I’ve received all kinds of messages this week through text and email. A clothing store wants me to know they’re having a sale. My friend wants to make sure I have the address for the baby shower. And on and on. I imagine your inboxes are also flooded with information.

In the midst of all the urgent messages, the most important message can get lost.

The same was true in the book of Acts. In Acts 5, the captain, temple guards, and priests were confused that the men who had miraculously escaped prison were right back to doing what had landed them there. My translation (NLT) uses words like perplexed, startling, and afraid of the crowd. The religious leaders weren’t curious but instead were threatened by their teaching that the Jews had been responsible for Jesus’s death. They were operating out of confusion and fear.

Peter and the apostles were teaching the simple gospel message of Jesus’s death and Resurrection for our sins. They wanted the Jews to understand that Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies regarding the Messiah.

He is the only hope for sinners to be reconciled to a holy God.

According to Acts 5:31, God raised Jesus from the dead and gave Him the place of honor as Prince and Savior. In His kindness, God desires all people to repent—to turn from their sin and turn to God so that they can receive forgiveness.

The message of life was worth repeating, even in the face of opposition.

Later in Acts, Philip had been in Samaria preaching the gospel when the angel instructed him to go down a desert road. This wouldn’t have made logical sense for someone wanting people to hear his message. You need an audience in order to preach.

I love how the text says, “So he started out” (v. 27). He heeded the angel’s message, trusting that God’s logic surpassed his own.

Philip walked until he met the person God had divinely planned for him to meet. The Lord took Philip to the desert because He had a nation in mind. The Ethiopian eunuch brought the message of the gospel back to his country.

God’s plans are usually more than we could even ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20–21).

The angel delivered one message to Philip, and then the Holy Spirit directed him to walk alongside the carriage. God isn’t limited to one method to communicate with His servants. Philip then used the Scripture to help the traveler understand the good news about Jesus.

Although we are bombarded with all sorts of messages, we don’t want to lose sight of the greatest message of all: Jesus is the promised Messiah who died on the Cross to save us from our sin and rose from the dead to secure for us eternal life with God.

This is a truth on which we can always stand firm.

If angels are eagerly watching (1 Peter 1:12), then how much more can we—the recipients of Christ’s sacrifice—stand firm in hope because of the gospel?

I don’t know what is stealing your hope right now or what other messages might be crowding out the gospel message in your life, but I pray God’s message of love and life will refresh you today.

Adapted from Angels: Finding Hope in the God Who Reigns Over Heaven and Earth by Melissa Spoelstra. Copyright © 2025 by Melissa Spoelstra. Used by permission of Lifeway Press.

For deeper reflection, listen to Acts 5 today.

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