Faith in Jesus as the Messiah was spreading rapidly in Jerusalem and the surrounding area. The Jewish leaders had already resorted to threats in order to silence the apostles, but it did no good. Now they tried imprisoning them, but as we'll see that didn't work either. First, because God released them from prison, and second, because the apostles chose to put obeying God before obeying man and were willing to pay the price for doing so. The Holy Spirit can help us do the same.