Early Church

Acts 2:42-47

Our true story comes from a part of the Bible called Acts, which is short for “The Acts of the Apostles.” An apostle is someone who is sent to teach people about Jesus.

Our true story is about how more people believed that Jesus is alive, and those people became the Church. That’s right! The Church is not about a building. The Church is made up of people like you and like me. And Jesus wants the people who are the Church to LOVE! LOVE is what the Church is all about. How did the first Church love each other? 


Every day, the people would eat meals together. 


The people learned about Jesus together. 


The people prayed together. 


And the people shared everything they had with each other.


If one friend needed a coat, another friend would share their coat. 


If one friend didn’t have a place to live, another friend would let him stay with them. 


People would even sell things that they had so they would have money to help each other. 


The people of the first Church wanted to love people the way Jesus loved them. And we can love people like that, too. Jesus wants us to LOVE! And the best part is, we can all be the Church and LOVE because Jesus is alive!






Bible Paraphrase: “I am alive for ever and ever!” —Revelation 1:18, NIV

Text Truth: Jesus taught us how to love one another.



Family Devotional

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
—Acts 2:42-47

In our Bible story, the first Church looked for ways to love like Jesus. They did things like share their food and clothes, pray for one another, and meet together to learn more about Jesus. They knew that Jesus is alive and He would help them love like Jesus. The good news is that Jesus is alive and He will help you and me love like Him, too.

“I am alive for ever and ever!” —Revelation 1:18, NIV

In our Bible story, the people in the first Church looked for ways they could love like Jesus. They did things like pray together, share food and clothes, and meet together to learn more about Jesus. So, with your family, make a list of ways you can love like Jesus. Have each family member write down one way they could love like Jesus. And make sure each family member writes down their name next to the “way” they write down.

Pray with your family. Allow any family members to pray if they wish. In your own words, say, “Dear God, thank You for sending Jesus to show us how to love. Thank You that [Bottom Line] Jesus is alive and He will help us do things like (read the list your family made). We love You, God. In Jesus’ name, amen.” 
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Story illustrations are the copyright of Arabs for Christ and distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license. (http://www.arabsforchrist.org/)
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