Fall 2009, Week 3 – Small Group Questions

The sermon for this week from the series “Acts in 3 Acts: Act 1” is titled “Clash of the Tenants“.

START IT – Connecting with each other

• Looking back, what “act of kindness” from an unsuspected source was redemptive in your formative years?

STUDY IT – Acts 4:1-22

• Read Acts 4:1-22 out loud.  What stands out for you in this passage?  What questions do you have?
• Why would the Sadducees and the “high priest’s family” oppose the disciples’ preaching?  What were they trying to do (v. 7)—search for information, or intimidate the disciples?  Why?
• What gave Peter the confidence to respond the way he did?  (See vv. 8 and 13)
• Why do you think Peter and John couldn’t “help speaking about what [they] have seen and heard” (v. 20)?

LIVE IT – Applying the truth of Scripture to life

• Do you ever feel “unschooled” and “ordinary”?  In what situations?  Do you ever feel that way in your spiritual life?  Why?
• Think about the confidence Peter had as he spoke to the Sanhedrin.  Based on this story, how can you develop that kind of confidence in your own life?
• On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 = “I don’t feel like it at all”; 10 = “I can’t help speaking about Jesus!”), where do you stand in terms of feeling like you can’t help speaking about your experience of Jesus/God in your life?  Why?  What would cause you to move more towards a 10?

PRAY IT

• Application:  Ask God to give you the confidence you need to faithfully express what God has done, both in your actions and in your words.
• Joys and Challenges:  What joys and challenges are you facing this week?
• Here at Northminster: Pray for Northminster Preschool.  Ask God to be with the kids, the parents, and the teachers, and that God would be at work in all of their lives.
• Beyond Northminster: Pray for Reality Changers, a Christian organization in San Diego that helps at-risk teens be the first in their families to attend college.