ACTS 3:1 – 26
Bible Study Notes Rev. Betsy Perkins
Power in Jesus’ name
- What healing miracles have you known? What role did prayer play in them?
Joe Boyd, Bible Experiment – Acts of the Apostles (RightNowMedia), 22:38 – 24:45
Completely Healed!(3:1-11)
- What was the crippled man’s life like before he met Peter and John?
- Why did Peter say, “Look at us!” to the man? How was that moment important?
- What could Peter and John give the man that was even better than giving money?
- When Jesus healed the lame, he simply said, “Rise up and walk.” What does Peter say differently?
- How did the man react to the miracle?
- Where was the man before the miracle? Where does the healing take place? Where does he go afterwards?
- How do the people around react?
Read Max Lucado, Life Lessons from Acts, page 15-16.
- What does Max encourage you to do?
Peter Explains the Healing(3:12-26):
- What opportunity did the miracle provide for Peter?
- Who does he give credit to for the healing? How does Peter explain it?
‘Witnessing’ is simply sharing what you have seen. Start each day with a heartfelt request: “Lord, send someone my way today whose need is so obvious that even I can’t miss it! Remind me that what I have in You is the very best gift I could give that person, no matter what he or she has asked of me. And when I meet that person, help me resist the temptation to come up with something witty to say, but to instead simply depend on You for what to say.” Max Lucado
- What excuses do Christians often use to keep quiet about their faith?
- Who helped you understand the truth of the gospel? What changed in your life as a result?
- Think of one person in your life that you would like to introduce to Jesus. What might you say?
- Does Peter condemn the onlookers for being involved in getting Jesus killed? What does Peter say instead?
- Reread verses 19-21. What does ‘repent’ mean? What does he promise will be the result?
When people turn away from the life they have led, and the wicked things they may have done, and turn back to God – the technical term for all that is the solid old word ‘repent’ – then ‘times of refreshment’ can come from the very presence of the Lord himself, a kind of advance anticipation of the full and final ‘refreshment’ that we can expect when God completes the work at last. This notion of ‘refreshment’, thought itself unusual in the New Testament, is by no means unusual in Christian experience, as again and again, in workshop and sacrament, in reading the scriptures, in Christian fellowship and prayer, we taste in advance just a little bit of the coming together of heaven and earth, the sense that this is what we were made for, the new world which we shall finally enjoy. It is there, available, ready for all who seriously seek it. N.T. Wright
In light of this passage and our discussion, what one truth about God and about yourself stand out as something to “take to heart” this week?
Are there steps you will take, by God’s grace, to more fully apply it to your life?
Resources: NIV Zondervan Study Bible, 2015
N.T. Wright, Actsfor Everyone, Part 1 2008
Max Lucado, Life Lessons from Acts: Christ’s Church in the World, 2018
Joe Boyd, Bible Experiment – The Acts of the Apostles (RightNowMedia), 2014
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