Acts #7 - Repentance and Refreshment

Acts 3:11-26 (NIV)
Read by: Kathy Haug

If you were inside the story at this point in the book of acts you’d be standing just outside the gate of the temple called Beautiful. Maybe you’d be among the crowd gathering around Peter, John, and this man in tattered clothes who reminds you of the man who is normally laying on this mat, paralyzed, begging at this gate. But now he’s standing there, tears are running down his face, he’s laughing, and praising Yahweh.

Until now the story of Acts has been located in Jerusalem but not specifically at or around the Temple. And the kind of powerful restorative that you might expect to be happening inside the temple is happening outside the gate. God is on the move. By the power of God’s Spirit he’s not confined within the power structure of an institution. Luke’s Gospel begins and ends within the Temple, but in Acts his breaking that pattern helps us see the ways that the good news of Jesus is beginning the first steps of that expansive vision that Jesus cast telling the disciples that they would be his witnesses in Jerusalem Judea and the ends of the earth.

In today’s passage, Peter finds himself in this natural moment to bear witness to this story that he finds himself in. And it offers us a chance to reflect on whether or not this is similar to the story that we would tell if we found ourselves with such an opportunity or not? Is this even similar to the story that we’ve heard?

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1. What part of Peter’s proclamation struck you as new or in a fresh way?

2. Repentance and Refreshment. I would bet that depending on where we come from we have heard one or the other these things maybe at the expense of the other. And maybe because of habit or circumstance if you tried to communicate the story, you might emphasize one over the other. Reflect on which you are most familiar or comfortable with.

3. When in your life do you need to repent, and where in your life do you need refreshment. It’s not really about whether one comes before the other theologically, rather its that both things are good for us! What’s one area of your life where you need to repent and turn to follow Jesus. And what’s one area where you long for a time of refreshment in your life.

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Bible Project: Acts 1-12 Overview >>

InterVarsity Press Selections: Acts >>

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