TUESDAY January 31, 2023
Keep on Preaching!
But at night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said, “Go, stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life.” 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.
Acts 5:19-21
The Apostles were thrown into jail to be prosecuted and persecuted. Suddenly at night, God gave them supernatural help. He sent an angel to break them out of jail! He basically told them, “The Jewish leaders may try to shut you up, but I am commanding you to go stand in the Temple and keep on preaching!”
The Apostles obeyed and did just that! They were to preach the words of this life, which could have related to what they spoke to each other in prison. Words of comfort. Or perhaps words of Christian doctrine, as among their captors were the Sadducees. They did not believe in angels or the Resurrection. Ironically, God used an angel to release them from prison! Certainly, they would speak the Gospel. Matthew Henry states:
The words of the gospel are the words of life, quickening words; they are spirit, and they are life; words whereby we may be saved….
Meanwhile, the council was called together to deal with this ongoing situation. They had tried to threaten Peter and John; it did not work. They needed to find a way to silence all of Jesus Christ’s Apostles once and for all. They made ready and sent officers to fetch the Apostles from jail.
There may be a day coming when the law will not allow you to preach in Jesus’ name, and you will be thrown into jail, too! When people threaten you not to preach in the name of Jesus, do what God told the Apostles––keep on preaching!
O Sirs! We might as well preach to stone walls as preach to humanity
unless the Holy Ghost be with the word, to give it
power to convert the soul.
~C. H. Spurgeon~
For more from Raul Ries, please visit SomebodyLovesYou.com!
