Acts 3

v1-11: For every action there needs to be both a time and a place.  "With reference to public worship, there must be a house of prayer and an hour of prayer."  It is good to be present at public services of worship because "the best fellowship is that which we have in worshipping God with others."

v12-26: Forgiveness of sins is the great privilege of all those who accept the gospel.  "To have one's sins forgiven is to have them blotted out... as a debt is crossed and wiped out when it is paid."  When God forgives sin, "he does not hold it against the sinner anymore; it is forgotten."  We will not be forgiven "unless we repent of them and turn away from them and to God.  Although Christ has died to purchase the forgiveness of sin, we must still repent so that we may receive the benefit of that purchase in the forgiveness of our sins; we must repent and be converted: if there is no repentance, then there is no forgiveness."  Knowing that forgiveness is possible "should be a powerful incentive to us to repent."  And "if our sins are forgiven, we now have reason to be cheerful."

Acts 4

v1-4: Many of  the hearers of the apostles' preaching, received the Word and believed.  "Although the preachers were persecuted, the word won through, for sometimes the days of the church’s suffering there have been the times in which it has grown: the days of its infancy were like that."

v5-14: The name of Jesus is the only name by which we can be saved.  "We can be saved only by Jesus Christ, and if we are not eternally saved, we are eternally ruined."  Salvation cannot "be obtained by any merit or strength of  our own; we can destroy ourselves, but we cannot save ourselves."  We are saved by His name, "and we cannot be saved by any other name."

v15-22: "The evil of hell fights against the purposes of heaven" by seeking to stop the knowledge of Christ spreading throughout the whole world, by commanded the preaching of the gospel to stop and threatening to punishing those who continued to.  "The wisdom of the serpent would have told them to be silent... however, the boldness of the lion told them... to continue to preach."  Their defiance was justified by "the command of God" and "the conviction of their consciences," for they saw "souls that were perishing, and they knew that those souls could not escape eternal ruin except through Jesus Christ.  They therefore wanted to be faithful to them by warning them and showing them the right way."

v23-31: It was God who determined what should be done to His Christ.  "He was anointed to be a Saviour, and therefore it was determined he would be a sacrifice to make atonement for sin. He must die, and therefore he must be put to death, but not by his own hands, and therefore God wisely determined beforehand by what hands it would be done."  But that it was God serving His own purposes by what they did "was no excuse at all for their evil in doing it... Sin is no less evil because God brings good out of it, but he is more glorified by this, and will be seen to be so when the mystery of God is accomplished."

v32-37: The members of the church loved one another and took care of each other.  Those with more were willing to give to those who were in need; those who were "unable to earn or otherwise legitimately provide for themselves an adequate living, because of age, infancy, sickness, physical disability, incapacity of mind, lack of either ingenuity or activity, adverse circumstances, losses, oppressions, or having many mouths to feed.  Those who have a real need for any of these reasons, and who do not have relatives of their own to help them—but, above all, those who are reduced to need because of their well-doing and for having the testimony of a good conscience—should be taken care of and provided for; and let the needed resources be given wisely, in the manner that is likely to be the most helpful."