Acts 5:20-24 - Speak to the people the words of life

5:20,21a

We see this focus on the gospel brought out clearly in these two verses, both the place of it in God’s view, and in the apostle’s practice. A great miracle had occurred, but they did not then go around the telling people of the miracle, nor seeking to recreate it again. Instead they were told to go and stand in the temple and speak “the words of life”, ie they were to speak in the place where they were most likely to be arrested again. God did not do this miracle in order to make life easy for the apostles, but to make their life effective. So the apostles entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach. So we see the pattern that occurred many times in the gospels, and we now see here, or miracles followed by teaching, with teaching being the goal. Again, there is sometimes a tendency to denigrate teaching, to use other means of preaching the gospel. There is nothing wrong with using drama, music etc as means of communication, but at the end of it  people need to be taught the gospel.

5:21b-24

The Sanhedrin were totally oblivious to what was going on, thinking the apostles were in the jail. Guards were sent to the jail to bring the apostles, presumably with the hope that they had learnt their lesson, or to give them a further beating if need be. Of course, the guards found that the prisoners were no longer there, and they reported the matter to the chief priests and commander of the guards. The only sign that something had happened was the total absence of apostles! The chief priests and captain of the guard were at a loss about what to do, or what the consequences would be.