Luke focuses heavily on concerns related to Jewish legal tradition in these chapters. What might this tell us about the audience Luke is writing to?
In several of the episodes of this part of Acts, significant tensions between believers in Christ and traditional Jews become prominent. What do you make of those tensions? How do these tensions impact the approach that the apostles take in their early missionary work?
Applying the Text:
Teamwork is an important part of Paul’s early missionary work, both in Acts with Barnabas and in many of Pauls’ letters. In what ways does community and collaboration function in your own Christian witness?
The story of Paul and Barnabas in the wilds of Lycaonia (Acts 14) graphically portrays a tension between the Gospel and the culture that it addresses. Are there elements of the contemporary scene, either locally, nationally, or globally, that present a similar tension between what Christians stand for and the local culture? How might we bridge this gap between the two, inspired by Paul’s approach?
Acts portrays Paul as influenced by important passages from the Hebrew scriptures. How important for us in the twenty-first century are the connections with those Biblical passages? How do we understand our relationship with the scriptures of ancient Israel, acknowledging that these texts are sacred in the other Abrahamic traditions?