Acts 5:12-42

Recap:

• What did you take away from the prayer of the church in Acts 4 (in last week's Connect Group Study and sermon)?

  • Has learning about this prayer had an impact on your own prayers this week?

Read Acts 5:12-16

• What do you notice about this description of the believers in the early days of the church?

  • What is particular to this moment in history?

  • What is general to all Christian communities (including ours)?

• What do you think was the Spirit's purpose in the 'signs and wonders' performed by the apostles?

• Do you think the Spirit might ever want to do something similar in our place and time? Why/why not?

Read Acts 5:17-28

• What do you imagine it was like for the apostles to be visited by an angel and released from jail in this way?

  • How would it have affected their faith and courage?

• How do you imagine the high priest and the other members of the court would have felt with all this going on?

  • How could it have affected their faith or zeal for God?

• How do we determine if our actions or attitudes done 'for God' are actually aligned with his purposes? ie. How do we work out if we're in the apostles' position, or the Sanhedrin?

Read Acts 5:29-42

• What stood out to you about Gamaliel's speech?

  • How do we seek to follow God's leading in our own lives?

    • What do you think of this paraphrase of verse 38-39: if your purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, nothing and no-one will not be able to stop it; they will only find themselves fighting against God?

• What stood out to you about the apostle's response to suffering?

  • How did they respond to the order given to them by the Sanhedrin?

  • Is there anything here we can learn about the way we could respond to suffering or hardship as we seek to follow Jesus?

Devote some of your time together to prayer. Pray that God would lead and guide you in his wisdom, and that you would follow him despite whatever obstacles you might face along the way.