If you would prefer to listen to this post as a podcast, CLICK HERE.

* * * * *

God was at work in a new way! Many of those who were alive during those days had been born during the latter part of the four hundred years of silence between the last prophet of the Old Testament – Malachi – and the arrival of John the Baptist. During those years the people had not heard a fresh word from God. Then God Himself showed up on the scene in the form of Jesus and the religious leaders rejected Him and crucified Him. When they should have been hungry to hear afresh from God, they had become quite content with their traditions and their own religious practices. They had settled into a very comfortable rut and were dedicated to maintaining their status quo. They thought their problems were over when they crucified Jesus. They thought they would be returning to “the good old days” of tradition and no longer having their leadership challenged.

But now, two years later, these followers of the very Jesus whom they had crucified were still on the scene performing miracles that even went beyond what Jesus had done.(1) They boldly proclaimed that Jesus had risen from the dead.(2) They preached a truth that was alive about a Living Savior that didn’t square with the religious leaders’ dead traditions. The apostles were disregarding the warnings from the religious leaders to stop teaching about Jesus. They were refuting the doctrine of the Sadducees by openly teaching that Christ had risen from the dead. And the people were being drawn to the apostles by their teaching and through the miracles they performed.

The streets were abuzz with excitement. The sick were being healed simply by the shadow of an apostle passing over them. No one had ever seen anything like this. Caiaphas and the other religious leaders were again envious and saw their positions being threatened. They wanted the miracles to stop. They wanted the sick to remain sick. They wanted the dead to remain dead. They wanted this emerging living faith to be silenced and dead tradition to again become the order of the day. They wanted these uneducated, ordinary Galileans to know their place and leave the teaching to the educated, ordained, and “approved” professionals.

But those “ordinary” apostles, now filled with the Holy Spirit, could not be silent. They could not be disobedient to their Lord’s direction to make His Name known among people everywhere, beginning right there in Jerusalem. Their mandate was to go and tell, and they could do no less. They were prepared to risk everything so that the Good News could be proclaimed through the power of the Holy Spirit. The religious leaders, who were preoccupied with protecting themselves and their way of life, could not understand these uneducated men who were willing to risk it all.

The Sadducees failed to understand that the obedience of the apostles was, in itself, the evidence and sign that the Holy Spirit had been given. Their radical obedience came from the power of the Holy Spirit. They filled Jerusalem with their teaching because, in the face of great danger, they obeyed God and not man. They obeyed God and not man because they had received the power of the Holy Spirit. They could not be silenced, regardless of the threat of persecution. Hugh Latimer, martyred for his faith in 1555, once said, “Whenever you see persecution, there is more than a probability that truth is on the persecuted side.”(3) The apostles were on the side of truth and by the power of the Holy Spirit, they could not be silenced.

Just as Jesus promised,(4) the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples with unusual fullness, and the result was supernatural power leading to courageous, life-giving witness. And that power was not merely the quiet power of preaching that looked natural, it was supernatural. It was life-changing. It was manifestly supernatural – tongues of fire, the sound of wind,(5) a shaking building,(6) and remarkable healings and deliverance.(7) The result was that “more and more people believed and were brought to the Lord.”(8) Acts 1:8 was unfolding: the Spirit came upon the church in an unusual way, extraordinary power was manifested, and life-giving testimony was bringing people into the Kingdom.

Power is a very dangerous thing – both for those who have it, and for those who don't, but wish they did. The danger if you have it is pride, and the danger if you don't is jealousy. And both are based on bad mistakes. Pride is based on the mistake of believing that the power is ours, or that we in our own strength fulfilled the conditions to get it. But in fact the power is God's, and if we fulfilled any conditions to get it – like faith or prayer or purity – it was not us, but the grace of God in us.(9)

On the other hand, jealousy is not just the passion to have the power that someone else has. In itself, there may be nothing wrong with that – to desire to see God's power working in and through your life that you see in the life of another. Jealousy goes beyond that desire, however, and becomes the anger and the resentment that someone else has it and you don't. Jealousy doesn't just want you to have what another has; it wants them to no longer have it.

The root of jealousy is three-fold. First, it is lovelessness.(10) If you love another person, you will rejoice if God gives them power, even if He doesn't give it to you.

Second, it is faithlessness. If you have faith in the sovereign grace of God to give power according to His own divine wisdom, then you will praise Him for the times and ways of His outpouring, and not question Him or resent His choices. God knows what He is doing, and He is wise and good in giving the Spirit in power wherever He pleases. Faith may cry for it to come; but faith also does not criticize God for when and where it comes.

Third, it is truthlessness. The Sadducees would have said, “there is no resurrection. The reason we are angry that these Christians are doing works of power is that they are deceiving the people to believe what is not true. There is no resurrection and they are leading the people astray." Jesus had given His disciples the antidote for truthlessness when He taught them, “You are truly My disciples if you remain faithful to My teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”(11) The religious leaders had rejected Truth and embraced their lies.

Their jealousy turned to rage which led to persecution – in this case, imprisonment. But in this instance, God used the imprisonment of the apostles as another demonstration of His power. Before we look at their escape, let’s be mindful that God does not promise that He will make a way of escape from every instance of persecution. As a matter of fact, He told His disciples they would be imprisoned, betrayed and many would be killed.(12) But He has promised that He will never leave us nor forsake us.(13)

Stephen was stoned to death even though he was filled with the Spirit and spoke with power.(14) The apostle James was later killed by Herod.(15) An angel of God came again and again for Paul and for Peter. But there were many times when God did not stop the beatings and lashings, or the stonings, or the shipwrecks. And there was one last time when He did not stop their instruments of death. In those instances, no angel came to rescue them, but the Holy Spirit walked with them every step of their way.

But on this particular day, God sent an angel to lead the apostles in the way of miraculous escape. The miraculous spiritual power of God is precious because it is God's and it comes – or does not come – according to His sovereign plan. It is a precious thing for such great power to be in the hands of an all-wise, loving God. It is God's power and not ours. It is in God's control and not ours. It comes – or does not come – according to God's perfect plan. Upon rescuing the apostles from prison, the angel of the Lord told them to return to the very place where they had been arrested. He told them to: “Go to the Temple and give the people this message of LIFE!”(16)

When escape and deliverance come to us and we are freed and empowered to serve others, the purpose of our deliverance will be that we give LIFE. And when deliverance does not come and we are left in our suffering, the purpose will be that we might live LIFE. If we are delivered from distress by the power of God, His purpose is that we be ambassadors of life to other people – true life, eternal life, the forgiveness of sins and a personal relationship with the ever-living God. It is a precious thing to be empowered to give life to others.

But if you are not delivered, if the angel does not come to open the door, what then? Well, then the time may have come to simply live LIFE. There may be nobody else to whom you are to give it. Your days of giving may be over. They will be over for each of us sooner or later. But this too is precious: When God withholds delivering power, He gives us the grace and strength to endure. Be mindful that “in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”(17)

Let’s be mindful of these closing thoughts. The apostles did not resist arrest. Filled and empowered by the Spirit of God, they trusted Him completely. They knew that they need not take anything into their own hands. They simply needed to follow Him, trust Him, and obey Him. They could trust Him for the outcome. As a result, the more the Sadducees tried to stop the miracles, the more their actions only multiplied the miracles.

God’s purpose would be accomplished – His Name would be made known. By their own admission the Sadducees bore witness that Jerusalem was filled with the teaching about Jesus, and the accusers (the religious leaders) had now become the accused(18) – all through the obedience of uneducated men walking in the power of the Holy Spirit.

So, with our eyes open to the price and the preciousness of the power of the Holy Spirt, let us also “give the people this message of life”(19) either by giving it or living it… until He returns… as His Spirit rests upon us.

* * * * *

You can read about the miraculous escape of the apostles in the fifth chapter of the Book of Acts.

This post is taken from chapter 16 of my book, Until He Returns. For more information about the book, click here.

(1) John 14:12

(2) Acts 5:12-28 (NLT)

The apostles were performing many miraculous signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers were meeting regularly at the Temple in the area known as Solomon’s Colonnade. But no one else dared to join them, even though all the people had high regard for them. Yet more and more people believed and were brought to the Lord – crowds of both men and women. As a result of the apostles’ work, sick people were brought out into the streets on beds and mats so that Peter’s shadow might fall across some of them as he went by. Crowds came from the villages around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those possessed by evil spirits, and they were all healed.

The high priest and his officials, who were Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. 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!” So at daybreak the apostles entered the Temple, as they were told, and immediately began teaching. When the high priest and his officials arrived, they convened the high council – the full assembly of the elders of Israel. Then they sent for the apostles to be brought from the jail for trial. But when the Temple guards went to the jail, the men were gone. So they returned to the council and reported, “The jail was securely locked, with the guards standing outside, but when we opened the gates, no one was there!” When the captain of the Temple guard and the leading priests heard this, they were perplexed, wondering where it would all end. Then someone arrived with startling news: “The men you put in jail are standing in the Temple, teaching the people!” The captain went with his Temple guards and arrested the apostles, but without violence, for they were afraid the people would stone them. Then they brought the apostles before the high council, where the high priest confronted them. “We gave you strict orders never again to teach in this Man’s name!” he said. “Instead, you have filled all Jerusalem with your teaching about Him, and you want to make us responsible for His death!”

(3) Hugh Latimer, chaplain to King Edward VI (1487-1555)

(4) Acts 1:8

(5) Acts 2:2–3

(6) Acts 4:31

(7) Acts 5:16

(8) Acts 5:14 (NLT)

(9) 1 Corinthians 15:1

(10) 1 Corinthians 13:4

(11) John 8:31-32

(12) Luke 21:12-16

(13) Hebrews 13:5

(14) Acts 7:58