NOTES: 1] Read vv.1-12 to get the context. 2] An angel (= 'messenger of God') may be a supernatural being or a mortal.
3] Herod the 'Great' (the Pits, actually!) stood for exactly the opposite of what God expected of Hebrew kings. The story in v.16 is totally in character with what we know of Herod. 4] MT expects his readers to see the flight into Egypt & subsequent return is a microcosm of the historic captivity in Egypt & Exodus from that land. 5] The JER 31:15 passage quoted (v.18) refers to a massacre & deportation by the Assyrians in 721BC. 6] Nazarene or Nazorean (23) may be a misunderstanding of  IS 4:3 where a similar word means 'holy', or IS 11: 1 where the word is 'offshoot' (of David).

WARMING UP: Do we dream regularly / intermittently / vividly / confusedly.........?

TREASURES OLD & NEW: Identify God at work in anything that's happened since last week's Group?

EXPLORING GOSPEL:
13-15    Would we trust a dream to provide us with insight into God's will today? How can we discern if someone, in dream or actuality is a messenger of God, or a figment of our imagination? Does God now expect us to use wisdom, common sense, insight, discernment, etc., more than dreams to see pitfalls & dangers ahead & either avoid them (as here) or confront them? What's the difference between these various 'tools'? Are any more or less legitimate for Christians than others? In the light of continuing revelations of sexual & other child abuse in churches & the community, how does Joseph's firm & decisive act of 'child protection' strike us a a model for our own generations?
Are we as conscious as we might be of the connections between stories in the Hebrew Bible & their continuation / fulfilment in our Christian New Testament? What use is it to us to find such connections as MT sees here, & expects us to see, too, between NUM 23: 22, HOS 11:1, & the 'flight into Egypt' story he's telling? Is there any sense in which God may be calling us into or out of some 'Egypt'?

16-18    Given that Herod's calculations point to Jesus being maybe two years old when the massacre occurs, does it matter that this contradicts the commonly & erroneously held view that Jesus was visited by the Magi as a baby? Do we really need to re-write the scripts of our Christmas pageants? What about the growing militancy of the Politically Correct Police who insist there should be no (public) Christmas pageants? What eternal truth do we find in a) the visitation by the Magi; b) the flight into Egypt; c) the massacre at Bethlehem; d) the return from Egypt? Does a good story need to be literally true to have lasting meaning?
              Are we as compassionate as we need to be towards those in our family, church, wider community who lose a child through any circumastances at all? Do we have Jesus' absolute loving commitment to children & 'little ones' in general, or is the way we feel about them more a matter of sentiment?

19-23    Has anything in the last few verses changed our thinking about the way we think about dreams & visions as ways in which God might communicate with us today?
 
 

NOTES: 1] Try to get hold of a readable commentary on Acts, or at least follow the footnotes in the Bible you use. (Do use a version that has adequate footnotes.) 2] Would non-Jewish readers understand, let alone be convinced by Peter's case?

WARMING UP: Have we ever been part of an excited crowd?

TREASURES OLD & NEW: Identify God at work in anything that's happened this week?

EXPLORING ACTS:

1-10      Have we, as today's Christians suffered, maybe, through prayers becoming mainly private, or with the church on Sunday, rather than maintaining a discipline of 'praying through the hours'? Is that really just for monastics? Is the whole idea just too hard to maintain in a busy society like most of us live in? What might the pros & cons of maintaining some form of daily prayer routine with others be? What expectations (of any kind) do those who observe us going to worship have of us, if any? Is the kind of gift God gives this disabled man through Peter & John out of the question today? Ought we be able to become channels of such healing still, or is there more to it than that?
             How good are we at 'walking & leaping & praising God' as a normal part of expressing our faith? Or, is that kind of excitement best kept for those, like the man in the story (let's call him Isaac) who experience some great act of healing? Are even those who do experience some healing like Isaac likely to respond as joyously as he does? Are we discerning enough to realise that all our experiences, whether of illness, disability, etc., or, on the other hand, healing, can be spiritual ones? Do wonder & amazement play any part in our spirituality, or do we leave such responses to 'extremists' & 'cranks'?

11-16    To whom, or to what do we cling (like Isaac clings to P & J?) Is this clinging a help or a hindrance to real faith & spirituality? Do we ever need to have spelled out for us (as P spells it out here for the crowd) that we can do nothing of our own power? In a world of ego-tripping, are we as upfront as we need to be about it being God's power that changes lives? What does it mean that God has 'glorified his servant Jesus'? What about our own glorifying of Jesus? Can we know what it is to glorify God / Jesus unless & until we become servants as totally as Jesus did? How do we become such a servant? Is there any mileage in 'Jew-bashing' over what happened so long ago? Is anti-semitism more the product of racial prejudice than religion? Are there any limits to what 'faith in (Jesus') name' can do for us today?

17-26   How often do we 'act in ignorance' about things that really matter? Are we inclined to act more on 'head' information than 'heart' information? When head & heart aren't in agreement, where to from there? How might Peter answer that?
Despite what P says about Jesus 'remaining in heaven...', wasn't discovering Jesus among them in the Person of his Spirit what Acts is really all about? Is the division we make between heaven & earth resolved when we experience for ourselves  that where God is (in any of his Persons), there is heaven?
            If, thanks to God's mercy, we know we're among 'all the families of the earth blessed by God', how are we to relate to Jewish or other people who have not accepted what P says here about the role Jesus plays in God's plan for humankind? Is the kind of argument P uses likely to be persuasive today, or is it more a matter of demonstrating the difference Jesus can make in our lives?