Waypoints 3/5

Pray:
“God, You are compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love. We long to experience more of You. Be near to us as we seek You now. Amen.” (adapted from Psalm 103:8)

Read Acts 5:21-26.
21 At daybreak they entered the temple courts, as they had been told, and began to teach the people. When the high priest and his associates arrived, they called together the Sanhedrin—the full assembly of the elders of Israel—and sent to the jail for the apostles. 22 But on arriving at the jail, the officers did not find them there. So they went back and reported, 23 “We found the jail securely locked, with the guards standing at the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside.” 24 On hearing this report, the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests were at a loss, wondering what this might lead to.
25 Then someone came and said, “Look! The men you put in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people.” 26 At that, the captain went with his officers and brought the apostles. They did not use force, because they feared that the people would stone them.
The Sanhedrin, the group responsible for governing Jewish life, gathered early in the morning to figure out what to do with these pesky apostles. They were in for quite a surprise when they sent for them only to find the jail to be empty. As they stood there confused, a report comes in that the apostles are back at the Temple sharing Jesus with the people. The Sanhedrin then has them seized and brought to them.
The way Luke words part of this passage sends us back to his gospel. When they went to the jail to fetch the apostles, they “found no one inside”. What does that remind you of? The empty tomb!
When the disciples and the women who loved Jesus went to His tomb, they “did not find the body of the Lord Jesus”. There is a parallel that Luke doesn’t want us to miss.
For the apostles, the resurrection was the event that reshaped the world as they knew it. Just think back over the sermons Peter has preached so far; every one of them has at its center the resurrection of Jesus. Paul will do the same later in Acts.
The resurrection is the sure sign that Jesus is who He claimed to be. It shows His power and authority over humanity’s greatest enemy, including the penalty for our sin against God. We continue to look to the resurrection as our reason for hope and source of encouragement. Jesus lives, as we shout on Easter Sunday. And just like the great hymn says, “Because He lives, I can face tomorrow.”

Praying Together:
“Lord, what joy it brings us to know that You live. We celebrate Your victory over death. We hold the reality of the resurrection at the center of our lives for You are our reason for hope. You are the reason we can face today and tomorrow. Amen.”