The Word Made Plain

Guest (Male): Welcome to The Word Made Plain with Senior Pastor Tony Clark of Calvary Chapel Newport News in Virginia. Currently, Pastor Tony is teaching a study in the book of Acts. Please open your Bible to Acts chapter five, verses 17 through 21.

Tony Clark: All right, let's dive into the word of God together. Turn with me in your Bible to Acts chapter five. We're going to be looking at verses 17 to 21. As we continue to go verse by verse, chapter by chapter through the book of Acts on Sunday mornings. And as you know, we're in the book of Joshua on Wednesdays. I'm very thankful for going through the New Testament on Sundays, the Old Testament on Wednesdays, and just getting that word in us.

And Father, it is with great thanks that you didn't leave us to try to figure this thing out on our own. But Lord, that you have given us this word to lead, teach, and guide us into all truth. So Lord, we pray today that your Holy Spirit would teach us and guide us today. You would lead us by your Holy Spirit, God. You would lead us into all truth and that you'll reveal the secrets of our hearts today in Jesus' name. Amen.

Acts chapter five, verses 17 to 21. The title of this message is "Open Prison Doors." Open prison doors. Now, there is nothing more devastating than being sent to prison, to have your freedoms taken away from you, to be separated from your family members and friends, to be separated from your home and what you know as normal. There is nothing more devastating.

But at the same time, there is nothing more joyful than being set free, then to have those doors open up to you. And I believe in these verses, we're going to see how the apostles were wrongfully put into prison and how God miraculously set them free. This is very critical for us to study because whether you believe it or not, there are many of you who came here with prison clothes on. You came here in spiritual prison to something, and the Lord is here to set you free.

We left off last time with an excitement at the miraculous things God was doing through the apostles according to verse 12. Believers were increasingly added to the Lord in verse 14, and people started bringing their sick relatives and friends into the streets so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on them according to verse 16. I was thinking about this yesterday. When was the last time you brought some family members and friends sick with the disease called sin, and you brought them here so that at least the shadow of Jesus might fall on them?

When was the last time you brought someone that you know is in this condition? All you have to do is close your eyes and say, "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe," and you can pick someone that is sick with the disease called sin, and Jesus wants to set people free. The word got out about this and multitudes gathered from surrounding cities hoping that those sick and tormented by unclean spirits might be delivered according to verse 16.

Now, surely everyone in the religious community was excited about all these things done in and through the church, right? Well, look at verses 17 and 18. "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 and laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison."

With the rapid spread and excitement of the church, the high priest rose up, who very well could have been either Annas or Caiaphas, who was in office until around AD 36. Annas was the high priest recognized by the people, and Caiaphas, his son-in-law, was appointed high priest by Rome, so both of them were the high priest at the same time. Because they were the high priests, they belonged to the Sadducees, who were the liberal religious leaders according to verse 17.

They were not excited about what God was doing through the church. Instead, they were filled with indignation. I want to draw your attention to this word indignation. The Greek word is *zelos*, and it means jealousy or envy. It carries the idea of a type of jealousy that a husband has for his wife. So instead of them being filled with excitement over what God was doing through the church, they were filled with jealousy and envy of them.

The Lord keeps placing this on my heart and I keep trying to get past it, but he won't let me. If this word *zelos* describes the jealousy that a husband has over his wife, the part I can't get past is that there are many religious leaders who are the same way. They are jealous over church members as if these members belong to you. This is why I never tell people "my church." You won't ever hear me say that. I remember one time that slipped out of my mouth and I was mortified by it.

You are not my people. You are my people, but you are not my people. I didn't die for any of you. Jesus died for you, so you belong to him. How dare I get a jealousy or envy over you as if you are my people or as if I have a jealousy like for my wife or something. It wasn't right that they were in this position. It wasn't right that they were feeling this way. Their jealousy drove them to lay hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison according to verse 18.

I have to ask this question: Has your jealousy and envy caused you to do this to someone? Are you jealous of someone who got a position you thought you should have gotten, or jealous over someone who married someone you thought you should have married? What you do is put them in the common prison of your mind and heart. Every time you see them, you talk to them and treat them like a common prisoner, and you are the warden.

The sad part is that we as Christians allow this type of behavior in the church. Unfortunately, I have to admit, people of my ilk—we as pastors—are envious of other pastors and what God is doing in the church across town. We are jealous and envious of what God is doing, and we put these pastors and churches in our common prison. We talk about them badly because we are the warden of that common prison and we put them in, just like we see in these verses.

I am ashamed to say I have done this myself. Other pastors do it. I have heard all kinds of things that folks have said about our church. Some of it was true. Some of it I just have to take because the church is made up of people and people trip. Not everybody who comes here is saved. Not everybody is walking with the Lord. People are at different levels in their walk with the Lord and they fool around. So some of it was true. I am not going to lie. I am not going to try to say, "Hey, don't be saying that." No, some of it was true. I just have to say, "High five, yeah, you're right."

What happens when you are the prisoner in someone else's prison? Look at verses 19 and 20. "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.'" The conjunction "but" that starts verse 19 is contrasting what was said in verses 17 and 18. The apostles were arrested and put in prison by the jealous Sadducees, but at night, an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out.

How ironic that God used an angel to open the prison doors when Acts 23 verse 8 says that the Sadducees deny anything that is miraculous and they deny the existence of angels. It doesn't matter what prison a person tries to put us in because they are jealous of us; God is able to free us. When someone puts us in their common prison because they are jealous of us, God will free us and they end up being the prisoner. God has freed us and leaves those people as prisoners.

You have heard it said many times: envy, jealousy, unforgiveness, bitterness, anger—all of this is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die, when we are the ones who end up dying from it. In the same way, the people who try to put us in their own prison because they are jealous and envious of us, they end up the prisoner. Now, did this angel free them and tell them to go and hide out somewhere? No, he said in verse 20 to go, stand in the temple, and speak to the people all the words of this life.

There are three things I want to bring to your attention from this particular verse. Number one, I love how the angel told them to go and tell the people all the words of this life. Yes, this refers to eternal life that Jesus gives to all who repent of their sins and accept him as their Lord and Savior. However, there is an abundant life that Jesus wants us to experience as well. In John 10:10, Jesus said, "I have come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly."

Too many Christians are not experiencing the abundant life that Jesus offers. Please do not equate abundant life to having a bunch of material or monetary things. Jesus offers an abundant life that is filled with love, joy, peace, longsuffering, faithfulness, gentleness, kindness, and self-control. All of those are things that Galatians 5 verses 22 and 23 talks about. Those are things that money and material things can never buy.

I bring this up because a lot of Christians lack joy. You are sour. I am here to tell you as your friend that you are sour. You are a sourpuss. Unfortunately, I have to look at your face every Sunday and Wednesday, and you have that look on your face. You do not realize it, but you are a sour person. You lack joy and you lack peace in your life. You are filled with confusion. You do not know what direction to turn. You do not have wisdom on what to do. You lack kindness. You are mean and nasty. I see it.

Some of you are trying to smile now and your face is cracking. You lack gentleness. You are harsh and cruel in the way you talk to your wife and the way you speak to your children. There is also a lack of self-control that you exhibit. You are out of control with your eating, your weight, and all kinds of things. You lack self-control, which is part of the abundant life that the Lord wants us to experience. Jesus wants to give us an abundant life where we experience these qualities in abundance.

It is crazy that children of God are addicted to all kinds of things when the Spirit is supposed to give us self-control. We are supposed to be different, yet we are hooked on all kinds of medicines and mess just like the world. There is no difference between us because we are not experiencing the abundant life that Christ offers. Now, some of you need to be on that medicine. Do not be fooling around saying, "Pastor Tony said get off that medicine." You stay on that medicine until that doctor tells you.

I am just saying that there should be a difference in us and the world. The second thing I want you to see is that the angel said to tell the people all of the words of this life. Not some of them, but all. This is why at Calvary Chapels we are committed to giving you all the words that pertain to this life according to the Bible. All 66 books contain the words of this life. This is why we teach it chapter by chapter, verse by verse, book by book, from Genesis to Revelation.

In these 1,189 chapters and 31,102 verses, you will find all of the words of this life. Other churches have other things going on, and that is okay if that is what God led them to do. But for us, this is what we are doing from Genesis to the maps in the back. We are going to teach it all to you. The third thing is that the angel told them to go. We have been given the same mandate. Matthew 28 verses 19 and 20 says, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations."

Jesus said to teach them to observe all things that I have commanded you. He said, "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." I know God is with us as we teach you all things that pertain to this life and this book. Mark 16 verse 15 says to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Many people try to get real spiritual to justify their laziness and their disobedience to go. They say they are just waiting on the Lord to lead them.

He told you to go 2,000 years ago. How much leading do you need? He is not going to lead you to go because he already told you to go. As we can see, we have been given a command, not a suggestion. The question is, did the apostles go? Or did they do what we would have done? We would have run out of that prison, run home, and hidden somewhere. Well, look at verse 21. "And when they heard that, they entered the temple early in the morning and taught."

They entered the temple early in the morning and taught. They did not wait until noon or until the evening after they went home and sat around. They went early. It has been rightfully said that the greatest nation in the world is procrastination. We have a bad tendency to say, "Lord, thank you for opening up the prison doors for me to get out of this relationship or this addiction. I promise I will start back going to church and reading my Bible pretty soon."

Procrastination is one of the biggest problems in Christianity today. God gently speaks to our hearts to turn off the TV and spend time in prayer, and we say we will, but only after we finish this movie or this game. Then we never do it. Before we go to sleep, God whispers to our hearts to read the Bible, and we say we will do it tomorrow. Or when the announcement comes to sign up for something at church, we say maybe next time. This is a major problem in the church today.