Acts: Lesson 2

Study Guide Questions for Ch. 3-4

If you are looking for the beginning of this study you can start HERE with the brief introduction. At the bottom of that introduction will be the links to each section of the study guide as it becomes available. For this study the English Standard Version is the translation that is being utilized and you can read it online HERE or pick up the copy of your choice from Amazon or your local book store. I find THIS EDITION to be useful for deeper study and annotation.

Virtues/Vices/Great Ideas: (Find them in the Text)

Death and Resurrection, faith. Ignorance, Arrogance, Despotism, Loyalty, Courage

Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)

1. What did Peter and John give to the man begging for alms at the “Beautiful Gate”?

2. What did the man do as a result of this gift?

3. Whom did Peter say deserved the credit for what had happened?

4. What had the people asked for from Pilate instead of “the Holy and Righteous One”?

5. What did Peter command the people to do so that their “sins may be blotted out”?

6. What two things did Peter say the Jewish people were sons of?

7. Who were “greatly annoyed” by the apostles teaching about Jesus?

8. What “astonished” the Jewish authorities?

9. What did the Jewish authorities charge Peter and John not to do anymore?

10. What did the apostles and their “friends” do once “they were released”?

11. How did the believers behave with their personal property in the earliest days of the New Covenant church?

Logic Questions: (Interpreting, Comparing/Contrasting, Reasoning)

1. Why was the miraculous healing of the man a good opportunity for Peter to preach about Jesus?

2. Why did Peter emphasize that the people had “acted in ignorance”? Why is that relevant?

3. How is Jesus the fulfillment of the promise that in Abraham’s offspring “all the families of earth shall be blessed”?

4. Why didn’t the authorities punish Peter and John even though they wanted to?

5. What might we infer about how we should pray from the example of the believer’s prayer in 4:24-30.

6. Why were the people selling their things and laying them at “the apostles feet” instead of just giving to people in need on their own?

Rhetoric Questions: (The Analysis of Ideas in the Text)

1. Does being “ignorant” affect one’s guilt for wrong doing? If so, why? If not, why not?

2. Peter and John made clear that they did not intend to obey the Jewish authorities when they commanded them “not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus”. Under what circumstances should Christians disobey their governing authorities?

3. Should believers still have “everything in common” like the early church did? Why or why not?

Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)

1. Read Romans 13:1-7. How should we think about this passage in light of our current reading? What conclusions would you draw about what Paul is saying in Romans in light of the actions of the Apostles in Acts?

2. The believers quote Psalm 2 in their prayer. Read the whole of Psalm 2 and explain how the greater context of the Psalm addresses matters of authority being wrestled with in Acts?