Just got done looking at Acts 5:17-22 at church on Sunday. This is a great story about how the apostles get thrown back in jail. Then in the middle of the night an angel of the lord comes in and busts them loose from prison. I visualize this angel like a Mission Impossible type of angel. Coming from the ceiling and getting around the guards and sensors to open the door for the apostles to be free.

They are let out and told to now share this ‘message of life’ back at the temple. This message of life is a message of freedom. A message of once being bound by chains and now you are set free. A message that you were once stuck in a stinky, damp, rodent filled, dark prison and now you are in the light.

Christ said He came to release the captives and set free those that were oppressed. (Luke 4:18) Christ comes just like that angel did and opens the prison gates and unlocks the chains. Now we are called as free people to share this message of life with others. The problem is (as I see it) that we might be outside of the prison but we still hold onto the chains.
Chains of anger
Chains of abuse
Chains of bad relationships
Chains of legalism
Chains of addiction

When Christ sets us free we need to leave the chains back in the prison. I know we are familiar with those chains and we don’t think we can do life without them.  But chains don’t look appealing to those that we are trying to share a message of life with. So many times Christ opens the door of freedom for us and just stay in our filthy prison embracing our chains. 

Those that are in Christ are free. I pray we not only leave the prison of sin and death but we drop the chains on the way out.