Second Sunday of Easter: First Reading, Acts 5:12-20               

Acts 5:12-20

Just prior to the Covid outbreak in the Spring of 2020 I was leading an adult Sunday School class in a survey of the Book of Acts. I love the second volume of Luke. And I always, upon rereading it, discover that I want to know it even better than I do. And I’m no expert to be sure.

The world had changed in an instant when the God-man, the Creator of all things visible and invisible, had taken a deep breath on the far side of death and left the tomb forever in His wake.

There was life before that momentous event, but now there was LIFE. In both quantity of days and quality of being, life had forever changed. With the accomplishment of the resurrection of Jesus, His eternal life (the only kind He has to give) began to leak into the lives of all who held to His promises of life in His Kingdom, not of this world.

In our text today, the apostles are imprisoned for their faithful testimony. And all to the end that God Himself would give testimony of their faithfulness to their risen Friend. The command from the angel giving them liberty from their bounds was simple enough: “Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life” (Acts 5:20).

The world had changed in an instant.  “This Life,” the life of their proclamation, had made all the difference. It still does.