Every Jew coming to the festival knew all-to-well of our obligation to buy a kind of kosher indulgence.
We tried to follow this KING
ALL of Jerusalem was abuzz with this Jesus, who had ridden into our captive city like a KING! And this Son of Man (as he called himself) began the day overturning tables of moneychangers and chasing merchants and animals out of the Temple courts!
Of course the Temple police appeared (though unprepared for such a disturbance as this), then pharisees and priests and scribes, even the chief priests.
In fact — they WITNESSED the marvelous miracles, signs of JESUS’s power from God!
.. and the children crying out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”
Gospel of Matthew 21:15b New King James Version – witness of Jesus in the Temple
Rather than praising GOD as even the children were now doing, THEY BECAME INDIGNANT.
One of them said to him (I think it was a chief priest):
“Do You hear what these are saying?”
YES, this Jesus answered him AND then quoted a familiar Psalm.
“Yes, Have you never read,
‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise’?”
Gospel of Matthew 25:16 NKJV – Jesus’ response to children singing about Him
By now a few more Legions became clearly visible in the distance, yet the Temple police seemed to be nowhere in sight.
In general the crowds were JOYFUL and above all praising the healings which Jesus had been doing for some who came to Him.
This irked the officials of the Sanhedrin, although they now turned away from making any trouble today for this Son of Man and Son of David, who some zealots in the multitudes were urging to be KING.
This Jesus slipped out through the crowds quickly and headed toward a gate leading to the road to Bethany.
an earlier Passover
I'm trying to recall if it was last year [A.D. 29] or the year before that I had heard from someone that this was not unusual for this humble Nazarian Rabbi.
Jesus had shown signs to more than five thousand men near Nazareth.
Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said,
“This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.”
Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.
Now I have to tell you, God’s Temple, with its several strict regulations of the Sanhedrin has always been a lucrative place for a Jew to do business.
The Pesach festival week this year had not seemed to be much different than any the last five decades since Herod the Great began construction of the still not-quite-finished Temple grounds for God’s ordinary people.
Trouble is that more and more Zealots have more openly attacked our occupiers’ Legions even though ROME has included Judea in its ‘peace‘ for a hundred years or so.
Every Jew coming to the festival knew all-to-well of their obligation to buy a kind of kosher indulgence.
This KING Jesus who called himself Son of Man (rather than son of David)would have none of it.
There were already dozens of these authorized vendors at work with hundreds of early bird customers like us.
When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!”
As a good Jew I thought I knew these sayings this new Prophet Jesus quoted. One is about the gentiles — and believe me they were all there too.
Even them I will bring to My holy mountain, And make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices Will be accepted on My altar; For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.”
You know what else I remember from this Prophet from seven centuries ago concerning Israel’s leaders?
His watchmen are blind..
And they are shepherds Who cannot understand; They all look to their own way, Every one for his own gain, From his own territory.
Isaiah 56:11b NKJV
Isaiah calls them ‘greedy dogs’ who are never satisfied.
It seems fit that this Man would clear the Temple of these dogs indulging our Council of leaders comfortably walled-up away from God’s place of worship.
THIS JESUS even knew that our captive weeping Prophet had called it “a den of thieves!”
We tried to follow this KING
This Jesus had our attention. He was right in everything he said and did.
But because of the crowds WE could only get glances of this King as He moved about the Temple courts.
WE kept hearing stories though — confirmation of things Jesus did that no other man or prophet could do.
Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.
So they arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail.
But an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail during the night, brought them out..
Acts of the Apostles 5:18-19a – CSB
ACTS of Arrests witnessed by the Apostles
Politically motivated religious leaders of Jerusalem now begin to develop a dossier of accusations against Peter, John and the Apostles, because as disciples of the Messiah Jesus they boldly proclaim the Lord’s resurrection from His horrific death on a cross.
As they once again imprison the Apostles, let’s look back briefly at what Annas, Caiaphas and the ruling council of Jerusalem have on them. Herod’s palace records also add evidence.
Simon, a Galilean fisherman, aka Peter, had been a disciple of John the Baptist.
John baptized disciples, even JEWS, to REPENT about three years ago.
Herod had John the Baptizer beheaded.
Pharisees report that Simon and John were part of Jesus’ inner circle of Apostles.
The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling to His disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?”
Gospel of Luke 5:30 NASB20
Simon Peter identified near Jesus’ trial
Witnessed just three months ago just prior to the Passover feast by a servant of the High Priest:
Now when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat among them. And a certain servant girl, seeing him as he sat by the fire, looked intently at him and said, “This man was also with Him.”
Gospel of Luke 22:55-56 NKJV
A Noteworthy Sermon from Solomon’s Portico
Just days ago the Sanhedrin, Jerusalem’s High Court, orders Peter NOT to say anything about Christ Jesus. Although Peter and John were arrested for preaching repentance, Jerusalem’s leaders released them from prison as a politically palatable concession to the crowds who had witnessed Peter healing a man lame from birth.
12 At the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were taking place among the people; and they were all together in Solomon’s portico…
And increasingly believers in the Lord, large numbers of men and women, were being added to their number, to such an extent that they even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on cots and pallets, so that when Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on any of them. The people from the cities in the vicinity of Jerusalem were coming together as well, bringing people who were sick or tormented with unclean spirits, and they were all being healed. But the high priest stood up, along with all his associates.. laid hands on the apostles and put them in a public prison.
Previously, the authorities brought Peter and John before the council, however on this occasion the Lord sends an angel to open their prison door!
and leading them out, he said,
“Go, stand and continue to speak to the people in the temple area all the words of the whole message of this Life.”
At daybreak they entered the temple courts, as they had been told, and began to teach the people.
ACTS of the Apostles 5:21 NIV
(Of course, these same officials of Jerusalem’s political elite who had seized them believed that the Apostles were still imprisoned as before.)
Not just another day at the office
BIG political victory last evening. Those Apostles opposed to OUR LEADERSHIP of JEWISH JERUSALEM await OUR VERDICT of what to do with them.
(Or so they thought, as these religious officials arrived at work in a Jerusalem guarded by Roman centurions.)
ACTS 5:21b
Now when the high priest came, and those who were with him, they called together the council, all the senate of the people of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought.
But when the officers came, they did not find them in the prison, so they returned and reported,
“We found the prison securely locked and the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them we found no one inside.”
(REMEMBER their dilemma of JESUS’ EMPTY TOMB just a couple of months ago?)NOW what?
Who does this Galilean we arrested think he is?
Narrative of this private conversation is a speculative fiction behind the scenes in ACTS 5.
On that day when we arrested this Simon of Capernaum the first time what was it I said?
When we released him after he drew crowds to himself in the Portico of Solomon proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead, he challenged our very authority to hold or releasehim.
So when the others asked, “What are we to do with these men?”
I insisted, DO NOT release them to cause more trouble.
But when they couldn’t find cause to keep these men in prison I said, “You had better start a dossier on them, because we will just have to arrest them again.”
For this Simon Peter had confirmed my distrust when he answered:
“Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, make your own judgment; for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
So I was all prepared to tell you, “I WARNED YOU about these men.”
But what’s this we hear now after having arrested these crowd-stirring Galileans again so soon? Listen to this new report as we assembled this morning:
The Captain of the Temple Guard’s Report
But on arriving at the jail, the officers did not find them there. So they went back and reported,
“We found the jail securely locked, with the guards standing at the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside.”
ACTS of the Captain of the Temple Guard 5:22-23 NIV
Even though it seems impossible, these rabble-rousers must have escaped and run home to Galilee.
(Maybe not such a bad thing for us.)
NOW what do we do?
Now when the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests heard these words, they were greatly perplexed about them as to what would come of this.
25 But someone came and reported to them, “The men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple area and teaching the people!”
The Apostles Now have Thousands of Disciples
And Peter, John and the others are preaching boldly as the Angel has commanded them to continue with the words of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as they return to preach in the Temple.
IT IS YET ANOTHER SIGN, not to be taken lightly by those who had seized them the previous day, throwing the Apostles into Prison.
26 Then the captain went along with the officers and proceeded to bring them back without violence (for they were afraid of the people, that they might be stoned).
(A riot against the capitol police? Roman soldiers in Jerusalem would certainly never condone such RAGE by any Jewish crowd throwing stones at Jerusalem’s politicized religious police.)
Would you, the arrested, convict US?
27 After they brought them in, they had them stand before the Sanhedrin, and [Caiaphas, or possibly Annas] the high priest asked,
“Didn’t we strictly order you not to teach in this name?
Look, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.”
[Peter had convicted them of their complicity in Jesus’ Sacrifice on the Cross; however the Apostle had also stated that God the Father had allowed it AND that JESUS had been raised from the grave!]
But Peter and the apostles answered,
“We must obey God rather than men.
30 The God [theos] of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you put to death by hanging Him on a cross. He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince [archēgos] and a Savior [sōtēr], to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.
32 And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.”
GUILTY!
When they heard this, they were furious [diapriō – cut to the quick] and wanted to put them to death.
It is what we should have done the first time we jailed them.
WE know that these men have escaped, but HOW? Never-the-less, WE cannot allow them to continue to sway all of Jerusalem to become disciples of this JESUS we hung on a Roman cross just two months ago.
But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the Law, respected by all the people, stood up in the Council and gave orders to put the men outside for a short time.
