Defying the Darkness, Part 1 | October 26, 2025

The Setup: An Angel Opens the Prison Doors

Sermon number thirteen brought Pastor Justin back to the pulpit after a couple of weeks away, including an international mission trip to Vietnam that he admitted was more exhausting than he expected, and he was glad to be home. He caught the congregation back up quickly, reminding us that the early church had already seen lives changed, miracles multiplied, and its first wave of opposition from the Jewish religious elite, all while also facing hypocrisy from within its own ranks through Ananias and Sapphira.

He made an important point before diving into the text, that if the early Christians were fabricating a story to gain money and power, the last thing they would have included is material that makes them look bad or gets them persecuted and killed. The honesty of Scripture about its own struggles is part of what makes it trustworthy. With that in mind, he opened Acts 5:17-42, where the high priest and the Sadducees, filled with jealousy, arrest the apostles and throw them in the public prison.

That night an angel of the Lord opens the prison doors and tells the apostles to go stand in the temple and keep speaking the full message of this new life, and that is exactly what they do at daybreak, right back in the very place they were just arrested. When the officers arrive to retrieve them for a hearing, the apostles are nowhere to be found in their cells, they are already back in the temple teaching, leaving the council greatly perplexed.

That gave us the first point of the message, that darkness fights back when the light gets bright. Pastor Justin illustrated this with a personal, honest example, sharing that even though he and his wife have a genuinely strong marriage, their hour long Sunday morning drive to church is regularly filled with unusual tension and conflict that does not show up any other day of the week, a pattern he attributes directly to spiritual opposition timed around exactly the moments they are about to lead worship and preach the gospel.

He connected that to 1 Peter 5:8, which warns that our adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour, and to 1 Peter 2:9-10, which reminds every believer, not just pastors, that we are a royal priesthood called to proclaim the excellencies of Christ. Pastor Justin was direct that Christianity is not a spectator sport reserved for clergy, and that any believer is free to start a Bible study in their home without needing anyone's permission to obey what God has called them to do.

Brought before the council again in verses 27-29, the apostles hear Peter's now famous answer, that they must obey God rather than men, which set up the second point of the message, that we are defiant, but for the right reasons. Pastor Justin paired this immediately with Romans 13:1-14, Paul's call to submit to governing authorities because all authority is instituted by God, using recent election cycles and the "not my president" rhetoric of every administration as an example of a posture Christians are not called to take.

He was personally transparent here, admitting his own struggle with pridefully declaring he would never submit certain rights, like his Second Amendment convictions, to the government, and repenting of that posture publicly. The only exception to submission, Pastor Justin explained directly from the text, is when obeying an authority would require disobeying Christ, such as being ordered to stop worshiping publicly or being forced to perform a wedding that violates Scripture.

This Week's Application

So this week, where is God calling you to keep speaking or keep obeying Him even when doing so puts you at odds with comfort, convenience, or the people around you? We would love for you to join us this Sunday as we continue walking through Acts together.