Location, Location, Location

October 28, 2019

DAILY READINGS

Acts 4:1-4
This weekend’s scripture: Acts 4:32-37

FIELD NOTES

This week we’ll be reading from the book of Acts, chapter four. Our theme is boldness.
 
In these first four verses, we see Peter and John teaching in Solomon’s portico, a covered colonnade on the east side of the Temple in Jerusalem, near the Court of the Gentiles. The Temple had four separate courts, which went in order from least holy to most holy: the Court of the Gentiles, the Court of the Women, the Court of Israel, and the Court of the Priests. (To read more about these courts and the Temple layout, click here.)
 
This setting for Peter and John’s preaching is significant. Solomon’s portico was in between the holy and sacred inside of the Temple, and the everyday and ordinary outside. It was in between the “insiders” and the “outsiders.” It stood between the seat of all religious and political authority and the rest of Jerusalem. It was an in-between place. 
 
This same in-between place is where Jesus taught that he was the messiah in John 10:23. And now we find Peter and John proclaiming that same message of good news in the same place, to insiders and outsiders alike. And they are jailed for teaching the truth: that Christ rose from the dead.
 
Can you imagine the boldness? Can you imagine convincing five thousand people of the good news of Christ’s resurrection from the dead simply by speaking about it in a prime (and risky!) location?  

QUESTION FOR THE FIELD

1. Without a Temple today, what would you consider the modern seat(s) of religious and/or political authority to be? 
2. Consider now the boldness of Peter and John to stand outside such a place and preach a message contrary to what that authority teaches.
3. Where are the in-between places in our culture?
4. How do we stand in the in-between places and share the good news of Christ alive in our lives, even if it goes against popular culture?

FAMILY FIELD TALK

1. Where do you think we should go to tell people about Jesus? 
2. Where are the places that people may not know about him? 
3. How can we go to those places as a family?

PRAYER GUIDE

Oh God, maker of heaven and earth, you came to us in the form of the man called Jesus, a savior we didn’t deserve. Let us not be afraid to speak about him, as Peter and John did in such a dangerous place so long ago. Call us out into the world to share our faith with others. Let us speak the truth about what God did for us in Jesus, so that we may be enabled to join in God’s saving acts for all Creation. Amen.