By Earle Roberts
Take a few moments to review the readings and your own reflections from this week’s study. Use the questions below to deepen the impact of Acts on your life and your world.
- What question or questions have risen out of your study this week?
- What surprised you this week? What new insight came out of your study?
- How has your study of Acts 5-9 challenged the way you live?
Prayer: [Take time to express to God a word of gratitude, of honest struggle, or of delight.]
Focus Passages and Questions for Small Group Discussion
Consider reading together these passages and reflecting on their significance for our lives, our church, and our world.
1. Acts 5:17-42
Here we see the young Christian community grew – from conflict with the Jewish authorities(still within “the family”); through dissension within the Christian community; through violent attack on a Christian leader and persecution of Jews who believed in Jesus; through preaching Jesus to non-Jewish neighbors, who believed, and interpreting Scriptures and teaching Jesus to a member of another race, who believed; and through the intervention of the risen Lord to call the persecutor to discipleship.
Where and when do we in the church today encounter comparable situations and opportunities?
2. Acts 7:1-53
Think through the critical years in the life of the early Christian community. People worked to become a confident group within Jewish communities and confidently faithful in non-Jewish communities, and to develop the capacity to confidently teach Jesus as the Messiah everywhere they went.
Where and when do we in the church today encounter comparable situations and opportunities?
