Second Sunday of Easter – April 27, 2025
“But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the 
prison doors and brought them out . . .”
- Acts 5:19 -
Those must have been heady days after Jesus was raised, appeared to his disciples, and poured his Spirit out upon them. By the power of the Spirit the disciples were healing diseases, creating faith, performing all kinds of signs and wonders Luke tells us. But the leaders who had done their best to get rid of Jesus weren’t giving up yet. They rounded up the disciples and threw them in prison.   
The religious leaders didn’t like what the disciples were saying and doing, so they arrested them. But just as their best efforts could not keep Jesus in the grave, they also couldn’t keep the disciples in jail. An angel of God released them from their cells, opening the door and setting them free to tell the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Most of us will not ever be put in prison for believing in Jesus. But we still come up with all kinds of reasons to keep quiet about our faith. Maybe we don’t want people to think we are odd or fanatical. Maybe we are worried we will offend people who believe something different. These are the kinds of prison cells most of us will face.  
This gospel of Christ, the work he came to accomplish, cannot be stopped by something so simple as a prison door. God’s plan to save his people cannot be so easily derailed.  God is throwing open the doors to our prisons and setting us free to do his work in the world.  
There will be people who think we are dumb or odd. There will be people who are offended by what we believe. But that cannot stop us when the Holy Spirit has hold of us. The Holy Spirit is freeing us from our fears, from our self-invented prisons. We have a mission: to share the Good News of Jesus Christ. And that Good News is just that, “good” news, because of Jesus, sinners like you and me are getting out of jail for free. That is news worth sharing, no matter the cost.
Second Sunday of Easter – April 27, 2025
“But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the 
prison doors and brought them out . . .”
- Acts 5:19 -
Those must have been heady days after Jesus was raised, appeared to his disciples, and poured his Spirit out upon them. By the power of the Spirit the disciples were healing diseases, creating faith, performing all kinds of signs and wonders Luke tells us. But the leaders who had done their best to get rid of Jesus weren’t giving up yet. They rounded up the disciples and threw them in prison.   
The religious leaders didn’t like what the disciples were saying and doing, so they arrested them. But just as their best efforts could not keep Jesus in the grave, they also couldn’t keep the disciples in jail. An angel of God released them from their cells, opening the door and setting them free to tell the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Most of us will not ever be put in prison for believing in Jesus. But we still come up with all kinds of reasons to keep quiet about our faith. Maybe we don’t want people to think we are odd or fanatical. Maybe we are worried we will offend people who believe something different. These are the kinds of prison cells most of us will face.  
This gospel of Christ, the work he came to accomplish, cannot be stopped by something so simple as a prison door. God’s plan to save his people cannot be so easily derailed.  God is throwing open the doors to our prisons and setting us free to do his work in the world.  
There will be people who think we are dumb or odd. There will be people who are offended by what we believe. But that cannot stop us when the Holy Spirit has hold of us. The Holy Spirit is freeing us from our fears, from our self-invented prisons. We have a mission: to share the Good News of Jesus Christ. And that Good News is just that, “good” news, because of Jesus, sinners like you and me are getting out of jail for free. That is news worth sharing, no matter the cost.