Hi everyone, this is Aunt Frenita.
Today's story is called "Escape from prison".
The memory verse is from Acts 5:29.
It says:
Peter and the other apostles replied,
"We must obey God rather than man."
Today's message is:
"At church, we learn that Jesus is most important."
It was too much!
The leaders of the Jews could not
believe what was happening.
"Didn't we order Peter and the other apostles
to quit teaching about Jesus?"
They asked each other.
"But they are still teaching!
And now they are doing miracles!
Crowds of sick people stream into the city every day,
and everybody is being healed!"
The temple leaders were angry.
The high priest and the Sadducees believed
that they had to stop the apostles.
So they arrested them,
and sent them to prison.
They thought that that would give the apostles
some time to think.
Maybe, then they would stop all this
talk about Jesus.
They had to stop telling people
that Jesus rose from the dead!
The Sadducees did not believe
that anyone could come back to life.
They did not believe in angels either.
God must have smiled about that.
That night, He sent an angel
to let the apostles out of prison.
"Go back to the temple and tell the people
all about this new life in Jesus."
the angel said.
Of course, the apostles happily obeyed.
And very early in the morning,
they went to the temple
and began teaching again!
But others were busy that morning too.
The high priest and the Sadducees called
all the other important leaders together.
They sent orders to the prison
to have the apostles brought to them.
In a short time,
the men who had been sent to the prison came back.
Their eyes were wide with fear.
"We found the jail securely locked!"
they reported.
"The guards were standing at the doors!
B-b-but
But we found no prisoners inside!"
The leaders shook their heads.
What now?
Then word came in from the streets.
"Look! The men you put in prison
are back in the temple courts!
And they are teaching the people again!"
Grinding their teeth,
the leader sent more men to the temple.
When the apostles finally stood before the leaders,
the high priest glared at them.
"We gave you strict orders
not to teach in this name."
he shouted.
"Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching,
and you are trying to make us guilty
of this man's blood.
You must stop!"
The apostles answered plainly.
"We must obey God rather than man,"
they said.
"The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead.
The same Jesus you have killed
by hanging him on a cross.
God has made him a prince and a Savior
He will give repentance and forgiveness
of sins to Israel."
The leaders shook with anger.
They really wanted to have the apostles put to death.
But they could not.
Too many people believed
that these were God's men.
And through it all, the apostles stood firm.
Jesus was more important to them than their own lives.
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Close captions by Bernice Leong.