Be sure to read through it all at once, in one sitting. Then, the second and subsequent times you read through, jot down observations, points of interest, and anything questions that the text does not readily answer. Once you have a good feel for the chapter, read it again and consider the questions below:
- Who are these people who disrupt Peter's sermon?
- Why were they disrupting and imprisoning the three (Peter, John, and the formerly lame man)?
- How many people were added to the existing group of believers?
- The big-wigs meet and put the three amigos in the center. What do they want to know? How does their question seem odd after verse 2?
- What is it about Peter that enables him to come up with his answer?
- How does Peter's answer differ from the concerns that motivated his arrest?
- What's the prime similarity between this speech and the previous two?
- Peter uses another passage of Scripture, Psalm 118. The reference is to verse 22. What do you notice about this verse (perhaps with the one on either side with it) that seems an odd addition to this Psalm? What about it seems to fit very well?
- What about Peter's speech can be taken as blasphemy by the assembly?
- What is the dilemma the assembled leaders face?
- What is their answer? Why that answer considering their conundrum?
- What is Peter's response to their response? What does this response do to the leader's conundrum?
- Why can't Peter and John be charged with blasphemy?
- The freed captives go back to the other believers and report. What is the response of that assembly?
- How does the assembly of believers see their problem?
- What do the people pray for?
- What is the immediate answer?
- The people are "filled" again with the Holy Spirit, again the effect is speech, but what is different here?
- How is verse 32 similar to chapter 2:44? What other similar behaviors do you observe here to those in chapter 2?
- What isn't mentioned here but was a big part of the description of the church in chapter 2?
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