They therefore went their way from [the] presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to be dishonoured for the name.
The highest Jewish court had just flogged the apostles and ordered them again to stop speaking in the name of Jesus. Their reaction is one of the strangest in Scripture. They walked away from a public whipping glad, and treated the disgrace as an honour.
The beating was no formality. Flogging was the punishment for criminals. It branded the apostles in public as men who deserved it.
The apostles were rescued from death, but they still suffered the shame of a flogging at the hands of Jews. Paul would go through the same thing at least five times later. "The unjust man knows no shame." If the Roman judge flogged the Lord of glory, the disciples were not above their Master. They had to bear being treated by Jew or Gentile as wicked men who deserved a beating (Deuteronomy 25:2).
Luke writes only "for the name", with nothing added. That one reason turned the whole event upside down.
Their judges could see what the beating had produced. The men who were beaten left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. These men took suffering and shame as an honour, not as a disgrace.
Obedience to God had a cost here, and the apostles paid it without protest.
We may suffer for obeying God, but that is an honour. The apostles took a flogging because they were determined to obey God, and they meekly bore the consequence. This was not "passive resistance" but the obedience of saints — bearing the consequence without a murmur and full of joy.
Nothing in what happened to them explains such joy. The reason lay somewhere else.
What, then, is the secret of this superiority to shame and suffering? It is Christ's preciousness to the hearts of His people. It is the assurance that He is present with them. And it is the knowledge that even death is only the path of life into His eternal presence.
That joy has two sides — one felt now, one still promised.
This joy comes partly from the fellowship with the Lord that we sense under the pressure of the world's contempt. There is also the assurance of a reward for it. So Peter writes in his first letter: "But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed" (1 Peter 4:13-14).
To be "counted worthy" is to be given something, not merely to endure it. There are two kinds of suffering here.
If we are the children of God, we must suffer with Christ in some measure. But to suffer for Christ is a privilege attached to faithfulness in His service.
A privilege we rarely receive raises a hard question. It also leaves us a duty toward those who do carry it.
In days gone by the saints rejoiced "that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name." Can it be that most of us suffer so little for His Name because He counts most of us unworthy of this gift? Many of our brothers and sisters are suffering for His Name right now. Let us count them worthy of all honour, and let us not forget to hold them up in our prayers.
The council wanted silence. The beating produced the opposite.
What did the apostles do in Acts? "Every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease to teach and preach Jesus as the Christ." They were so happy that they blew the gospel trumpet louder, longer, and more sweetly than ever before.
Jesus had already told these men what to expect.
How good to see them taking to heart His own words, spoken to them earlier. "Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad" (Matthew 5:11-12). What a complete contrast to men's natural reactions!
- Shame — The flogging branded them in public as criminals. The disgrace was real.
- Name — They carried the shame for the Name, and that turned it into an honour.
- Gift — Suffering with Christ comes with being God's child. Suffering for Him is a privilege given to faithfulness. Why do so few of us receive it?
- Joy — It rests on Christ's preciousness, His presence, and death as the doorway into His presence. A reward is promised ahead.
- Louder — The council wanted silence. It got daily preaching of Jesus as the Christ, in the temple and house to house.
And every day, in the temple and in the houses, they ceased not teaching and announcing the glad tidings that Jesus [was] the Christ.
The rulers had just flogged the apostles and ordered them again to stop speaking in the name of Jesus. This verse is their answer. It faces a question every believer meets: what do you do when people in power forbid what God commands?
Two commands stood against each other. One had to give way:
No human authority can have the right to set aside a direct command of the Lord Jesus. The Lord had commanded them to go and preach the gospel to every creature. Men had forbidden this. It is very clear that the apostle Peter now gives that ban no more than a human place (Acts 5:29). If men told them to be silent, and the Lord told them to preach, the highest authority must win.
The beating was meant to break them. It did the opposite:
Their judges could see the effect they had produced. The men they had beaten left the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the Name. These men took suffering and shame as an honour, not as a disgrace... Threats did not frighten them. Sufferings did not silence them. Shameful treatment did not cool their eagerness. Their prayer in 4:29 had truly received the answer they wanted. Boldness marked them through and through.
Joy fuelled the preaching, not grit. Here is the lesson for anyone slandered for Christ:
Of course, if the world can bring anything true against you, you can only be humbled. If they speak lies, just rejoice. Nothing spreads like rejoicing... What did the apostles do in Acts? "They left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus" (Acts 5:41-42). They were so happy that they blew the gospel trumpet louder, longer, and sweeter than ever before.
The verse names two places of very different kinds. The temple was open to anyone. The homes were where believers gathered:
What an impulse this gave to their testimony, not discouragement! "In the temple" they spoke to all comers, since no proper assembly of believers could have met there. "From house to house" they were among the saints, who broke bread, prayed, built one another up, and so on. But everywhere and every day there was only one theme: teaching or preaching the gospel, it was Jesus as the Christ.
"Jesus is the Christ" was not a starter message later replaced by something deeper. It stands at the beginning of the New Testament witness and at the end of it:
Think how good this is. The whole fulness of truth had come out. The apostle Paul had displayed Christ in glory. The apostle John had set us in the presence of the divine nature and eternal life in His person. And still we have here such a proof of the unchanging testimony to the Lord Jesus as Christ. What was the truth that Peter and the rest preached at Pentecost? That Jesus is the Christ. What is the truth that John's letter ends with? That Jesus is the Christ. There is no wavering in what is divine.
The strength behind all this was not in the preachers:
This latter part of the chapter shows the providential care of God for the assembly. He cared for it by a miracle through angels, and also by turning the hearts of men to do what He purposed. At the same time the Spirit of God bore testimony in the assembly and showed His power in it. The apostles are not frightened at all. They return full of joy at being counted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus. Every day, in the temple or from house to house, they do not stop teaching and preaching the good news of Jesus the Christ. However weak they might be, God Himself maintains His testimony.
The effort to shut it down spread the word further still:
So the devil tried to stop the preaching of the word in one city, and only spread that preaching to many cities and villages in Judaea.
- Command. A human ban cannot cancel a direct order from the Lord; where the two clash, the higher authority decides.
- Joy. They counted shame for the Name an honour, and that joy made them blow the gospel trumpet louder than before.
- Reach. Public temple and private homes, every day — the same message for all comers and for the gathered saints.
- Theme. One subject held it together: Jesus is the Christ. Peter preached it at Pentecost, and John's letter closes with it.
- Keeper. Weak men could not keep this up. God Himself maintains His testimony, and turns efforts to silence it into wider spread.