Big Ideas

1. Prayer is vitally important for the life of the Church.
Jesus was crucified and then rose on the third day just as he promised. He commissioned his Church to bear witness to the world regarding the Gospel. Then he ascended back to heaven. The disciples had personally witnessed all of this. What is the next thing we find them doing? Praying! Prayer was something they had learned to devote themselves to. As the story of Acts unfolds, we will see how prayer is vitally important for the life of the Church.

2. The Scriptures were the final authority in the early Church. (Sola Scriptura)
Judas had betrayed Jesus and ended up taking his own life. This left a void among the disciples that needed to be filled. How did the early Church find their way through this challenge? They looked to the Scriptures for wisdom and instruction and submitted themselves to what the Scriptures taught. Remember that at this point, there was no New Testament. The early Church had only the Old Testament Scriptures. They did not act as if the events of Jesus’ life had somehow made the Old Testament outdated or irrelevant. Rather, they sought out God’s wisdom from the Old Testament and submitted themselves to it. The whole counsel of God must always have the final and ultimate say in the life of the Church. This is Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone).

Study Questions

1. How do you think you would feel if you personally witnessed the resurrected Jesus ascending back to heaven?

2. We read in Acts 1:14 that the early Church was unified in their devotion to prayer. Why do you think this was the case? What is currently keeping you from being devoted to prayer?

3. How do you tend to think about the Old Testament? Is it outdated? Irrelevant? Confusing? Impractical? What can we learn from the example of the early Church in regards to how we approach the Old Testament?