17 Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him, (which is the sect of the Sadducees,) and were filled with indignation, 18 And laid their hands on the apostles, and put them in the common prison. 19 But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them forth, and said, 20 Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life. (Acts 5:17-20 KJV)
William Burkitt’s Commentary
Note here, 1. How the persecution of the holy apostles did gradually advance and increase. In the former chapters the apostles were only secured, kept in hold for a night and dismissed with a threatening next day; but now being filled a second time with the Holy Spirit, they are better enabled to grapple with sufferings, and to glorify God under them: and accordingly here they are committed to the common prison amongst malefactors, and afterwards beaten and exposed to public shame, Acts 5:40.
O the tenderness of God towards his tender servants! While these apostles were striplings, their faith feeble, and their grace weak, God stayeth the rough wind, keeps off the storm of persecution from them. God will evermore suit the stroke to his peoples strength, proportion their burden to their back, and never suffer them to be tempted above what they are able.
Note, 2. The apostles being prisoners for Christ and his Gospel, they have an angel for their keeper and deliverer, who opens the prison door, and overpowers and puts out the devil. God could otherwise have delivered them, but he makes use of the ministry of angels for the confirming of their faith, and to let them see by experience that he had given his angels charge over them. Since the establishment of the gospel, God will have us live more by faith, and to walk less by sense, and therefore we must not now (ordinarily) see those ministering and beneficent spirits: but although their visible operations for the heirs of salvation shall never cease, Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? Hebrews 1:14
Note, 3. The apostles being thus brought out of prison by an angel, are commanded to preach, and they have their text given them by the angel that opened both the prison and the pulpit door for them. The angel said unto them, Go, and speak unto the people all the words of this life, Acts 5:20. That is, of this life for which you were imprisoned, this life which the Sadducees, who imprisoned you, deny; namely, the resurrection of the body, and eternal life.
Learn, That not the things of this life, but the things of eternity and the to come, the unseen things of another world, ar the things which all the ministers of Christ ought to preach, and press their people to the pursuit of; Go, and speak unto the people all the words of this life: That is, the gospel, which is the word of life, and directs them how to attain eternal life and salvation by Jesus Christ.