apostles were seized and brought before the officials who grew so angry they were desirous to kill the apostles!

 But one member, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, who was an expert in religious law and respected by all the people, stood up and ordered that the men be sent outside the council chamber for a while.  Then he said to his colleagues, “Men of Israel, take care what you are planning to do to these men!  Some time ago there was that fellow Theudas, who pretended to be someone great. About 400 others joined him, but he was killed, and all his followers went their various ways. The whole movement came to nothing.…
“So my advice is, leave these men alone. Let them go. If they are planning and doing these things merely on their own, it will soon be overthrown.  But if it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You may even find yourselves fighting against God!” (Acts 5:34-39 NLT) 

The advice of Gamaliel was heeded (after a body beating), and even today we see that the officials couldn’t “overthrow them” and the message has spread all over the globe about Jesus the Messiah.  They were fighting against God…and lost!

The story concluded with this:

 The apostles left the high council rejoicing that God had counted them worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus. And every day, in the Temple and from house to house, they continued to teach and preach this message: “Jesus is the Messiah.” (Acts 5:41-42 NLT)

What an example from the apostles: