Acts: Answering Good Questions; Asking the Right Questions
Often we prove to be better counsel, a better friend, and even a better listener when we ask good questions. Similarly, often the most direct route to the truth is asking the right questions.
With that in mind, let’s look at the questions presented in the Book of Acts. The questions do provide us with a fairly decent study guide. Note how each question does a good job of informing the text. But you might miss something if you don’t realize Luke is directing the questions to you. I think, rather than commenting on them as we go, I will ask that you draw your own conclusions.
Also, where indicated I will pose the question that are implied and identify those implied questions with an asterisk. And finally, the headings are for your convenience. They are no more Scriptural than the headings in your Bible. The publishers have put those in for you, together with chapter breaks and verse numbers. These conventions can be helpful as placeholders, but they are not inspired. The original manuscripts, papyri, uncials, etc. don’t have them.
I am going up to Chapter 20. I’ll come back to supplement this at a later date. This might take you awhile.
I have provided hyperlinks to the biblical texts, but I hope you will see that some of these questions are universally applied. The episodes in which they are embedded are opportunities for us to examine ourselves and answer good questions.
Off we go:
Acts 1:6 “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
Acts 1:11 “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?”
Acts 1:24 *Lord, which one?
Acts 2:7-8 “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?”
Acts 2:12 “What does this mean?”
Healing of the Lame Man at the Beautiful Gate
Acts 3:12 “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk?
Peter and John before the Priests and Sadducees
Acts 4:7 “By what power or by what name did you do this?”
Acts 4:16 “What shall we do with these men? For that a notable sign has been performed through them is evident to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it.”
The Believers Pray after Peter and John Threatened by the Religious Leaders
Acts 4:25-26 “Why did the Gentiles rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed?’
The Holiness of God — Ananias and Sapphira
Acts 5:3-4 “[W]hy has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart?”
Acts 5:9 “How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? “
Acts 5:27-28 *Why didn’t you listen us when we charged you not to teach in this name?
Stephen Answers the Accusations against him
Acts 7:1 “Are these things so? (i.e., “This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law, for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us.” Acts 6:13:14)
When Simon the Magician saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands
Acts 8:18 *How much will you take for it?
Acts 8:30 “Do you understand what you are reading?”
Acts 8:31 “How can I, unless someone guides me?”
Acts 8:36 “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?”
Act 9:4 “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”
Acts 9:5 “Who are you, Lord?”
Acts 9:13 *Lord, do I have to?
Saul Springs Forth in Damascus
Acts 9:21 “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?
Acts 9:39 *Where have you laid her? (see John 11:34)
Acts 10:4 “What is it, Lord?”
Christ Sends Peter to Cornelius
Acts 10:21 “I am the one you are looking for. What is the reason for your coming?” (in other words, *Lord, do I really have to?)
Acts 10:29 “Why have you sent for me?”
Acts 10:47 “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?”
Acts 11:3 “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?”
Acts 11:17 “If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?”
Acts 12:13-14 *Who’s there?
Acts 13:10 “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?”
Paul and Barnabas confused with Zeus and Hermes
Acts 14:15 “Men, why are you doing these things?” (in response to, the priest of Zeus, whose temple was at the entrance to the city, bringing oxen and garlands to the gates and wanting to offer sacrifice to them with the crowd)
The Infant Church in Crisis—Gentile Christians in Confusion
Acts 15:5 *Is it necessary for us Gentile believers to be circumcised and to keep the law of Moses to be justified before God?
Acts 15:37 *Can we take Mark with us?
Paul Challenges the Philippian Magistrates
Acts 16:37 “They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens, and have thrown us into prison; and do they now throw us out secretly?”
Acts 17:18 “What does this seed-picker wish to say?”
Acts 19:2 “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”
Acts 19:15 “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?”
Town Clerk to Fellow Citizens of Ephesus to Still the Riot
Acts 19:35 “Men of Ephesus, who is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple keeper of the great Artemis, and of the sacred stone that fell from the sky?”
Acts 20:9 *Is he dead?
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