ACTS 4:1 – 37
Bible Study Notes Rev. Betsy Perkins
Old Trouble and the New Way of Living
- What kinds of responses have you gotten when you talk to people about Jesus?
I cherish the remark attributed to a bishop who complained that he didn’t seem to be having the same impact as the first apostles. ‘Everywhere Saint Paul went,’ he said, ‘there was a riot. Everywhere I go they serve tea.” N.T. Wright
Joe Boyd, Bible Experiment – Acts of the Apostles (RightNowMedia), 24:45 – 28:00
Hauled Into Court (4:1-22)
- What were the responsibilities of the priests and Temple authorities?
- What were the disciples saying that made them so upset? Why was the idea of the resurrection of the dead such a threat to the Temple authorities?
Resurrection always was a radical, dangerous doctrine, an attack on the status quo and a threat to existing power structures. Resurrection, you see, is the belief which declares that the living God is going to put everything right once and for all, is going… to ‘restore all things,’ to turn the world the right way up at last. And those who are in power, within the world the way it is, are quite right to suspect that, if God suddenly does such a drastic thing, they (to put it mildly) cannot guarantee that they will end up in the power in the new world that God is going to make. N.T. Wright
- Did their arrest deter the people who were listening to Peter and John?
- What was the question that the Jewish court asked Peter and John? What opportunity does the question give them?
- Read Jesus’ words in Luke 12:11-12. How were Peter and John prepared for this moment?
- If Jesus is “the stone the builders rejected,” what is the new building that he is being used as the cornerstone to build?
- What was the dilemma that the Temple leaders faced? What plan did they make to stop the disciples?
- Did the plan work? How do Peter and John respond?
- Have you ever faced a choice between what people are telling you to do and what you believe God is telling you to do?
- When can we presume to speak for God’s wishes? How do we judge whether the directives of someone in authority are in line with God’s directives or not?
Where God’s power is at work to bring real change, real healing, real new life, there the people who are naming the name of Jesus to bring it about can stand up before judges, whether political or religious, and say with integrity that they are speaking for God. It will be costly; that’s part of the deal. But it will be true. N.T. Wright
Take It to the Lord in Prayer (4:23-31):
- What did the disciples do when Peter and John were released and rejoined them?
- Read Psalm 2. How did that Psalm speak to them in a new way about of the nature of the world and about God’s plans for the world?
- Pray Acts 4:29-30. Can you think of any situations in which you might use that prayer?
I have prayed that prayer many times,… often with a sense that today, just as much as in the apostles’ time, there is a battle going on. Sometimes it is with actual, official authorities, as in Acts 4. Sometimes it is with the spirit of the age, with the implied mood of an organization, a family or a club, where certain things are done and said and certain other things are emphatically ‘not done’ or ‘not said’ – including, it may be, a definite statement of Christian truth, which bursts upon a room in such circumstances like someone saying a rude word. Sometimes the battle is internal, where things I badly want to do, say or think conflict with what the Bible really is saying, and I have to recognize my own bias, repent and allow the text to re-form my outlook and behavior. Whatever, the battle is real. I do not say it is always necessarily with actual dark powers, though I would never rule that out. I just know that when you come to speak or write about Jesus, about his cross, about his resurrection, about the new life which can break chains and set people free, there seem to be powers around the place which do their best to oppose what you are doing. N.T. Wright
- What happened as a result of their prayer?
The New Way of Living (4:32-37):
- How are the first believers fitting the description of God’s people in Jeremiah 32:38-39?
This passage shows us what is meant when, in various Christian writings (Phil.2:1-4, Eph.4:1-4), people talk about being of one heart and mind. No doubt there is always a call to try to think alike with one another, to reach a deep, heart-level agreement on all key matters. But the early Christians, being Jewish, did not make a sharp a distinction as we do between heart and mind on the one hand and practical life on the other. ‘Being of one heart and soul’ in this passage seem to mean not just ‘agreeing on all disputed matters’ but also ‘ready to regard each other’s needs as one’s own’. N.T. Wright
- Read the Old Testament description of the community of faith living under God’s covenant in Deuteronomy 15:1-6a. What does Luke want us to know when he describes the followers of Jesus using some of the same words?
- What a family, community or nation does with its money and possessions makes a powerful statement about who they are and what their values and priorities are. When we did an analysis of the FBC spending last year, it became clear that our priorities were worship and mission. What would an analysis of your spending show? What does the spending of our cities and nation show?
No wonder the early churches were able to give such powerful testimony to the resurrection of Jesus. They were demonstrating that it was a reality in ways that many Christians today, who often sadly balk at even giving a tithe of their income to the church, can only dream of. N.T. Wright
- Who is Barnabas? What do we learn about him?
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, Acts for 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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