Acts 12

Your Prayers are Powerful

Bible Study Notes - Week of 14 Apr 2019

Can you describe a time when you faced an impossibility, you prayed, and God made the impossible possible?

When you are faced with an impossibility and forget to pray, what are you most likely to do, and why: fret, complain, or explain why God isn't doing anything?

Read

In this passage, what do you learn about God?

In this passage, what do you learn about people?

Do you see a sin to avoid, a promise to claim, an example to follow, or a command to obey?

In , the situation is politically driven, and there is no way the church can act politically to change it. All they could do is pray. For us living in a democracy, we can act politically. When you feel government is acting unrighteously, what do you tend to do first: speak out (take political action), pray, or leave it? How do you think we should respond? Explain.

Read . The church in Jerusalem had already seen God miraculously rescue the apostles from prison before. If you were part of that church, how would that previous experience shape your prayers in this new situation? To what extent do your own experiences of answered prayer shape your prayers in the present?

Read . Though God rescued apostles before, he did not rescue James. If you were part of the Jerusalem church, how would you account for that? What impact would that have on your prayers for Peter? In your own life, how do you process it when God does not answer prayer?

To escape, Peter had to follow the angel out of the prison. To feed 5000, the disciples had to distribute bread. To welcome Lazarus from the dead, his friends had to unwrap his grave clothes. When God does a miracle, he often asks us to do something practical as well. What are you waiting for God to do, which may also require you to take a practical step?

Peter's friends apparently were not sure God would answer their prayers, yet he did. Read . How do James words square with the experience of Peter's friends?

Read . What does that word 'earnestly' tell you about the kind of prayer that gets to hear the answer knock at the door? What moves you to pray earnestly?

'At the beginning of the chapter Herod is on the rampage—arresting and persecuting church leaders; at the end he is himself struck down and dies. The chapter opens with James dead, Peter in prison and Herod triumphing; it closes with Herod dead, Peter free, and the word of God triumphing.' (John Stott) What perspective does this give you as you enter the rest of this week?

[1] Stott, J. R. W. (1994). The message of Acts: the Spirit, the church & the world (p. 213). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.