19 But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said, 20 “Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life.” 21 And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach. … – Acts 5:19-21
Can God’s people be imprisoned? Surely. Can the words of Life be imprisoned? Certainly not.
When the apostles were near the temple healing people and sharing with them the words of life in Jesus, the words of Life, the most powerful Jewish religious authorities, out of jealousy, had them arrested and imprisoned.
I’d imagine the apostles spent the night in prison praying together, dispelling the silence with the words of Life. The first cell group.
Then there is a sound of metal clinging at the cell door. The door swings open. A man is there, dressed peculiarly, face glistening serenity. He says assuredly, go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life.
If the apostles were in awe of this miracle, it was not recorded. Perhaps they were not. Maybe they anticipated it. Possibly they prayed for it. Almost as if it was just another ordinary Monday night to them. Whether a natural man or supernatural man, it did not bother them. He was an angel of God, marked by his instructions, and that was enough.
What instructions though! Speak the words of this life. What life? The life of imprisonment? The life of persecution? Or the life of deliverance? The life of freedom? All of this is the life in Jesus. For to live in Jesus is to have once lived in bondage to sin, to have been delivered and set free from that prison by dying with Jesus, and by raising with Him from death to life, one is born anew from the dark cavern of the world to a bright crisp life in the Kingdom of God. The rescue by Jesus is not from the prison walls of men but the prison fangs of sin and death.
That is the miracle. That is a life which must be spoken of. We who live this Life, this great rescue story, must be compelled to go and stand among the public crowds and speak the words of this Life. And no human opposition can stop this work of God.